I was told to make my next tournament report briefer and to the point, so here goes.

I actually wanted to bring a mono-Black deck to Massachusetts States, but I owned exactly none of the cards I needed, and I didn't have the time or interest to spend the three weeks before States trading for all the cards. The mono-Black deck had subpar luck against Affinity but great percentages against the rest of the field. Even after sideboard with 4 Relic Barrier, 4 Imi Statue, and 4 Horobi, Death's Wail, it would still lose to Affinity.

Affinity was just too powerful.

So I decided to take the Affinity gambit. I realized that all the good players would know that Affinity was the best deck and would be playing it. All I had to do was make it out of the first couple rounds by outplaying my opponents and then hopefully face Affinity the rest of the day. It worked... but it started off scary.

I Hate Affinity.dec
8 Island
8 Plains
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Eiganjo Castle
3 Coastal Tower
2 Cloudcrest Lake

2 Annul
3 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Mana Leak
4 Condescend
4 Purge
3 Relic Barrier
4 Darksteel Ingot
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 March of the Machines
4 Wrath of God
1 Mycosynth Lattice

Sideboard
4 Karma
3 Bribery
2 Darksteel Pendant
2 Annul
2 Mycosynth Lattice
1 Relic Barrier
1 Sacred Ground

Round 1
Game 1
Played against an admittedly-bad mono-Red deck that included Spark Elemental, Brothers Yamazaki and other randomness. I lose game 1 to awful mana flood as Oxidda Golems and Slith Firewalkers finish me off.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+3 Bribery, +2 Darksteel Pendant, +2 Mycosynth Lattice, +1 Sacred Ground

-2 Annul, -4 Purge, - 2 Relic Barrier

I kept one Relic Barrier in, as I could either pitch it to Thirst for Knowledge or animate it with a March of the Machines.

I get a second turn Sacred Ground and my opponent gets mana-screwed. I Bribery him and notice no land destruction. Oh well.

Game 3 Sideboard:

+1 Relic Barrier

-1 Sacred Ground

He Flashfires me Turn 4. Whoops. Turns out he had all his Flashfires in his hand when I cast Bribery last game. Luckily I have Eiganjo Castle in play. In fact, the whole reason Eiganjo Castle and Minamo, School at Water's Edge are in the deck are to have some insurance against Flashfires, Boil, Sundering Titan, etc. The two Legendary Lands might also prove useful against a maindeck Horobi or after I cast Bribery, but those situations never came up. I eventually stabilize at 3 life but I realize I need to put him on a clock. I tap out to Bribery him fairly confident he is holding a worthless card in his hand. I am correct and I am able to steal an Arc-Slogger. Looking through his deck I realize, I can deal with every card in his deck next turn with my counterspells unless he topdecks his 1 Hammer of Bogardan. He shuffles, I cut, he draws Hammer with me tapped-out. What awful luck.

Round 2 (0-1)
I have no idea what this kid was playing because he only saw 3 lands in 2 games. Don't keep hands like that.

Round 3 (1-1)
Played against Black/Green. I counter the early mana acceleration. It might not be completely intuitive, but against this deck you need to counter the Sakura-Tribe Elders and Solemn Simulacrums rather than worrying about countering Kokusho and Rude Awakening. If the game goes too long, you've lost anyways. He plays 2 Nezumi Shortfangs so I Wrath of God. I drop March of the Machines and then Mycosynth Lattice for the win.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+4 Karma, +3 Bribery, +2 Mycosynth Lattice

-2 Annul, -3 Relic Barrier, -4 Purge

I was worried about boarding out Purge because of the Nezumi Shortfangs, but it was the only black creature I saw and I didn't want them to be dead in my hand. I let him use his Sakura-Tribe Elders to get Swamps and then I cast Karma. He bleeds to death complaining about lack of Naturalize or Wear Away.

Round 4 (2-1)
Affinity. Finally. I do what I'm supposed to and destroy them. It actually shouldn't have been this big a blowout. I really only have a slight edge against Affinity even with all this hate. It's very dependent on who plays first. This player made a huge mistake by activating Blinkmoth Nexus in response to Wrath of God. He should have waited until the Wrath of God resolved to put Modular on the stack. I think he would have won in that case.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+1 Relic Barrier, +2 Annul

-1 Mycosynth Lattice, -2 Thirst for Knowledge

Same deal. My massive hate overwhelms him.

