FNM
Thought I might be hanging out with friends last night, but that ended up coming to naught, so I went to Friday Night Magic at Armored Gopher.
Before the event started, I wasn't having any success finding anyone who looked like they wanted to trade with me, so I looked through the commons and uncommons. There were a few on my list that I think I'd check for before without success that were actually there. 3 of the missing allies, but no Graypelt Hunters. No Nihil Spellbombs, that I actually wanted to run last night.
I played my werewolf deck in Standard. Match 1, I played Ryan P (I scrawled his last name but I can't read my own writing). He was running a Burning Vengeance deck, but game 1 he never drew a Burning Vengeance at all, and even game 2, I mashed him flat before he got it going very far. Match 2, I played Miles, who was running Tempered Steel. Game 1, he messed around with Inkmoth Nexuses that I hit with artifact hate, slowing his mana base down, and I got him to 1 life, but he held me off and rolled me over. Game 2, he drew better and it wasn't even close. Game 3, I played Felix who had a blue/white/black deck, a little more control-y than Tempered Steel. Game 1 I didn't get very much going, and he hard cast Elesh Norn. I can't answer that without 8 mana, which I didn't have. Game 2 I did a little better; I got a couple of werewolves out and Moonmisted, he Ratchet Bombed them; I got a couple more out and he played Day of Judgment, he got a bunch of tokens out and I played my own Ratchet Bomb, I got another werewolf or two and he boardwiped again and ground me down. He'd used Timely Reinforcements twice and had a Pristine Talisman. Finally, match 4, I'm 1-2 already and I meet Andy Forbes, the guy with the reanimator deck I knew I couldn't handle. Game 1, he reanimated a Wormcoil, I Ancient Grudged it and then flashed it back for the lifelink half, then he got another Unburial Rites and brought it back again, I Naturalized it but the pieces were too much. For game 2 I sided in my Grafdigger's Cage and the 2 I'm borrowing from Tyler. I kept a 1 lander with a Young Wolf, a cage, and a Dawntreader Elk. He didn't have any answer to the cage, so I lasted long enough to build up enough mana to get some wolves out. Game 3, I did draw a cage, but he had an ancient grudge. He hardcast a Sun Titan with the help of Birds of Paradise and took me down barely scratched. Door prize was a promo Mirran Crusader ($8).
Bought a couple of packs for the hell of it. M12 pack had a Grave Titan and 3 good uncommons. Found someone who likes my foil crud to start trading with, but he wanted to pull everything in my binder that he liked and I don't know what any of the foils are worth... and the after draft started before we could close anything; he stayed around for a while but my matches never left me any free time and he gave up at some point. I'm frustrated -- I could have gotten a bunch of cards I actually want for some foil junk. He's probably frustrated too. I'm going to try to spend a little time putting the foils into sleeves with prices on them so the next time I find someone who wants this stuff we can make a trade in less than half an hour.
After draft, I had Zendikar, Innistrad, and Dark Ascension. Nothing thrilling in the ZEN pack -- I think I took a Journey to Nowhere. Quickly found myself heavily in white, with a little red. I found a Clifftop Retreat in the ISD pack, which I took because I don't have any of them and it's a dual land. Red/white doesn't seem very popular right now. I opened pack 3 and found myself looking at Ravager of the Fells; I didn't even look at the rest of the pack. I had no green and didn't plan to try to play it, but it's currently a $30 card. Ended up with several more creatures than I needed, a moderate amount of removal, seemed like a decent deck. Beat up Mark H, in two fairly slow games -- he was playing blue and kept unsummoning my guys. After that my memory is fuzzy. Lost the second match, won the third one, somehow ended up with the worst tiebreaks of the three people who were 2-1, got one Zendikar pack. And then one of the other people begged to trade me two Dark Ascension packs for the Zendikar pack. Sure! I kept 1 so I still have 6 DKA in my after draft pool, opened the other and got another Mondronen Shaman and a foil Loyal Cathar.
