After I stopped blogging last time, I had a lot of people ask me why I stopped, and encourage me to continue. Last time, I was blogging because I worked nights at a gas station, and I would get bored at 2AM. So I would blog on my phone while "working". Eventually, though, I quit that job, which meant that I would be sleeping at normal hours instead of writing in the early morning hours.
I've had a few things happen in my life since I stopped blogging. I moved to a different location, so I have a different home store. I've become a more competitive player, moving away from playing just FNMs. I realized, as I was archiving all the old blog posts, that I actually stopped blogging about two weeks before I picked up RW Burn, which I ended up playing at a reasonably high level. I became a Level 1 Judge recently, and I might blog about some of my experiences as a judge as well.
For newer readers, I want to restate the purpose of this blog. The primary purpose of this blog is because I want to have a space where I can reflect on my games and see if there were any mistakes I made, or places I could have played differently. I like being able to write down my thoughts because my thoughts become more organized and I can more clearly see if there are any inconsistencies in my logic. If people do end up reading it, I want to provide something that's entertaining for whatever readership I have. Normally, I will do tournament reports, but I want to write more focused articles every once in a while- maybe every two weeks. I have yet to fully plan this out.
This Friday was the first week that Khans of Tarkir was legal in Standard, so I was super excited. I had brewed quite a few decks, and ended up putting together a fairly sweet deck I'm calling Jeskai Tempo. (NB: It turns out that a deck "Jeskai Tempo"placed rather highly at the StarCityGames Opens this weekend- this deck is unrelated to those decks, and plays slightly different cards. Though I will definitely take a few ideas from those decks.)
Jeskai Tempo (Standard)
Friday Night Magic- 9/26/14
Lands (23)
2 Mana Confluence
1 Temple of Epiphany
2 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Shivan Reef
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Mystic Monastery
2 Mountain
2 Island
Creatures (16)
2 Soldier of the Pantheon
2 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Borderland Marauder
4 Altac Bloodseeker
4 Goblin Rabblemaster
Spells (21)
4 Jeskai Charm
4 Stratus Walk
3 Winterflame
3 Magma Jet
2 Military Intelligence
2 Negate
2 Ajani's Presence
1 Suspension Field
Sideboard (15)
4 Circle of Flame
2 Searing Blood
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Ajani's Presence
2 Reprisal
2 Negate
1 Prophetic Flamespeaker
A few notes about this list:
- The original list, as drafted, had 2 Temple of Epiphany and no Suspension Field, but I couldn't find a second Temple in time. The Suspension Field actually performed fairly well and I'm not unhappy keeping it at 23 lands- though I would still like the second Epiphany and probably go down to one Triumph.
- I'm going to replace the Soldier of the Pantheons with more Monastery Swiftspears. Altac Bloodseeker also didn't perform as well as I thought, so I'm probably going to replace it with Seeker of the Way. It was previously in the sideboard, but I couldn't find any in time for Friday.
- The sideboard is definitely overcompensating for the aggressive decks, but I couldn't really think of what to put in. For next week, I'm going to replace the Circle of Flames with 2 Reprisal and 2 Nyx-Fleece Ram. (Obviously, I'm still not sure about this sideboard. Maybe Aegis of the Gods is happening...)
- Many people are talking about the Chandras in the maindeck of the "Jeskai Tempo" decks that placed at the SCGO, and they really like it. I strongly disagree with this, because the card is very bad against the obvious midrange decks which will be able to simply attack her after taking one point of damage and getting their Polukranos Faltered.
- I'm not sold on Mantis Rider. The card has a very high raw power level, but you have to do too much gymnastics with your mana base so I'm not a fan of it. You can get very lucky and have the ability to play it on turn 3, but it seems like the card requires too much of you, and I don't like cards that require you to get lucky.
- I don't think the other lists have enough creatures in them (they had 12-14, counting Sarkhan as a creature). I can imagine way too many scenarios where you're just beating down with one creature and you're just hoping its not going to get killed. I'm not even happy with having only 16; I'm not sure what I want to do with this.
