2019-03-15 Collector's Inn 0-2 with Mono W Emeria

Tournament report sucks, skip down for real content

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

Round 1 vs Joe Andrees on Titanshift (0-2, 0-1)
Both games dropped a Thalia on turn 2 but I just can't engage with his land combo and die. Game 2 he also has Anger which is rough.

Round 2 vs Joe M on Jund (0-2, 0-2)

I used to think I was favored, but those Goyf beats hit hard very quickly. I didn't even see the Scavenging Oozes or Kalitas to beat me up - just discard, Bobs, Lilis, Goyfs, and BBEs.

Round 3 bye, dropped and left

Thoughts:

• Wow that was a bad performance
• I thought that MWE was decent vs GBx, but I just don't have great answers to Tarmogoyf beats. I played an extra game vs Joe after round 2 and lost that one handily as well.
• For my next event, I'm going back to ol' Mardu Pyromancer - free spoiler for anyone who actually reads this crap. The list I was running at the end of PPTQ season 2018: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1327820#paper

 =====================================================================

Two Kings Gaming (the second closest? now closest? store to me) is closing, which I learned about from a little thread on reddit. I then shared the thread to the BNYMTG group and saw some more salient comments there (imo). Don't really feel like putting this out there on those social media platforms, so instead I'm putting some thoughts here about the Buffalo MTG scene and some stores in particular.

https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/b3510f/i_found_out_today_that_my_lgs_is_going_out_of/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/BNYMTG/permalink/1988017014629463/

Buffalo's Magic scene is super crazy, in that it has a ton of stores for the population. This is a lot due to the sprawl of the area, since although I have like 12 stores within 30 minutes of me... they're almost all 30 minutes from me.

During each of my handful of experiences visiting Two Kings, I came away with a bad taste in my mouth each time. In my opinion, these are some of the issues that hinted at their eventual demise:

• No trading allowed in the store. Allegedly some kid got scammed years ago and their mother threw a fit so that was the end of that. But I'm pretty sure the store moved from a different location and they had the same practice there... I 100% completely understand not allowing players to buy/sell cards in store, which leads me to the next point..
• Their inventory was meh. Not the worst in the area, but definitely not a draw to the store. Now one time, I dropped by and asked to browse one of their binders, organized by set. My request was denied, on the basis of store policy because somebody simply walked away with one, once upon a time. What makes the this ridiculous as a policy to me is that the employee and I were the only ones in the store. Here was a possible way for me to actually buy something, but since I didn't know exactly what I wanted, they basically told me to get fucked.
• When I went for FNM there some weeks ago, I somehow went to turns every round. Admittedly it was my first time playing Grishoalbrand, but I'm pretty sure they were running 40 minute rounds if not even shorter.
• Payout in packs instead of store credit - and not even at a good rate (I think 1.5/player). Pack payout attracts casual players, and really turns off enfranchised players ... which is pretty much every modern player.
• No planeswalker points awarded for the FNM seriously wtf you basically told me time was worthless even though you were printing out match slips for A CASUAL FNM
• Located in a dead/dying mall. Eastern Hills is this absolute behemoth on approximately a square mile of land - just endless asphalt surrounding a crappy mall which a lot of the big box department stores have already bailed on. Also, they chose to move about half a mile from the local MTG superstore (which dominated the FNM scene for a long time), which brings me to:

Dave and Adam's. I've played the most Magic here out of any store, honestly. Their FNM prize structure was LITERALLY INSANE (YES THESE CAPS ARE ACTUALLY NECESSARY), but never increased their presence beyond FNM nor grew their community.

Regarding their interactions with local stores (i.e. FNM policy since they only ran FNMs prereleases and PPTQs), Dave and Adam's definitely forced a race to the bottom regarding FNMs. I don't consider it a shitty business tactic, but rather a very ... how to describe it ... an extremely aggressive strategy. I still don't understand how/if they ever came out in the black, but it seems that management eventually looked at the books and said this can't keep going on. In the now distant past, their events were supremely generous, but more recently (before being full canceled) they've erred on the stingy side.

