Hey everyone! Just got back yesterday from SCG Dallas and I'd like to share my results and match writeups with everyone. The list I was playing is shown in my very first post.
It was a nice, crisp 90 degrees in shitty Ft. Worth, TX and the smell of salty tears was in the air. As I walked half a mile just to get around to the back side of the convention center, I sipped on some nice water
. Upon entering the center, I decided that Texas has some fine women, but quickly lost this thought as the nerd level rose to overpower all else. Pairings were posted and I was finally ready to establish burn's dominance over the metagame.
Round 1: I'm paired against a guy running a Red Deck Wins list with hammer, fanatics, and ash zealots over eidolons.
Game 1 I smash him with young pyromancer and all is right in the world.
Game 2, I mull to 6, get back-to-back peak erupted on turn 3 and turn 4, searing blooded on turn 5, then (luckily) I proceed to draw 3 lands in a row to replenish my mana base. It wasn't enough due to his hammer giving everything haste and him drawing nothing but gas.
Game 3, I mull to 6 again, get peak erupted again on turn 3, with him destroying my sacred foundry and only white source. I proceed to get stuck on 3 non-white lands for the whole game as I one-for-one his creatures. He steadily pecks away at my life total with not 1, not 2, but 3 fanatics of mogis in a row. I'm left with chandra's phoenix, and 1 young pyro token after he searing bloods my young pyro. He proceeds to overload mizzium mortars (which he left in... fuck me, right?) and swings for lethal with his last fanatic of mogis. Loss. (0-1).
Round 2: Shaking off the last disaster of a match, I am paired against a
competent Jund Monsters player.
Game 1 We both keep decent hands and going first, I am able to race him and win with 1 life remaining (Insert troll face here).
Game 2 He lands an early Courser of Kruphix and has the turn 2 abrupt decay for my young pyromancer (maybe I should have held him back til I could get value?). As I watch the cards my opponent is going to be drawing, he is able to see the dream of land into drawing Rakdos returns into land into rakdos returns. I know I have to start racing asap in order to not get blown out by rakdos returns. Doesn't matter as he proceeds to return me for 2 and again on the next turn for 3
. I am now on topdeck mode while he has courser. He plays xenagos planeswalker into stormbreath into stormbreath and easily wins.
Game 3 My opponent sees my young pyro turn 2 and is able to raise me an abrupt decay, yet again. Xenagos planeswalker comes down on turn 4 making little
shitters that can very effectively race me. I decide to use my resources to try to control the board as I have a phoenix online. I chain a courser of kruphix and a polukranos. He responds with a rakdos returns for 3 and shits on me with his little shitters. Loss. (0-2).
Round 3: Frustrated with starting 0-2 and refusing to be a little bitch and drop, I decide its time to win. After a huge error with SCG's points (everyone who won got 0 points and everyone who lost got 3..lol), we start round 3 and I'm paired against another Jund monster deck, this time with the new Garruk.
Game 1 I mull to 6 and proceed to race him and his 2 stormbreaths with some decent draws and warleader's helix.
Game 2 I sideboard into the control role. Turn 1 elvish mystic into polukranos into stormbreath into Garruk planeswalker. I draw 8 lands (5 in a row at the end), only able to chain the polukranos and play a boros reckoner with a couple burn spells. He kills my boros reckoner with the minus ability of Garruk and gains 3.
I look at the top card of my library and see another land and promptly scoop.
Game 3 I sideboard into all my skullcracks and boros charms with only a couple of removals and decide to race as I'm tired of getting out top-decked. My turn 2 blind obedience into turn 3 phoenix into boros charm/ young pyro into extorted warleader's helix proves too much and he isn't able to put any damage on me. He ends the game with 3 coursers on the field, 1 caratid, 1 stormbreath dragon on defense, xenagos planeswalker, and new garruk. His attempted minus garruk to gain 4 off of one of his courser's got skullcracked. He waited much too long to golgari charm my army of pyro tokens too...
Win. (1-2).
Round 4: Finally, a little justice in the world. My next matchup is against another burn player who gets soundly outplayed.
Game 1: We both start the game out with magma jet x 2, scrying into good cards. He isn't patient
enough to hold his warleader's helix and I skullcrack and play my own helix to pull far ahead for the eventual win.
Game 2: First hand: no lands. Mull. Second hand: 1 mutavault. Mull. 3rd hand: 2 lands, blind obedience, skull crack and magma jet. Yum. Turn 2 blind obedience into magma jet scrying for lands and threats. He kept 2 pain lands which ended up dealing him 6 damage over the course of the game. He would have won, but on the key turn he gets greedy and takes 2 trying to boros charm me, putting him to 7 as I boros charm with extort and magma jet for victory. Win. (2-2).
