I went 2-2 at FNM again this week with my deck abandoning me in my time of need in round 4.
Round 1 I played U/R Storm. He had beaten me 2-0 a couple weeks ago comboing on turn three each time. This week he was a bit slower as I beat him on turns 4 or 5 both games and was even holding the boarded in Dismember to handle the Goblin Electromancer if he had it second game. Being the decks that they were the games were completely un-interactive and the round was over in under 15 minutes. It felt good to win after the helplessness of the last time.
Round 2 I played against R/W burn. I had a fast start with a Noble Hierarch into Groundbreaker for 7 damage to face on turn 2 but I needed to get a third land to play my Collected Company or play a creature and a boost on the same turn but never got the third land and lost. Game 2 I never saw my sideboard cards and he got his deflecting palm to turn my Groundbreaker back to 6 damage to my face and end up losing pretty handily. Burn is certainly one of the tougher matchups that I have.
Round 3 I played another burn player, who I had lost to 0-2 a couple weeks ago as well. Game 1, on the play, I fly out of the gates and kill him on turn 4. Game 2 I see all of my sideboarded in cards, 2x Kitchen Finks, 2x Spellskite, and 1x Scavenging Ooze, through either drawing or companys and gained something like 13 life to attrition him out. Very fortunate drawing there and it felt good after how bad it had been the last time.
Round 4 was where I lost it. This was one of the saddest rounds I have ever played. My opponent was playing Mardu removal/lifegain something. He had Lightning Bolts, Lightning Helixs, Path to Exiles, Lingering Soulss, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and Shambling Vent. He was slow and I was fast. I came out of the gates swinging and forcing him to use his removal very reactionary and had him backpedaling hard. I got him to 1 life with an empty board, after his removal, and no hand, but he had also used up his removal, then... lands... for 4 straight turns. I already had at least 5 on the board and just needed anything that would do anything. It was not to be as in the 4 turns where I did nothing he gained life back and built up a board presence and I lost. Game two was close to the same story with a few more interesting things. I got him to 3 life with him having no board presence and having used up lots of removal. He drops Ajani Vengeant to keep my last creature, a Leatherback Baloth, tapped and I drew 5 straight lands with 4 or 5 already on the board and my baloth tapped for eternity. It was the worst feeling to know I had the games in hand if I only drew anything usable and turn after turn another land. :'( A couple other interesting things happened in game two. He had boarded in Hallowed Moonlight and cast it in response to a Collected Company (and I was still that close to winning). I went ahead and just exiled a Birds of Paradise for the funs. Another interesting thing that happened was regarding a choice I made on the last combat I was able to do anything. I had the baloth, a Strangleroot Geist and a Birds of Paradise on the board and a Aspect of Hydra in my hand. He was at 7 life and had nothing on the board. I swung with the baloth and geist, and he was going to take it if I did nothing. I knew I had to use the aspect to try to get the win but I also knew he almost had to have removal of some sort. So, having not seen a Path to Exile that game, and knowing that the baloth was more important to keep around if I could, I decided play the aspect on the geist to avoid having the baloth pathed. However, it turned out that he had bolt, and he bolted the geist in response, and in the end (if I had known of course) I could have targeted the baloth with the aspect and he couldn't have stopped it and I would have won. More tears, but hindsight is 20/20.
Overall it played great and I had fun until variance killed me in the end.
