Ghost Dad's Circus Stampede

Standard* mrbloo1848

SCORE: 71 | 64 COMMENTS | 19523 VIEWS | IN 35 FOLDERS Top 8: 05/10

3/8/13 FNM Report —March 9, 2013

Went 3-3 tonight at FNM (which is better than last week) and learned a bit more (from my mistakes among other things) about my deck and how to deal with certain decks:

R1: UW Flash (L 0-2) - Mulligan'd to 5 both games and got stuck at 3-4 lands both times while Geist of Saint Traft bashed my face in. Couldn't recover out of that. Bad start for the night but I guess that got the bad luck out of the way.

R2: RDW (W 2-1) - This guy was just angry and pissy all the time. Won game 1 when he didn't block my Loxodon Smiter with his Stromkirk Noble, which let me put him to 3 from 7 and then he realized that I had 4 spirit tokens from Lingering Souls ready to attack next turn. Lost game 2 to a nut hand of Stromkirk Noble into Ash Zealot into another Ash Zealot and Stromkirk Noble into Hellrider. The face was FUBAR. Won game 3. Nothing special, really. He kept drawing into lands after I killed his first wave of creatures.

R3: Human Reanimator (I call it Humanimator) (L 0-2) - Man I hate this deck. He got the combo off both games with Undercity Informer, Burning-Tree Emissary, Fiend Hunter, and Angel of Glory's Rise. I was able to cast a Nevermore on game 2, my dumb-ass naming Unburial Rites when it wasn't in the graveyard instead of Angel of Glory's Rise so he just hard-casted the angel for the combo. Poop. (That's the second humanimator I've run into in the past week).

R4: Selesnya Wolves? (Just Selesnya. I have no idea if it was aggro or midrange. The list was everywhere) (W 2-0)- This round was a cakewalk for me. Her list seemed like it was built around a wolf theme or something. All I saw from her were Kessig Cagebreakers, Young Wolf, Silverblade Paladin, Gatstaf Shepherd  ^Flip, Divine Reckoning so yeah. I played at a pretty relaxed pace and eventually stabilized. Nothing to see here.

R5: BW Zombies (I name this one Orzhombies!) (W 2-1) - Game one took a while. He plays his Diregraf Ghouls the first two turns and swung in a few times and then Vampire Nighthawk also joined in. He got me to 10 life before I got my Thragtusk out, and then a second one. By this time, I had mana OUT THE ASS and was able to just take everything he swings at me and then swing out, activating Vault of the Archangel and gaining 13+ life every turn and it took a total of 2 turns after that before he conceded the game as he had nothing left to play after having to block me. Liliana of the Veil was that game's MVP. He got two Blood Artists out on game 2 and that shit HURTS. Whenever something dies, He gains 2 and I lose 2, and that turns into 4 when we trade. He had spirit tokens out to chump block any thing I send at him and still deal me damage and I couldn't block anything he sent at me because I would still take damage. Rest in Peace and Sever the Bloodline that sided in were nowhere to be found. Sad day. Game 3 we traded back and forth early (No Blood Artist this time thank goodness) and I was able to play Obzedat, Ghost Council which kept his life gain from Nighthawk in check while replenishing the life I lost. Time was called and I was able to get him to only 2 life on turn 5 so he decided to give me the win and went home. Good Guy Orzhombie.

R6: RDW w/ white splash (L 0-2) - Ugh. This guy hit the nuts on game 1 (And I didn't). T1 Stromkirk Noble, T2 Ash Zealot, T3 Hellrider into a Searing Spear and Pillar of Flame. It was hot. Game two I had to mulligan to 5 and couldn't find a removal spell to save my life while being stuck at 3 lands and a hand full of 4+ CMC spells. Circus got burned again.

All in all, the list performed a lot better than it did last week (the land up to 25 definitely made a difference). I finally can narrow down a bit further on what the list is weak against. This is a relatively slow midrange deck compared to the more robust and sassy (yes, sassy) Jund and Naya midrange which has access to Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip (I hate that card) and Bonfire of the Damned and Thundermaw Hellkite and Olivia Voldaren and Dreadbore and blah. List is slow and could be considered a midrange-control type rather than midrange-aggro type. While Jund and Naya midrange are proven to do well in standard, I don't want to jump on the bandwagon and join everyone else. I want my list to be something people usually don't see and thus have trouble dealing with. So I decided that my deck needs to somehow get faster to deal with aggro while able to do a better job closing long drawn-out games. Thus, I'm going to try the following changes:

-1 Sigarda, Host of Herons, -1 Vampire Nighthawk, +2 Arbor Elf - Yes, I did mention that I try to stay away from creature-based ramp, but I also mentioned that this list doesn't have access to faster, more aggro creatures that red provides so the best way to compensate is to accelerate my early game the only I know how outside of Farseek: Mana dorks. I'm still keeping the land at 25 since there are only 2 elves. They're there to help me accelerate into midgame.

-1 Liliana of the Veil, +1 Staff of Nin - This is an experimental swap as I know for a fact that Liliana of the Veil is a bomb against control and midrange, I just want to see if hitting the Staff of Win on turn 4-5 will give me enough card advantage (on top of my usual draw mechanics) to give me what I need to win the game. I saw one in action and getting to draw that extra card, especially for a midrange deck, is HUGE.

I also moved my sideboard around to try to better deal with things dying and things coming back from dying and also blitz aggro:

-3 Centaur Healer, +1 Rest in Peace, +2 Blind Obedience - Yep. The Obedience is back. It seems that while Centaur Healer's life gain is nice, I always wanted a Loxodon Smiter in its place whenever I draw one just for its sheer size. Blind Obedience to better deal with RDW and hasty creatures and allowing my stampede to swing in unblocked (extorting is nice too). Added an extra Rest in Peace since I seem to run into at least one Humanimator or a Zombies deck every week and this card just shuts. them. down.

-1 Vraska the Unseen, +1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice - Vraska's always been very awkward to side in. She usually only good against slower midrange and control lists, both of which the mainboard is already pretty good against so I've decided to let Trosty back in to take Centaur Healer's place of anti-aggro. Her 5 toughness is nothing to scoff at and blocking with her then activating her ability to make a beast token is just fun. Her lifegain effect is phenomenal against aggro too. If this doesn't work, however, then I might put in second Witchbane Orb or a one Selesnya Charm to deal with bigger creatures.

That is all for now. Thanks for all the +1's and comments so far! I am determined to get to top 8 with this list before Dragon's Maze comes out!