![[Ulrich and Helva's Cards Home Page]](http://www.ulrichandhelvas.com/images/UHNewLogo.jpg)
Standard Friday Night Magic with Four Color Control - December 30, 2005
I took a couple of days off for the holidays and I decided part of that should be my first Friday Night Magic in awhile. So I brought this wacky deck to Rainy Day Games:
Four Color Control - Standard, designed by Adrian Sullivan for 2005 States
Artifacts
--------
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sunforger
1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Enchantments
-------------
3 Faith's Fetters
Spells
-------
1 Char
4 Devouring Light
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Lightning Helix
2 Seed Spark
4 Wrath of God
Creatures
----------
1 Firemane Angel
3 Godo, Bandit Warlord
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
Land
-----
2 Brushland
4 Forest
3 Karplusan Forest
3 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Temple Garden
4 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Sideboard
----------
3 Cranial Extraction
1 Faith's Fetters
3 Ivory Mask
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Naturalize
2 Pyroclasm
3 Sacred Ground
I was sick of the black green decks I've been playing for awhile and the Gifts-based Reanimator decks so I was looking for something different. It was either this or the blue/red splice-Ire of Kaminari deck but that deck just folds to Cranial Extraction and Kodama of the North Tree. I think I made the right choice since I saw both of those cards tonight. So I took Adrian's build, card for card I think. I figure I'll run with this until the red/green shock land and whatever gold goodies await us in Guildpact---I'm definitely going back to red/green aggro post-Guildpact.
Round 1 - Erik Williams - Boros
Game one I was mana screwed and didn't do much of anything as Erik laid down creature after creature. My life total went 20, 18 (Isamaru), 12 (Isamaru + Pale Curtain + Glorious Anthem), 6, dead. He never took a point of damage.
Game two I boarded in the two Pyroclasm and took out a Godo and a Faith's Fetters. It took awhile but I was able to clear the board and kill of his creatures eventually and then Godo found me a big Sunforger to beat with. Game three started the same way and I started to take control when he played Eight-and-a-Half-Tails. Bad for me, all my spot removal except Char is white. He used 8 1/2 to remove the Faith's Fetters from the Jitte, swing, and get counters on the Jitte. Fortunately I top decked Wrath of God and gladly used it to get rid of 8 1/2. He still had a pretty full hand so I was scared that another 8 1/2 would follow but it didn't. He seemed to be having trouble finding creatures and I eventually hard cast the Dragon's Fang. At the end of his next turn I activated it. He tried to respond with Terashi's Grasp but I reminded him that Grasp is a sorcery. He tried to cast it again during my turn and the words "Still a sorcery" just slipped out as I equipped a Sunforger to the newly formed 5/5 dragon. I didn't mean to be a smart ass but Erik is a nice guy and didn't take offense. I swung and he conceded.
games: 2-1
matches: 1-0
Round 2 - Joel Allen - White/Green critters with Glare of Subdual
Joel splashed black for Cranial Extraction and removed Wrath of God after getting a Kodama of the North Tree in play. I had the Dragon Fang in play already and enough land to flip it so that kept North Tree at bay after he hit me once. I finally found Sunforger and equipped it to the dragon. Joel had taken a lot of damage from his pain lands and was at 12, so I was able to attack for 9 and unequip the Sunforger for the Lightning Helix.
Game two Joel seemed to draw nothing but land. I got Godo out and went to town.
games: 4-1
matches: 2-0
Round 3 - David Stroud - Greater Good w/Yosei and Wrath of God
David's deck is incredibly difficult to beat once it gets the Hana Kami/Cranial Extaction/Soulless Revival engine going. He got the Greater Good out fast. Once he found Yosei I didn't untap again.
Game two I had to mulligan once and kept a hand with one of the Cranial's and one of the Ivory Mask's I'd boarded in plus three land. All I needed was a snake, a Kodama's Reach, a Plains or a Swamp and I'd be home free. Naturally I never drew any of those despite the fact that David had to draw almost his entire deck before dragons killed me. Before the dragon attack David had the Hana Kami/Cranial Extraction every turn thing set up and I was slowly losing threats.
