With the big Grand Prix Las Vegas this week, some of the locals were gone, including some of the normal store staff, but there were four of us there for Standard today, which was just enough for them to go ahead and run it (there was also a regular Yu-Gi-Oh! event at the same time, with 20-something youngsters).
Before the event, I got in one game of Modern against someone who was using someone else's deck. He was playing a mill strategy with Wight of Precinct 6 and Jace's Phantasm as major threats. That fit oddly with my Soulflayers, and we played a very swingy game that I ended up losing with no cards left in my deck. I've posted it before, but here's the deck list.
For Standard, I made a few tweaks to my mono-black aggressive disruption deck. This was my first time playing Amonkhet Standard. I was a little stumped on upgrades when I made a little breakthrough looking at Amonkhet cards -- the card I wanted to add was the good draft common Supernatural Stamina.
At its base level, Supernatural Stamina is a surprise pump and a way to prevent anything from dying, which makes it unexpectedly similar to another popular card, Blossoming Defense (G: Target creature gets +2/+2 and hexproof until end of turn). The cool thing with Supernatural Stamina is that it combos with both "enters the battlefield" and "dies" effects. In this deck, the interaction works well with Weaponcraft Enthusiast and Scrap Trawler, which are both commonly dying anyway. If I have an extra mana, I can even use the Stamina alongside a sacrifice effect like Distended Mindbender, which often Emerges from those same two creatures.
For example, I have 5 mana and Scrap Trawler. I can attack, pump to hit for 5, then cast Mindbender. The Trawler effect brings another artifact back to my hand, and the Trawler comes back to the battlefield. Value like crazy.
Here is the full deck list. I played 2 Gifted Aetherborn in the sideboard today, but I intended to have Battle at the Bridge instead, and I will add it moving forward because it kills gods.
Anyway, since we only had 4, we each got 1 SS prize pack, and then we played round robin for 4 packs to the winner.
Round 1 was against P on a home brewed Grixis Control. I took him down in game 1, then we played an epic game 2 that he slowly won with Pacification Array and a late pair of Enigma Drakes with 11 power. Game 3 was a letdown, as he got stuck on 1 land and I steamrolled him. Supernatural Stamina was effectively a counterspell when I used it on Weaponcraft Enthusiast against a sweeper. 2-1.
Round 2 was against F, who was playing the "No Marvel Temur Marvel" deck that is looking to be a contender in the new format. In game 1, I had an ok start, but he got rolling with Bristling Hydra and Glorybringer, and I couldn't stop it. In game 2, I mulliganed down to 5 and really never had a chance. 0-2. This deck is strong and I don't expect to win a lot against it, but especially when I have bad draws.
Round 3 was against M, who brought a white Anointed Procession deck featuring Oketra the True. I won the first game with a relentless Drana, Liberator of Malakir and some Swarm Surge goodness. Swarm Surge is still super sweet in small doses. Second game I mulliganed down to 5 almost exactly the same as the previous round -- first hand had 1 land and second hand had 0. I drew nothing but land and lost pretty easily (although I did get to try out Ob Nixilis Reignited for a couple turns, so that was fun). Game 3 I had Lost Legacy and was really stuck on what to name -- since I don't have any other interaction with Anointed Procession, I removed it, but in hindsight getting rid of Oketra would have been better. We played a competitive game but Oketra eventually beat through my wall. 1-2.
I had a good time and learned a little about where this deck stands. I don't like Servo Exhibition and sided it out a lot; it's just underpowered even when you can get sacrifice and recursion value. The single Consulate Dreadnaught wasn't bad, but sometimes I had awkward power on board and couldn't activate it. The best case for it is curving out my 3/2s and 3/1s to get it active on turn 3. The single Renegade Map is fine; it either finds a land when you really need one early, or it sits around waiting for Syndicate Trafficker or Fatal Push to need it. I like Scrap Trawler, but it is awkward against Magma Spray just like Scrapheap Scrounger. Bomat Courier got stonewalled a few times, but I still like it. I have 3 Distended Mindbender now instead of the more aggressive Abundant Maws I played last SS season, and I think Mindbender is generally better, but I do occasionally miss the drain 3. Mindbender consistently discarded 1 card, and occasionally 2. Everyone hated seeing it come out, and it comes out on turn 4 or 5 pretty often. I'd love to jam in more Treasure Keepers, but 3/3 for 4 is too slow a lot of the time. And I did really like Supernatural Stamina.
So here's what I got out of my participation pack. Not anything really exciting, but stuff is stuff, and I had a lot of fun. I don't think anyone got anything very valuable out of these packs today -- best might have been a foil Amonkhet full art land.
Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment