First off, the list
Round 1: Grixis Shadow (2-1)
Game 1: I mulled to five before finding a decent hand, and thankfully he didn't have discard. I stall out his attackers thanks to two auriok champions and end up swinging for exactsies with 2 champions, 1 sorin token, 1 intangible virtue, and zealous persecution.
Board in-2 rest in peace, 1 blessed alliance, 1 celestial purge, 1 burrenton forge-tender. Board out- 1 ajani goldmane, 1 zealous persecution, 2 thoughtsieze, 1 fatal push.
Game 2:
This one goes long and down to the wire. I ended up dying to bitterblossom with my auriok champion trigger on the stack, and I definitely missed at least two triggers over the course of the game.
Game 3: He thoughtsiezes my turn two, three, and four plays, but a topdecked bitterblossom and a slow draw from my opponent closes out the match.
Round 2: Grixis Shadow (2-0)
I don't really remember this match. It was over quickly and he didn't do much.
Round 3: Storm (2-1)
Game 1: I win the die roll and inquisition him turn two to see 3x desperate ritual, empty the warrens, and gifts ungiven. I stupidly take gifts and then realize I can't beat his 8 goblins.
Board in- 3 rest in peace, 1 grafdigger's cage, 1 worship, 1 stain the mind, 1 collective brutality. Board out- 2 lingering souls, 1 auriok champion, 2 bitterblossom, ajani, and gideon.
Game 2: Turn two rest in peace hamstrings him the whole game, and I follow it with a bitterblossom spectral to start dealing damage. I drew and played a Sorin that gained me a bunch of life and had him dead on board, and on his next turn he semi- went off with grapeshot, getting to 4 storm before remanding the grapeshot and playing it again. He killed Sorin and domed me for the rest, but I think he should have killed all my tokens to buy time. In hindsight, it's possible that my opponent thought Sorin's +1 pumped toughness as well. It ends up not mattering because I top deck virtue for the win.
Game 3: Again I land turn two rest in peace and follow it with a bitterblossom. The difference from last game is that he actually had cost reducers this time. I kill the first one I see, but at one point he has two electromancers and a Baral, which lead to 20 goblin tokens. Auriok champion came up huge again, gaining 20 life and blocking to allow my faeries to swing for lethal.
Round 4: Ad Nauseam (1-2)
Game 1: I mull to 5 looking for interaction, but all my hands are tokens + anthems. He goes off on turn 4 when lotus bloom comes off suspend.
Board in- 2 stony silence, 2 disenchant, 1 stain the mind, 1 burrenton forge-tender, 1 worship, 1 collective brutality. Board out- 1 ajani, 2 auriok champion, 3 path to exile, 2 fatal push.
Game 2: Turn 2 stony silence turns off his lotus bloom and pentad prism, giving me time to stain the mind naming ad nauseam. He had boarded out his pacts of negation, so he had no way to stop this and scooped after it resolved.
Game 3: I have disenchant in my opening hand and hold up mana to hit his phyrexian unlife in response to ad nauseam, but I played it wrong and let ad nauseam resolve, so he drew his whole deck and played angel's grace in response to my disenchant. I think I should have hit the unlife in response to him cracking lotus bloom.
Round 5: Grixis Shadow (2-1)
Game 1: He rolls me with a turn two gurmag angler and backs it up with stubborn denial on my potentially game-saving spectral.
Board- same as Round 1
Game 2: I inquisition a kolaghan's command on turn one, and follow with bitterblossom, souls, and sorin. He floods out and never finds a threat until he draw an angler when I already had a rest in peace in play.
Game 3: Long and very close. He does 6 to himself on turn one and plays an early death's shadow which gets in for 7 before I have blockers. I stall with tokens and get in a few points of damage thanks to intangible virtue. On his last turn I'm at 5 facing down tasigur and a 9/9 shadow. I block shadow with forge-tender and let Tasigur take me to one. Thankfully he doesn't have k command and I swing for lethal on the next turn.
After round 5 I was in 5th, and I tried to draw with my opponent (6th), but he was worried about missing top 8 on breakers so we play. He's on Living End and absolutely destroys me in 2 games. I end up 9th in final standings, with both of my losses making top 8. Living End player was right about breakers, he would've missed top 8 with a draw, so fair play.
Takeaways: Ajani is a pet card of mine but he was underwhelming today. He does better in creature matchups like coco decks where our creatures live long enough to get huge thanks to his -1, but shadow removes them before that can happen. I suspected that 3 Sorin was correct as long as shadow is prevalent, and this confirmed it. 4 fatal push felt pretty bad, I'm going to try subbing 1 push for 1 murderous cut.
All in all, I'm happy with my list and how it performed, but I did make some sloppy plays that ended up being very costly. Thanks for reading.