TNT FNM *5-1 3rd* 2/18/11

AMERICA!! F!$# YEAH!!

For the FNM this week, I ran All American Heroes, a deck that I kinda mentioned a long time ago on this blog (I named the article after it, then only talked about Allies for 1 paragraph.... what was I thinking?). Anyways, here is the decklist I ran:

4x Hada Freeblade
4x Kazandu Blademaster
1x Jwari Shapeshifter
4x Akoum Battlesinger
4x Kabira Evangel
3x Talus Paladin
2x Molten-Tail Masticore

3x Mimic Vat
4x Preordain
2x Spell Pierce
2x Unified Will
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Lightning Bolt

4x Scalding Tarn
4x Arid Mesa
4x Plains
2x Mountain
2x Island
4x Seachrome Coast
3x Glacial Fortress
1x Celestial Colonnade

Sideboard:
2x Spell Pierce
3x Tuktuk Scrapper
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
2x Mark of Mutiny
1x Jwari Shapeshifter

When I came into the event, I had 0 cards non-proxied in my sideboard, so after running around the room 5 times, I was able to assemble all the cards I needed, which is when I realized I didn't have a notepad and paper to record life and take game notes on. Thankfully, one of the guys wanted to go to the CVS down the street anyways, so we raced to it (who won was up to discretion. He got a moment's head start, but then stopped earlier than I did, but I was about to pass him if it went another 15 feet. I haven't run in 15 months, and I was wearing steel toe boots, and I still got the speed =D). After getting shafted by the price of pen and paper ($8.14 for 4 pens and a pad of paper???) I was finally all prepared to play. I paid for the event, then found the first person I could who wasn't playing anyone to warm up against. He was playing Kuldotha Red for the night, and we played 5 game 1's. I was 1-4. That really sucked... But I was against K-red, nothing close to a normal or fair deck, and I felt like I would crush post board by running 4 Bolts and 4 Arc Trails. But red deck always takes game 1...

Round 1: Brian (Kuldotha Red)
As it turned out, my round 1 opponent was the same guy who I had just been playtesting against. Great.... You know what's better than having a bad game 1 matchup? Losing the die roll to K-red.... He had a modest start, but I had some dudes to get in the way, including my 1-of Lightning Bolt to nail his T2 Signal Pest when he had Ornithopters and Memnites out besides that. I was able to play some dudes, and pretty soon his Contested Warzone was getting passed back and forth every turn, until finally I was threatening a TON of damage so he had to leave everyone back to block. I absolutely capitalized on the moment dropping more allies and using his Contested Warzone against him to close out the game at 3 life!

Sideboard:
Out:
2x Unified Will
3x Mimic Vat
Spell Pierce
2x Masticore

In:
3x Lightning Bolt
4x Arc Trail
Jwari Shapeshifter

Game 2 I had the abolute nuts against him, containing 2x Arc Trail, 2x Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster, Arid Mesa, and Glacial Fortress. Now that  may be good, going T1 Fortress, T2 Mesa --> Mountain, Arc Trail, but things got better: my first top deck was another Arid Mesa! So I went  T1 Mesa -> Plains, Hada Freeblade. T2 Mesa -> Mountain, Arc Trail, and the game anded very quickly after that.

2-0
1-0

Round 2: WW Quest
Keeping with the theme of playing against people you were already against, my next opponent was the guy who was sitting right next to me during round 1. I knew exactly What he had going on, and he knew what I was packing. I lost the die roll, and game 1 was stupid. He drops 2 Quest for the Holy Relic strait and immediatly pumps them up to 4. He then fails to draw dudes for 2 turns, then he gets there, double Argentum Armor, off to game 2...

Sideboard:
Out:
Spell Pierce
3x Mimic Vat
2x Unified Will
2x Masticore

In:
3x Arc Trail
3x Lightning Bolt
2x Tuktuk Scrapper

Game 2 he did not have any quests, and after holding back a bunch of 0 drops for 3 turns, he was forced to use them as blockers. Naturally, WW Quest without the Quest is just White Weenie. Which is bad. Going into game 3, not only did he not have Quest, but he didn't have a second land either, so it was a very quick round, and I found myself undefeated with half an hour on the round clock, so what do I do? TRADE!!

