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Quickly look at my cards and I find a little red black deck with Goblin Sharpshooter and Silent Specter (4/4 flyer opponents rips 2 cards a turn) begging to be sacrificed for the greater good of Iron Man. Discard is so fun in this format.

Round 1 - Scott Daniels

Game 1 - I have hit Scott twice with a 4/4 Embalmed Brawler keeping a BoneKnitter and Deftblade Elite on defense. I am on 16 life. Hold back the Brawler when he plays a Hundroog (4/7 beast). He then casts Shaleskin Bruiser. Next turn attacks with both giving him a 7/4 trampler and 4/7 beast. I only have mana for 1 regeneration shield and decide to block the bruiser with my 4/4 zombie losing 2 life. He uses accelerated mutation for the win. Ouch. At least I won't see those cards again. I get to rip a foil BoneKnitter end of game.

Game 2 - I go third turn morph. Fourth turn Syphon Mind (They rip a card, I draw a card). Fifth turn unmorph my Silent Specter. I get 6 cards ripped just because of him. So satisfying to rip him at end of game.

Game 3 - Scott only has 1 swamp and is asking for boosters to prevent me losing cards as he discards each turn to manascrew. Doesn't he know this is Iron Man. Mana Screw means more cards get ripped. What more could I ask for. I win 2-1 and only I have only ripped 1 rare and 1 foil. Look over the cards and build another black red deck. Now I have sparky and sharpshooter and more discard.

Round 2 - Sam Hepworth - Esteemed columnist with the spirit of Iron Man beating strong.

At the end of the last round we are talking about our games and watch a guy rip a foil Siege Gang. Sam jokes that it would be fun if we were paired up. She wants to get out her Akroma. David Low calls out the pairings and we are up.

Game 1 - I attack with a morph and reveal the Haunted Cadaver. I rip one she rips 3 making for Iron Man card rip advantage. She attacks with her Mistform Dreamer. I figure I can race, so I play Syphon Mind more ripping. She now attacks with Dreamer and Gustcloak Skirmisher. I am hitting with a haste Avarax and Lavaborn muse - more sexy with discard. I have 8 untapped land for my Smokespew Invoker, she has 3 flyers (Sage Aven, Skirmisher and Dreamer). I am on 4 life and she is on 5 and 1 card in hand. David Low comes over to cause havoc. Announces we have 30 seconds to get a card ripped or he starts ripping. Sam attacks, I kill skirmisher with invoker. In a fluster, she asks for damage, I agree and then wants to cast her Astral Steel. I tell her too late and take the game. Unwritten rule of Iron Man is to handle the pressure when David threatens to rip your cards. Sam's next card was Akroma. 8-(

Game 2 - I beat her down with a Goblin Taskmaster with Sparky as backup removal. She draws little. She graciously accepts defeat hands me her cards and wishes me good luck. The blue white is still good. It takes me 5 - 10 minutes to notice the 2 starter pack full of the rest of her cards. Flicking through I see some insane green. Mono beast deck with Krosan Warchief. Cool. I watch some of the nats while waiting for the next match. Only memorable rare I ripped was a lavaborn muse. Oh well.

Round 3 - Paul Batum (aka The Whinger)

David asked me to make sure Paul is called "The Whinger". You see at the end of round 1 David is waiting for the unfinished games and Paul is building his deck with the result slip still on the table. David punishes him for tardiness the best way he knows how. Rips the Butcher Orgg that is in the centre of his deck. Paul mutters the word "bastard" which David hears and there goes another card. Paul wisely decides to keep quiet about losing his Orgg.

Anyway Paul seems very distressed that he is one of the last people to finish round 2 and hasn't built enough spare decks.

Game 1 - I go third turn Krosan Warchief followed by Spitting Gourna, Snarling Undorak and Venomous Brackus. He concedes the match and walks off. 10 cards ripped in total. No Ironman spirit at all. I now have too many cards. Decide to spend that time looking at my cards. After building deck number 2, Dave reminds me he doesn't like people getting an advantage so rips up a Gempalm Polluter from my mono zombie deck. I pack up and watch the remaining match. Carefully hoarding my cards.

Round 4 - Daniel Woodrow

Daniel agrees to be ready by 10pm as we need to close the room at 11pm. Thankfully Wayne Steele can't help himself and continues to touch Daniels cards, getting cards ripped as a penalty. I think I have twice as many cards by this stage.

I start with my mono white soldier deck simply because I need to rip Akroma.

Game 1 - turn 2 Cloudreach Cavalry, topdeck turn 3 Wingbeat Warrior. Get Daniel down to 2 life before he has a Spitting Gouna on defense and Ascending Aven. I attack all out using a morphed Frontline Strategist to save my guys. Dave hears me say "so that no one dies" and rips the top card of my deck. When I am corrected that 2 creatures dies Dave is fair and rips a card of Daniel's deck even though there were 7 land on top. He gets a free shuffle. He then gets Wellwisher active gaining 4 life a turn. They are astounded when I crack a Flooded Strand for a plains in a mono white deck. My forces build up with about 7 soldiers in play and he has over 30 life. I then cast Harsh Mercy, simply cruel in a all soldier deck. He keeps his elves and I keep all my soldiers. Attack for seven while he gains 4 a turn. Got him back to about 10 or so when he is decked. 2 rares and heaps of soldiers ripped. Good times.

Second game is pretty quick. Unknowingly we both play our mono black decks. I am happy since I have 2 Shepherd of Rot and 3 Gempalm Polluters. That is a lot of life loss, even more if Dave did not rip one.

Daniel plays first turn Festering goblin. I finally block with morphed Zombie Cutthroat and go to 13. A few turns later it is 10 vs 13. He has a morph and Smokespew Invoker. I have Shepherd of Rot, Cutthroat and Nantuko Husk with a Crown of Suspicion. I cast my Invoker and attack. After attackers, use Shepherd of Rot so that we each lose 5 (5 vs 8). Then I sac both Invoker and Shepherd to the Husk making him a 8/5. Then use Crown to give all zombies +2/-1. He has 1 creature to block and I have 8/5 husk and 5/3 Cutthoat. I take the box of booster, Daniel is happy with the cards and I head home.

So there you go. Drive over 5 hours for a draft and 4 rounds of Iron Man. Ripped up at least Silent Specter, Lavaborn Muse, Flooded Strand, Harsh Mercy and a foil. Not a bad days work. See you next year.

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