Greetings!
I had the pleasure of playing in a somewhat small Modern Format tournament this Wednesday and I'm pretty excited to talk about it. Modern is my favorite non-Commander format as I've said many times before and I very rarely get to play it competitively. Our local scene is made up of mostly folks on (understandably) limited budgets and so the demand for Eternal Format tournaments is pretty low. That has started to change slowly as Wizards has made it ever so slightly easier to get your hands on the essential cards and we finally have the required 8 showing up to sanction a tournament.
I personally started to scoop up most of the Modern essentials just before the format boomed and so many cards shot up in value. This means I have access to several of the core decks in the format like Melira Pod, Robots, Storm, Splinter Twin and most of the slower control decks. I've also started to pick up parts of some of the more fringe decks like the crazy Restore Balance and Ad Nauseum combo decks. Just about the only decks I can't build are Kiki Pod (I'm missing Noble Hierarchs) and anything that calls for Dark Confidant or Tarmogoyf.
While it's definitely nice to have options, I sometimes wish I was a little more limited. It would absolutely make choosing a Modern deck a lot easier!
This time around I settled on playing Splinter Twin since none of our other locals had shown up with the deck and I thought it looked fun. I initially put together the version with 4 Boomerangs in it but switched at the last minute to Patrick Dickman's list from the recent Grand Prix. His deck looked like it had game against anything since it could actually win with damage when a combo wouldn't be possible.
If anyone is unfamiliar with the combo you're looking to pair up either Pestermite or Deceiver Exarch with Splinter Twin or Kiki Jiki to make a million copies of whichever creature you happen to have.
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster
4 Pestermite
2 Deceiver Exarch
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Kiki Jiki
3 Remand
4 Serum Visions
2 Peek
2 Cryptic Command
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Dispel
2 Izzet Charm
4 Splinter Twin
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
1 Mountain
3 Island
1 Desolate Lighthouse
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Tectonic Edge
Sideboard
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Dispel
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Dismember
3 Molten Rain
2 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Batterskull
I particularly liked the looks of the sideboard which would let you remove most or all of your combo elements to become a more controlling or tempo-type deck. I was able to assemble the entire deck minus the Molten Rains but I was sure I'd be able to get them at the shop in time for the tournament.
I got to Magic Comics & Hobbies at around 5:30 PM and was surprised to find Ryan Smith and another regular battling it out. I was surprised because A) I didn't know this other local had a Modern deck and B) it was still pretty dang early. I dug through the boxes of non-rares and eventually found a playset of Molten Rain to slot into my sideboard and then sat down to watch the Modernity.
Ryan was playing Melira Pod and the other chap was playing....green. I saw him assemble some pretty impressive board states and do some really neat things with Druidic Satchel, Elvish Archdruid, Jade Mage and a pile of Saproling Tokens but I'm not really sure what his endgame was supposed to be. I laughed out loud when Ryan assembled the Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder combo, attacked for a million and was Fogged. Of course, Ryan still had a colossal Archangel and some equally huge Kitchen Finks on the board and the opponent still wasn't DOING anything, but I liked it.
We ended up with 10 people including 1 poor bastard that didn't know it was Modern night.
Round 1 - Peter E. w/ UB Control
Peter's a newish guy to the shop and I know him mostly from playing Commander. He seems to know the game well and he's definitely been playing for a while and has amassed a pretty sweet collection. Peter doesn't usually stay for the tournaments so I was excited to see him playing Modern.
Game 1 - I lead off with a Grim Lavamancer into a Serum Visions and another Lavamancer after seeing Peter's Drowned Catacombs. Peter played a Far//Away, Royal Assassin and a Shimian Specter but I was able to combo off with Pestermite and Twin when he tapped out for the Specter. Peter was genuinely shocked when I explained the combo but he had a smile on his face as he realized he was dead.
Game 2 - Peter was stuck without a second Blue source this game. I played Peek to see his hand and saw that the coast was clear to combo so I tapped his only Blue in his upkeep and then played Splinter Twin on my turn. I definitely felt dirty doing that.
Peter and I played a bunch of games after our match finished, he explained what he was trying to do with his deck and it seemed pretty sweet. He was combining generally slow creatures like Shimian Specter and Royal Assassin with Lightning Greaves to speed them up a whole turn. He also had bounce spells so he could munch any problem creatures for good with the Specter. I tried to give Peter an idea of what some of the bigger decks in Modern are up to and seemed pretty interested in finding out more.
Round 2 - John W. w/ Boros Landfall
John is also somewhat new to the shop but he's definitely jumped in feet first and has quickly become one of the folks I look forward to running into. He was scrambling before the tournament to scoop up cards for his deck but I still really had no idea what to expect.
Game 1 - I'm pretty sure I won the die roll and led with a Serum Visions that scryed things to the bottom. John led with Flagstones into Steppe Lynx and I knew I was in trouble. I ended up being stuck on 2 lands with several 3 cost things in hand and eventually died to a combination of Geopedes, Lynxes and Seering Blazes. It was unfortunate to not draw additional lands but I don't know if I could have beaten his draw with mine either way.
I sideboarded out all but 1 Twin, Kiki and the Cryptics for more cheap interaction and the Batterskulls. I wasn't sure if I wanted Dispels and waffled a little on that but ended up leaving them in the board.
Game 2 - I started out with double Grim Lavamancer but didn't really have any way to feed them beyond 1 fetch land. Threads of Disloyalty stole a Geopede and let me start beating down with my Mons Goblin Lavamancers and I eventually got John dead through ugly beatdowns. Pestermite was key in tapping a Zektar Shrine Expedition token (go read that one, I'll wait) that John was able to fully load up and send out in one turn.
Game 3 - I again had an early Lavamancer but this one died. Gobin Guide beat be up a bit but was eventually halted by a Deceiver Exarch. I was down to 11 life (John had been targeting my face with burn) when I jammed Batterskull. I definitely could have played differently and held up Izzet Charm but I felt that getting the Skull online was my best chance of getting out of burn range. John had 3 cards in hand and Boros Charmed me down to 7 on my end step. He also still had mana left and thought very hard before fetching and then untapping for his turn. I figured he DEFINTIELY had 1 Bolt and possibly had 2 and was debating shooting my face or the Germ. I held my breath through his entire turn, almost passed out and then, just before The Blackness overtook me, he said he was done. I got to attack with my Skull and felt a lot better but John never gave up. He furiously fetched and search and thinned his library trying to give him the best chance of staying alive. Eventually Batterskull went all the way.
John said he didn't think his deck could ever beat a Batterskull and lamented the fact that he couldn't find any Smash to Smithereens before the event. He also showed me the 2 cards he'd been holding: Lightning Bolt and Lighting Helix. Whew!
Round 3 - Jon K. w/ Robots
Jon was borrowing my Robots deck and obviously doing well. We decided to intentionally draw our match to guarantee prizes. Jon and I had played several games before the tournament and already knew the matchup somewhat so we decided to play some Standard. Jon crushed me with Gu Ramp, making the new Naya Control list look very, very bad.
So the tournament ended, Ryan Smith finished in first, a clean 3-0 with Melira, and there seemed to be a nice spread of decks across the room. I think the breakdown was something like:
2 Splinter Twin
1 Robots
1 Boros Landfall
1 Jund
1 Melira
1 UWR Control
1 UB Control
1 Esper Control
1 Crazy Turn 1 Blood Moon Deck
I had a blast playing the Twin Deck and definitely plan to leave it together. The ability threaten to combo while also applying pressure is very powerful and it lets me use some of my favorite cards in Modern. I worry a little bit that these combo decks will scare off some of the new players trying out Modern but I don't think there's anything that can be done about it while still playing the format as it is.
I'll be writing again about FNM this week and it's back to good old Standard constructed.
If you have any questions or comments please fire away!
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Building a Commander/EDH Deck From Scratch
I've been posting tournament reports lately but I wanted to try something else.
Commander or EDH is currently 100% my favorite way to play magic. You get to play cards that would otherwise be completely useless, attack with gigantic monsters and pull off silly plays that end up being powerful somehow. There's generally not a cut-throat attitude, at least not in my playgroup, and the only wrong plays are those that piss off your opponents.
The best thing about Commander, to me anyway, is building a new deck. It feels personal. You're picking 100 weapons to use in battle and there's usually no wrong choices as long as they feel right to you. You can start with a list someone else made and change it to your own masterpiece or choose a commander, a set of colors or even a theme to get you going but from there the only limitations are your card pool and the banned list.
So lets build a deck together from scratch, see where we end up and then I'll try to post some brief explanations of any games I get to play with the deck.
First up we need a Commander or a Theme to build around. I have a lot of ideas swimming around in the old noggin but I think the one we're going to run with is one of the legends from Theros - Anax and Cymede .
I'm picking this Commander for a few reasons. First and foremost, they're flavorful and interesting. I love the idea of the Spartans and these two are supposed to represent the leaders of Akros, Theros's version of Sparta. Second is that I've never made a Red/White Commander deck before and venturing into new territory is pretty exciting. Lastly, I want to fiddle around with some of the Heroic abilities in the new set and I don't think Standard is the place for such things.
