3-1 WITH BLOOD MOON ROULETTE

This is part two of my Winter Derby series. For the decklist and a preliminary dose of self-deprecation, go here.

So I went 3-1 in the first batch. The blind squirrel found a nut. My game memory is awful, and as I played I didn’t have this site in mind. So I’ll do my best to recall the games but forgive me if I can’t give you the turn-by-turn drama. In my last post I neglected to talk about the sideboard, so let’s do it.

3 Gloom

Because white decks love those premium prices!

2 Nevinyrral’s Disk

Works well with Sedge Troll but most importantly answers The Abyss, a card that gives zero fucks about Sedge Troll and everything else we do.

1 Royal Assassin

Tap to tap that tapped ass.

3 Shatter

Disenchant’s dumb cousin.

2 Red Elemental Blast

Against Dibs it’s better than the maindeck Paralyze. I also love the alter by Park Cofield and I play it whenever I’m in red. Here is a link to Park’s Instagram where you can see this alter up close and all his other wonderful work. Fun fact one time Park stomped me with an Evil Eye deck and it was glorious.

2 Earthquake

We’re not really aggro. There’s only 12 creatures. Real aggro decks like White Weenie or Goblins put us in the control role. Combos nicely with Troll.

2 Terror

The art is me whenever combat math starts.

Do you even remember how you sideboarded?

Not really. But I remember my matchups and can reasonably recreate what I did. Or I can completely lie to you because this is the goddamned internet.

Round 1 - UR Counterburn (Win, 2-1)

In game one Blood Moon did it’s job perfectly, locking down some factories and duals. I boarded in the Red Blasts but held off on the Terrors because I didn’t see any Dibs, and there are creature-light versions of this deck. In game two I got my opponent to one life but couldn’t find a bolt in time. Game three Hymn into Trolls got there. Sedge Troll eats Lightning Bolts for breakfast and I’m fairly sure it created some static card advantage by stranding some removal in my opponent’s hand. I think I got lucky Moon was good at all, because half their deck is red anyway.

Round 2 - BW DeadGuy Ale (Win, 2-0)

Saw a lot of basic swamps (respect!) but kept the Blood Moons in because DeadGuy often has Maze of Ith. I had Sinkhole when they missed land drops, it was one of those games. Game two my trolls and specters raced a pair of Underworld Dreams for the win. Lucky for me I don’t run any of those fancypants draw spells.

Round 3 - Shops (Win, 2-0)

Me and Lady Luck go way back. Hymn hit lands. Blood Moon hit lands. Game two was a close affair with opponent casting robots with his newly acquired basic mountains, but I managed to chip away enough before he could stabilize, and bolt for the win. I think I brought in Shatters and Red Blasts. I forgot what came out. I told you I sucked at this.

Round 4 - UBR (Loss, 0-2)

Opponent was basically on a powered version of my deck (except for trolls and moons). He had Hymns, Sinkhole, Juzams, and the good blue stuff. My deck is weak to disruption and it showed. Even T1 Sol Ring T2 Troll was not enough. I probably should have mulled to disruption but I’m not sure it would have mattered much.

All four of my opponents were incredible people and hanging with them was a ton of fun. Round 3 and 4 were Rajah and Ben. Rajah once sent me some awesome cards altered by the Shaman himself, and Ben and I have a mutual love of Foreign Black Bordered printings. It was very cool to get to sit down and play cards with these guys, and I hope they all go into the next batch and raise bloody hell.

*teacher voice* So, Vince, what have we learned?

Firstly, the disruption plan works. But I have to mulligan to it if it isn’t in the opener. My creatures aren’t that threatening on their own. Not good enough. We're not here to do fair shit.

Secondly, I dodged a lot of Mind Twist. Last week I mentioned the “Mind Twist lottery” and it bears repeating. Powered or not, sometimes you just get Twisted out of games.

Thirdly, I dodged White Weenie and Goblins. Those decks would eat me alive.

Fourthly, it was neat to get a rise out of people when I told them I was on four Blood Moon in the main.

Fifthly, I still haven’t hit a T1 Dark Ritual hand. At one point I thought about going Ritual>Hymn and just taking a point of mana burn, but that felt awful.

3-1 against a powered field is damned good, and I’m proud of how my little slot machine of pain functioned. I could definitely feel the consistency I was going for. I must be decently charming because I think my friends are still my friends, even after I tortured them with my high-variance bullshit cannon. If any of my opponents are reading this and notice inaccuracies, PLEASE correct me. I’m terrible at this part.

Wish me luck in Batch 2, where I’ll be paired against other 3-1 players.

-Vince