Welcome to FNM IV
Features
Wolfking3000
28 June 2013
1587 views
28 June 2013
1587 views
Welcome to FNM IV
Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, after an exceptionally long hiatus, I, Nathaniel, am back with another installment of Welcome to FNM. For those who are joining me for the first time, welcome. If you want to read the previous three articles, they should be linked in the bottom. To those of you who were more avid readers, I apologize for my long disappearance. Senior year hit pretty hard, between applying for college and scholarships, coming down with mono, and having to lead a regional convention, I haven’t had much time to write. I have however, played in a few more FNMs.
From the time I wrote my last article up until this current, my Magicing has improved tremendously. I’ve top 8-ed three more times, two at a constructed FNM and once at Gatecrash pre-release. I was going to write about pre-release, and even recorded all my games during it, but I was unable to ever get enough time to finish writing them. As for constructed, the two top 8s were both with my Spirits deck, but this week I decided to try out something new, and I’ll be honest, I’m really happy with how the deck performed. To put it simply, the deck is sweet. Here’s the list.
Esper Control
26 x Land
1x Watery Grave
6x Island
4x Plains
3x Swamp
7x Creatures
3x Snapcaster Mage (borrowed)
2x AEtherling
15x Instants
3x Far / Away
3x Dissipate
3x Think Twice
7x Sorceries
3x Enchantments
2x Planeswalkers
Sideboard
2x Negate
Now that we’ve had a look at the list, I’d like to make a few comments about a few cards, namely AEtherling and Blood Baron of Vizkopa. These guys are absolutely insane. More often than not, if you resolve and AEtherling you will win the game in a matter of turns. Blood Baron of Vizkopa hoses agro and can really keep you in the game. Most decks have no real answer to him, and it can force other control decks to keep in Supreme Verdict against you when they would really want something else that would be much better. With those notes aside, we’ll get to the game.
Round One: Esper(U/W/B) Control vs Naya(R/W/G) Tokens
Game One: Esper wins (33: my life – 10: their life)
Game Two: Esper wins (30 - 7)
Game Three: Not played
life totals are before final blow
Game One Summary W(33 - 10)
I was a little worried going into this game because this is a guy I had played a few times, and I knew his deck had potential to be pretty fast, and if there is one thing I often struggle to beat, it’s fast decks. As fast as the deck could be though, it didn’t really come out of the gates as quickly as it could have, which really helped me stabilize. He played two Doomed Travelers and an Intangible Virtue to pump his dudes. I killed his Doomed Travelers with two spirit tokens from Lingering Souls, and then killed his tokens with a Detention Sphere. I flashed back Lingering Souls to put the board back in my favor. I played a Blood Baron of Vizkopa, and from there, I had complete control of the board. I was able to put the game away with two Far / Aways and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad to clear my path and pump my dudes. My opponent scooped when Blood Baron of Vizkopa became a 10/10 flier, which is just about unbeatable.
Board: -3 Dissipate +3 Blind Obedience
Game Two Summary W(30 – 7)
Game two was even slower for my opponent because he had to mulligan to 4. Even then though, he managed to lead off with a Stromkirk Noble, which is a major problem for control. He hit me that and a Lightning Mauler on turn 2, which was making things look like they could get a bit out of control. I was able, however, to play a Lingering Souls and kill his Lightning Mauler and block his Rancored Stromkirk Noble. I killed his noble with Far / Away and played and extremely powerful Blind Obedience. I say that because after I played it, my opponent revealed that he was playing Thatcher Revolt, which Blind Obedience absolutely hoses. That, plus Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and a Blood Baron of Vizkopa really put me in a dominant position. I got my opponent to seven and myself up to 29, then Sphinx's Revelationed for 1 to pump Blood Baron of Vizkopa and put the game away.
Noteworthy Cards/Problem Cards
Thoughts on the Round
Overall, this round played out pretty well for me. My opponent didn’t really come out of the gates swinging like he could have, and it really allowed for me to get ahead and pull myself ahead. Blood Baron of Vizkopa is also absolutely insane against any form of white agro. He is able to block just about anything and gain you enough life to pull you ahead. He was probably the most relevant card in this matchup, along with Blind Obedience. Far / Away is also really good against token decks because both modes are able to kill their guys really effectively.
