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 The warm weather
approaches and tournaments become more plentiful; GenCon plans commence, summer is on its way. I love this time of year.
Contrary to common belief, I think that even though I only placed fourth, there is plenty to be gained from my day’s experiences. What went wrong, where it went wrong, and why are all valid questions that I think deserve answered. And to begin, we need to look at a little deck I like to call “Friends.” Here’s the decklist, based mostly on the version of Fiends found at www.brainburst.com:
4 Ramosian Sergeant
4 Whipcorder
4 Meddling Mage
4 Spectral Lynx
3 Phyrexian Negator
4 Duress
1 Cabal Therapy
3 Vindicate
3 Smother
3 Parallax Wave
4 Brainstorm
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
3 City of Brass
4 Plains
3 Swamp
1 Island
SB:
2 Gilded Drake
2 Exalted Angel
2 Reanimate
1 Parallax Wave
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Phyrexian Negator
2 Perish
The sideboard is very random; I build this deck the night before, which is something I usually don’t like to do. The result being some questionable card choices, but I’ll go over what I think needs to be cut after my report. However, I will say that the Reanimates were thrown in because the large number of people who could actually play Reanimator. Also, they’re pretty good against Krosan Tuskers, which I knew Rudy would be playing in his Oversold Cemetary deck. And having never played the deck, I headed into Round 1.
Round 1: Robert Luken
Game 1:
Robert was playing Reanimator, which he showed me right off by Careful Studying and ditching Multani. Fortunately for me, he didn’t have an immediate way to recur it and he sat in the ‘yard until I got double mage, essentially locking his possibilities. I took pain from my own lands, down to 12 life, but I managed to get his low enough that Reanimate wasn’t even an option. He died to 2/2’s
Game 2:
He starts off with a Vampiric Tutor, which I respond to with Mage for Entomb. He Studies Multani and Symbiotic Wurm into his graveyard. At this point, I’m holding Guilded Drake, which I sided in alongside the Reanimates. He exhumes and gets the Wurm, which I happily take. Then he manages to get Multani back too. However, he’s a whopping 2/2 at this point, so I really don’t care and march through with his own 7/7.
Round 2: Andrew Whitlatch
Game 1:
I always seem to have to play him, which sucks, cause I’d like for both of us to do well. However, Andrew’s fresh off an Eric whooping, so I don’t feel too bad. Andrew starts off game one with a Duress, picking away my own Duress. Obviously playing the Rock at this point, Andrew drops an Elder, but his threats appear mediocre considering I managed a Sergeant that pulled out some Whipcorders to tap his army down. I take pain down to 13, but I manage to deal with all of his threats. Smother was good here, too.
Game 2:
I hurt myself to 15 this time, and I end up Duressing his hand to see if there are any Deeds. He doesn’t have any, so I march out. He topdecks one and blows up the world. I hadn’t run out of steam though and I play some more pressure. He however, draws another Deed and pretty much cripples me. While my draw for this game was ok, it was off of a Mulligan. I guess mulligans really can add up to losses.
Game 3:
This game just shows how much my deck can hate the Rock. While I didn’t get any Parallax Waves, my cards just proved more versatile than his. He never really got any good card advantage going, through Elders and Genesis and such, which is what I worried about the most. Vindicate and Smother were simply good enough to clear the way this game.
Round 3: Rudy Martinez
Game 1:
Being the bastard that I am, I lead off the game with a Mage for Oversold Cemetary. It kind of helps to know what the opponent is playing before the game begins. However, my biggest mistake of the day is coming up. I Cabal Therapy him, getting some cards out, but I see Phyrexian Arena. I say go, even though I’m holding a Duress. I really should have stripped the Arena and left him in topdeck mode for the rest of the game, but for some reason, I just let him have it. Honestly, I think the cards I gave him from that are what won him the game - including a Living Wish, which got Crypt Rats to combat the Negator I cast.
Game 2:
I never really got off the ground this game. A combination of mediocre draw and poor side boarding choices simply let the game drag on too far. I do surprise him with an Exalted Angel, but he manage a Bone Shredder for it. We both ended up feeding off the top of our libraries for answers. I got three lands in a row, Rudy got a pair of Feeders.
