Recap

With the last post being about the number of decks I've got, I figured I'd need a filler post between then and the next new decklist. However, instead of filler, I thought it might be cool to go back and play some of the decks I've been working on and provide a little update to them. As an added bonus, I had a chance to meet indigo.rider and play with him and it's always cool to meet new people and play (or make guinea pigs out of for my blog.)

First up, I brought out Operation: Mindcrime. The deck is still in my brain so it seemed like a good idea. indigo's deck was a bit hamstrung-a W/R humans build, stalled by color issues (he had lots of plains but a grip full of red, or mountains but no plains) and I was able to create the advantage I needed to win the games. As an added bonus, the Parasitic Strix was very useful in helping salve the wounds Underground Rivers gave me in the early game.

The second match was with Undisputed Attitude, with the Pyre Zombie additions that indigo had suggested. Unfortunately, though indigo had changed decks to a G/R build, he was similarly plagued by mana issues and my B/R deck is relentless.

In the third matchup, we were joined by a third human (thedrowningman) and I brought out Oak God for giggles. They both knew what I was playing and I simply said; hey, you still have to stop me.

Which is what they did: I was pounded pretty hard, unwilling to use my creatures to survive and give me time to make my combo work. indigo took over the game shortly after my removal, with a funky Blood Artist/Exquisite Blood combo that thedrowningman found difficult to race.

Last night, I went with Rid of You against stonethorn and Merrick and for the first five turns I thought I was boned. My initial hand was mostly keepable; Island, Mountain, Sundial of the Infinite, Crystal Ball Galvanoth. But what I ended up drawing was: Sundial, Crystal Ball, Crystal Ball, Galvanoth. So...yeah. stonethorn is off to the races playing U/G infect and Merrick had a nice Angel deck happening with green to back it up.

I hit my third land (Island) and drop the Crystal Ball, then start Scrying like hell to find anything that will help. Salvation arrives in the form of a second Mountain and a Slagstorm, which wiped the board and gave me time to set up mean things. Merrick killed stonethorn off (he had put her to 9 poison in one turn so he was asking for trouble) and I pulled off the Galvanoth/Sudden Disappearance/Sundial trick and she couldn't recover.

Finally, I went with White Vision Blowout, against a new human, whom I hadn't played before. He was rocking a G/W golem build that in game one got rolling pretty well until I played the Eye of Singularity, killing two 4/4 trampling Golems, giving my flyers time to get through.

Game two, I had pump for my creatures (Yay, Angelic Voices?) but I could not withstand the Golem onslaught. So we're on to game three.

The key play again involved the Eye, when I took out two Sphere of Suns and two Shimmering Grottoes; that set him back on mana far enough that I was able to get out Lin Sivvi and overpopulate the board.

All the money in the world won't keep the diggers from my grave

We start our day up against a R/B bloodthirst deck. I managed to have a Thermal Glider in hand to hold off the turn 1 Vexing Devil and from there, I got a Cho-Manno and Angelic Voices to utterly stall the ground war. Soon after I began swinging for 4 in the air and that was that..

In game 2, he started with an Aether Vial which I Abolish. Follows up with a Duskhunter Bat and I respond with Lin Sivvi. After I take one in the air, a Vampire Outcasts arrives, which  I'm able to shut down with Bound in Silence.

Let's hear it for Bound in Silence.

But after another swing for 1, I face a Blood Ogre and I don't have multiple copies of Bound in Silence. I'm concerned that I'm going to be taking a lot very soon, however he's unable to kill Lin Sivvi and once I've got Nightwind and Thermal Glider up and my army just amasses and swings.

In the next game, I'm up against zombies and I get blown out in game 2 because I cannot get the 5th Plains to cast Hallowed Burial. Recurring Gempalm Polluter does me in. I started off strong with a turn 2 Shared Triumph and Ramosian Sargent but I couldn't follow up on that and I got a second Hallowed Burial instead of a Plains on his alpha swing. Hard to die that way, especially after holding out for quite a few turns, holding off the swarm with pro-black creatures dug up by Lin Sivvi but sometimes that's the way it goes.

Next game starts off a little better for me at first but a Zombie Apocalypse removes my early advantage. I remove his advantage with Hallowed Burial and we start over.

Whew! With a Crusade on the board I start to use my Squadron Hawk to get another Lin Sivvi in response to it meeting a Nameless Inversion. At that point, I'm digging by pro-black creatures back up and he can't stop it.

Better lucky than good, sometimes.

Finally, facing a G/B undying deck, I once again found myself looking for my pro black creatures to pull me through. Hallowed Burial once again was an all star until game 2 when he dropped Griselbrand on me.

Holy crap that card is good. He was nearly able to rebound because of it, drawing a fresh seat of 7 and quickly rebuilding the army. Nevertheless I still managed to overcome, which was just as much luck as skill. In my favor: He didn't have a way to gain life due to pro-black creatures to block, so recovering from his draw was pretty difficult.