Praise to the God of Elephants

Greetings, and Xenagos Bless.

So I revamped my configuration of the Herd, and I came up with this:

Lands (25):
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Forest

Elephants (25):
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Sylvan Caryatid
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Fanatic of Xenagos
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Xenagos, God of Elephants
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (10):
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Selesnya Charm
3 Domri Rade

Sideboard (15):
2 Wear // Tear
1 Revoke Existence
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Boon Satyr
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Mistcutter Hydra
2 Shock
3 Unflinching Courage

And here's how the rounds went:

Seriously, have you read this card?

Round 1: vs. Orzhov Midrange. I brought the beats, and he brought the removal. I think this matchup comes down to who can draw better. Game three, he ran out of removal, and I was able to land an Aurelia and slap Unflinching Courage on her. I won that one. Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Sure, I'll discard my only threat after a mull to 5. Jerk.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Black. Similar matchup, but this time my opponent got the better draw. Game three I had to mull to a hand of four lands and something that got Thoughtseize'd turn 1. The my actual threat got Downfall'd, and the rest was academic. Loss, 1-2. Record: 1-1.

Chromanticore deck??

Round 3: vs. Azorius Midrange (brew). Nice guy, and a cool deck idea (he ran Civic Saber to take advantage of all his multi-colored doodz), and he was able to be tricky with the incessant stampede, but eventually he ran out of stall tactics, and I was able to trample him to death with random dooders. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-1.

Labyrinth's End?

Round 4: vs. Maze's End. Xenagos help me. The problem with this matchup is that I need to try to be a turn ahead of his stall tactics. It's different from normal control decks, because they have to draw well for like 15 turns. With this deck, they only need 3-4 Fogs while they durdle their way through the proverbial maze, and then they literally just win. This is kind of a unique matchup in which I don't know if there's much I can do except try to get pressure early and often. Not sure how to go about that. Not sure it's worth bothering too awful much about it. Loss, 1-2. Record: 2-2.

So, some bad luck for the herd, but it was still a good showing. I'm still having fun with the deck, and it's doing well enough, so I think I'll keep honing it. Speaking of which, here's the post-mortem list of bullet-points:

• I cut the Smiters for Fanatics, and I'm pretty sure I made the right choice. They usually can't, or ever even want to counter Smiter, so I figured I'd switch to something that natively has trample, and that helps fuel devotion to the God of Elephants.
• I moved Chandra to the 'board. There are enough matchups where she's not that great where she wasn't what I wanted to see in Game 1. But she's good enough where there were some matchups I did want to see her. So .. yeah.
• Courser of Kruphix and Domri is a really cute combo, but that interaction didn't really come up that often. I jammed three of her in my deck with the thought that she'd help me smooth my mana. But I found that I couldn't really rely on that. It's better to use the scrying and Caryatids to do that work, and Courser can smooth out later-game draws (filtering out lands). The lifegain was mostly irrelephant, but in certain matchups, I could see how it'd be nice to have. I think I'll try a 2/2 split. Also, in controllish matchups, giving them free information about everything I'm drawing isn't really where I want to be either (especially since a lot of my gameplan revolves around haste/flash creatures).
• Xenagos. Definitely a god worthy of our elephantile devotion. I usually end up with a random dooders, and he makes the less threatening ones become less threatening. Sometimes I would have a Voice and a bigger, non-trampler (like Polukranos) on board, and I'd buff the Voice so that they'd be under more pressure not to just chump the huge thing and take 2. But that's another reason why I like Fanatic so much--he has trample! Also, turning him into a creature actually happened in several games. And most of the time it was kinda win-more, but it was good to know that it was an option.
• Aurelia. Seriously. I think I'm going to try out a second one next week. Probably in the 'board.
• I'm also glad I put in the second Chained to the Rocks. With the way my deck runs now, I usually don't need it until later in the game anyway, and by then I almost always have a Mountain I can Chain something to (as well as something I want to Chain to it). I think 11 total Mountains is the right number.
• I'll probably tweak the ratio of Temples. I think 4/3/1 of Abandon/Plenty/Triumph is about right. With Fanatic instead of Smiter, I definitely want red more than white. Sometimes I like the idea of having more temples for more temple-scrying, but I really hate drawing a bunch of temples and being a turn behind all the time. I suppose maybe I could cut a Forest for a fourth Temple of Plenty? But as soon as they start playing Burning Earth again, I'm hosed. D:

Well, that's about it for now. Next time I write, I hope to have something to say about Modern. Until then, thanks for reading, and Xenagos be with you!

