Daily Dose 38 - Standard

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

14 February 2013

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My deck: Bolas for a Better Tomorrow.

Been having a hard time with making MTGO record games properly. I thought I had a workaround, but it's still chewing up some games. I had two I wanted to share with you, one was Bolas getting absolutely stomped by RDW, and another was Bolas losing in two games to a really well-put-together Bant aggro deck that used a phew cipher spells and a bunch of token-generating sorceries Selesnya Charm, Call of the Conclave with Delver of Secrets  ^Flip and other fun stuff like Quirion Dryad and even Mystic Genesis. It was really fun and awesome, and it won just in time in both games, but alas, MTGO ate the games, as well as the games against RDW.

Still, I think you'll be pleased with today's match. Let's have Leafs_suck take it away, for I am playing against him today.

Hey Guys! It's your buddy Leafs_suck and I'll be helping Caley today. By helping, I MEAN PLAYING! And typing out this behemoth of a match. I apologize if this is too much off of what Caley posts. Caley himself will be back to add in his tidbits of info when he can :)

My deck: Obey Me

Comments from Leafs_Suck in italics. Comments from KrazyCaley in bold.

Game 1:

C keeps a hand of 2xIsland, Mountain, Dragonskull Summit, Drowned Catacomb, Murder, Tribute to Hunger.
L keeps a hand of 2xGodless Shrine,3xSwamp, Blind Obedience, Tribute to Hunger.
I remember keeping this hand specifically because, as unfair as it sounds, I knew Caley's deck was slow with building, so I knew that I would probably get the cards I needed. So I chanced the mana flood.

I had no idea what I was going against; figured this was as good a hand as any.

Turn 1-

L plays Godless Shrinetapped, passes.

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Plays Drowned Catacombtapped, passes.

Turn 2-

L draws Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. Plays Swamp and taps out for Blind Obedienceand passes.

C draws Swamp. Plays Dragonskull Summitand passes.

Turn 3-

L draws Swamp. Plays Godless Shrinetapped, passes.

C draws Dragonskull Summit. Plays an Islandand passes.

Turn 4-

L draws Plains. (Wow, let the mana flood pour on. Caley now has the mana needed for a counter spell, so I need to be careful from here on out.) Plays Plains, passes.

C draws Island. Plays Swamp, passes.

Double flood.

Turn 5-

L draws Sign in Blood.(Finally) L plays Swamp and casts Sign in Blood, targeting himself (C 20 L 18). L draws Supreme Verdict and Duress. L casts Duress on Caley, revealing the hand. Caley discards Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. L passes.

C draws Mountain. Plays Dragonskull Summit, passes.

Turn 6-

L draws Swamp. L plays a Swamp and casts Sorin, Lord of Innistrad with extort (C 19 L 19). L activates Sorin's +1 for the 1/1 Lifelink token. End step, C casts Tribute to Hunger. L sacrifices the token. L passes.

Having seen the deck in operation, I became confident that this would be as good a use as any. In any case, Tribute to Hunger doesn't work against anything big while this is still sitting there.

C draws Think Twice. C plays Mountain, casts Think Twice. C draws Mystic Retrieval, and passes.

Turn 7-

L draws Thrull Parasite. L plays the Parasite with extort (C 18 L 20). L makes a token from Sorin. End step, Caley flashes back Think Twice, draws Chromatic Lantern. L passes.

C draws Mountain. C plays Island, casts Chromatic Lantern which enters tapped.

Turn 8-

L draws Oblivion Ring. L casts the O-ring targeting the lantern. It resolves and the lantern is exiled. L makes a token. L swings with the thrull and a token (C 16 L 21). L passes.
I could not BELIEVE my luck. Top decking an O-ring like that. Huzzah! I REALLY need to remember to activate my extort. I'm also waiting for that Dreadbore.

Remembering your extort triggers is really important for this deck. I am also waiting for Dreadbore. Any second now.

C draws Barter in Blood. C plays Mountain casts Barter in Blood, which causes L to sac the 2 vampire tokens. C passes.

Turn 9-

L draws Blind Obedience. L plays Swamp, casts Obedience with extortx2 (C 14 L 23). L makes a token. L swings with Thrull (C 13 L 24). L passes.

C draws Mountain. C plays Mountain and casts Mystic Retrieval targeting Barter in Blood. C casts Barter in Blood and L sacs the token and Thrull Parasite. C passes.

Aaaaaany second now.

Turn 10-

L draws Swamp. L makes a token, and passes.
I'm not playing land specifically to make Caley think I have more spells in hand then I actually do. He doesn't know the 2 actual spells in my hand Supreme Verdict, Tribute to Hunger are worthless.

This is good play from him. Alas, I have nothing to make it relevant, so severe is my flooding.

C draws Drowned Catacomb and plays it. C passes.

Turn 11-

L draws Glacial Fortress. L plays Glacial Fortress. L makes a token, and swings with the one already on the board. In response, C Murders the token. L passes.

