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Friday Night Magic - Portland Oregon - May 26, 2006 - Rakdos Redemption?
I decided to give Rakdos one more chance at Friday Night Magic. I figured there would be a good combination of decks copied from Regionals winners, rogue decks and random creature decks to give the old red/black a good workout. If the deck did as badly as I did at Regionals then it would be back to the card boxes for Rakdos.
I made some tweaks to the deck after Regionals and ran with this build:
Spells (10)
----------
3 Char
3 Demonfire
4 Rise // Fall
Enchantments (4)
-----------------
4 Seal of Fire
Artifacts (3)
------------
3 Umezawa's Jitte
Creatures (20)
--------------
4 Jagged Poppet
4 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
4 Rakdos Augermage
4 Rakdos Guildmage
4 Ravenous Rats
Land (23)
---------
4 Blood Crypt
5 Mountain
2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
4 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
Sideboard (15)
--------------
4 Blood Moon
4 Hit // Run
3 Pithing Needle
4 Rain of Gore
The changes definitely helped, especially Blood Moon in the board and having more creatures. The Guildmage is suprisingly effective if I can live long enough to get to four land.
We played five rounds and had over twenty players---a good turnout for Friday Night Magic lately.
Round 1 - Colton Klein - White Weenie
Colton was running straight up white weenie complete with Glorious Anthem and a pack of Savannah Lions and Isamaru. He also had the 2/1 flyer from Dissension, Mistral Charger. In game one Colton bolted out of the blocks with a Isamaru on turn one, a flyer on turn two and two Savannah Lions on turn three. I couldn't catch up and only hit him once with a Jagged Poppet. Game two was even worse as I didn't do a point of damage. I wasn't feeling good about the deck's future after this match---white weenie never even looked back as it rolled over Rakdos.
Games: 0-2
Matches: 0-1
Round 2 - Bruce Freed - RG land destruction
Bruce and his son Noah and I have met at many local tournaments and they're always very friendly. Unfortunately for them they usually like to sport rogue decks which seem to get hated out of the tournaments. This Friday night Bruce admitted that he had just thrown the deck together from spare parts because he and Noah wanted to play Magic. He had the Birds of Paradise hoping to lead to the turn two Stone Rain. We played a couple of casual games after round one and I rolled him---I got Augermage on turn three followed by Jitte on turn four and he couldn't get a threat in time. We both laughed when we found out we were paired in round two.
Game one was back and forth. Bruce got off to a fast start with a Kird Ape and a Dryad Sophisticate but I eventually found enough burn to kill his creatures. I stabilized---at four. Against red. I wasn't feeling good. Fortunately for me Bruce's build didn't have much burn (I never saw any burn except Volcanic Hammer.) Jitte went the distance again as he never kept another creature on the board.
Game two was brutal for Bruce. He led with Forest, Birds. I led with Blood Crypt untapped, Seal of Fire, kill the Birds. Next turn he played another Bird and missed his land drop---he had been counting on either drawing a land and doing the turn two Stone Rain (which he was holding) or just playing another Bird and Stone Raining me on turn three. So after playing the Bird he passed the turn. I played a land and Demonfire'd his Bird. He didn't draw another land until the turn I killed him as a Guildmage carrying a Jitte did him in.
Games: 2-2
Matches: 1-1
Round 3 - Greg Goodapple - UB spirits
As we started Greg admitted "This is my first serious tournament." He was already 1-1 so I tried hard not to let my guard down. He was playing a bunch of little Spirits like Bile Urchin plus Theif of Hope and Devouring Greed as a finisher. He got off to a fast start, playing Bile Urchins and black and blue Zubera, but once I hit three land I started playing Poppets and Augermages. I had extra land so I was able to pick off the black Zubera and not lose anything important. Finally I found a Jitte and started swinging. He had three Drift of Phantasms in play but I used Jitte counters to start killing his creatures which had a power greater than zero. He found a Devouring Greed and hit for six but then had nothing left but the Phantasms. I had four or five creatures in play and killed him in two turns.
