Post by crazytripper on Oct 31, 2011 2:57:22 GMT -6
I attached my deck in .dek file for manipulation via Magic Online to make it easier for you guys.
I attended the PTQ in Little Rock Arkansas on October 29th. Me, Erik, Craig, and John Canville.
Craig ended up winning the whole thing.
Anyway I felt my card pool was interesting with the number of choices it gave me.
Here it is:
Land
1 Plains (Foil)
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Shimmering Grotto
Artifact
2 Cellar Door
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Trepanation Blade
1 Wooden Stake
Multi-Color
1 Olivia Voldaren
Black
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Dead Weight
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Maw of the Mire
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Unburial Rites
1 Walking Corpse
Blue
2 Delver of Secrets
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Fortress Crab
1 Hysterical Blindness
1 Lantern Spirit
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Moon Heron
1 Silent Departure
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Sturmgeist
Green
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Gatstaf Shepherd
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Lumberknot (Foil)
1 Moonmist
1 Mulch
1 Naturalize
1 Orchard Spirit
2 Ranger's Guile
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Spider Spawning
1 Woodland Sleuth
1 Wreath of Geists
Red
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Desperate Ravings
1 Furor of the Bitten
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Infernal Plunge
1 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Kessig Wolf
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
2 Vampiric Fury
1 Village Ironsmith
White
1 Avacynian Priest
1 Bonds of Faith
1 Elder Cathar
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Gallows Warden
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Nevermore
1 Purify the Grave
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Selfless Cathar
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Thraben Purebloods
2 Unruly Mob
Reviewing the Lands
Nephalia Drownyard can be very good in a solid UB pool, Ghost Quarter can be maindeckable and is good to have out of the board to fight powerhouse lands like Gavony Township, and having two Shimmering Grottos means I will be able to splash Flashback effects easily or just have a third color.
Reviewing the Artifacts
The Cellar Doors can be fine if you need them. Hopefully you don't though. Geistcatcher's Rig is going to be an auto-include unless the deck is absolutely broken. I am not a fan of either of the equipment in this pool.
Reviewing the Multi-Color
Go go Olivia Voldaren. Woo-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooooooh.
Reviewing the Black
Skirsday Cultist is a good man and a fine card. Falkenrath Noble is also a fine card to be running. Three pieces of removal are included, though mostly situational, but the most important parts about black happen to be that it is half of Olivia's colors and it includes Unburial Rites. This color has issues as far as curve is concerned so it needs to be paired with a color with more early game. You will likely have to play cards like Walking Corpse and Stromkirk Patrol to fill out your deck if this ends up being one of your main colors.
Reviewing Blue
This color has some power in it. Three solid fliers, a good ground guy, a mana dork, and a spell to help dig for what you need. It does not, however, have any depth or removal. You get eight solid cards and that is all. It would need to be paired with a color with a decent amount of removal/disruption.
Reviewing Green
There is nothing powerful going on in this pile. Move along....nothing to see here.
Reviewing Red
BYAH!!! Balefire Dragon wins games by himself, Olivia wins games by herself, and they happen to both be red and both be in my pool. I also have two removal spells that can kill most of the creatures in the format.(Harvest Pyre and Into the Maw of Hell) Geistflame can be an early game blowout, not to mention Reckless Waif on turn 1 if they don't have an early play can put you pretty far ahead. This color is rocking and rolling at the same time. Thank you very much!
Reviewing White
Not that powerful of a pile. First it does give me two solid pieces of removal, plus a tapper, plus a way to deal with enchantments. It also happens to be the Flashback color for Unburial Rites. It also gives me a solid flier some surprise fliers and a group of early dorks. It isn't broken but it will be more consistent for a deck looking for early game.
Overall I know that Red is going to be my main color. I also know that I will at least want to splash black for Olivia Voldaren and most likely Unburial Rites. So the first build I came up with first is the obvious.
8 Mountain
7 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Dead Weight
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Unburial Rites
1 Walking Corpse
I cut the 2nd Kessig Wolf for a Riot Devils to reduce being blown out by Geistflame.
This list has a fine curve, decent removal, and bombs. The key problem is that the removal is mostly situational and I have no way to deal with problem enchantments. Corpse Lunge is frequently very bad and Morkrut Banshee is easy to play around.
