FNM - Feb 27, 2009

I just posted about previous week's FNM, but it's weird how I remember more in that tournament that the one that just happened yesterday. :( It seemed like I was in a different place, because the meta was totally different -- everyone was playing control! And it didn't help that I played a deck that sucked against control -- a mid-range Doran Assassins deck, with Infest MB for the supposedly aggro meta.



// Lands
4 [SHM] Reflecting Pool
4 [MOR] Murmuring Bosk
4 [LRW] Gilt-Leaf Palace
2 [EVE] Twilight Mire
1 [10E] Llanowar Wastes
1 [SHM] Wooded Bastion
1 [EVE] Fetid Heath
1 [LRW] Vivid Marsh
1 [LRW] Vivid Grove
2 [10E] Treetop Village
1 [ALA] Forest
1 [ALA] Swamp
1 [ALA] Plains

// Creatures
4 [10E] Birds of Paradise
3 [LRW] Treefolk Harbinger
4 [LRW] Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 [MOR] Scarblade Elite
4 [LRW] Doran, the Siege Tower
4 [MOR] Chameleon Colossus
2 [LRW] Cloudthresher

// Spells
4 [LRW] Nameless Inversion
2 [LRW] Crib Swap
3 [LRW] Profane Command
2 [ALA] Infest

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 3 [MOR] Bitterblossom
SB: 3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
SB: 2 [SHM] Faerie Macabre
SB: 2 [ON] Infest
SB: 1 [EVE] Wickerbough Elder


Round 1: vs. 5-color control (lost)

All I remember from this round were the 3 Path to Exiles that he used in our first game to get rid of my 3 Doran, the Siege Towers. Other than that, I just got beat by a bunch of Kitchen Finks, Mulldrifters, and Archon of Justice ftw.

Game standing: 0-2
Match standing: 0-1


Round 2: vs. 5-color control (won)

In the first game, my opponent cast two Kiss of the Ameshas to bounce back, stabilize, and eventually win the game. In games 2 and 3, my deck's engine turned on and I was tutoring a bunch of threats and answers via Treefolk Harbinger, and he didn't have enough answers for them.

Game standing: 2-3
Match standing: 1-1


Round 3: vs. Bant Aggro-Control (lost)

I lost very badly in the first game, with a lethal combination of Rafiq of the Many and a Rhox War Monk both on the board. He killed me while at almost 40 life I think. I didn't feel that bad though since I mulliganed to 5 that game. On the second game, things turned the other way. It was his turn to mull to 5, and I quickly finished him off with a Doran and a pair of Harbingers. The third game was the best game of the night. We were swinging back and forth and the board slowly clogged up. It finally got to a point when I drew a Crib Swap, and decided to cast it on his War Monk so that I could Scarblade Elite his other creature. Unfortunately, he had the Cryptic Command in his hand, and he countered the Crib Swap and bounced my Oblivion Ring which had his Elspeth, Knight-Errant underneath. On his turn, Elspeth pumped and flew the War Monk ftw. GG.

Game standing: 3-5
Match standing: 1-2


Round 4: vs. UWr Reveillark Control (lost)

I believe I was mana screwed on the first game so I quickly lost that one. On the second game, I had my opponent on the ropes, at 3 life, but couldn't push the final points of damage because the board was cleared, and I knew he had a counter spell in his full hand, for my Profane. He continued to have answers to each of my creatures, eventually casting a Martial Coup for a gazillion tokens, leaving Cryptic mana untapped. I had no choice but to cast the Profane on my turn, and I found out he wasn't bluffing and he countered it ftw.

Game standing: 3-7
Match standing: 1-3


Two points:
1. If I had do it over again, I'd still use a Doran deck, but drop the whole Assassins theme, and just used Stillmoon Cavaliers instead, and Path to Exiles instead of Crib Swap.

2. If I had used the RDW deck this week, instead of last week, perhaps I could have done better.

Oh well.

FNM - Feb 20, 2009

I've been really busy at work lately, so this was my first FNM in about a month (I haven't even been able to post this tournament until now), with only the Conflux Prerelease as my only Magic distraction in that month -- meaning I haven't played Standard all that time. :( Anyway, the goal was to have fun (and to bump up my Player Reward points hehe) so I decided to bring a Red Deck Wins deck -- which required minimum decisions, and resulted to fast and fun games. :) Here's the deck:



// Lands
25 [ALA] Mountain

// Creatures
4 [EVE] Figure of Destiny
4 [10E] Mogg Fanatic
3 [SHM] Boggart Ram-Gang
4 [SHM] Demigod of Revenge

// Spells
4 [MOR] Shard Volley
4 [10E] Incinerate
4 [LRW] Lash Out
4 [EVE] Puncture Blast
4 [SHM] Flame Javelin

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [SHM] Fulminator Mage
SB: 3 [CFX] Volcanic Fallout
SB: 3 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 2 [SHM] Guttural Response
SB: 3 [SHM] Smash to Smithereens

I know what you're thinking: BURN!!! :) Yeah.


Round 1: vs. RW Reveillark (lost)

My first round opponent is one of those players who take all types of tournaments (including FNMs) very seriously. Despite my attempts to lighten up the mood in our games, he was still very, um, competitive. In fact he called judge on two separate occasions during our match -- one when his Reveillark was behind a Windbrisk Heights (if he could evoke it -- of course he cannot), and second on a stack scenario (I could no longer remember what it was). All I can say is that his deck was superior to mine, but my rules knowledge is superior to his. ;-) Decks (and not rules) win in tournaments though, so he won the match. LOL.

