Billings MT 7252014 FNM Mono Red Party People 4-0 and Upcoming MTG Events

I took a vacation from magic more specifically standard because pre-M15 I just found the format to be pretty stale but I decided to give it a shot last night as I was also wanting to poach people for a trip to the Modern IQ in Great Falls, which was no bueno :(. It didn't occured to me until I uploaded my list I'm not playing anything out of M15 other than lands. That's kind of a shame, but the beauty of the last 3 months of a standard format is at least we have the lands to play whatever we want. Now that M15 is out I'm hoping people will start stretching their legs. I'm wrapping my head around a Jund aggro list I'll try and add a primer for at the end of this post. 

Watching the SCG open this weekend in KC it's not too interesting but it's nice to see Genesis Hydra getting the love I was predicting. It's currently sitting at a buck or two on TCG. It could just be a cheap staple like Mistcutter Hydra  but I don't think it'd hurt you to grab a set now if you can skip hardee's just this once in case it goes up later. 

I 4-0'd last night with the following list.

As a deck builder I was recently inspired by a guy who took a G/W conversion deck to a top 8 scg open finish a few months ago. If I can find the deck I'll post it but the basic concept was a G/W aggro deck in the main and then a bunch of enchantments in the sideboard like ethereal armor and unflinching courage.

The MTG meta is now heavily affected by the availability of decklists online. It's funny they even mentioned today about how a protour 12 years ago was group deck testing and skill based where as today you don't need a dedicated testing group the internet does it for you. The reason I bring this up is because after game 1 in a competitive environment an opponent can make a general assessment of what archetype you're playing and sideboard accordingly for the rest of the match. So what now? well you just sideboard as best you can to respond or you can try and fake them out making no changes other than replacing dead cards. Well I say fuck that...

 Fuck off with your sofa units and strine green stripe patterns, I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may. - Tyler Durden

I already posted about my top 8 at states with Naya Transformers but here's the list if you're interested. Frankly I've just gotten tired of sideboarding in one or two cards and praying you draw your one answer to Obzedat, but at the same time you can't brew silliness and expect to win consistently. So why not just throw your opponent for a loop? Use your sideboard as a tilt mechanic.

I did really well with Mono-red devotion at a GP in Louisville ky and it's always held a soft spot in my cackles but it's a little dated. Since you don't really care about your life total the first change I made was to bring in the R/W ouchie lands and add boros charm to combat control. Then I thought about Tom Ross's success with boss sligh. I decided I wanted to be somewhere inbetween. I kept the Eidolon of great revel in the side board because after game 1 I don't want them to sideboard around it. the Legion Loyalist is in the sideboard so I can bring him in against any exceptionally slow deck or supreme verdict decks.

Round 1: This match was uneventful. 2-0 versus a casual B/U deck.

Round 2: A local guy named Jeremy playing Bant Mid-range. Game 1 he quickly moved out of reach with lifegain triggers and Courser of kruphix before I could get the train out of the gates. My opener had two lands 3 chanda's pheonix a lightning strike and Fanatic of mogis. the two problems with this hand is that it's incredibly slow in the dark and mono-red wants an explosive game 1 because most opponents playing anything but aggro will just keep any playable hand in the dark. Unfortunately my 6 was unplayable and even my 5 was garbage. Game 2 I was able to get an eidolon out early and he kept a hand with 2 mana confluence and ended up killing himself trying to catch up with me. Game 3 he managed to get walls up and assumed I was playing boss sligh. I allowed him to play out board control while I added devotion. Once he fell down to 10 I just slammed Fanatic for the kill. 2-1 me.

Round 3: Greg playing Junk midrange with a life gain tilt. Game 1 I was able to whittle him down to near death but at the same time he curved out into 4 courser of kruphix. Each time I was almost in kill range he pulled just out of reach gaining life off lands. Game 2 I ran him over with legion loyalist before he could ever get anything online. Game 3 I got him in a headlock with eidolon into madcap skills making it impossible for him to even begin to put anything on the board.

