Category: MtG

I had really no time at all to think about or test out a new deck for this week’s FNM at Montag’s, so I just grabbed a deck that I had together, which was Boss Naya. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Celestial Purge
1 Bloodbraid Elf

I swapped a Celestial Purge in the board for an O Ring. Frankly, for a better Jund matchup I think if I play this again I’ll drop the sideboard Ranger for another Purge.

Round 1: Joey, playing WW/r
I actually didn’t see any red at all in the first game, and very little overall.

Game 1: This was short. He had the nuts opening, Lynx-Fetch-Fetch more little dudes, and I was just never able to stabilize.

Game 2: In went the Sparkmages with the extra Collar and Mystic. I got an early Nacatl, we traded some blows (he did get one Fetch-powered Lynx hit in before I got the Bolt). I ended up being land flooded, but I had a Raging Ravine and the 3/3 Nacatl and he could only manage bears, and the Ravine eventually was swinging for 8, and went the distance.

Game 3: Early Nacatl with both a Plains and a Mountain again for me, early Firewalker for him. He tapped out for a Sigil for 3. On the following turn, he pulled a counter to equip it on a Kor Duelist he had just cast; I bolted it in response. He then tried to equip it on the Firewalker, which I Pathed in response. Nice dead Sigil. I had a clear board and next turn dropped a Bloodbraid (I don’t remember what the cascade was), brought him to 9, and he didn’t draw answers.

Matches 1-0, games 2-1.

Round 2: Parker, playing WW
White Weenie hasn’t been particularly popular at this store, so I was surprised to see two in a row.

Game 1: I got a second-turn Nacatl and followed up with a Knight of the Reliquary, beat down his smaller dudes down to 10, then he ran Day, which I expected; I was holding a Ranger back. I cast the Ranger, got more Nacatls, and they carried the day.

Game 2: In went the usual anti-creature package: Sparkmages, extra Collar, This was a great drawn-out battle. I had an early BoP and a Knight, however, he had some early dudes as well and an O Ring for the Knight. I got double Sparkmage (but no collar), which kills everything I had seen from his deck except Firewalkers. I wasn’t drawing much else I could use at the time, but I got to double-ping him for two turns before he cleared things out with a Day, and I O Ringed a Firewalker. I knew it was coming, but the real problem with it was not that I lost threats, but I lost the BoP, which was my only source of white… and I had both Baneslayers in hand. He cast a White Knight and a Mystic, and had a Machete from earlier in the game, so now he also had a Collar. However, I drew a Plains and then a Mystic, so I had a Collar as well. Then then he cast a Baneslayer. I still had only one white, but got a Ranger and fetched a Nacatl and a Hierarch so I could get WW. His equipped Angel beat me down to 2, but then my comeback started with my own Angel and a Path for his. (He had a Path or an O Ring for my first Angel but I had the second.) I just had bigger and better dudes and was gaining obscene amounts of life, and won at like 35 life.

Matches 2-0, games 4-1.

Round 3: Tony, playing Open the Vaults
Tony is a strong player and we played a great match two weeks ago, with his Junk deck edging out my Grixis build. I thought he was playing Bant based on some cards he was getting prior to the match, but I was wrong. I actually really like this deck a lot, but I don’t have the cards for it.

Game 1: I realized I was wrong when he cycled a Glassdust Hulk right away. I had my turn 1 Nacatl beating away off the top and just drew gas so I killed him before he got to the 6 mana he needed to Open those vaults.

Game 2: I wasn’t sure exactly what to sideboard for this matchup. I assumed he was running Day and/or Coup, so I put in the extra Ranger and Bloodbraid as well as the Escorts, and also sided in Manabarbs. One of the Manabarbs slipped out while I was shuffling and Tony groaned. I again drew early gas (multiple fetches and a Terramorphic for my early Knight) and he missed his third-turn land drop, so I had no fear of Day for a couple turns, so I ran out more guys and rushed him, again killing him before he could get to six land.

Matches 3-0, games 6-1. These were both really fast games so I had some time to kill between rounds.

Round 4: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green with Red for some burn and BBEs
We were only playing 4 rounds before top 8, and Carlos wanted to draw, which was fine with me.

Quarterfinals: Dave, playing… Jund
Well, I couldn’t avoid it all day, could I? Dave was new to the store, and his girlfriend was with him, and she didn’t make the top 8 and she was very clear about her desire to leave, but he wanted to play.

Game 1: I got a Nacatl on the second turn (my only green source was a Ravine, so I had to wait until turn 2) but no mountain, so it was only a 2/2, and just looked stupid on the third turn when he dropped a Thrinax. I eventually had to burn the Thrinax when he got a second one, and somewhere in there I got Blightning’d and a Bloodbraid and then he got a Siege-Gang Comander, and I died to tokens. An Ajani Vengeant made it take a smidge longer, but barely delayed the inevitable. Bleah. He got all 4 Maelstrom Pulses in this game, too.

Game 2: I know the standard thing to do is not bring in the Sparkmages/Mystic/Collar package, but I decided to buck conventional wisdom and tried bringing it in, along with the one Purge. I also brought in the extra Sledge. I opened with a Hierarch, but he Terminated that on his second turn. I managed to O Ring a Thrinax and later Pathed another, but that was after he had hit me with Blightning, to which I pitched a Bolt and a Collar, but kept the Baneslayer. The reason I pitched the Collar was that I had a Mystic, so I ran that for another Collar. We had kind of a stalemated board position (I couldn’t cast the Baneslayer, not enough land), and we had traded some hits, but then he cast a Broodmate. Grr. I took a whack from the dragons, but got a Sledge on a Nacatl (I also had a Ranger and Bloodbraid on the board), and had a Hierarch, so I could swing and get some good life points back, and then I got the last land for a Baneslayer, and that turned the tide.

Game 3: I had a 2/2 Nacatl on the board and on his turn 4 he dropped Garruk and made a token. I had no real answer to that—my Sparkmage was just not it—and the following turn he used Garruk to untap lands and cast I don’t remember what, because the memory of it was crushed by what happened on his turn 6. He cast… another Garruk. What? OK, I said, that’s great, they both die. He was confused, because he didn’t know the rule about that. He wanted to take it back. I felt kind of bad about it because he obviously really didn’t know, and if it had been in the Swiss I probably would have, but in the third game in the top 8 I was unwilling. He got really huffy when I wouldn’t let him, and next turn I Bloodbraided into a Hierarch and he just scooped in frustration. Now, I’m sure he thought I was a jerk for not letting him take it back, but that seems like a pretty basic rule to me. I think in the top 8 with actual money on the line that’s a rule players should be expected to know. Plus, his girlfriend seemed pleased that she wouldn’t have to wait any more, so I’m sure it wasn’t a total loss for him.

