Long-Overdue Tournament Reports

 *Spins in chair*

Hello once more, my fellow 'hue-mans'. It's been a while since I've done a tournament report, but I figured that since I have not posted at all since the beginning of the summer, I might as well make up for it and do ALL these tournament reports at once. That's right, ALL AT ONCE. Prepare your bodies!
(Disclaimer: All FNMs are Standard)
(Disclaimer #2: I don't remember most of the matchups)


Friday, June 13th, 2014
I went 3-2 in the Swiss rounds, going into top 8. I unfortunately lost in the top 8 to a Boss Sligh (Mono-Red) deck, ending up in 5th place. The list can be found below.

List:http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-61313-7414/

Saturday, June 14th, 2014
Format: Modern

Round 1 was against Ub Faeries, which made it to game 3, but not in my favor. 0-1.

Round 2 had me battling against a mono-Blue Artifact-Grindclock brew. It was a spicy matchup and my Eldrazi shuffling came into play here. We made it to game 3, which ended happily for me. 1-1

Round 3 had me against the eventual winner of the tournament, the Bogles deck. This is a horrible matchup to begin with and me not drawing a green source in game 1 and getting wrecked by Suppression Field in the second didn't help me one bit. 1-2

As you can see, I went 1-2 in the Swiss rounds, not to make it to the top 2 with one of my favorite archetypes of all time, Eldrazi Green. The list can be found below.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/eldrazi-green-61413/

Friday, June 20, 2014
I ran it back this week using the exact same list from the week prior. To my suprise, I went undefeated the entire tournament and ended up claiming 1st place. In the top 8, I recall facing Gr Monsters, BUG Superfriends in the top 4, and finally Azorius Control in the finals.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-61313-7414/

Friday, June 27, 2014
It seemed to work well last week, so I ran it back yet again. (I'm really just lazy.) I won once more, going undefeated for the second week in a row, claiming ultimate bragging rights as well as the first place prize. In the top 8, I faced Naya Hexproof, Gr Monsters in the top 4, and Bw Midrange in the finals.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-61313-7414/

Friday, July 4, 2014
I never seem to learn (or build a new deck), so I ran it back once more in this small, 8-man FNM. Unfortunately, I did not claim first place AGAIN, but I did go 2-1 in the swiss and in 4th place at the end of the night, losing to Boros Aggro in the top 4.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-61313-7414/

Saturday, July 5, 2014
Format: Modern Pauper
This was an interesting event, and considering it was Modern, I turned to my go-to deck, Burn. However, not having access to Goblin Guide and the like, I did what I could, ending up going 2-1 in the Swiss rounds and finishing first place.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-61313-7414/

Saturday, July 12, 2014
Format: M15 Sealed
I was only able to attend the midnight prerelease, choosing Green as my color, and ending up Simic colors due to double Soul of Ravnica. I went 2-2 in the swiss rounds, unable to make it into the top 8 due to tiebreakers. I ended the night with 9th place, a pack, and a lot of fun.

Friday, July 18, 2014
This FNM was the first that M15 cards were Standard legal, and I was very excited to play with my re-vamped Green devotion deck, jamming in some Souls and Chord of Callings. I went undefeated in the 5 swiss rounds and I won my top 8 match, but sadly lost in the top 4 due to Elspeth pumping out tokens from my opponent's Azorius Control deck. Here's the list.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-chord-71814/

Saturday, July 19, 2014
Format: M15 Draft
The draft portion of this event went over smoothly, with me ending up Gb midrange splashing white for an Ajani Steadfast that I opened in my second pack. I went 2-1 in the swiss and lost in the top 4 to my opponent's UW control deck that countered the Ajani I cast game 1. It made me real sad in the face. :( <-See?

Friday, July 25, 2014
Finally, the last FNM report of this post, but not the last tournament. I edited my Green Devotion deck from the previous week to include more of a Chord of Calling package. I went 4-0-1 in the swiss, tying (unintentionally) with my father into the top 8. I won against Boss Sligh in the top 8, won again in the top 4 against Bw Midrange, and finally losing in the finals to a Gw Devotion deck.

