The End of the World at SCG Worcester: A Tale of Heroic Courage and Crushing Defeat

Our hellride begins on March 3rd, 2018, just after 12am. I have to be up in 5 hours to start making my way towards Worcester. I throw my shit in a bag and climb into bed, where I promptly fall asleep but wake up an hour before my alarm. Portents of things to come. At 5am I crawl out of bed, take my dog out, and get in my car.

I drive an hour and a half to a teammate's house where we condense into 2 cars (there's 8 in our group), grab some breakfast, and start driving. I had hoped to use this time to try to sleep a bit more but instead we screech along to Limp Bizkit songs and "What's New, Pussycat" as sung by Tom Jones and Engelbert Humperdinck and arrive at the venue feeling refreshed and ready for 9 grueling rounds of Magic. I scribble out this decklist:

And the hellride begins in earnest. This is all from sketchy notes and memory, so bear with it.

SCG Worcester Legacy Open

R1 vs Aluren (0-2)

G1: I lose the roll and keep a hand with a Doomsday, a Cabal Therapy, and a couple of cantrips. They lead on Tropical Island into DRS. I cantrip and pass. They play a land and maybe a cantrip or something and pass. I Probe them and see Aluren, Harpy, a Brainstorm, and they have a blue source available. I cantrip and set up a kill for next turn, electing not to Therapy because they'll just hide things with Brainstorm and I want to protect my combo next turn. Naturally, I don't get a next turn. They Brainstorm end of turn, untap, and play Aluren and Recruiter and I scoop.

-1 Preordain, -1 Conjurer's Bauble, -1 Island
+1 Thoughtseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Tropical Island

G2: I get stuck on 1 land for approximately a year. In the top 9 cards of my deck I manage to draw both Lab Maniac and Act on Impulse but not another land. I am never really in this game and I get combo'd out around turn 5.

0-1. Great Start.

R2 vs UW Stoneblade (2-0)

G1: I lose the roll again. We both cantrip a bit and around turn 3 I cast a discard spell. They're left without interaction and I Brainstorm into a natural Tendrils kill on turn 4.

-1 Preordain, -2 Lotus Petal, -1 Island
+1 Thoughtseize, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Sylvan Library, +1 Tropical Island

G2: I mull to 5. My notes are sketchy but it looks like they got out Stoneforge into Batterskull and took me to pound town for a couple turns, but I manage to go off with just 3 life left. They Brainstorm in response to my Doomsday but don't draw countermagic and I get there.

1-1. Hopefully the start of something truly beautiful.

R3 vs Miracles (2-1)

G1: I win the roll. They get Search for Azcanta down on turn 2. I feel pressured to make a move or get buried in card advantage once it flips. I make a pass-the-turn pile on t4 that lets me Duress first for some protection. I take a Counterspell but they brainstorm into a Force and shut me down.

-2 Lotus Petal, -2 Preordain, -1 Island
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Tropical Island, +1 Sylvan Library

G2: Early on I Duress a Force and land Library, which their Flusterstorms can't counter. I aggressively draw cards with Library and around turn 5 I Discard one of their Flusters, bait another with Doomsday, and natural Tendrils them out.

G3: This game plays out similarly to g2. I get the Library down and see a ton of cards with it. Sometime after turn 5 I have a Bauble on board, and a hand of 2x LED, Ritual, Doomsday, Preordain, Wish, Duress. I take a Fluster, leaving them with another. I Jam the Doomsday into it, and they let it resolve. I build a pile of [Duress, AoI, LED, LED, Wish]. Tap Bauble to draw the Duress and take the 2nd Fluster, then play out my LEDs, Preordain into the Act on Impulse, and go off.

2-1. Things are looking up.

R4 vs Death and Taxes (1-2)

G1: I lose the roll and mull to 6. My hand can make 10 goblins on turn 1 or cantrip and try to set up a deterministic turn 2 kill. They lead on Plains and Mom and I agonize over what to do. If they have Stoneforge, 10 gobs won't win, but if they have Thalia I'll have to spend the Wish in my hand getting Massacre instead of business. I decide not to make goblins and cantrip instead, and they drop Thalia. I wish for Massacre and they drop Recruiter and get Prelate. I Massacre, they Prelate on 4 which I can mostly ignore. I have a turn or 2 where if I find a Doomsday I probably win, but my cantrips come up blank and they get Spirit of the Labyrinth and Revoker on LED and we go to game 2.