Matches 4-0-1, games 8-2.

Semifinals: Dustin, playing Vampires
Dustin is a regular and a very cool guy and I felt like this was a good matchup, so I figured it would be fun. Joe, playing Jund, had won the other semi and requested a draw in the finals and a split of the prizes. As we were shuffling up for game 2 I realized that the reason Joe was asking was that he wanted to leave, so Dustin and I agreed that whoever won would draw with him, so Joe took his half of the take and split.

Game 1: This was an awful game. Dustin got a turn 2 Bloodghast (that’s actually an annoyance for Naya) but got stuck on two land, and I had an early Nacatl and then a 4/4 Knight, so this was over in just a couple minutes.

Game 2: In went the usual Sparkmages/Collar/Mystic package, with a Purge for good measure. I also sided out all my planeswalkers, since they suck vs. Hexmages. This was another really long game. I took a hand with marginal land but with a BoP. He had no 2-drop but his 3-drop was a kicked Gatekeeper, killing whatever dude I had out, and he followed that with another kicked Gatekeeper that killed my Bird. He just kept drawing answers for every threat I drew. A Nacatl died to a Feast of Blood, a Knight died to a Smother (that’s pretty good), and I had to O Ring one of the Gatekeepers just to keep my life total from being super ugly. Something else died to another Feast, but I did get a Mystic for a Collar. I also got a Bloodbraid into an O Ring, which ended up on a Gatekeeper, but I couldn’t swing with the elf because I needed blockers. He dropped a Hexmage which made the elf even less useful. He tried to Smother the BBE, but then realized it couldn’t die to Smother—one of the few in Boss Naya that doesn’t. He dropped another Hexmage and I had to kill it, so I ran out a Sparkmage and pinged one, and of course he Smothered it. He got a Nighhawk and I got a Ranger into two Nacatls, though after one whack with a Nighthawk I was at 5 life and he was at 25 life. I got another Collar, though, and collared up both Nacatls and managed to keep my life total at a reasonable numbe, so then he cast a Persecutor. Hey, that’s no Vampire! But, I topdecked a Baneslayer, which was good because he had just put down a second Persecutor. That was pretty good, but I couldn’t really attack, because the swing back with the two Persecutors was not a race I could win down by 20 life. However, I ripped another Sparkmage, Collared it up, and that was the difference.

Obviously, no real match in the finals.

Matches 5-0-2, games 10-2. That’s a pretty good night! I converted my store credit into a couple Maelstrom Pulses (I have none, and I kind of want to try playing Junk) and some super-secret tech for Extended for GP Houston, which is coming up soon!

Boss Naya is both fun to play and a really good deck against most of the field… but it’s generally not a good matchup against Jund. You can’t expect to dodge Jund all day in a serious tournament, so I’m not surprised that it was only 10% of the field at the Open in Indy. I think the board needs a couple more Purges and then maybe it’ll be better in games 2 and 3, but that’ll make the deck weaker against the U/W control decks, which I was also very lucky to dodge at FNM because several people were playing that as well. Hard to know.

Another Standard FNM at Montag’s, and so another report. I played Boss Naya last week into the finals so this week I wanted to play something original. I had been tinkering with a Grixis build but in playtesting it just folded like a lawn chair to Jund. I tweaked it a little and it went a lot better, so I decided to give it a whirl. Here’s the listing:

Creatures (7)
3 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Sedraxis Specter

Other spells (32)
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Essence Scatter
3 Into the Roil
4 Terminate
4 Blightning
2 Treasure Hunt
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Earthquake
3 Cruel Ultimatum

Land (25)
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Dragonskull Summit
2 Lavaclaw Reaches
2 Drowned Catacomb
2 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Swamp
3 Island
3 Mountain

Sideboard (15)
3 Double Negative
3 Countersquall
3 Flashfreeze
1 Earthquake
2 Smother
2 Mind Control
1 Relic of Progenitus

Such is the state of blue that I felt the need to start three counters and board nine more to be situational. Here’s how it played out:

Round 1: Ken, playing Esper Mill
This was completely out of left field. Creature-less with Tome Scour, Twincast, Mind Funeral, Howling Mine, Angelsong, Safe Passage, and numerous other mill cards. Thinking outside the metagame; I love it!

Game 1: His first turn was Island, Tome Scour, go. I certainly wasn’t ready for that. What was really, really bad was when a few turns later he hit me with a Mind Funeral and got like 30 cards off it—very bad luck. However, I got both a Persecutor and a Spectre out and just managed to kill him with a handful of cards in my library.

Game 2: I didn’t see any creatures so I took out the Essence Scatters and most of the Terminates for the Countersqualls and the Double Negatives. I got Jace out and started building him up, but he managed multiple Howling Mines, a Mind Funeral and a Twincast Tome Scour, and even though I got off a Cruel and had a Spectre active, and him down to 4, he hit me with a late Traumatize followed by a Tome Scour which left me with not enough cards to make it through my draw phase. He’s not the fastest player in the world so we only had a few minutes left and I was worried that we’d draw on time.

Game 3: I played as fast as I could, as I dropped a Spectre on turn 3 and another on turn 4. He had an early Howling Mine and, of course, a first-turn Tome Scour (all three games). Turn 5 I sent in both of the Spectres; he had an Angelsong but I had Countersquall, so he took 8 points down to 6. He had another Angelsong the next turn, but I had Bolts so I won just before time was called. Whew.

Round 2: Tony, playing GWb Junk
Despite me reading a couple pieces about this deck, I hadn’t really thought about it much and I didn’t have a plan in mind for it.

Game 1: I thought I had this game in the bag. I managed to keep the board mostly clear and got a Persecutor out fairly early. He tried a Baneslayer but I had the Scatter for it and beat him down to six with the big Demon. I think we both thought I had this one in the bag but he topdecked a Marshal’s Anthem which brought back his Baneslayer—not the best thing to see when you have a Demon out. I wasn’t too worried since I had a Terminate for it, but then he topdecked another Baneslayer and that I could not answer.

Game 2: In went the Mind Controls and the Smothers. He mulliganed down to 5 and as a result got a slow start. I got a Spectre out who got in one whack before being taken out, but the card advantage situation was positive, and then I got a Cruel and then another Cruel. That’s pretty much game right there; I ultimately ended it with a Persecutor.

