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Cos I had a blast and I may as well type one of these up since people asked me to last time I top 4'd.
I played Grixis Control, swapping out all my Thoughtflares for Desperate Ravings because I realised how ridiculously different the cards are and how Ravings is just infinitely better.
So, the first thing I did when I arrived was trade one of my Blood Crypts for a Steam Vents. Their value is roughly the same and I needed another blue source, so I was fine with it. I also had to borrow a Think Twice because I can't for the life of me find my 4th one. So I definitely need to find that before the next FNM, since I'm actually back to positive records.
At this point there still wasn't many people there bar the 3 who arrived before me, so we helped one of them build his deck. Mostly just for fun stuff. Just for fun as in he was playing an Undead Alchemist deck and we were debating over the inclusion of Lazav, Mirko Vosk and/or Progenitor Mimic. His deck was... well, loose is a good word to describe it.
So eventually people show up and apparently everyone and their mum had work, so we only had 14 participants for 4 rounds of swiss and a cut to top 4. Fortunately, after seeing who was there and generally knowing who was playing what, the meta was far from weak, with a bunch of junk reanimator, a few Esper control players, one 'cats player, one Naya Blitz player, one Domri Naya player and then me with Grixis Control.
Round one started after a short while, and I was actually paired against the guy who's deck we'd just helped with. Knowing he had the ability to mill me quite a bit I had to try to play conservatively and aggressively at the same time. fortunately, AEtherling is impossible to deal with. So is stealing his guys over and over again with Nicol Bolas, so I basically took 2 games like that. I did have an issue when he resolved a Liliana but he made what I felt was a miss-play by using it to make me sac my Augur putting her in Burn range, so the threat was gone. I should note in game 1 I managed to tick up a Jace and defend it without dropping below 6 cards in hand and then ultimated it into grabbing my Nicol Bolas and his Vraska. Considering it's the only time I've ever ultimated Jace, it felt good.
Matches 1-0 Games 2-0
Round 2 was against the Grixis "mirror match" and I use that term loosely since the only similarities were really some of the mana base (he was heavy black), Nicol Bolas and Jace. He was very much more focused on milling, and I was basically playing an aggressive form of control. I knew I could essentially "goldfish" better than him for most of the game since I had stronger card draw, and overall more reliable finishers. He stuck a Drownyard down early in game 1, but as soon as I got to 8 mana I just went the AEtherling route and it went horribly downhill for him from there. Game 2, it came down to the wire. He Slaughter Games'd my AEtherlings, leaving me with only Nicol Bolas and Tamiyo left as real win conditions (Jace is also feasible since it gets my or his Nicol Bolas). Eventually, I had Bolas at 11 mana and ready to ultimate, and he baited out some counter magic with a Duress and then tried to Dreadbore my Nicol Bolas. Apparently I'm a lucky son of a b**** since a Desperate Ravings + Flashing it back gave me Dissipate without discarding it and I proceeded to win.
Matches 2-0 Games 4-0
Round 3 was against Junk reanimator. I originally felt like I was at a bad position for this matchup since I've barely tested the matchup and was more used to how Esper faired against it. Apparently, I was definitely mistaken. It's not hard to hold the game off until I'm at 8-ish mana (later 11, this is relevant) so Nicol Bolas can start taking over the game. It was a nightmare of a time trying to keep Bolas alive while stealing his guys and nuking his Caverns, and I didn't get the chance to ultimate him in the first game. However, the 11 mana is relevant because it got me to the point of being able to cast Olivia with ping+steal mana up, which is handy with Bolas out and an AoS loop going. Eventually, I just managed to overwhelm him with this silly song and dance and he scooped. At this point, there was only 12 minutes left on the round, so I did the logical thing and sided AEtherlings out, realising I could easily stall the game to a draw. Some well timed removal and counterspells kept the game slow so I could hit my mana when I needed it. Eventually coming down to Nicol Bolas ultimating leaving him with 2 lands and 2 mana dorks in play. I cast 2 Augurs the same turn, the 2nd one found Crypt Incursion, which took me from 2 life to 29 life. At this point we're roughly around time being called, and even though I was so far ahead, I couldn't actually kill him in time and game 2 was a draw, so I won overall.
Matches 3-0 Games 5-0-1 (W-L-D)
Round 4 would have been against another Junk Reanimator deck but after that round I wanted a break and so did he. I was top of swiss standings, so it was great for his tiebreakers to ID with me, so we did that.
