I'll be honest... I did not plan on playing in a tournament today. I was out on the far east side of town to meet with some students that I might be studio voice-lessons to for a month. Long story short, the meeting didn't happen (due to some bs nonsense) and I drove back to town a little miffed. I happened to be driving on the road the card shop is on and I decided "Eh. I've got my deck. I'll give it a go."
Creatures
Anathemancer x4
Ashenmoor Gouger x3
Boggart Ram-Gang x4
Goblin Outlander x3
Hellspark Elemental x4
Mogg Fanatic x4
Other Spells
Banefire x1
Everlasting Torment x2
Flame Javelin x4
Incinerate x3
Terminate x4
Volcanic Fallout x3
Lands
Mountain x9
Auntie's Hovel x4
Graven Cairns x4
Sulfurous Springs x4
Sideboard
Chaotic Backlash x3
Deathmark x3
Infest x3
Spiteful Visions x2
Smash to Smithereens x 2
Hell's Thunder x2
I really liked not having Blightning in the deck. Tapping out on my turn really should either A) Create a permanent that deals damage or forces my opponent to deal with it OR B) Burn for the win at the end of the game. Blightning does not accomplish A and rarely accomplishes B, so I'm fine with leaving it out of the deck. I decided to give the x4 Anathemancers a try and moved the Hell's Thunders to the Board (turns out my deck was 61 cards last Friday). In the board, I removed Sygg in an effort to gauge how useful he really was or if he just cluttered the deck. So I added Smash to Smithereens in their stead to deal with the random junk I usually see.
Round 1: Lee playing 5-Color Blood
1-2: Unfortunately, I don't recall much of this match. I do recall that in game 1, he had a Kitchen Finks out when I had him down to 5 and, after chumping with him, Cruel Ultimatum in successive turns. Game 2 was my typical good start and I manage to burn him out by turn 5. Game 3 was my own fault for not mulling away a 2-land hand, not seeing a third until turn 4. The tempo is not in my favor and I can't outrace his Broodmate Dragon.
0-1, 1-2
Round 2: Travis playing Mono White Beatdown
2-0: Travis is playing a rogue white deck that runs a number of R/W hybrids, though no Figure of Destiny present tonight. Knight of the White Orchid, Knight of Meadowgrain and Balefire Liege all get burned/terminate before any shenanigannery happens. A 3rd turn Everlasting Torment showed up in both games and he can't really recover, though he was close in game two when I ran out of cards after I cleared the board with a Fallout. The two of us traded "Draw-Land-Go" for 4 round before I draw the Javelin for the win.
1-1, 3-2
Round 3: Raven playing GWU Something
2-0: This is the 4th time I've played Raven in the 6 tournaments I've played here and I'm 1-2 going into this match. As usual, she's playing Borderposts instead of non-basic lands, but I expected this and mulled down to six to pitch away a 2-Anathemancer hand. I manage to burn her out right after she dropped Finest Hour with some gold, Exalted guy that fetches Auras (of which she had none of...). Game two was the nuts draw as I Fanatic, Outlander, Ram-Gang, Javelin, etc. for the win.
2-1, 5-2
Round 4: Some Nice Guy playing 5-Color Blood
2-1: This guy sat next to me in round 1 while I lost to the other 5-Color Blood deck. Game 1, I keep a pretty stacked hand with only two lands and that's I all I see. Game 2, I get a fairly slow hand, but after mulling to 6, the only land he sees all game are 3 Reflecting pools. Game 3 was a bit better for us, although he had to mull to 5 and couldn't recover from the lack of card-advantage. Consequently, I kept another stacked 2-land hand in Game 3 and drew the important 3rd land on the first turn.
3-1, 7-3
Round 5: Another Nice Guy playing Transmuter
2-0: This guy is playing with a Transmuter/Sphinx of the Steel Wind/Other Sphinx deck, but it's pretty slow (three consecutive Arcane Sanctums to start Game 1) and I burn him out without much trouble. Game 2 was a little trickier due to a land heavy draw for the first few turns, but I sided in some Smash to Smithereens to keep the way clear. A lethal Banefire puts the ending stamp on this tournament.
4-1, 9-3, 3rd place
1st place went 5-0 and 2nd was the other 4-1, who ended up being the only guy who beat me. I'm really liking the feel of the Sygg-less, Blightning-less beatdown as it rarely lets my opponent sit back and get comfortable with their own strategy. They always have to worry about extra damage coming through.
