DOUBLE BATTLE REPORT!

This is an older FNM report from a few weeks ago. Here'S my deck list:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Kithcen Finks
3 Mulldrifter

2 Bituminous Blast (Great card, just kind of costly)
2 Cruel Ulitmatum
4 Cryptic Command
3 Esper Charm
2 Jund Charm
4 Magma Spray (Not a great card at this tournament, I’ll probably take it. Mainly for Finks and Redcap.)
4 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Volcanic Fallout

26 Lands

I ended the night going 3-1 getting 8th or 9th place I think and winning 2 packs of Alara Reborn. I cracked one pack and got a Bloodbraid, Wall of Denial, and a junk rare.

Match 1 vs Blong’s Jund Mana Ramp Deck (Rampant Growth, Fertile Grounds, & Garruk ramp up into Broodmate Dragon, Demigod Revenge, Lavalanche, & Banefire)

Game 1: Late in the game we both were at 6 life. I was holding 2 Volcanic Fallouts, while Blong was holding one as well. We both hit crazy pockets of mana, eventually I was able to hit a Bloodbraid and cascade into nothing (Magma Spray with nothing on the board). Blong responded with his Volcanic Fallout killing my Bloodbraid before it could attack and dropping both our life down to 4. I left 6 mana up each turn just in case Blong hit me with something lethal, I could respond with 2 Volcanic Fallouts and cause a draw. Eventually I hit a Finks and won that game.

Game 2 (with less than 20 minutes left): Another epic game, where Blong mulled down to 6 and where I kept a shaky hand. Early in the game I Runed Halo his Treetop, later I bounced it with Cryptic Command, then I replayed Runed Halo for Lavalanche which were both good calls. He Thought Hemorrhaged me for my Bloodbraids, I Thought Hemorrhaged him for his Demigods, revealing Lavalance, Jund Charm, Volcanic Fallout, and Broodmate Dragon in his hand. I drew a bunch of removal for his creatures. He was eventually able to hit me with 3 Anathemancers to kill me on turn 3 of our final 5 turns. There was no way were going to finish game 3 with just 2 turns left so I gave him the match win. Plus he had a better deck than mine and probably had a better chance of advancing than me, plus I wasn’t too sure about my deck.

I really shouldn’t have kept my hand in the 2nd game. I had mana and playable cards, but my cheapest card costed me 4 mana. I don’t mind keeping a hand like this as long as I have a board sweeper or a few removal cards or card draw but I didn’t any of those. Plus, I was on the draw, so I should have mulligan’ed.

0 - 1

Match 2 vs Peter Kork’s (I’m just kidding, it was against Peter Kong’s) Masters of the Universe Deck (Master Transmuter accesses Sphinx Summoner, Sharuum, Sanctum Gargoyle, Filigree Angel, Inkwell Leviathan, and Adjundicator.)

Game 1: Peter plays aggressively putting a Etherium Sculpter and Master Transmuter into play. He’s tapped out and I play a Jund Charm on my turn, wiping out the board. He never again regains enough tempo.

Game 2: I keep another questionable hand on the draw. I knew that I had to hit Peter hard in the first few turns or else he would be able to switch the momentum onto his side. But I kept a slow hand and eventually he smashed by turn 7 or 8. Bad move Johan, bad move…

Game 3: Peter gets mana screwed while Bloodbraid cascades into a Finks and another Bloodbraid cascades into an Esper Charm. Gaining 2 creatures, dealing 3 damage, and gaining 3 life, all for 4 mana and from 1 card as well as gaining a creature, dealing 3 damage, and drawing two cards for 4 mana and from 1 card was too much of a tempo advantage for me.

1 - 1

I need to change my mentality when deciding to mull or not. I’m so used to playing 5CC that I usually will just sit back and wait till I hit 7 lands and then play a Cruel Ultimatum. When playing a more aggressive deck, you need better draws. The good thing about my deck is that it can be both, but that is also a bad thing. Mid-Tempo decks are tricky to play with and when deciding mulligans.

