Sweep the Board

-Greg

So, the planesrazer deck has been doing pretty well, and I've been making some small tweaks and adjustments here and there. Last night, I dropped in a Broodmate to liven things up, and Brenna and I decided to play a few games. Here's how a rather incredible game three ended:

Brenna has 43 life, a Story Circle and two Runed Halos in play, along with a a dozen or so red and/or white mana available. It's late game, and she has yet to cast one of her two Banefires. I'm at nine life, have Broodmate +1 in play that are getting Circled, and can't get all my tokens past her Wall of Reverence and man-lands. I have popped one Elspeth already, making all my guys indestructible The game is, as they say, down to the wire as I enter my turn.

I Wrath of God, leaving me with two Dragons and a handful of soldiers. Next, I activate all my planeswalkers, Savor the Moment, activate planeswalkers again, drop a Realm Razer on a board with all lands tapped. Brenna says "Are you fucking serious?" Pass the turn.

Brenna topdecks what would've been a lethal Banefire. She passes the turn and proceeds to scowl with much ferocity.

Pop Garruk and pump with Elspeth. Swing with Broodmate +1, Razer, 10 soldier tokens for 67 damage. The trash talk commences:

Brenna: Seriously? Are you fucking serious? I had you next turn.
Greg: I think there's a technical term for this. It's AWWWWWWWWWW SNAP!
Brenna: Whatever. What the fuck ever. Realm Razer is cheating.
Greg: Oh yeah? Do you know how to say sore loser in Latin?
Brenna: I think it's go fuck yourself.





I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pee. My wife is the funniest person on the planet, a good magic player, and a truly respectable Talker of the Trash.

Real Razer

-Greg

Last night at FNM I got the chance to play my new deck, which is a slow, hulking machine that spits out planeswalkers and removal long enough to drop a Realm Razer. The mana base is even clunky and unweildly because I was one Reflecting Pool short, and couldn't find any Vivid Creeks in time. Here's the full decklist, but with the Vivid Creeks I added today:

Creatures: (2)
2 x Realm Razer

Spellz: (20)
4x Path to Exile
4x Oblivion Ring
3x Wrath of God
2x Story Circle
2x Bant Charm
2x Naya Charm
2x Savor the Moment
1x Banefire

Planeswalkers: (13)
3x Ajani Vengeant
3x Chandra Nalaar
3x Garruk Wildspeaker
2x Jace Beleren
2x Elspeth, Knight Errant

Lands: (26)
3x Reflecting Pool
2x Treetop Village
3x Exotic Orchard
2x Seaside Citadel
2x Jungle Shrine
4x Vivid Creek
3x Vivid Crag
2x Vivid Meadow
1x Rugged Prairie
1x Wooded Bastion
1x Shivan Reef
2x Island


Sideboard:
4 x Celestial Purge
2 x Swerve
4 x Burrenton Forge-Tender
3x Volcanic Fallout
1x Bant Charm
1x Savor the Moment



Round 1: Some new guy with some sort of B/R Blightning aggro build.
Game 1: I can't get my lands to stabilize, and he hits me with Boggart Ram Gangs until I'm done for. I start to get a little nervous about high speed aggro.
Game 2: I board in an extra Story Circle and four Celestial Purge. I drop Story Circle early, and a Garruk. He tries to Flame Jav Garruk for 4, but I activate Story Circle and he flips out. After Steve assures him I am right, he scoops in anger.
Game 3: He drops creatures and I trade them card for card with Paths and Purges, digging for my Planeswalkers and Realm Razer. I dropped a Garruk on turn four, missed my turn five land drop, but used Garruk's untap ability to drop Realm Razer anyway. Bonus: When I asked this kid beside me how many cards he has in this monstrous deck, he said "I don't know. Less than a hundred." lulzy

Notes: Blightning is an awful deck to play. First round can get interesting, but after sideboarding it's like fist-fighting an malnourished nine year old.

Round: 2-1, Overall 1-0


Round 2: Asland with Monowhite Kithkin
Game 1: Spirit tokens + double Glorious Anthems before I get my fourth land = WTF.
Game 2: Double Wizened Cenn + double Glorious Anthems = WTF. I sit at four lands waiting for Wrath of God, but there's not enough time. Lamesauce. How do you get mana screwed with 26 lands?