Game 3: My opening hand looked great: Terminate, Blighting, Jace, Persecutor, Spectre… but only a single Catacombs for land. I sent it back and got another single-land hand. I sent that back and got yet another single-land hand, ugh. I decided I just couldn’t go down to four, so I played it. I actually drew land the first few turns and managed to make a game of it. I did make one savagely stupid mistake in the game. Tony cast a Stoneforge Mystic and Collar, and I put down Jace, and bounced the equipped Mystic. No, I have no idea WTF I was thinking. Anyway, next turn (turn 5), he got an Emeria Angel with a land. I bounced it, he re-cast it and then had a fetch on turn 6, so there was a table full of birds. He got in a six-point whack with the flying force but then I drew a Persecutor. He equipped one of the tokens with the Collar so I could only attack if I was willing to lose the fat flyer, but he couldn’t productively attack, either, for any more than 1. He played a Baneslayer and beat me down to 1 with it. I got off a Cruel to go back to 6, but it just wasn’t enough.

Grr. 1-1 is not the start I was hoping for.

Round 3: Kris, playing White Weenie with Blue
The blue splash seemed to be just for Deft Duelists. If there was any other blue, I didn’t see it.

Game 1: I won the die roll and Scattered his turn two Firewalker. Turn 3 he cast Honor of the Pure and followed that with Deft Duelist, and then a Skyfisher. I took 6 when they both came over. I played Jace and bounced the Skyfisher, but then of course lost Jace to the Duelist. I drew a Terminate for the Skyfisher but couldn’t get rid of the Duelist with a Roil and two Bolts in my hand. However, I Blightninged him and got another Jace out, so he was in topdeck mode and I was controlling the top of his deck. Jace kept him off other threats but the Duelist beat me down to 7. I used Jace to brainstorm into the last land I needed for a Cruel Ultimatum, which netted me another Cruel, and that was too much.

Game 2: In went the Smothers and the Mind Controls (in case he had Baneslayers). He cast an early Duelist and then got a Collared Mystic. He got a few whacks in before I killed the Mystic with a Bolt or a Smother (I don’t remember which), then got another Duelist. I got a Spectre that hit him once and then I cast another Spectre. I had six lands out but not enough to Cruel and I had no land in hand. I sent both Spectres and he Pathed both of them. Awesome, two free land, next turn Cruel Ultimatum. Next turn Blightning and a Persecutor, and that was it.

So, I was 2-1. We had four rounds of Swiss cutting to top 8, as has been common at Montag’s of late. Now, often 2-1-1 will make the top 8, but I assumed that my first-round opponent had gone 0-3 or something like it, and my second-round opponent lost in round 3, so I thought I had to play for it.

Round 4: Alan, playing GWb
Not strictly Junk, but Junk-like. I didn’t see Mystics, and he definitely had Steppe Lynxes, so

Game 1: This was one of the dumbest games I have ever seen. I took a two-land opener (both red-black duals), and didn’t see a third land for a really long time… 11 or 12 turns, at least. The only thing that made this game last even that long is that he was also stuck at two lands for several turns, but he broke out with a Lotus Cobra with a fetch into a Baneslayer and I was discarding Cruel Ultimatums. I never did a single point of damage in this game.

Game 2: He got a first-turn Lynx that I did not Terminate on turn 2 because I had a Quake in hand. Sure enough, after he swung once for two he put down a Lotus Cobra and passed the turn. So, my turn three play was a one-point Quake for two cards—pretty good. I Blightninged him and got a Jace out against his Noble Hierarch. I was scrying him (kept him off two Pulses) and Blightninged him again while he was poking me with the druid, and I managed to kill the Hierarch. He cast a Ranger of Eos which I felt I had to block with an animated Creeping Tar Pit. So he had some weenies out and started hitting Jace once he go to ten counters. I had the mana I needed and used Jace to brainstorm into a Cruel Ultimatum putting him at 3 and me at 16, and that put it out of reach.

Game 3: He got a first-turn Lynx with second-turn and third-turn fetches, so I was at an early 12. I got a Bolt for the Lynx and Blightninged him and I felt I had things stabilized, though I had a Roil and two Jaces, and a in my hand and no sources of blue. I finally drew an Island, but he got a 6/6 Knight of the Reliquary along with something else that I can’t remember. I Roiled the Knight once and did not draw a land off it. Next turn I drew a blue source, but it was a Catacomb so it didn’t help me right away. Knight’s friend had hit me down to two and I drew a Spectre, but I couldn’t play both Jace and a Spectre on the same turn, so I couldn’t stop both guys, and that was game.

So 2-2 and I missed the top 8. Turns out my round 1 opponent did make the top 8, so my tiebreakers were actually good, and if I had drawn I would have made it into the top 8 after all. Bummer.

I think the deck is close to being good. I don’t like versions that run things like Calcite Snapper because they have to sacrifice draw or disruption or removal. I really like the Persecutor in Grixis because while it dies to some spot removal, your opponent typically has only three turns to find such removal, because chumping it is generally ineffective. It crushes Bloodwitches and Sphinxes; the only real problem is Baneslayers—stupid protection from Demons. Nighthawk would be a problem except that it dies to both Bolt and Smother, so those are pretty easy to deal with. Maybe it needs Swerves or something… it’s close.

Anyway, I don’t always stay for the top 8 but this time I decided to because I wanted to see the mill deck in action against something else. His draw was bad, it was my buddy Paul playing U/W control, though not the Chapin version. The first match was close, Paul won with four cards left in his library and at least one Howling Mine in play. Game 2 was hilarious. Paul had exactly one copy of Telemin Performance in his sideboard, for the mirror. He drew it in his opening hand, and two Howling Mines and a Font of Mythos meant he wouldn’t miss a land drop, and on turn 5 the game ended when he cast it. Awesome sideboard tech!

The final four were three U/W control decks and one Jund, and the Jund lost to Paul in the semis. I was thinking of taking U/W control for a spin next week, but not after this; people will be packing all kinds of hate for it and it’d hardly be original. Maybe I’ll go back to Naya or I might try something really fast like Boros Bushwacker or something goofy like Valakut Ramp with Avenger of Zendikar…

Been a while since my last report. My local shop, Montag’s Games, alternates between draft and Standard, and last month was draft, and I don’t ever feel like writing reports on draft; hence the gap.

So, this was the first post-Worldwake Standard for me, and I’d been thinking about what to play for a while, and had been kicking around both a Grixis build and a Naya build for a while. (Prior to PT San Diego.) @dcampa93 and I had bounced some Naya around on Twitter and had both come to the conclusion that Stoneforge Mystic was the way to go, getting Sledge and the Collar… and then PT San Diego happened, and it turned out we weren’t the only people with that idea. Not to hard to come up with, right? Of course, the Boss Naya that was played to an undefeated record in the Swiss was without a doubt a better build than mine (I kept trying to work in Thoctar), but I wasn’t at all surprised that it did well.

