Hello everyone, welcome to my humble little blog.
I'm planning to link this post in a few more places than normal so if this is your first time to visit please check out my previous posts if you like what you see!
Today I'm here to tell you about the SLAM Series Qualifier tournament that I played in over at Big Easy Comics in Covington or Mandeville or some such place. This is a new and local tournament series that 3 great game shops are kicking off (+1 Gaming, Rocket's Hideout and Big Easy) and the idea is that each of the Qualifiers gets you a bye in the big tournament that will happen some time in the future. To try and get folks excited about the qualifiers themselves the shops are putting up some pretty solid prize support, in this case the top prize was a box of Modern Masters.
Now I can't really explain WHY but this tournament felt like a big deal going in. I don't mean to be dismissive of the prizes, they were very good, but I've played in Magic tournaments with much more on the line whether it be money, product or a combination of both. Obviously I wasn't the only one that felt that way because 72 people showed up to play for the box of Modern Masters, a heck of a lot more than I think anyone expected!
The venue was the brand new location of Big Easy Comics, they just moved into a space that's at least double the size of their previous one (I forgot my ruler so I can't be sure how big it actually is) and the tournament area is nice and roomy. On the kinda negative side, I had to walk through the most glorious area full of toys and collectibles and that made it kind of difficult to play Magic when all I wanted to do was buy things.
The crew from Slidell represented I believe 12 people but it could have more, I know there were 2 cars of 4, 1 truck of 2 and a car of 2 but I'm possibly forgetting someone. Whoever you are, you have my deepest apologies. I spent the car ride over agonizing over the last few card choices of the Esper Control deck I'd decided on while everyone else seemed mostly content with what they were running.
After we filed into the store and I wiped the drool from my mouth caused by the killer Gentle Giant Star Wars figures we had to walk by I had to nail down my final 75. The last choice was between a 2nd Aetherling and an Elspeth in the main deck. I had decided on Elspeth, largely because a friend gave me a Japanese Elspeth Emblem he had just pulled, but then swapped to Aetherling when I realized I hadn't brought any Soldier tokens with me. Science.
Here's the deck I brought to battle with:
2 Aetherling
2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Prophetic Prism
2 Doom Blade
3 Azorius Charm
3 Devour Flesh
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Dissolve
4 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Jace, Architect of Thought
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of Silence
4 Watery Grave
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Hallowed Fountain
Sideboard
1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
1 Pack Rat
3 Last Breath
2 Gainsay
2 Negate
3 Thoughtseize
2 Sin Collector
1 Pithing Needle
The list largely comes from a set of videos that LSV posted on channelfireball.com last week but it's been adjusted somewhat thanks to lots of discussion with friends who've been playing Esper a lot more than me. LSV had only the 2 Aetherlings to win with and had a couple of Thoughtseizes in the main deck, I ended up playing the Blood Barons in the hopes of winning some rounds quickly since real life control matches tend to take quite a big longer than ones on Magic Online. The Pack Rat is all LSV's doing and it was without a doubt the best card in the sideboard.
I played a Prophetic Prism because there are times playing Esper where you are shy of that second white source for verdict or that second blue for, well, everything. It took the spot of a Divination and in all honesty it's probably wrong to make that swap. That said, I didn't hate the Prism.
The tournament started just a little bit late, there was some pretty serious fog and they wanted people to drive safely getting to the site, and the judge announced we'd be playing 7 rounds before the cut to Top 8. They also announced they were extending the prize support down to 24th place because the attendance was higher than expected, a pretty awesome thing to do.
I'm going to do a pretty brief write-up for each round rather than try and run down too many specific events. I tend to remember way too much about individual games of Magic and it all kinda comes pouring out when I start typing. If you want more info about anything I'd love to talk about it.
Round 1 - John Arnaud w/Esper Control
And right off the bat I was paired with a car-mate who's running probably 70 of the same cards as me. John is one of the reasons I arrived at the deck list I used and he's been playing Esper to consistent finishes pretty much since Theros was released. I was definitely expecting a round one loss here.
Game 1 - John overwhelmed me with threats, first casting a Elspeth then an Aetherling. I eventually answered the Aetherling by spending 3 removal spells only to see a second Aetherling land. John closed the door on the game by casting Sphinx's Revelation to activate his Blood Baron's Mega Evolution and finished me off.
Game 2 - I hit my land drops and landed a Jace with Gainsay mana up while John stalled on 4 lands for a couple of turns. My Jace fed me cards and other Jaces while John had to scramble to not only answer my Jaces but hit land drops. John eventually scooped to a resolved Aetherling.
Game 3 - Thoughtseize into Sin Collector stripped John's hand of action and allowed me to again resolve Jace safely. I beat down for a few turns with Sin Collector and eventually resolved Aetherling for the win yet again.
I felt very fortunate to escape the mirror with a win against a more experienced opponent. John would go on to finish in the top 16.
Round 2 - Ryan Arbour w/ GW Critters
Ryan was a fella with a similar story to mine. Played around the beginning of the game, quit for a long time and recently picked it back up. His deck was full of hard to deal with creatures like Witchstalker, Sylvan Caryatid and Experiment One as well as Ajani and other tricky spells.
Game 1 - I was able to Supreme Verdict away a couple of guys and then use spot removal to keep Ryan's board down while I dug for a threat. I continued to dig with Revelation and Jace but it took me quite a while to find an Aetherling with which to kill him. There were several turns where Ryan was drawing live to kill me because he had so much time.
Game 2 - Supreme Verdict again arrived right on time to clear away several hexproof critters and Pack Rat arrived early to the party to run away with the game.
Round 3 - Jeffrey Clark w/ Boss Sligh
I played Jeffrey once before at the Gamer's Paradise playset tournament just after Theros released. He was a quiet, pleasant opponent.
Game 1 - Jeffrey kept a somewhat slow hand that started on a Chainwalker and drew quite a few lands considering the low number I know were in his deck. I had a hand with a few removal spells and kept his board low enough for a Blood Baron to win. I could tell he was frustrated to draw so poorly.
Game 2 - Jeffrey came out of the gates much faster with a Firedrinker Satyr that he rode for a few turns rather than overextend into a Wrath. I again had enough spot removal to get me to a wrath at a comfortable life total. Pack Rat showed up again, first in chump blocking mode and then in take over the board mode, and teamed up with Aetherling for the kill.
Round 4 - William Byerly w/ Mono Black
William was a new opponent to me but he seemed very comfortable in the tournament setting and played very tightly. Game 3 of this match was one of the most epic games of the day.
Game 1 - William jammed a turn 2 Pack Rat followed by a turn 3 Mutavault and make a rat. He was pretty aggressive with making guys and got in quite a bit of damage through the rats and Mutavault but I eventually drew a Sphere and a Doom Blade for the Vault. The game wrapped up with an Aetherling. William didn't draw any Underworld Connections this match which I credit with me winning relatively easily.
Game 2 - I mulliganed to 6 on the draw and kept 3 scry lands. William Duressed and then Thoughtseized me while my deck failed to supply any more lands beyond the ones in my opening hand. William had also sideboarded into Lifebane Zombies which I was happy to see so I could play around it in game 3. I died pretty quickly.
Game 3 - I was the one with the Thoughtseize this game and I got to follow it up with a Sin Collector as well. William had a Connections this game as well as a Whip and 2 Gray Merchants. I jammed turn 5 and turn 6 Blood Barons with a Sin Collector to deal with the first Devour Flesh but I barely kept my head above water once the Merchants started to get cast. I was in an awkward spot where I couldn't afford to kill a Merchant while the Whip was in play and we just continued to trade hits until I drew a Sphere for his Whip. William correctly dropped a Desecration Demon and a Pack Rat onto the board to force me to play Supreme Verdict and we were back to parity. He played a second and then third Underworld Connections, digging for something, but my end of turn Revelation found a Detention Sphere for all 3 of them. We ended up running right down to the wire but my Aetherling a Blood Baron did just enough damage to kill William on turn 5 of turns. Like I said, epic!
Round 5 - Tony Derbigny w/ GB Kibler
Tony is one of the owners of a sweet gaming store in Prairieville, Gamer's Paradise, and he's usually so busy running the store that it's a rare sight to see him in a tournament. Obviously he needs to play more often since he was one of the last 4 undefeated players at this point in the tournament!
Game 1 - Tony put me under quite a bit of pressure with Dreg Manglers and Varolz. I had to use a removal spell on his end step to feed into Supreme Verdict on Varolz, a play I'm not sure was even correct. Abrupt Decay on a Sphere brought back a different Mangler but an Aetherling stabilized me just in time and I was able to follow it up with a second Verdict.
Game 2 - Tony straight up ran me over in this game, Elvish Mystic brought out a turn 2 Mangler and then a second one jumped into the mix. I barely had time to play a 4th land before I was dead.
Game 3 - I had a little more removal this game and was on the play so I bought myself enough time to land a Blood Baron. I had already taken a bit of damage and Tony was very close to racing my Vamper but a second one came off the top of my deck just in time to bring me out of range.
Round 6 - Matt Young w/ Esper Control
Matt is a constant face around the top table at local tournaments and I was happy to be able to intentionally draw with him as the last 2 undefeated players.
Round 7 - Dylan Leblanc w/ Gr Devotion
Dylan was a new face to me but he was incredibly excited to draw with me into the Top 8. One of his friends was standing close and they both explained to me that this was Dylan's first big tournament and he couldn't believe how well he was doing. I congratulated him and wished him good luck in the top 8!
I got to walk around a bit during the last 2 rounds and several of my friends were still in the running so I got to see some of the other players going into the top 8 while I checked up on them. After everything shook out and the few who were forced to play out the last round finished up I was in 3rd place after Swiss, this gave me a big advantage in my Quarterfinals matchup...
TOP 8!
Quarterfinals - Tom Ross w/ Boss Sligh
I don't know Tom personally but I know he's been getting a lot of press lately for playing a very fast red deck. He was super nice to me before our games, wished me luck and came off like a generally good guy. It was a big deal for me to be on the play in this matchup and I think that was one of the only reasons I even stood a chance in game 1.
Game 1 - I kept a pretty good hand with Devour Flesh, Detention Sphere and Supreme Verdict in it and had a good mix of tapped lands and basics so I didn't murder myself just playing lands. I was able to nab 2 Foundry Street Denizens with a Detention Sphere and then used the Devour Flesh and a Doom Blade to deal with the rest of Tom's creatures. He must have thought I was playing as if I didn't have a Supreme Verdict because Tom looked surprised when I wrathed a squad of dudes he dumped onto the board. Tom scooped to an Aetherling.
