3/15 FNM Results

I took my modified Wolf Run Bant to FNM on 3/15 and ended up going 3-1 making top 4 and securing the Farseek promo!



Round 1: UWR Flash

I have to mulligan to 6 each game. I really need to take more detailed notes post game, as I'm writing this several days late I forget most of the details. What I really remember standing out during the matches was fighting through what felt like a million counterflux, but was really just 2 per game, and having to try to bait them out to land my more important spells.

Game 3 was in particular tense. At one point I have 2 Angel of Serenity on the board, 1 with an enemy Restoration Angel and Boros Reckoner, and another with my Thragtusk and an enemy Restoration Angel. He was sitting at 16 life, with only ground blockers available. He had just played Assemble the Legion last turn, and has 1 blue mana left untapped. I have a detention sphere in hand, but I also have a Kessig Wolf Run that I can pump for 6. I'm sitting at 9 life and am not at risk at being lethal damage on the crack back unless he draws into more of his searing spears/boros charms. I decide if he has unsummon, he has it, and I make the swing and pump the Angel for 6 that has my Thragtusk under it and win, but I was dead nervous if I was making the right call as getting that bounced to hand would have set me very far back.

Record: 1-0

Round 2: Bant Humans

I got paired down this round. I had never seen this deck before, and found it interesting, but weak in overall power level. He played cards like Wingcrafter, Champion of the Parish, Nearheath Pilgrim, but I just Supreme Verdict his board, put out Tamiyo and he continue to draw lands. I ultimate Tamiyo with a Supreme Verdict and Sphinx's Revelation in hand and he quickly concedes.

Game 2 went much like Game 1, I just had gas all through my hand and he quickly floods out again and the game goes very quickly.

Record: 2-0

Round 3: Big Naya

Game 1 he plays 2 Arbor Elves and gets stuck on 3 mana, I eventually Supreme the board and drop a Tamiyo, he continues to not draw any lands and scoops up to go to game 2. Game 2 I get stuck on 4 land, including all my lands entering tapped due to being the buddy core set lands, and I quickly go down. Game 3 I kept a really stupid risky hand of 7 with a Kessig and a Breeding pool, with 2 azorius charms, detention sphere, and Supreme Verdict and don't draw a 3rd land forever, and when I do it's all U/G lands and he drops an Acidic Slime destroying one of my lands and I quickly scoop.

Record: 2-1

Round 4: Naya Combat Shenanigans

I don't know what else to call this deck but by this title. It trys to blow you out in one swing with combat tricks such as Gore-Clan Rampager, Rubblehulk, Boros Charm, Moment of Heroism,  while playing mainboard Thalia. It apparently also had things like Slaughterhorn that I didn't see. I just always made sure to block it because that combo become much worse if the creature doesn't have trample, and if he didn't have a Gore-Clan Rampager in hand. Game 2 he didn't play a spell until his turn 5 and he hit every land, apparantly he just drew a bunch of lands and I quickly took over the game before that.

Record: 3-1

I felt really stupid for losing Round 3 due to not mulliganing intelligently, but was grateful that I was still able to make top 4 with ease. I ended up choosing packs and got 5 Innistrad packs. First pack I opened had an Olivia Voldaren. I also got a Gavony Township, the rest of the rares were pretty bad that I don't care to remember, but I did pull a foil Nevermore, which I traded off for an Akroma's Memorial and a foil Angelic Arbiter.

Overall I liked the addition of the Angel of Serenity to the main board, I never saw Rest in Peace where I would want to, so I'm definitely thinking of moving that back to the sideboard and putting 1 Blind Obedience into the mainboard to try it out. I'm also considering taking out the Dissipates in the sideboard in favor of Negate/Dispel as I didn't even bother bringing them in against the UWR flash because I just can't leave that much mana open, especially in the early game where I need to be putting down threats as well as to stave off the Boros Reckoners and Restoration Angels. I'm also going to be putting that Akroma's Memorial into the sideboard for any midrange type deck, especially Jund.

FNM Preparation

This Friday will be another FNM (Friday Night Magic) and will be Standard. I played Wolf Run Bant this last Sunday and went 2-1-1 and was the bump, sadly, placing 5th with the cut being to top 4.

