When I first started thinking about a deck to play at States, I wanted to go completely rogue. I had never played a rogue deck at a high-level tournament. I started thinking, and this is what I came up with:

Random Jank v2.0
4 Volcanic Hammer
4 Lava Spike
4 Glacial Ray
4 Lightning Helix
4 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Yamabushi's Flame
4 Char
4 Spectral Searchlight
3 Pithing Needle
2 Wildfire
2 Hidetsugu's Second Rite

3 Quicksand
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Battlefield Forge
11 Mountain

Sideboard:
3 Circle of Protection: Red (Worst. Card. Ever.)
2 Threaten
4 Pyroclasm
2 Leave No Trace
2 Wildfire
1 Pithing Needle
1 Mountain

I woke up sick the day of the event — but hey, I had the deck, so I was off to play. A friend and I drove up to the event in Madison and we started off our day.

Round 1: U/B Mill
Game one started off pretty well for me. I played Lava Spike, Volcanic Hammer, and Char all in a row, finishing the game off with Hidetsugu's Second Rite on turn 4.

Sideboard: None, since I still didn't know what he was playing.

Game two, he burst out of the gates with a Dimir Signet for acceleration, followed quickly by a Glimpse the Unthinkable. I got a bit of burn off, and he Trasmuted for Traumatize while I sat back and played a pair of Spectral Searchlights, and then Wildfire after the Traumatize hit. He came back with another Glimpse the Unthinkable to drop me to three cards left in my library. I found more burn, bringing him to ten. After I drew the last card in the deck, Hidetsugu's Second Rite came down for the win.

1-0

Round 2: U/B Ninjas
The only thing he did the entire first game was to hard-cast a Ninja of the Deep Hours. I just put some burn to the dome and we headed for game two.

Sideboard:
+2 Pyroclasm
—2 Wildfire

In the next game, I kept a burn-light hand and we got into a long stalemate. I ended up putting down Mikokoro, Center of the Sea, and drew enough burn to push through his Quash, a Cranial Extraction, and multiple Hinders.

2-0

Round 3: U/G
He played some creatures in Game One, including Vinelasher Kudzu and Azusa, Lost but Seeking. I pointed all the burn at his head and found another turn 4 win.

Sideboard:
+2 Threaten
—2 Hidetsugu's Second Rite

I don't exactly remember how game two went down, but I think that I couldn't get through all his counterspells, and he played Keiga, the Tide Star for the win.

He started off the final game slowly, just hanging back and building up mana. Meanwhile, I was burning him, and getting close to the win. He played Gifts Ungiven for Time Stop, Rewind, Keiga, and Meloku, the Clouded Mirror. I gave him Time Stop and Rewind. He drew Keiga for his turn, and tapped out to play it, using Forbidden Orchard, which gave me a token. He was at seven life, so I Threatened the Keiga, and swung with it and the token. Since he was at one, I felt generous. I gave him a mana with Spectral Searchlight, and he took a point of mana burn.

3-0

Round 4: G/W Aggro
The round started off with him playing Selesnya Guildmage on turn 2. He followed that up by failing to draw land, and I burned him out.

Sideboard:
+4 Pyroclasm
—2 Second Rite
—2 Wildfire

His start in game two was pretty ridiculous, given the matchup; he had turn 1 Birds of Paradise, turn 2 Watchwolf, turn 3 Watchwolf and Sakura-Tribe Elder, and turn 4 Arashi, the Sky Asunder. I had to double-Pyroclasm to get rid of everything but the Arashi. He came back with Iwamori of the Open Fist and I scooped it up.

Sideboard:
-2 Pyroclasm,
+2 Wildfire

He got stuck without White mana in the deciding game, so I accelerated and burned him to four. He finally found Brushland, but never used it. I hit six mana and played Wildfire, killing all three of his men and all of his land. He scooped immediately.

4-0

Round 5: U/R/B Control (Adrian Sullivan)
We were deck checked, and he failed to de-sideboard after his last match. Game loss.

Starting game two, I took my first mulligan of the day, and came up with an okay hand. Adrian's deck was interesting; it had some gems in Icy Manipulator, Wildfire, Remand, and Shock. Adrian accelerated, and played Kokusho, the Evening Star. When he played his second Dragon to gain life, I did not, unfortunately, have Flames of the Blood Hand. I had to settle with removing a Dragon with Yamabushi's Flame. I got him to three life by burning and feeding him Spectral Searchlight mana, with Char in hand. I knew he had Remand in his hand, since he tapped all but a blue source and another mana. I needed to draw a land or any two- or three-damage burn spell.

