3-1!

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Howdy wizards. No this isn’t about my predictions for tonight’s football result. Now, I know it’s Sunday but I wanted to write about my last FNM. If you hadn’t guessed, I won 3-1. This was a big deal for me as this was the first time this had happened. I’d had several weeks of getting 2-2′s, and so just wanted to get a 3-1 for once.

The previous FNM I scored 1-3. Right, not my best night (don’t get me wrong it was a fun night). But I do want to improve my deck at the same time. I scoured my cards. My early game revolved around getting my Llanwar Elves, Birds of Paradise or Somberwald Sage’s  out so that I could get something big down in turn 3. But I wanted something a touch quicker and more versatile. Strangleroot Geist for turn 2, yep, that’ll do it. Skinshifters also came in, to cover several roles. Next card to come under scrutiny was Angel of Glory’s Rise. It’s a nice card but expensive to cast and whilst great against Zombies, it didn’t quite feel right. Whilst perusing a fellow players trade folder my eyes fell upon Herald Of War. It screamed at me “put me in, put me in!” So I got and put it in. Finally I wanted something mid-game that was half decent. Restoration Angel was something that fit the bill and would work nicely with what this deck does, and would help me re-jig my Soul Bonds and prevent some targeted removal.

Changes done, Friday arrived and off I went to FNM for my usual pre-game Hot Chocolate with all the trimmings. Yum. Anyway, about the games. The following will be only brief I’m afraid (next time I’ll take notes). Match 1, and the first of two Ian’s I would play this evening. He ran a zombie, Blood Artist, Killing Wave theme deck. Game 1 was just a case of getting a Miracle Blessings of Nature on a 1:1 and simply beating him down. I had to survive some Dismember’s but we got there in the end. Game 2 I went suicidal and attacked when I shouldn’t have. Eek. Tonight my goal was to tighten up on concentrating on these lapses of concentration. To the decider. I had to mulligan, then again….and again….and again! Oh my words. I just had no land!!! And in each hand I had nothing playable for several turns. I eventually got to a Forest and Avacyn’s Pilgrim. I went with it and thankfully the ensuing turns were lucky for me. I only saw Killing Wave once, and only for 2. I wanted to keep my Sage and so took the life. In the end I just finished him off with a flyer. He was mana screwed in the last game. But a win’s a win right?

A good start was soon made better when I played the next Ian of our group. He was running a Delver deck. I’ve never faced Delver before but have heard a lot about them. Straight away a Delver came down. Awesome, I wanted my deck to eat these things for breakfast! And they did. Whilst Delver was soon transformed, my deck came in, creatures got big and he soon had no choice but to lose them to my onslaught. Game 2 was a bit more tense at first. I was soon faced by a couple of transformed Delvers, made nastier by Favorable Winds. Did I give up? Not with 2 Restoration Angel’s in my hand to Flash in when he attacked! I’d ruined his attack and ploughed on to take Game 2.

WOW. Half way through the night and I was doing great. Then Match 3. Another Delver deck that simply proceeded to Mana Leak everything I had, and Vapor Snag put whatever I did get down back into my hand. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get out my Nevermore’s to deal with Mana Leak. 0-2 in the end. But I wasn’t down beat. Although so far tonight my deck really hadn’t been playing how I expected. There was no sign what-so-ever of Wolfir and very few Soul Bonds or ramping up.

