FNM 2/22/13, Game Day 2/23/13

Hi everybody!

So, my downward slide is continuing. Honestly, I'm not entirely sure what's going on, but I suspect that my deck might be trying to do too many things. Or maybe people are figuring out how to beat my deck. Or maybe I've been getting unlucky. I'm not sure. But, I went 1-3 at FNM and 0-3 at Game Day. So yeah, I was still playing Sphinx's Spam (Bant Control splashing black for Nephalia Drownyard and Merciless Eviction). I put a Garruk, Primal Hunter in the sideboard instead of Blind Obedience to battle Midrange and Control, and I sub'd a Deathrite Shaman for a Purify the Grave (admittedly, an experiment).

FNM, Round 1: vs. R/g aggro. The guy I played had been in and out of Magic tournaments for a while, and I think he was fairly new to the Standard scene. His deck seemed pretty good, but maybe he didn't play it optimally, or maybe I played mine optimally? Anyway, I was able to stabilize pretty well both games, gain a ton of life, and beat down with doodz. 1-0.

Round 2: vs. ... I forget, I think Naya Midrange. Yeah, I don't remember this match that well. I'm pretty sure it was Naya Midrange. Usually part of my gameplan is to run them out of cards with lots of X-for-1s (board wipes, Sphinx's, etc.). But for whatever reason, it didn't work out. I think I didn't draw into the Sphinx's and/or board wipes, and he landed Garruk. 1-1.

Round 3: vs. Aristocrats. First time seeing this deck in action, and I'm still not entirely sure what happened. I may have taken him to 3 games, but I'm not sure. 1-2.

Round 4: vs. Selesnya Aggro. I don't remember much about this matchup either, but it was similar to round 2. For whatever reason, my usual gameplan just didn't work. I'm pretty sure Elephants were involved. 1-3.

So that was frustrating. But chalked it up to bad luck. Tomorrow should be better, right?

Game Day, Round 1: vs. Humanimator. Ugh, reanimator is back. Well, I definitely needed more than a Rest in Peace and Deathrite Shaman to win this one. This might be one of those matchups where it's worth it to jam a bunch of hate in the board even if it's not that great against other decks, just because I hate losing to this stupid deck. Also, I didn't realize that you could use Zealous Conscripts as part of the combo to steal all your opponents' lands, and give all your creatures haste, and give yourself infinite mana. Needs moar Rest in Peace. 0-1.

Round 2: vs. Rakdos Zombies. I should be okay with this one, right? Well, I can beat a couple of Falkenrath Aristocrats, but not three of them. Especially when I'm not drawing into my Termini or Revelations. Also, I'm starting to not really like Feeling of Dread. Stalling is fine, but not if I don't draw into what I need to get to. Then I'm just throwing away cards and putting off the inevitable. 0-2.

Round 3: vs. Selesnya Aggro. This is another matchup where I should just roll, but for whatever reason it didn't work out. I needed to draw into more board wipes and Sphinx's. 0-3.

So I dropped after that point. I put on a happy face and laughed it off, but after I got home, I sunk into a pretty bad depressed funk. Apologies to my lovely girlfriend for subjecting her to my bad mood. :(

But you know, this kind of depression often serves as a catalyst to reevaluate our situation and motivate us to make changes. So I think I'm going to pull the trigger and play the Wolf Run version of this deck. I played a handful of test games against some of the newer popular decks, and I think it'll do okay. I'm not sure when I'll get to play Standard next, though. I'm going to take Tuesday off this week, and I kinda want to draft at FNM (since I've only gotten to draft Gatecrash once so far), and there's a Modern PTQ this weekend that I wanna try out.

So, Modern. I've got my U/W/R Delver deck, but I've been remiss at getting the cards I need to finish out the deck. Mostly I need Molten Rain to battle crap like Tron, and maybe a Suppression Field to battle Eggs and Pod. I'm not terribly excited about the deck, or my chances to do well. I'd rather run the midrange version, but .. you know, Vendilion Clique .. $50 card .. probably gonna get reprinted in Modern Masters .. probably gonna drop after the PTQ season anyway. But .. we'll try Delver and see how it goes.

Speaking of Delver, I haven't gotten a chance to do much with Magic Online. I've done a few matches in the Tournament Practice room, with mixed results. I'm realizing that my Delver deck really doesn't have many ways to deal with creatures. It wants to use countermagic to deal with stuff. Sometimes I can Snap and then counter, but that's not that great. But the big thing is, I pretty much just lose to the Hexproof decks out there. They cast their dood on turn one, and then jack it up with enchantments. Sometimes I can keep up with countermagic, but if they land an Armadillo Cloak, I'm pretty much dead. So I need to spring for those Curfews. At some point, too, I might want to try out the Post deck, which I have most of the cards for too. That deck looks like a lot of fun, and might be more my style than Delver (generate tons of mana, draw lots of cards, end with a bang .. plus, Mulldrifter).

Okay, well that's it for now. Modern tonight, then a brief break until FNM and PTQ this weekend. Thanks for reading!