-1 Island, -4 Duress, -1 Preordain
+1 Thoughtseize, +1 Tropical Island, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Chain of Vapor, +1 Echoing Truth

G2: I make 12 Goblins turn 2 on the play and Flashback a Therapy. It gets there a couple turns later.

G3: My hand make 12 Goblins t1 on the draw. Again, this is not enough if they have turn 2 Stoneforge into Skull, but I got punished for not jamming in G1 and it seems more likely to me that they would prioritize keeping hate over keeping Stoneforge. I make my gobs, and they drop Stoneforge and stabilize.

2-2. It's crazy how much worse 2-2 feels compared to 2-1. I now have to win 5 in a row to make Day 2.

R5 vs UR Delver (2-1)

G1: I win the roll but can't find discard to get through their Force of Will and they Delver me out of the game.

-1 Preordain
+1 Thoughtseize

G2: They have no threats but a stacked hand of Fluster, 3x Daze, 2x Force. However, without a clock I have plenty of time and am able to make my land drops, find some discard, and eventually can go off through the last Daze or 2 left. My opponent seems upset and has me walk through the combo twice just to make sure they're really dead.

G3: I present my deck and my opponent picks it up and starts counting the cards. They seem pretty salty and people who fish for shitty wins like this bother me so I ask to see their Delvers to go with the checkbox cards. Neither of us turn up anything illegal. They get a threat down turn 1 and start clocking me. I Duress on turn 2 and see their hand is Fluster, 2x Surgical, 2x Bolt. I get the Fluster, then the next turn they tap out for a Stormchaser Mage. I Therapy on turn 3 and they fire off both Surgicals, taking irrelevant cantrips in my grave. This lets me hit both Bolts, so they can't kill me when I Doomsday. They attack me down low, I untap, and start going off. I wish for Tendrils, and say "Tendrils you for 20?" They count up all the spells I cast and gleefully inform me that I am short on storm and only got 18. I remind them that their life total is like 12 after those Surgicals and it doesn't fucking matter because they're still dead. After they sign the slip and flee, I count up my storm and it was in fact the full ten drills.

3-2. Time to ride the lightning.

R6 vs Bomberman (2-1)

G1: I lose the roll and am looking at a Mentor and 3 monk tokens by the time it's my turn. I play Island and Ponder. On their turn they drop some 0-cost artifact and hit me for 9. I untap, cantrip, don't find anything, and we go to game 2.

-3 Cabal Therapy, -1 Preordain
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Echoing Truth

G2: I Duress a LED from their hand and they play Salvagers without any payoff. We draw go for a while and I get beat with Salvagers. I have the most of the combo in hand but am tight on mana and need a Ritual. They find another LED and go infinite with a Mishra's Bauble to draw most of their deck in my upkeep. Fortunately, I draw an extremely timely Ritual and blow them away with a simple storm kill.

G3: They lead on Mentor again make a couple tokens. I have discard and a cantrip. I'm a bit worried about Chalice or Canonist but I figure if they had it, they wouldn't have led on Mentor, so I skip the discard and cantrip, setting up a turn 2 kill. On their turn they drop Tormod's Crypt and Engineered Explosives, which both do very little besides jack up their Monks. I take a big hit but still have enough life to kill with Doomsday, Ritual, and 2 Probes in hand.

4-2. The Dream lives on.

R7 vs Miracles feat. Back to Basics and Nahiri (2-0)

G1: I win the roll and start with a cantrip. They play Strand and pass, so I put them on Miracles, which is correct. I Duress them and see they have maindeck B2B, which is annoying because I like to be able to fetch nonbasics vs Miracles. They don't have any countermagic however, and on turn 4 I have a 2nd discard spell to make sure the coast is still clear, and then win with a very basic storm kill.

-2 Lotus Petal, -2 Preordain, -1 Island
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Tropical Island, +1 Sylvan Library

G2: Sideboarding doesn't change despite the B2Bs, it just means you need to be more careful with how you fetch, and you may need to take B2B over countermagic with your discard. This time they have countermagic but I get it with the discard. The rest of their hand is a bit clunky, with B2B, Nahiri, Entreat, and Jace. They draw and tap out for B2B, which catches one of my Seas tapped. I have another land to play though, and I decide it's now or never and jam the combo. I have Ritual, Doomsday, Brainstorm, and Burning Wish in hand with an Island and a Sea untapped. This is a standard Brainstorm Pile so I'll let the reader figure it out.