Game 2 - I mulled to 6 and ended up keeping a pretty slow hand with Jace and a Supreme Verdict. Tom cracked me up by saying "I don't usually do this, but I'm going to mulligan." He opened on a 1 drop of some kind but didn't follow it up with anything...not even a land. I was able to Charm his guy to the top and then saw his hand with Sin Collector. Tom eventually drew a second land and started to add to the board but it had taken him too long and Jace, Blood Baron and Aetherling won for me.
Tom shook my hand and congratulated me but I could tell he was frustrated. I wanted to try and comfort him somehow, show him how prepared I was for the matchup, but I know if I'd been in his shoes none of that would've helped.
Semi-Finals - Matt Young w/ Esper Control
Matt and I were both done with our Quarterfinals match before any of the others had finished so we were able to just head-first into the mirror, something I'm sure neither of us was particularly thrilled with. While we were drawing opening hands Matt must have spaced out because he drew 9 cards straight into his hand. I felt bad about it but we had to call the judge over because I had no idea how it was supposed to be resolved. As it turns out, Matt was essentially forced to mulligan down to 6 on the play. I always feel a bit awkward in these spots, it was obvious that Matt wasn't trying to actually start the game with 9 cards and I know was pretty aggravated with himself, but I'm not sure of any other way I could've handled it.
Game 1 - Matt's mulligan hurt him a bit as he stalled at 4 lands while I continued to hit them. I jammed a Blood Baron on turn 6, hoping to get it countered. Matt wrathed it instead which allowed me to resolve a Jace with Dissolve mana up. Jace fed me spells while Matt had to react to what I was doing. Eventually I played an Aetherling with Dissolve up and Matt scooped. I was pretty surprised to see a main deck Sin Collector from Matt before the game ended!
Game 2 - I had an excellent draw for post board games casting Thoughtseize on turn 2 into 2 Sin Collectors on turn 3 and 4. Not only did they clear the way of 2 counterspells but they did quite a bit of damage on their own. I added a Blood Baron when Matt was forced to Hero's Downfall one of the Collectors and beat Matt down to 4 life before he cast Supreme Verdict. We spent several turns drawing, playing lands and passing before Matt cast a Sphinx's Revelation for the full amount. I proved that I was just drawing super hot by casting a Revelation for all but 2 and finding a Negate for his Revelation. Eventually I found an Aetherling to finish things and move on to the Finals.
Finals - Jared LaCombe w/ Rw Devotion
Jared and I have met once before, in the Quarterfinals of tcgplayer States a little while back, and I joked with him that I was there to take my revenge. Jared's been on a bit of a tear lately, first winning the Theros Playset tournament at Gamer's Paradise, then winning States and then taking 2nd at an SCQ event and I definitely wasn't as confident as I tried to sound. We chatted a bit and worked out a prize split, each of us was willing to take half of the Modern Masters box and half of the Theros box, but we decided to play for the title itself.
Game 1 - Jared ran me over with small Red guys into Fanatic of Mogis and Stormbreath Dragon while a was stuck at 1 blue source and only 4 lands for as long as it took to die. By the time Jared swung in for lethal I was holding 3 Jaces, Aetherling and a Sphinx's Revelation that I couldn't cast.
Game 2 - I opened on a Thoughtseize that probably won me the game, I took a Burning Tree out of a hand of 2 of them, 2 Fanatics and a Nykthos. Jared was light on lands and I killed his Burning Tree to prevent Nykthos shennanigans. This game dragged out quite a while and Jared looked quite miserable as I dug for a way to kill him after stabilizing. I was pretty scared of being burned out since I gave him so much time to draw into burn but he never found anything but creatures I could blow up and Pack Rat eventually showed his face to do the deed.
Game 3 - I again opened on a Thoughtseize and saw a hand of 2 Boros Charms, Warleader's Helix, Stormbreath Dragon and Fanatic as well as a Nykthos. This was my turn 2 on the draw and I actually felt pretty good there despite the amount of damage his hand represented. I took one of the Boros Charms and Jared used the other on my end-stop but didn't have anything to follow it up with on his turn 3. I was forced to sit on a Dissolve for several turns and didn't have a 4th blue source which stranded a Jace in hand for quite a long time. Both Jared and I missed land drops for a few turns and he played an Aurelia's Fury on my upkeep the turn before he would've been forced to discard. I re-read the card and cast Pack Rat with Dissolve mana up. I had to be very careful not to go bonkers on Pack Rat, especially after Jared cast Mizzium Mortars on my Rat forcing me to make another one which allowed a Stormbreath Dragon to whack me. Luckily I had a removal spell for the Dragon when I untapped and after a few more turns of slowly ratting it up I swung for the win.
Jared was pretty frustrated with his draws that game and immediately questioned his buddies about whether or not there was a better way he could've played the last game. I was pretty impressed with that as it shows someone who wants to improve rather that someone who just wants to complain when things don't go his way. I was congratulated by my buddies and April from Rocket's Hideout as well as basically everyone I walked past. April brought me into the main room of Big Easy to take a picture and Steve smiled big at me as I walked by. Everyone was so nice!
I got to spend the rest of the night amongst the Slidellians who'd come out and we had a blast eating, drinking and generally being merry at The Chimes which I'd never been to before. The food was good and they had a ridiculously large menu of beverages to choose from, definitely recommended if you're in the area.
In the end I felt very fortunate to have won the event outright, especially through the lineup of players that I had to face. I had a great time and want to encourage anyone who's able to visit Big Easy's new location right around the corner from 2nd and Charles in Covington. Also, if you're around Baton Rouge you should go to Rocket's Hideout or Gamer's Paradise a little farther away and if you're in Metairie you better go to +1 Gaming. For that matter, if you end up in my neck of the woods you need to visit Magic Comics and Hobbies in Slidell. Literally EVERYONE EVERYWHERE is super cool and super nice.
If you like what you read please check back with me when you get a chance. I try to write here at least twice a week and more often when I have something interesting to say. If you've got any suggestions please let me know, I like getting better at things.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
FNM @ Magic Comics, November 15th, 2013
If you read my last post then know I was floundering about trying to figure out what deck to play after a pretty bad run with Mono Blue.
I got to watch some very nice videos at channelfireball.com of Luis Scott-Vargas playing Esper Control in a daily event. LSV is always entertaining to watch and listening to him talk through his lines of play and battle back from bad situations put the bug in me to play his deck. I sleeved up LSV's list with 2 main deck differences: 1 Prophetic Prism over 1 Divination and 1 Plains over 1 Swamp. The Prism was just something I wanted to try while the land swap was based on me playing Last Breath over Pharika's Cure in the board.
2 Aetherling
2 Thoughtseize
3 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Dissolve
4 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Jace, Architect
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Prophetic Prism
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of BW
4 Temple of BU
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
Sideboard
2 Blood Baron
1 Pack Rat
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Gainsay
2 Negate
3 Last Breath
2 Sin Collector
I spent most of the early afternoon sorting Magical Cards with Brian so there was actual zero playtesting before the tournament. I wasn't even sure I wanted to play the deck, after all I fully expected to play FNM with Esper, hate it and then end up running Mono Blue again in the future, so what was the point? In the end Brian convinced me I should at least try Esper, get it out of my system, so I wouldn't wonder.
The turnout was somewhat low, I think just under 20, and there were 4 rounds of happenings.
Round 1 - Brian K w/ Mono Blue
It was pretty funny to get paired up with Brian after discussing Esper with him all afternoon. It was even funnier that up until that tournament we were running the opposite decks, him on Esper and me on Blue.
Game 1 - Brian came out of the gates pretty quickly with a pair of Cloudfins into a Master of Waves that evolved both of them twice. He played very well, not overextending into Supreme Verdict until I had cast 2 of them. Luckily for me I had drawn 3 of them and that was just about all she wrote.
Game 2 - I had a very strong draw with multiple pieces of disruption to snag his counterspells while Brian was struggling to get anything going. I was able to counter both of his Jaces and resolve a mid-sized Revelation before jamming an Aetherling to seal the deal.
Round 2 - Nick M w/ Rw Devotion
After getting clobbered by Nick on Wednesday I definitely hoped pretty hard to get my revenge.
Game 1 - I don't remember a lot about this game but I do know I lost it. I vaguely remember missing land drops but that may not be what happened as the Rw deck is very explosive and the Esper deck has to draw just right to win game 1.
Game 2 - I was able to keep Nick's board small by playing out spot removal as he played guys. This kept his Fanatics unimpressive and prevented any stupidity from Nykthos. Jace kept me in cards and Aetherling brought it home.
Game 3 - I again played my removal spells as Nick played dudes. I jammed Blood Barons on 5 and 6 before Mizzium Mortars overload was possible and then rode them to victory with Dissolve in hand.
Round 3 - Kyle C w/ Naya Burn
Kyle was riding high and ready to burn my face off. His deck is really neat, it runs Young Pyromancer, Boros Reckoner and Loxodon Smiter along with Advent of the Wurm and a metric ton of burn spells. He said he didn't feel good about the matchup but that much direct damage did not leave me feeling comfortable.
Game 1 - Kyle didn't have a blazing fast start and I was able to answer his creatures with my various removals. All the while my life total was slowly ticking downwards as Kyle tossed Magma Jets, Boros Charms and Warleader's Helixes at my noggin. I was able to resolve a Revelation for 4 and Kyle scooped 'em up after a Revelation for 7.
Game 2 - I jammed a turn 5 Blood Baron and was lucky enough to have a Doom Blade for the Advent of the Wurm I attacked into the next turn. Kyle didn't draw a Mizzium Mortars in time and the Vamper did what he does.
Round 4 - Brian H w/ American Spellheart
Brian was smiling just about the biggest I've ever seen when he came over to tell me we were the last undefeated players. We intentionally drew and I was able to continue a commander game with Kyle that had started in the middle of Round 3.
In lieu of the Round 4 report, I'm going to tell you about the 2 Commander games I played with Kyle. I was using Norin the Wary and Kyle had Sedris, Traitor King (The Entertainer).
Game 1 - I played a turn 2 Mind Stone into a turn 3 Ruination and Kyle scooped 'em up. He was pretty annoyed by it because I usually don't cast Ruination in our group games but all's fair in 1 vs 1!
Game 2 - Kyle opened on Sol Ring into Phyrexian Metamorph on Sol Ring which I promptly Shattering Spreed, annoying him again.
Despite stopping Kyle from having access to 7 mana on turn 3 (or really BECAUSE of this) we ended up having a pretty epic game.
Kyle had a Tamiyo and a Jace, the Mind Sculptor going while I had Conjuror's Closet and Siege Gang Commander as well as Kiki Jiki in play for a little while.
