Friday Night Magic

FNM didn't go as planned. I didn't plan to win the whole thing knowing that a few ringers always attend. But I at least wanted to come out with a winning record. That didn't happen. 1-2 and a bye. Not good for my ego or confidence.

I decided that I didn't want to play Goblins because I was tired of the deck and took it apart to build Legacy Mono-Red Burn. I picked up some Baneslayer Angels weeks after moving to Florida but haven't played them competitively. So I figured I'd give the old girls a chance. I had a UWB Control deck built that tried to abuse the best cards in each color. I really built the deck hoping each card would be either a 2-for-1 or at least a cantrip.

Here's the list I rocked at the last FNM:

Baneslayer Angel x 4
Wall of Omens x 4
Seagate Oracle x 4
Wurmcoil Engine x 2
Sun Titan x 1

Mana Leak x 4
Cancel x 2
Doomblade x 4
Consuming Vapors x 2
Day of Judgement x 2
Volition Reins x 1
Mind Control x 1
Jace Beleren x 3

Celestial Colonade x 4
Creeping Tarpit x 3
Glacial Fortress x 3
Drowned Catacomb x 3
Seachrome Coast x 2
Darkslick Shores x 2
Terramorphic Expanse x 1
Tectonic Edge x 1
Islands x 3
Plains x 3
Swamps x 1

Sideboard x 15
Flashfreeze x 4
Celestial Purge x 3
Deathmark x 4
Mind Control x 1
Volition Reins x 1
Tectonic Edge x 2

My plan was to out draw my opponents into all the business spells, stabilize the board and then take over the game with lifelink dudes. Walls and Seagates clog the board and help me to dig. Counters and removal stabilize. Baneslayer is crazy in winning games. When she hits she needs only four more turns to win. Wurmcoils are awesome to me but too slow for the format in my opinion. The sideboard was good to cover the bases of almost any matchup. Things just didn't go my way.

Round 1: Roy - RUG Midrange
RUG has won the most recent big tournament and Roy is one of the ringers. I know he plays what the pros have already dictated to him is good. Roy is a nice enough guy but is a bit on the obnoxious side. He plays very tight and knows his deck extremely well. He goes to all the area PTQs and even tried to convince me to ride with him to Atlanta for a Grand Prix. I don't know why I got paired up with him since his DCI rating is infinitely better then mine. Back to the deck that many consider control. RUG decks I consider Midrange because depending on the matchup will change its gameplan. If its up against aggro it plays the control. If its up against control it beats down. The deck can have very quick starts so up against my Control deck it was the beatdown player.

Game 1: I keep a decent hand with all three colors of mana, some control and a Seagate. He drops Lotus Cobra, Explores, does some Halimar Depths shenannigans. I play lands, Seagate and keep passing but I hit my land drops for 5 turns but I'm digging for double white so I can Day of Judgement. I think as I'm tapped out for the Seagate at some point he Kicks a Goblinruin Blaster and hits my Colonade, my only white source of mana. He sticks Jace Mind Sculptor and goes to work fixing his draws. I have a Volition Reins in hand but was slowed down a turn. Now, I've never actually played against Jace the Mind Doucher because I just recently started playing Standard again. I think Jace is a ridiculous card and never should have been printed or prices driven so high. Back to the game. I'm at 10 life and decide to V-Reins his JMS instead of playing Wurmcoil because the Wurmcoil will just get Unsummoned. He has enough mana to activate his Raging Ravine, play a Kicked Ruinblaster and attack for 10. Bullseye. FML.

Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. I take out all the 6cc and a Cancel. I go first and stick a Wall of Omens then play draw go for a few turns. He goes to Ruinblaster and I say Flashfreeze, he goes Spell Pierce, I go, "Awesome play. Didn't see that coming." He over extends with two Lotus Cobras and Goblin Ruinblaster that I DoJ the next turn. He plays JMS and I place Jace v1.0 to legend rule his JMS. He plays a Frost Titan and I Consuming Vapors it. He plays a Lotus Cobra for more land drop shenannigans and I rebound his snake. At this point it seems I have all the answers to his threats. He sticks another JMS and I play Baneslayer. We play Draw-Go-Bounce-Play-Baneslayer for a few turns. His JMS dies and I stick another Baneslayer and he scoops. Even though I had all the answers that game he still exclaims he drew nothing but land. Right.

Game 3 is embarrassing for me. I totally fumble this game starting with a two-land no white mana hand. It has two Wall of Omens and I need one of my 13 white sources to get this hand going. He goes Lotus Cobra and plays some lands into Explores into more lands. I still do not get my white mana but draw into another Wall of Omens. Shrugs. He sticks a turn 4 Frost Titan. WTF? LOL. Shrugs again. I go Doom Blade Titan. He says, "Sure. It's not dead." I instantly remember his first ability. I should really be better at this game. I scoop. FML.

