Road to Level 2 .. .and .. more Elephants

Hi everybody!

So, I ticked off another requirement on my Level 2 Judge checklist: head-judge'd a Competitive event. It was the Legacy 1K at Mox Mania this weekend. Turnout was a little less than we would have liked, but considering the weather's been crappy and that seems to be finals time right now, 29 players isn't that bad.

I originally thought I was going to have my L2 mentor as one of my Judglings, but we had a miscommunication/misunderstanding, and he wasn't able to make it, so I had two relatively new L1's judgling-ing under me. I think that was actually better experience for me, getting to (and having to!) babysit them more. Thankfully, though, one of them has judged other Competitive events, and was able to demonstrate deck checking to the other one.

So yeah, the whole thing was lots of work. I underestimated the complexity of running the logistics of the whole thing: entering in results, generating pairings, posting pairings, printing match slips, starting the clock, cutting match slips, handing out match slips, swooping for deck check, etc. It was kinda hard work, but very rewarding. Great experience for by myself, and for my Judglings. A++, would head judge again. :)

Next step ... Meet with my L2 mentor, then probably contact an L3, and then take my test. Woo!

On the playing side of things, I'm still having fun with my Elephants deck. I made one minor tweak .. I swapped out the Lightning Strikes for two Selesnya Charms and a Warleader's Helix. I'm not sure that was the right call, however. Here's how it went:

Uncounterable elephant.

Round 1: vs. U/W Control. Game one didn't go that great. I beat up on him for a few turns, he wrath'd once or twice, then stabilized with Elspeth, and locked the game up with a Sphinx's Revelation. Textbook. Game two, I sided into the ham-fisted Control Hate configuration of my deck, with Mistcutters, Assembles, Boros Charms, and The Hammah. From there, the rest of the match just plays itself. One hard-to-deal-with Elephant after another. I won both subsequent games, I think both times with multiple threats still in hand ("I still had all these!"). Win, 2-1. Record: 1-0.

Electro-elephant.

Round 2: vs. Mono-Red Devotion. Same opponent as last week or a couple weeks ago. Again, he didn't get the greatest of draws, but he drew well enough to get one game. I don't remember much about this match, other than lots of burn and Boros Reckoners being tossed around. Win, 2-1. Record: 2-0.

Not an elephant.

Round 3: vs. RDW. This one didn't quite go as well. Game one, he put Mad Skillz on a Reckoner, and I had to dome myself for 4 to kill it. From there, he just had to patiently draw into his remaining burn spells. Second game, his turns were: (1) Cackler, (2) Zealot, (3) [something .. I forget], (4) Burning-Tree, Burning-Tree, Fanatic of Mogis. GG. I guess. :/ Loss, 0-2. Record: 2-1.

Flying elephant!

Round 4: vs. Junk Reanimator brew. I appreciate this guy's brewing spirit, but it seemed like his deck was trying to do too much. He was playing four colors, splashing red mostly for Sire of Insanity. Game 1 went pretty quickly, with me overwhelming him pretty early with Elephants, and punishing his "all-in" play on Lotleth Troll with a Chained to the Rocks. Game two, he had the turn three Whip of Erebos, but I had the Wear // Tear to put the kibosh on that. I quickly followed up with Elephantile beatdowns and soon victory was mine. Win, 2-0. Record: 3-1.

Well all that was good enough for second place! The RDW opponent ended up winning out, and all of my previous opponents did pretty well, so my tiebreakers were pretty good. It was enough for about $13 in store credit, so minus the $10 entry fee, I made $3 on the night. Woo!

Thoughts on the deck:

• I should probably shore up the red aggro matchup. Voices and Reckoners aren't quite cutting it. Selesnya Charm is cute, but I think I really need more removal. I think I should just put in that fourth Mortars, and maybe some lifegain. Hmmm .. Fiendslayer Paladin? Unflinching Courage? That could be pretty sweet on a Polukranos or Reckoner. But I need some early burn, too. Maybe I just side out all the mana dorks and bring in Anger of the Gods? But I do like my Caryatids...
• The Control matchup seems just fine. I can probably cut back on some of the sideboard hate. Probably the Boros Charms. Or maybe bring some of that into the maindeck? It's hard, though, because both my Control and Aggro matchups seem pretty bad for game 1, and I don't know how to shore up one without borking the other.
• Deck is still lots of fun, and still has room for improvement. Which is both good and bad. I like the deck, and it's doing well, but I kinda wanted to try out Mono-Blue at some point. Plus, I just love saying "Elephant".

This weekend is gonna be an inaugural/test run of Pauper Constructed, which I'm looking forward to. I'm building my mono-blue Delver deck in paper, and it think it'll be pretty fun. Lots of Mox regulars have been expressing interest, so I figure we can try to start it up again after the holidays. I'd love to see it take off. But if not, I'll have fun trying. :)

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