Notes: Three things worked against me: 1)Asland got God Draws both rounds, and knows his inside out (because it's all he plays). 2)I should've mulliganed both games, but tried to weather it out. No good. 3)I knew going in that any fast deckthat wasn't susceptible to Celestial Purge was going to pose a huge problem for me. All things considered, I wasn't surprised that Asland swept me pretty easily.

Round 0-2, Overall 1-1


Round 3: Kimball with R/G aggro.
Game 1: Paths to Exile, O-Rings, Wraths of God, then Jace Beleren and Chandra with Savor the Moment. He can't keep creatures on the board, and I Banefire for the win.
Game 2: I side in Celestial Purge, and let copious amounts of Planeswalkers hit the board before I Realm Razer an empty battlefield. He top decks a mountain to burn my Razer after a few swings, but he's still tapped out, giving me a free turn, which I use to Banefire again. He did Pithing Needle my Elspeth when she had eight counters, which was a really cool play.

Notes: I helped build this deck, so I have a lot of confidence in what it can do. Kimball's also a slow and methodical player who doesn't make a lot of mistakes, so it was a really interesting round. What it came down to was my ability to remove creature threats and activate my PW's abilities over and over again with Savor the Moment.

Round 2-0, Overall 2-1


Round 4: Pete with Doran
Round 1: I pathed two Dorans, Wrathed his birds and heirarchs, and dropped Realm Razer. Pete scoops.
Round 2: Held Pete at bay with my ridiculous amounts of removal, and dropped a huge Banefire to win.

Notes: Pete was trying to talk Asland and Tom into playing for first, instead of drawing to tie, being fairly open with his opinion that he was going to walk right into third place. Pfffft, crazy Doran players.

Round 2-0, Overall 3-1.


Third place, ya'll. I opened my packs, and gave the uncommons and commons, plus two of the rares to the kid with the <100 card deck for his Kitchen Finks FNM promo card. Fair trade, good games, and a good night for me.

Brenna's Deck at FNM

-Greg

Last night, I took Brenna's deck to FNM to see how it fairs against the big kids. I don't have the deck with me now, but I'll post the full list later.

Round 1: Adam with Esper.
Game 1: Adam got a Liliana on the board early, and between my removal and his counters, I didn't stand a chance. I had Vengeant and Chandra on the board and more removal in-hand, but I couldn't move fast enough to stop everything. I was surprised to have lost so quickly to what should've been a good matchup for me, but I knew boarding would more than even the odds.
Game 2: I board in four Smash to Smithereens and go on the play. Adam mulligans to five, leaving me with card and tempo advantage that I never lose. Banefire ftw.
Game 3: Same as game 2, I dropped lifelinkers and started steadily climbing while sniping his one and two drops. Who plays a blue deck with no counterspells?
Round: 2-1, Overall 1-0

Round 2: Phil with Turbofog.
Game 1: Not much to say, really. Phil is a good player with this deck, but the patterns you have to play to keep your life up are too obvious. Ping little stuff, drawing out Story Circle ammo, O-ring the Mythos and Howling Mines, and get him within Banefire range before you draw out.
Game 2: I again board in my trusty Smash to Smithereens, along with my hilarious trump card against any mill deck: LICH'S MIRROR. I've hated this card since I saw it, and have been ribbing Brenna about backdrafting it since we got the thing, but I ate my words when she sideboarded it against Turbofog a week ago. It's not the best solution, but it is the funniest solution. Anyway, I blow up his drawer artifacts after he drops them, which ended in awesome card advantage for me. We continue to O-ring O-rings, and I hit him with little things to get him low enough, then I O-ring his Story Circle and blow up Chandra for ten.
Round: 2-0, Overall 2-0

Round 3: CJ with Gay Green
Game1: The tempo of g/w is not to be underestimated, and I'm out fast to Lieges.
Game2: I board in more burn and board sweepers, and things are looking better. I make a misplay, as he attacks with Teeg, and I don't block with Meadowgrain, which makes what would've been a game-winning Banefire just a dead card in my hand. Weaksauce.
Round: 0-, Overall 2-1

Round 4: Sean with 5cc.
Game1: I knew I was toast when I sat down, but I did what I could. Broodmate Dragon with no answers, nothing on the board because of counters.
Game2: Forge-Tender swings for 5 with no response, but as soon as he stabilized his mana base I was a goner.

