FNM Hero: Two for One
Last time, we left off with the deck list here:
Land:
20x Mountain
Creatures:
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Legion Loyalist
4x Rakdos Shred-Freak
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Reckless Waif
4x Lightning Mauler
2x Firefist Striker
4x Pyreheart Wolf
2x Rubblebelt Makka
1x Boros Reckoner
1x Hellrider
Other Spells:
3x Searing Spear
4x Madcap Skills
Side Board:
3x Traitorous Blood
4x Skullcrack
3x Volcanic Strength
4x Curse of the Pierced Heart
1x Brimstone Volley
And we had $39.50 in our budget.
Friday Night Magic time. The store finally had some copies of Ash Zealot. I picked up the two that they had at $3.00 each. Along with the $3.00 entry fee, we are down $9.00 on the day to bring us to $30.50.
I switched them out for two Shred-Freaks because Zealots are strictly better, and I feel 2/2 is better than 4 Shred-Freaks and 0 Zealots. With those changes, let's jump into round one:
Round one:
The first round brought me up against WB Humans.
In the first game, I played a turn one unleashed Cackler with a turn to Burning-Tree Emissary into Lightning Mauler. Swing six. After a couple more attacks he packed it up.
Game two, he mulled to five. He did not draw any black lands and could not answer my threats with his own.
1-0 on the night
Round two:
This round put my up against BW Zombies. Geez.
Game one, he had turn Cartel Aristocrat with turn three Messenger and turn four Messenger. When you follow that up with two Blood Artists the next turn. Yeah. I lost.
In the second game, I kept a hand with two lands in it. I proceeded to see now other lands that game. It happens.
1-1
Round three:
Not I'm sure about this round. I played against a bad Rakdos Aggro deck. It was kind of like he just bought an Into Pack and went from there. That is very possible.
In the first game, my luck continued. I kept a hand with two land and did not see another. With me only being able to cast one spell a turn, and him casting a couple it was short work.
I was relieved to see three lands in my opening hand after not seeing a third in the past two games. Funny story, though. I drew all lands after that. Four non-land cards means another loss.
1-2
Round four:
What a night. This time, I got to play against BR Control.
The first game started out as well as I'd hope with turn one threat followed by turn two two threats. It was too fast for him to assemble any sort of defense.
In game two, he managed to trade removal for the early creatures and stall long enough to resolve multiple Desecration Demons. Goodness. I could not handle them.
First game three of the night. I had a similar start as game one, and when he couldn't answer my early guys this time I won.
2-2 on the night
Round five:
This round kind of put me in a bad mood for the rest of the evening. I played against a little girl (7-10 I'm not sure) who was playing mono-red.
In game one, my first two hands did not have any lands. On five I kept with two lands. She had a fast start that I couldn't compete with.
Game two, my first three hand did not have any land in them. I said sure it with one land at four. I managed to get her down to seven before she played a Hellrider. When she was done attacking me she revealed her hand to show me she had another Hellrider and started laughing at me. STILL HAD ALL DEEZ!!!!!!
Geez, girl. She also said, "Good games" as she walked off still laughing. That's good sportsmanship when your opponent mulls to five and four. What do I know, though.
Oh well, not every Friday can be me stomping people into the ground all night. 2-3 doesn't give any prize. So, looks like I just got the Planeswalker points I need to get to 400 for the season.
I, also, played Tuesday night. I made some changes to the deck:
Land:
20x Mountain
Creatures:
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Legion Loyalist
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak
2x Ash Zealot
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Reckless Waif
4x Lightning Mauler
2x Firefist Striker
3x Pyreheart Wolf
1x Boros Reckoner
1x Hellrider
Other Spells:
3x Searing Spear
4x Madcap Skills
3x Volcanic Strength
Side Board:
2x Traitorous Blood
2x Stonewright
2x Rubblebelt Makka
1x Volcanic Strength
4x Curse of the Pierced Heart
1x Brimstone Volley
1x Pyreheart Wolf
2x Toil / Trouble
I moved Volcanic Strength to the Mainboard. I love that card.
