So this is the follow up to Thursday’s post about what to do on turn three. If you haven’t read it, check this out first: You Make the Play
I was actually quite proud of myself that I broke patterned thought and “slowed down” with the “turn two” play of Rampant Growth on turn three… I went for Swamp like most of you said you would.
But what is our strategy here? By what tactics will we accomplish our goals?
In this matchup we want to minimize creature damage. We want to keep him contained so that even if he rips the combo, it won’t immediately kill us. Our resources are limited… but so are his, so the short term objective is to get a two-for-one on your Firespout or Jund Charm. How do we ensure a two-for-one? How do we preserve card advantage?
I feel there is no point in playing the Civic Wayfinder at all at this stage.
However, there might be an even better play hiding in our options… an no one suggested it.
Josh Ravitz says to say “Go.”
That’s right, do nothing. But sulk.
Play possum. I’m stuck on two Forests. Do your worst. Give him a bad beat story for later.
The plan is to play Firespout next turn regardless. We are likely to pull off the two-for-one. But what if we play dead? Will he over-commit? We have the maximum chance of a three-for-one if we sit. Think about it.
What do we get from a Rampant Growth? Very little. In this game we are not on a harsh time limit. We are not going to play Chameleon Colossus next turn (probably). We are going to play Firespout. We can play Firespout with the resources at hand, in hand, and already on the board. The difference is that we can put the ball in the opponent’s court for additional card advantage extraction.
Why commit Civic Wayfinder if we are just going to blow everyone up?
Don’t we want more opposition coming to the party?
I think Josh makes a very compelling suggestion, and not obvious at all.
I don’t know if there is a right answer, but if I had the same situation again, I think I would pretend to be manascrewed. This one is not a resource race. If you kill their guys, you are likely to succeed.
I’m sure most of you find that “solution” thought-provoking, at least.
UFC 91 Presented by Gears of War 2 – Lesnar v. Couture
I haven’t bought a UFC fight in years. I am a big fan — I watch The Ultimate Fighter every week — but I mostly watch UFC on DVD. But I couldn’t miss the return of Randy Couture, who is one of my favorite fighters.
10:14 – Middleweight bout
Demian Maia (9-0, 31) v. Nate Quarry (16-2, 36)
I didn’t know anything about either of these guys coming into the fight but here is a super quick summary based on the pre-fight promos:
Quarry was a popular member of the original Ultimate Fighter cast. He was out for two years with serious back injuries but won two in a row since his comeback; he is looking to make it three in a row.
Demian Maia is a ridiculous 9-0 in MMA and one of the most technical and sharp jiu-jitsu fighters in the world. I noticed the Axe Murderer Wanderlei Silva in Demian’s corner.
Quarry is an unorthodox striker with big hands. Like I said I don’t know much about these fighters but they say that Quarry has good takedown defense and it seems unlikely (based on Maia’s record and background) that Quarry wants to go grappling.
Maia comes out striking; it looks kind of sloppy to me, but…
All of a sudden Quarry has Maia in a queer kind of arm lock.
Maia is on top inside of 30 seconds; Quarry still has an arm but before I can finish typing the sentence Maia is in full mount. For those of you who don’t know fight-speak that means Demian is on top and has his legs on the outside (rather than being enveloped by the legs of the man on the ground); this is generally considered the dominant position on the ground.
Maia is tremendously talented on the ground… Quarry gives up his back inside of 1 minute. For those of you who don’t follow fighting, this basically means that he is no longer facing Demian and Maia can strangle him at will — possibly the worst position you can be in against a trained jiu-jitsu fighter.
Unsurprisingly, this already looks desperate. Body lock – Maia is just pounding on the side of Quarry’s head… all kinds of blunt strikes against Nate’s noggin. He isn’t in any kind of a rush.
Nate is in a really rough spot… He’s just using his hands to keep Demian’s hands off of his face so he can’t disrupt his breathing, but Demian has all the control.
At best Quarry can fight for 3 minutes to prolong to second round…
Nope. The choke out is inevitable at 2:13.
Heavyweight bout
Gabriel Gonzaga (9-3, 29) v. Josh Hendricks (18-4-1, 32)
I don’t know anything about Hendricks, but I’d root for him for a couple of reasons; he is from Ohio (like me), plus he was Captain America’s training partner setting up for the main event against The Next Big Thing. Hendricks was a two-time All-American in rasslin’ and is riding an eleven fight win streak.
