MTG Salvation

The reason i like peer is because its instant speed. I can hold up counter mana, and if they don't do anything worth countering, i can peer at eot. I could give visions a shot, thought. I really don't like the order of that one, compared to preordain. Its sort of frustrating you don't get to pick what goes into your hand.

I can see going down to 3 bolts for a second grapeshot, but i don't think its necessary. Because of muddle the mixture, i rarely can't find grapeshot when i need to find it, and it can be a dead draw when you're trying to get Ascension online. Also notice that Grapeshot is only one of two plans for comboing off. the second one is Banefire, which works equally well. I might have to try this idea out, though.

First of all, great guide! I'm competing at the Richmond open on saturday and i think im going with your exact list. However, i think you only have 58 mainboard cards for the moment. any idea what those last two should be? maybe a land and a spell pierce?

The only targets i see in here right now are Return to Dust, Orim's Thunder, Dismantling Blow, Oblation, and Chaos Warp. Still, i've seen the power of a good Sunforger package. I'm most worried about not having a creature to equip. Most games i have two creatures at most, usually one or none. If it could fetch up hinder at instant speed i would probably do it. Definitely worth considering.

Same list as last week.

Round 1: MBC
Game 1: Things didn't start out too rough, as i avoided the turn 1 Inquisition and got a PA on board turn 2. He played stuff, i into the roiled it. I eventually won after a few Jace Bs and a bunch of burn to the face.

Sideboarding: +4 Exarch, +3 Twin, +3 Misstep, -4 PA, -2 Call to Mind, -3 Staggershock, -1 Burst Lightning

Game 2: After both of us played land and passed, a turn 2 probe showed the worst possible hand he could have: Duress, Extraction, while i had splinter twin in hand. I scooped that game after it went off turn 4, as he was avoiding a mana leak.

No additional sideboarding

Game 3: I went back to pyromancer, knowing that a surgical extraction would destroy me if i kept the DEST combo in. After bolting my own Jace to play Jace2.0 for the last time in competitive magic, I used Jace along with the proliferate from Tezzeret's Gambit to bounce enough phyrexian obliterators and draw enough cards to win. Jace actually saved me for a good 5+ turns. I can't say i don't know why he's being banned after tonight.

2-1

Round 2: Brother with the mirror (****)
Game 1: These games are always stupid. We trade blows, one of us gets a PA online, the other into the roils it, time passes. Yawn. I won this game off Jace Bs putting me ahead in cards.

Sideboarding: +2 Twisted Image, +3 Mental Misstep, -3 Mana Leak, -1 Burst Lightning, -1 Staggershock

Game 2: I stumbled on mana a bit after keeping a stellar 7 of land, land, preordain, PA, PA, Into the Roil, Misstep. I didn't hit the third land until turn 4, which put both PAs online with the proliferate from a gambit i drew, but by then he had an active PA off probes and kicked an Into the Roil on both of my PAs on my end step. The game didn't go well from there.

No additional Sideboarding

Game 3: I stumbled on mana again, though not as bad. I got to 4 lands, but never saw the 5th before the end of the game. While this wasn't preventing me from playing anything, it meant that when he bounced my PAs i couldn't replay them and still have enough mana up to do anything meaningful, thus they sat in my hand. Both of us have admit that the mirror is a tossup, with a slight 2-3% advantage to him because of Inquisitions, which is negated games 2-3 because of missteps. Oh well. He won this one.

1-2

Round 3: Black Red something or other
Game 1: I burned the crap out of him with two active PAs and the two call to minds after getting beat around a bit by a wurmcoil. After game 1, i realized that i only had 55 cards in my deck after taking out the cards i sideboarded in last round but not remembering to out the others back in. My opponent let it slide (He's a great guy), but im left wondering, would that be a warning/game loss/match loss/ something bigger? Anyone reading this, feel free to comment and let me know.

Sideboarding: Standard Combo attire

Game 2: After a turn 4 Memoricide got no PAs, I killed him. That was a bit harsh. Oh well.

2-0

Overall: 2-1, around the middle of ~30 people.
Notes: I don't really feel like reflecting right now, half because im tired, half because I just played some Zedruu edh and its amazingly fun, and entirely because the meta is about to turn upside down and i don't even know if Pyromancer will be viable after the meta shift. Until next time.