Round 4: Sump playing Slivers 2-0. His curve was ok but without any kind of protection slivers tends to be a glass canon. Both games I was able to remove his key slivers with magma jet and lightning strike while keeping consistent pressure on. I actually like slivers a lot and I think it's capable of being a competitive deck, but I think that people look at it wrong. People seem to assume that slivers exist in a vaccum and that it should for just contain slivers and lands for the most part. I don't really agree with this. Junk Midrange doesn't just contain Archangel of thune and courser of kruphix. It contains abrupt decay and other tools. Decks aren't either tool boxes or combo decks. There's room for both. I mean part of the combo literally is your ability to play up to 5 colors consistently so why is selesnya charm and boros charm not in the deck? I don't know, when I have some time to dedicate to it I'll try and present my impression of what a modern and standard slivers deck should look like.

(I want to clarify I tied with michael sump for 1st. Regardless of doing that I try to wager cards or what not with my fellow winner in an actual match so that we both play our best and I can post a clean report at the end of the night. I defeated michael after the event in a side game.)

Montana events

GP Trial Salt Lake City at Know Dice in Great Falls  Today 7/27/2014
Today at 12:00pm
Know Dice
512 Central Ave, Great Falls, Montana 59401
$25 entry fee. 2 packs per player in the prize fund! Sealed format. Winner also gets 2 byes at GP Salt Lake City!!

TCG Player Modern States - Missoula
When
Saturday, Aug 2, 2014
Where
Ruby's Inn & Convention Center, North Reserve Street, Missoula, MT, United States
Description
Entry: $25
Registration from 9:00 - 9:45
$13, 8-man, Win-a-Box (Standard, Modern, Legacy) side events!!!!

Prizes:
1st Place: TCGplayer State Champion Playmat + 50 Points + 2 Author Tokens
2nd Place: TCGplayer State Top 8 Competitor Playmat + 20 Points + 2 Author Tokens
3rd/4th Place: TCGplayer State Top 8 Competitor Playmat + 10 Points + 2 Author Tokens
5th-8th Place:TCGplayer State Top 8 Competitor Playmat + 5 Points + 2 Author Tokens
9th-16th Place: 2 Points + 2 Author Tokens
Format: Modern

STARCITY GAMES STANDARD IQ TOURNAMENT

Saturday, August 9at 10:00am
KAB Sports Cards & Collectables
2059 Broadwater Ave Suite C, Billings, Montana 59102
SATURDAY AUGUST 9TH. $25 ENTRY FEE
REGISTRATION AT 10AM. TOURNAMENT STARTS AT 11AM.

Bonus Deck Jund Aggro Standard

Pretty self-explanatory, beat the shit out of them tell the doctors you fell down some stairs. Wasteland viper and deathrite shaman belong in here somewhere. I'm not sure where yet. You're probably wondering why mutavaults are in there. If you want you can take Exava out as well as some lands and lower your curve to out aggro the aggro cause aggro.

aaand I'm out.

SCG Modern Open Trial 1st place 5-1-1 7/19 @ KAB + W/r Soldiers a standard deck

"Nathan Sary is a terrible magic player" - Cody Trafton

I didn't want to write about this because I feel like a bit of a scumbag. Somebody mentioned the Modern Open Trial @ KAB so I literally just asked around if I could borrow a deck and Shawn had affinity. I don't actually know that much about modern. I understand what you can and can't play...mostly. I don't know how a lot of decks work. I'm sitting here watching Channel Fireball explain Melira Pod because despite Dan Porisch trying to explain it to me 3 times I still don't really get it. I feel like a jerk because I walked in with someone elses deck not knowing how to play and more or less dominated the tournament. Worse I had to constantly apologize as I'm doing the math out loud in my best sling blade impression and swinging for 7 and 14 on turn 2 and 3 mmmm potaters. I think the best thing to do is elaborate on my record so I can both un-brag and maybe provide some perspective on the matches. Also I said I'd write this win or lose so I'm writing it.

Affinity by Shawn Anderson

I actually played a couple practice games with the deck and still had no idea how it worked. It wasn't until my 6 match that I had a firm idea of what I was supposed to do. I can say in hindsight I'm pretty in love with this deck. I looked up a couple decks as I was filling out my deck list for this and I have to say shawn's version is, at least in my opinion, preferable over any other I've seen.

Magic is partially up to chance. Less so as you work your way down the formats. Limited is comically random, block/standard you have average control of, modern you have a larger control of depending on the deck archetype and most  legacy archetypes have so many "dig" and land thinning affects you have near complete control of your draws. In all formats excluding legacy there's two schools of thought. Consistency vs Individual Threat.