However I really respect Gabriel Gonzaga. I’ve seen Gonzaga fight a couple of times. The first one was a head kick that put away Mirko Cro Cop… kind of a kick that rocked the world for MMA fans; the other fight was of course the heavyweight title bout against Randy Couture where he broke Randy’s arm… but Randy still won. By the way how insane is Randy Couture? Twentysomething 250+ monster Gabriel Gonzaga broke his arm and Randy knocked him out WITH THE SAME DAMN ARM. That man is why I bought this Pay-Per-View.
These two huge fighters tap gloves.
Wrestler and jiu-jitsu black belt… Predictably clinch almost instantaneously.
Wow they are big strong bulls. Everything about how they move is heavy… big heavy hands from both sides.
Gonzaga has a hold of Josh’s head for a second but it doesn’t last. Then Gonzaga is landing kicks.
One minute.
WTF? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
One minute?
Don’t blink I guess!
Gonzaga set Hendricks up with a knee then hammered Josh in the head with a big fist. Josh dropped but the ref didn’t stop the fight [yet]. Gonzaga drops a second vicious head punch with Josh on the ground and they call it.
In the post-fight, Gonzaga predicts a Couture win, so he agrees with me (and apparently 61% of the fans) rather than the casinos 🙂
10:38 – Welterweight Fight
Round One
They didn’t do a lot of pre-fight on this one. So I don’t know anything about either of them except for the fact that one of them has CondomDepot.com on his butt and the other is wearing white trunks.
CondomDepot.com guy seems to be taking a beating… Impressive strikes from White Trunks.
White Trunks is landing a ton of nice — if light — blows, including head strikes and knees to the body.
Wow! White Trunks is foot stomping, too. I respect a foot stomp. Really good strategy.
Okay. CondomDepot.com guy seems to have hit a second wind. He goes for a submission… Misses it… Switches to a different submission.
These guys are really going for it. I wish I knew what their names are so I could give them props.
Wow CondomDepot.com guy has just nuked White Trunks with a beautiful elbow from the bottom.
Reversal – CondomDepot.com guy is on top but he is not really in control. This is almost certainly going to the second round.
Wow, there might be a mistake here. White Trunks is in a choke… Can he last the last 20 second? Never mind – he’s out.
I would give Round One to White Trunks but CondomDepot.com was fabulous on defense and really came out at the end of the round; I can see a judge voting for him.
Round Two
White Trunks looks tanked. Lots of sloppy strikes and takedown attempts. White Trunks seems like he hits the takedown but CondomDepot.com is better on the ground and has his arm locked.
White Trunks has the perfect defense — this is something Teddy Card Game used to talk about — and kind of like Matt Hughes anti-jiu-jitsu defense; he is slamming CondomDepot.com on his head once, twice. Wow! CondomDepot.com is not letting go. That’s bad news for White Trunks. CondomDepot.com is not letting go. Yep. That’s it. Submission by armbar.
CondomDepot.com wins!
10:49 – Welterweight bout
Tamdan McCrory (22, 11-1) v. Dustin Hazelett (22, 13-4)
Dustin Hazelett is a newly-minted jiu-jitsu black belt.
Tamdan is how shall I say this… handsome. He looks really nice with his spectacles. However with his shirt off he has lot of tattoos, so ultimately not my type.
McCrory thinks he has a wrestling advantage but I don’t see how that’s possible if Hazelett’s black belt is legitimate.
Hazelett has a gigantic beard. Katherine can’t believe that he is going into the octagon sporting that.
So on merit of his black belt I think Hazelett is ahead but he is definitely behind on the beard v. cute glasses metric.
They tap gloves. McCrory comes out looking like one hundred times the striker that Hazelett is. His fists are lightning.
What is this? Hazelett stuns McCrory and Dustin literally flies across the ring in an attempt to hit a Sagat-like flying knee… but Tamdan is out of the way, robbing Dustin of the nod on Sportscenter.
Tamdan tries a head kick… glances.
These guys are both skyscrapers by the way, 6’1 and 6’4.
Tamdan is launching big kicks. They really look like they hurt. You can hear the weight behind them.
Wow! Hazelett just hit Tamdan on the jaw… stunned him but Tamdan keeps getting out of the way before he can capitalize.