So I went looking for what other combinations I could build.
The next most likely is Red/White splashing black. This gives me four removal spells for most of the top baddies, a tapper, an answer to a problem enchantment, a good early curve, and two bombs. This looks like the most powerful of the builds, because there is less overall filler compared to the RB version. It would look something like this.
7 Mountain
7 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Unburial Rites
1 Avacynian Priest
1 Bonds of Faith
1 Elder Cathar
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Gallows Warden
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Thraben Purebloods
2 Unruly Mob
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
This seemed pretty solid. There was however one more option and that was a Red/Blue deck splashing black. This one wouldn't have as much early game and would have to run more filler red creatures due to the blue not being that deep, but Evasion can win games. Not to mention the black splash also covers the flashback for Forbidden Alchemy and with double Grotto you can probably pick up the Unburial Rites Flashback with decent consistency. That list would look like this.
7 Mountain
7 Island
1 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Desparate Ravings
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Unburial Rites
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Lantern Spirit
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Moon Heron
1 Silent Departure
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Sturmgeist
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
In the end I felt pretty rushed to complete building my deck and went with the list that could answer more problems. All three lists ran each of my mythics and the Unburial Rites. So my starting list was the Red/White splashing Black list that is above.
And now for the tournament report on how things played.
Rd 1 Corey Joffrion playing BW
Game 1 pretty much comes down to the fact that he plays turn four Bloodline Keeper so I play turn four Olivia and he has turn five Slayer of the Wicked. I never draw a way to deal with the Keeper and die to an onslaught of vampires.
Game 2 I board into the RB deck and he mulligans. I curve out and he dies pretty early before he can do anything to legitimately affect the board.
Game 3 I keep the RB deck and it all comes down to one big turn. My hand is Into the Maw of Hell, Corpse Lunge, Harvest Pyre, Kessig Wolf, Riot Devils. My board is six lands, Reckless Waif, Hanweir Watchkeep, Morkrut Banshee. My Graveyard is Geistflame, Ashmouth Hound. I am at 12 life. His board is four lands, a Chapel Geist with a Silver-Inlaid Dagger equipped to it, a 2/2 Vampire token, a 2/2 Zombie token, Cloistered Youth. He is at 14 life. The big thing is that last turn he didn't attack with the 2/2 Vampire token, only the Chapel Geist. Now one of the things I can do is Into the Maw of Hell his Geist. If he continues to treat the Vampire token as if it doesn't have flying then I will remain in good shape with my removal full hand. The Cloistered Youth becoming an Unholy Fiend could become problematic depending on what else he has or it could remain a dork for a while. I decide to pass turn and with the upkeep trigger on the stack Geistflame the Cloistered Youth. This allows both Werewolves to flip and puts me in a position to be more aggressive. If he attacks for six damage in the air I am in trouble, but it could be worse. He only attacks for four damage in the air, but then plays Slayer of the Wicked to take care of my Bane of Hanweir. Overall this ends up costing me the game in more ways than one. He never shows me a fifth land which means if I would have Into the Maw of Helled his Chapel Geist then I am fine since most of what he played in the remaining turns were four drops. Also he probably wouldn't have flipped the Youth into a Fiend immediately since I had a Banshee in play. He said he was holding a Sever the Bloodline all game but stuck on three land I am sure he wouldn't have flipped it at all. Basically bad play. I tried to get a little too much value out of the Geistflame and paid for it.
Matches 0-1
RWb games 0-1
RB games 1-1
Rd 2 Trey Ballew playing UW
Game 1 shows me mulligan and keep a two land hand. I never draw a third land, but by the nature of the White I still have a play through most of the turns of the game. Though few of them are relevant. He shows me a ton of fliers including two Murder of Crows. He didn't have to show me the second he just wanted to exclamation point me I suppose.
Game 2 I switch to RB and he mulligans. We have some back and forth he Bonds of Faiths two of my guys. I play dragon and wrath his board. He rips his third Bonds of Faith and slaps it on the dragon, though this is just as pointless as the second Murder of Crows game one as I still have lethal with what is on my board. For fun I Flashback the Unburial Rites in my yard for one of my creatures before I attack for lethal and he shows me Dissipate as well. Good to know.
