A Tale of X-2

Wow, it's been a while since I updated this, but in the mean time I have been busy going X-2 at various events. Since this past Saturday (1 week) I have done:

TNT High Stakes running UW Control: 1-2-1
Scars draft BG Infect: 1-2
FNM running UB Control: 2-2
Game Day running UB Control: 2-2
Scars draft RB Beatdown: 1-2

Basically I came really close to prizing 5 times strait. While you don't actually "prize" in drafts, you do get much better picks in the backdraft which really make up for it. I don't really have much to say about limited, so lets jump strait to constructed. At the High Stakes I played UW Control, using 3 Sun Titans to recurse Jace Beleran instead of using Jace TMS (because I don't have any). The big problem I had with the deck is that I expected more control than aggro, so I main decked a set of Lumarch Ascension. I realized after this was a mistake and if I main decked any it would have to be just 1 or 2. With the prevailance of mono-red, Luminarch is completely dead. At the High Stakes, I started against BG Genesis Wave-Ob Nixilis. My opponent played REALLY slow and we wound up drawing to time after I stupidly tapped out when I had the game locked down. After that I was against mono red, and quickly lost after mulling to 5 and topdecking Luminarchs. Finally I got a break against mono-green beatdown, but then lost again to Mono Red. I then had to get out fast to make it to band practice in time.

The next weekend, I decided to swap my white for black and try the more removal-heavy version. First round at the FNM, I was paired against a kid named Casey, who I would be shocked if he was more than 10 years old. For some reason once again, I won game 1, then lost 2, then won 3. I didn't use the board against him because he didn't have one either. While last time he stuck a Steel Hellkite, this time I mulled to 6, kept 5 lands and a counterspell thinking to go pro on topdecks, but I instead got mana flooded. He was telling me after the game that he got his Wurmcoil Engine through a trade he thinks he got a very slight deal on. He traded a Quicksilver Gargantuan for the Engine 1-1 with a kid from his school. I explained to him how he did insanely well because Wurmcoil is currently $14 compared to Quicksilver's $.75. Even though they thought Quicksilver was on par with the engine because it could copy the engine, I took the time to explain to him the basics on mana curve and consistancy and he realized why he got such an amazing deal.

After that I faced off against Peter's Big Red deck which ran 4x Masticore. Maindeck Flashfreeze proved its worth again and I was able to hold off the assault to go 2-0. At this point I was happy for being 2-0 thinking I could win and prize, but then I faced a very loose Mono-Red deck which completely blew me out. His turn 1: Chimeric Mass for 0, Kuldotha Rebirth, Memnite. My turn 1: Creeping Tar Pit. Basically I got completely beaten down by 1/1s. Game 2 had a similar start except this time I had a pair of removal spells for 2 of his dudes. On his turn he played Mox Opal, then used the Opal's mana to Kuldotha Rebirth it. Yeah, I lost that one... In round 4, with my last chance to prize, I faced Weenie that got the nut draw twice in a row! to say the leasy I was mad. Very mad.

Afterwards, I did lots of trades, and acquired 3x each of the M11 and Scars UB dual lands to help with my mana. I went home, and teched my deck a lot for the Game Day, which included putting 1 Memoricide main deck and putting Tranket Mage in the board.

Finally game day came around, and after waiting an extra 45 minutes for players, we started our massive 10-person tournament.

As we were waiting, I made a fairly big trade with Joe:

My: Koth of the Hammer, Inferno Titan
His: Venser, the Sojourner, Stoneforge Mystic, 2x Summoning Trap, Reanimate, Chandra Nalaar

I will put how we valued the cards at the time, then will put their CFB prices in parenthesis.
Koth of the Hammer: 45 (36)
Inferno Titan: 7 (7)
My side: 52 (43)

Venser, the Sojouner: 25 (22)
Stoneforge Mystic: 4 (10)
2x Summoning Trap: 6 (7)
Reanimate: 8 (6)
Chandra Nalaar: 9 (2)
His side: 52 (47)

I knew as we were making the trade that Chandra wasn't worth $9, but he wouldn't have it any other way, and there was really nothing else in his binder that I would actually have a use for. Even though I really lost on that 1 card, I made it up with the undervaluing of Stoneforge and the overvaluing of Koth. Every one of those cards I traded for aside from Chandra has an immediate use too!

Venser: UW Control, All American Allies
Stoneforge Mystic: Barely Boros Equipment
2x Summoning Trap: MG Eldrazi
Reanimate: Legacy Reanimator

I don't have a use for Chandra yet, but the card is very good as an effective way to remove Titans. You can play it on turn 5, then +1 it. Turn 6 they Titan, then you can kill the titan and still have Chandra at 1 afterwards, which means that unless they have Grave Titan, you get too keep on going with Chandra. And don't get me started about her ultimate....