I keep saying that Tamdan is the more impressive striker but Hazelett seems to be the one actually LANDING the better hits; he’s rocked McCrory at least three times.
For good grapplers, one of which is a jiu-jitsu black belt, no one is going for anything on the ground.
Dustin misses a huge head kick… but the follow-through seems to turn the miss into a ground submission!?!
Okay, now it’s on the ground. Let’s see how that jiu-jitsu prediction holds up… Hazelett has a decent leg hold on Tamdan’s right arm but Tamdan isn’t really in a spot to lose, at least not immediately. Hazelett is rubber. He is Plastic Man. His legs are like BJ Penn’s.
It looks like Tamdan is going to try to stall out the clock… just not losing, but Hazelett is not going to let that happen.
Yep, black belt wins with a crazy arm submission. Hazelett actually looks fantastic in the finish. His legs are like some kind of insane pretzel. I don’t know if he is actually BJ Penn class but he LOOKS very good… This one is going to go to the highlight reel.
I am skipping an undercard lightweight bout for a bio break. BRB.
Okay I am going to chat a little about Randy v. Brock — tonight’s big fight — during this excellent lightweight fight.
It looked to me when they brought Brock Lesnar into the UFC that they were giving him a soft match with Frank Mir. In fact, if you saw the fight, Lesnar came out destroying Mir with superior strength and striking. However he hit Frank illegally and the ref separated them. Brock was simply not used to a jiu-jitsu black belt, though, and the reversal was instantaneous. Brock was hitting Frank harder than I had seen anyone hit in a long time, but all of a sudden, Frank had him in a submission, ending the fight in the first round.
Randy Couture is the kind of guy who is “used to” fighting bigger, stronger, faster… and YOUNGER fighters. However he is not a jiu-jitsu fighter. I don’t know that Randy is going to be able to pull out a surprise submission on a guy with Brock’s physical ability.
But at the same time, Randy beat Gabriel Gonzaga WITH A BROKEN ARM. He literally knocked him out WITH that broken arm. Randy Couture is not human. At 45, he is the big reason that this is probably the biggest PPV buy the UFC has ever seen. Randy hasn’t fought since that fight. Despite multiple fights against Chuck Liddell, they are billing tonight’s fight as the biggest challenge of Couture’s career.
So who is going to win?
I am picking Randy.
Vegas is picking Brock.
Why am I picking the former retiree, who is more than a decade older than the blond phenom he will be facing? Because Randy Couture has made a career of defying the odds.
I think Brock is going to come out with a ton of energy, and that Randy is going to try to weather the assault and pull the fight to deep rounds, where his cardio can overcome Lesnar’s obvious size advantage.
I think that many buyers — and I am in this crowd — just want to see Couture’s strategy, and HOW — win or lose — he approaches beating Brock Lesnar.
Okay, back to live fights…
11:23 – Lightweight bout (co-main event)
Kenny Florian (32, 12-3) v. Joe Stevenson (26, 34-8)
I have seen Joe Stevenson fight once… But it was against my favorite fighter BJ Penn; Joe was utterly destroyed. Nothing against Stevenson… just the only time I’ve seen him fight.
I have seen Kenny Florian fight several times but I can’t really remember any of them. I think they ware both jiu-jitsu black belts — which is amazing — but they say that Florian is the more impressive striker. Florian is six years older than Stevenson but has a huge height and reach advantage.
The winner of this fight is probably going to get a shot at BJ Penn (even though BJ is moving up in weight class to challenge Georges St. Pierre at Welterweight… probably going to buy that by the way).
By the way I don’t know how this is actually the co-main event.
Lightweights are so much more mobile an faster. You immediately see them dance… it is so different from heavyweights or even welterweights
Stevenson throws bigger punches. These are big hooks but they are not really landing.
Florian’s kicks are just off the charts.
Stevenson is on the attack, and gets Kenny on the chin… He is trying to corner him.
It’s hard to see who is winning, but Kenny is against the side of the octagon. Both seem to be jockeying for position with dirty kicks, &c.
Joe went for a big slam but Kenny grabs the fence to break it up. Very nice strategy. Heh. Kenny just got a warning from the ref for grabbing the fence (if he does it AGAIN it will be a point deduction) but hey, he didn’t get slammed to death.
