I Can't Think of a Cool Title

Hi everybody!

Yeah, I can't really think of a cool title for this post.

I played Standard last night! Isn't that awesome? Okay, it was pretty ordinary. I had fun though. I guess, here's a tournament report?

Round 1: vs. Mono-White Humans/Soldiers. Same dude I played last week. He cut the black splash, though, and I think the more consistent mana base helped him. I still ran over him pretty easily, though. He didn't have much in the way of removal, and once I Friend-Hunted his Champion of the Parish, it was just a matter of picking off his tokens one by one. Oh, and I Slime'd a few of his lands in one game too. I apologized for being a jerk, reiterating that it wasn't anything personal, it's competitive Magic. Win, 2-0. Record: 1-0.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red. Yeah, isn't mono-red supposed to be super fast? I suspect maybe he just didn't get that great of draws. I stabilized pretty easily and ran away with both games once I hit an Angel of Serenity and/or multiple Thragtusks. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-0.

Round 3: vs. Boros. I played against him last week at FNM, and it was quite the strange match. One game we both mull'd to 5, and I got the nuts after that, and he got pretty much Pillars of Flame. I explained to him that Pillar'ing mana dorks is the way to go, and now I kinda regret telling him that. :) Because he Pillar'd my mana dorks and I stumbled pretty mightily before getting run over by Hellriders and/or Thundermaw Hellkites. Loss, 0-2. Record: 2-1.

Round 4: vs. Selesnya Tokens. Same guy and deck as last week. I got one game when he stumbled on mana and I Slime'd his lands. But the other two games, I stumbled again, whiffing on my Mulches and Salvages, and I couldn't find enough Angels to keep his Wurms in check. I did find one Angel, but he had a Selesnya Charm to exile her, and ... yeah. Another game, he Advent'd once or twice, then populated it with Rootborn Defenses or Druid's Deliverance .. and ... yeah, that was that. Loss, 1-2. Record: 2-2.

I'm not entire sure what the takeaway from all this is. I did notice that against Aggro decks, the I'm prone to punishing and being punished if either of us stumbles. It seemed to go like this:

I stumble and my opponent doesn't: I lose.
My opponent stumbles and I don't: I win.
Neither or both of us stumble: I win if I can Mulch/Salvage out of it.

I probably need to bring in more Sin Collectors against the Advent decks. Even if I don't get a token-maker, getting information still seems good.

It's interesting, though. I suspect the metagame is shifting again. There's more Aggro to punish the slower Midrange decks, and just about everyone has great tools to beat Control these days. I'm wondering if I should switch to playing the Gyre Sage Gruul Aggro deck competitively? I dunno ... We'll see. :)

Well that's it for now. Thanks for reading!