Challenge: Stepping Into the Arena
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Jan. 8, 2015, 3:03 p.m. by fluffybunnypants
I miss doinitwrong's events, so let's trying something new!
Challenge: Stepping Into the Arena
Format: Build Your Own Standard
Stepping Into the Arena will be a Build Your Own Standard event. Fluffy, whats that even mean? Build your own Standard means that you get to choose two expansion blocks and one core set to construct your deck from.
Each match will be a best of three. There will be a set number of swiss rounds that is dependent on participation and we will cut to either top eight or top four (also based on participation).
Please submit decklists by creating a deck on site with the words "Fluffy BYOS" in the title and tagging me (fluffybunnypants) in the comments as well as posting a link to it in this thread. Why so much visibility? Im really highly likely to miss it otherwise, I promise you. Submissions close Sunday 1/18 at midnight EST.
I will play out the matches with a friend of mine and post a brief summary of each match, hopefully with some form of enlightening (more likely amusing) commentary.
Banned sets: Alpha, Beta, Unlimited, Revised, Arabian Nights, Antiquities, the Dark, Fallen Empires, Homelands, Legends, Chronicles and all extraneous sets (Commander series, etc.).
If you build a successful ProsBloom deck, you will get extra props from me. I will play my own BYOS deck if we wind up with an odd number of people.
The winner currently gets bragging rights. If this turns into a real thing (meaning we get a lot of people who make decks), I will attempt to figure something out as a prize to the winner.
fluffybunnypants says... #2
I hope to get round one posted today once I get more time to actually sit down and finish writing it up.
February 8, 2015 12:56 p.m.
Sparda1127 says... #4
I have only one question. Do we need a sideboard? I have the perfect jank deck for this, but it wouldn't benefit from sideboard.
February 11, 2015 9:03 a.m.
Sparda1127 says... #5
Aw, nevermind. I was confused by the deadline. Crap. xD
February 11, 2015 9:25 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #8
Done writing up through round 3. I will post it by Wednesday (for real). I appreciate your patience.
February 16, 2015 10:42 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #10
It's done! Posting when tonight when I'm done with work.
February 18, 2015 12:34 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #12
Here's the first 4 because I'm a little on the hammered side.
Round 1:
Fluffy BYOS- Black(ish) Summer Vs. Gnarlicide BYOS
This was brutal.
Necro wins the roll 10 4 and chooses to play. Herp derp.
Game one:
Turn one Duress shows that Jund has a pretty solid hand with a Tarmogoyf, Sylvan Library, Bolt and Putrefy as the main action. The Putrefy is removed. Jund starts off with a Blood Crypt tapped and passes the turn back. Turn two, Necro goes, Springs, Dark Ritual for Persecute, naming Green. Jund promptly loses most of its action and never really recovers. The next turn is an Ivory Tower and a ritual for a Necropotence for the Necro deck, which proceeds to run away with the game, despite some late aggression from Jund in the form of some Keldon Marauders.
There didnt really look like a whole lot of good sideboarding options in either case, but hey, shit happens.
Game two:
Jund chooses to play (derp) and starts off with a Grove. Necro goes Zuran Orb, swamp, ritual, necropotence, draw a bunch of cards, discard a bunch of lands and away we go. Despite getting the Loam-Mine engine going later on in the game, Jund eventually just dies to Hippy beats (just for gnarlicide) after a couple of Larry Nivens Disks hit the board combined with Yawgs Will.Like I said, brutal. Black Summer wins by chopping off Junds well yeah.
I was actually really concerned about Junds matchup against a lot of other decks in this format Im really more surprised that this deck wasnt built with Alara block. This format is really heavily based on card advantage and this decks a bit slow to the party. Necropotence performed as expected, getting out to an early lead and keeping it. Jund was never able to claw back from the card advantage Necro got early and the disk-will combo really just shut the door. The awkward part about sideboarding in an event like this is that a lot of players have no idea what they are going up against. Which makes it tough to pick out a sideboard that will actually do something.
Fluffy BYOS: Obey in Peace vs. Fluffy BYOS Tokens
Obey wins the roll 5 4 and chooses to play. Talk about shitty rolls.
