Braving the Elephants

So I gave Domri'z Doodz another spin last night at Mox Mania's Tuesday Standard Win-a-Box thingy. tl;dr ... I went 3-1, losing only in the final round to one of the two 4-0's, and getting 4th place (missing 3rd place on breakers). I'm pretty happy with how it ran, and I had lots of fun with it. Here's what I played (give or take a card or two?):

Land (24):
4 Temple Garden
4 Stomping Ground
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Temple of Abandon
3 Temple of Triumph
4 Forest
2 Mountain

Doodz (25):
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voice of Resurgence
4 Loxodon Smiter
2 Boon Satyr
3 Polukranos, World-Eater
3 Stormbreath Dragon
1 Aurelia, the Warleader

Removal (7):
2 Chained to the Rocks
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Lightning Strike
1 Magma Jet 

Planeswalkers (4):
3 Domri Rade
1 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard (15):
2 Wear // Tear
3 Mistcutter Hydra
4 Boros Reckoner
1 Hammer of Purphoros
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Boros Charm

... and here's how the matches went:

What's the saying about bringing a Cackler to an Elephant fight?

Round 1: vs. Mono-Red Devotion.
My opponent didn't draw very many of his lands, and I beat him up with elephants and such. Not much of a match here. Win, 2-0. Record: 1-0.

When her devotees are all getting trampled by elephants, all she can do is watch.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Green Devotion.
I was able to keep him off his devotion game with well-timed removal (Lightning Strike, Domri) and consistent elephantile pressure. I'm pretty sure Aurelia made an appearance, too, which was pretty hot. Win, 2-0. Record: 2-0.

Protection from Domri. :(

Round 3: vs. Mono-Blue Devotion.
So much devotion. Again, I don't think my opponent got the greatest draw here. I think he got kinda flooded at least one game, and failed to draw his best threats (early fliers and Thassa). His lonely Bident couldn't quite stave off the elephant beats. I survived a misplay in one game where I could have just monstrous'd my Dragon and killed him. But I thought I'd play out Domri and an Elephant and fight his Master of Waves. Then I realized, Domri's fight ability is red and can't even target the Master. Oops. So I just killed him the next turn. Win, 2-0. Record: 3-0.

Brave the Elephants.

Round 4: vs. Orzhov.
Hey, it's not devotion! At least, I don't think it was. He played lots of Orzhov lands, but I don't remember if I ever saw any black cards. But I didn't see any devotion stuff either (e.g., Heliod, Nykthos). Anyway, the first game I staved off his early doodz with removal. Fighting a Banisher Priest to free my elephant (okay, Hydra) helped a lot. I think Aurelia made another appearance.
Second game, I saw the Superfriends: Gideon and Ajani. Huh. So I was getting ready to set up my game-winning play.. attacking with an elephant, then following up with another elephant and a dragon the next turn. Then I looked at the friends: Gideon was at 11 loyalty, and Ajani at 7. I was dead on board to a doubple-striking/flying Gideon. So I attacked him down to 7 and took 14 the next turn. The next couple of turns were really weird, and I probably misplayed. I was able to dispatch Ajani over the next couple of turns, and attack Gideon down to 1, but then their old friend Elspeth made an appearance to kill all of my elephants. D: I followed up with a dragon, and I chose to kill Elspeth. The next turn, however, he had the Brave the Elephants to sneak his Gideon past my elephant. What I should have done was to kill Gideon (as silly as that sounds), and then I had the Mizzium Mortars in hand to handle Elspeth's flunkies, plus any other followup on his end. Live and learn. Or, die and learn. :/
The third game was much less interesting. I curved out with a couple of early elephants, but he unceremoniously Banish'd them both. I failed to draw into removal to get rid of them, and I was dead shortly thereafter. Loss, 1-2. Record: 3-1.

Hey, it was nice to be back in the X-0 bracket in the final round. :) Though like I mentioned, I didn't have the best breakers, and I fell to fourth place. But I split with my final opponent, so we each got 14 packs for our efforts. Not bad.

So, some thoughts about how the deck played out:

• The mana continues to be somewhat wonky. I'm not sure what I can do about it. I feel like I want another white source so I can more consistently hit Voice on turn two. Maybe the G/W scryland will help.
• I think I'm going to relegate Chandra to the 'board. I almost always wanted to side her out, and the one time I cast her, it didn't really matter. I think I'd rather have just more removal.
• Okay, Stormbreath is good. So many times he sealed the deal as "just" a 4/4 hasty evasive guy. Even against mono-blue, who has lots of fliers, he puts enormous pressure on them. And monstrous'ing is not out of the question.
• I need to tweak the removal some more. I kept finding myself with Chains stuck in hand without a Mountain to chain anything to. I'll probably go back down to a 1-of. But I'm really nervous about not having an answer for Thassa or Master.
• Also, I think I want more Mortars. A two-mana 4-damage burn spell is unexciting, but good. A six-mana one-sided wrath is pretty much a blowout. I think I should have 3, or maybe even 4.
• I probably need to let go of my irrational love of Scry. I love Magma Jet, but I think having that third point of damage is more important than stacking my next two draws.
• Polukranos. Man, what an elephant. It's a 5/5 on turn 3 or 4, and it picks off annoying little dorks on the other side of the board. Sometimes I wonder if I should go to 4 of these.
• Domri. Again, what a nice utility card. He draws me into moar doodz, and he uses moar doodz to kill other doodz. I didn't ultimate him last night, but I didn't really care if I did or not. Most of the time he was at least a 2-for-1, drawing me a dood or two, and picking off one of their doodz. Sweet sweet card. Sometimes I wonder if I should go to 4 of him too.
• Of course, when I'm thinking about adding cards, the question becomes ... what do I cut? This week, I'm looking at Boon Satyr. But really, there's nothing else quite like it. I really like it as a 4-power flash guy, and when I can flash him in at end of turn and follow up with a Dragon, that's pretty sweet. I know I've bestow'd him at instant speed, too, but that doesn't come up all that often.

So yeah, I'm enjoying the deck. It's fun, it's winning, and there's still room for improvement. I think I'll keep doing it. I started sleeving up Mono-Blue Devotion as a backup plan, in case I crashed and/or burned this week, but I think I'll give the Doodz another week or two.

On the Judge front, I'm pretty excited to take the next step towards Level 2: head-judging a Competitive event. Mox Mania is gonna run a Legacy 1K, and I'll HJ that with a couple of other guys doing the dirty work of deck checks and stuff. It's pretty exciting. I get to boss people around, I get to see weird stuff happen in an interesting format, I get to edumacate a new Level 1, I get to keep learning from my Level 2 mentor. And hopefully sooner than later I get to test for Level 2. I am excite. :D I was also told by my mentor that there's been interest in Judge Classes, so hopefully I'll get to run those too. I had a great time running the one a couple months ago. And at some point, I hope I'll get to start working Grand Prixs. Fun stuff. :)

Okay, well that's it for now I guess. Thanks for reading!