Game standing: 1-2
Match standing: 0-1


Round 2: vs. Mono B Discarder (won)

A crazy scenario happened in this match, in game 1 to be exact. I was hot off the gates in the beginning and put him all the way down to 2 life. He then popped up an Immortal Coil, with my hand empty and nothing else on the board. I was in top deck mode, drawing nothing but lands, while he was eventually able to put 2 Nyxathids on the board -- he won that game. Haha. In games 2 and 3 though, I was ready with Smash to Smithereens, and I was able to pop his Immortal Coils and Scepter of Fugues ftw.

Game standing: 3-3
Match standing: 1-1


Round 3: vs. WGr Lands (lost)

My opponent was playing this unique deck featuring Knight of the Reliquary, Crucible of Worlds, and a lot of lands (I think he mentioned having 27 lands in his deck). In game 1, I was stupid enough to believe that he drew 3 consecutive Mutavaults (with me killing each one every time). After the third land drop though, I eventually saw the Crucible of Worlds in play. Damn! How stupid can I be? It was the same Mutavault coming back to haunt me! He beat me with Warhammer'd Mutavaults that game. In game 2, I was ready with his artifacts with Smash again, and easily won the game. In game 3, I was beat by a combination of Naya Charms, Path to Exiles, and eventually, a Knight of the Reliquary after a Scapeshift ftw.

Game standing: 4-5
Match standing: 1-2


Round 4: vs. WW Kithkin (lost)

I was still hoping for a .500 finish at this point, but my deck gave up on me as I drew crap on both games, to easily lose to my opponent's Kithkin horde.

Final game standing: 4-7
Final match standing: 1-3

Classic Pauper Faeries

After using my original faeries deck a couple of times in MTGO, I noticed that I tend to lose to decks that were using older cards, meaning those that have Classic Pauper builds, instead of just Standard Pauper. Since MTGO at the moment doesn't distinguish between pauper types, I decided to upgrade my deck in order to be competitive to these "Type 1" decks. Here's my latest build:



// Lands
22 [ALA] Island

// Creatures
4 [10E] Cloud Sprite
4 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
4 [LRW] Pestermite
3 [MOR] Latchkey Faerie
4 [BOK] Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
4 [DS] Spire Golem

// Spells
4 [IA] Counterspell
4 [9E] Mana Leak
3 [10E] Unsummon

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [IA] Hydroblast
SB: 3 [SC] Hindering Touch
SB: 4 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 [MOR] Negate

Being unfamiliar with older cards, I based some of the card selections on decklists I found on PDCMagic.com. I still made some personal modifications though, partly due to my preferred play style -- most, if not all, of the decks I found are pure Mono Blue Control -- and I didn't want to play such a "serious" deck in pauper (I think it defeats the purpose). Also, some of the card selections of pauper net decks are actually quite expensive. For example, Exclude (the Remove Soul with a cantrip) is currently at 3.5 tix each. Prohibit (the conditional counterspell) is at 1 ticket each.

The sideboard, while improving, still needs some work though. I still don't know what to put in the place of the Relics and the Negates. I'll only learn this from experience though, so I guess it's time to go back online, and play some more pauper. :)

Conflux Prerelease - Jan 31, 2009

Best. Prerelease. Ever. :)

Jovs and I both went 4-0, him with an Esper deck, and me with an aggresive Bant deck containing many evasive flyers.



// Lands
1 [CNF] Exotic Orchard
1 [CNF] Rupture Spire
1 [ALA] Bant Panorama
1 [ALA] Jungle Shrine
5 [ALA] Island
5 [ALA] Plains
3 [ALA] Forest

// Creatures
2cc:
1 [ALA] Sigiled Paladin
1 [ALA] Deft Duelist
1 [ALA] Steward of Valeron
3cc:
1 [ALA] Bant Battlemage
1 [CNF] Gluttonous Slime
1 [CNF] Matca Rioters
2 [CNF] Aven Trailblazer
1 [ALA] Gustrider Exuberant
1 [ALA] Kathari Screecher
2 [CNF] Parasitic Strix
1 [CNF] Giltspire Avenger
4cc or more:
2 [CNF] Esper Cormorants
1 [ALA] Sharding Sphinx
1 [ALA] Spearbreaker Behemoth

// Spells
1 [CNF] Path to Exile
1 [ALA] Oblivion Ring
1 [CNF] Constricting Tendrils
1 [CNF] Might of Alara
1 [ALA] Spell Snip
1 [CNF] Traumatic Visions


I can't remember my opponent's exact decks, but here are some memorable and fun moments:

1. Going down to 1 life but still winning the game, thanks to the token producing ability of Sharding Sphinx.

2. My opponent beating me in game 1 via a finishing blow Might of Alara. Then on the second game, I did the same to him, pumping my unblocked creature ftw. :)

3. My opponent playing a post-blockers "Agony Warp", only to see that it was actually a Countersquall. LOL.

4. My MVP for the whole tournament, believe it or not, is Esper Cormorants. It's amazing how one 3/3 flyer for 4 mana can win you so many games. Especially if you already have a 2/2 flyer on turn 2. Or even better, if you can follow it up with another 3/3 flyer on turn 5. :)

5. Winning my last game via a topdecked Spearbreaker Behemoth. :)

Here are some notable cards that we got from our sealed deck pools and prize packs:

1.3 Exotic Orchards
2. Ancient Ziggurat
3. 2 Giltspire Avengers
4. 2 Path to Exiles (need just 2 more...)
5. Ethersworn Adjudicator
6. Nyxathid
7. Volcanic Fallout
8. Thornling

And of course, there's the t-shirt. :)


(picture courtesy of Ongkeco's Hobby Shop)

Like I said, best prerelease ever. :)