TL;DR: This event was awesome, the competition was fierce, and I'll definitely do it again. If you have the chance, go check out an Eminence Gaming event...

Intro:

July 29th - 30th Eminence Gaming hosted a cEDH tournament in Atlanta, GA. There were 160 players in attendance, and I was fortunate enough to be one of them.

This was my first time ever attending a cEDH tournament of any kind, and although I wasn't one of the top finishers, I felt compelled to share my experiences.

Hopefully, my perspective can offer up useful information to you all!

Game Log:

Round 1

Opponents:

• [[Malcolm, Keen-Eyed Navigator]] /[[Tana, The Bloodsower]] (M/T)

• [[Korvold, Fae-Cursed King]]

• [[Frodo, Adventerous Hobbit]] / [[Sam, Loyal Attendant]] (F/S)

2nd in turn order, Turn 4 Loss

M/T was limited on lands, but a [[Jeweled Lotus]], [[Sylvan Safekeepeer]], and an [[Imperial Recruiter]], ultimately helped them assemble a [[Glint-Horn Buccaneer]] Malcolm win.

Korvold used a [[Dockside Extortionist]] Turn 2 to accrue big value. Unfortunately, I made the huge mistake of swinging into Korvold with a Dwarf in order to get a treasure, they were able to block with Dockside, get it into their graveyard, then reanimate it on their turn for insane value. I had a hunch that Korvold had a [[Reanimate]] effect in their hand, but I didn't listen to my gut instinct and got punished hard as a result.

Korvold attempted a turn 3 win off of the Reanimated Dockside but was thwarted by T/D. A well timed [[Flusterstorm]] and [[Mindbreak Trap]] did the trick.

I set myself up for a turn 4 win, but it was far too little and far too late. S/F valiantly fought to remove Glint-Horn with a [[Solitude]], but Sylvan Safekeeper did its thing, and well, kept Glint-Horn safe.

Round 2

Opponents:

• [[Orvar, the All-Form]]

• [[Evelyn, the Covetous]]

• [[Tivit, Seller of Secrets]]

1st in turn order, Turn 6 Loss

I had to mulligan to 5 in order to find a keepable hand, which set me back from the onset.

Orvar was playing the role of table police, which enabled them to stop Evelyn from winning on turn 2 with a [[Necromancy]] [[World Gorger Dragon]] combo. A well timed [[Pongify]] on the WGD ETB sent Evelyn to the shadow realm.

Tivit started quickly and was trying to set up a [[Time Sieve]] win. Orvar and I fought valiantly to prevent it, removing creatures like [[Oswald Fiddlebender]] and mana rocks to slow down the win attempt.

Tivit was able to use a [[Tainted Pact]] to get Time Sieve into play. After looping several extra turns, Tivit was able to kill Orvar with commander damage. I gained back control of Magda as a result of Orvar dying, immediately crewed a vehicle to get to 5 treasures, tutored [[Pithing Needle]] into play, named Time Sieve, and hoped it was enough.

Tivit was able to put [[Phantasmal Image]] into play as a copy of Magda. They sacrificed 5 treasures to their Magda and put [[Portable Hole]] into play, which removed Pithing Needle and enabled them to win. It was a very spicy play indeed.

Round 3

Opponents:

• [[Thasios, Triton Hero]] / [[Tymna, the Weaver]] (T/T)

• [[Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator]]

• [[Rocco, Cabaretti Caterer]]

3rd in turn order, Turn 4 Win

Finally, a win!

I kept an opener that gave me every outlet I needed to win, and I could threaten that potential win by Turn 4. I started laying down Dwarves early and aggressively, [[Dwarven Bloodboiler]] was the MVP of this game.

Heading into my Turn 4, Vohar attempted to rally the other players to help him stop me. Rocco had laid down his hand early, though, and had no interaction. T/T pitched in and offered up a [[Negate]] to stop me from resolving an [[Ashnod's Transmogrant]], but a follow up [[Proteus Machine]] gave me the artifact Dwarf I needed to attempt to win the game.

The make or break play of the game was Vohar casting [[Ad Nauseum]] in response to my game winning Magda activation. He attempted to dig to find [[Snuff Out]], going all the way down to 3 life in the process, but was unable to.

My aggression and lady luck helped me get over the finish line in this one.

Round 4

Opponents:

• [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] / [[Dargo, the Shipwrecker]] (T/D)

• [[Go-Shintai of Life's Origin]]

• [[Sythis, Harvest's Hand]]

4th in turn order, Turn 3 loss

One of my travel companions, Go-Shintai, was playing in this pod with me. It really sucks when you have to play against your friends in a tournament setting.

Magda came into play on Turn 1, and on Turn 2, I followed up with Dockside. I had 7 treasures, and things were looking great! Then T/D started chaining crazy value off of [[Phantasmal Image]], copying my Dockside, and my day was ruined.