New cards:
1x Volcanic Strength ($0.25)
2x Stonewright ($0.25)
2x Toil / Trouble ($0.25)
Total: $1.25
New Grand total: $30.50-$1.25=$29.25
With these changes, let's see how we do:
Round one:
The first round brought my against a real jerk playing Junk Reanimator. I'm sorry, but I always hear this guy laughing at other players when they make mistakes or do something he considers wrong. It was the first time I have every played him. I wanted to beat him bad.
He won the roll and start out with some mana dorks. I got him down to eleven before he played a Tragtusk followed by a Restoration Angel targeting the Tragtusk the following turn. Dang.
The second game, my hand was Mountain, Mountain, Legion Loyalist, Burning-Tree Emissary, Lightning Mauler, Curse of the Pierced Heart, and Rakdos Cackler. I attacked for one on turn one, drew and land and attacked for five on turn two, and drew another Lightning Mauler on my next turn. I played my third land and casted Cackler unleashed along with the Mauler. A short soul bound and attack left him at five. I looked at my hand of Curse of the Pierced Heart and passed the turn very pleased with myself. He played a Tragtusk to help stabilize his life a little. The next turn I drew an irrelevant card and just attacked him knowing that I had the Curse in my hand and I just need to get him down to one. I managed to do that successfully with all my dudes. After I casted Curse on my second Main Phase, he could not believe it. While he were getting ready for game three, he made multiple comment about that Curse, and how he could not even comprehend losing to a stupid card like that. Hey. Don't call my cards stupid. This guy is a piece of work.
In the last game, he did not find a Tragtusk to play. The funny thing is that I did not even do the final points of damage to him. I had two Ash Zealots in play with him at five life. He casted Gristly Salvage at the end of my turn showing Unburial Rites and Angel of Serenity. He says sweet and takes land. On his Main Phase he flashes back Unburial Rites. I asked him if he was sure that he wanted to do that. He just looked at he and laughed. He insured me he wanted to flashback Unburial Rites targeting Angel of Serenity (he didn't say targeting of course because that would be correct of him). I said sure and informed him he took six damage from my Ash Zealots. Without a word, he grabbed one of my Zealots and read it. "Oh, I did not know that," he said.
Let that be a lesson in knowing what all cards in play do at all times. Geez dude. I felt so good that he beat himself with a mistake that he probably would have fallen on the ground laughing at someone else if they had done that, and he had the Zealots. Felt so good.
1-0
Round two:
In the second round, I got to play against Brian Kibler's RG Domri deck.
In the first game, I played a turn one Cackler unleashed into turn two Burning-Tree Emissary with Mauler for six damage. After another attack that included a turn three Legion Loyalist he was down to seven. He had Morters and Pillar for a couple of my guys. I got him down to one before he played Thundemaw and left it on defense. I drew land after land while he drew guys and came over for the win while I did not drew a Searing Spear for four turns. Dang.
The second game was a lot better with me actually being able to do the same thing almost exact, but drawing the burn spell this time.
In the third game, I could tell he was desperate when he blocked my Loyalist with his Elf with my first attack for one. He did not really play anything while I kept drawing well. Sometimes that just happens,
2-0
Round three:
Pillar of the format, Jund is up next.
Drawing acceleration is good for Jund, but drawing just acceleration is not good for Jund. While I was attacking, he was playing Farseek and Keyrune. Easy game one.
Game two ended with him chaining Tragtusks to get back above twenty health after I got him down to eleven. Dang.
The next game ended up having the same thing happen after I got him down to six. You can't win them all.
2-1
Round four:
With a win, we can still get some prize. This round was up against a Four Color Unexpected Results deck.
In the first game, I had a double Burning-Tree Emissary into Mauler hand with turn one Cackler. He did not draw any sweepers.
Game two, I only had one Burning-Tree Emissary this time. Same story though. He did a turn four Unexpected Results that yielded him a Hallowed Fountain. Dang, I wanted it to be something crazy.
3-1 on the night.
3-1 gets $4.00 bringing the total up to $33.25. Geez. I need to finish off this playset of Zealots. I hope the store will have two more on Friday! I feel like the deck is solid with the Volcanic Strengths mainboard. I'll have to confirm this Friday night, though.
