Sorry I haven't been posting lately, but there isn't much to report Magic-wise.  I took a ten-week break from competitive play to study for the California Bar exam, so I just haven't been playing much. Furthermore, even though I can now play Magic again, I haven't really been interested in the game. This is partly due to the game itself: Standard is an extremely dull format at the moment, and partly due to where I am at in life. There isn't really a Standard deck that I like or have played consistently, and my results have been poor in the few Standard tournaments I've played in.

I generally consider myself heading towards Magic "retirement".  The big rotation is coming this month and I don't feel like spending any money on the game to stay competitive. I'm not sure what that means for the future of this blog.

For now, however, there is still some good news to report, at least from the perspective of a proud collector. In the months since my last blog entry, I have added some badass cards to my collection, and I wanted to share them here.

The first addition is a promotional Jace Beleren. This card went instantly into my mono-blue EDH deck, and it's currently considered the "crown jewel" of that deck:

The art on this card is just crazy gorgeous and its definitely one of my favorite cards I own. Nick Rennard prefers the original Jace Beleren art, but I think he's just nuts (the original art can be found here). I won this card several months ago by placing first in the weekly Saturday Modern tournament at Ancient Wonders (a $150 value!). For that tournament, I ran the UWR list that Nick Rennard worked so hard on for the Portland Grand Prix. Thanks Nick!

The next two cards I added to my collection are a foil "Emrakul, the Aeons Torn" and a foil "Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre" (from Rise of the Eldrazi).

The acquisition of these two cards completes my foil collection of all of the original Eldrazi. The Emrakul is especially cool because that card sees play in several formats.

The last card I added to my collection is probably the best: "The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale".

 

I wanted this card since I was a child and now I finally own it. Unfortunately, the card is pretty pricey so I had to trade in my entire trade binder to get it (about $400 of cards, for which I received about $300 in trade). Liquidating my trade binder fits nicely into my "retirement" plan---there's no use keeping cards I don't need. The Tabernacle is on Wizards' reserved list, so it shouldn't be reprinted any time soon, which makes me feel better about losing value on the trade-in; most of the cards I traded in were not on the list and might be reprinted one day.

That's all I have to report for now.

For those of you who are still following my blog, I'm taking a little break from Magic, the Gathering for the time being. I just don't feel like playing right now. I'm not sure when I will be back, but it will probably be awhile before I blog again. Please send me an email to ryan235711@yahoo.com if you wish to receive notifications when I blog again or, if you are already receiving notifications, and you wish to have your email address removed.

STANDARD

The Gatecrash season is winding up and we are preparing to enter the Dragon's Maze season of Standard. Prerelease events happen this weekend and the set officially releases next weekend. I wish I could say I was excited, but I think Dragon's Maze looks pretty bad. Although I haven't significantly tested any of the cards, I'm ready to officially put that in print. There are a few interesting cards (which I won't list here), but overally I think the power level of the set is quite low. Return to Ravnica and New Phyrexia are by far the strongest sets I have witnessed since I returned to Magic. Dragon's Maze simply can't compare.

I played in three Standard events since my last post, scoring 5-3-2 overall (I know, not great). I did manage to squeak in a third place somewhere in there. The two draws were a result of what I consider to be slow play by my opponents. I could have called a judge, but chose not to, instead accepting the occasional drawn match as the cost of playing a mill deck. I guess I should just learn to be more assertive and tell my opponent to hurry up (like Nick does), rather than try to avoid sounding like a jerk.

Dark Bant is now 37-17-5 (68.5%). I imagine next week will be my last chance to improve this percentage.

MODERN

I competed in three GPTs since I last blogged, in an attempt to earn byes for the Grand Prix in May. I played Tron in the first event, scoring 3-2 and missing out on the cut to top 8. I played Junk in the second event, scoring 2-1-1 before conceding to Nick to place him in top 8. It's not very often you see someone lose to a rancored Spellskite.

The third event was the most interesting. I played RG Tron again (screw Junk), scoring 3-1-1, which was good enough for Top 8. I beat Affinity in the quarterfinals, but lost to Nick in the semifinals playing UWr. It sucked to lose, but it was a highly entertaining finals, made more so by the intense atmosphere of concentration. It reminded me of a chess tournament. Nick eventually won against a very aggro version of Jund with Molten Rain and Putrid Leech.