Consistency is a style of deck building in which you want very specific cards in your opening hand and your first 4 draw step. After that the game is likely over, either you've won or you've lost. These decks contain mostly 4 of's. 3 to 4 of each land and spell type. Look at this mono red deck as an example.

Individual Threat is a style of  deck  building in which you prefer to carry your early draws with random removal, mana ramp effects and then play a turn 3, 4 or 5 board state affecting card like Polukranos, World Eater.

When I build decks I prefer an approach like Shawn's affinity. I want X opening hand. That's what this deck does. It's opening is incredibly consistent but if your opponent can stall out past turn 4 it's difficult to keep it from falling apart.

Games Report 

"You're the worst" - Jason Roberts

$25 entry is pretty backbreaking. I almost turned around and walked out. If it was standard maybe but my skill set is non-existent when it comes to legacy and modern let alone with a deck I've never played. 

• Round 1 vs Tarmo Twin - Jason beat me cleanly 2-0 with what I'm pretty sure was Tarmo Twin or Rug Twin. I actually was made aware many times he likes splintertwin and tarmagyof, at the time I was so unhinged by my lack of experience with my deck it did not occur to me to even try to play around it. Game 1 I kept a hand with lands in it and put out creatures. He killed me with twin on 4, game 2 I brought in Bloodmoon because he had a lot of non-basics? and torpor orb because someone told me you bring that in for twin. Again I just tried to put out creatures. Jason waited for my board to fill up and used Engineered Explosives, wiped my board and killed me with twin. 0-2

• Round 2 vs Melira Pod - I defeated Dan Porisch 2-0. At this point I had a firm understanding that My hand required 1 and 0 creatures and that I just needed to dump my hand. The first game dan was unable to build a board that could block or combat my aggressive attacking. game two I was able to galvanic blast his qasali pridemage and he was unable to hit the lands required to combo before my own went off. I brought in spellskite but never saw it.

*note at this point I'm unsure in what order my next match ups were.

• Round 3 vs Slivers - I played a guy named loren? He doesn't play a lot of standard but I've seen him around. Now I kind of got the cranial plating card and utilizing the Vault scourge combo. Game 1 he defeated me squarely with a sliver wall, I really didn't have anything to bring in game 2. I pulled a combat trick I had to call a judge on. He alpha struck with double-strike/life link. I blocked with an invulnerable Etched champion then used spring-leaf drum to tap it and glimmervoid for black, attached cranial plating and killed his Bone-scythe sliver. After that I was easily able to overwhelm him with Steel Overseer, Vault scourge and Cranial plating. Game 3 he held firmer ground however he lost tracked of my life total and swung out for 7 flying, I was actually at 10. I swung back and killed him. In my defense I'd gained 3 life from a vault scourge attack the previous turn which I'd specifically announced and moved up my die. He was distracted by a mana problem he was having getting sliver hivelord out and forgot.

• Round 4 vs Splinter-twin  - I defeated Kalvin playing splintertwin 2-0. Game one I had a fiendish hand drawing 3 galvanic blast and killing his Deceiver Exarch no less than 3 times. Game two he tore my board apart with Ancient Grudge 4 times, unfortunately he accidentally forgot to exile his final grudge flashback and was unable to come up with an answer to my 6/6 etched champion which walked right past a batterskull.

• Round 5 vs Greg - I drew with Greg because I didn't want him to touch me or my cards. I assume he was playing something stupid.

"Nathan Sary how long have you been playing magic?" - Cody Trafton

• Top 8 Round 1 vs Jund - vs Fellipe game one I just threw my hand on the table. 0 cost creatures, land, spring leaf drum etc etc. It's a terrible match up game one because Jund is geared towards removing individual threats and not a wave of pestermites. Game two I played slightly slower and he was able to kill or ancient grudge away some of my artifacts but I believe he got stuck on lands while I built up a board and crushed his. 

*Top 4 we split for the prize money and mats. Loren and Jason dropped. I played Kris Brester for the Monthly passes and SCG Open Entry Pass. Those don't come cheap and I plan to use them. 

• Finals vs Jund - I dumped most of my hand and ran him over with pestermites and vault scourges in a couple turns. Game 2 I swung on turn 3 with 2 cranial platings for 14 after swinging for 7 the previous turn. *censored.

I won 2-0. 

