Author: SunByrne

So, my 11 year old son Simon and I went to FNM at Montag’s Games for the first time in a while since I had been on the road on Friday nights for the last three weeks. We both did OK—Simon did much better, and I’ll explain that as well. The other thing is that I think these are two of the best decks in Standard right now, but that doesn’t say much, because Standard is fantastic right now with so many viable decks that “best” really means “I like somewhat better than the others.”

Anyway, here are the decks we played:

[deck title=Mono-Black Infect]
[Creatures]
4 Plague Stinger
3 Spellskite
4 Phyrexian Crusader
2 Whispering Specter
2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Virulent Wound
1 Contagion Clasp
1 Doom Blade
3 Trigon of Rage
3 Victim of Night
2 Liliana of the Veil
1 Piston Sledge
3 Lashwrithe
2 Tezzeret’s Gambit
[/Spells]
[Land]
1 Drowned Catacomb
4 Inkmoth Nexus
21 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
4 Despise
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1 Distress
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Nihil Spellbomb
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

That’s what I played. My son Simon played this:

[deck title=Uw Delver Illusions]
[Creatures]
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Phantasmal Bear
4 Lord of the Unreal
3 Phantasmal Image
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Geist of Saint Traft
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Gut Shot
4 Ponder
4 Vapor Snag
4 Mana Leak
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Glacial Fortress
9 Island
3 Moorland Haunt
4 Seachrome Coast
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Dissipate
2 Flashfreeze
1 Gut Shot
2 Mental Misstep
2 Negate
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Stitched Drake
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I’ll go over mine first.

Round 1: Audra, playing Kessig Ramp
This is a matchup that I ought to be able to win, but nothing is certain. Game 1 I opened with a Nexus, then a Stinger on turn 2, then a Specter on turn 3. She burned the Specter but I got a Lashwrithe on the Stinger and that carried it. Game 2 she mulled to six and I kept a slightly sketchy hand and ended up paying for it. I ultimately had a huge Phyrexian Crusader with a Lashwrithe on it, but she was generating wolf tokens with a flipped Mayor of Avabruck and they were chumping. She eventually drew a Primeval Titan and got the Kessing she needed to make her Nexus lethal. Game 3 I mulled to six and opened with a Nexus, then a Spellskite, then a Plague Stinger, then a Trigon. The Spellskite kept the Stinger safe from all her burn spells and mostly what she did was ramp and then die to the pumped Stinger. It was good that I had the Stinger/Trigon because I never drew a fourth land at all.
1-0 matches, 2-1 games

Round 2: Josh, playing UG Splinterfright
He was playing something pretty close to the event deck. I opened with Nexus then Stinger, then Spectre and had him pitch four cards, which actually wasn’t all that great since his next card was a Boneyard Wurm, and then he Mulched to make the Wurm a 7/7. However, I got Skittles next and won that race. Game 2 I got the turn 4 kill. Turn 2 Stinger, turn 3 Piston Sledge, turn 4 Trigon for the win. Nice when you know your opponent has minimal removal. The whole match took like 10-15 minutes.
2-0 matches, 4-1 games

Round 3: Simon
So, Simon was 1-1 at this point, and since I was 2-0, I scooped to Simon to not eliminate him. I knew this would make it harder for me, but I figured it was the least I could do for him since the last time we were in an elimination situation for the top 8 he opted to play and I won, which made him pretty unhappy. So this time I gave him the win.
2-1 matches, 4-1 games

Round 4: Chris, playing Solar Flare
Neither of these games were particularly quick. Game 1 we traded back and forth and at one point he Snapcasted back a Mana Leak and that Snapcaster got me down to like 10, but I got a Specter out and ate his hand, then was free to cast a Skittles and that went all the way. Game 2 was kind of a mess in terms of board state but I got out a Lashwrithe, got him tapped out except for one Isolated Chapel, then got out a second Lashwrithe and double-equipped a Nexus for the win.
3-1 matches, 6-1 games

Round 5: John, playing UW Delver Illusions
So, the situation was that if all the 3-1s drew, then one of them would not make it on tiebreaks. My breaks were not that good anyway, and I did this once before only to have my son Simon be the one who missed on tiebreaks, so I decided to play it out even though I knew my matchup wasn’t very good and I knew Simon would draw. It’s not unwinnable, but it’s not great. If they draw a lot of Vapor Snags you can only win if you have a Spellskite out. Game 1 I got a Spellskite, but he got a turn 3 Geist and I had no answers. He smartly Snagged the ‘Skite when it mattered and had a Gut Shot for my one Stinger and I was too far behind for the Skittles to matter. Game 2 I mulled to six and kept an OK hand, but no Spellskite, and he drew three Snags and a Snapcaster and I had no chance.
3-2 matches, 6-3 games

We found out after that if I had drawn, I would have been eighth. Grr. The good news is that Simon finished 7th. Now, he doesn’t take any kind of notes so I don’t have a full report from him, but I know his matchups and his outcomes, so I’ll recap those:

Round 1: Chris playing Mono-U Grand Architect
Simon won this one, though I don’t know many of the details. I guess in game 3 his opponent stalled on two land after Simon had been flooded in game 1.
1-0 matches, 2-1 games

Round 2: Dillon playing BantPod
Simon lost this match, though he should have won it. Late in game 3 Simon had an empty board and his opponent, who had no Pod in play, tapped out to cast a Wurmcoil Engine. Simon, who was stuck on only 3 land, copied the Engine with an Image, but then did NOT use the Vapor Snag in his hand. Dillon of course untapped, played a Pod, and podded into Elesh Norn. Oops.
1-1 matches, 3-3 games

Round 3: Freebie from dad!
2-1 matches, 3-3 games

Round 4: GW Humans
This one also went three games. Apparently in one game that he won, Simon had a Lord out and was able to copy a Hero of Bladehold with an Image, and in another, he had the “Bear, Lord, Image copying Lord” opener.
3-1 matches, 5-4 games

Round 5: Kessig ramp
Simon chose to ID since his opponent was #2 in the standings so Simon figured his breakers would improve and he’d lock up a spot. Turns out he was right.
3-1-1 matches, 5-4 games

Quarterfinals: Dillon, playing BantPod
This was indeed the rematch from round 2. Since I was out of the top 8, I was going to railbird it, but Simon told me that would make him more nervous, so I took off. Simon carried the first game and told me I could come back to watch, which I did. However, I rather wished I hadn’t. Dillon ramped into a turn 3 Thrun, and Simon ended up just chumping that like crazy for the rest of the match, during which time he drew 10 of his 20 lands. I decided not to watch the decider, which Simon carried and apparently played very well.
4-1-1 matches, 7-5 games

Semifinals: John, playing Uw Delver Illusions
John and I had actually talked about these decks between rounds and he was playing a deck that was maybe 3 or 4 cards different than Simon’s in the main deck. John is a strong player so I didn’t give Simon much chance in this and I decided not to watch. Simon apparently made a couple small mistakes in game 1 and lost it badly, corrected them in game 2 and won easily, and then just got blown out in game 3 by virtue of John having a much better draw.
4-2-1 matches, 8-6 games

So Simon finished in the top 4 and got store credit for the first time ever! He got a nice $17.50 and spent it about a dollar at a time on causal singles (for play with his brother and his school buddies) until everyone was going crazy (it was like 1:00 in the morning at this point) and he used his last $3 on a pack of Mirrodin Besieged, from which he pulled a Bonehoard. Hooray Simon!