Round 1: American Flash

Game 1: I have played against this player before and he was playing American Flash last time, so I kept a slightly risky hand of 5 lands, Tamiyo, and a Sphinx. Unfortunately I flooded out quickly on lands only drawing a detention sphere, while he was busy playing out Augurs, Reckoners, and R.angels, and I Sphinx for 3 at one point to draw into 3 more lands and quickly lost game 1.

Game 2: Sideboard: +2 Dissipate, +2 Negate, +1 Dispel, +1 Jace, Memory Adept, +1 Supreme Verdict. I honestly can't remember what all I took out for this match, some number of both planeswalkers, farseek/azorius charms and I believe an Augur. I kept a hand that had lands, Dissipate, Negate, Supreme Verdict, and some other card I can't remember. I'm on the play, we both just play lands tapped and pass turn until his t3 where he casts Geist of Saint Traft, in which I quickly Dissipate. I play another land and pass turn to where he plays his 2nd Geist of Saint Traft. I Supreme Verdict on my turn and pass. He then plays his fifth land for turn and drops a Jace, Memory Adept when I'm tapped out from the verdict. This is where the game quickly goes downhill as I don't draw into anything relavent, as all spells I attempt to play after this point either get removed/bounced. Even with Kessig he's revealed several Azorius Charms off Augur and I quickly get milled out. My biggest mistake was forgetting to SB in my Witchbane Orb but a t5 Jace was going to be hard to come back from anyway at that point. I ask him if he had both Geists and Jace in hand from the start and he said he drew into the 2nd Geist and Jace, so that was pretty lucky on his end.

Record: 0-1

Round 2: Junk Reanimator (?)

Game 1: I can't remember exactly what I had in this game other than the fact I only saw my opponent play lands and a Lingering Souls, but I had massive board position with creatures and didn't get to see much before he quickly fell.

Game 2: I assumed he was some sort of Reanimator deck or good stuff and put in the Rest in Peace, but that's about it as I didn't get to see anything game 1. Game 2 went almost as fast, with me only getting to see a few mana dorks that I Supreme Verdict'd away and he didn't really play out any cards. Quick win for me.

Record: 1-1

Round 3: True Junk Reanimator

Game 1: Probably my most frustrating round. Kept a well rounded hand with Augur of Bolas, Farseek, Lands, Centaur Healer, ect. I wish I'd of kept the life-total sheet for this one because he was LONG. We probably each had about 300 point life swings throughout this game. It was a battle of Thragtusks, Restoration Angels, Centaur Healers (Unburial Rights and Angel of Serenity for him) against each other. We both gained massive amounts of life throughout the game, but he had Vault of the Archangel which was frustrating to deal with. He also landed his 1 of Obzedat fairly early in the match and an Augur of Bolas sent a Kessig Wolf Run to the bottom of my library about 1/3 of the way through the match. I didn't end up finding the 2nd Kessig until over 2/3 of the way through my deck. I used all 4 of my Azorius Charms for Lifegain with a Rhox on the field to keep me very healthy. I eventually had 19 lands on the field by the end and just never could do enough damage in a swing as all he drew was gas. I survived a 60 point Craterhoof swing in at one point, that's how crazy the life totals were during this game. Eventually I had him around 10-15 life while I was at a healthy 70+ but time was nearing and my library only had about 5 cards left, we ended up going to rounds, ending in a draw, with 2 cards left in my library. While he had only gone through maybe half of his deck, he must have hit every Restoration Angel and Thragtusk, and 2 of his Angel of Serenities and 2 Unburial Rights, which was pretty unlucky for me to try to have to brute force through.

Record: 1-1-1

Round 4: 4 Color Good Stuff

Game 1: I had seen that my opponent was playing 4 Color minus Green Good stuff. I can't remember the exact plays of turns, but I know he played 2 Falkenrath Aristcrats, Snapcaster Mage, Sphinx's Revelation, thankfully for me I got my 1 of Rhox Faithmend and proceeded to drop 2 Thragtusks afterwards with a Kessig Wolf Run on board and he scooped up quickly.

