HOWDY!

Thursday has arrived at long last.

This entails a trip to the STRIKE ZONE in scenic Asheville, North Carolina for a night of magical card playing. Thursday nights alternate between Standard and Sealed. Tonight would be a Sealed event of some sort. I'm hoping for some“Drafting Action (tm-Matt Ranks),” as we will be using Nemesis as well as Masques this evening.

Fifteen players attend this evening so it looks to be Sealed Deck. That would be a bad thing for me. My drafting skills are decently solid, but my Sealed Deck performance is not something to brag about, by any means.

So we bust our stuff and build. We are doing the five-land swap system tonight, so a two-color deck is an actual option. This is what I ended up playing.

1 Kris Mage
1 Lava Runner
1 Lightning Hounds
1 Wild Jhovall
1 Cinder Elemental
1 Flowstone Crusher (FOIL)
1 Flowstone Strike
1 Volcanic Wind (MVP Card)
1 Rupture (MVP Potential)
1 Downhill Charge

1 Defiant Falcon
2 Lightbringer
1 Lawbringer
1 Task Force
1 Cho-Arrim Legate
1 Pious Warrior
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Cho-Manno's Blessing
1 Afterlife
1 Story Circle

1 Complex Automaton
(A mistake on my part– Should have been the Thopter Main Deck.)

9 MAY-OW-TENS
8 Plains

Relevant Side-Board Cards Used

1 Flowstone Thopter
1 Crash
1 Mogg Salvage

I'm far too lazy to list the rest of the cards. Deal with it. 8-) ROUND ONE– Michael Hyder
Game One– I'm taking some damage but a timely Rupture clears the board except for the Flowstone Crusher. Take a WILD guess what happened.
Game Two– The Blastoderm and Deadly Insect make for a pretty dead Volcanic Winds in my hand. I sweep most of the board via the Winds but it isn't enough as I fail to draw into additional chumps to block the Blastoderm with.
Game Three– Can you say“Volcanic Winds.”

ROUND TWO– David Fuller
Game One– Repeat after me–“I Thaw for a Rebel PRIOR to entering my draw phase.”
Game Two– I creature thaw starting on turn four and follow up with a Winds to take the match.

ROUND THREE– Jason Wallace
Game One– He gets an early Plague Witch onto the board that keeps the Falcon in my hand for the entire game. Fortunately, I am able to draw into the Crusher that survives a Volcanic Winds to come across for the kill shot.
Game Two– He is color hosed for Mountains with only swamps in play. Of course, I then thaw two Lightbringers into play.

ROUND FOUR– Robert Teeter
Game One– This is all about a Mercadian Atlas in combination with a Silverglade Pathfinder. He is a card-drawing machine.

Blastoderms and an Insect make for an Ineffective Winds once again. Game Two– Similar to game one except that I fail to draw any of the FOUR methods of destroying the bloody Atlas. Actually, this did become a bit of a damage race, which he was able to win via the additional card drawing.

THE FINAL FOUR

ME 8-)
Robert Teeter
David Fuller
Greg Angel

ROUND FIVE– David Fuller
Game One– He is going first and mulligans down to five cards. Looks pretty good for me until I stall out at three mana for three turns. This allows David to begin to mount an offense. The Pro-Black Legate continues to apply free beatings until the Winds arrive and clear the way.
Game Two– Massive Flowstone use in this game for a relatively short game.

I then wait for about an HOUR for Greg to squeak a victory over Robert Teeter. He was attacking for a point in the air until he killed Robert.

ROUND SIX– Greg Angel
We arrange for a weighted split of the goodies and sit down to play it out.

Game One– We are racing until I start to creature thaw. This gives me superior numbers for the win even though he has superior flying creatures.
Game Two– Greg ends up land AND color screwed. I apply Flowstone beats to win the day.

I end the night at 5-1, an amazing accomplishment considering my Sealed Deck history. My only advice is to exploit the Rebel engine if possible. (Bust open amazing stuff as well.)

Next Thursday night will be a Standard tournament.

Stay tuned.

CYA!

Rick (Sometimes Muse) Saunooke