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The FNM Diaries, November 2006 - Part II – What went Trong?

Friday, November 10rd, 2006

Matteo Orsini Jones

 

 

--The Beginning—

 

   Last week’s blue red snow deck, for those of you who haven’t read my report (what the hell have you been doing??), didn’t go too well. Having taken a break from aggro, and having found that all-out lockdown control wasn’t my thing, I decided I’d play something a little less intense. Something that doesn’t either win turn 4 or lose, and something that does indeed run more than 5 creatures. Being a n00b at heart, my favourite 2 colours have always been green and white (yes look at vintage and legacy, all blue black or red, bladibla don’t care shut up I like creatures), so I wanted to play one of the Ghazi-Glare decks that have been cropping up over the world (more precisely in the crazy deck-building land of Japan). What with Thelonite Hermits, Calls, Guildmages and a huge creature: spell ratio, the deck rips up opposing aggro decks with Glare lockdown and life-gainy hephalumps, and holds it ground against control with constant swarms of critters.

 

   However, it turned out I had no cards for that deck, so down the drain went the idea. Back to the drawing board it was, and 5pm on Friday I had to make a decision as to what I should play. With my bro on the pc and me in his room (where all the cards are stored), we had a long distance conversation along the lines of:

 

Me: Are you playing the usual RGB?

Him: Yes, why?

Me: I kind’ve need the Birds. And the Calls. And the Solifuges. And some other things.

Him: umm…. Just play snow again

Me: No snow sucks, I went 2-2

Him: What about mono white life gain?

Me: Pff, lifegain

Him: What about blue red Tron?

Me: Hmm I suppose Richard likes that deck and he pretends to be good, print me off a list

Him: We’re missing Hellkites, that’s about it

Me: Never mind, I’m bound to find 3 Hellkites amongst 10+ people.

Him: *Prints off a list*

 

   An hour later, my brother’s room a mess and a killer pins n needles in my legs, I had a half-built deck and was ready to storm the Bishop with my Tronny goodness. However, though I managed to borrow some Steam Vents (as mine still seem to be astray, though my search has been narrowed down to Callum – if you’re reading this and have them GIVE THEM BACK), it seemed nobody had Bogardan Hellkites. Nobody?!?!?! How can 10 people not have Hellkites? It seemed that somebody else, Matty Norton, had also decided to play Tron, and had already laid claim to any Hellkites that people may have had. This put me in a rather sticky situation, what with having no win conditions… A couple of strokes of genius (and almost real strokes at the thought of having a deck that can’t win), I decided to throw in some random replacements – 2 demonfire, and… wait for it… GARGADON!

 

   Here’s the deck I was supposed to be playing (though I’m not too sure why the black splash is there – is Wecking Ball from the board better than green for Skyswallowers in the main??)

 

RUb Tron

Designed by t’internet (actually it was designed by masaya Honda)

3 Bogardan Hellkite

1 Draining Whelk

--4 creatures—

 

4 Remand

4 Spellsnare

4 Compulsive Research

3 Mana Leak

3 Repeal

3 Wildfire

3 Izzet Signet

2 Tidings

2 Demonfire

2 Electrolyze

2 Dimir signet

1 Rakdos signet

--33 other spells—

 

4 Urza’s Tower

4 Urza’s Mine

4 Urza’s Powerplant

4 Steam Vents

3 Shivan Reef

2 Watery Grave

1 Island

1 Urza’s Factory

--23 Lands—

 

3  Volcanic Hammer
2  Pyroclasm
2  Wrecking Ball
3  Cancel
2  Willbender
1  Govern the Guildless
2  Annex

--15 Sideboard card—

 

And the rather messy-looking deck I ended up playing:

 

“Spot the Difference” Tron

Designed by Matteo’s lack of cards

1 Greater Gargadon

1 Draining Whelk

--2 creatures—

 

4 Remand

3 Spellsnare

4 Compulsive Research

3 Mana Leak

3 Repeal

3 Wildfire

3 Izzet Signet

1 Confiscate

1 Tidings

1 Careful Consideration

4 Demonfire

2 Electrolyze

2 Dimir signet

1 Rakdos signet

--35 other spells—

 

4 Urza’s Tower

4 Urza’s Mine

4 Urza’s Powerplant

4 Steam Vents

3 Shivan Reef

2 Watery Grave

1 Island

1 Urza’s Factory

--23 Lands—

 

1  Volcanic Hammer

2 Rift Bolt
4  Pyroclasm
2  Wrecking Ball
3  Cancel
2  Willbender
1  Confiscate

--15 Sideboard card—

 

--Other decks and Players—

 

   10 of us turned up, including me, and unlike last week there were 2 repeats of decks – Matty Norton decided to steal my idea and nab all the blasted Hellkites before I could say ‘demonfire you for 20’, and Chris Harrold and Tony both decided pox was the way to go. Here are the players and their decks, and if they weren’t introduced last week I’ll give them a quick introduction.