Game 3 is frustrating. He plays turn two Invisible Stalker, turn 3 Butcher's Cleaver, turn 4 equip Butcher's Cleaver. I manage to deal him 20 damage over the course of the game. He wins the game at 16 life though, so whatever.
Matches 0-2
RWb games 0-2
RB games 2-2
Rd 3 Eric Centauri playing UW
Game 1 He double mulligans and I flood a little but I resolve the Dragon and he doesn't have an answer to it so we move on to game 2.
Game 2 I switch to RB and he mulligans. He plays turn 2 Invisible Stalker, turn 3 Silver-Inlaid Dagger equip, turn 4 Inquisitor's Flail equip. I have a solid hand, but I have zero answers to Invisible Stalker. I die on turn 5 without interaction.
Game 3 I keep a three land hand with Olivia and Unburial Rites. I never draw a fourth land. He figures out how to kill me over the course of the game as I draw all of my high end cards and can do nothing. After the game I ask him if he has an answer to Olivia on turn 4 and he says no. So if I had drawn any land by my fourth turn I win easily with how things played out.
Matches 0-3
RWb games 1-2
RB games 2-4
Rd 4 John Canville playing UGB
Game 1 I keep a two land hand and never draw a third.
Game 2 I switch to RB and He double mulligans and never sees a second land.
Game 3 is an interesting game that mostly involves me slow rolling the Dragon until he taps low enough that I know he can't counter it. I didn't know what counters he had in his deck but I put him on something over the course of the game. He shows me that it was a Dissipate and a Lost in the Mist.
Dragon gets there.
Matches 1-3
RWb games 1-3
RB games 4-4
Rd 5 Jason Potter playing GW
Game 1 Is a fun game mostly because it turns into a race that I know I am going to win, because of the removal in my hand. I get a two for one with Geistflame and kill another dork with Midnight Haunting surprise. He gets me to four, but I was in control the entire game.
Game 2 I switch to URb and keep a two land hand never drawing a third.
Game 3 I switch to RB and he double mulligans and never draws a spell he can cast.
Matches 2-3
RWb games 2-3
URb games 0-1
RB games 5-4
Rd 6 Anthony Wood playing BW
Game 1 He mulligans and I keep a two land hand and never draw a third. It takes him FOREVER to kill me. I mean it wasn't until like turn 7 that he finally got some damage in. Alas no third land means that everything I have is irrelevant and I eventually die.
Game 2 I switch to RB and we have a mildly interesting game. I go turn 2 Skirsdag High Priest and spend some time setting up a board full of creatures. Then he plays Blazing Torch and equips it to a creature. He has Falkenrath Noble in play and ships turn. I draw my own Falkenrath Noble cast it then attack with an Ashmouth Hound into his board. I have 4 total untapped creatures after the attack. I simply hope he doesn't kill my Priest before something dies. He blocks with his torched up guy and then shoots my Noble. So I make a 5/5 Demon. The next turn I rip a removal spell for his Noble and make another 5/5 Demon. I then ask why he didn't kill my Priest with the Torch and he rage scoops.
Game 3 we both mulligan and he never draws a third land.
Matches 3-3
RWb games 2-4
URb games 0-1
RB games 7-4
Very few of my games were interactive. Five of my game losses were to not drawing land with 17 land decks. Two losses were to Invisible Stalker with equipment on him, One was to an unanswered Bloodline Keeper and the last was to a legitimate play mistake or at least a poor play decision. Very few of my games were interactive. Between me and my opponent there were 13 total mulligans(odd coincidence considering 13 is the Innistrad number). Not very much to be learned really. I tried the URb list once because the GW guy was all ground dorks. I then quickly switched to the RB and got there. If I had it to do over again I might run 18 land and start the RB list. I do think that the white gives it more oomph. I am interested in any thoughts by you guys on what you would have done with the pool. Each of the three lists presented I feel are legitimate, though each might need to have an 18th land. Hindsight is almost always 20/20.
I attended the PTQ in Little Rock Arkansas on October 29th. Me, Erik, Craig, and John Canville.
Craig ended up winning the whole thing.
Anyway I felt my card pool was interesting with the number of choices it gave me.
