Standard Showdown 2018-11-18

Just a quick Standard post today.  We didn't have enough to play a tournament, but I got my freebie pack and a few games with my updated deck.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the old list, but it was based around Traxos and Phylactery Lich, with lots of artifacts to power them both.  The problem with the Lich is that while it is strong, it also requires playing artifacts that aren't easy to kill.  That meant that I had to have a fair number of non-creature artifacts, including cards like Fountain of Renewal that don't ever do much and in some matchups are practically blank cards.

I've been very lucky opening Doom Whisperers in Guilds of Ravnica limited, and after getting a third copy, I decided to just ditch the Liches completely and try to build stronger synergies around Traxos with other finishers.  I traded for a copy of Josu Vess as a difficult-to-beat mana sink for the late game that is also historic for Traxos.

After making these changes, I felt pretty good about the deck, but then I noticed something: without Phylactery Lich, I could replace the bad artifacts with artifact creatures because I don't need the artifacts to stick around on the battlefield forever.  They would still synergize with Traxos and survive Act II of Phyrexian Scriptures.  But what artifact creatures to use?  There aren't very many good cheap artifact creatures in the format right now, mostly just commons from Dominaria.

After a bit of searching, I found Chamber Sentry, the "fixed" Walking Ballista.  I'm not playing 5 colors to make it huge or bring it back from the graveyard, although Treasure Map does theoretically make those things possible.  But mostly Chamber Sentry is just a 2/2 that can cause trouble for aggro decks and occasionally gains a +1/+1 counter from Scriptures.  And another little sweet thing about Chamber Sentry is that I can cast it for 0 if I really need to untap Traxos.  Anyway, here's my deck now:

https://www.mtgvault.com/nathangw/decks/standard-wb-traxoscombo-cs/

Another thing you'll notice is 1 Dragonskull Summit as a practically free way to occasionally add an extra counter to Chamber Sentry.  It's also cute to mislead opponents about my deck.  I would add a random black-blue and black-green check or shock land as well if I luck into them.

So today I played 1 match against a Selesnya Tokens deck using Emmara, March of the Multitudes, and a bunch of token makers.  He made a critical error in the first game after not reading Phyrexian Scriptures.  He made a ton of tokens on the turn before Act II killed them all, and he used Conclave Tribunal on my Traxos instead of on Scriptures.  All his stuff died, and I won easily after the momentum swing.

I sided out Cast Down, 1 Duress, 2 Spyglass, and 1 Swamp to put in 4 Knight of Malice and 1 Plague Mare.  Second game I Freebooted his Conclave Tribunal and we were both slow on board, but Treasure Map got a quick flip with the help of Voltaic Servant to let me use it twice in the same turn cycle, and I cast Josu Vess with kicker on turn 6 using all the treasure tokens.  Easy win, but I think things went pretty well for me.

As a bonus, the store guy offered a game with his Standard deck.  He was running several other tournaments, so we had some breaks in the play, but it was a fun and interesting game.  His deck was a ton of ramp leading into Star of Extinction, Zacama, Pelakka Wurm, etc.  I was able to get a few threats on board early, but none of the big ones, and he eventually got a bunch of card advantage engines and mana.  I handled the Pelakka Wurm but couldn't find a way through Zacama.  He kind of did what I am trying to do -- go bigger than the other guy -- but his bigger was bigger than my bigger.

Oh, and here's my Showdown pack.  Not bad, especially for free.  Check out the cute cat in Goblin Cratermaker.

FNM Draft 2018-11-09

Guilds of Ravnica draft has maintained popularity longer than I expected.  I think even though it looks like there are only 5 decks, people have found success in playing grindy decks with all kinds of splashes.  Another player also commented that there is a lot of value (as in money) in GRN, and that might be a big part of its continued popularity.