Bonus Deck Tech: W/r Soldiers standard

 I gotta leave at 6 am for Riverton Wy so sorry I gotta make this quick. This deck is inspired by a local casual player named Lion who asked me to edit his mono-white devotion soldier deck. His revolves around Ajani's Pridemate and life gain triggers. I suggest you ask him about it if you see him. The idea here is to take weenie update it with Preeminent Captain as well as boros charm to combat control. The hot little combo I'm sure I'm not a special original snowflake on is that of attacking with Captain and putting Azorius Arrester in play to break your opponents back. The combo sadly does not work with battalion however which really sucks. However I still think a potentially free fire-fist striker is worth it. With imposing sovereign, arrester, and Fire-fist striker you should have no problem bending mid-range decks over backwards. You have brave the elements, boros charm and I'm trying on the chariot in the sideboard versus control. The deck is strictly weak against boss sligh and mono aggro. I'm still thinking about how to deal with it without hurting the deck synergy. I've added warleader's helix as a trial. I'm trying two convoke cards - Stoke the Flames and Devouring Light. Devouring Light may go in the main deck. I suspect it's going to be a breakout card in weenie decks mainly because you'll never know when I'm actually tapped out.

I know this post is missing a lot of links and probably has tons of errors. fuck off
-Piscian

M15 Midnight Pre-release sealed 1st place of 70 people! 8-1-1 B/G Demons

So I won my first pre-release. I came pretty close in gatecrash but this is the first time I was able to take it all the way thanks to honestly an amazing sealed pool and a little luck. In my defense though I did have to slog through 7 rounds and a top 8. The funny thing is I haven't played MTG in a month. I just got kind of bored and frustrated with the format. Not top 8'ing the GP trial last month while on the same day with the same deck a guy won the SCG Open pretty much put a bullet in my heart for the game.

 I'd had a long day of work, I didn't get any sleep the night before and had been pretty set on playing CS:GO until I crashed. Then around 11 just as I was settling in I got a text from my friend Kris Brester who owns KAB sportscards saying "Pre-release centennial club!". Not even gonna explain what the C club game is but to say I replied HELL NO. No more boozing for little nate :D I'm getting a little too embarrassing. Anyway I said whelp screw it, it's friday night, I need to be social. With any luck I can join team 0-2 drop and go get some sleep. Little did I know I'd be playing magic for the next 11 friggin hours!

When I showed up I was confused. I couldn't find a damn parking spot.

Omg the place is packed to the gills with more people showing up every minute! The final tally was just at 70 people. I'm in this picture. I'll let you "where's waldo" it :P

* it may appear small, but it's not. the store is 2000sq and there's 3 more tables to the left of this picture. Traditionally on normal nights those are used for x-wing and warhammer/40k

B/G Demons Sealed

I picked black before jason could finish saying "It's the demon that lets you draw ca..." GIMME!

I remember my sealed pulls being ok. Nothing amazing, but I did pull an Avacyn and a

  Soul of New Phyrexia

I remember thinking to myself as I'm sorting my cards and making my deck - "Ok I guess I'm playing B/W", but when I finished making my deck I looked down at my pool I realized I had 3 Elvish Mystics and 3 Charging Rhino's. Well avacyn you're cool and all but I gotta be high not to play green and so I tore it apart and started over. This is what I came up with.

"Man Nate, you are intense.." - Tyler South

After the first 2 rounds I was pretty beat.

• Round 1 I defeated someone I didn't know  I don't recall what they played :(

• Round 2 I defeated Aaron Benner playing Jund. I won 2-1. His deck was doing the same thing mine was but splashing red. This was by far my hardest match up mostly because Aaron is a talented player and can read limited combat tricks like leaving b,g, elvish mystic up for a block using necrobite. Sealed is 90% combat tricks which is what allows janky decks an advantage you don't see in other formats. Being able to read your opponent is a huge part of MTG. After playing Aaron I developed ways of separating my mana and "almost" tapping it to represent things I may or may not have. I hope to take these skills to other formats.

• Round 3 I was defeated Handily by Steve Mcgarrah 0-2 playing a B/R burn deck that essentially takes your board apart and then burns you out with shocks. My deck is built for a slower game. If you can suit up a turn 1 or 2 dork with pants you can beat me up long before I can build my board. Most of my creatures are 5 and 6 drop.

