Five With Flores

… Okay.

Well, it started off a little frustrating.

Then I worked very hard.

Got my feature match.

Light was right there, at the end of the tunnel.

Disaster!

Unbelievable disaster.

Finally fattening.

So for the Philly $5K I went with Blightning Beatdown. Surprising, I know.

This is the deck list.

4 Bitterblossom

4 Blightning
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny

4 Flame Javelin
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Incinerate
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarfire

4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
5 Mountain
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Infest
4 Gutteral Response
4 Everlasting Torment
3 Lash Out 

This list is 72/75 what I have been featuring every related blog post and video. Josh Ravitz supplied the physical cardboard and told me that I had too many cards for Reflecting Pool Control (my best matchup) and elected not to supply me with Thoughtseize, instead gave me some Lash Outs. The Lash Outs were great!

ROUND ONE – Merfolk
I played against Curtis, an old friend of WillPop aka Will Price of Progress aka Will Price (boring) from Top8Magic.

Game One I rolled the ‘folk, no probs, won at 19 drawing two Blightnings.

I hadn’t really thought about sideboarding against Merfolk and sided out Blightning for Infest, Hell’s Thunder for Gutteral Response.

Basically got runner, runner-runner’d out of Games two and three. In Game Three, it was literally 14-19 my lead and I ka-powed through two Reveillarks and all his little guys with Infest and a Mogg Fanatic. My grip was double Demigod of Revenge versus nil. He ripped Reveillark #3. Okay, well, I guess I’m sending Demigod #1 to his doom. Back come Merrow Reejeery and Sower of Temptation (no targets). However he has a Windbrisk Heights and some man land action. He comes in for six or so and forces me to pick up a Ghitu Encampment. No probs I have Sulfurous Springs to get back in there with Demigod and have to take two points to play my Demigods. The prob is… He ripped Loxodon Warhammer off of the Cryptic Command off of the Windbrisk Heights. So now I have two Demigods, am north of 10 life… and can’t attack.

Still he has no card in hand. I have to leave my guys home in case he draws a Merfolk for Reejeery tap but once I have active mana I can defend with Ghitu Encampments on the ground.

What is the single worst card he can pull?

Sower of Temptation!

Nil into ‘Lark into Cryptic into Loxodon into Sower?

Magnanimus!

Actually not magnanimus at all.

He takes my 5/4 and… You know how it went.

0-1

ROUND SEVEN – Reflecting Pool Control

I won five or six straight to go 6-1 at this point. Details at Top8Magic. Brian did a bonzer job by the way, updating on-the-go all day from his iPhone (have I mentioned we live in the future)?

6-1

ROUND EIGHT – Disaster!

So you are on a six round run.

You have beaten Story Circle on Red (on turn three, with no Blossom on board) and Story Circle on Black in the same game — without siding in Everlasting Torment; you’ve won the 56/60 mirror against probably a superior player (upcoming You Make the Play); you’ve pulled out a close one against the Fae by ripping Gutteral Response exactly when you needed a Gutteral Response.

Now you are two games from Top 8.

First.

Turn.

Windbrisk Heights.

Man!

Game One I only pulled five spells… and one was a Hell’s Thunder — it doesn’t even count!

Yet I have gotten him to two with a really brave Mogg Fanatic.

He’s on two.

If he’s not lethal next turn, it’s close.

You pull Incinerate!

The problem? Previous turn he picked up Burrenton Forge-Tender and played it.

Yeah.

No!

Game Two I was maybe tilting. I kept five lands (no Ghitu Encampment), Tarfire, Everlasting Torment. The only other spell I pulled the entire game was a second Everlasting Torment.

6-2

And that was the tournament.

I played the last round to see if I could get away with a $100 Top 16 prize.

Opponent was Fae.

I shipped to Paris four times in the two games. The real pisser was I had to ship a “perfect” two-land hand… but both lands were my two Reflecting Pools! No! Even against the Fae this was a pretty bad disadvantage. I could have won either game if I hit a break, but in Game Two he played three Cryptic Commands when any other response spell meant that I was going to get there.