Okay… Nice boxing from Florian; nice jabs.
Stevenson hits hard but he is sloppy. Florian is just a much better striker.
Boom! Kenny slams Joe down to the mat.
BIG fists.
Kenny takes the mount!
Yeah… Joe is done.
BIg punch. Big Punch. BIG PUNCH… Full choke.
Kenny just earned a shot against BJ Penn.
Okay… here is the fight we have all been waiting for!
11:42 – Heavyweight title bout
Randy Couture (45, 16-8) v. Brock Lesnar (31, 2-1)
The crazy thing about Randy Couture is that he spent a big part of his career at Light Heavyweight. He beat Tito Ortiz and won a title over Chuck Liddell at Light Heavyweight. Randy quit heavyweight because he was too small.
Yet he came out of retirement to steal the heavyweight title.
FYI Brock was the NCAA rasslin’ champion. He is SO big. Yet undeniably quick on his feet.
Yet with a 45 lb. weight disadvantage, 54% of the fans are picking Randy over Brock… I’m one of them.
Randy is going to focus on avoiding Brock, hitting without being hit. Did I mention how big Brock is?
Brock just said “You’re just too damn old to be here.”
Randy is 45 years old… but “time is just a number.” He has a gigantic grin on his face. The people love Randy. I love Randy.
The crowd boos Brock, loves Couture. Man is Brock big.
Okay, let’s go.
Round One
Brock is basically a gigantic gorilla. It’s almost comical seeing them in the ring together. They don’t even seem like they are in the same weight class.
Brock opens up with knees.
Randy pushes Brock to the fence.
Brock is sending knees again.
Randy is SO much smaller.
The crowd is firmly behind Couture.
RAN-DEE
RAN-DEE
Brock with these knees again. All knees.
Nice! Randy rocks Brock with a right hand.
But Brock’s hands are huge.
Okay! Here comes Brock with a spear…
Fail!
They are up against the fence. Brock accomplishes a takedown.
Randy snakes a half guard, holding Brock’s neck simultaneously.
Brock mounts… But Randy is out!
Randy has Brock’s back!
Only for a moment.
Now Brock mounts… Nope, Randy’s half guard again.
The last 30 seconds have been slippery.
Randy is holding Brock’s head and hitting Brock in the side… but they are nothing to write home about.
Yet he is not going to let Brock get an advantage.
Brock has some big punches.
… Randy only has to survive for a minute (this round is feeling interminable)
Uh oh!
Wow, Randy is out again.
Randy stands up and the crowd roars.
Randy escaped Brock’s ground game with minimal damage.
Randy has some momentum now… but is still small compared to Brock.
Randy is priming for a takedown. This is unbelievable.
Okay, whistle.
Great first round… It looked scary for Randy a couple of spots but he kept his cool. I don’t know if you definitely give it to Brock. I don’t know how much the judges consider the weight disadvantage and Randy’s honest attempts on offense.
The crowd still knows who they love.
RAN-DEE
RAN-DEE
RAN-DEE
Round Two
Brock opens the round with a nice jab. Follows up with an elbow that gives Randy he wobbly knees.
Randy quickly pushes Brock to the fence to buy time and recover.
Brock looks like he hit Randy in the back of the head, but no complaints so far.
Brock is SO BIG.
He is hitting a few knees.
Randy answers with two solid strikes to the head.
Pow! Randy cuts Brock over the right eye. Can Randy expoit this?
Damn. Brock keeps connecting.
… But Randy has the cut.
Randy defends Brock’s spear takedown AGAIN. My heart is racing.
Randy is actually tring to take Brock down.
Wow. How long can Randy absorb Brock’s punches?
Yep. Brock nails a gigantic fist and stuns Randy – Now it’s 100 hammer fists.
Brock is literally all over him.
The ref lets Randy take quite a few strikes before stopping it; he was giving Randy a chance to get out from under Brock’s attack.
… And Brock is the new champ.
Randy initially looked pretty steamed but he is smiling as they announce the loss.
The entire room is boo-ing Brock.
“That’s just a big son of a bitch. That’s all there is to it!”
The people still love him. It’s more-or-less over at 12:12.
Well, I was pretty disappointed by the finish. Randy was cryptic about his future (will he retire again questions)… He says he is getting BETTER as a fighter. I guess we’ll just have to see.