Next time, though, I think we’ll just ID.

Some comments on the decks, first on the Infect deck:

• I’m fairly convinced this is the right build, or very nearly so, at least in the maindeck. If I were to change anything in the main, I’d consider putting the Specters in the sideboard.
• I still can’t believe that anybody plays this deck without Trigon of Rage, it just seems ridiculously good.
• I’m also not convinced that the builds that run blue (I mean a real amount of blue, not the token here) in order to run Blighted Agent are really better, since then you lose Lashwrithe. Lashwrithe is excellent. Going two-color also raises the opportunity to be color-screwed or get tempo-hosed by lands coming into play tapped—that never happens with this. This is the only mono-colored deck I’ve played in ages and it is amazingly nice to never have those problems. I see the appeal of RDW sometimes.
• I think maybe the sideboard needs a third Spellskite and desperately needs some better set of answers to Illusions. That’s the only matchup I really worry about. RDW can be tricky, too, but Crusader is really good there. I have no good ideas about dealing with the Delver Illusions deck, it’s just a bad matchup. If anyone out there has any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

Now, some thoughts on the Uw Delver Illusions deck:

• This deck needs a catchier name. “Uw Delver Illusions,” though descriptive, is awful.
• The deck is very strong. It plays a lot like old-school Merfolk, of course, and has both explosive starts and a decent midgame. If the game goes very long then it’s obviously a little weaker.
• Geist of Saint Traft is a really solid card, and should probably be a 3-of rather than a 2-of. I’m thinking of cutting one of the Probes for it.
• Vapor Snag is spectacular in this deck. This is a card that nobody used to play and is now a serious weapon.
• Gut Shot is also surprisingly good. There are way too many 1-toughness creatures in Standard right now.

So, I’ll be brining these two decks with me to play at side events at GP Austin. Who’s going?

Another FNM, another report. I played UR Delver because I really like counter-burn strategies (I played CounterHammer back when that was a deck in Standard, and then CounterPhoenix in Rath Block Constructed), and haven’t really had a viable shot at one for a long time, so when I saw this list online I figured I had to give it a whirl. I played pretty close to the original list:

[deck title=UR Delver]
[Creatures]
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Stromkirk Noble
4 Snapcaster Mage
3 Chandra’s Phoenix
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Ponder
2 Vapor Snag
4 Incinerate
4 Mana Leak
1 Negate
4 Brimstone Volley
[/Spells]
[Land]
1 Ghost Quarter
9 Island
9 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Manic Vandal
2 Dismember
2 Spellskite
3 Flashfreeze
2 Stromkirk Noble
1 Steel Sabotage
3 Arc Trail
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

It’s 61 cards because I meant to take out one Island for a Ghost Quarter but I miscounted and didn’t realize it until I was shuffling up for the first match. I should have stopped and fixed it, but I didn’t. My bad.

If I had had more time beforehand I would have tried to work in a couple copies of Desperate Ravings which seems good in this deck, but I really didn’t have time to tinker with it and wasn’t sure what to take out. As has been the norm lately, I didn’t have a chance to playtest it at all beforehand and played it cold. I know, I know, that’s a horrible strategy, but it’s where I am life-wise right now.

5 rounds, cut to top 8.

Round 1: Michael, playing homebrew Naya Golems
I have to say that I don’t know very much about this deck. I guess he did OK with it overall, but mostly what I saw out of it was land. Both games he cast Rampant Growth on turn 2 to get his third color and thereafter mostly drew land. Game 1 he dropped an Adaptive Automaton naming “golem” and I never saw another creature. Game 2 I got turn 1 Delver, flip, turn 3 Delver, flip on a Galvanic Blast. I hit him down to 7, he cast Day, I Volleyed him down to 2 and Blasted for the win. I took zero damage total. Good start on luck and did kill pretty quickly both games, but not exactly a strong test of the deck.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Zack, playing GB homebrew
Zach is maybe 15 years old and a slightly awkward teen, but basically a good kid as far as I can tell. Game 1 I flashed in a Snapcaster early to either counter or burn something and he got in a few times before eating some removal spell, which I followed up with another one, then a Delver which I flipped off a Ponder, then finished with burn. Game 2 was more about permission and removal on my end, letting me poke away with little guys until I had him at 5 and won on a Volley. First point of note: this deck definitely punishes bad decks.
2-0 matches, 4-0 games

Round 3: Paul, playing RDW
Paul is a good player and definitely knows how to pilot RDW, which is not as brainless as many people think. Game 1 we had a good back-and-forth but in the end he drew more burn than I did, which isn’t really a surprise, and he took it home while still at 7 life. Game 2 I was very land-light, stuck on 3 for many turns, but he got flooded and my early Snapcaster (brought back a Blast) went most of the way. Game 3 was awful. He got a really fast start, I didn’t, and my Delver sat for four turns in a row of drawing land. I did not get there, but overall it was a close match, as game 1 really could have gone either way.
2-1 matches, 5-2 games

Round 4: Weylin, playing Haunted Humans
Weylin is also a strong player and the Humans deck can be very good; he smashed me with it last time I played FNM. Game 1 I got a turn 1 Delver and flipped it turn 2, burned all his guys as they came out, and finished him off with another Volley. Game 2 he got the god draw, or at least a very good one: Champion of the Parish on turn 1 and a second Champion and a Doomed Traveler on turn 2, then a Grand Abolisher. I never really caught up with that. Game 3 was closer, and we both made some small mistakes that might have swung it. I opened with a Stromkirk Noble, him with a Traveler. I know his turn 2 was another Traveler but turn 3 he went for Geist of Saint Traft and I Leaked it. (That was his mistake.) I followed with a second Noble and he followed with a Grand Abolisher (which is what he should have used to draw out the Leak). We exchanged blows a bit, he got my larger Noble with an O Ring and then I drew all three Phoenixes. I did screw up in that something died when I had a Volley in hand and I volleyed the Abolisher rather than sending 5 at him, but the three Phoenixes were too much in the air for him to keep up and I won anyway.
3-1 matches, 7-3 games

Round 5: ID
My opponent did the math, figured out we’d both be in, and so I accepted the ID. This turned out to be a mistake, because my 10 year old was 2-2 but won in the fifth round and finished 9th. If I had played, then he would have gotten in ahead of the loser of my match. (He was playing mono-Black Infect, by the way.)
3-1-1 matches