The only satisfying part of this match was the Cranial David cast early in game two. I hadn't done much game one so he named Kodama of the North Tree, which I don't play. But since he was able to Cranial turn after turn that didn't really matter. Who the heck made Cranial Extraction Arcane anyway?
games: 4-3
matches: 2-1
Round 4 - Chris Heido - Dimir Cutthroat combo
Chris' deck used Freed from the Real on Ley Druid (!) to generate infinite mana and win with X spells. I'm not sure which X spell he was using as his win condition though. Game one he kept casting Hippies and I kept Lightning Helix'ing them. I think I had two Helixes in the opening seven and found another one as he was casting Hippies. He was able to get a Dimir Cutthroat out but then I cast Godo and got Jitte. I had enough mana left to equip Jitte. When I attacked Chris didn't block and I used the counters to kill Cutthroat, then Godo attacked again. I killed him the next turn.
Game two I still wasn't sure what he was up to so I just brought in the Pyroclasms. He was able to get land and Birds and Elves of Deep Shadow out quickly and also got Freed from the Real on the Ley Druid. I had been holding Pyroclasm since the opening seven and cast it the next turn, clearing his board. After that I got to Godo mana and attacked with a Sunforger-equipped Godo.
games: 6-3
matches: 3-1
I wound up finishing second out of twelve players and won a foil FNM promo Icy Manipulator and five packs of Ravnica. I didn't get anything particularly good in the packs but I did get some rares I didn't have four of, including Searing Meditation. I think I'm going to put two of those in the board instead of the fourth Faith's Fetters and the Manriki-Gusari. Neither of those seemed useful---I didn't need Manriki-Gusari because I could usually kill whatever creature my opponent equipped and a fourth Faith's Fetters just wasn't necessary. I'm thinking the Meditations could help against creature based "red deck wins" type decks which I've seen on MTGO, and I can't see a time when I'd board in the fourth Fetters or the Manriki.
Four Color Control - Standard, designed by Adrian Sullivan for 2005 States
Artifacts
--------
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sunforger
1 Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang
1 Umezawa's Jitte
Enchantments
-------------
3 Faith's Fetters
Spells
-------
1 Char
4 Devouring Light
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Lightning Helix
2 Seed Spark
4 Wrath of God
Creatures
----------
1 Firemane Angel
3 Godo, Bandit Warlord
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
Land
-----
2 Brushland
4 Forest
3 Karplusan Forest
3 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Temple Garden
4 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
Sideboard
----------
3 Cranial Extraction
1 Faith's Fetters
3 Ivory Mask
1 Manriki-Gusari
2 Naturalize
2 Pyroclasm
3 Sacred Ground
I was sick of the black green decks I've been playing for awhile and the Gifts-based Reanimator decks so I was looking for something different. It was either this or the blue/red splice-Ire of Kaminari deck but that deck just folds to Cranial Extraction and Kodama of the North Tree. I think I made the right choice since I saw both of those cards tonight. So I took Adrian's build, card for card I think. I figure I'll run with this until the red/green shock land and whatever gold goodies await us in Guildpact---I'm definitely going back to red/green aggro post-Guildpact.
Round 1 - Erik Williams - Boros
Game one I was mana screwed and didn't do much of anything as Erik laid down creature after creature. My life total went 20, 18 (Isamaru), 12 (Isamaru + Pale Curtain + Glorious Anthem), 6, dead. He never took a point of damage.