In conclusion:
This deck performs really well in on-the-ground slugging matches, and Divinity of Pride is a real show-stopper. While it isn't the fastest deck in Standard, the spot and mass removal more than make up for that against RDW, Blightning, or G/W hybrids, allowing you to set up for that big Banefire or double Warhammered Divinity of Pride or Figure of Destiny. I have to say, it's also crazy fun to deal 11 and and gain 33 a turn, which this deck does in almost any long game. Mindstone proved to be a crucial component, accelerating mana and card advantage in different phases. Banefire, as always, is a ridiculous card, as long as you avoid Swerve and Wild Ricochet. At worst, it's a flexible creature remover, and at best it's a win.

5cc is a huge problem, but what deck isn't trounced by it? To be honest, I'm still not even sure how to play against it. Sure, the usual tactic of dropping bombs when they're tapped out is a crucial element, but by the time you get to there, you've already been Cruel Ultimatemed and are staring down the snout of two Broodmate Dragons. I'd like to get up with someone who plays it a lot, and do some extensive testing on how to top it, but those kids are so bored of winning with and playing against it that I hate to even ask. You know what? I'm fucking bored of it, too.

Brenna's New Deckorama

-Greg

Well, doodz, it looks like I'm teh bestorz at drafting, so I won't be blogging about that so much anymore. I went 3-0 Sunday, even though almost all the decks at our table were crazy. So what should I bloggo about? Brenna's type 2 deck, of course!

While building Brenna's deck, I had to keep the following stuff in mind:

1) Netdecking is boring.
2) Brenna likes to gain life almost more than she likes to win.
3) A lifegaining deck needs a pretty long time to build a mana base and defense before plowing in with Loxodon Warhammers and fliers for the win.
4) Banefire and Broodmate Dragon are probably the biggest threats.


Creatures: (20)
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Knight of the Meadowgrain
4 Divinity of Pride
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Wall of Reverence

Lands: (24)
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Ancient Ampitheatre
2 Forbidding Watchtower
7 Plain
3 Mountain

Others: (20)
2 Ajani Goldmane
2 Chandra Nalaar
2 Runed Halo
2 Story Circle
2 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Banefire
4 Path to Exile
4 Oblivion Ring

Sideboard: (15)
3 Incinerate
4 Magma Spray
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Smash to Smithereens

EDH

So, Friday Night Magic this week was probably the worst showing I've had. My biggest mow-down was from Pete's RW Kithkin deck, a matchup I knew was bad for me, but my loss to 5CC and a Glen's freaking dragon deck were pretty awful. It was bad enough, that I'm not even going to blog about it. Instead, I'm going to talk tonight about a much more awesome format:

ELDER DRAGON HIGHLANDER

SLIVERS

I built Brenna a Sliver EDH deck for her birthday, and got the chance to pilot it this weekend. When you're looking through this, keep a couple of things in mind: 1) It was built on a pretty strict budget, and my cardpool was pretty limited. Even so, I wanted no creatures other than Slivers, and I wanted to include cards that Brenna was fond of. 2) I prefer to pick cards that are more interesting and fun to play than bombs, especially in casual formats like EDH. 3) Slivers are fucking awesome. Here's the build:
(note: I'll link the other cards later...)

General:
Sliver Queen

Slivers: (43)
Sliver Overlord
Sliver Legion
Metallic Sliver
Venser's Sliver
Sidewinder Sliver
Quilled Sliver
Talon Sliver
Sinew Sliver
Poultice Sliver
Essence Sliver
Ward Sliver
Winged Sliver
Mnemonic Sliver
Shadow Sliver
Mesmeric Sliver
Shifting Sliver
Synapse Sliver
Psionic Sliver
Mindlash Sliver
Frenzy Sliver
Clot Sliver
Heart Sliver
Homing Sliver
Sedge Sliver
Bonesplitter Sliver
Fury Sliver
Virulent Sliver
Quick Sliver
Muscle Sliver
Spinneret Sliver
Gemhide Sliver
Root Sliver
Fungus Sliver
Might Sliver
Brood Sliver
Crystalline Sliver
Opaline Sliver
Necrotic Sliver
Darkheart Sliver
Ghostflame Sliver
Acidic Sliver
Harmonic Sliver



