A Champion is Born.

"Another week of pauper in the books. This week, I talk about the mono black mirror, offer up some healthy deck tech discussion, and dish on my latest SPDC experience."

I wish I could tolerate doing a podcast. It's infinitely easier than typing up these tournament reports, and honestly, who ACTUALLY reads through the match/game analyses anyway? Nevertheless, as my own personal therapy, I will continue to write these out, not only to report on my weekly Magic: the Gathering adventures, but to also track my evolution as a player in this fantastic format.

Now, about SPDC.

I thought a lot about this past weeks tournament, about what deck I should run, the metagame we should expect, and after seeing Monday's MPDC top 8 list, I knew that the only deck winning Thursday's SPDC was going to be a deck meta'd against the ever present Bant Tokens. This got my brain grinding, and I ended up revisiting an old favorite and a deck I've already posted about: White Weenie. I had to make some changes of course, but all in all, I feel the build I went with is top tier quality, and if more people would stray from their safety zone, they would find that mono color can be extremely powerful. To the deck list, shall we?

White Weenie 2.0 (Now with More Reach tm)

Creatures:

4 Soul's Attendant

4 Glint Hawk
4 Perilous Myr

4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Leonin Skyhunter

2 Kemba's Skyguard

Spells:

4 Flayer Husk

2 Sylvok Lifestaff
4 Journey to Nowhere
3 Excommunicate
2 Repel the Darkness
2 Necrogen Censer

Land:

1 Teetering Peaks
20 Plains

Sideboard:
1 Excommunicate
3 Soul Parry
2 Repel the Darkness
3 Inspired Charge
3 Kor Hookmaster
3 Safe Passage

You can see from this decklist (compared to my previous post), I didn't change all that much, but the changes I did make were very significant to most of my match outcomes. Necrogen Censer is just stupid, and the Teetering Peaks is a powerhouse when Kor Skyfishers are involved. (as a sidenote, does running that single Teetering Peaks TECHNICALLY negate my mono coloredness?) I put in the Necrogen Censers (and the Inspired Charges made the board) because I felt the deck lacked reach. Once you lose the initial steam and the opponent starts to get into the meat of their deck, you're about to hit your Necrogen Censer(s). It provides the reach needed to finish the opponent off, which is much akin to my current favorite Standard deck, BR Vampires. Necrogen Censer is my Kalastria Highborn.

As for the board, Soul Parry is sided in against the Infect decks out there, Inspired Charge takes care of the slower control matchups, and Safe Passage is my Bant beater. Excommunicate, Repel the Darkness, and Kor Hookmaster are there to pick up the slack against the aggro decks and/or decks that contain very few fliers, but enough that they need to be addressed (Squadron Hawk + Kor Skyfisher). I feel the board was solid for the meta this week, but I'd probably have benefited from some Divine Offerings for those damned Sylvok Lifestaffs everyone seems to be running main deck now.

'waaaaaaaagh'

Match 1: (cannot remember name atm) - Giants

Game 1: Can't help but be stoked to find my first match is so much in my favor. My fliers easily soar to victory over the heads of some very angry giants and ogres.

Sideboard:
-2 Necrogen Censer
+1 Repel the Darkness, +1 Excommunicate

Game 2: I'm stuck on 2 lands (which doesn't necessarily cripple me) and he seems to be flooded. I soar over top with Kor Skyfisher for the match.

Sidenote: I'd like to point out that this 'Snow White' deck seems like it has a good amount of potential, it just needs a little work. I challenge the PDC community to tweak this to perfection.

--- 1-0

'MMM, yeah, deeper'

Match 2: Qodog - RUG Allies

Game 1: He gets 2 early Halimar Excavators followed by another ally every turn until I was decked. Got him to 3, but I just wasn't fast enough.

Sideboard:
-2 Necrogen Censer, -1 Sylvok Lifestaff
+1 Excommunicate, +1 Inspired Charge, +1 Repel the Darkness

Game 2: I seem to hit most of the removal in my deck (3 Journey to Nowhere, 2 Repel the Darkness, 2 Excommunicate) and I just shut him down while gliding via updrafts to victory.

Sideboard:
-1 Inspired Charge
+1 Repel the Darkness

Game 3: I keep a 1 land hand by accident, but it works out anyways, as I slow his dudes with removal, coming across several times with a Soul Attendant and 2 Flayer Husks, eventually hitting a couple fliers, and though he tries to race me, he just can't get enough damage through and I win.

