FNM 02/21/2014

BigBearinIt, 11 years ago

The night was a bust in general, but not because of the deck. Sadly, it's because I kept making some dumb moves here and there. The deck itself felt much more stable, with only a few cards really making me wish I didn't have them in my mainboard. I'll be working on that however.

Round 1: Played against a guy who built a fairly impressive aggro deck (can't remember the colors) out of an M14 Deckbuilder Kit and a few boosters from Theros. We ended up in a draw for the round overall, as the second match went fairly long and our third had time called on it after turn 1 (so we only have 5 turns to use after that).

Round 2: Played against a Selesnya aggro deck. He had the cards, but his draws were not with him. In the second match, he literally pulled five plains back to back. Afterwards, I found out that he only had 2 Temple Garden and 4 Selesnya Guildgate for dual lands, which is part of what caused him problems. Really felt bad about winning the second match on that, as it's never the way you really WANT to win (unless there is big money up for grabs, of course).

Round 3: Played against the Boros/Red deck from last week. I was hoping for something of a comeback on this one, some revenge, something. Unfortunately, he fine-tuned that deck to our local meta and slaughtered me appropriately. To my defense, my second match saw me mull to five with a junk hand.

Round 4: Played against a green/red aggro deck. It wasn't quite the typical Gruul deck, but it was fairly close. These were some tight rounds where we were taking some time on turns to really think about our attacks and moves. Unfortunately, I couldn't best him out of the three matches.

Overall, though, the deck is in a much better place than last week. I had Mortal's Resolve in the mainboard, and it did well for the times I remembered to use the damn thing. However, it felt like there were cards I would rather have when they were in my hand. I even sat there thinking about how much I've like to throw Temple of Silence into the mix and play out some Boros Charm for the indestructible. I've taken those out and replaced them with 2x Thoughtseize and 2x Dreadbore. I found that Dreadbore offers me that extra bit of removal that I needed. Yes, it's a highly telegraphed removal, but I don't care as long as it is getting the right shit off the board. I've also taken out my 2x Polukranos, World Eater, as I always found more value in playing Flame-Wreathed Phoenix instead. It just worked so much better overall. In turn, I've replaced my 2x Polukranos, World Eater and 1x Rakdos Shred-Freak with 3x Dreg Mangler. It's a faster card, lets me get Scavenge onto one of my flyers if someone puts him in the graveyard, and he's overall just more aggressive...which is something my deck needs desperately.

I've also added in 2x Mizzium Mortars...which I FINALLY got...as I needed solid easy-to-cast responses to Blood Baron of Vizkopa and Stormbreath Dragon. It has worked MIRACLES!

In turn, I've (sadly) dropped out my 1x Skaarg Guildmage and 1x Hero's Downfall for those 2x Mizzium, but the payoff has been great.

Right now, it seems my honest debate is...as odd as it is to say...run Abrupt Decay on the sideboard. In all honesty, the only four cards that I can think of consistently to use it on are Boros Reckoner, Nightveil Specter, Detention Sphere, and Domri Rade. Beyond that, there just aren't a whole lot of things to use it on that are worthwhile, and I've found myself wishing more and more that I had a Dreadbore or a Putrefy instead. I think it would be worth it to run it in the side and then put at least two more Putrefy in the mainboard.

The only other thing is debating whether to continue running Rakdos Shred-Freak for the extra burn on Fanatic of Mogis hitting the board or instead switch out to Spike Jester, which is just as fast and allows me to swing for 3 rather than 2. Either way, I'm looking at one point of damage, but I could be looking at 1 point of consistent damage that would potentially kill a blocker as well as a stronger blocker with him.

FNM (2.21.14)

BearTornado, 11 years ago

So 1 took this to FNM this week, ended up going 3-2. Losses were to Mono-Green Devotion and UB Gary Clones.

I'm concerned about the lack of lifegain in here, but I also only really found it to be a problem when dealing with burn spells.

