Modern - Restore Imbalance

I just came in 1st place with this deck at a modern tournament. This is the first time I've placed 1st, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. Here is a breakdown of the tournament.

Round 1:

My opponent is playing Jund Midrange. As many of you know it has been said quite frequently that Jund has no particularly bad match-ups in pretty much any format. This deck I would say is strong versus Jund more so than most decks. If your opponent casts Thoughtseize or Duress on you then often times they don't quite know what to take out of your hand. If they Blightning you, it comes back to hurt them later when Restore Balance goes off because they have to discard more cards. Pretty good match-up.

Game 1: He plays Overgrown Battlements and Sylvan Caryatids building a strong early game mana base while I do my thing with the borderposts. I am able to cascade into Restore Balance relatively quickly and cut off his mana and creatures. I draw into Tezzeret shortly after and take the game in an orderly fashion with his ultimate + borderposts. 1-0

Game 2: I contemplate sideboarding in Leyline of Sanctity, but I think it might not even be that useful or needed and could end up being a dead card, so I decide to keep my deck the same. I completely forgot to take out Blood Moon, which is essentially a dead card for this match-up. He sideboards in a good couple of Ancient Grudges and I certainly see them in the second game.

He wreaks havoc on my borderposts in the first couple of turns with Ancient Grudge / Eternal Witness / Grudge / Flashback destroying most of what I have going on, but at a certain point I just started focusing on playing actual lands since I didn't see myself having much luck with the borderposts. He pulls out a Thundermaw Hellkite while I am still very low on mana. I Oblivion Ringed it next turn but I'm almost dead and he kills me in two turns with a few weenies. 1-1

Game 3: I am very happy to see that during the first few turns no Ancient Grudges are being cast, but he does build up a large mana force rather quickly. I cascade into Restore Balance as quickly as possible but I had a few lands on board so I didn't quite take all of his so he's still running somewhat efficiently. I don't draw into another cascade spell for the rest of the game but I do draw into a Restore Balance which I suspend normally and a Greater Gargadon, but it'll be a while before he comes out. I survive long enough for the Restore Balance to go off and in response I make the risky play of saccing all my lands and artifacts to the Gargadon, to leave him with no mana and to get him out sooner, but leaving myself with no mana sources. He comes out next turn and starts to beat face. My opponent doesn't have a significant response and loses after chump blocking a bit. 2-1

Round 2:

This was probably my favorite round. Certainly a bad matchup for me, my opponent was running Delver/Young Pyromancer and the additional Isochron Scepter/Silence lock. Since he's running Delver/Pyromancer he also had plenty of other good spells to cast imprinted on the scepter or just hard cast like Boomerang, Lightning Helix, Serum Visions so on and so forth. You don't have to be a genius to know that low mana cost interactive spells are the biggest problem for this deck to handle. His deck could also produce significant and viable threats in very early turns. Here is the breakdown.

Game 1: He is on the play, plays Island, go. I play a borderpost tapped and pass turn. He plays Young Pyromancer on Turn 2 and then Gitaxian Probes me. I can tell he doesn't quite know what he's looking at, but he writes down the cards and passes the turn. Since I know he's confused and because I felt that I could take a few stings from the Pyromancer and a few tokens, I decide not to cascade into Restore Balance quite yet even though I am certainly capable of it. I pass turn and he plays a draw card spell and scrys, leaving a few things on the top then burns me. Swings in with the token army and I'm down to 8 life. The next turn I Ardent Plea into Restore Balance after bouncing my borderposts perfectly so that I have no lands on table, making him sac all of his. He begins to understand what the card does and sacs his lands and creatures. He doesn't draw into any significant amount of land and I chisel him down with an Izzet Keyrune. 1-0

Game 2: This game was the most fun of any of the others, it was a nail-biter and I even contemplated scooping as I'll explain later but that made the payoff that much more sweet. I sideboard in Leyline of Sanctity but I do not see it in my starter hand or at all this game. I didn't see an Isochron Scepter during the first game so at this point I didn't know he had it in his deck yet or else I certainly would have sideboarded in Beast Within.