Game two was more of the same. He had another fast start but I had Seal of Fire early and random creature plus Jitte late.
Games: 4-2
Matches: 2-1
Round 4 - Jason Powell - The Rock/BGW control
Jason, 2006 Oregon States Top 8 finisher, is another regular at Rainy Day Games but I haven't seen much of him in the last few months. He skipped Regionals but can usually be found at all the major events. I knew he was playing some sort of black/green because he'd traded for a couple of my Crime // Punishment before the tournament started.
In game 1 Jason played a couple of land and then---well, then he missed about nine land drops in a row. He never found another land and I never took a point of damage.
Game two I took out the Jitte's (they always get Fettered or Naturalized anyway against that deck) and boarded in the Blood Moons. I got one on turn three and it wrecked his mana for the rest of the game. He was still able to play Sakura Tribe Elders and find some basic land, then was able to start playing Hierarchs. He was up to 28 life until I started to draw burn. I was down to four but I finally killed all his creatures. I knew he had a Putrefy in hand but couldn't find a Swamp. I knew he also had some other good card in hand. I had a Poppet in play and a land in hand. I drew a Blood Witch. I played the land, then the Witch, and swung with the Poppet to empty his hand. Jason couldn't find another answer in time.
Games: 6-2
Matches: 3-1
Why are most matches sweeps with this deck? It's very odd.
Round 5 - Steve Gobel - UGR Graft
Steve's another RDG veteran. He was playing a slightly tweaked version of the deck which led him to a 5-2-2 finish at Regionals. I like this deck and I'm going to build it as soon as I can find the Root-Kin's. In game one he led with a Root-Kin on turn three (after a Tribe-Elder) and I Demonfire'd it away. I started to play some of my own creatures but he Savage Twister'ed them away. He decided after Regionals that the Twisters should be main and they certainly wiped my board with ease. Even worse, a couple of turns later he played Simic Sky Swallower, the 6/6 Flying Trampling untargetable beastie. I can't deal with an untargetable flyer pre-board and I scooped with me at seven at him at 16.
Game two I double mulliganed---ugh, shades of Regionals. I had two Swamps in my set of five and kept even though my three spells all required red. I really didn't want to go to four on the play. Can you guess what happened? Yes, I never drew another land. Stuck on two swamps I watched as he played a creature a turn. He had eight points of offense on the board with me at 12 and I scooped after missing another land drop.
This was one of the worst rounds I've ever had. I just got totally crushed. I was never in either game.
Games: 6-4
Matches: 3-2
A random prize brought me a foil Goblin Warchief which my Goblin deck will enjoy, but otherwise Rakdos still hasn't proven that it can compete. Of my three match wins I beat a deck which should be a good matchup for me (land destruction without burn), a good player who got lousy draws, and a player in his first tournament. I got swept by a deck archetype which I think will become more and more popular and by a fairly vanilla creature deck. Not promising. I think I need to take out Demonfire and just go all out Hellbent---maybe replace the Demonfire's with Shocks or go back to Ignorant Bliss in order to maximize the usefulness of the Poppets and the Augermages and put the Demonfires in the board against control.
But I think more likely is I'll either go back to Zoo or build the UGR graft deck. Steve's version had Sky Swallower, Demonfire, Stampeding Serow, and a couple of other singletons with no way to search for them. I think I'd increase the burn and get rid of the singletons or boost their numbers---probably two Sky Swallower's, two Demonfire, some Electrolyzes (Steve didn't run any) and drop the Serow.
This is a bad environment for a color combination that can't deal with enchantments or artifacts once they hit the table. A Paladin en-Vec with a Jitte is pretty much game over for me, as is a resolved Glare.
By the way, two decks drew at 4-0: Owling Mine and a rogue gold deck using a bunch of the split cards and Pillar of the Paruns to cast them. I played a couple of casual games against the deck before the tournament, using my Izzet deck. I'm not sure what his win conditions are---the only thing the deck ever did to me was Crime my Solifuge's into play on his side (which turned out to be enough because this Izzet deck doesn't play many creatures).