Before we dive in I want to address the cost associated with building a Commander deck. The nature of Magic is that good cards are going to generally cost a few bucks. This format throws a wrench into that by making some generally bad cards into all-stars which then makes those cards cost more than they should. There are definitely going to be a few costly Rares and Mythics scattered about the deck but I'm planning to steer clear of the super expensive cards, especially when they can be easily replaced with a cheaper card. I'll also try and explain any pricier inclusions so you'll know why they may be worth your hard-earned bucks.
I want to go ahead and get the mana base out of the way first because it's a lot more important than people realize. When I first started building Commander decks I just threw every single dual land I could find into a pile and called it a day but the more I've gotten to actually play with decks like that the more I've realized the importance of limiting your "Comes Into Play Tapped" lands. That said, being able to cast your spells goes a long way towards making a game of Magic interesting so we're going have a balance of basics and non-basics close to 2 to 1.
Lands - 36
12 Mountain
12 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 City of Brass
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Boros Garrison
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Command Tower
1 Arid Mesa
1 Mishra's Factory
If I owned a Plateau it'd definitely be in there and I certainly wouldn't fault anyone who wanted to play more things like Terramorphic Expanse or additional fetch lands. I'm not including them because our curve is generally going to be pretty low and being a turn behind will probably hurt us more than a typical Commander deck.
I include the Land Destruction lands not to screw with people casting their spells but to get rid on annoying things like Cabal Coffers, Maze of Ith and Kor Haven.
The costly cards in this group (Arid Mesa , Rugged Prairie and Sacred Foundry) are pretty easily replaceable with either more basic lands or the previously mentioned Terramorphic Expanse or it's brother Evolving Wilds. You'll definitely notice a downgrade in the speed of your mana base but it will still function.
Next up on my list are some basic, utilitarian artifacts that tend to end up in a lot of Commander decks. None of these cards are particularly exciting but they serve a purpose.
Artifacts - 7
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Boros Signet
1 Champion's Helm
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Skullclamp
1 Sunforger
1 Boros Keyrune
Of note is the absence of Lightning Greaves, this is because we plan to target our commander with things which wouldn't be possible if they had shroud. I'm also leaving out some of the more expensive rampy artifacts like Thran Dynamo and Solemn Simulacrum in the hopes that our deck will be a bit on the fast side. We can always readjust in the future if that doesn't work out.
Usually I would play a few copies of equipment in out deck to make our little guys tougher as well as Stoneforge Mystic to search them out. I'm going to ignore that road for now because our Heroic guys want to be targeted with spells rather than equipped but it's possible that we want some Swords, Jittes and Skulls anyway. For now we're going to stick with a lone Sunforger.
Next up are a few White and Red staples, cards that typically will end up in any deck that contains these colors. I know a lot of people hate the idea that any cards are required in a Commander deck but you always want a certain number of answers to hard to deal with permanents and these cards are some of the best. It's also important to know that all of these things can be found with Sunforger
Utility - 6
1 Oblation
1 Chaos Warp
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Return to Dust
1 Disenchant
1 Vandalblast
Now that we've got all the somewhat boring things out of the way, it's time to hit up the ol' Gatherer search and find a list of Heroic creatures in our colors. After that we'll try to add in a few other critters that will play nicely with them and maybe some ways to pump 'em up.
Gatherer spits out a few creatures when you search "Heroic" but these are the ones we want to look at in addition to our Commander:
1 Akroan Crusader
1 Arena Athlete
1 Fabled Hero
1 Favored Hoplite
1 Phalanx Leader
I left out Labrynth Champion and Wingsteed Rider because I would rather cast my Commander than these guys every single time but I'm open to the idea that I'm wrong. In addition to these guys I want a few creatures that are good with Pump Spells and Enchantments as well as some generally powerful creatures that work well with my Commander's anthem-like ability.
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Emeria Angel
1 Boros Swiftblade
1 Fencing Ace
1 Markov Blademaster
1 Weathered Wayfarer
These are far from the only possible candidates out there. I tried to stay with cheaper creatures since we're never going to be able to compete with the massive monsters other players will be ramping to. Our best chance is to get in there before they're set up and smash 'em up.
Now we need some good heroic enablers. This is going to be tough because pump spells are generally way too low-impact for a BIG format like Commander. We need to find some effects that draw a card, do powerful things or both. This is going to end up being the make-or-break for this deck but I'm hopeful that throughout the years enough of what we're looking for has been printed.
Heroic Enablers
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Dragon Mantle
1 Chosen By Heliod
1 Coordinated Assault
1 Crown of Flames
1 Flickering Ward
1 Mark of Fury
1 Blades of Velis Vel
1 Carom
1 Guided Strike
1 Spirit Loop
There are a lot of cheap instants that target our guys and draw cards that I'm not sure how to feel about. On the one hand, they seem fine as long as we have a Heroic creature on the board. On the other hand, they don't really do anything BUT target our guys and cost mana. I did include a couple of actual pump spells that let us trigger 2 Heroic folks at once to try them out even though they may end up being too low-impact. I didn't include anything with Bestow because of the high mana cost to actually bestow them although I could see trying out Hopeful Eidolon since he's on the cheap side.
Some things I'm pretty excited about are a few Auras that allow us to return them to our hand for a minor cost. This lets us trigger Heroic as many times as we have mana to pay for it and could be extremely powerful. This also opens us up to a draw engine from some of the White Enchantress - type creatures: Kor Spiritdancer and Mesa Enchantress.
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Kor Spiritdancer
Kor Spiritdancer may seem a little on the pricey side at $8 but I think she's worth the investment for Commander since she can fit into a lot of different decks. You could definitely leave her out but I'm excited about looping the bouncing enchantments to refill my hand.
Another type of card I want to include a few of are ways to protect our creatures and permanents from sweepers and targeted removal. This isn't the kind of effect you want to play too many of because they're situational but in the right circumstances they can win you a game. In addition, a couple of these are targeted and will trigger our dudes.
Protection
1 Boros Charm
1 Faith's Shield
1 Brave the Elements
1 Shelter
1 Boros Fury-Shield
We aren't quite a weenie deck but it never hurts to have some beef added to our team.
Global Pumpers
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Marshal's Anthem
We don't want too many of these effects since they cost a bit of mana and don't do anything by themselves, however it's pretty important for our little guys to survive things like Elesh Norn that tend to end up in most decks that can play them. It doesn't hurt that one of our local players always plays a deck with Elesh as his actual Commander.
Looking over our current list the whole thing feels a little on the weak side. I want to add some generally powerful cards to supplement our guys that depend on synergy to kick butt. Enter:
Powerful Things
1 Assemble to Legion
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Goblin Trenches
1 Nevermore
It'd be pretty easy to just throw in Avacyn, Elesh Norn and some Primordials and just call it a day but I'm trying to stay away from that route. It seems strange to build a Commander deck while consciously avoiding some of the best creatures ever printed but I've played those creatures so many times that they aren't as exciting as they used to be. Those tappers may look strange but they're a pretty decent answer to some of the most powerful creatures like Eldrazi and don't turn on your opponent's reanimation spells.
At this point I have about 12-14 card slots left and I think they need to be a combination of more threats and ways to pull ahead in cards. Currently we're pretty solidly locked into the top of our deck unless we happen to find one of our Enchantresses and that definitely needs to change. Despite my desire to steer clear, it looks like we're going to have to add in Stoneforge Mystic to help us find both Sunforger and Skullclamp.
As long as we're leaning a little bit more on the ol' hammer we may as well bring in a little more utility for it and some more ways to make sure we have access to it.
I'm also adding Mentor of the Meek since most of our guys will trigger him.
Sunforger Things
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Sun Titan
1 Mentor of the Meek
Stoneforge Mystic is a little on the pricey side at $13 but she's definitely one of the more powerful 2 cost creatures ever printed. You could sub in Stonehewer Giant and you could even make an argument for him alongside Mysty but he is a lot slower, especially in a deck like this.
I'm sitting at 97 cards now including the Commander and I've officially run out of things I know I want in the deck. This is where I dig through my "Box O Commander Gold" and see if anything strikes me as particularly sweet. Here's what I found to round out the last few slots:
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Wear // Tear (can't believe I forgot about this one for so long...)
This puts us right on the nose at 100 cards and I'm ready to put the deck together and play some games. I'm pretty impressed with how the deck turned out to be mostly budget friendly without me setting out to do that and I'm pretty excited to see how it works out.
Here's a link to the deck on tapped out - Deck Link!
Looking at the breakdown of the deck on Tapped Out I already know I need more white sources....
Check back with me later on, I'll have a post up with a description of some games as well as any changes that need to happen.
As always, please let me know what you thought!
Commander or EDH is currently 100% my favorite way to play magic. You get to play cards that would otherwise be completely useless, attack with gigantic monsters and pull off silly plays that end up being powerful somehow. There's generally not a cut-throat attitude, at least not in my playgroup, and the only wrong plays are those that piss off your opponents.
The best thing about Commander, to me anyway, is building a new deck. It feels personal. You're picking 100 weapons to use in battle and there's usually no wrong choices as long as they feel right to you. You can start with a list someone else made and change it to your own masterpiece or choose a commander, a set of colors or even a theme to get you going but from there the only limitations are your card pool and the banned list.
So lets build a deck together from scratch, see where we end up and then I'll try to post some brief explanations of any games I get to play with the deck.