He is on to my game and plays very aggressively this game. He chooses to play first and plays Island and passes. I play Wildfield Borderpost tapped and pass. His Turn 2 was Isochron Scepter imprinting Silence! He passes confidently. I pause for a moment and think about what exactly I can do to stop this. With the cards in hand, in a moment of desperation I pitched two Simian Spirit guides and tapped the borderpost to play a Turn 2 Violent Outburst before playing my land for turn, forcing him to sac his 2 lands. A risky play since it left me with almost no hand or mana, my back was against the wall I had to do it then. I pass. He plays another land and passes. I play another boarderpost tapped and pass. He plays another land on his turn and yet again I pause to think. I contemplate what exactly I have in my deck that can either destroy the scepter or negate it's effects and is instant speed and there is literally nothing. The only spell in the main deck that could get it was Oblivion Ring and after he starts the Isochron lock that becomes useless. This is when I thought about scooping. The chance of winning while not being able to cast any spells other than instants was pretty narrow and also I didn't want to draw in game 3 due to time constraints and having to go down to turns. So I decide to play it out maybe I'll get lucky. The game is a stall for a bit, he keeps locking me out of playing spells by Isochroning Silence during my upkeep but he didn't draw extra lands to splash in other spells on his turn for a good while. I couldn't cast anything and all of the spells in my hand were great but here I am discarding at the end of every turn. He gets his 3rd land eventually and casts a Delver leaving up enough mana to Silence me again. I draw into Thieves' Fortune and I have 6 mana sources available. I pass turn and during HIS upkeep I cast Thieves' Fortune leaving up enough mana for Violent Outburst and hoping that I draw into it (I already played one as well). Sure enough in those 4 cards a Violent Outburst appeared and I cast it to kill the Delver and make him sac his lands. He plays a land and passes. At this point my hand is stacked. I play Tamiyo and tap his land and pass. He doesn't draw a land this turn and passes. I play Jace, Memory Adept, tap his land with Tamiyo and mill him 10 with Jace. Next turn he plays his second land and passes. I play Ajani, tap his untapped land with Tamiyo, keep his tapped land tapped with Ajani, and mill him for 10 with Jace. He draws, no land, passes. I mill him for the win next turn. This game was tense and at times I thought it was unwinnable but I achieved a victory over a Turn 2 Isochron/Silence lock with no instant speed removal. Not many can say that. 2-0

Round 3:

Ok this guy's deck was just good. He was playing a Storm deck and although I have not played it I am familiar with how it works. After seeing what spells he played during the first game, his deck was perceptibly identical to Hall of Famer Jon Finkel's Modern Storm Deck. It is an incredibly powerful deck capable of Turn 2 wins quite regularly with the right cards in hand. If you are unfamiliar with this deck you should probably familiarize yourself with it because if not you will lose to it quite a bit I'm sure if you play modern. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmtgtop8.com%2Fevent%3Fe%3D4927%26d%3D228464&ei=AH5sU7mnG8X4oATu-YGYBw&usg=AFQjCNGE9MDHy1wov9DVupQ62XhH3JyDhg&sig2=4viYpXVzLQR6Fjj2xBCdOA

So here goes, the last round..

Game 1: I win the die roll so I choose to play first. I play borderpost tapped and pass. He plays Mountain and passes. I play another borderpost tapped and pass. He plays another Mountain and passes. I am certainly glad that he didn't have the spells in hand to combo off because at this moment there would be nothing I could do about it. I don't have the mana base to play a cascade spell this turn but I would the next. I play borderpost and pass. He plays Gitaxian Probe and gets a look at my hand but I can tell he doesn't quite understand it. He plays a Serum Visions drawing a card and scrys 2, leaving 2 on top then he passes. Since he left both on top after scrying I knew they had to be good cards so now was definitely the time so I cast Ardent Plea into Restore Balance. He begins to understand what it does and sacs his lands. He doesn't draw into land for a while and I'm short on mana sources my self but eventually I draw into Tezzeret, but with nowhere near enough artifacts to make his ultimate ability lethal. I use Tezzeret's second ability to fetch some more borderposts and his first ability to untap artifacts so I can find more. Eventually I cascade into Restore Balance again as he starts to build up mana and I ultimate Tezzeret for the win. 1-0

Game 2: I sideboard in Leyline of Sanctity of course and also Dismember which is somewhat relevant to take out March of the Machines which is to slow for this match-up probably and also Blood Moon which is pretty much a dead card he is mostly running basics and has mana fixing with spells.