If the finals taught me anything, it's that Crypic Command is a super powerful card; it does something useful in every single matchup.

Well, there's a lot of Magic to report so I better get to it. I played in five Standard events since my last report, scoring  12-4-3 overall and a couple of first place finishes.

There weren't any super-interesting matches to report, but I noted the following.

First, Naya Blitz is a problem for my deck. A turn one Champion of the Parish into a turn two Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a serious problem for my deck, especially when I'm on the draw. Naya Blitz has Boros Charm to counteract the effect of Supreme Verdict, so even if I do make it to five mana to cast the Supreme Verdict (with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben out), there's no guarantee the verdict works. The matchup is not one I like. I've hated Thalia since the days of RG Wolf Run.

Second, Esper Control seems to be the only other deck I fear. They have more Nephalia Drownyards than I do, which generally means they win the mill battle. I usually lose game one, but find that I'm better prepared after sideboarding. They also can't sideboard out all their removal like I can because Thragtusk can still kill an opponent quickly if left unchecked. Still, overall I think the matchup favors Esper slightly.

The above-described events bring my score with Dark Bant up to 32-14-3 (69.5%).

This post started as a report regarding my recent Magic tournaments. However, it later became something more...

I attended the Saturday Modern tournament at Ancient Wonders last weekend. I played my usual G/R Tron deck; this time with little success. I dropped out of the tournament after a painful first round loss to UWr Geist.

Sowing Salt is just annoying. I KNEW before the tournament that people would be packing Sowing Salt because of the previous success I had with Tron, so I tried to plan accordingly. However, my research revealed a fundamental flaw with any anti-Sowing Salt strategy; there's no good answer to Sowing Salt! Consider the following:

First, Sowing Salt exiles a land, so effects that make your land indestructible or effects that return a land from the graveyard to your hand or play simply are not effective against Sowing Salt. Second, unlike other cards that remove all copies of a card from the game (here I am thinking of Surgical Extraction, Extirpate, Memoricide, Slaughter Games, Cranial Extraction, and so on...), Sowing Salt does not target a player, so Leyline of Sanctity (a common sideboard card in some Modern decks) simply does nothing to stop Sowing Salt's effect.

Second, it's insanely difficult in Modern (and in Magic in general), to retrieve a card that has been removed from the game. Thus, once Sowing Salt exiles one of your Urza lands, those lands are pretty much gone for good. The only Modern-legal cards I found that can successfully return a card from exile are Mirror of Fate, Pull from Eternity, and Riftsweeper.

*** Special note here. In the old days, Magic rules allowed you to use cards like Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, Glittering Wish, and Living Wish to retrieve cards that had been removed from the game. If these rules were the still the same, Living Wish would provide an excellent answer to Sowing Salt. These days, however, the rules have changed, and the "wishes" can only retrieve cards located in your sideboard. Of course, this rule change is completely irrelevant to this analysis because Burning Wish, Cunning Wish, and Living Wish aren't Modern legal anyway (Glittering Wish is; check out this deck), but hey, it's still worth mentioning.***

Anyway, back to Mirror of Fate, Pull from Eternity, and Riftsweeper. These cards are all possible answers to Sowing Salt, because they allow you to retrieve whatever land has been exiled. Unfortunately, each of these cards suffers from a fatal flaw.

Mirror of Fate is terrible. You exile your library. Enough said.

Pull from Eternity sucks because the land would go into your graveyard. Tron does not have any effective way to retrieve a card from the graveyard, aside from discarding an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, thereby shuffling the land back into your library and retrieving it again with Sylvan Scrying or Expedition Map. Obviously, this is a ridiculously convoluted way to retrieve and exiled land.

Riftsweeper isn't terrible. The land doesn't go to your hand, which sucks, but placing the land back into your library still isn't awful; you can fetch it again with Sylvan Scrying or Expedition Map. This is probably one of the best answers to Sowing Salt in the format. However, I didn't stop my research here. I kept looking.