Invoking the God of Elephants

Hi everybody!

So, first Standard event of the new Standard season with my new and potentially improved Elephants deck. I kinda went back and forth in my head about which direction to go with it, and I decided that the only big change I was going to make was taking out Elvish Mystics and a random card for Courser of Kruphix and Xenagos, God of Elephants. And adding Temple of Plenty. Because Temple Scrying is awesome when they're all on-color. As of last night, my deck looked more or less like this:

Land (25):
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple Garden
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Plenty
3 Temple of Abandon
2 Temple of Triumph
3 Mountain
2 Forest

Elephants (25):
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
1 Scavenging Ooze 
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Courser of Kruphix
3 Polukranos, World Eater
2 Xenagos, God of Elephants
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (10):
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Selesnya Charm
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard (15):
3 Mistcutter Hydra
3 Unflinching Courage
2 Wear // Tear
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Boon Satyr
3 Shock

So how'd it go? Well, read on!

Elephants don't like being splashed.

Round 1: vs. Bant Superfriends.
Super sweet deck. Jace, Kiora, and Elspeth all teamed up in game one to shut down my elephants in game one. Kiora's "splash" ability is pretty annoying when a lot of my gameplan seems to revolve around a few single big doodz. Post-board, splash-proof Mistcutters and other hasty threats did them in. And once again, I heard "I wasn't expecting Aurelia!" Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

My unflinchingly courageous elephants will make sure to tap you on the shoulder before trampling through.

Round 2: vs. White.
He admitted that his deck kinda wanted to be two or three different decks at the same time. He had that M14 enchantment that triggers when you gain life or something? And a bunch of Archangel of Thune. But it also wanted to be white weenie, with early aggression and Gods Willing/Brave the Elephants backup. Unfortunately, he was just a little too slow, and his Brimaz and Precinct Captains were quickly tromped over by my herd. My favorite moments came in game two, when I suited up an Elephantal token with Unflinching Courage, and Xenagos'd it to become an 8/8 lifelinking trampler. Sure, block with your Soldier of the Pantheon. I'm still gaining 8 life. :D Next turn, I played some random dood and did the same thing with a 10/10. Also, Unflinching Courage is good. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-0.

Xenagos help us, it's a @#$% WALL OF FROST.

Round 3: vs. Blue.
I landed a bunch of Elephants early, one of which got Tidebinded, and another of which got turned into a Frog Lizard, but eventually he ran out of answers, and I won. Game two, I faced a greater challenge: WALL OF FROST. Yes, a 0/7 defender that freezes my elephants for the next turn really crimped my style. I had to use two spells and lose two of my doodz for a turn to get rid of one (and a clone of one!). I think I ended up dying a couple turns later when he landed a rather splashy Master of Waves. Game three, he stumbled on mana, and I Chained his Wall to the proverbial Rocks, and Xenagos-devoted Elephants (Mistcutters, specifically) ran over his random Weirds and Owls. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-0.

Lesson learned: kill it while I can.

Round 4: vs. Black.
We were the only 3-0s at that point, so we ID'd and split the top two prizes. We played a match for fun, and it was pretty interesting how it played out. I haven't played this matchup much, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I think the key to this match is to keep the pressure on them. And I should probably kill Pack Rat while I can. Ideally, exactly one turn before it becomes unmanageable. The last game we played was pretty crazy back & forth, with me having to sac a bunch of doodz to Desecration Demon so as not to die. I had an Elephantal token and a Stormbreath, and topdecked an Unflinching Courage to trample over for the win. We scooped up our cards, and were talking about the final game state, and he realized maybe he wasn't dead after all. But we couldn't remember for sure what was all on the board or who was at what life. I thought either way I had it, but I don't remember for sure. But yeah. Kill Pack Rat. Record: 3-0-1.

