Erik Mynatt

Matt Willis sat down to the table with some teasing from his friends. "Where's your shirt?" They asked, prodding him for not wearing the usual Magic shirt he takes to tournaments. Erik Mynatt was free of friend teasing, but had already been forced to knock one of his Houston pals out of the event after being paired together in the first round.

They got their pre-game processes out of the way, but Matt caught himself having set eight cards face down on the table instead of seven for his opening hand. He immediately called a judge, but because he hadn't looked at all eight of the cards, the judge simply put an unseen card back on top of the library and they proceeded with the game. The hubbub didn't matter as Matt couldn't keep his opening hand anyway, instead taking a mulligan to six. When those weren't good enough either, he was off to five.

Erik Mynatt kicked the game off aggressively with a Figure of Destiny. His two-drop was a tad less attacky as he cast Painter's Servant, then followed it up with Magus of the Moon. Matt Willis had plunked down a 2/3 Tarmogoyf, but the Magus turned both of his lands into Mountains and it looked like he might be out of the game before he was ever in it.

Matthew Willis

An attack with the 2/2 Figure of Destiny merited a block from the Tarmogoyf, and Erik traded his Figure as well as a Magma Jet for the powerful green monster. He then added a second Painter's Servant to the battlefield, followed by Jaya Ballard, Task Mage. Unable to interact thanks to his lack of basics, Willis was soon dead without ever having cast a spell beyond the Tarmogoyf.

Erik Mynatt 1, Matthew Willis 0

The second game started off in similar fashion to the first: with Matt Willis taking a mulligan. He was able to stay on six cards, however, and used a Thoughtseize to steal Sensei's Divining Top from Erik Mynatt's hand. Mynatt cast back-to-back Painter's Servants, setting them to "blue," then when Matt missed a land drop he used Red Elemental Blast to blow up Willis' Scrubland.

Magus of the Moon came down for Erik, morphing his opponent's Treetop Village into a Mountain, and it looked like the match would conclude with Matt Willis playing a whopping three spells through its duration. He found a basic Forest, but Mynatt destroyed it with a second Red Elemental Blast. After two turns of beats from Erik's weenies, Matt had had enough. He extended his hand in defeat.

Erik Mynatt 2, Matthew Willis 0