Anyway, that was my UFC 91.
So how many of you out there were heartbroken at Brock Lesnar’s victory?
A fine hand against a non-Red-hating beatdown deck, I think you will agree; if not the speediest (but you don’t necessarily have to be the speediest to win this matchup in Game One).
I made Forest, Forest my first two turns; he played Knight of Meadowgrain on the draw.
So on turn three, I had an interesting pull: Rampant Growth (turn two pluck being Kitchen Finks).
My “scripted” play from my opening hand was obviously to start getting ahead with Civic Wayfinder.
So here are the questions:
What play would you make?
What play do you think I made?
What is the right play?
Brett Blackman just won the 2008 Pennsylvania State Championship with Faeries, battling through three Faeries mirrors in the Top 8. In this video, Brett outlines his strategy for winning the Faeries mirror as well as changes he would make to his State Championship-winning deck list.
Here is Brett’s Pennsylvania State Championship-winning deck list:
The key cards are Bitterblossom and Thoughtseize. Bitterblossom is the true threat, and Thoughtseize is there to steal the opponent’s Bitterblossom. Brett advocates aggressive mulligans to obtain these strategic cards or proxies for therm.
On the play only, you can keep a hand with Broken Ambitions so as to counter the opponent’s turn two Bitterblossom.
Ponder allows you to keep otherwise weak hands, and even hide a Bitterblossom one deep, so that the opponent’ can’t Thoughtseize yours.
Should you find yourself up against a Bitterblossom with none of your own, the 2008 Pennsylvania State Champion suggests using Agony Warp to set up a two-for-one in the hopes of putting the opponent behind on the board.
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I know this video is a little different, but I hope you liked it. Thanks and congratulations to the newly-minted 2008 Pennsylvania State Champion!
Just a quick update about my performance at the 2008 New York State Championships.
I’ll probably write something more substantial about this tournament — and outlining my deck of choice, maybe with a video — in the near future, but I figured I’d update you as to how I did.
I went 6-2, tied for the eighth position, but based on a second round loss I finished middle-of-the-pack in the Top 16.
The deck was great and performed as i thought it would. The only change I made from the previous post was to swap two Lash Outs in the sideboard for two Shriekmaws (which I foolishly bought on-site for $3 each). The reason was that I didn’t want to be too far behind against multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders. In the sparse testing I did against the Weenie White decks, I crush unless they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders; if they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders, it’s really a question of how many of those little buggers “multiple” is… I don’t think I can easily beat three if they have anything else, and even two Forge-Tenders is rough.
R1 – Won 2-1 v. Faeries
R2 – Lost 0-2 v. the Red Deck
R3 – Won 2-0 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R4 – Won 2-1 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R5 – Won 2-1 v. Kithkin Backlash
R6 – Won 2-0 v. the Red Deck
R7 – Lost 0-2 v. Faeries
R8 – Won 2-1 v. Faeries
Versus the Red Deck in Round Two in Game One all my mana came into play tapped and I was just a turn off; it’s pretty frustrating to be on the play with a Rampant Growth and two Kitchen Finks and getting hit with a Stigma Lasher!
Game Two I had Lash Out to allegedly fix my draw and hit a Rampant Growth but sat on four mana for turn after turn with multiple Primal Commands and Broodmate Dragons in my hand, withstanding four (!!!) hits from a Demigod of Revenge and never playing anything.
I don’t have any real excuse for Round Seven; sometimes you just lose. Game One he got the monkey Faeries draw and successfully played his cards in the order they came. Game Two I had a Gutteral Response to cover a Cloudthresher but his answer was a Spellstutter Sprite. If the Cloudthresher resolves it’s a blowout for me; it didn’t so I went from twenty-ish to zero in two attacks thanks to multiple Scions. He showed a great deal of strategic ddiscipline in not blocking my Chameleon Colossus with his second Scion of Oona — I think most players would have crumbled and blocked — and that non-block was highly instrumental in his winning. Just the right play under pressure; the sad part was I was playing for Top 8 and he wasn’t! Random pair-down; he got me, then he didn’t even make it.
That said, I think the Jund Mana Ramp deck is superb against Faeries, though. Two other wins on the day, all the tools… You win most of the time, but not all the time of course. And on the draw, sometimes you just get Clique-Clique locked and never make any meaningful plays.