So yeah. Another good night for the Herd. The deck gained some worthy additions in Courser and Scrylands and the God of Elephants, and they all played their part. Some more detailed thoughts:

• Having Temple of Plenty is pretty awesome. The scrylands are incredibly useful in smoothing out draws, allowing me to sculpt sketchy hands into good ones.
• Similarly, ditching the Mystics and focusing more on playing on curve and fixing my mana and draws seems to be the right choice. I miss the explosiveness of playing huge creatures a turn earlier with regularity, but I think sacrificing explosivness for consistency is the right call.
• Xenagos. He is definitely a God worthy of our Devotion. He turns random dorks into serious threats, and turns serious threats into really serious threats.
• I'm happy with not cutting the white. Having the white gives me just a little bit of extra spice that I might lack otherwise. It's not any one card, but a few that all combine to give it just a little more versatility. Aurelia, Unflinching Courage, Voice, Chained to the Rocks, Wear // Tear. Some of them could be replaced by other things (e.g., Voice -> Ooze, Wear // Tear -> Unravel the AEther), but it wouldn't be *quite* the same. And there's really no other card quite like Unflinching Courage or Aurelia.
• Speaking of which, one swap I think I'm going to try is Fanatic of Xenagos instead of Loxodon Smiter. It makes me sad, because, well, Elephants. But Fanatic has trample, and it'll usually be a 4/4 for at least one turn. The "can't be countered" aspect of Smiter is nice, but it doesn't seem to come up all that often.
• I want to find room for one more Chained to the Rocks. I think maybe cutting the Selesnya Charm is the way to go. Most of the time, I want it for the removal mode. Sometimes the pump mode is nice to push through damage, but I think I'd rather just Chain the offending blocker to a Rock. Yeah.

I win!

Oh yeah, so I also got to play some Pauper this weekend! That was super sweet. I like this format a lot. I played some Dimir Control (Ghostly Flicker version). I won't go into too much detail, but the gist of it is that it's super durdly, with no real win condition other than a Ghostly Flicker/Mnemonic Wall lock of some kind (usually with Chittering Rats, but sometimes infinite chump blocking works just fine). The tweaks I made to it from the last time I played were effective (e.g., adding cycling lands and Mana Leaks). I lost only one match, a ridiculously grindy match to Delver. But the whole thing was super fun. Now I want to try brewing something even more horribly durdly: BUG Dredge.

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

RRRRRUMBLE!

Hi everybody!

So, more tweaks to the elephants deck, mostly to the sideboard, and some actual good results to report! Here's where I'm at:

24 Land

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Loxodon Smiter
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Selesnya Charm
1 Magma Jet
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard:
3 Shock
3 Unflinching Courage
1 Assemble the Legion
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Wear // Tear
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Boon Satyr
1 Selesnya Charm

Basically, I wanted more game against Aggro. Unflinching Courage was matchups against removal-light decks and/or where life totals matter. Shock is to help stem early aggression, and wanting to make sure that I always drew at least one in those matchups. So how'd it go? Read on!

Round 1: vs. Rakdos Midrange Brew. I played against a friend and fellow L1 Judge, and though I appreciated his brewer's spirit, it didn't seem to work out that well for him. In Game 1, he kept a bad hand (one land). In Game 2 I kept a bad hand and got my one threat Thoughtseize'd out. In Game 3, he just had way too many top-end things to do, and I had enough early aggression to knock him out before he could mount anything. Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Blue Devotion. In the first game I got beat up pretty bad when he had enough unchecked early flying critters to fuel a huge Master of Waves. The second game, he overextended and allowed me to swoop in with (I believe) a Dragon and a hasty Mistcutter. Third game, he mull'd down to five, kept a hand with two Mutavaults, a Nykthos, and some blue action, but never drew an Island. He was dead by turn 4-5 after I curved out pretty well. Win, 2-1. Record: 2-0.

Attack for a million? Attack for a million again?

Round 3: vs. Mono-Green Devotion. I lost a sloppy game one after we both misplayed (he let me have a Voice token, and I sent my Dragon right into his Arbor Colossus without a way of finishing it off). Second game I don't remember much about, other than the ground was stalled out when Aurelia and probably a Dragon swooped in for like 14 points of damage out of nowhere. He wasn't expecting that. Third game, he had an early Polukranos, which I promptly Chain'd to a Rock of some sort. Then I landed a Domri, with no other action. I had a Dragon early, but it got Plummet'd. I suited up an Elephant with Unflinching Courage, and he doubple-blocked with his X-1 and Boon Satyr to trade. Eventually, Domri ultimate'd, and the second Domri found an Elephantile friend, who promptly suited up some Courage, and stomped for a million. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-0.

Choose your master. Some ethereal ghost priest thing, or ELEPHANTS.

