Friday Night Magic at Montag’s Games, the third one of the new year.
OK, so I’ve been hosed the last couple FNMs by trying to outmaneuver the metagame only to end up with horrible matchups. I was planning on skirting that this week and playing Valakut Ramp, but I acquired a third Baneslayer this week and I wanted to go with something I know better, so I went back to Angelfall, playing a very slightly different list than last time:
Angelfall
Creatures & Planeswalkers (20)
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Kazandu Blademaster
3 White Knight
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Emeria Angel
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Baneslayer Angel
Other spells (15)
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Banefire
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Conqueror’s Pledge
Land (25)
3 Marsh Flats
1 Naya Panorama
4 Arid Mesa
3 Teetering Peaks
2 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky-Ruin
Sideboard
2 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Devout Lightcaster
3 Celestial Purge
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Ajani Vengeant
It’s good against Jund, generally stomps random rogue stuff, but it’s not great against control decks, and of course as an aggro deck it can lose to any combo deck that can go off before it delivers 20. The metagame clearly reflected the recent Star City 5K, because there were a lot of Vampires around. That can be a tough matchup since Bloodwitch is a bit of a difficulty, but this deck generally comes out faster than Vampires so the Bloodwitch can be too late; it depends a lot on the draws. Moderate turnout, so four rounds, cut to top 8.
Round 1: Matt, playing a Jund variant with Birds of Paradise, Nighthawks, Hell’s Thunder, and Madrush Cyclopes
I was glad that I didn’t game specifically for Jund, because then I wouldn’t have drawn this matchup.
Game 1: I got turn 1 Steppe Lynx and turn 2 fetchland so he started down 4. He opened with Birds his first two turns and on his third he Jund charmed to put a couple tokens on one of his Birds, and Bolted the Lynx. He also Blightning’d me next turn though I had nothing too important to pitch and I managed a White Knight, which neutralized the Thrinax he had the next turn. I got an Emeria Angel to stick (no fetch, though) and swung with everything to bring him to 7. He swung back. He had more guys (I don’t remember which) and I left the Angel and a couple bird tokens back to knock him to 5 with the Knight. He killed the Emeria, I got an Honor of the Pure, Knight took him to 2, he didn’t draw an answer.
Game 2: Another killer draw for me. Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 Plains, Lynx, hit for 2. Turn 3: Fetchland, Path his blocker, Honor of the Pure, swing with both Lynxes for 10. I don’t really remember what happened after that, but 10-point lead on life was enough that it wasn’t likely to get close, and it never really did.
1-0.
Round 2: Paul playing Vampires
He was running a slightly odd build with no Tendrils main, and with Child of Night main.
Game 1: Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 Plains and some other two drop (I think a White Orchid?), turn 3 fetch, swing for 6. He had a Bloodghast I was ignoring, and he got a Child of Night down and they swung back. I got a White Knight down and held him in place, had a Path for the Nocturnus, and carried through.
Game 2: This was a close game. I had a small edge early, but he Sludged me on turn 5 for three cards: two Conqueror’s Pledge and a Banefire. Ouch. I got down an Elspeth (oops, should have sided that out vs. Vampires). He stuck a Nocturnus, which made my White Knight less useful. He had me at 1, but his guys (the Nocturnus and a Bloodghast) were tapped because they had all swung. I had a token, a White Knight, and a Bolt in hand. With Elspeth, that’s 9 damage… and he was at 10. So, the only chance I had was for him to miss on the Nocturnus the following turn so I could Bolt it, then I could block the Ghast forever if need be with the White Knight… but he didn’t miss on the flip. Oops.
Game 3: I managed for the most part to keep the Nocturni off the board, but couldn’t maintain much of a board presence (Deathmark is pretty good against me) and lost to a Bloodwitch. Oops.
1-1. OK, so I really felt like I must have done something wrong in Game 2 to have done one more damage somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on what I didn’t do right.
Round 3: Jason playing UGB Allies
I need to be a little clearer about this: Jason was playing a deck fairly close to Aaron Forthyhe’s gunslinger deck from the Zendikar pre-release. This was very weird for me, since the first Magic I had played in years was, in fact, a deck very close to the one I was playing against that very deck, as I recounted previously. Jason had swapped out some of the utility cards for Harrow and Mind Spring, which both seemed like good additions.
Game 1: I Path’d his turn two Lotus Cobra, bashed with Steppe Lynx pumped with Teetering Peaks. All he really managed was a Bird of Paradise and Bala Ged Thief with no other Allies in play, and I pretty much just ran him over quickly. I didn’t get to see much of the deck so I wasn’t sure.
Game 2: Exactly the opposite. I got a slow start, he Cobra ramped up and was joined by a Sea Gate Loremaster, got a Turntimber Ranger and a Umara Raptor and a Vastwood. Many cards were drawn. I had an Elspeth and an Honor of the Pure with an Emeria Angel out and was just chumping with tokens. He Pulsed the Emeria and I eventually ran out of tokens, as he drew many cards before I could draw a Bolt to stop the Loremaster, but by then it was just too late. During the “while shuffling” chit-chat, I mentioned that I had played this matchup before, and related some of the Aaron story. So, of course Jason asked how that play turned out. I told him that the White/Red deck won a majority, but mostly it depended on coming out quickly. Foreshadowing…
Game 3: Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 fetch, Honor, swing for 5. Turn 3 Path his Lotus Cobra, play fetchland (or Teetering Peaks, I don’t remember), swing for another 5. I don’t remember what he did on his 4th turn, but whatever it was didn’t result in a meaningful blocker, and I had another land that pumped the Lynx and swung for another 5. That was pretty much it.
