This was great for CFB, but the quarterfinal matches were not going well for the team. All three of his teammates had lost their matches, and only Conley remained, tied two games to two in the best-of-five, with the on-board situation looking quite catastrophic.
Conley, playing Tempered Steel, an aggressive deck, got off to a slow start, and his opponent, Craig Wescoe had a sideboard strategy of removing Conley's threats while developing his own, through cards like Leonin Relic Warder, Fiend Hunter, and Oblivion Ring. He also had some huge threats, that were relatively difficult to deal with in the late game, like Geist of Saint Traft, and Hero of Bladehold.
Conley looks to be coming back, but Wescoe Exhiles his Hero of Bladehold and attacks with Geist + Angel to put Conley down to just two life, with something akin to three lethal threats across the board from him, and a combined two power on his creatures.
This is a horrifically bad position to be in, with a lethal Geist, that you can't possibly remove, and a lethal angel generated from that Geist, and a lethal Fiend Hunter. None of these can be killed by Conley's board, and he must deal with all three or he loses the game on Wescoe's next turn. I doubt anyone would take Conley's position at this point.
The coverage booth basically wrote Conley off, and a survey of the players in attendance was not optimistic to the question of "can Conley possibly win this game?"
Conley looked at his hand of three cards, drew his fourth, and considered what to do.
Conley activates his Inkmoth Nexus, giving him metalcraft by the slimmest of margins. He Dispatches the Fiend Hunter, getting his Hero of Bladehold Back (still summoning sick)
The casual player would perhaps play the Glint Hawk in his hand, and try to block to live another turn, but Conley turned his Etched Champion and his Signal Pest, doing what might seem like an irrelevant 3 damage, then he played his Glint Hawk, returned his Inkmoth Nexus, and replayed it.
Conley passes the turn, down 11 life to 2, still facing two lethal creatures.
Wescoe attacks with his Geist, generating a 6/6 angel, tapped and attacking.
He activates the Inkmoth Nexus, blocks Geist with it, and blocks the Angel with the Glint Hawk, then Dispatches the Angel token, exiling it. Conley has survived the turn, but then Wescoe casts a Timely Reinforcements, generating 3 1/1 (aka 3/3) soldier tokens, all of which are individually lethal to Conley on the next turn. (Along with the now 3/3 Geist, and the 6/6 angel it will generate...)
Conley untaps, and immediately turns all his creatures sideways, triggering two new attackers from the hero, each 3/1 from the double Battle Cry. Because he attacks, instead of being passive as most might be, trying to survive, Wescoe is forced to block, trading away his new 3/3 soldier tokens just to stay alive himself. Conley's Hero gets through for 4 damage, his Glint Hawk gets through for 4, and his Signal Pest gets through for 1, putting Wescoe to 2. His Etched Champion, and his generated Soldiers fall by the wayside.
But Conley wasn't done! He plays his last card from his hand, a Glint Hawk, returning the Signal Pest, and replaying it, generating exactly enough blockers to prevent himself from dying to the Geist, and maintaining a lethal counterattack no matter whether Wescoe attacked or held back.
Conley Woods pulls out the win!
This was very special to watch.
Feel free to check out the video coverage of the entire Quarter finals at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXQmu_OXIzM
The last game starts around 1:22:20.
Full coverage of worlds can be found here, enjoy!
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