Daily Dose 33- Standard

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

9 February 2013

1544 views

vs. bexica

Bolas for a Better Tomorrow was my deck, of course.

Game 1

E wins the roll and plays first. He keeps his opener.

C keeps an opener of Island, Swamp, 2x Dreadbore, Think Twice, Tribute to Hunger, Barter in Blood.

Turn 1

E plays Island and passes.

C draws Mystic Retrieval, plays Island, and passes.

Turn 2

E plays Drowned Catacomb, casts Think Twice, and passes.

Odd to play it on your own turn; one usually wants to fake the counterspell. Perhaps he was concerned about running Think Twice into a counterspell; but no one ever counters Think Twice.

C draws Counterflux and plays Swamp.

Turn 3

E plays Plains and casts Lingering Souls, then passes.

Solar Flare, we meet again. This could also be a weird token deck, but Solar Flare is more likely. This deck just won't go away even though they keep cycling out what everyone thought were key cards.

C draws Murder and passes. He discards Mystic Retrieval to get to 7 cards.

Mana screw comes for us all, in time.

Turn 4

E plays Island and casts Augur of Bolas, finding Feeling of Dread. He attacks with his spirits and passes. (E 20, C 18).

C draws Island and plays it. He passes.

Turn 5

E plays Drowned Catacomb. He casts another Augur of Bolas, finding Ultimate Price. He attacks with spirits + 1 Augur. C casts Tribute to Hunger.

Might as well do it now while I'm twiddling my thumbs, and while he'll either have to sac an attacker or give me three life.

E sacs a spirit; the remaining spirit and the Augur hit. (E 20, C 17). E passes.

C draws Gilded Lotus.

Blaaahhh.

C flashes back Think Twice, drawing Island. He plays Island and passes.

Usually I don't have ENOUGH blue....

Turn 6

E casts Lyev Skyknight.

Well, you don't see THAT every day in the ol' Esper decks. An interesting choice, and probably a very effective one against creature-heavy decks. Definitely makes it a more aggro build, but my goodness, 3/1 is FRAGILE. As he will learn, hopefully, once I sideboard in Curse of Death's Hold.

E flashes back Lingering Souls. He attacks with two augurs and a spirit, then passes. (E 20, C 14). C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, and concedes.

I go to 8 next turn. Drawing a black mana source would prevent me from dying the very next turn by using Barter in Blood, but only if he doesn't cast anything else. This seems very unlikely, so instead of showing him more of my deck, I decide to go to game 2.

Sideboarding

C boards in 2x Curse of Death's Hold, 3x Slaughter Games, and boards out 3x Counterflux, 2x Rakdos's Return.

I thought from Lyev Skyknight that Counterflux might actually be less useful that usual against this deck, so I experimented with boarding it out. Hopefully Slaughter Games gives me a look to see if I do need to worry about Planeswalkers. I don't mind Sphinx's Revelation so much.

Game 2

C plays first. He keeps an opener of 2x Swamp, 2x Mountain, 2x Think Twice, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.

My deck loves to mock me.

E mulligans to 4.

That sucks, but given the mana screw I got last game, I'll take it!

Turn 1

C plays Mountain and passes.

E plays Island and passes.

Damn, he's BEATING me.

Turn 2

C draws Tribute to Hunger, plays Swamp and passes.

E plays Swamp and passes.

Turn 3

C draws Dreadbore, plays Mountain, and passes.

E plays Island and casts Augur of Bolas finding Lingering Souls, then passes. End step, C casts Tribute to Hunger. (C 23, E 20)

Turn 4

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, plays Swamp, and passes.

I swear to god, deck, you better not color-hose me twice in a row, especially not by blue flood in game 1 and blue denial in game 2. You have EIGHT DUAL LANDS in you.

E casts another Augur of Bolas, finding Feeling of Dread. He passes.

Turn 5

C draws Swamp and plays it. He casts Dreadbore on the Augur of Bolas.

I can get away with this, I think, because he's stuck on three land.

E does nothing and passes.

Turn 6

C draws Drowned Catacomb.

Finally. In a normal match against Esper, if this happened to me, this would be exactly when my opponent played Tamiyo, the Moon Sage to start tapping down the blue land.

C plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

E does nothing and passes. End step, C casts Think Twice, drawing Chromatic Lantern.