And that was the tournament.

Josh says I was on tilt the last 1.5-2 rounds, but I think I played pretty well overall. I do not regret my deck selection by even one card, though I think three Everlasting Torments might have been better than four (final Lash Out).

LOVE
MIKE

MichaelJ is sick! No voice! Please forgive me, but I wanted to do a video on the deck I am playing at the Star City Games $5K before, you know, the Star City Games $5K.

Those of you who have read Eight Matches With Blightning Beatdown – Part 2 know how this one ends.

I wanted to pretend-play eight matches on MTGO, pretending I was in a PTQ or whatever, but I went 6-1in the first seven, and I got a “draw” … However I wasn’t playing real Magic so the draw was irrelevant. So I just played the eighth (basically the nightmare matchup of Kitchen Finks, guys with large toughness, and Wilt-Leaf Liege for my Blightnings) … and got there easily. This solidified my choice of Blightning Beatdown for the $5K.

This is how I described the match on November 24:

8. G/W Little Kid

Game One – You probably know I made a deck with all G/W cards and Wilt-Leaf Liege for Block that won one PTQ (that I know about). I actually started thinking about this strategy again for Standard just because Wilt-Leaf Liege is so good against Blightning and Cruel Ultimatum. So basically, alongside Kitchen Finks and better guys than are in my colors — let alone my deck — this is the nightmare match.

Luckily he had a slow opening, which was my only saving grace. One too many lands came into play tapped so he couldn’t overrun me with superior forces. I stuck a Blightning that was pretty ironic. A turn or two later and I would have been eating 4/4.

Anyway he got out a ton of 4/x and 5/x creatures (with Liege boosts) but I had a late Bitterblossom to get in for a tiny amount of damage… eventually burned him to death.

Game Two – I side out Blightnings (obviously) for Everlasting Torments.

I luck out that his third land is a Mosswort Bridge, meaning my Figure of Destiny is 4/4 before he has a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers in play. This is just what I need to get in -one too many times-. Then it’s all Hell’s Thunder and burn to the face. No sweat, thanks to his stumble.

And this here is the corresponding video:

 

DON’T FORGET!

 

I said way up top (and if you read the previous post) I am sick as hell. Meaning my voice is like cigarettes ground into gravel. Forgive me this one time, I really wanted to get the content out to you.

Take care and wish me luck at the $5K.

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. Follow me on Twitter. Please?

A continuation of the previous post on Blightning Beatdown testing for the upcoming Star City $5,000 tournament in Philadelphia next month.

In case you didn’t read Eight Matches with Blightning Beatdown – Part 1, here is the deck list:

4 Bitterblossom

4 Blightning
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny

4 Flame Javelin
4 Hell’s Thunder
4 Incinerate
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarfire

4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
5 Mountain
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Infest
3 Thoughtseize
4 Gutteral Response
4 Everlasting Torment

1. Elementals

Game One – Elementals is a deck that I tested early for the States format. Properly built, it can be hell on the Reflecting Pool Control suite, it has fast — sometimes uncounterable — Cloudthreshers for the Fae, and Reveillark for a legitimate Stage Three game plan. The reason I discarded it is that Elementals often got slow draws against The Red Deck that could not be corrected (Shock your Smokebraider, &c.); and the slow games without Mulldrifter just seemed like a lot of comes into play tapped lands and glacial Harbingers.

In this game he actually has some Fulminator Mages to slow me down and a Horde of Notions.

I start on Bitterblossom and triple Mogg Fanatics. I kill the Horde two-for-one and he follows up with a Reveillark.

I just attack all in to get damage in.

He borrows a play from my States Jund Mana Ramp deck and runs a Gift of the Gargantuan for a Mulldrifter and Fire-lit Thicket; but I have Flame Javelin to finish.

Game Two – I didn’t sideboard (maybe I should have taken out Demigod of Revenge?) … I opened on Ghitu Encampment and pointed my Mogg Fanatic at his mana guy.

He played another mana guy and I came in with another Mogg Fanatic and Hell’s Thunder, then repeated the previous Mogg Fanatic play.

