SCG Open NJ Postmortem 5/4/2013

First match was up against a Jund evolve deck running Experiment One, Burning Tree Emissary, Flinthoof Boar, Renegade Krasis, and Falkenrath Aristocrats. Maybe a few more, but I only remember smaller dudes being spammed out, no spells.

My nerves were not under control. I was pretty much on life tilt before even having drawn my hand because I was too stressed out by the tournament. In game one, kept a hand with a couple lands, a Farseek, and an Advent of the Wurm. I missed playing the Farseek on T2 although I don't think that changed my pacing since I had no three drops. I played wurmy as a flash blocker when he swung with E1, BTE, and Falkenrath and it was able to take out the ground troops, but a second Falkenrath the next turn meant that I died in the air.

Game two, I sided in my aggro cards: 3 Feelings of Dread and 2 Supreme Verdicts. Nerves still screwing up my play, I played my lands in the wrong order and had to shock myself on T2 in order to pay G for the Farseek. His T3 was Renegade Krasis which made it and the Experiment grow terrifyingly quickly. I flashed in a Restoration Angel to trade with the Krasis and stop the bleeding, but that was my only creature and the Feelings of Dread only bought a turn or two before I died.

Conclusion: Pretty unimpressed with how Feelings of Dread works out in game. It did buy me two turns, but maybe there's a better options for 2ish mana that can actually help the board state instead of postpone death. Aggro matchups are still really hard when my earliest creature presence is T3.

Round 2 - Four Color Duskmantle [0-1]

I didn't even notice that this guy was 4C until after the games, so either nerves were still in effect or I'm just oblivious. His deck seemed to low curve removal spells and flash deck creatures like Auger of Bolas and Snapcaster Mage.

Game one should have been fine. He played out an early Duskmantle Seer but I had a Detention Sphere in hand and was able to play it before the trigger ever happened. With Duskmantle off the board, my Restoration Angel should have been able to beat him down easily in the air. However, I screwed up and did not Gavony to pump the Resto when he used Mizzium Mortars, so my sole creature died to needless removal (it's possible he had more spells in hand, but I still should have used Gavony). With my Resto dead, I never drew another creature and his two Snapcasters and Auger beat me down eventually. Lame.

My sideboarding choices probably weren't the best. I viewed him as a control matchup since he'd Syncopated one of my Revelations in game one, so I boarded in my four planeswalkers and three counterspells. In retrospect, I might have wanted to thin out some of my high CMC cards and focus on earlier beatdown. In game two he got a Duskmantle to resolve and stay on the board, and that singlehandedly won him the game. I don't remember what I had on the table, but it was beating him down pretty well (got him to 5 before I lost) but I took so much damage from Duskmantle triggers: 5 from Garruk, 3 from Revelations, 2 from Selesyna Charm, and then 4 flying damage from its swing. I also didn't read the card well enough and didn't realize it was flying. Fun fact, you can't attack with Restoration Angel and win.

Conclusion: Fully winnable match had I played better. Game one likely would have gone the other way if I had used Gavony and saved my Angel.

Round 3 - Junk [0-2]

Game one I kept all check lands with no shocks, so them coming in tapped every turn was a hugeeee problem. Not only that, but he ramped faster than I did because of Arbor Elf and Farseek (all while I'm basically a land behind because of checks). By the time I was able to cast Advent for a blocker, he was swinging with Smiter + Healer + Elf with a Smiter in reserve, and used Gavony to pump the Smiter so we traded. That put me at 5 life against a 5/5, 3/3 and 2/2 with the choice of Selesnya Charm or a Resto block. Dead in the water. I think it would have gone better had I predicted the Gavony and blocked the Healer (Wurm would survive) so I'd have two bodies up for the lethal turn, but overall the blame is with the check lands and no ramp.

I sideboarded in the four planeswalkers and three counterspells again, not really sure why. He didn't play like a control matchup (which is when I normally bring in those 7 cards)... Either way, our big opening plays were him playing Obzedat and me playing Garruk Primal Hunter and a Jace Memory Adept. I thought the beast conga line would defend the two planeswalkers long enough for me to use them a few times and force a lot of pressure, but there was an unexpected Abrupt Decay on the beast token so he swung in and killed Jace pretty easily. My Garruk then died because he played Relentless. At that point I was in damage recovery mode since Obzedat kept leeching life, and was trying to plow through my deck to find a Selesnya Charm for him. Ultimately, the Obzedat drains and a Thragtusk from him for +5 life put the differential at more than 10-30 and he played a 10/10 Blood Baron. Lolnope.

Round 4 - Esper [0-3]

This guy loved planeswalkers. I don't know if any came in with his sideboard, but at least in game two I . fought through Sorin, two Jace Architects, one Jace Memory Adept, one Tamiyo, and two Lilianas. Definitely a different way of providing please-don't-kill-me pressure while Esper does their mill thing with Drownyards.

Game one I don't remember too well, and the life totals aren't reminding me. I clearly played out a lot of Thragtusks, but he was also gaining life in weird increments: +4, +7. Maybe there were big Revelations I don't remember. The game ended with him milling me out with Jace and the Drownyards; I scooped at ~15 cards left so he didn't see the absolute entirety of my deck but I was pretty doomed the next turn.

Game two was epic. I boarded in the four planeswalkers and the three counterspells (definitely the right choices), and got a wonderful Garruk out on the board pretty quickly. I still had to fight through his multitude of planeswalkers but the extra 3/3 Beast each turn was enough that he couldn't ever resolve them without me threatening them with damage. He never landed a hit on me the entire game and eventually I beat down his life total through the Sorin lifelink (which easily healed him 10 over the course of the game) and some Revelations. One key play was not ulting Garruk right at 6 even though it was tempting; he miracle Terminus'd right after that turn and my host of worms would have all died and I wouldn't have a Garruk to show for it. Steady +1'ing was the safest play when he had nothing to threaten me with. Ended up winning with about 10 or 15 minutes left on the round clock.

Game three was similarly intense. He lifegained a retarded amount for not being able to run Thragtusk (ended at 43 hp. For Esper. wtf) but again planeswalkers were amazing against him. This time Jace came out and milled him very hard, ultimately to zero. The specifics elude me.

Conclusion: I want to mainboard some planeswalkers. I cannot resist using Jace's mill ten even when it's a questionable idea (more on this later).

Round 5 - Aristocrats [1-3]

Honestly, I don't think this player was very good. He was piloting Aristocrats but would do suspect things like swing with two Lingering Souls tokens and a Cartel Aristocrat but wait until I'd declared Smiter as a blocker to Cartel before giving it protection from white. Sure, his Aristocrat lives, but that's less optimal than just landing the two damage because I cannot block... Overall I felt like I was spotting mistakes in his deck, which shouldn't happen.

Game one he whittled me down to ten with a beatdown of Doomed Travelers, Spirit tokens, and a hasty four damage from Falkenrath Aristocrat. Thankfully, I had Detention Sphere in hand when he played Falkenrath and he never drew another one so one of his hardest to deal with threats was negated pretty easily. At a certain point though, he just hadn't won the game fast enough, and a Thragtusk stampede and Revs for 5 or 6 put me in a very safe place while stealing control back from him. His stuff died. I won.

I blanked on the sideboarding choices and just went with four planeswalkers and three counterspells like my seemingly default decision was by now. In game two I got out an early Jace and he did a pretty good job, milling 31, drawing me a card, and sponging 6 damage. Good returns on 3UU! This time he also got out a Skirsdag High Priest and I opted to just let him him me for a few turns so that he'd never get a morbid trigger off the blocks (thankfully he was missing a sac outlet and was probably cursing his deck). The Lingering Souls and Doomed Traveler beatdown put me at a low of 6, but just like in game one I win the late game. Even though he Slaughter Games my Revelation, Thragtusks got my life back to 21 (that's a lot of Thragtusks!) and Prime Speaker + Restoration Angel drew me a TON of cards. Aristocrats lost.

Round 6 - Junk Homebrew [2-3]

Actually the buddy of the guy who played against me with the Esper deck, this kid was playing a Junk deck built around Varolz (everything has scavenge) and Blood Baron (pro WB flying lifelink). In game one, his gameplan seemed to be to get the regenerating Varolz out and make him bigger and bigger off of his scavenge effects, or if he'd pumped Blood Baron instead to make a massive life differential that way. It didn't work. He got me down to 6 life (why do I keep cutting it this close?) but at this point he was topdecking and I had card draw. Two Thragtusks and a Revelation later (again, I feel like this is how I summarize a lot of games) and I'm at 16 with a full grip and he's topdecking with no threats. I won.

I think I did the planeswalkers and counterspell sideboard again, but it didn't matter much. Game two was pretty fast. He brought in an Obzedat and just slowly leeched me down. I never got the Selesnya Charm I needed to survive and lost.