Before the event started, I wasn't having any success finding anyone who looked like they wanted to trade with me, so I looked through the commons and uncommons. There were a few on my list that I think I'd check for before without success that were actually there. 3 of the missing allies, but no Graypelt Hunters. No Nihil Spellbombs, that I actually wanted to run last night.
I played my werewolf deck in Standard. Match 1, I played Ryan P (I scrawled his last name but I can't read my own writing). He was running a Burning Vengeance deck, but game 1 he never drew a Burning Vengeance at all, and even game 2, I mashed him flat before he got it going very far. Match 2, I played Miles, who was running Tempered Steel. Game 1, he messed around with Inkmoth Nexuses that I hit with artifact hate, slowing his mana base down, and I got him to 1 life, but he held me off and rolled me over. Game 2, he drew better and it wasn't even close. Game 3, I played Felix who had a blue/white/black deck, a little more control-y than Tempered Steel. Game 1 I didn't get very much going, and he hard cast Elesh Norn. I can't answer that without 8 mana, which I didn't have. Game 2 I did a little better; I got a couple of werewolves out and Moonmisted, he Ratchet Bombed them; I got a couple more out and he played Day of Judgment, he got a bunch of tokens out and I played my own Ratchet Bomb, I got another werewolf or two and he boardwiped again and ground me down. He'd used Timely Reinforcements twice and had a Pristine Talisman. Finally, match 4, I'm 1-2 already and I meet Andy Forbes, the guy with the reanimator deck I knew I couldn't handle. Game 1, he reanimated a Wormcoil, I Ancient Grudged it and then flashed it back for the lifelink half, then he got another Unburial Rites and brought it back again, I Naturalized it but the pieces were too much. For game 2 I sided in my Grafdigger's Cage and the 2 I'm borrowing from Tyler. I kept a 1 lander with a Young Wolf, a cage, and a Dawntreader Elk. He didn't have any answer to the cage, so I lasted long enough to build up enough mana to get some wolves out. Game 3, I did draw a cage, but he had an ancient grudge. He hardcast a Sun Titan with the help of Birds of Paradise and took me down barely scratched. Door prize was a promo Mirran Crusader ($8).
Bought a couple of packs for the hell of it. M12 pack had a Grave Titan and 3 good uncommons. Found someone who likes my foil crud to start trading with, but he wanted to pull everything in my binder that he liked and I don't know what any of the foils are worth... and the after draft started before we could close anything; he stayed around for a while but my matches never left me any free time and he gave up at some point. I'm frustrated -- I could have gotten a bunch of cards I actually want for some foil junk. He's probably frustrated too. I'm going to try to spend a little time putting the foils into sleeves with prices on them so the next time I find someone who wants this stuff we can make a trade in less than half an hour.
After draft, I had Zendikar, Innistrad, and Dark Ascension. Nothing thrilling in the ZEN pack -- I think I took a Journey to Nowhere. Quickly found myself heavily in white, with a little red. I found a Clifftop Retreat in the ISD pack, which I took because I don't have any of them and it's a dual land. Red/white doesn't seem very popular right now. I opened pack 3 and found myself looking at Ravager of the Fells; I didn't even look at the rest of the pack. I had no green and didn't plan to try to play it, but it's currently a $30 card. Ended up with several more creatures than I needed, a moderate amount of removal, seemed like a decent deck. Beat up Mark H, in two fairly slow games -- he was playing blue and kept unsummoning my guys. After that my memory is fuzzy. Lost the second match, won the third one, somehow ended up with the worst tiebreaks of the three people who were 2-1, got one Zendikar pack. And then one of the other people begged to trade me two Dark Ascension packs for the Zendikar pack. Sure! I kept 1 so I still have 6 DKA in my after draft pool, opened the other and got another Mondronen Shaman and a foil Loyal Cathar.