White Onesies, or Can Twenty One-Drops Be Any Good?

I was watching coverage of a Star City Games Open, enjoying yet another control vs control snoozefest, when one of the commentators mentioned he had tried a mono-white deck with twenty one-drops. I liked the idea, and since one mana creatures tend to be relatively budget friendly I put together a list. I was able to trade for most of the more expensive cards and the rest cost me ~$40. Not too shabby. Here's that list:

Creatures
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Loyal Pegasus
4 Dryad Militant
4 Soldier of the Pantheon
4 Boros Elite
4 Eidolon of Countless Battles
4 Precinct Captain
4 Spirit of the Labyrinth

Other Spells
2 Spear of Heliod
2 Banishing Light
4 Brave the elements

Land
20 Plains

Sideboard
2 Archetype of Courage
2 Banisher Priest
2 Banishing Light
2 Gift of Orzhova
2 Glare of Heresy
2 Oppressive Rays
3 Pacifism

(Check out the deck at Tapped Out.)

Creatures, creatures, and a few more creatures, please! This deck wants a ton of creatures out by turn 3 or 4, which is easy to do with so many one-drops. The rule I had for one-drops was that each one needed to have at least 2 power, or a useful effect on the board.

Judge's Familiar has only 1 power, but it forces my opponent to play differently. Hopefully it gives me one more turn before a Dissolve or a Supreme Verdict. In the late game, it is a flier that can wear a bestow pretty well to get in some evasive damage. The angry owl is usually sideboarded out against non-control decks.

Boros Elite also only has 1 power, but his battalion ability is pretty potent if I can get it to trigger on turn 3. Alone he's pretty weak. Along with Loyal Pegasus, I try not to have the Elite out on turn 1.

Precinct Captain is a surprise all-star to me. I didn't play during the previous block (RTR) so I haven't seen him in play too often. His first strike keyword makes him very difficult to block and when he gets through he leaves a creature to chump block if I need, or help boost the Eidolon of Countless Battles.

Speaking of the Eidolon, Mr Countless Battles is what this deck wants to build up to.I prefer to bestow him, but even as a creature he has the potential to do huge amounts of damage. It is easy to have 5 creatures out by turn 4, when he can be bestowed, perhaps on the turn 1 Judge's Familiar to boost it with a +6/+6. Turn 4 wins are definitely possible with this deck.

Moving from the creatures in the main deck, I have Spear of Heliod, Banishing Light and Brave the Elements.The spear is an easy include for the +1/+1 to help my creatures deal more damage/survive a little longer. Brave the Elements is an auto-include; it works to save my creatures from wrath effects and makes them near-unblockable if I need to swing in for the win. Banishing Light is the only card in the main deck from Journey Into Nyx mostly because I wanted a way to get rid of Detention Spheres and planeswalkers. It's a pretty strong and flexible card in many situations.

I'm not going to go too deep into the sideboard except to note that the 'soft' removal cards Oppressive Rays and Pacifism count as auras when determining the strength of the Eidolon of Countless Battles.

I have had several hands with both Spears of Heliod, meaning unless my opponent gets rid of the first one somehow, the second is a dead card due to the legendary rule. I'm considering swapping one out for the Hall of Triumph for another +1/+1 effect that can be on the board at the same time.

A Newbie's Thoughts on Journey Into Nyx

My intention for this blog was to go over my FNM matches to analyze my mistakes and get to be a better player. Unfortunately, my memory for details about matches has made that nearly impossible and I really don't want to record my games or take notes. So, I think I will just use this for my occasional niave thoughts about all things Magic related, and sometimes discuss how I'm progressing in a more general sense.

Journey Into Nyx just came out and it has had a pretty big impact on my decks. I will post about those in the next week or two. Today, I'm going to talk about my top five favorite cards from the set.

1. Prophetic Flamespeaker - I loves me a "Red Deck Wins" deck. I love the simplicity. I love the speed. I even kind of like the groan that escapes my opponent when he or she is down to 6 life on turn three. This card makes me so happy. Red doesn't get card draw like Blue, and I'm usually out of cards by turn four or five, but this guy will get me another card each turn to play. Turn three this guy, turn four play a land and Titan's Strength him to pretty much guarantee a hit, plus a bonus scry. Also, I don't have anything that costs more than three so I'm pretty much guaranteed to be able to play whatever flips. I can't wait.

2. Satyr Hoplite - I don't remember which podcast it was, either Monday Night Magic or The Manapool, but someone said it right: "We got there." Finally, the one-drop red heroic creature we all wanted.

3. Mogis's Warhound - This guy may be a new all-star for my red deck. Requiring attacks is not really a draw back as that is what my deck wants to do anyway, but it might come back to get me. I'm more excited about a event cheap bestow. Besides the almost useless Nyxborn Rollicker from Born of the Gods, Red had no good cheap bestow creatures. I like the idea of this guy sticking around after a Supreme Verdict, which usually destroys my deck. I'll let you know how he works for me after a few plays.