I didn't, and lost to another Kokusho the next turn.

Sideboard:
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Mountain
—2 Wildfire.

Adrian mulliganed to five cards to start the last game. We both missed our third land drops, and by the time I found mine to play Spectral Searchlight, he had the Remand. I eventually resolved the Spectral Searchlight and started the mana burning. Adrian also got online, playing Keiga and sacrificing it to one of the two Miren, the Moaning Wells that he had in play. Neither of us ever noticed the duplicate Legendary lands. He gained more life through Kokusho and Miren. After the ten-point life gain, I had no chance of burning him to death anymore.

After the game was over, my friends pointed out that he had a pair of Mirens in play for nearly the entire game. Oh well; I was still 4-1 and had a shot at making the top 8.

4-1

Round 6: WW/r
Game one, I kept an interesting hand that included two Quicksands, two Spectral Searchlights, one Wildfire, one Volcanic Hammer, and one Lightning Helix. Of course, with my luck, I didn't draw a land until turn 5. I almost came back and he was around five life when his little men and burn finished me.

Sideboard:
+4 Pyroclasm
+1 Pithing Needle
—2 Hidetsugu's Second Rite
-2 Flames of the Blood Hand
—1 Wildfire

Game two, he quickly played out four creatures, leaving one card in his hand. I Pyroclasmed his team and finished him shortly after.

For the last game, I kept a hand with a bunch of lands. Two were Quicksand, and my hand had only two burn spells — Flames of the Blood Hand and Volcanic Hammer. I never drew another burn spell the rest of the game, and I lost quickly to Lantern Kami and Leonin Skyhunter with Glorious Anthem in play.

4-2

Round 7: G/B
He starts off game one by casting Distress a few times on me, which just got random burn spells. He played Grave-Shell Scarab, and started the beats. I got him to one life at the end of his turn. With no action in hand, I drew a Mountain. Grave-Shell Scarab dropped me to one life. I drew another Mountain. Game.

Sideboard:
+2 Threaten
—2 Wildfire

Game two, I hit him with a bunch of burn, and he beat back with three Sakura-Tribe Elders, and eventually Kodama of the North Tree. He dropped me to one after a swing with the Kodama of the North Tree, and then, out of nowhere... He played Kokusho. The Threaten that was had been sitting in my hand for the whole game came down, and that was the win.

In game three, his Distresses rid me of two Flames of the Blood Hand, leaving just a pair of Hidetsugu's Second Rites. He played a Kokusho and beat me for a turn. He was at four life with a Miren in play, so he thought for awhile; finally, he sacrificed his Dragon and I used the Flames of the Blood Hand that I had just ripped.

5-2

Round 8: U/W/g
I had been playing next to this guy the entire day, and I still had no idea what he was playing. It ended up being U/W control with Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree for a win condition, along with Meloku, the Clouded Mirror. I got him to five life before he untapped with a Story Circle set to Red. I used Wildfire to make him Hinder, with a painland as his last Blue source. That brought him to four life, and I finished him with Flames of the Blood Hand.

Sideboard:
+1 Pithing Needle
+2 Leave No Trace
—2 Hidetsugu's Second Rite
—1 Wildfire.

In the next game, he played Ivory Mask and Story Circle, and had four Rewinds and multiple other counters. I lost quickly.

I started the last game of Swiss with a good hand. I burned him quite a bit to start off. He played an Ivory Mask at seven life, then a Story Circle, calling Red again. I just used Mikokoro to try and find Leave No Trace. Finally, after drawing twelve lands, I hit a Leave No Trace. I targeted his Story Circle and he let it resolve, not knowing that it would take his Ivory Mask, too. Then I played Lava Spike, which resolved. Volcanic Hammer drew a Hinder, but in response, I cast Flames of the Blood Hand. He countered that, too, but he took a pain from his land, and tapped him out. Lightning Helix took the match.

6-2

Overall, the tournament was a success. I did well with a deck I never thought could get me to even .500. If it weren't for some obvious mistakes about Legendary lands (and some bad draws), I believe I would've easily made it to the top 8.

The deck will still be good after Champs, assuming it's tweaked a little. Some Pyroclasms need to be in the main deck. Circle of Protection: Red ought to be taken out of the sideboard. The deck can beat control decks soundly, but it needs work to defeat the aggressive decks. Ghostly Prison may be an option, or maybe just more removal. I would add another Leave No Trace in the board, since there were a pair of Battle of Wits decks in the tournament, and also because Ivory Mask was quite popular.

Once again, I came up short at States; I've finished 6-2 at each of my last two. Hopefully, next year I can break into the top 8.