Okay, I'm sleepy... night.
Ransac, cpa trash man
Creatures
Anathemancer x4
Ashenmoor Gouger x3
Boggart Ram-Gang x4
Goblin Outlander x3
Hellspark Elemental x4
Mogg Fanatic x4
Other Spells
Banefire x1
Everlasting Torment x2
Flame Javelin x4
Incinerate x3
Terminate x4
Volcanic Fallout x3
Lands
Mountain x9
Auntie's Hovel x4
Graven Cairns x4
Sulfurous Springs x4
Sideboard
Chaotic Backlash x3
Deathmark x3
Infest x3
Spiteful Visions x2
Smash to Smithereens x 2
Hell's Thunder x2
I really liked not having Blightning in the deck. Tapping out on my turn really should either A) Create a permanent that deals damage or forces my opponent to deal with it OR B) Burn for the win at the end of the game. Blightning does not accomplish A and rarely accomplishes B, so I'm fine with leaving it out of the deck. I decided to give the x4 Anathemancers a try and moved the Hell's Thunders to the Board (turns out my deck was 61 cards last Friday). In the board, I removed Sygg in an effort to gauge how useful he really was or if he just cluttered the deck. So I added Smash to Smithereens in their stead to deal with the random junk I usually see.
Round 1: Lee playing 5-Color Blood
1-2: Unfortunately, I don't recall much of this match. I do recall that in game 1, he had a Kitchen Finks out when I had him down to 5 and, after chumping with him, Cruel Ultimatum in successive turns. Game 2 was my typical good start and I manage to burn him out by turn 5. Game 3 was my own fault for not mulling away a 2-land hand, not seeing a third until turn 4. The tempo is not in my favor and I can't outrace his Broodmate Dragon.
0-1, 1-2
Round 2: Travis playing Mono White Beatdown
2-0: Travis is playing a rogue white deck that runs a number of R/W hybrids, though no Figure of Destiny present tonight. Knight of the White Orchid, Knight of Meadowgrain and Balefire Liege all get burned/terminate before any shenanigannery happens. A 3rd turn Everlasting Torment showed up in both games and he can't really recover, though he was close in game two when I ran out of cards after I cleared the board with a Fallout. The two of us traded "Draw-Land-Go" for 4 round before I draw the Javelin for the win.
1-1, 3-2
Round 3: Raven playing GWU Something
2-0: This is the 4th time I've played Raven in the 6 tournaments I've played here and I'm 1-2 going into this match. As usual, she's playing Borderposts instead of non-basic lands, but I expected this and mulled down to six to pitch away a 2-Anathemancer hand. I manage to burn her out right after she dropped Finest Hour with some gold, Exalted guy that fetches Auras (of which she had none of...). Game two was the nuts draw as I Fanatic, Outlander, Ram-Gang, Javelin, etc. for the win.
2-1, 5-2
Round 4: Some Nice Guy playing 5-Color Blood
2-1: This guy sat next to me in round 1 while I lost to the other 5-Color Blood deck. Game 1, I keep a pretty stacked hand with only two lands and that's I all I see. Game 2, I get a fairly slow hand, but after mulling to 6, the only land he sees all game are 3 Reflecting pools. Game 3 was a bit better for us, although he had to mull to 5 and couldn't recover from the lack of card-advantage. Consequently, I kept another stacked 2-land hand in Game 3 and drew the important 3rd land on the first turn.
3-1, 7-3
Round 5: Another Nice Guy playing Transmuter
2-0: This guy is playing with a Transmuter/Sphinx of the Steel Wind/Other Sphinx deck, but it's pretty slow (three consecutive Arcane Sanctums to start Game 1) and I burn him out without much trouble. Game 2 was a little trickier due to a land heavy draw for the first few turns, but I sided in some Smash to Smithereens to keep the way clear. A lethal Banefire puts the ending stamp on this tournament.
4-1, 9-3, 3rd place
1st place went 5-0 and 2nd was the other 4-1, who ended up being the only guy who beat me. I'm really liking the feel of the Sygg-less, Blightning-less beatdown as it rarely lets my opponent sit back and get comfortable with their own strategy. They always have to worry about extra damage coming through.
Okay, I'm sleepy... night.
Ransac, cpa trash man