- I prefer Magma Jet over Lightning Strike because there aren't any constructed-playable 3-toughness creatures in the format. (That I can think of, at least. Feel free to correct me.) This makes Lightning Strike better only in the cases where its going to the opponent's face- and this is NOT a burn deck. I played Burn for seven months and I don't want to do it again. (Also, I'm happy with "end step Magma Jet you" with an awkward hand, because I can set up my draws, but "end step Lightning Strike you" just feels awful because it feels like it doesn't actually do anything.)
It turned out that most people at my LGS weren't as prepared as me for the new Standard, so I didn't get very much good testing in. But, as I noted above, there are still quite a few changes I would make for next week.
Round 1- Azban Midrange (2-0)
This round was effectively against a very good draft deck, combined with a few shreds of a GW Aggro deck from Theros Block Constructed. I was basically facing a few Outlast lords combined with Fleecemanes, Boon Satyrs, and a Bow of Nylea.
Game 1 started off with my opponent having a Fleecemane Lion and not much else, which my opponent left on defense until I found a Stratus Walk. I was able to attack underneath it for large amounts of damage while I was getting hit for just 3 in the air.
Game 2 was a much cleaner kill, though I was able to see more of my opponent's deck. However, the creatures that he did play got hit by Winterflames. Eventually, my opponent played a large creature, so I hit it with Stratus Walk and attacked underneath. Stratus Walk is insane- its basically cantrip plus removal.
Round 2- Mardu Midrange (2-0)
This deck is... something. I'm not really sure what's going on.
My opponent started game 1 a turn 2 Generator Servant, following it with a turn 4 Elspeth off the Generator Servant. I was able to Stratus Walk two Monastery Swiftspears and attack it for 6, and my opponent didn't find much else.
In game 2, my opponent was very excited about sideboarding in a lot of anti-aggro cards (my deck isn't a real aggro deck, but whatever). So I was careful to not overextend into the obvious Anger of the Gods, I delayed my Rabblemaster until turn 4, holding up Ajani's Presence. Either way, it didn't matter because my opponent wasn't able to find the third land and couldn't wrath me. Must be nice.
Round 3- Devotion to Green/black (2-1)
I had seen this deck function earlier. There was a lot of durdly midrange bullshit, combined with the potential to ramp into a very early In Garruk's Wake. There seemed to be a lot of strange things in the deck, so I was sure to play carefully.
In game 1, I was able to Jeskai Charm my opponent's threats, and kill his mana dorks. I ended the game without any messy interactions.
In game 2, I was able to kill all my opponent's dorks, but I wasn't able to produce a large threat, instead flooding out while trying to kill my opponent with a single Borderland Marauder with Stratus Walk. (Its basically a Delver, which is known to get there occasionally, but I wasn't feeling good about it.) Eventually, with 7 lands out, my opponent topdecked a Soul of Innistrad, which I hit with a Suspension Field. The next card was a Mistcutter Hydra, which met Reprisal. I couldn't beat the Hornet Queen that came next, however, so I just picked up my cards. (I wasn't technically dead, but I didn't feel like trying to beat that card.)
In game 3, my opponent drew well, but he wasn't able to get through any damage. I also drew well, getting all my removal and bashing for 5-6 for a few turns, closing out the game.
Afterwards, a few people drafted KTK. I ended up going 3-0 (splitting the last round because it was late, but we ended up playing it out anyway). I don't want to say much about the draft because it was clear that almost nobody in the pod had any experience with Limited, and those who did were exhausted and not thinking enough.
I'm really happy about my deck. Though my opponents were doing things, and I was interacting with them in some sense, my deck definitely functioned as designed in multiple games. I was worried about the difficult draws where I would not be able to cast any of my spells, but I was able to draw out of rough spots fairly easily. (Stratus Walk can cantrip on the opponent's creatures and its not terrible, and there's a lot of scry.) I plan on bringing this deck to TCG States, SCG States, and a local IQ; we'll see how that goes, and I'll definitely share here.
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