He chooses to play first of course. Turn 1 Mountain, go. I play borderpost tapped and pass. He plays Island, plays Goblin Electromancer, passes. I play another borderpost and pass. I didn't have a cascade spell in hand, but if I drew one next turn I could play it if it wasn't Demonic Dread, since I run only 2 I play favorites toward Ardent Plea and Violent Outburst more so. The next turn he plays Pyromancer Ascension and combos straight out from there. Gitaxian Probes and Manamorphoses into Pyretic Rituals and eventually a Past in Flames with 3 Grape Shots layered on top for like 70 or something damage. 1-1

Game 3: I choose to play first. Risky keep but I choose to play it only because I have Leyline of Sanctity in hand, which could possibly completely shut him out if he doesn't play Empty the Warrens. I happily reveal Leyline of Sanctity, play a borderpost tapped and pass. He plays a Mountain and passes. I have not drawn a cascade spell this game and I never get to see one this game at all or the one that preceded it unfortunately, but Turn 2 I legitimately suspend Restore Balance and play another borderpost. He plays Island and plays Pyromancer Ascension. On my turn I Oblivion Ring it. On his next turn he plays Electromancer and a serious of draw and scry spells to fix his hand and the top of his library and passes. I play Jace Architect of Thought and decide to use his second ability to dig into my deck since I wasn't under any immediate pressure and also as I said did not have any cascade spells. Didn't find any either but I did find other useful cards. I pitched a Simian Spirit Guide and play suspend a Greater Gargadon as that was my only source of red mana currently. I pass the turn and he combos off again and actually does play Empty the Warrens with a storm count of 15 so he puts 30 Goblins on the board, then swings for 2 with the Electromancer. This turn we went down to turns mean that this was Turn 0 and on Turn 5 the game ends if someone isn't dead. What he apparently did not realize is that the previously suspended Restore Balance was going off this upkeep. In response to the trigger, I sac only my lands to the Gargadon to force him to sac all of his. This got rid of the Electromancer, the tokens and his land. My mana wasn't terrible but I didn't have 5 and I had a Jace Memory Adept in hand. I play an Evolving Wilds and got a Forest to thin out my deck and to be able to play Jace next turn. I pass and he doesn't play a land and passes. I play Jace and mill him, but I do think about the fact that this could be a TERRIBLE plan versus his deck. Past in Flames and he could completely combo off again with more ammo but it's a risk I had to take. I pass and he doesn't play a land. I mill him, emptying his library, but since this was Turn 5 I had to kill him, and technically he would have been defeated until his next draw step which is past the permitted number of turns. Something I hadn't considered, I did consider checking the number of cards in library but I could clearly see it was less than 30 so I went with the mill strategy. If I had just one more turn I would have been the only victor but we tied for 1st ending Game 3 in a draw. 1-1-1

If you read this and want to understand how the deck works I would be more than happy to explain. I certainly like it because it is innovative and highly interactive. As for Blood Moon. It was awful in every match-up tonight but I still choose to mainboard it because of it's crippling effect on counter magic, Tron, or any deck that demands versatility in lands like Zoo for instance.

Well I've gone undefeated with this deck twice now but I still haven't squeezed out a win as the sole victor.

Tonight's matchups:

Bye

Tron: 1-1-1

Splinter Twin (Tempo): 1-1-1

I won my first tournament with this deck tonight.

Tonight's Matchups:

2-0 vs Storm

2-1 vs Bant Hatebears (Dryad Militant / Stony Silence)

2-0 vs American Control

2-1 vs Black/White Disruption (Sculler etc)