Prerelease Weekend!

Hi everybody!

Hey, so we had a prerelease this weekend! Dragon's Maze! The culmination of the Return to Ravnica! Exclamation marks!

FNM: Anyway. So, I basically hung out at Mox Mania almost all weekend. I played Standard at FNM, and my record was 1-2-1. I don't remember much about what happened, other than losing to an aggro deck (I think) and a Junk Rites deck, beating a mono-white aggro deck, and ... apparently drawing against something else? I don't remember. Whatever. It was fun, but obviously not terribly memorable. Sorry!

Midnight Prerelease: So then there was the midnight prerelease. I played ... Judge Duty! This was my first event on Duty as a L1 Judge, and my first Prerelease. It was a great experience, both in and of itself, and as, well, experience. I've played in plenty of these things, but it was interesting to be on the other side of the fence, as it were. It reminds me of being in a band, and the difference between being in the audience and on stage. On stage, you can observe the crowd, and try to do your best to give them a good show/experience.

I was mostly a "gofer" .. picking up trash, pushing in tables (I'm told these two things are actually two of the most important things Judges do), and other housecleaning duties. I got to make a few announcements, which I felt very awkward doing, but I think that's one of those things, like being in a band, that I'll get used to as I get more experience doing so. There were a few rules questions, but nothing terribly complex. Oddly enough, Fuse never came up. I guess people just "get it."

In the meantime, my L2 mentor dude gave me lots of helpful hints about everything being a Judge entails. I started getting the feeling that was "grooming" me for L2, and at the end of the night when we did a little mini-review, he confirmed my suspicion, telling me that he thought I'd make a good L2. Okay, cool! :/ I'm flattered, but let's get me some real experience first, eh? :)

Jerk.

Saturday Prerelease: The [same] L2 asked me whether I'd prefer to play or judge, and I chose the latter. Well, there weren't quite enough players to justify a second judge on staff, so I got to play instead. Which is fine by me, I still enjoy playing. :) I picked Simic, along with one other guy. We switched packs, since he got the Golgari secret ally thingy that I wanted (+1/+1 counters!). I ended up building a decent, but unexciting Golgimic deck. It had some good removal, decent creatures, a few synergies, etc. But ultimately I think it was a tad too slow. I couldn't really get my shenanigans going very often, and my removal was somewhat elusive. Oh yeah, and Blood Baron. I finished 1-3. But I had a lot of fun. I'm curious to see how Draft turns out. :)

Sunday Prerelease: Two-Headed Giant at Mox, Head-Judged by .. yours truly! Yup, flying solo for the first time. I was a little nervous, but excited. We ended up with 7 teams (14 players total), so it was very manageable. I think I handled "MC" duties pretty well. I probably could have been clearer about a few of the rules (like deckbuilding .. you're allowed to share your entire pool with your partner). Things went very smoothly, and people seemed to have fun.

I took one thing L2 told me to heart, which was to make myself more available. I was able to socialize quite a bit at the Midnight event, which I was told was a good thing, but I was also told that I should do so "on the floor." When players see a judge actually nearby, they'll be more likely pipe up and ask for assistance. And I found that it was actually true. Sometimes I'd be walked by a match, and they'd grab me .. "hey, how does this work again?"

F-in lifegain .. how does it work?

I was unsure about one ruling, though, involving Vizkopa Guildmage's second ability. So, Player 1 controls the Guildmage, and his partner Player 2 attacks with a 5/5 lifelink dude. Before damage, Player 1 activates her second ability. What happens?

I ruled that since the team gains 5 life, each player is considered to have gained life, so her ability triggers, then causes the opposing team to lose 10 life (5 per head). Player 3 (one of the opponents) didn't like that and asked me to verify. So I said I'd text L2 and ask.

I found out later, a mistake I made there was that I should have been more firm in my ruling. "Your team loses 10 life. That's my ruling, but I'll look up the rules and confirm." Then if I'm wrong, I come back and apologize (and fix, if still able). Anyway.

Well, L2 texted me back and confirmed my ruling. So, moot point? Maybe not! I knew this had come up in the Judge Study group on Facebook, so I looked it up Monday morning. And my heart sank when I found a rule .. that I had cited in that thread. There's a rule that says "players gain and lose life individually, and the result is applied to the team's shared life total" (or something to that effect). So, Player 2's life gain shouldn't have triggered the Guildmage ability at all. I texted L2 back, and he responded, "meh, it's 2HG, it's ambiguous, it's Regular REL, etc." Then followed up with the rule that says "if an effect says a player can't gain life, then no player on that team can gain life" (or something along those lines). So given that the "gain life individually" rule is somewhat ambiguous in how it applies to this situation, and that it would seem to violate the spirit of the "can't gain life" rule, he figured my ruling was probably correct. But it could have gone either way. "This is why we can't do 2HG at Competitive," he told me. Okay! So I'm gonna follow up with Player 3 at some point and explain everything that we found.

