It\u2019s so nice to be back to Standard, though I have to say drafting M11 was pretty fun, too. I had to miss FNM last week because of a family trip to Sea World. However, the Tuesday before that Friday, I did play in a Standard-for-a-box. I played Fauna Conscription. I beat UW control in round 1, beat Naya in round 2, lost to UW control in round 3, beat Vampires in round 4; we cut to the top 4 rather than the top 8, and I made it. I lost in the semis to the same UW that I lost to in round 3. The important thing to note is that UW was everywhere, including 3 of the top 4. I find the UW mirror tiresome\u2014most mirrors aren\u2019t that much fun, but this one seems particularly bad\u2014and I like to not play the same deck from week to week, so this week I decided to go with Primeval Valakut. Here\u2019s the list:<\/p>\n
Creatures (11) It\u2019s a fantastically fun deck to play and has a decent matchup against UW.<\/p>\n Round 1: Marvin, playing UW<\/strong> Round 2: Eric, playing Vampires<\/strong> Round 3: Alan, playing UW<\/strong> Round 4: Joe, playing UW<\/strong> The top 8 was four UW control decks, me, another Valakut, the Vampires I played in round 2, and Soul Sisters. i was paired with the mono-white deck this time around. <\/p>\n Quarterfinals: Matt, playing Soul Sisters<\/strong> Semis: Travs, playing Valakut<\/strong> The deck is very good overall. I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019ll change the next time I play it\u2014which won\u2019t be next week since I always rotate\u2014but I don\u2019t see it as having any particularly bad matchups in the field right now; maybe RDW isn\u2019t very favorable before the Baloths come in. It\u2019s both competitive and fun to play, so what more could you want?<\/p>\n The other thing I like is that it won\u2019t lose much to the Scars rotation. Rampant Growth<\/a> is undoubtedly the worst ramp spell in the deck, so that\u2019s not much of a loss. Siege-Gang can be replaced, probably by Rampaging Baloths<\/a>, The Spellbreakers in the board can probably be replaced with something else nearly as good, though the loss of Earthquake<\/a> might make the deck a little soft to decks like Naya and Bant, though with Bant losing Conscription, I\u2019m not sure how popular that will be post-rotation. Overall, though, a good deck with at least some chance of having some version of it around post-rotation. <\/p>\n Still tons of UW at the shop, though, so next week I might play the Esper anti-UW deck… of course, then I\u2019ll probably get paired against multiple rounds of RDW…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s so nice to be back to Standard, though I have to say drafting M11 was pretty fun, too. I had to miss FNM last week because of a family trip to Sea World. However, the Tuesday before that Friday, I did play in a Standard-for-a-box. I played Fauna Conscription. I beat UW control in … Continue reading FNM Report, 8\/27\/2010<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/byrneweb.com\/sunburn\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em>4 Siege-Gang Commander<\/a>
\n4 Primeval Titan<\/a>
\n3 Avenger of Zendikar<\/a>
\n
\nOther spells (21)
\n<\/em>2 Burst Lightning<\/a>
\n4 Explore<\/a>
\n2 Rampant Growth<\/a>
\n3 Khalni Heart Expedition<\/a>
\n3 Harrow<\/a>
\n4 Cultivate<\/a>
\n2 Summoning Trap<\/a>
\n1 Comet Storm<\/a>
\n
\nLand (28)
\n<\/em>3 Evolving Wilds<\/a>
\n6 Forest<\/a>
\n12 Mountain<\/a>
\n3 Terramorphic Expanse<\/a>
\n4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle<\/a>
\n
\nSideboard<\/em>
\n3 Acidic Slime<\/a>
\n2 Earthquake<\/a>
\n1 Summoning Trap<\/a>
\n3 Lavaball Trap<\/a>
\n2 Forked Bolt<\/a>
\n2 Obstinate Baloth<\/a>
\n2 Spellbreaker Behemoth<\/a><\/p>\n
\nGame 1 I had a good draw and his was just OK. I ramped a lot, he blew up a bunch of my stuff but I was able to stick an Avenger and then activate an Expedition, so the plants were huge, and he didn\u2019t have a Day, so we were done. Sideboard was +1 Summoning Trap<\/a>, +2 Spellbreaker Behemoth<\/a>, +3 Acidic Slime<\/a>, -2 Rampant Growth<\/a>, -2 Burst Lightning<\/a>, -2 Siege-Gang. Game 2 he opened with a Leyline. Not the best for me, but not impossible. I dropped a Spellbreaker on turn 4 and he had no idea what it was, read it, and looked distressed. He blew a Day just to kill it. I followed up with an Slime to kill his Leyline, and he clearly wasn\u2019t expecting that, either. (He had sided in Negates expecting me to side in Back to Nature<\/a>.) I again managed an Avenger, but he had a Path so the tokens were all just 0\/1. He countered a Primeval and then had the counter for the followup Trap, and killed my Valakuts with Sun Titan<\/a> recursion of a Tectonic Edge<\/a>. I tried to Comet Storm<\/a> the Titan and Marvin for 6, but he had the counter and that was it. Game 3 I had another early Spellbreaker followed up by Titan and had 3 Valakut in play, but he had a Day to clear the board. I tried an Avenger, he countered it, I Trapped and got a Titan for 2 mountains (18 damage) and won off that.