Given the above considerations, I tried turning to non-conventional ways to answer Sowing Salt. My research revealed several possibilities, but none of them looked extraordinarily promising. I want to start with the biggest failure: Unstable Frontier. For about 2 seconds, this card looked amazing, until I realized it didn't actually give a land the supertype "basic." If only the card said: "Tap: Choose a basic land type. Target land becomes a basic land of that type until end of turn."---my problems would be solved. Instead, Unstable Frontier turns another land into a basic land type; it does not turn it into a basic land. Thanks for nothing, Wizards.

*** Special Note #2.  I found NO way in Modern to turn a non-basic land into a basic land using just one card. Please, if you can, prove me wrong.***

So my search continued. Next, I looked at Zuran Orb. Zuran Orb answers Sowing Salt because you can sacrifice the targetted land in response to Sowing Salt, effectively countering the spell. Zuran Orb has other good things going for it: it's colorless, so it can be fetched with Ancient Stirrings; it's about as cheap as cheap comes; its out before they can cast Sowing Salt; and it's a generally useful card. There's just one problem; Zuran Orb isn't Modern legal.

However, Claws of Gix is Modern legal, and acts similar to Zuran Orb. The are two problems with Claws of Gix, however. First, you're playing Claws of Gix. The card is almost useless and is completely reactionary. Second, unlike Zuran Orb, Claws of Gix requires you to leave 1 mana open if you think your opponent might cast Sowing Salt. This is sometimes difficult for the Tron player to do in the early turns because Tron has a ton of sorcery-speed type spells that need to be cast early(Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, Expedition Map, Ancient Stirrings, Sylvan Scrying, etc.). Tron uses it's mana.

Here I should also mention Trade Routes and Edge of Autumn. Both spells can answer Sowing Salt in previously described ways, but neither seems worthy of a place in a Modern deck.

Next, I considered various counterspells: Spell Pierce and Turn Aside were given serious consideration. There are actually a number of spells that had effects similar to these cards: Faith's Shield, for example. However, these spells would requiring altering the mana base in some fashion, and it seems a bit unreliable to expect the deck to have a Chromatic Sphere or Chromatic Star at the ready to produce blue mana when my opponent casts Sowing Salt.

This led me consider Skyshroud Blessing, which seems like a decent answer, but it also is not Modern legal. Lame.

There is also Ghost Quarter, which seems to be the answer most players chose. Ghost Quarter is fetchable with Sylvan Scrying and Expedition Map, so you can get it early and just keep it untapped any turn you think your opponent might cast Sowing Salt, with the intention of sacrificing the Ghost Quarter in response to destroy Sowing Salt's target. Of course, it's not a terrific answer: you destroy one of your own lands (net), so Sowing Salt acted as a simple land destruction spell. The fact that Ghost Quarter is a land is nice; its fetchable with so many cards in R/G Tron; but as far as answers go it's not perfect. It can only be used once.

Some people have also suggested Thespian Stage, the new land out of Gatecrash. I personally hate this idea. The idea would be that you can activate Thespian Stage in response to Sowing Salt to copy whatever Urza land they target. This idea suffers drawbacks similar to other ideas above---you have to leave an inordindate amount of mana open any turn you think your opponent might cast Sowing Salt.

So there you have it. A bunch of answers that aren't really answers. So what's the best way to proceed? Maybe Tron just gets owned by Sowing Salt and that's the way it is. If that's the case, maybe its a dubious strategy to play Tron. I'm curious as to your thoughts? Until next time....

I’ve played a lot of Magic since my last post. I realize I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I have been playing whenever I get the chance and whenever I'm not feeling too burnt out on the game. Since my last post, I have attended four Standard tournaments and two Modern tournaments, with some successes and some failures.

 

The four Standard events were hit or miss. I scored 6-3-2 overall with Dark Bant, placing first and third in a couple events, and dropping out of a couple others. At times I feel like dismantling the deck because it runs like shit, and at other times I feel like foiling the deck out because it is running so fluidly.

 

I made some changes to my Dark Bant deck to accommodate the high proportion of R/G Haste and Naya Blitz in my metagame. The high prevalence of these decks is probably due to their relatively cheap cost (Boros Reckoner aside). I've traded some countermagic for copies of Feeling of Dread in the maindeck and additional copies of Blind Obedience to the sideboard. My aggro matchup has improved substantially, though I am now weaker against other control decks, most notably, Esper Control. I'm fine with this until the metagame shifts back and I see a larger percentage of control.

