Grixis Control (M13)
Standard*
SCORE: 1 | 4 COMMENTS | 876 VIEWS
FNM, 20 July 2012 —July 23, 2012
Had a cautiously encouraging outing at Curio Cavern in Springfield, VA on Friday, though the stats would not suggest it. Quick note, the list at this time had 2 Talrand, Sky Summoner and was short a Gilded Lotus and Batterskull.
ROUND 1 - W/R Tokens Deck was packing Krenko's Command, Midnight Haunting, Lingering Souls, Fervor, Intangible Virtue, Hellrider, Hero of Bladehold. Pretty brutal when it got going, and used Slayer's Stronghold to turn even a singleton token into something that demanded a response. Fortunately, you don't have to dump a lot of mana into a hardcast Bonfire to clear that board, and once Nicol Bolas hit that table, the game was over. Only happened in Game 2, though, and he took the other two.
0-1
ROUND 2 - Mono Green Rancor Probably typical for this archetype, it was mana dorks, Dungrove, Predator Ooze, Strangleroot Geist, and Rancor. Oh, and Revenge of the Hunted. It's important to remember that because he miracled it on consecutive turns in Game 3 and won not long after. I couldn't be too salty because after all, I'm the jerk with a playset of Bonfires. And I'm pretty sure I would have beaten him without those miracles, my sacrifice-a-creature sideboard did a lot of good work here, as did Fettergeist.
0-2
ROUND 3 - Mono Black Aggro...I guess? The deck was a brew, mainly using Vampire Nighthawk, Shimian Specter, and Lashwrithe to do all the work. I did get swamped (HA!) in game 2, but in the other games I drew enough removal to keep his equipment without hands to hold them. Once he was in topdeck mode, the result was inevitable, if not painfully long in coming. Ah well, that's what happens when you play control.
1-2
ROUND 4 - G/W Angels Resto, Gisela, Entreat along with Oblivion Rings and a few other support creatures like Silverblade Paladin. He probably had a Gavony Township or two in there, although if he did I never saw them. Like every other game that night, this went 3 rounds, but this one actually went to turns. By the end, he was smashing away at me with a pair of angels, but on Turn 4 I hit Barter In Blood and wiped the board. The game state being thus stabilized, certainly neither of us felt the other had earned a win and agreed on the draw, dooming us both to finish outside "the money".
1-2-1
ROUND 5 - U/W Venser My opponent this round was Jon G, whom I've played against several times over the past few months and who always packs some variant of U/W Venser (not that I'm being critical, my own deck choices are no less predictable). Still, these games are inevitably drawn-out kitchen-table chess matches, which I especially enjoy when I know no matter the outcome I won't be winning anything. Game 1 he crushed me with Angels and such, and Game 2 I ran out of 6-sided dice keeping track of my Bolas and Karn loyalty. Game 3 started with about 5 minutes left in the round, and he got a very fast start. I killed his early threats, but I had almost no draw action and by the time I did, his Venser was racing towards ultimate. I finally hit and flashed back several Desperate Ravings in a frantic attempt to get a damage spell, but couldn't get there. He got a Venser emblem just as we went to turns, and set about wrecking my lands. He did not draw a threat, but as my hopeless turn 5 drew to a close, I extended my hand and offered the concession because neither of us had really tanked very much, there was absolutely no possible way he could have failed to beat me, and also I find his overall demeanor, banter, and sportsmanship to be something worth emulating. It didn't mean much since there were no prizes on the line, but still, first time I've ever done that. I do not intend to make a habit of it, either!
1-3-1
AFTER ACTION REPORT I forgot to mention how Talrand did in all this. Mainly, he attracted removal. In one case, he personally carried a Batterskull to victory, but for most of the night he and his drake buddies didn't shine very much. I still like him, but I think I'll give him a rest just to test my own biases. Meanwhile, Gilded Lotus was just goddamn amazing the whole night, and few people had any good way to deal with Batterskull, who was operating out of the sideboard. So the Talrands come out, second lotus and Batterskull come in. I'll try to take them for a spin on Tuesday and see how they do.
On the playing end of things, I think I did pretty well. I particularly shone against the Mono-Green player, carefully timing a Geth's Verdict around a Strangleroot Geist's undying trigger to get rid of his Dungrove. And I was looking in really good shape until Double Miracle happened. I missed a few Pristine Talisman taps here and there, and missed a few midgame land drops because I was tanking too hard, but on the whole I think I'm playing better than previous weeks. The Star City Open comes to Washington in a few weeks, hopefully both the deck and I can improve by then.