Thank you,
Philip
Land:
20x Mountain
Creatures:
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Legion Loyalist
4x Rakdos Shred-Freak
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Reckless Waif
4x Lightning Mauler
2x Firefist Striker
4x Pyreheart Wolf
2x Rubblebelt Makka
1x Boros Reckoner
1x Hellrider
Other Spells:
3x Searing Spear
4x Madcap Skills
Side Board:
3x Traitorous Blood
4x Skullcrack
3x Volcanic Strength
4x Curse of the Pierced Heart
1x Brimstone Volley
And we had $39.50 in our budget.
Friday Night Magic time. The store finally had some copies of Ash Zealot. I picked up the two that they had at $3.00 each. Along with the $3.00 entry fee, we are down $9.00 on the day to bring us to $30.50.
I switched them out for two Shred-Freaks because Zealots are strictly better, and I feel 2/2 is better than 4 Shred-Freaks and 0 Zealots. With those changes, let's jump into round one:
Round one:
The first round brought me up against WB Humans.
In the first game, I played a turn one unleashed Cackler with a turn to Burning-Tree Emissary into Lightning Mauler. Swing six. After a couple more attacks he packed it up.
Game two, he mulled to five. He did not draw any black lands and could not answer my threats with his own.
1-0 on the night
Round two:
This round put my up against BW Zombies. Geez.
Game one, he had turn Cartel Aristocrat with turn three Messenger and turn four Messenger. When you follow that up with two Blood Artists the next turn. Yeah. I lost.
In the second game, I kept a hand with two lands in it. I proceeded to see now other lands that game. It happens.
1-1
Round three:
Not I'm sure about this round. I played against a bad Rakdos Aggro deck. It was kind of like he just bought an Into Pack and went from there. That is very possible.
In the first game, my luck continued. I kept a hand with two land and did not see another. With me only being able to cast one spell a turn, and him casting a couple it was short work.
I was relieved to see three lands in my opening hand after not seeing a third in the past two games. Funny story, though. I drew all lands after that. Four non-land cards means another loss.
1-2
Round four:
What a night. This time, I got to play against BR Control.
The first game started out as well as I'd hope with turn one threat followed by turn two two threats. It was too fast for him to assemble any sort of defense.
In game two, he managed to trade removal for the early creatures and stall long enough to resolve multiple Desecration Demons. Goodness. I could not handle them.
First game three of the night. I had a similar start as game one, and when he couldn't answer my early guys this time I won.
2-2 on the night
Round five:
This round kind of put me in a bad mood for the rest of the evening. I played against a little girl (7-10 I'm not sure) who was playing mono-red.
In game one, my first two hands did not have any lands. On five I kept with two lands. She had a fast start that I couldn't compete with.
Game two, my first three hand did not have any land in them. I said sure it with one land at four. I managed to get her down to seven before she played a Hellrider. When she was done attacking me she revealed her hand to show me she had another Hellrider and started laughing at me. STILL HAD ALL DEEZ!!!!!!
Geez, girl. She also said, "Good games" as she walked off still laughing. That's good sportsmanship when your opponent mulls to five and four. What do I know, though.
Oh well, not every Friday can be me stomping people into the ground all night. 2-3 doesn't give any prize. So, looks like I just got the Planeswalker points I need to get to 400 for the season.
I, also, played Tuesday night. I made some changes to the deck:
Land:
20x Mountain
Creatures:
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Legion Loyalist
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak
2x Ash Zealot
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
4x Reckless Waif
4x Lightning Mauler
2x Firefist Striker
3x Pyreheart Wolf
1x Boros Reckoner
1x Hellrider
Other Spells:
3x Searing Spear
4x Madcap Skills
3x Volcanic Strength
Side Board:
2x Traitorous Blood
2x Stonewright
2x Rubblebelt Makka
1x Volcanic Strength
4x Curse of the Pierced Heart
1x Brimstone Volley
1x Pyreheart Wolf
2x Toil / Trouble
I moved Volcanic Strength to the Mainboard. I love that card.
