The Stevens Point, Wisconsin MTG crowd has always been pretty competitive come states time. Two years ago, Tim Peplinski T8'd with Slide. Last year, Ben Jacobs T8'd with U/W Control. This year, I told those two it was my turn to take a spot.

This year's testing started out with trying to build U/W Control again. The spoiler made it look like it could be really good, but it didn't take long for us to realize it couldn't compete. The best build we found used Reito Lantern and 3 Conjurer's Bauble as the kill. That had to be given up on once we realized that if you lost first game, there was no way you could win the match. At that point, I started to build every deck I could think of and playing it against Affinity, Tooth and Nail, and Big Red. I immediately took a liking to Krark-Clan Ironworks deck built by Manuel Bevand. I traded for the cards I needed right away and got crackin'.

After hundreds of games of testing I decided on this build.

4 Krark-Clan Ironworks
4 Myr Incubator
1 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Fireball
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Thoughtcast
4 Serum Visions
4 Condescend
4 Fabricate
4 Pentad Prism
3 Talisman of Progress
3 Talisman of Dominance
1 Chrome Mox

4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Ancient Den
4 Darksteel Citadel
2 Vault of Whispers
1 Tree of Tales

It's a pretty basic build of Ironworks except for the lone Mox. Chrome Mox only rarely speeds up the deck, and I wanted to never lose due to drawing two Moxes. My sideboard looked like this until Wednesday before States.

4 Leonin Elder
4 Mana Leak
3 Pyroclasm
3 Early Frost
1 Annul

Matchups:
Affinity: 40% 1st game 45% Sideboarded
This matchup was always close. Almost every game was one turn either way. What it really came down to was whether Affinity drew Disciple of the Vault or not. All of the other testing I did isn't worth showingm because the sideboard I ended up playing changed most of my other matchups drastically.

4 Mana Leak
4 Somber Hoverguard
4 Qumulox
3 Broodstar

I have nothing to bring in against Affinity this way, but my sideboard barely helped against Affinity before. This sideboard helps to improve the matchups against B/G, U/R March, U/G control and anything playing Cranial Extraction. On to the tournament! 183 people came for 8 rounds of play.

Round 1 - Steven Germain from Kenosha (B/G Cloud)
I won the die roll and lead with a turn 2 Talisman and Serum Visions. He cast a Sakura-Tribe Elder and passed the turn. I drop another Talisman and cast Thoughtcast followed by Thoughtcast, going to 17. On my next turn, I play KCI and Incubator. He sits with mana open, hoping I misplay allowing him to Echoing Decay my guys. Instead, I untapped, cast Fabricate for Goblin Charbelcher and Belch him to death on turn 5.

Out: 4 Krark-Clan Ironworks, 4 Myr Incubator, 4 Fabricate, 1 Chrome Mox, 1 Fireball 1. Goblin Charbelcher

In: Everything

He played first and cast a third turn Cranial Extraction naming Krark-Clan Ironworks. I showed him my hand and gave him my deck and he starts searching. He sighs when he finds no KCI. He sighs again when he remembers he took out most of his removal. Somber Hoverguard and Broodstar beat him down.

1-0, 2-0

Round 2 - Scott from New Richmond (Mono-Green Tooth with Urzatron) We both played land go for a few turns with slow hands until he cast a Mindslaver. I Condescended it for one, untapped, and Fireballed him for 20 on turn 6.

Out: 1 Chromatic Sphere 1 Serum Visions 1 Fabricate

In: 3 Mana Leak

He played first, so I decided to attack for 30+ on turn 4.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3 - Amous Addison from Milwaukee (U/R Obliterate)
I played first and accelerated into six mana on turn 4 - just enough to be out of Condescend range, so I could Belch him to death.

Out: Same as round 1

In: Same as round 1

He mulliganed to five with a two-land hand and never drew a 4th. Broodstar and Somber Hoverguard are tough to deal with when at three land.

3-0, 6-0

Round 4 - Jim (B/G Cloud)
Jim played 3rd turn Viridian Shaman, 4th turn Solemn Simulacrum and brought me down to 13; my lowest life total to that point. I attacked for 29 on turn 6.

Out: You know by now

In: Everything

He sided out most of his creature removal for artifact removal. Too bad Broodstar and Qumulox aren't artifacts.

4-0, 8-0

Round 5 - Josh Rabbit from Platteville (Big Red)
Big Red isn't really much of a challenge for KCI. He Hearth Kamis a Talisman on his 3rd turn and I attack for alot on turn 5.

Out: Nothing

In: Nothing

On my first turn I played land, Mox, Pentad Prism, Talisman of Progress, Thoughtcast. He Detonates my Mox. In his next two turns, he destroys two more artifacts but I still manage to attack with many Myr tokens on turn 5.

5-0, 10-0

Steven played against my friend Tegan (also playing KCI with different sideboard) the previous round and won in three close games. I didn't allow him to be so lucky against me. He killed a land with Molten Rain before I killed him on turn 4.

Out: Nothing

In: Nothing

Steven Detonated something which slowed me down a turn. I had to settle for turn 5 Myr rush.

6-0, 12-0

Round 7 - Mike Anderson with UG control
I.D.

6-0-1

Round 8 - Josh Tabak with Affinity I.D.
6-0-2

Am I not ridiculously lucky? Not only was my worst hand a sixth turn kill, but I managed to avoid Affinity all of swiss.

Top 8 - Mike Hron with 5 color toolbox (I don't know what he called it)
His deck's only answers to KCI were one maindeck Cranial Extraction and two Echoing Truth. I kept my slowest hand of the day and made 24 tokens on turn 7. He had Echoing Truth, but I never sacced Ironworks.

Out: Nothing

In: Nothing

Another slow hand and I got KCI and Incubator into play on turn 7. During his upkeep, he cast Gifts Ungiven for Oxidize, Naturalize, Worship, Echoing Truth. I had to give him Oxidize and Naturalize, that way he had to Sensei's Divining Top into an Echoing Truth and a land to win. He didn't and I was on to the top 4.

7-0-1, 14-0

Top 4 - Mike Anderson with U/G Control
He slows me down with some artifact kill and gets to eight mana for Rude Awakening. I lost . . .

Out: Yeah

In: Everything

This game he tapped out on turn 2 for Sakura-Tribe Elder and I took advantage of that by casting Qumulox. On my 4th turn, I cast Broodstar with Condescend backup.

Game 3 Mike played first, allowing him to Naturalize my first land, which set me back just enough for him. He ripped his fifth land off of the top on the fifth turn to play a Molder Slug. Oh well.

7-1-2, 15-2

All in all, it was a great day at a great tournament. And I got to make Top 8 with Qumulox in my deck.

Thanks - Misty Mountain Games staff, Tim Peplinski, Justin , Killa, Kyle, Brian, Blake and everyone who I tested against on mIRC.

teht0dd - SCG Forums
teht0dd - mIRC