\n1-0 matches, 2-1 games<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHe actually had a decent draw and dropped Blooghast<\/a>s on turns 1, 2, and 3. But he had no way to disrupt me and I just ramped up, threw down a Titan, then a second one for game. I hadn\u2019t thought about this matchup at all, so all I boarded was +2 Earthquake<\/a>, -2 Summoning Trap<\/a>. Game 2 he got a Nocturnus on turn 4 that managed to hit me once along with another Vamp and I was within range, but I had a Siege-Gang out and so two Goblin tokens died to kill the Nocturnus. Titan, Valakuts, much damage, game. This was pretty straightforward.
\n2-0 matches, 4-1 games<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGame 1 he was a little light on land and I wasn\u2019t, ramping quickly into threats that he couldn\u2019t keep up with. I boarded the same way I did in round 1. Game 2 I missed my turn 3 land drop and just failed to have any early ramping, and that gave him too much time to take control of the board. Game 3 he had to Day a Spellbreaker and later, Path another. I had at least one Valakut out, and I cast Acidic Slime to try to kill one of his Colonnades, and he countered, so I was able to Trap into a Titan, and he could not handle that.
\n3-0 matches, 6-3 games<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWe ID\u2019d so Joe could get something to eat.
\n3-0-1 matches, 6-3 games.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nI have to say, I absolutely love this deck; however, on paper the matchup certainly seems to favor Valakut. If Sisters gets a really good draw and the Valakut deck doesn\u2019t ramp enough early, it\u2019s winnable for Sisters, but that\u2019s a tall order. Matt\u2019s build also didn\u2019t include Elspeth, which I think hurts in this matchup. Anyway, game 1 he beat me down a bit early, but I was ramping and got a Titan early enough to just go off for enough damage to kill him. I hadn\u2019t thought of this deck for boarding, so I decided +2 Earthquake<\/a>, +2 Forked Bolt<\/a>, +2 Acidic Slime<\/a> for -2 Rampant Growth<\/a>, -2 Summoning Trap<\/a>, and -2 Siege-Gang. He got a very good start but I got a Siege-Gang and used Goblin tokens to kill some of his guys (but not his Firewalker), he swung back to beat me down to 1, but I came back with a Titan and killed his Firewalker with Valakut damage. He O Ringed my Titan, but I had another and had 2 Valakuts out and the swing with my Titan plus a Harrow meant I had enough damage for it to be lethal.
\n4-0-1 matches, 8-3 games<\/em><\/p>\n
\nThey couldn\u2019t have put the two Valakuts on opposite sides of the bracket, could they? Of course not. This matchup is mostly about who gets a Titan first, so ramping is key. I had seen Travis playing and I thiink his main is a little better\u2014he runs an Inferno Titan main\u2014but my sideboard is much better since he wasn\u2019t running either Lavaball Trap<\/a> or Acidic Slime<\/a> in his board. He won the die roll, we both ramped, he dropped his Titan the turn before I could drop mine, and I didn\u2019t have enough when I dropped mine to be firing off Valakut, but of course with his first actual swing with his Titan killed mine, and he beat me. I boarded +3 Acidic Slime, +3 Lavaball Trap, -2 Summoning Trap<\/a>, -2 Burst Lightning<\/a>, -2 Siege-Gang. Game 2 was tough. I opened with a non-keepable hand, since it had no green source or way to find one. That\u2019s not huge for this deck, but the second mulligan was, as in my six-card hand also had no green sources or ways to find one, and I had to mull to five. I had a turn 2 Explore but no other early ramp, which he did. When I had five land out, I had no play, and did manage to Lavaball Trap<\/a> off his one Valakut. He came back with a Siege-Gang, which left the Titan in my hand as dead. He swung through once and ramped, and so when I was up to seven land I cast the Avenger to get him to sac his goblins, which worked. I had a bunch of plants, but they were all 0\/1 and my Avenger was dead. The way was clear for my Titan, but he came back with a Titan and brought out 2 Valakut. I had an Acidic Slime<\/a> in my hand and another Titan, so I could kill his Titan on my turn, then Slime one of his Valakuts the following turn, so I had a shot, but I was at only 11. I dropped my Titan and killed his along with his Siege-Gang. Unfortunately, he topdecked a ramp spell and did 12 damage to me with a pair of Mountains. Grr.
\n4-1-1 matches, 8-5 games<\/em><\/p>\n