Round 5: Some young gentlemen shows up to tell me he's giving me the game and that he is dropping. I thank him for the free win and go buy some shitty, very expensive nachos. Win. (3-2).
Round 6: After scouring the scene to see that the field is littered with burn, g/w aggro, and monster decks, I am paired against a decent G/W
aggro player running Brimaz (bad).
Game 1 I mull to 6 and find a turn 2 young pyro left unchecked does dirty things to G/W. He had a great draw but I am able to 1-for-1 all of his threats with burn or chains. My late game blind obedience stops his late game brimaz from being able to block my lethal swing.
Game 2 I board in all my removal and take out all my skullcracks and boros charms. I am able to see that he has selesnya charm and wurm in his hand by the way he is playing and I play around them. He makes some questionable trades with young pyro tokens instead of charming to save his dudes. An early blind obedience here also helps put the game away. Win. (4-2).
Round 7: I am paired against a player who has been given an esper control deck to play by his friend, but literally doesn't know what half of them do because he had taken a long absence from the game before this.
Game 1 I see one syncopate
and 2 supreme verdicts and no black lands. He gets stuck on 4 lands, but it doesn't matter b/c I win on turn 5.
Game 2 I get out eidolon turn 2 into eidolon turn 3 (my 2-of from sideboard). He counters a 2 damage burn spell, takes 4 damage. I see black lands and sigh in relief. (esper is way easier to beat than U/W). He detention spheres, taking another 4 damage. My boros charm and skullcrack easily crush my helpless opponent. Win. (5-2).
Round 8: Feeling good after having started so shitty and clawing my way (lol) back up, I can taste top 8. Tastes like Mono Black. I spit that shit right back out. This guy was dating one of the magic card artists and was extremely good.
Game 1 We both keep our 7 and he plays turn 1 thoughtsieze taking skullcrack. I assume he has grey merchant in hand. He proceeds to play underworld connections into demon into grey merchant. None of which I have answers for. I had started racing him and had him to 8 by turn 5, but grey merchant draining 6 and another demon after that
proved too much for me to handle.
Game 2 Again keeping our 7, he turn 1 duresses me taking boros charm. I had boarded in 2 hushwing gryffs and I drew one after the duress. He turn 3 lifebane zombies it blindly out of my hand FML. He plays another lifebane zombie after this and seeing a skullcrack in my hand does literally nothing except play kill spells for the next 3 turns and swing with his zombies. I chain one to the rocks and have him at 9 life with one skullcrack in my hand. I skullcrack to get my phoenix back, going for the tempo play. I don't see a 4 dmg burn spell to play with my phoenix for lethal and he punishes me with a grey merchant for 6, putting him out of my range and me helpless to his zombie. Loss. (5-3).
Round 9: Being 5-3 puts me out of the running for top 8 and probably top 16, so I set my sights on a hopeful top 32 finish. I am placed against a B/g Devotion deck.
Game 1 I rofl stomp the poor guy with him getting his pack rat and 2 demons answered on the spot.
Game 2 I board
into the removal suite for mono B. We both mull to 6 and have a hard fought game but pharika's cure and grey merchant into a late game pack rat put him ahead of my 1-for-1 answers.
Game 3 I board back into a racing strategy since I'm on the play. I mull to 6. Duress into downfall on young pyro, into demon with me being stuck on 2 lands for 5 turns makes this game more one sided than it should have been and I lose. Loss. (5-4).
Round 10: Feeling shitty since I'm no longer in the running for even top 64, I decide to win out for those planeswalker points. Gotta stroke that ego. I am placed against a Naya Monsters deck with a good-natured dude.
Game 1 I am able to play an early Young pyromancer and have hard hitting burn spells. He doesn't touch me.
Game 2 I get out ahead of him with Young pyromancer and answer his xenagos planeswalker, ajani planeswalker plussing into elspeth, courser of kruphix, and the revealed elspeth. He proceeds to draw lands and a mizzium mortars that he doesn't have the
patience to wait to overload, deciding to one-for-one my YP. 2 Warleader's helix off the top seal the deal. Win. (6-4).
Round 11: Gotta get that last win for those points! Turns out that it was late and people were hungry so I ended up with a No-Show easy win. Win. (7-4).
Place: 97th out of 730ish players. I didn't place, but felt like I didn't misplay very much at all so was happy I got top 100.
Lessons Learned: I need to playtest a lot against Mono B, Jund monsters, and RDW. I know the All-In-Red matchup and it is much easier than the RDW was. Mono B has been crushing me lately and I'm not sure if I should be boarding into the control role or just trying to race them. Searing bloods will be coming back in instead of Hushwing Gryff. Also, Stoke the flames didn't do much. Blind obedience main as a 1-of is amazing. Never take it out.
its just that I lower the the land count in that list so I can't use so many spells at once.
)