First up we need a Commander or a Theme to build around. I have a lot of ideas swimming around in the old noggin but I think the one we're going to run with is one of the legends from Theros - Anax and Cymede .
I'm picking this Commander for a few reasons. First and foremost, they're flavorful and interesting. I love the idea of the Spartans and these two are supposed to represent the leaders of Akros, Theros's version of Sparta. Second is that I've never made a Red/White Commander deck before and venturing into new territory is pretty exciting. Lastly, I want to fiddle around with some of the Heroic abilities in the new set and I don't think Standard is the place for such things.
Before we dive in I want to address the cost associated with building a Commander deck. The nature of Magic is that good cards are going to generally cost a few bucks. This format throws a wrench into that by making some generally bad cards into all-stars which then makes those cards cost more than they should. There are definitely going to be a few costly Rares and Mythics scattered about the deck but I'm planning to steer clear of the super expensive cards, especially when they can be easily replaced with a cheaper card. I'll also try and explain any pricier inclusions so you'll know why they may be worth your hard-earned bucks.
I want to go ahead and get the mana base out of the way first because it's a lot more important than people realize. When I first started building Commander decks I just threw every single dual land I could find into a pile and called it a day but the more I've gotten to actually play with decks like that the more I've realized the importance of limiting your "Comes Into Play Tapped" lands. That said, being able to cast your spells goes a long way towards making a game of Magic interesting so we're going have a balance of basics and non-basics close to 2 to 1.
Lands - 36
12 Mountain
12 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 City of Brass
1 Boros Guildgate
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Boros Garrison
1 Strip Mine
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Command Tower
1 Arid Mesa
1 Mishra's Factory
If I owned a Plateau it'd definitely be in there and I certainly wouldn't fault anyone who wanted to play more things like Terramorphic Expanse or additional fetch lands. I'm not including them because our curve is generally going to be pretty low and being a turn behind will probably hurt us more than a typical Commander deck.
I include the Land Destruction lands not to screw with people casting their spells but to get rid on annoying things like Cabal Coffers, Maze of Ith and Kor Haven.
The costly cards in this group (Arid Mesa , Rugged Prairie and Sacred Foundry) are pretty easily replaceable with either more basic lands or the previously mentioned Terramorphic Expanse or it's brother Evolving Wilds. You'll definitely notice a downgrade in the speed of your mana base but it will still function.
Next up on my list are some basic, utilitarian artifacts that tend to end up in a lot of Commander decks. None of these cards are particularly exciting but they serve a purpose.
Artifacts - 7
1 Sol Ring
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Boros Signet
1 Champion's Helm
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Skullclamp
1 Sunforger
1 Boros Keyrune
Of note is the absence of Lightning Greaves, this is because we plan to target our commander with things which wouldn't be possible if they had shroud. I'm also leaving out some of the more expensive rampy artifacts like Thran Dynamo and Solemn Simulacrum in the hopes that our deck will be a bit on the fast side. We can always readjust in the future if that doesn't work out.
Usually I would play a few copies of equipment in out deck to make our little guys tougher as well as Stoneforge Mystic to search them out. I'm going to ignore that road for now because our Heroic guys want to be targeted with spells rather than equipped but it's possible that we want some Swords, Jittes and Skulls anyway. For now we're going to stick with a lone Sunforger.
Next up are a few White and Red staples, cards that typically will end up in any deck that contains these colors. I know a lot of people hate the idea that any cards are required in a Commander deck but you always want a certain number of answers to hard to deal with permanents and these cards are some of the best. It's also important to know that all of these things can be found with Sunforger
Utility - 6
1 Oblation
1 Chaos Warp
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Return to Dust
1 Disenchant
1 Vandalblast
Now that we've got all the somewhat boring things out of the way, it's time to hit up the ol' Gatherer search and find a list of Heroic creatures in our colors. After that we'll try to add in a few other critters that will play nicely with them and maybe some ways to pump 'em up.
Gatherer spits out a few creatures when you search "Heroic" but these are the ones we want to look at in addition to our Commander:
1 Akroan Crusader
1 Arena Athlete
1 Fabled Hero
1 Favored Hoplite
1 Phalanx Leader
I left out Labrynth Champion and Wingsteed Rider because I would rather cast my Commander than these guys every single time but I'm open to the idea that I'm wrong. In addition to these guys I want a few creatures that are good with Pump Spells and Enchantments as well as some generally powerful creatures that work well with my Commander's anthem-like ability.
1 Silverblade Paladin
1 Mirran Crusader
1 Emeria Angel
1 Boros Swiftblade
1 Fencing Ace
1 Markov Blademaster
1 Weathered Wayfarer
These are far from the only possible candidates out there. I tried to stay with cheaper creatures since we're never going to be able to compete with the massive monsters other players will be ramping to. Our best chance is to get in there before they're set up and smash 'em up.
Now we need some good heroic enablers. This is going to be tough because pump spells are generally way too low-impact for a BIG format like Commander. We need to find some effects that draw a card, do powerful things or both. This is going to end up being the make-or-break for this deck but I'm hopeful that throughout the years enough of what we're looking for has been printed.
Heroic Enablers
1 Angelic Destiny
1 Dragon Mantle
1 Chosen By Heliod
1 Coordinated Assault
1 Crown of Flames
1 Flickering Ward
1 Mark of Fury
1 Blades of Velis Vel
1 Carom
1 Guided Strike
1 Spirit Loop
There are a lot of cheap instants that target our guys and draw cards that I'm not sure how to feel about. On the one hand, they seem fine as long as we have a Heroic creature on the board. On the other hand, they don't really do anything BUT target our guys and cost mana. I did include a couple of actual pump spells that let us trigger 2 Heroic folks at once to try them out even though they may end up being too low-impact. I didn't include anything with Bestow because of the high mana cost to actually bestow them although I could see trying out Hopeful Eidolon since he's on the cheap side.
Some things I'm pretty excited about are a few Auras that allow us to return them to our hand for a minor cost. This lets us trigger Heroic as many times as we have mana to pay for it and could be extremely powerful. This also opens us up to a draw engine from some of the White Enchantress - type creatures: Kor Spiritdancer and Mesa Enchantress.
1 Mesa Enchantress
1 Kor Spiritdancer
Kor Spiritdancer may seem a little on the pricey side at $8 but I think she's worth the investment for Commander since she can fit into a lot of different decks. You could definitely leave her out but I'm excited about looping the bouncing enchantments to refill my hand.
Another type of card I want to include a few of are ways to protect our creatures and permanents from sweepers and targeted removal. This isn't the kind of effect you want to play too many of because they're situational but in the right circumstances they can win you a game. In addition, a couple of these are targeted and will trigger our dudes.
Protection
1 Boros Charm
1 Faith's Shield
1 Brave the Elements
1 Shelter
1 Boros Fury-Shield
We aren't quite a weenie deck but it never hurts to have some beef added to our team.
Global Pumpers
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Marshal's Anthem
We don't want too many of these effects since they cost a bit of mana and don't do anything by themselves, however it's pretty important for our little guys to survive things like Elesh Norn that tend to end up in most decks that can play them. It doesn't hurt that one of our local players always plays a deck with Elesh as his actual Commander.
Looking over our current list the whole thing feels a little on the weak side. I want to add some generally powerful cards to supplement our guys that depend on synergy to kick butt. Enter:
Powerful Things
1 Assemble to Legion
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Figure of Destiny
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Gideon's Lawkeeper
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Goblin Trenches
1 Nevermore
It'd be pretty easy to just throw in Avacyn, Elesh Norn and some Primordials and just call it a day but I'm trying to stay away from that route. It seems strange to build a Commander deck while consciously avoiding some of the best creatures ever printed but I've played those creatures so many times that they aren't as exciting as they used to be. Those tappers may look strange but they're a pretty decent answer to some of the most powerful creatures like Eldrazi and don't turn on your opponent's reanimation spells.
At this point I have about 12-14 card slots left and I think they need to be a combination of more threats and ways to pull ahead in cards. Currently we're pretty solidly locked into the top of our deck unless we happen to find one of our Enchantresses and that definitely needs to change. Despite my desire to steer clear, it looks like we're going to have to add in Stoneforge Mystic to help us find both Sunforger and Skullclamp.
As long as we're leaning a little bit more on the ol' hammer we may as well bring in a little more utility for it and some more ways to make sure we have access to it.
I'm also adding Mentor of the Meek since most of our guys will trigger him.
Sunforger Things
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Apostle's Blessing
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Sun Titan
1 Mentor of the Meek
Stoneforge Mystic is a little on the pricey side at $13 but she's definitely one of the more powerful 2 cost creatures ever printed. You could sub in Stonehewer Giant and you could even make an argument for him alongside Mysty but he is a lot slower, especially in a deck like this.
I'm sitting at 97 cards now including the Commander and I've officially run out of things I know I want in the deck. This is where I dig through my "Box O Commander Gold" and see if anything strikes me as particularly sweet. Here's what I found to round out the last few slots:
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Wear // Tear (can't believe I forgot about this one for so long...)
This puts us right on the nose at 100 cards and I'm ready to put the deck together and play some games. I'm pretty impressed with how the deck turned out to be mostly budget friendly without me setting out to do that and I'm pretty excited to see how it works out.
Here's a link to the deck on tapped out - Deck Link!
