MTG FNM Report - Temur Dragons

This week I threw together a Temur Dragons list and ended up at Outer Limits in Melville for Friday Night Magic. Here's what the deck looked like:

Mainboard

Sideboard

4x Elvish Mystic 3x Rattleclaw Mystic 1x Hangerback Walker 4x Frost Walker 4x Goblin Rabblemaster 4x Savage Knuckleblade 4x Thunderbreak Regent 2x Surrak, the Hunt Caller 3x Stormbreath Dragon 3x Sarkhan Unbroken 4x Crater's Claws 1x Treasure Cruise 4x Temple of Epiphany 2x Temple of Mystery 1x Temple of Abandon 3x Wooded Foothills 3x Shivan Reef 1x Yavimaya Coast 2x Mana Confluence 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon 4x Forest 1x Mountain

4x Disdainful Stroke 3x Feed the Clan 3x Destructive Revelry 2x Anger of the Gods 2x Wild Slash 1x Treasure Cruise

The plan of this deck is straightforward: Play dudes and smash. It is mostly efficient creatures (many with haste) with a little ramp and a full four Crater's Claws to finish off an opponent who manages to stabalise. This deck is mostly an excuse to play my three Sarkhan Unbroken, who I like to call Sarkhan the Misnamed because he is fully broken. 

Round 1: 2-0 vs GW Aggro

I won the first game by drawing all three Sarkhans and while he could deal with the first two, the third one stuck and easily took over the game. I sideboarded out the Rabblemasters for burn in game two and ran over my opponent with Frostwalkers and Knuckleblades. 

Round 2: 2-0 vs Temur Midrange

The thought of a mirror match had not crossed my mind before starting the tournament, but that's what I ended up with in the second round. I was running dragons, while my opponent was fielding more of a ground force and the flying really won this round for me. I sideboarded out the Rabblemasters again, this time for Disdainful Strokes which managed to counter an Arbor Colossus that would otherwise have been a big problem. 

Round 3: 0-2 vs GB Elves

I hadn't seen anything like this deck before, and I didn't have a plan or an answer. It operated a lot like a combo deck, playing all the one drop mana elves into Collected Company or Chord of Calling into Shaman of the Pack for huge chunks of damage. I made a poor keep in game 1 and boarded out Frostwalkers for game two. It didn't really make any difference as my opponent went off long before I could put in under enough pressure. 

Round 4: 2-0 vs GW Manifest

My opponent didn't draw any of his Whisperwood Elementals and I managed to outrace him in the air thanks to my dragons. Managorger Hydra was frightening in game two though. I think my matchup is quite good against Green White as my creatures can mostly just attack through anything my opponent plays. 

So I went 3-1 on the night and got third, having only lost to the eventual winner of the tournament. I was mostly happy that the deck preformed as expected and it was great dun attacking in for massive damage. I only had to sideboard out the Forstwalkers once, so I think they're absolutely viable... the same cannot be said for the Rabblemasters. As much as it pains me, they seem to be poorly positioned in the current metagame and I will have to try out some alternatives in the next tournament. 

-Odd

"'As the clans carved out their territories, we saw allies where the Mardu saw only obstacles.' -Yasova Dragonclaw" Frostwalker, flavour text 

MTG FNM Report - More-Du Dragons

Once more, I ran back my Mardu Dragons deck for FNM, this time I played in the Dracoti Box Event at the Jozi Diner.

Here's what I played:

Mainboard

Sideboard

3x Thoughtseize 3x Wild Slash 2x Draconic Roar 3x Hero's Downfall 4x Crackling Doom 4x Seeker of the Way 2x Goblin Rabblemaster 2x Flamewake Phoenix 2x Butcher of the Horde 2x Outpost Siege 4x Thunderbreak Regent 3x Stormbreath Dragon 2x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon 2x Mana Confluence 1x Nomad Outpost 1x Bloodstained Mire 1x Temple of Silence 1x Temple of Malice 1x Temple of Triumph 2x Caves of Koilos 3x Battlefield Forge 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yorgmoth 5x Mountain 3x Swamp 1x Plains

2x Crux of Fate 2x Utter End 2x Drown in Sorrow 2x Anger of the Gods 1x Goblin Rabblemaster 1x Thoughtseize 3x Read the Bones 2x Chandra, Pyromaster

As the Dracoti event is quite competitive, I decided to make my deck as consistent as possible by removing a lot of my one and two-of's. I was also expecting a bunch of red aggro decks, so I'm playing three Wild Slash in the mainboard. 

