Daily Dose 48 - Standard

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

20 March 2013

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Community Deck Time!

Bolas for a Better Tomorrow

Standard* KrazyCaley

SCORE: 107 | 506 COMMENTS | 23119 VIEWS | IN 42 FOLDERS

vs.

deck-large:a-superfriendly-walk-on-esper

At the helm of Chubbub's deck will be Elaine. Comments from that side will in in bold.

Game 1

Caley wins the toss and plays first. He keeps an opener of Drowned Catacomb, Mountain, Nephalia Drownyard, Counterflux, Staff of Nin, Barter in Blood, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.

Elaine keeps an opener of Nephalia Drownyard, Watery Grave, Murder, Detention Sphere, Gideon, Champion of Justice, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, and Sphinx's Revelation.

Low on land, but not a problem since I'm on the draw.

Turn 1

C plays Drowned Catacomb tapped and passes.

E draws Drowned Catacomb. She plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.

Turn 2

C draws Sulfur Falls. He plays it tapped and passes.

E draws Nephalia Drownyard. She plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

Not really the lands I was looking for.

Turn 3

C draws Dragonskull Summit. He plays Mountain and passes.

E draws Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. She plays Nephalia Drownyard and passes.

Turn 4

C draws Dreadbore. He plays Nephalia Drownyard and passes.

I see your Drownyard and I raise you a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker in a few turns, hopefully.

E draws Jace, Memory Adept. She plays Nephalia Drownyard and passes. End step, C drownyards E, milling Hallowed Fountain, Augur of Bolas, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage.

There goes my white mana.

Turn 5

C draws Counterflux. He plays Dragonskull Summit and passes. End step, he gets Drownyarded, milling Watery Grave, Swamp, Mystic Retrieval.

It kind of sucks to put Mystic Retrieval in the graveyard.

E draws Hallowed Fountain and plays it untapped. (C 20, E18). She casts Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, but he gets Counterfluxed. E passes.

Other than Gideon, Sorin is the planeswalker I want out on the board the least.

Turn 6

C draws Devour Flesh. He does nothing and passes.

E draws Snapcaster Mage. She casts Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, but she, too, gets Counterfluxed. E passes.

Turn 7

C draws Think Twice. He does nothing and passes.

E draws Lingering Souls. She casts Jace, Memory Adept, who uses his +1 ability. E draws Supreme Verdict and C mills Dragonskull Summit. E passes. End step, C casts Think Twice and flashes it back. drawing Chromatic Lantern and Nephalia Drownyard.

Turn 8

C draws Mountain and plays it. He casts Dreadbore on Jace, Memory Adept, then casts Chromatic Lantern and passes.

E draws Lingering Souls and casts it, then flashes it back. She passes.

Turn 9

C draws Sulfur Falls and plays it. He casts Staff of Nin and passes.

E draws Lingering Souls. She casts Detention Sphere on Staff of Nin. In response, C kills a spirit token with it.

This might be really stupid, but I can't just let the staff sit there; I have to hope that he doesn't have Bolas.

E casts Lingering Souls. In response C casts Devour Flesh, and a spirit dies. Lingering Souls resolves and there are again 4 1/1 spirits. E attacks with the two older ones and hits. (E 18, C 18). She passes.

Turn 10

C draws Staff of Nin. He plays Nephalia Drownyard and casts Staff of Nin, then passes.

E draws Glacial Fortress and plays it. She attacks with all her tokens, but one of them dies to Staff of Nin. (E 18, C 15). E passes.

This means Sphinx's Revelation next turn, most likely, which means this is an excellent time to try and resolve a Bolas.

Turn 11

C draws Swamp and Watery Grave. He plays Swamp and casts Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Bolas blows up Detention Sphere and Staff of Nin returns. He passes. End step, E casts Sphinx's Revelation for 4, drawing Terminus, Glacial Fortress, Godless Shrine, Azorius Charm. (E 22, C 15).

