Highlander Series #2

After the success at the first tournament I decided to go to the second tournament of the series. But I wanted to change my deck a bit. My BUGw Aggro conrol sometimes has hard time killing my opponent with its 1/1 mana dorks so I wanted to try something a bit more agressive. The week the second tournament took place there was another highlander tournament at a different game store. A friend of mine asked me to prepare him a deck so he could play. I took out my Cube and chose all the good cards of all colors I could possibly use for the deck.

I added some lands, but I needed to cut quite a lot of them (as 10 dual lands, 10 shock lands and 10 fetch lands is already 30). In the end I added few more cards like Dryad Arbor, Fleecemane Lion (not going to play this anymore) and Loxodon Smiter.

1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Blade Splicer
1 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Fleecemane Lion
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Loxodon Smiter
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Putrid Leech
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Thragtusk
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Young Pyromancer

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain Lightning
1 Daze
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Electrolyze
1 Evasive Action
1 Fire // Ice
1 Force of Will
1 Force Spike
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Izzet Charm
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Helix
1 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Leak
1 Miscalculation
1 Path to Exile
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Thoughtseize
1 Tribal Flames
1 Unearth
1 Vindicate

1 Arid Mesa
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Steam Vents
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

My friend made 4:0 at the tournament. The day before the tournament I wanted to play in I was asking people on facebook if I should go 5c or show up with my old deck. Those who answered were for the 5c deck so I went with it.

During the tournament I played against a staxx deck that beat me. Trinisphere in all the first turns was simply wrong for me. In the first game it is something that actually won me the game but otherwise I just couldn't do much with it. In one of the games my opponent could't draw a card that would kill me. So I was there stuck with nothing to play and sometimes dealing 1 damage to Ajani so I could keep my lands for few more turns. But then Armageddon decided it all. The other game I lost was pretty short as I couldn't deal with early Tezzeret. The other deck that beat me was mono white. The pilot of the deck went 6:0 and beat me in the final round. I could have won. The only thing I needed was a flipped Delver of Secrets^_^. But no instant or sorceries followed in the next five turns unfortunately for me...

Anyway during the tournament I did not really have so many problems with my mana base - that's something I feared the most. Those problems I had were caused by the fact that I did not recall what shocklands I put in the deck and that resulted sometimes in having wrong lands in play. But with the knowledge of the lands in the deck everything would be fine. Draws with something like Mountain + Badlands as my only lands were really discouraging but usually one mulligan solved the problem (I got once Bayou + Forest instead of even worse combination but it worked fine). Once it took me three turns to play Falkenrath Aristocrat as I couldn't get Black or Red but I won the game no matter what...but it meant finding Sakura-Tribe Elder and surviving one more turn (which could mean I could lose pretty easily). Anyway the deck is agressive, it can counter and occasional burn helps a lot. I'll probably try playing with this in the following tournament as well. (this deck could hardly beat my EDH though o_O That WAS discouraging...)

I can still play to some extent^_^

Island Textless

Jubeat (ipad) - Evans Extreme

Today I decided to play a bit of Jubeat. I wanted to get A or S on all Extreme difficulties but well there are few songs that I can't really score quite well.. they share a level 10 difficulty. One song was showing me rank D since I actually started playing this game on ipad. That song is Evans. I managed to clear most tens on my first try but this one even after a 100th time I just couldn't pass (I most probably did not play it that many times). Anyway my problem with Evans was that I just couldn't read it well enough to be able to pass it.

I spent the last week by playing Beatmania IIDX. I needed something to play to ease the stress from sending Magic: The Gathering orders to people who try to complain about everything. It's not really that bad, but some cases really upset me a lot and I don't have the energy to deal with it. But to be angry is good for bashing some buttons^_^.

So today after Aing some level nine songs (this time I speak about Jubeat) I realized that I play with a certain ease I did not before. So I tried playing Evans...

This came out of it. Crappy pass grade but pass grade anyway. So I asked my mother do take a video..so here's a video of the second try. Unfortunately I forgot to turn the volume up. So you'll have to do it yourself on the video to at least barely hear the song.

A day full of Magic

I decided not to play Magic, but it seems that it does not work much. Anyway I don't plan going to any major event or Legacy any time soon but this today I had to attend a Najada League Top 8 draft.

Without any prior experience with Theros draft I expected to end up last. Anyway being top 8 in all this means drafting for free and getting some other free booster packs (prizes). So I came to this draft with the intention of having fun.

Planechase
Before the event started we played a round of Planeschase and I have to say that it was quite fun. I played a zombie deck and had Shepherd of Rot in play. I let us lose some life. Later I had to stop doing that otherwise I would die. After few turns of drawing land I decided to play Phyrexian Arena, hoping that I would draw Consume Spirit and kill the rest of the players with the Shepherd. Anyway this did not really happen as I drew lands and yet another 2 lands etc. In the meantime two affinity decks had quite a big board presence and the last player playing Devour for Power deck also had quite a lot of tokens and some HUGE creatures. One of the Affinity players decided to threaten this player and thus was eliminated from the game by him - he cast Fling on his 16/16 or so creature. It was up to me to do something I drew Ascendant Evincar killing majority of the tokens in play. In the meantime I was being attacked by one flyer each turn. When I was at 2 life the Devour for Power player decided to alpha strike choosing me as the target. The affinity player played a card that forced the attacker to sacrifice a creature, this allowed me to block everything and not lose a single life (as that single life loss would kill me during my upkeep). I blocked 12/12 trampler with all I had chumping the rest with the remainder of the creatures (minus 1 creatures). And finally this time...I drew one card...being at 1 life...it was Consume Spirit...drew another card ....it was Profane Command. So I won in the end ^_^ (I would win even without the help).

