I played Amulet in a 150 person Starcity Games Regional in San Diego, CA.
Round 1 vs. 4 Color Breach. I recognize this dude as the guy who won a big Pioneer event recently. I have some hate to stem some of the busted cards that he has in play after 2 Thoughtseize, and then land a Titan off Castle Garenbrig. I was able to draw
Bojuka Bog at the right time to exile a BUUUUNCH of stuff. I get there this game. I also said "Zombies" from the Field of the Dead triggers, but he told me that I didn't say it when I passed the turn, reaching in my box for Zombie tokens. Immediately another player watching (his friend) said that I didn't. It's odd, but I honestly don't care what the other player thinks he heard or saw in the game. I just need to put the tokens into play after saying "Zombies" and THEN pass the turn. There was no reason for me to lie about it. I had overkill on board anyway. I had another Titan in hand and I don't think he had enough cards in hand to combo me next turn. In the next game, I get Thoughtseized 3 times and he eventually is able to go off and combo me. The next game is similar, but he has double Thoughtseize and I cannot draw a land in time to get the Titan chain going. No Amulets in these fairly long games. 1-2.
Round 2 vs. Mono Red Prowess. This round is where the Amulets were, as I drew 1 in each game. He got stuck on 2 mana in game 1 and I chained Radiant Fountain and ramp into Titan. In the next game, he is stuck on 2 lands and flashes back Lava Dart to get a 3rd counter on
Runaway Steam-Kin to Abrade my Amulet. But he is now stuck on 1 land and showed me both Blood Moons later on. I kept the hand because I had fetch for Forest and Summoner's Pact for Reclamation Sage if I needed. Got there. 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Eldrazi Tron. This guy was a cool opponent, like all of my opponents this tournament. In the first game, I have the nuts and kill him on turn 3. I had it all except Dryad and drew that on turn 2. In the next game, he Once Upon a Time for a Tron piece and turn 3 Reality Smashers me. I have a slow hand and don't draw accelerants. But when I'm at 5, I get Titan into play with Zombies. Then I am able to get Dryad and kill almost his whole board. I made a crucial mistake of not playing a land before playing Dryad, so I miss the extra Valakut trigger, but can leave up Ghost Quarter to get his Tron land. He had 2 Tower, 2 Mine, and only
1 Power Plant, so he can kill me with a top decked Walking Ballista. Plus, he had a 2/2 creature from Ugin, the Ineffable to draw another card after a chump block. Alas, he did NOT draw Walking Ballista, the out that I gave him (even thought technically he could draw Power Plant and Walking Ballista (one from the 2/2 creature dying and putting the card in his hand). I feel this was my biggest mistake of the tournament, outside of not putting Zombies into play when I said the triggers too quietly in Round 1. 2-0.
Round 4 vs. BR Undeath. I stomp him badly in game 1 after he mulls to 5. He was my only opponent to mull to less than 6 today. Then game 2 is drawn out, but I find Pact for Titan and it's fairly over by then. 2-0.
Round 5 vs. GB Titan Field. In the first game, we both accelerate. Problem? He has Titan. I have a 2nd copy of Azusa in hand. Rough. In the next game, I don't find anything to accelerate me and I transmute for Summoner's Pact. I am ready for next turn and he missed a land drop and Ghost Quartered a land of mine. But he draws
Memoricide, naming Primeval Titan. Then he does another one next turn for Dryad, but I got one out with Pact for Dryad last turn. The he even did
Cranial Extraction on Beast Within. But I kept swinging with Dryad and Azusa, found Valakut, fetched for damage. Attacked again and then Ghost Quartered myself for Valakut triggers and death. In the last game, his hand is fairly slow and I goldfish a Titan with everything I needed, just no Amulet. Got there and we talked. His deck is actually very good vs. Amulet Titan. I got lucky. 2-1.
