Crossroads

Hi everybody!

Yeah, so another week of Theros Standard is in the books. And honestly, as a player, it hasn't been treating me terribly well. I'm not sure if I'm unlucky, or I'm just not playing certain things right, but .... I dunno.

Anyway, I ran my Blood Baron deck again last night. I tweaked a few things and ended up with something like this:

4 Blood Crypt
4 Godless Shrine
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Silence
3 Temple of Triumph
1 Rakdos Guildgate
3 Mountain
3 Plains

2 Chained to the Rocks
3 Magma Jet
2 Mizzium Mortars2 Dreadbore
1 Anger of the Gods
2 Hero's Downfall
3 Read the Bones
3 Warleader's Helix

1 Rakdos Keyrune
1 Orzhov Keyrune
1 Whip of Erebos

4 Boros Reckoner
1 Sin Collector
2 Desecration Demon
4 Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Sideboard:
2 Wear // Tear
2 Pithing Needle
1 Underworld Connections
2 Anger of the Gods
2 Sin Collector
2 Thoughtseize
1 Assemble the Legion
2 Slaughter Games
1 Hammer of Purphoros

Basically, I cut back on some of the burn, added Read the Bones, and tweaked a few things in the 'board. So the matches went kinda like this:

Protection from my deck. :/

Round 1: vs. Selesnya Aggro. Game one he mulled to 5 and didn't play much. Game two he rode a Soldier of the Pantheon to victory while I killed myself trying to find a Magma Jet. By the time I found an answer, he had a Brave the Elements. Game three, he tossed a Boon Satyr/Unflinching Courage/Ajani haymaker at me to deal me 18 in two turns while I stumbled on mana. I got frustrated and probably didn't display the greatest sportsmanship. Again, something I need to work on. Loss, 1-2. Record: 0-1.

Hammah time!

Round 2: Bye. Insult to injury. I hate byes. :( I pondered just rage-dropping at that point, but I figured, I paid $10 for this, I might as well stick it out. Another guy there graciously played me to ease my frustration, which I appreciated. I got to try out my new sideboard against him, and I was highly impressed with the Hammer. Turns land flood into golems to the face! Plus, it's really fun to say BOOM! when I activate it. Mox had a shiny single for $6, so of course I snapped it up. Record: 1-1.
 

So many Blood Barons ...

Round 3: vs. Mirror. More or less, anyway. He seemed to do things a little differently, like not running Obzedat (though I think that was more of a card availability thing than a card choice thing), and a miser's Wear/Tear in the mainboard, which actually 2-for-1'd me in one game. But yeah, this match was actually a lot of fun. I think I got there with some luck, though. I topdecked a Mizzium Mortars to clear his board of soldiers and a Blood Baron, and was able to swing in for lethal that turn. But it was very back and forth, with lots of great midrange action going on all over the place. This is fun Magic. Win, 2-1. Record: 2-1.

Seriously, I do not like seeing this card across the table from me.

Round 4: vs. Dimir. So it wasn't quite Control, but it ran a few Control-ish things. The big thing which scared the crap out of me again, was Ashiok. I found myself having to scramble to deal with it, and then not being able to deal with the follow-up Memory Adept. And putting pressure on him? Fugettaboutit. A frustrating match that I never felt like I was really in. Loss, 0-2. Record: 2-2.

So yeah. Didn't go so well. I think I wanna try something different. I'm leaning towards Naya Midrange, but I'm worried that it's gonna have the same problems I'm having with this deck ... awkward early draws, and not enough pressure to keep up with Control. But I'm hoping that being able to reliably drop creatures on turns 2-4 will help with both things. I dunno. Maybe I'll give this deck one more shot. But I'm not really optimistic.

In the meantime, I'm getting ready to judge SCG Milwaukee this weekend. It'll be my first time judging a Legacy event, and I was told I might be doing coverage. I'm a little nervous about that, not being super familiar with the format. And I worry about being able to keep up with all the little things that happen. I think it'll be a good experience, though. We'll see what happens. :)

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