I played a Launch Weekend tournament at LGS, 5 rounds of swiss with cut to top 8.
I ran this list:
[deck]
BURN
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Searing Blood
2 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix
REMOVAL
3 Chained to the Rocks
CREATURES
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
LANDS
8 Mountain
3 Mutavault
1 Mana Confluence
1 Temple of Malice
2 Temple of Silence
4 Temple of Triumph
SIDEBOARD
2 Assemble the Legion
2 Banishing Light
1 Chained to the Rocks
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
4 Mizzium Mortars
1 Mutavault
3 Viashino Firstblade
[/deck]
Basically the same list as I ran before JOU, but with
Banishing Light in place of [card]Wear // Tear[/card] and a
Mana Confluence in place of a Scry land. Thought process here was move the curve slightly towards an untapped source of R or
W. I want to try running 2 and go back to 6 total Scry Land but only had 1 on hand. Not sure about the viability of this.
This particular tournament had several weak players with weak decks.
Round 1 I played an unknown U/B build. I only saw about 4 cards in the deck (a Triton hero that draws cards and a black defender that turns on for blue mana). This player was inexperienced and the deck was overmatched. I won easily in 2 quick games.
Round 2 I played a more experienced player with a nearly Monoblack list. He splashed red for
Dreadbore over
Thoughtseize and
Slaughter Games sideboard. I felt like this list was just a mistake - that deck doesn't need that much removal. Opponent also sided out
Gray Merchant of Asphodel against me which is puzzling, but didn't bring in Slaughter Games. Still, I ended up losing the match in part due to a turn where I forgot to attack with 2 [
card]Mutavault[/card] into a clear board with him tapped out. I guess it is good I represented
Skullcrack mana but really I just forgot to look at his mana before saying pass. Despite that mistake, I got him down to 1 life and had 4 turns to topdeck any burn. Instead all I got was land.
Round 3 I played an inexperienced player with a Monoblack build running only 2
Desecration Demon because that is all the player had. Some other weaker cards were played and I ran over this match easily as well in 2 quick games.
Round 4 I played an old school player who was just getting back into the game. He had an unknown W/B/R list but his mana was never working. I played 2 games on the draw and won both quickly. We then played two more for fun and I won both of those too. He had
Underworld Coinsmith Hopeful Eidolon Teysa, Envoy of Ghosts and [card:
1mrn5n5b]Alms Beast[/card] along with some extort. I say he played red because in one game he played
Temple of Triumph but I never saw a red card. Anyways, who knows what this deck was.
Round 5 was intentional draw into top 8 giving me a break.
Top 8 I was 7 seed vs a very experienced player with W/B Midrange deck. I died quickly. Game 1 I lost to Thoughtseize revealing my 2
Chained to the Rocks hand which meant
Desecration Demon and
Obzedat, Ghost Council was easily played. Game 2 I mull'd to 6 and ended up with an OK hand but again could not beat Obzedat. The key play was also
Devour Flesh on his Demon vs my Chained, as the 6 lifegain was too much to recover from.
Observations:
I really liked
Banishing Light. I only played it a handful of times (once to kill [card]Illness in the Ranks[/card:
1mrn5n5b]) but I can see the utility. Nice to know I have an answer for stuff like
Whip of Erebos, any random enchantment and can still use it for problematic creatures. I feel like the 2 Chained 1 Banishing maindeck and 2/1 in side is going to be a good combination worth looking at.
Mana Confluence never really screwed me in games where I played it but it didn't exactly help either. Given that the card is serving a fringe role of fixing mana I don't expect it to be a worldbeater. Still, I don't want to go < 8 mountains and I'm not sure if I like 2 Mana Confluence over 2 scry lands. And I don't know if I should cut
Temple of Silence or
Temple of Malice. Possibly the white scry land, since Mana Confluence is more useful.
Obzedat wrecked me in both games. I have no answer for it currently. Aside from an emergency block +
Boros Charm + another
burn spell salvation. Maybe
Reprisal is worth a look as it also kills demons,
Polukranos, World Eater and others but it still feels troublesome.