So I played it. I made some microscopic changes and played this list:

Creatures (23)
1 Scute Mob
3 Bird of Paradise
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Baneslayer Angel
2 Stoneforge Mystic

Other spells (11)
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Path to Exile
2 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
2 Oblivion Ring

Land (24)
5 Forest
2 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Arid Mesa
2 Raging Ravine
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Tectonic Edge
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Rootbound Crag

Sideboard
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Basilisk Collar
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cunning Sparkmage
2 Dauntless Escort
1 Goblin Guide
2 Manabarbs
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Bloodbraid Elf

The minor changes are that I moved two Baneslayers into the main, trading out for a Ranger of Eos and a Bloodbraid, and I went with 3 Birds and 3 Hierarchs rather than 2 and 4 because sometimes the deck gets a little stuck for red mana, so I wanted the extra red source, but one I could still get with a Ranger. And, frankly, after playing it, I would most certainly keep only 3 Rangers in the main deck, because I never wanted to cast more than two in a game anyway, as most of the 1 drops will be exhausted by then. As LSV himself noted, an unanswered Baneslayer is game over a lot of the time, and that just seemed better in the main than either Ranger #4 or Bloodbraid #4.

Round 1: Jason, playing Mystic WW
Game 1: My deck did very little here, and he had the Journeys and O Rings for my threats, and I got beaten down with a Kor Skyfisher with a Sigil on it.

Game 2: All about the Baneslayer, baby. I got one on turn 4 thanks to a Hierarch, and the exalted monster provided the beats.

Game 3: I have to admit my memory for this game is a little shaky. What I do remember is getting hammered with Kor Firewalkers that I had trouble stopping. However, I did get down 3 Sparkmages (without any equipment) and managed to keep the board otherwise pretty clear, and I believe a Knight went all the way.

Round 2: Nathan playing Bant
This was a ramp-style Bant running Khalni Heart Expeditions, Summoning Trap, Avenger of Zendikar, Iona, and Empyrial Archangel. Prettyf interesting, actually.

Game 1: We clogged up the board with relatively modest dudes, then I got a Scute Mob and a Sledge, and he got Avenger of Zendikar. Monster Scute Mob applied and he threw the Avenger and many pumped up Plant tokens in front of it. I then put the Sledge on a 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary and applied beats with that for a couple turns. He got a Summoning Trap for Iona naming Green, but I had another Knight out and gave my Sledged Knight protection from White and finished with burn.

Game 2: Neither of us had anything particularly impressive in the first three or so turns, but I got a fairly early Baneslayer. He managed to get a Empyrial Archangel out with a Summoning Trap (hard cast), but I had a Bolt so I applied with the Angel (6/6 thanks to a Hierarch) and then Bolted. He ran off some more Summoning Traps but missed anything big and never found an answer to the angel of awesome.

Round 3: Jeff, playing Bant
This was a completely different take on Bant. Finest Hour, Rafiq, Pridemages, Hierarchs, Loam Lions, etc: guys made huge by Exalted and swinging twice.

Game 1: I kept a five-land draw and mostly got run over. He got Loam Lions early on and I got small Knights. He got Rafiq and a Battlegrace Angel and I just did not have answers.

Game 2: A similar deal, but very slowly unfolding. I had a Collar and a Sparkmage in my opener but when I went to equip the Sparkmage, he had the Bant Charm for it. He had Finest Hour and multiple Ranger-generated Hierarchs, so anything swinging for him would be large and was coming twice. I, however, had the Collar and Ajani, who was alternately tapping and Helixing things, so every time he attacked it cost him a creature and I maintained some life total. This stalemate was pretty drawn out and we had time called on us, so this worked out to be a match loss.

Round 4: Paul, playing mono-White Emeria
I love this deck. Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer, then a toolbox of white creatures including World Queller. Very hard to beat if you don’t kill it early. However, we both had really good tiebreaks and did the math and realized that we’d both get into the top 8 if we drew in, which we did.

Quarterfinals: Carlos, playing Eldrazi Green/Red
This is similar to Eldrazi Green, of course, but with Red for Bloodbraids and Bolts and such.

Game 1: I once again have to admit that I don’t remember this game very well. I had multiple early 3/3 Nacatls and he, uhh, didn’t.

Game 2: For the third match in a row I sided in the same seven-card package of 4 Sparkmage, 1 Mystic, 1 Collar, and 1 O Ring. I didn’t get the red machine-gunner, but I had early fetchlands and Knights, and either a Collar or a Sledge, and beat him down pretty quickly again.

Semifinals: Jeff from round 3
Game 1: This was a pretty good game, with some momentum swings. He got early Sejiri Merfolk and Loam Lions and I got a Mystic and had a Bolt for Rafiq. He managed a Finest Hour and beat me down to 5, but I got big a big Knight and with equipment and had many chumps for his big double-shots, so I was able to gain serious life and turn the tide. I got him down to 2 but he had chumps and I finally drew burn in the form of Ajani and roasted him out.

Game 2: In went the same 7-card package as before. Whee. This was a very dumb game because his deck just deserted him. He got stuck on two land, and while he managed a pretty solid board with that, it just wasn’t enough and I just pounded him with a big lifelinked Knight.

Finals: Ray, playing Jund
Ray actually wanted to play for it, which is rare in the finals at Montag’s . Not a problem, but a surprise. Fine with me, of course, I don’t mind playing for it—we came to play, right? Anyway, this was a lot like the semis in PT San Diego in terms of deck matchups, because his Jund was also running Rampant Growth and Siege-Gangs.

Game 1: Pretty even early, with us trading Bloodbraids and other 3/3s. I Bolted a Garruk after it made a token and he got a Siege-Gang which he used a couple tokens to kill a big Knight. I was getting through with Nacatls, though and we kind of traded down to 11 and had more or less a board stalemate. He then drew Bolts, and won with Bolt-Bolt-Bolt throw a Goblin. Ugh.

Game 2: I had Bloodbraids early, the second of which hit a Mystic. He Pulsed off both the Bloodbraids but he was at 10. I hit him with a Nacatl down to 7. Next turn I activated a Ravine and swung with something else, bringing him down to 1, and he was unable to topdeck an answer and that was it.

Game 3: Absolutely stupid game in much the same way as my second game in the previous round. However, unlike that game, in this game we both drew lots of land. As in out of the first 16 cards I saw, 9 were land. I had a Path for his turn 3 Thrinax and Bolted something else. I got a Mystic and therefore a Sledge, but he Pulsed off the Mystic. He got a Ruinblaster, which hit nothing (all I had in play were six basics at the time) and a few turns later I finally had to O Ring it—In the meantime, he was drawing all land as well. He got a second Ruinblaster, which hit a Rootbound Crag, and all I had on the board was a Sledge. I drew more land and he just killed me. Whee.

Overall a pretty good night, even if the last two matches were decided by mana issues. The forces of chance giveth, and they take away—I just would rather have had action both times.

Friday Night Magic at Montag’s Games, the third one of the new year.

