Dies to Removal

Blargle, I tend to be very reactive and easily scared sideboarding-wise, which is a bit of an issue. Blood baron scares me pretty bad, cause if we can't answer it, we lose.

I will admit now after waking up, that 4 mortars is probably too much...

[deck]Lands 24
3 Mutavault
4 Swamp
7 Mountain
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Triumph

Creatures 22
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Pack Rat
4 Spike Jester
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Others 14
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
2 Ultimate Price
2 Dreadbore
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard 15
3 Toil/Trouble
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Doom Blade
1 Whip of Erebos
3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Dark Betrayal[/deck]

Thoughts on Manabase:

13 Black Sources is correct if your aiming for 2 black lands by T5 (13 black sources = over 50% of hitting 2 sources in your opening hand, by T5 you have over 70% chance - good odds esp, if you factor in Scry).

Due to
lack of 1-Drops running 2-3 Scry lands is also acceptable.

Your running a very colour dependent deck, seeing 2x vaults in your opening hand is almost an instant mulligan so just run 2 or 3.

Thoughts on SB:

I put whip on the boards for those who like it, also guys you NEED to run 2x Erebos or 3x Skullcrack otherwise you will lose to control or Esper Aggro.

I added the 7th removal for MoW because.... he is MoW

The 3rd DB is for Bx Aggro/midrange

(p.s. you may want to think about RB Charm, opposing whips are really hard for RB to beat)
- - - - - - - - -

Going back to PyroDragons - good luck with further tweaks guys.

Am I being stupid or do I only see 5 answers to MoW in the 75? Not the 7 you mentioned?

No, you are correct

Am I being stupid or do I only see 5 answers to MoW in the 75? Not the 7 you mentioned?

I forgot I removed HDF from the list, so yeah its only 5 T__T.

Just lost 0-2 against a white-weenie splash red o.o I'd think that's a good matchup for us...
I dunno. Both games I didn't get much removal...

This opens up an interesting discussion. Should we try and work a list with more removal/burn?
MDU brought pyrodragons back because of the upturn in aggro decks, should we try and follow suite? Not pyrorakis, but still follow the 'more burn' idea?

I dunno... -grumbles- It's just losing to decks like that one bug me e.e

Upsurgence in small aggro might be a reason to add more mortars. AoG, maybe? I dunno.

Do they run enchantment removal? If not, doubling up on the whip could be ok. More time to land a dragon and/or grow some rats.

That wa the same thing i thought. Played 6 timrs with red devo, red agro and wb humans. In every matchup whip with almost any pressure is close to bed a gg. I might try playing 2 whips in a sb.

RB is naturally weaker to small aggro due to the high CC requirements and having 0 1cc removal, your options in those MU would be to a) Aggressively mulligan into Pack rats or b) Run sweepers (fofb, Aotg, shrivel) or c) try 1-2 whips but I think whips tends to come in a tad late vs hyper aggro like Wx Weenies or Boss Red.

Also just loss to a R/w/b burn list. Thing hurt, it's not a good matchup. Only hope is to land a whip or double trouble.

Shocks in the SB, maybe?

Where is the point of no recovery in those match ups blade? T3? T4?

As far as WR Weenies, in Games 2 and 3 I play control until the spear drops. This means not unleashing Cacklers. It works for me /shrug
It may not trade with theirs, but it saves me for another turn.

RWb, you just race. Game 1 is pretty unfavorable for us.


Anyways, taking this to the Gold Qualifier tomorrow.

[deck]
Land - 24
3 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
7 Mountain
1 Temple of Silence
4 Swamp
1 Temple of Triumph

Creature - 22
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Pack Rat
4 Spike Jester
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Instant - 11
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Ultimate Price

Sorcery - 1
1 Dreadbore

Planeswalker - 2
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard - 15
3 Toil // Trouble
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Erebos,
God of the Dead
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Doom Blade
1 Dreadbore
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Flames of the Firebrand
[/deck]

God damn this deck runs like a fuckin top.

Went 4-0 didn't lose even a single game at FNM.

Brought MDU's version with the 2 scry and also 2UP/2DB.

Round 1 - Bye...kinda lame, I came to play magic but sometimes you get unlucky.

Round 2 - 2-0 Naya Midrange - Had some fun games with this guy but in the end, Pack Rat was simply too much for one guy to handle.