Matches 3-0-1 Games 5-0-1 (W-L-D)
So eventually the cut to top 4 happens and I find out I'm against my friend who's playing Domri Naya, which is a nice change since I've been playing against slow decks all day. Unfortunately, at some point me having 3 hours of sleep and being awake since half 3 in the morning began to take effect and I made some really awful missplays in this match. One of them involved Syncopating an overloaded Mortars for 1 when he had BTE mana still floating. One involved forgetting how Evolve triggers worked and almost giving him an extra one for free, essentially. The last involved Lighthousing when I didn't need to into a lethal Boros Charm which I could have otherwise Syncopated. The first 2 mistakes came up in game one, and they ultimately cost me the game by a landslide. Without making those mistakes I most likely had the game since I had all the removal I needed for his creatures. Game 2 I managed to get back on my game and just destroyed him with an Olivia after clearing the board of all creatures. Olivia kept him from casting any of his creatures and soon enough won me the game although I did almost play right into a Selesnya Charm and managed to stop myself from doing so by holding off a turn for Dissipate mana. In game 3, I could have quite easily won. I had a Tamiyo in play, ticking up, on an empty board. He was bricking on plays and his only out at this point was a Thundermaw or Boros Charm. At the end of one of his turns, I made the mistake of Lighthousing and in response he cast the Charm. I Syncopated for 4 into his 5 open mana and as soon as he tapped them I had no choice but to extent the hand. I felt very stupid in making the mistake, but it's a mistake I now won't make again and hopefully next time I'll be more awake.
Matches 3-1-1 Games 6-2-1 (W-L-D)
Overall, I'd say that I'm incredibly pleased with how my deck performed and am satisfied with my playing ability for the most part. Just need to tighten up my play in certain points. Playing control seriously is the best way to do this, I believe, since it gives you the most different angles to improve on.
Oh and the promo Melek looks fantastic, just a shame I couldn't win the mat.
Sorry if this isn't as good as what I'd normally type up. I'm f****** tired, but I don't have much else better to do with my time at the moment.
I played Grixis Control, swapping out all my Thoughtflares for Desperate Ravings because I realised how ridiculously different the cards are and how Ravings is just infinitely better.
- Decklist:
- 4 Augur of Bolas
1 Olivia Voldaren
2 AEtherling
4 Think Twice
4 Desperate Ravings
3 Turn // Burn
2 Far // Away
2 Dissipate
2 Syncopate
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Dreadbore
2 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4 Watery Grave
3 Steam Vents
3 Blood Crypt
4 Sulfur Falls
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Desolate Lighthouse
Sideboard:
2 Witchbane Orb
2 Negate
1 Dispel
1 Counterflux
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Rolling Temblor
2 Evil Twin
2 Slaughter Games
1 Crypt Incursion
As a note, the Rolling Temblors in the sideboard were purely a respect paid to Naya Blitz, since the deck can beat through Nighthawks scarily often, while Temblor does help stabilise against almost all of their draws. Nighthawks were mostly because I knew one of my friends was playing Domri Naya and he's a great player so I expected to play him eventually.
Any questions about the deck; Ask away!
So, the first thing I did when I arrived was trade one of my Blood Crypts for a Steam Vents. Their value is roughly the same and I needed another blue source, so I was fine with it. I also had to borrow a Think Twice because I can't for the life of me find my 4th one. So I definitely need to find that before the next FNM, since I'm actually back to positive records.
At this point there still wasn't many people there bar the 3 who arrived before me, so we helped one of them build his deck. Mostly just for fun stuff. Just for fun as in he was playing an Undead Alchemist deck and we were debating over the inclusion of Lazav, Mirko Vosk and/or Progenitor Mimic. His deck was... well, loose is a good word to describe it.
So eventually people show up and apparently everyone and their mum had work, so we only had 14 participants for 4 rounds of swiss and a cut to top 4. Fortunately, after seeing who was there and generally knowing who was playing what, the meta was far from weak, with a bunch of junk reanimator, a few Esper control players, one 'cats player, one Naya Blitz player, one Domri Naya player and then me with Grixis Control.
Round one started after a short while, and I was actually paired against the guy who's deck we'd just helped with. Knowing he had the ability to mill me quite a bit I had to try to play conservatively and aggressively at the same time. fortunately, AEtherling is impossible to deal with. So is stealing his guys over and over again with Nicol Bolas, so I basically took 2 games like that. I did have an issue when he resolved a Liliana but he made what I felt was a miss-play by using it to make me sac my Augur putting her in Burn range, so the threat was gone. I should note in game 1 I managed to tick up a Jace and defend it without dropping below 6 cards in hand and then ultimated it into grabbing my Nicol Bolas and his Vraska. Considering it's the only time I've ever ultimated Jace, it felt good.