Round 1: 2-0 vs GW Aggro

I played against a fairly casual Green White aggressive deck. It was an unfortunate match-up for my opponent as I had more than enough removal to keep him down until my dragons could kill him in the mid to late game

Round 2: 0-2 vs Jeskai Dragons

Next, I played against a really sweet brew of Jeskai Dragons. I never really felt in a good position against this deck and the few times I did get ahead the combination of Soulfire Grandmaster and Draconic Roar easily brought my opponent back to enough life to stabalise. The fact that Ojutai's Command can return the Soulfire from the graveyard is also a beating. Overall I though I might have been able to win, but couldn't quite draw enough gas to overcome all his counters. 

Round 3: 0-2 vs Mardu Warriors

I feel really bad about this round. I made two really bad keeps of hands that were screaming out to be mulligan'd and didn't really play magic. That being said, my opponent played well and didn't give me any time to recover. Hopefully this will finally teach me to be more disciplined in the future. 

Round 4: 0-2 vs 'Thopters 

This is certainly a real deck (as if you hadn't figured that out from PT coverage). I didn't see my thoughtseizes or crackling dooms and got quickly put away with ensoul artifact. Ouch.

Round 5: 2-1 vs Mono-Black

I had fun in my last round and managed to claw back some self-respect against a cool grindy mono-black brew. Crackling doom was really great against Priest of the Blood Rite and the sideboard Anger of the Gods was super useful against Macabre Waltz.

So that was my five rounds and I went 2-3. Not the record I wanted, but I wasn't too disappointed. If I'd played better and been a little lucky I could have done miles better. I really do think it's time for me to switch up decks... if only for a change of pace. 

-Odd

"Never mistake deception for cleverness." Wild Slash, Flavour Text

MTG FNM Report - Mardu Dragons

This past week, I took a slightly different version of my Mardu dragons deck to TopDeck in Sandton. Here's the list I ran:

Mainboard

Sideboard

3x Thoughtseize 2x Valorous Stance 2x Ultimate Price 2x Draconic Roar 3x Hero's Downfall 3x Crackling Doom 1x Kolaghan's Command 4x Seeker of the Way 2x Goblin Rabblemaster 2x Flamewake Phoenix 2x Butcher of the Horde 2x Outpost Siege 4x Thunderbreak Regent 3x Stormbreath Dragon 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury 2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon 3x Mana Confluence 1x Nomad Outpost 1x Bloodstained Mire 1x Temple of Silence 1x Temple of Malice 1x Temple of Triumph 2x Caves of Koilos 2x Battlefield Forge 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yorgmoth 5x Mountain 3x Swamp 1x Plains

2x Crux of Fate 2x Utter End 2x Mastery of the Unseen 2x Drown in Sorrow 2x Anger of the Gods 2x Lightning Strike 1x Thoughtseize 1x Goblin Rabblemaster 1x Crackling Doom

This week I took out the two Sarkhan Dragonspeakers for a couple Outpost Sieges and a couple Goblin Rabblemaster's for two Flamewake Phoenix. I decided that Outpost Siege was a definite must in the deck and I've found Rabblemaster mostly underwhelming, so I wanted to try an alternative. 

Round 1: 2-0 vs RW Agro

In the first round I played against an aggressive red/white deck running a lot of combat tricks. It was an unfortunate match-up for my opponent as the Mardu Dragons list has more than enough removal to stem the agro tide and I managed to get multiple 2-for-1's when he tried to use his tricks. 

Round 2: 2-1 vs GW Counters

Managed to get there against this surprisingly solid green/white deck. In the first game my opponent smashed me with an Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit and all four Avatar of the Resolutes... ouch. In games two and three, my removal was able to hold down the fort (or is it the outpost?) until my dragons could win the game.

Round 3: 0-2 vs Abzan Control

Wow, was this a grindy match-up. Flamewake Pheonix seemed great in game 1 (even though it didn't ultimately help). My opponent had Dromoka's Command for my Outpost Sieges and so could take over the late game. This should be the match-up for the Mastery's in the sideboard, but my deck isn't really setup to take any advantage of them and they seemed sub-optimal to bring in when it actually came down to making the choice. 

Round 4: 1-2 vs Mardu Agro 

In the first game my opponent managed to run over my land heavy draw. The second saw a Seeker of the Way put me enough ahead on life to close out the game easily and in the third game I stumbled a bit on mana and had to top-deck a land to play a Stormbreath for the win... unfortunately it didn't happen.