Here it is:
Land
1 Plains (Foil)
1 Nephalia Drownyard
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Shimmering Grotto
Artifact
2 Cellar Door
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Trepanation Blade
1 Wooden Stake
Multi-Color
1 Olivia Voldaren
Black
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Dead Weight
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Maw of the Mire
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Unburial Rites
1 Walking Corpse
Blue
2 Delver of Secrets
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Fortress Crab
1 Hysterical Blindness
1 Lantern Spirit
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Moon Heron
1 Silent Departure
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Sturmgeist
Green
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Gatstaf Shepherd
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Lumberknot (Foil)
1 Moonmist
1 Mulch
1 Naturalize
1 Orchard Spirit
2 Ranger's Guile
1 Somberwald Spider
1 Spider Spawning
1 Woodland Sleuth
1 Wreath of Geists
Red
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Desperate Ravings
1 Furor of the Bitten
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Infernal Plunge
1 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Kessig Wolf
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
2 Vampiric Fury
1 Village Ironsmith
White
1 Avacynian Priest
1 Bonds of Faith
1 Elder Cathar
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Gallows Warden
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Nevermore
1 Purify the Grave
1 Rally the Peasants
1 Selfless Cathar
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Thraben Purebloods
2 Unruly Mob
Reviewing the Lands
Nephalia Drownyard can be very good in a solid UB pool, Ghost Quarter can be maindeckable and is good to have out of the board to fight powerhouse lands like Gavony Township, and having two Shimmering Grottos means I will be able to splash Flashback effects easily or just have a third color.
Reviewing the Artifacts
The Cellar Doors can be fine if you need them. Hopefully you don't though. Geistcatcher's Rig is going to be an auto-include unless the deck is absolutely broken. I am not a fan of either of the equipment in this pool.
Reviewing the Multi-Color
Go go Olivia Voldaren. Woo-Ooh-Ooh-Ooh-Ooooooh.
Reviewing the Black
Skirsday Cultist is a good man and a fine card. Falkenrath Noble is also a fine card to be running. Three pieces of removal are included, though mostly situational, but the most important parts about black happen to be that it is half of Olivia's colors and it includes Unburial Rites. This color has issues as far as curve is concerned so it needs to be paired with a color with more early game. You will likely have to play cards like Walking Corpse and Stromkirk Patrol to fill out your deck if this ends up being one of your main colors.
Reviewing Blue
This color has some power in it. Three solid fliers, a good ground guy, a mana dork, and a spell to help dig for what you need. It does not, however, have any depth or removal. You get eight solid cards and that is all. It would need to be paired with a color with a decent amount of removal/disruption.
Reviewing Green
There is nothing powerful going on in this pile. Move along....nothing to see here.
Reviewing Red
BYAH!!! Balefire Dragon wins games by himself, Olivia wins games by herself, and they happen to both be red and both be in my pool. I also have two removal spells that can kill most of the creatures in the format.(Harvest Pyre and Into the Maw of Hell) Geistflame can be an early game blowout, not to mention Reckless Waif on turn 1 if they don't have an early play can put you pretty far ahead. This color is rocking and rolling at the same time. Thank you very much!
Reviewing White
Not that powerful of a pile. First it does give me two solid pieces of removal, plus a tapper, plus a way to deal with enchantments. It also happens to be the Flashback color for Unburial Rites. It also gives me a solid flier some surprise fliers and a group of early dorks. It isn't broken but it will be more consistent for a deck looking for early game.
Overall I know that Red is going to be my main color. I also know that I will at least want to splash black for Olivia Voldaren and most likely Unburial Rites. So the first build I came up with first is the obvious.
8 Mountain
7 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Corpse Lunge
1 Dead Weight
1 Falkenrath Noble
1 Ghoulcaller's Chant
1 Morkrut Banshee
1 Skirsdag High Priest
2 Stromkirk Patrol
1 Typhoid Rats
1 Unburial Rites
1 Walking Corpse
I cut the 2nd Kessig Wolf for a Riot Devils to reduce being blown out by Geistflame.
This list has a fine curve, decent removal, and bombs. The key problem is that the removal is mostly situational and I have no way to deal with problem enchantments. Corpse Lunge is frequently very bad and Morkrut Banshee is easy to play around.
So I went looking for what other combinations I could build.