I think Peter made the wrong decision by deciding to play his Masters of the Universe deck. It’s an okay deck but he’s missing some key pieces like the non-basic lands like filter/pain lands. He decided to drop and go bowling instead. I told him to play one more round because his drop would hurt my tiebreakers, but in the end I told him to just go bowling and I will try my best to go 3-1 and win some packs, instead of go 2-2 and not win packs because of my tiebreakers.

Match 3 vs Jacob’s Jund Agro Deck (Putrid Leeches, Phyrexian Rager, Boggart Ram-Gang w/ Loxodon War Hammer and other weenies do the damage, while Firespout, Maelstrom Pulse, and Terror control the board.)

Because Peter dropped out of the tournament, I was paired up against someone who was 0-2. Dang it! This was only going to make my tiebreakers worse. Oh well, now I have to go 3-1 if I want to win some packs. Going 2-2 with my tiebreakers would of got me nothing.

Game 1: He mulls down 5. I again keep a slow hand. But he’s never able to make anything stick on the board and I win this game.

Game 2: We go back and forth for a while as he lays down Putrid Leeches. Those guys are tough to kill. Fallout doesn’t work. Pyroclasm doesn’t work. Firespout doesn’t work. They’re tough to kill but just as tricky to play with. Bloodbraid eventually cascades into Loxodon Warhammer which does a 12 point swing, but he Pulses my Warhammer and plays a Ram-Gang. Bloodbraid and Ram-Gang crash into each other. On his turn he plays Liliana Vess and searches for card. On his next turn he realized that he didn’t have enough mana to play his searched card. He then plays his own Loxodon Warhammer and swings with it attached to another Ram-Gang. Another 12 point swing, but this time, in the other way! Again, I drew more removal and got rid of both the Ram-Gang and the Warhammer. I was holding a Cruel Ultimatum since my opening hand and was finally able to play it. The momentum I gained from that card was too much for him to restabilize.

2-1 (Yes! I won that match 2-0, which makes my tiebreakers better! I need one more 2-0 match to make sure that my tiebreakers are good enough to win packs.)

Match 4 vs Jim’s W/B/G Token Deck (Creates tokens with Marsh Flitter, Spectral Procession, and Cloudgoat Ranger, controls the board with Path, Terror, and Grave Pact, and eventually Glorious Anthem with Garruk blows up to overrun you.)

Game 1: He gets stuck with an awkward mana base of turn 1 Reflecting Pool, turn 2 Twilight Mire, turn 3 Fetid Heath, misses a land on turn 4, then plays something on turn 5. I curve out well and smash him. The only spell I see him play is a Path to Exile and a discarded Profane Command and Primal Command.

Game 2: He plays Grave Pact which I Esper Charm it. He plays tokens which I Pulse. Eventually I play Cruel Ultimatum and hit him with my Bloodbraids.

We talked about his deck afterwards and we came to the conclusion that his mana base is difficult to play with. Grave Pact costs 3 black, Spectral costs 3 white. Those cards alone make his mana base tricky to play with.

3-1 (Yes! Another 2-0 Match! Hopefully, it’s enough to win me some packs).

After going 1-2 against Blong and beating Peter 2-1 (with him dropping from the tournament, hurting my tiebreakers) and getting paired down in the 3rd round where I had to battle against a someone who was 0-2, while I was 1-1, and with defeating Jim 2-0 in the 4th round, I get 8th place and win two packs! I only won 2 packs because a lot of people dropped from the tournament and there were a lot of people who 3-0-1. I was really scared that my tiebreakers were going to hurt, which they did, they were horrible. With Peter dropping and my 3rd round match being paired down, I knew that I had to sweep my opponents in order to get any packs. I should have just written that I went 2-0 against Peter, instead of writing 2-1. That might have made improved my tiebreakers.

I really do like 5CB but it seems like everybody is going with a more agro approach and playing with Putrid Leeches and Sygg, Cutthroat. I might try that build out. I know that Putrid Leech is good, but he’s tricky to play with. I’m also thinking about a Naya/Jund Cascade deck, those decks look like a lot of fun to play with.