 

 

 Adam – Playing gruul beats. Adam is more a casual player than the rest of us, often opting out of the tournament and choosing to instead play friendly games with his friends. However recently he seems to have started playing in the tournaments more often and never turns down a draft when we start one. He’s been playing the same gruul beats deck for a while now, gradually improving it as he plays more often and pimping it out with more competitive cards (like Call of the Herd, Giant Solifuge).

 

Baz – Playing Flores RUW Angels. I was actually surprised to see Baz turning up for a type 2 tournament, considering he doesn’t see any constructed formats with a larger card-pool than legacy as ‘proper formats’. More a limited man, somebody lent him a deck for the FNM and sent him merrily on his way to a 1-3 performance off a bye using the RUW angels deck used last week by Scott, winning with Avengers, Lightning and Firemane Angels, and Demonfire to the dome.

 

Chris Harrold – Playing Pox. Same man as last week, same deck, same way of winning (kill everything with pox while ramping up the mana, playing around a bit with Haakons and Hussars in the ‘yard, and reanimating Akroma).

 

Matty Norton – Playing URg Tron. Like my deck, he just wants to build up the mana with a set of Tron pieces and accelerate into a Hellkite or Skyswallower (having, unlike me, the benefit of green)

 

 Nigel – Playing GWBu control. Once again Nigel is playing his own black white green (with a hint of blue) control that he’s been adding to and tweaking over the past few months/ years/ who remembers anyway?

 

Ruaraidh – Playing RWG Slivers. By the way, his name’s pronounced Rory for those of you not fluent in random letter jumbles (I assume of Gaelic origin or something along those lines). Rory is another of the more casual players, only playing in the sanctioned tournament every time the ol’ blue moon comes out (no, not the bad moon or the blood moon). He was playing red green white slivers, and though I didn’t watch any of his matches I can take a guess at what he was playing – Gemhides to get the mana acceleration, Mights and Bonesplitters to pump his men and Essence Slivers to gain oodles of life.

 

Scott Biggs – Playing snow-white life gain. Yup, the deck I didn’t want to play – turns out it might have been the right choice after he rode his selection of awful cards, including proclamation of rebirth, Martyrs and Stormturds (Quote Scott) to a 4-0 sweep.

 

Tony – Playing Pox. Tony obviously decided to try and copy Chris’ recent successes by playing the fun yet powerful Pox (alliteration ftw).

 

 

--The Middle—

 

   This time round I knew I would be the official FNM reporter, and so took notes – unlike last week where most of what I wrote was based on ‘intelligent guesses’, this week you should be able to read a more truthful report. If this takes fun out of the reading, I apologise (obviously I understand my genial imagination can split sides like an axe).

 

Round 1 – Vs Nigel

 

   Going into this match I was fairly confident – Nigel’s deck relies on keeping his early Birds n Elves to allow him to accelerate into hierarchs, then churn out Vitu-Ghazi tokens while ramping up the mana for a Simic Skyswallower. Though the SSS may be a nightmare to deal with, wildfire should be able to clear up his board before he manages to get the 7 mana (Provided he doesn’t have elephant regen mana).

   Game 1 however didn’t quite go how would be classed as ‘to plan’. From the moment I rolled a 1, shadowed by his huge roll of 18, I knew everyone was out to get me. I kept a fairly good hand, with signets, lands and spells in the right amounts, but failed to drop my 4th land for 5 turns. Nigel’s first Arena was leaked, and when his second hit the table he was tapped out of Hierarch regen mana, with 2 Birds and 4 lands on the table. An end of turn repeal on his arena meant I had 2 cards in which to draw a land and wildfire his board and completely restart the game (I had 2 signets out), but this wasn’t to be. When I finally got the mana for my Wildfire (further hindered by Nigel Putrefying Signets), a desperate Wildfire was simply haltered by a sacrificed Hierarch on Nigel’s side.

