Friday Night Magic

This week, I once again ran R/G Wolf Run at FNM and I went undefeated to take clear first place.

In the first round, I played against Alec Baker who was once again running Doran Birthing Pod. This has been Alec's favorite deck of late, and it is one of the most dangerous non-traditional decks currently in Standard. Although I personally doubt the consistency of Birthing Pod decks in general, Alec's deck has enough threats that he can effectively seize control of the the game on turn four or five. I lost the first game because of mana problems (which plagued me througout this tournament), but I managed to win the next two games to take the match.

In round 2 I faced a very fast Mono-Red deck with Kuldotha Rebirth. I barely won the match and Tree of Redemption and Batterskull definitely saved my ass.

In round 3 I faced a White weenie deck running cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Champion of the Parish, and Gather the Townsfolk. The deck was insanely fast in game one, with my opponent playing a first turn Champion of the Parish, second turn Gather the Townsfolk, and third turn Honor of the Pure. White weenie has always been a viable Magic the Gathering strategy, but I once again doubt its consistency because too many cards are simply useless when drawn late in the game. For example, a turn 10 Champion of the Parish is often just terrible. Additionally, the deck has to run a small amount of land since the mana curve is so low, which can lead to mana screws and frequent mulligans.

In round 4 I played Ish who was running U/W aggro control? This was definitely the feature match. Ish and I were the only undefeated players going into this round, and Ish approached me before the game and offered a draw. I denied the draw. I will not lie: I do not like Ish. He and I have a history. One day, several tournaments ago, I played Ish and he decided that he would shuffle my deck each time I presented it. Obviously, that is totally his right as a player. Other players just cut the deck and don't worry too much about it, but Ish is totally allowed to grab my cards and shuffle them. However, what I don't like about his method, is that he looks down at the cards while he shuffles them, so that he can see which cards are going where. So, on this particular day, after one particularly blatant nonrandom shuffle, I cut the deck after he handed it back to me. A judge was called and I explained my position. The judge held that I am not allowed to cut the deck, but that Ish is not allowed to conduct nonrandom shuffles. I ended up winning that match.

After that tournament, I have never liked Ish. He's just kind of a jerk. He's always insinuating that I'm a cheater. For example, this tournament he made some comment before the game about how some of my sleeves appeared "marked." None of my sleeves are marked; some have corners slightly more bent than others because of usage, but I don't keep track or pay attention to such things and I change my sleeves like once a month, which is more than most players. Anyway, after I denied Ish his draw he went prattling on to everyone who asked about how I was an asshole because I didn't agree to a draw and wanted to play the round out. I actually enjoyed his whining because it made me feel more competitive.

Anyway, the games were pretty one-sided. Ish was playing a U/W control deck with Venser the Sojourner and Mana Leak. I won the match on the back of Thrun the Last Troll.

Second Again

This weekend brought with it another FNM tournament at Knightfall Games. Knightfall has definitely seen an increase in average attendance over the last few weeks---this week roughly 20 people showed up for the tournament. I once again brought my R/G Wolf Run deck, hoping to gain some revenge for the loss and second place finish I received at the hands of Adam Brown last week. Alas, it was not to be. I placed second once again. As a side note though, I did receive several compliments about the "bling" my deck contains.

In round two I was paired against Ryan Engbrecht, who was running Frites ( a version of this deck can be found here ). I lost the first game, even after Ryan mulliganed to 6 cards. I won the second and third games after sideboarding in multiple copies of Grafdigger's Cage. I've won two in a row against Ryan now; after the round he expressed his disconent and said I should attend another tournament on Sunday so he could get his revenge.

The next round I was paired against a U/W control deck. The first game, which I lost, took so long that there was barely any time for additional play. I ended up drawing the second game and thus losing the match 0-1-1.

Round 4 I faced David, who I've played many times before, but have never lost to. This time David was running Ryan's U/B Zombie deck ( a version can be found here ), and just as I beat the deck when Ryan was running it, I also beat it when David was running it.

