2018-12-21 D&A Modern FNM 2-2 with Mono W Emeria

Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1534030#paper

Mono W Emeria is one of my classic decks that I used to play a lot of in 2016-2017. It plays a slow grindy game and has insane lategame with recursion using both Sun Titan and Emeria, the Sky Ruin. It's control in that it doesn't do anything early and tries to accumulate a ton of incremental advantage.

Changes: I finally got an MPR Wrath of God, so I played that. I played a couple different forms of GY hate since that's important, but I can't play Rest in Peace because it's symmetrical.

Round 1 vs Adam on Merfolk (2-1, 1-0)
Lost game 1 to a disruptive Spreading Seas and like four lords off of a t1 vial. He didn't see much of my game plan.
In: 2 Dusk//Dawn, 1 Pithing Needle
Out: 2 Thalia, 1 Blessed Alliance
Game 2 I try to path a lord on his turn. He taps out for Spell Pierce, I untap, and Dusk his four lords.
Game 3 He knows about Dusk now, but I keep an opening hand with 3 lands, Dusk, and a Wrath of God. On his turn 5, my Path gets Pierced again. Go to my turn 6, I play an untapped land and resolve Dusk past his 2nd Pierce for crazy value, with Wrath of God for backup. I find a Titan and Path a topdecked Master of Waves for lethal.

Round 2 vs Steve on Dredge (1-2, 1-1)
Game 1 - lost because unable to interact + fast
In: 3 Surgical Extraction, 2 Tormod's Crypt, 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon, 1 Celestial Purge (bad choice)
Out: 4 Squadron Hawk, 2 Blessed Alliance, 1 Wall of Omens
Game 2: Opener has 2 Surgical, snap-keep. Turn 2 he discards a Stinkweed Imp to Cathartic Reunion, and I ruin him. I surgical one of his 2 Golgari Thugs later when it hits the bin, which was not ideal? but kept him off any further dredge action. I'd like to hit Life from the Loam instead. Nice win, he's stuck on 2 lands due to not fetching for a green source or hitting LftL.
Game 3: 7 card hand has no GY interaction, mulligan. 6 has a Surgical, 2? lands, Wrath, Titan, and something else. Fine, I guess. It doesn't do enough and I die to Narcomoeba-Bloodghasts.

Round 3 vs Ian on Experimental Frenzy Affinity (0-2, 1-2)
Plays way more 0 drops than typical affinity, also Frogmites and Myr Enforcers. He's really fast out of the gates, and I should have been mulliganing more aggressively for Stony Silence. His early 4/4s are reminiscent of Hollow Ones, and though I can chump for many turns I'm still too slow. Ravager and Plating both threaten lethal kills when his board is able to go wider than mine.
In: 3 Stony Silence, 2 Disenchant, 1 Pithing Needle
Out: 3 Wall of Omens, 2 Thalia, 1 Blessed Alliance I think?

Round 4 vs Brian on Hardened Scales affinity (2-0, 2-2)
Both games I'm able to stall out and take over. He didn't hit payoffs quickly enough.
In: 3 Stony Silence, 2 Disenchant, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
Out: 4 Squadron Hawk, 2 Thalia, 1 Wall of Omens
Game 2 I Disenchant a Hardened Scales. He drops 2 Grafdigger's Cage, which stops my one Finks but nothing else since I didn't find Titan or Emeria. Instead I just murder him with 1/1s and 2/1s.

Thoughts:

• Pilgrim's Eye got the most "I need to read this card" reactions. It's a powerful Magic card, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
• Against my opponents the Thalias were pre-tty bad. Would have been fine against other players I saw tonight, but maybe I should change those slots.
• Should have SBd a Settle the Wreckage, probably in Celestial Purge's slot.
• Had fun doing Emeria things, though I wish I had faced slower decks.

The other deck: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1533977#paper

Built 8 rack for the kid again, changed a Fatal Push in the main to Nezumi Shortfang, altered the SB a bit. Added Liliana the Last Hope and Night of Soul's Betrayal for those annoying Kuldotha Rebirth go-wide decks, which paid off for him in round 4. Considered taking out Fulminators since Tron hasn't shown up in a while at the store. He ended up going 4-0 >:( He also took the play whenever possible, and that probably made a big difference.

Personally I usually try to slow the game down, and should instead be more proactive with both my decks and play patterns.

The store announced that they're continuing Modern FNM, but are:

• doubling the entry fee
• removing the pack for entering
• cutting rounds to 3 from 4
• and reducing the total prize pool ($60 total in credit per 8 entrants)

So 2-1s go infinite. Half the entrants get nada, and a maximum of a quarter of the entrants net value. Not really sure how this model is going to work out for players, but I suppose the store will find out soon enough.