OK, so I’ve been hosed the last couple FNMs by trying to outmaneuver the metagame only to end up with horrible matchups. I was planning on skirting that this week and playing Valakut Ramp, but I acquired a third Baneslayer this week and I wanted to go with something I know better, so I went back to Angelfall, playing a very slightly different list than last time:

Angelfall

Creatures & Planeswalkers (20)
4 Steppe Lynx
3 Kazandu Blademaster
3 White Knight
2 Knight of the White Orchid
3 Emeria Angel
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Baneslayer Angel

Other spells (15)
2 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Banefire
4 Honor of the Pure
3 Conqueror’s Pledge

Land (25)
3 Marsh Flats
1 Naya Panorama
4 Arid Mesa
3 Teetering Peaks
2 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Emeria, the Sky-Ruin

Sideboard
2 Path to Exile
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Devout Lightcaster
3 Celestial Purge
3 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Ajani Vengeant

It’s good against Jund, generally stomps random rogue stuff, but it’s not great against control decks, and of course as an aggro deck it can lose to any combo deck that can go off before it delivers 20. The metagame clearly reflected the recent Star City 5K, because there were a lot of Vampires around. That can be a tough matchup since Bloodwitch is a bit of a difficulty, but this deck generally comes out faster than Vampires so the Bloodwitch can be too late; it depends a lot on the draws. Moderate turnout, so four rounds, cut to top 8.

Round 1: Matt, playing a Jund variant with Birds of Paradise, Nighthawks, Hell’s Thunder, and Madrush Cyclopes
I was glad that I didn’t game specifically for Jund, because then I wouldn’t have drawn this matchup.

Game 1: I got turn 1 Steppe Lynx and turn 2 fetchland so he started down 4. He opened with Birds his first two turns and on his third he Jund charmed to put a couple tokens on one of his Birds, and Bolted the Lynx. He also Blightning’d me next turn though I had nothing too important to pitch and I managed a White Knight, which neutralized the Thrinax he had the next turn. I got an Emeria Angel to stick (no fetch, though) and swung with everything to bring him to 7. He swung back. He had more guys (I don’t remember which) and I left the Angel and a couple bird tokens back to knock him to 5 with the Knight. He killed the Emeria, I got an Honor of the Pure, Knight took him to 2, he didn’t draw an answer.

Game 2: Another killer draw for me. Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 Plains, Lynx, hit for 2. Turn 3: Fetchland, Path his blocker, Honor of the Pure, swing with both Lynxes for 10. I don’t really remember what happened after that, but 10-point lead on life was enough that it wasn’t likely to get close, and it never really did.

1-0.

Round 2: Paul playing Vampires
He was running a slightly odd build with no Tendrils main, and with Child of Night main.

Game 1: Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 Plains and some other two drop (I think a White Orchid?), turn 3 fetch, swing for 6. He had a Bloodghast I was ignoring, and he got a Child of Night down and they swung back. I got a White Knight down and held him in place, had a Path for the Nocturnus, and carried through.

Game 2: This was a close game. I had a small edge early, but he Sludged me on turn 5 for three cards: two Conqueror’s Pledge and a Banefire. Ouch. I got down an Elspeth (oops, should have sided that out vs. Vampires). He stuck a Nocturnus, which made my White Knight less useful. He had me at 1, but his guys (the Nocturnus and a Bloodghast) were tapped because they had all swung. I had a token, a White Knight, and a Bolt in hand. With Elspeth, that’s 9 damage… and he was at 10. So, the only chance I had was for him to miss on the Nocturnus the following turn so I could Bolt it, then I could block the Ghast forever if need be with the White Knight… but he didn’t miss on the flip. Oops.

Game 3: I managed for the most part to keep the Nocturni off the board, but couldn’t maintain much of a board presence (Deathmark is pretty good against me) and lost to a Bloodwitch. Oops.

1-1. OK, so I really felt like I must have done something wrong in Game 2 to have done one more damage somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on what I didn’t do right.

Round 3: Jason playing UGB Allies
I need to be a little clearer about this: Jason was playing a deck fairly close to Aaron Forthyhe’s gunslinger deck from the Zendikar pre-release. This was very weird for me, since the first Magic I had played in years was, in fact, a deck very close to the one I was playing against that very deck, as I recounted previously. Jason had swapped out some of the utility cards for Harrow and Mind Spring, which both seemed like good additions.

Game 1: I Path’d his turn two Lotus Cobra, bashed with Steppe Lynx pumped with Teetering Peaks. All he really managed was a Bird of Paradise and Bala Ged Thief with no other Allies in play, and I pretty much just ran him over quickly. I didn’t get to see much of the deck so I wasn’t sure.

Game 2: Exactly the opposite. I got a slow start, he Cobra ramped up and was joined by a Sea Gate Loremaster, got a Turntimber Ranger and a Umara Raptor and a Vastwood. Many cards were drawn. I had an Elspeth and an Honor of the Pure with an Emeria Angel out and was just chumping with tokens. He Pulsed the Emeria and I eventually ran out of tokens, as he drew many cards before I could draw a Bolt to stop the Loremaster, but by then it was just too late. During the “while shuffling” chit-chat, I mentioned that I had played this matchup before, and related some of the Aaron story. So, of course Jason asked how that play turned out. I told him that the White/Red deck won a majority, but mostly it depended on coming out quickly. Foreshadowing…

Game 3: Turn 1 Lynx, turn 2 fetch, Honor, swing for 5. Turn 3 Path his Lotus Cobra, play fetchland (or Teetering Peaks, I don’t remember), swing for another 5. I don’t remember what he did on his 4th turn, but whatever it was didn’t result in a meaningful blocker, and I had another land that pumped the Lynx and swung for another 5. That was pretty much it.

2-1. Eerily familiar.

Round 4: ? (forgot to write it down, my apologies) playing Jund
With good tiebreaks and a smallish crowd, we could draw in, which we did. We played for the fun of it, and of course I wished we had played it for real. He had Jund but with only one Pulse. I rolled the first game on the back of two Honor of the Pures backing up a Baneslayer. I had run out some early guys to draw Terminates, which worked, and the 7/7 Angel did her job. Turns out even two Bolts don’t solve an Angel that big. Second game I had an Honor out and got a Pledge on the fifth turn, then an Emeria with a fetch (Terminated), then another Pledge. OK, then, easy wins for me.

2-1-1.

Quarterfinals: Paul playing Vampires
Same opponent as round 2, so a chance to avenge my loss.

Game 1: We spent some time trading guys and removal spells, I had an early Lynx and then an Honor, but he Disfigured it and chumped something else with a Child. He was drawing dead, apparently, and Signed himself when I hit the Pledge, which is very nice in game 1 (no Marsh Casualties main, I was pretty sure). He never answered.

