Okay, so I won my first ever Friday Night Magic with this deck. A part of me still has no idea how it happened, lol.
I don't remember all of the nitty gritty details, like, for example, I don't remember my first match-up at all, but I'll jot down what I can.
ROUND ONE) 2-1
I'm trying to recall what my opponent was running, but I can't think of it. I do remember that he got mana screwed Game One, and barely won Game Two with some life gain. The Skullcrack cards I keep in the sideboard are what helped me win Game Three.
ROUND TWO) 2-0
Went against a Gruul Aggro deck. Game One I managed to outpace her with a solid opening hand and top-decking a Madcap Skills for my Boros Reckoner with a Boros Charm fueled double strike. Game Two I got mana flooded on my first few draws, but luckily draw into a Searing Spear or two to remove a few bigger threats while establishing my own board state with a Call To Serve on a Truefire Paladin that I kept self-buffing.
ROUND THREE) 2-0
Virtual mirror match. I took Game One through shear luck of out-pacing him early on. And once I saw he was a RDW, I sided in my Volcanic Strength cards. Although I drew neither, I Legion's Initiative really saved me here. We both blew our loads at each other, emptied our hands, and after taking out his last creature by trading it for my Hellrider (had no choice, he had a flyer out and I had to swing with it), the battlefield was empty. We went into top-deck mode, laughing as, four turns in a row, we each pulled land. With my Life total at 3, and his Life total at 2, I top-decked a Skyknight Legionnaire and took him. This was the most fun match-up of the night.
ROUND FOUR) 2-0
This round, although I technically won, I still feel awkward about. Game One I won because my opponent got completely mana flooded running some WUG combo home-brew deck he's been working on. I've never played against it directly before, but I knew from my friends that if I didn't win Turn Four or Five, I was screwed.
Knowing he probably had some form of life gain, I sided in the three Skullcrack cards I had on a whim. This proved to be a wise choice. Turn Five came and went, he had not missed a land-drop, had a Geist of Saint Traft out and, after tapping my two creatures down, tried to Azorius Charm the geist and the angel into Lifelink. I stopped that right quick, which put his life total within range of my two guys, who swung for the kill. This proved to be a saving grace because his next top-deck would have been a Sphinx's Revelation.
So yeah! I won the whole thing, which has completely made my short-lived Magic career thus far simply because I, literally, have never even finished in top half. I took some weeks away from FNM to focus on work, upgraded this deck a little, and was able to go back and win an FNM with it right before M14 dropped, lol.
Any ideas for improvement as we now head into Core '14 season would be greatly appreciated.
(Here's looking at you Young Pyromancer and Chandra's Phoenix...)