4. Banishing Light - A couple weeks ago I started wondering about other decks besides my Red Deck Wins. I put together a White Weenie list with a bunch of one drops. This card went straight in as soon as I saw it. People are calling "the fixed Oblivion Ring" and I think it has potential to be the best card in the set.

5. Master of the Feast - In addition to my new mono-white deck, I've been thinking up ideas for mono-black aggro. Master of the Feast is the centerpiece of that deck. A 5/5 flyer for 3 is just so hard to resist. I plan on pairing him with Grim Guardian for bonus Constellation value and Fate Unraveler to punish the extra card draw. I don't know if it will be good, but it seems fun.


My next post will be my thoughts on my new White Weenie list, which went 2-2 at last FNM-- way better than the 0-4 I expected.

Journey Into Nyx PTQ Report from a Newb Perspective

This weekend, I went to a Pro Tour Qualifier instead of my normal FNM. These larger events come every couple months, and I was excited to see what a Rules Enforcement Level (REL) tournament was like. With the mono-red deck I posted last week, I went to Seattle Center to test my might against some of the best Seattle has to offer. (Spoiler alert, I only lasted four rounds, but I had a great time and met my personal goal.)

Before the event, I ran onto a couple guys from the shop where I normally play. It helped to have some folks to chat with between rounds. Also, one of the judges was the judge from my shop and he was pretty supportive as well. Going into the actual event, my goal was to win one (maybe two) matches and drop after three or four losses.

Round 1 vs. BG something (2-0)

I am going to warn you, I have a hard time remembering details of games, so my descriptions will be mostly about the overall 'feel' of the match. My first match was against "A." who had a Black/Green?maybe something else deck. Each game, he had a hard time finding black mana which crippled him. In contrast, my draws were pretty much perfect. In game two, I was able to get the turn one Foundry Street Denizen, turn two Akroan Cursader with a Dragon Mantle to make a Soldier token and get in for four damage. After the match, A. was friendly and we chatted for a bit. I was pretty happy that I had met my goal in round one. One more match win would have me ecstatic.

Round 2 vs BR? (1-2)
I don't remember much about this match except that I was stuck on one land in game one and mulliganed down to four cards on the play in game three. I couldn't recover from either position. "D." was another friendly opponent, and I was starting to wonder about the stereotype of PTQ "grinders" being a-holes.

Round 3 vs UGr (0-2)
I found "J."s deck to be the most interesting, and hardest to beat deck in all my rounds. It seemed to be mostly Blue/Green with a splash of Red. I mulliganed again down to four cards on the play in game one, which is never good, but I got him down to 12 before he won. In game two, I made one of two major mistakes in the tournament, of which I should have known better. I sent a Lightning Strike to his face on turn three when he had an empty board. I just wanted to get his life down as quick as possible, which in general I think is a good idea. The problem is that sending Lightning Strike to the opponent does nothing to the board, and just gives the opponent more information. The next turn he played a Kiora's Follower, which would have been a much better target for the damage. After that, he was able to get Kiora herself out, and use her ultimate, sending another 9/9 Kraken at me every turn. What I should have done is hold on to the Lightning Strike, and use it against something in the way of my creatures, or use it to finish him off and end the game. Oh well. At least he was friendly. At this point, I decided I would drop after one more match loss.

Round 4 vs Mono-Blue Devotion (1-2)

"B." was the only opponent to call a judge during any of my matches. Usually, my deck is pretty straight-forward and doesn't do anything weird, but playing against a control deck sometimes brings up strange corner cases. One of the calls was because he used something to take control of my Satyr Firedancer, and I then used Searing Blood to kill it. Since it is technically my creature, who takes the damage? The answer is that he does. The second judge call was because he wasn't paying close enough attention when I tapped some lands and thought I was cheating. (I wasn't.) As for actual games, I was able to overwhelm B. in game one, but game two he got me with Nightveil Spector and Thassa in game two. The meta at my usual shop doesn't have any Mono-Blue Devotion, which is so popular everywhere else, so I didn;t know how to deal with it. In game three, I made the second big mistake which I should have known better. He had Thassa online as a creature and sent her and another creature in for combat. I double blocked Thassa to get up to the 5 damage to kill her. When B. didn't pick her up after combat I remembered the gods all have Indestructable. I'm still kicking myself for that one. The next turn he cast Master of Waves, and I was done.

I dropped at this point, which was good because I was pretty tired and I had some errands to run. Now that is it the next day, I kind of regret dropping when I did. I might have been able to squeak out a couple more match wins and place in the top 64 or so. Oh well. I went in hoping to have a fun time, get a feel for REL tournaments, play some Magic, learn some stuff, and win a match. I did all of that, so I'm overall pleased with the experience and can't wait for PTQ M15.