Looking at the breakdown of the deck on Tapped Out I already know I need more white sources....
Check back with me later on, I'll have a post up with a description of some games as well as any changes that need to happen.
As always, please let me know what you thought!
Monday, October 28, 2013
FNM @ Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell, October 25th, 2013
It's time for another adventure in the land of nerds and Magical Cards!
After playing Mono Black and having a pretty miserable time on Wednesday I wanted to play something else. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I gave up on Mono Black hastily but it's hard to get past a set of bad feelings. Those bad feelings can lead to you giving up on games before they're lost and even throwing away ones that are way ahead in.
I was waffling back and forth, trying to land on something interesting, when I saw a set of videos that Sam Black posted on Starcitygames.com with the Mono Blue deck. I love Sam's style of recording and will watch him play essentially any deck because I always find I learn a lot. This is how I came to play Mono Blue on Friday.
I liked the game plan against Mono Black which was to sideboard up to 4 Bidents along with just a couple of cheap counterspells like DIspel and Negate to get your creatures to whack them a few times. I also liked that Esper, Mono Blue's worst matchup, would likely be pushed out of the winning bracket by the heavy presence of Mono Black.
Here is the list I played, lifted directly from Sam's article:
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thass
4 Master of Waves
3 Bident
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Jace, Archie
2 Jace, Millhouse
1 Dissolve
1 Negate
1 Dispel
3 Gainsay
1 Bident
1 Nykthos
Overall I was pretty happy with the list. I think the maindeck is exactly where you want to be but I question the 2 Millhouse and the Nykthos in the sideboard. While I was all on board the Jace plan against Esper at States this year I didn't find it was actually all that good. I want to try Aetherling in that spot. The Nykthos seems like a strange choice to me and I want to replace it with perhaps a Domestication in case the mirror happens to crop up in the future.
I got out of the house pretty early (for a day I didn't work) and went to lunch and a movie some of the Magical People. Starting off the weekend with a delicious steak and 1.5 hours of Johnny Knoxville abusing a child is definitely my idea of a good time.
After the credits finished rolling we headed over to the shop where I spent the better part of an hour digging for cards out of the massive and slightly unorganized boxes of non-rares that the shop has stacked up. I found most of what I needed and finished slapping together a brand new Commander deck which will be the subject of my next post, Gods Willing.
I got to play 3 different 4 player Commander games that were largely enjoyable. That's saying a lot since one of them involved Achille Fink killing the whole table on his turn 7 and another involved a massive Debt to the Deathless that Kyle Colosino used to murder 2 players in one go. Commander is such a strange and wonderful format.
Eventually the time came and up went the pairings.
Round 1 - Jack w/ Mono Black
It was a rematch against the evil bastard that sent me on my downward spiral at WNM. I told Jack it was time for me to get some payback and we both laughed. I felt pretty good going into the match, after all I chose my deck specifically to be strong against the deck he was running.
Game 1 - I kept 5 lands, Cloudfin, Master of Waves on the play. I was close to mulliganing but decided that I would keep the same hand at 6. I'm still not sure what was right. After being Thoughtseized out of my Master and missing a 2 drop I died relatively quickly.
Game 2 - I curved out smoothly topping out of Bident. Jack kept killing my dudes but Bident kept the sweet candy coming and I won pretty decisively.
Game 3 - I had another pretty decent curve of guys into Bident but where I drew a good mix of lands and spells in Game 2, Bident kept on feeding me Islands. I think I drew 6 or 7 extra cards this game and all of them were basic Islands. Eventually I ran out of dudes and died to Desecration Demon and Pack Rat.
Round 2 - The Bye.
Usually I'd make a joke here about how badly I defeated my opponent but I was pretty irritated to lose round 1 and immediately get the Bye. A Round 2 Bye is basically the worst possible way to get a win, it all but eliminates you from any chance at prizes in such a short (4 rounds) tournament, and it kills your spirit by keeping your momentum from building back up from a loss.
I wandered around, toyed with the idea of going home early and eventually settled into some trading which lifted my spirits considerably.
Round 3 - Ryan w/ BWR Midrangey
Ryan is just about the worst possible person you can imagine. Think of a bowl of poop mixed together with broken glass. Now turn it into a person. I would rather hang out with that than Ryan. He's one of my best friends!
Game 1 - I mulliganed to 4 on the draw and kept a hand with zero lands. I was able to cast a Judge's Familiar and Rapid Hybridization on a Boros Reckoner before I died to mutliple large things.
Game 2 - I kept 7 cards this game, 3 of which were Judge's Familiar. I was able to just barely kill Ryan through a wacky combination of bad creatures before he could effectively cast Anger of the Gods through my Daze Birds. This game was sweet.
Game 3 - Ryan stalled on 2 lands while I curved out pretty smoothly. Judge's Familiar was again pretty awesome for me soaking up a removal spell that let my Nightveil Specter continue to chomp lands from Ryan's library.
Ryan was a pretty good sport about it, especially considering he's History's Greatest Living Monster.
Round 4 - Nick w/ Esper Control
When I heard I was battling Nick this round I felt pretty down. You see everyone in the room knew what Nick was playing because the poor bastard had gotten 2 unintentional draws playing my worst possible matchup. I tried not to give up before the match started but I honestly didn't have much hope.
Game 1 - I had a reasonable draw with a Bident that started on 1 and I played very conservatively, attacking for a while with a 1/2 Raptor, a Familiar and a Mutavault when the coast was clear. Bident drew me some cards and eventually Nick played first 1 then 2 Supreme Verdicts. Nightveil Specter came down and found me a couple of Swampy lands that would eventually be important as well as a Hero's Downfall. When Nick jammed Aetherling I was a bit worried but thankfully I drew a Rapid Hybridization that worked together with the Downfall to murder the shapeshifter just in time.
I struggled with my sideboard since I wanted to bring in the 2 Jace, Millhouse along with all of the counterspells but couldn't quite figure out what to remove. In the end I settled on leaving them in the sideboard and relying on my creatures to finish the job.
Game 2 - This game hinged on my correct use of counterspells and not overextending into a sweeper. I jammed a Tidebinder Mage and held up mana for 4 turns in a row without playing anything. Eventually Nick had to do something and I got to counter a Revelation. The next turn I was again able to counter a Revelation, this time I had to choice of using a Gainsay or a Negate and I struggled with which one was correct. I used the Gainsay but I could see Negate being correct as Negate cannot counter Aetherling. Nick answered my question for me on the next turn when he Thoughtseized me...something I was able to Negate to save my Bident. I was able to attack for small amounts of damage over many turns and eventually Nick threw in the towel.
Nick seemed extremely frustrated by our games and I was just stunned to have beaten Esper 2-0 with Mono Blue.
As I predicted I finished in 8th place as the lowest of 3-1 players earning myself a promo Phalanx Leader. While I didn't get any store credit I did battle through a very tough matchup and largely redeem the Mono Blue deck in my own eyes. I had essentially written it off after it's performance against Supreme Verdict at States but it turns out my sideboard plan was just all wrong.
This Wednesday Night Magic we get to play Modern Format!
Modern is my second favorite way to play Magic, beaten out only by Commander, and I'm pretty excited to Birth Some Pods, Splinter Some Twins and Tarmo some Goyfs. I'm not 100% sure what I'll be playing this week since there are 2 whole days between now and then but I can't wait to shuffle up and battle Modern style!
After playing Mono Black and having a pretty miserable time on Wednesday I wanted to play something else. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I gave up on Mono Black hastily but it's hard to get past a set of bad feelings. Those bad feelings can lead to you giving up on games before they're lost and even throwing away ones that are way ahead in.
I was waffling back and forth, trying to land on something interesting, when I saw a set of videos that Sam Black posted on Starcitygames.com with the Mono Blue deck. I love Sam's style of recording and will watch him play essentially any deck because I always find I learn a lot. This is how I came to play Mono Blue on Friday.
I liked the game plan against Mono Black which was to sideboard up to 4 Bidents along with just a couple of cheap counterspells like DIspel and Negate to get your creatures to whack them a few times. I also liked that Esper, Mono Blue's worst matchup, would likely be pushed out of the winning bracket by the heavy presence of Mono Black.
Here is the list I played, lifted directly from Sam's article:
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thass
4 Master of Waves
3 Bident
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Jace, Archie
2 Jace, Millhouse
1 Dissolve
1 Negate
1 Dispel
3 Gainsay
1 Bident
1 Nykthos
Overall I was pretty happy with the list. I think the maindeck is exactly where you want to be but I question the 2 Millhouse and the Nykthos in the sideboard. While I was all on board the Jace plan against Esper at States this year I didn't find it was actually all that good. I want to try Aetherling in that spot. The Nykthos seems like a strange choice to me and I want to replace it with perhaps a Domestication in case the mirror happens to crop up in the future.
I got out of the house pretty early (for a day I didn't work) and went to lunch and a movie some of the Magical People. Starting off the weekend with a delicious steak and 1.5 hours of Johnny Knoxville abusing a child is definitely my idea of a good time.
After the credits finished rolling we headed over to the shop where I spent the better part of an hour digging for cards out of the massive and slightly unorganized boxes of non-rares that the shop has stacked up. I found most of what I needed and finished slapping together a brand new Commander deck which will be the subject of my next post, Gods Willing.