5-2. Two more and I get to keep playing tomorrow. Just need to keep hitting good matchups.

R8 vs Eldrazi Aggro (2-1)

G1: I lose the roll vs a bad matchup. My hand is decent, probably a turn 3 sort of hand. They lead on Tomb into Mimic. I have a Therapy, which I cast naming TKS, thinking if they had Chalice they would have played it. I hit one, but they peel another on their turn and take my Burning Wish. They have a Smasher to follow it up and I die before I can get anything together.

-3 Cabal Therapy, -2 Preordain, -1 Bauble, -1 Island
+1 Tropical Island, +2 Abrupt Decay, +2 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Thoughtseize

G2: I cantrip on my turn and set up for t2 Empty the Warrens. They start with a land that only makes one mana, and pass. I probe them in the process of making 16 goblins and see some fat Eldrazi, a Warping Wail, a Thorn, and some more lands that only make 1 mana. Looks like they were hoping to have a 2nd turn. The goblins get there without incident.

G3: My 7 is 3 lands, Hurkyl's Recall, Ritual, LED, Doomsday. SNAP KEEP. They lead on Chalice@0 and a Cavern. I play land and pass. They play a Factory and pass, presumably leaving up Warping Wail. I play another land and pass. I need to draw a cantrip to complete my combo. They don't have a 3rd land and keep holding up 2 mana. I draw a Probe and drop my 3rd land, ready to cast Recall. On their turn, they still don't find another land but they do tap out for Thorn of Amethyst. In their end step, I crack a fetch, Recall their board away, untap and win. I Probe them to draw into my pile and see they did indeed have the Warping Wail, and tapping out for the Thorn let me catch them with their pants on the ground.

6-2. I have reached the win-and-in.

R9 vs Jim Davis on Miracles feat. B2B (1-2)

I look at my pairings for the final round and see I am against Jim Davis, which is a name I recognize. Looks like I'm not going to get to play some chump. As I'm making my way to my table, I hear my name and table number called to the feature match area. Unfortunately it's like the backup to the backup feature match, so there is no footage of me playing.

G1: I lose the roll and Jim leads on Strand, fetch Island, cast Portent. This at least screams that he's on miracles. We play draw-go for a bit. I resolve a Bauble. Several turns into the game, he does something funky, Brainstorming with an Azcanta trigger on the stack. On my next turn, I get a look at his hand and see he has just one Force of Will. My hand is LED, LED, Wish, Ritual, Doomsday and I have UBR available. I Ritual out the Doomsday, and he sits and thinks long enough that the judge prompts him to make a play. He decides to Force the Doomsday, and I play out my LEDs, Wish for another Doomsday, and go off. He mentions that he made a mistake and got too cute with the Brainstorm/Azcanta thing and would have had another counterspell if he hadn't. I didn't really follow what he was saying because I was more focused on my sideboarding, but I believe him. That's how Storm works though; make a little slip-up and an experienced Storm player will punish you for it.

-2 Lotus Petal, -2 Preordain, -1 Island
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Tropical Island, +1 Sylvan Library

G2: My opening 7 is Probe, Probe, Ritual, Doomsday, Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Fetch. He starts with land and a cantrip. I listen to the voices of the cosmos telling me, "Jam the fucking turn 1 kill, no guts no glory, you brought Doomsday and you are 6-2, don't start acting like a sane person now." The voices make a compelling argument, and even if my Doomsday gets countered I still have a Brainstorm and Probes. I run out the Doomsday and it gets Forced. The game goes on for quite a bit longer. I eventually draw Sylvan Library, but it gets countered. Then an Azcanta comes down, flips quickly, and I get slowly buried under card advantage. It's possible jamming the turn 1 here was wrong, but I'm not the kind of guy to turn down a turn one.