Quarterfinals: Joe, playing UB Control
Joe is almost certainly the best regular player in the store and my nemesis—I rarely beat him, because he’s better than me. It’s a game with luck, sure, but there’s enough skill difference here that it matters. Anyway, his build has Reassembling Skeleton and Sword of Feast and Famine, plus the usual suite of counters, card draw, and spot removal, a very tricky matchup. I mulled to six and kept a one-lander because it had three Delvers in it. Unfortunately, I could not get one to flip and Joe had all the early answers he needed for them (he runs Dead Weight main and had one, as well as a Ratchet Bomb, ugh) and even with a Ponder in the opener, I failed to get on enough early pressure and then fell too far behind in the land race. Game 2 was more competitive, as I got in a few hits here and there and had a Phoenix running, but he managed to get a Wurmcoil Engine, though he tapped out for it. He was at 6 life and I didn’t have the damage I needed to finish him. The only answer I had in my hand was a Vapor Snag, and what I should have done was Snag the Wurmcoil right away, rather than letting him untap and doing in response to combat, since he just Leaked the Snag. The six life he gained was enough to keep him out of burn range for a bit, and I never got there, ultimately dying to the 6/6. i probably should have won that game. Oops.
3-2-1 matches, 7-5 games

So, not bad, but certainly not great. Rounds 3 and 4 could easily have gone the other way. I probably could have won game 2 in the quarters if I hadn’t punted, but I still think the UB deck has the edge in game 3, at least against this build.

So, the deck. It’s a style I love, but I’m not in love with this specific build. Some thoughts:
• Galvanic Blast, which is really Shock in this deck, is really subpar. Incinerate isn’t l that great, either. This deck wants Lightning Bolt so badly it’s painful. If I were to play this again, I’d cut the Shocks completely, probably cut the Incinerates to 2 or 3, and run some mix of Arc Trail, Gut Shot, and maybe Geistflame.
• I have mixed feelings about Stromkirk Noble. When he’s good (turn 1, vs. humans), he’s fantastic, but otherwise he’s underwhelming.
• Brimstone Volley is amazing, but a little costly for this deck. 3 might be enough.
• Ponder is great with Delver, of course, but not so hot otherwise. I’d go to 3 and run a couple Desperate Ravings as well.
• I didn’t really like the sideboard all that much. Going to 4 Nobles vs. Haunted Humans was great and and Arc Trail very good in multiple matchups, and Flashfreeze has its place, too, but otherwise I’m not so sure. Manic Vandal and Steel Sabotage seem especially suspect.

Of course, I wrote this, and then a UR Delver list made top 4 of the SCG Open in St. Louis. That list is pretty interesting in that it completely foregoes Stromkirk Noble and uses a burn package more like what I’d switch to. The loss of Noble means the deck can lean on more blue mana and can thus support the Psychic Barriers, but seems like it might make Phoenix harder to cast. I like the sideboard Ancient Grudge plan but I’m not sure about 2 main deck Satchels. Don’t get me wrong, I love Satchel, but that seems like a sideboard card vs. control decks more than a main deck choice; I’d probably swap for the Arc Trails. The loss of Noble also seems like it’d make the deck softer to Humans, but I guess that’s what Mental Misstep is in the board for, and main deck Gut Shot probably also helps.

Anyway, it’s a great deck to play and I think it has solid potential to keep evolving well as the format evolves. The format, by the way, is fantastic. There are so many viable deck choices right now; the format feels completely wide open, and I love that.

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…

Trying to get caught up on FNM reports. This week I played another @Smi77y creation, Mill Blade. I figured nobody would be metagaming at all for it, and I’ve never played a mill deck before, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

Here’s the list I played:

[deck title=Mill Blade]
[Ceatures]
4 Hedron Crab
4 Squadron Hawk
1 Sun Titan
[/Ceatures]
[Spells]
4 Ponder
4 Visions of Beyond
2 Into the Roil
3 Mana Leak
1 Trapmaker’s Snare
2 Sword of Body and Mind
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Day of Judgment
4 Archive Trap
3 Jace, Memory Adept
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Arid Mesa
6 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
5 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Terramorphic Expanse
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Condemn
1 Day of Judgment
2 Dismember
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Seemed like it would be a good time.

Round 1: Brandon, playing RDW
The are real differences in RDW builds and RDW players. Brandon brings legit RDW decks and knows how to play them. And, unfortunately, I was never really in these games. Bad draws, but not sure I would have won with good ones. Mostly what milling him did was fuel his Lavamancers and put Phoenixes in his graveyard. Got steamrolled.
0-1 matches, 0-2 games

Round 3, Amy playing Random GB ramp
Game 1 was going along smoothly, early Crab, Trapped off her Cultivate, etc. However, second Trap hit… Kozilek. Really? I just scooped a couple turns later since that’s pretty much game unless I can get a Sworded Hawk, and I didn’t. Game 2 I sided in the Extractions and kept a hand that had one. I then drew both the others and when I extracted her Kozilek, I found that she had nothing else worth extracting and died with some dead cards in hand. This was dumb and displays a critical weakness of mill: Eldrazi hose you.
0-2 matches, 0-4 games

Round 3, Matt playing Pyromancer’s Ascension
Seems like a bad matchup, me actually trying to put stuff in his graveyard. My T1 Crab ate a Bolt, but I had one turn 2 and had fetches. He got an Ascension active but I had multiple traps (including Snaring into a Trap on his end after he had cracked a fetch) and got Jace out and that got me there. Game 2 he sided in Exarch Twin. I sided in the Extractions and extracted the Twins early. He never got a PA active but drew tons of burn. He almost managed to burn me out but I managed to double-Visions my way into six land, which allowed me to thereafter draw gas and I got the last Trap I needed for the win. This match reveals the other down side of mill: people are so demoralized after losing to you that they drop, which destroys your breakers.
1-2 matches, 2-4 games

Round 4, Marvin playing mono Black infect
Game 1 I had an early Crab that he Dismembered, then a Hawk and another Crab. Timely Reinforcements wasn’t very good here. I chumped off a couple Plague Stingers with Hawks, and then he dropped a Crusader. I still had a Crab and didn’t want to have to use it to block, but I topdecked a Sword, equipped a Hawk, and then had Wolf token to block. He scooped as another hit from the Sword would end it. Game 2 I kept an opener with two sources of blue but no White and I paid the price. Got stuck on three Islands and never really recovered. I did Dismember a Crusader at one point in this game but it just wan’t enough. Game 3 I got a bunch of cards milled with a Crab before he killed it, and got Jace on turn 5. He didn’t swing into Jace instead swinging at me, but I had two Traps in hand and was able to mill him out for the win the turn before I would have died.
2-2 matches, 4-5 games