Top 8 Draft
After this we started our draft. My first pick was Stoneshock Giant. This pretty much decided what I would be playing. I liked my first pick but the rest of the first pack was catastrophic. My second pick was Magma Jet which I did not really want to pick..but well. Later I picked Satyr Hedonist, Spark Jolt, Minautaur Skullcleaver, Hunt the Hunter, Warrior's Lesson and Savage Surge. I also got some off color cards ofcourse but these were possibly cards I could play.

I pack two I picked Erebos and passed the rest. The following picks weren't stellar either, actually they were but in Black. So I thought that I could switch. When it came to the sixth pick I finally got to some cards I could play - I picked Centaur Battlemasters, Karametra's Acolyte, Nylea's Disciple.

I hoped that in pack 3 I would get my keycards and actually I managed to get cards I wanted. I first picked Voyager Satyr over Anthousa not entirely sure if this was good idea, but I really needed the satyr and my 5 mana slot was already pretty crowded. Then I got Nessian Asp, Nemesis of Mortals, Titan's Strength, Spearpoint Oread, Leafcrown Dryad etc...

I ended up with this deck...

Titan's Strength
Spark Jolt
Warrior's Lesson
Hunt the Hunter
Satyr Hedonist
Voyaging Satyr
Leafcrown Dryad
Ordeal of Nylea
Savage Surge
Opaline Unicorn
Reverent Hunter
Agent of Horizons
Nessian Courser
Spearpoint Oread
Minotaur Skullcleaver
Karametra's Acolyte
Nylea's Disciple
2x Centaur Battlemaster
Nessian Asp
Stoneshock Giant
Nemesis of Mortals
Boulderfall

In round one I played against a stalling deck with Sedge Scorpions, Baleful Eidolon and such. I didn't mind as I had Stoneshock Giant anyway. I played my creatures and passed the turn. I when I had about 26 power on the table I made the giant monstrous and killed my opponent. In game two it wasn't going that well. I was drawing lands for a really long time and my BIG Centaur Battlemaster was killed by Sip of Hemlock. My opponent also started playing bigger creatures and started attacking me. My other creatures were small so I had to chump block or trade. I was still drawing lands. When the time was called I had three attacks to survive. I survived the first two...but in order to survive the last attack only one card could actually help me - Boulderfall. After drawing lands for like 40 minutes and being down to 1 life I finally top decked the card I needed - Boulderfall!!!

In round two my opponent started attacing quite early with 2/3 minotaurs and such. But I survived till I could start playing my fatties and that worked. I somehow survived the second game as well.

Since round 3 everything went wrong^_^. In this round I played against the winner of the draft. His Horizen Chimeras were really annoying. Life gain and bounce were not good for me and I died quite soon. Round 4 I played against a boros deck that I could possibly beat. But ideal hand from my opponent was simply too much. Hammer of Purphoros is what killed me the last game. I just couldn't cope with that. In the last round I played against Izzet tempo deck....No idea what I could do against that. Just die I guess^_^.

After this we got our prizes. I got 4 booster packs and opened 3 mythics in it and I wasn't the only one. Two other players had more than 1 mythic in their 4 or 8 packs. Quite insane^_^.

Cube Draft
Time for a cube draft came after this. This time my first pick was Oblivion Ring. I was deciding between Raging Ravine and Oblivion Ring and finally picked the Ring. The rest of the pack was mostly for combo and I did not want to play that. In the pack I was passed I got Treetop Village. There were some counterspells and some other cards I would prefer more but nothing striking. Then I gor Master of the Wild Hunt so I started that I could be picking some Gx midrange cards. But no...I was passed Silverblade Paladin, Mother of Runes and Thalia so I started picking weenies.

In the second pack I wasn't getting any weenies so I started picking different cards. I picked Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, Go For the Throat, both Gideons, Doom Blade and some aggro creatures

In the last pack I opened Jitte so I picked that. Then I got Baneslayer Angel o_O. I got few more creatures, Glorious Anthem, Mirari's Wake and that was about it.

My deck was quite a mess but a playable one.

In Round 1 I played against something I had no idea what it was actually. It had majority of the combo cards there were in the packs but I won both games without being able to see what the deck could possibly do. In round 2 I was paired down and played against Mono Blue Control. That was not a deck I would want to play against. I won the first game pretty quickly as I managed to draw my aggressive part of the deck. The second game seemed pretty bad for me till I managed to resolve Baneslayer Angel that tried to race my opponent with Batterskull in play. That relatively worked till my opponent played Keiga which ruined my game. In game three everything was simply wrong from the beginning till the end but it was Miscalculation that killed me^^.

In the last round I played against the winner. He played midrange Jund. In the first game I managed to kill him with Gideon, Champion of Justice as this was more difficult to deal with than my creatures (those were dying quite soon usually). In the last game it was Gideon Jura that won me the game as I did not need to care about Sword of War and Peace attacking me each turn.

It was fun^_^.

When I got back home we played all common. Me playing Wee Friends (actually Nivix Cyclops, Kiln Fiend and Delver) against my ZEN block Vampires. It was fun as well. Both decks could win even though that the Izzet deck uses cards from more sets. Well, the black deck has quite a lot of removal and discard so it can deal with ocassional creatures...but it can also die to one single attack.

It was a really long day ...but full of Magic and fun.