I got to play 3 different 4 player Commander games that were largely enjoyable. That's saying a lot since one of them involved Achille Fink killing the whole table on his turn 7 and another involved a massive Debt to the Deathless that Kyle Colosino used to murder 2 players in one go. Commander is such a strange and wonderful format.
Eventually the time came and up went the pairings.
Round 1 - Jack w/ Mono Black
It was a rematch against the evil bastard that sent me on my downward spiral at WNM. I told Jack it was time for me to get some payback and we both laughed. I felt pretty good going into the match, after all I chose my deck specifically to be strong against the deck he was running.
Game 1 - I kept 5 lands, Cloudfin, Master of Waves on the play. I was close to mulliganing but decided that I would keep the same hand at 6. I'm still not sure what was right. After being Thoughtseized out of my Master and missing a 2 drop I died relatively quickly.
Game 2 - I curved out smoothly topping out of Bident. Jack kept killing my dudes but Bident kept the sweet candy coming and I won pretty decisively.
Game 3 - I had another pretty decent curve of guys into Bident but where I drew a good mix of lands and spells in Game 2, Bident kept on feeding me Islands. I think I drew 6 or 7 extra cards this game and all of them were basic Islands. Eventually I ran out of dudes and died to Desecration Demon and Pack Rat.
Round 2 - The Bye.
Usually I'd make a joke here about how badly I defeated my opponent but I was pretty irritated to lose round 1 and immediately get the Bye. A Round 2 Bye is basically the worst possible way to get a win, it all but eliminates you from any chance at prizes in such a short (4 rounds) tournament, and it kills your spirit by keeping your momentum from building back up from a loss.
I wandered around, toyed with the idea of going home early and eventually settled into some trading which lifted my spirits considerably.
Round 3 - Ryan w/ BWR Midrangey
Ryan is just about the worst possible person you can imagine. Think of a bowl of poop mixed together with broken glass. Now turn it into a person. I would rather hang out with that than Ryan. He's one of my best friends!
Game 1 - I mulliganed to 4 on the draw and kept a hand with zero lands. I was able to cast a Judge's Familiar and Rapid Hybridization on a Boros Reckoner before I died to mutliple large things.
Game 2 - I kept 7 cards this game, 3 of which were Judge's Familiar. I was able to just barely kill Ryan through a wacky combination of bad creatures before he could effectively cast Anger of the Gods through my Daze Birds. This game was sweet.
Game 3 - Ryan stalled on 2 lands while I curved out pretty smoothly. Judge's Familiar was again pretty awesome for me soaking up a removal spell that let my Nightveil Specter continue to chomp lands from Ryan's library.
Ryan was a pretty good sport about it, especially considering he's History's Greatest Living Monster.
Round 4 - Nick w/ Esper Control
When I heard I was battling Nick this round I felt pretty down. You see everyone in the room knew what Nick was playing because the poor bastard had gotten 2 unintentional draws playing my worst possible matchup. I tried not to give up before the match started but I honestly didn't have much hope.
Game 1 - I had a reasonable draw with a Bident that started on 1 and I played very conservatively, attacking for a while with a 1/2 Raptor, a Familiar and a Mutavault when the coast was clear. Bident drew me some cards and eventually Nick played first 1 then 2 Supreme Verdicts. Nightveil Specter came down and found me a couple of Swampy lands that would eventually be important as well as a Hero's Downfall. When Nick jammed Aetherling I was a bit worried but thankfully I drew a Rapid Hybridization that worked together with the Downfall to murder the shapeshifter just in time.
I struggled with my sideboard since I wanted to bring in the 2 Jace, Millhouse along with all of the counterspells but couldn't quite figure out what to remove. In the end I settled on leaving them in the sideboard and relying on my creatures to finish the job.
Game 2 - This game hinged on my correct use of counterspells and not overextending into a sweeper. I jammed a Tidebinder Mage and held up mana for 4 turns in a row without playing anything. Eventually Nick had to do something and I got to counter a Revelation. The next turn I was again able to counter a Revelation, this time I had to choice of using a Gainsay or a Negate and I struggled with which one was correct. I used the Gainsay but I could see Negate being correct as Negate cannot counter Aetherling. Nick answered my question for me on the next turn when he Thoughtseized me...something I was able to Negate to save my Bident. I was able to attack for small amounts of damage over many turns and eventually Nick threw in the towel.
Nick seemed extremely frustrated by our games and I was just stunned to have beaten Esper 2-0 with Mono Blue.
As I predicted I finished in 8th place as the lowest of 3-1 players earning myself a promo Phalanx Leader. While I didn't get any store credit I did battle through a very tough matchup and largely redeem the Mono Blue deck in my own eyes. I had essentially written it off after it's performance against Supreme Verdict at States but it turns out my sideboard plan was just all wrong.
This Wednesday Night Magic we get to play Modern Format!
Modern is my second favorite way to play Magic, beaten out only by Commander, and I'm pretty excited to Birth Some Pods, Splinter Some Twins and Tarmo some Goyfs. I'm not 100% sure what I'll be playing this week since there are 2 whole days between now and then but I can't wait to shuffle up and battle Modern style!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
WNM @ Magic Comics & Hobbies, October 23rd, 2013
Fresh off the win at Game Day, I decided to stick with the good ol' Mono Black deck that had won me an FTV and Brian Braun-Duin a lot of actual money.
Of course, I was expecting to see a lot more of the mirror and/or people gunning for the best deck and I adjusted the deck ever so slightly to try and compensate.
I nudged the mana base towards the one used in the Grand Prix.
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp
2 Temple
The next change is a reason to cut the Nykthos and that's moving the Lifebane Zombies to the sideboard in favor of Nightveil Specter. I'm not actually sure how I feel about this as the Zombies were super good for me last week but I'm not one to argue with the Pros.
The Lifebanes took the place of the 3 Xathrid Necromancers which I have yet to want to bring in. Also different in the sideboard are a trio of Dark Betrayals that I expected to be very needed as well as 2 Doom Blades. In the end my deck ended up looking like this:
2 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Erebos
2 Whip of Erebos
4 Underworld Connections
4 Thoughtseize
4 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp
2 Temple of Scrying
Sideboard
1 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
1 Erebos
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pack Rat
2 Ratchet Bomb
I got to MCH about 6:00 PM and was able to do some trading and get in a game of Commander which was (relatively) swiftly man-handled by Kyle's Damia deck. Omniscience is some stupid when you draw your whole hand every turn and it's pretty tough to get going when all of your things become Elephants every turn. Stupid Terrastodon.
We had 9 players so there were 3 rounds.
Round 1 - Jack w/ Mono Black
Jack is cool dude who tends to play limited at the shop. Lately he's been dipping his toes back into standard and I don't blame him one bit.
Game One - I kept the standard trap hand of 2 lands, 2 Thoughtseize and even though I had all the tools to deal with Jack's cards I never drew the lands to cast them. My deck offered up 1 Swamp and 3 Mutavaults over the first 7 turns and by the time I could cast spells I was WAY behind Jack's double Underworld Connections.
Game Two - I Thoughtseized into a Pack Rat on turn 2 that went all the way.
Game Three - I Thoughtseized on turn 1 and 2 taking a Whip and an Erebos out of Jack's hand. I jammed Underworld Connections on 3 and felt very good about winning the game but the top of the deck was very kind to Jack and he overtook me with another Erebos, 2 Gray Merchants and a removal spell for my Desecration Demon.
I was pretty frustrated losing that game as I don't think I misplayed. I simply couldn't beat the cards that Jack drew each turn.
Round 2 - Kyle with Naya Burn
Kyle is another local that has a ludicrously good attitude about MTG. He had just finished playing Brian (also on Mono Black) and had a big smile on his face as he told me I was going to win. I was still a little grumpy after the close loss in round 1 but Kyle's happiness went a long way towards pushing through my grouchitude.
Game One - I got a few hits in with a Nightveil Specter but stalled on lands long enough for Kyle to attack me to death with Hammer of Purphoros Golems.
Game Two - I saw Wear//Tear with Thoughtseize and baited it with Underworld Connections before landing a Whip of Erebos to get back at a safe life total. Gray Merchant drains won.
Game Three - I Duressed to see a pretty scary hand of Skullcrack x 2 and Boros Charm which made me pretty scared to pay life on anything. I was able to attack with a few Lifebane Zombies to get Kyle within Gray Merchant range just before he drew enough burn spells to kill me.
Round 3 - Jon King with GR Storm
Jon was the last undefeated player and needed to defeat me to win the tournament. He's yet another super cool dude at the local shop and definitely one of the people you have to be able to beat if you wanna do well.
Game One - I Seized some thoughts and saw 2 Polukranos, 2 Garruk and a Polis Crusher in hand, Jon had a Caryatid and 2 lands so I took the Crusher. My hand wasn't great but as long as Jon didn't draw a land right away I had a chance. 1 Stomping Ground, 1 Xenagos and 1 Burning Tree later and I was dead.
Game Two - Jon mulled to 6 and I had a Thoughtseize > Lifebane draw that felt pretty good. I didn't do much to put him under pressure beyond the Zombie and so Jon had time to draw out his mulligan. I was barely able to close the door with a Gray Merchant before 2 Arbor Colossuses finished me off.
