It’s Friday night. Pajjar has a big paper due soon. Second, Linda, Vern, and Lig are in Duluth. Chong is having dinner with his coworkers. SSSssssoooooo that means that Peter and I went to FNM (it was Standard night). We went to Nova Games in Maplewood. There were about 8 of us playing with about 15 people there total. Peter played “Red Deck Wins,” while I played Quick ‘n Toast.
A guy playing fairies (Bitterblossums, Cryptic Commands, Mistbind Cliques, Scions of Oona, etc.) won 1st place and $12 worth of store credit. Another guy, 14 years old, played Kithkin (Figures of Destiny, Ajani Goldmains, Elspeths, etc) won 2nd place and $8 worth of store credit, PETER GOT 3rd PLACE and $4 worth of store credit, and I got 4th place with a 3-1 record and zippo in store credit.
Here’s my deck list:
13 Creatures:
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Mulldrifters
2 River Kelpies (I’m going to remove this guy. He slows me down because he forces me to play 5 mana during my turn and leaving my unable to counter my opponent’s spells.)
3 Cloudthresher (This guy won me a bunch of games, I normally evoke him then Makeshift Mannequin him but sometimes it’s fun to flash him in at the end of my opponent’s attack step to block their creatures.)
23 Spells:
2 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Sylvan Scrying (Let’s me grab Reflecting Pools or Treetop Villages)
2 Oona’s Grace (Great card for longer games. Wanted to use it in conjunction with River Kelpie, but never really worked. River Kelpie just slowed my deck down.)
4 Punish Ignorace (Great card! Counter a spell, you lose 3 life, I gain 3 life. 4 of these and 4 Kitchen Finks allowed me to gain plenty of life to win many games.)
3 Broken Ambitions (One of my favorite counterspells! Winning Clash is so much fun, especially when your opponent flips a Planeswalker into their graveyard.)
4 Firespout (An essential against weenie decks!)
3 Oblivion Ring (Wished I played with four because those Planeswalkers absolutely killed me.)
2 Austere Command (A Lifesaver!!! Great against creatures, enchantments, and artifacts! Saved me a bunch of times because of creatures with a toughness of 4 or higher.)
24 Lands:
2 Treetop Village (Playing with 3 slows me down. Like I said, I prefer to use cards that leave me mana to counter.)
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Seaside Citadel
1 Arcane Sacntum
1 Crumbling Necropolis
4 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Grove
1 Graven Cairns
1 Wooded Bastion
2 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Plains
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Forest
15 Sideboard:
4 Burrenton Forge-Tender (Essential for against red decks.)
2 Shriekmaw (Great against agro decks.
1 Oblivion Ring (This should have been in my main deck.)
1 Austere Command
2 Jund Charm (To fight against Unearth and Retrace ability.)
4 Naturalize (Never used them because of my Austere Commands, might reduce or replace in the future.)
1 Makeshift Mannequin
Match 1: 2-0 vs. Hanie’s W/R Kithkin Deck (Normal Kithkin stuff, Figures of Destiny, Incinerates, Ajani Vengeants, Rise of Hobgoblins, Lightning Talons)
I controlled the match pretty well because of Firespouts, Austere Commands, and O-Rings. He did have a couple of Ajani Vengeant but I was able to counter or O-Ring them. I’m so glad that Planeswalkers are permanents! If I knew that before the event I would of played with four Oblivion Rings! He got mana-screwed in the second game.
Match 2: 0-2 vs. Justin’s W Kithkin Deck (Normal Kithkin stuff, Figures of Destiny, Ajani Goldmains, and Elsepths, Knight-Erran, Battlegrace Angel)
In the first game he had mana trouble but eventually he was able to get both Ajani and Elsepth out and I could not do anything! No O-Rings, no nothing. In the second game, he got a Knight of Meadowgrain out with a couple of Wizened Cenns and more Planeswalkers! Yes! He got out Ajani and Elsepth out again! I also had some minor mana problems, but the next things I knew I was down to half my life by turn 4 or 5. This kid eventually went on to win 2nd place but could of won first. He’s not that great of a player, he just pretty much puts down stuff and attacks like crazy. He doesn’t think things through.
Match 3: 2-0 vs. James W/U/G Bant Deck (Lots of Exalted cards, Empyrial Archangel, Clarion Ultimatum, Jhessian Infiltrator)
Controlled the game well with Firespouts and Austere Commands. I also remember beating him with two Treetop Villages and he showed me three Oblivion Rings in his hand. Hahahaha… He did do something cool though, he had a bunch of exalted cards out and would attack with an unblockable Jhessian Infiltrator. Luckily I saved my counterspells for his Archangel and Ultimatums, whew!!!
Match 4: 2-1 vs. Drew (store owner’s son) W/U/B/R Control/Discard Deck (Tidehollow Strix, Sedraxis Specter, Tower Gargoyle, Esper Charm, Grixis Charm, Agony Warp, Nameless Inversion, Blightning)
Probably the most original deck I saw there. He kept on making me discard my creatures, which was fine with me because I would just Makeshift Mannequin them back into play. I also remember that he double Blightning me TWICE! 6 damage and 4 cards gone! TWICE! It’s okay though, because one time I drew a Makeshift Mannequin and brought back a Cloudthresher which one me the game. I also Punish Ignoranced him when he had only 3 life left, so that was a cool win as well.
I had a great time! Peter was super hardcore man! He would sit there between matches and look at his cards. And he would be all business during the matches. I, on the other hand, would introduce myself and tell my opponent good play when deserved, shake my head back-and-forth when I knew I was about to lose, you know, things like that. I just wanted to make sure that the match was fun, which is the first rule of Magic, HAVE FUN! I think next time I might go play FNM at Universe Game because I want more of a challenge. But if I don’t feel like driving far or just want to play a weak, casual deck or if I want to increase my DCI points, I’ll go to Nova Games.
I also found out that Universe Games and their other store, Chaos Games, has $10 booster drafts! YES! They’re DCI sanctioned as long as at least 8 people show up. But here’s the catch! The rares and foils are redrafted after the tournament is over! So if you win the tournament you get first pick of all the rares and foils, then second place picks next and so on. I like that! So many times you draft a rare because you want it, not so much because you need it to make your deck better. This method allows you to skip rares and build the best deck in hopes of getting first pick of the rares and foils. But I can also see it going the other way, where you could lose a good rare, like a Planeswalker. There’s also the regular $14 dollar booster draft where you get to keep what you drafted and there are prizes. Universe and Chaos Games said that they will let you decide which draft you want to do before the draft actually begins. Cool!
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