TNT FNM 1/21/11 *3-2*

Hello everyone! Tonight, I played in the FNM for the first time in probably a month. I have been thinking so much about Beseiged that I proxied all of my decks for post-Beseiged except for UW Control, so that is what I had to work with. I didn't even have a sideboard, so I threw together some Jank at the last minute that looked something like:

3x Spreading Seas
2x Negate
1x Mindbreak Trap
3x Celestial Purge
3x Luminarch Ascension
1x Baneslayer Angel
1x Journey to Nowhere
1x Devout Lightcaster

So with such a great sideboard against UB control: Devout Lightcaster, Luminarch Ascension, Spreading Seas, Celestial Purge, Negate, guess how many times I faced down a swamp in 5 rounds? 0.

Round 1: Mono-White Life Gain
He won the die roll and started with Plains, Soul's Attendant. I was a little confused as to what I was facing, but I rolled with it anyways. Game 1 included very few creatures on his side, so I was ablt to take control of the game almost instantly and got him locked down with Venser, Elspeth, and Jace TMS teaming up together. Game 2 however was a different story. His lifegain simply could not be stopped for several turns. Finally when I cast Day of Judgement I was able to stabalize with him at 57 life! Gideon + Baneslayer + Colonnade = 15 damage a turn though, so I was able to come back in 4 turns to close out the game, which just so happened to be the same turn I popped Jace for -12!

2-0
1-0

Round 2: UW Control
As soon as I realized I was in the mirror, I just groaned. I didn't want to have to grind out long games, but this match didn't get over until there was 1:30 left. Game 1 I was able to come over the top on with a Planeswalker suite of Elspeth, Gideon, and Big Jace. Game 2, however, was insane! He was on the play and stuck a turn 2 Luminarch Ascension. I played my Luminarch Ascension on my turn 2 so I could try to with with more mana and tokens. He had War Priest of Thune though, but I top deck ANOTHER Luminarch Ascension! So I play my Luminarch, 2 turns behind and after a couple turns He has 3 counters on his, I have 1 on mine (Wall of Omens bought me the time) and when I pass my turn he missed his trigger so I was able to catch up with my Luminarch Ascension. We proceed to into a Luminarch Ascension battle while I fog with the likes of Gideon in order to get my Ascension online. I have way more mana than him though and I can make 4 Angels a turn to his 2. However, he has another War Priest, which stops me cold. From there I simply couldn't come back from the waves of Angels. Game 3 we had to play a little faster, but I stuck a turn 2 Luminarch Ascension and simply went to town with it. I noticed I played Luminarch Ascension very differently. If I have a choice between Baneslayer and 2 tokens, I always go with the tokens. However, my opponent seemed to be much more in favor of using his last couple mana to make Angels as opposed to using it as his primary win condition. After this match I realized maybe Into the Roil wouldn't be a bard card to bring into my board. I can hit Planeswalkers.

2-1
2-0

Round 3: Wb Knights
The first thing I though when my opponent sat down is that he looked striingly similar to Kai Budde, only a teenage version. When i saw he was playing White Weenie, I just had to laugh a little. His deck was very powerful, and I am a firm believer of Knight Exemplar after this match. That card ruins Day of Judgement and calculating combat! The games went much as you would expect from a aggro vs Control matchup except that he never burnt out. Sun Titan and Emeria, the Sky Ruin both did fantastic jobs of keeping his board full, although I feel I completely misplayed when I forgot about the Sky Ruin and I had Tec Edge + 1 up. He brought back Exemplar which was simply too much.

1-2
2-1

Round 4: RUG
I was against Peter in this match, someone who is always a solid player, and has played RUG every time I have FNMed against him since rotation. These games were absolutely insane, and alot of the craziness simply had to do with mana. Obviously his 3 color deck has a shaky manabase, so when I hit him for double spreading seas on 2 Raging Ravines leaving him with 5 islands and a forest, he though it was GG. Some savage rips later, all of a sudden we're back in a counter war over his Inferno Titan. Ultimately the game came down to be being 1 mana short of animating a Colonnade to block and playing Day of Judgement to clear his board, and I lost. Even though I play against RUG from time to time, I still can't identify its weakness, except that I feel it tries to do too much so it doesn't really excel at any one thing. It tries to control, but only plays 4 Jace 4 Mana Leak. It tries to ramp, but only plays 4 Explore 4 Lotus Cobra. It tries to remove threats but just plays a couple Bolts. So I am not a fan of the deck despite its complexity and ability to do anything, at the same time I feel it does nothing.

1-2
2-2

Round 5: GW Quest
I don't like Quest decks, but I do like GW beatdown. This guy I was playing against had a GW beatdown splash Quest style deck, which actually posed a bigger problem then I thought it would. out games were insanely Swingy, and even despite my 4 or 5 for 1s with Day of Judgement, Vengevine NEVER went away! Ultimately double Baneslayer Angel is what was able to pull me out of the hole game 3 facing triple Vengevine + enough friends to hit for 20. I was able to block 2 Veggies, which gained me 10 and blocked 8, so I only was hit for 2, and I could stabalize from there with Day of Judgement (this time he had no cards in hand) and I Jace +2ed him so he only ever got lands.

2-1
3-2

I really like UW Control, and I feel it will be the control varient of choice. As I said, I think Beseiged will make aggro much better, which UW has a better chance of beating as its board sweepers are better. Even as I say that though, Black Sun's Zenith is nuts!

This could be the card that keeps UB Control the better option as it is an incredibly powerful board sweeper, and whatever it doesn't kill is seriously crippled. The entire Zenith cycle has been revealed, and the 2 most powerful are definitely this one and the Green one. The red one is Blaze, which is dissapointing, and the blue and white ones cost triple color, so they aren't as powerful. Here is how I rank the Zeniths:

1. Black
2. Green
3. Blue
4. White
5. Red

Anyways, I can talk more about Beseiged previews in my next post (Sword of Feast and Famine!), I want to keep this one focused. So until next time, stay classy!