Game Three - I kept a solid 6 with 2 lands and did not draw a 3rd land before dying. Jon was also stuck on 2 lands for a while but he had a Burning Tree Emissary that was taking chunks out of my face. I managed to kill a couple of Elves to stall my eventual death but eventually all I had was 3 mana+ spells and Polukranos came a-callin'.
Yet again I felt completely helpless in losing that last game and generally just felt aggravated at the deck. I tend to take these kinds of results a lot harder than I should when what I should really be doing is chalking it up to variance and moving on. I also tend to do silly things like throw away a set of sleeves or abandon a deckbox when I have a bad night....yet I don't believe in ghosts. Take that to mean what you will.
So going forward I don't actually know what deck I want to play. I really enjoy playing the Mono Black deck but loathe the idea of slogging through mirror matches all night. Seeing as there were 4 of them in our 9 man tournament last night I suspect I will be on the prowl for something else to battle with.
Outside of standard, I'm excited to be working on a post that follows me building a Commander deck from scratch. I don't know when I'll be done with it but it's been a good time writing it so far. Also, this coming Wednesday will be Modern Format instead of Standard. I don't expect there to be a ton of people in attendance but new things are always interesting.
Of course, I was expecting to see a lot more of the mirror and/or people gunning for the best deck and I adjusted the deck ever so slightly to try and compensate.
I nudged the mana base towards the one used in the Grand Prix.
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp
2 Temple
The next change is a reason to cut the Nykthos and that's moving the Lifebane Zombies to the sideboard in favor of Nightveil Specter. I'm not actually sure how I feel about this as the Zombies were super good for me last week but I'm not one to argue with the Pros.
The Lifebanes took the place of the 3 Xathrid Necromancers which I have yet to want to bring in. Also different in the sideboard are a trio of Dark Betrayals that I expected to be very needed as well as 2 Doom Blades. In the end my deck ended up looking like this:
2 Pack Rat
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Erebos
2 Whip of Erebos
4 Underworld Connections
4 Thoughtseize
4 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp
2 Temple of Scrying
Sideboard
1 Duress
1 Pithing Needle
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
1 Erebos
3 Lifebane Zombie
2 Pack Rat
2 Ratchet Bomb
I got to MCH about 6:00 PM and was able to do some trading and get in a game of Commander which was (relatively) swiftly man-handled by Kyle's Damia deck. Omniscience is some stupid when you draw your whole hand every turn and it's pretty tough to get going when all of your things become Elephants every turn. Stupid Terrastodon.
We had 9 players so there were 3 rounds.
Round 1 - Jack w/ Mono Black
Jack is cool dude who tends to play limited at the shop. Lately he's been dipping his toes back into standard and I don't blame him one bit.
Game One - I kept the standard trap hand of 2 lands, 2 Thoughtseize and even though I had all the tools to deal with Jack's cards I never drew the lands to cast them. My deck offered up 1 Swamp and 3 Mutavaults over the first 7 turns and by the time I could cast spells I was WAY behind Jack's double Underworld Connections.
Game Two - I Thoughtseized into a Pack Rat on turn 2 that went all the way.
Game Three - I Thoughtseized on turn 1 and 2 taking a Whip and an Erebos out of Jack's hand. I jammed Underworld Connections on 3 and felt very good about winning the game but the top of the deck was very kind to Jack and he overtook me with another Erebos, 2 Gray Merchants and a removal spell for my Desecration Demon.
I was pretty frustrated losing that game as I don't think I misplayed. I simply couldn't beat the cards that Jack drew each turn.
Round 2 - Kyle with Naya Burn
Kyle is another local that has a ludicrously good attitude about MTG. He had just finished playing Brian (also on Mono Black) and had a big smile on his face as he told me I was going to win. I was still a little grumpy after the close loss in round 1 but Kyle's happiness went a long way towards pushing through my grouchitude.
Game One - I got a few hits in with a Nightveil Specter but stalled on lands long enough for Kyle to attack me to death with Hammer of Purphoros Golems.
Game Two - I saw Wear//Tear with Thoughtseize and baited it with Underworld Connections before landing a Whip of Erebos to get back at a safe life total. Gray Merchant drains won.
Game Three - I Duressed to see a pretty scary hand of Skullcrack x 2 and Boros Charm which made me pretty scared to pay life on anything. I was able to attack with a few Lifebane Zombies to get Kyle within Gray Merchant range just before he drew enough burn spells to kill me.
Round 3 - Jon King with GR Storm
Jon was the last undefeated player and needed to defeat me to win the tournament. He's yet another super cool dude at the local shop and definitely one of the people you have to be able to beat if you wanna do well.
Game One - I Seized some thoughts and saw 2 Polukranos, 2 Garruk and a Polis Crusher in hand, Jon had a Caryatid and 2 lands so I took the Crusher. My hand wasn't great but as long as Jon didn't draw a land right away I had a chance. 1 Stomping Ground, 1 Xenagos and 1 Burning Tree later and I was dead.
Game Two - Jon mulled to 6 and I had a Thoughtseize > Lifebane draw that felt pretty good. I didn't do much to put him under pressure beyond the Zombie and so Jon had time to draw out his mulligan. I was barely able to close the door with a Gray Merchant before 2 Arbor Colossuses finished me off.
Game Three - I kept a solid 6 with 2 lands and did not draw a 3rd land before dying. Jon was also stuck on 2 lands for a while but he had a Burning Tree Emissary that was taking chunks out of my face. I managed to kill a couple of Elves to stall my eventual death but eventually all I had was 3 mana+ spells and Polukranos came a-callin'.
Yet again I felt completely helpless in losing that last game and generally just felt aggravated at the deck. I tend to take these kinds of results a lot harder than I should when what I should really be doing is chalking it up to variance and moving on. I also tend to do silly things like throw away a set of sleeves or abandon a deckbox when I have a bad night....yet I don't believe in ghosts. Take that to mean what you will.
So going forward I don't actually know what deck I want to play. I really enjoy playing the Mono Black deck but loathe the idea of slogging through mirror matches all night. Seeing as there were 4 of them in our 9 man tournament last night I suspect I will be on the prowl for something else to battle with.
Outside of standard, I'm excited to be working on a post that follows me building a Commander deck from scratch. I don't know when I'll be done with it but it's been a good time writing it so far. Also, this coming Wednesday will be Modern Format instead of Standard. I don't expect there to be a ton of people in attendance but new things are always interesting.
Monday, October 21, 2013
Game Day @ Magic Comics and Hobbies, October 19th, 2013
G-G-G-GAME DAY!!!!!
Game Day is kind of a big deal to me. I know, I know, it's not really MEANT to be a big deal. It's meant to be this exciting celebration where everyone hangs out and has a good time and it ALWAYS is! It's just....winning that playmat feels like such a big deal.
On top of the sweet Elspeth-fighting-a-hydra mousepad there was extra reason to care about Game Day this time around. MCH (the store) was also putting some pretty major prizes up for grabs to try and make Theros Game Day exciting. We were all playing for a From the Vault 20 and a pile of packs distributed amongst the Top 8!
Unfortunately for the store owners another mostly local store managed to schedule a PTQ on the same day.
Soooo, instead of the 40 plus people that were expected to be at Game Day we had a whopping 12. Now...I don't feel too bad for MCH because they still came out just fine on the deal charging $25 a head for Game Day but I know they were let down by the smaller attendance. I'm sure some of the more casual locals stayed away because of the higher price tag of the event but there were definitely some expected players absent.
Dennis (MCH's resident MTG Mogul) did right by us and kept prize support intact and even with the smaller showing threw in some sweet door prizes. Everyone there seemed to be pretty excited to be there and having a great time. I wasn't even too broken up about missing the drawing for a door prize!
I ended up making a minor change to my deck from the night before but IMO it made a gigantic difference. I cut the 2nd Nykthos from the deck for a 4th Underworld Connections. Everything else remained the same so you can check my previous post for a list if you're interested.
There were 3 rounds before a cut to Top 4, fairly high pressure for such a small event since even 1 loss could eliminate you from the play offs.
Round 1 - Brian Horton w/ UW Pillow Fort
This Brian is 100% the person with the best attitude about playing mtg that I have ever met. He's a good player and he likes to win but more than anything else Brian's in it to have a good time.
Game Uno - I kept a 2 land hand with 2 Thoughtseize. I tore Brian's hand apart but didn't draw a 3rd land until very late into the game. By then Brian had resolved a Revelation for 6 and was ticking Gideon up. I scooped 'em up.
I sideboarded out most of the removal as well as the Pack Rats for Duress, Needles, Disciples and the 2nd Erebos.
Game the Second - Brian was all in on a Gideon as his action this game and a Pithing Needle bought me enough time to drain him out with Merchants.
Game TREE - I resolved an early Underworld Connections into Erebos. The combined card draw found me 3 Gray Merchants that ended the game very quickly.
Outcome - Victory, 2-1.
Round 2 - John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
John typically works nights and so he doesn't make it out to play FNM on a regular basis. He's a very good player who spends a heck of a lot more time practicing matchups and brewing decks than I do. John also tends to approach deck building from different angles and I wasn't sure if that made the Esper matchup better for me or worse.
Game Wun - Thoughtseize and Underworld Connections carried me through this game and eventually John just ran out of answers.