Round 3 - 2-0 vs Mono Black Control - Spike Jester just too good and Ultimte Price/Dread bore are amazing vs them. Erebos won me game 2 negating his double Merchant play.

Round 4 - 3-0(playe another for fun) vss U/W control -- Way too easy...


I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS DECK!

Still got it.

Its scary how good this deck is going to be when it gets the scryland and demi-god(hopefully wont suck)

I had a slightly less stellar night. Went 2-3.

Bye first round, beat a mono-u to a pulp, and lost to R/w/b burn, white weenie splash red, and then a mix between naya control and tokens (who I played some friendly with later and grand total was 2-3 in his favor, so not bad)

r/w/b just ate me alive, and I couldn't race him enough, since he could burn me and then a creature too in the same turn. just kept me from having enough on board.

Naya had bigger stuff, and had plenty of removal for pack rat with chained and anger.

White weenie was just really fast, ajani gave him too much reach, and spear/brave/charm keptme from trading/removing efficiently at all...


other's success makes me wonder what I'm doing wrong. And my results/metagame atm makes me kinda wanna run back to pyrodragons with my tail between my legs...


The thing is also that this deck has great matchups vs the biggest decks, mono-b, mono-u, r/w
devo(i think a good matchup), and u/w control. But overall those only make up about a half of the meta, which means that all these "rogue" (not really, but for lack of a better word) decks that we're iffy against just pop up enough to HURT...

As for Rw burn, with big boros you still had to race them. With this deck you got an edge with a whip as it negates all the creatures. We need to stay agresive here.

As for WW in any configuration I just kill everything on a spot. I know lack of 1 drop kill spell hurts, however if big boros managed, then this deck mighy also do so.

Something like shrivel or profit/loss is an interesting option too.

What I noticed however we dont have any answer for assemble the legion (less important) but for hammer of purpoross.

IT might be nice to play something like profit/loss and wear/tear as an upgraded shrivel/rakdos charm with upgrade to 2for1 with 2 white scrylands we play.

Hey, what about YP plus Pack Rats as a 2 drops and dont play jesters? our deck would be less agressive game 1 throu ;/ or no caklers and play 12 2 drops? (makwes sence with 6 tap lands?) just ideas as I cant find a place for YP in sb.

True... And I looked into the numbers, we do have really good matchups agains most of the main decks, which is what I'll see more of at a big tourney...


Also, it might be a time to discuss rakdos charm again. It's been brought up before, but it does both of the things you're talking about.

It gets rid of whip and hammer, and the 1 damage thing doesn't ANSWER elspeth or assemble in the normal manner of speaking, but they can help, which could be enough in addition. Also add MoW to the list of things it psuedo-answers.
It'd be pretty fun to have them drop master, then to rakdos charm them for 8 off their tokens and stuff, then ultimate price the master...

I'm not 100% sold on toil//trouble, but it seems to do enough work for the rest of you, that I guess it should stay. But we could drop the third doomblade (or in my case ultimate price, cause I was too lazy to hunt down my third doomblade, so just shoved
the former 3rd mainboard up in the side) and one toil//trouble to fit 2 charms in the side.
Or drop all the toil//trouble and get either 3 charms, or 2 charms and a second whip in the side, but like I said, toil//trouble seems to work well enough in alot of y'alls testing, so...

Necromancer really solves the 1:1 removal issues this deck has. Yoiu can run some pretty strong humans while still retaining the curve. Never had issues with burn decks for instance.

You've been spotted - http://www.gatheringmagic.com/carlosgut ... this-week/.

Great work on this, looks like you've been posting some good results!

Nice!

Noooo secret is out!!!

RE: Young Pyro - I don't think he really has a spot in this deck as Pack Rat is just flat out BETTER.

RE: Spike Jester - yall must be smokin crack if you're thinking about cutting this guy....he is INSANE....Avoids Last Breath, trades Spectre, kills Sylvan Caryatid, avoids Doom Blade/Ulti Price.

@Raida- Trying to be the least dick-ish as possible, but I think it is your play, not the deck. The easiest way for us to help you win more would be to record some games or bring us through certain scenarios that are giving you issues.

This deck is just SO FUCKING GOOD. I can't stand it.

Great early game? Check! Think swining 5 turn 2 counts as that...

Great late game? Check - Chandra,Dragon,Rat,Exava

Great removal? Check - Dreadbore/burn/ultimate price/doom blade.

Mana is perfect, never have an issue.

