Greetings and/or salutations!
Well, I got my 2nd and 3rd Gatecrash drafts finished, and I've come to one major conclusion: I hate Bloodrush. More later.
So at FNM I first-picked Nightveil Specter and went Dimir. I looked for a splash guild, waffling between Simic and Orzhov, and settled on Orzhov on the merit of more playable cards (including Knight of Obligation and Orzhov Charm). I wanted to get more Cipher stuff, but I only ended up with a handful (the Binding one, Last Thoughts, and maybe a third?). I played against black decks each round, including two other Dimir decks.
The first match was against a younger dude who's improved vastly since last time I played him. He made a few mistakes, but his deck was pretty good--basically a better version of mine, but with a Simic splash instead of Orzhov. I took him to three pretty close games, though. It was a great match, though, one I don't mind losing. Especially when it's to a younger player who's showing obvious signs of improvement.
Second match was against the other Dimir deck. He had a bunch of Cipher cards, but I was able to keep him in check with my removal. One game I assembled the Ciphertron, which was awesome.
Third match was against a Borzhov deck that likely didn't get its best draws against me. I think it was three games, and both games I won was directly because of Mind Grind. Card's good.
So I got a couple of boosters which I took with me to play an afterdraft at a friend's house. In that draft, I ended up going Boros after first-picking Ball of Lightning Helix (aka, Spark Trooper). No splash. I got just enough playables to fill out a 40 card deck. I don't think I sideboarded a single card. Yeah, the deck was really good, with doubple Guildmage, the 2-drop vigilance/firebreathing/first-strike guy, the aforementioned Spark Trooper, and lots of doodz. You know, a Boros deck. Unfortunately, I ran into my nemesis: BLOODRUSH.
So, I had my round two opponent somewhere around 5 life, with me at around 12. He had that multi-block Angel out, so I was being conservative in just getting in with my 3/1 first strike one combat step at a time. Meanwhile, he was assembling his air force and I was assembling my ground force. I kept my creatures back, figuring I'd be safe with my combat trick (the +1/+1, flying, first strike thingy), but he had the +3/+3 doubple-strike bloodrush thing. "Take 20?" Ugh. Then something similar happened in the last round. I was at somewhere around 15 life, figuring I was safe not to leave blockers back. Then ... bloodrush and I lose.
Maybe it's just me being a whiny loser, but I'm not sure this is the direction I want my beloved game to move in. In Constructed formats, sure, combo decks exist that can win out of nowhere, but Limited has far fewer tools to be able to deal with such things. I dunno. I suppose "blockers," but ... I dunno. I don't like it. I probably need to suck it up and learn to deal with it.
Anyway. Modern PTQ this weekend too! I was pretty excited to play it in, as I've saying here. My decklist was something like this:
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Slayer's Stronghold
1 Moorland Haunt
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Mana Leak
4 Lightning Helix
2 Izzet Charm
1 Remand
Sideboard:
2 Stony Silence
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spellskite
2 Disenchant
2 Aven Mindcensor
1 Path to Exile
3 Molten Rain
2 Celestial Purge
I ended up going 4-4, one win shy of prizes, but I had lots of fun. Here's a summary, as best as I can remember:
Round 1: vs. Pod. This was pretty interesting. I tried to keep him off his Pod and/or combo pieces (e.g., Murderous Redcap) and try to keep pressure on. I was able to get Aberrations and Kitties and Geists in aplenty, and he kept throwing Finks in my way. One game, he combo'd out with Kiki-Jiki and Restoration Angel, and in the third game, he said he was one Phantasmal Image in his library away from comboing out (he drew the only one he had, and couldn't get the chain going any other way). Good match. 1-0.
Round 2: vs. U/W/R Midrange. Seems like a bad matchup for me. She had all kinds of answers for my threats, and I couldn't really gain any traction. I know I'm in desperate times when I have to use a Lightning Helix on a Soldier token, only to have my Geist die anyway. Oof. 1-1.
Round 3: vs. Junk. Kinda similar to the deck I played against on Monday night, but with slightly better creatures (e.g., Bob, Tarmogoyf). I think this went to three games, and I know he won, but I forget exactly how. I think Liliana got me one game (card's annoying), and I think he had enough lifegain to keep me from closing the deal. 1-2.
Round 4: vs. Affinity. First time playing against the dreaded Arcbound Ravager. I wasn't sure what to make of it, and a few things caught me by surprise. Like, he can sacrifice himself to himself in response to Path. Then he puts his counters on an Ornithopter. I had the removal for the 'thopter, but I kinda really didn't want to do that. But it was a really good, close, surprisingly grindy match. I have SO MUCH 1-for-1 removal, but he has stuff like Whipflare to 2-for-1 me. In the end, we ran out of time. I conceded to his board of doubple Vault Skirges and some other creature. 1-3.