If I had more duals, either ravnica or revised, i'd probably play it. As it is, its too hard to guarantee I have enough basics of the corresponding type. Only 18 of my 39 lands have a basic land type, so i don't think i can play it. Good suggestion though.

FNM Report 6/10/2011



Took this list to FNM tonight.

Round 1 vs Green/Black Infect.
Game 1: My opponent mulliganed to 4, which a turn 1 probe revealed to be forest, birds of paradise, ichorclaw myr, giant growth. Ouch. He seemed ok with it, though. He played forest and birds, and passed. I got a turn 2 PA, and he got his myr. On his next attack step, I bolted the ichorclaw, and responded to his pump with a vapor snag. Definitely a misplay on my part, I should have probably just taken the one poison and saved the answers for later. It didn't hurt me though. He ran out of gas, especially when a turn 5 putrefax met a bolt. I went strong and burnt him out.

Sideboarding: +4 Deciever Exarch, +3 Splinter Twin, +2 Mental Misstep, -4 Pyromancer Ascension, -2 Call to Mind, -3 Mana Leak. In this matchup, while the PA plan is good, i know he won't have answers to the DEST combo, so i went with that.

Game 2: He played stuff. I burned it. Time passed. I found the combo, and waited for my opening. He played a crusader, and equiped a sword of BaM. (in short, if i don't win, i'm f-ed) he only had a forest up, so i went for it, tapping the forest upon the exarch's entry. He scooped when i played the splinter twin, showing me the vines of the vastwood in his hand which would have ruined my plan had he had green up on my turn.

2-0

Round 2: BR Vampires
Game 1: I played carefully, and burned his stuff when it attacked. I never let a highborn live for more than a turn. Those things are really tough to deal with. I'd even put them above bloodghast as the hardest part of vampires to deal with. Plus he was playing bolts, so i couldn't let my life get too low. I won eventually, and he showed me his hand of 2 go for the throat, 2 dismember. definitely bad for him, but that's one of the strengths of the deck, and shouldn't be dismissed as bad luck.

Sideboarding: As we were sideboarding, he asked me, "Doing the transformative sideboard ;)?" After a bunch of flip-flop, i decided not to. I figured that if he took the removal out and i didn't play the DEST combo, i would still be ok, but if he didn't take out the removal and i did play the DEST combo i would be in trouble, as playing around dismember is a pain. so, -3 mana leak, +3 slagstorm.

Game 2: I just didn't have it. The game went long, and not in a good way. He kept picking away at my life total, and eventually it added up.

Sideboarding: At this point, i went "screw it, hail mary time". Thus: +4 Deceiver Exarch, +3 Splinter Twin, -4 PA, -2 Call to Mind, -1 Stagger Shock. (Slagstorms stayed in). I would usually sideboard mental missteps for this matchup, but i hadn't seen any targeted discard at all, which if they were on the sideboard would absolutely come in against Pyromancer Ascension, so the missteps stayed out.

Game 3: I saw all four exarchs but no twins. I used the exarchs for blocking over the course of the game, and all but one died. My opponent made the biggest misplay i have ever seen, playing a maniac vandal when the only artifact on the field was his batterskull equipped to a vampire lacerater. And he only had 2 mana open. Ouch. I had a Jace 2.0 for a few turns, and sure enough, I found an Twin when i was at 2 life, and had an exarch on the field from blocking last turn. A slagstorm would have cut it, but the twin won the game on the spot. I doubt i really deserved this win, but whatever, a win is a win.

2-1

Round 3: Brother with Mirror (Plus Black! :o)
Game 1: I Probed turn 4 and saw a Jace 2.0 (both of us only run one jace 2.0), and windmill slammed a jace 1.0 on the table. I essentially rode that Jace 1.0 to victory. I made sure it stayed between 4-6 loyalty the whole game, and burned the crap out of him. Into the roils helped a bunch.

Sideboarding: I forgot about the shatters, which i should have put in knowing he would put in spellskites. Oh well. +2 Mental Misstep (for the black part, essentially), -2 Mana leak.

Game 2: He turn 1 inquisitioned a Pyromancer Ascension, and i drew into one turn 2, and played it :tongue:. He was not happy. I have to admit it was lucky, but it didn't matter. His spellskite went unanswered, and i couldn't get through it.

