MtG FNM Report - Simic Combo

Another Friday Night Magic at OuterLimits in Melville. This time I took the Simic Mimic deck a.k.a Com-Boba Fett. Here's the list:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4 Arbor Elf	4 Mystic Genesis
4 Farseek	4 Rapid Hybridisation
4 Elusive Krasis	3 Cylonic Rift
4 Biovisionary	4 Urban Evolution
4 Master Biomancer
4 Clone
2 Thragtusk
3 Cackling Counterpart
3 Stolen Identity
4 Simic Charm
4 Breeding Pool
4 Hinterland Harbor
8 Island
8 Forest

The point of this deck is fairly straight forward, I want to drop a Biovisonary or Master Biomancer and clone the hell out of it for either the combo win or just beat down with giant creatures.

Round 1: 1-2 vs Esper Mill
Managed to take the 1st round with a sneaky Biovisionary win. He wasn't expecting it, so with one on the board I was able to Cackling Counterpart at the end of his turn and Stolen Identity in mine for the four required. In games 2 and 3 his control was just too strong.

Round 2: 0-2 vs UB agro?
Faced a very strange deck in round two. Seemed to be full of small black and blue creatures with no synergy. I flooded out both games... and was beaten down without doing anything.

Round 3: 0-2 vs 4 Colour Control
Apparently his fourth colour was only for sideboard... but the Verdicts, Revelations and Detention Spheres were enough to keep me out of the game.

Round 4: 2-0 vs Mono Green
Finally a deck without wrath's in the main board. I took the first game by cloning Master Biomancer up to a 16/18 and the second game I squeezed out a Biovisionary combo on 1 life.

Overall I wasn't very impressed with this build. It just doesn't do enough and has far too many dead draws when behind. That being said, it was fun when it worked and I got to pull off both win conditions, so I shouldn't complain.

-Odd
"He tired of his fellow researchers and their useless prattling, so he decided to make a network of scholars with whom he could carry a conversation." -Biovisionary, flavour text

MtG FNM Report - Izzet Combo

Yet another FNM report from Outer Limits. Last week I tried an Izzet combo deck... can you guess how that went? Anyway, here's the deck list:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Goblin Electromancer	4x Essence Scatter
4x Guttersnipe	4x Negate
4x Lobber Crew	4x Unsummon
3x Tandem Lookout	3x Think Twice
2x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
4x Mizzium Mortars
4x Cyclonic Rift
4x Inaction Injunction
4x Izzet Charm
3x Curiosity
2x Jace, Architect of Thought
2x Steam Vents
2x Izzet

I'm not sure if this really counts as combo but the whole plan is to use Gutter Snipe or Lobber Crew with a Tandem Lookout or Curiosity. This means that I get a metric ton of card advantage and cast spells till my opponent dies.

Sounds good, hey? ..... ya.... ummm.... you'll see what happened.

Round 1: 1-2 vs GW Human Agro
First game went perfectly. I hit my curve and managed to delay him until my card advantage just took me completely out of range. I got a little mana screwed in the second two games, but really I just got out aggro'd.

Round 2: Bye
I got the bye. Irritating, but it's the first time I've ever had the bye at Outer Limits... so I really shouldn't complain.

Round 3: 1-2 vs Mono Green
Managed to pull out the first game on 1 life which was exciting, but lost the second two games to aggro. The combination of Predator Ooze, Rancor and Silverheart leaves my poor little Izzet deck cold.

Round 4: 2-0 vs UW Flash
Hey hey! I won a match! once again against the UW flash deck. Azorius charm does nothing against my creatures unless I attack which gives me enough time to build up.

So overall not a great, one win out of 3 games. I think the problem with this deck is that it really suffers to aggro and has a lot of games where it just ends up doing nothing. So not the best build for an Izzet deck, but I have some thoughts for some other ones and I'll be trying those out in the weeks to come.

Next FNM I will be playing my Vampires again, partially because I need to find some cards for my next Izzet build but mostly because I want to be doing the beat down instead of the other way around for a change :)

-Odd

“He has no patience for minds that do not inspire him or explode by trying.” – Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius, Flavour Text

MtG FNM Report - RBU Vampires

Another weeks FNM at Outer Limits in Melville.

My Deck:

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Stromkirk Noble	4 Smelt
4x Falkenrath Exterminator	4 Negate
4x Stromkirk Captain	4 Brimstone Volley
4x Vampire Nighthawk	3 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Olivia Voldaren
3 Bloodline Keeper
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Mizzium Mortars
3 Murder
4 Call to the Kindred
5 Swamp
6 Mountain
4 Island
1 Steam Vents
3 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit

So this particular build of my Vampires is strange. Splashing blue just for Call to the Kindred and Negates in the sideboard. I had originally tried this with two Nicol Bolas plainswalker but found that they were too slow. By that state of the game, I'm usually two or three life points off the win.

Round 1: 2-0 vs Selesna
My opponents deck came out very slowly and I just beat down with vampires. I didn't see a Call to the Kindred but the blue mana didn't mess me up too much, so it was fine.

Round 2: 2-1 vs BW Exalted
Pretty much the same deck I played against last week with much the same result. Played a Call to the Kindred game one, but the creature got snuffed before it activated. I also had to mulligan down the second game to 5 cards because of blue lands, which lost me the game. Not great, but took the win anyway.

Round 3: 2-0 vs Golgari
Quite a tough deck, but the vamps came out nicely both games without the blue splash messing me up. In a creature vs creature match, the first striking vampires (thank you Stromkirk Captain) take the game away from the opponent.

Round 4: 2-1 vs Golgari Zombies
Wow, these things are tough! I think this is the first time I've come up against a true Tier 1 deck and it was a serious battle. Blue land caused just enough problems first game to throw it but the deck behaved in games two and three with Olivia swooping in to save me on 2 and then 5 life. This was a great match... lots of fun.

Round 5: 1-2 vs Selesna 
Once again I was forced to mulligan to 5 in the first game, which I lost. Second game went well for me but lost the last game to the 5/5 hexproof flying Sigarda, Host of Herons. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any Captains in these games, by my opponent played well and beat me fair and square.

Learning Points:
Call of the Kindred is not a competetive card. I knew this going in... but thought it would come off at least once. The problem is that it makes the enchanted creature a massive target and sets up an easy 2-for-1 for my opponent. It's also at 4 mana, at which point I'd really much rather be dropping an Olivia or a Bloodline Keeper.

I will still be using the Calls for my casual version of the Vampires as I want to play a Blood Tyrant and a Garza Zol in that.

Moral of the story: Vampires kick ass on their own and I really don't need to mess with the deck too much. I should just stick to what they do well and concentrate on keeping the deck streamlined and efficient. Having said that... I did come in second and came within an inch of winning the tournament undefeated, so I really can't complain.

-Odd
"No slinking in the dark for them, no luring whispers. They claim their prey in the speed and glory of the hunt" -Falkenrath Marauders (flavor text)

MtG FNM Report - RB Vampires

If you've been listening to the podcast at all you know that I've been playing a lot of Magic: the Gathering and especially a lot of Friday Night Magic, so I thought I'd give a report on how I'm doing. Here's what happened last week Friday at Outer Limits in Melville:

My Deck: 

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Stromkirk Noble	2x Explosive Impact
4x Falkenrath Exterminator	1x Olivia Voldaren
4x Vampire Nighthawk	4x Smelt
4x Stromkirk Captain	4x Murder
3x Bloodline Keeper	4x Flames of the Firebrand
3x Olivia Voldaren
4x Pillar of Flame
4x Brimstone Volley
4x Mizzium Mortars
3x Searing Spear
9x Mountain
7x Swamp
4x Dragonskull Summit
3x Blood Crypt

So this deck is a fairly straightforward Vampire tribal deck. I'm a big fan of stupid tribal decks and the synergy that is offered by the Vampires is really good. Two sets of lords, one of which makes all my creatures first strike, just seems like value to me.

