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!