Round 1: Dale Mill (2-1, 1-0)
Dale doesn't play much, by his own admission. He pulled out a notebook, and noticed that "Dale vs Ben" was only two pages back - apparently I got trounced quite thoroughly, probably at the Dominaria prerelease. The record shows that I dealt him 1 point of damage in 2 games (and then he finished that game at 27).
I take down game 1, and lose game 2 to a pair of unanswered Hedron Crabs. Dale misses quite a few triggers, which I remind him about after the match. It's a little of sketchy to do so?, allowing my opponent to miss triggers at FNM (regular REL) but I stand by my philosophy on missed triggers, which aligns with missed trigger policy (tournament enforcement aka comp REL). If my opponent misses a trigger, I shouldn't have to remind them, holding my opponent's hand to help them beat me.
Round 2: Sam 8-rack (1-0-2, 2-0)
Sam was borrowing my 8 rack deck, which is why I packed "Owling Mine" for tonight
The maindeck is the same as my most recent version (2018-03 version), with a tailored sideboard for the local meta: 4x Leyline of the Void, 4x Fulminator Mage, 3x Surgical Extraction, 2x Ratchet Bomb, 1x Damnation, 1x Bontu's Last Reckoning. Not all the usual suspects were in attendance, but I think this was a reasonable plan for the expected field.
Game 1 was close. He got out a couple Racks, and had some good reach going, but my Fevered Visions were chipping away, until one turn we're both at 1 life, and Sam plays the last card in his hand. Smallpox. Game 2.
Game 2 was silly - won with multiple FV and opponent misplays in the last couple turns (tilt city). I Nourishing Shoal'd twice for a bajillion (28) extra life, which let me survive until almost decking. Liliana ult made me choose between 2 FV + Dictate + 4 lands vs Grafdigger's Cage (for Raven's Crime) + FV + a couple lands. I would have lost to drawing my deck, had opponent been RCing themselves way more aggressively - my fetchlands, Remands, and Cryptics all thinned my deck out to the point where I was going to lose on my next turn's end step (FV). I did offer indirect advice though, by confirming each discard spell's target (always me, except for once).
Game 3 was a draw. It might have been in my favor, but neither of us were in a super dominant position by turn 5, so I got there with my first 1-0-2 victory ever.
In hindsight, this matchup is actually worse for the Howling Mine/Fevered Visions deck than it would seem on paper - as long as 8 rack can answer the creature threats, RCing themselves will save them from the non-creature damage sources (Runeflare Trap, Fevered Visions).
Nathan burn (2-1, 3-0)
Lost game 1 as expected.
Game 2:
Me: "I'll be on the play"
Him: "Mulligan to 6 ... Mulligan to 5 ... Keep, scry"
Me: "Okay, pre-game actions?"
Him: "Uh, none."
Me: "Yeah me neither. Pass the turn, upkeep Nourishing Shoal to gain 14 life"
Game 3: I did not have the Nourishing Shoal-Autochthon Wurm combo, and only won through with Runeflare Trap because he missed some Eidolon of the Great Revel triggers.
Overall enjoyed the match, and I hope that he enjoyed me bringing this off-meta Fevered Visions deck instead of what everyone else plays, which is mostly netdecks/known archetypes. He pointed out insightfully that part of my success with rogue decks is that people don't necessarily know how to play against them.
I really try to bring something that can both do well and provide a unique Magic experience for other players, so this was a good match.
Austin Mono U Tron, pair-down, 0-2 (4-0)
We split, but played it anyways. I uh, tried playing out tempo Boomerangs & Thing in the Ice, but U Tron's gameplan of cheap soft-counters into huge Tron-land threats was just too much.
I haven't played U Tron in a long freaking time, if ever? though I know of it, and it still does broken Tron things by virtue of stupid ramp. They turn the corner very quickly from Remands and Condescends and Repeals to Ugin and Emrakul the Promised End. Fuck Tron, I guess.
Overall reflections:
- I should probably cut Ebony Owl Netsuke altogether. Howling Mine generally feels bad, and even Dictate of Kruphix isn't great since it's a 3 mana pass-turn-basically-do-nothing when the rest of the format is doing way more powerful things on their turn 3.
- Maybe there are some fringe cards out there that better enable Runeflare Trap and Fevered Visions, the real win-cons of the deck?
- I benefited a lot today from my opponents forgetting their own triggers. Ideally I shouldn't have to rely on that.
- I can get away with the Nourishing Shoal-Autochthon Wurm SB combo as long as the store is filled with burn & I keep my deck on the down low so people don't catch on too much. As I mentioned to my r4 opponent, I don't really have a good plan for Tron or big mana decks.
- Chalice of the Void is okay? like vs burn, which would open up some more SB slots
- Maybe Blood Moon? I have 7 basic Islands after all.
- Comment if you want specifics on how I would approach a matchup with the deck, SB choices, or SB decisions (which I didn't mention)
- edit: I kept gaining 14 life off Nourishing Shoal exiling Autochthon Wurm, when I should have been gaining 15. I should fix this.
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