This week there were 29 players, and I was at the lone table of 8.  Here's what I drafted:

First pack had Firemind's Research at rare, and I felt like the safer route was to just take the strong removal spell Lava Coil.  After that, I went with whatever removal I could find and creatures that play well with it.  Looking back on this pack is enlightening, because I only took one Boros card but two guildgates.  The only thing certain after Pack 1 was that I wanted to play red.

Pack 2 had the Doom Whisperer, which is apparently just a given for me to open in GRN Limited (I'm 3 for 3 including the prerelease).  Then a hint toward white with Luminous Bonds and Justice Strike, and mono black for the rest of the pack.  Rakdos (black-red) is not a supported guild in GRN, but that was what I was looking like.  There were a ton of good green and Golgari cards going through me this pack, including a couple great rares, but I never thought about switching or adding green.

Pack 3 rare was Thief of Sanity, another ridiculous bomb in draft.  I wasn't sure if I could splash it in, and was hopeful to get some Izzet or Dimir guildgates.  Instead, the rest of my Pack 3 was strong Boros cards, and I took the most controlling cards I could get my hands on because I had no shortage of finishers.  The guy to my left was drafting a normal Boros aggro deck, which explains why I had no Boros in pack 2 but tons in Pack 1 and 3.  He ended up without much removal because I was taking it all, but his creatures were good, so I don't think we cannibalized each other too badly.

Here's the deck I built.  I realized later on that I needed more white sources, so I put in a Plains in place of a Swamp.

12 removal spells and 11 creatures is not a normal configuration, but I liked it.  Boros aggro doesn't want the guildgates, and I was super happy to get 4 of them.  It was the card I most wanted to see in my opening hand.  The Selesnya Guildgate supported the possibility of casting Statue, but I could always cast the Status half with just black.  I would have played Thief of Sanity if I had just 3 blue sources, but one Izzet Guildgate was not enough and I wasn't going to add Islands and make the rest of my mana worse.

I generally chose to draw first with this deck because my cards were mostly 1-for-1 and I had a lot of early game removal to keep from getting overrun, and also because I really needed my mana to work out and I couldn't afford to mulligan and play first.

My sideboard was pretty wide open, but I didn't use it much, really only dipping in for an occasional Sure Strike.

How did the games go?

Round 1 vs. Abzan (white-black-green).  This guy is good, but the games were ridiculously one-sided.  I achieved the dream play of Doom Whisperer plus Piston-Fist Cyclops followed by Resurgence to attack for 20.  Win, 2-0.

Round 2 vs. Jeskai Tempo (white-blue-red).  He was splashing blue into a mostly Boros deck, and my draws were much clunkier than in Round 1, as should be expected with an unsupported 3-color deck.  In the first game I thought I had stabilized and he hit me with a Sonic Assault cast from the graveyard to get his attackers through for exact lethal.  Loss, 0-2.

Round 3 vs. Grixis Frenzy (blue-black-red).  This was a blue-black deck that had Experimental Frenzy and a couple other red cards.  His other really annoying card was Murmuring Mystic, and in general he had a ton of low power high toughness creatures with abilities, which was difficult for my removal.  Dead Weight, Direct Current, and Justice Strike didn't kill much, and Luminous Bonds is not worth much on Passwall Adept or Murmuring Mystic.  In the first game, I got a long drawn out win, with 3 Luminous Bonds on his 3 Darkblade Agents at the end of it.  He had Frenzy but gave up on it early in order to play an Island that he would have had stuck in his hand.  Second game was more of the same, but I missed 2 Runaway Steam-Kin triggers that might have been pivotal in getting it big enough to attack.  He got Frenzy out, and things were ok for me until he had a turn where he was able to play 4 creatures off the top of his deck.  The third game was more of the same.  He got an early Murmuring Mystic and I didn't have 2 red/white mana to kill it with Response.  Late in the game, I was ready to get back in it with Doom Whisperer, but his Passwall was sending in 1-power creatures and I was behind on life.  Pivotal decision point:

I am at 3 life and his creatures are tapped down from attacking.  He has Passwall Adept and 2 other 1-power creatures with 3+ toughness, with enough mana to make them all unblockable, so I am going to lose on his next turn if nothing changes.  I have Doom Whisperer and a couple 1/1 Rats and he is at 11.  I also have a Direct Current in graveyard but no cards in hand to discard, so best case with the cards I have I can do 10 damage (discarding the card I draw this turn).  I really need to kill his Passwall Adept but most of the removal in my deck won't do it.  Should I pay 2 life to surveil 2 with Doom Whisperer before drawing for my turn?  The downside is that if I go to 1 life, a card like Luminous Bonds no longer lets me live for 1 more turn.

I decided not to surveil, and I drew Mountain, attacked for 8, Direct Current for 2, and lost.  Looking at the top of my library afterward, my second card was Dead Weight and my third card was Intervention, which would have given me the damage to win or at least the life to live another turn, so if I had surveilled, I would have dumped the Mountain and Dead Weight in the graveyard (since neither wins) and drawn it blindly.  Looking at my deck, I think that was the only card that saves me at 1 life (in the moment, I couldn't remember how many good draws I had at 1 life vs. 3).  I think I made the right decision, but man that was close!  What do you think?  Loss, 1-2.

Round 4 vs. 5-color Chamber Sentry (mostly Selesnya).  He also had the Venerated Loxodon, which he curved into faster than I could get my lands assembled on the draw in Game 1.  Game 2 ended up an easy win, and Game 3 was a nailbiter where he made one or two little mistakes that might have cost him the win, but I feel like I also played about as well as possible and led him into the mistakes.  The pivotal moment was when he tried to burn me out with Chamber Sentry when I was holding Intervention.  I was at 2 life, but Chamber Sentry had 4 counters.  He activated it for 2 instead of the full 4, and I Interventioned it in response to end up at 3 life instead of 1.  That might not have been a mistake in a vacuum, but in the game context, ending up at 3 life was huge because it let me attack more safely.  Win, 2-1.  I wasn't going to make Top 8, so I gave him the win and dropped.

In total, my score was an even 2-2 in matches and 5-5 in games.  I really like this deck, and I think I could have done better with the mana.  There were a lot of games where I had enough black (which is really just 2 Swamps) but needed more white and red to do things like cast Direct Current twice in a turn or with a second spell.

I got 4 rares (vs. 3 average) and 7 uncommons (vs. 9 average), but the rares were high quality.  Doom Whisperer is still around $20, Steam-Kin (not pictured because I traded it) is about $4, and Thief of Sanity is around $2.50.  Lava Coil has become a premium uncommon at $1 for Standard, but it has zero use outside of Standard so it will be bulk when it rotates.  A good return on a $12 draft fee.

After I dropped, I made a few trades and ended up with the following new cards:

My Standard deck was full of Phylactery Liches before, but now that I have 3 Doom Whisperers, I have morphed it over to more of a Traxos/Doom Whisperer combo deck.  The dream is that I have Doom Whisperer and high life total, and I can upkeep surveil to find On Serra's Wings against unsuspecting opponents.  We'll see how well that works.  Here's the list:

https://www.mtgvault.com/nathangw/decks/standard-wb-traxoscombo/

Thanks for reading!

Standard Showdown 2018-11-04

I went to Standard Showdown a couple weeks ago and we didn't get enough people to run an event.  So I got a free prize pack and a League Promo, and then I played some EDH.

Not bad!

This week I decided to try again.  It wasn't certain that we would be able to play, so the store gave out the prize packs in advance again.  Again, not bad!

But we did eventually get 7 people. so we played 3 rounds.  I added my two Doom Whisperers to my deck and didn't really make any other changes since I originally built the deck before rotation.  Here's the Traxos-Lich deck.

Black-White Traxos-Lich

Briefly, the concept is to pack a bunch of utility "historic" spells and discard around Traxos, Scourge of Kroog and Phylactery Lich, with the plan of getting rid of any relevant removal from the opponent's hand and then going over the top with a big threat and On Serra's Wings.