I sideboarded similarly to the first round but ended up bringing in the 3rd Devour Flesh. John was running several Prognostic Sphinxes along with Aetherling and I knew he would bring in Blood Baron.
Game Too - I lost this game after stalling on lands for several turns. I know for sure I misplayed by allowing an Underworld Connections to get countered when I didn't have any other source of card draw in hand. Eventually an Aetherling finished me off.
Game the Third - Thoughtseize into Lifebane Zombie into Underworld Connections let me craft a plan to win the game pretty easily. It's amazing how good drawing 2 cards a turn can be!
Overall - Victory, 2-1
Round 3 - Ryan Smith w/ BW Midrange
Ryan and I were 2 of 3 undefeated players and could intentionally draw into the Top 4. This is one element of tournament mtg that always feels just a little bit weird to me but I'm happy to enjoy the relaxing comfort of not having to fight my way into playoffs.
Ryan and I watched the other players battle for the 2 empty spots, Nick was the other undefeated player and he ended up getting defeated by John my round 2 opponent.
TOP 4!
The top 4 ended up
1) Ryan Smith w/ BW Midrange
2) Me w/ Mono Black
3) Nick Martin w/ Dega Midrange
4) John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
Semi-Finals - Nick Martin w/ Dega Midrange
Nick is a regular fixture of MCH's tournaments and he always plays good decks and plays them well. We were both in good spirits because, at worst, we were getting a pile of packs.
Game 1 - Lifebane Zombie and Thoughtseize helped me develop a game plan as well as clearing out an Obzedat and a Whip. I got Connected pretty early and eventually Erebos and a pile of Pack Rat tokens brought the game home. I was pretty sure I was going to lose this game when I Thoughtseized and saw several removal spells and 2 Demons but Nick stopped drawing lands while I pulled ahead in cards. He had plenty of answers to my threats but couldn't cast enough of them to keep up with Pack Rat.
I sideboarded out Doom Blades and Ultimate Prices for a third Pack Rat, a second Erebos, Duress and a 3rd Devour Flesh. I was banking on Nick sideboarding correctly and taking out his Anger of the Gods which is the only good answer to Pack Rat. It's an awkward position to be in from his perspective because Anger is generally pretty awful against this deck except when it's the only card that answers 3 or less Pack Rats at once.
Game Dos - I don't actually remember the details of this game, I know I caught a Blood Baron with Devour Flesh and I know we both had Whips for some amount of time. I do remember that I won and that it wasn't very close unlike game 1.
Nick was a good sport about it and we talked for a long time about good decks to play for the next tournament.
John Arnaud defeated Ryan Smith to advance to the finals.
The Finals - John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
I felt pretty good going into this one, obviously Esper was a good matchup and I'd already battled through this deck once in the last few hours. On the other hand John is a very good player and Magic is Magic. Typically I'm all about the prize split when I'm matched up with a friend and John and talked awkwardly about what would be fair. Eventually I told him that all I really wanted was the FTV 20 and he could have the rest if he thought that was fair. You see, I already have a wonderful playmat with one of my guinea pigs on it and no matter how many hydra's Elspeth's battling she's not beating that. John thought about it and agreed.
We proceeded to battle for the bragging rights!
Game the First Game - I kept another 2 lander with double Thoughtseize and again stalled on lands for so long that the early disruption didn't do anything at all. John pummeled me with a Sphinx and eventually an Aetherling until I threw in the towel.
Game Deux - I got aggressive with Mutavaults when I thoughtseized and saw a removal-light hand. After mulliganing to 6 on the play I felt it was my best chance to win and it payed off.
Game Three - I kept a 2 lander again but this time was on the draw and had some early disruption along with 2 Underworld Connections. I played each Connections with mana up to immediately draw a card and pulled ahead as John answered them with a D-Sphere each. I ended up drawing all 4 Connections this game and finally winning through Gray Merchant drains and Mutavault attacks.
And that's how I became Game Day Champion for a day and I'm pretty excited about it. I may not have a sweet mousepad with Elspeth on it, but dammit I'm still the Champio!
Game Day is kind of a big deal to me. I know, I know, it's not really MEANT to be a big deal. It's meant to be this exciting celebration where everyone hangs out and has a good time and it ALWAYS is! It's just....winning that playmat feels like such a big deal.
On top of the sweet Elspeth-fighting-a-hydra mousepad there was extra reason to care about Game Day this time around. MCH (the store) was also putting some pretty major prizes up for grabs to try and make Theros Game Day exciting. We were all playing for a From the Vault 20 and a pile of packs distributed amongst the Top 8!
Unfortunately for the store owners another mostly local store managed to schedule a PTQ on the same day.
Soooo, instead of the 40 plus people that were expected to be at Game Day we had a whopping 12. Now...I don't feel too bad for MCH because they still came out just fine on the deal charging $25 a head for Game Day but I know they were let down by the smaller attendance. I'm sure some of the more casual locals stayed away because of the higher price tag of the event but there were definitely some expected players absent.
Dennis (MCH's resident MTG Mogul) did right by us and kept prize support intact and even with the smaller showing threw in some sweet door prizes. Everyone there seemed to be pretty excited to be there and having a great time. I wasn't even too broken up about missing the drawing for a door prize!
I ended up making a minor change to my deck from the night before but IMO it made a gigantic difference. I cut the 2nd Nykthos from the deck for a 4th Underworld Connections. Everything else remained the same so you can check my previous post for a list if you're interested.
There were 3 rounds before a cut to Top 4, fairly high pressure for such a small event since even 1 loss could eliminate you from the play offs.
Round 1 - Brian Horton w/ UW Pillow Fort
This Brian is 100% the person with the best attitude about playing mtg that I have ever met. He's a good player and he likes to win but more than anything else Brian's in it to have a good time.
Game Uno - I kept a 2 land hand with 2 Thoughtseize. I tore Brian's hand apart but didn't draw a 3rd land until very late into the game. By then Brian had resolved a Revelation for 6 and was ticking Gideon up. I scooped 'em up.
I sideboarded out most of the removal as well as the Pack Rats for Duress, Needles, Disciples and the 2nd Erebos.
Game the Second - Brian was all in on a Gideon as his action this game and a Pithing Needle bought me enough time to drain him out with Merchants.
Game TREE - I resolved an early Underworld Connections into Erebos. The combined card draw found me 3 Gray Merchants that ended the game very quickly.
Outcome - Victory, 2-1.
Round 2 - John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
John typically works nights and so he doesn't make it out to play FNM on a regular basis. He's a very good player who spends a heck of a lot more time practicing matchups and brewing decks than I do. John also tends to approach deck building from different angles and I wasn't sure if that made the Esper matchup better for me or worse.
Game Wun - Thoughtseize and Underworld Connections carried me through this game and eventually John just ran out of answers.
I sideboarded similarly to the first round but ended up bringing in the 3rd Devour Flesh. John was running several Prognostic Sphinxes along with Aetherling and I knew he would bring in Blood Baron.
Game Too - I lost this game after stalling on lands for several turns. I know for sure I misplayed by allowing an Underworld Connections to get countered when I didn't have any other source of card draw in hand. Eventually an Aetherling finished me off.
Game the Third - Thoughtseize into Lifebane Zombie into Underworld Connections let me craft a plan to win the game pretty easily. It's amazing how good drawing 2 cards a turn can be!
Overall - Victory, 2-1
Round 3 - Ryan Smith w/ BW Midrange
Ryan and I were 2 of 3 undefeated players and could intentionally draw into the Top 4. This is one element of tournament mtg that always feels just a little bit weird to me but I'm happy to enjoy the relaxing comfort of not having to fight my way into playoffs.
Ryan and I watched the other players battle for the 2 empty spots, Nick was the other undefeated player and he ended up getting defeated by John my round 2 opponent.
TOP 4!
The top 4 ended up
1) Ryan Smith w/ BW Midrange
2) Me w/ Mono Black
3) Nick Martin w/ Dega Midrange
4) John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
Semi-Finals - Nick Martin w/ Dega Midrange
Nick is a regular fixture of MCH's tournaments and he always plays good decks and plays them well. We were both in good spirits because, at worst, we were getting a pile of packs.
Game 1 - Lifebane Zombie and Thoughtseize helped me develop a game plan as well as clearing out an Obzedat and a Whip. I got Connected pretty early and eventually Erebos and a pile of Pack Rat tokens brought the game home. I was pretty sure I was going to lose this game when I Thoughtseized and saw several removal spells and 2 Demons but Nick stopped drawing lands while I pulled ahead in cards. He had plenty of answers to my threats but couldn't cast enough of them to keep up with Pack Rat.
I sideboarded out Doom Blades and Ultimate Prices for a third Pack Rat, a second Erebos, Duress and a 3rd Devour Flesh. I was banking on Nick sideboarding correctly and taking out his Anger of the Gods which is the only good answer to Pack Rat. It's an awkward position to be in from his perspective because Anger is generally pretty awful against this deck except when it's the only card that answers 3 or less Pack Rats at once.
Game Dos - I don't actually remember the details of this game, I know I caught a Blood Baron with Devour Flesh and I know we both had Whips for some amount of time. I do remember that I won and that it wasn't very close unlike game 1.
Nick was a good sport about it and we talked for a long time about good decks to play for the next tournament.