Round 4: vs. U/W Control. God I love this matchup. So much back and forth and so much tight play required on both ends to come out with the win. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if the matchup is much less fun on the other side of the table. Well, game one went about as well as it usually does: not very. I stomped him down to about 8 life, when he ran me out of cards and started chaning Sphinxes. Game two I put him on the back foot almost immediately with Chandra, drawing tons of gas and making him answer threat after threat while he struggled to keep up. Aurelia ended up sealing the deal, I think with backup from some other random dooder. Third game came down to basically this: He -2'd Jace and flipped D-Sphere, Dissolve, and Blind Obedience. I thought about it. Fact? Or Fiction? I decided to give him two answers rather than the card that would single-handedly mess with one of my main lines of attack (hasty creatures). He took the two answers. I proceeded to beat him to death with the hasty dooders that he could neither Dissolve nor Detention. If he'd have taken that B.O., it probably would have been a different game. I think he was sitting on a Sphinx's that he could never cast because he kept having to answer my threats. If he would've had one turn of downtime, maybe he could have Sphinx'd and filled up on more Verdicts and D-Spheres. "What if..." Win, 2-1. Record: 4-0.

So, yeah! 4-0! My Round 4 opponent was a worthy opponent, though, so I offered him the prize split, even though tournament math prevented us from being able to intentionally draw. I think I ended up with something like 21 or 22 packs, which I banked in store credit. Not bad!

Yup, I'm still enjoying the deck. It's pretty satisfying when all my tweaking and philosophizing and practice pays off like this. Of course, if I'm honest with myself, I think I may have lucked out on a few things from my opponents: bad draws, play mistakes, unproven deck brews. But I'm still pretty happy with where the deck is at. I'm having lots of fun playing it. So I think I'll continue to do so.

With that, here's the obligatory philosophizing:

• I'm sold on the Unflinching Courage. Suiting up some random dooder and tromping through for mega lifelink damage is pretty sweet.
• I'm not as sure about Voice of Resurgence anymore. In theory, it's a no-brainer 2-for-1. But in practice, people are learning to play around it. I usually get a free dooder once every tournament, but I can't really rely on that. Answers like Last Breath don't make it as wrath-proof as it would otherwise be. Several of the best decks in the format don't really care about it. Maybe it's better as a sideboard card.
• I've been siding out Elvish Mystics a lot lately. At least when I'm on the draw. It seems like curving out is much more important than slamming down a turn-two Elephant or Domri. But the Caryatids are awesome. They fix my otherwise very awkward mana, and turn-three Polukranos is VERY sweet. Also, +1'ing Domri and finding an Elf .... not that exciting. If I keep him in, I should also have something like Boon Satyr to make him not terrible.
• Aurelia. Card is such a blowout when I can set it up. So much damage out of nowhere. "What's your life at? 18? Okay, I think I got this one." Maybe I should go up to two. But I never want to see more than one, and I never want to see it in a hand with a bunch of other big stuff and no way of casting it.
• S-Charm works as a spicy 1- or 2-of. In the mono-green matchup, I completely messed up his combat when he swung in with Arbor Colossus, Nylea, and Mistcutter, and I exiled his Colossus to turn off devotion and just take 4 from the Mistcutter. I feel like I should have it in against other big threats, like Desecration Demon and the Gods. I do look forward to Revoke Existence once BNG drops, though.

Speaking of BNG, there's a new set coming out! New toys! New Elephants! Here are some that I'm considering:

God of the Elephants! This could actually help shore up my game one against Control somewhat. Making a topdecked Smiter a 8/8 with haste? Seems pretty good. I bet in other matchups, I could turn on his devotion once in a while too. Also works with Domri's +1. Pretty much an auto-include.

Utility Elephant. A 2/4 body on turn three isn't the worst. Blocks most aggro creatures pretty effectively. Gaining life against them isn't the worst either. It also has possible interesting connotations with Domri, Chandra, and the scrylands. I like the intangibles on this one. She'll be in my 75 somewhere. Might even be 4-of maindeck.

Tribute Elephant? This guy looks great, if only the choice were mine. However. He's always going to be a 4/4 for three mana at some point. I guess the question is, am I okay having a 3/3 if a 4/4 with haste isn't what I want on turn three? But then there's another question. What if I cut white, and run this guy instead of Smiter?

King of Elephants? This guy is obviously awesome on his own. But does he fit in my deck? I suspect not. I suspect most of the time the cat tokens are going to be just random dorks that sit around and don't do much. They'd work well with Voice tokens, but I can't really count on that happening much. I think I'll pass for now.