 

My record with Dark Bant this season now stands at 20-10-3 (66%).

 

The Modern tournaments went much better. I played GR Tron (again) in the first event, scoring clear first place, and Jund in the second event, scoring third. The Jund list I ran can be found here. I've never actually been a huge fan of Jund, but I had to play something different because players were starting to anticipate that I might be playing Tron and they were adding additional copies of Sowing Salt to their sideboards. I did fine with the Jund deck though, scoring 3-1.

 

FNM tonight. Should be interesting.

Hello again, to all my adoring fans! Is it just me, or does Standard seem stagnant these days? I continue to grind through various tournaments with Dark Bant. Since my last post I think I've played in 3 tournaments, scoring 3-1 in each event. This brings my total record with Dark Bant up to 14-7-1.

There aren't any real interesting matches to report. I lost to Aristocrats, R/G Aggro, and Jund. I find the Jund matchup particularly difficult for Dark Bant because of its ability to cast Rakdos's Return before I am able to resolve Sphinx's Revelation. I have altered my sideboard slightly to improve this matchup.

I have little interest in standard at the moment. There are few cards I find particularly well-positioned, like Mutilate. Mutilate usually kills Falkenrath Aristocrat and Boros Reckoner, and its usually easier to cast than Supreme Verdict. Obviously, the downside to Mutilate is that you have to play a high number of swamps, and Black just doesn't have that many strong cards to support a heavy black deck. Mono Black control won't be very viable in Standard until they increase the number of artifacts in the format.

Moving away from Standard, I played in a Modern tournament on Saturday with GR Tron, scoring 3-0-1 and taking clear first. I beat Kiki-Pod Infect, and Affinity, and drew with Eternal Command. I used the credit to buy some really nice EDH cards, including a foil Guantlet of Power.

Okay so, this post might turn into a little bit of a rant, but whatever.

I played some Magic this weekend, scoring 5-4-1 overall with Dark Bant control and winning absolutely nothing. I ran the following list, which I actually like quite a bit, despite the poor results:

Creatures (8):
4 Thragtusk
4 Augur of Bolas

Spells (26):
4 Farseek
4 Supreme Verdict
4 Azorius Charm
4 Sphinx's Revelation
3 Think Twice
2 Merciless Eviction
2 Syncopate
1 Dissipate
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Detention Sphere

Lands (26):
4 Hinterland Harbor
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Hallowed Fountain
3 Temple Garden
2 Nepahia Drownyard
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Godless Shrine
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Alchemist Refuge

The sideboard is confidential for now.

This list is very similar to Reed Duke's Dark Bant list from the SCG Invitational (linked here). I made some alterations; the most serious being the addition of Merciless Eviction. Some players have criticized this decision, but I actually found Merciless Eviction to be more useful than Terminus. In the control matchup, Terminus is basically useless, but Merciless Eviction can hit enemy Detention Spheres or planeswalkers. Yes, your matchup against aggro gets slightly worse, as sometimes you won't have the black mana to cast Merciless Eviction on turn 6, but I still prefer the flexibility of Merciless Eviction over Terminus.

Anyway, in reaching my incredible 5-4-1 record, I did get to play some interesting matches. The first match of note occurred in the final round of Time Vault Games's Mox tournament. I was 3-1-1and needed a win to make Top 8. I got paired up against Naya Midrange. I lost the first game after I mulligan to five, but I managed to stabalize in the second game. I was starting to mill my opponent with Jace, Memory Adept when the judge announced the end of regulation. I managed to mill my opponent out on the 5th turn of the time control, but because there were no additional terms the game was drawn, and thus, the match was lost, 0-1-1. It was tragic.

This made me think of all the cards in the format that can make an opponent draw a card, and how I wish i had any of them. Bloodgift Demon; Harrowing Journey; Inspiration; Jace, Memory Adept; Otherworld Atlas; Reforge the Soul; Righteous Authority; Sign in Blood; Whispering Madness;

Okay, Rant begins here.