C draws Counterflux. C does nothing and passes.

Late as usual. Turn 12-

L draws Blind Obedience. L casts Blind Obedience with extortx2 (C 11 L 26). L makes a token. He swings with the token already on the board (C 10 L 27). L passes.

C draws Dragonskull Summit. C plays Dragonskull Summit and passes.

Turn 13-

L draws Thrull Parasite. L casts Thrull Parasite with extortx3 (C 7 L 30). Caley Counterfluxes the thrull so it never hits the table. L swings with both tokens on the field (C 5 L 32). L makes a token and passes.

C draws Island and concedes.

Thoughts:

L: Wow, that was a long and tedious match. I played super super carefully and played safely, and that ultimately gave me the win. I also had wondered what effect showing him my Glacial Fortress had on his attitude towards my deck and his sideboard choices.

C: Floooooood. L's play was quite good, and his solid play plus my terrible drawing skill let him take this game without me even knowing what the deck was really about, besides extort. Glacial Fortress told me that this deck probably runs counterspells, since I saw nothing ELSE blue.

L sideboards -2 Tribute to Hunger, -1 Swamp, -2 Stab Wound, -2 Supreme Verdict. +2 Obzedat, Ghost Council, +2 Geist of Saint Traft, +2 Nevermore, +1 Island.

C sideboards -4 Murder -4 Barter in Blood, 1x Think Twice, +2 Curse of Death's Hold, 2x Pithing Needle, 3x Slaughter Games, 2x Lone Revenant

Game 2:

C keeps a hand of 2xIsland, Swamp, Mountain, Drowned Catacomb, Pithing Needle, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.

Please stop giving me lands, deck.

L keeps a hand of Swamp, Plains, Glacial Fortress, Nevermore, Geist of Saint Traft, Sign in Blood, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad.

Turn 1-

C plays Islandand taps it for Pithing Needle, naming Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. C passes.

L draws Syncopate. L plays a Plains and passes.

Turn 2-

C draws Curse of Death's Hold. C plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

L draws Island. L plays a Swamp and passes.

Turn 3-

C draws Think Twice. C plays a mountain and passes.

L draws Godless Shrine. He plays it untapped (C 20 L 18) and casts Nevermore, naming Counterflux. L passes. End step, Caley casts Think Twice, drawing Chromatic Lantern.
Looking back, I probably just should have named Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. I don't think Caley would have anything to beat me with had I done so. A bad play but without Counterflux threatening me I felt the freedom could get me there before he played Bolas.

I concur that he should have named Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker and was thanking my lucky stars that he didn't. L knew my decklist in advance, so he knows that I have no way to deal with a Nevermore other than Bolas himself, and that my only remaining win condition is Rakdos's Return.

Turn 4-

C draws Curse of Death's Hold. C plays an Islandand casts Chromatic Lanternthen passes.

L draws Godless Shrine. L plays Glacial Fortressthen casts Geist of Saint Traft. L passes.

Turn 5-

C draws Mystic Retrieval. C plays a Swampthen casts a Curse of Death's Hold making Geist of Saint Trafta 1/1. C passes.

L draws Drowned Catacomband plays it. L casts Sign in Blood on himself (C 20 L 16) drawing Blind Obedience and Plains. L attacks with Geist and his angel and hits (C 16 L 16). L passes.
I almost cast Blind Obedience, but I was already clearly ahead and wanted to keep my mana open for a counter spell. Playing safe was working for me so why push my luck.

The right call, as of course is obvious to you guys now, since you can see the hands.

Turn 6-

C draws Chromatic Lantern. C casts a second Curse of Death's Hold, but L Syncopates it for 2 and doesn't resolve.

L draws Blind Obedience. L plays an Island and casts both of his Blind Obediencewith the second one extorted (C 15 L 17). L declares combat and hits (C 11 L 18). L passes.

Turn 7-

C draws Swampand plays it. C plays Chromatic Lantern and passes.(I forgot to enforce the whole coming into play tapped part of Obedience. D'oh

We both missed it.

L draws Swamp( Ugh all I need is another spell and I have this in the bag. No more land plz). L plays Swamp and swings with Geist and connects (C 7 L 18). L passes. At the End Step, C flashes back Think Twicedrawing Mystic Retrieval.

Turn 8-

C draws Lone Revenant, plays it, then passes.

L draws Glacial Fortress. This is where enforcing the whole "enters tapped" thing would have been awesome. It took me about 3 minutes to decide what to do because C's Revenant wasn't tapped and could block my Geist killing it. I would deal 3 with the angel leaving him at 4. I could cast Sorin and extort him twice and leave Caley at 2 and hope I drew a spell next turn. However, had his Revenant been tapped, I would have swung, left Caley at 3, and then swing to win next turn. It was a blown call by me and I hate myself eternally for it now.

Sadly, Cockatrice kind of threw a fit and kicked us out before we could finish the match. We chatted on Facebook about how to treat it and I decided to forfeit the match so we could have a 3rd game between eachother.