Round 5: David, playing RDW
Game 1 I got the god draw and had two Crabs in the opener and a fistful of fetches. I milled off 36 cards over the next three turns before he burnt off both of the Crabs and then refilled my hand with a Visions and got there. I was assisted in that he had three Shrines out but was stuck on two land for a long time, which gave me time to finish him. Game 2 he again got an early Shrine but had the O Ring for it. I had Timely Reinforcements to get me from 16 life back to 20, but it just didn’t matter as I didn’t draw enough other mill cards. Game 3 came down to the wire. I had him down to a few cards in his library, but he had killed my Jace and we were both in topdeck mode. I drew a Sword but had nothing to put it on, land, and then land, and then he drew Hero. I drew another Sword and played it. He drew Guide and hit me down to 3, then Burst me down to 1. I drew Visions, then ancestralled into Timely Reinforcements. Yes! I went back to 7, cracked a fetch down to 6 so I could equip both Swords to the tokens so I could block. He only had 2 cards left in his library and so that did it. Hooray, Visions!
3-2 matches, 6-6 games

And, of course, I missed the top 8 on tiebreakers, which were horrific. My round 2 opponent didn’t do well and my round 3 opponent rage quit… err, dropped, so I really had no shot of making it on breakers. That’s a bummer, because I think I would have had a shot in the top 8.

The deck is a blast to play, as nobody was expecting mill. Visions of Beyond was definitely the MVP card in this deck—turns out that Ancestral Recall is pretty amazing. It’s really unfortunate that so much of this deck is rotating out, as this deck would be even better in an environment with no Eldrazi.

Oh, well. One more FNM to go before rotation (for me, that is). Might go back to Caw Blade, might replay Twin Pod, which was great. We’ll see.

OK, so this was way back on August 26th and I’ve been lame in writing up the report. Mostly, I played this deck because it was silly and fun. Somebody tweeted about a SnakeBlade list but I didn’t have access to it, and I decided that I could generate a humorous one, and here’s what I came up with. I’ve always loved the card River Boa and hadn’t played the Zendikar reprint, so here way my excuse to do so.

[deck title=Snakes with a Blade!]
[Creatures]
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
4 River Boa
3 Spellskite
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Consecrated Sphinx
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Preordain
1 Spell Pierce
2 Into the Roil
4 Mana Leak
4 Spreading Seas
2 Dismember
2 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Forest
2 Halimar Depths
4 Island
2 Khalni Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Tectonic Edge
2 Verdant Catacombs
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Obstinate Baloth
3 Nature’s Claim
2 Dismember
3 Flashfreeze
2 Ratchet Bomb
1 Cobra Trap
1 Deprive
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Obviously, the point is to get a River Boa Sworded up and Islandwalk your way to victory. Yes, it’s very silly.

Round 1: Zach, playing BG homebrew
Game 1 I ended up getting a Lotus Cobra sworded up with SoFF and he went all the way. Sword of Feast and Famine is pretty good against straight BG. Game 2 was more of a grind and he got me down to 5, but I finally managed to get out a Sword and a Sphinx and take it in the end.
1-0 matches, 2-0 games

Round 2: Joe Bass, playing UW Venser control
Joe is the consensus dominant player in the store and always a touch match. Game 1 I actually won pretty easily with an early River Boa. I got SoFF on it, but he O Ringed the Sword. I promptly came back with Sword of War and Peace and that ended it quickly as Joe had 6 cards in hand. Game 2 I didn’t come out fast enough, and while I Nature’s Claimed his first O Ring, he got Venser and Walls and somehow had no Islands (all duals for his blue) and I never got there. Game 3 was all about me having a slow start and him having Gideon to keep the Snakes off him.
1-1 matches, 3-2 games

Round 3: Chris, playing Bant Planeswalkers
Gideon, Garruk, Jace, and Karn were all in his deck. Game 1 I managed to color screw him off white for a long time with Spreading Seas, but I was drawing nothing but land besides my one Cobra (which got him down to 12) and so when he finally got Garruk out, I had no answers. Game 2 was more of the same, but with me not even having a Cobra. It was pretty awful, frankly, as I don’t think this one said anything other than it’s really hard win when you get flooded badly two games in a row.
1-2 matches, 3-4 games

Round 4: Mitchell, playing Gr Infect
Game 1 he quickly ran me over with pumped infect guys. Game 2 I got an early Spellskite, which is amazing against him since he can’t pump his guys. I got a Sworded Snake and then a Sphinx and ended it. Game 3 he got me to nine poison counters on turn 2: Glistener Elf, Teetering Peaks, Groundswell, Mutagenic Growth. Yow. However, I didn’t panic, put down a Spellskite in addition to the Bird I had, then Spreading Seas on his one Forest (he had another Teetering Peaks out, so no help there) and then Sworded up a Boa (“Snake with Blade!”) for the win.
2-2 matches, 5-5 games

Talk about disappointing! Losing to Joe was legit, but I felt the deck could have done better. Still, it was loads of fun to have one opponent and one onlooker exclaim “motherfucking Snake with a motherfucking Blade” so it was totally worth it.

I had to miss the M12 prerelease because of an annual family reunion/camping trip near Rochester, NY. Following that, I had a work obligation in North Conway, NH. So, I drove starting on Friday afternoon. Based on what I thought I could do each day, I figured the best stopping point for Friday night was Amsterdam, NY. Luckily for me, the WotC site let me know that a new shop called Prof. Bond’s Emporium was having a release party on Friday evening. So, I packed some sleeves, dice, a deckbox, and playmat and headed over for the party. The store itself is beautiful, just a really nice gaming space. Players were all incredibly friendly and welcoming to this out of town stranger. Overall, I think the level of competition is not what I’m used to at my local game shop, but I think having a store available to the audience will improve everyone’s game. Turnout was pretty good, but I don’t think the five rounds of swiss was quite necessary for the size of crowd. Overall, though, it was a terrific time and I was very happy to be able to play with M12 cards for the first time.

Here’s what I opened:

[cardlist title=M12 Release Party Sealed Pool]
[White]
Pride Guardian
2 Gideon’s Lawkeeper
Celestial Purge
Stormfront Pegasus
Pacifism
2 Divine Favor
Alabaster Mage
Benalish Veteran
Griffin Sentinel
Guardian’s Pledge
2 Stonehorn Dignitary
Peregrine Griffin
Gideon Jura
[/White]
[Blue]
Flight
Unsummon
Merfolk Looter
Coral Merfolk
2 Mana Leak
Negate
Turn to Frog
Merfolk Mesmerist
Skywinder Drake
Aven Fleetwing
Phantasmal Dragon
Master Thief
Levitation
Mind Control
[/Blue]
[Black]
2 Disentomb
Tormented Soul
Wring Flesh
Onyx Mage
Duskhunter Bat
Distress
Smallpox
Mind Rot
Bloodrage Vampire
2 Devouring Swarm
Drifting Shade
[/Black]
[Red]
Firebreathing
Goblin Arsonist
Goblin Fireslinger
Incinerate
Circle of Flame
2 Fling
Goblin Piker
Goblin War Paint
Manic Vandal
Act of Treason
2 Lightning Elemental
Chandra, the Firebrand
Gorehorn Minotaurs
Bonebreaker Giant
[/Red]
[Green]
Autumn’s Veil
Reclaim
Plummet
Runeclaw Bear
Rites of Flourishing
Arachnus Web
Sacred Wolf
2 Lurking Crocodile
Giant Spider
Cudgel Troll
Bountiful Harvest
Stampeding Rhino
[/Green]
[Artifacts]
Demon’s Horn
Kraken’s Eye
Wurm’s Tooth
Swiftfoot Boots
Greatsword
Scepter of Empires
Manalith
Druidic Satchel
Adaptive Automation
Thran Golem
[/Artifacts]
[Land]
Sunpetal Grove
[/Land]
[/cardlist]

Yes, it’s a bomb-tastic card pool. The three obvious bombs are, of course, Gideon, Chandra, and Mind Control. Turns out that I’d classify Druidic Satchel a bomb in any deck not trying to race, so that was four. Given that my creature base was not exactly awe-inspiring in any color, I decided that the best route to victory was… stall. Play the long game, get the bombs out, and grind out the wins.

This of course meant three colors, which I generally dislike in any format like this when I can’t play some kind of green ramp/fixing, but I figured I had a Manalith and not very many double-color cards until the casting costs got a little higher, so it’d be worth a shot. I will admit that I flirted with the idea of a heavier Red build, as I do like Fling, particularly with Lightning Elemental, but that was just too aggro for what the rest of the deck felt like it wanted to do.

Here’s the list I played:

[deck]
[Creatures]
2 Gideons Lawkeeper
Goblin Arsonist
Goblin Fireslinger
Alabaster Mage
Stormfront Pegasus
Merfolk Looter
Griffin Sentinel
Skywinder Drake
Stonehorn Dignitary
Master Thief
Thran Golem
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
Chandra, the Firebrand
Gideon Jura
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
Unsummon
Swiftfoot Boots
Divine Favor
Pacifism
2 Mana Leak
Incinerate
Manalith
Druidic Satchel
Mind Control
[/Spells]
[Land]
6 Island
4 Mountain
6 Plains
[/Land]
[/deck]

My most often sided in cards were Negate, Celestial Purge, Manic Vandal, Turn to Frog, and Circle of Flame. I may have sided Act of Treason once as well.

I know some of the decisions are pretty weird, and now post-event, even I can’t quite remember exactly what I was thinking. For example, I’m not sure about 2 red 1-drops with only 4 Mountains. The Thran Golem is the biggest beater, and yet I ran only one enchantment when I had two Divine Favors available. The thing about the Thran Golem is that he represents such a potential threat that he garnered an awful lot of attention when he hit the table. Still probably should have run the Aven Fleetwing or even the Phantasmal Dragon in its place, maindecked the Negate, and cut the one Divine Favor completely. Alternatively, I should have cut the Master Thief from the main and run both Divine Favors.

I didn’t take notes, so everyone will have to excuse my many memory flaws here.

R1: Dave, playing RW
This one is now kind of lost in my mind. Mainly, what I remember was grinding out a very long victory in game 1 largely through the magic of the Satchel. I do recall that I got Chandra and then he immediately top-decked an O Ring, which was unfun. However, the Satchel did everything in this game: built up my life total, kept me drawing gas, made tokens to chump and then later attack with. I remember when that card was spoiled and my first thought was “wow, that seems like it’ll be really good in Limited.” I didn’t know the half of it. Game 2 we were in danger of timing out and I punted by tapping wrong when I drew what was actually an answer to his 12/12 Furyborn Hellkite. We didn’t get to a game 3. Not a good start.
0-0-1 matches, 1-1 games

R2: Nick, playing WB
Nick had a good build with a Royal Assassin in it, but just had no answer to my bombs (I know in one game I had both Planeswalkers out, and Game 2 chumped almost every attack of his with Saproling tokens thanks to the Satchel) and I pretty much plowed through these two games.
1-0-1 matches, 3-1 games

R3: Cody, playing RW
Game 1 I kept a two-lander (on the draw) with both a Mountain and an Island in it, never drew a Plains the whole game, and died with five white cards in my hand, including Gideon… and he pummeled me with his Gideon. Game 2 he killed me very quickly with the amazing combo of Goblin Tunneler and Firebreathing on a 1/1, and I was again color-screwed. Pretty much an all-around spanking.
1-1-1 matches, 3-3 games, a ludicrous record given the conditions.

R4: Jeff?, playing GU
His deck had green fatties and a couple nice blue cards, but basically no removal and no way to get through Gideon’s Lawkeepers and Gideon himself. I think I ultimated Chandra once in this match as well, and I know in game 2 that I won by Mind Controlling a Giant Spider that had Trollhide on it. Seemed good.
2-1-1 matches, 5-3 games

R5: Brett, playing BR
Game 1 he took by getting a Gorehorn Minotaurs out after pinging me, then giving it hexproof with Boots, then pumping it with a Goblin War Cry. Basically, all I could do was chump it, and when the 7/7 started to get through, it was ugly. When he got out a Grim Lavamancer to boot, that was it. Game 2 I got a first-turn Goblin Fireslinger that went most of the way by himself. I Mana Leaked a couple of his early plays, stole his Swiftfoot Boots with my Master Thief, and then Mind Controlled his one creature and finished him with the trio. Game 3 I don’t remember as well, though I do know that the key plays were early Mana Leaks and when I Mind Controlled a creature of his that had Dark Favor on it.
3-1-1 matches, 7-4 games

Quarters: Nick, playing WB
Rematch from round 2. Game 1 he had to mull down to 4 and there was just no way he could beat me with that. Game 2 was a little more back and forth, but only a little. Unfortunately I don’t remember it all that well, other than once again getting huge advantage out of the Satchel, but it was pretty one-sided.
4-1-1 matches, 9-4 games

Semis: Matt, playing WG
Game 1 he kept a 1-lander on a mull to 6 and didn’t draw a second land until it was way, way too late. He discarded a lot of cards, including his three bombs: Garruk, a Sun Titan, and an Archon of Justice. Game 2 was more interesting, including a really horrific punt, but I still won it. The punt: He got out both the Archon and a Sun Titan, and I drew into Mind Control… and took the Titan. Hunh? So, of course I had to kill the Archon at some point, and so he killed the Mind Control. Duh. However, the good news is that he killed that instead of the Gideon that I had out, and I got a Lawkeeper, and that allowed me to keep the Titan off me long enough to grind out enough card advantage through the Satchel and swing enough life through my Alabaster Mage that I was able to take it in a long game.
5-1-1 matches, 11-4 games