Game 2: I remembered to side out Elspeth this time (duh) and held back removal for Nighthawks and Nocturni. I had an early White Knight and then got a Pledge, but no Honor. He dropped something, and then I drew into two consecutive Honors, and that was it.

3-1-1

Semifinals: Nate playing Runeflare Trap
This was the epic battle of the night, without a doubt. If you’re not familiar with this deck, you should check it out. It’s essentially a combo deck, but a slightly strange one. Against combo, then plan with a deck like mine is generally “race the combo” which is not always a great plan. Turns out that with the sideboard I could do more than that, but read on…

Game 1: I won the die roll and took a draw with Lynx, Honor, Pledge, and four land, more than one of them a fetch. A keeper against combo in general, but this one could defend itself and he Burst the Lynx right away. I drew no gas but did draw and play another Honor of the Pure. He cast a Font on turn 4. On my turn 5 I cast the Pledge. He cast another Font, so I drew a ton of cards, including another Honor, which I played. This was my key error of the game: I actually drew another Honor, but I didn’t see it through all the other cards in my hand. Ugh, absolutely devastating mistake, probably cost me the game. So I swung for only 18. He Bolted one of the guys so he only went to 15 so my Bolt didn’t kill him, and next time around he hit me with double Trap and a Twincast, which of course killed me.

Game 2: I sided in the 3 Oblivion Rings and the 2 Ajanis. I mulliganed down to five figuring that given the matchup, staring a couple cards light wouldn’t be that bad. I had my only early guy Bolted but I dropped an Ajani on turn 4. I kept him slowed down a little, then color screwed a little, but he got a second Island and bounced Ajani with Into the Roil with Ajani on 7 counters. Grr. I put Ajani back down and changed a little, realizing that I might be able to win another way if the Runeflares didn’t come earlier: I Helixed with Ajani and Bolted him twice. He realized this, and threw burn at Ajani. Extra cards on the draw (at least one Howling Mine was out) meant I had the other Ajani, which I dropped, and Helixed again. He again Bolted Ajani, but I had another Bolt and next turn waxed him with a Banefire. I did exactly zero damage with creatures in this game, and still won! Not exactly the idea behind this deck, but I’ll take it.

Game 3: He got an early Howling Mine, but I didn’t bother with it. I did O Ring the turn 4 Font, though. He bounced it. I drew a bunch of cards, played land and an Honor, and O Ringed it again. Same thing. I managed to get down a Knight of the White Orchid that was pretty big due to the two Honors. I got in a couple swings (one pumped with Teetering Peaks), O Ringed the Font again and had it bounced a third time. His one real mistake is that he Burst my Knight (no kicker) which of course did nothing. He Time Warped and cast another Font, then passed. I double-Bolted and he knew he had only one turn to kill me, but he still didn’t have any Runeflare Traps. Amazingly bad luck on his part. So, with him at 11 and me at 20, he threw all the burn in his hand at me: a Burst (18), three Bolts (9), and two Twincasts for the bolts (3). On my turn, I dropped another Peaks, hit with the Knight, Bolted, then dropped Ajani and Helixed for the win. His top card: Runeflare Trap. Whew, that was awfully close!

4-1-1

Finals: John, playing Valakut Ramp
Earlier that evening John noted that he’d found my blog and that I had called him my favorite FNM opponent. During the semis he felt the need to give me a hard time that I had to win so that we could play each other. It was a good point, John, and I think that bit of destiny must have had something to do with the dearth of Runeflare Traps in that last game, right? Anyway, we split the prizes and played fast and casual for the hell of it. Frankly, it was a good thing we agreed to split because I didn’t really put in much of an appearance in either game. Game 1 he had, I think, every single instant burn spell in his deck to wreck all my guys and then just did the turning mountains into Bolts thing and blew up on me, and in Game 2 my deck decided to take a break and took the game off. OK, then.

Still, much fun. Next week I plan to play Valakut Ramp, but I will leave open the possibility that I’ll play UWR control…

I wasn’t going to write this report because I did so badly, but perhaps this can be an object lesson to others.

First, a bit on the metagame at my local store (Montag’s Games): the last few times I’ve played FNM, I’ve faced a lot of (surprise!) Jund. Also, I always end up facing John’s Valakut Ramp deck. I was planning on playing UWr control last week, then didn’t and played Vampires instead. It was a bad decision, as I missed the top 8 because I lost two matches to, of course, Jund and Valakut Ramp, the generally bad matchups for Vampires. So, this week was going to be UWr, but then LSV won the SC5K in LA with UWr, and I didn’t want to play mirrors, which I thought I’d end up doing. So, I played a deck that tests very well against Jund and Valakut. Here’s the list:

4 Vedalkin Outlander
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Emeria Angel
2 Baneslayer Angel
3 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 White Knight
2 Devout Lightcaster

4 Fieldmist Borderpost
3 Flashfreeze
2 Path to Exile
3 Hindering Light
3 Spreading Seas
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Celestial Purge

4 Glacial Fortress
3 Island
3 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
7 Plains

Sideboard
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Jace Beleren
3 Rite of Replication
1 Celestial Purge
1 Devout Lightcaster
3 Negate
3 Brave the Elements
1 Spreading Seas

Yes, I’d run more Baneslayers if I had them, but I only have the two. Two last-minute decisions on sideboard cards: Rite of Replication rather than Mind Control and Brave the Elements over Mark of Asylum. I like it because it has some nice control elements, isn’t a netdeck, and wrecks Jund. It’s also very good against Valakut Ramp. It’s not good against Vampires, and it’s spotty against random stuff, particularly other decks running heavy on blue. You can, of course, guess what happened.

Round 1: Carlos, playing WU
His build was a little bit less aggressive. It had more draw (Divination and Ponder), fewer creatures (including Deft Duelists), 4 Baneslayers, and Ajani Goldmane.

Game 1: He had a terrible draw and didn’t really do much besides play land and draw more cards. He Path’d a couple of my early weenies, but never found enough answers and I bashed him. The only damage I took was from my own fetchlands.

Game 2: See game 1, but in reverse. He had a turn 2 Luminarch Ascension that made this game pretty straightforward for him.