I'll probably tweak a few other slots, like utility spells and whatnot. Probably Revoke Existence. Maybe another Chained to the Rocks. Between that and with Temple of Plenty coming, I can probably phase out the singleton Magma Jet. We'll see.

So what else is going on? I brewed up a sweet Dimir Control deck for Pauper, but it didn't do great this last weekend. So I'll wait until I shore it up a little better before I unleash it to this here blog.

This weekend is the BNG prerelease, which I'm going to be very active at. I'm playing in one, and judging at three others. I'm pretty excited for it, but I think I'll be exhausted by the time Sunday evening rolls around. But I'm looking forward to it. We'll see how this Limited format plays out. It'll be interesting, for sure. I just kinda wish I had more time to be able to play Theros Draft more. I only did one draft, and it was pretty casual. Oh well.

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

Braving the PTQ

Hi everybody!
"Hi Prof. Shine!"

So, I brought the Herd with me to the PTQ this weekend. And ... I pretty much bombed. I lost my first three (one in epically hilarious mana-screwed fashion), but I was having fun so I kept playing. Then I started winning. Then I found myself playing in Round 9 for three packs ... and I lost. So I finished 5-4. Not bad, I was hoping for better. Here's what happened, more or less (I don't think I can remember every match, but I'll try).

Plus bloodrush? Owch.

Round 1: vs. R/G Aggro. First match, I got paired against another Mox regular. And I got stomped by his Armed // Dangerous shenanigans. It seems like maybe my post-board strategy for Aggro wasn't quite up to snuff. Loss. Record: 0-1.

So many Clerics....

Round 2: vs. W/u Aggro. Another match against a Mox regular. :/ This time, I took him to three games, and we went to time. I was close to stabilizing, but he just had too many little doodz, and I was at too low a life total to start to turn things around. Yeah, my sideboard strategy needs work. More to come on that. Loss. Record: 0-2.

Yup!

Round 3: vs. Murkan Control. Game one I mull'd to 5 and kept a hand of: Mountain, mana dork, mana dork, Magma Jet, other spell. Ugh. Well if I draw any second land I'm probably okay. 7 turns later, I have a Mountain, and a graveyard full of spells, and he has Elspeth. Game two I mull'd once or twice again, and actually drew pretty decently. Unfortunately, I was so excited to be able to play spells, that I played right into his Ratchet Bomb that killed my Domri and Hammer. I think I drew like pewp after that. Loss. Record: 0-3.

Maybe I should have waited to play my Smiter.

Round 4: vs. B/R brew. Nice enough guy, but his deck was kinda janky. He had some discard shenanigans, but not nearly enough to hold back the herd's persistence. Win. Record: 1-3.

Round 5: vs. RUG. I don't remember much about this match. I think he didn't really get much going, and I had Elephants. Win. Record: 2-3.

Flying Wurms, o noes! :/

Round 6: vs. Selesnya. Some tokens, some non-tokens. Kinda aggro, but with the midrange explosiveness/reach that Ajani gives. Pretty good match, close, back & forth. But ultimately, I was able to stabilize against him to let my Elephants take over and bring him down. We lamented the suckiness of the Karametra (the new W/G God), and the general lack in general of support for tokens strategies in the current Standard environment. Win. Record: 3-3.

Gary. Yeah.

Round 7: vs. B/w/u Devotion. I had him on Esper Control, so I boarded accordingly after I stomped him game one. Second game I saw the Pack Rats and Gary and ... yeah, let me re-sideboard plzkthx. Game three I chuckled when I saw what I forgot to side out ... Hammer of Purphoros. But hey, maybe this won't be so bad. So I play it, and start stomping him with hasty Elephants. He couldn't get much of a board presence going and conceded shortly thereafter. Win. Record: 4-3.

Why did they have to reprint this? :/

Round 8: vs. U/W Control. He introduced himself and commented on my SCG Judge playmat, then he mentioned something about doing commentary for them. Oh yeah, I thought his name looked familiar! I complimented him and his organization's quality tournaments, while having a crazy epic match. First game, he got kinda land screwed, and I had way too much pressure for him to keep up. Second game, he kept up with me very well, matching me answer-for-threat, and eventually chaining Sphinxes. I thought maybe I could pull out of it and/or go to time, but ... yeah. So we played a hyper fast game three with about 5 minutes left, and again I had a lot of early pressure and he got land screwed. Fun match. Good guy. Win. Record: 5-3.

