Hello all! I’m going to perform an experiment. I’m gonna blog each round after it happens of a Magic: the Online Standard Daily event. Here’s the deck I’m going with (it’s from a 4-0 list of a couple days ago):
What I like about this deck: lots of ramp, lots of giant monsters, lots of life gain. What I do not like about this deck: the potential to get really far behind due to ramp being slow and giant monsters and lifegain not showing up in time.
Here we go!
R1 vs. UB … exalted?
I keep this hand (though I’m weary – if s/he kills my dork I’m up shit’s creek, if not I’m probably good for the game):
SpaceThunder (my opponent) is on the play and drops and Island and plays Index. I’m baffled. S/he takes a minute plus to figure out the order of his/her cards and passes the turn. I play Forest then Avacyn’s Pilgrim and pass. S/he plays Swamp. I draw a Sunpetal Grove and play Farseek getting Temple Gardens and swing with Pilgrim. S/he plays Swamp. Turn 3 I swing with Pilgrim and play Borderland Ranger, grabbing a land. S/he plays Reliquery Tower (?). I drop a land, swing with Ranger, and play Armada Wurm. Turn 5 s/he casts Death’s Caress on my Ranger, gains life, and passes (probably played a land too). I swing with Wurms and Pilgrim then play Garruk, Primal Hunter and -3 to draw five cards. I play the just drawn Sunpetal Grove and Pilgrim and pass. Turn 6 s/he plays Island and Public Execution on my Armada Wurm. S/he’s at 7 life so I swing with Wurm token and two Pilgrims for exactsies.
G2 I don’t sideboard as I don’t really know what my opponent is doing other than playing lands, Index, and draft/sealed level removal. I also notice SpaceThunder left G1 and submitted a deck in about two seconds so wasn’t worried about his/her sideboarding plans. This is my seven:
Turn 1 s/he drops Swamp and Tormented Soul. I Forest then Pilgrim. Turn 2 s/he drops their final land of the match, an Island, and plays Knight of Infamy, swinging for two with an exalted Soul. I play Forest and Ranger, grabbing Plains. Turn 3 sees a Duty-bound Dead hit the board and Soul now swings for three. I play Plains and cast Trostani. Turn 4 SpaceThunder casts Ring of Xathrid and Souls me for three more. EOT I cast Restoration Angel, blink Ranger, grab another land, and gain five life off of Trostani. On my turn I swing with Resto and Ranger then cast Armada Wurm and gain ten life from Trostani. Turn 5 SpaceThunder swings for three after equipping Ring. I attack with all non-Pilgrim creatures and s/he doesn’t block.
R1 2-0, I don’t know if I’d count this one, I mean I will, but I’m not sure what I learned here other than this deck can beat decks that aren’t Teir 1-4.
Onto Round Two!
R1 vs UWR Flash w/Dungeon Geists
I keep:
My notes weren’t nearly as dense this match as I actually had to pay attention to the games. Nivmiz (my opponent) played two Restoration Angels, countered a Garruk and a Tusk before I landed a Cavern and double Tusk’d. I won pretty easily. I sided out two Angels of Serenity (mistake) and bring in two Rest in Peace thinking s/he has Snappies.
I have a 7 that looks like this g2:
I mull to this 6:
And keep. This game didn’t go very well. Cavern is SO important in this match up that I think I need four maindeck. What’s the point of three? Anyway, I lost after some Dungeon Giest, Thundermaw, and Resto’d Dungeon Geist manuevers.
G3 my 7 is six lands and an Armada Wurm (and I quickling click yes to a mulligan and don’t take a screenshot). My 6 looks like this:
I keep and after a turn three Detention Sphere on my Avacyn’s Pilgrim I never draw another land and lose the match handedly.
On to ROUND THREE!!!! AAHHHHHH!!!
R3 vs. UWR Flash
G1 my 7:
This game went really well. I cast a turn four Armada Wurm. And RobsterDMobster (opponent) scoops after s/he Thoughtscours burying Hellkite and Angel (two cards s/he needed to make it through a turn).
G2 my 7:
I keep this. My Elf dies to a Searing Spear but not before I’m able to cast the first Borderland Ranger eventually getting me up to four lands (when the second one is cast). RobsterDMobster outclassed me all game, counted when s/he needed to, drew better cards, and I lost.
G3 my 7:
I mulled this b/c I wasn’t going to be able to play turn one Elf and Elf would be able to untap nothing turn three if I didn’t draw a Temple Gardens or Forest. My 6:
Ok let’s go. G3 I feel pretty behind but RobsterDMobster isn’t doing anything so I have some time. Drop an Elf, a Ranger, at some point Cavern on Angel then the board looks like this:
And I keep drawing lands. At one point my draws were this: Temple Gardens, Forest, Temple Gardens, Plains, Forest, Cavern. Once I had Cavern I could’ve cast ANY creature in my deck besides the Angels I already had a Cavern on. Instead this happened:
It seems like filtering lands with Borderland Rangers would be awesome but it didn’t seem to matter! I said good game to RobsterDMobster and s/he admitted to having a fist full of counterspells. I told him/her that I had another cavern but obviously drew lands six or seven turns in a row. S/he said “oh yeah you flooded out pretty hard :(” and I appreciated the frowny face so wished him/her good luck in the final round.
ONTO ROUND 4!!!!
R4 vs UWR Flash (ugh)
G1 my 7:
My 6:
My 5:
My 4:
I lose G1 though it was a lot closer than this hand would lead you to belief. My excellent mulligan luck had me laughing my ass off and exclaiming “I’m gonna kill you with my goddamn ARBOR ELF!!!” to which my dad, probably embarassed that his 32 year old son is playing MTGO, says “KNOCK IT OFF!”
jcal4 plays an Unhinged Mountain and I respond by saying “PRETTY MOUNTAIN!” in the in game chat and laugh a shit-ton in real life as seen here:
My mom asks why I’m shouting and laughing so much and I say it’s because I’ve been getting my ass kicked all day. She says “I can’t beleive you let someone kick your ass.” To which I replied, I’m not letting anyone do anything. It’s just happening!”
G2 my 7:
I keep. Eventually the game looks like this:
Shortly after this scene jcal4 (my opponent) kills one dude and casts two dudes but is at two life and can’t block three beasts or elves. I win.
OH! I forgot to mention that I sideboarded in two Rest in Peace and out a Wurm and an Angel.
G3 my 7:
My 6:
My 5:
I drew into a Cavern turn 2 naming Wurm and totally fuck up casting the Wurms ASAP when I could’ve been patient, cast a Rest in Peace if/when jcal4 tapped out, and been able to cast Wurms all day long, blink them, you know, generally crush. I also cast Ranger during this game and didn’t play the land I fetched (though could have). Oh and one more screw up: I cast a goddamn Angel to block an Auger of Bolas and failed to set her up as a blocker. Really tight play. HA!!! Anyway I lost and it was 100% my fault this round.
I’ll be back with a Standard Daily re-focusing on RB aggro as I need to practice it for the Standard Tourney at Millennium tomorrow at noon.
Thanks for reading!
Matt “The Obliterator” Jones
www.mattjonesrules.com