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%).