Game three wasn't close. From life totals it looks like I got an early Smiter out and was actually the first one to go aggressive and his deck doesn't provide a lot in terms of recovery. I smacked him down over about 5 turns (after Smiter was played) and won. Whoop whoop whoop.

Conclusion: My preference for Selesnya over Azorius has reasons; in situations like game two Selesyna Charm feels like the only out (there is very little instant speed removal in Bant). I suppose I could have tried to beat him down through the Obzedat drain and just tried to lifegain it back with Thragtusks, but I don't know when it's best to ignore problems or to try and search for an answer.

Round 7 - Junk Reanimator [3-3]

Game one started badly from the very beginning. My 7 and 6 card hands both had only a single land, so I mulled to five... And still had only a single land. Maybe I should have mulliganed to four? I ended up keeping it since it had some early plays, but stalled out on two lands for a turn or two. Not pleasant. He played out a Centaur Healer and eventually some Thragtusks, lifegaining a TON off of Vault of the Archangel. I never really recovered from his creature and mana and card advantage.

Game two was another loss to Obzedat. I bought in two Garruks (left out the Jace since that just feeds Unburial Rites), two Purify the Graves, and three counterspells. Sadly, game two is probably the worst game of Magic I played all day. The massive mistake of the game was when I cast Surpreme Verdict when I was ahead... At the start of first main I desperately wanted to clear out his impressive board and got it into my head that the right play was Supreme Verdict. Yeah, I'd lose my 6/6 Prime Speaker and a Thragtusk, but I'd already gotten the cards out of PS and would be left with a token. His board would be much more gimped than mine. So I swung all out trying to get in the last bit of damage I could, then Verdicted in second main. Butttttt I'd forgotten to reevaluate after blockers. Most of his threatening things had died in blocking trades and my Thragtusk had already died and made a token. At this point I was actually ahead on board but still wrathed and that honestly pitched the game. Very sad.

Conclusion: I'm bad at Magic.

Round 8 - Omnibor [3-4]

I just about shit my pants when I realized that this was what I was playing against, since I'd had to ask in the car how Borborygmos Enraged actually kills. He played a Chromatic Lantern (or two!) that fixed all his mana problems, milled himself with Drownyard (which I didn't understand at the time), and then on turn six he used Obzedat's Aid to put Omniscience onto the battlefield from the graveyard, went Infinite, and won instantly. It was incredible and I was laughing the whole time.

Hadn't the faintest what to sideboard and went with counter + planeswalkers, ripping out Verdicts and other creature hate. My overall strategy was questionable in game two, but very fun. My starting hand had a Jace Memory Adept, and even though I'd seen Unburial Rites in his graveyard in game one, I decided to play Jace and try milling him to death. The logic was that my deck's typical sweet spot was the lategame, but unless I had a Selesnya Charm to exile Borborygmos before lethal damage resolved, I would lose the lategame (Ed note: this doesn't work, Selesyna wouldn't have saved me). And it wasn't even necessarily lategame - he could either hard cast Omniscience at any point at or after T10, or use Obzedat's Aid again at T6 and win instantly. I wanted an approach that _could_ win the game quickly, and milling was the decision. Pure beatdown seemed ineffective since he'd used Thragtusks in game one and I expected them again this game.

The first two mills went fine. Lots of lands, lots of important combo cards, no Unburial Rites and no creatures. The third mill was not so lucky. I won an Unburial Rites and a Griselbrand. This was about the same time as he hard cast Borborygmos, so next turn I had to deal with Mr. Madface and Griselbrand. Funnily enough, he didn't have enough lands in his hand to kill me with Borborygmos so he used Griselbrand's draw active to try and find more -- and still fell short. The game ended with me dying by two but him sitting at three (!!) cards in deck. Super fun match, by far the most enjoyable of the day. Now 3-5.

Round 9 - Aristocrats [3-5]

Admittedly, I'm getting tired at this point. It's been a long day. The player was also a schmuck, acting super grumpy and just unfun to play against. Game one seemed to be going well, me beating him down around his Lingering Souls and Cartel Aristocrats and getting him to 6. Then out of the blue, he plays Boros Reckoner and Blasphemous Act all in first main and one-shots me from 13. Note to self: don't let your life stay at 13 when against RW. Had I noticed, I could have played a Revelation for two the turn before instead of playing another creature and gotten myself out of danger zone but I wasn't cognizant enough.