Game two I boarded in the two Pyroclasm and took out a Godo and a Faith's Fetters. It took awhile but I was able to clear the board and kill of his creatures eventually and then Godo found me a big Sunforger to beat with. Game three started the same way and I started to take control when he played Eight-and-a-Half-Tails. Bad for me, all my spot removal except Char is white. He used 8 1/2 to remove the Faith's Fetters from the Jitte, swing, and get counters on the Jitte. Fortunately I top decked Wrath of God and gladly used it to get rid of 8 1/2. He still had a pretty full hand so I was scared that another 8 1/2 would follow but it didn't. He seemed to be having trouble finding creatures and I eventually hard cast the Dragon's Fang. At the end of his next turn I activated it. He tried to respond with Terashi's Grasp but I reminded him that Grasp is a sorcery. He tried to cast it again during my turn and the words "Still a sorcery" just slipped out as I equipped a Sunforger to the newly formed 5/5 dragon. I didn't mean to be a smart ass but Erik is a nice guy and didn't take offense. I swung and he conceded.
games: 2-1
matches: 1-0
Round 2 - Joel Allen - White/Green critters with Glare of Subdual
Joel splashed black for Cranial Extraction and removed Wrath of God after getting a Kodama of the North Tree in play. I had the Dragon Fang in play already and enough land to flip it so that kept North Tree at bay after he hit me once. I finally found Sunforger and equipped it to the dragon. Joel had taken a lot of damage from his pain lands and was at 12, so I was able to attack for 9 and unequip the Sunforger for the Lightning Helix.
Game two Joel seemed to draw nothing but land. I got Godo out and went to town.
games: 4-1
matches: 2-0
Round 3 - David Stroud - Greater Good w/Yosei and Wrath of God
David's deck is incredibly difficult to beat once it gets the Hana Kami/Cranial Extaction/Soulless Revival engine going. He got the Greater Good out fast. Once he found Yosei I didn't untap again.
Game two I had to mulligan once and kept a hand with one of the Cranial's and one of the Ivory Mask's I'd boarded in plus three land. All I needed was a snake, a Kodama's Reach, a Plains or a Swamp and I'd be home free. Naturally I never drew any of those despite the fact that David had to draw almost his entire deck before dragons killed me. Before the dragon attack David had the Hana Kami/Cranial Extraction every turn thing set up and I was slowly losing threats.
The only satisfying part of this match was the Cranial David cast early in game two. I hadn't done much game one so he named Kodama of the North Tree, which I don't play. But since he was able to Cranial turn after turn that didn't really matter. Who the heck made Cranial Extraction Arcane anyway?
games: 4-3
matches: 2-1
Round 4 - Chris Heido - Dimir Cutthroat combo
Chris' deck used Freed from the Real on Ley Druid (!) to generate infinite mana and win with X spells. I'm not sure which X spell he was using as his win condition though. Game one he kept casting Hippies and I kept Lightning Helix'ing them. I think I had two Helixes in the opening seven and found another one as he was casting Hippies. He was able to get a Dimir Cutthroat out but then I cast Godo and got Jitte. I had enough mana left to equip Jitte. When I attacked Chris didn't block and I used the counters to kill Cutthroat, then Godo attacked again. I killed him the next turn.
Game two I still wasn't sure what he was up to so I just brought in the Pyroclasms. He was able to get land and Birds and Elves of Deep Shadow out quickly and also got Freed from the Real on the Ley Druid. I had been holding Pyroclasm since the opening seven and cast it the next turn, clearing his board. After that I got to Godo mana and attacked with a Sunforger-equipped Godo.
games: 6-3
matches: 3-1
I wound up finishing second out of twelve players and won a foil FNM promo Icy Manipulator and five packs of Ravnica. I didn't get anything particularly good in the packs but I did get some rares I didn't have four of, including Searing Meditation. I think I'm going to put two of those in the board instead of the fourth Faith's Fetters and the Manriki-Gusari. Neither of those seemed useful---I didn't need Manriki-Gusari because I could usually kill whatever creature my opponent equipped and a fourth Faith's Fetters just wasn't necessary. I'm thinking the Meditations could help against creature based "red deck wins" type decks which I've seen on MTGO, and I can't see a time when I'd board in the fourth Fetters or the Manriki.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home