This deck destroyed virtually everything it came across without hesitation. RDW has proved to be an interesting match up, simply because of Nyx and devotion that it can get out VERY quickly, as i'll show below.
Game 1- 2-0 vs Dimir mill deck.
Game 1- Turn 3 Witchstalker that was pumped up with ethereal armor, gift, and courage. had caryatids out, so Far / Away couldn't screw me, and just built up creature base so he couldn't stop me. He was using Consuming Aberration and Precincts. Even with Consuming at a 17+, witch had done too much before his aberration could do anything.
Game 2- Sidebarred in the other 2 witchstalkers and rest in peace, as his creatures used graveyards. Peaces were useless, as they were milled. Witchstalker and Baron won this one, with his pro black doing what it needed to as my removal took care of the monoblue blockers.
Notes- Hexproof is disgusting when combined with the removal of black and the buffing of white. not quite bant hexproof level deck, but I think that has its own weaknesses. So far, deck proving fast and well handled.
Game 2- 2-0 vs B/W Human
Game 1- Turn 2 lion, followed by turn 3 witchstalker, followed by turn 4 ethereal/gifts witchstalker, turn 5 had lion monstrous as he drew no direct removal(he had 2 high priests out, but I wasn't attacking on the ground, and not blocking him), he was thinking of scooping when I showed him my hand of another gift/ethereal combo for the lion, which was now completely indestructible to his deck, and he scooped.
Game 2- Side barred in Erebos, as his deck revolves around lifegain, and the 2 witchstalkers again. At this point, I'm wondering if they need to just be a 4 of in the mainboard. This game was dead to rights from the start. 2 lions, 2 downfalls, and perfect land drop. Turn 1 drew into erebus, and knew I just shut down his deck. game was over quickly as I just removed his creatures and let the lions do their business eating everything else. Obzedat sealed it for him turn 6.
Notes- His deck never really presented a threat to me. I know he runs Barons, which can be a pain in the ass to deal with, but his deck never was able to get any steam against my early drops with the spot removal and hexproof on my side.
Game 3- 2-0 vs Simic
Game 1- Started off with no creatures, 3 lands, 3 ethereal armors, and a putrefy. Land options at least allowed me to use it turn 3 if needed, so I kept it hoping to draw into a creature. Turn 1 had me draw into fabled, so i knew if I could get him turn 4 with another land, I would more than likely be sitting pretty. Once I knew the deck structure was an evolve deck, I threw down fabled turn 3. Turn 4 had me draw into gifts, and the game basically became mine. Armored and gifted, fabled became a 7/7 doublestrike, now gaining me 14 life a turn as he had no flying and nothing buffed as he had just dropped master. His evolve deck wasn't evolving at the pace it needed to, but he did put down a 0/1 flyer that was buffed by master. too little, too late sadly. Turn 5 had me win as I drew into courage, and sealed the deal. Couraged and armored again, for a total of 2 armor, gifts, and courage. 17/17 flying, doublestrike, trample, lifelink.
Game 2- didn't sidebar, as the control level I had was good against him. Turn 2 and turn 3 lions were killing him before his evolves could do anything. He was getting more creatures this go, but he wasn't able to get much in the way of evolves off. Turn 5 had me go monstrous on 1 of them, turn 6 the other, and then it was just buffing from there. Removal took care of Kraisis and masters, and he couldn't pick up the steam he needed. after trample got on one of the lions, he scooped.
Notes- Was surprised to learn afterwards he didn't use counters in the deck, which was probably more of an issue for his deck than something mine didn't deal with. All around good showing from the lions again. definitely performing better than the phalanx leader.
Game 4- 0-2 vs RDWs
Game 1- This one just pissed me off, cause there was nothing I could do. Drew 7 with 0 land. Drew 6 with 0 land. Drew 5 with 4 land that didn't match heros downfall I had, so couldn't even plan on its use. Fast agro from him with cacklers, into zealots, into phoenixs, and I was too far behind with nothing to even establish myself on that it was over and I scooped turn 5. Hate being land screwed that hard when you have 38% land, and can't pull one out of 15 draws, and when you do get land, it doesn't match what you've mulliganed down to.
Game 2- Side barred in fiendslayers and stalkers. Needed the pro red removal spells, and i'd trade off against zealots as needed with the slayers. Agents and thunes were too slow here, so they went along with thoughtseizes(this was a mistake on my part, as we'll see, and should have replaced my putrefies). The luck of this guy was crazy. I had a decent hand with 2 fiendslayers, a fabled, and a witchstalker, but his nut draw with the perfect hand was the game winner. Turn 1, mountain and cackler. Turn 2 ash zealot and mountain, swung for 4. Turn 3, nyx with 3 devotion put reckoner out, didn't swing as I now had witchstalker out. Turn 4, 2 mountains go into burning tree, burning tree, burning tree, which gives 2 for nyx, activating 12 devotion into 2 fanatic, dealing 13 damage from the first, 14 damage from the 2nd, swinging in with boros, zealot, and cackler for a total after blocking of another 5, and 27 damage for the turn. Have to admit, I didn't see it coming.
Notes- So....fanatics. to me, worse off than stormbreath in a RDW deck, esp with Nyx. Having the nut draw though was a ridiculously low odds draw. While I didn't think that there was anything else to trade off for 2 life in an agro deck that I couldn't deal with, the ETB effect on fanatics will definitely have me keep them in next go. The worst part to me is we played some friendlies afterward, since we had finished so early, and I beat him the next 4 games straight pretty handily. So i'm not sure what I really could have done that differently outside of the thoughtseize issue.
Finished 3-1 in 2nd for the night on regular play. I didn't face RDW again, but I played the B/W human again as he was doing well against everyone else(round 2 against me for him went just as badly as the first set), and a boros human aggro that I won't even write on cause he got land screwed both games against me mulling down to 5 both game, and I walked over him with removal (agent sacks once he could get going in both games quickly turned the tide my way). Top spot went to me after a 2-1 game against USA control, and the only reason I lost the one game was due to Legion and him having 2 dissolves against my 2 golgari charms the same turn...just sucked on my luck. after that, we just played back and forth until he had 16 of the damn tokens and overran the little lifelink I had at that time. I took the final game with a golgari charm protecting against verdict with a boon satyr'd baron swinging for 8 turn 7. he had charms in his hand, but they couldn't stop baron, and I took home the bacon.
Overall, i'm very happy. Will be taking this to states next week. Any thoughts or advice, please let me know. thx!
