2018-11-09 D&A FNM Modern 3-1

Updated decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1457422#paper

Differences from last week:

• -1 Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, +1 Blackcleave Cliffs
• -3 SSG, +3 Fatal Push
• SB: -3 Fatal Push, +3 Anger of the Gods

Round 1 - Steve / Grixis combo (1-2, 0-1)
There's got to be a better name for the deck that plays Goryo's Vengance, Living End, As Foretold, Griselbrand, Kiki-Jikki & Deceiver Exarch, and Jace Vryn's Prodigy. Game 1 I had a hand that didn't do anything (no Waste Not). Probably wasn't winning g1 anyways since I don't have graveyard interaction. Game 2 I drew all three Surgical Extractions and had an easy win. Game 3 was no action again and combo'd on turn 3, perhaps should have mulligan'd to 5 for a Surgical.
SB: +3 Surgical, +3 Liliana of the Veil, -3 Fatal Push, -3 Kolaghan's Command

Round 2 - Brian / Affinity (2-1, 1-1)
Game 1 he played a Blood Moon into an open fetchland, and I had a basic Island in my hand. the Blood Moon turned off all his manlands, which could have been a problem. Finished game 1 with a Collective Defiance, which is hilarious.
SB: +1 Fatal Push, +1 Kolaghan's Command, +3 Anger of the Gods, +1 Kalitas Traitor of Ghet, +1 Gifted Aetherborn
-2 Collective Defiance, -5 other cards I forget. JVP, Snapcasters, maybe Collective Brutalities
I think it's important to keep at least 1 Snapcaster in for the ability to flashback Torment of Hailfire.
Highlight from game 3 was weakening a Galvanic Blast targeting my Gifted Aetherborn, by removing their third artifact.

Round 3 - Ed / mono red Steam Kin? (2-0, 2-1)
Don't think it was a stock list. He played Mox Opal, Bomat Couriers, Memnites, Signal Pests, Bushwhackers, Runaway Steam-Kin, Risk Factors, Goblin Guides, Goblin Grenades. Not a lot in the way of direct burn spells. He brought me close both games, but Risk Factor worked out quite poorly for him - ex. from 6 life, take 4 because he has access to RRRR mana (Steam-Kin on 3 counters + lands), or letting him draw 3 cards with no available mana on that turn + Collective Brutality in hand.
SB: +1 Fatal Push, +1 Kolaghan's Command, +3 Anger of the Gods, +1 Kalitas Traitor of Ghet, +1 Gifted Aetherborn
-2 Collective Defiance, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Damnation, -2 JVP?
Basically same sideboarding as round 2 vs Affinity


Round 4 - pair down vs Dan / budget elves (2-1, 3-1)
Lost game 1 to a bunch of dumb pointy-eared brutes.
SB: I don't even remember. Anger of the Gods did a lot of work here (and in the other matchups).
Game 3 I misplayed several times. The first was vs a telegraphed Collected Company (Heritage Druid + 2 elves + land). I had a Fatal Push and Anger of the Gods in hand. I should have Pushed the Druid in draw step or first main, then cast Anger in the next available main phase. Later on, though around 10 life, I was not under threat of lethal damage (even if he had two lords), and could have played a JVP with Anger of the Gods in the yard - setting up a next turn flashback. Instead I cast Wistful Thinking, and had to Wistful Thinking myself next turn to find a Snapcaster Mage for my Anger. Earlier I cast a Torment of Hailfire for X = 4, and after sweeping the board I used JVP to flash it back for X = 6.

Judge question: I control a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. I cast Anger of the Gods (my opponent has creatures, obviously). What happens - do I get zombies or not?

Answer: CR 616.1

Overall thoughts:

• The Fatal Push/Anger of the Gods combination was huge, at least vs my local store's meta. There are a lot of "burn" or aggro players whose decks play a ton of small creatures. Control, midrange, combo, and big mana are not super prevalent right now?
• There are several players at the store who play (at least some of the time) some variant of the deck I faced in round 3 (mono red aggro, utilizing Mox Opals).
• With all these aggro players running around, there are a lot of Goblin Guides running out there. But most of these players don't remember the attack trigger, which is super frustrating to me (and pretty sure illegal at comp REL). You don't just get a bigger Angry Goblin with no downside!
• Wistful Thinking is the game's silliest Mind Rot.
• DIY Ancestral Recall (Dream Salvage) is great. However, I don't think it's worth casting when it can only draw 1 card (enabled by Geier Reach Sanitarium/Thoughtseize/Collective Brutality/Liliana of the Veil).
• I should formalize my priority of fetch targets. Usually I prioritize BR, the BB/RR, then a U source - roughly corresponding to each turn. There's only a couple people playing Blood Moon? in which case I'd probably fetch Swamp-Island in that order, unless both my fetches are Bloodstained Mire.