"Other than that ..." Yeah, I had a blast. I'm really enjoying doing the Judge thing. People who've been around me know that I'm not terribly outgoing. But once I feel comfortable I can be very outgoing, and I find those social interactions very invigorating and rewarding. You know, like actually being part of the community. :) I like it a lot. I want to do it more.

Well for now, it's back to being a Player. My next Judge gig is in two weeks for a PTQ at Misty Mountain. I'm kinda nervous about that, because it's Competitive, and I'm gonna need to be more secure in my Policy knowledge (especially the full IPG). Fun stuff. :)

Decision Points

Hello everyone!

So, back to my regular player routine for last night for the Standard Win-a-Box at Mox Mania. Since I wasn't on Judge Duty, I got to play my Esper Jerk deck. Here's approximately what I played (74/75 the same list I played at SCG Milwaukee):

Lands (27):
1 Island
4 Nephalia Drownyard
22 [dual lands]

Doodz (8):
4 Augur of Bolas
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel

Spells (25):
4 Azorius Charm
3 Think Twice
2 Devour Flesh
1 Ultimate Price
1 Dimir Charm
2 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
1 Tribute to Hunger
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Planar Cleansing 4 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard (15):
2 Negate
1 Dissipate
3 Rest in Peace
1 Purify the Grave
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Terminus
1 Merciless Eviction
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Victim of Night
1 Urgent Exorcism
1 Jace, Memory Adept

The turnout for the event was pretty light: I think 15 players. I wonder if people are getting sick of Standard right now? And/or maybe people don't want to spend $10 for a Standard event if they don't know if they're going to do well? Well, either way, here's how it went:

We don't want zombies on the lawn.

Round 1: vs. Mono-Black Zombies.
Rematch from a few weeks ago. This time, I was able to draw a more appropriate mix of lands and/or spells, and we played 3 actual games of Magic: the Gathering. I don't remember exactly what happened, but basically, his draws weren't that great, and mine were good enough. It was pretty hairy in one game (I think game three?). I stabilized at about 2 life, which of course, isn't stable at all when Geralf could have a message for you at any given moment. But he kept topdecking Bloodthrone Vampires and land, and I kept Verdict'ing them. Yes, using Supreme Verdict on a single 1/1 is less than idea, but so is dying. Anyway. Eventually I ran out of Verdicts, and I had to take one damage from a Vampire before I found a Revelation and took over from there. Win, 2-1. Match record: 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red.
So we're in this multi-color utopia, right? Why play one color when you can play 3 or 4? Oddly enough, I'm starting to wonder if maybe 2 colors just isn't where decks want to be right now if one of them isn't green. There are only 8 [good] dual lands for any given 2-color combination, and the magic number for getting one of them out reliably seems to be 9 or 10. So why not just run 1 color .. or 3 colors?
Anyway, the match. It was actually pretty easy. He didn't get very fast draws, and I was able to stabilize pretty easily. The second game was kinda hairy, and I stabilized somewhere around 2-3 life. Again, dead to a topdecked burn spell or haste dood. But I topdecked an Augur, who found me a Sphinx's Revelation, and I was able to stabilize from there. Curse of Death's Hold made his creatures pretty mediocre, and Jace came in to finish up. Win, 2-0. Match Record: 2-0.

I know this card is good .. but .. I hate this card. :(

Round 3: vs. American Midrange.
At this point, the two L1 Judges in attendance were both still undefeated, so the presiding judge at the event (same fellow who tested me last Friday) was happy that at least one of us was going to finally lose this round. :) Sadly, I lost the "decision point" battle, and the loser was me. I forgot one of the key lessons I learned about this deck from a month or so ago: respect the burn. Probably the key moment was in game two, when he resolved a Restoration Angel and started beating with it. I thought about killing it with a Victim of Night I was holding onto, but figured I'd wait until he committed a second threat so I could get value. Well, of course he didn't, because he's not a bad player, so I took a bunch of damage from the Angel over the next few turns. Finally I had to just kill it and stay at 8 life. I had two Drownyards out, but I didn't want to tap out for both of them at the end of his turn, just in case he had a bunch of burn and/or counterspells in hand. Well, eventually, I tapped out for a Sphinx's Revelation (minus Negate mana). He had the Skullcrack, which I let resolve (I think I was at 4 life .. I would have been dead to a followup Boros Charm), going to 1. He followed up with a Spear, which I Negated, which he countered. Decision points! Choose more wisely than I did. :) It was a good match though, and he's a great guy to play with and socialize with. Loss, 2-0. Match Record: 2-1.

