Well, it happened! I went 4-0 at my LGS piloting the deck I have been tweaking since early October.
Match 1 - RW Approach: 2-0
Game 1 was the longest game. He was able to drop his first Approach before me with an empty board (thank you counters and removal!) and I was down to 11 life. I used that opportunity to cast my own Approach the next turn with 2 mana up for either my negate or essence scatter in hand. About 9 turns later while holding two Approaches in my hand and knowing he has his, he decided to try and jam it through but I was able to Torrential into a disallow to block it. Next turn dropped my second Approach and won.
Game 2 was a lot faster. Turn 7 Approach. Turn 9 (thank you glimmer and supreme will) second Approach. He did get me down to 7 health before my first approach but didn't matter.
Match 2 - Grixis Vehicles: 2-1
Game 1 - Definitely didn't expect to see Vehicles and the first game I made a bunch of mistakes not knowing how to play against it. I was able to get my first Approach off however he was able to quickly take me back down before I could get my second Approach by using Syndicate Trafficker with 3 counters on it.
Game 2 - Went much more my way with the help of good removal draws. Fatal Push his Turn 3 activated Heart of Kiran. Settled his remaining board turn 4. From there I remained in control of the board. Won via back to back Approach.
Game 3 - He was mana screwed not getting a second color until turn 5. By then his board was clear and i was able to Torrential him down without issue.
Match 3 - Esper Control: 2-1
Game 1 - Control Mirror, not a lot of happenings or excitement. Was able to bait him into casting Torrential to block a glimmer late game, which opened up my first Approach. Topped Decked my second Approach then activated an Evolving Wilds to shuffle my deck which had him thinking he was no longer on an Approach timer. He used a second Torrential to glimmer with only 3 mana left open. I had my Approach and a Negate in hand and was able to push it through for victory. This match took 30 minutes.
Game 2 - Played quicker because I didn't want a draw and I knew that with him on the Play after boarding, my chances of winning were slim. With only 10 minutes left in the round, I scooped to push it to Game 3.
Game 3 - I am on the play and was able to jam through a Search of Azcanta early with 3 lands left in my hand. Allowed me the freedom to fill my graveyard without worry and flip Azcanta on Turn 5. He was behind on Mana by 3 by Turn 6 and used a Torrential to stop my Glimmer. I was able to cast out his Torrential and push in my own to cast the glimmer anyways. Two turns later he is at 10 with an empty board and I cast my first approach (which he countered). After his last turn with 5 health, he still had a Hostile Desert to block Torrential for 1 more turn of game (we were on turn 1 of extra turns) but i was able to push through a second Approach for the win.
Match 4 - R/B Tower: 2-1
This was a really cool deck a friend of mine brought to play. It could effectively do 54 points of damage in 1 turn if he had all the combo pieces and even if he didn't it could do 22 points of damage with just 2 pieces. I went into this Match as the only undefeated player meaning if i lost, it would have to go to tie breakers for the top 4 with me coming in 4th.
Game 1 - Ridiculously lucky here. Fired off my first Approach (with another in my hand) on turn 7. Topped another Approach (so 2 in my hand) and went ahead and pushed the second on (which he countered via Torrential). 2 turns later pushed in my 3rd Approach with a negate in case he could counter it.
Game 2 - He had all of his answers each turn while i was stuck on 4 mana until Turn 10, by then it was too late and he had 2 Torrentials plus Tower on the field. I scooped.
Game 3 - Approach victory. I had an answer for every one of his answers. The best move was I baited him with a Glimmer in Turn 9 to drop his Torrential and leave him with only 2 mana up. Turn 10 dropped my second approach which he played negate and i played spell pierce.
While I went to FNM expecting to play Aggro and Energy decks, I ended up playing 2 control matches and Mid-range Vehicles deck. Of the 12 players at FNM, we had 3 red aggro decks, 1 Sultai deck, and 1 Temur deck. But Control won the day (Top 3) because all of us were prepared for aggro and mid-range, just not for eachother. My ability to have a win con other than Torrential won me my control matches, making Approach the cheesiest and most effective way to win.
As for updates to deck. Going into FNM i decided to put in 8 bicycle lands (4 Irrigated Farmland and 4 Fetid Pools) for cycle value. I am still debating swapping out Fumigate for The Scarab God in the sideboard. And whether or not to remove 2 bicycle lands for 2 Hostile Desert for blocks/open board attacks.
