Stalling

I was ill this weekend so I only got one game in but it was a good run. My notes might be a little sketchy as there were some computer issues causing game resets but all in all everything worked out.

I am up against a R/B Bloodthirst deck. He leads with a turn 1 Seal of Fire and I'm on the clock on turn 2, with a Duskhunter Bat coming and me getting minimal discard. Very soon I am facing the Bat, a Vampire Outcast and a Blood Ogre (all with counters) down with a lowly Lavaborn Muse.

I cast Sudden Spoiling and block the Outcast, then cast it again next turn to get rid if the Bat but that's when my Muse meets the Seal of Fire. Then I am Cursed with a Pierced Heart and at three life, he Gambles for and gets another Seal of Fire, casts it and says Go. Move to the next game.

Game 2: I lead with Urborg Volcano and follow that up with a Hymn. I am able to block a Bloodscale Prowler with a morph and Hypnotic Specter becomes my offense. Eventually a Seal does the Hyppie in but at that point I had two Lavaborn Muses out and he had no cards in hand. Six damage a turn means game over, man. The final matchup comes...

Game 3: he leads with an Aether Vial, I lead with a Duress and remove Curse of the Pierced Heart over a Pyrohemia. He didn't have enough Mountains to cast the Pyro and I figured I could tilt the game in my favor far enough that by the time he did, it wouldn't matter.

Though plans never quite work out how you think.

Board setup comes to me facing down a Bloodscale Prowler without coutners and a Stormblood Berserker with them versus two Lavaborn Muses. He has one card left in hand so he's taking 6 a turn but I don't want to attack into burn so I am also taking 6 a turn. My secret is that I am able to draw into Sudden Spoiling and when I kill off the two creatures aggressive creatures, that's game.

A few thoughts: first, R/B aggro Bloodthirst is a thing. Holy crap. Why isn't someone trying to make that work? It's fast and with a little work (work I know is coming, because the deck I was facing was brand new) it could be a terrifying, cheap deck. One could even splash green and go the Jund (RGB) route.

Second: Skywarp seems to have the balance I need for this kind of deck. It's not aggro control but I don't know that it's a straight up control deck either because I can do controlled boardwipes and then attack. I do feel that I've got a pretty good setup to get to the midgame,which is where I want to be and this is entirely due to not only hand destruction but being willing to kill all the creatures on the board in order to buy enough time to set myself up again. I'll have to try this against some more controlling builds: anything with countermagic is going to be a different game as I'll be the aggressor. But that I held off an aggro deck suggests to me that I'm on the right path with this one.