I went 2-2, had a good time and liked all the changes I made to my list this week. However, if I play this deck in future I need to have another look at the sideboard plan against control. I might try something different next week to change it up.

-Odd

"To wield lightning is to tame chaos." - Lightning Strike, Flavour Text

Gogol Bordello at Oppikoppi 2015

I'm generally not a massive fan of music festivals, and as I identify predominately as a metal-head, Oppikoppi would normally not be high on my list of chosen locations to spend my weekend. This year, however, saw the Gypsy Punk band Gogol Bordello headline the festival and I certainly couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them live.

I was introduced to this band years ago by a friend and their upbeat, manic paced style is easily some of my favorite happy-bouncy-fun-time music. I was thrilled to see them live in South Africa and they certainly didn't let me down. It was an epic show by a energetic and thoroughly professional group.

I was a little disappointed by the crowd at the event. I suppose I'm used to metal crowds at shows like Rammstein and Metallica where the whole crowd is there for that specific band. It's probably also the case that a lot of people didn't know Gogol Bordello and most of them had already been partying for two or three days, but I would still expect a little more enthusiasm from the crowd. With all that being said, I had a great party and it didn't take long for the guys on stage to get everyone on board and having fun.

If you weren't able to make it out to Oppikoppi this year, or didn't know about Gogol Bordello before this blog post, I encourage you to go check out their YouTube channel, and pick up one of their albums.

Thanks for coming to SA, guys! I hope we'll see you again soon... and next time, bring more merchandise!

-Odd
Oh yeah, oh no, it doesn't have to be so
It is possible any time anywhere
Even without any dough
Oh yeah, oh no, it doesn't have to be so
Forces of the creative mind are unstoppable!
-"Oh No", Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike (2005), Gogol Bordello

MtG Tournament Report - Madru Dragons

Once more, I took the Mardu Dragons list that I've been playing to Outer Limits in Melville. This time is was actually a Saturday as I was at The Doors on Friday. Here's the list I ran:

Mainboard

Sideboard

3x Thoughtseize 2x Valorous Stance 2x Ultimate Price 2x Draconic Roar 3x Hero's Downfall 3x Crackling Doom 1x Kolaghan's Command 4x Seeker of the Way 4x Goblin Rabblemaster 2x Butcher of the Horde 4x Thunderbreak Regent 3x Stormbreath Dragon 1x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury 2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker 2x Haven of the Spirit Dragon 3x Mana Confluence 4x Nomad Outpost 1x Bloodstained Mire 1x Temple of Silence 1x Temple of Malice 1x Temple of Triumph 2x Caves of Koilos 2x Battlefield Forge 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yorgmoth 4x Mountain 2x Swamp

1x Thoughtseize 1x Self-Inflicted Wound 1x Crackling Doom 2x Crux of Fate 2x Utter End 2x Mastery of the Unseen 2x Drown in Sorrow 2x Anger of the Gods 2x Lightning Strike

I've been super impressed by this deck the last few times I've played it. It reminds me a lot of the old Vampires deck I was playing at the end of Innistrad (when I came back to Standard play) in that it has tons of removal and nice evasive creatures to finish off the game quickly. 

Round 1: 2-0 vs GU Ramp

I played my first round against a fairly new player with a more or less casual GU ramp deck. This was a terrible match up for my opponent. Crackling Doom was amazing, and I could really just ignore the ramp creatures and remove the big threats. I drew only 5 non-land cards in game 2 and still won handily. 

Round 2: 1-2 vs GR Devotion

The first game ended quickly as  I ran over my opponent with Goblin Rabble Master and Butcher of the Horde. In the second game I managed to kill Dragonlord Atarka, but then died to the giant Genesis Hydra that he followed up with. Unfortunately, I mulliganed down to 5 in game three and couldn't find a third land.

Round 3: 0-2 vs Mardu Midrange

I got thumped by the old Mardu Midrange deck from Khans Block in round 3. My deck did what it wants to do, but my opponent played two Outpost Siege (the only two in his deck!) against me in both games and the card advantage was just way too much for me. 

Round 4: 2-1 vs Mardu Aggro 

My sideboard sweepers let me easily bring home the win against the aggressive mardu deck that was playing a ton of one and two drops. 

So I went 2-2 for the night... not the best result, but I had a lot of fun. I think I'm going to drop the two Sarkhan's for Outpost Siege. As I saw in round 3, with my deck looking to 1-for-1 for the majority of the game, the Siege is probably important to pull ahead in the mid to late game. 

-Odd

"Speed to strike, fury to smash." -Mardu Banner, flavour text