Sideboarding: +2 Shatter, -2 Vapor Snag (Mental Missteps stayed in, Mana Leaks stayed at 2)

Game 3: This game was the perfect combination of amazing play and absurd luck. (For me anyway). I mental misstep-ed his turn 1 probe, so that he walked into a turn 2 shatter by playing a spellskite. As a good friend of mine would say, "clutch!". I got 2 active pyromancers, but wasn't seeing any burn. he got me to 2 from tar-pit hits before i dealt with them with teck edges. We went to turns, and on turn 1 i found a jace 2.0. he into the roiled one of my ascensions, but a staggershock found by jace put it back online. On turn 4 of turns, i got him from from 19 to 0 from burn off a triple preordain. On one hand, he was top decking nothing but land, but i did have the mental mistep for any burn other than staggershock.

2-1

Overall: 3-0, 3rd place out of ~25 people.
Notes: I made some definite play mistakes today (well, yesterday now, i guess ;)), but nothing huge, while my opponents made some pretty big ones. So that helps i guess. I keep having this argument with my brother over whether black is worth it. From my point of view, while Inquisition of Kozilek is an amazing card, It does not help you end the game. If your opponent is at 3 life, that will not kill them. I understand why control decks play them, because they have very strong inevitability with batterskull and the like, but Pyromancer Ascension is more combo with a control-ish aspect. Our inevitability is good, but not amazing. Yes we can win if our opponents do absolutely nothing for 20 turns, but with decent resistance, we can lose from a good position. I'd rather have more burn over a discard spell any day. After all, i'd rather you pay mana for that creature then have me burn it rather than pluck it from your hand. With the notable exception of spellskite (and by extension, Sun titan in decks containing spellskite), there are very few creatures this deck can't handle easily with burn and bounce.

I got a hex parasite and mental misstep in my packs (plus crap), so good enough opens.

FNM Report 5/27/2011




Took this list to FMN last night.

Round 1 vs Tezz Control (same exact match as last week)
Game 1: Kept a somewhat shaky hand, and proceded to draw into 12 lands over the course of the game. Ugh. he creamed me with animated SoWaPs, after all my bounce and burn ran out. Good god, that stunk.

Sideboarding: -1 Staggershock, -1 Vapor Snag, +2 Shatter
I was hoping he would remember our match last week and would think that I was sideboarding into the Twin combo, so i shuffled in my whole sideboard then took it out.

Game 2: Functional repeat of game one. Horribly mana flooded after a great opening 7, getting to 11 lands before he killed me. I have no idea what happened. Last week proved that this matchup is entirely winable, providing that I don't get the equivalent of the recent tsunami in terms of mana flood. Also possible that my head wasn't in the game after game 1, and that i had franticly helped a friend construct Tempered Steel.dec a few minutes before the start of FNM.

0-2

Round 2: Caw-go with Red
Game 1: Game was shaping up better than my first round. I got a PA on the board turn 3 after burning a turn 2 stoneforge. The game went long when both of us ran out of stuff to do, and after i topdecked a teckedge to deal with his colonnade. Eventually, my luck ran out, and a gideon went un-bounced for a few turns to kill me, though i had lethal with a copied stagershock which would have killed him the next turn.

Sideboarding: -2 Call to mind, -1 Staggershock, -4 Pyromancer Ascension, +4 Deciever Exarch, +3 Splinter Twin

Game 2: Turns out he knew exactly what i was doing, as my brother showed him our decklist before FNM :facepalm:. I played cautiously, though, and after burning out many stoneforges and going to 9 from hawk attacks (unequipped), I caught him with only one white open, so I Exarched at EOT tapping his plains. He realized what had happened, and scooped after banging his head against a nearby wall.

Game 3: Both of us grimaced at our 7s and went to 6. Mine was good, but a turn 1 probe showed him having two celestial purge, a preordain, and three land. Ouch. The game went draw-go for around 10 turns, with us sometimes playing a preordain before passing, when i finally hit an Exarch. I waited him to hit a gideon before playing it, and he had left up only one plains again. He facepalmed hard.

