FNM @ Outpost 2000 & Beyond (Coon Rapids, MN) on 05/08/09

I did it again! I got my 2nd first place finish at FNM. My first came from TNM (Tuesday Night Magic) at the Source. I actually tied for first against someone, we went 1-1-1 when time and our five extra turns expired.

About 24 people showed up. Blong went 3-1 with his Jund Mana Ramp Deck and I went 4-0 with my 5-Color Deck. Here’s the deck (it’s based off of Chapin’s 5-Color Deck):

2 Anathemancer (amazing card, definitely will have an impact on the metagame)
4 Bloodbraid Elf (my MVP!)
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Kitchen Finks (favorite card to get from Bloodbraid Elf)
2 Sen Triplets (just wanted to try it out, not great in this deck)
2 Shriekmaw

2 Bituminous Blast (WOW! This card was so much fun to play with!)
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Cryptic Command
4 Esper Charm
1 Pyroclasm
2 Volcanic Fallout

2 Jace Beleren
1 Mind Stone

26 lands

Sideboard:
3 Austere Command
2 Ajani Vengeant
2 Volcanic Fallout
2 Runed Halo
1 Pithing Needle
2 Negate
3 Swerve

Round 1 vs. Steve’s 5-Color Agro Deck (a bunch of “blades” from AR & Crystalization, etc.)

I felt bad because my deck just had more expensive cards than his. I crushed him in both games. I even had a little mana hiccup in the 2nd game but when I got my Broodmate out, he couldn’t do anything.

Round Turnout: 2-0
Overall Rounds: 2-0
Overall Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Dave’s Dark Bant (Doran, Qasali Pridemage, Noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise, Dramatic Entrance, Progenitus, etc.)

I won the 1st and 3rd game, Dave won the 2nd game.

Game 1: Our first game was epic, it took almost 30 minutes to finish. I got pretty lucky in this game. He had a turn 2 Doran, while I had a turn 2 Vivid Land. I kept making mistakes blocking his creatures because I forgot that his Doran made my Kitchen Finks 2/3’s not 3/2’s. Eventually, he got me all the way down to 2 life. He had a Birds in play, which would of finished me because it would of got Exalted, luckily I was able to Bituminous Blast it and cascaded into a Kitchen Finks, pushing me up to 4 life. He attacked with a 2/8 Doran (which turns into an 8/8 pretty much) and I chump blocked with my Finks pushing my life up to 6. Next turn I played a Bloodbraid Elf, which cascaded into another Finks! The next turn I chump blocked his Doran again pushing my life back up 10! The next turn I played a Broodmate Dragon but had to double blocked it against his Doran. Eventually I won the game with 2 Bloodbraid Elves! Like I said earlier, I got lucky in this game. He had 3 Dramatic Entrances in his hand and didn’t draw any of his 4 Progenti!

Game 2: He had another turn 2 Doran. I had an Austere Command in my hand but he played a Woodfall Primus destroying one of my Vivid Lands. I needed that land to play my Austere Command. The lost of my Vivid Land really cost me the game. Oh well…

Game 3: He wasn’t able to lay a creature down till turn 3, eventually he got a turn 5 Doran because he was missing his green mana. I had to play 2 Austere Commands and a Cruel Ultimatum to win this game. The key play was when I Bituminous Blasted his Rhox War Monk, which cascaded into a Bloodbraid, which then cascaded into a Jace Beleren. He had another War Monk in play, but I played Cruel Ultimatum leaving him with no cards in his hand and no creatures on his side of the board. The Bloodbraids again finished him off.

Round Turnout: 2-1
Overall Rounds: 4-1
Overall Matches: 2-0

Game 3 vs. Gordon’s U/B Faerie Rogue Deck (Bitterblossom, EARWIG SQUAD! NICE TRICK!!!, Mistbind Clique, Cryptic Command, etc.)

I was a little scared because I honestly think that Faeries are going to make a slight comeback! But thanks to my last game, my confidence was riding high!

Game 1: We pretty much went draw, land, go for a long time. By the time I had 5-6 lands in play I decided to go ahead and try to play a spell. I played Bloodbraid and he tried to Broken Ambitions it. We got into a little argument about the Cascade ability. He said that the whole spell was countered and that I don’t get to Cascade, eventually it took another person at the table to clarify the rules to him. I cascaded into a Volcanic Fallout and decided to go ahead and play it. Then we got into another little argument about whether or not my Bloodbraid would die or not. In the end, another person had to clarify that my Bloodbraid Elf had not entered into play yet when Volcanic Fallout resolves. So he countered my Bloodbraid with Broken Ambitions. He won the clash and so I threw away the top 4 cards of my library. He thought I was cheating because I only threw away 3 cards. He looked at my graveyard and realized that I did throw away four cards.