Able to run mutavault..


I just wanna run down the halls screaming "I
love rakdosssss"

Anyone doing premier events this weekend?

So I got a PM asking for a sideboard guide and figured I'd just post it here.

Probably not much different than the rest of you but here it is.

Mono Blue Devotion
-4 Rakdos Cackler
-3 SPike Jester
+ 3 Doom Blade
+ 3 Mizzium
+1 Whip

Your game plan here is to win fast game 1, so be aggresive. Game 2 , you are siding out of guys that lineup bad against Frostburn Weird and Familiar.
Mizzium Overload is extremely powerful, so if you can, hold it. Don't be afraid to take some damage if its going to blow them out and win you the game. Try to keep the board clear turns 1-3 unless you have Pack Rat. CLear the board then drop Exava/Dragon and just keep clearing the board. If you have turn 2 Pack Rat, just go all in on it.

Mono Black Devotion
- 3 Dragon
-4 Pack Rat
+3 Dark Betryal
+ 1 Whip
+1 Rakdos Return
+ 2 Ereboos

You still wanna stay aggresive here and
Dragon is a high investment that is easily killed and you'd rather have them dead by then. Its also owned by Demon. Pack Rat isn't that great cause you wanna drop him before turn 5 but it won't do much good if you do. With the sideboard you can shut down their life gain and then you have have amazing removal against them, Dark Betrayal, Dreadbore, Ultimate price are all amazing and they are very low on threats. Just land a few early guys, then kill anything they play and win.

U/W Control
-4 Pack Rat
-2 Ultimate Price
+1 Whip
+1 rakdos return
+2 Erebos
+2 toil/trouble

Def the easiest sideboarding here. Easy matchup too. Spike Jester/Exava/Dragon are awesome against Last Breath. Obviously be aggresive game 1 and try to make them tap out. When they do, drop your haymaker- Exava, Dragon, Chandra. Try not to run into a counterspell if you can. Might mean waiting and only casting a 2 drop or something. Pack rat is shitty cause they have wipes and D-sphere. The sideboard
cards are awesome against them and further the plan. Get enough early pressure so they are forced to Verdict/Jace on their turn. Then you can Rakdos Return or Erebos and basically win the game right there.

White Weenie
-4 Rakdos Cackler
-3 Spike Jester
+3 Mizzium
+3 Doom Blade
+1 Whip

Same basic strategy as mono blue, but you don't have to worry about master and your burn is even better here. You can try to race them, but if you can game 1, try to play more controlling until you can get Rats/Exava/Dragon online. You can be aggresive but Spike Jester/Cackler lines up really bad against them since Soilder is pro-multi color and they have first strikers and 1/1's. Game 2- try to keep the board clear which isn't super hard as they don't have BTE or something. They don't have any top-end really so if you just make it to turn 4 with the board nearly clear, you are in the clear most likely. Drop a dragon or exava or get rats going and you will surely win.


If you guys
found this remotely helpful but have a matchup I didn't cover, just tell me and I'll add it. I didn't add Red Devo but its basically just like Mono Blue and WW.

I will try to do the one in 2,5 hour. Still thinking about some choices:

do we need 2 scry lands? slow us down, but with only 4 1 drops they seems good.

How do we setup our sb?

Currently have:

Anti control:
2 Erebos
2 Toil/Trouble

Removal:
1 Dreadbore
3 Dark Beyrayal
3 Doomblade
3 Mizzium Mortars

Lifegain:
1 Whip of Erebos

Trying to figure if I need 2nd whip, flames of the firebrand, shrivel (profit/loss), rakdos charm(wear/tear).

Key artifacts to kill: whip and hammer. However I dont really know If we should bring sth to kill hammer, however I lost to it everytime someone cast it vs me.

So I got a PM asking for a sideboard guide and figured I'd just post it here.

Probably not much different than the rest of you but here it is.

Mono Blue Devotion
-4 Rakdos Cackler
-3 SPike Jester
+ 3 Doom Blade
+ 3 Mizzium
+1 Whip

Your game plan here is to win fast game 1, so be aggresive. Game 2 , you are siding out of guys that lineup bad against Frostburn Weird and Familiar.
Mizzium Overload is extremely powerful, so if you can, hold it. Don't be afraid to take some damage if its going to blow them out and win you the game. Try to keep the board clear turns 1-3 unless you have Pack Rat. CLear the board then drop Exava/Dragon and just keep clearing the board. If you have turn 2 Pack Rat, just go all in on it.


