I finished first at Gameday with my previously posted list except with Bonfire in place of Electrickery in the side. Went 3-0 with ID in fourth round since my opponent who was in second agreed to give me all of the store credit for the playmat.
Round 1 vs UGR homebrew: my first match was against a guy I regard as one of the strongest players within a 50 mile radius. It seems like every time we face off we have some very interesting matches. He was playing a homebrew with Huntmasters, Scavenging Oozes, Opportunity, Think Twice, Ground Assault, Spears, Pillars...basically a bastard child of Naya and UWR. I win the roll and plow through him in game one as he gets stuck on three land with four Huntmasters in hand.
In: +3 Burning Earth, +2 Duress, +2 Doom Blade
Out: -4 Stromkirk Noble, -1 Dreadbore, -1 Pillar of Flame, -1 Rakdos Cackler
It took me awhile to settle on a good sideboard here. I didn't see Scavenging Ooze game
one or else I would have kept the third Dreadbore in and likely taken out a Spear. Game two I keep a hand with three land, Ash Zealot, Duress, Phoenix, and Exava. He plays a shockland tapped and passes. I play a Blood Crypt tapped and pass. He plays a checkland and passes. I play Zealot and swing for two. EOT he plays Think Twice. His turn he plays a checkland and passes. I topdeck an Ash Zealot, so I play a checkland and Duress. I see a hand with three lands, Huntmaster, and Opportunity, ditching Opportunity. I play the Ash Zealot and swing for four. EOT he declares that he's flashing back Think Twice. I tell him to take six, pointing at the Zealots. He gets pissed at himself for not catching that and goes to 8. His turn he plays a land and casts Huntmaster to go to 10 and get a wolf. My turn I topdeck a Phoenix and play it. He blocks the two Ash Zealot and takes two to go back to 8. He Ground Assaults my Phoenix, plays Ooze and a land and passes. I play Exava and swing. He blocks and kills the Zealot by
giving him two counters and gaining two life and takes six, going to 4. He plays a land and passes. I topdeck Burning Earth, think for a moment, then play the Burning Earth guessing that he doesn't have a counter. He sighs and responds by removing dudes from our yards to gain three life and make his Ooze to make him 6/6. I swing for the fences and he blocks Exava and goes to 5. His turn he Spears my Zealot, taking two from Burning Earth to go to 3, removes my two Zealots and makes his dude a 8/8 and swings for eight and passes. I topdeck a land and pass. He swings again and passes. I topdeck a Spike Jester and swing for lethal. He was mad at the end because if he had not flashed the Think Twice he would have been in a winning position. I was just happy to win.
1-0
Round 2 vs Naya Midrange: could not have gotten a worse matchup, or so I thought. I was able to scout this guy out in Round 1 and he was running Wolf Run, Reckoners, Loxodon Smiters, Selesnya Charms, Domri, and other good stuff. I was
licking my chops looking at his mana base of zero basic lands (once again). To top it off, he won the roll. I make a very loose keep of three lands, a Pillar, Hellrider, Dreadbore, and Exava. He plays a shock and a Pilgrim and passes. I draw a Searing Spear, play a shock and Pillar the dork and pass. He plays a shock tapped and pass. I play a checkland and pass. He plays a Reckoner and passes, and I EOT Spear it. I play a Guildgate and pass. He plays a land and passes. I play land and Hellrider and get in for four. He plays Smiter, land, and passes. I topdeck Ash Zealot, Dreadbore the Smiter, play the Zealot and get in for eight, putting him at 8. He plays Domri and +1s him, revealing nothing and passing. I play Exava and win.
In: +3 Burning Earth, +2 Doom Blade
Out: -4 Stromkirk Noble, -1 Searing Spear
I don't remember much about the second match besides keeping a hand with Burning Earth, curving out with Cacklers and Zealots, Doom Blading a Smiter on my EOT, casting Burning Earth on turn four, and
winning immediately. When I landed it, he asked to look at it, chuckled, and pretty much gave up. Yeah, that card is good.
2-0
Round 3 vs WB weenie: I knew very little about this deck or the player going in. As I was shuffling I discovered she was the girlfriend of the guy I beat in Round 2. She wins the roll and plays a Plains and passes. I play Noble and pass. She plays another Plains and a Precinct Captain. I swing with Noble, get a counter, Pillar the Captain, play a shock tapped and pass. She plays a Swamp and a Doomed Traveler and passes. I play Chandra's Phoenix and get in for three, getting another counter and putting her at 16. She plays another land and Sublime Archangel and swings for three. I play Hellrider and swing for the fences. She blocks my Phoenix and goes to 7. She plays a couple of dudes and swings with the Doomed Traveler for a lot and passes. I play Exava and win.
In: +1 Pillar of Flame, +2 Doom Blade, +1 Zealous Conscripts
Out: -4 Cackler
I thought she may be running
Fiendslayer Paladins and the like so I took out my Cacklers. Turns out she was actually a token deck running [card]Cathar's Crusade[/card] and
Mikaeus, and I got overwhelmed by spirit and human tokens in game two, giving me my first game loss of the night.
In: +4 Cackler, +2 Bonfire of the Damned
Out: -1 Zealous Conscripts, -4 Spike Jester, -1 Chandra's Phoenix
She puts up a valiant effort in game three, casting Mikaeus, Fiend Hunter, etc, but I have all the answers and curve out brilliantly.
3-0
Round 4 vs Naya Blitz: as stated earlier, we ID. I get $65 store credit and he gets the playmat. We play it out for fun and he wins 2-1. I played the control role in all three games but he had a pretty sick hand in games two and three. The computers say I win since I was in first when we took the ID, but whatever.
Some Observations:
1) I like Electrickery more than Bonfire. I had Bonfire stuck in my opening hand vs Naya
Blitz and that ultimately cost me a game. I could have used it on Champion and Lightning Mauler to 2 for 1 him but instead it sat in my hand useless the whole game. I hate variance, and so this is unacceptable to me.
2) Exava did exactly what I needed her to do. She was a strong four drop that complemented my Hellriders while giving a body that could power through Loxodon Smiter, Thragtusks, etc and come out on top. An argument can be made for Hellkite in this slot and it may be correct, but it was good insurance to be able to cast her on turn four instead of waiting for a fifth land for Hellkite.
3) Burning Earth: if you are not running this card in your sideboard, you are wrong. Point blank. I won last night because of this card. It makes UWR and Jund a laughingstock if we can resolve it. My Sire of Insanity should actually be a fourth Burning Earth for the UWR matchup so it can come down earlier and I can make sure I see it. I would literally keep a hand with three lands and four Burning Earths
against UWR and never have a second thought about it.
4) Dreadbore: loved it main deck. Deals with Loxodon Smiter, Boros Reckoner, and the occassional pesky planeswalker. Was always excited to see this in my hand.
5) Doom Blade: loved bringing this in from the sideboard. Not a lot of black creatures in the meta currently so may move to the main and move one Pillar and one Dreadbore to the side. The instant speed is really nice.
6) Pillar of Flame: the exile clause did not matter for me tonight, and I think Voice is starting to lose its presence in my local meta, so I may drop to two in the main here but keep three in MTGO to deal with Doomed Traveler, Strangleroot Geist, and Blood Artist.
sources should be fine as a 2 of with 18 and will help to give my smaller creatures more reach ( still great for dumping excess mana and pairs well with phoenix).