Standard, 3/26/13

Hi everybody!

Okay, time for another Standard Win-A-Box at Mox Mania! So, frustrated with Wolf Run Bant, I've switched to the current format's more established/proven control deck, Esper. I don't remember exactly what my 75 was that I played with, but it looked something like this:

3 Nephalia Drownyard
23 Other Land

4 Augur of Bolas
1 Snapcaster Mage
3 Restoration Angel

1 Tragic Slip
4 Azorius Charm
1 Ultimate Price
1 Dimir Charm
2 Devour Flesh
3 Think Twice
2 Dissipate
1 Syncopate
1 Detention Sphere
1 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Supreme Verdict
1 Terminus
4 Sphinx's Revelation

Sideboard:
3 Negate
3 Gloom Surgeon
2 Purify the Grave
1 Rest in Peace
1 Psychic Spiral
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Planar Cleansing
1 Duress
1 Appetite for Brains
1 Obzedat, Ghost Council

So I was sitting idly waiting for the tournament to begin, when the store owner asks if I could fill in on Judge duty .. apparently the regular L1 Judge that usually runs the event was AWOL. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned in this blog that I am looking to become a judge, and this was my first time doing actual judge duty, so of course I jumped all over it. Then it occured to me .. I'm playing a slow, complex control deck. Hmmm. Well, I don't really have any kind of aggro deck sleeved up, so whatever.

The other thing was, I was out of town for the weekend, chillin with some Internet friends. Okay, not really chillin, it was actually very stimulating. Lots of video games and music and geek talk. But in the excitement of it, I forgot to take my blood pressure medication, and consequently I was suffering a headache most of the day. My headaches usually respond well to ibuproffen and caffeine, but this one was being a stubborn [cuss word].

Anyway, so that's the background. Now on to the actual matches:

Expect the unexpected?

 

Round 1: vs. R/G Werewolves. Okay, so my deck is supposed to be prepared for just about anything, right? It was not prepared for Full Moon's Rise. My deck says, "sure, play doodz, I'll just Verdict when things get out of hand." Well, FMR doesn't really care about such nonsense. In one game, he had a couple of sunny-side werewolves out, then played that card that "transforms all humans" .. and suddenly I was facing 15 damage. Owch. :( 0-1.

It's burn, and it counters Supreme Verdict. Lame.

Round 2: vs. American Midrange. My opponent was one of the Misty Mountain FNM Youth Crew, and one of the more rambunctious ones at that. He's a good kid .. just .. kinda ADHD. And his great luck in opening powerful rares in draft has enabled him to put together a pretty respectable Standard deck. Well, the match was kind of a grind, and I failed to respect the amount of burn in the deck. So, another lesson learned the hard way: X/R control/midrange has burn, respect it. 0-2.

The other notable thing about this match was that I had a judge call in the middle of the match that took a few minutes. So of course, the round goes to time, and we're the last ones still playing. If I'd known that I was going to be on Judge duty, I would have bought a faster deck to the tournament. Oh well.

Death by a thousand paper cuts.

Round 3: vs. Esper Control. Oh boy, the mirror! This is one of those kind of matchups that we're supposed to dread, but I actually find myself enjoying. It's really interesting how the battle of wits (not Battle of Wits) plays out. Do I tap out? Do I save my counterspell? Mostly his game plan seemed based around Extort. Get a Blind Obedience out, and bleed me to death. I didn't quite realize that at first, so I was bracing myself for counterspell and mill wars. But he didn't really have much of the former, and almost none of the latter (he might have had a Memory Adept). Turned out, most of the battle was with my life total. Instead of playing the long game via mill, he played the long game via extort. It was rather amusing after a while. He would cast Feeling of Dread with no creatures on board, just to get the extort. It's a cool idea, but I think he ended up going 0-4 on the night. Oh yeah, so time ran out during game three. He seemed to have not much going on, and I had Obzedat and a couple of other critters. I asked for a concession, and I got it. I thanked him and expressed appreciation, and wished him good luck in round four. 1-2.

Jerk.