Not feeling particularly morbid today.

Round 4: vs. The Aristocrats.
My opponent is another fellow I always enjoy playing against, even if he usually beats me lately. This was also only my second time playing against this deck (the first time being against the same player a month or two ago). This time I was a little better prepared. I think I lost the first game when I could draw a board sweeper in time. The second game, I had Curse in my opening hand, and my heart sank when he Duress'd me .. then he took my Jace. Yes! Then he Duress'd me again two turns later and took the Curse. Nooooo... Well, while he was goofing around with that nonsense, I was able to get ahead on cards and get him into topdeck mode. Third game, I had the turn-three Rest in Peace to shut off his Blood Artist, Doomed Traveler, and Lingering Souls shenanigans, and a Curse followup a few turns later. With most of his deck effectively shut off, I played the draw-go game, killing a few Reckoners and Aristocrats and even a Sorin (I Mercilessly Evict'd him to .. wherever the Orzhov sends those they deem unworthy), and turbo-milling him. Eventually I found Jace, and the match was over. Win, 2-1. Match Record: 3-1.

So yeah, that was good enough for 3rd place, and 6 packs. Not bad! I had a good time playing the kind of deck I enjoy, while also doing well. I'm starting to get a decent (but obviously not pro-quality) feel for the deck, and I'm learning how to navigate the various (and numerous!) decision points that I encounter every game. The heuristic of "stall, Verdict, Revelate" works pretty well, but I still gotta be careful about some of the little things. Like when to tap out, how aggressively to protect my life total, etc.

I also got to flex my rules knowledge a little bit, too. There was a moment in another game, where Player A controlled a Geist of Saint Traft and attempted to Feeling of Dread his opponent's (Player N's) Guttersnipe. Player N wanted to Redirect it to the Geist, but realized that the Geist has Hexproof. Wait .. so .. what happens? Well, the other judges figured that since it says "may," then the spell basically does nothing. But, as I pointed out ... Redirect isn't targeting Geist, it's targeting Feeling of Dread. And Player A still controls Feeling of Dread, for which Geist is still a legal target. So I got a nice virtual pat on the back from my judge buddies. "Yeah, we should probably listen to the guy who got the 100% score on his L1 test." "Hey, we should give him the L2 test and see how he does!" Laughing out loud. But I'll be honest, it feels good to show off rules knowledge.

So in the meantime, I'm cramming for both this weekend (especially Two Headed Giant) and for the PTQ coming up (IPG). Fun stuff! :)

Judge Shine

Serious Owl will help you parse out triggered abilities.

Well, I don't have much to report since this time last week. I didn't play in any tournaments, but I did something arguably far more important. I took my Level 1 Judge test!

Apparently it's customary amongst the Madison judiciary to invite other judges and/or judge candidates to whatever event the L1 is testing at. Then, everyone else knows how the candidate scored before he/she does. Then, the L2+ makes the candidate sweat it. Futzing around with official judge business, conferring with the TO, etc. The L2 who tested me said that when he was testing for L2, he had to wait while his L3 had to run home to take care of her dogs. So I think I got it pretty easy. I just had to wait for a round and a half, and then review several of the questions in detail .. "So, let's walk through this enters-the-battlefield ability."

Anyway, I passed. With a 100% score. Aced it.

I got my first assignments coming up. I'll be working a couple of the prereleases this weekend at Mox Mania, and I'll be working a PTQ at Misty Mountain next month. Fun!

So yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. :) I wasn't sure if the judge thing was gonna pan out, but these last few weeks, it's happened pretty fast. So I'm looking forward to it! Depending on how it goes over the next couple months, I'll probably try to see if I can get a regular gig somewhere around town. Fun!

Brain Status: Power Conservation Mode

So the plan was to get some practice in with my Esper Control deck for the SCG Open in Milwaukee this last weekend. Then after last Tuesday didn't go so well, I figured I'd just stay home and do something more fun than get my butt kicked at Magic. Then a local Magic-friend messaged me to try to talk me into going. So I figured, why not. I'll go, play some Magic, maybe win some, maybe lose some, no expectations, no big whoop. I talked to the Level 2 Judge I've been working with at FNM the night before, and he suggested that if I "scrub out," I could just drop and take my L1 test at the event. Okay!