First to monstrous this guy wins!

Round 9: vs. G/R Midrange. Okay, by this point, I was pretty tired and loopy, and frankly, ready to go home. But hey, gotta battle for those three packs! IN IT 2 WIN IT!!/ Or something? Well anyway, I kept some marginal hands, and his monsters were bigger than my monsters and I got blown out by Mortars and a giant Polukranos and f- this s- I'm going home. Loss. Record: 5-4.

Well despite opening and ending the day with a some bad losses, I had a lot of fun. I got to mingle with my Mox friends and share bad beat stories and just in general have a great time interacting with the community. And playing Magic was fun too. Even the losses were either close matches, or comically bad. And winning 5 in a row was pretty sweet. Hooray Magic! \o/

So, what change(s) do I need to make? Well, I'm gonna start here:

Because elephants should TRAMPLE, amirite?

I've been noticing that the this Standard format is a "big life swing" format. I mean, it's being shaped by a common 5-mana creature that drains life. It's probably time I did something similar. At least two of my Aggro opponents commented about how much the lifegain can swing a game in one's favor, and +2/+2 and trample can make a beefy dood into a huge threat. Yeah, that's what I need. Too many times, I've started to stabilize against them, found myself unable to counterattack, and die to a topdecked burn spell or Brave the Elephants. Imma try it.

But ... Honestly, I think 9 rounds of trying to compete with this deck has worn on me. It might be time to look elsewhere. I have Mono-Blue built, and who knows what goodies Born of the Gods may bring. We'll see!

Thanks for reading!

So Many Elephants

Hi everybody! "Hi Prof. Shine!"

Well, the holidays are behind us, and I'm getting back into my normal [Magical] routine. For Standard, I'm continuing to rock the Elephants. I've made a couple of tweaks, and right now I'm right about here:

Land (24):
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Abandon
4 Forest
2 Mountain

Creatures (25):
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Boon Satyr
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Spells (11):
1 Magma Jet
1 Chained to the Rocks
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
1 Warleader's Helix

Sideboard (15):
2 Boros Reckoner
2 Fiendslayer Paladin
2 Wear // Tear
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Shock
1 Scavenging Ooze

And here's how the matches went last night:

"Mountains come out of the sky and they [punch you in the face]." - Yes (paraphrased)

Round 1: vs. R/g Devotion. I wasn't terribly thrilled to get paired against this right away, but it seemed to go well in the first game. She didn't have much action in the first few turns. A Hammer turn three, followed up by Purphoros turn four. Okay, cool. Then, Burning-Tree, Burning-Tree, Ash Zealot, Hammer, all with Purphoros triggers, and swing for a bunch. Owch. D: I picked off some of her doodz, but a Boros Reckoner finished me off. Second game, I landed some early elephants and she got stuck on three land. Third game, she quickly kept a 7-card hand, hit all her land drops, and did a lot of scrying. So ... I was a bit concerned. I played it pretty safe, holding on to burn and waiting for the critters to start coming out. But .. they never did. So I bonk'd her to death with an Elephant or two. No Nykthos explosions, no Purphoros shenanigans ... just a few random dudes and a few random burn spells. Well, it's a win! Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Remember this guy? Yeah, I don't think I can beat him.

Round 2: vs. Esper Midrange. Sweet deck. Some early aggression, some disruption, some reach, and some synergy. Kinda like the old Aristocrats deck, but .. not really. Anyway, this was a tough matchup. I got a bit color-screwed the first game when I didn't hit a white source of mana until turn 4 (with Chained to the Rocks and Loxodon Smiter sitting in my hand). Then Imposing Sovereign hindered my "Blockers" plan. Oh well. So I sided into my aggro configuration, with more burn, cheaper creatures. And that's when I saw the Esper deck's Plan B: Control. I played into not one, but TWO Supreme Verdicts, and when the dust settled, he had an Obzedat, and I had nothing. Loss, 0-2. Record: 1-1.

Hasty pro-blue elephant that can't be countered? Yes please!

Round 3: vs. American Control. Holy crap do I love playing this deck against Control. I lost game one to an unchecked Assemble the Legion, but games two and three, I showed him my powerful post-board plan: "Deal with this, or die." I love it when every card I play draws a response of "Oh, [swear word]." He was able to Pith Domri in both post-board games, but he couldn't stop all of my different angles of attack. I'm pretty sure most of my sideboard cards played some role in this match, including my getting a sweet sweet 2-for-1 with Wear // Tear (Pithing Needle and Assemble the Legion). Win, 2-1. Record: 2-1.