I spent quite a few turns dealing with the Planeswalkers before a Living Death cleared the board. Relic of Progenitus turned it into only a wrath but it still worked out well for Kyle.
I had been using Pyxis of Pandemonium since about turn 3 and I finally activated it, netting quite a pile of sweet permanents for Kyle as well as some small, decent, dudes and a Duplicant for me. We both also got a Warstorm Surge.
Luckily for me Duplicant + Conjurer's Closet is kind of stupid and I killed off most of Kyle's dudes and we were back to parity.
Unluckily, Kyle had drawn a billion cards off of Tamiyo before she died and he was able to off me by simply playing dudes and doming me with the Warstorm Surge he got from the Pyxis.
It was really an awesome game, better than just about any 1 vs 1 game I've ever been in on.
So in the end Brian H and I split 1st and 2nd and I absolutely loved my time playing Esper. Despite playing 3 colors and a lot more expensive spells I was never or rarely mana screwed, something I can't say at all for the Mono Blue deck, and I decided I was going to run it back for the SLAM Series Qualifier at Big Easy the next day.
I'll be back as soon as I can with that report, obviously the event is over and I don't want to keep my adoring public waiting too long.
Tune in next time!
I got to watch some very nice videos at channelfireball.com of Luis Scott-Vargas playing Esper Control in a daily event. LSV is always entertaining to watch and listening to him talk through his lines of play and battle back from bad situations put the bug in me to play his deck. I sleeved up LSV's list with 2 main deck differences: 1 Prophetic Prism over 1 Divination and 1 Plains over 1 Swamp. The Prism was just something I wanted to try while the land swap was based on me playing Last Breath over Pharika's Cure in the board.
2 Aetherling
2 Thoughtseize
3 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Dissolve
4 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Jace, Architect
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Prophetic Prism
4 Island
3 Plains
4 Godless Shrine
4 Temple of BW
4 Temple of BU
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Watery Grave
Sideboard
2 Blood Baron
1 Pack Rat
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Hero's Downfall
2 Gainsay
2 Negate
3 Last Breath
2 Sin Collector
I spent most of the early afternoon sorting Magical Cards with Brian so there was actual zero playtesting before the tournament. I wasn't even sure I wanted to play the deck, after all I fully expected to play FNM with Esper, hate it and then end up running Mono Blue again in the future, so what was the point? In the end Brian convinced me I should at least try Esper, get it out of my system, so I wouldn't wonder.
The turnout was somewhat low, I think just under 20, and there were 4 rounds of happenings.
Round 1 - Brian K w/ Mono Blue
It was pretty funny to get paired up with Brian after discussing Esper with him all afternoon. It was even funnier that up until that tournament we were running the opposite decks, him on Esper and me on Blue.
Game 1 - Brian came out of the gates pretty quickly with a pair of Cloudfins into a Master of Waves that evolved both of them twice. He played very well, not overextending into Supreme Verdict until I had cast 2 of them. Luckily for me I had drawn 3 of them and that was just about all she wrote.
Game 2 - I had a very strong draw with multiple pieces of disruption to snag his counterspells while Brian was struggling to get anything going. I was able to counter both of his Jaces and resolve a mid-sized Revelation before jamming an Aetherling to seal the deal.
Round 2 - Nick M w/ Rw Devotion
After getting clobbered by Nick on Wednesday I definitely hoped pretty hard to get my revenge.
Game 1 - I don't remember a lot about this game but I do know I lost it. I vaguely remember missing land drops but that may not be what happened as the Rw deck is very explosive and the Esper deck has to draw just right to win game 1.
Game 2 - I was able to keep Nick's board small by playing out spot removal as he played guys. This kept his Fanatics unimpressive and prevented any stupidity from Nykthos. Jace kept me in cards and Aetherling brought it home.
Game 3 - I again played my removal spells as Nick played dudes. I jammed Blood Barons on 5 and 6 before Mizzium Mortars overload was possible and then rode them to victory with Dissolve in hand.
Round 3 - Kyle C w/ Naya Burn
Kyle was riding high and ready to burn my face off. His deck is really neat, it runs Young Pyromancer, Boros Reckoner and Loxodon Smiter along with Advent of the Wurm and a metric ton of burn spells. He said he didn't feel good about the matchup but that much direct damage did not leave me feeling comfortable.
Game 1 - Kyle didn't have a blazing fast start and I was able to answer his creatures with my various removals. All the while my life total was slowly ticking downwards as Kyle tossed Magma Jets, Boros Charms and Warleader's Helixes at my noggin. I was able to resolve a Revelation for 4 and Kyle scooped 'em up after a Revelation for 7.
Game 2 - I jammed a turn 5 Blood Baron and was lucky enough to have a Doom Blade for the Advent of the Wurm I attacked into the next turn. Kyle didn't draw a Mizzium Mortars in time and the Vamper did what he does.
Round 4 - Brian H w/ American Spellheart
Brian was smiling just about the biggest I've ever seen when he came over to tell me we were the last undefeated players. We intentionally drew and I was able to continue a commander game with Kyle that had started in the middle of Round 3.
In lieu of the Round 4 report, I'm going to tell you about the 2 Commander games I played with Kyle. I was using Norin the Wary and Kyle had Sedris, Traitor King (The Entertainer).
Game 1 - I played a turn 2 Mind Stone into a turn 3 Ruination and Kyle scooped 'em up. He was pretty annoyed by it because I usually don't cast Ruination in our group games but all's fair in 1 vs 1!
Game 2 - Kyle opened on Sol Ring into Phyrexian Metamorph on Sol Ring which I promptly Shattering Spreed, annoying him again.
Despite stopping Kyle from having access to 7 mana on turn 3 (or really BECAUSE of this) we ended up having a pretty epic game.
Kyle had a Tamiyo and a Jace, the Mind Sculptor going while I had Conjuror's Closet and Siege Gang Commander as well as Kiki Jiki in play for a little while.
I spent quite a few turns dealing with the Planeswalkers before a Living Death cleared the board. Relic of Progenitus turned it into only a wrath but it still worked out well for Kyle.
I had been using Pyxis of Pandemonium since about turn 3 and I finally activated it, netting quite a pile of sweet permanents for Kyle as well as some small, decent, dudes and a Duplicant for me. We both also got a Warstorm Surge.
Luckily for me Duplicant + Conjurer's Closet is kind of stupid and I killed off most of Kyle's dudes and we were back to parity.
Unluckily, Kyle had drawn a billion cards off of Tamiyo before she died and he was able to off me by simply playing dudes and doming me with the Warstorm Surge he got from the Pyxis.
It was really an awesome game, better than just about any 1 vs 1 game I've ever been in on.
So in the end Brian H and I split 1st and 2nd and I absolutely loved my time playing Esper. Despite playing 3 colors and a lot more expensive spells I was never or rarely mana screwed, something I can't say at all for the Mono Blue deck, and I decided I was going to run it back for the SLAM Series Qualifier at Big Easy the next day.
I'll be back as soon as I can with that report, obviously the event is over and I don't want to keep my adoring public waiting too long.
Tune in next time!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
WNM @ Magic Comics, November 13, 2013
The time has come for another trip into my extensive ego.
Time to delve deeply and tread lightly as we unearth the happenings of a time when I lead the forces of Thassa into battle against the unwashed hordes of the enemy.
I heard tell of successful campaigns waged by the mage "Sam Pardee" in the service of the Lady Thassa in which a technique of Domestication was employed to turn the enemy to the service of the blue. To make room for this advancement in technology the arrogant Planeswalker Jace was moved fully to the reserves to be called upon should we encounter an enemy that he could excel against. In addition, a pair of Shapeshifters from the Aether were employed to shore up our weaknesses to Esper mages.
I arrived on the field of battle a good time before the scheduled beginning of hostilities. I spent the spare hours in practice skirmishes with some of the less vile mages in attendance, calling on the strength of Norin the Wary to bring Chaos to the room. Alas, an Elemental from the Maelstrom was better suited to the chaos in the room and I was shortly crushed beneath the feet, hooves and flowing energy of monstrosities it had found while wandering.
Just as I had finished readying myself for a follow up battle the Organizer of the evening's festivities announced the commencement of the event. He bellowed the names of our opponents and made known that there would be a total of 4 rounds of merriment this night. Each round would be decided by a best of 3 engagement between 2 mages, chosen by a magical box known as a "Compyutor".
Enemy Number 1 - Travis and his filthy Red and Black minions
Travis is a mage who does not consistently travel to our fair region. He treks from the far land of Covington with his blood relative Grant and he is well met.
Our first fracas was resolved by a Fanatical minotaur and a zombified Merchant who both caused me great harm upon their arrival. I had poorly instructed my Wierds earlier in the battle, not realizing that they were able to defend against some of the intimidating creatures that Travis sent my way. Had my frosty minions intercepted Travis' cackling demon I may have survived long enough to crush him with a legion of Elementals.
The second of our scuffles fell to me as a freakish raptor I encountered while in Ravnica grew to monstrous size, feeding off of the energy of my ground troops. I was able to protect myself from Travis and his creatures, even employing the Domestication technique to provide myself with a blocker who would never be intimidated. Eventually Thassa herself showed up and hid my troops in a veil of mist to sneak through the final blow.
The final battle of the match played out similarly to the second, though my thoughts felt scrambled and my troops were slow to arrive to the field. A specter was my first attendant but he was swiftly joined my a Domesticated creature of Travis' army. I had taken quite a bit of damage myself in the time before I could find my forces and was in danger of outright death should one of those blasted zombie merchants arrive to join with the one already in play. Luckily I remembered an obscure spell from the mage Pardee's arsenal, a wicked Curse that turned zombie into pig just in the nick of time. Travis did indeed call upon a second Merchant but it was not enough thanks to my Curse.
Enemy Number 2 - The King and his explosive menagerie of Green.
This mage is known only as The King and he is renowned for his mastery of the denizens of the Forest.
I claimed victory in our first encounter by summoning a swarm of Cloudfins and hindering his accelerated growth with a merfolk of the Tidebinder guild. My watery minions swept in for the kill just as The King called upon Polukranos. My troops showed true Devotion to Thassa and her cause, throwing themselves upon the great World Eater and sacrificing their lives to end the conflict before anything truly monstrous happened.
Our second dance went The King's way, his battle plan was far too swift for me to react to. A cursed satyr and a pair of shamans prayed at the Shrine of Nyx, calling a colossal Hydra out of the mist that shrugged off all of my spells. I may have been able to hold back the lone Hydra for a time but he was swiftly joined by the World Eater himself who consumed any hope I had of survival.
The war with The King came down to a final clash, one that sadly fell in his favor. Though I poured on the fury of Thassa it was not long before another of his blasted satyrs was joined by elves and shamans at Nykthos. The Planeswalker Garruk brought along some of his woodland friends and, as has become a pattern in these battles, Polukranos slammed the final nail in my coffin.