Giving into the Red Side

My plan for Saturdays is to deconstruct my FNM matches from the night before, but before I can do that you should know the deck I'm playing. After the first FNM with that starter deck, I bought the Theros event deck, which is a white/blue midrange deck. I played with that for a month or so, and slowly modified it with cards I accumulated over the weeks. I never had much success with it, though. A month ago I decided to go for a completely new deck with a different strategy. This is the deck I decided to try: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/deck/1399

Mono-red aggro? Yes, please. Only 17 lands? That's crazy and I have to try it! I already had most of the cards, and the ones I didn't have were cheap. Except for Mutavault, which I just didn't play. I put a Lightning Strike in that spot. I've played this deck at least 15-20 times with some success, and have modified it to fit my play style and the meta here:

Creatures

4 Akroan Crusader

3 Ash Zealot

4 Burning-Tree Emissary

2 Fanatic of Mogis

4 Foundry Street Denizen

3 Legion Loyalist

4 Rakdos Cackler

1 Stormbreath Dragon

Other Spells

3 Dragon Mantle

3 Lightning Strike

3 Madcap Skills

4 Shock

3 Titan's Strength

Land

19 Mountains

Sideboard

1 Burning Earth

3 Firedrinker Satyr

1 Lightning Strike

1 Pithing Needle

2 Satyr Firedancer

2 Scouring Sands

3 Searing Blood

2 Skullcrack

The general idea with this deck is to get lots of creatures out in the first three turns, overwhelming the board and getting in for tons of damage by turn four, ending the game by turn six. One of my favorite openers is a turn one Foundry Street Denizen, with pretty much any two creatures on turn two, and getting in for three damage, then up to nine damage on turn three. Another one I like is a turn one Akroan Crusader, turn two Dragon Mantle or Titan's Strength on the crusader, making a haste soldier, and Legion Loyalist, attacking with all three with first strike.

Fanatic of Mogis and Stormbreath Dragon are my late-game insurance. If my opponent stabilizes by turn four or five, I had almost no chance with the original decklist. I found myself in several stalemates, with both my opponent and myself putting creatures on the board but not attacking. Enter Fanatic of Mogis. If I find myself with a stalled board and several creatures on the board, he becomes the finisher, doing up to six or seven damage. Stormbreath Dragon is essentially the same. The ability to surprise my opponent with four flying damage can swing a game pretty quick. Also, the monstrosity ability is nice, but I don't think I'll ever actually have the mana for it.

The sideboard breaks down to two sections for me: against creatures with Lightning Strike, Satyr Firedancer and Searing Blood, and against control with Burning Earth, Firedrinker Satyr, Pithing Needle, Scouring Sands and Skullcrack.

Against creature decks, I need ways to clear a path for my creatures and these cards do exactly that, while also doing damage to my opponent. Another Lightning Strike is one less creature I have to deal with or three damage to the face. With Satyr Firedancer, I send all my Lightning Strikes and Shocks to my opponents face which means they also clear out creatures for me. What can be better than that? How about using Searing Blood and Satyr Firedancer together. Two damage to kill your creature, which then does three damage to your face, which then bounces and kills your other creature. Swing for lethal? Good game.

Control is tough for this deck. They have answers for everything in my hand. They also tend to run mostly scry and shock lands, which is punished by Burning Earth. I try to speed up my game even further with Firedrinker Satyrs, which do a decent amount of damage for their mana cost. Also, most board sweeping cards don't actually do damage, so I don't have to worry about the satyr's drawback. Pithing Needle blanks your Jace or Elspeth. But just in case you still get your Elspeth soldier horde, Scouring Sands gets rid of it, and helps me set up my next turn. Skullcrack punishes Sphinx's Revelation and any Fog effect.

I've been pleased with this deck. It plays quickly, and gives me some interesting choices against my opponents. The area I've been wanting to grow the most lately is learning how to attack well. This deck cannot survive is I make any mistakes in combat, and has been a bit of trial by fire. I have improved quite a bit since I first put the deck together, and I think this deck will continue to push me to be a better player.

Untap, Upkeep, Concede

Back in December of 2013, I started my latest addiction, Magic: The Gathering. I'd had a tough month and decided I needed to keep my extroverted side happy by getting out and meeting people instead of sitting at home alone watching Top Gear on Netflix while my wife was at work. I had played very casually in the past, so I was familiar with the different formats and decided to pick up a deck and play Standard. I picked up a starter deck ("Anthousa's Army" for those who are interested) and went to my first Friday Night Magic.

I was terrible. I wasn't really sure how combat worked and I didn't know half the keywords in my deck. One game, I attacked with a double strike creature and my opponent blocked with a creature that was dead on the first strike. Not knowing how double strike worked, I used a pump spell so that the second strike would do more damage to my opponent. As it turns out, that doesn't work.

Well, that was two and a half months ago. Since then, I've been to that shop almost every friday night, and I've been through a couple decks. I've even drafted a few times (Only 40 cards? How exciting!). My game has gotten better, and I can't wait to play each week and get even better.

My goal here is to go over my games, recounting mistakes, deck lists, and good plays in order to help myself grow as a player.