"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
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