FNM: Modern 2013-02-01

Modern: 2013-02-01

played at: Magic United, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Attendance: 12
Final Score: 0-2, 2-0, 1-1, 2-1.Deck piloted by: Deckschrobber
Deck designed by: Alfonso Mendez Cristobal (1st in GP Bilbao - Grinders Winners, Jan-2013)

With Bloodbraid Elf getting the Banhammer right in her face in the recent bannings Jund turned from an awesome deck to an okay / good deck. Reason enough for me to try something else for a change. There have been a number of decks that I'd been wanting to try so tonight at the inaugural Modern FNM at Magic United I ran my net-decked version of this Birthing Pod deck.

 Maindeck

    Creature [27]
        1 Ethersworn Canonist  
        1 Spellskite  
        4 Birds of Paradise  
        1 Qasali Pridemage  
        1 Shriekmaw  
        1 Reveillark  
        2 Murderous Redcap  
        1 Orzhov Pontiff  
        1 Noble Hierarch  
        1 Eternal Witness  
        1 Ranger of Eos  
        4 Kitchen Finks  
        2 Wall of Roots  
        2 Viscera Seer  
        1 Deathrite Shaman  
        3 Melira, Sylvok Outcast  
    Instant [5]
        2 Abrupt Decay  
        3 Chord of Calling  
    Artifact [5]
        4 Birthing Pod  
        1 Blasting Station  

    Land [23]
        2 Forest  
        1 Swamp  
        4 Verdant Catacombs  
        2 Woodland Cemetery  
        4 Misty Rainforest  
        2 Razorverge Thicket  
        3 Gavony Township  
        1 Temple Garden  
        1 Godless Shrine  
        2 Overgrown Tomb  
        1 Dryad Arbor  

Sideboard

    1 Baneslayer Angel
    1 Aven Mindcensor
    1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
    1 Harmonic Sliver
    2 Rule of Law
    2 Dismember
    1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence
    1 Kataki, War's Wage
    2 Thoughtseize
    3 Lingering Souls

Tournament report:

We had 12 people in attendance so 4 rounds of Modern. Which isn't all that bad considering this first Modern FNM coincided with the release of Gatecrash. If there is a Standard event on the release FNM that usually falls through. On top of that the Gatecrash release draft had easily 40 people in attendance.

 

Round one:

Against Teun who was piloting an infect deck. Probably should have taken a mulligan on my first hand but having never played the deck before, not even goldfished it, I was stupid enough to keep it. No removal, just a bunch of lands a Birds of Paradise and a Birthing Pod. Sadly the infect poisoned me rather quickly. Round two poisoned me equally fast and I could at least pretend to offer some resistance but alas, it was to no avail.

0-2

Round two:

Against Pedr(?) playing a rather shabby looking Pyromancer Ascension deck hailing back from the Zendikar standard days. Having substituted the Ponder of back then with Telling Time. This was an easy win twice over.

2-0

Round three:

Versus?. Today was the release of Gatecrash and this guy decided to celebrate it not by participating in the very well attended draft but by playing some of the new cool cards from the new set. Oh, he build himself a combo deck that in the first round thrived on the New Phyrexia card Mindcrank and the new Gatecrash card Duskmantle Guildmage.

 

 

Without a Legendary Eldrazi in my deck that leaves my deck very empty, very quickly.

Managed to win the next round and my opponent failed to kill me with in the five turns when time was called. So this ended in a draw. Though after he had Surgically Extracted my Kitchen Finks and all my Birds of Paradise had died bravely blocking the onslaught of Restoration Angels there was no way I was going to not die from lethal damage if the game had been able to drag on for another turn. 

1-1

Round Four:

Against Erik, who was also playing infect. On turn three he has a Noble Hierarch and and infect elf (Glistener Elf, probably) ready for attack, he attacks, exalted trigger goes on the stack, no blocks, throws a +4/+4 Groundswell on it, resolves, throws another +4/+4 on it and I cast my Abrupt Decay after that last one when we're about to go the combat damage step. There was no way back from there for him.

Round two among other things I have a Rule of Law and Melira, Sylvok Outcast and a Kitchen Finks in play. Instead of playing the Viscera Seer that I have in my hand and endlessly sacking my Kitchen Finks, gaining a million lives and scrying my library till the card I want on top of it is on top of it I decide to play my Spellskite instead. Cause he might have some removal, realizing I'm in the dangerzone with regards to my life total. Then he resolves a Torpor Orb and attacks me for lethal. Faalboot crew member present, check.

Round three he repeats his play from turn one and pumps his infect elf while I have B/G open and indeed a Abrupt Decay on hand. And a Dismember. And a Shriekmaw...so I win, easily. Though there was no need for me to lose the 2nd round of this one.

2-1

Final standing: 2-1-1, which is mediocre at best. Did win me two Gatecrash boosters. Yielded me a Wrecking Ogre, Whipsering Maddness and a foil Giant Adephage. Plus fun playing two games of booster battle against Marco.

This particular build of Birthing Pod is is definitely a fun deck to play but at the same time also not really my kind of deck. Too many decision trees to go through, too many potential mistakes to be made. To be fair I didn't actually use the Birthing Pod engine all that much. Either because I didn't have them or because what I wanted to find was already in my hand/in play. Certainly requires a bit more practice from my side to fully get this in my fingers.

Everyone I spoke with recommended the Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker midrange version like this or that over this Milera, Sylvok Outcast build I had with me. Did considered it, yes. But just took a list and stuck with it to get a feel for it. Probably will end up trying out the Kiki-Jiki variance as well somewhere in the coming month. 

On the side I've sleeved up the Thalai's Slippery Boggle / Hexproof Aura deck. And spotted an interesting The Rock deck to have closer look at.

More to come.