Round 4: vs. Orzhov .. stuff? So, game one, I found myself on the offensive with a couple of Angels. He had a couple of Cartel Arisocrats out, a Blood Artist, and I think a Spirit token. I'm at 8 life and I have two Sphinx's Revelations in hand. So I went for the win, knocking him down to 1 life. His turn: Mutilate. And my heart sank like the guy's face in the artwork. Okay, I'm exaggerating somewhat, but yeah. Another thing that I was not expecting. :( Second game, I did everything I could to deal with Obzedat (mostly taking a bunch of damage so I could block a Spirit token and make the Ghost Council fall in a hole). Next turn, Obzedat #2. :( 1-3.

Sprinkled through those matches, I had a few other judge questions, some more formal than others. I explained why using Curiosity on your opponent's creature won't let you draw cards when you get hit with that creature. I helped parse out a complex combat damage situation involving multiple soulbonds (including a Silverblade Paladin), lifelink, and trample. I explained that if a game is drawn, whoever chose to play first choses again for the next game (I'm not sure how the game was drawn, and it might have been a hypothetical). I explained that indestructibility does protect against destroy effects like Abrupt Decay. And I explained to my round four opponent that giving Obzedat Undying would in fact make it such that another Obzedat would give him two ETB triggers (one from the second one, one from the first one coming back after undying).

So, the evening is done, and I feel mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausted. "Need anything else from me? No? Okay, I'm gonna go home and have an aneurysm now." But it was great experience. And I got to do my first actual judge thing. So I'm pretty happy about that. I find it very rewarding to answer judge questions. I've always enjoyed that kind of thing for some reason. I think because I like being helpful, and I like demonstrating expertise.

Thoughts about the deck:

• The 3 Restoration Angels was a mixup. I meant to only have two, but the deck is basically a port of my Wolf Run deck, and I forgot to take one or two out. I like the card, but 3 is too many. It makes me want to be more aggro and commit more stuff to the board, which then makes Supreme Verdict that much worse.
• I would like to find room in the main deck for Obzedat. As annoying as he is on the other side of the table, he was great when I got him out. Seriously, card's good. Especially on an otherwise empty board. I need to make sure to not play him out until he's not gonna get Verdict'd.
• Sadly, I feel like 4 Sphinx's Revelations is 1-2 too many. I've already got a lot of card draw with Think Twice, A-Charm, Forbidden Alchemy. I love the card, but it's not the right card for this deck. I feel like 2 is probably enough, but I feel nervous about running less than 3.
• Witchbane Orb needs to be in my 75. It just occurred to me. Obzedat and Blood Artist say "target player." Seems good against the burn in the American decks, too.
• I really miss. Doom Blade and Go for the Throat. I kinda want to find room for Murder in there somewhere. Devour Flesh sucks.
• As much as it sucks, I needed to be more aggressive with it and other spot removal early. I can't lean on Thragtusk and Sphinx's Revelation to boost my life total anymore.
• I liked Snapcaster Mage quite a bit. I'm gonna try running two. I like the interaction with Resto.
• Augur of Bolas seems quite a bit better in this deck than Wolf Run Bant. More targets = more cards.
• I got land screwed more than I would have liked. At least once, it was number of lands, and at least once I didn't have the right colors. I suspect one of the Glacial Fortresses needs to be a Drowned Catacomb or something like that.
• Another card that needs to be in my 75: Curse of Death's Hold. That Orzhov matchup would have been much easier if I could have gotten that out early.
• I got to use Gloom Surgeon exactly once. He immediately ate a Pillar of Flame. Lame.

So, I like the deck, but as you can see, there's room for improvement. I'm tempted to cut the Gloom Surgeons to make room for better sideboard cards, but I wanna make sure I can handle blitz aggro before I do anything rash. I didn't do any testing before this week, and it's possible that it affected how I built and played my new deck. I look forward to trying it out some more. At the same time, I'm thinking about sleeving up something a little more assertive, just in case I find myself unexpectedly on Judge Duty again.

Cool. Well, thanks for reading. Questions, comments, feel free to leave em. Thanks for reading!