Round 5: vs. Scapeshift, aka [swear word] Valakut. Yup, still hate Valakut. They sit there ramping, and then they cast their spell that either wins or loses the game if it goes off or not. I think he got me in two games. I had two counters in hand, but they were both of the "unless you pay X" variety (Mana Leak, Izzet Charm), and he had the extra mana. Plus a Dispel. I think this deck needs more "hard" counters to deal with this kinda thing. Spell Pierce and Mana Leak and Izzet Charm aren't quite cutting it. And ... crap ... I gave away the first game. Valakut says "five *other* Mountains" (emphasis mine). He only had 1 Valakut and 5 Mountains. Oh well. Next time. 1-4.
Well, at this point I was a little disappointed. But I was still having fun, and it was still possible for me to finish at .500. So, play on!
Round 6: vs. Jund Loam. I guess this is a thing? It was a cool deck, but my opponent was 1-4 with it so far, so maybe not quite good enough? Anyway, it ran Seismic Assault and Life from the Loam to get an engine going of redrawing lands and tossing them at creatures and opponents. Oh, and Raven's Crime to make me discard my hand. At one point, I Path'd my own Angel token during my second main phase so I wouldn't lose it to Raven's Crime (and, you know, ramp? yay?). He also had Liliana and other good stuff like Bob and Goyf. Well, we traded games 1 and 2, and at the end of game 3 I stuck a Geist that he couldn't deal with, and I 2'd him to death (he was throwing lands at my Angel tokens). 2-4.
Round 7: vs. Standard Junk Zombies. Another guy who wanted to play but only had his Standard deck. Okay, he did toss in a couple of Paths to make it a little less [relatively] janky, but it was still not quite enough. He did take me to 3 games, though, when I couldn't quite draw enough removal for his brain-eating horde. We also talked about Nintendo (he commented on my Yoshi figurine that I use as my mascot/good-luck charm/reminder token/creature token/etc.), and he showed me some of the cool synergies his deck has (like Rancoring a Gravecrawler and Disciple-of-Bolas'ing it). 3-4.
Round 8: vs. U/W/R Control. My opponent didn't seem to be terribly happy. Maybe he was expecting to be doing better? I dunno. Well, I was able to get pressure on him early and often. I was a little smarter about not playing into X-for-1's, and eventually I got there with a critter or two and some burn. I was able to counter a Sphinx's Revelation at one point, which was pretty hot. 4-4.
So there you have it! My first big Modern tournament, and I didn't finish with a losing record. It was a lot of fun, and I'd gladly do it again. Of course, there are a few things I'd like to do differently. Among them:
* Steppe Lynx kinda sucks. It helped quite a bit to add a 10th fetchland in there, because I was usually able to trigger Landfall. There were a few times I wasn't able to, but I don't remember if it costed me the game or not. He's a great aggro creature, but getting easily 2-for-1'd by stuff like Electrolyze stings. Maybe I could play around this kinda thing better? I'd rather just play a better creature.
* Serum Visions is so depressing after having played with Ponder, Preordain, and Brainstorm in Pauper. I don't think I set up a Delver flip all day with it, though I did set up at least one land drop (including a Lynx Landfall trigger).
* The deck runs out of gas. In that sense, it is kind of a burn deck--I really want to maximize the amount of damage I can do with each spell I cast. But of course it's 3 colors and relies more on critters.
* I'd rather run a more midrange or controlling version of this deck. I like the idea of running Cliques, Restoration Angels, some better counterspells, some card draw, and some higher-end threats. So .. yeah, basically the U/W/R Midrange deck that I played against in round 2. But I wonder if a Delver build would be possible that has a little more card draw and a little more reach. I wonder if Figure of Destiny in the Steppe Lynx slot could facilitate this. Lynx is great, but it's a high-risk/high-reward card that might be a bit much risk for my liking.
* Like I said earlier, needs better counterspells. Mana Leak is great, but it needs something for later in the game that doesn't rely on how much mana they have. Sometimes my opening hands were a bit too creature-light, and I needed to play a more controlling game. 1-for-1 removal is great, but it's not gonna win a grind the way a more proper midrange or control deck would.
Well, I'm not sure when I'm gonna play Modern again anytime soon. I'm definitely going to hold off on getting any money cards until this PTQ season winds down and Modern Masters comes out this summer. I like the format, but being an older format, the staple cards are expensive, and it's harder to commit to something financially. So I'll probably keep playing Delver for now, for the handful of tournaments I may or may not play in.
Thanks for reading!
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