I made some tweaks to the deck after Regionals and ran with this build:
Spells (10)
----------
3 Char
3 Demonfire
4 Rise // Fall
Enchantments (4)
-----------------
4 Seal of Fire
Artifacts (3)
------------
3 Umezawa's Jitte
Creatures (20)
--------------
4 Jagged Poppet
4 Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
4 Rakdos Augermage
4 Rakdos Guildmage
4 Ravenous Rats
Land (23)
---------
4 Blood Crypt
5 Mountain
2 Rix Maadi, Dungeon Palace
4 Sulfurous Springs
8 Swamp
Sideboard (15)
--------------
4 Blood Moon
4 Hit // Run
3 Pithing Needle
4 Rain of Gore
The changes definitely helped, especially Blood Moon in the board and having more creatures. The Guildmage is suprisingly effective if I can live long enough to get to four land.
We played five rounds and had over twenty players---a good turnout for Friday Night Magic lately.
Round 1 - Colton Klein - White Weenie
Colton was running straight up white weenie complete with Glorious Anthem and a pack of Savannah Lions and Isamaru. He also had the 2/1 flyer from Dissension, Mistral Charger. In game one Colton bolted out of the blocks with a Isamaru on turn one, a flyer on turn two and two Savannah Lions on turn three. I couldn't catch up and only hit him once with a Jagged Poppet. Game two was even worse as I didn't do a point of damage. I wasn't feeling good about the deck's future after this match---white weenie never even looked back as it rolled over Rakdos.
Games: 0-2
Matches: 0-1
Round 2 - Bruce Freed - RG land destruction
Bruce and his son Noah and I have met at many local tournaments and they're always very friendly. Unfortunately for them they usually like to sport rogue decks which seem to get hated out of the tournaments. This Friday night Bruce admitted that he had just thrown the deck together from spare parts because he and Noah wanted to play Magic. He had the Birds of Paradise hoping to lead to the turn two Stone Rain. We played a couple of casual games after round one and I rolled him---I got Augermage on turn three followed by Jitte on turn four and he couldn't get a threat in time. We both laughed when we found out we were paired in round two.
Game one was back and forth. Bruce got off to a fast start with a Kird Ape and a Dryad Sophisticate but I eventually found enough burn to kill his creatures. I stabilized---at four. Against red. I wasn't feeling good. Fortunately for me Bruce's build didn't have much burn (I never saw any burn except Volcanic Hammer.) Jitte went the distance again as he never kept another creature on the board.
Game two was brutal for Bruce. He led with Forest, Birds. I led with Blood Crypt untapped, Seal of Fire, kill the Birds. Next turn he played another Bird and missed his land drop---he had been counting on either drawing a land and doing the turn two Stone Rain (which he was holding) or just playing another Bird and Stone Raining me on turn three. So after playing the Bird he passed the turn. I played a land and Demonfire'd his Bird. He didn't draw another land until the turn I killed him as a Guildmage carrying a Jitte did him in.
Games: 2-2
Matches: 1-1
Round 3 - Greg Goodapple - UB spirits
As we started Greg admitted "This is my first serious tournament." He was already 1-1 so I tried hard not to let my guard down. He was playing a bunch of little Spirits like Bile Urchin plus Theif of Hope and Devouring Greed as a finisher. He got off to a fast start, playing Bile Urchins and black and blue Zubera, but once I hit three land I started playing Poppets and Augermages. I had extra land so I was able to pick off the black Zubera and not lose anything important. Finally I found a Jitte and started swinging. He had three Drift of Phantasms in play but I used Jitte counters to start killing his creatures which had a power greater than zero. He found a Devouring Greed and hit for six but then had nothing left but the Phantasms. I had four or five creatures in play and killed him in two turns.
Game two was more of the same. He had another fast start but I had Seal of Fire early and random creature plus Jitte late.
