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.