Why I think they failed:

• Prize structure. Just losing money. Originally (in my expereience), FNMs were free, plus they were handing out free pizza and raffling prizes. You could go even/infinite without ever winning a single game. Then even after they ended free FNMs, to go infinite a player only needed to average like a 36% win rate. But a lot of players were turned off by the price increase from $0 to $5, which could have been handled with better optics.
• Poor singles inventory. Pretty much everything in the store had been picked through. Anything good that they acquired got sold online or at GPs because their "warehouse division" operated separately from the store division. This pairs with the first part - the prize structure gets a ton of people in the door, but you can't expect everyone to be throw money at sealed product because your singles inventory is lackluster.
• Huge overhead on FNMs - many thousands of square footage and ~5 staff, kept open for several hours. Gotta say, I can't imagine how Magic/Yugioh can make nearly as much cash as their other product, sports merchandise, for which fans will happily fork over a hundred bucks per transaction.
• Community: because the prize structure was so mercenary, people just came in from all over the area for that prize money. But on every other day of the week, they hung out somewhere else because D&A didn't run any other events. There was no loyalty, and no way to support the store if they wanted to!

2019-02-28 Iron Buffalo 2-1-1 with Sultai Reclamation Teachings

Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1685666#paper

The plan:

• Opening hand: Dream hand is probably 3-4 lands, Growth Spiral, Wilderness Reclamation, Mystical Teachings. Reclamation + Teachings hands are probably decently above average.
• Early game: draw some cards, set up Cryptic mana, don't die. Ideally turn 2 Growth Spiral.
• 4 mana: Run out Wilderness Reclamation, then cast Cryptic/Teachings
• Mid game: end of turn float mana, Teachings for value, Teachings for Teachings, Snapcaster spells as necessary. May not yet have stabilized.
• End game: Teachings for Blue Sun's Zenith, Blue Sun's for a bunch (leaving open 7 mana if possible I think). Nexus if drawn, otherwise discard to hand size with a stacked hand. Then either 1) Blue Sun's the opponent for the win or 2) attack with Snapcaster/Tar Pit while taking infinite turns

Round 1 vs AJ on RW burn (2-1, 1-0)
Game 1 got run over, was trying to figure out how bad of a hand I had. It was pretty bad.
Goblin Guide revealed a couple 4 drops to go with the ones in hand.
Game 2 he keeps a greed 1 lander. Turn 4 rolls around and I drop Reclamation. I wait a few turns with Cryptics and then manage to combo out. Pretty good.
Game 3 he floods a bit, but still pressures me a lot. I try to hold Life Goes On for extra life, but end up casting it to stay out of burn range. Then I tutor for another one and manage to wrangle Devour Flesh into Life Goes On before I combo off. He kept Searing Blaze in for some reason, but Spell Snares were gas.

Round 2 vs Tim on BW Planeswalker Pox (2-1, 2-0)
Game 1 his clock is 4 Spirit tokens and a Shambling Vent. I have to bounce Sorin and hold up Cryptic Command for it, lest it run me over. I consider Mystical Teachings for a Cryptic but instead go for a Pulse of Murasa that grabs a Snapcaster Mage. I stabilize at 4 and go off.
Game 2 he gets a Liliana of the Veil rolling on turn 3 and I'm unable to answer it. I drop a Wilderness Reclamation without Cryptic and he Disenchants it.
Game 3 I was on the back foot the whole time, manage to bounce a Sorin and hold up a Cryptic if he tries to replay it. Double Surgical on Cryptic and Teachings. He Thoughtseizes into a Remand? and I'm able to draw out of the situation. BSZ (USZ?) for 16, Remand into an Echoing Decay for an army of Spirit tokens while Heart of Kiran isn't lethal (had A Trophy ready in hand). I think he put Thoughtseize into the graveyard after I Remanded it, and I'm not sure how that would have changed things? I had another Remand in hand + about 6 more mana, but his third try might have gotten through.