I hate the current Magic rules regarding time usage. I understand why they exist: Tournaments run better when rounds are limited to 50 minutes. Increasing the time limit even 5 minutes could potentially extend the length of a tournament by 20-60 minutes. However, something is wrong with a competition where the time for playing is shared between the competitors. After winning the first game, its simply good strategy to play the second game as slowly as possible. We can complain about this being poor sportsmanship all we like, but RULES are what keep competitors in line.

MTGO rectifies this problem by asking the active player to hit "okay" whenever passing priority becomes necessary for the game to proceed. If competitive Magic ever wants to be taken more seriously, it needs to find a way to manage time similar to this online system. I make the following suggestion based on my experience with competitive chess:

Each player has 25 minutes for all actions in the match. If any player's time expires, he lose's the match (not just that game). Black hits the clock to start the game. White's time begins to run. White untaps, upkeeps and draws. If Black wishes to take any action during any of these phases, he can hit the clock (causing White's time to stop and Black's time to run), announce which phase he wants taking the action in, then he can tap land, play a spell, etc. After removing his hand from the spell, he may hit the clock (restarting White's time). If White has no response, the spell resolves and any affected cards are removed, etc. During White's precombat main phase, White plays a land and casts a Llanowar Elf. White hits the clock to pass priority (Black's time begins to run). Black may spend as much time as he likes deciding whether to Mental Misstep the Llanowar Elf, but if his time runs out, he loses. Black chooses not to respond to the elf, and simply hits the clock (White's time begins to run). White announces the end of his turn and hits his clock (Starting Black's time again). Black can now decide whether he wants to Gut Shot the elf at the end of White's turn. If he does, he can pay 2 life, cast the Gut Shot, and then hit the clock (running White's time). White has no response, removes the elf, and hits his clock, once again starting Black's time. Black untaps, upkeeps, and draws, and the process repeats.

Why can't Magic be played in this fashion? A friend of mine said it would extend the length of a match due to clock usage; but this criticism doesn't seem to make sense. If anything, clock use would REDUCE match length by causing players and judges to adhere to their own restrictions. The match will NEVER last longer than 50 minutes. After 50 minutes, someone's time will run out. The judge will never fail to realize that the time control should have been announced ten minutes ago. In fact, the judge would never have to announce the time control ever again.

I realize the addition of clocks would change Magic to an extent, but clock use enhances the experience of playing competitive chess, and I wonder if it could do the same for Magic. Let me know your thoughts?

Rant over. I lost the game due to time control and that's just the way Magic currently is.

The next interesting match occurred on Sunday. In the final round, I played against Oliver Garcia running R/G Aggro. The final game of the match was incredibly close and went long. I was at 2 life and Oliver was running out of cards in his library. We were both top decking. I needed to draw a Sphinx's Revelation, which would have won me the game, and Oliver needed to draw a Skullcrack or any creature with haste. I drew first, but drew a Hinterland Harbor. Oliver drew a Skullcrack and finished me off. The next card in my library was a Sphinx's Revelation. Again, tragic.

So, those were the most interesting matches. Hope you've enjoyed reading. See you next time.

Pretty big Magic weekend coming up this weekend. There's a Standard tournament tomorrow where the first place prize is a Mox Emerald! There are probably going to be a ton of people there. I've got my deck brewed up, sleeved up, and ready to go, so all that remains is to get some sleep. Wish me luck!

It's been a long time since my las post so I should probably write something. Sorry about the delay, but I had some poor tournament results lately and that always reduces my motivation to blog. Since my last post, I have played in three Magic events: 2 Standard tournaments and 1 Modern tournament. I didn't place higher than 6th in any of the tournaments, which led to a general distaste for the game of Magic.

However, there is some good news. Gatecrash has been released, which means the Standard format has become slightly more interesting. In addition, there was a PTQ this weekend, which was pretty fun to watch.