Round 5 (3-1)
Affinity. An early March of the Machines makes short work of him.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+1 Relic Barrier, +2 Annul

-1 Mycosynth Lattice, -2 Thirst for Knowledge

I stall forever and ever waiting for a March of the Machines. I draw all 4 Darksteel Ingots and hold him back with Relic Barriers. I can tell he is holding Shrapnel Blasts and Mana Leaks. I let him hit me with one Blast to drop me to six and I refuse to tap out to give him the window for any other Shrapnel Blasts. I eventually draw the March and a counter war ensues. I win it and the match.

Round 6 (4-1)
Affinity. Sean Lynch is a fundamentally solid player who told me he borrowed this deck the day of the tournament. That may be literally accurate but I could tell he had a lot of practice with Affinity, as he made no discernable mistakes. Game 1 I drop the Wrath and then the March and we're on to Game 2.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+1 Relic Barrier, +2 Annul

-1 Mycosynth Lattice, -2 Thirst for Knowledge

Sean refuses to tap his Seat of the Synod during Game 2, letting me know that he has Mana Leak. I tap his Seat with Relic Barrier and he floats Blue. I enter combat phase to mana burn him and then cast March of the Machines post-combat for the win. Sean mentions how my deck was off of his radar. I reply that it's only good against Affinity. I look to my left to see Lucas Glavin finish off his opponent with mono-Red.

Round 7 (5-1)
Big Red. Lucas Glavin was the last name I wanted to see next to mine for the deciding round. Neither one of us could have drawn in, so we were forced to play. My testing showed that Big Red was a favorable matchup for me, prompting me to remove COP:Red from my sideboard. However, the version I tested against had artifacts and Shrapnel Blast. It looked like I would have a lot of dead cards against LCG's mono-Red concoction.

Game 1 - It looks as if LCG has some dead cards against me and also that he is holding 1 or 2 Arc-Sloggers, because his hand is quite full and he is stuck at four lands. He activates his Nexus and audibly groans when I Purge it. Setting him back a land is crucial as I am able to counter his threats and attack with Darksteel Ingot for the win.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+3 Bribery, +2 Darksteel Pendant, +2 Mycosynth Lattice, +1 Sacred Ground

-2 Annul, -4 Purge, - 2 Relic Barrier

I get very lucky and play my Sacred Ground turn 2, but LCG is destroying me with a Slith Firewalker. It single-handedly drops me to ten life before I can Bribery up an Arc-Slogger. He Magma Jets me and puts one card on top of his library. He attacks and I wince and let it through to drop to three. If he has Pulse of the Forge I die, but he does not have it. I Bribery up another Arc-Slogger and notice that he put a Slith Firewalker on the top of his library. I see why as he Magma Jets me to one. I double block his 6/6 Slith and he topdecks his own Arc-Slogger for the win.

Game 3 - No Sideboard change.

Up until that loss, I was on a hot streak winning 11 games in a row. My early animated Darksteel Pendant stops his Slith Firewalker beats and allows me to dig for land that is destroyed with Molten Rain / Demolish. The only negative point about maindecking those Legendary Lands was the extra 2 damage from Molten Rain. I get March and then Mycosynth Lattice as LCG shakes my hand.

Round 8 (6-1, Top 8, Quarterfinals vs. Brian Robinson)
Pre-Sideboard check: The judge laughs at my 4 Karma.

Black/Green. I counter the early mana acceleration. I drop a second animated Darksteel Ingot with Annul as my only counter. If he Barters in Blood he will win. He fakes me out by tapping 2 Swamp then 2 Forest, but it is Solemn Simulacrum. I Annul that. I beat with 2 Ingots twice as his 4 Night's Whispers brought him to 12. He had a full hand and I thought for sure he would double Echoing Decay but it turns out he just got mana-flooded.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+4 Karma, +3 Bribery, +2 Mycosynth Lattice

-2 Annul, -3 Relic Barrier, -4 Purge

I show the judge my Karma and he quotes, "I love Magic players." Brian mulligans to five and he keeps without even looking at the five. I mulligan to five and keep a 2 Plains hand. He stalls on two land, while I draw the land I need. I bait him with March, which he Naturalizes. I drop Karma next turn and bleed him to death one point at a time. Eventually he has to play a second Swamp just to play spells, and at that point I was all set up with the counters. He dies to Karma.