Enemy Number 3 - Kyle with his pure black soul.
Kyle is a follower of the dark God Erebos and, despite the darkness in his heart, is an honorable opponent to duel.
I overcame Kyle's flurry of death spells with just the right mixture of Birds, Raptors and Specters. Despite him seizing my deepest thoughts, Kyle was caught off guard when I employed the Domestication incantation on his Nightveil Specter. This turned the game in my favor and allowed me to claim the last bits of his strength before I ran out of creatures to feed to his terrifying demon.
Similarly, my small forces overwhelmed Kyle in our second encounter and when Thassa sent aid through her Bident it became impossible for him to match my devoted minions with words of death and decay.
Enemy Number 4 - Nicholas, devoted to Pink.
Alas, this final skirmish was not to be one of interest. Nicholas assaulted me with quick creatures, their hatred burning brightly, and I could not mount a strong enough resistance through his fiery mortars to stem the bleeding. Try as might, all I could think of were deserted Islands, bereft of creatures, and soon I was as lifeless as they.
I was determined going into our second battle not to focus so much on the Islands and, though I was successful in that, it resulted in my undoing. I became so focused on the powerful things I planned to use against Nicholas that I failed to summon enough Islands to bring them to life. Eventually a furious minotaur crushed the life out of me while I stared helpless at the arsenal unused in my mind.
I stand a frustrated wizard today, unsure of my future path and questioning my devotion to Thassa. Though surely some of my current state can be blamed on my own actions I know that largely the events of the tournament of mages were out of my hands. Assuredly questioning one's allegiance to a God is not the state one aims for just before a large gathering of Planeswalkers, but even so it is the where I find myself. Is it time to abandon the ways of the sea for the heated passions of Purphoros? Perhaps a more controlling path would be wise.
I must make my choice, for in less than 3 moons I will stride into a war amongst the best players in the region. I must claim the title in the kingdom of Big Easy Comics, I must become the SLAMpion.
Time to delve deeply and tread lightly as we unearth the happenings of a time when I lead the forces of Thassa into battle against the unwashed hordes of the enemy.
I heard tell of successful campaigns waged by the mage "Sam Pardee" in the service of the Lady Thassa in which a technique of Domestication was employed to turn the enemy to the service of the blue. To make room for this advancement in technology the arrogant Planeswalker Jace was moved fully to the reserves to be called upon should we encounter an enemy that he could excel against. In addition, a pair of Shapeshifters from the Aether were employed to shore up our weaknesses to Esper mages.
I arrived on the field of battle a good time before the scheduled beginning of hostilities. I spent the spare hours in practice skirmishes with some of the less vile mages in attendance, calling on the strength of Norin the Wary to bring Chaos to the room. Alas, an Elemental from the Maelstrom was better suited to the chaos in the room and I was shortly crushed beneath the feet, hooves and flowing energy of monstrosities it had found while wandering.
Just as I had finished readying myself for a follow up battle the Organizer of the evening's festivities announced the commencement of the event. He bellowed the names of our opponents and made known that there would be a total of 4 rounds of merriment this night. Each round would be decided by a best of 3 engagement between 2 mages, chosen by a magical box known as a "Compyutor".
Enemy Number 1 - Travis and his filthy Red and Black minions
Travis is a mage who does not consistently travel to our fair region. He treks from the far land of Covington with his blood relative Grant and he is well met.
Our first fracas was resolved by a Fanatical minotaur and a zombified Merchant who both caused me great harm upon their arrival. I had poorly instructed my Wierds earlier in the battle, not realizing that they were able to defend against some of the intimidating creatures that Travis sent my way. Had my frosty minions intercepted Travis' cackling demon I may have survived long enough to crush him with a legion of Elementals.
The second of our scuffles fell to me as a freakish raptor I encountered while in Ravnica grew to monstrous size, feeding off of the energy of my ground troops. I was able to protect myself from Travis and his creatures, even employing the Domestication technique to provide myself with a blocker who would never be intimidated. Eventually Thassa herself showed up and hid my troops in a veil of mist to sneak through the final blow.
The final battle of the match played out similarly to the second, though my thoughts felt scrambled and my troops were slow to arrive to the field. A specter was my first attendant but he was swiftly joined my a Domesticated creature of Travis' army. I had taken quite a bit of damage myself in the time before I could find my forces and was in danger of outright death should one of those blasted zombie merchants arrive to join with the one already in play. Luckily I remembered an obscure spell from the mage Pardee's arsenal, a wicked Curse that turned zombie into pig just in the nick of time. Travis did indeed call upon a second Merchant but it was not enough thanks to my Curse.
Enemy Number 2 - The King and his explosive menagerie of Green.
This mage is known only as The King and he is renowned for his mastery of the denizens of the Forest.
I claimed victory in our first encounter by summoning a swarm of Cloudfins and hindering his accelerated growth with a merfolk of the Tidebinder guild. My watery minions swept in for the kill just as The King called upon Polukranos. My troops showed true Devotion to Thassa and her cause, throwing themselves upon the great World Eater and sacrificing their lives to end the conflict before anything truly monstrous happened.
Our second dance went The King's way, his battle plan was far too swift for me to react to. A cursed satyr and a pair of shamans prayed at the Shrine of Nyx, calling a colossal Hydra out of the mist that shrugged off all of my spells. I may have been able to hold back the lone Hydra for a time but he was swiftly joined by the World Eater himself who consumed any hope I had of survival.
The war with The King came down to a final clash, one that sadly fell in his favor. Though I poured on the fury of Thassa it was not long before another of his blasted satyrs was joined by elves and shamans at Nykthos. The Planeswalker Garruk brought along some of his woodland friends and, as has become a pattern in these battles, Polukranos slammed the final nail in my coffin.
Enemy Number 3 - Kyle with his pure black soul.
Kyle is a follower of the dark God Erebos and, despite the darkness in his heart, is an honorable opponent to duel.
I overcame Kyle's flurry of death spells with just the right mixture of Birds, Raptors and Specters. Despite him seizing my deepest thoughts, Kyle was caught off guard when I employed the Domestication incantation on his Nightveil Specter. This turned the game in my favor and allowed me to claim the last bits of his strength before I ran out of creatures to feed to his terrifying demon.
Similarly, my small forces overwhelmed Kyle in our second encounter and when Thassa sent aid through her Bident it became impossible for him to match my devoted minions with words of death and decay.
Enemy Number 4 - Nicholas, devoted to Pink.
Alas, this final skirmish was not to be one of interest. Nicholas assaulted me with quick creatures, their hatred burning brightly, and I could not mount a strong enough resistance through his fiery mortars to stem the bleeding. Try as might, all I could think of were deserted Islands, bereft of creatures, and soon I was as lifeless as they.
I was determined going into our second battle not to focus so much on the Islands and, though I was successful in that, it resulted in my undoing. I became so focused on the powerful things I planned to use against Nicholas that I failed to summon enough Islands to bring them to life. Eventually a furious minotaur crushed the life out of me while I stared helpless at the arsenal unused in my mind.
I stand a frustrated wizard today, unsure of my future path and questioning my devotion to Thassa. Though surely some of my current state can be blamed on my own actions I know that largely the events of the tournament of mages were out of my hands. Assuredly questioning one's allegiance to a God is not the state one aims for just before a large gathering of Planeswalkers, but even so it is the where I find myself. Is it time to abandon the ways of the sea for the heated passions of Purphoros? Perhaps a more controlling path would be wise.
I must make my choice, for in less than 3 moons I will stride into a war amongst the best players in the region. I must claim the title in the kingdom of Big Easy Comics, I must become the SLAMpion.
Sunday, November 10, 2013
FNM @ Magic Comics and Hobbies, November 8th 2013
This past Friday was another great day filled with fun times and Magical Cards.
I got see Thor 2 with a bunch of Magical folks (really enjoyed it, good stuff!), hung out for several hours playing Commander and even picked up a pile of foils to distribute across several Commander decks. But that's jumping ahead a bit!
I decided to play the Mono Blue deck again because it's still my favorite deck in standard. I did waffle back a forth a little before the tournament between 17 land mono red, Red Devotion and the Blue deck but settled on Thassa's Army in the end.
My list changed a little from last week based on the results of the tcgplayer 5k tournament last week. The most exciting addition is Curse of the Swine in the sideboard, take a look.
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Tidebinder
4 Frostburn
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa
4 Master of Waves
2 Bident
1 Domestication
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
1 Jace, Archie
2 Jace, Millhouse
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Negate
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Gainsay
1 Domestication
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Bident
I really liked the looks of Domestication and who can turn down the opportunity to cast Curse of the Swine? I was a little hesitant to play a Domestication in the main deck since it could end up dead but I trusted in the people who are smarter than me a sleeved it up as is. The only difference between our lists is the 2 Ratchet Bombs I played over the 4th Gainsay and something I can't recall at the moment. There have been a lot of Pack Rats floating around lately and the Bombs give me a decent answer to them as well as random things like Mistcutter Hydras.
Before the Standard tournament started I got to play 2 large, 6-player Commander games with some friends. I typically shy away from games with more than 4 players because they take FOREVER but there was no one else to battle when the 1st started and so I trudged in. I battle with my current favorite Commander Teysa, Orzhov Scion. It's a lot of fun because it's just a pile of small creatures and sacrifice effects with ways to punish the opponent when my fellas die. Think Grave Pact, Blood Artist and the like.
The first 6-player game was dominated by a Maelstrom Wanderer player who set up Prophet of Kuphrix and Etherium Horn Sorcerer to cascade on each player's turn. He had some very fortunate cascades (Clone to copy a GIsela was particularly good) and stomped us all out of the game pretty swiftly.
Since that one actually finished we decided to play another game with a couple of players bowing out for others. The Maelstrom Wanderer player kept a land-light hand and never really got into this game, he felt it was karma paying him back for the previous one, but everyone else contributed at some point or another. I came out of the gates strongest, expected since so many of my creatures are cheap, but stopped drawing lands and could never keep up with the others past the first board wipe. The Jund player, I hesitate to call it a Xira Arien deck since she only showed up once and briefly, abused the hell out of a Supulchral Primordial as well as a Diluvian to create some absolutely ridiculous swings of board. Living Death went off multiple times. Decree of Pain was cast twice. It was a truly epic game.
