"Some fiendish mage had created a horrifying wall of living flesh, patched together from a jumble of non-recognizable body parts. As we sought to hew our way through it, some unknown power healed the gaping wounds we cut, denying us passage."
On Sunday afternoon I decided to enter the usual Standard tournament at Guardian Games. I ran R/G Wolf Run yet again, choosing a variant of the list that Iyunaga had success with at the 2011 Magic the Gathering World Championships (the list can be found here). I did not have nearly as much success on Sunday as Iyunaga did. The metagame has changed dramatically from the list he ran in 2011, perhaps the most drastic changes coming with the new release of Avacyn Restored. On Sunday, I found my deck was simply unprepared for the recent chages, and I scored 1 win and 2 losses before dropping out of the race.
In the first round, I faced Ryan Bemrose who was running a Grixis control deck. Ryan used cards like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Black Sun's Zenith, Mana Leak, Dissipate, and Doom Blade to control the board, while he proceeded to "mill" me (a term of art based on Millstone) with cards like Nephalia Drownyard, and Jace, Memory Adept. I won game one with a resolved Primeval Titan on turn 4. Ryan did not have anything to deal with the Titan and he simply scooped his cards---the game was quick. Games 2 and 3 did not go as well. Ryan was able to resolve Tamiyo and keep her out long enough to completely lock down a Solemn Simulacrum, while any Titan I tried to cast was quickly countered. Oh how I wish I had had a Cavern of Souls! I made one play mistake in this game, which I think cost me the victory. It basically involved a decision to play a Rootbound Crag instead of a Copperline Gorge on move 16ish, thereby giving me 13 mana on both the current turn and next turn, instead of doing it the other way around and having 12 mana this turn and 14 mana next. The extra mana would have meant that Inkmoth Nexus could have swung for lethal poison damage after being inflated with a Kessig Wolf Run. Game 3 also went poorly with Ryan establishing control before I could resolve any threats. I lost the match 1-2.
I should note here, that several times throughout this match I caught Ryan attempting to "cheat." ALthough I cannot be 100% sure that his actions were designed to cheat, I think he is too good a player not to realize when he does not have 3 blue mana untapped, or to forget when he has already played a land this turn. When I called him on his errors it became obvious (to me at least) that he already knew the error and that he had tried purposefully to deceive me. Enough said about that.
In round 2 I faced W/R humans, a new aggro build that several players have expressed excitement about. I am not sold on the deck, although I like the use of Zealous Conscripts. Nevertheless, Slagstorm proved too much for the deck, and I won the match 2-0.
In round 3 I faced David Stroud, who was running Solar Flare (I think) with no counterspells. My deck functioned terribly. My draws were awful and I got mana screwed both games, missing crucial land drops. At one interesting point in the game, David had a Sun Titan out. I cast an Inferno Titan (as a blocker) dealing 3 damage to David and passing the turn. David cast two Phantasmal Images, each copying the Inferno Titan and each dealing 3 damage to it. The Inferno Titan died and David was left with three titans! GG yo, 0-2.
So the tournament went poorly. I realize now that I really need to change decks. This R/G deck has been great, but it is time for a change. We'll see what I come up with for Tuesday. Until then....
P.S. I would like to sidenote about something Melanie thought of. Why is there no Legendary Wall in magic? There are tons of legendary creatures but no legendary walls. Something should be done about this. Okay, sidenote over.
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