I consider Roy one of the "Ringers" because he is a very Spike player in a field of Timmies and Johnnies. I thought I played decent considering I never play competitively these days and he was rocking a Top 8 deck. We small talk and he adds that I play too many comes into play tapped lands. I agree but usually I'm never colored screwed. It happens.

Round 2: Tommy playing Roy's Eldrazi Elves.
Tommy is a very nice  kid who I've mildly befriended since moving to Florida. We've played before and he's a good player as long as he knows his deck. Elves is an amazing deck that doesn't even need Eldrazi Monuments to win.

Game 1: I win the roll and play a Colonade. Tommy keeps a slow draw with double Oran-Rief Vastwoods. I play some Walls and Seagates digging for a Day of Judgement as I Doom Blade a pumped  Joraga Treespeaker. He keeps sticking the Joraga Warcallers and pumping them with Oran-Rief and an epic quadruple pumped Joraga Warcaller. He swings for lethal with his super pumped lord-dudes that already had some pumps from the Vastwoods.

Game 2: I side in Flashfreezes and Deathmarks. The game is going very well in the beginning. I Flashfreeze and Doomblade all his early dudes. I get some Seagates down and Wall digging for a Day of Judgement as I Deathmark a Ezuri Overrunner. He sticks a Vengevine pumped with a Vastwood and swings. I do not block with one of my three open defenders. I do this for a few reasons: 1. Tommy has no cards in hand and 2. I have another Deathmark. I don't want to lose a blocker for when it matters if I know the Vengevine will die for sure AND he will need runner runner creatures to get the Mythic haster back. I stick a Baneslayer and swing to knock him down. He only has some mana dudes but sticks a gigantic Warcaller that makes his dudes upwards of 7/7s. I stick another Baneslayer and swing to knock him down and gain some life. He bum rushes me and I block with all my might, making all the correct blocks on his largest attackers. I lose two Seagates, Wall of Omens and Baneslayer. I go up in life and with my all in blocks after taking something like 18 damage I'm a 6 life. Tommy is at 10 and I have a live Baneslayer, a Creeping Tarpit and a Celestial Colonade. Problem is I need one more mana to double activate my manlands and swing for lethal. I ask Tommy if he sees it. I tell him I need to draw a land to win the game. I untap and slam down the top card of my library onto the battlefield. Beat. Mana Leak. That was an awesome loss.

Tommy smokes me in like 20 minutes so I ask if he wants to play my Affinity deck while I play my Mono-Red Legacy burn deck. I don't get much Legacy play so he agrees. Its funny that Tommy has NEVER played Affinity so he had no idea how to play it. As our explosive plays start dropping a small crowd of 6 gather to watch. It briefly reminds me of me and Jaco playing Type 1 during downtime at Standard PTQs way back in the day. The entire room would watch Jaco and I drop Moxes and Juzams on turn 1 and 2. It was a good feeling. It's a fun few games and the Affinity deck is clearly a faster clock. Cranial Plating is retarded. With the addition of Menmite it has made the deck that much better.

The interesting thing that happened the dudes crowding to look through my trade binder. Its a rarity to see some good old school stuff in a person's binder. Dark Confidants, Reflecting Pools, Force of Wills, Counterbalance, Sensei's Divine Top, etc. At some point Roy invites me to travel with him and some of the other guys to play Extended in Atlanta. I decline because my reality is worlds different then these youngsters. As much as it would be fun to rock some new Extended it is difficult enough for me to get to play in an FNM.

Round 3: Bye - Edward, the shop manager gave me the bye for the round and we did some trading that ended with me giving up some one-ofs that I never really used and me gaining another foil Chain Lightning and Grim Lavamancer as well as some other odd foils. But Edward alerted me to him playing some EDH and that has sparked a fire in me to play some casual once again. Magic has become meaningful again.

Round 4: Corbin - RG Aggro Fling
Corbin is a n00b that I roll over 2-0 in about 15 minutes. Its unexciting and at that point I'm pretty tired after working a full day and staying to play Magic until 10:00 pm.

I get 7th or 8th out of 15. I don't pack but I get a Gatekeeper of Malakir FNM foil as a prize. Yeah. All in all it was not a cool night for Magic. I did play tons of games prior to the tournament starting, including a few Mass Polymorph wins, but I am just not enjoying current Standard right now.

I'm pretty sure I need to deconstruct what I have and try to rebuild. It is very time intensive to do so. I will have to find the time. But Standard is just not cool with all the Mythic bullshit, as a budget player, pisses me off. I am tired of playing Mono-Red but having three Koth of the Hammer makes me want to do so. I am very much contemplating trying to hook up 4 Primeaval Titans to play Eldrazi Green. But I doubt that will happen.

EDH is on the horizon and Legacy tournaments at Armada makes me want to actually drive out to Tampa. We'll see what the future holds. I am also waiting for the new format announcement.