Venus & Mercury League Season 3: Pixie Kitten's Weeks 3 & 4 Matches

I'm back with updates on my progress in the VML tournament, and I'll be honest... the updates aren't great. But I'm pushing on and will finish this tournament out even if it kills me! NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER BACK DOWN! EVEN IF YOU'RE IN LAST PLACE!
...nervous laughter...
Week 3 Round
So week 3 was actually two weeks ago, before the latest standard ban (bye Uro!). I was matched up against Ally Warfield, who you've probably heard of and is actually a really good competitive Magic player. So on top of my regular nervousness, I was EXTRA nervous playing against Ally. All I could do was my best, so I went for it!
I had registered a Gruul Landfall deck, and my opponent was playing a 4 color Omnath deck. This was a decent match up for me, since my deck was pretty aggro-ish!
Game 1
Opponent was going first, but I started this game out with a nice opening hand. I had two Lotus Cobra's so I was happy with that!
But I won't dwell on this game too long, because this is how turn 4 started:

And after two Genesis Ultimatum

MY GREATEST FEARS WERE COMING TRUE! I was being completely pummeled! And to make it worse, I didn't submit a sideboard. I had accepted my fate and went on to game 2.
Game 2
I started out with a one land opening hand, so I had to mulligan to six. The mulligan did not feel great after the beating I'd just taken, but I did have Lotus Cobra

My first draw was a Fabled Passage
Back to my turn and right away, I cast my Valakut Exploration. THIS IS YOUR TIME TO SHINE, VALLY! I still had a Fabled Passage in hand and was delighted with all the triggers I would get from Lotus Cobra, Brushfire Elemental, and Valakut Exploration... twice (due to cracking open the Fabled Passage)!
So I got another Valakut Exploration and Skyclave Geogode

I attacked with my 5/5 Brushfire Elemental (of course was not blocked by the Lotus Cobra) and the exiled card did 1 damage to my opponent at the end of my turn, so opponent was down to 11 life.
On my opponent's turn, they were able to cast Omnath, Locus of Creation
I got two more lands and OMG, the triggers! Another OMG was the cards I was getting exiled with Valakut Exploration! Two Migratory Greathorn

I mutated one onto my Brushfire Elemental and put another Forest into play triggering everything again! A third Valakut Exploration and an Akoum Hellhound were added to my exiled cards pile.
I was getting so greedy and seeing red.
I couldn't stop casting the Valakut's Explorations.
IT WAS AS IF IT WAS THE ONLY THING I WAS EVER MEANT TO DO!!!!!!!!!
So of course I cast the third Valakut Exploration. My Brushfire Elemental/Migratory Greathorn was now and 11/12 and I was officially out of mana, so I went to combat and attacked with my big boy. My opponent blocked it with Omnath, but that was okay, but at the end of my turn, the 5 cards I had in exile from my Valakut Explorations were going to go to my graveyard and do 5 damage to my opponent! They were down to 6 life.
Opponent played a land on their turn, then cast a Storm's Wrath
It went to opponents turn; they played a land and cast Escape to the Wilds. Another Spikefield Hazard killed my Lotus Cobra, but that was it! Back to my turn, where I drew an Ancient Greenwarden
NOT ONLY THAT BUT ANCIENT GREENWARDEN DOES THIS THING:

You see the part about the triggered ability triggering an additional time??? Hello Valakut Exploration! DO YOUR THING!

I got six cards in exile and my opponent quickly conceded! I WON GAME 2!
Game 3
My opening hand was trash once again with no lands, and I had to mulligan six with a hand I still didn't love.

The first few turns started out very similar with Lotus Cobras out on both sides. Unfortunately, I didn't have to way to destroy my opponent's, but I did quickly draw a second one, so decided to attack with one and see if they would block or let a little damage through. They did block with their own Lotus Cobra! Okay, well I got rid of it! Mission accomplished.
It went to my opponents turn, and they cast Elder Gargaroth
My opponent cast a Fabled Passage (without any landfall abilities out, what?!) and was then able to cast Kenrith, the Returned King
Back to my turn, I drew a land and also had Roiling Regrowth in hand, so I could get some triggers going. I wasn't sure what was the best play, but I decided to cast two Skyclave Geopedes to try and get some blockers, and potentially kill one of my opponents creatures. Between Kenrith and Elder Gargaroth, things were not looking good for me.
On my opponents turn, they ended up just going to combat and attacking with all. I double blocked the Elder Gargaroth, but with my opponent having all their mana up, I assumed they would use one of Kenrith's abilities and finish me off.

They gave all creatures haste and trample and gave Kenrith a 1/1 counter, so I was officially dead.
I lost another round, but didn't go down without a fight! I was very happy that my deck was able to perform pretty much perfectly for game 2 and get me a win there.
If you'd like to watch the replay of the match, you can find the video on my YouTube channel here:
Fast forward a week, and we will go onto my week 4 match!
Week 4 Round
For week 4, I decided to just go completely off the rails and play a Temur Fling deck! If it plays just right, it can win on turn 5 and since many people were playing 4 color Omnath, which isn't particularly fast, I wanted to give it a try!

I decided to sideboard for Dimir Rogues because that can be a bit aggro-y and this deck can lose fast to an aggro deck.
Remember the last sentence that you just read? Well, let me tell what my opponent was playing: Mono Red Aggro.
This week's review is going to be as short as my match was, because this was actually worst possible match up I could have gotten. cries
Game 1
I lost.
Game 2
I lost.
The video of this devastation is also available, for anyone interested in witnessing my murder.
It was a terrible match up, but that was kinda the risk I took deciding to go jank!
Conclusion
Only 2 more weeks are left are in the tournament (thank goodness, am I right?). Week 5 is a double match week, so I'll be back here next time to give you an update for two more games! I have been seeing some fun looking Mono Black Discard deck lists floating around and that is totally my style! Stay tuned!