FNM last week was 5 rounds, with me coming in Second, with 4:1 and 22 competing
Match 1: 2:1 - (G/W Elf Ball)- There are plenty of deck lists for this deck online, I was a bit nervous going into it due to the deck's speed, after a game 1 loss to an early game Craterhoof Behemoth Game 2 and 3 went much smoother, with me drawing into a Bonfire of the Damned turn 3 killing all of his mana dorks on game 2, resulting in an easy win due to being stuck at 4 land, and unable to hard cast out Primeval Titan or Soul of the Harvest he was locked out. Game 3 was conciderably closer, with me depending on my Ulvenwald Tracker and Huntmaster of the Fells
Flip to slowly kill off his mana dorks to keep him from reaching enough mana to Green Sun's Zenith for Craterhoof. After enough turns of killing off dorks he ran out of steam and a Ravager of the Fells
Flip bonded to a Wolfir Silverheart won game 3. The only cards I sided in were Fog which were added to the deck for the match up, but failed to perform, as removal proved a better trump for the match up.
Round 2: 2:0- (Black Control/ Aggro) I always dread playing against black with this deck, due to all of the cheap removal and plethera of answers to Predator Ooze but I hit the field hard in game 2 reaching a curve of turn 1 birds, turn 2 Champion of Lambholt , turn 3 Huntmaster, turn 4 Silverheart bond to the Champion. All before he could stabalize enough to mutilate, he tossed out a few low cost creatures such as Knight of Infamy and Dutybound Dead but after I droped the Huntmaster putting Champion of Lambholt up to 3/3 and out of the range of his weenies. Game 2 was a lot simpler due to him being mana locked after going down to 5 to avoid keeping a hand with 2 Griselbrands as well as a few other high cost spells, without much effort game two ended, making siding in Acidic Slime to take care of any Lashwrithes ultimately pointless.
Round 3 0:2 (U/W Homebrew Control) This was a kind of deck I was not at all expecting to encounter, the only creatures the deck had were Spellskite Sun Titan and Restoration Angel The deck ran a playset of Terminus which my Predator Ooze did not apreciate as well as a playset of Day of Judgment The deck also had 4 Gideon Jura and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage. Game 1 I may have 1 if I had known what the deck was trying to accomplish, I was a bit more cautious in the early game then I usually am do to the lack of familiarity with the deck's goal. After he dropped Tamiyo and used it to keep my Silverheart tapped I got a better idea of the deck's goal, but it came too late. Game 2 was closer than game 1 due to me playing more aggressivly in the early game, getting him down into range for a flashback of Devil's Play but a well drawn Spellskite made it impossible to target my opponent, resulting in a second win. If I see this deck at FNM again I'll be sure to change up my sideboard to help deal with this unexpected threat. Additionally it turns out that no one else was prepaired for it either as this was the deck that ended up in first. (Go figure.)
Round 4: 2:0- (B/U Zombies) While I generally hate black, and this deck certianly made short work of my Predator Ooze with a Fume Spitter I just love facing (and using) zombies. This would have been a lot closer if it hadn't had been for my favorite card in this deck, Champion of Lambholt which easily gets beyond the average 2 power of a zombie, resulting in two very one sided games. For this match up I sided in Ancient Grudge and Naturalize to combat any Mortar Pods or other living weapons that have been popping up in zombies.
Round 5: 2:1 (Mono Black Infect) The first game was a close fought tug of war that was eventually ended by a Contagion Clasp after several Mutilates left my field empty. However after siding in all of my artifact hate, including Acidic Slime to take care of Inkmoth Nexus the next two games went without much resolving after having my Huntmaster deal damage to all of the small bodied fliers that occupied the deck, as well as using Rancor attached to Bird of Paradise to hold back his advances untill I can hit the board with my heavy hitters. While I went up to about 8 infect in the second 2 games I made sure to keep that number from going any higher, and after a certian point of knocking out his attackers, I was able to swoop in and secure vicotory with only losing a couple of Birds.
Changes: The only changes I saw necessary after this week were to add in a second Lead the Stampede to get more draw out of the deck, as I frequently end up top decking in certian match ups, as well as the usefullness to allow Ravanger to flip back in to Huntmaster due to the high likelihood of being able to cast 2 spells in a turn I dropped my second Nightshade Peddler in order to add. The only other change I made was the removal of Fog from the sideboard in favor of Hex Parasite, mostly for combating planeswalkers. The 1/1 body for 1 will prove useful in early game combat as well as in late game against control. Additionally, I've decided to try out Tree of Redemption in the sideboard against burn decks, to see how it goes
Well that's all until next Friday. Thanks to all the people who read all of this, I hope you learn to forgive me :D