John Arnaud defeated Ryan Smith to advance to the finals.
The Finals - John Arnaud w/ Esper Control
I felt pretty good going into this one, obviously Esper was a good matchup and I'd already battled through this deck once in the last few hours. On the other hand John is a very good player and Magic is Magic. Typically I'm all about the prize split when I'm matched up with a friend and John and talked awkwardly about what would be fair. Eventually I told him that all I really wanted was the FTV 20 and he could have the rest if he thought that was fair. You see, I already have a wonderful playmat with one of my guinea pigs on it and no matter how many hydra's Elspeth's battling she's not beating that. John thought about it and agreed.
We proceeded to battle for the bragging rights!
Game the First Game - I kept another 2 lander with double Thoughtseize and again stalled on lands for so long that the early disruption didn't do anything at all. John pummeled me with a Sphinx and eventually an Aetherling until I threw in the towel.
Game Deux - I got aggressive with Mutavaults when I thoughtseized and saw a removal-light hand. After mulliganing to 6 on the play I felt it was my best chance to win and it payed off.
Game Three - I kept a 2 lander again but this time was on the draw and had some early disruption along with 2 Underworld Connections. I played each Connections with mana up to immediately draw a card and pulled ahead as John answered them with a D-Sphere each. I ended up drawing all 4 Connections this game and finally winning through Gray Merchant drains and Mutavault attacks.
And that's how I became Game Day Champion for a day and I'm pretty excited about it. I may not have a sweet mousepad with Elspeth on it, but dammit I'm still the Champio!
FNM @ Magic Comics and Hobbies, October 18th, 2013
Hello again to the literally 2's of friends reading this!
I played a couple of tournaments over the weekend, the plan is to do a write-up for each one individually, and I played the same deck in each event give or take a couple of cards.
First up is Friday Night Magic at Magic Comics and Hobbies.
I got play some games before the tournament with Brian Kennel, scourge of the local shop and pilot of the dreaded Esper Control. Brian wanted to play games to get warmed up and to see how his deck felt but I wasn't super thrilled. Anyone who's battled a control deck knows where I'm coming from! Fast-forward 5 games later where I haven't dropped a game and almost none of them were even close.
Here's the list I played in this tournament:
2 Pack Rat
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Erebos
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Doom Blade
2 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall (which I can't stop calling Demise)
3 Underworld Connections
4 Thoughtseize
2 Nykthos
4 Mutavault
16 Swamp
4 Temple of Scrylence
Sideboard
2 Pithing Needle
1 Duress
2 Disciple of Pheenax
1 Erebos
1 Pack Rat
1 Devour Flesh
4 Pharika's Cure
3 Xathrid Necromancer
Round 1 - Brian Kennel w/ Esper Control
Of COURSE right away I'm paired up with Brian. This is the problem with being good friends with so many of the regular players at a small shop, there's always pretty good odds you're going to play a friend early in the tournament and one of you is going to have a bad night.
Good - I beat Brian 2-0 on the back of Underworld Connections and a pile of Merchants.
Bad - We both mulliganed to 5 in game 1 but I drew out of it first.
Interesting - I was able to battle through being pretty far behind to an Aetherling thanks to Gray Merchant and Erebos.
Round 2 - Don Swart w/ Mono Black
Don is a super cool local guy who's also rocking the Mono Black. He wasn't playing any Mutavaults but instead has more Swamps to go with a set of Corrupts.
Good - A mono black deck won the match but...
Bad - It wasn't me! Don Corrupted me for 6 in game 1 and then for 8 just before I had him dead to attackers. I lost game 2 to a Whip after Thoughtseizing a Whip early in the game. Don also had Underworld Connections active for a long time in game 2 while I didn't. I
Interesting - Corrupt is pretty powerful and may be something to consider if the mirror becomes popular.
Round 3 - Jody w/ UW Control
I can't think of Jody's name at the moment but he's another regular who always has a super laidback attitude.
Good - I managed to pull off a game 3 victory by getting very aggressive with 2 Mutavaults while Jody tried to get things going. I enjoyed being able to plan several turns ahead thanks to seeing his hand several times throughout the game.
Bad - I worked very hard in game 2 to eventually kill an Aetherling only to have Elspeth come down. I found a Downfall for Elspeth only to face down a 2nd Elspeth with no answer.
Interesting - We started game 3 with about 8 minutes on the clock. I thought for sure I was headed for a draw but got just a little lucky to pull out the win.
Round 4 - Ryan Smith w/ Esper Midrange
Ryan is actually running some version of the list that I lost to at States last weekend. It's an Esper colored deck with Desecration Demon and a greater desire to actually kill the enemy. Ryan's 3-0 with the deck at the moment and needs to beat me to lock up first place while I can at best hope for 4th but more likely will be getting another Foil Bident if I pull off the Victory.
Good - The deck ran very well when I drew Underworld Connections. It's very hard for any slower deck to keep up with the amount of cards Mono Black can draw.
Bad - Unfortunately I didn't draw Underworld Connections in either of our games.
Interesting - Whip of Erebos is pretty sweet with Pack Rat!
So I finished 2-2 with the deck but still felt largely good about it. I knew I wanted to cut a land for a 4th Connections, that card is the best thing in the Mono Black deck BY FAR and the games where you draw it are just light years better than the ones where you don't. I also thought about trying Nightveil Specter since Don had been running them and they looked pretty good.
Check back with me later on for a Game Day report featuring A BATTLE AGAINST THE HYDRA.
I played a couple of tournaments over the weekend, the plan is to do a write-up for each one individually, and I played the same deck in each event give or take a couple of cards.
First up is Friday Night Magic at Magic Comics and Hobbies.
I got play some games before the tournament with Brian Kennel, scourge of the local shop and pilot of the dreaded Esper Control. Brian wanted to play games to get warmed up and to see how his deck felt but I wasn't super thrilled. Anyone who's battled a control deck knows where I'm coming from! Fast-forward 5 games later where I haven't dropped a game and almost none of them were even close.
Here's the list I played in this tournament:
2 Pack Rat
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Erebos
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Doom Blade
2 Ultimate Price
2 Devour Flesh
4 Hero's Downfall (which I can't stop calling Demise)
3 Underworld Connections
4 Thoughtseize
2 Nykthos
4 Mutavault
16 Swamp
4 Temple of Scrylence
Sideboard
2 Pithing Needle
1 Duress
2 Disciple of Pheenax
1 Erebos
1 Pack Rat
1 Devour Flesh
4 Pharika's Cure
3 Xathrid Necromancer
Round 1 - Brian Kennel w/ Esper Control
Of COURSE right away I'm paired up with Brian. This is the problem with being good friends with so many of the regular players at a small shop, there's always pretty good odds you're going to play a friend early in the tournament and one of you is going to have a bad night.
Good - I beat Brian 2-0 on the back of Underworld Connections and a pile of Merchants.
Bad - We both mulliganed to 5 in game 1 but I drew out of it first.
Interesting - I was able to battle through being pretty far behind to an Aetherling thanks to Gray Merchant and Erebos.
Round 2 - Don Swart w/ Mono Black
Don is a super cool local guy who's also rocking the Mono Black. He wasn't playing any Mutavaults but instead has more Swamps to go with a set of Corrupts.
Good - A mono black deck won the match but...
Bad - It wasn't me! Don Corrupted me for 6 in game 1 and then for 8 just before I had him dead to attackers. I lost game 2 to a Whip after Thoughtseizing a Whip early in the game. Don also had Underworld Connections active for a long time in game 2 while I didn't. I
Interesting - Corrupt is pretty powerful and may be something to consider if the mirror becomes popular.
Round 3 - Jody w/ UW Control
I can't think of Jody's name at the moment but he's another regular who always has a super laidback attitude.
Good - I managed to pull off a game 3 victory by getting very aggressive with 2 Mutavaults while Jody tried to get things going. I enjoyed being able to plan several turns ahead thanks to seeing his hand several times throughout the game.
Bad - I worked very hard in game 2 to eventually kill an Aetherling only to have Elspeth come down. I found a Downfall for Elspeth only to face down a 2nd Elspeth with no answer.
Interesting - We started game 3 with about 8 minutes on the clock. I thought for sure I was headed for a draw but got just a little lucky to pull out the win.
Round 4 - Ryan Smith w/ Esper Midrange
Ryan is actually running some version of the list that I lost to at States last weekend. It's an Esper colored deck with Desecration Demon and a greater desire to actually kill the enemy. Ryan's 3-0 with the deck at the moment and needs to beat me to lock up first place while I can at best hope for 4th but more likely will be getting another Foil Bident if I pull off the Victory.
Good - The deck ran very well when I drew Underworld Connections. It's very hard for any slower deck to keep up with the amount of cards Mono Black can draw.
Bad - Unfortunately I didn't draw Underworld Connections in either of our games.
Interesting - Whip of Erebos is pretty sweet with Pack Rat!
So I finished 2-2 with the deck but still felt largely good about it. I knew I wanted to cut a land for a 4th Connections, that card is the best thing in the Mono Black deck BY FAR and the games where you draw it are just light years better than the ones where you don't. I also thought about trying Nightveil Specter since Don had been running them and they looked pretty good.
Check back with me later on for a Game Day report featuring A BATTLE AGAINST THE HYDRA.
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