Tournament Report: Standard

Hey guys,

I played in a small standard FNM and got 4th, I went 3-1.

I played a version of red deck wins and I was more-or-less pleased with the results.  My version was not optimal, I only had 3 Zurgo and I still only have 2 Wild Slash.

So the matches

Round 1: Temur Midrange
Game 1: I have an incredibly aggressive start and he scoops by turn three.

Game 2: I don't come out of the gates as hard and Atarka comes down turn 6 and I am d-e-d, dead. (yes, the misspelling is intentional)

Game 3: I mull to six and I feel like this could be rough for me, but he doesn't have Anger of the Gods or Hornet's Nest and after having to fetch twice, a Stoke the Flames puts the game away for me.

1-0

Round 2: WALLS

oh, god, what a nightmare this was.

Game 1: I get him to 12, but he has two natural Rams and starts running out more walls.  He finds the enchantment and I die.

Game 2: It's rough but a War-Name Aspirant and TRIPLE Stoke the Flames gets there for me.

Game 3: So, even though I have a War-Name Aspirant with the +1/+1 counter, he has too many walls and all of them are attacking for 6 with vigilance.

1-1

Round 3: Abzan (with red)

This one was pretty uninteresting.  Games 1 and 3 I mostly just run over him and game 2 he has Drown in Sorrow followed by Rhino, Rhino.

2-1

Round 4: U/W Gain all the Life

I don't really know what this deck was, but it had me sweating the entire time.

Game 1: He didn't do that much, but gained a lot of life and he even played a turn two ram.  Mainnnnn?  I dealt like 27 damage that game and got there.

Game 2: I think I did between 40-50 damage.  He had two rams, several lands that gain life when they come into play.  TWO U/W commands, a couple wraths and an Elspeth.  I was never really in danger but running out of gas was the real concern.  The only thing I thought that was odd, was a wrath that I baited out of him.  I had two goblin tokens, a firedrinker satyr and a foundry street denzin to his three elspeth tokens and a ram and he chose to wrath.

Some observations:

Hordling Outburst: this card was shit.  Maybe the meta in my shop is more midrange and control, but this was just awful.  I found myself hoping it was Rabblemaster every time.

Wild Slash: also awful. 2 was a good number to have because I never wanted any.

War-Name Aspirant: this card was doing so much work!  I was playing two main and one in the board and I found myself always boarding it in.  I might have to try and play a full set in the main.

Searing Blood: meh, this card was also pretty underwhelming.  Probably have to be situated against aggro decks for it to do anything.

Firedrinker Satyr: people have been saying to cut this card now, but I think it's been performing fine.  Yeah it's not as good against red decks, but against everything else it's decent.

Dragon Fodder: wow, this card felt crappy.  At best, it pumped Foundry Street Denizen for two.  Worst...was the rest of the time.

Lightning Berserker: I ran three of them and I was not disappointed.  They were alright in the midrange matchups.  I think in those, you need to cut the number down to 1 or 2.  But good god, was this a house against control.  They can't tap out in the mid to late game or it just becomes a lightning axe.  take 4-6 damage!  And then it bounces back to your hand.  wHAT fUn WE'lL haVe.  Okay.

That's all for now, maybe some more tournament reports, we'll see.