Wednesday Night Magic at Magic Comics and Hobbies, October 16th, 2013

I got to play some cards last night at the local shop in Slidell Magic Comics & Hobbies .

I ended up running the Mono Black list from the Top 8 of Pro Tour Theros with a few changes based on what I expected to run into.
I ran 2 Doom Blade and 2 Ultimate Price, a change from the 4 Doom Blade in the PT list, based on expecting some number of Black decks at the tournament.  
I also played 2 Disciple of Pheenax in the board over 2 Duress, I still don't know how I feel about this guy but I didn't hate him.


I got to play a few games before the tournament testing Mono Blue against the newest version of BW Midrange. The games were split pretty evenly but Banisher Priest was kind of a beating. 

We only had enough players for 3 rounds, Wednesday is a work night after all, but some of the regulars were notably absent. 


Round 1 - Brian  w/ UB Control

Brian always has really neat decks and when I say he's playing Magic to have fun it is 100% a positive statement. Brian was running things like Griptide to set up Ashiok which I absolutely loved.

Good - Gray Merchant drained quite a bit of lives from Brian, eventually finishing him off with 10 damage in one swoop. 
Bad - losing my Erebos to a Griptide and then watching him work for the enemy.
Outcome - 2-0 win, largely from big chunks of Gray Merchant damage. 


Round 2 - Brian w/ GR Devotion

Another Brian! THIS Brian was playing another Top 8 deck from the PT which he called Storm with a big smile on his face. I have most of the cards from this deck in a pile on my desk at home, it looks like a lot of fun. 

Good - Whip of Erebos and Gray Merchant let me race a monstrous Arbor Colossus. 
Bad - I died in game 1 very, very quickly. Keeping a hand with no removal spells is not a good plan against a deck that's so explosive. 
Outcome - 2-1 win, almost entirely because of Whip of Erebos.


Round 3 - Brian w/ Mono Blue

My third Brian of the night was the also the only other undefeated player in the room and so we decided to split prizes and draw the match. We played 1 game pre board and then 4 post board to test the matchup and things felt pretty even. 

Good - Casting removal spells into creatures is pretty good against Blue Things. The matchup feels pretty good overall as long as you can interact with them right away. 
Bad - Ultimate Price was very awkward in these games as Brian would curve Judge's Familiar into Weird into Nightveil and leave me unable to do anything. Pharika's Cure is pretty bad against Judge's Familiar. 
Outcome - 1-1-1 intentional draw. 


I enjoyed playing the Mono Black deck and will definitely play it some more. 
There were a lot Midrangey Black decks at the small tournament, all packing Whips and Demons and removal.
I even heard a mono-red player complain that all he had fought were "Cookie Cutter Demon Decks" which made me smile. 
I'll be back on Sunday with a report from FNM and Game Day as long as I don't get lazy and decide not to.