2-1

Round 3: Complete budget Elves.
I do want to note that was shuffling up for this game, my caw-blade opponent was sitting diagonally across from me at the table (next to my elves opponent), and said he didn't really think PA was a viable tournament deck. I said i thought it was, but clearly neither I nor you have good luck tonight. My elves opponent commented, "Oh, pryomancer, you mean the one that taps to deal 1 damage to target creature or player". The caw-blade guy and I try as hard as we can not to burst out laughing, which gets even harder when he continues, "yeah, it gets even better with a Fire Servant". We try as hard as we can not to fall on the floor laughing. Cause that would be mean. And stuff. Anyway,
Game 1: I burn his crap. Get 3 PAs online, quadruple Call to mind and burn him for 12 with a bolt and 8 with a burst for 20. Convenient, no?

Sideboarding: Standard combo plan. (see Caw-blade sideboarding). I actually forgot I had slagstorms, but it didn't matter.

Game 2: I combo off on turn 5 because i know he has nothing he can possibly do about it. (he did only have 1 land open when i did it though, which i tapped, just in case).

2-0

Overall: 2-1, around 9th place of around 20 people
Notes: Clearly, the first round was a fluke, as last week proved that when my deck doesn't give me crap draws I can win. This week did enforce the deck's resilience against caw-blade type decks, of which darkblade is the hardest to beat. Staggershock is an easy 2 for 1, and killing in response to equip might as well be a timewalk. Also, killing a stoneforge after it has found a batterskull just gives them a dead card, as they don't really like to hardcast it anyway. And yeah, the deck destroys budget crap, which i guess is the first hurdle for any competitive deck to pass. (You don't want to lose round 1 at a large tournament to kitchen table jank.)

Funny story: while sideboarding during the caw-blade matchup, I had this weird internal dialogue with my deck (who i think i visualized as the person on the staggershock art). I was asking the deck why it was screwing me over tonight, as at that point I was 0-3 for the night. I said something like, "Come on, what's going on? I shuffled right? Why are you doing this to me?" My deck replied, "You're not being faithful! You're spending all your time with Momir Vig (my EDH deck)! I Hate you! I never want to see you again!". Then I snapped back to reality, and shared the story with my opponent, and he had a good laugh. Then i comboed off twice in a row, and he wasn't so happy anymore. And there were some new dents in the wall and his forehead ;).

Packs were ok, got a japanese birthing pod and puresteel paladin. My brother got crap (which always makes me happy. Im such a bad person ;)). I did see someone open the uncommon god-pack, which contained a beast within, a mental mistep, a despise, and a foil despise. the rare was crap, but who cares?!? My tempered steel friend, who went 1-2 for the night, opened a batterskull. of course the 1-2 player gets the valuable card in his one pack. Go figure...

FNM Report 5/20/2011

Here's the deck i took to FNM last night:



Couldn't complete the real sideboard in time, but man am i glad i had the sideboard like i did.

Round 1 vs Tezzeret Control
Game 1:
His entire offense was based on manlands and swords this game, as he was apparently unable to find a tezzeret. I was doing fine, but was unable to find a Pyromancer ascension. After trading blows for one of the longest games i've ever played in a tournament setting (45 minutes i think of the 50 minute round.) I eventually found a PA and got it online quickly with the two call to minds in my hand and a huge graveyard. Essentially, i think i had the advantage here because when i vapor snagged or burned his lands, he got set back on lands, so while he never got above 5-6 lands, i was at 10. Also, he wiffed on despise a number of times, so that helps.

Sideboarding: -4 PA, -2 Call to Mind, -3 staggershock, +4 Deciever Exarch, +3 Splinter twin, +2 Shatter

Game 2:
I got pretty close to the god draw here, drawing island, mountain, deciever exarch, bolt, probe, preordain x2. Things only got better when i topdecked a shatter to respond to his turn 2 spellskite. I eventually comboed off on turn 4 of the 5 turns you get after time is called.

2-0

Round 2: My brother with the mirror (lol)
Game 1: While our lists are pretty close, we do have one difference. He is mainboarding 4 spellskite. While this should be a problem, it wasn't, as i drew all 3 vapor snags, which hit him for 3 and set him back 2 mana each time if he wanted his shield up. I eventually won by burn. Ta Da. No surprise there

Sideboarding: -1 Staggershock, -1 Vapor Snag, +2 Neurok Commando

Game 2: I got a better draw, though i didn't see the commando. And i Into the Roiled an active ascension twice. So i guess that helps.