2-1
2-0

Round 3: Esper Control
For the third round strait, I was lost the roll, and I proceeded to do bad. I really just wasn't satisfied with my performance, ranging from forgetting to play a land on turn 2 when I had 2 in hand to forgetting to discard to Masticore. I could have blown up both of his Wall of Omens, and then swung in for 6, but instead, I missed the trigger, and just blew one up (7 lands in play, 1 in hand). Yeah, I deserved to lose game 1. I got smashed by a Grave Titan AND Persecutor when he had big papa Jace in play.

Sideboard:
Out:
Lightning Bolt
Kabira Evangel
2x Talus Paladin

In:
2x Spell Pierce
2x Mark of Mutiny

It was in this moment I realized I don't have a sideboard for anti-control. I guess I figured I could dump dudes, then Spell Pierce their Day of Judgement, then swing for lethal, but hat actually happened is I flat out lost to Gideon Jura and Espeth tag teaming. I disliked how I played overall, so I deserved to lose...

0-2
2-1

Round 4: Brendan (WW Quest)
Once again, I lose the die roll (noticing a trend here?) but this time it was in really cool fashion. Brendan is a big Warhammer player, so he has a ton of dice of every variety, so we rolled 8 dice to pick, including a 6-sided, 10-sided, 4-sided, 12-sided, 20-sided, and 30-sided die. The 30 sided die rolls around like a sphere until it hits something. I rolled something like a 35 across my dice, and he got a 28 on the 30-sided die.... After that sadness passed, I promptly lost game 1, but then brought in 12 cards off the board, because I forgot to de-sideboard after last round. I decided to bring in the full set of Tuktuk Scrappers, and it seriously paid off! He got a quest online and I had 2 Scrapper in hand, with sifficient mana to play one of them. Slow-roll it, blow the equipment up, shoot for 3, rinse and repeat. I got Tuktuk in my opener for G3 as well, with 3 lands and other good action, so I quickly closed that game down as well. I was lucky enough to hit Argentum Armor with Tuktuk Game 3, which was a nice touch.

2-1
3-1

Round 5: Jason (UW Shape Anew)
Guess what? I lose the roll again!!! It wound up not mattering though as he played 2 islands, Inkmoth Nexus, Tectonic Edge, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor all of game 1 while I was vomiting dudes into play and bashing for 9 turn 3 and 13 turn 4. I had no idea what I was against, but I hedged my bets on a Shape Anew deck because he had Inkmoth Nexus.

Board:
Out:
2x Mimic Vat

In:
2x Spell Pierce

Game 2 was a trouncing as well, where I puked guys on the table, countered the first Day of Judgement, got hit by another, recovered, and kept on going. I got hit my Inkmoth 3 times all game, and it really just didn't last too long.

2-0
4-1

Round 6: Seth (WW Quest)
I finally won the roll, and I quickly won 2 straight games as he had no quests played all match. Game 1 he beat me down to 14, but I played Talus Paladin and lifelinked back up to 20. Game 2 was very different as I was smashed down to 7, but in the end, Tuktuk Scrapper continued to prove his excelence as I destroyed 4 or 5 artifacts with him, shooting for 3-4 each time.

2-0
5-1

Yes, If you double check my matchups, I played 3 White Weenie Quest decks on rounds 2, 4, and 6. I think there were only 4 WW Quest pilots in the entire FNM! But as you should expect from me by now, I had a ton of trading going on all night. Here were some notable pickups:

Grave Titan
Bitterblossom
2x Green Sun's Zenith
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Body and Mind
Arid Mesa
3x Inkmoth Nexus (1 Chinese!!)
Foil Silence (only 5 more to go....)
Demonic Tutor
2x FNM promo Krosan Grip
3x Great Sable Stag
FNM Isochron Scepter

Also important is noting what cards you got rid of, for me that's:

Show & Tell
3x Frost Titan

The Frost Titans were especially big for me as they have been dead space that no one has wanted to trade for at all. I actually wound up getting the Bitterblossom and Great Sable Stags through that trade. Hopefully I can move those and my Thoughtseizes very soon. Maybe I should go to a PTQ just to get some good trading in, those types of events are always packed with traders.

If you're looking for a really cool aggressive deck to try out, I highly reccomend this deck. If I were to play it again, I would probably cut blue for green because having access to Harabaz Druid makes Masticore insanely good! Also, Lead the Stampede feels like it can be a 3 mana draw 3 card, which Masticore greatly appreciates. I didn't find myself ever leavign back counter mana except against control, but that was only for Day of Judgement. With the likes of Lead the Stampede, comign back from Day of Judgement shouldn't be too hard, especially with how good the allies actually are!

That's all for me, until next time, stay classy!