Modern UW Control
Modern*
SCORE: 30 | 29 COMMENTS | 6081 VIEWS | IN 20 FOLDERS
FNM #1 11/15/13 —Nov. 16, 2013
Ok so this is pretty ridiculous to report that this deck has now gone #1 2 weeks in a row. It's just so resilient, strong early game, strong mid game, my final match against mono red I was down to 3 life and Archangel of Thune completely swung the board in my favor and I won that, too.
So here's how it went:
Round1 vs Izzet burn/counter: His deck was focused on counter, burn removal, and complimented by Hypersonic Dragon , Spellheart Chimera and Nivix Cyclops. Game 1 he removed a good bit of my early board, made a pretty massive Spellheart Chimera, swung with it, and I responded with a Celestial Flare, he didn't draw a creature again and I overwhelmed the board against him fairly quickly. Game 2 he got out a Hypersonic Dragon tapping all his mana to do so, I was thinkin in my head "Swing!! Swinggggg!!!" because this time he was going to play a bit smarter and only swing when he had counter mana?? Nope, he swung, once again Celestial Flare saves the day and his flying is cleared, and again I win soon after. 2-0
Round2 vs Azorius Control: My worst matchup, I thought for sure I was a goner, my sideboard is pretty weak for control. Game 1 I was stuck w the useless Celestial Flare in hand but I managed to play a creature almost every turn, Soldier of the Pantheon put in early work, Precinct Captain managed to spawn 3 tokens before a Supreme Verdict cleared me, I had another Precinct Captain in hand and he and his soldier tokens won me game 1 soon after. Game 2 went even more quickly in my favor, I had him down to 7 life fairly quickly, this time in a last ditch effort he Quicken then Supreme Verdict during my attack phase, wiping me again, but next out was Archangel of Thune after my combat and his mana was wiped, couldn't counter. When I swung with her he tried to Azorius Charm but Gods Willing protected my angel, next turn he was dead as he had no more answers. 2-0
Round3 vs Selesnya aggro: This was my toughest match of the night. The guy shuffled the heck out of my deck for the cut and I swear gave me poor hands all 3 games. Game 1 he got out Fleecemane Lion turn 2, Loxodon Smiter turn 3, I drew 0 Soldier of the Pantheon, he won fairly quickly. Game 2 I get to go first, turn 2 Precinct Captain I let his turn 2 Fleecemane Lion get by on its swing, turn 3 Boros Reckoner slows him down and he stops swinging, Perfect for me because I know my mid-game is going to pull it through for me, sure enough turn 6 I had an Archangel of Thune out, and the turn 4 Ajani, Caller of the Pride gave the turn 5 Gideon, Champion of Justice flying and double strike on turn 7 where I won with both flyers. Game 3 went to draw because this guy was taking easily 5 minutes per turn of his, flipping his cards around in his hand constantly, it doesn't bother me but I don't get why people do that, you know what you have in hand, stop flipping them. I dunno, I always keep my hand in order of cmc and spell vs creature, and I always am plotting my options without even having to look at my hand. Plus he was making me a little nervous because he was shaking, both his arms, he wanted sooo badly not to screw up, and pushed us into out of time turns because he couldn't make decisions ughhh /rant off. He ended up with 2 Voice of Resurgence out he used as blockers, spawned a couple tokens, used mutavaults to buff the tokens to swing on me, I stabilized my board with 2 Fiendslayer Paladin 1 Boros Reckoner 2 Precinct Captain and 1 soldier token. We stale-mated for about another 10 turns with no swings, I was waiting to topdeck one of several cards that would have won me the game , Brave the Elements would have allowed me to swing for the win in one shot, Ajani, Caller of the Pride could have got my flying double strike on, Elspeth, Sun's Champion would have flooded the board, eliminated his 4/4+ voice tokens and Loxodon Smiters, and even Gideon, Champion of Justice would have let me start to swing for huge indestructible each turn and I had a Gods Willing to protect him from Selesnya Charm. Long story short, I didn't draw any of these cards and we went to turns, and at the end of turn 5 neither of us had died, match finishes in draw 1-1-1.