2018-11-01 Iron Buffalo casual modern 1-1

Visited this place on Tuesday. It's in the former location of Dragon Snack Games (near Millersport Hwy/Eggert Rd), which was formerly formerly of Mt. Morris.

The owner is a guy named Bill/William Waterrose, and the guy heading magic is named Kevin Swanson I think. The prices are competitive (very close to TCG market, will have to see how they adjust when prices fluctuate). They aren't a WPN store yet, so they don't have sanctioned events or FNM. They offer some comics, board games, and coffee. There's a comfy play area which is currently suited more for board games than Magic (very large, separate tables).

Talking to the owner, he said that he wants to attract a more casual crowd for Magic, less of the spiky type. So I decided to hit up some friends and attend their inaugural modern event with Waste Not Storm.

The decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1440722#paper

The event: was announced on FB as $5 entry, Assassin's Trophy for first place. Right before I arrived, the TO made an announcement that because only 6 people showed up all the prizes (30 credit + AT) would go to the first undefeated player which is :/

Round 1 vs Nick on Storm (1-0)
He has no idea what I'm doing, but eventually I have two Waste Nots and make him discard a bunch using Wistful Thinking (it's like a worse Mind Rot!). I draw through almost my entire deck, and win with Snapcaster Mage on Torment of Hailfire for 5, with 3 cards left in my library.
Game 2 he has a bunch of rituals, Past in Flames, and Noxious Revival in the graveyard from Gifts Ungiven-ing in response to my discard spells (Wistful Thinking, Thoughtseize). He fizzles, but kills my Liliana of the Veil and flipped Jace VP. I Torment from hand for a bunch and get the win.

Round 2 vs Dan on Bant Spirits (1-1)
Didn't know about the undefeated thing, so we played it out. Dan is a local guy, nice enough when he's not losing. He's playing a version of Spirits with all 3 of their accelerants: Aether Vial, Noble Hierarch, and Collected Company, which seems a bit questionable.
I concede game 1 to his fast start to conceal information (all he knows is that I'm Grixis with Burning Inquiry and Faithless Looting).
Game 2 he gets a little land flooded and concedes to my Waste Not + Wistful Thinking.
Game 3 I have some bad openers and lose to Selfless Spirit negating my in-hand Damnation. Good sideboarding on his part, expecting sweepers from the Grixis deck.

Waste Not Storm retrospective:

• The SSGs can go - can probably cut them for Fatal Pushes in the main. It's not a fast combo deck - need to have the mana to have a good combo turn, but it doesn't need to be turn 3 or 4 wins. Maybe leave 1 in?
• Sideboard - can definitely use some work
• Mana base - I don't like it. I studied a couple lists online, and based it off those, but the Urborg feels super out of place and fetching+shocking hurts way more than I'm used to.

That other thing:
I decided to drag my friend Jason along with me, sticking him with a suboptimal mono red deck I threw together (including Hazorets, Ahn-Crop Crashers, Harsh Mentors, and Searing Bloods). Then I tossed him into the deep end. He played vs friend Matt on Hollow One (a crush), and then got a bye, playing against the nice Constant-ine who had a relatively casual but coherent werewolf deck. Props to both of them for being friendly and educational.
While driving Jason home, he mentioned that he felt most successful on the red deck when he just stopped thinking and planning for the long term. This is incredible - he managed to hit on a core element of Magic's game design / color pie philosophy. It's like, the most characteristic trait of red.

Bonus deck:
I threw together a quick draft for Bant Eternal Command deck, which was pretty suboptimal. The deck looked something like this? https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1440739#paper (missing 2 from the main, most of the sideboard)
I played a couple quick games against Constant(ine) and lost both. Sequenced my removal poorly and I had a bunch of ramp with nothing to do. I realized that I have a bunch of cards to search for basics, but only about 5 basics, and can definitely use more removal/counterspells.