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.