Not awesome against Jace, AOT, but if they don't have Jace, then she and a random unblocked  elephant will just win.

Round 4: vs. Esper Control. I offered the prize split, but he declined. Okay, more free packs for me. :) Well, I won the first game when he failed to draw enough answers to deal with all my aggression. I quickly sided into my "mono-ridiculous-must-deal-with-threats" configuration and prepared for an easy 2-0 win. Unfortunately, he actually had answers to all my threats! Domri got D-Sphere'd. Chandra got Thoughtseize'd. Mistcutters and Elemental tokens (Elephantals?) got Verdict'd. Then he started chaining Sphinxes and ... yeah. Couldn't keep up. Game three, though, he went to 16 to Thoughtseize me turn one and found: Land x3, Smiter, Chandra, Hammer, Aurelia. He took the Hammer. I played out a Caryatid, a Smiter, and topdecked the 5th land to finish him off with Aurelia. We played a few more for fun, and they mostly played out the same way. I congratulated him, though, on being the first Control player to beat me in a post-board game. Win, 2-1. Record: 3-1.

So yeah! That was good enough for 4th place (out of 23). I got 8 packs ($18 store credit) for my efforts. I paid $11.50 for the event, so ... hey, I came out ahead! I'm a professional Magic player! Okay, not really.

Anyway, the obligatory post-mortem/debrief:

• So glad I added the 4th Mortars in. Such a good card. I don't think I overloaded it much last night, but I was more than okay just killing a Soldier of the Pantheon with it.
• Shock out of the sideboard was pretty sweet. It kills a surprisingly large number of creatures in this format.
• I was actually kind of impressed with Scavenging Ooze. Against the red deck, he gained me a little life and became a pretty serious threat. I might try that out in the 'board instead of Fiendslayer (which I still have yet to see in an actual game). I even brought it in against Control as another threat (especially post-wrath).
• I really wish I could have gotten in some matches against Mono-Blue and Mono-Black. I think I'm okay against Mono-Blue, but I'm not at all confident about Mono-Black. I just don't think I can beat a sequence of Underworld > Desecration > Gary. Or even multiple Desecrations. It makes me want to try out Selesnya Charm, or more Chained to the Rocks. Because ... ugh.
• Speaking of other cards I wanna try out .. Peak Eruption. Several times over the last month or two, I've been thinking it would be really sweet against these Red/Boros decks. But I really don't wanna dilute my creature base any further.
• Speaking of which, I really want to find room for that 4th Domri. I can probably take out that Helix. But I've been thinking of maybe trying out a Sc'Ooze in that slot. But the extra removal is pretty sweet, too. Hmmm.
• Actually now that I think about it, Sc'Ooze could be good against Mono-Black, too, for nullifying the Whip-value tactic.
• Very minor point: Far too often, I found myself wanting white mana and having to wait longer than I would normally like to get it. I think I'm going to swap a Temple of Abandon out for a 4th Temple Triumph.

So yeah. Elephants! I like this deck a lot. It's fun, it's winning, and there's still room for improvement. Of course, Born of the Gods is coming, and that's likely to shake up the format somewhat. I'm not sure about my specific deck yet other than [obviously] adding the W/G scryland. But for Elephants .. I'm not sure yet. We'll see what Xenagos and Karametra bring us. :)

Not much else going on with other fronts yet. I haven't gotten to play Pauper lately, but I think I'm going to try Dimir Control next chance I get. Probably in 2 weeks. I Judge'd at a PTQ in Green Bay last weekend, and I had a great time doing it. I talked to the HJ about testing for L2 (his wife is an L3), and hopefully I can set that in motion sooner than later. There seem to be quite a few more Judge opportunities coming up over the next few months. So that's exciting. :)

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

Road to Level 2 .. .and .. more Elephants

Hi everybody!

So, I ticked off another requirement on my Level 2 Judge checklist: head-judge'd a Competitive event. It was the Legacy 1K at Mox Mania this weekend. Turnout was a little less than we would have liked, but considering the weather's been crappy and that seems to be finals time right now, 29 players isn't that bad.