Highlight of the night was casting both sides of Flesh / Blood, putting four +1/+1 counters from my opponent's dead Stormbreath Dragon onto my already Monstrous Polukranos, World Eater for 20 damage after attacking.

Really interested in running Deathrite Shaman, if there's anyone looking to trade for 'em, feel free to shoot a message my way.

Changes:

-1 Ghor-Clan Rampager

+1 Flesh / Blood

thingwatcher, 11 years ago

Play test part 2/ list change

duck121, 11 years ago

Still play testing and trying out new things.

I dropped Nightmare and Death Denied for Pathrazer of Ulamog and Dread Return. I looked through my binder again and found my promo Ulamog and thought to myself, "why not?". I could't think of a good reason not to play it.

Results of Legacy MLL#6 @ Milano (MI) Italy

Mangusto, 11 years ago

1-1-1 Record FNM

sk00kes, 11 years ago

Beat Azorius Control, which was nice. New sideboard plan works well. When you hit alot on Garruk it's pretty hard for control to keep up. i think the matchup against Black devotion decks and control is relatively strong, and Garruk and Nylea are key to the matchup. That and using your mana as efficiently as possible.

Second match went to a draw with a Selesnya Hexproof brew. Glass cannon style using the newer enchantments, but alot slower than the old BANT version. It's an interesting matchup, the deck has plenty of answers, but Voltron up a Gladecover Scout early enough and backing it up with Selesnya Charm it puts this deck on a clock. The first game i lost he suited up a bestow creature, and i simply couldn't dig and find a Cyclonic RiftGC in time otherwise it would have been a blow out the other way.

Third matchup was against BW Devotion. The first game he blew me apart thanks to Gruul the deck is apparently now running Lifebane Zombie in the main. Second game we traded evenly then i wound up sticking a Garruk and it was slowly downhill for my opponent. Last match i mulliganed to a 5 land hand which was full of bounce and a Sylcan Caryatid. He cast Thoughtseize pulling the mana dork, and i spent the next 10 turns or so surviving on 2 and 3 lands. By the time i drew my fourth it was pretty much over, but i hung on a few more turns for shiggles.

i think i may want to fit another Kiora, the Crashing Wave into this deck, but i'm not too sure about it...

Fog Bank

thecutout, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

New Engine

justnthrguy, 11 years ago

While reading some comments on the Gatherer I came across a comment about Mesmeric Orb describing its wonderful interaction with Basalt Monolith. I have made the swap and will be trying it out. I'm also looking hard at Grindclock and Keening Stone instead of trying to rely on Morality Shift so hard.

You may notice that the cuts from last week included some mass-reanimation spells. I have tried to replace them with effects that will be less symmetrical since we should have a ton of mana when we go off anyway. I'm eyeing Rise of the Dark Realms but 9 mana is a lot for this deck. At that point we're no better off than recasting and activating Balthor the Defiled.

Changes:
-Endless Ranks of the Dead
-Read the Bones

+Basalt Monolith
+Beseech the Queen

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

VinnieVici, 11 years ago

samwisesunbear, 11 years ago

Cashing Out

tehswede77, 11 years ago

Out:

1 Celestial Colonnade

In:

1 Temple of Silence

Notes:

Decided to get rid of my playset of Celestial Colonnade since prices went so high due to GP Valencia. I had a Temple of Silence without a home so in it went.

FNM Results 2-21-2014 and Comment Cleanup

Garboza, 11 years ago

Did really well in FNM last night, winning 4 packs and placing 3rd overall out of something like 50 people. I had a lot of fun and managed to pull off a couple of wins against some really good people, which made me really happy. What shut me down didn't seem to be any deck in particular, but getting mana screwed one way or another. Happens to the best of us, I suppose, haha. Anyway, on to the matches:

Match 1: R/W aggro -- 2/0 Victory: Basically just a boros aggro deck piloted by a guy's bored and frustrated girlfriend. While the deck itself wasn't terrible she misplayed quite a few times and could've made the games closer had she known what she was doing. I could tell she didn't want to be there at all, so I didn't bother siding in game 2 and just put things with flying on the board until I hit Thassa, God of the Sea and started swinging hard. Don't really feel good about this match since she was obviously not having any fun there at all.

