Modern Mayhem

Saturday evening, and that means it was time for the weekly modern tournament at Ancient Wonders. For those following my blog, you know that after having initial success at modern the first few tournaments, I quickly found myself struggling to reach the prize money. This tournament, however, I finally broke though, scoring 4-0. Ryan conceded to me in the finals, and I split the prize money. Although I mourn my lack of competitive spirit at the end, I am still pleased with the result overall.

I decided once again to run "Hide and Seek MartyrProc" (you can find a similar deck list, here). In the first round, I was paired against a U/W control deck running Geist of Saint Traft. My opponent got land screwed most of the games and I ended up winning the match 2-1, though the games were quite close. Sometimes, Squadron Hawk is just a beast.

The next round, I was paired against a R/B Burn deck (you can find a similar deck list, here). This deck already has a bad matchup against me, because of the enormous amount of life I can gain with Martyr of Sands. Unfortunately, I got land screwed in the first game and was forced to win the next 2 if I wanted to advance. Bad news for my opponent however, because in games 2 and 3 I sideboarded in 4 copies of Leyline of Sanctity. My opponents burn spells just sat in his hand while I established board control in both games. I won the match 2-1.

In round 3, I faced off against an affinity variation (another deck list, here). As another aggro variant, affinity has an extremely bad matchup against me. I can cast Ghostly Prison (which can crush a deck that only runs 14 lands), Wrath of God, or Hide//Seek---all of which are enormously effective. I won the match 2-0. One of the games was close: at one point I got down to 1 life. However, with 4 copies of Lightning Helix, and Martyr of Sands, I was quickly able to recover and take down the win.

Round 4 I was paired against Ryan Engbrecht, who was running a Boros Landfall deck. (decklist, here). Ryan had lost an earlier round, and was thus "paired up" against me (since I was undefeated). Ryan offered to concede to me if I would split the prize. Some part of me really wanted to refuse. After all, Boros Landfall is an aggro deck, and as I said above, I have good matchups against most aggro variations. Also, since I was 3-0, even if I lost the match, there would still be a chance that I get first place after tiebreakers. I decided to draw because, well, I play these guys every week. If I refuse to draw Ryan now, he may refuse to draw me later, when I'm in a less favorable position. So, eh, whatever, $60 of prize money in my pocket, and since Ryan actually conceded the match, a ton of planeswalker points and rating points.

Until next time readers!

Ah the sweet taste of victory. Another Friday night in Portland; which means, another FNM tournament at Guardian Games. Last night I ran R/G Wolf Run again. I just love that deck, especially now that my deck has added two new foil Mirrodin Solemn Simulacrums, courtesy of my awesome girlfriend. :-)

The tournament started off easy. My first three opponents were basically noobies, and the rounds were forgettable. The real tournament started in the fourth and final round. I was paired against David Stroud, a regular at Guardian Games, and currently ranked 7th in Portland. The first game was insanely close. At one point, I made an atrocious play error: My opponent was at 18 life, I attacked with an Inferno Titan, dealing three directly to him (15); he declared no blockers and I let him take an additional six damage (9). I had mana to pump the Inferno Titan, but I didn't. After I said done, I realized that I had two Galvanic Blasts in my hand (with Metalcraft out), and if he was just at 8 life instead of 9 (for instance, if I had just pumped the Inferno Titan by 1) I would probably be able to kill him in the following turns. Instead, he cast an Oblivion Ring on my Inferno Titan, and I lost the game with my opponent at 1 life.

The next game I was much more fortunate. I played a Thrun, the Last Troll on turn 3 after casting Rampant Growth the preceding turn. David eventually cheated an Elesh Norn, the Last Cenobite into play with an Unburial Rites. Thrun turned into a 2/2 blocker with regenerate to keep Elesh at bay, until I had enough mana so that I could Wolf Run him up to a 7/2, with enough mana to regenerate; I started to attack with the Thrun. Eventually, David's life total got whittled down to the point where he had to block, and the Elesh died. He cast another Elesh on the subsequent turn! I attacked again; once again he had to block; and once again the Elesh died. The following turn, with David at 7-ish life and 2 poison, he cast a Phantasmal Image, killing my Thrun, and a Grave Titan. I was at 12 life, so I knew the Grave Titan and his zombie minions couldn't kill me next turn. I attacked with an Inkmoth Nexus, and pumped it to put David at 8 poison. The following turn, he attacked with the Grave Titan and zombie minions, but it wasn't enough damage to kill me. Despite digging through nearly 10 cards of his deck with Faithless Looting, Desperate Ravings, and Forbidden Alchemy, David could not find the remaining copy of Ancient Grudge in his deck (to kill the Inkmoth), and I won the game with poison damage.

The last game was less dramatic, but had some funny moments. I cast Green Sun's Zenith on turn 2 fetching a Birds of Paradise. On turn 3, I cast Solemn Simulacrum, and each turn thereafter I would attack with the Solemn Simulacrum and pump it up with Kessig Wolf Run. The idea was, I wanted David to use his removal spell to kill the Solemn Simulacrum, in which case I might get the extra card, and David would have one less removal spell for the Titans I had in my hand. Eventually, my plan proved successful and David was forced to Oblivion Ring the Solemn Simulacrum. The only catch was, by the time David killed the Solemn Simulacrum, I had already dealt 11 points of damage. So the next turn, I attacked with the Birds of Paradise, pumped it up about 7, and put him in extreme danger. He was unable to draw a removal spell on the subsequent turn, and I won the game without ever casting a Titan or a planeswalker. Death by Birds of Paradise.

A fun tournament. Until next time readers!

Wolf Run v. Wolf Run

Played in an FNM this weekend at Knightfall Games. I ended the tournament 3-1, in clear second place.

I'm posting this article a bit late, so I don't remember the exact details of each round, but I remember the last two rounds because they were the most important. I decided to run R/G Wolf Run against, because the deck is just so damn pretty. I won rounds 1 and 2, and quickly took the lead in the tournament. In round 3 I faced Adam Brown, who was playing W/G aggro control. The deck included Hero of Bladehold, Birds of Paradise, Gavony Township, and Oblivion Ring. I've always enjoyed playing W/G myself, so I applaud Adam's color choice. The games were very close, but Adam got land screwed in the third game, and I ended up winning the match.

After 3 rounds I was in clear first place. A draw would secure the win so I offered the draw to my opponent. He refused. I didn't know it at the time, but my opponent was running Mono-Green Wolf Run, a deck which was all the rage at the beginning of the current season, but which has since fallen out of favor. The deck has poor matchup's against a lot of the metagame (especially against Delver decks, or any deck running Mirran Crusader), but it has great matchups against other Wolf Run versions. In both games, my opponent played Birds of Paradise on turn 1, Dugrove Elder on turn 2, and then just beat me down every turn. It wasn't pretty, and I lost the match, 0-2.

I now stood at 3-1, and since there were no undefeated opponents, this meant the tiebreakers would determine who ended up in first place. Oddly enough, my tiebreakers were worse than Adam's, and I placed second. Sigh. The whole final round felt like bullshit. I used to play that Mono Green deck. I know it sucks. It beats my deck, and no others. Anyway, you can tell I'm a little bitter.

In all likeliness, that was the last Standard tournament I play in before Dark Ascension becomes Standard legal. Until next time readers!