I originally thought I was going to have my L2 mentor as one of my Judglings, but we had a miscommunication/misunderstanding, and he wasn't able to make it, so I had two relatively new L1's judgling-ing under me. I think that was actually better experience for me, getting to (and having to!) babysit them more. Thankfully, though, one of them has judged other Competitive events, and was able to demonstrate deck checking to the other one.

So yeah, the whole thing was lots of work. I underestimated the complexity of running the logistics of the whole thing: entering in results, generating pairings, posting pairings, printing match slips, starting the clock, cutting match slips, handing out match slips, swooping for deck check, etc. It was kinda hard work, but very rewarding. Great experience for by myself, and for my Judglings. A++, would head judge again. :)

Next step ... Meet with my L2 mentor, then probably contact an L3, and then take my test. Woo!

On the playing side of things, I'm still having fun with my Elephants deck. I made one minor tweak .. I swapped out the Lightning Strikes for two Selesnya Charms and a Warleader's Helix. I'm not sure that was the right call, however. Here's how it went:

Uncounterable elephant.

Round 1: vs. U/W Control. Game one didn't go that great. I beat up on him for a few turns, he wrath'd once or twice, then stabilized with Elspeth, and locked the game up with a Sphinx's Revelation. Textbook. Game two, I sided into the ham-fisted Control Hate configuration of my deck, with Mistcutters, Assembles, Boros Charms, and The Hammah. From there, the rest of the match just plays itself. One hard-to-deal-with Elephant after another. I won both subsequent games, I think both times with multiple threats still in hand ("I still had all these!"). Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Electro-elephant.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red Devotion. Same opponent as last week or a couple weeks ago. Again, he didn't get the greatest of draws, but he drew well enough to get one game. I don't remember much about this match, other than lots of burn and Boros Reckoners being tossed around. Win, 2-1. Record: 2-0.

Not an elephant.

Round 3: vs. RDW. This one didn't quite go as well. Game one, he put Mad Skillz on a Reckoner, and I had to dome myself for 4 to kill it. From there, he just had to patiently draw into his remaining burn spells. Second game, his turns were: (1) Cackler, (2) Zealot, (3) [something .. I forget], (4) Burning-Tree, Burning-Tree, Fanatic of Mogis. GG. I guess. :/ Loss, 0-2. Record: 2-1.

Flying elephant!

Round 4: vs. Junk Reanimator brew. I appreciate this guy's brewing spirit, but it seemed like his deck was trying to do too much. He was playing four colors, splashing red mostly for Sire of Insanity. Game 1 went pretty quickly, with me overwhelming him pretty early with Elephants, and punishing his "all-in" play on Lotleth Troll with a Chained to the Rocks. Game two, he had the turn three Whip of Erebos, but I had the Wear // Tear to put the kibosh on that. I quickly followed up with Elephantile beatdowns and soon victory was mine. Win, 2-0. Record: 3-1.

Well all that was good enough for second place! The RDW opponent ended up winning out, and all of my previous opponents did pretty well, so my tiebreakers were pretty good. It was enough for about $13 in store credit, so minus the $10 entry fee, I made $3 on the night. Woo!

Thoughts on the deck:

• I should probably shore up the red aggro matchup. Voices and Reckoners aren't quite cutting it. Selesnya Charm is cute, but I think I really need more removal. I think I should just put in that fourth Mortars, and maybe some lifegain. Hmmm .. Fiendslayer Paladin? Unflinching Courage? That could be pretty sweet on a Polukranos or Reckoner. But I need some early burn, too. Maybe I just side out all the mana dorks and bring in Anger of the Gods? But I do like my Caryatids...
• The Control matchup seems just fine. I can probably cut back on some of the sideboard hate. Probably the Boros Charms. Or maybe bring some of that into the maindeck? It's hard, though, because both my Control and Aggro matchups seem pretty bad for game 1, and I don't know how to shore up one without borking the other.
• Deck is still lots of fun, and still has room for improvement. Which is both good and bad. I like the deck, and it's doing well, but I kinda wanted to try out Mono-Blue at some point. Plus, I just love saying "Elephant".

This weekend is gonna be an inaugural/test run of Pauper Constructed, which I'm looking forward to. I'm building my mono-blue Delver deck in paper, and it think it'll be pretty fun. Lots of Mox regulars have been expressing interest, so I figure we can try to start it up again after the holidays. I'd love to see it take off. But if not, I'll have fun trying. :)

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

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!