What if There's a Deck With No Bad Match Up?

Modern DodgeNDive

SCORE: 130 | 139 COMMENTS | 25181 VIEWS | IN 51 FOLDERS

FNM 14th March 2014 —March 19, 2014

3 Wins and 1 Loss! Great night as always :D

• Round 1: White Weenie enchant (2W:0L)

Game 1, I had an amazing hand AND I was on the play, Turn 1 Shock Overgrown Tomb + Thoughtseize getting rid of his only two drop, followed by a shocked Godless Shrine + Fleecemane Lion, curving into a Forest+Unflinching Courage turn three. He played Fabled Hero (which I expected from the thoughtseize), my next turn i thoughtseize taking his god's willing and decayed his hero. He scooped.

Game 2, I had more removals in hand than he does creatures in hand. He boarded in Celestial Flares, they were no help for a board state with 2 Voices...

• Round 2: MBD (2W:1L)

Game 1, He pack ratted me to death, I could only draw so much removals, and he kept discarding to get and keep his rats as 3/3 (damn Mutavault). He didn't sideboard for game 2 since he didn't see that much of my deck.

Game 2, Fiendslayer, Voice, and Selesnya Charm were the only cards I saw in my hand and in my draws apart from the lands and one Unflinching Courage, it was so good. Ate his devour flesh with Voices and a Selesnya Charm token to keep my Fiendslayer. Exiled a mean Desecration Demon too. He tapped out for Gary, I made a Selesnya Charm token at the end of his turn giving me a 2/2, two 4/4 elemental tokens, and a 4/4 Fiendslayer. He scooped.

Game 3, He thoughtseized and saw Godless Shrine, Temple Garden, two Witchstalker, Fiendslayer, Unflinching Courage, and Selesnya Charm. He got rid of Fiendslayer due to my double white in hand. My first turn, I topdecked Golgari Guildgate, played it and he frowned. I drew a Voice, played it turn two and he really didn't like it.

• Round 3 Esper Control (2W:1L) same guy as the previous week.

I pre-boarded for his deck, which was naughty really... and risky, since he could have played some other non-control deck.

Game 1, he had the play, but I literally played Thoughtseize take Jace, Thoughtseize take Dissolve, Sin Collector take Verdict, Lifebane take Blood Baron... I was down to 12 life from all of the shocking and seizing, he top-decked a Sphinx's Rev which he desperately used for 2, he drew into counter spells and so I won game 1.

Game 2, he basically had what he had last week... Verdict, Verdict, Verdict... all at like 2 turns intervals, i ran out of steam and died to Elspeth.

Game 3, I was stuck on two lands for a few turns but I was still able to churn out Fleecemanes, Voices, and Skylashers. When I drew into my third land on turn 5, I decided not to play it and wait for his Verdict. Sure enough he Verdict right after. Played my land and threw my Witchstalker out while he only has 1 mana open. Loxodons came out, he played an aetherling on defensive. Detention Sphered 2 of my Loxodons and started to race with his Aetherling. A turn before he killed me, I Abrupt Decayed his Sphere at his end of turn, brought back my two Loxodons and killed him.

• Round 4 Bant Control/Superfriends (0W:2L)

Game 1, I've not played against this deck before, it had elements of U/W azorius control with splashed green for Kiora. Detention Sphered 2 Voices, Bounced my Loxodon with Azorius Charm, blocked my witchstalker all day long with Courser of Kruphix and ulted his Kiora after a Verdict. I died haha.

I wasn't sure what to sideboard, so I went for the usual Mistcutter, Sin Collector, but instead of Skylashers, I went 2 Lifebanes instead because they can get through Coursers.

Game 2, I was intrigued to say the least... I saw Elspeth, Kiora, Brimaz, Archangel of Thune, and even Spear of Heliod (Yes, Elspeth and Archangel were out at the same time at one point), he went more creature/walker heavy. The only spells I saw was Sphinx's Rev and Detention Sphere. My Sin Collector and Mistcutters were of course, bad calls. Brimaz and Spear came out turn 3 and 4, he then kept mana open for the spear until he reached Archangel followed by Elspeth. Next time around I'd have 4 Lifebanes and 2 Skylashers main instead since the lashers can kill a non-speared Thune with a Selesnya Charm, while a Selesnya Charm alone can kill a speared Thune. If he decided to keep the control variant, at least the lifebanes would still let me peek at his hand, and can snatch a courser or just swing past a courser.

I asked his record for the night, he had lost a round against an Esper deck (0W:2L) and another to R/x monsters (1W:2L). The Esper loss i can understand, but the R/x was surprising to me - he said turn 2 Domri, turn 3 Xenagos both times - that's understandable really.

All in all, the deck performed fluently this night. Some really nice draws and beautiful hands too, so I won't deny that luck probably played its part tonight. As for the last deck I played against, I do think I have answers for his pre and post sideboard. I just need to learn about how to best play against it :)