It was pretty cool, too, Mike at Mox Mania gave a bunch of us t-shirts, with the promise of store credit if we appeared on camera. Free t-shirts for us, free advertising for him. Well, t-shirts cost money .. but .. yeah. But it was good advertising for him--lots of Madison players showed up in Mox Mania t-shirts, and lots of us got questions about it. I hear one guy even made top 8 at one of the events, so it was right there on SCG's website. Cool! Spoiler alert .. the guy wasn't me. :)

Anyway, the deck I played was pretty similar to that listed previously. Very heavy on the spells, with a full playset of Augurs to find them. Primary win condition is mill, via Drownyards and/or Jace.

Here's a brief rundown of how it went:

Round 1: vs. Orzhov Midrange.
Interesting guy. Very chatty and friendly. But each play he made was very dramatic and serious and pointed. He complimented my "tight play," which resulted in us going to time. I had my first of many brain farts of the day as I thought it was game two when it was in fact game three. So I just slow-rolled the last couple minutes and the extra turns. Had I tried to actually win, though, honestly, I don't think I would have gotten there anyway. Oh yeah. I did make a key mistake ... I played my third land (Watery Grave) tapped, and my opponent subsequently resolved Liliana of the Veil on me. I managed to play through it and mount a comeback, but ... yeah. Time. Draw, 1-1-1. Record: 0-0-1.

Round 2: vs. Selesnya Aggro.
This guy was really quiet and kinda pokey with his play. His deck was kinda mediocre, with stuff like Judge's Familiar and Fencing Ace (without much of anything other than Rancor to boost him). I was able to keep his stuff under control pretty easily with spot removal and sweepers. One game I actually finished him off with damage. The other memorable thing about this match: being at The Draw Table. Seatings were sorted by Swiss ranking, so everyone in the draw bracket played next to each other. And guess what I saw at every other match at the table: other Esper Control decks. :) Win, 2-0. Record: 1-0-1.

Round 3: vs. Junk Rites.
This guy looked familiar, but I don't remember where I played him previously. Maybe it was at a PTQ or a prerelease? Well, he was playing what looked like a pretty stock Junk Rites list, but he seemed to be somewhat inexperienced with it. He didn't quite understand the rules about what happens with I kill Angel of Serenity in response to her enter-the-battlefield trigger. He called a judge, who explained how the triggers stack, and how the second ability ends up happening first. He assumed that it meant that his creatures were exiled forever. Of course, being a competitive tournament, I didn't want to tell him about the "may" thing (when the ability resolves, you can choose not to use the ability). I was happy to see his Thragtusks and Craterhoofs gone forever. After the match, I explained the whole thing while we were gathering our things. He seemed a little confused about it, and he stopped me in the hallway later after a different match to have me explain it again. Hopefully I helped him not have that happen to him again ... Anyway, I won the match, but I don't remember for sure if it was 2-1 or 2-0. My plan worked very well: kill everything ASAP, draw a million cards, mill, rinse, repeat. Win, 2-0 (or 2-1). Record: 2-0-1.

Round 4: vs. Junk Rites. This was over pretty fast. He knew his deck pretty well, and I got stomped. I don't remember much about the match other than that. Loss, 0-2. Record: 2-1-1.

Round 5: vs. Jund Midrange.
Again, I was on the Jerk plan, just try to stop anything he did, draw a million cards, mill him, etc. Unfortunately for him, again, he seemed like maybe he was kinda new to the deck. He seemed to play into all of my tricks, and I was able to card-advantage him to death and mill pretty easily. He miracle'd about 4 or 5 Bonfires over the course of the match, and most of the time it either didn't matter, or I had counters. Win, 2-0 (or 2-1). Record: 3-1-1.

So my record is pretty good at this point, but it's also one of those things where the matches I won were against players and/or decks that weren't great. Kinda the story of my competitive playing career, really. I do fine against newer players or against not-great decks, but lose to good players playing decks. But, I'm still in it, so let's see how it goes.

Round 6: vs. Junk Rites.
Again. And this player was one of the good ones. It was another stomping. I had weird draws and may or may not have misplayed. Honestly, I don't really remember. My brain was starting to get tired. I violated one of the cardinal rules of Magic tournaments: take care of yourself. I didn't have any real food on me, and my brain started fogging up. Loss, 0-2. Record: 3-2-1.

Round 7: vs. Jund.
Water is really important. Everything I read says that it's really good to stay hydrated. Not just for the body, but for mental health. Long-term and short-term. I drank some before and/or after every round, but it probably wasn't enough. I don't remember how this match went other than that I lost. I remember Rakdos's Return, and that's about it. Loss, 0-2 (or 1-2). Record: 3-3-1.

So I'm definitely not gonna make top 8, but if I win out, I might be able to cash this thing. Unfortunately, my brain was just about done for the day. I felt my CPU go into power-saving mode. Which isn't really good when playing a Control deck.