Mono Black Devotion
- 3 Dragon
-4 Pack Rat
+3 Dark Betryal
+ 1 Whip
+1 Rakdos Return
+ 2 Ereboos

You still wanna stay aggresive here and Dragon is a high investment that is easily killed and you'd rather have them dead by then. Its also owned by Demon. Pack Rat isn't that great cause you wanna drop him before turn 5 but it won't do much good if you do. With the sideboard you can shut down their life gain and then you have have amazing removal against them, Dark Betrayal, Dreadbore, Ultimate price are all amazing and they are very low on threats. Just land a few early guys, then kill anything they play and win.

U/W Control
-4 Pack Rat
-2 Ultimate Price
+1 Whip
+1 rakdos return
+2 Erebos
+2 toil/trouble

Def the easiest sideboarding here. Easy matchup too. Spike Jester/Exava/Dragon are awesome against Last Breath. Obviously be aggresive game 1 and try to make them tap out. When they do, drop your haymaker- Exava, Dragon, Chandra. Try not to run
into a counterspell if you can. Might mean waiting and only casting a 2 drop or something. Pack rat is shitty cause they have wipes and D-sphere. The sideboard cards are awesome against them and further the plan. Get enough early pressure so they are forced to Verdict/Jace on their turn. Then you can Rakdos Return or Erebos and basically win the game right there.

White Weenie
-4 Rakdos Cackler
-3 Spike Jester
+3 Mizzium
+3 Doom Blade
+1 Whip

Same basic strategy as mono blue, but you don't have to worry about master and your burn is even better here. You can try to race them, but if you can game 1, try to play more controlling until you can get Rats/Exava/Dragon online. You can be aggresive but Spike Jester/Cackler lines up really bad against them since Soilder is pro-multi color and they have first strikers and 1/1's. Game 2- try to keep the board clear which isn't super hard as they don't have BTE or something. They don't have any top-end really so if you just
make it to turn 4 with the board nearly clear, you are in the clear most likely. Drop a dragon or exava or get rats going and you will surely win.


If you guys found this remotely helpful but have a matchup I didn't cover, just tell me and I'll add it. I didn't add Red Devo but its basically just like Mono Blue and WW.

Nice compendium, however my thoughts:

As you posted we clearly miss 1 slot from SB for agro matchups. Something like flames of the firebrand, shrivel(kills master of the waves also), additional whip, would be perfect in place of jester. Currently this slot was for dreadbore, however it isnt as needed as we might think it is.

vs Esper I also try to SB 2 mizzium mortars for blood baron.

As for PackRats vs Black based control, I dissagre and I love them. They win the game on the spot, and they have to answer it. I dont cast them by turn 5 most of the time, and try to get rid of their removal with all other creatures. Unanswered rat just wins the game on a spot,
as it turns all of your draws on.

@ Pedros For the other slot, I personally would lean towards Flames. I doubt I would end up bringing Shrivel in vs Mono Blue but I guess its still better than Jester.

I do not have much esper in my area so thats why I only put U/W. Def need some mortors for BB.

RE: Pack Rat, that was one I was really unsure of. The more I think about it, you are def correct. I will take out Magma Jet instead. Luckily I have still been stomping it. Man...the more I think about it I have no idea what I was thinking cutting Pack Rat here... Helps to write stuff out and hope someone picks up on silly stuff like that!

Shrivel / Profit is another answer to master of the waves if you think about it, it can also kill judges familiar or 4/1 weird.

But yeah probably flames of the firebrand are better.

Deleted if I could figure out how to

Longtime lurker that just joined the forum here. I really like this deck and it looks like it would be a ton of fun to play too (judging by the videos) -- kudos to you guys. The only piece I'm missing is a Chandra, but I'll give it a swing next FNM (possibly try to trade for her pre-FNM).

RE: Spike Jester - yall must be smokin crack if you're thinking about cutting this guy....he is INSANE....Avoids Last Breath, trades Spectre, kills Sylvan Caryatid, avoids Doom Blade/Ulti Price."

Jester forces a clunky manabase and is flatfooted in the vs. Red aggro mirror (Ashely) and inconveniently dies to Frostburn which is a staple in 2 of the 3 top played aggro decks atm. I´m not at all that impressed with him this season.