So after that trade, I was placed against none other than the man I just traded my Koth to, and yes he was playing mono-red. I learned after that he already had a set, and the Koth I traded to him was his 5th, so I didn't actually boost his deck. He had a verry aggressive list, and among various things, he had Teetering Peaks target Goblin Guide, then give it double strike with Assault Strobe to hit me for 8 on turn 2 after hitting me for 2 the turn before, so before I could play a second land, I was down to 10 life. Ultimately I lost 1-2. The mono-red matchup has been a consistantly difficult one for me, but my current train of thought is that the deck is all-in on pumping creatures. With the exception of Jimmy's list with Kuldotha Rebirth, most red decks have Geopedes, Teetering Peaks, and Assault Strobe, so they have a few creatures that come out fast and then get huge boosts as opposed to having lost of creatures or having pseudo burn spells (Old mono-red ran Ball Lightning, Hell's Thunder, and Hellspark Elemental, which all died at end of turn). Because of this, and the loss of Unearth, a single removal spell can stop the deck cold. If I had a Disfigure on the Goblin Guide when it hit for 8, I would have easily won that game because I would have saved myself from that attack and the 2 following attacks, which ultimately would have given me 12 life for B. I lost 1-2.

Next, I was against Brady with his Vengivine-free Naya deck. He still had the Fauna Shamans, but they fetched for things like Inferno Titans. This game wasn't too hard as having maindeck Flashfreeze and Deathmark in the board gave me 5 really efficient hosers for his entire deck in addition to the rest of my control suite. At one point in the game there was a bunch of confusion about his mana that he was trying to float after I hit him with double Tectonic Edge, so I want to explain quickly what the new post-M10 rules is:

Previous to M10, mana wouldn't drain from your mana pool until the end of each player's turn, however, it was changed to the end of each phase. So if you had Mana Drain, the mana you get from it would go away after your upkeep, so the only way to use the mana you stole would have to be to play an instant during your upkeep. He tried to float mana from the 2 lands I blew up to bolt my Frost Titan during combat and block with 3 power creature, but we had to rewind a bit and ultimately I just didn't attack that turn.

Next, I found myself sitting across from the state champion, who had a unique RUG deck. This was a tough matchup for me, and I ultimatly lost when I missed playing a Flashfreeze on Garruk. Garruk was able to solve his funky mana problems, create dudes, and eventually overrun for the kill. Game 2, he sided in River Boa, and I didn't bring in Disfigure because I didn't think it would hit anything, and I wound up getting 2'd to death.

Going into the last round, everyone was 1-2 somehow with the exception of Nick who was 3-0 and Casey who was 0-3. I have no idea how that worked out because that adds up to 11 total wins and 19 total losses, but I just saw it as an opportunity to top 8 and get my Tempered Steel. I was against Andrew with his mono-red deck (so much mono red!!?!). I ultimately went 2-1 against him, but he almost won. The entire time, Nick was behind him muttering "misplay" at least twice a turn. I couldn't help but smile and laugh at how goofy the entire thing was. After the match was over, Nick spend 5 minutes talking about how he would have laid it all out, which would have killed me turn 5.

After tie breakers were calculated, I landed in 5th place where top 4 got $27 each. So I was the best looser!

So which is better: UW or UB?

White gives you:
Wall of Omens
Day of Judgement
Condemn
Sun Titan
Baneslayer Angel
Venser
Oust (great vs mono-red)
Celestial Purge
Celestial Connelaide

Black gives you:
Creeping Tar Pit
Disfigure
Consume the Meek
Doom Blade
Memoricide/Sadistic Sacrament
Consuming Vapors

Basically, both decks have different angles to removal, and I feel UW has better card drawing with Venser being able to +2 Wall of Omens. Speaking of Wall of Omens, that is something Black would love to have. The biggest problem I had all day was having no early plays besides counterspells and Preordain. If one or 2 creatures slipped through my Mana Leaks, then I would take a lot of damage fast. However, with Wall of Omens, I burned through my deck faster white stifling their early attacks. Also, Day of Judgement is often better than Consume the Meek because it comes down 1 turn earlier and it also can take down MG Eldrazi. Even in a situation where Wall of Omens is dead, it's a better cycling card. I still don't know which is better though, and I will be testing both vigorously.

Anyways, that is all for right now. Hopefully I won't have to play harcore catchup next time when I post. Until then, stay classy