Now, I'm not going to beat around the bush, there was only 9 contestants since this particular shop has recently established itself in MTG.  I came in second after receiving a bye (I came in last minute... oops!) and winning the following games. May I present, Bant Rampage (for lack of a better name)!

Deck List

Creatures 4x Noble Hierarch 1x Scute Mob 4x Steppe Lynx 4x Knight of the Reliquary 4x Mycoid Shepherd 2x Ranger of Eos 4x Rampaging Baloths    Spells 4x Path to Exile 4x Khalni Heart Expidition 4x Harrow 2x Bant Charm

Land 4x Misty Rainforest 3x Sunpetal Grove 4x Ancient Ziggurat 1x Graypelt Refuge 1x Soaring Seacliff 4x Forest 5x Plains 1x Island

The Tech

I like the deck overall. I'm still trying to decide if it'd be considered an aggro or a mid-range. I'm leaning toward mid-range. Landfall / land is obviously the spotlight in the deck. There's a ton of tech that both Knight of the Reliquary and Rampaging Baloths benefit from as well as Scute Mob and Steppe Lynx. The overabundance of ramp allows for getting a plentiful amount of Baloths on the board fast. Between the Rainforests and Harrow, it's not uncommon to have a 5/5+ Knight in play.

Originally, when I created this deck, Emeria Angel was the token producer of choice. I didn't like two things about this, however. First, it usually had the same death that the Baloths do (sometimes more common since it's in bolt territory). Sure, you could get Emeria out turn three, but you were generally left with maybe a couple 1/1 fliers when it gets killed. While the Baloth takes a while to set up, if you can drop a couple offspring on the board, it's worth the investment.

So the win cons are typically Rampaging Baloths and Knight of the Reliquary. I've done a T4 win with two Steppe Lynxes before, but that was more gravy than anything.

One critter that seems out of place is Mycoid Shepherd. I had Rhox War Monk, but I feel the Monk is too incorrect since it generally gets picked off the board quickly (thus resulting in no real lifegain). I changed it out with Grazing Gladehart, which was easier to cast, but very fragile and didn't really commit to blocking effectively. Now Mycoid Shepherd. If it dies off the bat, so what? 95% of the time, you gain five life. It also generally gains from Knight of the Reliquary, Scute Mob and Rampaging Baloths. I believe I am going to throw a one-of Oran-Reif, The Vastwood to potentially give the 4/4 Baloths the +1/+1 bump to also be eligible for life gain. Mycoid Shepherd is a real powerhouse in multiples as well.

There are many other simple things that make this deck tick. Note the lone Soaring Seacliff? This little trick has won me multiple casual games and a round during FNM. Tutor up that baby with Knight of the Reliquary and you have yourself a flying Baloth. A couple "down to the wire" games have ended in my favor with this little evasion trick. Path to Exile, I use this 50/50 as remove and as tech to create more Baloths or to pump a Lynx. Hierarch usually gets the path (effectively trading Hierarch with a land). Harrow and Khalni Expedition should be pretty straight-forward as far as what they provide for the deck.

Results

Again, I was able to claim 2nd place with this puppy after a Bye and two rounds resulting in 2-1. First opponent played Vampires and second was Warp World.

Match One: Vampires

Match Two: Warp World

Recap

Set Information

Hope everyone had a great release week. I was able to hit up one draft before heading to St. Paul with my wife. Pretty fun! Unfortunately, I don't have an actual deck list for you today. Fact is, I generally get too excited when I get home with new cards and start throwing them in EDH decks before I write down what exactly I played with. heh! So this blog will not be a traditional "Here's my matchups" format, but rather, I am going to spotlight a few cards that I enjoyed playing with.

I can tell you though, walking in I wasn't sure what direction I wanted to go with colors. I knew I wanted blue, sounded the most fun. The draft was WWK/WWK/WWK (few kids wanted this. I was okay with it, but would have rather played at least one ZEN. But hey, more WWK? Sure!). My first pack contained Wrexial, the Risen Deep. This was pleasant since I wanted to build an EDH deck around him. Black / Blue? Sure, I'll go that route. I continued to draft UB from here on out.

Keep in mind, I don't draft a lot. And when I do, it's fairly casual. I will often rare-draft if the rare is apparently top-dollar or if it is something I've wanted to deck. I should probably stop doing this, but hey... I still have fun. :-) What's one slot, right?

After Wrexial, I was passed a Foily Lodestone Golem. This guy was a total bomb during the entire event. he was typically enough to keep my opponent on his toes. It was also great to jack up the mana a bit. Often I felt this was a game changing effect. An all-star player in my build.

By the end of the night, we had only three rounds (the Mall closes way too early here). I brutally lost 0-2 to a WB build, featuring Admonition Angel. The second game I won 2-0 against UG. The Third game I won 2-0 against GW.

First impressions of WWK were good. This block seems like a solid addition to the Zendikar plane. The further integration of land is very interesting to me and feels like you get more out of your turn. I am excited to play more in the hopefully near future!