Standard Tournament - Mar 8, 2008

Not to be discouraged at my poor performance at the previous night's FNM, I joined the regular Standard tourney the following day at Galleria.

I used a slightly upgraded version of the Kithkin deck I used in the FNM 2 weeks ago. Basically:

1. I upgraded the landbase by adding a 3rd Flagstones of Trokair and putting in 3 Horizon Canopies (thanks to Kotzen of NG forums for arriving early!) and 1 Pendelhaven.
2. Instead of the 3 Trios and 1 Ajani, I put in 2 Calciderms and 2 Griffin Guides.
3. For the 1-drops, I put in 2 Mosquito Guards to replace 2 of the Goldmeadow Harriers.



// Lands
5 [UNH] Plains
4 [MOR] Rustic Clachan
3 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
2 [LRW] Windbrisk Heights
4 [MOR] Mutavault
3 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
1 [TSB] Pendelhaven

// Creatures
4 [LRW] Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 [MOR] Cenn's Tactician
2 [LRW] Goldmeadow Harrier
2 [MOR] Mosquito Guard
4 [LRW] Knight of Meadowgrain
4 [TSP] Serra Avenger
4 [MOR] Kinsbaile Borderguard
2 [PLC] Calciderm

// Spells
4 [PLC] Sunlance
4 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
2 [LRW] Militia's Pride
2 [TSP] Griffin Guide

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [PLC] Mana Tithe
SB: 2 [TSB] Disenchant
SB: 1 [TSP] Tivadar of Thorn
SB: 2 [10E] Paladin en-Vec
SB: 3 [CS] White Shield Crusader
SB: 1 [10E] Wrath of God

Round 1: vs. BG Warriors

In game 1, I had Sunlances ready for each warrior that he was casting, and I had an Oblivion Ring ready for his Chameleon Colossus. He, on the other hand, didn't have much answer to my Kithkins and lost. Game 2 was reaaaaly good -- too bad I can't remember the exact board set-up though. I think I was at 6 life, my opponent was at 1 life, and it was his turn. We both have a few creatures, but I had 1 creature more than he did. He had a Profane Command in hand, but it wasn't enough no matter which modes he chose -- I was just going down to 1 -- even if he aimed at me, my defenders, or putting Fear on some of his creatures. He did it anyway, and when it was my turn, I had enough attackers to push the final point of damage on him. Match score: 2-0; Standing after 1 round: 1-0.

Round 2: vs. WG Mana Ramp

First game was one-sided in favor of my opponent. Second game was one-sided in favor of me. The third game was well played and went down the wire... but I eventually lost to, just like the previous night, an Akroma, Angel of Wrath. Match score: 1-2; Standing after 2 rounds: 1-1.

Round 3: vs. BG Elves

All I can remember from this match was that the first thing I did was to Sunlance a 2/3 Tarmogoyf. So I started the game happy. The last thing that happened though was I got Garruk-overran by an army of elves. Not good. Meaning, I lost. Good thing his deck was 10 times more expensive than mine (exag), so no bad feelings there. ;) I still wish I had Tarmogoyfs and Garruks though... Match score: 0-2; Standing after 3 rounds: 1-2.

Round 4: vs. Mono-red Crusher

I won the first match, thanks to a costly mistake by my opponent. Down to 7 life, he attacked with all his creatures, I thought for a moment, took all the damage and was down to 10. Problem was, I had an 8/8 flying Borderguard. I again thought for a while and decided to attack with it. No blockers. Stack damage? Ok. When he looked at his life, he just smiled, and scooped his cards. The second and third games were no fun though. It just seemed like his whole deck was an anti-Kithkin deck, when I got faced by numerous Sulfur Elementals and Blood Knights. And when he wasn't casting those, he was burning my face with Incinerates and Shard Volleys -- all while he had a Countryside Crusher in play. GG. Match score: 1-2; Standing after 4 rounds: 1-3.

Round 5: vs. Mono-blue Merfolk

I kept on reading my opponent's cards on this match, because I was unfamiliar with the Merfolk cards. It was also an unorthodox Merfolk deck because first of all, it was mono-blue, and his strategy was aggro first (via Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejerey and other cards that grant islandwalk), and library second (via Grimoire Thief). It was a funny match though because both of us made a couple of stupid mistakes on the game. One time, I attacked with all creatures thinking that I could get him down to zero life even if he blocked my larger creatures. However, when we computed the math at end of combat, he was actually just down to 1. And I had all my creatures tapped. Good thing he didn't draw either of the Merfolk lords on his draw, or he would have been able to push enough damage to kill me. Match score: 2-0; Standing after 5 rounds: 2-3.

