"Unknown spears / Suddenly hurtle before my dream-awakened eyes...."

---William Butler Yeats, "The Valley of the Black Pig"









That was some serious bullshit.

I just got back from another tournament at Guardian Games; the usual three round skirmish on Tuesday evenings. Things were looking good until the final round, when I lost to Henry Freedman running Mono Green Infect. I've decided I hate that deck, and worse yet, I think the deck is unfair bullshit.

Obviously, you can tell I'm upset at the loss, but before explaining why I think the deck is total bullshit I should relay the rounds leading up to the final round, because I did get to play some nice games.

In the first round I played against Dane Frank running Mono Black Control ("MBC"). MBC is a deck that has been gaining more and more popularity lately, especially after Phillip Johnson's top 8 finish a couple weeks ago (see Phillip's list here, and a copycat, here). Although Dane's list appeared to include some of the usual cards, he put his own twist on the deck with Mutilate. Dane basically got land screwed both games, so there isn't much of a match to describe. I won the match 2-0.

Round two was quite different, however. I played against Zach Ledesma, again, although this time Zach was running NayaPod instead of his usual deck, UW Delver. His deck appeared to be a card-for-card imitation of the deck that Caleb Durward used to win the most recent Star City Games tournament (see the list here). I anticipated this deck would be popular, and so I added extra board sweepers to my deck before the tournament. I ran the following list, which we can just refer to as Jund Wolf Run:

Creatures
4 Primeval Titan
3 Inferno Titan
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Huntmaster of the Fells

Spells
4 Rampant Growth
4 Sphere of the Suns
2 Doom Blade
4 Whipflare
1 Blasphemous Act
3 Slagstorm
2 Beast Within
1 Green Sun's Zenith

Lands
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Swamp
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Rootbound Crag
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Glimmerpost
3 Forest
3 Mountain

Sideboard
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Sever the Bloodline
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Naturalize
1 Beast Within
1 Doom Blade
2 Grave Titan
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Karn Liberated

With EIGHT sweepers and 4 removal spells, I felt like my deck would be well matched against any creature heavy strategies. I lost the first game, but was rewarded for my preparation in games two and three. As I predicted, Blasphemous Act and Grave Titan performed quite well against my opponent. He was unable to put his Zealous Conscripts or his Act of Aggressions to good use. I won the match 2-1.

Round 3 was some total bullshit. Henry was running the new Mono Green Infect list (a somewhat bad version can be seen here). As you can see, I was prepared for this matchup, as I included both Melira, Sylvok Outcast and Curse of Death's Hold in my sideboard, but it didn't help. Here is why the deck is so unfair:

In game 1, Henry killed me on turn 3. He went first: He played Forest, Glistener Elf. Turn 2: He skipped his land drop, but played Rancor on the Glistener Elf, then attacked me for 3 poison. On my turn, I tapped out to cast Whipflare. This would kill the elf, but Henry responds with Mutagenic Growth, saving the Elf from death. On his next turn, he untaps, drops an Inkmoth Nexus, attacks with his elf, and casts Titanic Growth on it. I take 7 poison and die.

I'm sorry, but turn three kills are not supposed to happen in Standard. They should be relegated to Legacy or Vintage.

I boarded in Melira, Sylvok Outcast, Naturalize, Ancient Grudge, Curse of Death's Hold, Doom Blade, and Karn Liberated, and boarded out my sweepers and some Titans. Melira and Curse are obviously the hoser cards---I figure if I get either I should probably win.

I go first in Game 2, and things seem much more calm. I end up resolving a couple of Sphere of the Suns on turns 2 and 3. On Henry's third turn, with an Inkmoth Nexus already out and 1 poison previously delvered, Henry casts Wild Defiance. I untap, draw, lay a land (6 mana now possible) and I cast Green Sun's Zenith for Melira, Sylvok Outcast. I have 3 mana untapped for the Beast Within in my hand. I'm at 21 life and 1 poison; I couldn't possibly lose now right? Henry untaps, activates his Inkmoth and attacks me. I don't block. He attempts to cast Ranger's Guile on the Inkmoth. I sense something amiss, so I respond by casting Beast Within on the Inkmoth Nexus. He resonds with another Ranger's Guile, which resolves. Then, as if on cue, he casts two Mutagenic Growths on the Nexus. If you add up all the bonuses, the nexus is now a 21/21 and kills me with NONPOISON damage......on turn 4....yeah, that happened.

I'm sorry, but the deck just seems insanely overpowered. You could say I made a play mistake---that I should have cast Beast Within on my turn, targetting the Wild Defiance. Hindsight is 20/20 however, and I hardly think I should HAVE to kill a Wild Defiance when I'm at 21 life and my opponent has nothing but an Inkmoth Nexus in play.

I realize now that Curse of Death's Hold is perhaps my only effective weapon against the Mono Green Infect deck, and that perhaps I can tip the scales more in my favor by adding additional copies to my sideboard, but even the Curse doesn't come out until turn 4-5, and Mono Green CAN kill you on turn 3. Other than the Curse of Death's Hold, can anyone think of anything that can help. Please suggest?

Anyway, maybe I shouldn't be too upset. I placed third and used my store credit to purchase a new Ancient Tomb. More Legacy goodness.