Matches 1-0 Games 2-0
Round 2 was against the Grixis "mirror match" and I use that term loosely since the only similarities were really some of the mana base (he was heavy black), Nicol Bolas and Jace. He was very much more focused on milling, and I was basically playing an aggressive form of control. I knew I could essentially "goldfish" better than him for most of the game since I had stronger card draw, and overall more reliable finishers. He stuck a Drownyard down early in game 1, but as soon as I got to 8 mana I just went the AEtherling route and it went horribly downhill for him from there. Game 2, it came down to the wire. He Slaughter Games'd my AEtherlings, leaving me with only Nicol Bolas and Tamiyo left as real win conditions (Jace is also feasible since it gets my or his Nicol Bolas). Eventually, I had Bolas at 11 mana and ready to ultimate, and he baited out some counter magic with a Duress and then tried to Dreadbore my Nicol Bolas. Apparently I'm a lucky son of a b**** since a Desperate Ravings + Flashing it back gave me Dissipate without discarding it and I proceeded to win.
Matches 2-0 Games 4-0
Round 3 was against Junk reanimator. I originally felt like I was at a bad position for this matchup since I've barely tested the matchup and was more used to how Esper faired against it. Apparently, I was definitely mistaken. It's not hard to hold the game off until I'm at 8-ish mana (later 11, this is relevant) so Nicol Bolas can start taking over the game. It was a nightmare of a time trying to keep Bolas alive while stealing his guys and nuking his Caverns, and I didn't get the chance to ultimate him in the first game. However, the 11 mana is relevant because it got me to the point of being able to cast Olivia with ping+steal mana up, which is handy with Bolas out and an AoS loop going. Eventually, I just managed to overwhelm him with this silly song and dance and he scooped. At this point, there was only 12 minutes left on the round, so I did the logical thing and sided AEtherlings out, realising I could easily stall the game to a draw. Some well timed removal and counterspells kept the game slow so I could hit my mana when I needed it. Eventually coming down to Nicol Bolas ultimating leaving him with 2 lands and 2 mana dorks in play. I cast 2 Augurs the same turn, the 2nd one found Crypt Incursion, which took me from 2 life to 29 life. At this point we're roughly around time being called, and even though I was so far ahead, I couldn't actually kill him in time and game 2 was a draw, so I won overall.
Matches 3-0 Games 5-0-1 (W-L-D)
Round 4 would have been against another Junk Reanimator deck but after that round I wanted a break and so did he. I was top of swiss standings, so it was great for his tiebreakers to ID with me, so we did that.
Matches 3-0-1 Games 5-0-1 (W-L-D)
So eventually the cut to top 4 happens and I find out I'm against my friend who's playing Domri Naya, which is a nice change since I've been playing against slow decks all day. Unfortunately, at some point me having 3 hours of sleep and being awake since half 3 in the morning began to take effect and I made some really awful missplays in this match. One of them involved Syncopating an overloaded Mortars for 1 when he had BTE mana still floating. One involved forgetting how Evolve triggers worked and almost giving him an extra one for free, essentially. The last involved Lighthousing when I didn't need to into a lethal Boros Charm which I could have otherwise Syncopated. The first 2 mistakes came up in game one, and they ultimately cost me the game by a landslide. Without making those mistakes I most likely had the game since I had all the removal I needed for his creatures. Game 2 I managed to get back on my game and just destroyed him with an Olivia after clearing the board of all creatures. Olivia kept him from casting any of his creatures and soon enough won me the game although I did almost play right into a Selesnya Charm and managed to stop myself from doing so by holding off a turn for Dissipate mana. In game 3, I could have quite easily won. I had a Tamiyo in play, ticking up, on an empty board. He was bricking on plays and his only out at this point was a Thundermaw or Boros Charm. At the end of one of his turns, I made the mistake of Lighthousing and in response he cast the Charm. I Syncopated for 4 into his 5 open mana and as soon as he tapped them I had no choice but to extent the hand. I felt very stupid in making the mistake, but it's a mistake I now won't make again and hopefully next time I'll be more awake.
Matches 3-1-1 Games 6-2-1 (W-L-D)
Overall, I'd say that I'm incredibly pleased with how my deck performed and am satisfied with my playing ability for the most part. Just need to tighten up my play in certain points. Playing control seriously is the best way to do this, I believe, since it gives you the most different angles to improve on.
Oh and the promo Melek looks fantastic, just a shame I couldn't win the mat.
Sorry if this isn't as good as what I'd normally type up. I'm f****** tired, but I don't have much else better to do with my time at the moment.
