The Commander's Arsenal Standard tourney at Alternate Worlds 11/17
I finished this tourney 2-2, not earning any prizes. I lost round 1 to Esper Walkers/Control, an admittedly bad matchup for me (playing Naya Midrange). In game three I made a big mistake... when I stole Sorin with a Zealous Conscripts I told my opponent to just leave it on his side since we were tight on play space and it had glass bead counters on it instead of dice. I made an emblem (Sorin down to 1 loyalty) and attacked. After combat I played Bonfire to kill off the rest of his tokens and Sorin....................... except I controlled Sorin... ugh.... Had I waited a turn I could have gotten Sorin and maybe some more tokens and would have been in a much better position. Lesson learned! ---> Always move the stuff you steal to your side of the board!
The other round I lost was against Jund when in game 3 I had SEVERAL, like 4-5, turns to draw a Mountain, Clifftop Retreat, Rootbound Crag, Cavern of Souls or Borderland Ranger to immediately win with Bonfire, Conscripts or Wolf Run :(
In one of my wins my opponent playing Grixis control had a Desecration Demon in play vs my Sigarda. The judge ruled that I WAS able to still sacrifice creatures to tap the Demon at the beginning of combat. I later learned this to be incorrect.
Jimmy and Nick both top 4'd. Nick scooped to Jimmy as Jimmy had the better matchup against both of the other top 4 decks. Jimmy then ended up splitting the Commander's Arsenal in the top 2.
Black Friday at Mike's
I put together the standard Rakdos deck that made top 8 at GP Charleston. I played a bunch without a sideboard against Mike's Jund and felt Rakdos was favored, especially since it was able to win games even with Mike sideboarded. I also got to test my Tarland EDH that I had super-charged for the Commander's Arsenal FNM coming up. It was pretty sick :)
Standard for Standard Duals @ Xanadu 11/24
I left the house around 11:30 to drop off Lucy at a church near Penn Station (for her niece's baptism) and still make it to Xanadu by 12. (Which is why I didn't join Mike, Jimmy and Nick in Urbana for the IQ). After I drop Lucy off she calls me a couple minutes later crying that it's the wrong church. Where's the church?..... Parkville! I grab her and recklessly speed to Parkville, while calling Xanadu 5 times along the way, but no one is answering :(
I get to the shop at 12:40 hoping to get a 1st round bye and get into the tourney. Even though their phone was unplugged and dead I can only join with a round-1 loss. with 14 players I'll need to win out to make top 4. I win round 2 vs Esper Walkers! I don't remember how but I assume it was due to some awesome plays on my part. Next round I lost to Reanimator after I get trounced so bad in game one that I thought he was only playing Junk midrange and I didn't board in Rest in Peace :( I got hoofed game two.
After two disappointing tournies in a row I'm thinking I need to move off Naya.
I did get to battle Talrand head-to-head with Ben's Krenko. His deck is pretty degenerate as well, but I win about 2 to every 1 he does over about 9 games.
SCG Open 12/1 and 12/2
Well I end up playing NO magic all week and when the weekend gets here I don't feel comfortable going into the Standard Open with Rakdos. After the 4th round I'm 2-2 with Naya having beaten Rakdos twice and lost to Bant Control twice. Round 5 I played mono-red and learned how good Pyreheart Wolf is. I was able to stabilize in game two having handled his initial push and killed his board when I lost to runner-runner Thundermaws. Oh well. I drop, head to pickles and eat dinner. BTW, I also appealed to the head judge when a floor judge ruled I could NOT sac to tap a Desecration Demon while I had Sigarda in play. Head Judge rules that I in fact CANNOT and we get a 7 minute time extension, which I end up going on to win anyway.
Sunday I took Belcher hoping to either get lucky or get knocked out early and head home to watch the Ravens/Steelers game.
Game 1 Round 1 I have a nut draw and even though he goes turn 1 Inquisition of Kozilek on the play and takes LED, I'm still able to play out a Belcher and end my turn with a Mox and Taiga in play. On my turn I topdeck a mana source to kill with the belcher turn two.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5, but he doesn't have discard for me. He plays turn 2 Ethersworn Canonist and my second turn goes Mox, Mox, Lotus Petal, Land Grant for Taiga, play it and play Belcher with the mana necessary to kill him during my upkeep! :) He plays Pithing Needle for "Charbelcher" next turn :( and though he takes a while to kill me I can't find a Burning Wish for the Shattering Spree.. I also just correct him and name "Goblin Charbelcher" instead of calling a judge. It wouldn't have mattered anyway since he has to name a real card.