Round 8: vs. Prime Speaker Bant.
Maybe with Wolf Run? I forget. Well, this was actually a pretty good match. Lots of back & forth. Well, at least the first two games were. Third game, he resolved Jace, Memory Adept on turn 4 or 5, and I had no answer. Three turns later it was all over. Loss, 1-2. Record: 3-4-1.

So my traveling buddy find me, and was also experiencing several tough losses in a row. We decided to call it a night, save the remainder of our mental capabilities, and head home.

By the time I got back to Madison to meet up with my girlfriend and her boss (they had been working that day, doing a big office move), I felt like a walking vegetable. Fortunately, my girlfriend had some leftover pasta, which I promptly devoured very vigorously. But unfortunately, I wasn't in the best frame of mind to make a great first impression on her boss. Thankfully, he seemed to be pretty easy-going, so I don't think I was judged too harshly. The following day, I woke up with a massive headache that took all day to get rid of. I blame dehydration. And a lapse in my high-blood pressure medication.

Since I ended up playing most of the day Saturday, and because the judge staff was pretty busy anyway, I didn't end up testing at the event. It's for the best anyway .. I wasn't in any condition to take a judge test after that 6th or 7th match anyway. But I'll probably do it this Friday. Gotta study up and make sure I have the basics down for the thing.

Oh yeah, so I got to play my red/green "Judge Duty Aggro" deck at FNM while I was .. well .. on Judge Duty. And I went 3-1 with it. It was pretty cool. I just dump my hand and hope for the best. My only loss was against a Wolf Run Bant kinda deck that landed two Rhoxen against me. I probably should have just scooped, but I wanted to see how it played out. One round I got to play against the Werewolves deck that my Esper deck lost to a couple weeks ago, and I won pretty easily. It was weird .. the red/green deck did a better job at being a control deck than Esper did. I even had a planeswalker to provide me with card advantage (Domri Rade). Wacky.

Cool. Well, thanks for reading!

That didn't go so well ...

Hi everybody,

So I revamped my Esper Jerk deck, evolving it even more towards a draw-go style of deck, and ... well ... I don't know what happened, but it didn't go so well. Here's what I played:

Lands (27):
4 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Island
22 (dual lands)

D00dz (7):
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel

Spells (26):
4 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Ultimate Price
1 Victim of Night
3 Think Twice 
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Detention Sphere
1 Tribute to Hunger
2 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Jace, Memory Adept
3 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Terminus

Sideboard (15):
1 Dispel
2 Negate
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Witchbane Orb
2 Rest in Peace
2 Purify the Grave
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Urgent Exorcism
1 Curse of Death's Hold
1 Duress

Hmmm .. there's an extra card in the maindeck. One of the spells listed wasn't actually in the deck. I don't know which one, actually. Maybe I only played 2 Think Twices? Or 1 Devour Flesh? I don't remember. Oh yeah, so .. Urgent Exorcism. Isn't that adorable? "Destroy target Assemble the Legion, Detention Sphere, Oblivion Ring, or Obzedat." I so wish I could take credit for that. Anyway, here's how the matches went:

Message from Geralf: You will not go unpunished for experiencing Variance.

Round 1: vs. Mono-Black Zombies.
Game one I got kinda flooded. I miracle'd a Terminus at 3 life to get rid of a full of zombies and a Blood Arist, a turn after Dissipating a Mutilate (see what he tried to do there?). Next turn, Geralf's Messenger. I failed to draw a response. Game two I mull'd down to 5 and kept a one-land hand, and didn't draw a second one until it was way too late. 0-1.

3W: Destroy target attacking Acidic Slime.

Round 2: vs. Wolf Run Zegana.
Okay, ya wanna grind? Let's grind. Well, I was looking forward to playing an actual game of Magic, and I got 3 good ones. Well, 2 good ones and another land-screwed game (but not as bad as the previous round). I was able to keep him off his Serenity shenanigans game two just enough to run him out of cards and land a huge Revelation. I was able to stabilize with awesome plays like Supreme Verdict'ing an Acidic Slime, and flashing in a Resto to block a second one. But hey, it stabilized, and he scooped after I landed a huge Revelation and he ran out of gas. Third game was pretty good, but he had just enough countermagic to keep me off my game plan: I believe he countered a sizeable Sphinx's Revelation and a Planar Cleansing. After the latter, he Architect-of-Thought'd into the Kessig Wolf Run he needed to finish me off. 0-2.

