Back with another Game-play coverage!
A change in venue this time round. I'm playing at MTG-Asia @ Aliwal Street. So no Bounty Loot. Just straight up packs!
A change in venue this time round. I'm playing at MTG-Asia @ Aliwal Street. So no Bounty Loot. Just straight up packs!
Deck: UW Midrange
It is a deck that I have build but not yet really tested. I threw in this list that looked solid, but I don't expect to win. Instead, this is a testing ground for the deck for additional tweaking.
Okay, new place means new meta, so let's see how I fare this time round!
Round 1: UR Delver (1-2)
Game 1:
The first game is quick. I lost the game fairly quickly with a flipped Delver of Secrets, a Young Pyromancer and not much reaction on my side. My counterspells didn't come out, I didn't get to draw my Path to Exile. The only option I have is to play my threats, but they were easily stopped by my opponent's counterspells and removals. I was then beaten in 2 turns after the Pyromancer spawned the army of tokens, capable of dealing 7 damage in an alpha strike.
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 1 Aven Mindcensor
+ 1 Geist of Saint Traft
+ 2 Spellskite
+ 2 Supreme Verdict
Game 2:
The second game gave me a better chance. I managed to land a Geist on 3rd turn, followed up by Elspeth, Knight Errant on the 4th turn. It's a 2-turn clock from there with my 5/5 Geist of Saint Traft and his 4/4 Angel before my opponent conceded the turn.
Game 3:
I mulligan-ed to a 4-card hand, while my opponent mull-ed to 5-cards. My opening hand saw 5 lands and 2 counterspells. I could go on with that hand, but it is very risky as my next top-deck needed to be a threat or I can easily lose the game. I decided to mull to 6, which saw only 1 land; 5-hand saw no lands. I eventually settled for 4-cards with 2 lands, 1 Echoing Truth and 1 Geist of Saint Traft. I managed to draw my third land, but my Geist of Saint Traft got countered. I still drew no counter-spells or removals other than Echoing Truth. I managed to stall for 1 turn, but I still lost in the end due to the pressure on board.
Side Note: The pilot of the deck is none other than Toshi! Shout out to him!
Side Note: The pilot of the deck is none other than Toshi! Shout out to him!
Round 2: UWR Control (0-2)
Game 1:
I lost the game with again, no reach and lack of counterspells. Essentially I lack the gas a midrange deck should have. Also, as pointed out by Toshi (Yes, the same guy! I asked for advice to improve the deck) that the deck is jammed at a mana slot and the deck needs some tuning to get rid of the clunky spells. More to that later.
I tried stabilizing at turn 3 with a threat, but it gets countered easily. So no threats for awhile and I basically got beaten in the face by 2 Snapcaster Mage, then followed by Celestial Colonnade, then finishing up by casting Cryptic Command on my available creatures to tap them down and swing for lethal.. Not funny, but it's a good game.
- 4 Blade Splicer
- 1 Aven Mindcensor
- 1 Echoing Truth
+ 3 Kitchen Finks
+ 2 Meddling Mage
Game 2:
Pulled this one off with a strong start. I landed a turn 2 Meddling Mage, naming Snapcaster Mage. I figured that should hold him back for awhile which in my third-turn draw, I top-decked a Geist of Saint Traft, which I happily cast and.... it got Mana Leak-ed.. From there, it's basically downhill struggle trying to land threats, but getting countered or burn is not a joke. Eventually the game ended with the opponent playing Thundermaw Hellkite; to which, I conceded the game as there is no way to recover the board.
Round 3: UWR Control (1-1)
Game 1:
You know, I saw turn 1 Scalding Tarns in EVERY single game I have played... Similar to the first game, but this time, my deck is on top form. I admit I'm not playing 100% for this match as I'm just out to disrupt without the clear intention of winning. I manage to land a turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft, which followed on to be the most epic counter-war I had to date. I basically countered every spell he tried to cast and I was admittedly laughing my head off. Not because of some evil intent or anything, but just how the game turned out and yea.. sorry for that! Eventually, because of the protection of the counter-war, it's a 2-3 turn clock before I won the game.
Game 2:
For some reason, my deck decided to play itself out. I started out as how I started in the second round, with a turn 2 Meddling Mage. Eventually, she was removed by Lightning Helix (Again!) and well, basically it's just a long hard war to establish board dominance. I got Kitchen Finks out in both games, but both got removed by Path to Exile and Wrath of God respectively. In any case, my deck lost eventually due to the man-lands, Celestial Colonnade (Yes, again...). This time round, I tried holding off the attacks, but I eventually lost the game as my "steam" ran to almost a complete halt.
Game 3:
We dropped game 3 as the results of the match basically had no advantage in the prizes.
Game 3:
We dropped game 3 as the results of the match basically had no advantage in the prizes.
No bounty loot as of this week, so I opt for Theros Booster Pack.
Pointers for this week;
- A very different deck from my Allies deck. This deck requires a lot more tuning to optimize the deck's performance. I've adjusted the deck list almost immediately with some of the advice given to me. More testing is needed for tuning the entire 75-list.
- I realized that while rewind works for some other variants of U/W or U/x shell, it doesn't work as well in my deck. Point being that most of the cases I don't actually need the extra 4 mana. I just need a cheap counter or spot removal to help maintain my deck tempo.
- U/W deck is an extremely tempo-oriented deck. I was given the advice to look more into can-trips and reduce the curve to have more efficient spells. I will look into that.
- For whatever sake, I need to learn how to use Meddling Mage properly. Twice that I named something that is not a bad choice, but it's something that can be better improved on. For the first time is because I thought Snapcaster Mage will be a threat... It's not. The bigger threat of the deck to me is the removals not Snapcaster Mage itself. Second time, I should have stuck to my instincts and said Remand or Mana Leak...
- Shadow of Doubt is still untested. I also have yet to re-allocate 3 slots for sideboard against combo decks and control mirrors.
- It is not that Blade Splicer is weak; it's just that in control-mirror match-ups, I prefer having Geist of Saint Traft on board rather than Blade Splicer. The former is harder to deal with.
No comments:
Post a Comment