For those in attendance at the Oklahoma City MagicFest know all quite well the state of standard.
With the introduction of the newest format |Pioneer| magic players and finance aficianados alike are looking towards the future when it comes to stablity in Magic itself. Newer players being drawn to what could be turned into an etnernal format as opposed to the rapid pace of standard metagame tactics. With this, the main event for the OKC MagicFest was drawn with much dismissal, attendance to the event (indusive to the time of this write up pre-official tournament reporting) being a record low. Rumour has it, the final headcount for the main event was less than four-hundred. 
As a competitor, it was a daunting feeling when the section for standard play was straggling, rather than the sprawling nature that most are accustomed with.

Nonetheless, the hunger of the competitors was there in the midst of the haze of the early morning. 

When seated for round one, I sat across at table 22 from an engineering student named Braden. As I have not been timely to a competitive magic event in quite sometime, I believed this would be the formal player meeting due to the alphabetization of names and the volume of the player pool. After, much auditory trouble and homely introduction from the head judge. Braden and I were off to the races. With my pile being crafted the night before and comprising of numerous singletons. I fell victim to Azorious Control in the first round by the hands of a 2/3 flyer with quite the upside. (0-2)

The second round I was bumped down a notch in table numerics, this match up was quite intense from the player's perspective as the officiating staff was in abdundance and compounded to answer a multitude of questions regarding misplays and rulings with the card .
Game one in this match-up, was quite the give-and-go as I was able to retrive multiple remidies for the hopes of my opponent winning the game at his upkeep phase. After a minisicule time extension and lengthy game two, game three began at a feverished tempo in aim to not settle in a draw. Within a few turns the battle came to a stagnation as my win condition was answered and I conceded to my opponent after a joyous round. (1-2)

Then came time for redemption in round three. Both players at risk of being eliminated for contention of the second day of play. Tempers rose as miscommuncations and semantics of play were failing to be deliberate due to my lack of knowledge of the pile I had brought. Rather, the string of card interacations of Jund Sacrifice is very intimidating. After both the opponent and I found the mana resources to actively particiapte in the game, it was unlikely that I was able to answer the large threat of . The second game was played much more dilligently until I misplayed a spell that could potentially save face later. In will to not give my opponent an even larger card advantage than what he could sow on his own terms, for some reason I named a meager card that produced mana that was wouldn't be seen for plays to come.(0-2)

Tensions were lessened as I remained at the backend of table numbers. In this opposing match-up for the fourth round of competitive play. I was ready for all of the bells and whistles that this powerful spell could abuse. Unfortunately, the first game was quick as his hasty creatues dealt a heavy blow once they were thrown into play pre-emptively to my board presence being established. Down a game, with not much time remaining in the round of play, I was able quickly rebuild and bring upon a fair amount of pressure to keep off any ineractions that could make my lines of play take a fair amount of contemplation. After I was able to induce a threat of my own against the large elementals, I was reluctantly able to snatch one of his own threats out from under him and use it to my advantage. 
Moving into the last game, I was able to answer fires of invention by having him discard it early in the game and some turns later, derive enough power to close out the showdown of the three games.(2-1)

Alike the round before it, I was up against another Fires deck. This time, things did not go so smoothly as a arrived to the battlefield and was able to come in swinging with haste the turn he entered. The second game was a mulligan to five por myself and I was unable to answer Kenrith with as he had not played many spells before his appearance with the help of the namesake of the deck. (0-2)

With adjustment to table numbers, I remained on the consolation side of play for round five. Playstyle was very similar from my opponent and partially myself as I shuffled up against a self-mill strategy deck. This construction was reminscient of my own mainboarding four which dealt a couple of points of lifeloss over the course the match to myself. The opponent interacted heavily with his own graveyard to my favour in all three games. All in good fun, they were able to bring to life three Arclight Pheonix where I was only able to handle just as my life total reached below zero. The last game was indusive to my stratgey as I was able to syphon life and achieve a sound board state with {Narset, Parter of Veils} to prevent my opponent from gaining any sort of advantage over my pile before I finalized the game with a flying creature of my own. 

Round six was a trip to say the least, as I frankly do not recall what exactly my opponent played. I believe it was another fires deck? However, I would not like to make an assumption. We will call it (1-2) according to my WPN records.

Seventh round was met with conversation from a bloke from Lousiana whose opponent also did not appear for play due to being |out-of-the-money| as it were. We discussed standard strategies and our experience with travel to the event venue from our different regions. (2-0)

With that, it was my last round of play for the Oklahoma City MagicFest. Both my travel partner and my long-time endeared friend, Alexander Hyatt, were ineligble for second day play with his magnicifient run with Rakdos Ritual aggro deck. Finishing 4-3 on his part after a challenging run against brutal matchups and being tumbled out last minute and 3-4 overall on my end, we both decided to fly out of there after lounging for a moment at the auberge.

Needless to say, for myself it was wondeful experience travelling to compete for the first time with my best friend/confidant. Though the current state of standard is very skewed from what I believe wizards intends it to be, I had fun with my trust pile-o-cards and I would like to say the same all involved in the smallest main event in the US since 2005. I am certain that if Wizards of the Coast continues to delight its playerbase and focus on keeping cardbard standard well, event turnout will never see these numbers again. Lastly, I would like to say a sincere thank you to the tournament organizers, magic player base as a whole for making a wonderful weekend out of it, and Alexander for letting me be his accomplice on his journey to get the Mythic Championship. 

12/16/2562

-Aden Allen