In round 5 I faced off against Jonathan Chu, who I have played many times and never beaten. When Wizards of the Coast was still using the rating system, Jonathan was one of the highest rated players in Portland. This Friday he was running Naya Wolf Run, which is basically my deck but with Day of Judgment instead of Slagstorm and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite instead of Inferno Titan. I won the first game in an Inkmoth Nexus brawl, and I won the second game after Jon had to mulligan to four (!). This was definitely the crowning achievement of the tournament, and it was nice to learn some interesting rule interactions surrounding Mimic Vat along the way.

Even though I won the match against Jon, he placed above me on tiebreakers. My 4-1-0 score was only good enough for second place, though I did pull some cool cards out of my prize packs.

Well, it's time for a new post. I haven't been blogging lately because I haven't been playing. I became disillusioned with the competitive Magic scene and decided to take a little break. However, recent changes to the rating system have rejuvenated my desire to play, and hence, I decided to attend FNM at Knightfall Games last Friday. Because I was so unfamiliar with the current metagame, I decided to play my "default" deck, R/G Wolf Run, with some minor changes to the sideboard; most notably, I added 2 Grafdigger's Cage to deal with all the new creature with "undying." The Cage is also useful against Birthing Pod, Snapcaster Mage, Gravecrawler, and frankly, any card with "flashback."

Strangely, the FNM scene at Knightfall appears to have changed. Chris now has a case full of individual cards, and there were 20 people signed up for the tournament. He also had a full crew of "minions" tending the register and running the tournament. Jacob was nowhere in sight. Apparently these minions enjoy working for free as I don't see how Chris could possibly be paying all of them. Anyway, on to the tournament report!

The tournament started off easily enough for me. First round I got paired against David, who was running a mirror R/G Wolf Run deck with Huntmaster of the Fells. This card has apparently been all the rage in MTG, but I honestly don't see what all the hype is about. I'm not generally a fan of the card and I don't run any (even though I bought 3), but other players disagree. I've played David several times before; I have respect for him as a player, but I don't think I've ever lost to him. I had more titans than he did, and I won the match 2-0.

The following round isn't worth mentioning. I won the match 2-0.

In the third round I was paired against a new player, who I didn't know, running U/W humans. The first game was extremely close. My opponent got me down to 2 life, but Inkmoth Nexus is a powerful card when backed by Kessig Wolf Run and I was able to scrape out a victory. The following game, my opponent had to mulligan to 5 cards, and then he never drew a third land to play the 3 Geist of Saint Traft he had in his hand. I won the match 2-0.

In the fourth round I played Adam Brown, who was running his now typical G/W control deck. The deck is packed with Gideon Jura, Hero of Bladehold, and a host of mana accelerators like Birds of Paradise. For removal, Adam runs several copies of Oblivion Ring. I've played Adam's deck before and the matches are usually close, but this time I just couldn't draw the cards I needed. Adam had multiple copies of Gideon Jura in the first game, and I got land screwed in the second. The match ended 0-2, and Adam eventually won first place.

In the fifth and final round I played Ryan Engbrecht again; this time he was running U/B Zombies, which utilizes cards like Gravecrawler and Mortarpod. Ryan got land screwed in the first game, and in the second game I managed to draw one of my sideboarded copies of Grafdigger's Cage, which effectively shut down many of the cards in his deck. I won the match 2-0.

The shitty thing about this tournament (aside from losing to Adam and placing second), was the prize ceremony at the end. I won 6 packs, and noticing two new Tyranid models I wanted to purchase, asked that the packs be converted into store credit. I was told I could only receive $9 in store credit for the packs. I started to argue with the store owner, first, because $9 is a ridiculous prize when you pay $5 to enter and win second place (and there were 20 entries), and second, because there is no way those packs cost the store only $9. Stores pay roughly $2.50 per pack, which in my opinion, means I should have been awarded at least $15 in store credit. I brought my objections to the store owner, Chris, but it was after 12 AM and apparently Chris had already decided he did not want to allow credit conversion. I have already started to look for another store to play FNM at, specifically one where prizes can be fairly converted into store credit.

A final side note: I did use the credit to buy that Tyranid model, the new Tervigon, and have begun painting it accordingly. Pictures to follow soon. Until next time, readers!