Round 3 vs John G on Jund (1-1-1, 2-0-1)
Game 1 I go to 1 from fast beats before I'm able to get rid of his creatures. He has two red mana so I hold up double Remand for his Bolt. I Pulse a Field of Ruin?, and he double bolts me next turn putting me back to 1. Then the deck does its thing.
Game 2 had a lot of slow topdecking but he got out of it eventually. Surgicaled my Teachings and Cryptic Commands RIP. I joke to an observer that I should hold Teachings until I have enough mana to hold up flashback cost, and I realize that's not actually impossible if I can find Wilderness Reclamation. There was a point where I fired USZ off for 2, but probably should have held it for as long as possible (as response to Liliana +1/IoK/TS).
Game 3 we ended on about turn 6 and had a draw. Game state was pretty even, could have gone either way.
(start rant)
Pretty annoyed about this match, felt that my opponent played too slowly in games 1/2.
In my opinion, the skill required to play Jund is overrated (see also: PVDDR's articles on deck difficulty). Okay, you have a lot of microdecisions that improve your odds very marginally: Inquisition/Thoughtseize choices, fetching up specific lands, activating Liliana, etc. but these things shouldn't take half a minute each. (end rant)
I understand that he's never faced my deck before, and so needs to read the cards, guess at what my intentions are, and play around that. I also never feel that unintentional draws are my fault, but I have to bear at least some of the responsibility - push my opponent to play faster, play a bit faster myself.

Round 4 vs Matt on G Tron (1-2, 2-1-1)
Game 1 he mulls to 5 and I'm able to accrue enormous advantage. OTP Abrupt Decay his Map on turn 2.
Game 2 he mulls to 6 and I try to keep him off Tron but I simply cannot
Game 3 I keep a hand with no G mana and no 4th land, again I simply could not
Traditionally control vs Tron is a bad matchup and I don't think I was ever favored. I only really won game 1 because his hand screwed him over. Teachings for Trophy + Teachings for Surgical is just way too slow, and I don't have the tools to keep him off Tron. If only there were an instant speed Stone Rain... (actually there are but they're in red)

Thoughts:

• Growth Spiral is the most powerful turn 2 play in the deck and somehow I didn't manage it once.
• I kept a hand without green mana in round 4 and that was a mistake, though not an immediately obvious one.
• I felt lacking in early plays, but there aren't any good instant speed cantrips besides Opt. Looking at 2 CMC... maybe Think Twice or Squelch??? or I could just draw openers with Growth Spiral more -_- Oh, Hieroglyphic Illumination is an option, but only as a one-of?
• I don't have some of the instant speed toolbox (specifically Shadow of Doubt) so I left a Teferi in. I guess it would come in against control but it wouldn't do anything really? To run it out with backup, you'd need Wilderness Reclamation and the control deck probably won't let you do that. I guess it would be really good in the mirror lol?
• Deck was super fun, though I wish I had gotten 3 wins. Not sure what to do about the big mana matchups.

2019-02-21 Iron Buffalo 3-1 with Mono W Emeria

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

Running it back from last week, when I got a 2-1 finish (plus a bye for overall 3-1)

Round 1 vs Adam on Jund (0-2, 0-1)
Both games basically just lost to maindeck Kalitas. I was able to remove Scavenging Oozes.

Round 2 vs Brad on 4C Bridgevine (2-0, 1-1)
Unfortunately for Brad, I know what he's on and he mulligans 3 times over the course of our 2 games. He doesn't have any explosive starts, and I'm able to fill up the board and block for days. My GQs and FoRs were pretty good, since he only played two basics.

Round 3 vs Matt on Hollow One (2-1, 2-1)
Took me by surprise seeing him on Hollow One.
Game 1 I put up some blockers but recursive Flamewake Phoenixes/Bloodghasts apply enough pressure for a huge Flameblade Adept to finish me.
Game 2 I think he turn 1 Hollow One'd, and I Surgical'd a Phoenix, also seeing 2 EEs and 2 Grim Lavamancers in the deck. Turn 2 I drop my Wheel of Sun and Moon, leaving me in comfortable ahead to win the game over the next ten turns.
Game 3 goes long, but I'm able to get off some decent double blocks and repeated lifegain to stay in the game. Kitchen Finks MVP

Round 4 vs John G on Jund (2-0, 3-1)
Game 1 I have "early aggression" (read: Lone Missionary into Blade Splicer). His Dark Confidant betrays him, flipping Scavenging Ooze, Tarmogoyf, and BBE, which leaves him at 1 against my miscellaneous creatures.
Game 2 he gets off double Anger of the Gods, but I'm able to consistently push damage with 1/1 fliers.
Compared to my round 1 Jund matchup, he wasn't able to stick Scooze/Kalitas and that made all the difference.

Overall: Happy with the deck, maybe should have been more restrained with Path to Exiles in round 1 (fired them off vs Scooze instead of later Kalitas).