2-1. Eerily familiar.
Round 4: ? (forgot to write it down, my apologies) playing Jund
With good tiebreaks and a smallish crowd, we could draw in, which we did. We played for the fun of it, and of course I wished we had played it for real. He had Jund but with only one Pulse. I rolled the first game on the back of two Honor of the Pures backing up a Baneslayer. I had run out some early guys to draw Terminates, which worked, and the 7/7 Angel did her job. Turns out even two Bolts don’t solve an Angel that big. Second game I had an Honor out and got a Pledge on the fifth turn, then an Emeria with a fetch (Terminated), then another Pledge. OK, then, easy wins for me.
2-1-1.
Quarterfinals: Paul playing Vampires
Same opponent as round 2, so a chance to avenge my loss.
Game 1: We spent some time trading guys and removal spells, I had an early Lynx and then an Honor, but he Disfigured it and chumped something else with a Child. He was drawing dead, apparently, and Signed himself when I hit the Pledge, which is very nice in game 1 (no Marsh Casualties main, I was pretty sure). He never answered.
Game 2: I remembered to side out Elspeth this time (duh) and held back removal for Nighthawks and Nocturni. I had an early White Knight and then got a Pledge, but no Honor. He dropped something, and then I drew into two consecutive Honors, and that was it.
3-1-1
Semifinals: Nate playing Runeflare Trap
This was the epic battle of the night, without a doubt. If you’re not familiar with this deck, you should check it out. It’s essentially a combo deck, but a slightly strange one. Against combo, then plan with a deck like mine is generally “race the combo” which is not always a great plan. Turns out that with the sideboard I could do more than that, but read on…
Game 1: I won the die roll and took a draw with Lynx, Honor, Pledge, and four land, more than one of them a fetch. A keeper against combo in general, but this one could defend itself and he Burst the Lynx right away. I drew no gas but did draw and play another Honor of the Pure. He cast a Font on turn 4. On my turn 5 I cast the Pledge. He cast another Font, so I drew a ton of cards, including another Honor, which I played. This was my key error of the game: I actually drew another Honor, but I didn’t see it through all the other cards in my hand. Ugh, absolutely devastating mistake, probably cost me the game. So I swung for only 18. He Bolted one of the guys so he only went to 15 so my Bolt didn’t kill him, and next time around he hit me with double Trap and a Twincast, which of course killed me.
Game 2: I sided in the 3 Oblivion Rings and the 2 Ajanis. I mulliganed down to five figuring that given the matchup, staring a couple cards light wouldn’t be that bad. I had my only early guy Bolted but I dropped an Ajani on turn 4. I kept him slowed down a little, then color screwed a little, but he got a second Island and bounced Ajani with Into the Roil with Ajani on 7 counters. Grr. I put Ajani back down and changed a little, realizing that I might be able to win another way if the Runeflares didn’t come earlier: I Helixed with Ajani and Bolted him twice. He realized this, and threw burn at Ajani. Extra cards on the draw (at least one Howling Mine was out) meant I had the other Ajani, which I dropped, and Helixed again. He again Bolted Ajani, but I had another Bolt and next turn waxed him with a Banefire. I did exactly zero damage with creatures in this game, and still won! Not exactly the idea behind this deck, but I’ll take it.
Game 3: He got an early Howling Mine, but I didn’t bother with it. I did O Ring the turn 4 Font, though. He bounced it. I drew a bunch of cards, played land and an Honor, and O Ringed it again. Same thing. I managed to get down a Knight of the White Orchid that was pretty big due to the two Honors. I got in a couple swings (one pumped with Teetering Peaks), O Ringed the Font again and had it bounced a third time. His one real mistake is that he Burst my Knight (no kicker) which of course did nothing. He Time Warped and cast another Font, then passed. I double-Bolted and he knew he had only one turn to kill me, but he still didn’t have any Runeflare Traps. Amazingly bad luck on his part. So, with him at 11 and me at 20, he threw all the burn in his hand at me: a Burst (18), three Bolts (9), and two Twincasts for the bolts (3). On my turn, I dropped another Peaks, hit with the Knight, Bolted, then dropped Ajani and Helixed for the win. His top card: Runeflare Trap. Whew, that was awfully close!
4-1-1
Finals: John, playing Valakut Ramp
Earlier that evening John noted that he’d found my blog and that I had called him my favorite FNM opponent. During the semis he felt the need to give me a hard time that I had to win so that we could play each other. It was a good point, John, and I think that bit of destiny must have had something to do with the dearth of Runeflare Traps in that last game, right? Anyway, we split the prizes and played fast and casual for the hell of it. Frankly, it was a good thing we agreed to split because I didn’t really put in much of an appearance in either game. Game 1 he had, I think, every single instant burn spell in his deck to wreck all my guys and then just did the turning mountains into Bolts thing and blew up on me, and in Game 2 my deck decided to take a break and took the game off. OK, then.
Still, much fun. Next week I plan to play Valakut Ramp, but I will leave open the possibility that I’ll play UWR control…