2018-12-14 D&A Modern FNM 1-3 with Esper Seance

Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1522428#paper
Based on: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1467851#paper

Changes:

• Shriekmaws -> Lone Missionary: Meta has more aggro, and enough black/artifact creatures to make Shriekmaw look eh. However, Shriekmaw has that evasion going on for it so maybe I should have tried it out since I was slow closing
• Don't own/couldn't find Darkslick Shores, chose to play a second basic Plains
• SB: I don't own Ephara, but it's super cool.
• SB: Vs GY decks I'd rather just have t0 Leyline instead of... anything else.
• SB: Purge and Disenchant both actually hit Blood Moon, while Sundering Growth requires WW which is ... rough

Round 1 vs Scott W on "Go-Bots" (0-2, 0-1):
I kept a weak hand game 1, then a slightly better hand was too slow in game 2 as well. Not enough early interaction, Wall of Omens could only block 1 Kuldotha Rebirth token, etc.

Round 2 vs Alex on "Go-Bots" (2-0, 1-1):
Same deck, but I kept more proactive and interactive hands. Once I had both Hidden Stockpile and Seance out, I accumulated enough cards and life to have a good buffer. Still, took me like 8 turns to close.

Round 3 vs Bill on Ponza (0-2, 1-2)
Took care of his Blood Moons, Path'd Platinum Emperions, but just lost to to Stormbreath Dragons. He has inevitability by being way bigger. Even in my mono W Emeria deck, I at least have almost infinite chump blockers for Stormbreath with my Pilgrim's Eye (and Blessed Alliance as an actual answer).
Bill, if you're reading this, you should consider playing more Infernal Titans.

Round 4 vs John on Jeskai control (0-2, 1-3)
Both games I was just unable to pressure Teferi being slammed on t5 and upticking forever.
Game 2 I lost to 2x Surgical + Snapcaster (3rd Surgical)

Reflections:

• Long story, the deck is bad. You're playing do-nothing cards and do-nothing enchantments in a do-something format.
• Seance is just too slow of a payoff, and doesn't interact with the opponent enough. Compare to Waste Not which is cheap and rewards you for interacting through discard.
• Hidden Stockpile is neat but still you're just getting a 1/1 and scrying. Again, just not powerful enough for modern.
• Loses to GY interaction, which is not where you want to be - although it's maybe not fair to consider since I lost to triple Surgical
• Should have been playing some number of Thoughtseize, I think
• Mana requirements weren't too tough, which is probably more of a problem because it indicates that you're not playing powerful enough cards.
• Pack Rat - it really serves a late win-con that only combos with drawing mad cards with Mulldrifter, and unlike 8 rack which clears out opponent's hand and field it is unable to pressure effectively. Oh, on turn 3 you've spent 2 cards and 5 mana to make 4 power? That's cute.

2018-11-16 D&A Modern FNM Judging

This past FNM, I judged the event rather than participating. The night began with an unfortunate announcement that the store would no longer be running their FNMs (and accompanying YGO event) due to low attendance. Modern ended up firing with 13 people, standard with 10, and YGO with... 44? Crazy numbers. In the glory days, the store would get 100+, enough that the fire marshal would show up and warn them for exceeding capacity (because the room only had one means of egress/exit door, never mind that it was a store room with a friggin' garage door)

I can't say I was surprised by the news. They've always run a very generous prize structure even after adding the $5 entry fee. In fact, the payout guarantees that the event operates at a loss, hoping to make it up elsewhere. So after paying the entry fee, each player receives one free booster pack ($4 MSRP, but to the store it costs more like $2). Then depending on overall record, the prize structure looks like this:

• 4-0: 45 cash, or 60 credit
• 3-0-1: 30 cash, or 40 credit
• 3-1: 15 cash, or 20 credit
• 2-2: free entry into future event

So average players only need a 2-2 match record to go infinite. If 16 players show up, that results in only four players who need to pay in again next week (assuming no extra draws). In addition, the amount of payout is 1 x $45 + 3 x $15 for a total of $90 (or 120 in credit). So assuming that 16 players pay in, the store is already losing 10 bucks from the start, has given out 16 packs ($32), and we haven't even considered next week or overhead (upkeep, wages).

Now, on to some of the questions/situations I fielded.

• Chalice of the Void: If a player controls a Chalice, opponents can cast spells (that would be countered) into it hoping that their opponent forgets the trigger. However, the controller of Chalice cannot allow their own spells to resolve through Chalice, which would be considered cheating. This is due to a couple different elements of trigger policy: players are not required to remind their opponents of their (beneficial) triggers thereby helping their opponent beat them, and you are not allowed to forget detrimental triggers (which it is, if you control the Chalice & are casting a spell that would be countered).
• X is 0 everywhere except the stack. Relevant cards that interact with this: Abrupt Decay, Spell Snare, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Engineered Explosives, Chalice of the Void, Ratchet Bomb, and all the other X cost artifacts.
• Nullhide Ferox, then illegally casting noncreature spells. At regular REL, this could probably have been fixed? but was a pretty huge error. Kind of a similar thing to casting your own spells through Chalice.

Reflections:

• Judging is way more fun and interesting when people call you over.
• I wouldn't want to judge 100% of the time and play 0%, which is what most judges seem to do. Judges are usually... all judge all the time, and I think it's more fun to just play some sweet Magic
• Probably won't be judging again at this store, since they're only holding two more Magic events. Pretty unsure about when I'll next get the opportunity???