--- 2-0

'Hill Giant +2'

Match 3: Petermere - Bant Tokens

Game 1: I have an amazing start with double Leonin Skyhunter, Sylvok Lifestaff, and Soul Attendant. He Journey to Nowheres my Perilous Myr (instead of one of the 2 Leonin Skyhunters smashing his face) confusing me, and a few turns later he concedes to overwhelming odds.

Sideboard:
-1 Kemba Skyguard, -1 Perilous Myr
+2 Safe Passage

Game 2: This game is a little hazy in my mind, but I do remember one thing: I lost.

Game 3: Another long game, won solely thanks to turn 1 Soul's Attendant, turn 2 Soul's Attendant. I stopped paying attention to my life once it hit 54. He just couldn't deal with my ridiculous life gain and over the course of the game I eek through 20 damage.

--- 3-0

'one meerian'

Match 4: Korniswins - Bant Tokens

Game 1: I keep a 1 land hand that seems godly if i draw a land. I'm on the play so it seems doable. turn 4, still no land. looks bleak. i see the second land waaaaay too late, and that's my bad beats story of the day.

Sideboard:
-1 Perilous Myr, -2 Excommunicate
+3 Safe Passage

Game 2: Great hand, crap draws, eventually I lose to a 1 million point Inspired Charge. Well, technically I lose to the attack following the 1 million point Inspired Charge, but that is neither here nor there. Bant is an explosive force to be reckoned with, especially the ones that are playing Spell Pierce :)

--- 3-1

Top 8: Petermere - Bant Tokens (again)

Game 1: Opening hand is dub Glint Hawk + Necrogen Censer accompanied with a Sylvok Lifestaff and a Leonin Skyhunter, seems good. Necrogen Censer and Glint Hawk magic goes all the way.

Sideboard:
-3 Excommunicate
+2 Inspired Charge, +1 Repel the Darkness

Game 2: I keep a decent looking hand, Inspired Charge, Kor Skyfisher, Leonin Skyhunter, Flayer Husk, Sylvok Lifestaff. I burn him down low with my flying army, and he starts to stabilize with Journey to Nowhere, Kor Skyfisher, Kor Sanctifier, and after a few turns of bouncing Kor Sanctifier to destroy my Journey to Nowheres that were harboring his other Kor Skyfishers, he seems to truly take control. A Foresee grabs him Brohawks (Squadron Hawk). he's at 3, and I slow roll with 3 land, 1 open Leonin Skyhunter, and Sylvok Lifestaff on the board. he drops the rest of his Squadron Hawks, swings, and I end of turn Repel the Darkness 2 of his 3 open fliers (holding the second Repel the Darness in hand), all I need is a Plains and I rip one right off the top of the deck with the Repel the Darkness cantrip. I Repel the Darkness the last flying Squadron Hawk, drop my Plains, equip the Sylvok Lifestaff, and sail over for the last 3 points of the match.


--- 4-1

'sneaky sneaky'

Top 4: Jeffdmk - UG Infect

Game 1: This game goes swimmingly, and a well timed Repel the Darkness on a Distortion Strike'd Rot Wolf with a pending Vines of Vastwood wins the game.

Sideboard:
-4 Soul's Attendant, -2 Kemba Skyguard
+2 Repel the Darkness, +3 Soul Parry, +1 Excommunicate

Game 2: Piles of Perilous Myrs, a Necrogen Censer, and 2 Glint Hawks destroy his no Forest hand. he is land locked at an Island and 2 Halimar Depths (leaving me to wonder why he didn't mulligan more aggressively) and I clean up with weenies.

--- 5-1

'thievin'

Finals: Aryxon - Bant Token Varient

Game 1: I get beat by a very nice 3 or 4 color control-ish Inspired Charge deck, or maybe it was just a variation of bant tokens running burn and Scroll Thief.

Sideboard:
-2 Kemba's Skyguard, -1 Flayer husk, -1 Excommunicate
+2 Inspired Charge, +2 Soul Parry

Game 2: He mulligans to 4, and I effortlessly roll over him with weenies and Inspired Charge.

Game 3: My opening hand seems slow, but I keep it due to Necrogen Censer + Kor Skyfisher + 2 Plains. He Lightning Bolts my Leonin Skyhunter, making me worry about whether or not I can apply pressure fast enough. Necrogen Senser followed Glint Hawk and another Kor Skyfisher keep him low, despite him stabilizing both in the air, and with a Soul's Attendant (pressure is key against Bant). Much later, when all hope seems to be lost (Sylvok Lifestaff hits the board, slowly negating my efforts to come out on top), I have him at 4, I drop the last charge off my Necrogen Censer to put him at 2, and topdeck the other Necrogen Censer for the win.


---6-1, SPDC 16-02 champ. Tired. Bed.