Month: November 2011

So, at the last FNM I played a bad Grixis build (no, not Chapin’s worlds deck), and played it badly, and went 1-3. Ugh, and not worth writing about.

But on Sundays, my FLGS Montag’s Games runs Modern, or tries to—it doesn’t always fire. However, today it did, and I managed to be able to be there for it. It went well and so I thought it would be worth a short report. As the title suggests, i played Mythic Conscription, here’s the list:

[deck title=Mythic Conscription]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Fauna Shaman
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Rhox War Monk
4 Sovereigns of Lost Alara
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Path to Exile
2 Bant Charm
2 Cryptic Command
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Gideon Jura
2 Eldrazi Conscription
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Celestial Colonnade
4 Forest
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Island
1 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mystic Gate
2 Plains
2 Treetop Village
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Bastion
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Nature’s Claim
2 Dispel
3 Mana Leak
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Rule of Law
2 Creeping Corrosion
2 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Ideally, the deck would have more shocklands in it (I own a total of 4, three of which are Sacred Foundry and live in my Modern Boros deck) and would run a pair of Vendilion Cliques in the main deck and the War Monks would actually be in the sideboard.

This was one of my favorite Standard decks when it was legal, from what was my favorite Standard environment, the post-Rise, pre-M11 world, as detailed here. I will say that the current Standard environment is almost as good with a nice variety of viable decks. I was worried about Standard once Zendikar rotated because I’m not a big fan of Scars block, but Innistrad seems to be dominating the environment (with the exception of infect) and so it’s been fine.

Anyway, 10 players, 4 rounds of Swiss, cut to top 4.

Round 1: Festus, playing 4-color control
Game 1 was about me drawing not very many threats, but him drawing mostly land and a Tarmogoyf, but I had the Path for that and pulled it off. Game 2 we had a bit of a board stall after he had used Bribery to take a Sovereigns out and Threads of Disloyalty to take a Cobra, but he made a mistake swinging into a pair of KotRs and I could fetch to pump both of them. Then he Cliqued me on my upkeep and took a Conscription out of my hand, leaving me with a Soveregns… and I topdecked the land I needed to cast it, and crashed in with a huge Knight. Not sure why he didn’t take the Sovereigns, but I’ll take it.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Jeff, playing Affinity
Jeff’s build is a Wu build with Tempered Steel. Game 1 I punted because when I tapped out to cast a Sovereigns and swing for 19 (putting him at 1, of course), I tapped wrong and tapped a BoP, leaving a Hierarch untapped. I was at 8. Unfortunately, he had two Signal Pests out and I had no way to block fliers. He topdecked a blue source for Master of Etherium, and had just enough artifacts in play to swing for lethal using counters from his Ravager. Grr. Game 2 I put up a good fight and had him down to 7, but he had three Inkmoth Nexuses out, and then got a Tempered Steel and I died to poison. Grr.
1-1 matches, 2-2 games

Round 3: Andre, playing TurboFog
Look, I try to be nice, but Andre is an annoying jerk who also had just beaten my 10-year-old son and was kind of a dick about it, so I was determined to kick his ass… which I did. Game 1 he played a Rites of Flourishing and relatively early in the game (turn 5?) I hard-cast a Conscription on a fairly large Knight and while he fogged a couple times, the annihilator triggers wiped him out and I finished with a Sovereigns giving the Knight double Conscription. Game 2 I ramped into an early Gideon and had two Bant Charms and a Dispel for any fog effects, and won easily. Good.
2-1 matches, 4-2 games

Round 3: Mike, playing RDW
Game 1 I didn’t have a great draw and he slowly burned me to death. Game 2 was really interesting and was my win of the day. I shut down his early Lavamancer with Linvala, but in order to prevent beatings by bigger creatures, he had sided in an Ensnaring Bridge and he got it. He then emptied his hand, which was huge as I had both Elspeth and Gideon out. The key play was me getting a Fauna Shaman and him not burning it. I used the Shaman to tutor for Sovereigns. He didn’t think it was a big deal, as he had zero cards. However, I had a Birds out, which can swing with its zero power, and then become huge due to the Conscription and the exalted trigger. He burnt me down to 4, but I drew another Bird (if I hadn’t drawn it, I would have tutored for it) and ended it with another massive swing. Game 3 he once again burnt me down to 4 but I had Elspeth and a very big Knight and won the game with two swings, one for 9 and one for 11.
3-1 matches, 6-3 games