Games: 4-2
Matches: 2-1
Round 4 - Jason Powell - The Rock/BGW control
Jason, 2006 Oregon States Top 8 finisher, is another regular at Rainy Day Games but I haven't seen much of him in the last few months. He skipped Regionals but can usually be found at all the major events. I knew he was playing some sort of black/green because he'd traded for a couple of my Crime // Punishment before the tournament started.
In game 1 Jason played a couple of land and then---well, then he missed about nine land drops in a row. He never found another land and I never took a point of damage.
Game two I took out the Jitte's (they always get Fettered or Naturalized anyway against that deck) and boarded in the Blood Moons. I got one on turn three and it wrecked his mana for the rest of the game. He was still able to play Sakura Tribe Elders and find some basic land, then was able to start playing Hierarchs. He was up to 28 life until I started to draw burn. I was down to four but I finally killed all his creatures. I knew he had a Putrefy in hand but couldn't find a Swamp. I knew he also had some other good card in hand. I had a Poppet in play and a land in hand. I drew a Blood Witch. I played the land, then the Witch, and swung with the Poppet to empty his hand. Jason couldn't find another answer in time.
Games: 6-2
Matches: 3-1
Why are most matches sweeps with this deck? It's very odd.
Round 5 - Steve Gobel - UGR Graft
Steve's another RDG veteran. He was playing a slightly tweaked version of the deck which led him to a 5-2-2 finish at Regionals. I like this deck and I'm going to build it as soon as I can find the Root-Kin's. In game one he led with a Root-Kin on turn three (after a Tribe-Elder) and I Demonfire'd it away. I started to play some of my own creatures but he Savage Twister'ed them away. He decided after Regionals that the Twisters should be main and they certainly wiped my board with ease. Even worse, a couple of turns later he played Simic Sky Swallower, the 6/6 Flying Trampling untargetable beastie. I can't deal with an untargetable flyer pre-board and I scooped with me at seven at him at 16.
Game two I double mulliganed---ugh, shades of Regionals. I had two Swamps in my set of five and kept even though my three spells all required red. I really didn't want to go to four on the play. Can you guess what happened? Yes, I never drew another land. Stuck on two swamps I watched as he played a creature a turn. He had eight points of offense on the board with me at 12 and I scooped after missing another land drop.
This was one of the worst rounds I've ever had. I just got totally crushed. I was never in either game.
Games: 6-4
Matches: 3-2
A random prize brought me a foil Goblin Warchief which my Goblin deck will enjoy, but otherwise Rakdos still hasn't proven that it can compete. Of my three match wins I beat a deck which should be a good matchup for me (land destruction without burn), a good player who got lousy draws, and a player in his first tournament. I got swept by a deck archetype which I think will become more and more popular and by a fairly vanilla creature deck. Not promising. I think I need to take out Demonfire and just go all out Hellbent---maybe replace the Demonfire's with Shocks or go back to Ignorant Bliss in order to maximize the usefulness of the Poppets and the Augermages and put the Demonfires in the board against control.
But I think more likely is I'll either go back to Zoo or build the UGR graft deck. Steve's version had Sky Swallower, Demonfire, Stampeding Serow, and a couple of other singletons with no way to search for them. I think I'd increase the burn and get rid of the singletons or boost their numbers---probably two Sky Swallower's, two Demonfire, some Electrolyzes (Steve didn't run any) and drop the Serow.
This is a bad environment for a color combination that can't deal with enchantments or artifacts once they hit the table. A Paladin en-Vec with a Jitte is pretty much game over for me, as is a resolved Glare.
By the way, two decks drew at 4-0: Owling Mine and a rogue gold deck using a bunch of the split cards and Pillar of the Paruns to cast them. I played a couple of casual games against the deck before the tournament, using my Izzet deck. I'm not sure what his win conditions are---the only thing the deck ever did to me was Crime my Solifuge's into play on his side (which turned out to be enough because this Izzet deck doesn't play many creatures).
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