Game 3: This game is the real motivation for writing this report in the first place. He got down an early Deft Duelist that I didn’t get an answer for for a while. That and a Knight of the W.O. were beating on me without opposition. I managed a Knight of my own (I got land, though, because of the Borderposts) and traded mine for his. He stuck an Ajani, and that became a problem as he started pumping up his Duelist and second Knight. I managed an Outlander to chump, his guys got bigger. I managed an Elspeth, which was a good source of further chumpers. Then he dropped a Baneslayer. I managed an Emeria and a fetch for another round of chumping; his guys got bigger again. Then I drew my ninth mana source, and it led to a hugely fun play: a kicked Rite of Replication on a Baneslayer. He attacked with everything and I let a lot of it through, then counterattacked with my flotilla of Baneslayers for a huge life gain. (In retrospect, what I should have done is double-block on two of his guys, including his Baneslayer.) I played a Jace and drew an extra card, which was another Rite. He O-Ring’d one of my Baneslayers and attacked (his Baneslayer was now 8/8 with Ajani bumps.) Next turn I cast and kicked for another mess of Baneslayers. I managed one attack with a whole bunch (put me up to 52 life) and he peeled a Day of Judgment and reset everything. I still had Elspeth and he managed another Ajani. I beat with a pumped soldier token for a few turns and he gained life with Ajani and I realized I’d be facing a huge Avatar token, so I used Elspeth’s ultimate to make my 1/1 token indestructable. Stalemate, but he drew another Baneslayer. It never mattered, though, as time was called on us, so the many Baneslayer battle ended on a draw. (I think this demonstrates how much better Mind Control is than Rite, though, as I would likely have won this had those Rites been Mind Controls. I wanted Rite for Vampires, because a kicked Rite on a Bloodwitch is game.)

0-0-1. Weird.

Round 2: Jeff playing UG Mill
I got rounded down rather than up. He claimed his deck was awful but fun. I had no idea what it would be. What it turned out to be is Crabs, Harrows, Khalni Expeditions, Archive Traps, Traumatizes, and a couple other goodies I didn’t see until very late in Game 3.

Game 1: He did almost nothing but Harrow while weenies pumped by Elspeth beat him up. I had little idea what I was sideboarding for.

Game 2: He got two early Crabs and a Traumatize which hit me for 23 cards. I didn’t have enough guys to be putting on enough pressure. I wasn’t thinking about Archive Traps and got hit by a pair when I cracked a fetch. However, I had a Negate for the second trap. Unfortunately he got a Terramorphic and a Harrow with a Crab in play and he milled me when he was at 4 life with lethal on the board. Ugh.

Game 3: My opening hand was a fetchland and a Borderpost. I risked it and got Archive Trapped on my first turn. Again I got off to a slow start and he had a first-turn Crab. I managed to Flashfreeze something (a Harrow, I think) early but just was not generating enough early pressure. I had to Path a second Crab (milling me with the first). He hit me with a Traumatize and my library was getting mighty thin. He cast a Rampaging Baloths and blew a Khalni Heart Expedition and I realized my life total might actually become relevant. I got an Elspeth and a Knight of the White Orchid (with a Negate in hand for the Archive Trap, which was needed) so I had chumpers. Finally, with only a few cards left in my library, I got out a Baneslayer and whacked him down to 3, bringing my life to 23. Then the killer from him: Platinum Angel. I had no removal. I “killed” him, but I had no way to get rid of the Angel and he basically just sat still for three turns and I lost to not being able to draw. Wow.

0-1-1.

Round 3: Mitch playing GU Landfall
I had played Mitch last week when he played a mono-white Kor deck that I wrecked pretty easily (I was playing Vampires). I again had no idea what to expect with this. Was all Zendikar except I saw Terramorphics.

Game 1: He dropped a turn 1 Zephyr Sprite. Zephyr Sprite? Really? OK, Knights and Outlanders and Elspeth beat him down. I took a few pokes from the Sprite and some fetchland damage, but that was about it.

Game 2: I had a couple of 2/2s to his 1/1 Frontier Guide that he used on his turn 4 to generate another land. On his turn 5 he got land and played a Baloth Woodcrasher. Elspeth allowed me to fly over him and hit him to 9, then cast an Emeria Angel and cracked a fetch for two bird tokens. However, I had no removal for the Baloth. He got all giddy and thought he had won the game since he had two Harrows, but I had a Flashfreeze for one of them, so the Baloth only came for 12, which I let through. I swung for lethal, he again was sure he was going to win because he had a Fog, but I had another Flashfreeze.

1-1-1.

Round 4: Kevin playing Vampires
This time I got rounded up, and got rounded up into a matchup that wasn’t especially good for me. Still, not unwinnable, and at least I knew what to expect.

Game 1: I opened with two Spreading Seas, which turned out to be not very good against a monocolored deck. His turn 2 play was a Child of Night, which is a bit odd in Vampires, but that was better than my turn 2 Outlander in this matchup. I got a Knight of the White Orchid (and land) but I had already taken a bunch from his guys (my Outlander died to a Gatekeeper). On turn 5 I cast a Sphinx and we traded swings for a couple turns, but all I drew after that was land and I had to leave my Spinx back to block. He managed to Tendrils my Knight and then killed the Sphinx with a Gatekeeper, and I just drew more land and died.

Game 2: At least I had a sideboard into more removal, for a change. In went the extra Lightcaster, the extra Purge, all the Rites, the ORing, the Jaces, and a couple Negates for all the Outlanders, Flashfreezes, and Spreading Seas. My draw had one Island in it. Mulliganed to six, no land at all. Mulliganed to five, which was four land and a Baneslayer. My draws were Sphinx, Path, Baneslayer, Brave the Elements… notice no land? Couldn’t cast anything. I finally drew an Emeria Angel, cast it, drew another land, and used Brave the Elements to save it from an Executioner’s Capsule. I tapped out for a Baneslayer, he had the Tendrils, game over.

1-2-1.

Well, ugh. I brought a deck tuned for a specific metagame, and then got a completely different metagame. The irony is that if I had played this deck last week, I would have done much better and if I had played Vampires this week, I would likely have done much better. Moral of the story: stop picking decks based on an expected metagame and just play a deck that’s either good, or fun, or both. I’m thinking Valakut Ramp next week, or back to the WW/r deck I went undefeated with back in November.

As far as Valakut goes, I’m on the fence about Oracle of Mul Daya in the deck. Sometimes it’s nearly useless and just draws out a removal spell or chumps, and sometimes the extra land drop or two just wins games. The one card I’m not going to run is Grazing Gladeheart, which is common in sideboards for this deck, because nobody at the store runs Boros Bushwhacker, though I’ve seen one or two RDW variants, it’s still not frequent. I like Acidic Slime better in that sideboard slot.

So, my brother was supposed to be in town for this, and he was going to play Vampires, and I was as late as Thursday still fiddling with a White/Blue aggro deck that was great against Jund (Hindering Light rocks in that matchup) but only so-so against anything else. I tore it apart and went with every intention of playing a Blue/White/Red control deck (modeled more or less on the Austrian deck from Worlds), and I also had a Valkut Ramp deck with me.