Finals: Mike, playing BW
Game 1 was a medium-length affair decided primarily by my inability to draw things other than land; I think I died with 12 of my 16 lands on the table having drawn little gas. Game 2 I don’t really remember all that well, but I won it without too much difficulty. He did Doom Blade Gideon when I attacked with him, but I also had Chandra and was able to ultimate her while still keeping her on the board (also killing his only creature), and took it home with her and a Fireslinger. Game 3 I played an early Goblin Fireslinger followed by Boots, he had turn 2 and 3 Stormfront Pegasus and a turn 4 Cemetary Reaper. Here’s where I punted in this game: On my turn 3 I didn’t equip the Boots on the Fireslinger. On turn 4, I dropped Chandra and killed a Pegasus, figuring that my Fireslinger could chump the Reaper and then kill the other Pegasus the next turn. Of course he had a Sorin’s Thirst to kill the Slinger and then killed Chandra by attacking into her. Bleah. He got two Zombie tokens out of the Reaper but I was able to Mind Control it to make his tokens smaller, and forced him to use a Celestial Purge to kill his own Reaper. I got Gideon and then a Dignitary and a Divine Favor on the Dignitary, and then a Lawkeeper, which I protected from his spot removal with Boots. He made a Zombie token indestructible with an Aegis Angel, but I killed the Angel with Gideon after tapping with the Lawkeeper. He did get me down to 6, but after that, he couldn’t attack through the 2/6 Dignitary meaning I was free to use Gideon alternatively as an assassin and a fog. He had been holding the same one card since I cast Gideon, which I read as the Doom Blade, so I never attacked with Gideon and just waited for creatures to come and won with Skywinder Drake and Alabaster Mage and a couple Saproling tokens created by the Satchel.
6-1-1 matches, 13-5 games

So, for eight rounds of work, I got… 5 packs of M12. Seems a little light if we had enough people to justify 5 rounds of Swiss, but I had a good time, and that’s what was key.

Some comments on cards: Chandra is very good, but not nearly as good as Gideon, at least in a deck like this. Don’t get me wrong, she’s still very good, but she’s a bit slow to get to ultimate, and I didn’t use her -2 at all. Gideon, on the other hand, was absolutely fantastic. Druidic Satchel is terrific; in particular, it’s a real beating to throw lands directly into play to be able to continuously draw gas in the mid to late game. Think about that for a second—how many Limited games end up in board stalemates, with the winning player being the one able to draw out of it? Now, think about building up your available mana while never drawing land in the mid to late game. It’s pretty insane.

Alabaster Mage is another card I thought would be good but is, in fact, much better than just “good.” The fact that the ability can be used the turn he comes into play and can be used multiple times in a turn is outstanding; I won several games on the back of life gained this way. Master Thief was a little disappointing and I’d relegate him to sideboard duty in the future. Unsummon is really good in a format where Bloodthirst means creatures often have counters on them, and there are a fair number of token generators and creature enchantments as well. Manalith is also even better than expected; the fact that it comes in ready to use means you can cast it on turn 4 and then still have two mana open for a counter, which I did several times. Absolutely a must-run, if you’re in a three-color deck, and worth thinking about even if you’re in two.

In general the format seems sort of medium speed, not blazing fast like Zendikar but not glacial like Rise of the Eldrazi. I think in draft it’ll work out to be a little faster than M11 because some of the Bloodthirst guys seems pretty aggressive, but II don’t yet have as good a feel for it as M11 as I haven’t drafted it yet, but it seems like a pretty well-balanced format in terms of both speed and color parity. Looking forward to drafting it next FNM!

That’s right, I’m reporting on FNM for two players… plus there will be a bonus decklist at the end!

The two players are me and my 10-year-old son, Simon. This was his second outing to Montag’s for FNM. We’ve been playing at home for a while and I figured he was ready for some real tournament Magic as long as he played something simple. So I built a Tempered Steel deck for him that he played to a 1-2-1 record with his one win being a bye. However, all his matches went to three games. He made a lot of play and sideboarding mistakes, even though we had talked about it beforehand, but for his first time out I thought he did pretty well. So I took him again, and I’ll cover it from his end after going over my tournament.

So, my deck. I’m a big fan of Planeswalker-centered decks running Day of Judgment; probably more fond of it than I should be. Anyway, back when Shards block was still legal, I enjoyed the SuperFriends deck of that time. It’s not the same, of course, without cards like Ajani Vengeant, Oblivion Ring, and Martial Coup. However, there are some new cards like Koth, Venser, Tezzeret’s Gambit, and Preordain that seem good, so I put this together. I originally suggested this via Twitter and put it up in my last report. I didn’t like Elspeth at all in a few test games so I cut her for a Sun Titan and a Wurmcoil Engine. Here was the list:

[deck title=SuperFriends]
[Creatures]
4 Wall of Omens
1 Sun Titan
1 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
3 Koth of the Hammer
2 Gideon Jura
2 Venser, the Sojourner
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Preordain
4 Spreading Seas
3 Dismember
3 Day of Judgment
3 Tezzerets Gambit
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Celestial Colonnade
3 Island
7 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Pyroclasm
2 Combust
3 Tectonic Edge
2 Divine Offering
2 Celestial Purge
3 Luminarch Ascension
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Frankly, in testing this list a little bit, I came to not like it very much. It’s inconsistent and the mana base is shaky. I wanted to switch to a different deck but I didn’t really have time to put one together. Well, I might have been able to, but nothing really excited me other than the Sin City deck (list further down), but I couldn’t make that since I only have one set of Marsh Flats, and my son’s deck already had them, and I really didn’t have time to deal with two decks, so I just went with it.

Round 1: Joey, playing Beastmaster Ascension
The deck was ramp, lots of little guys, and of course 4 copies of Beastmaster Ascension. Game 1 I drew removal when I needed it, and the right Walkers at the right time, and he was a little land-flooded, and I took this one pretty easily. I sided in three Pyroclasms and that was it. Game 2 I got behind a little and he managed to get an Ascension active. I had 8 land out and was able to dig with a Wall of Omens into a Spreading Seas into a Day of Judgment to stabilize, but after that I could not draw out of it other than a Gideon that was turned into a token via Beast Within. Game 3 I had some early mana color issues, but managed a Koth, and managed to wipe his board, but he came back with Fresh Meat. He eventually got two Ascensions active, and managed to Beast Within Gideon again, and I just could not draw a Day to get back into it.
0-1 matches, 1-2 games