E draws Isolated Chapel and plays it. She casts Azorius Charm and draws Godless Shrine. She casts Gideon, Champion of Justice, then flashes back Lingering Souls. She attacks Bolas with her four old 1/1s. The two staffs of nin destroy two of those; the other two hit (Bolas at 6). She passes.

Turn 12

C draws Murder, Gilded Lotus, Desolate Lighthouse. He plays Desolate Lighthouse. He casts Gilded Lotus, then Barter in Blood, killing two spirits. Bolas blows up Gideon, going to 9 counters. C passes.

E draws Psychic Strike and concedes.

Detention Sphere or scoop, probably.

Sideboarding

Caley boards in 2x Pithing Needle, 3x Slaughter Games, 2x Dissipate, 2x Illness in the Ranks. He boards out 4x Barter in Blood, 3x Devour Flesh, 1x Murder and 1x Mystic Retrieval.

Elaine boards in 2x Nevermore, 2x Pithing Needle, 2x Witchbane Orb, 2x Rest in Peace. She boards out 2x Murder, 4x Supreme Verdict, 2x Terminus.

Game 2

E plays first. She keeps an opener of Drowned Catacomb, 2x Godless Shrine, Nephalia Drownyard, Snapcaster Mage, Sphinx's Revelation, and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage.

C keeps an opener of Drowned Catacomb, Watery Grave, Swamp, Slaughter Games, Mystic Retrieval, Dissipate, Illness in the Ranks

Turn 1

E plays Godless Shrine tapped and passes.

C draws Mountain. He plays Swamp, casts Illness in the Ranks, and passes.

That actually kind of sucks, although not really right now.

Turn 2

E draws Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. She plays Drowned Catacomb tapped and passes.

C draws Slaughter Games. He plays Watery Grave tapped and passes.

I love Slaugher Games.

Turn 3

E draws Gideon, Champion of Justice. She plays Godless Shrine tapped and passes.

C draws Swamp. He plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

I didn't know whether I should bring down the Snapcaster Mage here just to mess with his mana and make him spend time killing it. I thought it would be more valuable getting back something.

Turn 4

E draws Isolated Chapel and casts Nephalia Drownyard. She casts Gideon, Champion of Justice, but he runs into Dissipate.

Maybe he doesn't have any sacrifice kill spells, otherwise he wouldn't counter Gideon.

C draws Chromatic Lantern. He plays Mountain and casts Slaughter Games naming Nevermore. He exiles two copies from the library.

Thought I'd find that in there. Need to get rid of those effects first; my deck doesn't like those. Next will be Tamiyo, then Pithing Needle.

Turn 5

E draws Lingering Souls. She plays Isolated Chapel, then casts Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, who goes up to 4, but whose vampires die automatically to Illness in the Ranks. She passes.

C draws Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. He plays Swamp and casts Slaughter Games naming Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. He exiles one from the hand and one from the library. He passes.

Man, Slaughter Games feels awful when it gets cast on you.

Up next on the Slaughter list is Pithing Needle, then I'll just start going after Planeswalkers.

Turn 6

E draws Glacial Fortress and plays it. Sorin goes up to 5 counters. She passes.

C draws Desolate Lighthouse and plays it. He casts Chromatic Lantern, then Mystic Retrieval getting back Slaughter Games. He passes.

At least he's tapped out.

End step, E casts Sphinx's Revelation for 3, drawing Drowned Catacomb, Lingering Souls, Nephalia Drownyard. (E 23, C 20)

Ugh.

Turn 7

E draws Augur of Bolas. She plays Nephalia Drownyard and casts the Augur, seeing Watery Grave, Nephalia Drownyard, and Gideon, Champion of Justice. She puts all of those on the bottom of the library. She puts Sorin to six counters, and passes.

Sorin is at least preventing Bolas from blowing anything but Sorin up on his first turn in.

C draws Dreadbore. He casts Slaughter Games naming Pithing Needle, removing two copies from the library. Then he flashes back Mystic Retrieval targeting Slaughter Games and passes.