When I arrived to find it more full than expected, looking around there appeared to be a fair amount of white and blue, and John convinced me to play Vampires since I had it with me. Here’s what I played:

4 Bloodghast
3 Vampire Hexmage
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Hypnotic Specter
4 Vampire Nocturnus
4 Malakir Bloodwitch
1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

3 Disfigure
4 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Sorin Markov
2 Mind Sludge
2 Sign in Blood

1 Gargoyle Castle
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
16 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Marsh Casualties
2 Sadistic Sacrament
3 Black Knight
4 Duress
3 Deathmark

I know, there are some slightly odd choices there (Ob, the Hyppie), but it’s basically the same kind of Vampires deck people have been playing ever since Zen rotated in. It’s completely mindless to play, which was the goal since I wasn’t planning to pilot it. There were, I think, 24 people there, meaning 5 rounds cut to top 8. I believe only 4 were playing Jund, which is not the best matchup for Vampires, so I decided against my better judgment to go in with it. You can guess where this went…

Round 1: Marvin playing Jund
Of course. His build was a little different, with Borderland Rangers (OK, not that weird) and Thornlings. It’s not an un-winnable matchup, but I would to get a bit lucky to have a shot.

Game 1: I was not particularly lucky. It wasn’t a bad game, but Jund has more and better removal, and I just didn’t draw well enough to win.

Game 2: This was a total disaster. I got stuck on three land with various expensive cards in my hand, got Thought Hemmoraged for Vampire Nocturnus (I did have one on my hand) on turn 4, then on the next turn got hit with it again for Tendrils. OK, then. I stayed on my three land with nothing interesting in my hand for a while, and just got beat up.

After this quick beating, I took out my UWR control deck and played that, and just crushed him with it.

Round 2: Hunter, playing R/B Eldrazi Goblins
Well, I thought, hopefully I’d get an easy match in the loser’s bracket. And so it was. This deck had cards I had never seen or heard of before (like Karathi Bomber) and was kind of interesting, but it was in no way a good matchup for him. There’s no point in going game-by-game, I just rolled him. The play of the game was the finish in game 2 when he was at 17: I hit him with a Nocturnus and two other vamps for 13, then played a Bloodwitch to drain for 4. Nice turn.

After this also very quick round so afterward we played with his deck against my Valakut deck. That was actually a much better matchup for him. The humorous part of this matchup was that he played a Coat of Arms, then a Siege-Gang Commander. Then I played a Siege-Gang Commander. Then he played another one. Then I played another one. Whee, very, very giant Goblins!

Round 3: John, playing Valakut Ramp
My favorite opponent, which is good, because I swear I always play him in FNM. This is a matchup that favors the Valukut deck, though it’s winnable by Vampires if the draw is fast and some life is gained. If the Valakut deck ramps up quickly, however, anything other than an optimal draw is an almost certain loss for vamps.

Game 1: My draw was mediocre but he didn’t ramp too quickly, but still just fast enough to beat me.

Game 2: I sided in 2 Sadistic Sacrament and 4 Duress for this one. I got Duress on the first turn and killed a Harrow, and got Sacrament on the third turn and got 3 Valakuts, but unfortunately he had already drawn the first Valakut. I had a fighting chance but he had all the removal when he needed it, wiped out a bunch of stuff with a Hellkite, and then got Valakut active and took me out.

Unfortunately, two losses put me out of contention for the top 8. I came to play, though, so I stayed in.

Again, after this match we played, this time the Valakut mirror. I won two of those and we didn’t quite have time to finish the third, but I had better board position there. He doesn’t run Ruinblaster or Lavaball Trap main, which I did, and that made the difference in the mirror.

Round 4: Mitch, playing mono-White Kor
This might have been a completely Zendikar deck, though maybe there was a Path involved at some point. Kor Duelist, Armament Master, Hookmaster, Kor Skyfisher, Kor Aeronaut, etc. Even Grappling Hook.

Game 1: I know I Disfigured his turn 2 Aeronaut but he never really had much going and a Bloodwitch finished him off. I was at 18 when it ended.

Game 2: More senseless beatings. I got a 2-for-1 on a kicked Marsh Casualties at one point, but he managed to get a lot of other guys out and we were kind of stalemated for a while. He had gained a fair bit of life off a pair of Kabira Crossroads that had been bounced with Skyfishers. I eventually got control of the board and managed to Tendril a Grappling Hook-equipped Skyfisher and finished off with a Nighthawk and a Bloodwitch; I was at 28 life at the end.

Round 5: Nick, playing White/Green/Blue Allies
I know this was not strictly Zendikar because I’m pretty sure something got Path’d at some point in one of the games. That may have been the only non-Zendikar card, though.

Game 1: Early on I got out a Bloodghast and a Hexmage while he got an Oran-Rief Survivalist and a pair of Ondu Clerics. He blocked the Hexmage with the 3/3 Survivalist, not realizing that I could sac the Hexmage to strip the counters off of it after first strike damage. From there he could chump with the Clerics but he chose not to hoping for more life gain. He did chump with one of the Clerics against my turn 6 attack, and then I cast Ob and cracked a fetch to bring him to 9. He cast some other ally to gain 2. 9/9 Ob and the Bloodghast were chumped the next turn, and I played another fetch to bring him down to 5 and cast a Nighthawk. That was it for this one.

Game 2: On my third turn I Deathmarked a Kazandu Blademaster to get a Hexmage in. He one again got down multiple Ondu Clerics and kept gaining life, but I always had better board position; I had out a Hexmage and Bloodghast when I got a Nocturnus and hit on the flip, then next turn cast a Bloodwitch. The game ended with me at the 24 life I had from the Bloodwitch drain.

So, basically, I played two decent competitive decks and lost to those 0-2 each time, and played three basically bad rogue decks and crushed them handily. I remain unconvinced that Vampires is a Tier 1 deck, though I guess more help is supposedly coming in Worldwake. I have probably three more constructed FNMs before Worldwake becomes legal and I certainly won’t play Vampires in any of those.

I of course missed the top 8. However, I did watch most of the top 8, which was instructive about the metagame. There were three Jund decks, one UWR control, a Vampires, John with Valakut, a G/R Eldrazi Elves, and one rogue W/B Ranger of Eos/Steppe Lynx/Soul Warden/Nighhawk/Zealous Persecution deck.

None of the Junds mirrored. The four matches were Valakut vs. Rogue, Jund vs. Vampires, Jund vs. UWR control, and Jund vs. G/R Eldrazi. John’s Valakut crushed the rogue. Amazingly, the other Vampire deck in the tourney won vs. Jund. UWR of course beat Jund, and the Jund deck easily handled the Elves. So, in the semis, it was Valakut vs. Vampires and Jund vs. UWR control. Valakut and UWR control took it and split the top prizes.

So, next week I think it’s UWR control for me or maybe Valakut; I’m not sure, but I do know it won’t be Vampires.