I Won An Iconic Masters PPTQ

So after grinding out about five PPTQ's I finally won one! It was Iconic Masters sealed which was interesting to say the least. The whole tournament ended up taking something like 12 hours as it was six rounds of Swiss with a cut to a top 8 draft. I went 5-0-1 in the Swiss rounds (I got paired down in round five and had to actually play it) then 3-0 in top 8 obviously. Here is the deck that I put together:

Creatures (13)

1 Child Of Night

1 Stalwart Aven

2 Angel of Mercy

1 Indulgent Tormenter

1 Wight of Precinct Six

1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa

1 Abzan Falconer

2 Seeker of the Way

1 Vizkopa Guildmage

1 Dragon Bell Monk

1 Ajani's Pridemate

Non Creatures (10)

2 Guardian Idol

1 Star Compass

2 Grisly Spectacle

1 Eternal Thirst

1 Swords to Plowshares

1 Darksteel Axe

2 Heat Ray

Land (17)

1 Rakdos Canarium

1 Orzhov Basilica

2 Mountain

7 Swamp

6 Plains

Relevant Sideboard Stuff (stuff that made it into games at some point)

1 Dead Reveler

1 Pentarch Ward

1 Kolaghan Monument

1 Heat Ray

1 Guard Duty

Seeker of the Way was definitely the biggest all star of the deck. Getting a turn 1 Darksteel Axe into a turn 2 Seeker with a noncreature spell (ideally a kill spell) on turn three to attack for five lifelink would start off games heavily in my favor. There were some games I was up to forty+ life off Seeker and then Guildmage coming in.

My deck really didn't have too many "bombs" compared to some of the other decks. Obviously there was Blood Baron and Indulgent Tormenter. They only won me a couple games on the day though.

After Seeker of the Way, Grisly Spectacle was a close second for value. It did so much work! The milling effect was almost just as good as killing something. There was one game where I killed a 5/6 Riverwheel Aerialists (after Prowess) and milled the guy out for Keiga, the Tide Star, Yosei, the Morning Star, AND a Blood Baron. He was so pissed!

I splashed red exclusively for Heat Rays and my sideboard actually had a third copy of Heat Ray which I brought in against decks using their own Blood Barons which gave me a way to kill it. I wanted to run all three in the main deck but didn't want to get caught holding too many red cards with no red mana so I felt two was safer. I also kept a Kolaghan Monument in the sideboard because although it tapped for red and black, which is what I needed, I really wanted to make sure I had a turn two play which could help me ramp my mana to avoid mana screw so I went with two Guardian Idols. If the deck I was playing was slow or didn't have much flying, I sided the Monument in for one of the Idols. 

After cutting to top 8 and drafting here is what I played:

Creatures (12)

2 Rakdos Drake

1 Splatter Thug

1 Battle-Rattle Shaman

2 Thrill-Kill Assassin

2 Dragonlord's Servant

1 Borderland Marauder

1 Hoarding Dragon

1 Bladewing the Risen

1 Kokusho, the Evening Star

Non Creatures (11)

1 Kolaghan Monument

1 Grisly Spectacle

1 Pillar of Flame

1 Star Compass

2 Darksteel Axe

1 Ulercate

1 Doom Blade

1 Rift Bolt

1 Reave Soul

1 Heat Ray

Land (17)

1 Graven Cairns

8 Swamp

8 Mountain

Relevant Sideboard Stuff

1 Splatter Thug

1 Child of Night

1 Virulent Swipe

This deck was interesting since I didn't actually have many dragons but ran two Servants anyway. I was originally drafting for a quick boros beatdowns type deck so I had some really good white cards I ended up not playing such as Lightning Helix, Ainok Bond-Kin and a Seeker of the Way. Then I opened Kokusho in pack two. I got passed a Bladewing, and a Hoarding Dragon so I decided to just go black/red instead of red/white. I tried to keep the initial aggro theme intact with a lot of low-costing Unleash creatures for early game pressure to put them on the defensive. Two Darksteel Axes seemed like overkill but I really wanted to have one early so I included both. They were still useful later on equipped to dragons anyway (I won the semi-finals thanks to a Kokusho equipped with a Darksteel). Then I just packed in whatever removal I could find.

The deck turned out to be a perfect combination of early game aggro, late game flyers, and sufficient removal to deal with everybody I faced.The games weren't even close. 

One of the key takeaways of the day is to always play enough land so you don't get mana screwed. I played 17 land both times regardless of the fact I had several mana rocks in both decks AND two cost reducers on my draft deck in the form of Dragonlord's Servants. I thought I could have gotten away with 16 land in each of these decks but didn't want to risk it. I'd rather have too much land then draw a Kokusho or a Blood Baron off the top. The Kolaghan Monuments were also key mana sinks as turning it into a 4/4 flying dragon was relevant in a lot of matchups.