Draft deck for the GenCon 2026 Limited Grand Contest.

I first picked Barging Barghest into Flame Strike, but the fire cards dried up rather quickly, but I started wheeling aggressive air minions so leaned air/fire aggro.

Pack 2 picked up some powerful red minions (Greater Blood Demon and Lord of Destruction) which solidified us into air/fire.

Pack 3 - Michael P passed me Harbinger and said no way you're playing this right? i initially passed it, but it came alll the back around and i last picked Harbinger. Turned it around and immediately sleeved it up to Michael's chagrin ;)

Game 1 (Quarterfinals): Joe G

Harbinger high-roll'ed with a portal on Joe's 2nd site. Turn 2 Earl of the Ivory Towers placed a lot of pressure on Joe. He ended up taking a lot of damage and losing a couple ordinaries to the Earl, until he drew a Silent Hills to turn off the Earl and trade for it. Brutal game for Joe.

Game 2: (Semifinals): Julian R

Harbinger mid-roll'ed with a portal on Julian's corner which allowed 2x Forsaken to start charging in early (Turn 1 forsaken, Turn 2 Bats; Turn 2 Forsaken + another 2-drop. Just a crazy start). Julian had The Void on his home site which actually wombo-combo'ed with my forsaken. He was in a very hard spot, but was able to battle back with larger more impactful minions and some 2:1's. Harbinger ran out of gas with Julian at 4 life, but were able to squeak out 4 more damage and get him to door. I had 2 very good cards in hand (Flame Strike and Zeppelin), but only 1 fire threshold, so I started drawing sites with Harbinger instead of moving up to try and knock on his door. Ended up drawing air sites and started to get worried. By this time, Julian has KO'ed most of my minons and stabilized the board. My life quickly ticked down from 20 to DD.

Finally i drew a fire site, played it and passed the turn. Julian surrounded my avatar with multiple minions and... passed the turn. Luckily, his minions were tapped so Harbinger could step up 1 site and Flame Strike his avatar on the other side of the board. Crazy game and I really want to give Julian credit for how he recovered from my crazy start.

OK onto the finals against xNattu. The last time he played he stomped my face in. I'm spooked.

Game 3 (Finals): Sean D (xNattu)

On Camera.

I have the play.

Harbinger rolls 2 bad portals, then hits a great spot. My 2nd site.

I have the actual nuts. Den of Evil. Portal on 2nd site. Greater Blood Demon. mull 1 site.

Turn 1: site. pass

Turn 2: Den of evil. Cast Greater Blood Demon (6 power) for 2 mana. Pass the turn.

Turn 3: Nattu is on full defense mode here and is playing sites on the back row. I play my 3rd site in his zone. Move up demon. Cast Hollow One (4 power) for 2 mana. I have 2 ways to kill his 2drop mortal, so i feel confident that i can disable the Hollow One quickly. Pass the turn. (10-power on Turn 2 in limited!)

Turn 4: Nattu has a 2drop mortal with ward and 3drop undead. Demon attacks the mortal & he allows it to pop the ward. Then I cast Ravenous Werewolf (4mana on my portal) to attempt to kill his mortal to wake up the Hollow One. He correctly blocks with an undead to trade. Hollow One is still disabled, but i'm feeling good. the Demon is still wreaking havoc on his side of the board. Pass to Nattu and drops his own Elite bomb which completed FLIPS THE GAME. Hyperparasite on his home site. Pick up and disable my demon. Hollow One is still disabled. Pass to me.

Turn 5-7: No minions in hand. A flame strike which can't kill hyperparasite. Full on panic sets in. Cycle a Gift and tank for about 6min after drawing another 3-dmg removal spell. This is essentially the end of the game.... pass to nattu. he double teams to kill the disabled demon. then kills my disabled hollow one. i land an Earl and a couple willing tributes and HOPE to draw witching hour to pump my earl then untap earl with the tributes... but alas the game is over. GG Nattu.

His list and game report are here: https://curiosa.io/decks/cmsde663u000c0akqcrl42bri?tab=primer

(After watching the replay, I think playing out the Accursed desert on turn 1 may have lost me the match... That would have been very helpful in killing the warded mortal and waking up my hollow one Sooner.... Alas I didn't sandbag it... Played it instead of a twilight bloom as I typically hold them to help with threshold costs. In Retrospect the bloom on 1 and desert on 3 might hang swung the game my way. Welp def need more practice!)

I had a great time and am so happy to have this story :D

Nattu and I are signing each other's Elite bombs (hyperparasite and greater blood demon) and exchanging them. Looking forward to a rematch at AotR.

GenCon 2026 - Limited Grand Contest Finals (Draft) - 2nd place

@FooPossum