Spells: (19)
Land Tax
Enlightened Tutors
Path to Exile
Shared Triumph
Harsh Mercy
Armageddon
Akroma's Vengeance
Think Twice
Deep Analysis
Concentrate
Braingeyser
Patriarch's Bidding
Banefire
Insurrection
Sylvan Scrying
Reap and Sow
All Sun's Dawn
Violent Ultimatum
Cruel Ultimatum


Artifacts: (6)
Lotus Petal
Skullclamp
Armillary Sphere
Sword of Fire and Ice
Gilded Lotus
Sigil of Distinction

Lands:(31)
Bloodstained Mire
Flooded Strand
Fetid Heath
Underground River
Naya Panorama
Bant Panorama
Esper Panorama
Reliquary Tower
Unstable Frontier
Arcane Sanctum
Jungle Shrine
Seaside Citadel
Rupture Spire
Grand Coliseum
Henge of Ramos
Mirrodin's Core
Pillar of the Paruns
Metor Crater
Ancient Ziggurat
Forbidden Orchard
Exotic Orchard
2 Plains
2 Islands
2 Swamps
2 Mountains
2 Forests


With just your general, the Queen, and Sliver Legion in play, you're almost an unstoppable force. As long as you can avoid Wrath and Terror effects, that is. :)

omgblightning

Have you guys seen the new Player's Rewards card? It's Blightning, and it looks awesome. Here's a scan I stole from MTG Realm:



These things look awesome, and I'll definitely be chasing after a set of four. Also hitting the secondary market soon are two other popular cards:


The art for the new Path is a little ugly, so I think I'll keep playing the originals. :/

Unsanctioned Draft

-Greg

Last night, nine of us got together at Dave's for a little non-shop draft. I got to pick our packs, since I was the new guy, and I decided to go all Conflux. There was some grumbling, of course, until people started to see the cards we were pulling. Two Knights of the Reliquary, a Banefire, Mirror Sigiled Sergeant, Nyxathid, Paths to Exile, Volcanic Fallouts, and TWO, count 'em, TWO Noble Heirarchs. There was enough on the board that almost everyone got a first pick card at the end of the night.

teh draftorz

First pack, I cracked a Path to Exile, and got a warm and fuzzy feeling about where the night was headed. Red and white removal is pouring into my hand, as well as the unstoppable Dragonsoul Knight, this beautiful bastard, and Captain Vigilance. While I was busy scanning for 5 or greaters, I managed to pull a full set of Exploding Borders, a Volcanic Fallout, a Fiery Fall, and three Sylvan Bounties for the landcycling. Green ended up being the perfect splash, too, because that Outlander saved me more than a few times.

Round 1
First pairing was with Tom, who'd drafted mostly blue. Game one ended quickly, as I couldn't get anything good on the board, and he beat me mercilessly with Brackwater unearth and birds. Game 2 was totally opposite, with me drawing answers and threats while he sat at two lands. Game 3 went my way, too, thanks to all the removal I'd grabbed.
2-1

Round2
I got paired up with Steve this time, the owner of Lich's Lair Games, where we usually play on Sundays. Steve's an overly technical player, which I believe worked to my advantage. My land cycling and mana fixing proved to be a great plan, as I continued to drop Minotaurs and my big greenies. I hit domain both games and started blasting with Exploding Borders and Dragonsoul Knight, and it was all over. At one point, I had to ditch my Kaleidostone to scrounge up a blue for Quenchable Fire, and had just enough to play my Sylvan Bounty, gaining eight instead of losing three.
2-0

Round3
Last match was against CJ, as we were the only two undefeated at this point. We drew the game to tie first, and eached grabbed one of the Noble Heirarchs. I'm pretty sure I could've slaughtered him, and if I didn't already have like 6 Banefires I might've given it a go.
Draw.

Overall: 2-0-1, and the loot was great!