The Week That Was…
What have I been up to? Well, for the last few days, I’ve been competing in a couple of Magic: The Gathering tournaments. Since I was already able to complete my Wolf Run Ramp deck, which is basically identical to the deck used World’s Champion, Junya Iyanaga, I thought to give it a spin. Me and Liz participated last Wednesday’s tournament which was held in Project 6. Unfortunately, the keys were unavailable at that time so we were not able to get inside the building where we were supposed to play at. Instead, we decided to go for a very long walk and play in a nearby Mcdonald’s branch instead.
I ended up being top two at that time with my deck while Liz on the other hand was not able to make it. I was very happy at that time since it was my first time winning that much, especially that it was also the first time I used that deck in a tournament. Well, not really the first time since I have been using a proxy deck for to practice with my girl in the last couple of weeks. Though its components were fairly different to the one I used last Wednesday. I ended the evening at 2-1, losing to the mirror match.
The first two matches were with a Werewolf deck and a mono-black control. Unfortunately, I was unable to keep up the good record with the following tourneys that we participated at. That same week, we joined the FNM Held at Titans in Eastwood last friday. There, I lost miserably against UW humans, a Grixis Control, a Mono-Blue Illusions and something else which I already have forgotten. On the other hand, my girl got a better standing. She ended the evening 2-2, was it? Trust me; I was not happy about it due to the fact that I played lousily. Had a lot of misplays and I was too lazy to think of my moves. Imagine this, opponent played a phantasmal image and copied an insectile aberration. At that time, I had a Kessig Wolf Run in play but I did nothing. I completely forgot the fact that I could target the image and kill it with the land! Another one was allowing an online Olivia to even dent my Solemn before I bothered killing it at a later turn with a Galvanic Blast. Furthemore, my opponent just simply took control of my Solemn and got the draw instead of me. And when I was battling it out with the UW humans deck, I did not even bother mulliganning for a better hand. I learned that a Primeval Titan, A Rampant Growth and four lands would not cut it against such a deck. Imagine these misplays. It was all my fault and I deserve the loss. What’s worse was that it bugged me the whole evening and did not let me sleep at all!
On the brighter side, it made the fire in me burn stronger and learned from the experience. That coming Sunday, I battled against an UR aggro, the same Werewolves I fought Wednesday of the same week, a UW humans, a Solar Flare and a Mono-black Infect. I won against the UR player but that was it. The rest were all loses except with the UW humans who by the way, was piloted by my very own girlfriend, who also had a bad record at that time. Though there are a couple of memorable matches that I want to highlight starting with the Solar Flare match up. The match up was memorable because I know I could have won the next round of our game. I had an inkmoth online, and a hand with an Autumn’s Veil, an Acidic Slime and a Sword of Feast and Famine. Since I knew that my opponent was holding a Mana Leak, I played an Acidic Slime first which as expected got countered. The next turn, I played the Sword with three untapped lands. He let it go and when I equipped it, he responded with Victim of the Night. Luckily, I had Autumn’s Veil at that time and responded in turn. The Sword got equipped and the Inkmoth went to the red zone, untapping all my lands. Unfortunately for me my opponent played Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which shut off my nexuses. For the next few turns I was not lucky enough to get answers and lost after a few hits from the legendary praetor.
As of right now, I am just spending the last few days tweaking and tuning my deck. I am considering of replacing Sphere of the Suns with a set of Viridian Emissary. The metagame where I play was just full of aggro decks and if I am unable to do something about the early swarm then I’ll likely scoop up my cards. I’ll probably be playing again this coming weekend given that I do not have much appointments or commitments. For the meantime, I am busy with writing articles and reading up articles in Starcitygames.com. I am looking forward to the next tourney!