Round Two: Esper Control vs Junk(G/W/B) Reanimator
Game One: Junk Reanimator wins (4 – 30)
Game Two: Junk Reanimator wins (2 – 21)
Game Three: Not Played
Game One Summary L (4 – 30)
This wasn’t really much of a game. I had to mulligan to four after consecutive one land hands, which really are not keep-able when playing control. All I managed to resolve was a Dissipate and then a Snapcaster Mage to Dissipate. That wasn’t near enough to beat double Thragtusk in a game that barely lasted five minutes.
Board: -1 Dissipate -1 Supreme Verdict +1 Blood Baron of Vizkopa +1 Reap Intellect
Game Two Summary L (2 – 21)
This was a little bit more of a game. He lead off with an Avacyn's Pilgrim which I Far / Awayed. I figured this would help keep him from ramping, but it didn’t really win me the game. I did manage to get a Blood Baron of Vizkopa but he died to Devour Flesh. I did manage to get a second Blood Baron of Vizkopa and even an AEtherling, but by that point I was down 29 to 7 against a board of Restoration Angel and two Angel of Serenitys, so there really wasn’t too much that I could do.
Noteworthy Cards/Problem Cards
Acidic Slime (didn’t see this during FNM, but in a few casual games before we started)
Thoughts on the Round
Unfortunately, I didn’t really get a lot of the cards I needed in these matchups. That, coupled with the fact that the guy I played has won more FNMs with this deck than I’ve played, I just wasn’t able to pull it out. I’ve only ever beaten this guy once, and that was during a casual game, so hopefully at some point I’ll be able to beat him in a tournament.
Round Three: Esper Control vs. U/W/R/b Possibility Storm Lockout
Game One: Esper Control wins (20 – 8)
Game Two: U/W/R/b Lockout wins (2 – 6)
Game Three: Not played (Game two went to time)
Game One Summary W (20 – 8)
Honestly, neither of us did much in this game. He lead with two Vessel of Endless Rests and an Izzet Staticaster. He played a Curse of Exhaustion which I tried to Dissipate, but he Counterfluxed that. Then he played Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, which I again tried to Dissipate and was again met with a Counterflux. Fortunately, I had eaten through his counterspells at that point and was able to resolve my AEtherling, which ended the game shortly thereafter.
Board: -4 Supreme Verdict +3Sin Collector +1Reap Intellect (I should have brought in Negate as well, but it slipped my mind.)
Game Two Summary L(2 – 6)
This game was bonkers. My opponent started the game with a Pithing Needle naming my AEtherling, which was terrible because my opening hand had both of them. I managed to get some Lingering Souls tokens to put pressure on my opponent and slow down his Ral Zarek. He was able to get another Pithing Needle to shut down Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Initially, he was going to name Jace, Architect of Thought, but through some intense Magic experience, decided to change his pith to Sorin, Lord of Innistrad instead, despite only seeing Lingering Souls, Think Twice, Dissipate and AEtherling from my deck. Then the shenanigans began when he played a Possibility Storm. We spent the next thirty minutes not resolving the things we wanted to, and playing stupid things, like AEtherling into a Snapcaster Mage with no target. It was crazy. Eventually my opponent was able to resolve Curse of Exhaustion targeting me and lock me out until he got an Avacyn, Angel of Hope and ultimated Ral Zarek for three turns. We didn’t get to game three because we went to time during this game.
Noteworthy Cards/Problem Cards
Thoughts on the Round
This was an awesome round of Magic. Game one wasn’t really much, but game two was awesome. As obnoxious as it was to not actually resolve what I wanted, the deck was just too cool. I’m not sure how game three would have played out, but I’m sure it would have been a blast. Possibility Storm is just a really cool card. I really just needed more pressure on him in the early game, but that’s about as much as I could have done.
