There's No Place Like Home

As much as I enjoy travelling and playing Magic in other cities and provinces, I adore my local community. Playing FNM at Midgard Gaming trumps almost any other venue for me. The only time I enjoyed an FNM more was at GP Montreal, but then a 140-plus person event will do that. Not only is the store large, but the owner (Flemming) is pretty darn awesome along with the rest of his family. He has a consolation draft FNM that fires when enough people have dropped from the Standard one…and in the meantime, he also has multiple PCs, PS3s and 360s set up to play Diablo III or MTGO while you wait. Yo dawg…

Weapon Selection

This week was a tough call for me. I have been having success with Weeping Angels but I really didn’t want to write the same column three weeks in a row. I had intended to throw together some sort of UG deck, either my cohost Will’s Miracle Infect or a fixed version of the Miracle Gro deck I posted last week. For various reasons (time, illness, Diablo…mostly Diablo) that didn’t happen, so I was left with a choice of [card]Primal Surge[/card] and Kamikaze.

For some reason I played Weeping Angels in some practice games before the event, and as usual it crushed people. One particular moment stood out against Mike Whelan. I’ll give you more details on Mike later as I would play him round 2, but this game was a great indication of why Weeping Angels is so strong. I had Stonehorn and Venser on the board at 11 counters as I could not afford to ultimate him and let Mike attack. His board was full of nasty beasties and I was low on life. I played a [card]Drogskol Reaver[/card] which threatened to end the game quickly, but he had a [card]Birds of Paradise[/card] to block the first swing. I drew nothing relevant and he untapped and O-Ringed my Stonehorn. He then got a [card]Craterhoof Behemoth[/card] and attacked Venser for a lot. I had multiple untapped lands and Venser was going to die anyway, but I had a feeling. One of those tingly, Alex-Hayne-iPod-Feeling-of-Dread moments that I was still in this. I blocked the Behemoth with [card]Drogskol Reaver[/card], and after first strike damage…drew the Entreat and cast it for 11. Clutch.

Unfortunately this made it even harder for me to put away the Islands and Plains for the evening. I even keep the deck in my GOOD deck box! [card]Primal Surge[/card] has real trouble with RG and Naya Aggro, which seemed to be everywhere, so I opted for Kamikaze. I had been thinking about playing it for the past few weeks but given my luck with Smitty brews I was reluctant to pull the trigger. I played Mill Blade in the grinders for Canadian Nationals last year and never saw an [card]Archive Trap[/card] all day, and then I played Angry Tokens and ran into infinite Titan decks earlier this year. Third time’s a charm, right?

[deck title=Kamikaze (Standard)]
[Creatures]
4 Gravecrawler
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Blood Artist
3 Porcelain Legionnaire
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Falkenrath Aristocrat
4 Soulcage Fiend
4 Geralf’s Messenger
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
3 Killing Wave
2 Tragic Slip
1 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
[/Spells]
[Land]
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
11 Swamp
[/Land]
[Sideboard]
3 Crypt Creeper
3 Act of Aggression
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Whipflare
2 Manic Vandal
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

How Did I Do?

Twenty players this week for FNM as Diablo continues to impact our turnout. Apparently the other store in town had 8. I love D3 as much as the next guy but it is and always will be second to Magic in my hobby ranking. One good thing was that there were a few first-timers in the store. Some were players returning to the game now that they had a new venue to frequent, which is awesome for the development of the community as it might mean the non-rotating formats get a boost.

Round 1 – Stephen Dillon with RB Vampires

Ahh, a deck to make my cohost Adena proud. I don’t really know Stephen; I have seen him before at an event but never actually played him. He’s a young guy and is part of a group of players who comes in from time to time to play. Game 1 we both mull to 6 and he uses [card]Red Sun’s Zenith[/card] twice in the first couple of turns to exile my [card]Gravecrawler[/card] and [card]Blood Artist[/card]. Never fear, [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card] is here! That card is SUCH a house, especially in this deck where killing off your dudes is perfectly acceptable. Stephen went from 12 to 0 in one turn thanks to the Aristocrat and a couple of [card]Tragic Slip[/card]s on some attacking [card]Stromkirk Captain[/card]s.

