FNM
I guess I never posted about FNM last week. I'd decided on a change of pace, so I went back to my red/black vampire deck. I hadn't updated it since M13 came out. I put in a couple of Vampire Nighthawks and swapped in Mark of Mutiny for Act of Treason, and adjusted the mana a bit for the double black. The deck played poorly all night. Round 1, I won one game against Josh Stepp's goblins. Hellrider is pretty fierce; he stomped me very fast game 1, game 2 I had two Vexing Devils and an Aristocrat, and got him before he got going. Game 3, I mulled to 6 into a poor hand and got walked over by Hellrider again. Match 2, Kendall was playing zombies. Game 1, mulled to 6, didn't draw land, got mashed. Game 2, mulled to 6 again but got a decent hand, managed to wear him down. Game 3, I managed to hit him once and then never touched him again. Match 3, Cole Peters had a white/black exalted deck. Mashed him game 1. Game 2, mulled to 6 into a weak hand, he got a bunch of lifelink and I had no defense. Game 3, I mulled to 5, he to 6, he had me down to 2 life but I got him. Match 4, Todd Davis was playing a mono white humans and angels deck. I won games 1 and 3 fairly easily; stumbled game 2 and he overwhelmed me. Match 5, Sarah Hubble had a green stompy deck starring Dungrove Elder. Game 1 I rolled over her. Game 2 I mulled to 6 into a weak hand, she got a huge Dungrove Elder out and crushed me. Game 3, she had a couple of huge creatures. I had a mark of mutiny and took one of her 6 power creatures and swung it at her, thinking she'd have to block with her 7/7. Only I forgot about Elderscale Wurm's main ability, that you can't go below 7 life -- so rather than blocking, she just let me hit her with her other fatty, and hit me back. The deck could be better, but I think I will have to give up on using treason as my main removal weapon; it's just too slow. But since they have not printed any two drop non-green mana acceleration to replace Sphere of the Suns, I don't think the deck has much hope anyway.
This week, I decided to go back to my green and white Thragtusk deck. It seems to have gotten very stale being benched for a week.Match 1, Todd Davis had a blue/white invisible stalker deck. Game 1, I mulled to 6, couldn't get land, he walked right over me without my being able to do a thing. Game 2, he got a Serra Avenger soulbonded to Silverblade Paladin and eventually added an Inquisitor's Flail to it. I couldn't find any removal other than the Sunblast Angel I'd had in my opening hand. Vigilance is really powerful. Game 2, Chris Deri I think was playing blue/green stalker. He got me game 1, game 2 he was hopelessly mana flooded, game 3 he was mana screwed. Match 3, Ben Yunaga had a green/white deck similar to mine. Game 1, he used Gavony Township to make his blade splicer tokens bigger than mine. Game 2, I got out a Somberwald Sage on turn 2 and went to town. Game 3, I got no mana dorks, and he played turn 1 mana dork, turn 2 Sword of War and Peace, turn 3 hit me for 12 with the sword. Match 4, I was playing the kid, Matthew (I forget his last name). He's like 12 and has been playing for a few weeks. I walked over him game 1. Game 2, he got Gavony Township going while I stared at a handful of white cards and no sources of white mana. Game 3, he got me with Gideon. So I was 1-3, with the worst tiebreaks, 15th out of 16 in Standard, I think that's the worst finish I've ever had at FNM. At least I won a booster battle pack as my door prize.
With only 4 rounds for Standard, we finished fairly early, and I wanted to afterdraft. Unfortunately, we sat around for a long time before we actually started, didn't get going until well after 11 even though the main events were over by about 10:30. I thought I'd drafted well, which usually means I'll do horribly. I was in white and black with a bunch of good creatures and some good removal. Match 1 I walked over Sarah. Match 2, I went 2-1 against Marc Hoover. Match 3, I had a great start against Mark Fredricksen. Had him down to 2 life, while I had well over 20. I had two fliers on board and he had nothing that could block them. He managed to kill off both fliers, and we went into a stall. He had a Trigon of Infestation and managed to chump block until he got some bigger creatures. When I drew my 4/4 angel, he pulled out a spider that did damage when it entered. I couldn't find anything that would let me get through. The game dragged. We went to time. He'd worn me down by this time, he had a couple of huge creatures with trample and I was getting low on life. He also had a couple of trigon tokens and I'd accumulated 5 poison by that time. He swung with several creatures and I couldn't block the tokens, and then he pulled out Titanic Grown to finish me with poison, after having done a total of 50 or so regular damage to me over the game. I didn't make any out-and-out misplays but I probably made some less than perfect choices, and I was a little slow because we didn't start the game until 2 (when I would have been getting to bed, if we'd started promptly), and my brain just wasn't working. And to add insult to injury, my tiebreaks sucked, so I came in 3rd despite only losing to the winner of the pod.
This week, I decided to go back to my green and white Thragtusk deck. It seems to have gotten very stale being benched for a week.Match 1, Todd Davis had a blue/white invisible stalker deck. Game 1, I mulled to 6, couldn't get land, he walked right over me without my being able to do a thing. Game 2, he got a Serra Avenger soulbonded to Silverblade Paladin and eventually added an Inquisitor's Flail to it. I couldn't find any removal other than the Sunblast Angel I'd had in my opening hand. Vigilance is really powerful. Game 2, Chris Deri I think was playing blue/green stalker. He got me game 1, game 2 he was hopelessly mana flooded, game 3 he was mana screwed. Match 3, Ben Yunaga had a green/white deck similar to mine. Game 1, he used Gavony Township to make his blade splicer tokens bigger than mine. Game 2, I got out a Somberwald Sage on turn 2 and went to town. Game 3, I got no mana dorks, and he played turn 1 mana dork, turn 2 Sword of War and Peace, turn 3 hit me for 12 with the sword. Match 4, I was playing the kid, Matthew (I forget his last name). He's like 12 and has been playing for a few weeks. I walked over him game 1. Game 2, he got Gavony Township going while I stared at a handful of white cards and no sources of white mana. Game 3, he got me with Gideon. So I was 1-3, with the worst tiebreaks, 15th out of 16 in Standard, I think that's the worst finish I've ever had at FNM. At least I won a booster battle pack as my door prize.
With only 4 rounds for Standard, we finished fairly early, and I wanted to afterdraft. Unfortunately, we sat around for a long time before we actually started, didn't get going until well after 11 even though the main events were over by about 10:30. I thought I'd drafted well, which usually means I'll do horribly. I was in white and black with a bunch of good creatures and some good removal. Match 1 I walked over Sarah. Match 2, I went 2-1 against Marc Hoover. Match 3, I had a great start against Mark Fredricksen. Had him down to 2 life, while I had well over 20. I had two fliers on board and he had nothing that could block them. He managed to kill off both fliers, and we went into a stall. He had a Trigon of Infestation and managed to chump block until he got some bigger creatures. When I drew my 4/4 angel, he pulled out a spider that did damage when it entered. I couldn't find anything that would let me get through. The game dragged. We went to time. He'd worn me down by this time, he had a couple of huge creatures with trample and I was getting low on life. He also had a couple of trigon tokens and I'd accumulated 5 poison by that time. He swung with several creatures and I couldn't block the tokens, and then he pulled out Titanic Grown to finish me with poison, after having done a total of 50 or so regular damage to me over the game. I didn't make any out-and-out misplays but I probably made some less than perfect choices, and I was a little slow because we didn't start the game until 2 (when I would have been getting to bed, if we'd started promptly), and my brain just wasn't working. And to add insult to injury, my tiebreaks sucked, so I came in 3rd despite only losing to the winner of the pod.