Rotation… People say it like it the tornado from the Wizard of Oz. It’s like a black cloud that financially hangs over everyone once a year. With Return to Ravnica spoiling bit by bit each day, it seems like the current standard Metagame is growing volatile. People are testing rogue decks and there are no big Standard Tournaments people are practicing for right now… Seems like a great time to roll in for some easy points! Lemme go over my last two weeks worth of grinding (trying to get that rating up) and tell you about the match-ups I’ve faced and my reactions to them.
Let’s start with Tuesday 9/4 at Twenty Sided Store in Brooklyn.
This is where I do most of my playing and trading, it’s right near my apartment and aside from being well stocked singles wise, the regular crew there is pretty great. Mostly cats my age. But enough about the awesomeness that is my favorite LGS… With my B/R Zombie Deck in hand I set out to eat brains and set things on fire!
Round one
Delver… wah wah. Que up the Benny Hill Theme.
My opponent was a relatively novice Delver player (not that he made many mistakes, he just borrowed the deck). We went to Three games and he won game three due to Timely Reinfrocements. No big, I haven’t played much Delver recently, I should expect a sound thrashing. Note to Self: Maybe a little more artifact hate for those Runechanter’s Pikes.. Brutal, but them’s the breaks.
0-1
Round Two
New Friend! So second round was a fellow that doesn’t come to the shop often, he was testing his deck that he planned on playing at another shop for FNM. I asked him how’s that working out for him? Y’know being that we were both 0-1. The games were relatively straight forward, I took it in two. Things were looking up. I can still go 3-1 and get a little prize action. (Twenty Sided has one of the better pay outs in the city).
1-1
Round Three
Li Xu aka THAT DELVER PLAYER
Dammit, Delver again? I am not prepared for this match-up. My entire sideboard is set for the mirror and for Naya Pod. Game one I got an early lead but Li stabilized and geist finished me. Game two I kept a one land hand (LIKE A CHUMP) and didn’t really get out of Stage one. Though I did cast the heck out of my one drops… Timely Reinforcements put my hopes to bed. The first game was well played by Li, and I wouldn’t doubt I made some errors, I really need to learn this match-up better. Also STOP KEEPING ONE LAND HANDS, YOU DORK!
1-2
Round Four
There’s a bit of a relief about being out of the prize pool. You can chill out and play to have fun, talk a little more freely and generally just have a good time. Round Four was against Monique playing (you guessed it) DELVER! I hadn’t played Monique since I came back to the game my first week with Innastrad/ Dark Ascension draft. She schooled me then. But I’m no rube, I’ve been playing pretty much every week since then. Honing my skills, reading articles, test drafting, and tweaking my sideboard… all that stuff. I was seeing red (or maybe blue) by this third Delver match-up. Some solid draws and a mulligan by Monique clinched the first game. Game two was waaaay trickier. By now I was hip to Timely Reinforcements. I saved my Bonfire (Which I opened the game with) and used it for one and burned/ate brains for the rest of the game.
2-2 on the day which isn’t great but I learned one thing… There is gonna be at least one Delver Deck. I need to learn this match-up. THREE DELVERS!! Ok ok enough botching if I’d have prepared I would have been better off.
TOMORROW: GAMER’S EDGE 9/5
Until then Keep Drawing & Mise Wins