Last night was the first time out with this deck and it performed horribly. I was having issues with mana inconsistency, i.e. no land in my opening hand or an opening hand full of land that required multiple mulligans to correct. More often than not, by mid/late game I found myself getting mana flooded and not drawing into enough threats to keep any kind of pressure on my opponent. Here is the breakdown of my matches...
Round 1. I went 1-2 against Jeskai superfriends. In my first match my opening hand was OK, with a few removal spells, but literally (and I am NOT joking about this) my next 8 draws for turn were all land. By the time I got anything on the board, I was staring down a Nahiri, the Harbinger a flipped Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
Flip and a Chandra, Flamecaller OUCH! Game 2 was better as I was able to surprise him with a turn 4 Olivia, Mobilized for War followed by a turn 5 Thunderbreak Regent which became a 5/5 hasty due to a discarded Fiery Temper. Swung in for 8 and Temper'ed 3 to the face. He pinged himself for 1 with a pain land, took out Olivia, and next turn I got Dragonlord Kolaghan out and it was on to game 3, which I lost.
Round 2 I went 1-2 against Orzhov tokens. This time I was able to get good starting hands, but about half of this guy's deck (which I found out after the round was over) consisted of straight targeted removal. Turn 3 Olivia got killed, followed by a turn 4 Drana, Liberator of Malakir who also died. I won this one because he cast an Ob Nixilis Reignited and kept on using the +1. Westvale Abbey
Flip came down, and he used the pay 1 life to create a token, which I would Draconic Roar and show a dragon for him to take 3. After several turns this way his life was at 3 and I dropped a Thunderbreak. The next 2 games were basically him playing end of my turn Secure the Wastes into a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar.
Round 3 I went 1-2 against Jeskai Tutelage. I found myself staring at a turn 2 Thing in the Ice
Flip followed by another one turn 3. A few Tormenting Voices later, both Things transformed and you get the idea...Game 2 was close because he dropped 2 Sphinx's Tutelages and it became a race to damage him before he milled me. I won game 2, but the same thing happened game 3 and I lost due to no library.
Round 4 I went 3-0 against nobody, because my opponent dropped and I got a bye...seems like the only winning move is not to play! (For those who understand the War Games reference, kudos to you!)
Here are some things that I have noticed...
Olivia and Drana are both removal magnets.
On the rare occasion that I get Lilliana out, she doesn't seem to be able to make an impact.
Turns 4 and up are great because of the dragons, but all too often I end up with an early game Avaricious Dragon that I don't want to cast because it will wreck my hand.
I find that casting Olivia on curve is bad. Unless I can follow her up with a turn 4 Drana, Liberator of Malakir or Lilliana, Heretical Healer and pitch a Fiery Temper, she either just sits there as a blocker or gets removed, which brings me to...
The lack of a early drop in this deck kinda hurts. I had in my mind that a 3/3 for 3 is good on its own followed by a 4/4 for 4 would be hard to deal with, but so far everyone seems to have answers. In following with the flying theme and discard structure, I have decided to make a couple of changes...
I am thinking about -1 Avaricious Dragon, -1 Dragonlord Kolaghan and -1 Land for +3 Heir of Falkenrath
Flip. The Heir will be my early 2 drop, provides a discard outlet for madness, and can transform into a creature with flying. I feel that this will help put pressure on the board a turn earlier, and will sneak in some early damage or draw removal to it instead of an Olivia/Drana/Lilliana.