New cards:
1x Volcanic Strength ($0.25)
2x Stonewright ($0.25)
2x Toil / Trouble ($0.25)
Total: $1.25
New Grand total: $30.50-$1.25=$29.25
With these changes, let's see how we do:
Round one:
The first round brought my against a real jerk playing Junk Reanimator. I'm sorry, but I always hear this guy laughing at other players when they make mistakes or do something he considers wrong. It was the first time I have every played him. I wanted to beat him bad.
He won the roll and start out with some mana dorks. I got him down to eleven before he played a Tragtusk followed by a Restoration Angel targeting the Tragtusk the following turn. Dang.
The second game, my hand was Mountain, Mountain, Legion Loyalist, Burning-Tree Emissary, Lightning Mauler, Curse of the Pierced Heart, and Rakdos Cackler. I attacked for one on turn one, drew and land and attacked for five on turn two, and drew another Lightning Mauler on my next turn. I played my third land and casted Cackler unleashed along with the Mauler. A short soul bound and attack left him at five. I looked at my hand of Curse of the Pierced Heart and passed the turn very pleased with myself. He played a Tragtusk to help stabilize his life a little. The next turn I drew an irrelevant card and just attacked him knowing that I had the Curse in my hand and I just need to get him down to one. I managed to do that successfully with all my dudes. After I casted Curse on my second Main Phase, he could not believe it. While he were getting ready for game three, he made multiple comment about that Curse, and how he could not even comprehend losing to a stupid card like that. Hey. Don't call my cards stupid. This guy is a piece of work.
In the last game, he did not find a Tragtusk to play. The funny thing is that I did not even do the final points of damage to him. I had two Ash Zealots in play with him at five life. He casted Gristly Salvage at the end of my turn showing Unburial Rites and Angel of Serenity. He says sweet and takes land. On his Main Phase he flashes back Unburial Rites. I asked him if he was sure that he wanted to do that. He just looked at he and laughed. He insured me he wanted to flashback Unburial Rites targeting Angel of Serenity (he didn't say targeting of course because that would be correct of him). I said sure and informed him he took six damage from my Ash Zealots. Without a word, he grabbed one of my Zealots and read it. "Oh, I did not know that," he said.
Let that be a lesson in knowing what all cards in play do at all times. Geez dude. I felt so good that he beat himself with a mistake that he probably would have fallen on the ground laughing at someone else if they had done that, and he had the Zealots. Felt so good.
1-0
Round two:
In the second round, I got to play against Brian Kibler's RG Domri deck.
In the first game, I played a turn one Cackler unleashed into turn two Burning-Tree Emissary with Mauler for six damage. After another attack that included a turn three Legion Loyalist he was down to seven. He had Morters and Pillar for a couple of my guys. I got him down to one before he played Thundemaw and left it on defense. I drew land after land while he drew guys and came over for the win while I did not drew a Searing Spear for four turns. Dang.
The second game was a lot better with me actually being able to do the same thing almost exact, but drawing the burn spell this time.
In the third game, I could tell he was desperate when he blocked my Loyalist with his Elf with my first attack for one. He did not really play anything while I kept drawing well. Sometimes that just happens,
2-0
Round three:
Pillar of the format, Jund is up next.
Drawing acceleration is good for Jund, but drawing just acceleration is not good for Jund. While I was attacking, he was playing Farseek and Keyrune. Easy game one.
Game two ended with him chaining Tragtusks to get back above twenty health after I got him down to eleven. Dang.
The next game ended up having the same thing happen after I got him down to six. You can't win them all.
2-1
Round four:
With a win, we can still get some prize. This round was up against a Four Color Unexpected Results deck.
In the first game, I had a double Burning-Tree Emissary into Mauler hand with turn one Cackler. He did not draw any sweepers.
Game two, I only had one Burning-Tree Emissary this time. Same story though. He did a turn four Unexpected Results that yielded him a Hallowed Fountain. Dang, I wanted it to be something crazy.
3-1 on the night.
3-1 gets $4.00 bringing the total up to $33.25. Geez. I need to finish off this playset of Zealots. I hope the store will have two more on Friday! I feel like the deck is solid with the Volcanic Strengths mainboard. I'll have to confirm this Friday night, though.
Thank you,
Philip