Time for Blightning!

The bad news… He discarded Gift of the Gargantuan and Horde of Notions (a little scared of Makeshift Mannequin in this spot).

“Luckily” he followed up with a Harbinger for another Horde of Notions, then played Gift for that Horde (pretty nice)… but managed to miss his necessary land drop.

With five mana I sent Incinerate and Hell’s Thunder #2.

His fifth land came into play tapped!

… But he had the dreaded Mannequin. How anticlimactic. In for five.

I flashed a Thunder from down under, putting him to one. He can’t do 15 the following turn.

1-0

2. Faeries with White

Game One – He opens with Arcane Sanctum, then Secluded Glen into Bitterblossom.

I skipped an attack with my Mogg Fanatic to preserve the option of a two-for-one (learned that from Brett’s video); he tries for the Scion, but I burn it.

But his double Mistbind Clique is really much more clever (or at least effective than anything I had this game).

Game Two – I sided out two Tarfires for two Gutteral Responses. I wanted the threat of being able to mess with his Cryptic Command set to Fog… but didn’t really have anything worth taking damage sources out just to force through with extra mana. I came out quickly with Figure and Mogg Fanatic, and we are to Game Three just like that.

Game Three – I open on turn one Fanatic and turn two Blossom; however I stick on two with a hand full of awesome threes. He has a Loxodon Warhammer so my goal becomes to not let him use it on me.

Anyway, once I start to get a little mass he sees the writing on the wall and points a Cryptic Command at my squad… but that’s why I have Gutteral Response (even if I only sided two of them, see above).

It would have definitely been better to side out Incinerate instead of Tarfire. Tarfire is just better against his guys (no one has three toughness), plus Tarfire is cheaper and a Goblin for Auntie’s Hovel. Oh well, that’s why we test.

2-0

3. Reanimator

Game One – He opens Swamp.

I go first turn Figure.

He goes Island.

I’m in. No pumps. He runs Agony Warp. Ha ha, I didn’t pump. Awesome Blossom.

Now it gets weird… Cunning Lethemancer?

The joke’s on you: I discard Demigod of Revenge.

He evokes a Mulldrifter; I evoke the Chris Pikula rule and Tarfire the Lethemancer.

Then he Beacons up his Mully… I play my own five mana Black spell, being a Demigod of Revenge… for Demigod of Revenge.

He points Profane Command at one of my Demigods but passes the turn on three, convenient for my Blightning.

Game Two – I put in three copies of Thoughtseize, dropping a trio of Hell’s Thunders. In hindsight this is probably wrong as there is a particularly good synergy between his Lethemancers and my Thunders. But with a deck as unpredictable as his, I think Thoughtseize is right… just a question of what to pull; I think Flame Javelin?

I drew Thunder anyway.

This game I stuck a pair of Bitterblawesomes. He played Blackman style and kept Warping my jones to only take one from my Thunder and eat a token.

He kept Warping tokens whereas I stuck Blightning the flash on Thunder until he was at 11 and I was gripping circa ten.

3-0

4. Jund Mana Ramp (possibly Jund Quillspike Combo)

Game One – I shipped Swamp (only land) with double Blossom into Hell’s Thunder and five land… make that six land after my draw step.

He opened on a Jund tri-land.

I went Fantastic.

He played a Devoted Druid and the juices started flowing.

I don’t think he can combo me if I have a Fanatic in play.

I just killed his Druid based on my hand.

He followed up with Garruk and a second Druid. I hit him with Thunder and pointed a second Fanatic at his second Druid.

He went Chameleon.

I went Demigod.

I did the math and realized I had to kill Garruk or the Chameleon would go intensely large + trample. Unfortunately my Demigod was not comely to the Elves and Eyeblight’s Ending got him.

Game Two – Paris to five.

Off curve; third turn Bitterblossom… against his Finks. I start to accumulate tokens and get a Figure.

He Jund Charms and I’m afraid he is going to kill my tokens and Figure and reset his Finks… but he just eats these two Hell’s Thunders that were hanging out in my graveyard. Then he evokes a Cloudthresher to actually kill my tokens. But Figure makes it in for four!

