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.