One of these days I'm going to run out of not-terrible titles for these posts. One may argue that that's already happened. :/
Anyway! So I want to play other Standard decks, but I just can't bother myself to actually put something else together. So I played Blood Baron again. Deck is sweet. I played it at Misty Mountain last night, and went 3-1. Here's a rundown:
Round 1: vs. Boros. He was somewhat aggressive, but not super blitzy, which was perfect for my deck. I could take my time burning his random soldier folk, set up a Blood Baron and a Mizzium Mortars, and I won pretty easily. 1-0.
Round 2: vs. Boros .. Tokens? Okay, this one was a little different. This one was more of an engine deck, built off of Assemble the Legion, Legion's Initiative, and ... what's the weird white enchantment from M14? Gains you life when you attack, and your doodz get bigger when you're at 20+ life? Yeah. It was a bit slow to set up, but once it got set up, it was pretty tough to beat. Game one I tried to set up a Blasphemous Reckoning, but he played a Reckoner of his own. So I figured I'd try to Helix him to 13-ish, and myself well above 13-ish, but then he played another Reckoner. Then the token swarm came and shut me out of the game. The next game I played three Vampire Nighthawks on turns 3-5, and shrugged at his Burning Earth. Third game I had the Tear for his Burning Earth, and he couldn't keep up with my superlative midrange beaters. 2-0.
Round 3: vs. Big Red. Okay, I've got Wear and/or Tear for Burning Earth, so this should be doable. Nope. Turns out that a Chandra followed up with doubple Hellkite is pretty hard to beat. Oh, and I actually have to draw the Tear. I should think about going up to 3 in my board. 2-1.
Round 4: vs. Junk Midrange. I beat him pretty handily in game one when he appeared to get flooded, and I had all the removal for all his doodz. He took one game when he had Blood Barons of his own, and I couldn't quite get to Blasphemous Act mana. The key mistake I made: I Warleader's Helix'd his token instead of his dome when facing a lethal Blood Baron attack. He Resto'd the token in response to fizzle the Helix and I died. Next turn I (probably?) could have Blasphemous Act'd to stay alive. Third game I played got him with the Blasphemous/Reckoner combo in rather cheap fashion. *shrug* 3-1.
So yeah, still having fun with the deck. I'd love to try to play a Tibalt deck before rotation, but honestly, I just don't think that's gonna happen. :( But I'm okay with that. Blood Baron.dec is decent, and fun. So Imma keep playing it, k?
But hey, I finally got to play Modern with my new deck! I was pretty excited. Here's what I sleeved up, give or take a few cards:
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Glacial Fortress
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Tectonic Edge
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Moorland Haunt
3 Path to Exile
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Spell Snare
4 Mana Leak
3 Lightning Helix
4 Snapcaster Mage
1 Remand
3 Geist of Saint Traft
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Cryptic Command
1 Restoration Angel
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Gideon Jura
Sideboard:
2 Wear // Tear
1 Spell Snare
1 Path to Exile
2 Stony Silence
2 Molten Rain
1 Sowing Salt
1 Electrolyze
2 Aven Mindcensor
3 Counterflux
Here's how it went:
Round 1: vs. M14 Slivers. Okay, this guy is fairly new to Magic and just threw together some cool Sliver cards and made a deck. Surprisingly, it wasn't as one-sided as you might think. It took several turns to establish a board presence with my plethora of removal and countermagic, but once I did, victory came quickly. 1-0.
Round 2: vs. Simic Wizards. Huh? Yeah, I played against this guy a couple weeks ago, and had a great time with his crazy Wizards tribal deck. He had all kinds of interesting little synergies, with Spellstutter Sprites, Graft and +1/+1 shenanigans, and countermagic (including Glen Elendra). I think he took me to three games, but in that third game, he was severely flooded, and I was able to win pretty easily. 2-0.