STANDARD

A few Fridays ago I went to the FNM at Guardian Games. I ran the usual Junk Angel deck, with some minor refinements to the sideboard to accomodate perceived shifts in the metagame. The most notable thing that happened during the tournament was a Judge call in one of the middle rounds. For those interested, here is what happened:

1.     I have a Fiend Hunter, exiling my opponent's Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
2.     My opponent has a Ravager of the Fells, or in other words, a flipped Huntmaster.
3.     My opponent also has a Silverblade Paladin, soulbonded with the Ravager of the Fells.
4.     It is the end of my turn. My opponent casts Restoration Angel, and I ask, "targetting?"
5.     He states: "Ravager of the Fells."
6.     I respond by casting an Restoration Angel, targetting my Fiend Hunter.
7.     The Fiend Hunter leaves play, returning Thalia, Guardian of Thraben to the battlefield, and
        when Fiend Hunter returns, I announce the trigger and target Ravager of the Fells.
8.     The question is: Will my opponent be able to soulbond his Silverblade Paladin to his
        Restoration Angel?

The answer is no, but it was sufficiently complex to warrant an appeal to a level 2 judge. My first!

I played against Bant Control in the final round. I beat my opponent in the second game, on the very last turn of the time control, tying the match at 1-1. There wasn't time for the final game, so we drew the match, and thus, we shared 6th place. Had I won the match, I would have placed second. Still, 3-1-1 is respectable.

On the following Sunday I took Junk Angel to another Standard Tournament at Ancient Wonders. I scored 1-2, losing to Bant Control and Mono Red. It was a painful result and I'd rather not talk about it.

Junk Angel thus retires 46-17-1 (73% wins) in its current version, and 68-34-12 (66% wins) overall.

 

While, like a ghastly rapid river,
Through the pale door,
A hideous throng rush out forever,
And laugh---but smile no more.

Edgar Allen Poe, "The Haunted Palace"






I played in three Magic tournaments this weekend: 2 Standard events at Guardian Games and 1 Modern tournament at Ancient Wonders. I did fairly well at all three events, though I failed to secure any first place finishes.

The weekend started with the usual FNM at Guardian Games. It's strange how few players are showing up for the usual FNM at GG. Perhaps the format has become stale, or perhaps it's the new opening of Time Vault Games, or perhaps Portland players are just preparing for the coming Modern season; for whatever reason, attendance at FNM events seems to have declined.

This last Friday was no different. The FNM at Guardian had less than 15 players. I ended up scoring 4-1 and placing second on tiebreaks, losing only to Zach Ledesma running U/W Flash in the penultimate round. I suspect Junk Angel has a poor matchup against U/W Flash: the infinite life combo can be broken easily by Unsummon, Geist of Saint Traft is difficult to deal with, and Feeling of Dread can quickly negate the life gained off a Thragtusk by tapping potential blockers. The matches were fairly one-sided in Zach's favor, and he won the match 2-0. I did have mana issues both games, so I'm not ready to make a judgment call about the strength of U/W Flash at this time.

The biggest mistake of the tournament was the prize I took home. My second place finish entitled me to $18 in store credit, which I supplemented with $2 of my own money to buy a foil Shivan Reef from Apocalypse. The card was marked as $20, but it wasn't until after I got home that I realized the price on the card hadn't been updated since May, 2010. The card is now worth only $8-9. Bummer. Note to self: check the price date on GG cards and ask for price updates if appropriate.

On Saturday I attended the Modern tournament at Ancient Wonders. I ran RUG Delver and scored 2-1, placing second on tiebreaks. I used my store credit to purchase a foil Restoration Angel, a prize any man can be happy with. There weren't any remarkable matches, but I've realized that RUG Delver just isn't my style of deck.

On Sunday I attended a Standard GPT at Guardian. I scored 3-2 placing sixth on tiebreaks. The tournament was again won by Zach Ledesma, which means his deck is technically undefeated in the last 10 matches (at least, the last 10 I've seen). Perhaps U/W Flash is better-positioned than I give it credit for. I think Natty Leof was running a similar deck at this tournament and he also did well (4-1). In more personal news, I once again lost to Aaron Henner, who I'm pretty sure I've played like 4-5 times without a single match win. Every MTG player just seems to have that one person who just has your number, and Aaron Henner seems to be that guy for me. Maybe it's because he's usually the only person on the chart who has a lower DCI #. Whatever the reason, this needs to stop.