Semifinals: Jeremiah, playing WW
He won the roll and made a Savannah Lions… err, Elite Vanguard on turn 1. I took a couple hits from it but got a Rhox War Monk and a Knight out. He came back with a Hero of Bladehold, but I got Sovereigns and hit with a huge Monk, bringing him to 4 and me to 30. Game 2 he started with a Vanguard again, and I got a Hierarch into a turn 2 Monk. He used Journey to Nowhere (not Path, apparently he didn’t want to ramp me) to take out the Monk after I hit him with it once. I came back with a Pridemage, and he swung in with the Vanguard and I sac’d the cat to kill the Journey and blocked, going back up to 21 life. My next few turns were Cobra, fetchland, Sovereigns, swing for 15 with lifelink, GG.
4-1 matches, 8-3 games

The other semis paired Jeff and Festus, and they were clearly going to take awhile. My son and I wanted to head home to be able to have dinner with the family, so they agreed that the winner would split with me, and I used my winnings for a Temple Garden, so next time around I’ll have one more shockland, which is nice.

I know, I know, it’s been an age since I actually wrote a tournament report. September was really busy and October was all draft at my LGS, and I missed FNM last week. I made top 8 at Game Day with UB Control, losing in the quarters to Kessig Green on some pretty bad draws in game 1 and turn 3 Thrun in game 2.

So, since I never play the same thing twice in a row, and I am now determined to play @Smi77y builds with some regularity, I figured I’d go with his Mono Black Infect deck. I had built this version a bit ago, and today was a mess and I didn’t have time to update it for more recent meta and went to battle with a slightly out-of-date version. Here’s the list:

[deck title=@Smi77y’s Mono Black Infect]
[Creatures]
4 Plague Stinger
3 Spellskite
4 Phyrexian Crusader
3 Whispering Specter
2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
2 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
3 Virulent Wound
1 Go for the Throat
3 Trigon of Rage
3 Victim of Night
4 Lashwrithe
2 Tezzeret’s Gambit
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Inkmoth Nexus
22 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Despise
1 Virulent Wound
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
2 Postmortem Lunge
1 Wring Flesh
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

4 rounds, cut to top 8, with only top 4 earning prizes.

Round 1: Warren, playing UB control
He was playing the build with Reassembling Skeleton and Sword of Feast and Famine. I lost the roll, got the zero-land opener and mulled to six, and kept a slightly suspect hand…. and drew very little action. All three Wounds, multiple Spellskites, and a great deal of land. Not enough pressure to threaten him, and while I eventually got him up to nine poison counters by hitting a Snapcaster with multiple Wounds, I could not bring it home and he milled me out with Jace. Game 2 wasn’t much better. I again started with a no-lander and mulled into a slow hand, which was assisted by him Leaking an early Stinger and then Extracting it. I did manage a Skittles to kill his active Jace, but he killed it with BSZ. I did get it back for one shot with Postmortem Lunge, but that was all I got through and again got milled out, this time by Drownyards.
0-1 matches, 0-2 games

Round 2: Parker playing WW
He won the roll, I mulled another zero-lander and kept a hand with a Stinger and a Crusader, a couple Swamps, and I don’t remember what else. He opened with turn 1 Champion of the Parish, turn 2 Elite Inquisitor, turn 3 Doomed Traveler and Elite Vanguard, turn 4 Honor of the Pure. I had to chump off my Stinger and hold back the Crusader, but it was just too much damage too fast. I boarded in all the Despises, Zeniths, and the Wring Flesh. I kept a one-lander because I had three Despises and a Crusader in it. I tore apart his hand full of creatures, eventually drew land, dropped the Cruader, and won in five turns. Game 3 was just a race, and I won it on the back of two Crusaders.
1-1 matches, 3-3 games

Round 3: Festus, playing UR Tempo
I just want to say that I absolutely love this UR deck. I loved playing CounterHammer and CounterPhoenix back in the day, and this deck reminds me of that. If I had all the cards and had time to put it together, this deck (or something like it) is what I would have played. I’ll probably play it next week. Anyway, game 1 I opened with a one-lander… an Inkmoth Nexus. So, after mulling to six and keeping a sketchy hand, he opened with a Delver and flipped it turn 2, and of course my next draw was a Wound. Grr. Anyway, he drew burn when he needed it, and bounce for my (relatively late) Crusader, and that was it. Game 2 was all about my turn 2 Spellskite. I used it to protect my guys, got a Trigon through, and managed to get there. It was close, though, as I took a lot of damage redirecting things to the Spellskite. Game 3 I got a Stinger with a Lashwrithe on it and managed to get a Skittles out, though he Vapor Snagged it. He just didn’t have the counters, though, and I managed to get through for the win.
2-1 matches, 5-4 games