T/D had lots of mana but very few cards in hand, so on Turn 3, they used a [[Wheel of Fortune]] to attempt to fix that. Go-Shintai let the Wheel resolve, and a [[Smothering Tithe]] they had on board gave them tons of treasures.

I had one Magda activation available, but no matter what line I took, I wasn't able to win. Go-Shintai, unfortunately, drew very poorly off of the wheel, but T/D was lucky enough to draw well.

I was forced to activate Magda to play a defensive Pithing Needle, to stave off an onboard [[Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy]] from going off, but it didn't really matter. T/D deployed Thrasios and a [[Birthing Pod]], then chained off for the win.

Afterward, Go-Shintai and I reviewed the game and recognized that we had misplayed in several places. Nerves had gotten the better of both of us, and we left a lot on the table.

Round 5

• [[Kenrith, the Returned King]]

• [[Extus, Oriq Overlord]]

• [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] / [[Dargo, the Shipwrecker]] (T/D)

1st in turn order, Turn 5 Win

The worst part about Round 5 was the fatigue. Everyone at the table was exhausted. As I'm sure many of you can attest to, expending tons of mental energy all day long is difficult.

T/D and Extus both kept slow hands, and Kenrith settled into an early Mystic Remora. I kept a hand that had the ability to go fast, but I intentionally slowed down to avoid feeding the fish and overextending into removal.

Kenrith and T/D took their focus off of me and honed in on each other's boards. This gave me the space I needed to set up my game plan. With a [[Pyroblast]] and [[Tibalt's Trickery]] in hand for protection, I felt good about my position.

Heading into my Turn 5, Kenrith flashed in an [[Orcish Bowmasters]] to attempt to assassinate my Dwarves. I countered it with Tibalt's Trickery and proceeded to win the game.

Round 6

• [[Florian, Voltaren Scion]]

• [[Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh]] / [[Silas Renn, Seeker Adept]] (R/S)

• [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] / [[Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder]] (T/B)

4th in turn order, Turn 3 Loss

I settled on an opening hand that leveraged an artifact Dwarf, [[Xorn]], and a Tibalt's Trickery to attempt a turn 3 win.

Everyone made a win attempt in this game. R/S resolved an Ad Nauseum but was thwarted by counter magic and a [[Ranger-Captain of Eos]]. I attempted to put Xorn into play and start mass producing treasures, but a well-timed [[Daze]] prevented it.

Florian attempted to win twice, once with an Ad Nauseum and again with [[Bolas's Citadel]]. They were stopped once by my Tibalt's Trickery and again by R/S's counter magic. After everyone's interaction was finally exhausted, T/B was able to pull off the win with no opposition.

Round 7

Opponents:

• [[Kodama of the East Tree]] / [[Sakashima of a Thousand Faces]] (K/S)

• [[Tymna, the Weaver]] / [[Dargo, the Shipwrecker]] (T/D)

• [[Tymna, the Weaver]] / [[Thrasios, Triton Hero]] (T/T)

3rd in turn order, Turn 3 Loss

This game was a blowout.

T/D opened with essentially a God hand, tons of mana, and a Tymna on Turn 1. By Turn 2, they also had a [[Necropotence]] and Bolas's Citadel in play.

I used a Pithing Needle to turn off Necropotence, and a [[Torpor Orb]] to hopefully slow T/D down. K/S used removal to take out Tymna, too, but it wasn't enough.

With all the card draw value in the world at his disposal, T/D was able to remove Torpor Orb, then storm off with a Dockside and [[Ruthless Technomancer]] combo.

Results: 2-0-5, 48th place, out of 160 competitors.

Final Thoughts:

• Every game I played was blazing fast, I saw almost no stax pieces the entire weekend.

• The most common cards I encountered were Kinnan, Dockside, and Phantasmal Image.

• Eminence Gaming put on an excellent event. The judges were great, the venue was clean and orderly, and the rounds all went off in a well organized fashion.

• If you have the chance to go to a big cEDH tournament, please do it! You may not win every game, but you'll learn so much.

• I love Magda, but I definitely felt outclassed in every round I played in. It felt a lot like I brought a butter knife to a kaiju fight. The competition was fierce, and ultimately, I'm proud of how I played.

• I got to game quite a bit with Tony Rivera, the Kinnan player who won the tournament, the day before the tourney started. He and all his buddies that he traveled with are stand-up guys and very friendly. It was so cool getting to watch him kick butt and take names.

• I'm working on a new deck for future tourneys. I posted a link below if you want to check it out. Helpful and constructive ideas are always appreciated!

If there's interest in it, I'll post tournament logs like this anytime I attend a cEDH event. Stay classy, folks, and thanks for taking the time to read this!

My Magda Deck:

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/ROOGIfzrcUawADDrE3JCHA

New Deck Idea:

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/PGUwfXVGJE2L0BVzt8hoQg