R1 vs. Matthew (MonoRed/RW/something) 2-1 - The guy wasn't great. So a miserable matchup turned into a fine one. Game 1 I hit all 3 Thunderbreak Regents and he had to kill each one with burn spells, leading to 12 damage over the course of the game. Game 2 I had in the bag. I stopped a Deflecting Palm with Wild Slash to knock him to 3, but should have attacked with my mana guys. Because at 3 he had enough life to crack two fetch lands and hit me with 2 Exquisite Firecrafts for dead. Game 3 was easy. Just a whole bunch of Stubborn Denial making him sad.
R2 vs. Brian (UR Tutelage) 2-1 - I lost game 1 to a mana screw and him hitting double/triple Tutelage. Not much to say there. Game 2 hit landed an early Xenagos and had Back to Nature for when he tried to draw off his double Tutelage. Game 3 he was never able to get more than a single tutelage up at a time, and Savage Knuckleblade did the rest of the work. Anger of the Gods and Encase in Ice look really silly against Papa Knucks.
R3 vs. Travis (Mardu Aggro/Midrage) 2-1 - Not a Dragons deck. It was playing things like Sarkhan, Elspeth, Hordeling Outburst, and Butcher of the Horde. Game 1 I got kinda lucky. I hit his Butcher with a Reality Shift after he sacked a whole bunch of goblins to it, and he manifested a Crackling Doom. At that point I had enough pressure to just fly over the top and kill him. Game 2 I couldn't get my footing and he smashed me with Goblins and Rabblemaster. Game 3 was close, and he landed a Sorin to Stabilize and go from 4 to 10. But I was able to Stormbreath and Craters Claws for exactly lethal.
R4 vs. Joshua (Abzan Control) 1-2 - Game 1 saw me hit every elf in my deck. And Xenagos. Not exactly what you want to see vs. some one playing Drown in Sorrow and Languish. Game 2 was a piece of cake. I had all the right threats to his removal and all the right answers (Stubborn Denial) to his other things. Game 3 finally looked like I might stabilize, but I was at 1 after landing Atarka, and he had 2 guys left to kill me with.
R5 vs. Steven (Bant Megamorph) 2-0 - Pretty easy, all things considered. Game 1 saw Thunderbreak Regent jump in early. I actually missed two Regent triggers when he tried to Dromoka's command his Deathmist Raptor and fight my dragon...twice. I had to Reality shift his guy, and he responded with the second Command...so I responded with the second shift. So I missed 6 damage that way. Didn't really matter, since I then dropped Stormbreath and knocked him to 6 with lethal in hand. Game 2 was just about the same. Double Regents make for rough beats against Deathmist Raptor decks, and I knew I could race it pretty easily.
Notes on individual cards.
Reality Shift is the only card that answers everything. Unfortunately. It's really not my favorite thing to be doing, but it answers Hangarback, Dragonlords, and various other flying threats all at instant speed on the cheap. The manifest they get can go either way. Sometimes they'll manifest a key removal spell or planeswalker. Other times they'll get a creature and you'll be back to square one. It's something you have to really measure and I don't blame anyone else who doesn't want to play it.
I'm split on Shaman of Forgotten Ways. Sometimes it's absolutely great. Other times it doesn't do enough. That said, It was VERY easy for me to get to the required 11 mana during the night, and I was able to activate the Shaman against my Abzan opponent in Game 1. I didn't, because then I'd die on the crack-back. But I almost had it. Grin
Xenagos is still the best card in the deck. Man. It's insane and probably not even close. I wish I could find a way to play more of him. Stormbreath might be next, but Xenagos gives you everything this deck needs in just about every matchup.
Stubborn Denial is unreal. It's just so good and probably exactly what this deck wants. It's such a blowout against Abzan and UB. In my mind it's the single reason to be playing Temur over GR Dragons/Midrange/Aggro. If you're not playing Stubbs, why bother playing Blue at all? It means you get to laugh at Languish and removal spells.
Dragonlord Atarka and Crater's Claws are simply the best things you can be doing with all the man the deck makes. If I can, I'll never tap out for either, because leaving one blue open to represent stubbs is fantastic.
I'd like to fit some of the following into the deck, at least to test.
Icefall Regent: It seems like a decent hedge against other creature decks. Plus you might get to live the dream with it and Thunderbreak to make removing it extra difficult.
Draconic Roar: With 9 dragons main-deck, I feel like some number of these is pretty good. Unfortunately, my non-creature spell slots are pretty tight. I don't think it's better than Crater's Claws, and it's definitely worse than Reality Shift against Siege Rhino and Hangarback Walker.
Magma Spray: This can easily be put in instead of Wild Slash to deal with Hangarback. I like Slash against the odd Deflecting Palm or Foggy deck, though. And most of the decks that play Hangarback are also decks you REALLY don't want Spray against either.
Hornet Nest: If Goblins/Mono-red Dudes becomes more of the red-based meta than MonoRed Burn, Hornet Nest gets the nod over Feed the Clan. Man, I really hate Feed the Clan, but it's a pretty solid chunk of life...