2-0

Round 3: Mono-White Equip Toolbox (like hawk, stoneforge, puresteel, etc)
Game 1: I burned everything he tried to equip. However, this made me unable to hit him directly. I got 3 PAs online, and finally staggershocked him for 16 (he had used fetches).

Sideboarding: I anticipated PA hate, so here comes the combo. -4 PA, -2 Call to Mind, -1 Staggershock, +4 Deciever Exarch, +3 Slinter Twin

Game 2: The game started well, i burned everything he played in response to equip and was ripping through my deck. Late game, though, he played an emeria, the sky ruin with 8 plains on the battlefield. the two cards i never saw that game were deciever exarch (i had 2 twins in my hand) and tectonic edge. Suffice to say, my burn ran out, and i got creamed by birds with swords. whats new? An important thing to note is that i scooped before a bird with a Sword of Body and Mind hit me, so that i wouldn't have to mill and have him see the combo. Probably my best move of the night.

No additional sideboarding.

Game 3: He opened the game with a big grin and laid down two leyline of sanctitys. I drew into the combo by turn 5. However, i knew i had to do it right. So i kept on burning his crap, waiting until A) he tapped out (or only 1 open) or B) i got a probe to make sure. He never tapped out, and sure enough when i found a probe i saw a celestial purge in his hand. I waited until he tapped all but 2, then exarched at eot to tap one of the lands, and went for the win. After explaining the combo (he thought the tokens were tapped), he extended the hand.

2-1

Overall: 3-0, 1st place of around 30 people.
Notes: This deck is very good against anything equipment or mana acceleration based. Being able to consistently burn a turn 2 stoneforge (which is a crazy good play when they fetch a batterskull) or lotus cobra prevents many decks from going crazy and forces them to play by regular rules, like one mana per land per turn, and one card per turn. You can really just respond to their threats until you hit a PA (or Jace to find a PA really quickly), and then quickly get it online. There are very few reason to play the PA on turn 2. Unless you already have a spell in your grave and have a copy of it in your hand, it's not going to do anything besides get killed. You might as well bluff the burn. Overall, this deck is the bomb. I look forward to playing it in the coming weeks.

Just an observation: In 6 of the 8 matchups you have listed for sideboarding plans, you take out all 4 staggershocks. Is it even worth it to main deck them if you only want them in 2 of 8 matchups? Now, i have no idea what you would put in for them, but yeah. Just an observation. Props for putting all this thought into explaining the deck. Very helpful. I think my list looks just like yours except i have preordains instead of tezz's gambit. And i don't have mystifying maze... I should really get some of those. They seem really good.

Now that you mention it... hm...

Isolation cell is nifty, but i think its at too high a mana cost for too small of an effect. By turn 4 the agro decks will have their hands on the table and the control and ramp decks don't mind losing 2 life to play a titan and procede to bash face. I could be wrong though. This one would have to be tested

Torpor orb seems amazing. Shuts down stoneforge, hawks, titans ETB triggers, and so many other things, and it enables metalcraft to boot! probably have to fit one or two in here.

cool, comment! I've made some changes which i've forgotten to add, but ok so, reading...

some of the stuff you said i've already put in, like rampant growth, cultivate, kodama's reach, simic sky swallower.

Other things i am thinking about buying, like mystic snake, voidslime (off your list) and omnivize and pognify are amazing, thanks!

I essentially going off the primer for vig and going from there. Some of the stuff (like Gilded drake in specific) is out of my price range. Will update once i update the deck sometime this week.

Round 1 vs Zack with Mono-Black vampires

Game 1: Both got off to a fast start, I hit a koth on turn 3 (^^), and the mountain gets in a few times before Koth dies. I draw a jace, and rack him up to 11, draw a slagstorm and play it, wiping his board. He keeps the threats comming w/ captivating vampire and malikir gatekeepers. More worrysome is that he is only at 1 card in hand. I draw some psyches and reverberates, but i can't play them because they will deal less than 10 damage all together. I draw a second reverberate and some blasts, and manage to blast him down to 15 (he had gained some life with Sorin), and psyche and reverberated twice when he had 2 cards in hand after a jace for 15.

