So Friday saw me at Fire & Dice Games in Middlesbrough for FNM. Local FNM, but split into two sections of casual/competitive, so hopefully a reasonable standard of decks.
1) 2-1 vs R Cavalcade.
Cavalcade of Calamity and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell make an excellent combination. SB was -Niv, -Opt, -Kasmina, - Crackling Drake, -2x Shock; + 2x Redcap Melee, 3x Aether Gust, 1x Flame Sweep. Redcap Melee is obviously great here, and if I had space for more I would. All games were close, with draw/play making a big difference.
2) 2-1 vs GW tokens.
SB was difficult here, -4x Lava Coil (because there seemed to be nothing big to hit, and I didn't want sorcery speed removal where possible), but what to bring in other than the obvious 2x Flame Sweep?
3) 1-1 vs BW grind.dec.
I won game 1 (on the play). We went to time here during game 2, and I lost during the 5 turns. I took a long while to get my engine going in both games, and a number of play errors from me compounded things. It seemed an ok matchup though.
4) 1-2 vs GB "Jund".
Jund in style if not in colours, this wasn't quite GB adventures and more GB goodstuff/GB ramp. And what good stuff there is in those colours for Eldraine! Questing Beast and Murderous Rider are the obvious ones, with Garruk, Cursed Huntsman as a top end. Powerful stuff, with acceleration to get to them. While undoubtedly Sultai, adding Oko, Thief of Crowns, would be stronger, this combination was streamlined and strong enough as it was.
GENERAL THOUGHTS
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor was better than expected, but only really in certain matchups. I'm thinking of keeping two copies (I'd gone down to one copy for this FNM) but moving them both to the sideboard.
Aether Gust and Fry can go down in copies to 2/3 each. They're useful, but I never felt like 4 copies was required - and indeed it's hard to find what to take out sometimes.