Had the chance to play two 2-mans against Pedros online with my RW Big Boros. We ultimately went 1-1, but I have to say this deck felt just a little ... ahem .... superior. The amount of continuous pressure it can exert is just very good. Can anyone post a guide how to correctly play Pack Rat? I might join the fray if I can figure this out....

Anyway, nice work guys!

I did bad in Premier Event (2-3 drop and then played draft winning it for 8 boosters), however I can see it was made of non familiarity with 2 of my opponents deck - I faced UWR control twice.

My last lost match was againts black devotion, where he played 3 dark betrayals and 2 other removal before turn 4 into turn 4 demon. Dark Betrayals are so good vs our deck...

BTW Lowlandwizards made top 8 with THIS deck (didnt see any mayor changes) and lost quaterfinals to mono black when he didnt have any creatures at all.

Second that on deck tactics. I've already mentioned the uber coolness of pitching the bird to make a rat and zapping opponent to get it back, but I'm sure there's other great interactions. Pedros, on your vids I saw you attacking and then creating rats instead of the other way round, sometimes pumping the existing rats to kill blockers. Stuff like that.

Could you describe some of the common lines and decision points that come up during play and how to handle them correctly?

Depends on what deck you are facing.

For example vs black often it is worth to create rat as fast as possible, as it then allows to sacrifice new rat to devour flesh (and not swing into potential blocker). I know it works only for devour flesh, but everything counts.

Vs some of the hasty decks (such as red) I like keeping instant speed removal to prevent them from fanatic of mogis damage(kill in response to trigger) or dragon. Also a lot of removal from deck like RW devotion or RG devotion is sorcery speed - you can make a rat before blockers to block with it without facing posibilty of rat being killed.

Vs something like mono U you have to be afraid of cyclonic rift with overload. So often I dont like discarding excess cards if I dont have to, I prefer to keep mana open and then swing for some damage. vs a lot of decks you still play control, and it is easier to kill something than to block and make some bad trades.

RE: Spike Jester - yall must be smokin crack if you're thinking about cutting this guy....he is INSANE....Avoids Last Breath, trades Spectre, kills Sylvan Caryatid, avoids Doom Blade/Ulti Price."

Jester forces a clunky manabase and is flatfooted in the vs. Red aggro mirror (Ashely) and inconveniently dies to Frostburn which is a staple in 2 of the 3 top played aggro decks atm. I´m not at all that impressed with him this season.

Dpaine88 is correct, in regards to the land base we already have a clunky one for Pack Rats so as it stands unless one of you guys change my
current land base its easier to cast Jester then Ash.

Had the chance to play two 2-mans against Pedros online with my RW Big Boros. We ultimately went 1-1, but I have to say this deck felt just a little ... ahem .... superior. The amount of continuous pressure it can exert is just very good. Can anyone post a guide how to correctly play Pack Rat? I might join the fray if I can figure this out.... Anyway, nice work guys!

Common lines:
Pact Rat + 3 mana open + vaults = attack then create rat for combat tricks
Pack Rat + 3 mana open + removal in hand vs midrange = attack threaten combat tricks, end of turn - see if he casts anything worth killing if not create rat
Pact Rat + 3 Mana open vs removal heavy deck = EoT rats, can depend on board state

In regards to 'superior':
Both Rw and RB have S+W

RW is better vs
Black (exile, assembles) vs UW (white removal, protection (LI and Charm)) vs BG (exile is stronger vs regen and whip.decks) vs Small Aggro (1cc removal)
RB is better vs Esper (more haste) vs Gx (Devotion) vs Rx (Devotion) and Ux (Devotion)

Both decks can beat everything but the scales just tip slightly etc: I haven't lose to Ux Devotion for a few weeks now with Rw.

I think I am oversideboarding vs black. I sb out 3 dragons and certain nr of magma jets for dark betrayals, whip and erebos, however I only draw removals without creatures. Maybe cutting magmajets is just bad? In this matchup however it almost always goes to a face, however fixing is important.

How many terrors vs mono black?

Also playing with this manabase is tricky. For example sometimes I want to play mutavault turn 1 so can atack with it, however it doesnt cast spikejester. sometimes it is worth taking shock damage just to cast mutavault earlier...

I think however that I lost 1 game because I drew too many taplands, and I cant remember now if I had the same problem with boros or it just happens sometimes. Should we still run ofcolor scrylands or just 4 gates and wait for better times?