   Game 2 was slightly more positive for me – though Nigel’s recurring haunts of bad luck seemed to be returning. He started off with a mulligan, and failed to see his 4th land for 3 turns. After a double Remand a Farseek finally resolved, but the turn after I proceeded to draw my third Tron piece and swiftly hit him with consecutive demonfires for 15 to the dome (Nigel’s desperate putrefy on a signet didn’t prevent the 10 damage off the second he needed). Also next to us was Scott who in the middle of our game played Stormherd, triggering Adam’s reaction of ‘STORMHERD?!?!’ I thought it was quite funny.

   Game 3 started on a light note as I suspended a turn one Greater Gargadon and announced it with ‘Gargadon Time!!!’. However Nigel hit a turn 2 Arena then Persecuted me for red hitting a Wrecking Ball (which didn’t hit the Vitu Ghazi he later killed me with), and I didn’t manage to draw an answer to his ever-growing swarm of Saprolings.

 

Match Result: 1-2

Current Match results: 0-1

 

Round 2: Vs Adam

 

   Though Adam isn’t one of the shameless netdeckers, he is still a fairly competitive player. His RG beats deck has all the speedy goodness of a tier 1 heezy street and can chuck monkeys and spiders at you before you can say Wrath of God. What with my deck lacking in 3 Hellkites, the card that goes ‘play this, kill those two creatures, block that one, I win’, I wasn’t so sure as to whether I should be confident or not going into this match. Drawing a Wildfire would be crucial, and even then a Slum or Stonewood Invocation could completely shaft my plans.

   I won the roll 14-4 and elected to play, which was followed by a triple mulligan to 4 cards by Adam. It always sucks to start this way, and completely takes both the fun and competitive edge out of magic. Despite the Mulligans Adam managed to hit me down to a nail-biting 8 life, and I managed to just hold on by the skin of my teeth with a turn 5 Wildfire, which was responded to by a Char from Adam hitting me to 4. He slowly managed to build up the lands again and lead off with a Llanowar Elves and a Mauler (Which got Spellsnared), then a Call token after the Elves was repealed on the attack. However Wildfire number 2 meant I could rest assured that the game was mine, as a Gargadon left suspension and a Demonfire to Adam’s dome sealed the deal.

   Game 2 Adam started off with the beats nice an early as was to be expected with a turn 1 Kird Ape. 3 Repeals and 3 Remands stopped him from playing anything significant on the board, as I desperately dug further into my deck for a second red mana, but alas it was not to be. He replayed everything that was bounced, as I watched him run into me with 4 creatures every turn with 2 wildfire sitting in my hand and only 1 of my 8 lands producing red mana (with no signets out).

   Game 3 seemed fairly even at the start, as again I attempted to stave off any beats from his early drops as he attempted to replay them. However when a resolved Slum hit the table I knew I was in trouble, and with only 1 turn’s worth of repeal to stop him running 6 damage at me a turn, I failed to find any answers and rapidly succumbed to the big 5/5 un-Wildfireable man.

 

Match Result: 1-2

Current Standings: 0-2.

 

   Well yet again it’s not going too well for me. I’m worried my readers will begin to think that they’re reading the diaries of a n00b trying to netdeck his way to the top and failing… well that’s half true, and I promise eventually you will be reading a 4-0 report! I think for now I’ll adopt the Nigel approach and blame it all on the damn Gods of fate!!!

 

Round 3: Vs Tony (AKA Arch Nemesis)

 

   Yet again, I’ve been paired against Tony. Those of you who read my report from last week will now about mine and Tony’s long-running belligerence, and yet again we had been forced to battle out for the honour of our families. Tony was playing Chris’ favourite Smallpox-flare variant (not sure if the builds were the same), in which he aims to fill the yard with Haakons and other such knighty goodness while stopping me from hitting Wildfire mana with Smallpox.

  The game started in a rather laughable mana, as we both rolled a 13, then we both rolled a 10. I then gave the dice the old lucky shake and rolled a whopping 1, followed by an even mightier 2 from Tony. However I’m afraid for some reason my notes on this match don’t seem to be too detailed. However, they are rather amusing so I’ll write down what I have (the blue writing shows what I have added now to aid understanding).