Sideboarding: +2 pyroclasm, -2 ratchet bomb

Game 2: I mulligan twice after a one-land hand with no action and a no land hand. I mulligan into mountain, scalding tarn, temple bell, sphere of the suns, and Koth. Not to shabby of a mulligan, if i do say so myself. Zack had a bunch of creatures, but looked increasingly unhappy with his draws. I got a bunch of artifacts and two temple bells, and finished the job with three blasts and a psyche. After the game, he showed me that his entire hand was lands. Guess that happens, but on to round two!

2-0

Round 2 vs little kid with Mono-Black Vampires and other crap

Game 1: The game started with me noticing that his sleves were in crappy condition (he told me that his swamps were the one without sleeves), and i thought to myself that if this was a serious event that he would have been disqualified. This got worse when he tried to play a vampire nocturnus turn 4. Yeah... the game went long and i didn't see any reverberates, he didn't have enough cards in hand. A malikir bloodwitch finished the game when i couldn't find a blast, even though i had metalcraft.

sideboarding: +2 pyroclasm, -2 ratchet bomb

Game 2: Game went long, i slagstormed his board twice, comboed off for a ton.

No additional sideboarding

Game 3: Mulliganed into a stellar 6, and went off to a quick start. Saw three psyches but no reverberates. I played one psyche, hitting him for 8, and drew into another psyche, hitting him for 14. He had gotten down to 3, because of some corrupt shenanigans and i had one mana up. All i had to do was hit a blast and i would win. Unfortunately, i did not see one in the top 6, and i conceded.

1-2

Round 3 vs My Brother with WU control (not quite caw go)

Game 1: I smashed his face in. Hard. he slapped down a baneslayer, and i slapped down a psyche and two reverberates. GG ^^.

Sideboarding: -4 slagstorm, +4 mana leak

Game 2: he leaks some of my early action, and on turn 4 i place a jace. The next turn he plays a gideon, and though i had the leak i did not have the mana to counter it. Gideon destroyed me, quite quickly.

No additional Sideboarding

Game 3: He gets the god hand of turn 0 leyline of sanctity, turn 2 luminarch ascention. What in the name of all that is holy and good am i supposed to do about that? I procede to draw nothing but lands, and burn that i cant use. Angels crush me to death.

1-2

Overall: 1-2.

Notes: Even though this week has the same record as the last week i played, I feel like it went much much better overall. The games i did lose i could have won 1) on a technicality (pointing out that my opponent's sleeves were in miserable condition and that the deck wasn't standard legal) and 2) if my opponent had gotten a little less lucky. but whatevs. It happens. Im still happy with the deck, and hope to do better next time. Till then, Mshnik :D.

Look away, this one's ugly...

Round 1: Ethan with UW Control (not the caw-go variant, the one with venser)

Game 1: Guy sitting next to me gave away what i was playing, but i shrugged it off. At around turn 6 i had 7 mana, psyche, and two reverberates in hand, but my opponent had 5 or so mana up, and i didn't want to risk it. however, next turn he sun titaned to get back a ratchet bomb, and blow up 2 of my 3 artifacts (opal and chalice). I never saw metalcraft again. Looking back on i should have comboed off (he only had one counter), but at the time i think i made the right decision (if he had had 2 counters, i would have been dead.)

Sideboarding : -1 sphere, -1 blast, -1 prism, -4 slagstorm, +4 mana leak, +3 kuldotha phoenix

Game 2: The game goes long, and i never see a reverberate. Eventually he tapps out for a wurmcoil and i leak it, which he leaks. He has 6 cards in hand at end of turn after a bell, and says that he doesn't think i can combo off for enough. I draw some cards from bell and jace, and i play a lone psyche. Sure enough, i see another psyche in the next 7 cards, and i win the second game.

No additional Sideboarding.

Game 3: I don't remember much about this one, except that on one turn i comboed off, and he played two conterspells, both targeting the molten psyche. I pay for one, but can't for the other. He says that because the original is countered, both fizzle. I say thats wrong, but we call a judge and the judge rules with him. I don't know about that, but in any case, I lose game 3.

1-2

Round 2: Jeremy with Mono-Green Genesis Wave

Game 1: I mulligan to 5 after 2 no-land hands. Great start, deck. I start to make a comeback, but i get overran with Garuuk and 2 beast tokens.