Game 2: Brought in the extra Rhox, Supreme Verdict, and Blind Obedience for his Haste. The Blind Obedience ended up being the card that mattered as we were racing each other hard, I drew it fairly late into the game, playing it then a Tamiyo, tapping down his Thundermaw, I swung in, getting him down to 9 as I cross my fingers he doesn't top deck any burn on top of his Aristocrat and Restoration Angel on field. He doesn't and alphas in, getting me extremely low, I have 2 lands in hand with 8 power on the field and the Blind Obedience in play. I draw for turn, hit a sphinx's, Swing for 8, bringing him to 1, then cast the Sphinx's Revelation and extort for win. Very close tense game.

Record: 2-1-1

Unfortunately at this point I go to watch the other 1-1-1 vs 1-1-1 match and the Junk Reanimator player I had to draw with won, and he had lost to the only undefeated player so his tie-breakers ended up being better than mine and I get the bump and end up 5th place.

I don't know what it is with some people, but I'd love to know why they chose this, but the Junk Reanimator player wanted to play the top 4 out, while the other 3 wanted to split. There were 12 people so there were 24 packs of prize support. If they would split, everyone would get 6 packs a person. He didn't want to, saying he wanted to play magic, even when offered to still play for fun, and just have everyone get the same amount of packs, this definitely caused some tension amongst friends of mine as well as myself. I personally do not see the point of playing it out, if you wish to play magic, I will play magic with you. Especially when the prize is JUST packs, and not the FNM promo or anything else special. For reference this is the prize support:

1st: 10
2nd: 6
3rd: 4
4th: 4

So if you take a look at the prize payout, you have a 1 in 4 chance of getting 4 more packs, instead of just letting everyone get the 6. To me, this honestly just feels greedy, and it leaves a bad taste in many players mouths. He won his first round, going to top 2, beating out a friend of mine, which was frustrating, but it happens. But karma is a thing, and if he is ever in the position to be drawn into the top 4, I will make certain to let his opponent know that he should simply play it out and not just give him an auto in to the top 4, I know I definitely won't, but that's just how it goes if you wish to be greedy, don't expect people to do nice things for you in the future.

My old list looked like this:

3 Centaur Healer
1 Rhox Faithmender
4 Thragtusk
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
3 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 Alchemist's Refuge
4 Farseek
1 Detention Sphere
4 Azorius Charm
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Restoration Angel
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
3 Breeding Pool
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Augur of Bolas
2 Think Twice
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Jace, Memory Adept
SB: 2 Dissipate
SB: 1 Dispel
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 1 Witchbane Orb
SB: 2 Rhox Faithmender
SB: 2 Angel of Serenity
SB: 1 Blind Obedience
SB: 2 Negate


My current list looks like this:

3 Centaur Healer
1 Rhox Faithmender
4 Thragtusk
4 Sphinx's Revelation
1 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
3 Temple Garden
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Glacial Fortress
3 Hallowed Fountain
4 Hinterland Harbor
1 Alchemist's Refuge
4 Farseek
1 Detention Sphere
4 Azorius Charm
3 Supreme Verdict
3 Restoration Angel
2 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
3 Breeding Pool
1 Prime Speaker Zegana
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Augur of Bolas
1 Angel of Serenity
1 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Rest in Peace
SB: 1 Jace, Memory Adept
SB: 2 Dissipate
SB: 1 Dispel
SB: 1 Supreme Verdict
SB: 1 Witchbane Orb
SB: 2 Rhox Faithmender
SB: 2 Angel of Serenity
SB: 1 Blind Obedience
SB: 2 Terminus
SB: 1 Pithing Needle

The primary differences are:
   Mainboard:
      -2 Think Twice
      +1 Rest in Peace
      +1 Angel of Serenity
   Sideboard:
      -1 Rest in Peace
      -2 Negate
      +1 Pithing Needle
      +2 Terminus

My local LGS has a lot of American Flash and Reanimator Players that I think the change of a Main Board Rest in Peace is warranted. There is the occasional Esper Control player and the rest tend to be fast aggro, Jund/GR/Naya Humans, so 2 Side board Terminus would be great on top of the extra Supreme Verdict in the board for that match up. Pithing Needle instead of Negate is just easier to land before they can interact with it and name Jace, Memory Adept or Nephalia Drownyard and doesn't let me get blown out by them saving a dispel for my negate/dissipate.

I look forward to trying out my slightly tweaked Wolf Run Bant list this Friday and will let you know how it goes! Until next time :)