Here’s my FNM report from last week (June 5th).

My deck was pretty much the same, I just removed the 4 Magma Sprays and added 2 Broodmates and 2 Jace Belerens.

The Source’s first FNM had about 12 people show up. Not too bad but at the same time 5 of the 12 were Blong, Peter, Chong, Vern, and me. I’m really need to revamp this 5CB deck, I wasn’t too happy with the build, but it was the only Standard deck that I had. I almost audibled to Blong’s Sanity Grinding deck but he was playing with it.

Match 1 vs. Peter’s W Kithkin Deck (normal but very effective W Kithkin stuff)

Game 1: Peter curves out perfectly. Turn 1 Stalwart, Turn 2 Wizened Cenn, Turn 3 Glorious Anthem. My only play was trying to Volcanic Fallout and sweep the board, but Peter played a Rustic Clachan on his Wizened Cenn, making my Volcanic Fallout useless.

Game 2: I gets a slower hand and I play 2 Finks early in the game. He eventually depletes his hand down to 3 cards and I Cruel Ultimatum him.

Game 3: Peter curves out perfectly again. Turn 1 Stalwart, Turn 2 Wizened Cenn, Turn 3 Glorious Anthem, Turn 4 Glorious Anthem. I play only a Kitchen Finks and am unable to stop his Kithkin horde.

0-1

Match 2 vs. Vern’s W/U/B Fae Deck (He controls the board with counter spells, spot removal, and Mistbind and beats you down with smaller creatures.)

Before our match begins, we agree that I’ll lose to him so that he can go home with packs so that we can draft later tonight.

Game 1 & 2: My deck is just too fast and with my Cascade abilities, his counter spells aren’t as effective, these games were just for fun anyways.

0-2 (Vern gets a better chance of getting some packs!)

Match 3 vs. Hannie’s 5CB Deck (He’s playing with Shriekmaws, Maelstrom Angles, normal 5CB stuff like Bloodbraids, Cruel Ultimatum, but no Cryptic Commands or fancy lands like Reflecting Pool or Vivid Lands, just Tri-Lands and Basic Lands)

Game 1: He gets mana screwed and eventually I cast Cruel Ultimatum.

Game 2: He gets mana screwed again, but in the sense that he only draws his Basic Lands and isn’t able to play anything with a Red Mana symbol in it.

1-2

We played only 3 rounds, which kind of stunk but it’s okay. That only gaves us more time to draft! Peter ended up winning the whole thing with Blong at 2nd place. I think Vern got 3rd and Chong got 5th, while I got 6th or 7th (Mainly because I won a game against Peter, put down that I won a game against Vern, and swept Hannie in the 3rd round. Even though I was 1-2, my tiebreakers with those two game wins from Vern & Peter helped!). I also came home with an extra Alara Reborn boosters and 3 FNM Mulldrifters! Not too bad of a night! I just need one more FNM Mulldrifter to complete my set!

Things I learned that night:

I honestly don’t mind dropping games to my friends or opponents. I don’t really care about my DCI # that much. But I would care if my DCI score was in the 1700’s, now that’s a different story. I’d rather them get packs so that we can draft later.

Having 8 sources of quality card draw is way too many! 3 Mulldrifters, 3 Esper Charms, and 2 Jace Beleren is way too many! There were times where I didn’t use any of Jace’s abilities because I already had 7 cards in my hand. There were times where I would have to discard 2 cards at the end of my turn. I think 6 is good number of card draw’ers for this deck, 8 was definitely way too many.

I’m definitely going to try that new 5CB build with the Putrid Leeches and the Sygg, Cutthroats. I have a feeling that Putrid Leech is going to be a card that’s only going to get more popular, better start learning how to play with it now. Any card that does damage to you like Bitterblossom is card that takes time to master. Ask any Fae or B/W Tokens player and they’ll agree that cards that make you lose life take some extra play testing to fully understand.

Tiebreakers are awesome! They can be your best friend or your worse enemy, understanding how they effect your matchups and your final standing is huge!