Daily Dose of Standard - Ep. 12

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

13 December 2011

1295 views

vs. Savo081

Caley's deck: Crawling Chaos. Crawling Chaos is brought to you by Hipster Nyarlathotep: " I command and assist mere mortals on their epic dream quests to Kadath, Unknown to Man, but only ironically."

Game 1

Caley wins the toss and plays first.

Caley keeps an opening hand of 2x Swamp, Island, Reassembling Skeleton, Army of the Damned, Life's Finale, Black Sun's Zenith.

Enemy keeps their opener.

T1

C plays Island and passes.

E plays Seachrome Coast for Ponder and passes after choosing to shuffle.

A lot of possibilities for the deck with that first play. Most likely Solar Flare or U/W Humans lately.

T2

C draws Island, then plays a Swamp for Reassembling Skeleton and passes.

Who needs a wall when you've got good ol' Dr. Bones?

E plays an Island and casts Phantasmal Bear, then passes.

Oh-ho! U/W Illusions!

T3

C draws Reassembling Skeleton, plays Island, and passes.

E plays Seachrome Coast then attacks with Phantasmal Bear. C blocks with Reassembling Skeleton. After blockers are declared, E casts Vapor Snag on Reassembling Skeleton. (Enemy 20, Caley 19). Combat ends and E passes.

Note that this play would be better if he unsummoned my guy before I declared him as a blocker. Then I'd be sitting at 17 instead of 19. Once a creature is declared blocked, it STAYS blocked, no matter what happens to the creature blocking it after that. Mess with blockers BEFORE they are declared for massive damage.

T4

C draws Island, plays Swamp, and casts Reassembling Skeleton. He passes.

E plays Island, then casts Lord of the Unreal and attacks with Bear. C lets it through. (Enemy 20, Caley 16). E passes.

Now I have to start thinking about how to get my wraths through. Illusion decks typically pack a hefty load of counterspells, especially Mana Leak.

T5

C draws Swamp, plays Island, and casts Reassembling Skeleton, then passes.

E plays Glacial Fortress, casts Gitaxian Probe using life. (Enemy 18, Caley 16). He attacks with everything. C double-blocks the Lord of the Unreal. E responds by Vapor Snagging one of the skeletons. The bear hits. (Enemy 18, Caley 12). E passes. End step, C returns the dead skeleton to play.

T6

C draws Think Twice. He casts Reassembling Skeleton and passes. End step, E casts Dismember on one of the skeletons using life. (Enemy 14, Caley 12)

I was hoping to rely on my skeletons to keep me alive until I can draw enough mana to be safe from a Mana Leak. This was solid, well-considered aggressive play from the Illusions player- he told me he had only been playing a month, but he certainly has the hang of playing aggro. This is the right style against a control deck- do NOT give it time. Even if it means doing things that seem silly like Dismembering a Reassembling Skeleton, you do what you need to to press through damage.

E casts Geist of Saint Traft, then attacks with the Bear and Lord. C blocks the bear with the Skeleton. (Enemy 20, Caley 10). C casts Think Twice in the end step, drawing Army of the Damned, and reanimates his skeleton.

Now my hand is forced.

T7

C draws Skinrender He casts Black Sun's Zenith for 2, but it gets Mana Leaked. C concedes.

Ouch. If I had drawn a land, this would have been no problem- he had to tap out for Mana Leak, though he might have had Negate. Drawing the Skinrender earlier would also have helped to draw out the counter. Bit of a janky performance from the ol' deck, plus some quite solid play from my opponent.

Sideboarding

Caley boards in 3x Go for the Throat, 2x Memoricide, 3x Negate.

Caley boards out 4x Evil Twin, 2x Bloodline Keeper  ^Flip, and 2x Black Sun's Zenith.

Looking back, I'm less sure about this. I think Evil Twin should have been left in to kill Mr. Geist.

Game 2

Caley plays first and keeps a hand of Darkslick Shores, 2x Swamp, Reassembling Skeleton, Think Twice, Sorin Markov, and Dissipate.

Enemy mulls to 6.

T1

C plays Darkslick Shores and passes.

E plays Island for Phantasmal Bear.

T2

C draws Island and plays it, then casts Reassembling Skeleton.

E plays Moorland Haunt and attacks with the bear. Caley lets it pass. (Enemy 20, Caley 18). E passes.

A likely sign of insufficient land.

T3

C draws Darkslick Shores and plays it.

E attacks with bear, which hits. (Enemy 20, Caley 16). E passes. End step, C casts Think Twice drawing Negate.

Definite land problem for him.

T4

C draws Swamp and plays it. He passes. End step, E casts Snapcaster Mage.