Round 6 vs. Tron. I have a somewhat slow hand. Maybe I should have mulliganed, but I find no way to ramp. Lucky for me I was on the play and he had only turn 4 Tron with nothing else. He gets out Oblivion Stone and he's dead. In the next game, I keep a similar derpy hand. He finds Tron by turn 3 or 4 and eventually gets too much out Ugin, Karn then it dies, and everything. In the final game, he does Tower into Star into Stirrings for Tower. I know I won there. I get Titan, Vesuva on Ghost Quarter that was in my opener, bounce Ghost Quarter, Quarter him and still have Pact of Negation AND Beast Within in hand. Him going Tower, Tower, Forest basically sealed my victory in an already strong hand. He asked if he should have mulliganed to 5. Yep, he should have. 2-1.
Round 7 vs. Jund. This is my win-and-in to ID into the top 8. This guy made top 8. He doesn't Thoughtseize until turn 2 and I basically goldfish him. In the next game, he gets Ashiok after double discard. He also gets to see Obstinate Baloth in hand. He Fulminator Mages me and I cannot find land in time. I die with Titan (from my opener) and 2 Summoner's Pacts that I drew. In the last game, the guy has everything and my draws are terrible. He discards me to oblivion and then Surgical Extraction my Prime Time. Then he Fulminator Mages my Field of the Dead. I have another and I'm waiting. But I need to get out pressure, so I play it. The last card in his hand with 3 land in play for him? Assassin's Trophy. From there he literally won by milling ONLY HIMSELF and then exiling my graveyard. At the end, I had nearly 20 cards left. I lost to double Goyf when I had 2 Baloth and a Zombie in play and he was at 10. I was at 24. In the 20 cards were 3 Engineered Explosives, Bojuka Bog, Tolaria West for Bojuka Bog, 3 Beast Within, 2 Dryad of Ilysian Grove (I had 1 Valakut in play). The guy literally won because he didn't mill me. I would have drawn to those cards and killed him easily. I showed him what was on the bottom of the deck and how his choice to not mill me won him the game. He said that he drew "poorly too" because he didn't have pressure early on. I kept thinking I'd rather have him draw 15 Tarmogoyf then his Surgical of 2 copies hitting my Titan the turn before I was gonna play it because I drew nothing to accelerate (everything I played to accelerate immediately died). I mean he had 3 land for the longest time. What is he doing with 3 land other than discard, Ashiok Surgical, Fulminator Mage, etc? Not even a minute later, his friend asked him how he did and he said he drew really well in this round, lol. I'm assuming there was a language barrier because his name was Italian.
I don't mean anything racist; I'm just saying that English is not his first language and I think he's lived in Italy most of his life (or possibly all). 1-2.
Round 8 vs. BR Undeath. I cruuush him in game 1 after having a pretty sick hand, without Amulet. In the next game, I miss a land drop 2 turns in a row, can't play Titan, and he puts Kroxa, Seasoned Pyromancer with a million tokens into play with a Red Castle that can pump them. The land for Titan came too late and I died on the swingback because I only had Titan and 2 Zombies to block. In the final game, I have a solid hand, but he turn 3s Magus of the Moon. Lol. I drew 3 Summoner's Pact in a row after he played that. I have Dryad and Sakura-Tribe Scout. Eventually he draws Swamp, Terminate on Dryad, and then a pair of Seasoned Pyromancers. I guess this card is really good? 1-2.
I finish 5-3 after losing the win-and-in and then dropping the final match as well. I got 36th place and they paid to
Top 32. It was a rough ending. I saw myself very close to the top 8, but the Jund player singlehandedly won the game and match by not activating his Ashiok, Dream Render on me a single time (no mill on me).
*Something odd as well is that Round 5 was the only round where I lost game 1. I know I could have done a better job sideboarding. In some of the matchups, I usually sided out a bunch of Azusa. I wonder if I could have sided out some Summoner's Pacts because I drew triple Summoner's Pacts in 3 games today. I won one against Tron because the rest of my hand was gas, but it cost me against the other matchups.