Turn 7

C draws Mountain. He plays it and casts Chromatic Lantern, then passes.

E plays Island and passes. End step, C flashes back Think Twice, drawing Island.

Turn 8

C draws Drowned Catacomb. He plays it and casts Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, who resolves and blows up a Swamp. C passes.

E plays a Swamp and passes.

You poor bastard.

Turn 9

C draws Island, plays it, and blows up the Swamp with Bolas. He passes.

E does nothing and passes. End step, C casts Think Twice and flashes it back, drawing Dreadbore and Tribute to Hunger.

Turn 10

Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker's -9 abillity, also known as Bolasmageddon, goes off, and E concedes after taking 7 damage and discarding Feeling of Dread, Azorius Charm, and 2x Syncopate.

Bad, bad, bad play. If you're going to concede, do it before showing me Syncopate. Note how when I was conceding above, I practically did so to deny him information. Now he's giving me free information. This is not good play for any deck, let alone a control deck.

Sideboarding

No changes.

Game 3

E plays first and keeps his opener.

C keeps an opener of Dragonskull Summit, Mountain, Swamp, Drowned Catacomb, Murder, Chromatic Lantern, and Think Twice.

Very nice opener.

Turn 1

E plays Plains and passes.

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, plays Drowned Catacomb, and passes.

Turn 2

E plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

C draws Tribute to Hunger, plays Mountain, and passes.

Turn 3

E plays Island, casts Lyev Skyknight, and passes. End step, C casts Think Twice drawing Curse of Death's Hold.

Verrrrry interesting. The trick will be casting it without running into Syncopate, which I now know he has thanks to his poorly-timed concession in game 2.

C draws Drowned Catacomb. He plays Dragonskull Summit and casts Chromatic Lantern. He passes.

Turn 4

E plays and Island and casts Think Twice. He attacks with the Skyknight and passes. (E 20, C 17)

C draws Barter in Blood. He plays Drowned Catacomb tapped and passes.

Why Drowned Catacomb first when I have a Swamp and hand and no particular color needs? Because I'm going to try and bait the Syncopate and/or any other counterspell with Murder next turn, and it'll be more tempting for him if I have less mana available.

Turn 5

E casts Think Twice.

He really needs to stop doing that on his turn.

E attacks with the Skyknight. C casts Murder on it. E casts Syncopate for 2 on the Murder, and C has 1 mana available, so Murder is countered and the Skyknight hits. (E 20, C 14). E passes.

Admiral Ackbar! We tapped out to counter the enemy's kill spell, saving our one-toughness creature!

C draws Gilded Lotus. He plays Swamp and casts Curse of Death's Hold targeting E. Skyknight dies.

Turn 6

E casts Lyev Skyknight, which dies. E passes.

Me, in chat: "Detention Sphere misclick?" Him - "GET OUT OF MY MIND" Heh.

C casts Gilded Lotus and passes.

Turn 7

E plays Plains and casts Detention Sphere on Curse of Death's Hold.

Ok, but you know it's coming right back, right?

C draws Dragonskull Summit, plays it, casts Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker, and blows up Detention Sphere with it. C passes.

Turn 8

E casts Sphinx's Revelation for 3 and passes.

C draws Gilded Lotus. He blows up a Plains with Bolas and passes.

I didn't cast Gilded Lotus because then I'd be one mana short if I flashed back Think Twice and got lucky by pulling a Counterflux.

Turn 9

E plays an Island and casts Think Twice and Azorius Charm to draw. He casts Augur of Bolas finding nothing. He passes. End step, C flashes back Think Twice, drawing Think Twice. He casts Think Twice drawing Tribute to Hunger. Then he flashes it back, drawing Think Twice. He casts Think Twice drawing Mountain.

Yo dawg....

C draws Mountain. He destroys Plains and passes.

Bolas should have Bolasmageddoned here! I was so focused on killing off his white mana that I didn't notice he had enough to Bolasmageddon.

Turn 10

E plays Swamp and concedes.

Thoughts

• A big takeaway from this one should be the lesson that information is of CRITICAL value, especially when control decks are involved, whether as your deck or the opponent's, and doubly so if both. In Game 3, I probably would have tapped out to cast Curse of Death's Hold on turn 4 if I hadn't seen Syncopate, and that might have been a game-losing error for him.