G3: He has a turn 2 Search for Azcanta but is filling the grave relatively slowly. I take some countermagic out of his hand, and around turn 4 or 5 there is a window of a turn or 2 where if I draw a cantrip I can get a clean win. Unfortunately I don't draw the cantrip, Azcanta flips, and I start getting buried. Most of his Azcanta activations find him cantrips, but those cantrips turn into mystery cards. I draw a lot of mana, no discard, and 2 Baubles. He gets a Clique out and leaves my Doomsday and ritual in hand, which is a real bad sign, but at this point he'd been Azcanta-ing for 6+ turns and I'm sure his hand was well stocked. We go to time and on turn 0 of turns, I'm dead on board to Clique, so I make move. With 2 Bauble on board, if the top 2 cards of my deck are Burning Wishes, I have an ouside shot at winning if he somehow only has a couple counterspells. I play out a couple LEDs I'd picked up, then ritual into Doomsday. It gets countered. I crack my LEDs and then draw with a Bauble. I peel a Wish, but it gets countered. I crack the other Bauble but it just draws me a Cabal Therapy. I drop it on the table and he shows me his hand that still has a ton of counterspells. GG Jim Davis, the Dreamkilller.

Final Day 1 Record: 6-3/14-10.

Thus ends my run in the Open, but there is still more Magic to be played tomorrow. I meet up with my teammates and we head off to dinner. I've been saying all day that I'm going to get hammered whether I Day 2 or not, but I end up drinking responsibly and eating this insane burger with tuna and pork belly and a fried egg, plus blackberry champagne barbecue sauce, whiskey cheddar, red onions, sauteed mushrooms, and tomato. If you're ever in Worcester, Massachusetts, go to The Fix. It's good, but a little pricey.

We head back to our hotel and crash for the night. I wake up around 4 am and feel like I need to cast Obliterate on the toilet. After about 10 minutes of only being able to cast Death Cloud (which apparently woke up one of my teammates) I crawl back into bed, and toss and turn until about 6:30am when I get up to shower.

We grab breakfast and walk over to the venue. I sell a few EDH staples I'll never use and get a foil Lab Maniac and a foil Empty the Warrens. Then I scribble out my decklist for the Legacy Classic. I decided to drop the green splash this time, to compare the two versions.

I almost fall asleep at my table for the players meeting. I drink half an energy drink, and sit down for the first round of the Classic.

SCG Worcester Legacy Classic

R1 vs Grixis Dreadstill (0-2)

G1: I win the roll, keep 6, and then look at it a little closer and realize it has no lands. Oops. It does have a petal and a Ponder, so I Ponder and miss a land. Draw another Petal on my next turn, use it to Preordain, and find an Underground Sea. I Probe them and see Standstill, Force and Stifle. I blew so many resources trying to fix my stupid hand that I am way behind. They drop Standstill, effectively ending the game. I finally find a second land but it's a fetch and will just eat a Stifle. I scoop before I give away that I'm not just on ANT.

-2 Preordain -1 Burning Wish
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Empty the Warrens

G2: My hand is much better this time. I Duress and take some countermagic. On their second turn, they tap out to cast a Phyrexian Dreadnought and stifle it's sacrifice trigger. On my third turn I make 12 goblins, thinking I can just chump the Dreadnought and win with gobs. I then learn Dreadnought has trample. I consider throwing all my goblins in front of it when it attacks, but I'm empty handed and I know they have a Standstill in hand so I just scoop since I played like a donkey.

0-1. gReAt StArT.

R2 vs Punishing Dack (2-1)

I go to my seat for the match and find 2 people already shuffling up in it. I ask them what the deal is, and it turns out one is my opponent and the other is supposed to be sitting a seat over. Except there is no seat over. The signs for the table numbers are all fucked up and there isn't room for everyone at the table. We grab a judge, get it sorted out, and end up at a random open table with a 5 minute time extension.

G1: My opener has 3 discard spells, 3 lands, and a Doomsday. I Just make land drops, point a discard spell at my opponent every so often, and eventually draw into what I need for a clean storm kill and finish them off around turn 6 or 7.

-2 Preordain, -1 Burning Wish
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Empty the Warrens

G2: It takes me a while to work through their countermagic. At one point I try to bait a Force with an extra LED, but it resolves and gets stolen by Dack. I didn't expect this to matter. It's late in the game but I make 12 goblins since they only have a Dack and a Strix on board and 1 card in hand. However, that one card is Snapcaster Mage. With 3 lands untapped, on my end step they Snap targeting Kolaghan's Command, use the stolen LED mana to cast it, shocking me and regrowing an Izzet Staticaster they had looted away earlier. A pretty sweet line which I totally missed and walked right into. My goblins die and we move to the third game.

