Went 4-0!
R1: GW Midrange
Game 1: Traded removal/Aetherborns with his early drops, then he stuck a Lyra, I had no removal in hand, just Gonti, so I went for it and got his Ajani... Rode that Ajani to victory, his -2 to remove the flyers my opponent kept drawing and his +2 to get more dudes on the field. Eventually landed a Demonlord Benzelok, that can wall Lyra with his 6/6 body and just got Ajani a turn away from his ultimate when the Opp scooped.
Game 2: I just ripped all the removal and he stumbled on white sources for the two Lyras in his hand. Just hit him with a Fat Shade to end the game.
R2: Sultai mid-range
Game 1 and 2 were similar: I had more removal than him and his ground stuff kept getting walled by my Shades and Deathtouch creatures. Finished him with big Torment of Hailfire
R3: RDW
Game 1: I mulled to 4 and he readily beat me.
Game 2: We traded resources, I ripped 3 Fatal Pushes and this got him scared of it for Game 3 (see below). The big swing was him forgetting that Shade could pump and beat his Goblin Chainwhirler in combat (Shade was the best in this match-up as it can just grow bigger than RDW's creatures and burn spells).
Game 3: He started slower and in the mid-game I kept one card in hand, he kept thinking it was a Fatal Push (it was a Dark Bargain) and was trying to play around it. This slowed him enough for me to draw and play back to back Doomfalls ripping a Pheonix and Hazoret out of his hand.
R4: GB Saporlings:
Game 1: I mulled to 5 and couldn't peel enough removal to keep up with his wide board.
Game 2: in come the board wipes, tipped the scales in my favor by using my one-shot removal on his lords and cleaning up the massing tokens with a Golden Demise.
Game 3: He kept a bad hand and got mana-screwed. I pulled lots of removal and beat him to death with a Fat Shade.
I mulled a lot to 5-6 cards, but after several years of MtG, I have found that players just don't mull enough. It lost my opponents several games against me, even then the deck performed really well. Dread Shade is a pretty good roadblock against other creature decks and especially against Red who just have a heck of time removing him. Demonlord was okay, he didn't seem especially necessary. Dark Bargain was better than I thought, being able to hold it or a Vraska's Contempt up at 4 mana on opponents' turns felt very good. Doomfall was also very solid and I think a little under-rated. Torment of Hailfire didn't really feel necessary, although I did not play against any Control decks. Gonti was also solid, always getting something even if it was only an opponent's removal spell.
For the next FNM I want to experiment some more with the deck and will try these tweaks:
MD: -2 Gonti, -1 Demonlord, -1Torment of Hailfire, -1 Moment of Craving; +2 Josu Vess, +1 Treasure Map, +1 Mastermind's Acquisition, +1 Swamp
SB: -1 Tetzimoc, -1 Battle at the Bridge; +1 Torment of Hailfire +1 Bontu's Last Recokning