Round 6: vs. Dragonstorm

This match proved that practice is SOOOO important in this game. I knew about his deck inside out, having used it the night before, so I easily won the match. It did have some scary moments though when he was able to activate Spinerock Knoll, only to reveal a Sulfurous Blast underneath. That didn't kill the Paladin en Vec though, due to Pro-Red, so he got beat by my first striking Knight. Match score: 2-0; Standing after 6 rounds: 3-3.

Round 7: vs. UBrw Mannequin-Control

My Kithkins raced to a blazing start and I won very quickly in the first game. This created a problem for my second game though, because I didn't know what to side-in. I only knew that his lands covered 4 colors -- UBRW -- and that he cast a few black removal spells. This made me decide to side-in the White Shield Crusaders and the Paladin en Vecs. Problem was, on the second game, he beat me with Mulldrifters, and a few Shriekmaws. Confused for the third game, I decided to just restore my deck to its original config. The third game was long but exciting. Unfortunately though, my opponent's deck revealed its true form in that game, when he cast a few Pyroclasms to clear out my Kithkins, Liliana to disrupt my hand, and Makeshift Mannequin on his Mulldrifters and Shriekmaws. Match score: 1-2; Standing after 7 rounds: 3-4.

Final rank: 39th place among 60+ players. Still on the bottom half of the curve... :(

FNM - Feb 22, 2008

Here's the deck that I played:



// Lands
8 [UNH] Plains
4 [MOR] Rustic Clachan
4 [MOR] Mutavault
2 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
2 [LRW] Windbrisk Heights
2 [10E] Forbidding Watchtower

// Creatures
4 [LRW] Goldmeadow Stalwart
4 [LRW] Goldmeadow Harrier
4 [MOR] Cenn's Tactician
4 [LRW] Knight of Meadowgrain
4 [TSP] Serra Avenger
4 [MOR] Kinsbaile Borderguard
3 [LRW] Thoughtweft Trio
1 [LRW] Ajani Goldmane

// Spells
4 [PLC] Sunlance
4 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
2 [LRW] Militia's Pride

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [PLC] Mana Tithe
SB: 2 [TSB] Disenchant
SB: 3 [TSP] Temporal Isolation
SB: 2 [10E] Paladin en-Vec
SB: 1 [TSP] Tivadar of Thorn

I was initially supposed to use the Dragonstorm deck that Jovs and I built up, but I had last minute second thoughts. First of all, I hadn't played in over a month. I had no idea about the post-Morningtide metagame, other than what I had been reading on the forums and around the Internet. And from that knowledge, I realized that the deck might not fare so well. Rogues had Earwig Squad; Blue had Trickbind; White had Rule of Law and Story Circle; Red had blazing speed with Mauler and Crusher; and Green was, well, really good.

Bottomline is, I realized that I wouldn't be comfortable playing a combo deck in this FNM. I wouldn't be able to stand all the talk that my opponents would do while I was busy computing if I had enough mana to make the combo go off.

Round 1: vs. Mono-black Rogues

In the beginning, I was glad that I hadn't played the DS deck because I was instantly paired against the deck that I was fearing to play to begin with. But a few Prickly Boggarts, Oona's Prowler, and an Earwig Squad later ("jesterscapping" my Sunlances), my gladness easily faded, and I went down 0-1. Even after boarding in the Paladin en-Vecs and Temporal Isolations, I quickly lost because I was never able to draw them. :( Match score: 0-2; Standing after 1 round: 0-1

Round 2: vs. Mono-red Skred

I made some early damages (as Kithkins are supposed to do), until he got to play his Phyrexian Ironfoot. Good thing I drew into an Oblivion Ring and he didn't have enough removal, and he eventually bowed down in the first game to my small Kithkin army. For game 2, I once again boarded in the Paladins... which this time paid dividends. :) I was able to draw AND play two of them, and he had no chance against the pair of human knights. All he could Stalking Yeti was my Stalwart, but his snow creature being afraid of my knights, they couldn't do anything. Match score: 2-0; Standing after 2 rounds: 1-1

Round 3: vs. RG Warriors

I was extremely lucky, or should I say, my opponent was extremely unlucky in this round. He mulled to 5 on the first game with 1 land, not getting his 2nd land until he had 5 or so life left. For the second game, I decided to board in 4 Mana Tithes. Good decision! Game 2 was an even matchup up until he tapped out to cast a Chameleon Colossus. It always feels good when you beat a 400+ peso card with a 10 peso common. :) He eventually bowed to my Kithkins after I also Sunlanced his Imperious Perfect. Match score: 2-0; Standing after 3 rounds: 2-1

This FNM was starting to shape up like my first one... well, up until Round 4.