Game One:
A hand with RIP and Tutor make it looks like this game is fairly wrapped up from the beginning. Its a slower, less flashy start but Obey starts with a Watery Grave untapped. Tokens has other plans and turn one Thoughtseizes off of a Swamp. Obey pops a Brainstorm and makes Tokens settle for taking a Portent. Bogus. The game is wrapped up fairly quickly as Obey draws and plays RIP off an untapped Shrine and then proceeds to curve out to four mana as Tokens cannot produce tokens fast enough to pressure Obey out of the game, even with Obey taking damage from untapped lands.
Disenchants come in and Dispels leave Obeys 60. Leyline of Sanctitys and 2 Stony Silences come in and Doom Blades and Shriekmaws leave Tokens 60.
Game Two:
Turn zero leyline for Tokens. Tokens opens with a Thoughtseize off a Swamp and concedes to Obeys hand of Dark Depths, Thespian's Stage, Watery Grave, Disenchant, Lim-Dul's Vault, Vampiric Tutor and Mystical Tutor.
If Tokens had time, it couldve done something with two virtues and a Lingering Souls in hand, but time was not something in its favor.
Obey in Peace has a metric tonne of Tutors which makes it hard for hand disruption to keep it in check. I think that against some of the decks that are trying to be fair, Tokens has a chance, but its combo matchup looks messy.
Stepping Into the Arena BYOS vs Fluffy BYOS Stoneblade
Stoneblade wins the roll 9-2 and opts to (derp) play.
Stoneblade keeps a pretty good hand that involves a possible turn three Jace, the Mind Sculptor with Spell Pierce backup, but Arena has other plans keeping a fast hand with two delvers and a Brainstorm with Force backup and a Geist. Arena attempts the old Brainstorm to ensure a turn two Delver flip, but Stoneblade Spell Pierces the Brainstorm, but the Delvers flip on turn two and turn three anyway. Jace gets Forced on turn four due to Arena being able to pay for Spell Pierce. Game one ends shortly after a Stoneforge Mystic lands for Stoneblade but is quickly smacked with a StP to the face and the resulting hardcast Batterskull gets countered. Stoneblade casts a late Balance as a last ditch effort, but Arena gets a Geist to stick and, on the next turn, its game over.
Strip Mines, Mental Missteps and Zeniths come in for Stoneblade and it ditches the stoneblade package as a whole to become pure control plus Karn ramp.
Arena sticks with its main 60.
Game Two:
Stoneblade mulls to 6, Arena mulls to 5.
Stoneblade keeps a hand thats pretty reactive with a counterspell, spell pierce, StP and lands. Arena runs out a quick start with a Delver, but it gets Swordsed (man, we are making our own words now) shortly after it flips and its draw-go until Stoneblade tries to land Jace, but Force of Will wins the argument for Arena. Despite Stoneblade landing an Inquisition, Arena still manages to keep Karn off the table as well. Stoneblade lands a Mind Twist the turn after Arena lands an uncontested Geist that a Balance eventually takes care of. Stoneblade eventually gets Jace to stick and ults for victory while sitting at 2 life. This game went on forever. We were going to start taking shots every turn it was draw-go.
Arena removes StPs for Disenchants. At least they hit something.
Stoneblade sticks with its previous 60.
Game Three:
Game three goes quickly as Arena goes Delver, Delver, Geist and Stoneblade cannot get Black Sun's Zenith to stick despite Counterspell and Spell Pierce backup. Stoneblade manages to land a Jace, but it only buys Stoneblade one turn after Arena Miracles a Temporal Mastery.
This seemed like a pretty classic matchup. I actually wasnt sure if my friend would go full control or ditch the Karn package, so I screwed up sideboarding for Game 2, not that Disenchants wouldve won me the game, but StP was doing actual nothing. Im sure the Strip Mines wouldve done serious work against the Delver deck, but we never saw a single one actually hit the battlefield. Delver really got to use its counters like it wanted to and forced Stoneblade into a reactive situation where it had to fight from behind the whole game. Even then, Delver couldve easily taken game 2, but I couldnt find a single threat to keep in my hand. As a side note: I cant believe more people didnt grab Ice Age block, you get Brainstorm, Force of Will and Counterspell from it.
Fluffy BYOB Heartbeat Desire vs. Allies with Fluffy BYOS
Hearbeat wins the roll 4-2 What? I dont even how? Heartbeat opts to play.
