Deck building challenge: Standard 2013-01-17

Standard: 2013-01-17
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 6
Final Score: 1-2, 2-0, 1-2 

Deck piloted by: Herr Kapitän  
Deck designed by: Deckschrobber


After some complaining from Herr Kapitän about the states of his decks I decided to build him a deck. The deck is inspired by the recent Enchantment.deck that won the GP Atlantic City 2013 in the hands of Jon Stern.
  

4x Temple Garden
4x Sunpetal Grove
4x Hinterland Harbor
4x Hallowed Fountain
2x Cavern of Souls
5x Forest
1x Plains

4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
4x Invisible Stalker
4x Geist of Saint Traft
3x Silverblade Paladin
1x Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons

3x Rancor
4x Etheral Armor
3x Spectral Flight
3x Detention Sphere

2x Increasing Savagery
3x Selesnya Charm

Sideboard:
1x Sundering Growth
2x Knight of Glory
2x Negate
3x Azorious Charm
2x Feeling of Dread
2x Rest in Peace
2x Nevermore
1x Intrepid Hero

Not sure about the sideboard, not sure about the mainboard nor about the manabase I appear to have completely forgotten about the existence of Glacial Fortresses. but Herr Kapitän gets to try it out anyway...

Reports from Herr Kapitän indicate that the deck mulligans poorly. He suggested replacing the Increasing Savagery with Revenge of the Hunted cause that one can be miracle'd into quicker and speed is what he think you'd want with this deck. While true it isn't exactly a lasting effect while the Increasing Savagery is. And only the Invisible Stalkers are unblockable though I suppose it would be good removal. It is food for thought. 

Standard: 2013-01-17

Standard: 2013-01-17
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 6
Final Score: 2-1 (2-1, 1-2, 2-0)
Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: Jeff Hoogland (nov-2012, top128 in SCG Open St Louis, Missouri, USA)

Tonight I'll be playing with a deck I found online that looked like a lot of fun. Don't think it is going to be exceptionally good by any measure but it's running a Bloodgift Demon, for of them no less.  Which is totally awesome! A Severely stomping Phyrexian Arena with wings, hell yeah!

Maindeck

    Creature [12]
        4 Thragtusk   
        4 Desecration Demon   
        4 Bloodgift Demon   
    Instant [7]
        2 Abrupt Decay   
        3 Ultimate Price   
        2 Tribute to Hunger   
    Sorcery [6]
        4 Farseek   
        2 Sever the Bloodline   

    Artifact [3]
        2 Golgari Keyrune   
        1 Staff of Nin   
    Planeswalker [8]
        3 Garruk, Primal Hunter   
        3 Liliana of the Veil   
        2 Vraska the Unseen   
    Land [24]
        6 Forest   
        5 Swamp   
        4 Woodland Cemetery   
        2 Cavern of Souls   
        3 Evolving Wilds   
        4 Overgrown Tomb   



Sideboard

    1 Staff of Nin
    2 Pithing Needle
    2 Bloodline Keeper
    3 Ground Seal
    1 Abrupt Decay
    1 Tribute to Hunger
    1 Ultimate Price
    2 Mutilate
    2 Sever the Bloodline

The only revision I made to this list is kicking out the two Cavern of Souls and replacing them with a swamp and a forest. This because my Caverns are in another castle.

Round one:

The deck was a lot of fun to play. The first round I was paired against Herr Kapitän who was piloting a deck I build for him in The Deck Building Challenge. I win the die roll and go first. On Herr Kapitän's turn two he casts an Invisible Stalker and on my turn three I cast a Lilliana of the Veil.  and from that point on I have an answer for every thread he plays.

Next game I have to mulligan down to 5 with no landers and end up with a single land hand hand. Better than nothing but stay put on 2 lands. Plenty of answers just no way to cast them. And besides, in a moment of utter brilliance,  I had boarded in something Pithing Needles which are no use against that enchantment.deck which I should know very well cause there are no activated abilities in the whole of the deck. Sort of was confusing it with the Meddling Mage effect, FAAL!

Game three saw a quick and steady stream of answers and poor draws on my opponent's side.
(2-1)

Round two:

 I met up with RDW piloted by Rens. The first game I lost the race by an incredibly lucky top deck by Rens in the form of a Zealous Conscripts. That turned my Thragtusk into a very disloyal subject and he could swing in for the kill. Anything else would have been fine and i would be able to cast another Thraggie and take out one of his creatures but it wasn't meant to be. Game two I gained a lot of life with my tusks and when the Mutilation destroyed his board and the Desecration Demon came down it was GG, Sir. And game three saw me mulligan down to five again and missing a land drop that lost me the race.
(1-2)

Round three:

Round three was against a new player, Ziga, who's deck more or less was an enhanced draft deck. And not a terribly experienced pilot either so it was more of a goldfishing bye than an actual round.
(2-0)

final standings after three rounds: 2-1.

The machine calculated that I ended up in third place which got me a booster with a Temple Garden in in, yeah! TG is nice value hovering around an average of 9.50euro at the moment. Though I find the new art horrible and much prefer my original ones by Rob Alexander. But that is just a matter of taste. 

It definitely was a fun deck to play!

Gatecrash PreRelease

Oh yes, it is that time again... a new Magic set is approaching fast! January 26-27 is the Gatecrash PreRelease weekend. Happy, happy, joy, joy, new cards, new promo's, lots of Magic, lots of fun! Join the crew of the Faalboot at Gamers of the West, Rotterdam the Netherlands.

See you there!

modern: 2013-01-07

Modern: 2013-01-07
to be played at: Gamers of the West, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: hasn't happened yet.
Final Score: hasn't happened yet.
Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: Generic Spirit Jund list

It has been quite a while since the last update in HMS Faalboot logs and frankly since I last played Magic. Tonight this should hopefully change with a Modern Tournament. Though I'm hearing rumors we're playing Standard instead, meh. :(


Without further ado, tonight's decklist:

4 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Terminate
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
4 Lingering Souls
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Treetop Village
4 Marsh Flats
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
4 Raging Ravine
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Stomping Ground
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt

// Sideboard:

SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 2 Fulminator Mage
SB: 2 Rule of Law
SB: 1 Jund Charm
SB: 1 Rakdos Charm
SB: 1 Olivia Voldaren
SB: 2 Slaughter Games
SB: 2 Creeping Corrosion
SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse 

Nothing too special or original though the last time i played modern Lingering Souls hadn't made it into Jund decks yet so this is a new experience for me. Lots of good cards, lots of options and Bloodbraid Elf lets you cascade into pretty much everything you'd ever want to play. So yes, the deck plays itself but I'm so horribly out of practice that I'm not having any expectations of success tonight.

There are plenty of other decks in the Modern format that I'd like to give try. The recent Umbra/Slippery Boggle deck, G/W aggro / Brian Kibler's Hatebear deck, Stanislav Cifka's Second Breakfast as well as fun looking Birthing Pod deck. Ordered most of the cards that I was missing to play these decks, need to make some proxies for my lands and then I'm good to go to give these all a serious try. More about that later.

Signing off,
Deckschrobber.