Round 4: Chris, playing mono-Blue Grand Architect
I was the lowest-ranked of the 2-1s so I couldn’t draw in. Chris was 2-0-1 so he still had a shot even if he lost, so we shuffled up. Game 1 I had a good draw with a Stinger, a Crusader, and a Trigon, and that got me there. Game 2 I had a slightly slower draw and no removal, and that became a problem because he got two Vedalken Certarchs and an Architect. I had two Stingers out and even had a Lashwrithe on one, but he cast a Pentavus (!) and made some Pentavites to chump, and I could not get through, His swingback was lethal, so on to game 3. I got turn 2 Stinger, turn 3 Crusader, turn 4 fourth Swamp, Lashwrithe on the Stinger. He did have an Architect, though, and managed to get a Treasure Mage to fetch a Steel Hellkite and cast that off the Architect, but I had Wound so that I didn’t need to trade. He got another Treasure Mage into a Thopter Assembly and for that one I did trade my Stinger, but I followed with Skittles for the win.
3-1 matches, 7-5 games

Quarterfinals: Jacob, playing UG
Interesting deck, pretty much all dudes, and some strange ones: Civilized Scholar, Kessing Cagebreaker, Splinterfright, Jace’s Archivist, Boneyard Wurm, ramp guys. However, pretty much no removal. He won the roll and flipped a Scholar early, but I came back with a Crusader and had a Trigon out. He got a 5/5 Splinterfright out, but had to leave it back to block, and I was able to keep him on the defensive and got there without too much difficulty. Game 2 was all about me with guys in the air, including a Skittles on turn 5. Match was over very quickly, and I had a long wait for my semifinals opponent to finish up.
4-1 matches, 9-5 games

Semifinals: Fernando, playing GW Kessing
Game 1 I had an early Stinger and a Crusader a bit after, and a Trigon at some point. My play of the game was a Tezzeret’s Gambit with him at a few poison counters, me proliferating on a Trigon and Liliana. Anyway, he ramped a little but didn’t get a Titan, but did manage a White Sun’s Zenith for four, and the tokens took out Liliana. However, they didn’t help against the Crusder, but he got a Garruk, Primal Hunter to make a token for the Crusader. I had a Spellskite out as well, and the Stinger was getting through with pump; his one Inkmoth died to a Wound and I carried it. Game 2 I got turn 2 Stinger, turn 3 Specter, turn 4 Trigon, swing for five poison counters and destroy his hand. Followed with Skittles and that was it.
5-1 matches, 11-5 games

The other semi was the RDW mirror, which was over in about 10 minutes. By the time Fernando and I finished, it was about 12:15, and Brandon (the other finalist) and I were both ready to pack it in, so we decided to split. RDW seems manageable with 3 main board Skites and the Crusaders, but I haven’t played it so I’m not sure. (Shrine does seem like an awfully good answer for Crusader.) Anyway, I turned my winnings into almost all the cards I need for UR Tempo for next week, as well as a pack for each one of my boys, so it was a good night.

Thoughts on the deck:
• The deck seems completely solid with no really bad matchups. UB seems like the toughest, and there I felt like if I hadn’t drawn so much land, I could have won that one. It’s funny because I’m not a huge fan of Scars block, but of course this deck runs only two cards from Innistrad, a set I like much better—a little irony there.
• Trigon of Rage is amazing. If you play this deck, play Trigon in it. 3 seemed like the perfect number.
• Spellskite was also amazing. @Smi77y, why did you cut these from the most recent version?
• I wasn’t all that impressed with Whispering Specter and sided them out every match except for my first and last match. I might consider relegating these to the sideboard if I play this again.
• Tezzeret’s Gambit was a really mixed card. It was really good a couple times, and really awful some others. Not sure if I’d keep it main in the future.
• Victim of Night was excellent. Kills everything, or at least everything that anybody plays.
• Virulent Wound is also outstanding. So many targets in Standard right now!
• Lashwrithe seems awesome in principle, but in practice it’s sometimes a little slow. Absolutely terrible against permission and any deck running Slime. Honestly I liked Trigon better, and would consider cutting down to three Lashwrithes main.
• Really wanted Nihil Spellbomb. Should definitely board that next time.

I would also note that I playtested this exactly zero times. The first time I ever even shuffled it was the first game of round 1. It’s not the hardest deck to play, either, so a solid deck that easy to pick up, and not that expensive. A very solid call for FNM or maybe even something bigger…