 

·        Tony Mulls to 6

·        Tony gets angry

·        Tony hits matteo (seemingly in Tony’s handwriting)

·        Chris patches Matteo’s nose (seemingly in Nigel’s handwriting)

·        Tony wishes he were Scott (note use of subjunctive) (this was because Tony tried to burp and say ‘burp’ or something similar while burping)

·        Tony is an idiot (not sure why this was)

·        Tony is a cheat (again, cant remember why I wrote this)

·        2 x Wildfire + 2 x Demonfire – Tony cries (fairly self explanatory)

  

Game 1 my life total goes no lower than 18, so I can assume I Steam Vented Myself (Tony has no ways of dealing 2 damage in one go), whereas his life went 20,18,16,0, which I think was from me casting Wildfire to kill his Haakon both times he reanimated it, and the 16-0 drop was undoubtedly from a large Demonfire to the head. Game 2 I remember even less of – only that he managed to resolve an Angel of Despair and swiftly beat me down to 0. As mentioned in my notes, game 3 basically involved me ramping up the mana to Wildfire twice in quick succession, then hitting Tony with 2 consecutive Demonfires for 6, while singing ‘Tony needs some lifegain’.

 

Match Result: 2-1

Current Standings: 1-2

 

Round 4: vs Baz

 

   Going into the round Baz isn’t looking too happy, and it’s quite apparent why he prefers to stick to limited. ‘So you’re on 2 losses and a bye then?’ were his greeting words, to which I replied ‘nope, I actually won one!’, to which he replied ‘oh right, looking good for me then’ or something along those lines. Baz was playing Flores’ champs winning RWU Angels deck, which Scott piloted to 3-1 the previous week.

   Game 1 was by far the longest, though equally entertaining game I had that day. Baz’s first noteable play was a Firemane Angel, which was rapidly removed from the game with Demonfire, followed by a Hussar that got Whelked by me. The Whelk then also got Demonfired and we were back to square one. Baz followed this up with another 2 Firemane angels, which both got the Demonfire treatment. After we both drew out a few more lands, I managed to hit Tron and hardcast a GARGADON!!, which caused Marco to turn around and say ‘you actually hardcast it??’. However the Gargadon didn’t last long after Baz glumly pealed a card off the top of his deck, grinned and said ‘so that’s why this is in here’ and threw Confiscate on my Gargadon. Back to my turn and I needed a way of stopping him from killing me with my own Gargadon, and 2 Wildfires seemed like a good plan. 8 lands in the bin and a rather empty looking board, we started the topdeck wars again. I managed to hit an Urza’s factory, which gave me some hope, until every single token I made was wrathed (he drew three in a row)(Wrathing each turn may seem a bad plan under normal circumstances, but I had 5 cards left in my deck, so he just needed to keep off the beats while I decked myself). Eventually he managed to hit a hellbent Demonfire and closed the deal.

 

Whew. Must recharge.

 

    Game 2 and 3 I have a lot less extensive notes on, so the report shall be a lot less extensive. Game 2 I suspended a Late gargadon, while trying to keep off his beats, and made a stupid mistake of tapping out to Demonfire him to 3 life, meaning I could demonfire for the rest the turn after. However he had a Hussar out and 8 lands, and I was on 9 life. Without dropping a land and with 6 cards in hand he swung in with Hussar, which would drop me to 8. If he then dropped a land and demonfired me for lethal I would be really kicking myself (I had remand in hand and didn’t keep 2 lands untapped), so I went for the motto ‘desperate times call for desperate measures’. 7 lands in the bin and my Gargadon jumped in the way of hussar, meaning a demonfire could only drop me to 1. Next turn and it was a Demonfire to the head from me for the win. Game 3, like I said, I remember very little of – only dropping a Gargadon turn 1 and forgetting constantly to remove counters, then spotting an opportunity, floating some Tron mana, saccing stuff to Gargadon to bring him out of suspension, Demonfiring Baz and swinging for 9 for a quick death.

 

Match Result: 2-1

Current Standing (and final standings): 2-2

 

--The End—

 

 

Well once again I broke even on the match front, and once again I left FNM rather disappointed. With an incomplete deck I can hardly be blamed (generally losing 3 win conditions in a control deck isn’t tech), though I am still rather miffed. My promise for next week is that I will hit a winning record, and like I mentioned you may even be able to read a 4-0 report! Fun was had by all (especially Scott and his Stormturd) and we all left wondering what uber-tech we’d bring next week, and psyching ourselves for the next day’s events (JSS for me, t2 cup in Brum for the others).

 

Signing off,

 

Matteo ‘Hellkiteless’ Orsini Jones

 

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