I went to the local game shop last night and had some disappointing results.
Round 1: Abzan Control 0-2
This was a typical solidly-built Abzan Midrange with Fleecemane Lion, Siege Rhino and Courser of Kruphix. But it was the thoughtsieze and Ultimate Price that really did me in. It disrupted me enough I just couldn't keep up with creatures or disrupt what he was doing enough. Throw in a Hero's Downfall or two and that was that. I also had terrible land draws both games. I only got up to three lands the first game and he thoughtsiezed away or used Ultimate Price on my Shaman of Forgotten Ways, and I just couldn't cast any of my better stuff. The second game I didn't draw any land and lost Shaman again to Ultimate Price and was just totally stymied.
Second Round: Abzan Aggro 2-0
This round I hit all my land the way I'd like to, and he wasn't using Thoughtseize or Courser of Kruphix, but had opted instead for quicker creatures like Rakshasa Deathdealer. So my strategy went according to plan, burning his early creatures and then summoning threats he couldn't deal with and racing him from there. The second game I scraped out a miracle win. I used a Ferocious Feed the Clan early on triggered by a Frost Walker, then got down to 2 life to 25 at one point by the time a couple of Siege Rhinos had come down. But, on my last turn I topdecked a Savage Ventmaw with a Temur Ascendancy in play, drew Crater's Claws with the card draw when the Ventmaw resolved, attacked and then burned with the extra mana and got a surprise win. We played twice more for fun and I won the first extra game and lost the final one.
Round 3: Esper Dragons 1-0-1
This was my first time playing a control deck and it was interesting. The first game was REALLY long because of Surrak Dragonclaw and I used a combination of creatures and burn to kill both an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver AND an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, but I ended up losing when I just ran out of gas. The opponent had card advantage of course, with all the Dig Through Time that he played, and I didn't have an answer to his Silumgar, the Drifting Death. The second game I put in all of my anti-control SB tech and was ahead 23 life to 6 when time ran out. I'd like to think I would have won that second game if we'd had time to finish it, but I was just getting into the situation of only having my single card draw each turn with an otherwise empty hand, so I'm not sure. I thought I had him one turn because I was going to be able to take him to zero with an attack from THREE Shaman of Forgotten Ways but he nailed them all with a Bile Blight.
Round 4: Temur Dragons 0-2
This was a really fun matchup, even though I lost, and it has ended up inspiring me to make some significant changes to my deck. This was basically a mirror matchup for me, and at one point the lucky SOB had FOUR Thunderbreak Regent staring across the battlefield at my 2 Savage Ventmaw plus 2 Thunderbreak Regent of my own. I had several turns to draw a Crater's Claws for the win by either topdecking it or with the card draw from Sarkhan Unbroken but I never drew it, so I just needed a bit of luck there that I didn't get. The reason I lost this mirror though, is that he was using Stubborn Denial and kept countering my non-creature stuff. I used a Disdainful Stroke to counter his Shamanic Revelation when he had three dragons, though, so he missed out on 4 cards and 12 life, but basically we were matched for creatures and I couldn't get my burn past his Stubborn Denials.
So I used to have 4 Stubborn Denial in my sideboard and had taken them out in favor of Conifer Strider, but I think I'm going to find a way to get Stubborn Denial into my maindeck. They are definitely good for protecting the dragons, and can even counter the planeswalkers, so that's significant. If I have to keep one mana up to keep a Stubborn Denial on-line that doesn't slow me down too much. And of course Den Protector has been showing it's strength lately, so I might get at least some of those into the sideboard for use against control decks so I can just return my cards from the graveyard, hopefully protected from countering by a Surrak Dragonclaw.
Addendum: I've made my changes and will go from here. I'm not sure about the sideboard in this version, but I'm hoping that's partly because the maindeck is versatile enough that I don't need the sideboard a bunch.