I thought this was perhaps a bit TOO aggressive. You have to be pretty desperate to cast a Snapcaster without finding anything with it, and I don't think the time had come for him to hit the panic button quite yet.

E plays Island and attacks with everything. C blocks Snapcaster Mage with Reassembling Skeleton. After blockers are declared, E casts Gut Shot paying life on the Skeleton. C Negates it. Then E casts Dismember on it paying life; then bear hits. (Enemy 14, Caley 14). E passes. End step, C reanimates the Skeleton.

Again, my opponent's play here is a bit inefficient. If he wanted to get rid of the skeleton, he should have done all this during the declare attackers step for 2 extra free damage. Plus, if he had all this before, it's even more perplexing as to why he flashed down the Snapcaster so early.

T5

C draws Dissipate. He plays Swamp and passes.

Now my ideal scenario is for my opponent to try to cast something, then respond to my counter by casting a counter of his own, tapping him out. He'll resolve something small, but then I'll resolve Sorin next turn.

E plays Phantasmal Image copying the bear. He attacks with the bear, which gets blocked by Skeleton. End step, Caley reanimates the skeleton and flashes back Think Twice drawing Skinrender.

Change of plans after I decided that it would be best to draw cards before trying to resolve Sorin. I have some time.

T6

C draws Corrupted Conscience. He plays Swamp and casts Skinrender targeting the copied Bear. This play resolves. C passes.

Skinrender is always a great play against aggro decks. It kills one AND blocks.

E casts Delver of Secrets  ^Flip and passes.

T7

C draws Skinrender. He casts it targeting Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, which dies. C attacks with a Skinrender, which hits. (Caley 14, Enemy 11). C passes.

E casts Phantasmal Bear and passes.

T8

C draws Volition Reins. He passes.

E plays Seachrome Coast and passes.

T9

C draws Swamp, plays it, and passes.

E plays Island and casts Geist of Saint Traft. C tries to Dissipate it, but runs into Negate.

Damn, I don't have enough blue mana to casts my other Dissipate. Also: "Damn, I don't have enough blue mana." - Things rarely heard from Caley. It is of little concern since Sorin Markov will now mop up this mess for me quickly, and the Geist should only get one swing.

T10

C draws and plays Drowned Catacomb. He casts Sorin Markov destroying Phantasmal Bear with the +2, then passes. (Caley 16, Enemy 11).

E plays another Phantasmal Bear and attacks Sorin with Geist of Saint Traft and its angel token. C blocks the Geist itself with two Skinrenders (to make sure, even though he's out of cards), and Sorin takes the angel on the chin. Geist dies and Sorin goes to 2. E concedes.

Sideboarding

C boards in 2x Black Sun's Zenith.

C boards out 2x Life's Finale.

A Black Sun for 2 is much better than a Life's Finale, I think.

T1

E plays first and mulls to 6.

C mulls a hand of Island, 2x Dissipate, Go for the Throat, Black Sun's Zenith, Army of the Damned, and Volition Reins.

E mulls to 5.

C keeps a hand of Darkslick Shores, Swamp, Negate, Dissipate, Think Twice, and Memoricide.

E keeps his 5 hand.

T2

E plays Seachrome Coast for Phantasmal Bear

C draws Darkslick Shores and passes.

T3

E plays Island, then Ponders, choosing not to shuffle. He attacks with bear. (Enemy 20, Caley 18). E passes.

C draws Skinrender, plays Swamp, and passes.

T4

E plays Glacial Fortress and casts Geist of Saint Traft. He passes. End step, C casts Think Twice drawing Drowned Catacombs.

He forgot to attack, but damn, that is a solid turn 3 board for Illusions off of a mull to 5.

C draws Go for the Throat. He plays Island and passes.

T5

All E does is attack with the bear and the geist. They, and the angel token, all hit. (Enemy 20, Caley 10). E passes.

C draws Island, plays it, and casts Skinrender. It runs into a Mana Leak, however. C passes.

Heck of a mull to 5! Game over unless I can resolve a Black Sun next turn.

T6

E just attacks with everything again, then passes. (Enemy 20, Caley 2). He passes.

C draws Army of the Damned and concedes. Enemy wins the match 2-1.

Well, darn. That is what happens when an aggro deck catches fire.

Thoughts

1 - If you want to mess with blockers in order to push through damage, do it BEFORE they are declared as such when possible. Removing a blocker AFTER it has been declared as such does not "unblock" your attacker! Deal with the potential blockers after you declare attackers or before!

2 - Snapcaster Mage should be used as "just a dude" in only the most dire of circumstances.

3 - I did not consider my sideboarding choices carefully enough during this match. I was lazily thinking "illusions" without thinking about the dangerous Mr. Geist. Always think CAREFULLY about your opponent's deck.