@MDU

Yeah assemble is almost always gg, however black plAyers can play stuff like golgari charm to blow it or play ilness of
the ranks, especially if u also play YP$. Playing smart with pack rats(exploiting removals and waiting for turn 5+) often wins as fast as assemble.
As for BG the fact that chain exiles is neutralized by posibility of destroying chain with decay or charm, so being Rw isnt better - it is similar.
vs UW last breath and azorius charm our decks are similar, however I think Rb are slightly better as they have haste(Azorius charm) and slightly bigger power without LI (last breath/dimir charm)

As for assemble the legion and elspeth - thinking on playing rakdos charm in sb, as a potential burn. I run it in modern vs twin, it might also work here

I can understand why you would want your deck to be superior, we can go on and on but what can happen etc: R.Bomb, Sac effects, Proc B/R and Needles, but I think its better if we leave at "both RB and RW have S/W" (which is true and lowers the need for listing 100000s of examples) .

Gold Qualifier Report 12-28-13
67 players - 7 rounds - (5-2-0) 12th Place



[deck]
Land - 24
3 Mutavault
4 Blood Crypt
4 Rakdos Guildgate
7 Mountain
1 Temple of Silence
4 Swamp
1 Temple of Triumph

Creature - 22
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Pack Rat
4 Spike Jester
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch
3 Stormbreath Dragon

Instant - 11
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Ultimate Price

Sorcery - 1
1 Dreadbore

Planeswalker - 2
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard - 15
3 Toil // Trouble
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Doom Blade
1 Dreadbore
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Flames of the Firebrand
[/deck]


otD vs Nick playing Mono Black Devotion

Game 1:Nothing special, I didn't see a single
black source so all I was playing with was Phoenix's and burn. By the time he could drop a 2nd Desecration Demon onto the field, I was dead.

Game 2: My opponent curved out with me having no removal. 2 Nightveil Spectre to a Gray Merchant. Dead. The removal I had, which was a Dark Betrayal, was removed from a Thoughtseize. Other then that, I only drew Magma Jet's which wasn't of any help in dealing with the Nightveil's.



0-1 (Not a good start and quite honestly, a very frustrating start)

otP vs John playing RUG Control

Game 1: I was wary of Anger of the Gods, but really nothing much else. I threw Spike Jesters at him and a Stormbreath Dragon, which was answered with Mizzium Mortars. He resolved a Jace, which I decided to ignore and go for the kill. I baited a Phoenix to a Plasm Capture, sending a Lightning Strike to his face on his EoT. Then going for the kill with a Magma Jet + Phoenix.

Game 2: Spike Jester > Trouble > Spike Jester, he was down to 9. 2
Turns later, crashing in for the win with a Stormbreath Dragon.



1-1 (I felt kind of shitty beating up on such a deck, I want to be facing off against T1 decks ;; but I shouldn't be complaining. A win is a win.)

otD vs Mike playing UW Control

Game 1: He got me with back to back Sphinx's into an Elixir. I killed his Elspeth, but he contained everything else I could put on the field. I conceded after I saw the Elixir.

Game 2: Trouble, GG. Spike Jester + Chandra's Phoenix + Trouble, yea. Game.

Game 3: Trouble again, pun intended. I started with 2 mana and only saw 2 mana until turn 5 D: I was pummeling him with a Cackler and then 1 round of a Spike Jester until he cleared them from the board. He shocked himself and tapped out, dropping Elspeth. I Magma Jet him for 2 revealing a Trouble. Played it next turn and ended the game and match.



2-1

otP vs David playing Pyro Boros

It put a smile on my face that I found someone playing
this. I asked them if they frequented DtR. They had no fucking idea what I was talking about

---

Game 1: Mull to 5. No black source draw, again. Wtf? I was sitting on 2 Pack Rats that I couldn't do anything with and an Exava. I was quickly out matched agro wise.

Game 2: I matched his aggro with my removal and burn, ending it with Stormbreath and Phoenix/

Game 3: Yet again, no black sources. He ended the game with 2x Lightning Strike + Boros Charm. In my hand was, 2x Dreadbore, Pack Rat, Exava, and Doom Blade. I had 5 land out, none of which was a black source. Temple of Triump was out, which used to be my Temple of Silence. Pretty mad I decided to go with a Triumph.