Match 2: Esper Heroic -- 2/0 Victory: This guy was fairly new to magic and threw the deck together out of booster packs a couple of days before FNM. He took the loss well and I gave him some tips on cards to pick up if he wanted to keep running a deck similar to the one he was running now. Nothing really noteworthy happened and I didn't see anything other than what he played, which wasn't much. At least this guy enjoyed himself.

Match 3: Selesnya Aggro -- 2/0 Victory: Now this guy is actually pretty good at the game. He and I were friends so we looked through each other's decks before FNM. He was being sponsored (card-wise) by a well-off guy so seeing a foil Voice of Resurgence in his deck was pretty nifty. Anyway, the games weren't really anything special. I was able to stick Thassa early in game one and after she got turned on he didn't really have an answer for the unblockables. Game 2 was a bit closer, with him almost gaining board advantage by bestowing a Boon Satyr in combat, but I Rapid Hybridizationed the creature he bestowed to and swung for lethal next turn. If he had seen the Mistcutter Hydra he had sided in then I would've been in a lot more trouble, but fortunately for me that didn't happen.

Match 4: Orzhov Midrange -- 1/2 Loss: First loss of the night, lost to the guy who wound up taking first overall. His deck was powerful, and while we both got mana-screwed games one and two, in game three I got stalled on two mana on turn three and on his turn three he played Nightveil, and couldn't answer his Nightveil Specter with one of my own, so he wound up taking even more lands from me until I was finally able to draw an island and stabilize. Unfortunately he got a Blood Baron of Vizkopa out and was able to pummel me down to exactly six life, and popped a Gray Merchant of Asphodel on me for 8 damage to win. I'm sure I could've come out on top had I not missed my turn 3 land drop but oh well, it happens.

Match 5: R/W Aggro -- 2/0 Victory: This was the only time I flat out pummeled someone, and this guy was supposedly undefeated. Essentially he got stalled early on and using Jace, Architect of Thought to stop him in his tracks as well as Nightveil Specter to counter his Chandra's Phoenix he started to run out of gas really quickly against my deck. He was even running Assemble the Legion for some reason but Jace made those tokens useless. We both wound up getting large board presences but mine was unblockable whereas his was not, and he wasn't fast enough to knock me over before turn 5 which he pretty much had to do. The only thing he could've done was side in more burn to keep my field clean but I only saw one Warleader's Helix the entire match, so I'm not too sure what he had going on.

Match 6: G/R Monsters -- 1/2 Loss: The first game I managed to pop off his big creatures and rush him down before he could really build up a presence. Games two and three he managed to just Gruul me, really. I couldn't draw removal and wound up getting mana screwed game two as well. Big creatures came out and without removal spells to Hybridize or Rift them it was really my creatures against his, and in that scenario Mono-Blue will lose every single time. I could've sided in Domestication as well, but ultimately I probably would've lost either way. It was a good game though, and the guy was an excellent player. Ain't even mad.

Anyway, all in all I think I did pretty well. I'm happy with my results and placing 3rd in a tournament this big is huge for me, especially after tying for first at the previous FNM with this deck (week of the 14th). I'm having a lot of fun with this deck and this game, so expect more updates with this deck over the coming weeks!

bebop63089, 11 years ago

Moved Emrakul over to the side.

reconaissance, 11 years ago

Banefire was just more reliable and ensured a kill the turn i played it. It also isn't dead when i draw it. I may consider adding another to the main. Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is moved over to the side against Leyline of Sanctity. I don't see anybody running that in the main.

Echoing Truth so i'm not dead to Gaddock Teeg, etc.

spear of heliod and deputy of aquitals

paperboy, 11 years ago

Swapping Schtuff

MinoTrib3, 11 years ago

BNG

Elvish_Preshley, 11 years ago