FNM, 3/8/13

Hello everyone!

So, Friday was my return to the Standard format after taking a couple weeks off. I switched to Wolf Run Bant, and I went 2-2, losing two *very* close matches that could have easily swung the other way.

Here's my deck, give or take a few cards:

Lands (25):
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Alchemist's Refuge
21 (lands)

Creatures (13):
4 Augur of Bolas
2 Centaur Healer
3 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

Spells (22):
4 Farseek
4 Azorius Charm
2 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Detention Sphere
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
4 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard (15):
3 Rhox Faithmender
3 Negate
2 Purify the Grave
1 Rest in Peace
1 Psychic Spiral
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Planar Cleansing

Round 1: vs. mono-black. Lots of back & forth in this match. He got kinda land screwed game one, but I didn't really have much offense going with all his removal, so it was kind of a long one. I won it, but I don't remember exactly what sequence led to winning. Game two was almost comical. I'd play a creature, he'd kill it. He'd play a creature or two, I'd kill em. At one point I was getting worried about running out of board wipes, but he eventually ran out of answers for my threats, and I won. 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Orzhov Zombies. Wasn't sure what this was at first. I thought it was Aristocrats or something, but it turned out to be plain ol' Zombies. I took game one pretty easily, but I misplayed badly in game two. I was busy shuffling after a Farseek, and he played a Geralf's Messenger into my three open mana (and Syncopate in hand). "Okay, sure." Then I thought, "no, wait!!! D:" I'm trying to get out of the habit of allowing myself takebacks, so I didn't take it back. And that Messenger was able to help whittle my life down into unmanageability. Game three I think was dominated by Obzedat. I did make a misplay at one point, though. I tried forcing in some damage, but in doing so, left him an opening to attack back for 9 damage, tightening the Obzedat clock. Frustrating loss, because I probably would have had that second game had I countered that Messenger. Also, I did another dumb horrible thing. I cast Sphinx's Revelation for 3, gained 3 life, and drew 4 cards without realizing it. Opponent: "uh, did you just draw four?" Me: "Crap .. yeah, I think I did. Judge!" I got a very stern lecture from the judge, who reminded me that it would have been a Game Loss at Competitive REL (which I knew). So .. perhaps the misplay was karma? Or pre-emptive karma (I don't remember which happened first)? 1-1.

Round 3: vs. U/R Guttersnipe. So this guy is just getting back into Magic after a brief absence, and he tossed together a Guttersnipe deck made up mostly of commons and uncommons (I think he said his only rare was a sideboard card). It was a fun match, but I was able to sandbag counterspells and keep his board clear of Goblins and Delvers, and eventually I got in there with ... whatever I landed (I forget exactly). 2-1.

Round 4: vs. Naya Midrange. Kinda don't like playing against Midrange anymore. They have too many must-answer things that generate card advantage and put pressure on me and take time to find answers for. Matches are grindy, and if they play carefully, they should beat me most of the time. Well, we traded games one and two and had about 8 minutes to play game three. We beat up on each other pretty good, and I had a decent board position going into extra turns. I just needed to find a Kessig Wolf Run to punch in the last few points of damage with my Beast token. Then on turn four: Bonfire for lethal. And he also had Thundermaw Hellkite. My next card: Kessig Wolf Run. D: 2-2.

Well, I finished 2-2, but I feel like I could have done better had I played a little tighter. It's also a little different kind of a deck, too, so I'm getting used to how to play things out. I need to learn when to play out my Angels to surprise-block something, and when to save them so I can get Value. And sometimes I'm still not sure what to do with Azorius Charm. Cycle it? Bounce a creature? I think bouncing a creature is one of the best things I can do with it. It's not removal, but it is a 1-for-1 in the abstract (trading my card for their next draw step and a few damage). It's one of those many cards that seems so lackluster until I think about just how much work it does in my deck.

So, I think I'm gonna give it another week or two to see if I can tighten it up, but I'm already looking on the horizon at other opportunities. Bant Midrange looks like a lot of fun, with Zegana and Angel of Serenity. Esper keeps calling out to me, too. There's the griefer version which wins mostly off of mill, and then there's the planeswalker-heavy version Shaheen Soorani runs (you know, if I want to actually have fun doing things with my cards instead of just killing and countering everything).

I've been playing my Delver Pauper deck on MTGO some more in the Tournament Practice room, and not having much luck with it. I think people are gunning for it, and finding a lot of good answers for it. Maybe I'm not playing it right, but it seems like a lot of times I'm about a turn behind in trying to keep pace between my threats and counterspells. I'm thinking about switching to Cloudpost, because that looks like more the style of deck I like to play in Standard/whatever. We'll see.

Welp, thanks for reading!