Daily Dose of Standard - Ep. 8

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

9 December 2011

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vs. MuzicMan

Caley's deck- Crawling Chaos. Crawling Chaos is brought to you by Hipster Nyarlathotep: "The Great Race of Yith is so last year (and next year)."

Game 1

E wins the toss and plays first. He mulligans to six.

C mulligans a hand of Swamp, Reassembling Skeleton, Skinrender, Think Twice, Evil Twin, Go for the Throat, and Rune-Scarred Demon.

E keeps their six hand.

C keeps a hand of 2x Darkslick Shores, Island, 2x Corrupted Conscience, Evil Twin.

Bad starting hand, but probably better than what I'd get by mulling to five.

T1

E plays Plains. He casts Memnite, then Origin Spellbomb, then another Memnite, then passes.

Oh hell. My Dissipate! Where is my Dissipate?! It's ok. It's ok. Breathe, Caley. Maybe he doesn't have Tempered Steel yet. Maybe you can bluff him into thinking you have a counter. Maybe you'll draw one. It's ok. Breathe. Turn 3, man, turn 3.

C draws Army of the Damned. He plays Darkslick Shores and passes.

::breathes into a paper bag::

T2

E plays a Plains and attacks with Memnites. (Enemy 20, Caley 18).

C draws Swamp. He plays Darkslick Shores and passes. End step, E activates Origin Spellbomb and pays for a Myr.

::paper bag expands; contracts rapidly::

T3

E plays Glacial Fortress. He casts Tempered Steel and attacks with everything. (Enemy 20, Caley 9). E passes.

AAAAGGGGHHH. Need a god draw here or it's lights out.

C draws Drowned Catacomb and concedes.

Sideboarding

Caley removes 3x Go for the Throat and 3x Evil Twin.

Caley inserts 3x Negate and 3x Doom Blade.

Obvious choices, I hope.

Game 2

Caley plays first. He keeps an opening hand of 2x Island, 2x Swamp, Doom Blade, Skinrender, and Corrupted Conscience.

Why have you forsaken me, counterspells? Still, this hand is fine because of the abundance of answers- Skinrender kills a 3/3 just fine.

E keeps their opener.

T1

C plays Island and passes.

E plays Plains and casts Memnite. Then he casts Glint Hawk returning Memnite, and then casts Memnite again. E passes.

T2

C draws Darkslick Shores and plays it. He passes.

Seriously, counterspells, where are you. There are 7 in the deck and I haven't drawn ANY in like, 20 card draws. AND THIS IS TEMPERED STEEL.

E attacks with everything. C casts Doom Blade on Glint Hawk, but Memnite hits. (Enemy 20, Caley 19). E plays a Plains and casts another Glint Hawk, returning Memnite then casting Memnite again. E passes.

T3

C draws Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip.

Damn it.

C plays Island and passes.

Veerrrry dangerous! I definitely have a Dissipate. You should probably hold off on that Tempered Steel.

E plays Plains and attacks with all creatures. (Enemy 20, Caley 16). E casts Porcelain Legionnaire and passes.

That's....good? I guess?

T4

C draws Black Sun's Zenith. He plays Swamp and casts the Zenith for 2, killing everything. C passes.

That works too!

E plays Buried Ruin and casts Tempered Steel, then passes.

Of course.

C draws Swamp and plays Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip, then passes.

Tempered Steel or no, I am in good shape because everything he has is dead and I have an excellent chance of keeping it that way.

T5

E casts Celestial Purge exiling Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip, then casts Memnite and passes.

C draws Island, plays Island, and casts Skinrender targeting Memnite, killing it. C passes.

Before another Tempered Steel hits.

T6

E plays a Plains. He activates Buried Ruin targeting Porcelain Legionnaire. He casts Porcelain Legionnaire by paying life, then passes. (Enemy 18, Caley 16)

Hello, Corrupted Conscience target.

