Back to Basics

I have been receiving numerous emails desperately pleading for me to restart my blog, well not really. I mean I think only one and half people actually read it. Paul counts as a half because we aren't sure if he is entirely human yet. (Sorry Paul) The real reason why I wanted to get back to writing this blog is that my Magic: The Gathering skills have improved immensely since my last post on June 2nd.

Over the summer I spent a lot of my time drafting and playing constructed at a new card shop that my friend Ryan introduced me to. (Yes, we are still best friends/rivals, more on this later). The store is called Toys 'N Things. The shop owner Evan is a great guy who really caters to the players. The store is open as long as people are there playing. He even provides free pizza at FNMs! So, even if you don't place at FNM the pizza and the competition make it worth while.

That brings me to the players. The level of competition at the store is difficult with the majority of players having competed in PTQs and a few players making the Top-8. These guys thought me a lot about higher level competitive play. When I first started playing Magic I was concerned with only the cards I was attempting to resolve and what my plan of action was. But, to be truly competitive you can't be a reactive player like I was. Proactive is the way the go, and no I don't mean the acne medication. What I mean by proactive is anticipating what your opponent is planning to do or might do in the future and then playing or, in some occasions, not playing your spells to set up a favorable board position.

With the influx of good players comes good cards. I was able to buy and trade cards and put together a strong White-Blue Control deck. So, here is the list that I have been playing at FNMs in the recent weeks:

Creatures:

4x Wall of Omens

4x Baneslayer Angel

2x Sun Titan

Total: 10

Spells:

3x Path to Exile

2x Condem

4x Mana Leak

2x Deprive

2x Jace Beleren

3x Jace, The Mind Sculptor

2x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3x Day of Judgment

2x Jace's Ingenuity

Total: 23

Lands:

1x Mystifying Maze

4x Celestial Colonnade

4x Glacial Fortress

3x Seriji Refuge

3x Tectonic Edge

1x Scalding Tarn

1x Arid Mesa

5x Pains

5x Islands

Total: 27

Sideboard (Subject to change on a weekly basis due to the meta-game):

2x Negate

2x Flashfreeze

2x Luminarch Ascension

3x War Priest of Thune

2x Oblivion Ring

2x Leyline of Sanctity

2x Sphinx of Jwar Isle

I am not ashamed to admit that I am still not as good at sideboarding as I would like to be. In theory sideboarding is a very easy concept, but in practice it can be very difficult.

Last night's FNM is a good place to start talking about this deck and the odd circumstances that always surround Ryan and myself whenever we compete in the same FNM. Yesterday, was the second FNM in a row where we were paired in the opening round. In the first FNM I won the matchup. But this time around Ryan got is well deserved revenge and beat me 2-0 with ease. I was discouraged at first because the last time I lost in the opening round I missed placing by one win, loosing to the mirror match.

Ryan was playing the Soul Sisters deck. It was a deck I had been aware of but did not consider it as truly competitive. I was dead wrong. Its ability to gain life and pump out large creatures is amazing. With an easy to achieve 30 life Serra's Ascendant becomes a 6/6 flying lifelink for W. Ajani's Pridemate can get insanely big off the essential 8 copies of Soul Warden in the deck. He gets a +1/+1 counter for each instance of life gain. So with two soul wardens in play, you drop down a creature, make a token with Elspeth, and give all your creatures a +1/+1 counter and vigilance until end of turn. So that means your Pridemate gets +5/+5 total. Total mana cost: one white for a Serra Ascendant that is probably now a 6/6. My Blue White deck just could not handle the power, aggressiveness, and lifegain that the Soul Sister deck powered out.

But overall both Ryan and I managed to go 4-1 on the night. My last match was against a Naya Ramp deck. He was running the same list that placed 5th at Nationals. Here it is:

Lands:

4 Arid Mesa

5 Forest

3 Mountain

4 Plains

4 Raging Ravine

2 Stirring Wildwood

3 Tectonic Edge

1 Verdant Catacombs

Creatures:

4 Knight of the Reliquary

4 Primeval Titan

Spells:

2 Ajani Vengeant

4 Destructive Force

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

3 Garruk Wildspeaker

2 Gideon Jura

2 Oblivion Ring

3 Path to Exile

4 Rampant Growth

4 Trace of Abundance

Sideboard:

3 Celestial Purge

3 Day of Judgment

4 Obstinate Baloth

2 Realm Razer

3 Ricochet Trap

Our first game lasted 40 minutes. My opponent Jim had a turn 5 Destructive Force with him having 7 lands and only 5 lands for me. This pretty much reset the board and giving him a slight advantage. It took a while but I manage to maintain board control with my planeswalkers and then build up my mana to a point where I could cast spells again. After trading some powerful cards I got a slight edge in board control. At this point we had 8minutes remaining in the round. I showed my opponent my hand loaded with powerful cards. I told it would take a me a while but I have the board position and card advantage to beat you. He considered it and resigned hoping to take the next two games quickly.

Things did not go well for him. I had a turn 2 luminarch ascension, turn 3 wall of omens, and 4 jace the mind scluptor. he was locked out of green mana only have a plains and two arid mesa on his turn 4 and didn't have a land for turn. After he passed back to me I got the final counter on my ascension. Fatesealed with Jace, like I had been doing since I played him, and passed the turn. At the end of my opponent's turn I made 3 4/4 angels. then I played elspeth pumped an angel attacked for 15 and put my opponent down to 3 life after fetchland damage. He then promptly conceded. The time left on the clock was under one minute.

So overall, it was an exciting FNM and easily one of my favorites. All my friends did well and I can't wait for the next event.