The Definition of Insanity

"The definition of insanity is misattributing the same quote over and over again and expecting readers to believe you." - Winston Churchill

... or was it Confucius? I don't know.

The actual origin of the [paraphrased] quote--"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."--seems to go back to Twelve Step groups like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Addicts get stuck in cycles where they try to control/moderate their addictive behavior, only to find themselves stuck in the same self-destructive patterns.

How does this relate to Magic? Probably my insistence that my Blood Baron deck isn't terrible. "I'll just make a few tweaks..." Yeah. Didn't work out so well. My few tweaks resulted in a deck that looked like this:

4 Sacred Foundry
4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
1 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Mountain
2 Plains

2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Magma Jet
2 Dreadbore
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Hero's Downfall
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Warleader's Helix

3 Rakdos Keyrune
3 Read the Bones
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Rakdos's Return

4 Boros Reckoner
3 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
2 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Sideboard:
2 Thoughtseize
2 Wear // Tear
2 Slaughter Games
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Pithing Needle
2 Sin Collector
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Underworld Connections
1 Hammer of Purphoros

So I cut the Desecration Demons, a Blood Baron, and the maindeck Sin Collector to make room for another two Rakdos Keyrunes and two Stormbreath Dragons. It didn't really seem to make much of a difference, since I didn't win a real match all night. Here's how it played out:

Oddly enough, chaining her to a rock is my best option.

Round 1: vs. Blue Devotion. My first time seeing this deck in action first-hand, and it was kinda nasty. All those little doodz and devotion guys can add up to a lot of damage quickly. If the turn-four Master turns on the devotion of the turn-three Thassa, life can be very difficult. It also hurts when they have the Cyclonic Rift for my Chained to the Rocks and the singleton counterspell in hand for a different key removal spell. It really kinda sucks that I can't really get much pressure on them, and that a lot of their threats are hard to deal with (Master is pro-red, and Thassa is indestructible when she's a creature). So even though in one game I Thoughtseize'd him and found a hand of Master plus 3x Island, he was able to just sit back and wait for his topdecks to get there. In the meantime, I'm not really drawing much in the way of pressure. So when he did get something online, BAM, I'm dead. Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.

My mana ... it burns! D:

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red. This was a kinda different mono-red list, not the typical blitzy Sligh type deck nor a "big red" kinda thing. It seemed like he was trying to capitalize on some Devotion to finish with Fanatic of Mogis. Well, the first two games were pretty close and back & forth. I think I dodged a bullet in one game, though, when he failed at some combat/burn match and missed an opportunity to kill me. Then in game three, he cast Burning Earth on turn four, and I realized I forgot to side in Turn // Burn. Owch. Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-2.

Round 3: Bye. Third week in a row I've gotten a bye. I resisted the urge to rage-drop when another patron of the store offered to play[test] against me. So that was cool. He was testing a Rakdos-splash of the mono-black devotion deck that's the new hot thing (this week). We traded games one and two, and the third was pretty interesting when pairings for round four went up. Bye. Record: 1-2.

Go forth, my Oozey minions. I will grant you great strongth in your battles against the Vizkopans.

Round 4: vs. Green/Red Monsters/Devotion. So this deck is about is Timmy as a competitive deck gets, with lots of ramp, and huge monsters and planeswalkers and the God of the Hunt herself, Nylea. And it was being piloted by a local semi-pro with Pro Tour experience. Somehow, I managed to squeak by in game one after he got all kinds of monsters setup. Okay, it was mostly on the back of lifelink from Whip of Erebos. And to think I almost cut that card! Turns out Boros Reckoner makes a good chump blocker against Nylea when he has lifelink. In game two, I found out the only thing that my deck hates worse than a turn-four Burning Earth. A turn-three Burning Earth. D: I took a look at my board, his board, my hand, and promptly scooped. Game three I got stuck on two mana and didn't really get much pressure going. He nickel'd & dime'd me to death with some random doodz being pumped by Nylea, and my doodz couldn't keep up. Loss, 1-2. Record: 1-3.

So over the course of the evening, I think I figured some reasons why my deck sucks:

1. I'm missing a lot of the better midrange threats from last Standard season. No Nighthawk, no Sorin, no Olivia. Desecration Demon just isn't cutting it. I've got a ton of great removal, but no way to end the game quickly.
2. The threats I do run aren't getting it done. Blood Baron gets Mizzium'd. Boros Reckoner gets Doom Blade'd, or they don't have anything worth engaging in combat. Obzedat gets Devour Flesh'd or Hero's Downfall'd.
3. I'm just not that good of a player, or deckbuilder, or both. I forgot to side in Wear // Tear in two situations where I should have anticipated it. I kept a few loose hands. I miscalculated some board states.

Basically, this is a bad midrange deck. Good non-synergistic midrange decks rely on individual card quality to have a big impact on the game. When I'm spending 5 mana on a guy that just immediately dies to a 2- or 3-mana removal spell, then something is wrong.

What to do? I don't really know. I think I might just net.deck a G/R midrange list. I thought about doing a Naya midrange, but one of the best reasons to go Naya, Boros Reckoner, is growing obsolete. And then there's Burning Earth. Oh, Burning Earth. You're so good for the Standard metagame, but you punish my desire to play cool three-color decks. :(

My solution? I think I have to focus on what I want to do, pick the corresponding two colors, and find a good deck that plays on those strengths. Or maybe just sell out and play mono-black devotion? I don't know. Either way, it's back to the drawing board to reclaim my sanity. Time to give the Blood Barons a rest.

Thanks for reading!