He also thought that I was cheating with my Vivid Lands because of the way I organize my Vivid Lands. I like to stack all of my Vivid Lands with two counters on them together and all of my Vivid Lands with one counter on them together, opposed to having 5 Vivid Lands in play with 5 dice in play. He thought that a bunch of my Vivids didn’t have any counters on them.

At that point I said this, “Hey Gordon, I feel like we’ve gotten off to a horrible start. I’m Johan,” and extended my hand out to shake his. He accepted my handshake. I think this eased the tension. There was a lot of confusion in the game because of the new rules.

I drew into another 2 Bloodbraids which landed me a Jace and a Finks. We had a counter war at the end of his turn. I wanted to Esper Charm his Bitterblossom, which he played that turn. He Broken Ambitioned my Esper Charm for 5 mana, but I Cryptic Commanded his Broken Ambition instead. That left him tapped out for my turn. When playing control vs. control, you have to work really hard to trick your opponent into tapping out. I just got lucky here because a good player wouldn’t of tried to fight over it.

On my turn I played Cruel Ultimatum leaving him with no cards in his hand and no Bitterblossom in play because of my Esper Charm from the previous turn. He decided to scoop which threw me off because he still had 2 life! I guess he was just too discouraged about not knowing the Cascade rules. Lucky for me, I went to the pre-release and have had more experience with that new ability.


TIP: He scooped with two life left and he didn’t even draw his card yet! YOU NEVER SCOOP UNTIL YOU’VE EXHAUSTED ALL OPTIONS!!! That card he drew could of saved his life. Even if you’re losing you have to continually try to set yourself up so that you can win, you have to continually set up opportunities. He didn’t even draw his card and scooped. You always draw your card first and if you still can’t win, you scoop!

Game 2: We both were going draw, land, go again, until I decided to play a Jace on turn 4. He Broken Ambitioned it and flipped over a Mistbind Clique which he kept. I then started to get worried because Mistbind is pretty much a free turn for him and a 4/4 beat stick. I forget what happened but I all I know is that he eventually never played that Mistbind even with a Faerie Conclave and Mutavault in play. I was able to Bituminous Blast his Mutavault which Cascaded into an Ajani Vengeant, which cleared the path for my 3 Bloodbraids and Finks.

TAKE THAT FAERIES!!!

Round Turnout: 2-0
Overall Rounds: 6-1
Overall Matches: 3-0

Game 4 vs. Nick’s W/B Agro Deck (Nightsky Mimic, Nip Gwyllion, Edge of Divinity, Holy Strength, Unholy Strength, Deathbringer Liege, Unmake, etc.)

I was kind of surprised that his deck made it this far. Due to a series of odd events, he thought that I was playing a Sanity Grind deck. He saw an asian guy playing Sanity Grind and he thought that guy was me. But that “guy playing Sanity Grind” was actually Blong playing a casual game of Magic! HAHA! I thought it was funny. The whole time we were shuffling he was taking about how he kills Sanity Grind deck with his deck. I just played along and said stuff like “Yeah, I can’t beat fast decks like Kithken, they’re just too fast for me.”

Game 1: He overcommitted with a Nip Gwyllion and 2 Nightsky Mimics. All he’s seen me play so far are two Vivid Creeks. He continues to talk some trash. On my turn three I lay down a Cascade Bluff and pass the turn to him. On his next turn he plays Holy Strength on his Nip, I in response play Volcanic Fallout. The look on his face was priceless! The next turn I played Bloodbraid, which Cascaded into a Finks. He was never able to regain tempo.

While sideboard, we had a conversation and said that he saw a guy playing Sanity Grind and thought it was me. He even pointed to Blong and said “That’s the guy I saw playing Sanity Grind!” I laughed a little because of his ignorance.

Game 2: He smashed me with a Nightsky Mimic with an Edge of Divinity on it. Enough said.

Game 3: He had a Nip in play with Holy and Unholy Strength on it. I kept on calling it “Holy Unholy Strength.” He also had a Nightsky Mimics in play. He attacked and I proceded to Esper Charm the Holy Strength. He tried to correct me by saying, “Are sure you want to take the extra damage? Don’t you mean Unholy Strength?” I then played Volcanic Fallout wiping the board, including his 3/2 Unholy Nip, not his 2/3 Holy Nip. *smile* I was eventually able to play 3 Kitchen Finks in that game, gaining a bunch of life, and finished him off with a Broodmate Dragon.

Round Turnout: 2-1
Overall Rounds: 8-2
Overall Matches: 4-0

The bad thing about Outpost is that 1st only gets 4 packs and the FNM card, but at least everyone gets a pack. Thanks for reading my novel of an entry post! Have a great weekend everyone!