Daily Dose 40 - Standard

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

19 February 2013

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vs. a community deck!

Today is Tuesday, which means that I am bringing you a matchup between Bolas for a Better Tomorrow and a deck from the community. This week it's Wings of Binding by ChiefBell. Taking time out of her busy schedule of probably beating the crap out of us at the Draft Debate, it's Elaine taking the controls of Wings of Binding.

If you'd like to have your deck featured on community Tuesday, go to my wall ( KrazyCaley ) and say so. The line currently extends out into mid-April, so act now before it gets any longer.

Let's jump in. Comments from KrazyCaley are in italics and those from Elaine are in bold.

Game 1

Caley wins the toss and plays first. He keeps an opening hand of 2x Island, 1x Mountain, Chromatic Lantern, Dreadbore, Barter in Blood, and Tribute to Hunger.

With no black mana, not QUITE ideal, but the lantern solves many problems.

Elaine mulligans an opener of 2x Curiosity, 2x Hands of Binding, Dimir Charm, Vampire Nighthawk, and Desecration Demon.

Elaine keeps a 6 hand of 2x Hands of Binding, Victim of Night, Vampire Nighthawk, Drowned Catacomb, and Swamp.

This deck is full of things that are useless against Caley's deck.

Turn 1

C plays Island and passes.

E draws Island, plays it, and passes.

Turn 2

C draws Barter in Blood, plays Mountain, and passes.

E draws Victim of Night, plays Swamp, and passes.

Turn 3

C draws Island, plays it, casts Chromatic Lantern, and passes.

E draws Dimir Charm and plays Drowned Catacomb.

I want to cast Dimir Charm to mess with his library, since he has no really threatening sorceries. But first let's get the Vampire Nighthawk out there where he can get killed.

E casts Vampire Nighthawk and passes.

Turn 4

C draws Rakdos's Return. He plays Island and casts Rakdos's Return for 3 targeting E. E discards 2x Hands of Binding and 1x Victim of Night. (C 20, E 17)

It's not worth it to waste the Dimir Charm on this since these cards are useless against this deck anyway .

C passes.

E draws Island and plays it. She attacks with Vampire Nighthawk and hits. (E 19, C 18). She casts Dimir Charm at C's library, trashing Murder and Gilded Lotus and putting Mountain back on top.

Turn 5

C draws Mountain and plays it. He passes.

E draws Cyclonic Rift. She attacks with the Nighthawk, but C casts Tribute to Hunger. (C 21, E 19).

Ironically, I really wish Cyclonic Rift hit your own stuff.

Turn 6

C draws Drowned Catacomb and plays it, then passes.

No significant opposition encountered thus far.

E draws Swamp and plays it, then passes.

Turn 7

C draws Counterflux, does nothing, and passes.

E draws Invisible Stalker and casts it. It runs into Counterflux.

This is as good a use as any for the flux with this opponent.

E passes.

Turn 8

C draws Counterflux, does nothing, and passes.

E draws Island, plays it, and passes.

Turn 9

C draws Dragonskull Summit, plays it, and passes.

E draws Vampire Nighthawk and casts it. She passes.

Turn 10

C draws Island, plays it, and passes.

E draws Murder. She attacks with the Nighthawk, which hits. (E 21, C 19). She passes.

Turn 11

C draws Think Twice. He does nothing and passes.

Though she's unlikely to fall for it and cast another creature, I can be patient for a little while and look for a one-death kill spell rather than burn a Barter in Blood to kill a single creature.

E draws Dungeon Geists. She attacks with the Vampire Nighthawk and passes. (E 23, C 17).

If you ever play against Caley, this is what we call a "really obvious ploy to cast Barter in Blood."

End step, C casts Think Twice and flashes it back, drawing Mountain and Chromatic Lantern.

Turn 12

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He casts Chromatic Lantern, then Bolas. Bolas blows up Drowned Catacomb, going to 8. C passes. End step, E casts Cyclonic Rift on Bolas.

E draws Cyclonic Rift. She casts Dungeon Geists. She attacks C with the Nighthawk and hits. (E 25, C 15). She passes.

No choice now. Have to try and rush in for the kill and hope for a friggin' ton of luck.

Turn 13

C draws Tribute to Hunger. He casts Barter in Blood, killing everything, then passes.

E draws Invisible Stalker and casts it. She passes. End step, C casts Tribute to Hunger. (E 25, C 16).

Well this is fun.

Turn 14

C draws Island and plays it. He casts Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Bolas blows up a Swamp. In response, Elaine taps it and an Island for Cyclonic Rift on Bolas. Then the Swamp blows up. C passes.

E draws Curiosity and concedes.

Sideboarding

C sides in 3x Slaughter Games and 2x Lone Revenant. He sides out 3x Mystic Retrieval and 2x Think Twice.

Slaughter Games will be of paramount importance, to prevent Pithing Needle, hopefully. Lone Revenant will be necessary to win if I can't stop Pithing Needle.

E sides in 3x Knight of Infamy, 3x Negate, and 3x Pithing Needle. She sides out 4x Murder, 4x Victim of Night, and 1x Hands of Binding.

Hopefully all pretty obvious choices.

Game 2

E plays first and keeps a hand of Knight of Infamy, Dungeon Geists, Curiosity, Invisible Stalker, and 3x Island.

C keeps an opener of 2x Island, 2x Mountain, Drowned Catacomb, Murder, and Barter in Blood.

Turn 1

E plays Island and passes.

Hopefully I can get some free draws with Curiosity before he can get set up.

C draws Tribute to Hunger. He plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

Turn 2

E draws Watery Grave and plays Island. She casts Invisible Stalker and passes.

C draws Dreadbore and plays Mountain, then passes.

Turn 3

E draws Island. She plays Watery Grave tapped. She enchants Invisible Stalker with Curiosity and attacks with it, hitting. (E 20, C 19). She draws Curiosity.

C draws Gilded Lotus and plays Island. He passes.

Turn 4

E draws Dungeon Geists. She casts Curiosity on Invisible Stalker.

This is gambling that he doesn't have a Tribute to Hunger, but I don't have a lot else to do. Dungeon Geists would probably suck down a Barter in Blood.

E attacks with Invisible Stalker. C responds with Tribute to Hunger and the Stalker dies.

Now THAT'S card advantage. It's still basically only a two-for-one, though, as she did draw a card with the first Curiosity.

E passes.

C draws Dreadbore. He plays Island and passes.

Turn 5

E draws Island. She plays it and casts Dungeon Geists, then passes.

C draws Rakdos's Return. He casts Gilded Lotus, then casts Murder on Dungeon Geists, then passes.

Turn 6

E draws Dimir Charm. She casts Dungeon Geists, then Dimir Charm on C. She throws away Slaughter Games and Barter in Blood, but puts Counterflux on top. She passes.

C draws Counterflux. He casts Rakdos's Return for 6 against E. (C 19, E 14). E discards Knight of Infamy.

Crap. Was trying to hold that back for later.

C passes.

Turn 7

E draws Island. She attacks with Dungeon Geists and hits. (C 16, E 14). She passes.

C draws Mountain. He plays it. He casts Dreadbore on the Dungeon Geists, killing them. He passes.

Turn 8

E draws Watery Grave. She plays it tapped, then passes.

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He casts it and blows up Watery Grave.

Turn 9

E draws Negate. She concedes. C wins the match 2-0.

I needed either that one turn earlier, or a Pithing Needle. Now he'll definitely counter Pithing Needle if I draw it with that Counterflux I gave him.

Thoughts

This was a really bad mismatch. The Bolas deck is basically going to win almost all the time against this deck.