My library is getting dizzy ... O.o

Round 3: vs. Esper Control.
Same opponent as last week. These matches are fun. Or maybe just funny? Or both? I don't know. Well, I lost. Game one, he stuck a couple of Restoration Angels, and he countered my attempts to get rid of them. I probably should have tried to get rid of them sooner than I did. Game two was the classic mill race. I landed a Psychic Spiral and Dispel'd his attempt to counter it, but then on his upkeep, he Spiral'd me back. Oh well. 0-3.

So I dropped after that. I wasn't feeling well that day. I didn't sleep well the night before, and work has been strange this week. And after losing three in a row after working on my deck all week and weekend .. it's disappointing. So I cut my losses, went home, played some Xbox, and went to bed.

Moving forward, I don't know what to do with this deck. The Victim of Night definitely needs to not be in the main deck. I think I want it to be Dimir Charm again. Maybe I just need more practice with this version of the deck? Okay, I know I need more practice with it. But is it just familiarity, or is there more to it? Questions.


Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading!

Sorry, my deck is kind of a jerk ...

Hi everybody,

So, I got to play my Esper Control deck again. I've re-dubbed it, "Sorry, my deck is kind of a jerk." I think I'm getting more comfortable playing with it, and I finished a respectable 3-1 at the Standard Win-a-Box event at Mox Mania last night. For reference, here's my list:

Land (27)
3 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Swamp
1 Island
22 (dual lands)

Creatures (8)
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council

Spells (25)
4 Azorius Charm
2 Dimir Charm
2 Devour Flesh
1 Ultimate Price
3 Think Twice
1 Syncopate
2 Dissipate
2 Detention Sphere
1 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
2 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard (15)
1 Appetite for Brains
1 Duress
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Victim of Night
2 Purify the Grave
2 Rest in Peace
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Curse of Death's Hold

So the turnout at Mox has been pretty heavy the last couple-three weeks (30 or thereabouts), to the point where they actually ran two separate events. But for whatever reason last night, there were only 13 players. Well either way, here's how it went:

Indestructible, eh?

Round 1: vs. Mono-Green. This was a cakewalk. It didn't help my opponent that he got stuck on lands in both games and didn't really get much going either game. I was able to keep his stuff under control pretty easily. I think one game I actually went on the beatdown plan. The trickiest thing for my deck to deal with was probably Predator Ooze, since a lot of my removal is damage-based, but I never seemed to be lacking in ways to handle it (D-Sphere, Terminus, A-Charm, counter magic, etc.). 1-0.

B0rken!!1 ...or is it?

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red. So, we returned to Ravnica, and it's supposed to be this multi-colored nirvana .. so what's with the mono-color decks? And what's the deal with airline peanuts?? Anyway. This was a fun one. Esper is powerful, but it kinda keeps me on the edge of my seat sometimes. Game one, I stabilized at 1 life, but it took pretty much all of my resources to do so, and I was dead to a topdecked burn spell or hasty dood for several turns. Eventually, I landed Obzedat and got my life total out of burn range, and I think mill got there. Second game, he had the Skullcrack to finish me off. Third game was like the first. I made a pretty bad misplay, though. It was turn 3-4, and I was waiting to Verdict. He had out 5 different critters, 2 power each, two of which were a freshly-cast Rakdos Cackler and Lightning Mauler (paired with the Cackler). I was holding Dimir Charm so I didn't have to take all 10 damage, but I didn't see (what is now) the obvious play: kill the Cackler or Mauler so the other can't attack, saving myself another 2 life points. Against mono-red, life points are precious commodities. Well, either way, I Verdict'd the next turn, and he ran out of gas. He scooped after I Revelated for 4 a few turns later. 2-0.

Champion of the what now?

Round 3: vs. Naya Humans. My nemesis from the last few weeks, and the deck I've been determined not to roll over to yet again. My plan worked like a charm (no pun intended): kill early doods, wipe the board, refill my hand, and mill mill mill. It didn't help him, though, that he had to mulligan both games (to 5 and 6, respectively), and didn't get much of an aggressive start either game. I also landed a Curse on him in the second game, and I suspect that it shut off about half his deck. I was able to clean up pretty easily with spot removal and board wipes for the intermittent Frontline Medics and Burning-Tree Emissaries that he presented me with, while milling for 3 every turn (and eventually 6). 3-0.

Cool, so I'm 3-0, so now I can intentionally draw and split that box! Well, not quite. With the low turnout and odd number of players, there were other pair-downs, and enough of them lost such that I was the only 3-0. So, I got paired down, and he declined my offer to ID. Here's the thrilling conclusion:

Cool tutor.