Round 3: vs. Infect. Ugh. Seriously. Okay, so I'm a Judge now, and I'm becoming a little more visible in the local Magic community, so I'm trying to maintain a better sporting demeanor. But. Ugh. :( I suspect that this matchup is actually pretty decent for me, but I need to figure out better lines of play. Example: his turn two, he has a Glistener Elf out, I have two untapped lands and both Lightning Helix and Mana Leak available. He casts Rancor on his Elf. So I go for the two-for-one and Helix it. He responds with Vines of Vastwood (I believe) and hits me for three poison. Next turn he responded to another removal attempt with another trick, and finished me off with a Groundswell. If I Leak the Rancor, it's possible I only take one poison that turn (unless he'd have pumped it, which he very well may have done). Regardless, I need to think more about these kinds of things before I do something. So yeah, I got kinda frustrated and probably let it show too much. 2-1.
Round 4: vs. Living End. I felt pretty good about this matchup, too, but there's one thing that I didn't count on ... Living End can be cast off of Violent Outburst, an instant. I held up one counter, but not two, and he was able to get his cycle'd doodz back. The other game, he had Ricochet Trap for my Cryptic Command. So I couldn't even draw a card. :'( Again, kinda frustrating, but ... Oh well. I didn't grumble [as loudly] about it, at least. 2-2.
So am I ready for prime time (Grand Prix Detroit)? Heck no! But I'm going more for the experience than to try to win a tournament. I just like playing Modern, and I have Level 2 Judge aspirations, so I need to do some networking. And this is a great opportunity to meet my regional coordinator.
Thoughts about the deck, then:
* Probably could have used moar Electrolyze somewhere. I'm not playing the hardcore UWR Control deck that most UWR players are rocking, so I need to find card advantage where I can get it. Even if they're playing combo or control or something, I can just dome them and cycle.
* Restoration Angel and Isochron Scepter are adorable, but I think unnecessary. They were both experiments in late game reach and card advantage. But the Scepter is inherently risky, and very slow in the early game. Restoration Angel is pretty unexciting without a good blink target. These slots will probably be that Electrolyze and maybe another counterspell of some sort.
* Speaking of which: need moar counterspells. Especially of the cheap variety. Probably some mix of Spell Snares and Spell Pierces.
* I need to find room for a sweeper of some kind. Supreme Verdict is the common one for UWR decks, but I like Hallowed Burial a lot. I'm gonna grab me a couple, methinks.
* I'm not sure about the mix of late-game cards. I definitely like the Elspeth, but I'm less certain about the Revelation and Gideon. Other lists play Batterskull, Baneslayer Angel, and/or Thundermaw Hellkite. I'd hate to cut Revelation, because, well, cards. But given that my gameplan isn't really about stalling with removal and winning long games, it's probably the wrong card for the job. Batterskull is another way to help my critters bust through, and it might be a little better than Baneslayer. Thundermaw is a big giant fireball in the sky, and pairs nicely with Elspeth and Gideon. Hmmm. Maybe I'll go in that direction.
So yeah. Modern! I like it. :) I'm getting closer to having most of what I need/want for the format. Just need a 'goyf #4, and Bobs #2-4. And then I can spend a few bucks and buy singles for whatever else I might need. I'm already thinking about brewing other stuff for the format, like Loam, or Vial.
Oh yeah, so I got some sweet Modern cards at the Judge Conference a couple weeks ago. The conference itself was great, with lots of good talks, shared wisdom, and general schmoozing. But I'm not gonna lie, the foilz are pretty sweet too. Especially when I can turn around and trade the ones I don't really care about for stuff I actually want to play.
I did a bit less "networking" than I would have liked. I think that's part of my whole social anxiety thing. I can talk to people one-on-one just fine, or even in small groups. But walking up to someone in a crowded room and introducing myself ... HARD. One of these days I'll get over that.
In the meantime, I'm having to be very careful about what I accept for judging assignments. I noticed myself slipping too far away from the "life" part of "Magic/life balance". I love being a larger part of the greater Magic community, but I gotta be a part of my non-Magic home community, too.
Okay, I think that's enough rambling for now. Thanks for reading!
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