At this point in the night you most likely would find me balled up in the corner trying to sleep or drinking a cup of coffee with an ice cream sandwich bar in it trying to keep my shit together. It's blurry on who I played at this point.

• Round 4 My next opponent was a young gun named Justin Ortiz age 13. Despite the stigma Justin is mostly the only younger player at our meta. Justin's favored guild is boro's or R/W. He's one of those kids you have to respect. He's not a casual player, his cards have sleeves. It's generally agreed if he keeps at this he will be a notable competitive player later on in life. Unfortunately Boro's is one of the weaker limited decks. Boro's is an early game aggro deck which needs a tight consistency to function. It's nearly impossible to obtain that in limited and even if you do Boros doesn't play cards that can affect a late game board state. Let me use an example. About the biggest Boro card you could play in M15 limited is Soul of theros or Soul of Shandalar keep in mind the rest of your deck is tiny guys or 1/1 tokens. At best you can give them an edge. Now look at Soul of innistrad. 1 turn later you're refilling your hand. That's what's called "affecting the board state". There's many other examples of this and it's important to recognize how each format and deck functions. Due to the awkwardness of removal and creatures most limited games last 10+ turns and it's important to be able to turn things around late game. 1/1 dudes just do not do that. I defeated justin 2-0.

• Round 5 Next I played a guy named Zane. I don't know much about him other than he watched the board state like a hawk and his top decks were insane. We spent the games goofing around and trying to recall who we'd even played. My vision was even started to blur at this point. I won 2-1 

"Omg is it light out?"

• Round 6 I believe my final game was against Jordan Miller. Probably the most feared limited player having won several pre-releases. Jordan is not forgiving. He will hold you accountable and it's your job to know what your deck does not his even if it's friendly limited. This tournament Jordan had gotten a weaker pool but again a lot of it comes down to how tightly you play. I ended up winning because I had a Charging Rhino with Eternal Thirst on it after he'd played Goblin Rabblemaster. Each turn he had to run a 1/1 goblin into my rhino trigging lifegain and +1/+1 counters. He held out several turns. I was honestly kinda out of it and so I was unable to formulate a plan to alpha strike him and risk losing my board so I just sat back and waited for him to give in. I won 2-0

• Round 7 I tied with Tyler to enter top 8. Too tired just want my packs.

For some reason I was the second highest seed player standing @2nd/8. I wish I'd kept the sheet. I believe it was because nearly all my opponents I'd played got in top 8 or vied for it.

• T8 Round 1 My opponent was my only loss of the night Steve M again. This time I knew what I was facing and and knew I had to get and maintain board state. regardless he beat my face in game one. Game 2 and 3 he flooded out on land just long enough for me to get my board online and put him under. 2-1

• T8 Round 2 I was up against Aaron again. This time we understood perfectly this would be a match revolving around elvish mystic coming out swinging. I decimated him game 1. However game 2 he got his deathtouch combo online Paragon+Black creatures like Typhoid Rats before I could get any damage in. He swung all in and I made the mistake of double blocking a small non deathtouch guy thinking he had a combat trick. He gave it deathtouch :(. game 3 was exceptionally close but I believe I won by getting soul of phyrexia online and pushed him out a window.

• T8 Round 3 final match was against Clay Hathaway playing R/G pants. The idea was to put mean red guys on the table and enchant the crap out of them. In my defense it was 10:30 in the morning and I begged him to figure out a way we could split. unfortunately due to the massive number of attendees the prize pool split between 1st and 2nd didn't justify it and there was a little prestige on the line for both of us in limited. While this is mostly a fog I know I basically crushed him 2 games to 1. his draws were not perfect, mine were and anything he put on the table I murdered. Good games though.

Not really sure what to do with this box. Open it? Ebay? Put it on the mantle? can't decide. I once won $200 at an SIQ and tried to hold onto it but Matt Fucking Cooper accidentally used it for gas money. I mean I clearly left it wadded up in the center console as a momento!

I celebrated by going and getting some CatFish from alberstons(I miss kentucky.) for later and crawling into bed for the day. At this point I'm ready to say regardless of standard M15 is a ton of fun in limited. More fun than I've had since Return to Ravnica and I'm gonna try and play another one tomorrow. 

I hope you enjoyed the blog. Thank you everyone who came out and made the night memorable! ....Fuck you Greg. I hate your face.

I'm out.