But there was still the final game to come! We had both gotten 2-1, so one of us was going to get a 3rd win. He went 1st: Forest and Llanowar Elf. So, it was going to be a who could get the biggest creature out quickest was it? Awesome, my deck does this rather well. I got down Llanowar Elves and Somberwald Sage down by turn 2. Turn 3, draw…Herald of War! Better late then never I guess. My opponent only had Birds of Paradise in the air so I was going to get some damage in soon! Then Mikaeus joined the party! This was not looking good for Neal. Herald attacked, got a counter and I put Sigarda down for 4 mana. Some crazy ramping later and we soon got to lethal damage. I still had a long way to go before securing 3-1, so I remained focused. It was a slow start with me getting just a Somberwald down and Neal 3 Birds of Paradise. He was sitting on a lot of mana, and so when he burnt my Sage to the grave, I replied in kind with Day of Judgment to level the field. I wasn’t going to let him get to a bigger creature 1st! I got down an Avacyn’s Pilgrim and Silverblade down soon after. There was nothing much in my hand so I bonded them before using Increasing Savagery on the Silverblade. But still I couldn’t risk trying break through. That was until I drew and played Craterhoof Behemoth. Ouch. Silverblade alone did 18 with Craterhoof chipping in with 10. 2-0. I had done it! I was pleased but remained gracious and shook my opponents hand to say thanks for a close and interesting game. I never did see Wolfir that night…

When I got the promo card and was told I came 2nd I was over the moon! COME ON! Now remains the fight to stay there, so stay tuned next week to see how I do!

Thanks for reading. All the best and happy gaming.

PS. I will work out how to work the Plugins thing soon!

Hello Wizards.

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Howdy fellow wizards! I hope you’re all well. I’m Alex by the way, from Lancaster in the North West of England. So, my life story….ha who am I kidding, we’re here to talk MAGIC! Ok, a little about me, but it’s how I came to play and why I play magic. Last autumn (can’t remember when exactly), I went to a friends house,where he and another mate were playing a game of something called Magic. This being a game I’d heard of but never played. I was asked if I wanted a game, hesitant at first I accepted. Let’s just say I never looked back! In the beginning we just played with whatever cards we had, we had no concept of Standard, Modern etc. I bought some boosters, made a deck with some cards chucked in and went with it. It was very much a Timmy deck. If it was big and cool and won me the odd game, I was happy.

I feel my strengths are: I try to be helpful to new players, and have some decent deck ideas (just don’t necessarily seem to get them executed right!) Now my flaws…how long have you got? Ok, I am working on them, so here goes: I sometimes play the wrong card at the wrong time, or make my intentions known too soon. I just need to take that extra few seconds and wait to see how my opponent responds to my actions. I’m possibly too self critical or too down/not enough faith in my deck at times. I can get “the face” at times too (ie things don’t go my way and BAM, sad face). But this is something I am aware of and will improve so as to improve the game not just for me but opponent too. I need to think a few moves ahead sometimes too. Ok, not too many. There are probably more but I’m working on it.

Ok, fast forward a few months and I had found out about the local FNM club. So I went in and found out what I needed to do to play. Thankfully I had a fairly Standard deck due to having started playing with the M12 cards. I went in; I saw…and was conquered! Ok I was annihilated ….but it was fun and I met a few kind people who helped me with a few tips. My first couple of weeks I was using a Blue/Black Zombies deck, and lost most if not all my games. But I was learning fast. I then peddled my Black/Red tribal Vampires and they got me a couple of 2/2’s in the coming weeks.  These guys revolved around getting big and powerful, and burning the opponents creatures (but more about these guys in another blog).

May 4th was the release of Avacyn Restored. The week before, I went to the pre-release for the draft. I hadn’t drafted before, and not being a tactical genius I was quite happy to have won 2/5. When I got home, I looked at these cards and what they did. Now, my Vamps were my main deck, but I wanted to make a new deck. I was drawn to some of the powerful green creatures, namely a certain Wolfir Silverheart!! Ok, a green deck it was. But then I got a fat pack and got Craterhoof Behemoth and Avacyn. Being a bit of a Timmy player I just had to have a deck with them in, so Green/White it was. Anyway, to cut a long story short my deck has had quite a few face lifts to get to where it is now. Thankfully there’s a good little group of us that help us to try and improve our decks, and just have good, fun games. I’ve really tried take on board advice to focus on making these guys work, removing dead cards, making the strengths of the deck stronger (before I tried having the deck do several things…which I soon realised did not work). So without further ado here is my latest incarnation, and why these cards are in there:

LAND (23)

  • 11 Forest
  • 2 Gavony Township (to make my creatures bigger)
  • 9 Plains
  • 1 Sunpetal Grove
CREATURES (23)
  • 2 Avacyn’s Pilgrim (Gives me Plains)
  • 1 Birds of Paradise (Mana, mana, mana)
  • 1 Craterhoof Behemoth (He’s big and nasty and causes chaos)
  • 1 Herald of War (Just got this card in a trade. It’s been on the field once at the time of writing. I’m not going to lie, it was a revelation. Herald and Mikaeus…helloooo!)
  • 2 Llanowar Elves (Representing the Welsh…I mean more mana!)
  • 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch (Makes my creatures bigger)
  • 2 Restoration Angel (Recent addition to the deck. Fast becoming a favoured card. So many uses.)
  • 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons (She’s cool and I like bonding her with Wolfir. My opponents don’t, but I do!)
  • 2 Silverblade Paladin (They’re AWESOME!)
  • 2 Skinshifters (Recent addition to give me more versatility. Attacked by something big? 0/8 defender coming up. Need a flyer? No problem. Need some guaranteed damage? sure 4/4 Rhino with trample coming up)
  • 2 Somberwald Sages (Turn 1: play land and mana producing creature. Turn 2: land and Somberwald. Turn 3, play land and get up to a 7 drop down!)
  • 2 Strangleroot Geist (On reflecting on recent games, I felt I wanted something quicker early on. Great with haste and combo’d with Cloudshift or Restoration Angel equals a potential pain for the enemy)
  • 1 Ulvenwald Tracker (Something annoying on the field? Use this guy to unleash his pet….WOLFIR!)
  • Wolfir Silverheart (If my deck had a captain, he’s it. Just love the card pure and simple)

SPELLS (14)

  • 1 Angelic Desting (It’s cool)
  • 2 Blessings of Nature (Makes creatures bigger, need I say more?)
  • 1 Day of Judgment (Possible SB card, but comes in hand now and then)
  • 2 Fog (Useful to keep me in the game)
  • 2 Increasing Savagery (Had this card used against me recently, decided it was awesome and that I needed these cards!)
  • 4 Oblivion Rings (Like Marmite…I like Marmite)
  • 1 Overrun (A little costly, but usually equals win when played

SIDEBOARD (15)

  • 2 Bonds of Faith (Useful for stopping BIG creatures in their tracks)
  • 2 Cloudshift (These are in here if I face a burn deck. Possibly could shift into main deck with the recent inclusion of Restoration Angels)
  • 2 Divine Deflection (If things start burning or hitting hard, I can prevent some of this and chuck it back at them)
  • 2 Elixir of Immortality (Put in here due to having faced a turbo fog/mill deck. Vowed to  annihilate him next time I face him :)
  • 1 Fiend Hunter (Initially chucked in for a bit more creature removal. Since inclusion of Restoration Angels, this guy could be nasty!)
  • 1 Sever the Bloodline (Useful for token removal, will alter land accordingly at some point!)
  • 2 Naturalize (Just in case)
  • 2 Nevermore (There to try and stop annoying cards, like Mana Leak, Ponder, Day of Judgment, Terminus etc)
  • 1 Witchbane Orb (Makes me hexproof! To go in against burn, and to stop Geralf’s Messenger and the like)

WOW. There we go. That’s my deck and reasons for the cards inclusions. I’m definitely interested in your thoughts, ideas and after any advice or useful tips.

I   think I’ve written enough now. I used this list at FNM last night. Now I thought, I’ll be composed, relaxed and focus. I won 3-1 and came 2nd! Big thanks to people’s help and tips. Now to maintain this! I shall post a brief outline of my games very soon!

All the best wizards, happy gaming!

Alex