In the end it was Kyle with Sedris, Josh with Cromat and myself with Teysa facing off. I was at a pretty healthy life total thanks to Kokusho coming back a lot (Living Death, Karmic Guide) and had a few creatures on the board including Teysa, Pawn of Ulamog and Blood Artist. Kyle had several planeswalkers ticking up including Nicol Bolas and Jace, The Mind Sculptor. Josh was clinging onto life and harassing Kyle with his commander. None of us could really do much of anything and Kyle was sitting back and protecting his 'walkers. On the turn before Kyle would've been able to ultimate Nicol AND Jace I drew into Viscera Seer which allowed me to kill both opponents through Blood Artist triggers. Whoa!
After that wild ride I was ready for some standard!
Round 1 - New Guy who's name I forgot w/ BG Midrange
This guy was brand new and had come with Nick from school. We had talked a little before the tournament and he definitely struck me as good egg. I feel bad that I'm drawing a blank on his name but I don't wanna guess and be wrong.
Game 1 - I mulliganed to 6 and kept Judge, Specter x 2, Mutavault x 2, Island. I ended up drawing several double blue creatures before I drew a second Island and by the time I did it was too late to catch up to the Pack Rat train. I don't know if I was supposed to mulligan to 5 there, it's possible.
I sided in the 3rd Bident and well as the 3rd Rift for Jace and Rapid.
Game 2 - I curved Cloudfin into Weird into Specter into Bident but was in danger of losing for several turns to a Grey Merchant off the top. Pack Rat made a showing but so did Ratchet Bomb to clear the way. I wasn't particularly impressed with the bomb though since it took several turns to deal with the rat and let him get me to a low life total. I managed to pull out the victory on the back of a swarm of dudes.
Game 3 - I kept a hand of 2 Islands and reasonable spells but failed to draw a 3rd land in time to beat the Pack Rat.
I was frustrated that I only got to play 1 actual game of Magic there but it helped to be paired up with a friendly opponent who seemed to genuinely feel bad about it. Mana screw is one of the few things about Magic that truly bothers me because it's generally completely out of my hands to do anything about. Looking at Game 1, I definitely could have mulliganed the hand with 2 Mutavaults but game 3 the hand was 100% a keep, especially on the draw.
Round 2 - Brian H. w/ UB Control
It seems like I've been paired with Brian H in every tournament for a while, I certainly don't mind since he always fun to battle, it's just odd how that works out. Brian and I talked a lot about Pokemon X/Y which I've dipped my toes into. It seems like Brian is a lot more knowledgeable about Pokemon than you'd expect him to be but I have to admit that stuff is fascinating.
Game 1 - I curved out with several 1 drops into Bident and got going way too fast for Brian to keep up. All of his removal was 1-for-1 or just cost a ton of mana and I pulled ahead very far. Master of Waves eventually came down and closed it out.
Game 2 - Brian resisted much better this game by playing Thoughtseize into Doom Blade into Jace. My draw of mostly small guys and counterspells worked out very well and allowed me to ignore the Jace and go for the throat.
Round 3 - Josh G. w/ Mono Red splash white
Josh was playing a Fanatic of Mogis based red deck that used the RW dual lands to allow Boros Charm and Chained to the Rocks. Typically the red decks are a pretty good matchup but fighting against burn is always a pretty scary place to be.
Game 1 - I curved out quickly with multiple Cloudfin Raptors and Frostburn Wierds and was able to top out with Master of Waves. I'm pretty sure Josh can't kill Master in his main deck and I crashed in for the win.
Game 2 - The board bogged down fairly quickly thanks to Frostburn Weird and Tidebinder Mage but I stopped hitting land drops after 2 and stuck there for several turns. Josh also stalled on 2 lands for a turn but hit 3 the next turn for a Chandra's Phoenix. I was holding onto 2 Domestication and a Master of Waves which I was very far from casting and the Phoenix kept smashing me. By the time I drew into the 3rd and then 4th land to Domesticate the Phoenix Josh had a pair of Boros Reckoners and eventually a Fanatic of Mogis to squash me. It's possible that I should have Domesticated the Reckoners since I eventually drew a Nightveil Specter to block the Phoenix but I'm not sure it would have mattered in the long run.
Game 3 - I again stalled on lands, at 3 this time, and got run over by lots of 1 drops into Fanatic of Mogis x 2.
I reported the results of the round and decided to drop from the tournament. After 3 rounds, 2 of which I lost to mana issues, I needed to take a break before I got to aggravated with the deck. Several others were having similar off nights and had dropped so I got to do quite a bit of trading and ended up picking several foils for the Teysa deck. I also got to spend some time looking through the oft-forgotten foil binders at Magic Comics and found some treasure in there too.
Before heading home I also scooped up some fresh sleeves for the Mono Blue deck. As I've mentioned before I'm a bit superstitious when it comes to Magic and I'll blame a bad performance on silly things like which basic lands I'm using as well as worn out sleeves. It's pretty ridiculous at times but I am who I am.
Thanks for reading and please let me know anything I can change to be better.
I got see Thor 2 with a bunch of Magical folks (really enjoyed it, good stuff!), hung out for several hours playing Commander and even picked up a pile of foils to distribute across several Commander decks. But that's jumping ahead a bit!
I decided to play the Mono Blue deck again because it's still my favorite deck in standard. I did waffle back a forth a little before the tournament between 17 land mono red, Red Devotion and the Blue deck but settled on Thassa's Army in the end.
My list changed a little from last week based on the results of the tcgplayer 5k tournament last week. The most exciting addition is Curse of the Swine in the sideboard, take a look.
4 Cloudfin Raptor
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Tidebinder
4 Frostburn
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa
4 Master of Waves
2 Bident
1 Domestication
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
1 Jace, Archie
2 Jace, Millhouse
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Negate
2 Ratchet Bomb
3 Gainsay
1 Domestication
1 Cyclonic Rift
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Bident
I really liked the looks of Domestication and who can turn down the opportunity to cast Curse of the Swine? I was a little hesitant to play a Domestication in the main deck since it could end up dead but I trusted in the people who are smarter than me a sleeved it up as is. The only difference between our lists is the 2 Ratchet Bombs I played over the 4th Gainsay and something I can't recall at the moment. There have been a lot of Pack Rats floating around lately and the Bombs give me a decent answer to them as well as random things like Mistcutter Hydras.
Before the Standard tournament started I got to play 2 large, 6-player Commander games with some friends. I typically shy away from games with more than 4 players because they take FOREVER but there was no one else to battle when the 1st started and so I trudged in. I battle with my current favorite Commander Teysa, Orzhov Scion. It's a lot of fun because it's just a pile of small creatures and sacrifice effects with ways to punish the opponent when my fellas die. Think Grave Pact, Blood Artist and the like.
The first 6-player game was dominated by a Maelstrom Wanderer player who set up Prophet of Kuphrix and Etherium Horn Sorcerer to cascade on each player's turn. He had some very fortunate cascades (Clone to copy a GIsela was particularly good) and stomped us all out of the game pretty swiftly.
Since that one actually finished we decided to play another game with a couple of players bowing out for others. The Maelstrom Wanderer player kept a land-light hand and never really got into this game, he felt it was karma paying him back for the previous one, but everyone else contributed at some point or another. I came out of the gates strongest, expected since so many of my creatures are cheap, but stopped drawing lands and could never keep up with the others past the first board wipe. The Jund player, I hesitate to call it a Xira Arien deck since she only showed up once and briefly, abused the hell out of a Supulchral Primordial as well as a Diluvian to create some absolutely ridiculous swings of board. Living Death went off multiple times. Decree of Pain was cast twice. It was a truly epic game.
In the end it was Kyle with Sedris, Josh with Cromat and myself with Teysa facing off. I was at a pretty healthy life total thanks to Kokusho coming back a lot (Living Death, Karmic Guide) and had a few creatures on the board including Teysa, Pawn of Ulamog and Blood Artist. Kyle had several planeswalkers ticking up including Nicol Bolas and Jace, The Mind Sculptor. Josh was clinging onto life and harassing Kyle with his commander. None of us could really do much of anything and Kyle was sitting back and protecting his 'walkers. On the turn before Kyle would've been able to ultimate Nicol AND Jace I drew into Viscera Seer which allowed me to kill both opponents through Blood Artist triggers. Whoa!
After that wild ride I was ready for some standard!
Round 1 - New Guy who's name I forgot w/ BG Midrange
This guy was brand new and had come with Nick from school. We had talked a little before the tournament and he definitely struck me as good egg. I feel bad that I'm drawing a blank on his name but I don't wanna guess and be wrong.
Game 1 - I mulliganed to 6 and kept Judge, Specter x 2, Mutavault x 2, Island. I ended up drawing several double blue creatures before I drew a second Island and by the time I did it was too late to catch up to the Pack Rat train. I don't know if I was supposed to mulligan to 5 there, it's possible.
I sided in the 3rd Bident and well as the 3rd Rift for Jace and Rapid.
Game 2 - I curved Cloudfin into Weird into Specter into Bident but was in danger of losing for several turns to a Grey Merchant off the top. Pack Rat made a showing but so did Ratchet Bomb to clear the way. I wasn't particularly impressed with the bomb though since it took several turns to deal with the rat and let him get me to a low life total. I managed to pull out the victory on the back of a swarm of dudes.
Game 3 - I kept a hand of 2 Islands and reasonable spells but failed to draw a 3rd land in time to beat the Pack Rat.
I was frustrated that I only got to play 1 actual game of Magic there but it helped to be paired up with a friendly opponent who seemed to genuinely feel bad about it. Mana screw is one of the few things about Magic that truly bothers me because it's generally completely out of my hands to do anything about. Looking at Game 1, I definitely could have mulliganed the hand with 2 Mutavaults but game 3 the hand was 100% a keep, especially on the draw.
Round 2 - Brian H. w/ UB Control
It seems like I've been paired with Brian H in every tournament for a while, I certainly don't mind since he always fun to battle, it's just odd how that works out. Brian and I talked a lot about Pokemon X/Y which I've dipped my toes into. It seems like Brian is a lot more knowledgeable about Pokemon than you'd expect him to be but I have to admit that stuff is fascinating.
Game 1 - I curved out with several 1 drops into Bident and got going way too fast for Brian to keep up. All of his removal was 1-for-1 or just cost a ton of mana and I pulled ahead very far. Master of Waves eventually came down and closed it out.
Game 2 - Brian resisted much better this game by playing Thoughtseize into Doom Blade into Jace. My draw of mostly small guys and counterspells worked out very well and allowed me to ignore the Jace and go for the throat.
Round 3 - Josh G. w/ Mono Red splash white
Josh was playing a Fanatic of Mogis based red deck that used the RW dual lands to allow Boros Charm and Chained to the Rocks. Typically the red decks are a pretty good matchup but fighting against burn is always a pretty scary place to be.