All in all, not my best New York State Championships. The sad thing is, the deck is probably done. In case you have occasion to play a deck that is generally very good against the Red Deck, very good against Faeries, and smashes Five-color Control (this is the ultimate reason I played the Ramp deck), I suggest Jund Mana Ramp (I make no claims about Reveillark or the mirror, friends).
As promised I am going to share my suggested deck for the 2008 State Championships.
I have been pretty good at this tournament in the past (won in 2006, finished 2d in 2005 losing the mirror to Julian Levin), usually playing an unusual deck for the metagame.
This year I am going to play Jund Mana Ramp. Because you probably care more about the deck list than the analysis, here it is:
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Cloudthresher
2 Farhaven Elf
4 Gift of the Gargantuan
2 Primal Command
4 Rampant Growth
4 Fire-lit Thicket
8 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village
sb:
3 Mind Shatter
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Gutteral Response
2 Primal Command
4 Lash Out
My decision to play this style of a deck is based on two things, 1) the lack of good two mana acceleration in Standard (save Rampant Growth) and 2) the fact that I think that Gift of the Gargantuan is the strongest card for Standard Constructed in Shards of Alara. This card is exceptional. Until you have flipped up a Cloudthresher and a Treetop Village against a Five-color Control deck you don’t know how good it is.
I played the pair for a long while in my Reveillark deck (which I was going to play until about mid-way through this week) but I came to the conclusion that it was not strong enough against Five-color Control (which I estimate will be the most populous deck of the 2008 State Championships). The problem with Reveillark, Four-color Control, and similar decks was that I was worrying about stopping a Five-color Control’s Stage Three game plan of Cruel Ultimatum / Nucklavee by sandbagging cards like Cryptic Command and Hindering Light but the clever Five-color Control player (in sideboarded games at least) can just wait until he has eight mana and beat me with Vexing Shusher or Gutteral Response.
Ultimately I decided to tune towards a more proactive strategy.
The secret of this deck is that it plays very much like an Onslaught Standard era Beasts (“Bests”) deck. That is, it plays very deceptively towards card advantage. Jund Ramp is almost Blue in its implementation.
Gift of the Gargantuan – two for one.
Civic Wayfinder – two for one.
Farhaven Elf – two for one with acceleration.
… Right on down the line.
It’s like I have my own little squad of Mulldrifters.
The acceleration lets you get ahead of the opponent on mana even while you are proactively dealing with other aspects of the game.
The advantage is most pronounced in sideboarded games against Five-color Control. You ramp out your mana, test spell them with a Cloudthresher; usually they will counter this. Now you untap and go at it with Mind Shatter, ideally with Gutteral Response waiting. The game will usually be yours!
So anyway, that’s my deck, at least as of right now. This deck is pretty powerful and has some really good board presence and defense in an eight -pack of sweepers; it has a superb matchup against Five-color control, and has the tools to be competitive with Faeries. Broodmate Dragon came from Evan Erwin as a solution to Red Decks in State Three with Demigods crashing into me every turn. “Double Dragon” produces multipe relevant defenders.
Post any questions in the comments below and I will try to get to them asap.
Thanks for reading, and good luck tomorrow!
LOVE
MIKE
P.S. Were I not playing Jund Mana Ramp for States, I would likely be on Blightning Beatdown. After tonight’s Mock Tournament — where Brian David-Marshall went 3-0 — BDM said that he would be on Blightning Beatdown as well (Blightning itself being very powerful). Brian did a short writeup on the deck at Top8Magic.com.
Just in time for the State Championships! This is the third of three videos featuring the qualifying decks from the Pro Tour Berlin Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). This Top 2 Faeries deck was played by Jorge Pinazo.
Like the previous two videos, this one was also built for this week’s Top Decks at magicthegathering.com.
Jorge actually hybridized a Wizards sub-theme onto his deck with Stonybrook Banneret and Sage’s Dousing. Sage’s Dousing is actually better than it might look at first blush as Mistbind Clique, Vendilion Clique, and the beautiful Spellstutter Sprite are all Wizards in addition to being Faeries.
There is literally no reason to believe Faeries won’t be a top deck this weekend.
Did you see how they snuck up on Extended even, putting someone in the Top 8 with a “Block” deck (more or less)? You had best be prepared for the little Blue men!
