FNM Report, 4/22/2011

Skipped FNM the last two weeks, as two weeks ago was GP Dallas and last Friday I was a bit Magic’d out and instead had a date night with my wife, saw Hanna, which was decent. Didn’t want to play Caw or RUG again, wavered between BUG and @Smi77y’s Jace, the Mind Hammer. Decided on the build of MindHammer that Top8’d the New York NatsQ, made a couple changes to the board expecting less Valakut and more Caw. Here was the list:

[deck title=Tezzeret, the Mind Hammer]
[Creatures]
1 Grave Titan
1 Inferno Titan
2 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Koth of the Hammer
4 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
3 Everflowing Chalice
2 Contagion Clasp
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Go for the Throat
3 Slagstorm
4 Tumble Magnet
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Drowned Catacomb
2 Island
7 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Duress
3 Flashfreeze
2 Go for the Throat
3 Memoricide
1 Pyroclasm
2 Crush
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Decent turnout at Montag’s for FNM, 5 rounds cut to top 8.

Round 1: Loke, playing mono-B Vampires
Loke is a really nice guy, always fun to play. I got kind of a slow start game 1, drew tons of land and mana artifacts, and not a lot of action, so he had me down to 9 before I got off a Slagstorm, which I followed up with a Magnet and Koth, then a Wurmcoil. Koth went ultimate and the Wurmcoil only got in one hit before eating a Go for the Throat, but that was more than enough. Game 2 I got a Slagstorm 3-for-1 on turn 5, and he never really recovered from that.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Daniel, playing Knights
Daniel has become pretty regular at the store in the last few months and we’ve played a few times before. The only annoying piece of this deck for me is the Exemplar, but fortunately there’s enough spot removal to take that out before hitting with a sweeper. Game 1 I got a Clasp for an Accorder Paladin, then got both Koth and Tezz out and managed to use the Clasp to pump both into ultimate on the same turn, Tezz’d for I think 10 damage and burned him out with a Mountain. Game 2 I don’t remember all that well. I know he got an early Student of Warfare that hit me twice and I had to Slagstorm to kill just that. I got a 5/5 something with Tezz and a couple whacks in with Tar Pits, but I don’t remember how I finished him off. I know at one point he had a Caravan Escort leveled into a 5/5 first striker, which I bounced with Jace, but other details escape me.
2-0 matches, 4-0 games

Round 3: Mike, also playing Knights
Battle of the Mikes. I usually win these and expected to win this as well, but no, I am a Bad Player™. Here’s what happened: Game 1, today’s punt of the week. I actually had to mull to 5, took a shaky hand, and drew out of it greatly. However, I got Silenced—yes, I mean it—on three consecutive turns. So, in some sense, I should have lost this game… except I shouldn’t. Once the silence was over, I got Jace out and bounced a guy, and he could only hit me down to 1. Then I got an Inferno Titan, and that was really bad news for him, but I was still at one. I got Koth, and was bouncing, burning and pounding for 10 with him at 14. I wanted to end the game and he was at 4, so I played a Scalding Tarn to Galvanic Blast him for 4… but I cracked the fetch to do it. For some reason I thought I was at 2, not 1, but no, instead I am a moron. Game 2 he opened with a Leyline of Sanctity, which seems like a bad sideboard choice from where I sat, but whatever. He got a few whacks in with 3-power Knights pumped by an Exemplar, but I got a Magnet to keep the beating slow, then spot removal for the first Exemplar, then he got the second, which I also killed. I eventually hammered him with a Mountain (get it?). Unfortunately, we were now short on time, and he mulled very slowly, and played kind of slow, and we didn’t finish; the closest I could get him was to 4 at the end of extra time. Not good enough. So, I’m an idiot. I should definitely have won this match, which would have allowed me to draw twice to get in at 3-0-2, or even played once and still lost and drawn in at 3-1-1, but no. In some sense it was karmic since I never should have gotten out of that mull to 5 (I topdecked like a champ to start the game) and three Silences, but still, ugh.
2-0-1 matches, 5-1-1 games

Round 4: Jason, playing RUG
Jason was new to the store, or at least I hadn’t seen him before, and it was immediately obvious that he’s a good player. I had terrible draws in both of these games—mostly land in game 1—and he pretty much rolled me. I did double Slagstorm one turn to kill both a Frost and an Inferno Titan at the same time, pretty funny, but had no real threats and got hosed. Game 2 he got the Cobra explode into stuff draw and I kept a one-lander (with a Sphere and two Flashfreezes) and even topdecked land, but it just wasn’t enough to keep up with the Cobra (which I did eventually kill) into Turn 3 Slime. That was bad.
2-1-1 matches, 5-3-1 games

Round 5: Austin, playing UB Control
Austin was also new to the store, and also clearly a strong player. Austin offered to draw in with me, but he didn’t realize that I had been rounded up and I couldn’t draw in, so we had to play it. We spend a lot of game 1 doing the Draw, Go thing on both sides, but of course he didn’t know that i didn’t have any permission and was simply drawing nothing but land and six-drops, until he Inquisitioned me. Game degenerated from there, I ultimately died to Tar Pits. Game 2 I of course put in all the Duresses and the two extra Go for the Throats and took out the Slagstorms and Clasps, since they’re both pretty useless against him (though I guess the Slagstorms would kill Zombie tokens, that’s not really a good answer). I Duressed him turn 1 and saw no permission, took a Go for the Throat. Turn 3 he dropped little Jace and drew into the missing permission (I had two Wurmcoils and an Inferno Titan), and I never got anywhere against all the extra cards he drew since I was unable to kill Jace. Bleah. I had never really thought about the matchup with UB Control since it isn’t a big part of the larger meta and hadn’t been seen at Montag’s in a long time. It’s a really bad matchup with this deck…
2-2-1 matches, 5-5-1 games

And, of course, I missed the top 8. Bleah. Frankly, there is no way that should have happened, as I absolutely I should not have gotten a draw in round 3. Of course, both the Knights players I faced made top 8. How stupid is that? I’m an idiot, I know…

Now, the deck. To be honest, I haven’t played the deck much—this was the first time, I hadn’t even practiced with it—and while I’m not sure about the Caw matchup, it seems good on paper with all the instant-speed removal and the Slagstorms main. OTOH, the RUG matchup is pretty rough and UB Control seems like an auto-loss if the UB pilot is competent at all. Still, it was fun to play in the other matchups and I do like the deck, but then I’m a sucker for Planeswalkers and decks that are built around them.