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!
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