C draws Skinrender. He plays Island and casts Skinrender destroying the Legionnaire. C attacks with the old Skinrender and passes. (Caley 16, Enemy 15).

Even better!

T7

E plays a Plains and passes.

C draws Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip and casts it. He attacks with the Skinrenders and passes. (Caley 16, Enemy 9).

T8

E casts Vault Skirge, paying life. (Caley 16, Enemy 7). E passes.

C draws Swamp and plays it. He casts Corrupted Conscience targeting Vault Skirge and E concedes.

Home free! Now onto game 3.

Sideboarding

E plays first and keeps his opener.

C mulligans a hand of 2x Swamp, Drowned Catacombs, Corrupted Conscience, 2x Skinrender, Volition Reins.

I was really frustrated by the complete lack of counterspells, so I gambled with a mulligan. I feel in retrospect that this was a poor choice- 2x Skinrender is great for me, and things could very much go like the last game.

C keeps a hand of 2x Swamp, Island, Skinrender, Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip, Doom Blade.

This hand is no better for me than the last one, but I keep it, exasperated at the lack of the counters that would shut down my opponent.

T1

E plays Plains and casts Vault Skirge paying life. (Caley 20, Enemy 18) . E passes.

C draws Darkslick Shores, plays it, and passes.

T2

E attacks with Vault Skirge. (Enemy 19, Caley 19). He plays Buried Ruin, casts Myr Sire, and passes.

C draws Think Twice. He plays Island and passes.

Damn, damn, damn.

T3

E attacks with everything. (Enemy 20, Caley 17). E plays a Plains, casts Glint Hawk Idol, and passes. End step, Caley casts Think Twice drawing swamp.

C draws Dissipate.

Wheee! But I wish you were Negate. In any case- COME AT ME BRO.

T4

E activates Glint Hawk Idol and swings with everything. (Enemy 21, Caley 13). E casts Glint Hawk. C responds with Doom Blade on Glint Hawk Idol. Glint Hawk bounces Vault Skirge, which he then casts again, paying life. (Enemy 19, Caley 13).

This is troublesome. He is either slowplaying Tempered Steel on me or genuinely doesn't have it and is trying to sell out before I get a Black Sun's Zenith. Now I have to decide whether or not he has Tempered Steel.

C draws Sorin Markov. He casts Skinrender targeting Glint Hawk and passes.

I decide to see if he's bluffing by slowing down the rate at which I am bleeding.

T5

E casts Tempered Steel.

KHAAAAANNNNNNN! Need that Zenith now.

E attacks with everything. C blocks Myr Sire with Skinrender, killing both and generating a Myr token. C takes 3 from Vault Skirge. (Enemy 22, Caley 10). E passes.

C draws Swamp and plays it. He casts Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip and passes.

T6

E plays a Plains and casts [[Porcelain Legionnaire], paying life. (Enemy 20, Caley 10). Then he casts Dispatch on Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip and attacks with all available creatures. (Enemy 20, Caley 4). He passes.

C draws Volition Reins and concedes. Enemy wins the match 2-1.

Only Black Sun's Zenith saves me. Though I have six mana, I can't use it to steal Porcelain Legionnaire because four of those mana are swamps!

Thoughts

1 - Exceptional, more-or-less flawless play from my opponent. He powered through my counterspell bluff in game 1 and slow-played me like a champ in game 3. Very nice operation of Tempered Steel against a control deck. Wish I could get a rematch; my recent opponents have been less sharp in decisions than I would like, and this guy was a nice change of pace.

2 - It's tough to say what the right play was there in game 3. I would love to say that it was obvious that I should have held off for countering Tempered Steel in retrospect, but I honestly didn't know whether he was trying to bluff me into taking a bunch of damage and putting me into the danger zone. I made the best call I could, but it was the wrong one. If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably make the same decision: I was at 13 life and staring down the barrel of 4 damage (and likely more shortly) a turn. Right call or wrong call? Let me know in the comments!