The next most likely is Red/White splashing black. This gives me four removal spells for most of the top baddies, a tapper, an answer to a problem enchantment, a good early curve, and two bombs. This looks like the most powerful of the builds, because there is less overall filler compared to the RB version. It would look something like this.
7 Mountain
7 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
1 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Unburial Rites
1 Avacynian Priest
1 Bonds of Faith
1 Elder Cathar
1 Fiend Hunter
1 Gallows Warden
1 Midnight Haunting
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Thraben Purebloods
2 Unruly Mob
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
This seemed pretty solid. There was however one more option and that was a Red/Blue deck splashing black. This one wouldn't have as much early game and would have to run more filler red creatures due to the blue not being that deep, but Evasion can win games. Not to mention the black splash also covers the flashback for Forbidden Alchemy and with double Grotto you can probably pick up the Unburial Rites Flashback with decent consistency. That list would look like this.
7 Mountain
7 Island
1 Swamp
2 Shimmering Grotto
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Crossway Vampire
1 Desparate Ravings
1 Geistflame
1 Hanweir Watchkeep
1 Harvest Pyre
1 Into the Maw of Hell
2 Kessig Wolf
1 Reckless Waif
1 Riot Devils
1 Olivia Voldaren
1 Unburial Rites
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Lantern Spirit
1 Makeshift Mauler
1 Moon Heron
1 Silent Departure
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
1 Sturmgeist
1 Geistcatcher's Rig
In the end I felt pretty rushed to complete building my deck and went with the list that could answer more problems. All three lists ran each of my mythics and the Unburial Rites. So my starting list was the Red/White splashing Black list that is above.
And now for the tournament report on how things played.
Rd 1 Corey Joffrion playing BW
Game 1 pretty much comes down to the fact that he plays turn four Bloodline Keeper so I play turn four Olivia and he has turn five Slayer of the Wicked. I never draw a way to deal with the Keeper and die to an onslaught of vampires.
Game 2 I board into the RB deck and he mulligans. I curve out and he dies pretty early before he can do anything to legitimately affect the board.
Game 3 I keep the RB deck and it all comes down to one big turn. My hand is Into the Maw of Hell, Corpse Lunge, Harvest Pyre, Kessig Wolf, Riot Devils. My board is six lands, Reckless Waif, Hanweir Watchkeep, Morkrut Banshee. My Graveyard is Geistflame, Ashmouth Hound. I am at 12 life. His board is four lands, a Chapel Geist with a Silver-Inlaid Dagger equipped to it, a 2/2 Vampire token, a 2/2 Zombie token, Cloistered Youth. He is at 14 life. The big thing is that last turn he didn't attack with the 2/2 Vampire token, only the Chapel Geist. Now one of the things I can do is Into the Maw of Hell his Geist. If he continues to treat the Vampire token as if it doesn't have flying then I will remain in good shape with my removal full hand. The Cloistered Youth becoming an Unholy Fiend could become problematic depending on what else he has or it could remain a dork for a while. I decide to pass turn and with the upkeep trigger on the stack Geistflame the Cloistered Youth. This allows both Werewolves to flip and puts me in a position to be more aggressive. If he attacks for six damage in the air I am in trouble, but it could be worse. He only attacks for four damage in the air, but then plays Slayer of the Wicked to take care of my Bane of Hanweir. Overall this ends up costing me the game in more ways than one. He never shows me a fifth land which means if I would have Into the Maw of Helled his Chapel Geist then I am fine since most of what he played in the remaining turns were four drops. Also he probably wouldn't have flipped the Youth into a Fiend immediately since I had a Banshee in play. He said he was holding a Sever the Bloodline all game but stuck on three land I am sure he wouldn't have flipped it at all. Basically bad play. I tried to get a little too much value out of the Geistflame and paid for it.
Matches 0-1
RWb games 0-1
RB games 1-1
Rd 2 Trey Ballew playing UW
Game 1 shows me mulligan and keep a two land hand. I never draw a third land, but by the nature of the White I still have a play through most of the turns of the game. Though few of them are relevant. He shows me a ton of fliers including two Murder of Crows. He didn't have to show me the second he just wanted to exclamation point me I suppose.
