Elephants and Such

Hi!

Lots of stuff to talk about this week, so I'll just dive right in.

Flying Elephant!

Standard! Elephants! Stomp! I didn't really tweak much. I think just I just swapped out a Chained to the Rocks for a third Mizzium Mortars. Well, here's a brief rundown of how things went:

1. vs. Green Devotion. He had way too many Kalonia Hydras and I couldn't keep up. I Chained one of them, and he Bramblecrush'd it. Didn't recover from that one. D: Lost 1-2.
2. vs. U/W Controlol. Finally, a Control matchup! I lost game one when he stabilized at about 1-2 life, and my Last Elf Standing couldn't quite finish the job. Thankfully, most of my board was perfect against him, and he didn't really come close to being able to keep up with my never-ending threats. Voices, Hydras, Dragons, Elephants, oh my! Won 2-1.
3. vs. Drown in Filth. He drew terribly. I killed all of his doodz, and then him. Won 2-0.
4. vs. Red Devotion. Quick 3 games, mostly one-sided. Game 1 he couldn't keep up with my Elephants, game 2 I couldn't keep up with his Nykthos, and game 3 he Mortars'd my mana dorks and I was stuck without red mana and died to the Last Minotaur Standing. Lost 1-2.

Some thoughts:

• Boon Satyr was actually pretty sweet. 4-power flash for 3 mana is a nice ahead-of-the-curve tempo body. I think I'll keep him around.
• Mana continues to be awkward. I think getting the G/W scrylands would help. Of course, getting the M10/ISD duals would help even more, but .. yeah.
• I wish I could have more Rocks to chain things to. But damn, that Bramblecrush hurt. Maybe I should try Selesnya Charm. Hmmm ...
• Chandra did some good work. She helped me get a surplus of cards, ping dorky doodz, and force through damage.
• Mortars was pretty much always awesome. Solid early, and blowout late. I think I should go up to 4 of these.
• Boros Reckoner doesn't trade as well with trampling Kalonian Hydras as well as I was hoping. :( I wonder if I should drop to three of him in the 'board.
• Aurelia was pretty great at finishing games. Interesting little synergy with mana dorks, too. Makes me want to run more instant-speed stuff ... like Selesnya Charm?? Hmmmm....

Geist of Holy-Mackerel-Look-At-All-Those-F-ing-Merfolk

Modern! I love Modern, but my deck has been bombing lately. It's kind of frustrating, really. I don't want to abandon it quite yet, but I feel like I might have to. It seems like the games I lose are one of these scenarios:

1. I draw a bunch of control game early, but can't follow up with a threat. I run out of gas and die.
2. I draw a bunch of threats early, and die to early aggression/combo.

So do I go more Control? I don't know if that's what I want to do. But I sorta have to. Geist of Saint Traft on turn three does nothing against a turn-four Living End or Merfolk swarm. Do I concede Game 1 against them and board in a bunch of countermagic? (And speaking of Living End, Grafdigger's Cage doesn't do against them what I thought it would do. Frowning face.) Or maybe I play a grindy controlling game 1, and board into more Midrange stuff for games 2-3? I don't know. There's a big-ish Modern tournament coming up in February up nort' that I'd like to attend, so ... yeah.

What else ... Well, I'm head-judging a Legacy 1K at Mox Mania this weekend! I'm pretty excited about it. It's another step toward Level 2, as well as a great opportunity for me to get some experience head judging stuff. And I get to boss people around, too, which I'm looking forward to. :) I was hoping to maybe test for L2 at SCG Indy coming up in January, but my application got declined for that, so I probably won't even bother traveling to it. Frowning face. Oh well. Soon...

Yes, this was a common.

I'm also organizing a Pauper tournament to run at Mox for the following weekend. There was a tournament up nort', and some on the local MTG Facebook group seemed interested, so we'll give it a shot. :) I'm trying to find the last few pieces to finish putting together Delver. Should be fun. :)

Okay, well that's it for now. Thanks for reading!