Expecting Olivia or [card]Bloodline Keeper[/card] I decided to bring in [card]Act of Aggression[/card] for game 2. The [card]Porcelain Legionnaire[/card]s seemed slightly less than optimal when he’s running Red Sun and so they went out. I’m not a fan of having them in the deck anyway, but the reasoning for having them (block Mirran Crusader and [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] guys) is valid. Unfortunately for Stephen, he would be light on land in this game. As would I, for that matter. It’s funny because I thought that maybe 23 land was too many for a deck that topped out at 4, but apparently it’s about right. My opening hand was threat-light as I had kept a slightly questionable hand with 3 removal spells, but a pair of Messages from Geralf were delivered repeatedly and to the face, with a reply of “You win” coming back from the recipient.

Because I love new players and because we had plenty of time until round 2, I took a look through Stephen’s deck and made some suggestions for changes. He was playing some subpar cards ([card]Slaughter Cry[/card], [card]Rush of Blood[/card], [card]Fiend of the Shadows[/card]) and had mentioned wishing he had Olivia. He was flipping through my binder, found the [card]Markov Blademaster[/card]s, and his eyes widened. I gave him four and suggested he try them. He was pretty surprised but hey, I had extra and it’s not like I was going to play them.

Between rounds Julian asked me if [card]Primal Surge[/card] was better than [card]Genesis Wave[/card] since I had mentioned making the swap to him and a couple of others earlier in the day. Julian (or Julio, as he has been named) is a genuinely nice guy who is really learning fast how to play and build decks at a higher level. I offered to give him a couple of quick games and managed to go off with it pretty quickly. Next to us, the legendary Extra Balls (Chris Stoyles) was playing his latest EDH concoction. Extra Balls is a bro, our games are always epic and I always enjoy playing against him…except in EDH. He’s one of THOSE players who enjoy doing broken things as quickly as possible. His new toy is [card]Exquisite Blood[/card] and [card]Sanguine Bond[/card]. Such fun!

Round 2 – Mike Whelan with Naya Pod featuring Craterhoof Behemoth on percussion

Well here’s a touch of luck. He’s expecting me to be playing Weeping Angels and I know exactly what he’s playing. Seeing as how ALL of my decks are in different sleeves, I am constantly surprised when people can’t tell that the deck I am shuffling now is not the deck I played against them before the tournament. However my touch of good luck is putrefied by a giant helping of bad: in his deck, Mike is running at least one copy of [card]Angel of Glory’s Rise[/card] and [card]Pillar of Flame[/card]. This won’t end well. I realize very quickly that I have to keep him off 7 mana AND off a 6-drop, or make sure I have an Aristocrat on the board when he finds the Angel. I also have to, you know, KILL HIM at some point.

I first met Mike a little while after coming back to competitive Magic about a year ago. He was part of a trio of younger players (as in under 18) along with David and James that we collectively referred to as “The Prodigies” and who seemed to improve drastically on a weekly basis. Mike was the only one without a stupid nickname as James was JamRan and Dave was either Prodigy or GDM depending on who was addressing him. Alas both JamRan and GDM have quit Magic, for Diablo and other reasons, leaving Mike as the Lone Surviving Prodigy, or LSP. He has been advised that he needs to start making puns, calling people monguises and being the best active player on earth.

Game 1 was a perfect example of how Kamikaze can play the grindy attrition style. His dudes were all bigger than mine, so I kept chump blocking the least I needed to in order to stay alive, while using [card]Blood Artist[/card] to gradually kill him. Once I got the advantage on life, [card]Soulcage Fiend[/card]s came down and he started holding back and waiting on [card]Birthing Pod[/card] or Angel. He never found them and I started suiciding guys in. Once I [card]Dismember[/card]ed a Bird with [card]Sword of War and Peace[/card] on it, I was one up.

I know I sided in the [card]Act of Aggression[/card]s and [card]Manic Vandal[/card]s for this game, and I think the [card]Whipflare[/card]s came in too. I took out some of the one-drop Zombies, figuring they were a liability. I managed to somehow beat triple Huntmaster in this game, and was able to take care of his Sigarda by top-decking the hell out of a [card]Phyrexian Metamorph[/card]. Fortunately there was no Angel in either game!

Round 3 vs Julian “Julio” Smith with Naya Ramp

Naya! Naya everywhere! Julio, who showed up in a shirt and tie, felt the need to explain why to everyone who spoke to him before the event that he had come straight from his girlfriend’s graduation. Apart from the obvious lie (a Magic player with a girlfriend, whatEVER) I thought it was hilarious that the poor guy was worried he’d be teased. He looked quite dapper. As he sat down he regaled me with the tale of how he came to be with us that evening: he told his girlfriend he was heading into town (he lives quite a way out in the suburbs) and when she said “It better not be to play Magic” he advised her it most certainly was, and that she would see him later.

