Round 3 vs. Jonathan Fortin w/ R/G Beats
Jonathan is playing that R/G deck with Meteor Storm in it – you’ve probably played against a dozen like it before, it if so, you know it’s not an easy win. With the right draw, the deck is explosive and you’re reeling from turn 1. Brian Davis wrote in his article (obligatory mention of hogbeasts goes here) that my chances of winning are maybe 20% Game 1. Games 2 and 3, things improve a lot. Let’s see how it goes.
Game 1:
I do get organized though, and I manage to lock him totally – I have the Disrupting Sceptre for his Meteor Storm, the Ensnaring Bridge for his creatures, and the Engineered Plague for his Lavamancers. To top it off, I Haunting Echoes him and remove every piece of burn from his deck, with one exception… Firebolt.
You’ll find that happens a lot in this matchup. Firebolt is a tough little guy to hit with an Echoes.
So anyhow, I get my Millstone going. I have the Echoes in my hand, I just have to mill a Firebolt at the end of his turn, and then Echoes it on my turn, and it’s over – he has no win conditions left and I deck him. For every card that he draws, I’m milling two away. That’s a two-thirds chance that I get his Firebolt and win. About three turns in though, I mill two land at the end of his turn…
…And he, sure enough, topdecks the Firebolt and kills me.
Game 2:
I end this game at 22 life. I draw a ton of land, creature removal, and Soul Burns, and just start sending Soul Burn at his head while I sit behind a ton of life, two Engineered Plagues (again), and the Sceptre I left in to lock his Meteor Storm. I never drew a Bridge but as Davis said, I don’t need it with a strong draw like that – triple Soul Burn and double Recoup, plus multiple Innocent Blood and Edicts, and the land to use them all to good effect.
I love the three Soul Burn draw if I get the land and early defense to go with it.
Game 3:
I play poorly here, and lose because of it. A quick lesson about Pyroclasm… It’s not about trying to hit multiple guys. There is no room to”get cute” and lure the R/G player into committing too many guys to the board. If you get a chance to use it, use it. I ended up waiting, and I found myself facing down multiple Call of the Herd, unable to use my Innocent Blood effectively because his Rootwalla (which I should have ‘Clasmed on turn 2) was still around and quite pumpable.
My life hits zero in a hurry. I hesitated because I saw he had a second Rootwalla in hand and I wanted to try to get them both, and I paid the price for that hesitation – I took about ten damage that I shouldn’t have and I couldn’t use my Edicts to take out the big threats.
Bad play.
Match Record: 2-1
Sigh… I hate losing because of my own dumb mistakes. It’s questionable as to whether I would have won regardless, but I’d taken ten damage by turn 4 when, if I’d played correctly, I wouldn’t have taken any! If that isn’t piss-poor play, I don’t know what is.
Time to redeem myself in Round 4.
Round 4 vs. Jean-Denis Lecourse w/ R/G
Guess who got a feature match!? Yep, it’s me. Jean-Denise is teammate of the guy I just defeated and he’s playing the same deck. I thought I could pull this one out, but all I got for my trouble was another heartbreaker. You can read the coverage here.
It’s done by Josh Bennett and I don’t really have anything to add to it, except to note that I shouldn’t have kept my hand in the second game and that mulliganing to five would have been a better idea.
The other question I always get is – “Did you really have only fourteen cards in your sideboard?” The answer is no, I had a fifteen card sideboard – they forgot to list my second Ensnaring Bridge.
Match Record: 2-2