Round 2: Simon, playing Tezzered Steel (see below)
Yep, the pairings computer hates us. We had actually practiced this matchup before heading over to the store, and it’s pretty close. SuperFriends can’t always handle the early swarm, but if the game goes long, it has the edge; the combination of Day and Gideon is pretty difficult. Game 1 was long; I got two early Spreading Seas to cut off his access to double white so he couldn’t cast Tempered Steel, but he got enough creatures to make it difficult. I cleared with Day but then he got Tezz and got to draw a blocker, but I bolted it, dropped Koth, and hit Tezz with a Mountain. He followed with his second Tezz, made his Mox Opal into a 5/5, and smashed my Koth. I had to use Day to kill the 5/5 Mox and eventually killed Tezz with Gideon, and then got another Koth, and was able to get him all the way with help from a Sun Titan, though Gideon did eat a Go for the Throat shortly thereafter. Simon had used Tezz’s +1 a couple times and one time he was pretty agitated about it, and he told me afterward that yes, he got an artifact, but he had to put all four Tempered Steels on the bottom. Ouch. I sided in the two Divine Offerings and two Pyroclasms. Game 2 he got off to a bit of a slower start, I was able to 3-for-1 with Day and get Gideon and Venser up, and was able to draw many extra cards off blinking a Wall with Venser. Venser went ultimate and I finished him with two turns of Gideon plus Colonnade. A shame we had to face each other and I felt kind of bad beating him, but he took it well.
1-1 matches, 3-2 games

Round 3: Weylin, playing mono-Black
Game 1 he got off to a slow start and I got out a couple Spreading Seas and a Wall and then Venser. He came back with a Grave Titan and then I dropped a Wumcoil. He swung with the Titan which of course killed them both, but I got two tokens out of it. He had multiple Zombies, of course, and I gained still more life blocking his zombies with my tokens, and I also generated another Wall. He did get Venser down to 1 at one point, but I was able to build Venser back up and ultimate him, and he scooped. I drew a zillion cards in this game by using Venser to bounce Walls and Spreading Seas; the ludicrous card advantage really was the difference in this game. I boarded in the two Purges and maybe a Pyroclasm. Game 2 I was a little land-light and never saw a Wall. I did eventually get Koth and got in a couple swings with Mountains, but Koth doesn’t actually protect himself or the player very much and he only made a token effort to keep Koth off ultimate and mostly just swung at me for the win. Game 3 I again had colored mana problems (no white for a long time) and while I once again got Koth going and had a couple Walls for protection this time, he got down not one, but two, Phyrexian Obliterators. Man, O Ring or Path would be great… I cast every draw spell I had digging for a Purge or a Day, but saw neither, and died… with a Day as the top card in my library. Argh.
1-2 matches, 4-4 games

Round 4: Chris, playing UB Tezzeret
While I was clearly going to miss the top 8, hey, playing Magic is fun! I rarely drop unless I’m really not having fun, which happens pretty rarely. Anyway, game 1 was pretty interesting. We both did a lot of nothing the first couple of turns, then both came out with planeswalkers, him with Tezz and me with Koth. My Koth was protected by a Wall, but only for a turn as Tezz turned a Tumble Magnet into a 5/5 and swung. He had a Go for the Throat for the first Mountain that I sent at Tezz and then he held the Magnet back since I had another Wall. He got a Batterskull and I came back with a Wurmcoil. He misplayed by equipping the Batterskull onto the Magnet and swinging into the Wurmcoil. Yes, we both gained all kinds of life, but he didn’t initially realize that his 9/9 still died because of the deathtouch. Oops. He drew very little action after that, and I managed to get in with some token hits before he bounced the Batterskull, re-cast it, had it die to attacking into a deathtouch token at Gideon’s command. Somewhere around here I went ultimate with Koth after taking out Tezz with an animated Mountain. He bounced Batterskull again and re-played it, saw I had three cards in hand, and he Inquisitioned me. In response, I Dismembered the token and Bolted him twice down to 9, pinged him with a Mountain, then next turn untapped, hit him with Gideon and another Mountain ping for the game. I boarded in the two Divine Offerings and the three Luminarch Ascensions. Game 2 I took a two-lander since it also had a Bolt, an Ascension, a Divine Offering, a Day and a Koth. He started with an Inkmoth Nexus and a Tectonic Edge and just started hitting me for poison counters, which I pointed out to him did not cause loss of life after I put down the Ascension on turn 2. I drew not lands for a few turns and when he hit me with an Inquisition it was a whiff since I had drawn into both a Venser and a Gideon as well as the Koth, Day, and Wurmcoil all stuck in my hand. I bolted a Hex Parasite immediately after he cast it and he knocked two counters off the Ascension, but I finally got it active, which was important since he had a Clasp and was proliferating poison counters on me. I finally drew some land and made Koth, then was able to make Angels enough to win. We had a few spectators for this last game since the top 2 decided to bird as did some of the people who dropped, and the Luminarch Ascension got more than a few comments. “Wow, bringing it back! Killer vs. UB control.” Yep, I’m bringing it back exactly because it is so good against other control decks…
2-2 matches, 6-4 games

It would have been nice to have made the top 8, but I guess when you know your deck isn’t all that great and you still win more games than you lose, that’s OK. Mana issues were indeed a factor in more than one of my losses. Frankly, I think a straight UW build would be better (though I admit I’d miss the Bolts). Actually, the M12 version of Chandra would be pretty good here, as it’d then be possible to build it with a less Mountain-heavy mana base. Tezzeret’s Gambit is already very, very good in this deck and with Chandra in play, yikes.

However, I certainly wouldn’t bring this deck to a PTQ or even an FNM unless you just really, really like to play with Planeswalkers.

Now, on to Part II. Simon played a very straightforward Tempered Steel deck last week, and in watching him play, four things stood out: [1] Dispatch, while really nice when you have Metalcraft, is beyond awful when you don’t, [2] The deck tends to just barf up its hand and then kind of fizzle. There’s no card draw/advantage of any kind, [3] The deck has very little in the way of disrupting combo decks, other than just winning first, and [4] Simon made a lot of sideboarding mistakes. That’s pretty understandable, but I thought it would be good to help him with all of these things beforehand.

So, the deck. Essentially, it’s Esper colors to beTempered Steel and then still run Tezz and a few other black cards, most importantly Go for the Throat in the main and Memoricide in the sideboard.

[deck title=Tezzered Steel]
[Creatures]
4 Memnite
3 Glint Hawk
4 Signal Pest
2 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Steel Overseer
4 Vault Skirge
2 Etched Champion
3 Porcelain Legionnaire
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
2 Mox Opal
4 Glint Hawk Idol
3 Go for the Throat
4 Tempered Steel
[/Spells]
[Land]
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Marsh Flats
7 Plains
3 Seachrome Coast
1 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
1 Ajani Goldmane
2 Divine Offering
2 Etched Champion
3 Celestial Purge
2 Refraction Trap
2 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Memoricide
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Here’s the sideboarding/play guide I gave to Simon before he went in:

Red Deck Wins
+2 Refraction Trap, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +2 Celestial Purge
-3 Porcelain Legionnaire, -2 Phyrexian Revoker

Vampires
+3 Celestial Purge, +2 Etched Champion
-2 Phyrexian Revoker, -1 Memnite, -1 Glint Hawk, -1 Signal Pest

Exarch Twin
+3 Memoricide, +3 Celestial Purge
-3 Legionnaire, -3 Glint Hawk
Revoker names Deceiver Exarch
Memoricide names Splinter Twin

Valakut
+3 Memoricide, +2 Etched Champion
-3 Legionnaire, -1 Overseer, -1 Memnite
Memoricide names Primeval Titan

Blue-Black Control
+2 Phyrexian Revoker, +2 Etched Champion
-3 Legionnaire, -1 Memnite
Revoker names Jace Beleran or Liliana Vess

Blue-White Control
+2 Phyrexian Revoker
-2 Legionnaire
Revoker names Jace Beleran, Gideon Jura, or Venser, the Sojourner

Tempered Steel
+2 Divine Offering, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +2 Phyrexian Revoker
-3 Go for the Throat, -2 Etched Champion
Revoker names Steel Overseer

We played some test games and he liked it a lot better, especially the Go for the Throat.