Basically we figured out that I would have gotten a Bolas out with likely play and that he, to my surprise, would have no answer. Still, that's hardly a decisive victory.

Thoughts:

L: Whelp, if there is anything for me to learn from my playing is that I need to enforce my damn cards and not be a total idiot. Other then that I should have had Caley. Onwards to game 3.

C: He's still getting the feel for this deck; my deck is being a compliant punching bag so far. I really need some Slaughter Games in this next one.

L sideboards -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. + 1 Oblivion Ring.

C sideboards -2 Mystic Retrieval, +2 Dissipate

Game 3:

L Mulligans a hand of Glacial Fortress, 2xThrull Parasite, Blind Obedience, Syncopate, Oblivion Ring, Nevermore.
Gross..

C keeps a hand of 2xIsland, Swamp, Dreadbore, Tribute to Hunger, Lone Revenant, Slaughter Games.

This is a fantastic hand, assuming I draw any red mana.

L keeps a hand of Godless Shrine, Swamp, Plains, Thrull Parasite, Liliana of the Veil, Obzedat, Ghost Council.
Much better

Turn 1-

L plays Swampand casts Thrull Parasite. L passes.

C draws Counterflux. C plays Islandand passes.

Turn 2-

L draws Underworld Connections.(Excellent, my Lily draw engine.) L plays Godless Shrinetapped and attacks with thrull connecting(C 19 L 20) L passes.

C draws Swamp. C plays an Island and passes.

Turn 3-

L draws Syncopate. L plays Plainsand casts Underworld Connections on the Plains. L swings with the thrull and hits(C 18 L 20). L passes.
Looking back, I debated if I should cast Lily on turn 3 to get her ahead of Counterflux mana. Mind you, she could always just get hit by Dreadbore, so I got my card advantage engine out first.

The correct choice. Always set up any repeating draw engine you have early, other things being equal; it's decent counterspell bait and it, in the long run, draws you more cards.

C draws Island, plays a Swamp and passes.

My deck's mana base continues to cause me problems.

Turn 4-

L draws Plainsand plays it.(If he had a red mana he would have played it. Let the bodies hit the floor). L casts Liliana of the Veil and it hits the field extorted(C 17 L 21). L activates Lily's +1, which causes L to discard Syncopate and C to discard Island. C casts Tribute to Hunger which causes L to sacrifice the thrull(C 18 L 21). L passes.

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. C plays Swampand passes.

Turn 5-

L draws Thrull Parasiteand plays it.
At this point I realize that poor Caley is getting mana screw and I realize I gotta kick it up a notch before he gets that precious red mana, but I can't discard that Obzedat.
L taps his land to draw(C 18 L 20) and draws Deathpact Angel. L passes. Hellooooooo beautiful, will you be my Valentine?

Man, I would have discarded Thrull Parasite to Liliana. Not using her is going to keep me in the game a while.

C draws Tribute to Hunger and passes.

Turn 6-

L draws Godless Shrine and plays it untapped(C 18 L 18). L taps out to cast Obzedat, ghost coucnil(C 16 L 20). L sends in the thrull for a quick 1 damage but gets met with a nice Tribute to Hunger which causes L to sac the thrull. L passes turn and exiles Obzedat.

Nooo, use Liliana. Poor Liliana is just sitting there!

C draws Counterflux and passes turn.

I hate Mountains. I hate them so much. When I DO use them, they always let me down. Not like my beautiful, scenic islands. I love you, Islands.

Turn 7-

Before L draws Obzedat comes back into play (C 14 L 22). L draws Thrull Parasite and plays it. L taps his Underworld land(C 14 L 21) to draw a Plains which gets played. L sends Obzedat to hit (C 9 L 21) and then passes turn while exiling Obzedat.

Unused planeswalkers make me sad!

C draws Mountain and plays it. C taps 4 lands to cast Slaughter Games naming Nevermore. L reveals his hand and library to C and exiles the 2 Nevermore in the deck. C passes.

LITTLE LATE, BUDDY.

Turn 8-

Obzedat comes back in (C 7 L 23) and L draws Duress. L casts Duress and picks out the Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker to go to the 'yard. L swings with Obzedat and the Thrull (C 1 L 23) and passes his turn, exiling Ozbedat. C concedes.

Liliana cheers and eats popcorn while this is happening, happy for the vacation.

Thoughts:

L: Poor Caley. 1,000% mana screw. He put up a good fight for not having any proper mana. I look forward to coming back and playing with the great ninja attorney for the pleasure of you guys! Cheers.

C: This was a good run against a good deck. Some days your deck just isn't running at 100%, but Leafs_Suck's deck would have been tough even with better draws; he was on top of his game. The only play errors I saw from him were naming Counterflux with Nevermore, which seems pretty clear cut, and not using Liliana at all after the first turn, which is debatable, but which I would have played differently. Other than that, flawless play.