Game 2 I switch to RB and he mulligans. We have some back and forth he Bonds of Faiths two of my guys. I play dragon and wrath his board. He rips his third Bonds of Faith and slaps it on the dragon, though this is just as pointless as the second Murder of Crows game one as I still have lethal with what is on my board. For fun I Flashback the Unburial Rites in my yard for one of my creatures before I attack for lethal and he shows me Dissipate as well. Good to know.
Game 3 is frustrating. He plays turn two Invisible Stalker, turn 3 Butcher's Cleaver, turn 4 equip Butcher's Cleaver. I manage to deal him 20 damage over the course of the game. He wins the game at 16 life though, so whatever.
Matches 0-2
RWb games 0-2
RB games 2-2
Rd 3 Eric Centauri playing UW
Game 1 He double mulligans and I flood a little but I resolve the Dragon and he doesn't have an answer to it so we move on to game 2.
Game 2 I switch to RB and he mulligans. He plays turn 2 Invisible Stalker, turn 3 Silver-Inlaid Dagger equip, turn 4 Inquisitor's Flail equip. I have a solid hand, but I have zero answers to Invisible Stalker. I die on turn 5 without interaction.
Game 3 I keep a three land hand with Olivia and Unburial Rites. I never draw a fourth land. He figures out how to kill me over the course of the game as I draw all of my high end cards and can do nothing. After the game I ask him if he has an answer to Olivia on turn 4 and he says no. So if I had drawn any land by my fourth turn I win easily with how things played out.
Matches 0-3
RWb games 1-2
RB games 2-4
Rd 4 John Canville playing UGB
Game 1 I keep a two land hand and never draw a third.
Game 2 I switch to RB and He double mulligans and never sees a second land.
Game 3 is an interesting game that mostly involves me slow rolling the Dragon until he taps low enough that I know he can't counter it. I didn't know what counters he had in his deck but I put him on something over the course of the game. He shows me that it was a Dissipate and a Lost in the Mist.
Dragon gets there.
Matches 1-3
RWb games 1-3
RB games 4-4
Rd 5 Jason Potter playing GW
Game 1 Is a fun game mostly because it turns into a race that I know I am going to win, because of the removal in my hand. I get a two for one with Geistflame and kill another dork with Midnight Haunting surprise. He gets me to four, but I was in control the entire game.
Game 2 I switch to URb and keep a two land hand never drawing a third.
Game 3 I switch to RB and he double mulligans and never draws a spell he can cast.
Matches 2-3
RWb games 2-3
URb games 0-1
RB games 5-4
Rd 6 Anthony Wood playing BW
Game 1 He mulligans and I keep a two land hand and never draw a third. It takes him FOREVER to kill me. I mean it wasn't until like turn 7 that he finally got some damage in. Alas no third land means that everything I have is irrelevant and I eventually die.
Game 2 I switch to RB and we have a mildly interesting game. I go turn 2 Skirsdag High Priest and spend some time setting up a board full of creatures. Then he plays Blazing Torch and equips it to a creature. He has Falkenrath Noble in play and ships turn. I draw my own Falkenrath Noble cast it then attack with an Ashmouth Hound into his board. I have 4 total untapped creatures after the attack. I simply hope he doesn't kill my Priest before something dies. He blocks with his torched up guy and then shoots my Noble. So I make a 5/5 Demon. The next turn I rip a removal spell for his Noble and make another 5/5 Demon. I then ask why he didn't kill my Priest with the Torch and he rage scoops.
Game 3 we both mulligan and he never draws a third land.
Matches 3-3
RWb games 2-4
URb games 0-1
RB games 7-4
Very few of my games were interactive. Five of my game losses were to not drawing land with 17 land decks. Two losses were to Invisible Stalker with equipment on him, One was to an unanswered Bloodline Keeper and the last was to a legitimate play mistake or at least a poor play decision. Very few of my games were interactive. Between me and my opponent there were 13 total mulligans(odd coincidence considering 13 is the Innistrad number). Not very much to be learned really. I tried the URb list once because the GW guy was all ground dorks. I then quickly switched to the RB and got there. If I had it to do over again I might run 18 land and start the RB list. I do think that the white gives it more oomph. I am interested in any thoughts by you guys on what you would have done with the pool. Each of the three lists presented I feel are legitimate, though each might need to have an 18th land. Hindsight is almost always 20/20.
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