Aaron was running Human Frites, a list that is becoming very popular. My biggest weapon in game 1 against this deck is trying to get the infinite life combo before any Nightshade Peddler--Izzet Staticaster shennanigans come online. Aaron went through about 45 cards before he finally found an Angel of Glory's Rise, but even with all that time, my deck couldn't find the mana to get the infinite life combo working. It turns out, Nightshade Peddler paired with a Huntmaster of the Fells can also be quite deadly. That's another interaction in Human Frites to look out for. After sideboard, my matchup against this deck becomes more favorable, but I again got land screwed, and thereafter lost the match 0-2. Sad times.

Honestly though, the most epic match of this tournament was the first match. I played against Adam Brown running G/W populate and the first game literally took the entire 50 minutes. When the match went to turns, Adam had about 20 creatures out, and since he was activating two Gavony Townships per turn, every creature he had in play had about 10-15 +1/+1 counters on it. Adam couldn't attack me though, because I had gained infinite life, so his plan was to simply wait until I decked myself. However, Adam had very few fliers, and the only thing keeping my Restoration Angels and Angel of Serenity(s) at bay was an untargetable Sigarda, Host of Herons with like 19 counters on it. On the very last turn possible, I cast an Unburial Rites, targeting Craterhoof Behemoth, giving all my creatures +14/+14. Then I cast Restoration Angel ,targeting the Craterhoof Behemoth, giving all my other creatures an additional +15/+15 (Craterhoof only received this latter bonus). Adam was at 78 life, but my 4 flyers attacked and dealt over 100 damage. It was fucking epic.

I guess that's a fitting end to this post. Junk Angel is now 49-17-2 in its current version, and 71-34-11 overall. Until next time....

The grind continues. There are only a few weeks left in the current Standard "season," with the release of Gatecrash just around the corner. People have basically stopped innovating, choosing instead to focus on the upcoming Modern PTQs. I played in a couple of Standard events this week, hoping to increase the win percentage of my Junk Angel deck before being forced to shelve it post-Gatecrash.

However, it was not to be. In the first round of the FNM at Guardian Games, I lost to Henry Freedman, who will forever be known on this blog as "formerly one of the strongest Magic players in Portland." Henry beat me in game three of our mirror-ish match, but mostly because I made a huge play mistake. Henry had two Deathrite Shamans and I had one, but Henry had tapped all of his lands on his turn. During my main phase, I cast Grisly Salvage, revealing Angel of Serenity, Unburial Rites, a land, and 2 other cards. I tapped 4 lands, flashed back the Unburial Rites, and targetted my Angel. Henry quickly tapped one Deathrite Shaman, removing the land in my graveyard to activate the other Deathrite Shaman, removing my Angel of Serenity. It wasn't until after I placed my Angel in the RFG pile and added two life to Henry's total that I realized I could have tapped my own Deathrite Shaman in response, removing the land from my own graveyard and depriving him of the needed mana. That's the second time I've made a play mistake with Deathrite Shaman that has (assumedly) cost me a match.

In round 2 of the FNM I played Oliver Garcia, running Omnidoor Thragfire, originally created by Travis Woo (see the published article here). I lost game one as I usually do against Omnidoor, but I won game two pretty quickly. In game 3, I managed to gain infinite life but still lost when he resolved Omniscience into Door to Nothingness and Temporal Mastery. Lame. :-P

So I dropped from the FNM. I probably should have stuck it out, gangam-style, whatever the fuck that means, but I was already feeling under the weather and the two close losses didn't help. I bought a foil Pact of Negation from the shop to make myself feel better.

I played again on Sunday with hopes of redeeming my FNM performance. I scored 2-1-1 after an unusual loss to Boros Humans. Although Junk Angel mulligans well, against aggro you have to be very careful what hands you keep. With 6 cards on the draw, I had Sunpetal Grove, Woodland Cemetery, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Grisly Salvage, Fiend Hunter, Angel of Serenity. This hand simply proved too slow without a play to make on turn 1, and only a Pilgrim turn 2.

I played against an Esper deck in a later round, run by Gabriel Carleton-Barnes. Gabrield's deck was based around Nepahlia Drownyard, Tamiyo the Moon Sage, etc. etc.---a deck very similar to Reid Duke's Dark Bant list (but without the green cards, of course). I won game two with two cards left in my library, and we only had a minute left for game 3, so we drew the match.

So, in all, it wasn't a winning weekend. Junk Angel is now 42-14-2 in its current version, and 64-31-11 overall. Until next time.