Game one:
Game one goes kind of how both decks creators wrote it up and basically both decks did their own thing until they hit critical mass. Allies is bouncing allies and gaining a metric tonne of life, finally finding a Hada Freeblade to start attacking for huge chunks of damage. Heartbeat ramps super hard with two Heartbeat of Springs in play. At one life, it was kind of a now or never moment because aside from throwing creatures in front of attackers and a bunch of fogs (two of which were already burned), Heartbeat has very little interaction. Frankly, Im fairly positive that Allies wouldve just won this if they drew a Fireball or Comet Storm. But Heartbeat goes off using two Early Harvests and casts Mind's Desire for four then chains into two more Minds Desires to Brain Freeze for over 60 cards.
Heartbeat sides in 4x Counterspell because Mindbreak Trap was in Zendikar.
Allies side in 3x Mindbreak Traps and 1x Iona, Shield of Emeria and sides out 2x Searing Blaze and 2x Comet Storm.
Game Two:
Heartbeat mulligans to 4 and gets the ever-loving tar beat out of it. Even though it lands an Iona, Allies decides to be flashy and end with the game Fireball for 10 after some Harabaz Druid shenanigans. Heartbeat doesnt counter it because its dead on board and doesnt want to reveal that it sided in Counterspell.
The sideboards remain in tact from the previous game.
Game Three:
Heartbeat keeps an opening hand with a Mind's Desire, Summer Bloom and Heartbeat of Spring, lands and a Sakura-Tribe Elder, but Allies has a Mindbreak Trap in hand along with a Grand Abolisher, Ghostway and Hada Freeblade. The match final reaches a head on turn six with Heartbeat attempting to go off with a desire for 5 off of double Counsel of the Soratami. Allies Mindbreak Traps, but Heartbeat has the Counterspell in hand and proceeds to chain Mind's Desires until it hits a Brain Freeze for way over the full mill.
I was actually unsure of how Heartbeat Desire would do, but it looked fun, so it wound up in my list to play. That and between the two of us, I am the more accomplished Storm player. This deck is actually a demonstration as to why Mind's Desire is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. Fluffy Allies is capable of being a really unfair fair deck, but theres almost nothing you can do against chained Mind's Desires. Heartbeat Desire is actually my current favorite to win, but we will see.
February 18, 2015 9:56 p.m.
dragon_slayer says... #13
Nooooo! Stoneblade!
These are great writeups, though. Thanks!
February 19, 2015 9:33 a.m.
nighthawk101 says... #14
"Leyline of Sanctitys and 2 Stony Silences come in..." I started getting nervous there, but I'm glad the second combo pulled through.
You're right, Ice Age was a great block to choose.
February 19, 2015 10:15 a.m.
Ah well, I lost to a worthy opponent. Congrats, nighthawk101.
February 19, 2015 11:30 a.m.
Yay for Heartbeat desire! Sideboard carried me through some very tough hate, well done HostOfSmallPox, very close games!
February 19, 2015 11:50 a.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #17
Agreed, Ice Age was a great and powerful block to choose. I was actually wondering how good my deck would be.
February 19, 2015 5:10 p.m.
The_Dragonmaster says... #18
Wow, I thought I would go out first round. :D
February 19, 2015 6:40 p.m.
The_Dragonmaster says... #19
But my Allies game one was the one that made me sad. Hate it when that stuff happens!
February 19, 2015 6:44 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #21
Sorry for the further delay. I've been in the process of moving and actually haven't yet setup internet from my new location. I will be back on this as soon as I'm in contact with the world from home.
March 4, 2015 7:09 a.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #24
fluffybunnypants, I take it that the next challenge hasn't yet started? If not, please add me to the ping list.
June 11, 2015 11:12 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #25
So, I may never get around to finishing the writeup, but we played out the full set of rounds and cut to top 4. Boza's Fluffy BYOB - Heartbeat Desire smoked the competition to win the challenge in convincing fashion. Congrats to him!
July 15, 2015 10:29 p.m.
I am actually a bit surprised by that. I am glad I was able to bring old extended tech to the eyes of more people and show them the brokenness that is Mind's Desire.
The card is illegal in every format but Commander. I sincerely urge everybody to try out the most broken storm card!
Thanks to FBP for organizing this awesome challenge and fingers crossed for part 2!
July 16, 2015 2:22 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #27
I would love to do a part two. But I really need at least two people to assist with games and write ups. Because they take a lot of time.
July 16, 2015 12:03 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #28
I could potentially help with games, especially if they happen before school gets started up in the fall.
itisme282 says... #1
fluffybunnypants :( where is it :(
February 8, 2015 8 a.m.