Round 4: vs. Junk Rites. I've had very bad luck against reanimator decks of just about every sort ever since they became a "thing." I was hoping that my 4 pieces of graveyard hate (plus 3 exile-counterspells) would keep the graveyard in check. And it did. I don't think he was able to reanimate a single critter all match. Game one, I think I countered one Rites from the graveyard with a Dimir Charm (see, not just a early-game kill spell and mill finisher!), and game two I landed an early Rest in Peace. So .. the thing with this deck .. if you shut off the graveyard, it turns to plan B: Midrange. Basically, Angels and Thragtusks for value. I Dissipated a Thragtusk or two, Syncopated something else, D-Sphere'd an Angel, etc. But both games, I ran out of gas, and he didn't. Turns out, Grisly Salvage is also a decent pseudo-tutor, even when the graveyard shenanigans are stopped. Also, I had to mulligan at least one game, and I think I had weird draws in both games. Ultimately, all those things combined were too much, and I lost in two games. 3-1.
 
It's possible that I mis-sideboarded and/or mis-played. I sided out two Verdicts, because I was afraid of filling his graveyard with Unburial targets, but I overestimated his ability to deal with the RIP. I needed all the removal I could get. Maybe next time I take out a couple of Think Twices instead?

Well, I think the deck is coming along nicely. When it works, it works great. I feel .. in control. Ha! It's a good feeling. Some people don't like this kind of deck because it supposedly takes a long time to win via mill. There's some truth to that, but the length of the games seems to be more about how long it takes to stabilize more than how long it takes to win. Once I get the game under control, my turns are very fast: Land, pass turn, EOT mill, rinse, repeat. Deal with threats as needed. Of course, the real action is getting the game under control. This is what takes time. And sometimes, of course, it doesn't happen at all. But I'm getting very comfortable with the deck, so I'm able to play pretty quickly lately. I think all of my matches were done with 10 minutes or more left. The longest matches were the two lifegain decks in the room: Junk Midrange, and Prime Speaker Bant (with Trostani). Fun fact: these two decks got paired together in round 3, and they played to a 0-0-1 draw, with both players above 30 life at the end of 5 turns. Angel of Serenity loops are kinda silly.

I also played and Judged at a Modern tournament on Monday night. It wasn't terribly eventful. I went 2-2 with my Delver deck, which I affectionately refer to as "3-Color Burn." I beat a Living End deck and a U/W Tron/Gifts deck, and lost to a Melira Pod deck and a (better?) Living End deck. I made misplays all over the place, such as trying to kill a Cartel Aristocrat before he could combo off with Melira and Redcap (killing Melira was the play), and forgetting that Living End makes me sacrifice my doodz (oh hey, I just realized .. I can loot with Izzet Charm in response to Living End!). I had a couple of easy rules questions to answer, and I got to handle some of the scorekeeping duties. I was also able to trade for the rest of the cards I needed for my Judge Duty Aggro deck; I traded for the Hellriders and Ash Zealot I needed, and I cashed some store credit (that I didn't know I had) for the other two Stomping Grounds I needed. I'll probably get a chance to give it a whirl while Judging next Friday at FNM. Fun!

Also, Misty Mountain is getting a new owner. Congrats to Ben Rislove, current store manager. Well, I hadn't realized that Ben actually wasn't the owner, but hey, whatever. I'm not sure what exactly this means for the store. Hopefully, Ben will turn the passion for the store into a tidier, more friendly environment for his patrons. One thing I like about Mox Mania is that even though it gets kinda crowded in the relatively small space, it's always very clean and neat. I don't like not going to Misty, because it's where I really cut my teeth as a new (returning) player a few years ago, and where I met most of my Magic-friends, but ... Things change, I guess?

Well, thanks for reading! Feel free to leave comments/questions/jokes/whatever (okay, not spam) below. Until next time!

Standard FNM, 3/29/13

Greetings and/or salutations!

Okay, so I was going to go to Misty Mountain to draft at FNM, but I got an email from the Level 2 Judge I'm working with, and he wanted to talk to me about getting me ready to judge at a PTQ coming up in a couple months. Okay, sure! I wasn't sure if the Judge thing was gonna happen anymore after not getting a lot of nibbles on requests for opportunities to get some judging experience, but it seems like things are falling into place.

Serious Owl is serious.

This is an interesting dilemma, because I had been mentally shifting into "competitive player" mode. I was all set to jam 2-3 Standard events a week until the Star City Games open in Milwaukee later this month, but I'm not sure anymore. The deck I wanted to play is Esper Control, but it's hard to play that and judge in the same event. So, I tossed together a R/g Aggro deck to play while on Judge Duty. Assuming I continue to be on Judge Duty during some of the next Standard events I play, I won't get as many reps in with Esper Control. But, I'm hoping that playing R/g Aggro will give me a better feel for how to better stop it.

