As 2012 winds down I've been staying busy mostly with visiting family and Melanie. I did have a chance to attend an FNM at Thou Shalt Game in Temecula, California last weekend. I have to say, if you ever have a chance and are in the location, Thou Shalt Game has a pretty decent FNM. Although the tournament management was a little inefficient and the starting time is a bit late for a 6-round tournament (7 p.m.), the prize pool is outstanding, with $100 going to first place, $50 to second, and $25 to third and fourth.

I brought Junk Angel to the tournament and did reasonably well, scoring 5-1 and placing third on tiebreaks. I used the store credit to purchase a bunch of foil EDH cards, which is the format I'm currently interested in. I don't play EDH much, but I guess I just like how EDH focuses a bit more on "bling" and less on substance, and I like how the format is pretty underdeveloped. I'm currently brewing a sick deck with Jhoira of the Ghitu as my commander.

My only loss in the tournament was against Naya Midrange. I think my opponent net-decked the winning list from the SCG Open in Las Vegas, which can be found here. I had to mulligan to 5 cards on the play in the first game. I did the best of I could, fought tooth and nail, but I couldn't overcome the drastic card disadvantage. It turns out, Huntmaster of the Fells and Bonfire of the Damned are still pretty good cards (who knew?).

I also played a bunch of Goglari aggro decks, which is strange because that deck is not very popular here in Portland. Rakdos and Mono Red Aggro are far more popular. Junk Angel has a better matchup against Golgari than against Rakdos or Mono Red because Golgari is far slower than either (Gogari has fewer 1 drops, no Hellrider, and no Falkenrath Aristocrat. Rancor and Dreg Mangler are nice, but come on, Falkenrath and Hellrider...). I think I was paired against at least 2 Golgari aggro decks and I beat them easily.

In the final round I played against a unique 5-color reanimator list running Supreme Verdicts, Griselbrand, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Angel of Serenity, Thragtusk, etc. In the first game we got into a huge Angel of Serenity battle. We both gained tons of life and were casting angels every turn exiling eachother's angels and returning Thragtusks to hand, etc. etc. The game went nowhere and my opponent soon ran out of cards because he was running Faithless Looting and I wasn't. Game 2 I hit an early Deathrite Shaman and that bad boy went pretty much all the way. I'm glad to have picked up another foil copy of that card on Friday, especially as I think I got the better end of the trade (I gave up 2 non-foil copies). I finished the match 2-0 and thus took third place.

And so, it was a very productive evening, but it took a long time to get through the six rounds and I didn't get out the door until 1 A.M. I was hella tired. Still, despite the fact that I basically only earned $4 an hour for 6 hours, rack up another strong finish for Junk Angel; it's now 40-11-1 in its current version and 62-28-10 overall. I want to play Tuesday somewhere, but I'm not sure which shops are open on New Years. Stay tuned.