Budget Pirate Aggro
Standard*
SCORE: 39 | 24 COMMENTS | 16705 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS
Std. Shdwn - 02.05.19; 1st Place, 3 rds. of Swiss —Feb. 5, 2019
I went to Standard Showdown on Tuesday, due to excessive boredom (I really need to get a life...to be fair, mine is a mess right now, so I just play a little Magic after work to unwind). The store was Vortex Cards & Games, just south of Jacksonville. It’s new, I think. The shop owners were extremely kind and friendly. I hope that they are successful.
The store itself wasn’t what I was expecting. There were lots of people playing the original N64 Super Smash Brothers on rows of standard definition televisions in the back. Only four players showed up to Standard Showdown. I was about to leave, but the proprietors asked us to stay and fired a casual event, in which every player would play a match against each other player (so with four players, this was three rounds). They are not trying to cultivate a competitive scene at the store, and the prize support was split generously amongst the participants, regardless of record (the top two players did receive two extra packs each, and the proprietors did ask all of the players for their consent to this arrangement). I didn’t much care about the prizes; I just wanted to play cards. What followed wasn’t exactly Swiss, since everybody would play everybody else regardless of record, but I don’t know what else to call it.
Two of my opponents had real decks, the third was a brand new player to the game and had a non-competitive, but serviceable, list, but understandably lacked the experience and knowledge to pilot it very well. I didn’t drop a single game, but I don’t say that as a boast or humble-brag. I drew very good hands and my opponents did not seem very motivated to play at their best. I’m not posting this “tournament” report to bandy it about as a great victory (it was the casual-est of casual events), I’m simply putting it up in order to compile more data about this deck’s matchups. I am not the most amazing player in the world, or even in my city — sometimes I just get lucky.
- Round 1 Esper Midrange: 2-0 Win
This player is apparently an experienced tournament grinder. He was playing Esper Midrange, which I’ve faced before, with the usual package of Hero of Precinct One, Deputy of Detention, Basilica Bell-Haunt, and Lyra Dawnbringer. My hands were simply way too fast for him to be able to do anything. His only interaction was a Deputy to take my Ruin Raider, which I dealt with via a flashed-in Dire Fleet Poisoner. Kitesail Freebooter and Duress divested him of his remaining removal. Dire Fleet Neckbreaker came down and it was just over. I sided out four Rigging Runners and two Duresses for a playset of Fiery Cannonade and two Bedevils for Lyra. I didn’t need them; Game 2 went almost exactly the same as Game 1. Maybe this is a good matchup for me, but my opponent was not mulliganing hands that he should have mulliganed. I also got the impression that despite the presence of shock and check lands in Standard, three-color mana bases can still be quite clunky.
- Round 2 Mardu Aristocrats Aggro: 2-0 Win
This was the same deck (reportedly with a modified sideboard) and same opponent — a friend — that I played against in Round 2 of the previous Standard Showdown event (last Sunday). My above observation about three-color mana bases being clunky applies here as well. Game 1, my opponent developed his board and I developed my own, chipping in with a Fathom Fleet Captain to get a token when able. He decided to tap out for Heroic Reinforcements and swing out, dealing 12 damage (we had both been at 15). He didn’t do the math, though, because my return swing was for 17 (a Daring Buccaneer, a 2/2 Pirate token, a Fathom Fleet Captain, and a Dire Fleet Neckbreaker, all attacking). Game over. Game 2, I put in a playset of Fiery Cannonade and both Sorcerous Spyglasses for Pitiless Pontiff and Adanto, the First Fort Flip. This wasn’t an interesting game because he could not draw black mana. He didn’t do much of anything and I ran him down with an extremely aggressive Pirate curve. His mana base might need work, but I’m starting to think that three-color mana bases are a bit risky in this Standard, especially against aggro.
- Round 3 Simic Midrange: 2-0 Win
This guy was new to Magic: The Gathering, so I’m not going to say much against him or even act like beating him was a big victory. For a beginner, his deck wasn’t bad. It had playsets of all the new Simic rares, and was on a Simic Ascendancy plan. It wasn’t exactly a linear strategy, and I’m assuming is idea was to make his creatures gigantic with +1/+1 counters and beat down. His deck had some predictable design problems (we were all new players once, and I was even worse than I am now when I first started), but he did have good cards. He was even packing some Hydroid Krasis in his deck. His mana base obviously needed work though, because he got stuck on one color in Game 1, and couldn’t find a fourth land in Game 2. Not really much to report other than that, since my aggro deck just killed him on Turn 4 both times. It was the closest thing to goldfishing I’ve experienced in an actual match. Felt bad for the guy, but I’d be doing him a disservice and showing disrespect if I didn’t play my best lines, regardless of what he was doing. The match was over in about five minutes. “Tournament” ended, and I went home. I was bored so this was fun enough, but I honestly prefer a more competitive scene. I didn’t know that about myself until playing in this one.