2-2 (Fucking shitty. I have 13 black sources, I should be drawing them. Seriously...)

otD vs Cam playing Mono Red Devotion

Game 1: He was faster, once he dropped BTE to BTE to a burn I knew it was pretty much over.
However, somehow I still recovered and cleared his board, but with little life. He truly ended it when he dropped double Boros Reckoner.

Game 2: 3 Chandra Phoenix's, enough said. He Chained one and burned the rest, but he even said to me "You're just going to get them back, aren't you?" lol...yup!

Game 3: Very strange game. I opened with 3 Rakdos Guildgates, he ended up showing 4 BTE's through out the entire match. I durdled with 3 land forever and the worst kind of lands! I was very frustrated with how everything was going today and yet again in this match. I got a lucky break, I started drawing my 5th and 6th mana, dropping Spike Jester and even making some Rats. He ended up flooding. Lucky me....



3-2 (I can honestly say, "Fuck MTG" today...seriously. Pretty disappointed and angry at my play/self today.)

otD vs Charles playing UW Control

Game 1: Stormbreath Dragon on 7 lands absolutely murdered my opponent. I had a back up Stormbreath
Dragon in case he Verdict the field. I felt very confident in a win this game.

Game 2: Spike Jester > Spike Jester > Verdict > Phoenix > Dsphere (response Jet my own Phoenix) > Lightning Strike > Phoenix. Then the game durdled for 2 turns until I could Trouble him and go in for the rest of the damage.



4-2 (One more match...I can't believe I'm coming back again with x-2 records in all these events I go to -,- )

otD vs Adam playing GR Devotion

Game 1: Mull to 6. Thank god for those amazing Pack Rat hands. 1 Pack Rat, 2 Mutavaults. Online and rocking! Ended the game quick

Game 2: Ugh, mulled again to 6. Lots of removal in this hand and even a Stormbreath. My opponent showed a lot of pressure early with 2x BTE, but I had 2x Doom Blade in hand and even drew into a 2nd Stormbreath Dragon. I was feeling very good about this match. Chump blocking with Spike Jester and
holding onto my Doom Blades for larger threats other than BTE.

It ended up being a very close game. My opponent started to resolve back to back Scavenging Oozes, but I couldn't deal with the second one. Thankfully I resolved a whip and flew over him with my Phoenix's, matching his life gain to mine and his damage out put by dropping my second Stormbreath Dragon.



5-2 (Whew...can't believe I crawled back from a really bad day of MTG)

Needless to say, I missed Top 8 again, for my 3rd consecutive "major event" I felt missing this was much well deserved since I was pretty much playing like shit and getting screwed with some draws and mana fixing, but hey that's ultimately part of MTG. I ended up placing 12th.

I was quite surprised I evaded all the Mono U that was being played, but I did enjoy beating up on UW Control lol. I think I'm definitely going to be putting Temple of Silence back in place of
Temple of Triumph. I know I had a bad experience with it, but I drew it a few times thinking "Oh, this could be a black source" never "Oh, this could be a red source".

I tried to reflect on the day and think what I could change to the deck, but honestly because my play was pretty bad I can't critique the deck all too much. Maybe that 2nd Dreadbore MB would have made a difference in say the Mono Red Devotion match up, but I liked nearly most of the current 75. Iunno, most of the problems were in not drawing the correct mana and drawing too much removal/burn and not enough creatures. Frustrating day for sure. I'm not going to let it get to me. Time for a nice meal and then a good rest.

I'll probably be returning to FNM scenes from now on. Most of the major tournaments I think are done for a while. Platinum Qualifier, PTQ, and now this Gold Qualifier. I haven't seen any other big events popping up. Shame

Something that I also noticed. I'm fucking terrible at rolling dice.

Report tomorrow once conscious again, but just took the deck to a big tournament at a local store, cout iq/ptq level/number of players/prizes

Went 5-1-1 in swiss for third seed, then won the whole thing! Top 4 split prize money, so I got just under $65, a trophy, and a custom playmat!

Thanks to pedros and mdu and everyone for all the work, and tips on the deck, it is a beast.

So glad I didn't gie up after those two off days. Finally hit my stride with learning how to use the deck. Also learned how to packrat over the course of the tourney. Never did anything for me in swiss, but won me games in both my top8 and top4 games. (2-0'd entire top8 bracket)

So yeah. Wheeee! Hugs all around!

Edit: https://www.facebook.com/ravens.nest.12 ... 7175835395