Tonight's FNM was another top-8 setup. It was surprisingly easy... I can't help but shake the feeling I managed to get to top-8 again entirely due to misplays and decks whiffing. It's concerning, but hey, top-8 is something, right?
Round1: Naya/u
Game One was an interesting one. The guy piloting this deck ran it strangely, getting Assemble the Legion out and proceeding to rofl-stomp me with it when I couldn't get myself on two feet. He started churning out his 1/1 hasty dudes, and I had to concede.
Sideboarding to Naya/u for Game 2:
-4 Dimir Keyrune (What good is this 2/2 unblockable against aggro with access to burn?)
-2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker (If I'm making it to this point, I'd rather have an Olivia)
+2 Izzet Charm (Oh my God is this good. Counter buff spell, dig, or shock!)
+1 Rakdos Charm (Assemble the Legion going HAM? TIME TO DIE!)
+1 Cyclonic Rift (Assemble the Legion going HAM? I'ma bounce 'dat)
+2 Negate (Definitely not going to have an Assemble the Legion or Jace hit the field)
+1 Magmaquake (That army of weenies is pretty cute. Would be a shame if- MAGMAQUAKE!)
Game Two was a complete turn around when I turn-4 floored Olivia Voldaren into an empty board. What he did to try and stop Olivia from tearing his life total apart I bolted, used Olivia's poke to her the Queen of Derse. He couldn't do anything, and conceded to game three.
Game Three was where I backed him into a corner with removal, and began the ever-slow process of using Nephalia Drownyard to kill him. This is ultimately the goal of the deck: to force an aggro deck into not playing "i turn my cards sideways and the game ends right" style and fizzling into the draining death of a Nephalia kill. I feel bad for how the guy seemed totally done after the game's end... But at the same time, hey, I drew a hand of removal and top-decked two Nephalias.
Round 2: Jund's Cruelty [HELP NEEDED]
Game One was 'whoa' for me as we set up shop. I honestly didn't expect that the two of us would be clashing our decks so early in the night - we ended up conspiring on these decks and throwing ideas to help one another. I was mortified he'd aggro hardcore and melt my face. However, he drew 15 lands (that's a bad thing) before I stabilized a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker with +3 and knocked his red-sources once he got me to five. A swing of Master of Cruelties combo'd with a Bolas ult for the win. We got a good chuckle out of how hard his deck just decided to say 'no.'
Sideboarding for Jund's Cruelty:
-4 Dimir Keyrune
-2 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
+2 Turn / Burn (I heard removing Undying creatures with no triggers and only having to kill Thragtusk ONCE was good)
+1 Witchbane Orb (before u Bonfire of the Damned lemme explain to u a thing)
+2 Izzet Charm
+1 Magmaquake
Game Two was actually a much more intense game, and a good deal more of our decks were able to touch the table. We managed to trade really hard on burn spells and other various swings. I manage to slam a Master of Cruelties on the board, and clear out half of his aggro. I turned a few things, and I stabilized on 1 Life after using Snapcaster Mage to drop an Izzet Charm on a 3x Rancor Thragtusk and mitigated the one point that stopped me from dying through SCM's toughness. Oh dear God was that terrifying. I swung in with MoC, and this won me the game when it combo'd with a miscellaneous burn spell. It was [i]much[/i] better than Game One. We came to the conclusion that if I can do the two-step into Turn 5, his deck will probably whiff and I'll win. Otherwise, he wins. This requires further testing, and could be a statement about all of my matchups in the current meta.
Round Three: Mono-White-Weenies
This Game One was actually kind of interesting. I saw his deck without sleeves, and he seemed to be playing monowhite. Internally I was like "he is undefeated too? how?" Turns out he had a deck and was capable enough to do a damn good job of putting me in my place with some interesting White-Weenies. I didn't expect to need Bolas in order to stabilize against White Weenies, ever. That made me go "wow holy shit" as I almost died to White-Weenies in a gloriously ridiculous fashion. A few cycles of Bolas' +3 later, and good stuff. We went to Game 2.
Sideboard for Mono-White-Weenies:
-2 Bolas;
-4 Dimir Keyrune
+1 Magmaquake
+2 Izzet Charm (I didn't want O-Rings to resolve or [x]/2 dudes chunking me all day)
+2 Turn/Burn (Thalia could be a thing in mono-W! Also, I'd prefer to not have Angel of Serenity be useful upon death)
+1 Cyclonic Rift (No, you WILL have the creature be perma-exiled because of how ETB effects get put on the stack. Sorry.)
