I got to play some cards last night and I'm gonna tell you about whether you like it or not!
These introduction paragraphs always feel so awkward to me, having to open up and say something about something, it feels so forced and unnatural.
I got to the shop about an hour before the tournament was supposed to start and played the manliest of card games with Achille. Yes, that's right, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I brought to bear the full might of Twilight Sparkle while Achille employed the forces of Rainbow Dash. I'm still not sure how much I like the game itself but it does remind me in several ways of the old Star Wars CCG, so much so that I keep saying "Force Drain" and "Draw Destiny" instead of "Confront a Problem" and "Flip a Card" which is confusing to everyone.
After successfully defending Equestria from the forces of, um, Achille, I got to hang out do some trading while the tournament got cranked up. We had 18 people which is a pretty solid number for a Wednesday and included at least one new face to Standard.
I ended up playing the Red White Devotion deck that I've been excited by lately, it's been performing well and nothing else in the format is really appealing enough to get me to switch. I still feel good enough about every known matchup and I don't think any deck in the format has a more powerful "Plan A" than Fanatic Your Face (tm).
Round 1 - Mike E. with Naya Explosivo
Mike is a super laid back fella who's basically always smiling. He's been playing this Naya deck for a little while now and it's extremely scary. Between Advent of the Wurm, Ghor-Clan Rampager and Boros Charm your life total is basically never safe.
Game 1 - I curved out into a quick Dragon backed by a couple of removal spells and Mike could never get a foothold on the game.
Game 2 - Mike played a turn 3 Advent on my end-step then played Unflinching Courage and Boros Charm on it giving me 1 turn to draw a Chained to the Rocks, I did not.
Game 3 - I kept a removal-heavy hand with a Dragon while Mike had a land-light, Caryatid-heavy draw. I was able to use an overloaded Mortars to keep his mana down while clocking him with my Stormbreath. Eventually Mike flashed in a second Wurm to block an attacker and a second overloaded Mortars cleared his field and locked up the game.
After the match, Mike showed me a Planar Cleansing that he'd had in hand for a while. All of my Mortars wiping out Caryatids had prevented him from blowing me out big time!
Round 2 - Jack W. with UW Control
I was sitting with Jack, watching him play a Dragonball game on the DS, when the pairings were called. Jack and I have been trading matches back and forth over the last few months and I'm just starting to get caught up in wins!
Game 1 - I had a solid start of Zealot > Reckoner > Chandra but Jack had answers for then all. I'm pretty sure I played out a Fanatic too soon to put Jack to 5 or 6 life when I should have held it until it was lethal. There were several turns where I could've drawn a Dragon to win but I drew lands and removal. Eventually Jack ultimated Jace and I scooped 'em up.
Game 2 - Jack didn't draw particularly well this game and I was able to finish him off with a Boros Charm after getting some damage in with creatures.
Game 3 - My draw of 2 Wear//Tear lined up well with Jack's draw of 2 Detention Sphere, I gained so much tempo freeing my Chandra and making him deal with it multiple times that it didn't even matter than the fiery planeswalker bricked multiple times. Burn finished the game and the match.
Round 3 - Nick M. THE MIRROR
Nick is the reason I picked this deck up in the first place and we've talked a lot about it over the last month. I told him I fully expected to lose, especially since I never discussed sideboarding in the mirror....
Game 1 - Nick had multiple removal spells that kept his life total high and my board clear. He played a Dragon on turn 5 and then another on turn 6 giving me 1 turn to draw a Mortars to clear his board. I didn't draw it and Nick showed me the other 2 Stormbreaths he had waiting in the wings.
Game 2 - Nick mulliganed to 4 while I kept a very good 7. I felt this game start to slip away as Nick played removal spell after removal spell while I drew land after land. Luckily for me, Nick drew multiple Nykthoseses and couldn't find a second red source to get on the board.
Game 3 - We both kept 7 this time and spent most of the game trading resources. I was able to land a Chandra and protect it for a few turns but all it really did was dig me through a pocket of lands I didn't need. Eventually the top of my deck treated me a bit better than Nick's did and I drew both an attacker and a removal spell for Nick's blocker in the right order.
Nick and I compared sideboard plans and his was quite different from mine. I sideboarded very minimally, taking out 2 Hammers and a Nykthos for 1 Wear//Tear, 1 Chained and 1 Mortars while Nick brought in a lot more removal.
Round 4 - Achille F. with Green Red Devotion
Achille and I were the last undefeated players and chose to Intentionally Draw and split the prizes. At the suggestion of friend of the blog John A. I had planned to play a set of games anyways so as to have more content but Achille and I were pretty tired and decided not to this time.
So another solid outing with the Red Devotion and I still don't see any reason to play something else. Perhaps the entire rest of the shop will adopt the deck, that may be a good enough reason to abandon ship.
Coming up on Saturday, January 18th is our Benefit Tournament for the family of Jason Lejeune. We have a staggering amount of prizes to hand out and I'm really hoping everyone in the state of Louisiana will turn up to play cards and remember a great friend.
Here's the details as they stand now:
Date: January 18th
Time: Reg @ 10 AM, Start @ 11AM.
Entry: $15 (all entry fees go to the family)
Format: Standard Constructed
We'll be playing swiss rounds determined by the number of players followed by a cut to Top 8 based on the final standings after swiss. Top 8 will be best 2 out of 3 with the higher seed deciding whether to play or draw.
Here are the prizes as they currently stand!
ALL of the Top 8 will receive playmats of some kind.
1st - Sealed Booster Box of Modern Masters
2nd - Sealed From the Vault: Realms
3rd & 4th - Alliances Force of Will OR Revised Taiga, determined randomly
5th through 8th Revised Plateau OR True Name Nemesis OR Sealed Naya Commander Deck OR Sealed Jund Commander Deck, determined randomly
In addition, we'll be giving away a sealed Mind Seize (Grixis) Commander Deck at the end of the Swiss Rounds to someone who participated in one of the tournaments.
"Tournaments, why is that plural?" you might say to me, well I'm glad you asked!
Once we get the main event going I'm going to host 8-man Powered Proxy Cube drafts for a $5 entry fee per person. These drafts won't be sanctioned and they won't be for any big prizes...but they WILL be tons of fun! The cube can only handle 1 group of drafters at a time but as soon as one group is done and I can get the thing shuffled again we'll run it back. I'm up for running these Cube Drafts for as long as people want to buy in so bring your drafting pants friends!
Spread the word, bring your friends, bring your pets (don't bring your pets) and come celebrate the life of Jason Lejeune.
Thanks for reading, hugs.
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