Last night's showing at FNM wasn't quite as good as usual. For the first time with this deck I had some grievous mana issues in more than 1 match. Time for some tweaks. I'm thinking of another Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to bump that up to 4, drop Gideon, and play with the Archangel / Elspeth count.
Round 1 vs Gruul aggro: A well played and put together gruul deck. Lots of mana ramp into Witchstalkers, Polukranos, Stormbreaths. in game 3 his last ditch effort was to overload Mizzium Mortars my whole crew, I had a Brave the Elements in hand to save them, and he scoops. 2-1
Round 2 vs Selesnya aggro: Oh man. Unflinching Courage all in my face all 3 games. 2 of the games he got his lifelink goin a lot earlier than I did mine, and Fleecemane Lion hit the board on turn 2 in all 3 games, which I usually can't deal with until turn 4 with a Boros Reckoner + 1 mana free for first strike. Here's the real kicker of the match though- He tried to concede game 3. He mulligan'd down to 4 cards, looked at them, and reached out to shake my hand and give up. I declined his concession, I insisted he play out the game with 4 cards because "You never know what could happen". I thought I had it in the bag, 2 lands and a nice mana curve in my hand of 7. Those would be the only 2 lands I'd draw the entire game. I ended up with a hand full of cards I couldn't play, 6 turns in I still hadn't drawn a 3rd land and I was dead! Dead to 4 cards and nothing but a Fleecemane Lion with Unflinching Courage on it, beating on me for 5 per turn + 5 life to him starting turn 3, monstrous turn 5, still nothing for me, all I needed was a 3rd mana or a Soldier of the Pantheon but it wasn't to be. How humiliating! Losing to a guy who was ready to concede because I insisted he played it out with 4 cards. He was a happy camper, and I hope he will remember this lesson of not giving up, if he does its worth the loss. 1-2
Round 3 vs Golgari scavenge: Your typical scavenge deck, Lotleth Troll Dreg Mangler Varolz and 4 Scavenging Ooze. Here's the thing though, LolTroll can't regenerate through Celestial Flare and nothing else in the deck can trample over my soldier tokens. So both games started slow and I curved up into Heliod, God of the Sun nicely with a Nykthos shrine out. Both games there was a lot of buildup, she got an Ooze to about 16/16 and a Troll to 12/12 but I had Spear of Heliod, Heliod, and Ajani, pumping out 2/1 Cleric tokens and +1 counters on my Heliod so that he could keep pace with the troll and continue to block it for no or very little trample damage. Archangel of Thune hits the board and its all over, couple turns of mass counters and life gain and then a Brave the Elements to swing for 35 damage for the win in one swing, as her life had built way up from all the scavenging the ooze was doing. 2-0
Round 4 vs Mono Black: Ugh, usually a decent matchup for me. This guy was playing an exact copy of the top decks at GP Albequerque. Not that I mind facing net decks, but that deck is so hot and versatile right now. He went all in on Pack Rat both games that he won. Turn 2 Rats, turn 3 copies, Mutavault, he was swinging with 4/4 rats before I could get an answer on the board, so I had to chump block several times with guys like Precinct Captain, chipping away at my devotion and keeping any momentum out of my hands. Game 2 I got going too fast for him with 2 Soldier of the Pantheon on turn 1 and 2, swinging for 4 per turn by turn 3 and had him dead a few turns later by thwarting a few Doom Blade with Gods Willing. Game 3 however, he went first again, and here was turn 2 rat, turn 3 rat, Mutavault all over again, puts me on the defense, Spear of Heliod can't take them out fast enough, and I lose. 1-2
Round 5 vs BRW Midrange: At this point I'm playing for packs because I'm 2-2. This deck was stacked with removal and 4xBlood Baron of Vizkopa + 4xDesecration Demon. Anger of the Gods Lightning Strike Doom Blade Mizzium Mortars were all up in my face all 3 games but 2 of those games, I drew a starting hand with 2 protection cards in it. Those 2 games I was able to prevent enough removal to get my devotion and lifelink goin. I also got the pleasure of Brave the Elements another overloaded Mizzium Mortars this match, opponents just hate when that happens, its about my favorite thing to do with that card. Game 3 he ended up with 2 Blood Baron of Vizkopa out and I had Frontline Medic Precinct Captain Boros Reckoner Fiendslayer Paladin and dropped an Archangel of Thune. The Barons had me down to 12 life when she dropped, they got me to 4 before I could swing with her. I gained 5 life to 9 with my first swing, 2 from Paladin 3 from Archangel, and he was at about 40 life so I dropped that by about 12. Next turn he swings for another 8 dmg, 8 life taking me to 1, but the 2 lifelinks had triggered my Archangel counters twice, so now I gain 4 life from Paladin and 5 from Archangel, bumping me back up to 10, next turn I'm down to 2, the following turn I'm up to 15. The math was all for me, the 8 dmg he was doing and gaining quickly became trivial and I finished him off a couple turns later, he finally tried to play defense but Brave the Elements let my army swing for about 40 damage around his Blood Barons. 2-1
Finished the night 3-2, Placed #11. My biggest mistakes of the night were not accepting the concession against selesnya and not staying disciplined to play my creatures with +1 mana free against mono-black. Problem was, land wasn't coming like I needed it, so my usual move of waiting to drop Boros Reckoner to turn 4 so I have the 1 mana free to save him, wasn't happening, and Pack Rat was chewing me up so I had to buy time chump blocking. Still, you always want to play your best creatures with 1 mana free with this deck, no matter what, because Doom Blade taking out Boros Reckoner right away is just amateur hour and I let that happen.
Received Temple of Deceit, Boon Satyr, and Titan of Eternal Fire in my 3 packs. No trades. Time for some minor tweaks and a shot at redemption next week!