Round 1: Joe, playing UW control
Joe’s got a rating in the high 1800s, multiple PTQ top 8s, day 2 of GP Fort Worth, top 16 Star City Open Dallas, etc. Basically, the store’s best player and the worst possible matchup for Simon. Game 1 Simon managed to kill Joe’s Sun Titan with a Go for the Throat but Joe just saw too many Days for Simon to hang in there. Game 2 Simon Revoked both Gideon and Jace and Joe didn’t see enough Days and Simon just ran him over. Game 3 I didn’t really see, but Simon told me Joe managed three Days and that was just too much. I was glad that Simon at least took a game off Joe, that was something.
0-1 matches, 1-2 games

Round 2: Mike, playing SuperFriends (see above)
0-2 matches, 1-4 games

Round 3: Chris, playing UB Tezzeret
I didn’t see very much of this match, either, but Simon apparently played it quite well. I looked over at one point and saw Simon was swinging with four artifact creatures, one of them being Signal Pest, and a Tempered Steel out, which seems good. Hooray! Simon won his first sanctioned tournament match, 2-0!
1-2 matches, 3-4 games

Round 4: Joey, playing Beastmaster Ascension
Simon got a really good draw in game 1, coming out with two Memnites and a Mox Opal into turn 2 Tempered Steel—pretty good. Game 2 I know Joey got an Ascension active and I think that let him outrace Simon. Game 3 Joey also got an Ascension active, but pretty late, and Simon had Tempered Steel and a timely Go for the Throat. Apparently Signal Pest was key in this game since Joey could never block it. Hey, Simon won another one!
2-2 matches, 5-5 games

By virtue of tiebreakers, Simon actually finished one ahead of me in the standings. Way to go, Simon!

I was really pleased that he managed to win two matches. He played a lot better, apparently, and that’s really good to see. He’s really coming along as a player and might be ready for something more complicated, but it’ll be a while since he will have to miss the next FNM and we’ll both miss the pre-release due to travel. After that it’ll be draft for a while, and I’m not sure he’s really ready to draft just yet. I might just buy a dozen packs of M12 just for us to play sealed against each other to give him some practice with that first.

I personally probably wouldn’t bring this to a PTQ or even FNM myself, but it’s good for a novice deck, I think, and I think the Tezz addition, while making the mana base a little worse, allows some stronger other cards. Simon mostly didn’t have mana problems except when he played me and I hit him with Spreading Seas multiple times in the same game.

So, what would I play at a PTQ, or at least the next FNM? Actually, this is what I would have played at this FNM if I could have scared up another playset of Marsh Flats. Back at the end of January, before Mirrodin Besieged came out and CawBlade became all the rage, I took down an FNM with a White-Black-Red control deck that I dubbed “Sin City.” I really liked that deck a lot and I came up with an updated build that I am now just dying to play at FNM. Here’s the list:

[deck title=Return to Sin City]
[Creatures]
4 Wall of Omens
3 Hero of Bladehold
1 Sun Titan
2 Sunblast Angel
2 Wurmcoil Engine
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
3 Gideon Jura
1 Liliana Vess
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Go for the Throat
2 Luminarch Ascension
3 Sphere of the Suns
2 Mimic Vat
2 Day of Judgment
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Arid Mesa
1 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Lavaclaw Reaches
4 Marsh Flats
2 Mountain
6 Plains
3 Swamp
2 Tectonic Edge
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
2 Baneslayer Angel
4 Duress
2 Luminarch Ascension
3 Memoricide
2 Pyroclasm
2 Go for the Throat
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

I know, I know, it looks like the SuperFriends deck, just with Black instead of Blue. But that makes a huge difference, as you never need any double color except for white, and while you lose Preordain, you get hand kill and better instant-speed removal. The big changes from the original version are that I got rid of the Emeria Angels, replacing one in the main deck with Lilliana and the other three with Hero of Bladehold. I think Lilliana is better against other control decks, and I think Hero with Gideon allows a faster transition from defense to offense and is much better under the Vat than the Angels. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Emeria Angel—it’s one of my favorite cards—but I think Hero is probably just a better 4-drop, in no small part because it doesn’t just die to Bolt. The three Memoricides in the board are also new additions, as that’s good against both Exarch Twin and Valakut.

Against control you side in the other two Luminarch Ascensions and the 4 Duresses and possibly the two Go for the Throats depending on exactly what they’re playing. Nine hand kill plus 4 Luminarch Ascension should be pretty good against most control decks; UB generally has no way to get rid of an Asecnsion and UW often doesn’t, either, since Revoke Existence isn’t that common. This is one of those places where the lack of Oblivion Ring (my favorite FNM promo card) is actually to your advantage.

Against aggro, you side in the Baneslayers and the Pyroclasms and again, possibly the Go for the Throats. Actually for Vampires the Baneslayers are iffy, but definitely against RDW or Elves.

Against Exarch Twin, you side in the 4 Duress, the 2 Go for the Throat, and the 3 Memoricide. I considered Combust for that slot since it’s uncounterable, but there are too many other matchups where you’d just rather have the Go for the Throat that I thought it’d be worth the risk.

Your worst matchup is, unfortunately, Valakut. You side in the 3 Memoricide, the 2 Go for the Throat, the 2 Baneslayers for sure and then it kind of depends on how they’re ramping. If they’re using Cobras, you side in the Pyros, otherwise you side in the Duresses. I know Baneslayer doesn’t really stop the combo, but life gain is relevant as sometimes they don’t draw enough in the way of Mountains to get there. If you hit once you gain five and they have to spend two triggers to kill it, which overall means that’s 4 triggers more you get to live through. Note that you keep in Day of Judgment in this matchup; Mimic Vat makes any way of removing a Primeval Titan good, because not only is a Titan under the Vat good in general, it is awesome against Valakut because it lets you tutor up your Tectonic Edges. I know it only runs two… three might actually be a possibility now that the deck can run Sphere of the Suns rather than Everflowing Chalice; I’ll have to test that out.

If anyone has thoughts or comments, you can leave ‘em here or hit me up on Twitter (@SunByrne).