Round Four: Esper Control vs. G/W Aggro
Game One: Esper Control Wins (26 – 6)
Game Two: Esper Control Wins (15 – 4)
Game Three: Not Played
Game One Summary W(26-6)
These games were against a guy who is relatively new to the shop. He’d been playing magic for about two weeks, but he seemed like he was on the right track. He led out with an Arbor Elf and then an Experiment One. Experiment One started becoming a huge problem when he resolved two Centaur Healers and a Sentinel Spider. He then popped a Rancor on it so I had to run my Blood Baron of Vizkopa out in front of it to slow him down. He chose not to regenerate Experiment One so he could kill my Blood Baron of Vizkopa, which was fine, because I Supreme Verdicted the next turn anyway. I felt pretty in control, but he surprised me when he tried to play and Advent of the Wurm, which I wasn’t ready for. Fortunately, I had a Dissipate in hand, which pretty much saved my life. I ended the game with and AEtherling and a Sphinx's Revelation for ten.
Game Two Summary W (15 - 4)
This was a pretty short game. I managed to kill both his Doomed Travelers with Lingering Souls tokens, and then Detention Sphere the tokens that followed suit. My opponent played a Call of the Conclave and popped a Rancor on it. I managed to kill it with a Snapcaster Mage to Azorius Charm to bounce. I pulled the game out with a Snapcaster Mage and two tokens for consistent damage and the win.
Noteworthy Cards/Problem Cards
Thoughts on the Round
This was an interesting round. The guy I played was new, and I felt kind of bad that one of his first matchups had to be against control, because that can sometimes ruin the game for new players. He had a really great attitude about the game though, even when he couldn’t play anything and I had complete control of the board. For me it was a pretty good match though, and my deck performed pretty well.
Round Five: Esper Control vs. U/W/R Control
Game One: Esper Control wins (20 – 20)
Game Two: Esper Control wins (20 – 20)
Game Three: Not Played
Game One Summary W (20 – 20)
These games were super hard, and by super hard, I mean my opponent dropped to play EDH with some friends, so yeah. There were no games, I just kinda hung out and waited for the next round.
Round Six: Esper Control vs. Rite Aid
Game One: Esper Control wins (7 – 11)
Game Two: Rite Aid wins (15 – 3)
Game Three: Draw (20 – 6)
Game One Summary W (7-11)
This game managed to go pretty long. I started by putting some pressure on my opponent with Lingering Souls tokens and a Blood Baron of Vizkopa. He spent the first chunk of his turns playing Faithless Looting and Forbidden Alchemy to cycle through his deck and put things in his graveyard. After that, he played a Supreme Verdict to help himself stabilize, followed by his own Lingering Souls tokens. Eventually he was able to Obzedat's Aid an Omniscience, and Unburial Rites an Avacyn, Angel of Hope, to put himself in the dominant position. After that, he put Omniscience to work by Faithless Looting into Griselbrand and casting two Obzedat's Aids into Olivia Voldaren and an Angel of Serenity. Fortunately, I drew a Detention Sphere to kill Avacyn, Angel of Hope, then used a Supreme Verdict to balance everything back out. After killing everything he played, I dropped an AEtherling, and he scooped because he was going to deck himself anyway.
Board: -2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa -3Lingering Souls +3Sin Collector +2Negate
Game Two Summary L(15-3)
This game was pretty slow. I played a Sin Collector to start the game off to reveal a hand of 2xObzedat's Aid, 1x Unburial Rites, 1xForbidden Alchemy, 1xNiv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, 1x Dreadbore and 1xAvacyn, Angel of Hope. He had no lands in hand, and was stuck on two on the field, so I decided to hit his Forbidden Alchemy to keep him from hitting land drops if he got his third, and from putting cards in the graveyard. I’m not sure it was the right play, but it’s the one I chose. After that, I played a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and rolled him down to pump my Sin Collector, to hopefully put the game away. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad was met with a Dreadbore, but I was able to keep Sin Collector alive with a well places Negate. I Far / Awayed him as well after a combat to get a little bit more value out of him, and hit a Negate my opponent was holding on to. I got him down to three life, but a flashed back Unburial Rites tagetting Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, and hitting nothing but lands, allowed my opponent to pull the game out and win.