G3: They are beating me down with a strix and a DRS but are a little constrained on mana. I get the interaction out of their hand, they Surgical my Duresses, and I go for a pass-the-turn pile of [Therapy, AoI, LM, LED, GP] with 4 lands and a Bauble on board, and another Doomsday in hand. This gives me a discard spell to try to hit a counterspell if they draw one. However, they draw and play Dack, and Dack me. I draw Therapy and AoI, and discard Therapy and the extra Doomsday. I untap, draw Lab Man, play AoI exiling LED and Probe, and crack LED for UUU discarding Lab Man. Bauble puts Lab Man on the bottom of my emty library so I draw it, cast it, and use Probe from exile to draw for the win. Miss me with that Dack shit.

1-1. Maybe I can get my head back in the game.

R3 vs Mono Red Stompy (0-2)

G1: I lose the roll, they lead on Chalice@1, and I can't cast any of my spell in hand. Turn 2 Rabblemaster into turn 3 Chandra ends the game in short order. I only play lands, and only a Volc and some Grixis fetchlands, so my identity remains a mystery.

-4 Cabal Therapy, -1 Conjurer's Bauble
+2 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Chain of Vapor, +1 Thoughtseize

G2: I fetch and Thouhgtseize away a chalice, leaving them with a Sudden Shock, a Chandra, and a Fiery Confluence. They just play lands and I cantrip. On turn 3 I make a pass-the-turn pile, except I'm at 17 life so I drop to 8. End of turn they Sudden Shock me, untap, and cast Fiery Confluence to burn me for the last 6. So I played like an ass and got punished for it again.

1-2. I'm a Saltfield Recluse.

Here I do quick maths and it looks like even if I win out, X-2 may not even make top 16, and I can't stop fucking up so there's no way I'll win out. I decide to drop, eat a real lunch instead of a bag of beef jerky like the day before, cruise the vendor tables for an hour or so and join a 4-round Legacy Challenge to try to dump on my fellow scrubs who scrubbed out of the Open and the Classic.

I changed my decklist one more time, leaving the maindeck untouched from last time but swapping the 2 extra ETW in the board for 2 Defense Grids.

Side Event: 4-Rounds Challenge

R1 vs Spanish Inquisition (2-0)

G1: I'm playing against one of my teammates who also is a scrub and I know he's on SI. I win the roll and blind-Therapy Dark Ritual. I miss, he shoots off a draw 4 but draws trash and I untap and get to hit with my next Therapy. This buys me another turn and I win by Wishing up a Doomsday and storming out.

-1 Conjurer's Bauble
+1 Thoughtseize

G2: He has a Draw4 on turn 1 but draws garbage again. We rip eachother's hands apart with discard and start a topdeck war. I eventually find a Wish, go to grab a Doomdsay and... shit it's not there. I forgot to put it back in my board after last game. I just have to pass, but my opponent can't draw a business spell to save his life and I topdeck one of my four (lol) Doomsdays to win two turns later.

1-0. Easy to beat a bad storm deck when you're playing a slightly less bad storm deck.

R2 vs Manaless Dredge (2-1)

G1: I lose the roll but my opponent puts me on the play so I know what to look for in my opener. My 7 is strong, with a few cantrips, a ritual, and an LED so I just need a business spell. Unfortunately I cantrip and cantrip and never find business, and they do their dredge thing and shred my hand and I lose.

-1 Preordain
+1 Thoughtseize

G2: I remember to put myself on the draw and Duress on my first turn. Their hand is all creatures, so I don't get to timewalk them. On my 2nd turn I make a pass-the-turn Maniac pile, which is safe from everything but the nuttiest of dredges. The dredging was far from nutty, and my Lab Man won me the game on my turn.

G3: I'm on the play and my hand has a Doomsday, a Brainstorm, some lands, and 3 discard spells. All my discard spells function as timewalks, and I naturally draw into what I need to storm out on turn 4.

2-0. Glad I dropped from that stupid Classic.

R3 vs Burn (2-0)

G1: I win the Roll and I cantrip. They start off with a suspended Rift Bolt. I cantrip again. They don't have turn2 Eidolon and just hold up 2 mana. On my turn 3 I go off with a double cantrip pile. I probe and see 3 Price of Progress and a Fireblast but it isn't enough to kill me.

