Woo, well, I personally think the archetype as a whole is in a pretty good place right now. The current metagame seems to fall down to Blood Moon and even some aggro match-ups are manageable, like Affinity with all of our artifact/creature destruction.
I went 5/3 (really 4/3, the last match was a no-show) today in a ~200 player tournament and made 56th overall. As it was my first tournament, I'm pretty happy with the results. That being said, the deck itself performed great, and I think with better piloting I might have been able to go 6-2 with it. I'll do my best to describe my matches, though my memory may be a bit fuzzy on a few.
Round 1(0-1): 0-2 vs Kiki Chord
First round I just died to normal beats, I wasn't drawing into any of my correct removal and I believe I made a misplay, though remember the game well. I know at least once in the tournament I fetched when I didn't need the land as opposed to leaving it up for Fatal Push like I should have, and I think that's the mistake that I made game 1. Game 2 I went in not sure if he was just Naya Zoo with Chord, so I wasn't sure how to board. That being said, I ended up locking myself out of the game with my own Blood Moon and on my final turn, tapped out as he cast Restoration Angel in my end step and Kiki'ed me next turn.
Round 2 (1-1): 2-0 vs Jeskai Midrange
Locked him out both rounds with Blood Moon, and he wasn't able to draw into any of his early game threats. He did what he could to keep me under lock, but then I was able to get a Demigod of Revenge through game 2 with one in the GY and he didn't have the board wipe for it the following turn.
Round 3 (2-1): 2-0 vs Ad Nauseam
Game 1 was fairly close. I was able to keep him off his mana for a few turns with Blood Moon, but he had his Bloom in play so if he had drawn into his pieces he could have gone off at any time. I was able to beat him with Demigod quickly enough, however. Game 2 I mulliganed to 5...into a Thoughtseize + Surgical Extraction hand. Turn 1 - Thoughtseize'd Ad Nauseam and immediately Extracted it. We still played it out, and the game went a bit long as my only threat I was able to stick was a Liliana, the Last Hope and I had to wait to ult her to win, thankfully beating him out before he drew his Laboratory Maniac
Round 4 (2-2): 1-2 vs Bant Spirits
This match-up was a blast. First game I got beat pretty hard, partially because I misplayed a Fatal Push on his Drogskol Captain (I really didn't want him to have it, heh) and it fizzled. Game 2 I casted Blood Moon, which got taken by his Spell Queller. However, I had removal in hand so I was able to recast it and from there it stuck. Through that, I was able to keep him locked off his mana due to his greedy landbase, and Demigod'ed for the win. Game 3...the misplay of the century (okay, maybe just this week). I did a very greedy Faithless Looting and looted away my 3rd land, keeping Pia and Kiran Nalaar instead. I proceeded to not draw into any land at all. I had nothing else to play the rest of the game, and was facepalming the rest of the match as I realized I could have stunted his progress significantly with my Blood Moon I had in hand, if I had only had that 3rd land. He was a great player, and went on to top 8 so I wasn't entirely unhappy with the loss, and I learned I probably shouldn't loot as greedily in the future, so not all was bad.
Round 5 (2-3): 0-2 vs Some sort of 4C Zoo?
I was starting to get a little sleepy around here, and I got frustrated by being mana screwed by my deck, so I don't remember the match terribly well besides my opponent being really polite and nice. The first match he beat me to death with 3 Noble Hierarch in play as I proceeded to not be able to play anything. The second match I Thoughtseiz'ed into a hand with Sigarda, Host of Herons and Eternal Witness. I took the E-wit as I didn't want him to have double value, and the next turn I drew into my Blood Moon that would have kept him from casting Sigarda in any reasonable amount of time. With his Ajani Vengeant keeping me off my second black source, I was unable to cast my Damnation to destroy his Sigarda despite actually drawing into it. Since by the time I was able to cast my Blood Moon, he already had his Sigarda out, I probably should not have even cast it, but hindsight is 20/20.
Round 6 (3-3): 2-0 vs Scapeshift
Game 1 went a bit long, I was able to keep the board clear for the most part and during top deck wars, he just happened to not draw into Scapeshift, so I was eventually able to get Demigod out for the win. Game 2 I got my Demigods out a lot quicker so the game ended fairly fast.
Round 7 (4-3): 2-1 vs Sun and Moon (Nahiri + Emrakul)
This match was probably my favorite of the tournament. I love playing against the other Blood Moon decks, like Sun and Moon or Blue Moon. To be honest, part of the matches had to do with luck. All 3 matches I happened to draw into my planeswalker destruction, Dreadbore and To the Slaughter. Game 1 he plays like he would against most decks and gets his Blood Moon down and it ended up helping me more than hurting, as I drew into my second Swamp fairly early. I believe that match came down to me being able to Thoughtseize his Chandra, Torch of Defiance early on and being able to land one of my own and pinging him for several turns, finally ending with a Demigod. Game 2 after a judge call, I was able to rewind a little bit to play my Rakdos Charm in response to his Emrakul, the Aeons Torn hitting the graveyard which saved me for a little bit, but he ended up beating me with Chandra, Flamecaller as I was only able to take out one of his planeswalkers that was out unfortunately. Game 3 I kept on drawing into removal for his planeswalkers, and I ended up winning with my Demigods again.
Round 8: No show
All in all, it was a blast. I think I already have an idea of some of the changes. The Bant Spirits player suggested possibly running Simian Spirit Guide and I am heavily considering adding in at least 2, if not more, in order for a surprise turn 2 Blood Moon or turn 4 Demigod. Due to how tight the decklist is, I am loathe to take out anything in the mainboard, but I may try pushing To the Slaughter (beyond Round 7, it didn't do much of anything for me) to the sideboard and dropping down a land or 2 to make room for them. For the most part, besides unlucky shuffles here and there, the mana base feels fine and I only ran into graveyard hate once (a Leyline of the Void) the entire tournament, so Demigod seems to be worth using at the moment. He really seems to improve the control match-up.
Liliana, Death's Majesty only came up once but she did some work when she did. The main thing I like about her is her +1, as in BR colors we don't have another token generator (besides Chandra, Flamecaller, but you can't block with them) and I liked having the chump blockers against non-flyers. I want to do more testing with her to see if I actually like her or Ob Nixilis Reignited better.
Pithing Needle...well, perhaps it is just because I don't know how to play it properly, but I only brought it in once and the whole tournament I was thinking I would rather them be another Damnation and Dreadbore (or possibly another Surgical Extraction). There just isn't enough stuff I care about seeing - artifacts I would rather destroy with my 1 mainboard + 4 sideboard artifact destruction, creatures I generally have enough removal for, and as for planeswalkers, well, as a fellow Rakdos control player mentioned to me, they're better off dead than Needle'd.
Oh, last minute I decided to cut Chandra, Flamecaller but I don't think it would have mattered one way or the other. Every time I drew her replacement, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, I ended up drawing them way too early so I had to loot them away and never ended up casting them all tournament. That being said, I want to do more testing with the gobbos, as if I do actually find myself able to cast them, they seem like value town with being able to flash back a pertinent spell, and they don't die when flashing back Anger of the Gods.