Just a reminder I will be updating here on FiveWithFlores before Saturday whereas I’m not sure if I will have time to post a pre-States video about my deck choice on YouTube. So make sure to check back. I hope you loved the videos!
Just in time for the State Championships! This is the second of three videos featuring the qualifying decks from the Pro Tour Berlin Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). This Top 4 Blightning Beatdown deck was played by Oscar Almgren.
Like the previous Demigod Deck Wins video, this one was also built for this week’s Top Decks at magicthegathering.com.
Another preview for you!
Enjoy!
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Oscar’s Blightning Deck:
4 Bitterblossom
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
4 Blightning
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Deathraiders
I didn’t use Oscar’s sideboard hardly at all… When I tried this out I was mainly getting a feel for the starting sixty; Thoughtseize, though, is very good as everyone on MTGO plays Cruel Control. I think I would like more copies of Everlasting Torment, that is, the fourth. I like Infest the least but perhaps Oscar had a transformational mindset that I have not yet grasped with my limited play of his deck.
Not surprisingly, Bitterblossom is excellent in this deck, as it is in many decks. Having a steady stream of attackers freed up my mana for pumping Figure of Destiny, distributing burn spells, &c.
Goblin Deathraiders is yet another two, which I suppose is available only in this specific color combination (that is, it is actually Gold rather than hybrid like Vexing Shusher). This card was okay for me. It hits much harder than the other options, especially if you have the fire in your hand. I can only assume Magma Spray in hand is a beating for Kithen Finks (because this never came up for me… probably because I never sided in Magma Spray).
I didn’t play any “mirror” with this at all but I can only assume the B/R version is weaker in the mirror due to Springs and Bitterblossom (ouch, collateral damage, what have you). However the deck seemed much kinder to me than straight Red Demigod elsewhere. The added pressure of Bitterblossom really affects how opponents play (which you probably already know having been on the wrong end of one at some point in the last year… I can only assume). In a Red Deck it is much more gratifying than in a Blue deck.
🙂
Just a reminder I will be updating HERE for certain before Saturday and I’m not sure if I will have time to post a pre-States video about my deck choice. So check back Friday or so if you want to know what I am bringing. My favorite cards in Standard that no one plays with are Rampant Growth and Gift of the Gargantuan, so I have been playing them in a variety of decks (mostly Reveillark versions) but I think I have one, finally, that I am going to go with.
Just in time for the State Championships! This is the first of three videos featuring the qualifying decks from the Pro Tour Berlin Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). The winner was none other than Demigod Deck Wins, played by Guillaume Baudois.
This video was built, again, for this week’s Top Decks at magicthegathering.com. However I had to get it up on YouTube in order to, you know, link it into my article, so YouTube subscribers and FiveWithFlores blog afficionados get a preview.
Enjoy!
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Oh, here’s some additional meat:
The PT Berlin LCQ was won by an update to Demigod Deck Wins, played by Guillaume Baudois. Here is Guillaume’s version:
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny
1) Mogg Fanatic on one; as you know from previous blog posts, I have been running Tattermunge Maniac in this slot. Tattermunge has been pretty great but in testing Guillaume’s version, I can say that Mogg Fanatic was just fine.
2) Stigma Lasher on two; we’ve been running Vexing Shusher (which is obviously much better in a Blue format). However Stigma Lasher is a fine option, especially if you fear Kitchen Finks. As I’ve said repeatedly, this slot is up in the air and I think most of the choices are about as good as one another… As the great Tsuyoshi Fujita once told me, it depends on the metagame.
3) Land mix, being four Ghitu Encampments and one Unwilling Recruit (that is, not a land) over five Mountains. Ghitu Encampment was okay testing Guillaume’s version but I prefer Mountain personally.
4) Puncture Blast over Shock, Lash Out, &c. this is a big one… He really seems to respect a Kitchen Finks. This card is fine, but I think I prefer Lash Out to fix my draw, especially if I am down one land.
Not that the LCQ win was required by any means to validate the Demigod deck, but it certainly seems like a fine strategy for States. I will be making my recommendation here on FiveWithFlores later this week — not sure if I will have time to produce another video specifically about my deck choice before States — so definitely check back by Friday night / super early Saturday morning because you know I am apt to change my mind at the last minute (This Girl, The Legends of Team CMU, &c., &c.).