The deck looked better before Assassin's Trophy was printed and Golgari became popular, because with Kaladesh (with lots of targets for artifact removal) and Amonkhet (with Abrade) blocks rotating out it looked like it might be safe to play artifacts again.

Regardless, the "pre-boarded" nature of the deck (playing odd cards that look like they belong in a sideboard rather than more general cards) gives it a unique angle and can surprise opponents.

So how did it do?

Round 1 vs. Mono Blue Djinn
This was a fairly typical Curious Obsession deck - similar to one that placed second at a recent Grand Prix.  Game 1 I Duressed the Curious Obsession and was able to hang in until he tapped out before playing Doom Whisperer with On Serra's Wings to take over the game.  My sideboard plan was to take out the 2 Sorcerous Spyglasses, Sentinel Totem, and a Voltaic Servant and bring in 2 Ixalan's Binding, Vraska's Contempt, and Cast Down.  Game 2 I got stuck on 1 land after mulligan, and my Fountain of Renewal and Duress weren't enough to save me.  Game 3 was pretty even -- he got some hits in with Curious Obsession, and I got 2 Freebooters on board.  I was holding back a Doom Whisperer, and he eventually tapped out.  I think he forgot about his Siren Stormtamer, and he made some questionable timing decisions with his Dream Eater and a Dive Down, but I felt like I was in good shape regardless.  I knew about the Dream Eater (which is not a usual card in this deck) from very early in the game, and that gave me a good advantage as he got closer to 6 lands.  Win, 2-1.

Round 2 vs. Golgari
This seemed like a pretty normal Golgari build, although it was a little more in the self-mill plan than usual and I saw an odd Reassembling Skeleton in the graveyard.  Game 1 he had the right removal at the right time and a ton of creatures, and he built an overwhelming board.  Game 2 I sideboarded in Cast Down, 1 Ixalan's Binding, Vraska's Contempt, The Eldest Reborn, and Shalai in place of 4 Duress and 1 Lich and we played a very fun and long game.  He was in control at points, but we traded off removal and for a few turns my Voltaic Servant beat on him with On Serra's Wings.  I flipped two Treasure Maps and drew cards with all the treasures, but in the end it wasn't enough, and his ability to remove enchantments with Trophy and his planeswalkers really got me.  Loss, 0-2.

Round 3 vs. Mono Red Runaway Steam-Kin
The deck was a pure aggro burn Steam-Kin build, and it was fast.  I saw a ton of Viashino Pyromancers between the two games.  In Game 1 I kept a hand with Phyrexian Scriptures, but he was too fast and I conceded without showing him anything other than Duress.  I sided out 4 Duress and 2 Spyglass and brought in the cheapest removal I could.  In Game 2, I was just 1 turn too slow to get a Doom Whisperer attacking with On Serra's Wings to turn the tide.  In hindsight I possibly should have brought in the Knights of Malice just to make it harder for him to attack without spending burn spells on creatures.  This is one matchup where Voltaic Servant actually has good stats, but he killed the one I played.  Loss, 0-2.

So I finished 1-2 in matches and 2-5 in games, which is not great, but I liked the Mono Blue matchup and I felt like I was close to having the right mix for Mono Red.  With the right opening cards (Fountain of Renewal, Phylactery Lich, and Fungal Infection after sideboarding) I think I could have played a better game against Red -- maybe I needed to mulligan more aggressively.  Golgari seems hard.  Sentinel Totem was great in those games, and Scriptures would have been great if he didn't keep killing it before Act II and III.

Anyhow, it was fun to play some Standard again.  It's always great seeing people try to figure out how to beat a deck with cards they never see in Constructed.  I think Voltaic Servant is generally bad, but I can't get away from it.  I keep hoping they print more good artifacts with tap abilities to use it on, because it seems like a necessary evil alongside Traxos.  On the other hand, Treasure Map feels great every single time.

Thanks for reading!