Game 1 - I curved out quickly with multiple Cloudfin Raptors and Frostburn Wierds and was able to top out with Master of Waves. I'm pretty sure Josh can't kill Master in his main deck and I crashed in for the win.
Game 2 - The board bogged down fairly quickly thanks to Frostburn Weird and Tidebinder Mage but I stopped hitting land drops after 2 and stuck there for several turns. Josh also stalled on 2 lands for a turn but hit 3 the next turn for a Chandra's Phoenix. I was holding onto 2 Domestication and a Master of Waves which I was very far from casting and the Phoenix kept smashing me. By the time I drew into the 3rd and then 4th land to Domesticate the Phoenix Josh had a pair of Boros Reckoners and eventually a Fanatic of Mogis to squash me. It's possible that I should have Domesticated the Reckoners since I eventually drew a Nightveil Specter to block the Phoenix but I'm not sure it would have mattered in the long run.
Game 3 - I again stalled on lands, at 3 this time, and got run over by lots of 1 drops into Fanatic of Mogis x 2.
I reported the results of the round and decided to drop from the tournament. After 3 rounds, 2 of which I lost to mana issues, I needed to take a break before I got to aggravated with the deck. Several others were having similar off nights and had dropped so I got to do quite a bit of trading and ended up picking several foils for the Teysa deck. I also got to spend some time looking through the oft-forgotten foil binders at Magic Comics and found some treasure in there too.
Before heading home I also scooped up some fresh sleeves for the Mono Blue deck. As I've mentioned before I'm a bit superstitious when it comes to Magic and I'll blame a bad performance on silly things like which basic lands I'm using as well as worn out sleeves. It's pretty ridiculous at times but I am who I am.
Thanks for reading and please let me know anything I can change to be better.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
WNM @ Magic Comics & Hobbies, November 6th, 2013 Standard
Why yes friend, I did play some Magical Cards the other day.
But first, lets talk about what else I've been doing.
I got to go and see Coheed and Cambria on Tuesday the 5th and they exploded my brain with their ferocious Electric Mayhem.
I had the pleasure of pre-ordering a new album by Five Iron Frenzy for the first time in a way too long time.
My Ivysaur evolved into a Venusaur.
A guinea pig crawled on my leg to get to some food.
I cooked a pretty decent steak.
Great! Now that we're all caught up I can tell you about how I battled my friends until they were dead.
I fully intended to play Mono Blue again and even had the deck in my hand and ready to go but the allure of doing Stupid Nykthos Things (tm) led me to trying out Red Devotion. I've been looking at the deck ever since it popped up at the Pro Tour and it's continued to put up the occasional awesome result on Magic Online. Besides, I just got my hands on some Purphoroseseses and I really wanted to give them a spin.
Here's the deck list I championed:
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Fanatic of Mogis
3 Purphoros
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Chained to the Rocks
2 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Nykthos
12 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
Sideboard
3 Boros Charm
2 Wear // Tear
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Last Breath
3 Mizzium Mortars
I found the main deck on the Daily Magic Online site but the sideboard is a combination of that deck and the Naya Control deck from the last couple of SCG events.
I got to the shop pretty darn early and got to sit and watch a 4-way Commander game while I finished my reasonably delicious Arby's dinner. Jasper was filling the board with Pack Rat tokens leading everyone to complain that the card was taking over every format at the same time. Just about the time I finished my sammich Kyle was loudly suiting up Kalia with Lightning Greaves and crapping out large things to throw at the table.
I got to play a couple of games of standard with Jon K and the power that the red deck showed there was impressive enough to make me feel pretty good about running it in the tournament. I doubt the matchup actually favors the Red Deck since my draws happened to line up very well against Jon's.
I also got to scuffle with Brian H's Murder King Commander deck, intent on Murdering Everyone at the Table Himself Included, which was absolutely a riot. Brian's carried over his wackadoo deck building from Standard and Modern into Commander and the result is pretty sweet. Tymaret's legion was equal parts Zombie Tribal, Sacrifice Synergies and Graveyard Shennanigans that made the games really interesting. I brought Nekusar to play around with and won 1 game with a bunch of wheel effects then promptly lost the next game to a Living Death into Gravecrawler fueled infinite damage.
The pairings went up and who should I be paired up with but Brian H!
Round 1 - Brian H. w/ UW Pillows
Game 1 - I ran out an Ash Zealot and then another Zealot but was stuck on 2 mountains and a Nykthos with Reckoner in hand. Eventually Brian Verdicted the pair of red ladies and I was able to play a pair of Frostburn Weirds and then use Nykthos to get a Reckoner into play. All this time Brian was playing white permanents like Spear of Heliod and Marshall Law then eventually Heliod. I was lucky enough for Brian to not draw a second Verdict for a while and Nykthos let me cast a Stormbreath Dragon, monstrous it and attack for the eventual win.
I boarded out Chained to the Rocks and Reckoner for Wear Tears, Boros Charms and Glares.
Game 2 - My lands were much more cooperative this game and I came out of the gates pretty quickly this game. Brian had a pair of Verdicts and a Detention Sphere for my Chandra but eventually a Fanatic for several did the last points of damage.
Brian didn't draw a single Sphere of Safety in either game which would have definitely been a big deal in Game 1 at the least. Stormbreath Dragon is pretty good.
Round 2 - Roger w/ Theros Event Deck
Roger sat and talked with me before the tournament about the best way to get back into Magic and I suggested an event deck. He said he used to play and had quit for a while and was looking to dip his toes back in. I told him about my journey back into the game and it was neat to see someone else taking their first steps like I did a while ago.
Game 1 - I had a fairly slow start with a Chained to the Rocks and a pair of Boros Reckoners that got a lot better when I drew into Nykthos and 2 Fanatic of Mogis. Roger lamented having to face "That Land" again and I told him I understood. Lavinia came down and was suited up with an Ordeal and between her Pro Red and several sweet detain creatures Roger made a showing of it. Luckily Stormbreath Dragon had protection from most of his deck and I was able to swing through for victory.
Game 2 - I kept a hand with only red source and multiple 2 drops after mulliganing a similar hand down to 6. Roger came out of the gates with a Soldier of the Pantheon which I used Glare of Heresy on and then followed up with Dryad Militant then Fable Hero. I regretted blowing my removal spell on the Soldier when a pump spell on the Hero knocked me down to 2 life on turn 4. I eventually drew into a second red source but I was too far behind and died to a Lyev Skynight.
Game 3 - I had a reasonable fast start with Ash Zealot into double Burning Tree but Roger also had a pretty good army going with Precinct Captain, Imposing Sovereign and Dryad Militant. There was a turn where I could have swung in with my team and then killed him with a post-combat Fanatic if he didn't block, but if he DID block I would die on the swing back. I decided to play it safe and just dinged him with Fanatic. He made a safe attack and then passed it back and I was able to play a second Fanatic for lethal.
It was clear playing Roger that he was able to evaluate board states and make the correct choices in situations where a lot of players would just blindly turn their creatures sideways. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a real threat once he gets a competetive deck together.
Round 3 - Jasper w/ UW Control
Jasper's been away at college for a long time now but he's still pretty active online and I know he's never stopped playing cards. I've played a lot memorable games with Jasper, including one where he resolved 3 copies of Burning Vengeance, and he's a good dude that's fun to battle regardless of the outcome.
Game 1 - I led with a Zealot and a Weird which were eventually Verdicted then followed up with a Stormbreath Dragon that did a pile of damage. Jasper couldn't defeat my big dumb dragon and we went to game 2.
Game 2 - I cast the same Ash Zealot 3 times before it was Celestial Flared. I was worried I was too far behind but Jasper ended up missing land drops while I cast a Purphoros and then a Chandra. Jasper tapped low to D-Sphere Chandra and I plopped out 2 Burning Trees I'd been holding onto and a Fanatic. Between the Purphoros triggers, Fanatic and attacking with my God I not only killed Jace but brought Jasper down to a very low life total. He made the smart play of Sphering the Burning Trees to turn off Purphoros which kept him in the game but eventually the Fanatic came a'callin' and I was 3-0.
Round 4 - Intentional Draw with Brian K. on Esper
Writing this blog has definitely made splitting the top 2 a lot less interesting. It's ALMOST worth the possible loss of store credit to just be ruthless and play out the final rounds going forward. Almost.
Speaking of store credit, I was able to use what I earned combined with some leftovers from previous successes to pick up the last Commander 2013 deck - Evasive Maneuvers - and it's Bant Flavored Goodness. I'm pretty excited to tear it open and build something that can abuse the Bird Broad's Bounciness.
Thanks for reading folks, let me know if you have questions and come back soon for more Standard and Commander goodness!
But first, lets talk about what else I've been doing.
I got to go and see Coheed and Cambria on Tuesday the 5th and they exploded my brain with their ferocious Electric Mayhem.
I had the pleasure of pre-ordering a new album by Five Iron Frenzy for the first time in a way too long time.
My Ivysaur evolved into a Venusaur.
A guinea pig crawled on my leg to get to some food.
I cooked a pretty decent steak.
Great! Now that we're all caught up I can tell you about how I battled my friends until they were dead.
I fully intended to play Mono Blue again and even had the deck in my hand and ready to go but the allure of doing Stupid Nykthos Things (tm) led me to trying out Red Devotion. I've been looking at the deck ever since it popped up at the Pro Tour and it's continued to put up the occasional awesome result on Magic Online. Besides, I just got my hands on some Purphoroseseses and I really wanted to give them a spin.
Here's the deck list I championed:
4 Ash Zealot
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Fanatic of Mogis
3 Purphoros
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Chained to the Rocks
2 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Nykthos
12 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
Sideboard
3 Boros Charm
2 Wear // Tear
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Last Breath
3 Mizzium Mortars
I found the main deck on the Daily Magic Online site but the sideboard is a combination of that deck and the Naya Control deck from the last couple of SCG events.
I got to the shop pretty darn early and got to sit and watch a 4-way Commander game while I finished my reasonably delicious Arby's dinner. Jasper was filling the board with Pack Rat tokens leading everyone to complain that the card was taking over every format at the same time. Just about the time I finished my sammich Kyle was loudly suiting up Kalia with Lightning Greaves and crapping out large things to throw at the table.
I got to play a couple of games of standard with Jon K and the power that the red deck showed there was impressive enough to make me feel pretty good about running it in the tournament. I doubt the matchup actually favors the Red Deck since my draws happened to line up very well against Jon's.
I also got to scuffle with Brian H's Murder King Commander deck, intent on Murdering Everyone at the Table Himself Included, which was absolutely a riot. Brian's carried over his wackadoo deck building from Standard and Modern into Commander and the result is pretty sweet. Tymaret's legion was equal parts Zombie Tribal, Sacrifice Synergies and Graveyard Shennanigans that made the games really interesting. I brought Nekusar to play around with and won 1 game with a bunch of wheel effects then promptly lost the next game to a Living Death into Gravecrawler fueled infinite damage.
The pairings went up and who should I be paired up with but Brian H!
Round 1 - Brian H. w/ UW Pillows
Game 1 - I ran out an Ash Zealot and then another Zealot but was stuck on 2 mountains and a Nykthos with Reckoner in hand. Eventually Brian Verdicted the pair of red ladies and I was able to play a pair of Frostburn Weirds and then use Nykthos to get a Reckoner into play. All this time Brian was playing white permanents like Spear of Heliod and Marshall Law then eventually Heliod. I was lucky enough for Brian to not draw a second Verdict for a while and Nykthos let me cast a Stormbreath Dragon, monstrous it and attack for the eventual win.
I boarded out Chained to the Rocks and Reckoner for Wear Tears, Boros Charms and Glares.
Game 2 - My lands were much more cooperative this game and I came out of the gates pretty quickly this game. Brian had a pair of Verdicts and a Detention Sphere for my Chandra but eventually a Fanatic for several did the last points of damage.
Brian didn't draw a single Sphere of Safety in either game which would have definitely been a big deal in Game 1 at the least. Stormbreath Dragon is pretty good.
Round 2 - Roger w/ Theros Event Deck
Roger sat and talked with me before the tournament about the best way to get back into Magic and I suggested an event deck. He said he used to play and had quit for a while and was looking to dip his toes back in. I told him about my journey back into the game and it was neat to see someone else taking their first steps like I did a while ago.
Game 1 - I had a fairly slow start with a Chained to the Rocks and a pair of Boros Reckoners that got a lot better when I drew into Nykthos and 2 Fanatic of Mogis. Roger lamented having to face "That Land" again and I told him I understood. Lavinia came down and was suited up with an Ordeal and between her Pro Red and several sweet detain creatures Roger made a showing of it. Luckily Stormbreath Dragon had protection from most of his deck and I was able to swing through for victory.
Game 2 - I kept a hand with only red source and multiple 2 drops after mulliganing a similar hand down to 6. Roger came out of the gates with a Soldier of the Pantheon which I used Glare of Heresy on and then followed up with Dryad Militant then Fable Hero. I regretted blowing my removal spell on the Soldier when a pump spell on the Hero knocked me down to 2 life on turn 4. I eventually drew into a second red source but I was too far behind and died to a Lyev Skynight.
Game 3 - I had a reasonable fast start with Ash Zealot into double Burning Tree but Roger also had a pretty good army going with Precinct Captain, Imposing Sovereign and Dryad Militant. There was a turn where I could have swung in with my team and then killed him with a post-combat Fanatic if he didn't block, but if he DID block I would die on the swing back. I decided to play it safe and just dinged him with Fanatic. He made a safe attack and then passed it back and I was able to play a second Fanatic for lethal.
It was clear playing Roger that he was able to evaluate board states and make the correct choices in situations where a lot of players would just blindly turn their creatures sideways. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a real threat once he gets a competetive deck together.
Round 3 - Jasper w/ UW Control
Jasper's been away at college for a long time now but he's still pretty active online and I know he's never stopped playing cards. I've played a lot memorable games with Jasper, including one where he resolved 3 copies of Burning Vengeance, and he's a good dude that's fun to battle regardless of the outcome.
Game 1 - I led with a Zealot and a Weird which were eventually Verdicted then followed up with a Stormbreath Dragon that did a pile of damage. Jasper couldn't defeat my big dumb dragon and we went to game 2.
Game 2 - I cast the same Ash Zealot 3 times before it was Celestial Flared. I was worried I was too far behind but Jasper ended up missing land drops while I cast a Purphoros and then a Chandra. Jasper tapped low to D-Sphere Chandra and I plopped out 2 Burning Trees I'd been holding onto and a Fanatic. Between the Purphoros triggers, Fanatic and attacking with my God I not only killed Jace but brought Jasper down to a very low life total. He made the smart play of Sphering the Burning Trees to turn off Purphoros which kept him in the game but eventually the Fanatic came a'callin' and I was 3-0.
Round 4 - Intentional Draw with Brian K. on Esper
Writing this blog has definitely made splitting the top 2 a lot less interesting. It's ALMOST worth the possible loss of store credit to just be ruthless and play out the final rounds going forward. Almost.
Speaking of store credit, I was able to use what I earned combined with some leftovers from previous successes to pick up the last Commander 2013 deck - Evasive Maneuvers - and it's Bant Flavored Goodness. I'm pretty excited to tear it open and build something that can abuse the Bird Broad's Bounciness.
Thanks for reading folks, let me know if you have questions and come back soon for more Standard and Commander goodness!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
FNM @ Magic Comics & Hobbies, November 1st, 2013
Standard.
Ol' Reliable.
After a sweet excursion into Modern it was back to the format that everyone loves to tolerate.
I enjoyed playing the Mono Blue deck last week but, as is always the case for me, I wanted to look around and see if anything else was making waves in the world of standard.
The Green Devotion deck that originated at the Pro Tour had been on my radar for several weeks but I never took the plunge to build it and now there was a new version that used Blue as the second color. Blue allows you to play sweet trumps like Cyclonic Rift and Prime Speaker Zeganna and seems like a sweet place to be.
Another interesting deck I looked at was the Naya Control list from the SCG Invitational over the weekend. I was pretty skeptical about this deck that literally couldn't draw a single extra card but I sleeved it up to get some games in. In you read my WNM post from last week you know that I wasn't impressed with the deck in the least. I gave up on it without any reservations.
Continuing down the rabbit hole, I found a nice looking UWR Control list from Shaheen Soorani that used Assemble the Legion as a trump for the Mono Black matchup as well as the typical suite of counterspells and Wraths to beat the other decks. I was pretty hesitant to play this one simply because I'm not entirely convinced that a 2-of, 5 mana cost enchantment was where I wanted to be against the hordes of Mono Black players and I never got a chance to do any playtesting to prove myself wrong.
In the end I stuck to Mono Blue. Mostly it was out of a lack of time to try anything else but I was also comfortable with the deck and definitely enjoyed playing it. I stuck with the same 75 as I had used a week ago.
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Cloudfin
4 Tidebinder
4 Frostburn
4 Nightveil
4 Thassa
4 Master of Waves
3 Bident
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
2 Jace, Millhouse
2 Jace, Archie
1 Bident
1 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Dissolve
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Nykthos
3 Gainsay
I met up with several of the guys for lunch and then several more to go and see Ender's Game. The movie was very good! If you have any interest in it I definitely recommend it. After the credits rolled we all made our way over to Magic Comics & Hobbies for some sweet, sweet Commander Goodness (tm).
The brand new Commander 2013 decks had just been released and several of us had been smart/lucky enough to pre-order them at the shop. John Arnaud had the truly genius idea of battling the unmodified Preconstructed Decks against each other in a 5-way, winner take nothing, Commander extravaganza. John himself was kind enough to allow me to use his sweet Naya deck and the experience was pretty great.
All 5 decks have fancy new Commanders and several new cards in them and they felt pretty well balanced. As is usually the case in a 5 man game of Commander one person got ahead early (John Arnaud) and was teamed up on and eliminated. Then, the living person who had the best board position (Me) was teamed up on and so on and so forth. It was a blast!
A LOT of Commanding was done, both with the Pre-Cons and with my own decks and it was generally fantastic. Eventually the clock crept around and it was time to do battle!
Round 1 - Nick M. w/Naya Control
I don't actually know if this matchup is supposed to be a good one or not but it definitely felt winnable. Nick generally doesn't play bad decks and so if he likes the Naya Control it might not be as bad as I thought.
Game 1 - I kept a slowish hand and wasn't able to put enough pressure on Nick to do much of anything through his Anger of the Gods + spot removal. Loxodon Smiter was a pain as was Stormbreath Dragon.
I'm not entirely sure what the correct sideboard strategy is for this deck but I brought in all of the Jaces and took out the Bidents. My reasoning was that Jace is better when they don't have Hero's Downfall and that they probably run Wear//Tear for Bident.
Game 2 - I had a very fast draw with multiple Judge's Familiars and a Cloudfin Raptor. I was able to get through a ton of damage with Mutavault and the Fliers and Nick never really had time to get going.
Game 3 - I kept 2 lands, Judge's Familiar along with multiple 3 and 4 drops. I missed my 3rd land drop and died very swiftly to a Smiter + Stormbreath Dragon. I was really impressed with how quick the Naya deck was able to dole out the damage when it was the aggressor.
Nick and I talked about the Naya Control deck a bit and whether or not Chandra was good right now. I still find her a lot worse than she used to be thanks to Hero's Downfall but Nick said that with all of the must answer threats Downfall can't get them all. He definitely has a point.
Round 2 - Brian H. w/UB Control
B-Horts was on his Ashiokennanigans deck again and I was truthfully a bit scared of Ashiok and what he can do against this deck.
Game 1 - I got off to an aggressive start and Brian stumbled a little bit. He was forced to use his removal spells on a big Cloudfin Raptor and Nightveil Specter and did not have one for the Master of Waves that killed him.
Game 2 - Brian drew just about all of the lands in his deck while my Nightveil Specters stole first 1 then 2 of his Specters from the top of his deck. Thassa let me sneak through his defenses and I eventually had 4 Specters all going at the same time. I felt pretty lucky for things to break the way they did and, as always, Brian was a pleasure to battle.
Round 3 - Josh V. w/THE MIRROR
Josh has been gone from FNM for a quite a while and he's decided to come back with the deck that all the intelligent people choose....Mono Blue! I gave Josh my list to compare with before the event and so this was very close to a true Mirror Match!
Game 1 - Josh and I both had fairly quick starts with 1 and 2 drops but I had a Nightveil Specter to Josh's nothing on turn 3. It looked like Josh would run me over when he played a Master of Waves but I had a Rapid Hybridization and a Cyclonic Rift to buy me just enough time to get in the last points of damage.
I sideboarded out all of the Bidents and all of the Master of Waves for more Jace 4's, Gainsays and Hybridizations. This plan felt a little bit scary but it's a strategy I've read about and I wanted to try it out. I guess the idea is that your opponent is bringing in all these answers to your Masters that it makes them much worse.
Game 2 - I again had a pretty speedy draw with Cloudfin into Judge into Nightveil but Josh's draw was much slower. He didn't play anything until turn 4 when he dropped a Bident and he was too far behind at that point for a Master of Waves to do much.
I showed Josh how I boarded and we played several more games to get him some practice in.