Game 3 I'm one mana short of Wish for Warrens first turn and pass on the play, without a play. He wrecks me with Inquisition and Thoughtseize the next two turns and I can't claw back.
I won round 2 vs Burn, perhaps my best matchup... Round 3 I have the turn one kill but I'm on the draw and lost to Doomsday without getting a turn. Something he tells me is not very common. Actually he talks a lot this match and is just annoying and my small headache is turning into a much more painful one. :-/
Game 2 I'm a mana away from a turn one Wish for Warrens and pass without a play. Next two turns I brick Chrome Mox after Chrome Mox when I have nothing to imprint on them (because I need all my non-artifacts). He plays Duress for my Wish and then wins on his third turn.... I didn't play a single card. I'm 1-2 and my head is killing me so I walk home from the convention center and watch football.
Wednesday Legacy @ Xanadu last night
I take Belcher in my pocket and don't bring any other decks, cards or dice. I win game one vs RUG Delver, even playing around a Daze on turn 1. Game 3 I got Belcher into play turn one with only a Taiga as a "sticks around" mana source. I should have waited until I could make 4 so that I could Pyroblast, but I went for it on turn two and FoW stopped me. The blast ended up taking out a Delver way later to give me another turn. On my last turn before dying I went for it again and Belcher got Stifled.
Next round was against Jimmy and Dredge. He goes first and Therapies for LED which I don't remember having. I know I win game one but don't remember if it was Belcher or Warrens. Game two I wish for Infernal Tutor, tutor for Wish and Wish for Warrens making 20 Goblins. (Annoyed that I decided against putting a Tendrils in my board). He makes a bunch of 2/2's on his second turn and Dread Returns Flame-kin Zealot. I scoop but some other guys mention that I was one goblin short of taking 6 of the 3/3's to the head, chumping the rest and swinging back for the win since Jimmy had used Tarnished Citadel twice. So I would have lost anyway, but it was a good lesson to at least do the math before scooping.
Round 3 against BUG control I go off first turn 3 straight games with game 2 only getting 14 damage with a Belcher. I didn't see a FoW all match.
Last round against Junk. He's on they play, Therapies and misses and sees that I have a guaranteed first-turn kill. He scoops before I get to take a turn... LOL
Game two I get to learn a bit more about my deck when he plays first turn Thalia off Mox Diamond (also playing a second Mox and dumping his whole hand). I Land Grant for Taiga, paying the Thalia tax with a spirit guide, then Probe, with Taiga for the tax again. Next turn I lay a Chrome Mox, being able to pay the tax again. I have a Burning Wish that I intend to get Pyroclasm with, and because he's only swinging for 2 a turn so far, I'm still in it! He has a Deathrite Shaman in play but I decide to Rite of Flame into Right of Flame to try to get up to 3 mana and wish. He sees the right play and eats the first Rite to nullify the second. Maybe I should have waited but I'm not sure if it mattered. Anyway, game three I mulligan and pass my first two turns with him whiffing on a Therapy for LED along the way. My third turn I get up to 8 with a freshly drawn LED and suspect a Maelstrom Pulse by the way he's acting and talking, so I grab the Diminishing Returns and kill with Belcher same turn. He says he did have the Pulse, though he didn't show it before the shuffle and re-draw, so who knows.
Anyway, I'm really liking the deck and it seems more resilient to non-blue hate than I initially thought, having nearly played through Ethersworn Canonist, Pithing Needle and Thalia, and successfully playing through a potential Maelstrom Pulse.
Tonight I might play Standard at Xanadu if Lucy is OK with it. I've got some Thundermaw Hellkites coming in the mail today and will be trying out the Naya list that won the SCG Standard Open last Saturday... though I've already fudged with the manabase as I'm having serious issues with early green mana for Pilgrim and Farseek in several goldfish games so far. This weekend there are two tournies on Saturday: Standard at Xanadu (GPT for Atlantic City!) and Legacy at Alternate Worlds. I'm leaning toward Xanadu.
See ya!
-Eric
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