Game Three Summary D (20 – 6)
I started this game off keeping a super counterspell heavy hand, with 2x Negates, a Dissipate, and a Snapcaster Mage. I felt like this would be a pretty solid keep because I would be able to stop his reanimation spells and still do damage with Snapcaster Mage. Fortunately, I also drew into a Sin Collector, which was able to hit an Obzedat's Aid, slowing him down further. The game consisted of him drawing cards with his various draw spells, and me countering his relevant cards with my counterspells. I almost had him at one point, but a Supreme Verdict stalled the board enough that we went to turns before the game could be finished.
Noteworthy Cards/ Problem Cards
Thoughts on the Round
This was one of my most hard-fought rounds. It probably took the most thinking for me, and had the most potential for misplays than my other rounds. Game two had the most potential for misplays. I’m still not sure I made the right choice with my Sin Collector grabs, but know he had three reanimate spells made me think those were not the ones to grab. I’m also unsure if I took out the right cards. I feel certain I brought in the right ones, but I don’t know if Blood Baron of Vizkopa should have gone or not. Anyway, even though we drew, my opponent agreed to concede so that I could play in the top 8, which was super cool of him. Unfortunately though, I found out that that kept my younger brother, who had never top 8ed before, out of the top 8. I didn’t find out until later, otherwise I would have just taken the draw. That aside, let’s get to the top 8.
Top 8 Round One: Esper Control vs. Bant (U/W/G) Control
Game One: Esper Control Wins (23 – 3)
Game Two: Bant Control Wins (20 – 13)
Game Three: Bant Control Wins (7 – 27)
Game One Summary W (23 – 3)
So, just so you all know, this game was my first win of any sort in a top 8, and represented my opponent’s first loss all day, which made it pretty cool. I did feel bad however, since I was the first person to beat him at all on his birthday. That aside, the match played out pretty well for me. I think I managed my roll correctly as the beatdown deck, and was able to put a lot of pressure on him early thanks to the ever wonderful Lingering Souls. I was also able to resolve a Blood Baron of Vizkopa, which he had no answer for, sans Supreme Verdict, but he only manage to draw one. He did play a Voice of Resurgence, which could have been a problem, but a well placed Detention Sphere allowed me to pull ahead.
Board: -4 Supreme Verdict -1 Dissipate +3 Sin Collector +2 Negate
Game Two Summary L (20 – 13)
This was a fairly slow game, and lacked a lot of pressure that I needed to keep my opponent in constant response mode. I did manage to lead off with a Sin Collector to hit a Supreme Verdict, and tried to (successfully) bait another one with a Lingering Souls to flashed back Lingering Souls, to clear a path for Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Unfortunately, my opponent had another Supreme Verdict waiting for me, as well as a combination of Thragtusk, Restoration Angel, and AEtherling, which quickly won him the game.
Game Three Summary L (7 – 27)
This game was frustrating. I started out doing well, but ran into my least favorite card of all times, Jace, Architect of Thought. I had planned on just beating my opponent down with Lingering Souls tokens, but that turned out to not work very well at all. I finally drew a Detention Sphere to get rid of Jace, Architect of Thought, but my opponents one of Mystic Genesis shut that down, as well as give him a creature I now had to deal with. I also made the mistake of tapping out for a Sphinx's Revelation instead of leaving Negate mana up, and got it countered by a Render Silent. From there, Jace, architect of thought rolled on up until he was able to grab a [[sorin, Lord of innistrad from deck, to kill of the one I had in play, and an AEtherling from his deck to put me on a rather short clock. From there it was pretty much game over.
Noteworthy Cards/Problem cards
Thoughts on the Round
AEtherling is a good card. The obvious aside, my opponent gave me a gem of advice after the game. You see, I had been using my Azorius Charms to mostly draw me cards, because hey, card advantage is awesome. He told me, however, that Azorius Charm is one of the most important cards in winning an AEtherling race, which I hadn’t really thought about. So, to all of you who are using Azorius Charm, and you know your opponent is playing AEtherling, use them to bounce him, because it may just win you the AEtherling race.
