Tapping Grixis Dragons

Standard Kurremkarmerruk

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Bloody Hell —Feb. 5, 2016

I barely got home in time to get ready. I actually called the store to see if FNM had started. David said, "Hurry!" I did, but I wasn't ready.

Round 1: Red Deck Wins, or Goblin deck? 0-2

Game 1: I opened my deck box and my cards were in frickin' order by creature, spell, and land. I shuffled them as fast as I could but I was feeling guilty about being late, so I just went with it. I kept pulling clumps of similar cards. My opponent played Makindi Sliderunner Turn 2 and followed with Abbot of Feral Keep. She played either Dragon Fodder or Hordeling Outburst and pumped the Abbot with Brute Strength and Temur Battle Rage. Next turn she killed me.

Game 2: Repeat of Game 1. I wasn't pissed, but I should have really taken the time to shuffle. And I should have sided in Crux of Fate.

Game 3: Bonus! We played for the fun of it, and I got to do some decent shuffling. I stopped her goblins easily. I had a few Clutch of Currents in hand and a Haldimar Tidecaller. I bounced her Makindi Sliderunner and used a Draconic Roar on her Abbot. I'm pretty sure she had one or two enchantments out, something like Outpost Siege. I got out a Thunderbreak Regent and a Icefall Regent to tap down another Abbot, and took out her life points in the next two turns.

Round 2: Some Abzan deck. 1-2

She (two female players in a row) was a new player and I would stop and explain the rules to her. I wanted to make sure she had fun, so we took our time, and we ran out of time, so for the last game we just shuffled our decks and flipped to the 10th card and highest mana card took the game. I flipped Clutch of Currents and she flipped Grasp of Darkness. Third game went to her.

Round 3: A 5-color Ally/Landfall/Elf deck. 0-2

Game 1: I only pulled three lands and managed to hold him off for about 6 turns. But I never hit another land and he brought out creatures like Tajuru Pathwarden, Sylvan Messenger, Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen, and Sylvan Advocate. He just overwhelmed my poor drawing.

Game 2: This game took forever. I sided in a Crux of Fate, an Aligned Hedron Network, and Ob Nixilis Reignited. I was close to winning but I needed one more Swamp on the field. It's this game that made me realize I needed to work on my mana base. I'm too stingy when it comes to adding lands, but control decks require more lands. I was holding Ob Nixilis for a good six turns but I never hit a second swamp -- that's why I lost. He also played a lot of cards with Converge -- he was putting out a 5/5 Skyrider Elf because he kept hitting his Ally Encampment lands.

I counter spelled a few creatures and used Ultimate Price on one his Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip cards, and countered again when he tried to play another one. For awhile, our board presence was even. I had two dragons out and a Tidecaller, but I never hit that swamp and his big creatures started to come out.

It was a frustrating loss. I think I misplayed two moves in the game.

Game 4: Small Eldrazi creatures...? 2-0

Played another woman. She had her baby in her arms. Yeah, I beat a lady with a baby. She was new to the game and I pretty much controlled both games.

Reflections: A sort-of funny thing happened during this FNM. I was not properly entered into the match-ups. There is some guy out there named Anthony who took all these losses. The guy who entered me clicked on the wrong name. After the matches he gave me a Clash of Wills FNM promo card. That was cool.

SO, I need to add more mana. With that in mind I tweaked the mana base a little, but really need to fix it. I'm trying to figure out what can be taken out to add more mana.

This all needs to work so that my Tidecaller is still a strong part of my build. I lost too many matches that I should have won, but it was good insight into mana base.