I like Julio, so it was a shame that I had to utterly obliterate him. Game 1 I curve out: [card]Gravecrawler[/card] into [card]Blood Artist[/card] into [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card] into [card]Falkenrath Aristocrat[/card] into his face. Because he had played me earlier in the evening I knew he was running Titans, so the Acts came in AGAIN, for the Legionnaires. Game 2 I keep a hand with two Metamorphs and hope he has a better ramp draw…which he does as he drops a [card]Primeval Titan[/card] on turn 4 when I have Messenger and [card]Blood Artist[/card]. Sweet. Copy that, take 6 when you attack, swing back then copy it again. That’s game, boys!

So I’m sitting at 3-0 and 6-0 in games, wondering who else is undefeated. It turns out there’s only one: Ludwig. If I have a nemesis in the local community, he would be said nemesis. He’s a very good player and brewer, but if he was half as good as he seems to think he is, he’d be Platinum for next year. He also seems to have an issue with me…intermittently. We were discussing Modern while waiting for our inevitable matchup and Mike/LSP says, “I love listening to you guys talk about decks, I always learn so much.” That, right there, made my night.

Round 4 vs Shawn Ludwig with RWU Delver

Well, here we go. Ludwig is basically the end boss for me. He might not be the best local player but I always see beating him as an achievement. He is also 3-0 6-0 and neither of us is sure about the matchup. We’re pretty confident we can beat anyone else in the field and with more than one promo on the line, it seemed like an ID wouldn’t be a bad idea. Yes, an ID at FNM. This is how seriously we take our FNMs, because really we don’t get much else in terms of tournament Magic around here. We played a three-game set for fun and I won it, and then went to five games and he won it, so it seems to be a fairly even one. Nothing special or remarkable really happened in these games, so we’ll skip this round.

One thing about Shawn – he almost always has THE pimpest decks in the store. He does a little speculating on foils (as I do) but also spends a lot of his prize credit on picking them up. I like foils, but I don’t generally go out of my way to pick up foil versions of money cards. That’s a bit out of my price range.

Round 5 vs Jon Finn with Naya Aggro

Jon is one of those players who has recently come back to the game, and we’re glad to have him back. He has a fairly expansive collection of older cards and isn’t shy about trading them. He’s also proving to be something of a value trader. There are anecdotes about Jon’s first couple of events back and trying to respond to combat damage on the stack and lifelink triggers, but we’ll save those for another time. This is in no way meant as an insult.

I’d already beaten this deck once but Jon’s just a better player than Mike. His list is tighter too, so this wasn’t going to be easy. I didn’t realize just how not-easy it would be…Jon drew [card]Sword of Feast and Famine[/card] early in both games, and I never saw a [card]Manic Vandal[/card] or Legionnaire. Just like that I had kicked myself out of top 4 and away from a promo. Tilt mode…engage.

Well, maybe not. Ludwig casually tossed the shiny alt-art [card]Acidic Slime[/card] down on the table and said it was mine, since I beat him in the “just for fun” games. I was pretty darn surprised by that but you have to admire that sort of sportsmanship. The members of this community never stop doing things to make me smile and as always I am proud to be a part of it.

What Did I Learn?

My community is still awesome.

Don’t ID in the penultimate round.

Have faith in your deck and your own play skill. Don’t go into any match assuming you will lose; instead go in thinking about what has to happen in order for you to win. I believe the pros call this “playing to your outs.”

[card]Act of Aggression[/card] is really good in Kamikaze. Like crazy good.

[card]Drogskol Reaver[/card] is still one of my favourite cards.

When you have a control deck that can also win out of nowhere, you win games you shouldn’t.

What’s On Deck?

I have a few decks I’m looking at right now, but next week will be [card]Primal Surge[/card] I think. The deck is just too much fun to not give it another run, and I think I have a build that can handle a more aggro-centric metagame. I have something special on tap for the following week, providing I can get hold of a playset of a neglected and forgotten Planeswalker. After that comes GP Vancouver, so I don’t know if I will get to play FNM or what the format will be. The last week of June I imagine some sort of UG Miracle aggro-combo deck is almost a certainty, because I really want to see how that would run before M13 hits.

I’m also interested in accepting challenges from you, the readers. Reasonable challenges that is. Want to see me play a block deck in Standard? Got a list you want me to play? I’m pretty much open to anything. Let’s make this fun!