It’s a race!

… Until he plays a pair of Finks and sends Eyeblight’s Ending at my Figure.

I rip all lands of course.

3-1

5. Tokens

He opens on a Fire-lit Thicket.

I answer with Sulfurous Springs into a turn two Bitterblossom. Ouch ouch.

His first move is Nantuko Husk.

I want nothing to do with that and Tarfire it, following with Figure of Destiny.

A follow up Blightning reveals to Soul’s Fires (have I mentioned how good Blightning is?). I have 13 more points in my hand when he concedes.

Game Two – I remove four Mogg Fanatics for four Infests; mulligan a one lander.

I get a quick Figure of Destiny; his first move is again on turn three… a Sprouting Thrinax. I just draw lands and he eventually kills me with Sarkan Vol.

Game Three – Mulligan again; turn two Bitterblossom.

I spend a bunch of turns Incinerating Marsh Flitters; mana is pretty tight this game. He has four Goblins from his Marsh Flitters and I have some Bitterblossom tokens. Eventually I draw lands and play a ton of Blightnings and Demigods.

6.

He plays Birds of Paradise (always trouble).

I play Figure of Destiny turn one over Tarfire.

Luckily he has no explosive turn two and I Tarfire his Birds and get in for two.

Blightning reveals Wrath of God and Garruk Wildspeaker.

He Oblivion Rings my Figure of Destiny; I deal four anyway with Hell’s Thunder, then play another Figure. He plays a Liege of some sort, which I burn out, prompting the concession.

Game Two I remove four Flame Javelins for four Everlasting Torments.

He opens on Murmuring Bosk, plays the 0/4 Harbinger and goes and gets another Mosk. My Figure bounces off of it until he deigns to play a Shriekmaw.

Hell’s Thunder in.

He goes 4/4 of his own – Chameleon Colossus.

This looks like it might be an interesting game except I have three Hell’s Thunders and a plenty of overload damage to race.

5-1

7. Jund Mannequin

Game One – He opens on Birds of Paradise. I open on Figure of Destiny, which earns an Incinerate. Okay; slow game this one. Blightning and Blightning snag six life, Violent Ultimatum, Firespout, Chameleon Colossus, and Makeshift Mannequin.

He tries to slow the old man down with some Fulminator Mages but I have enough lands this game. He switches gears and drops a diffeent Chameleon. Meanwhile I send three Flame Javelins at the face and finish with a Tarfire for the perfect 20.

Game Two – He mulligans into a weak hand and quickly concedes to Mogg Fanatic and some burn spells.

6-1

At 6-1, given the imaginary eight rounds of my imaginary tournament, I am in ID land. Top 8? Heh.

I decide to play one more because I don’t have any footage (look for this video to come up later in the week).

8. G/W Little Kid

Game One – You probably know I made a deck with all G/W cards and Wilt-Leaf Liege for Block that won one PTQ (that I know about). I actually started thinking about this strategy again for Standard just because Wilt-Leaf Liege is so good against Blightning and Cruel Ultimatum. So basically, alongside Kitchen Finks and better guys than are in my colors — let alone my deck — this is the nightmare match.

Luckily he had a slow opening, which was my only saving grace. One too many lands came into play tapped so he couldn’t overrun me with superior forces. I stuck a Blightning that was pretty ironic. A turn or two later and I would have been eating 4/4.

Anyway he got out a ton of 4/x and 5/x creatures (with Liege boosts) but I had a late Bitterblossom to get in for a tiny amount of damage… eventually burned him to death.

Game Two – I side out Blightnings (obviously) for Everlasting Torments.

I luck out that his third land is a Mosswort Bridge, meaning my Figure of Destiny is 4/4 before he has a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers in play. This is just what I need to get in -one too many times-. Then it’s all Hell’s Thunder and burn to the face. No sweat, thanks to his stumble.

7-1.

All in all, I was very pleased with this deck.

comment Comment COMMENT

LOVE
MIKE