[b]Second Game[/b] was a bit of a struggle. I expected to resolve a dude and make Mono-W die. However, he answered my Olivia with a Pacifism. This took me back. I haven't seen Pacifism since I played draft of M13 way back when (asides from casual play). I played a Master of Cruelties right after, expecting him to not have an answer for the 1/4 badass. He proceeded to drop another Pacifism. I ended up making him stumble through killing his dudes, and then started turning Nephalia Drownyard sideways for the game when I managed to mill his guys repeatedly.
Round Four: Naya
First Game went as a Naya deck should have. I couldn't stabilize, and tried to catch a dude with trample using Rakdos Keyrune and ended up just dying to it when he dropped Giant Growth and knocked my ass over. We went to game two.
Sideboarding for Naya:
G1 I dropped the usual setup. G2 I dropped my counterspells when I saw him literally run his deck off 1x Cavern of Souls in G2.
Game Two I watched him whiff. Granted I did about the same, I ended up drawing my counterspells as he ran his deck on Cavern of Souls and beasted some 1drops, so I just held deadweight for half that game. But, when I drew removal, I blew the shit out of his creatures. Stabilized at a low life-count, and dropped him with Nephalia x3.
Game Three was where I had my ass handed to me. I couldn't stabilize, and once I whiffed a burn spell on T4 he had me. Viashino Firstblade did some hardcore work in this matchup, taking Kessig Wolf Run procs and effectively kicking my ass like a Renekton top-lane. It was a good game of Wolf Run proccing hardcore on the dudes that were turned sideways and me not having a way to deal with it. Good game, nonetheless.
Round Five: Naya
Game One saw a drop of a main-deck Dryad Militant and I just looked at my Snapcaster Mage with some sadness as my Searing Spear ended up having jack-dick in terms of usefulness after the first cast. Not having flashback available threw me off, and I wasn't able to keep up. Aurelia Warleader! did some serious fucking work here, double-proccing an attack that killed me hard.
Sideboarding for Naya:
-Dropped Bolas, Dimir Keyrunes, and Counters
+2 Turn / Burn (go away reckoner)
+1 Consuming Aberration (no i don't know what the fuck that is supposed to be for but hey)
+1 Witchbane Orb (Reckoner lemme explain to u a thing)
+1 Cyclonic Rift (no for srs reckoner nobody luvz u)
+1 Rakdos Charm (break in case of enemy WBOrb or lots of pissy Naya dudes)
+1 Magmaquake (see: Rakdos Charm reasoning)
Game Two was a repeat. I watched him floor Domri Rade, +1 into Boros Reckoner and then dropped my Turn / Burn on a Huntmaster of the Fells
Flip because I figured I would topdeck another one. Guess what I didn't topdeck in time! Still, the guy earned a win anyhow. He would've floored Aurelia and worked my face off.
Top Eight Matchup: Round 5 Naya Rematch!
The opening move of this game was to chuckle at the rematch we were about to have. We proceeded to go about Game 1 expecting a familiar tango. Instead he dropped a Gyre Sage and started to ramp. I killed it hard. He ramped up with other means, and floored a Thundermaw Hellkite and I proceeded to shit my pants. I scooped up my cards and said "To game two!" with a grin.
Sideboarding against the Naya Rematch (The Right way!)
Second game, second chance. I dropped all but a single Dissipate, by mistake. Changed it into a Cyclonic Rift for Game three.
Game Two was where I shined. Witchbane Orb and removal staggered his deck, and I managed to stabilize and get a kill. Smiles and jokes turned into serious business, as people began to form up. I was like "uh did I do a thing" and nobody answered. I pick up my social habits from tumblr. Not a good thing, I guess.
Game Three was me watching him whiff hard into my huge variety of removal. Tributes stabilized me against his attempts at killing me, and all sorts of funsies (including dealing with a pair of Gyre Sages, a Champion of the Parish, and a Voice of Resurgence!). However, he dropped Cap'n Mal Reynolds' favorite: an Angel of Serenity. It hit the board, knocked out my Snapcaster Mage that was gonna kill him, and he proceeded to beat my face in with a Kessig'd spaceship-angel trampling over my Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius for a resounding game.
All in all, it was a good night! Scored a pack that got me another fuggin' Renegade Krasis but hey, somebody must want that right?