Round Record: 2 wins, 2 losses, 3 draws/not played
Game Record: 7 wins, 6 losses, 2 draws/not played
Favorite Deck of the Night: Possibility Storm Lockout
Place: 8 out of 44
Career (written about) Round Record: 11 wins, 11 losses, 4 draws/not played
Career (written about) Game Record: 29 wins, 28 losses, 3 draws/not played
Best Place: 5 out of 30 (Gatecrash Pre-release)
Career Top 8s: 5
Final Thoughts
All in all, the night went pretty well for me. It was my first tournament with the deck, so I am very, very pleased with the results. It’s good to know it can beat some things. My favorite deck of the night was definitely the Possibility Storm lockout deck. It was just really, really cool to play against, even as annoying as it got. The Rite Aid deck definitely deserves an honorable mention though. That deck performed really well, and played with a lot of consistency, sans its mana problems game two. Both decks were very well put together, and I admire the concepts behind both. Well, that’s all I have for today. Until next time, Nathaniel.
Have you considered Terminus
over Supreme Verdict
? It is a lot better against a majority of the field at the moment. You're playing both Azorius Charm
and Think Twice
, so you have the possibility of hitting the miracle cost on your opponents turn. It shuts down reanimator decks because you aren't feeding their graveyard.
Also, I'm curious about why you choose to play Vault of the Archangel
instead of Nephalia Drownyard
? Aren't most Esper control decks using the drownyard as their main win condition?
June 28, 2013 1:56 p.m.
Wolfking3000 says... #5
I broke down and added Nephalia Drownyard after losing to many games to not having it. The only reason I'm not playing Terminus is because it's about to cycle. I probably should, I just don't want to invest in it right now.
June 28, 2013 2:07 p.m.
I can understand not wanting to buy a card that's rotating in three months. I'd think that someone at your shop would probably be willing to trade 2 or 3 of them at a decent value for the same reasons you don't want to buy any. You could possibly trade a $5 or $6 card for 2 of them easily with the right trade bait. They're going to be less than $3 post rotation because they aren't popular in any other format except EDH.
June 28, 2013 3:25 p.m.
Legacy is a format where if one good card is released it can suddenly make a deck viable again there have been times when Stoneblade wasn't popular because it had troubles with RUG delver. there'll come a time again when top is making miracles happen.
June 29, 2013 10:14 p.m.
I don't doubt that sometime UW Miracles will win another SCG Open, or maybe even a Grand Prix. Legacy is a strange format that is ever changing. The best decks don't stay on top forever.
But as for the selling price of Terminus currently, it just doesn't see a lot of play except in standard. When Innistrad block rotates out, the price of Terminus will go down by at least $1 (it's currently $4, but I've found a couple websites selling it for $3 or less already). That's all I'm saying.
June 30, 2013 10:33 a.m.
Alvn_isnt_Low says... #11
dcarpntr- Correct me if I'm wrong... But Terminus is a sorcery, how are you planning on casting it during your opponent's turn? And personally I like the uncounterable nature of Supreme Verdict .
July 3, 2013 4:36 a.m.
Any draw spell like Think Twice or Azorius Charm will trigger the Miracle cost of Terminus if it's the first card you draw (specifically, on your opponent's turn). So the Miracle cost turns it into a pseudo-instant board wipe.
And except for Esper control decks (which aren't popular right now) and the rare UWR control decks, what decks are playing with counter spells in standard right now? And against those decks, you don't really need 4 Supreme Verdict
because they don't have enough creatures to justify a full set of verdicts, so you'll most likely board out at least 2 verdicts against those decks anyway.
I guess what I'm getting at is the uncounterable part of Supreme Verdict doesn't mean anything in this format in 90% of the matches. The format is aggro, midrange, and more aggro. Wizards of the Coast killed hard control decks with Cavern of Souls , and not reprinting Mana Leak .
Wolfking3000 says... #1
Darn my terrible formatting skills and this constant underlining.
June 28, 2013 12:23 p.m.