Sideboarding: None

Game 2: I combo off for 40 something. 'nuff said.

Sideboarding: None

Game 3: he gets a lot of ☺☺☺☺, but i get the reverberate/psyche combo in my hand, and knowing that he doesn't have hasty things, i wait till the last possible minute. When that comes, i have a psyche and 3 reverberates in hand, and he has 6 cards after a bell. Unfortunately, i only have 6 mana, and he had played a baloth that gains him 4 life, so i could only hit him for 20. //EDIT: ☺☺☺☺! Just realized that i should have combo-ed off anyway and tried to find a blast for the last 4 in either of my new hands. That's how tired i am. I am realizing my play errors now, 2 hours later.

1-2

Round 3: to make the suckage sink in, i get a bye.

Overall: 1-2

Notes: These two matchups are totally winnable, especially the WU control. Also, a metagame note: All 4 of the top 4 tonight were WU control. One was caw-go, one was traditional, and two were venser/titan. Honestly, i like playing against WU compared to aggro, but the venser variant is harder because of maindeck ratchet bombs. Essentially, the causes of my suckage tonight are:
10% my deck failing
90% me being tired and making horrible misplays.

Here's hoping next week/whenever i get to play next is better.

And answers to questions!
@BR_parasite: SoS has been great. It is a much better turn 2 play than chalice, and the 3x activation has rarely been relevant. Im not sure if 4 is the right number, maybe 3 chalice/3 SoS, but that will come with testing. maybe 4 chalice/3 SoS/3 Prism? Idk.

@Serenades666: Thanks :D. Always good to hear support. lets see... I haven't played many games against Caw-go yet (it is a relatively new architype), but hrmm... It seems like pyroclasm would be good in that matchup, as it kills every creature they play. I would go +2 pyroclasm -2 ratchet bomb, as the only number you would want to detonate at is 2, and detonating at 2 sucks as you lose your other bombs, prisms, and Spheres.

Valakut is one of our hands down best matchups (one of the reasons I am playing this deck, as it still makes up a huge portion of the metagame), because they tap out often and have no way to interact with your combo game 1 and very little additions from the sideboard. Turn 6 primeval titan? Looks good, my turn. How about a Psyche and reverberate? Your dead! Cultivate just fills their hand, as does explore. Essentially, kill the mana producers, and you are all set. Sideboarding here is usually just the spreading seas for a mixture of cards. If they seem creature-light (as in no cobra, oracle, other ramp creatures), then i take out the slagstorms. If they do play those creatures i take out various artifacts and stuff, usually 1 prism, 1 sphere, 1 slagstorm, 1 blast, so as not to hurt the chance of getting one significantly.

FNM report 2/11/11


Match 1: black vampire control agaisnt nick

Game 1: just too fast. I got a temple bell and jace but didn't see a psyche or a slagstorm

sideboard: +2 pyroclasm, -2 ratchet bomb

Game 2: combo-ed off, but just barely.

Game 3: nick made some serious play errors, like sign in blood himself, and not vampire hexmageing my jace

2-1

match 2: daniel with red-green beatdown

game 1: daniel got one land. i blasted his bird of paradise. Koth finished the job

no sideboarding

game 2: both of us got slow start, he got a garuuk, made a beast token, equiped a sword of feast famine, proceded to smash face. I comboed off for 41. 'nuff said

2-0

Match 3:

John with black/blue blightsteel collussus

game 1: he combos off on turn 6. I lose the next turn to 11 poison damage, though i had a valiant try of playing a single psyche and hoping for another in my next 5 cards, but no luck

sideboarding: +4 mana leak +2 kuldotha phoenix -4 slagstorm -2 ratchet bomb

game 2: i we go for a while, neither of us hits combo. he memoricides for psyche, but i double mana leak. next turn i combo off.

game 3: he can't find a shade anew, but memoricides psyche when i don't have a mana leak. I get a phoenix, but he resolves a shape anew and hits the blightsteel. from combined three bells and a jace, i find two galvantic blasts that finish the game with the phoenix

2-1

overall: 3-0, 1st place!

--
oh, and im not playing the crawler because
1) it is a creature
2) it costs 5 mana
3) it isn't even that big
4) it doesn't deal that much damage, maybe 4-5
5) it costs 5 mana.
6) it is just worse than phoenix post sideboard.