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.