Round 4: Destan Hoots
Game 1:
Destan is also playing the Rock, although he calls it Aggrock. Whatever you want to call it, it’s not a very difficult matchup IMHO. Game one shows that the wrecking ball Parallax wave can totally trash the Rock. Leaving him with none of this efficient threats, I am free to walk all over him.
Game 2:
This is where things get ugly. I keep a two land hand that stalls on me. I stay in the game, but end up on three lands instead and draw three Waves. I end up chump blocking way too many times and lose out.
Game 3:
I have the opposite problem this game. While I’m holding out fairly well, a Duress told me he is holding a lot of creature threats. I however, have Perish and am waiting for him to commit. Just as he casts two threats and I’m ready to take my turn and sweep his board, he topdecks a Duress to rip the Perish out of my hand. Now I have to start exchanging creatures, but his are becoming more numerous and I’m just sitting there. My deck felt weak and it seemed to just run out of steam. Then I realized why. Of the 25 cards I’d gone through, 12 of them were lands. The last few turns resulted in me being able to draw one of, like twelve cards in my deck to deal with his Treetop Villiage, but instead I draw, land, land, land.
Round 5: Chris Shumard
Game 1:
He offers some sort of split, which I consider for awhile. I’m usually for splitting, but Chris would at most be able to get second, far less worth it than if he could get first. This is the first time in a long time that I’m fighting my way up, and with the Player of the Year being a factor, I decide I should play it out. He leads with an early Aquamoeba, which I respond to with a Mage naming Arrogant Wurm, to stop the possible turn three madness. He seemed to be holding a lot of cards all game, whilst I cast creatures and turned them sideways. Turns out he drew all four Wurms.
Game 2:
He goes first and beings with an aggressive draw. There really isn’t much to say. His deck does what U/G is supposed to do and just pumps out a bunch of beefy critters. I end up drawing all four Meddling Mages, but since they’re chump blocking, they really don’t do me any good.
Game 3:
We seem to start off by matching each other pretty well, but I start to sneak a few threats through. He apparently sided in
counterspell, because he had that answer for my early stuff. However, his draw was probably a bit too passive for his
deck's ideals. In the end, he must have an answer to a Parallax Wave. He taps 3 mana for what I expect to be a Circular Logic, but instead turns out to be Intuition. He reveals Deep Analysis, Roar of the Wurm, and Ray of Revelation. I let him keep the Ray, since he has no madness enablers, he can’t discard it. And white is a prohibitive cost for him. He doesn’t get a way to cast it and I attack for the win.
Well, that leaves me at 5-2. Because of tie-breakers, I am thrust into 4th, getting six whole dollars. Below my usual performance I expect of myself, but nonetheless, not too shabby.
Looking back, it’s pretty evident that the mana base is the major problem for the deck. Although, I think luck is what damaged me most during this tournament, losing me at least one match. However, I also did an average of about five damage to myself every game, just from my lands. This result prompts me to switch one of the Cities of Brass for a Skycloud Expanse. However shitty, it is painless. Now, as for the sideboard, it just needs to be rethinked. The Negator is not necessary, as it was the worst card all day. Exalted Angel is a nice replacement after boarding and I want to up the number of those to three. The Drakes are damn good, and the Reanimates are only really good from surprise. Three Seals didn’t see much use, but I think you gotta have them. Just like with Wax/Wane and Super-Gro, you didn’t want to play it, but you can’t leave yourself answerless. If I had to rework the board, I’d streamline it and cut the Negator, adding another Perish. I don’t know what I’d let go off to add the other Angel, but the Wave is looking like it stands out, as well as the Reanimates. Either way, it all depends on what you predict your field will be.
All in all, I must say I’m happy with friends, er fiends, er, whatever you want to call it. It’s versatile, powerful, and despite the results, I believe it to be reliable. The greatest problem is the skanky mana base, but hey, what are you gonna do? Until next time.
-Adam Whitlatch-
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