Round 4: vs. RG Mana-ramp

The first game took a loooong time to finish. I had a bunch of Kithkins; but he would play a Siege-Gang Commander, killing them all. I would pump my soldiers with Ajani; but he would Sulfurous Blast. Eventually though, his own end of combat Sulfurous Blast killed him, when he forgot to remember that one of my creatures hadn't been blocked. For round 2, I boarded out the Sunlances in favor of Temporal Isolations, and I also boarded in my lone Tivadar because I knew he had a Chameleon Colossus (I watched him in a previous round, where he had a Warhammered Colossus pumped up TWICE... from my calculation, that would make it a 28/25 trampler... scary.)

As game 2 progressed, I realized that I had no chance of winning the game. At around the same time, the tournament organizers were already asking for our match result. Being a fair player, I just proceeded to play the game normally, when other players would have already begun to stall. He eventually won the game, as expected, and we wound up with a draw. Match score: 1-1; Standing after 4 rounds: 2-1-1.

This was when things got a little, um, intense. My opponent got a little uneasy that we ended up with a draw. He told me, "Sayang naman yung packs. Kung ok lang sayo, bigay mo na lang sa akin yung panalo, tapos hatian na lang kita sa packs kung may mapanalunan." I thought for a second, then I told him, "Wag na bro. Yung totoo na lang, draw na lang tayo." He then angrily left the table and left.

In the end, round-four-guy ended up in 15th place, and I ended up in 16th place. Prizes were awarded to players up to 13th place, so we both went home empty handed.

Oh well. Better luck next time.

Another FNM, another PR

Jan 18 - FNM @ Galle

After last week's encouraging results, I decided to join again on last week's FNM. Instead of using the BR Goblin deck again though, I decided to use Beej's white weenie deck instead.

// Lands
2 [10E] Forbidding Watchtower
2 [LRW] Windbrisk Heights
2 [TSP] Flagstones of Trokair
16 [LRW] Plains

// Creatures
4 [TSB] Icatian Javelineers
4 [TSP] Knight of the Holy Nimbus
4 [LRW] Knight of Meadowgrain
4 [PLC] Calciderm
4 [TSP] Serra Avenger
2 [LRW] Mirror Entity
2 [TSP] Celestial Crusader

// Spells
4 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
2 [TSP] Temporal Isolation
2 [10E] Condemn
4 [TSP] Griffin Guide
2 [LRW] Militia's Pride

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [10E] Paladin en-Vec
SB: 4 [PLC] Sunlance
SB: 3 [TSB] Disenchant
SB: 2 [LRW] Hoofprints of the Stag
SB: 2 [10E] Rule of Law

Rd 1: Won vs. mono-black discarder

Rd 2: Draw vs. a UB control animator/Teferi deck
I'm quite proud of this round, despite just getting a draw, because my opponent was a regular winner in G2 FNMs. :)

Rd 3: Lost vs. another mono-black discarder
My opponent suggested I use Loxodon Warhammer instead of Griffin Guide. Hmmm... maybe.

Rd 4: Won vs. RG mana-ramp

Final standing: 2-1-1 Good for another 12th place finish, with a Time Spiral booster as prize. The pack was crappy though -- the lone "non-crap" card being a Scryb Ranger.


Jan 19 - Morningtide Pre-release @ Galle

Met with Jovs at 8:45am on the Taft MRT station. When we arrived at Galleria at around 9:15am, there was already a long line! The distribution of pods was starting though -- this being the only bright spot on the MOR PR -- everything went on as scheduled. Unfortunately, due to "circumstances that were beyond their control", we got 6 MOR booster packs instead of the expected 1 Lorwyn Tournament Pack + 3 MOR packs. There goes our wishes to get a Garruk... :(

Noteable cards: NONE. :( Maybe some, if you consider Titan's Revenge, Oona's Blackguard, and the warrior and soldier equipments. But I didn't get a Mutavault, Murmuring Bosk, nor a Mind Shatter. :(

Anyway, I really need to work on my deck-building. I built a UBR rogue/prowl deck, and ended up with a 2-2 standing. I didn't realize until after the first round though that my mana curve was bad (most of my spells were 4cc and up), so I had to make a "revised deck" for use on game 2's -- I basically converted my deck to UBG after each first game.

Most probably as a result of the use of MOR packs, we weren't able to get our booster prizes immediately. Instead, we got "vouchers" which, as of this morning, we apparently can't claim until the weekend of the release on Feb 1.

All in all, despite the setbacks, the PR was still fun. It's always nice to see, have, and use new cards (Moonglove Changeling + Thornbite Staff rocks). :)