This particular build is also quite burn heavy for two reasons:
1. Burn is awesome. It's always been one of my favorite mechanics in MtG, so ya.
2. The previous week I saw a lot of control decks that my creature-kill based deck could just not compete with. So the mainboard and sideboard burn gives me the options to just burn them out.

Round 1: 2-0 vs Selesna Midrange

I was really happy with how this game turned out. The opponent had some quite scary stuff going on, but a first striking nighthawk in the first game kept him at a distance until I could overload mizzium mortars for the win. In the second game I sideboarded in the Flames of the Firebrand which did great work slowing down his ramp and I just steam-rolled over him. 

Round 2: 0-2 vs URW control

I played this game so poorly. This build is really, really, really strong. Plays a lot of board-sweep and Planeswalkers. I think I probably would have won the second game if I had just sent all my burn to his face (as was my plan) instead of messing around with his Planeswalkers. I'm disappointed in my play, but this is the deck that won the FNM that night... so I'm not completely shattered. 

Round 3: 2-0 vs BW exalted

I won this for obvious reasons. Exalted isn't really all that competitive in constructed play and I was able to outclass him creature for creature both games. I was lucky to be able to kill his Sublime Archangels as soon as they dropped and Flames of the Firebrand does wonders against the little exalted creatures. 

Round 4: 2-1 vs Rakdos 

This was quite a difficult game. The Vampires are scary once they get rolling but are a little weak in the early game. His haste creatures caused me problems but unleashed creatures can't block which lets the Vampires get out of hand and Olivia Voldaren came in to devastate his small creatures. The third game was really interesting with both of us playing "red control" just killing every creature that came out, but again Olivia swooped in for the win. 

Cards of the Night:

This card is absolutely insane. This is the first tournament that I've played four of them in the deck and it really paid off. The combination of early game cheap kill and a late game one-sided board-sweep is so versatile.

This definitely won at least one game for me, and contributed hugely to a number of others.

Olivia is certainly the trump card in my deck. If you can't kill her the turn she comes down then you've pretty much lost. I even stole a creature this time where mostly I just kill things.

Giant flying, weenie killing, giant stealing threat? What's not to like? 

This is (in my humble opinion) the best value magic creature ever printed. It's got evasion, the life gain is very useful (especially against Rakdos) and the deathtouch means it can trade up against anything my opponent could send my way.

Especially when paired with the Stromkirk Captain this card is a devastating creature. On turn three it is also a big psychological blow to the opponent. 

Learning Points:

Overall I'm quite happy with the deck and how I played it. My loss against the URW control deck should cement in my brain that I need to concentrate on my game plan and push it through. Planeswalkers are scary and can certainly do nasty things, but wasting burn spells to delay them is not as good as just turning your opponent into a pile of ash. 

So that's what happened: I went 3-1 for the evening and came in 3rd, cool stuff. 

-Odd

"Finding themselves in a new and unexplored world, they immediately set it on fire" 

- Goblin Razerunners

Geeks, Games and Greatness: Episode 12 - ft. Nick

Sorry for the late upload, but here is the ear candy you have all been waiting for. This week we are joined by our good friend Nick and we talk about the bachelor party, Las Vegas, Buffy, Magic: the Gathering, Mass Effect, the Japanese Land Walker, Curiosity, Pussy Riot, Deadpool and DnD Next.

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You can also get hold of us on twitter: @OddModlin and @i4n0fd00m or by email: oddcastblog@gmail.com

The Geeks, Games and Greatness Podcast: Episode 7

Episode 7! In which we talk about ICON, Necromunda, Magic the Gathering, DS9, Torchwood, the OUYA gaming console, blue ice fridges and fun things to do on the internet.

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Links:
LoadingReadingRun - www.loadingreadyrun.com
Capture the cat - http://www.members.shaw.ca/gf3/circle-the-cat.html
The Spark quizzes - http://www.sparknotes.com

You can also now find us on our brand new Facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/GeeksGamesGreatness so go and like us on Facebook and drop us a comment :)

You can also get hold of us on twitter: @OddModlin and @i4n0fd00m
or by email: oddcastblog@gmail.com