-1 Lab Maniac, - 2 Duress
+1 Thoughtseize, +1 Chain of Vapor, +1 Echoing Truth

G2: They lead on fetch, pass. I blind-Therapy Eidolon and miss. They don't have a second land. I Ponder and they hit it with a Pyroblast, but still don't draw a 2nd land for their turn. On my turn 3 I make 16 Goblins and flashback 2 Therapy to shred their hand. The second land comes way too late to matter against 14 goblin tokens.

3-0. Still not regretting dropping from the Classic.

R4 vs BUG Control (0-2)

My opponent declines to draw and would rather play for glory. Fine by me.

G1: My opponent plays a Delta and passes. My hand is something like Sea, Island, Ritual, Therapy, Petal, LED, Wish. This makes 12 goblins turn 1 with the Therapy for protection if they let Ritual resolve. I ritual, it resolves. I therapy and name force. Their hand is Brainstorm, 2x JTMS, strix, and some lands. I keep going, and in response to Wish my opponent Brainstorms and hits Force of Will. Oh well. I play it out for a bit but once Jace comes down I just scoop because my hand wasn't going anywhere.

-3 Preordain
+1 Thoughtseize, +2 Defense Grid

G2: I resolve a defense grid but my hand is not coming together the way I wanted. They have a deathrite shaman and a strix pressuring my life a bit. I make a pass-the-turn pile, but fail to account for the possibility of Jace. Of course, Jace is cast and I get fatesealed and I scoop. My pile was [AoI, LED, LM, GP, GP]. If I had simply put one of those Probes on the top, I would have likely won this game. Oh well.

So a 3-1 record in the challenge is good enough for some prize wall tickets, which i use to get 12 Ixalan boosters. While I'm cracking them, the Open Top 8 is being announced: "And in 7th seed, JIM DAVIS!" I respond by yelling "FUCK JIM DAVIS!" and get lots of dirty looks. Jim Davis, if you read this for some reason, you were a pleasant opponent and I'm glad you did well on day 2. I don't hate you, I just hate that you took my day 2 from me. Asshole.

Total Match Record: 10-6 (62.5% winrate)
Total Game Record: 22-18 (55% winrate)

Thoughts on the Deck Going Forward

62.5% winrate is respectable, and the fact that I had a win-and-in is encouraging in terms of the deck's viability. With the exception of my R1 match against Aluren, my 2 other losses on day 1 felt winnable, with a bit better luck. Luck and tight play are both needed to succeed in large tournaments, and I feel like I played tight, at least on day 1. The deck can be quite fatiguing to play even for an experienced pilot, so proper sleep and nutrition is important.

Regarding the decklist itself, I was pleased with my list for the main event. I wish the green splash wasn't needed because I hate having a land in my sideboard, but Miracles is growing in popularity and I am loath to be cold to counterbalance. Sylvan Library is an excellent card, and if you expect lots of slow blue control decks, and are already splashing green, it's probably worth the slot. The only change I would consider making to the sideboard is moving the Tropical Island to the main to free up a slot for something to help against Delver, but I'm not sure what and I really like 3 basics in the main. I'm pretty sure the maindeck is exactly what I want, except the 8th fetchland should probably be a Tarn instead of a Misty or a Mire. But I only own 3 Tarns.

The lists, particularly the sideboards, I played in the Classic and the Challenge I didn't like quite as much. Multiple ETW is an OK plan vs Delver-type decks, but it can make some clunky draws and Doomsday doesn't utilize them as well as TES does. I don't think I like it enough anymore. Similarly, Defense Grid and Xantid Swarm look pretty good on paper but they have their own issues. Grid comes down too late, especially if you need to play it through Daze, and then opponents start being able to pay for it. Swarm dies to Bolt which Delver should be keeping in against us, and requires the green land vs a Wasteland deck. I think what I really need is more practice against Delver decks so I can just tighten up play and gain a few percentage points rather than some magical sideboard card. My matchup against UR and RUG Delver feel fine, it's really just Grixis Delver with the discard where I feel unfavored.

Hopefully this gives anyone on the fence about sleeving the deck up a reason to take it for a spin. Practice and experience can help you go a long way, and if nothing else the deck is a blast, and peoples' reactions when you cast Doomsday are fun. I recall both my round 7 and 8 opponents expressing that they'd rather be knocked out by Doomsday than some boring mainstream strategy, and god knows I'd rather eat shit playing Doomsday than cruise to victory in a Honda Civic.

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