Anyway, so I tweaked my deck some, and ended up with something like this:

3 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Swamp
1 Island
22 (other dual lands)

4 Augur of Bolas
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Restoration Angel
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council

4 Azorius Charm
2 Devour Flesh
2 Dimir Charm
1 Ultimate Price
1 Syncopate
3 Think Twice
1 Forbidden Alchemy
2 Detention Sphere
2 Dissipate
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
2 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard:
1 Appetite for Brains
1 Duress
3 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Jace, Memory Adept
2 Rest in Peace
2 Purify the Grave
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Murder
1 Witchbane Orb

And here's how it played out:

Round 1: vs. ... R/G Aggro. My plan worked very well. He didn't get super aggressive draws, and I killed a bunch of his creatures. I don't remember more about how the match played out, though. 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red. Lost in 3 games .. in 20 minutes. WHAT. Okay, so game one, I killed his first 3 doods, flashed in Resto to block Hellrider, followed up with Obzedat, and won 2-3 turns later. Second and third games, he played a bunch of doodz and I died. 1-1.

Counterspell wars! Mill race! I love control mirror matches. :)

Round 3: vs. Esper Control. Mirror match, yay! So once again I got a little too excited to jam my Obzedat, and he got Devour'd. I ended up winning the game because I hit two Drownyards and he didn't, once I stopped his Augur + Resto beatdown. He ended up taking the match, but I don't remember much about how it went down. I know Jace was involved on both sides of the table (sadly, mine got Planar Cleanse'd), and that the last game we both played really rushed and made a lot of mistakes, and I think Psychic Spiral was involved. 1-2.

I full admit, my deck is kind of a jerk, and this card fits right in.

Round 4: vs. R/G Woofs. Cool, more werewolves. Well, this time I was a little better prepared. And there were no Full Moon's Rise shenanigans. My opponent seemed to be new to the tournament scene, and I kept apologizing for my deck: "Sorry, my deck's kind of a jerk." He was very understanding, though, and seemed not to mind having all of his doodz killed and/or countered while I plinked his library to death 3 cards at a time. 2-2.

Well, I missed the cutoff for prizes by tiebreakers, and I made sure to light-heartedly chastise my previous opponents for not winning out. So, I didn't do that great, but I had a lot of fun. My Esper mirror opponent is a guy I've played in the past at Misty, but haven't played against in a while. He seems like he's always in a good mood, and seems to enjoy talking strategy. So that was fun.

And, it looks like I'm gonna get some serious Judge experience for the next few weeks at Standard and/or Modern at Mox Mania. So I'm looking forward to that. The L2 I'm working with said that he hopes to get me tested either before or at the PTQ coming up. Hopefully within the next month or two then, I'll be certified. Looking forward to it. :)

So, the deck .. I like it. I've started calling it my "I HATE CREATURES" deck. Although it's not strictly true, because I do run a handful of doodz that do useful things (such as facilitating the killing of other creatures). Some thoughts:

* I like Dimir Charm quite a bit. It's worse than Azorius Charm, but I like that it straight-up kills something rather than just delaying. It's also great as a finisher once I get my mill going: "EOT mill you, Charm you. Oh, you drew a land? So sorry. :3"
* 2 Restoration Angels feels about right. I certainly wouldn't mind having more, but it's not quite as strictly necessary with more early-game removal.
* I might cut down to 3 Augurs. Most of the time he cycles and digs for something cool. Which is fine, but I don't really want multiples stuck in my hand when I'm waiting to wipe the board.
* Syncopate isn't quite as bad as I thought it was. It seems like it's much better on the play than on the draw (more mana available to Sink). And it seems pretty good late game regardless.
* 27 lands feels like the perfect number. Several games, I never missed a single land drop. Which, of course, is important on turn 12, when I wanna counter something, flash back Think Twice, and mill EOT. The singleton basic lands are for opposing Ghost Quarters. But I don't really see a lot of Quarters, so I might just swap in my own Quarter instead of the Swamp.
* Devour Flesh and Ultimate Price still suck. Can we *please* get Doom Blade back? :(
* I toyed with the idea of putting some planeswalkers in there, but ... I just don't like it. Too expensive, and too fragile. I don't run Lingering Souls, so Liliana and Sorin would each lose effectiveness. I do like using Jace MA as both a draw engine and win condition, though. I think I'll put him in maindeck instead of the 4th Augur. Or maybe I'll try Jace AOT for earlier card-digging. Hmmm .. yeah, actually I kinda like that idea.

Welp .. I think that's about it for now. Thanks for reading!