TNT FNM 10/16/10 *2-3*

Last night I went to the FNM with my sick new brew: mono-black control. I picked this deck because I expected there to be a lot of ramp and UW control. Turns out I was wrong. I believe there was only one of each being played that night. However, not all was lost as there were a smattering of elves players around, which my 2 main deck Deathmark could do some damage to. Here was my decklist for the night:

4x Sign in Blood
3x Vampire Hexmage
2x Painful Quandry
3x Grave Titan
1x Wurmcoil Engine
2x Doom Blade
1x Deathmark
4x Grasp of Darkness
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Skinrender
1x Memoricide
4x Mind Sludge
3x Duress

4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
15x Swamp
1x Mystifying Maze

Sideboard
2x Deathmark
2x Doom Blade
2x Memoricide
1x Geth, Lord of the Vault (I do't really know why he's in there...)
2x Nihil Spellbomb
1x Suffer the Past
3x Inquisition of Kozelik
2x Haunting Echoes

This deck looks like it should do really well against creature based decks with the insanely high amount of removal it packs.

Round 1: UR Destructive Titan Control
This first round I was paired against Biasetti, who I had never played before in an FNM, but I have always seen him do incredibly well. As it turns out, the deck he was playing made my deck loaded with blanks. Basically, he was packing counterspells and draw spells, using red for removal, and then would win by playing Frost Titan, and then playing Destructive Force to lock his opponent out of the game. This is the deck that the guy from Toys who won states used. Game 1 was miserable and I lost to big Jace's ultimate when my hand consisted of 2x Grasp of Darkness and a Doom Blade and he had no creatures in play. Game 2 was much better for me, and I thought I may be able to take the game when I was able to resolve a Painful Quandry. However, he just played Volition Reins on his turn, followed by a pair of Frost Titans, which dominated my pair of Grave Titans. When Grave Titan can't untap, it can't attack, and so it can't make more chump blockers.

0-2
0-1

Round 2: Mono-Green Stompy
When I arrived I saw 2 kids, each probably 10 years old playing. I thought they were just there for fun, but when I sat down, I realized I was playing one of them for the actual FNM. Obviously his deck was incredibly budget, and ultimately it wasn't too good. Game 1 was a breeze, with nothing on his side of the field lasting more than 1 turn after he played it. I reached for my sideboard before game 2 and proceeded to recieve hate from all the other players around me who saw me boarding. I decided it really wouldn't be fair to board against this little kid, and in turn game 2 I played sloppily (probably cuz I was playing a little too easy) and actually lost. However, game 3 I came right back and finished with a Grave Titan for the win.

2-1
1-1


I took a break from writing this article for... 3 days... I came back and noticed my notes were gone, along with my memory. I believe I played Andrew's mono-green Eldrazi Ramp deck round 3 and lost, despite memoriciding away Prime Time. Then round 4 I was against mono-green poison, which I lost 2 games to a double proliferate. But then I was able to pick up win #2 against somebody who I can't even remember playing a deck I'm also blanking on. But in the end I was 2-3 and won nothing for my time

In hindsight, this deck would spend a lot of time killing itself. I found that running 8x fetch lands with 4x Sign in Blood was enough to kill myself without assistance, especially without lifegain. After the FNM, I traded for 3 Japanese Corrupts (1 foil) to help turn the tides a little more in my favor. The deck was a fun expiriment, but I will be playing a real deck next time.