Game two, I boarded in counterspells and planeswalkers (my favorite combination so far) but made the big mistake of not keeping mana up for the counterspells. Dissipating the Lingering Souls to prevent four Spirit tokens would have been awesome, but you can't do that if you're still trying to play on your creature curve. I needed to be more patient. My recovery was going to be in the form of Garruk Primal Hunter churning out a swarm of 3/3 Beasts, but he responded with a Sorin and instantly made a 1/0 emblem. With six Lingering Souls tokens at this point, he was able to quickly beat me down with 12 power in the air. Ouch.

Round 10 - Omnibor Again [3-6]

Not only do I hit this ridiculous combo deck once, but twice?! This kid's build wasn't quite as good as eccentric man's. He used Farseeks and Enchant Lands to actually get all his colors legally rather than cheese his mana problems with Chromatic Lantern, and I never saw Unburial Rites or Obzedat's Aid as a way to get high CMC permanents onto the field cheaply. Game one I wasn't able to get damage out fast enough and didn't have the Selesyna Charm for Borborygmos, dying once he got to 10 mana and hardcast Omniscience.

Turn two I brought in my seven staple cards - planeswalkers and counterspells. I got an early Jace out and decided to try the old tactic again and milled him. A lot. I never saw a Rites in the graveyard and ended up winning pretty uncontested by destroying his library. We went to game three as he re-sideboarded.

I got a little paranoid about his second sideboarding and though he was bringing in something to counter the mill strategy. In game three I got Jace out early again, but decided (probably incorrectly) to use his +1 to rebuild my hand rather than try and mill him. I then tried to beat him down with creatures while trying to get to my Selesyna Charm or a counterspell as Borborygmous insurance. He made it up to ten mana and I Dissipated the Omniscience, and ended up killing him eventually. The game took too many turns and was far too close; I really should have taken advantage of his early land drop misses and milled with Jace the second it was on the field.

Overall [4-6]

I ended the day 4-6, which I was reasonably happy with. There were many games (and many whole matches) that could probably have been won had I played better, which is mostly the point of this chronicling. I do like my deck.

Maindeck thoughts:

I don't feel like I'm using Wurmy quite right. He should be a massive threat with the 5 trample damage, but I think I used him more as a beefy blocker than to create offensive pressure. That probably wastes some of his potential. Aside from Thragtusk, he trades pretty well with most things and I'd consider adding more of him (but at the cost of what?). Once the opponent knows you're playing both Restoration Angel and Advent of the Wurm, you can see their hesitation when swinging into you with 4 mana up. It's a good feeling and has dissuaded damage even when I didn't have either.

Sounds like blasphemy, but I wonder if I really need Angel of Serenity. My musings are that if I'm running a spell heavy version of Bant (and I am) then I have alternate tools to get rid of meddling creatures. If I draw it in lategame it rarely feels like it's needed - by the time I'm playing Thragtusks / Prime Speaker / Revelations en masse, Angel is just icing on the cake. However, it is a massive blowout if you hit it right at T6, and lets you get your creatures back at any point in the game (pseudo creature Snapcaster). I'm really not sure, but won't be touching AoS regardless unless I'm really forced to cut creatures.

Sideboard thoughts:

I feel like Psychic Spiral was a pretty dead card. I did bring it in against Esper, drew it, and held onto it, but he never really got the mill train going in game two or three. Either way, it's a singleton card with low probability draw that only helps against one deck. I'm guessing this can be improved.

The counterspells were pretty useful, but I wonder if they were the right counterspells. Syncopate was used against me to great success and that might be a good alternative to the Dissipates to still get the exile for one fewer mana. I don't think I ever drew the Negate and don't remember offhand whether most of my counter targets were creatures or not.

I liked the planeswalkers - Garruk especially - enough I'd like to figure out how to work them into my mainboard. I don't know which two cards I'd cut (or move to sideboard) but he felt massively influential every time he was played, moreso than most other things I can do for five mana.

Purify the Grave was only used once and did prevent a Lingering Souls, but overall I feel like Reanimator is one step ahead on the sideboard metagame and brings out a lot of their renaimation and brings in nuisances like Acidic Slime and Obzedat. Still probably too risky to take out all graveyard hate from the sideboard, not sure where the happy medium is.

Feelings of Dread felt lackluster, but realistically there probably isn't a two drop that will do much more given the boardstate in match 1 game 2. Still not a great feeling to have to hope you can buy enough time with Azorius Charms and Feelings of Dread that you can Verdict at 5 life. Maybe a two drop creature would be better here, like Voice of Resurgence if it's ever affordable.

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