Round4 vs Azorius Heroics: Game 1 I go first, get board in my favor fairly quickly, easily survive the shenanigans with Boros Reckoner discouraging her from attacking me, I had 2 Brave the Elements in hand and had her to 16 from 2 early swings of Soldier of the Pantheon. Once I was able to swing for 8+, I did so 2 turns in a row for unblockable with the pro from Brave the Elements, and won. Game 2 she got out a Fabled Hero with Ethereal Armor and Aqueous Form as well as bestowed a Hopeful Eidolon on him, 2 swings and I was dead fast as heck, I drew no Celestial Flare to answer it. Game 3 she gets out a similar situation but this time not till after I get out Spear of Heliod. I let her 4/4 Fabled Hero swing past my defenses and kill it with the spear. I knew I had won at this point, I had her down to 1 card in hand and the board stabilized in my favor while I still had 17 life left, I play heroics, (Heroic Soldiers Shenanigans #1FNM) I know if you survive the initial rush, pretty much any decent mid-range game will pull out the win. And so mine did, I got a turn 6 Archangel of Thune, attacked once with her by herself to +counters all my other creatures, and on the following turn finished her off with a Brave the Elements swing out. 2-1
Round5 vs Monored with a splash of green for Domri Rade: My Nemesis! I play this guy in one of my final 2 games seemingly every week. He ended up finishing #2 tonight behind me. Game 1 I got out on top of him quick, swinging my Soldier of the Pantheon past his Frostburn Weird repeatedly down to 14 life, Boros Reckoner then hit the board for me, then Ajani, Caller of the Pride and a couple turns later I swung for doublestrike flying to win. Game 2 he overwhelmed me a bit early with Ash Zealot on turns 2 and 3, and all I had to block with was Soldier of the Pantheon which I wasn't about to give up, knowing all the multi he plays. Turn 4 I topdecked a Boros Reckoner and played him to discourage further attacks for several turns. He and I both trade summons for several turns, then he plays a Fanatic of Mogis to hit me for 9, and swings out to bring me to 3. I still had Fiendslayer Paladin in hand to play and topdecked a 2nd one, played both the following turn with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, knowing all he needed was a Lightning Strike or another Fanatic of Mogis to finish me. Then it happened, my next turn I drew Archangel of Thune and he was pissed! The following turn I swing with just the angel, giving all my creatures tokens, and he scoops before I can even finish him the following turn. 2-0
I mainboarded the 3 Celestial Flare tonight because of how much aggro is currently being run in my FNM, it seems like just a month ago half a dozen people were playing Esper control. The only time I sideboarded was to bring in 3 Judge's Familiar for the flares against the azorius control matchup in round 2.
I won 5 packs of Theros again, and I pulled total crap in all 5, but what I did win was a promo foil Grisly Salvage The kid that won 3rd place pulled a foil Stormbreath Dragon I was jelly and told the shop keeper he gave me the wrong packs. I congratulated the guy tho, it was a nice pull. Then the guys who finished #2 and #4 played each other for an unopen pack, which one of their friends decided to open for them in the middle of their game and it had a dang Hero's Downfall in it, making one of the guys pretty nervous and the other ended up winning, that was kinda neat.
All in all a good night, I got a couple good trades in and bought a mint Elspeth, Sun's Champion off this guy who was desperate for money for $15, score! This makes 2 #1 wins in a row with this deck, and between this and my Heroic Soldiers Shenanigans #1FNM I've finished #1 three times in the last four weeks, crazy! I usually play a deck that goes #1 until someone beats me, but I'm going to back burner this deck next week to try something else. I'm not sure which deck yet but it'll be one of the ones I have on my profile, and when I do play it, I will give a rundown of how it did.
TLDR: Final record 4-0-1, Final rank #1