This whole process is really horrifying.

Turn 8

E draws Azorius Charm. She plays Drowned Catacomb. She uses Sorin's -2 ability and gets the emblem. She uses Azorius Charm and draws Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. She attacks C with the Augur and hits. (E 23, C 18). She passes.

Where the hell is Jace?

C draws Nephalia Drownyard and plays it. He casts Slaughter Games. In response, E flashes down Azorius Charm with Snapcaster Mage and casts the Charm, drawing another Azorius Charm.

This is a slight error; if she happened to draw the card I'm going to name with Slaughter Games, it will be a wasted play for her.

C names Jace, Memory Adept and exiles two copies from the library. Then he casts Dreadbore on Augur of Bolas and passes.

I can afford to do this now that all the really scary Planeswalkers are gone. Sorin is a non-entity with Illness in the Ranks out, and Gideon, Champion of Justice is just a creature, although a lot of my removal is gone.

Turn 9

E draws Sphinx's Revelation. She uses Sorin's -2 again, putting him to 2 counters. She attacks with Snapcaster and hits. (E 23, C 14). She passes.

She might have Psychic Strike, but she didn't have it last turn, and there are only two copies. I'll go for Bolas, I think.

C draws Chromatic Lantern. He taps out for Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. Bolas steals Snapcaster Mage. C passes. End step, E casts Sphinx's Revelation for 5, drawing Hallowed Fountain, 2x Glacial Fortress, Watery Grave, and Godless Shrine.

Really? No Detention Sphere?

Turn 10

E draws Isolated Chapel. She plays it, puts Sorin to 3, and casts Azorius Charm, drawing Dimir Charm. She casts Dimir Charm on her own library, putting Augur of Bolas and Hallowed Fountain into the graveyard, and Dimir Charm on top.

Augur of Bolas doesn't find Detention Sphere.

E passes, discarding Glacial Fortress to get to 7.

C draws Counterflux. He casts Chromatic Lantern. He blows up Sorin with Bolas; Bolas at 5. C passes.

Turn 11

E draws Dimir Charm. She casts it on her own library, milling Witchbane Orb and Drowned Catacomb, and putting Azorius Charm on top. She casts Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, puts him to 4, plays Watery Grave tapped, and passes.

C draws Swamp. He blows up Sorin with Bolas and passes; Bolas at 8. End step, E drownyards him for 3, milling Watery Grave, Sulfur Falls, Gilded Lotus.

Turn 12

E draws Azorius Charm. She casts it, drawing Detention Sphere. She casts Detention Sphere, but C casts Counterflux on it. E passes. End step, C uses Desolate Lighthouse, drawing Think Twice and discarding Swamp. He casts Think Twice, then flashes it back for Drowned Catacomb and Dreadbore.

C draws Chromatic Lantern. He plays Drowned Catacomb. Bolas blows up Nephalia Drownyard and goes to 11. E activates the drownyard in response, milling Staff of Nin, Dragonskull Summit, and Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker.

That's what I needed to mill. If I can just get a Detention Sphere out again, I'll actually not be doing bad at all.

Turn 13

E draws Gideon, Champion of Justice. She plays Godless Shrine tapped and casts Gideon. In response, C activates the lighthouse, drawing Staff of Nin and discarding Chromatic Lantern. E passes. End step, C drownyards, and E mills Hallowed Fountain, Watery Grave, Detention Sphere.

Well crap. I do still have Gideon, though.

C draws Counterflux. He casts Dreadbore targeting Gideon, Champion of Justice, and E concedes.

Man, I am just getting dunked on, as we say at my card shop.

Thoughts

You need more counterspells, and not Psychic Strike. Put some Dissipates in there, you won't regret it. Dimir Charm is not what you want in an Esper Control deck. Go with Dissipate. And throw some more Detention Spheres in there too.

Bad draws for Esper, good draws for Bolas. Slaughter Games remains hilarious.