Round 9 (7-1, Top 4, Semifinals vs. Mike Stanton)
U/R March. I notice my opponent is playing U/R March-Obliterate and I settle in for a long game. I'm surprised more people weren't playing this deck, as it is a great foil for Affinity. I keep a hand I would never keep against any other deck. 1 Plains, 2 Wayfarer's Bauble, 2 Relic Barrier, 2 Thirst for Knowledge. I don't draw my second land for a couple turns but it doesn't matter as the game plods along. We have counter wars over his Darksteel Pendants and my Darksteel Ingots. He plays March, which is fine by me. I play Lattice with counter-backup and my 2 Ingots trump his 2 Pendants. He scoops knowing that I just need to draw more Relic Barriers for the win.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+2 Annul, +2 Mycosynth Lattice, +2 Darksteel Pendant, +1 Sacred Ground, +1 Relic Barrier

-4 Wrath of God, -4 Purge

The Pendants were in the sideboard for this exact scenario. I had tested this matchup extensively, thinking the March deck would be more common. I had been playing mistake-free for the entire day and I was extremely happy as that was my goal. I made my first mistake of the day when he Hindered my Annul. I should have let that resolve, because this matchup is often decided by decking. Unfortunately, I Condescended the Hinder, when I should have Condescended his Darksteel Ingot. I was tapping his Darksteel Pendant during upkeep when he kept the card on top of his library, and otherwise I was tapping his Pendant at the end of his turn. I played Mycosynth Lattice (no March) and got really cute by Annuling with a Plains. That cute move was a mistake too, because he had forgotten about Lattice's other ability and he was short on Islands. I shouldn't have alerted him to a way out of his mana-screw. I draw March of the Machines with no counter backup, and play it knowing that I have 3 other Marches and he has 4. Surprisingly he has no counter and is forced to Echoing Truth my 3 Ingots and his 1 Ingot. I thought he should have Echoing Truthed my Mycosynth Lattice. I float 6, replay 2 Ingots and he scoops.

Round 10 (8-1, Finals vs. Nicolas Cuenca)
Affinity with Chrome Mox/Night's Whisper. Nick has been having an incredible day, absolutely tearing up the field going undefeated in Swiss and posting an incredible game won/loss percentage as well. I am feeling fairly confident too, as I am 16-1 since that disastrous first round.

I quickly see why Nick is so successful as he drops his hand Turn 2. Nick was main-decking Chrome Mox, which I realize now completely skews this matchup in his favor. I had never seen this build, before but apparently I should have been aware of it as it was played at Worlds. My testing showed that U/W March can beat Affinity most of the time if it plays first. Those turn 2 Condescends/Leaks are crucial to stop Ravager. But since Nick was playing Chrome Mox it was like he was essentially playing first each time. This automatically makes the matchup even, probably slightly in Affinity's favor. My lack of testing against this version really hurt me as I could have been countering Night's Whispers and Serum Visions. I stabilize at 6 life with Wrath of God and I plan to March next turn. I'm holding Annul, Annul, Mana Leak, March but I only have 2 Blue open. Nick plays Frogmite and I fall for the trap and Annul it. He then plays Somber Hoverguard which I didn't think would be in this build. It's been a long day but why did I have to pick now to start making mental mistakes? I cast March but it's too late as he swings twice with Somber Hoverguard for the win.

Game 2 Sideboard:

+1 Relic Barrier, +2 Annul

-1 Mycosynth Lattice, -2 Thirst for Knowledge

I play first but once again Nick plays Chrome Mox which is absolutely crucial to my defeat. I don't see March but I am holding out with Relic Barrier. My hand gets empty quickly and I am forced to topdeck Wrath of God twice as I see the writing on the wall. Nick gets Cranial Plating and two Blinkmoth Nexus. I can only Relic Barrier one and Nick wisely moves the Cranial Plating at instant speed to the other Nexus. Two turns like that and I draw 2 useless Condescends. Nick takes the match and the championship.