Modern, 2/25/13

Greetings and/or salutations!

So I played my second EVAR Modern event last night. I rocked my U/W/R Delver deck, and finished 3-1. Here's the breakdown:

Round 1: vs. Bant Splicers. Huh? Okay, this guy mostly plays casually (Commander), and tossed together a bunch of cool Splicer-themed cards mostly from Scars of Mirrodin block. It had a very high curve and not nearly enough lands. I think he played maybe 4 spells the whole match. 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Selesnya Aggro. Okay, this guy is a regular at the Standard tournaments, and brought his Standard deck to a Modern tournament. Sometimes it works, but this time, not so much. Most of his critters died to my removal and/or countermagic. 2-0.

Round 3: vs. Junk. Looked kinda like a "good stuff" deck, with Noble Hierarch, Deathrite Shaman, Kitchen Finks, Knight of the Reliquary, and Liliana of the Veil. This was a really close, back & forth match. Game one, I got a Steppe Lynx and a Geist to take a nice chunk out of his lifetotal, but Liliana and Path to Exile cleared my board and finished off my hand. Game two I think I just Kitty-rushed him, and benefitted from some well-timed (and admittedly VERY risky) topdecks of fetchlands. Game three I got him down to one life, swung with my Geist, and he Reliquary'd in a Vault of the Archangel. Between that and the crackback, he ended up at 17 life, and my hand was empty. Owch. Really good, close, fun match. A+++ would lose again. 2-1.

Round 4: vs. Mono-Red Burn. I think this list was similar to another deck I played against the first Modern tournament I played at, and this time, I was better prepared. I had more countermagic, and more basic lands so I didn't die to Blood Moon. Well, sure enough I had Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon attempted against me, and both times I had the counter and/or burn for them. The match was pretty close, going to three games. I probably could have won the one game I lost, though, but I didn't realize there was a Split Second burn card (see Sudden Shock, above) when I allowed myself to hover at 2 life. Oups. :( Anyway, it was really close, with both of us whittling each other down with critters and burn. Ultimately, I prevailed with my combination of creatures and counterspell backup. And it didn't help him that Geist of Saint Traft has Hexproof. A close, fun, well-fought game. 3-1.

So yeah, I went 3-1, which was good enough for 3 prize packs. Yayyy. I don't think I cracked anything terribly exciting. But the experience was fun. I enjoyed the change of pace of playing in a different format with lower expectations of myself and my deck, and I had a lot of fun. I'll feel better about my chances of actually not doing terribly if/when I can get Molten Rains for the sideboard for Tron.

I think I'm about ready to play in a Pauper tournament now, too. I acquired two Curfews for my mono-blue Delver deck, and though I'd like a third, I think it'll do for now.

Cool. Thanks for reading!