Round 4 - Josh G. w/ Mono Red (splash white)
I knew before hand what Josh was playing because my previous opponent told me about how he had lost to Josh on Mono Red. As I sat down Josh told me I would probably win because he had messed up his sideboard, I laughed and said I was alright with that. I don't get to play Mr. G too often in tournaments but we battle in Commander all the time and he's a fantastic fellow.
Game 1 - I kept a hand with a 1 drop and a 4 drop and lands and promptly got run the hell over. Josh curved out with Ash Zealot > Reckoner > Chandra's Phoenix > Fanatic and I was D.E.D. Dead. I resolved to mulligan into something with more interaction.
I boarded out the Bidents and I forget what else for the extra Rift and the 2 Hybridizations. I considered the Jaces for a while but couldn't decide on anything to take out for them. Going ahead it's possible that some number of Thassa should come out since she often doesn't impact the board right away.
Game 2 - Tidebinder Mage and Frostburn Weird held down the ground long enough for Master of Waves to solidify things. Josh played a Pithing Needle on Thassa which was pretty relevant as it kept me from killing him a turn sooner and gave him a chance to draw some burn to finish me off.
Game 3 - This one played out similarly to Game 2 but in the end double Master of Waves was the killer. Josh scooped 'em up and explained what he'd messed up in his sideboard: 4 Chained to the Rocks specifically intended to kill Master of Waves.
So in the end I finished 3-1 but, because of my first round loss, I sat in 7th place in the final standings. It sucks pretty bad to finish with the same number of wins as 2nd and 3rd place only to go home with a Colossal Whale promo but I've been on the other side of that situation too. Such is the fickle nature of the Magic: The Gathering Tiebreaker System.
Good Guy John Raykiewicz managed to go undefeated over the night and finished cleanly in 1st place. He was on the BW Midrange deck that has fallen ever so slightly out of favor in the bigger tournaments although I really have no idea why. Raykie showed that Obzedat and the Whip is still pretty hard to beat.
I absolutely loved the Mono Blue deck and will likely hem and haw over 6-13 other decks throughout the week before deciding to run it back again. It doesn't seem so powerful on paper but when all the parts are humming together it really is an interesting and challenging deck to play and that's basically all I need need from a Library.
As usual, I crave your commentary so please let me know what you thought.
This week is Standard on Wednesday so I'll be writing about that and I'm hoping to have a follow-up to the Anax and Cymede deck soon. Spoiler: I didn't like it very much.
Ol' Reliable.
After a sweet excursion into Modern it was back to the format that everyone loves to tolerate.
I enjoyed playing the Mono Blue deck last week but, as is always the case for me, I wanted to look around and see if anything else was making waves in the world of standard.
The Green Devotion deck that originated at the Pro Tour had been on my radar for several weeks but I never took the plunge to build it and now there was a new version that used Blue as the second color. Blue allows you to play sweet trumps like Cyclonic Rift and Prime Speaker Zeganna and seems like a sweet place to be.
Another interesting deck I looked at was the Naya Control list from the SCG Invitational over the weekend. I was pretty skeptical about this deck that literally couldn't draw a single extra card but I sleeved it up to get some games in. In you read my WNM post from last week you know that I wasn't impressed with the deck in the least. I gave up on it without any reservations.
Continuing down the rabbit hole, I found a nice looking UWR Control list from Shaheen Soorani that used Assemble the Legion as a trump for the Mono Black matchup as well as the typical suite of counterspells and Wraths to beat the other decks. I was pretty hesitant to play this one simply because I'm not entirely convinced that a 2-of, 5 mana cost enchantment was where I wanted to be against the hordes of Mono Black players and I never got a chance to do any playtesting to prove myself wrong.
In the end I stuck to Mono Blue. Mostly it was out of a lack of time to try anything else but I was also comfortable with the deck and definitely enjoyed playing it. I stuck with the same 75 as I had used a week ago.
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Cloudfin
4 Tidebinder
4 Frostburn
4 Nightveil
4 Thassa
4 Master of Waves
3 Bident
1 Jace, Archie
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Cyclonic Rift
20 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Nykthos
Sideboard
2 Jace, Millhouse
2 Jace, Archie
1 Bident
1 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Dissolve
2 Rapid Hybridization
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Nykthos
3 Gainsay
I met up with several of the guys for lunch and then several more to go and see Ender's Game. The movie was very good! If you have any interest in it I definitely recommend it. After the credits rolled we all made our way over to Magic Comics & Hobbies for some sweet, sweet Commander Goodness (tm).
The brand new Commander 2013 decks had just been released and several of us had been smart/lucky enough to pre-order them at the shop. John Arnaud had the truly genius idea of battling the unmodified Preconstructed Decks against each other in a 5-way, winner take nothing, Commander extravaganza. John himself was kind enough to allow me to use his sweet Naya deck and the experience was pretty great.
All 5 decks have fancy new Commanders and several new cards in them and they felt pretty well balanced. As is usually the case in a 5 man game of Commander one person got ahead early (John Arnaud) and was teamed up on and eliminated. Then, the living person who had the best board position (Me) was teamed up on and so on and so forth. It was a blast!
A LOT of Commanding was done, both with the Pre-Cons and with my own decks and it was generally fantastic. Eventually the clock crept around and it was time to do battle!
Round 1 - Nick M. w/Naya Control
I don't actually know if this matchup is supposed to be a good one or not but it definitely felt winnable. Nick generally doesn't play bad decks and so if he likes the Naya Control it might not be as bad as I thought.
Game 1 - I kept a slowish hand and wasn't able to put enough pressure on Nick to do much of anything through his Anger of the Gods + spot removal. Loxodon Smiter was a pain as was Stormbreath Dragon.
I'm not entirely sure what the correct sideboard strategy is for this deck but I brought in all of the Jaces and took out the Bidents. My reasoning was that Jace is better when they don't have Hero's Downfall and that they probably run Wear//Tear for Bident.
Game 2 - I had a very fast draw with multiple Judge's Familiars and a Cloudfin Raptor. I was able to get through a ton of damage with Mutavault and the Fliers and Nick never really had time to get going.
Game 3 - I kept 2 lands, Judge's Familiar along with multiple 3 and 4 drops. I missed my 3rd land drop and died very swiftly to a Smiter + Stormbreath Dragon. I was really impressed with how quick the Naya deck was able to dole out the damage when it was the aggressor.
Nick and I talked about the Naya Control deck a bit and whether or not Chandra was good right now. I still find her a lot worse than she used to be thanks to Hero's Downfall but Nick said that with all of the must answer threats Downfall can't get them all. He definitely has a point.
Round 2 - Brian H. w/UB Control
B-Horts was on his Ashiokennanigans deck again and I was truthfully a bit scared of Ashiok and what he can do against this deck.
Game 1 - I got off to an aggressive start and Brian stumbled a little bit. He was forced to use his removal spells on a big Cloudfin Raptor and Nightveil Specter and did not have one for the Master of Waves that killed him.
Game 2 - Brian drew just about all of the lands in his deck while my Nightveil Specters stole first 1 then 2 of his Specters from the top of his deck. Thassa let me sneak through his defenses and I eventually had 4 Specters all going at the same time. I felt pretty lucky for things to break the way they did and, as always, Brian was a pleasure to battle.
Round 3 - Josh V. w/THE MIRROR
Josh has been gone from FNM for a quite a while and he's decided to come back with the deck that all the intelligent people choose....Mono Blue! I gave Josh my list to compare with before the event and so this was very close to a true Mirror Match!
Game 1 - Josh and I both had fairly quick starts with 1 and 2 drops but I had a Nightveil Specter to Josh's nothing on turn 3. It looked like Josh would run me over when he played a Master of Waves but I had a Rapid Hybridization and a Cyclonic Rift to buy me just enough time to get in the last points of damage.
I sideboarded out all of the Bidents and all of the Master of Waves for more Jace 4's, Gainsays and Hybridizations. This plan felt a little bit scary but it's a strategy I've read about and I wanted to try it out. I guess the idea is that your opponent is bringing in all these answers to your Masters that it makes them much worse.
Game 2 - I again had a pretty speedy draw with Cloudfin into Judge into Nightveil but Josh's draw was much slower. He didn't play anything until turn 4 when he dropped a Bident and he was too far behind at that point for a Master of Waves to do much.
I showed Josh how I boarded and we played several more games to get him some practice in.
Round 4 - Josh G. w/ Mono Red (splash white)
I knew before hand what Josh was playing because my previous opponent told me about how he had lost to Josh on Mono Red. As I sat down Josh told me I would probably win because he had messed up his sideboard, I laughed and said I was alright with that. I don't get to play Mr. G too often in tournaments but we battle in Commander all the time and he's a fantastic fellow.
Game 1 - I kept a hand with a 1 drop and a 4 drop and lands and promptly got run the hell over. Josh curved out with Ash Zealot > Reckoner > Chandra's Phoenix > Fanatic and I was D.E.D. Dead. I resolved to mulligan into something with more interaction.
I boarded out the Bidents and I forget what else for the extra Rift and the 2 Hybridizations. I considered the Jaces for a while but couldn't decide on anything to take out for them. Going ahead it's possible that some number of Thassa should come out since she often doesn't impact the board right away.
Game 2 - Tidebinder Mage and Frostburn Weird held down the ground long enough for Master of Waves to solidify things. Josh played a Pithing Needle on Thassa which was pretty relevant as it kept me from killing him a turn sooner and gave him a chance to draw some burn to finish me off.
Game 3 - This one played out similarly to Game 2 but in the end double Master of Waves was the killer. Josh scooped 'em up and explained what he'd messed up in his sideboard: 4 Chained to the Rocks specifically intended to kill Master of Waves.
So in the end I finished 3-1 but, because of my first round loss, I sat in 7th place in the final standings. It sucks pretty bad to finish with the same number of wins as 2nd and 3rd place only to go home with a Colossal Whale promo but I've been on the other side of that situation too. Such is the fickle nature of the Magic: The Gathering Tiebreaker System.
Good Guy John Raykiewicz managed to go undefeated over the night and finished cleanly in 1st place. He was on the BW Midrange deck that has fallen ever so slightly out of favor in the bigger tournaments although I really have no idea why. Raykie showed that Obzedat and the Whip is still pretty hard to beat.
I absolutely loved the Mono Blue deck and will likely hem and haw over 6-13 other decks throughout the week before deciding to run it back again. It doesn't seem so powerful on paper but when all the parts are humming together it really is an interesting and challenging deck to play and that's basically all I need need from a Library.
As usual, I crave your commentary so please let me know what you thought.
This week is Standard on Wednesday so I'll be writing about that and I'm hoping to have a follow-up to the Anax and Cymede deck soon. Spoiler: I didn't like it very much.
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