List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-chord-71814/

Saturday, July 26, 2014
Format: Standard 2 Headed Giant
This is the last tournament I will be reporting on today, and it was a doozy. I teamed up with my father for this tournament, who ran Mono-Black Devotion, contrasting my Mono-Red Devotion. We went 2-1 in the 3 swiss rounds, not making it into the playoffs of top 2. It was another fun time, and we walked away with 3rd place prize. The lists can be found below.

My list: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-red-2hg-72614/
My partner's List: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-black-devotion-72614/

WOW. That took a lot out of me, but it felt good. Also, over the progress of writing this BEAST, I have quested my Storm wizard to the door of Malistaire, because, value. :) Happeh. Anyways, I really, REALLY want to keep writing tournament reports, and hope to get in the habit of doing it weekly. I have to get some progess done on my summer reading, so I'll end this off here.

Until next time,
~The Ravenhunter

Back to the Wizardly Grind...

Summer of the Storm

 THUNDA!!

Yes, I've made it all the way to level 48 and I've trained Storm Lord and have a little baby Stormzilla! He's so cute!

NOMNOMNOM

I plan on hatching this Stormzilla with my Death's Wraith and getting the Tempest hybrid, which gives a Wraith item card.

~Slurp~

ANYWAYS... Stormy is being a good little quest-er and is in the Drake Hatchery beating people up to crack open the dragon egg that will fly him to victory over Malistaire in his lair.

 (Insert hammertime joke of your choice here.)

Back to other things...

Diaries of a Deathly Wizard

My Exalted Necromancer has started and finished Khrysalis part 2 in a little over a month. Also, Exalted! Also, new look!

Thanks to the awesome people of Mercenaries101 over on Central, I was able to defeat Archmagus Lorcan and Moros almost back-to-back!

M101: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?149-Mercenaries101

That's all I have for this post, but I'm about to turn around and write a *few* tournament reports that are long overdue. In the meantime,

~Ravenhunter

I'm Back!

 Hello again, people of earth. I am back! I know it's been a while, and I'm sorry about that. School and real life got in the way, blah, blah, blah. Anyway! Let's dive right in.

Wizard101
 I have recently been on a hiatus from my favorite MMO, Wizard101. However, I have just recently started back and will be playing a new character. Say hello to my storm!

Stormy says "Hi!"

 

 He's level 22 at the moment and just started the Grand Arena in the Krokosphinx. He has training points invested in Life spells at the moment in an attempt to learn Satyr. He will also eventually learn Colossal, Feint, Tower Shield, Weakness, etc. In these Wizard101 updates regarding my storm, I have chosen the title:

SUMMER OF THE STORM

I'll be working on a logo for the series, and I hope to have this guy at least through Avalon by the end of the summer.

Magic

 I plan to do weekly FNM reports on Saturdays. In fact, why don't we do one right now?

FNM Report

 5/30/13

 I played Gr Devotion, of which a list can be found here: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gr-devotion-53013/ I'll go through some of the card choices.

 

Choice Explanations

4 Elvish Mystic and 4 Sylvan Caryatid: You gotta have some mana dorks in a deck who is looking to cast 4- and 5-drops early to pummel the opponent into submission.

4 Burning-Tree Emissary: You need devotion in order to operate optimally. This is the best option with this manabase.

 

4 Courser of Kruphix:  Remember that devotion thing I talked about ^up^there^? Yeah, this helps and finds Nykthos faster, while also giving a good defensive body and a little bit of lifegain.

4 Polukranos, World Eater: You need some beefy things to ramp into, and this is the selection I arrived at. Polukranos is a big blocker the turn it comes down to slow the beats from aggressive decks and packs a good punch when we have the ground stabilized.

 

4 Arbor Colossus: Arbor Colossus is another large gentleman to reach up and swat down pesky flyers while still giving a good wallop or two when we're ready.

 

3 Stormbreath Dragon: Stormbreath Dragon can come down and immediately smash in for 4 in the air and is just the nuts against white decks.

 

2 Xenagos, God of Revels: Sometimes you want a 6/5 blocker, sometimes you want a surprise Arbor Colossus popping them in the jaw for 12 out of nowhere.

2 Ruric-Thar, the Unbowed: Yet another sizable 6/6, this guy also swats down flyers and can randomly kill an ignorant opponent with 6 to the face from their own spell. Be careful with this one, though. Your own planeswalkers can also kill you if you're not careful. Note: an inactive Xenagos will not punch you in the mouth for 6 off this guy.

3 Domri Rade: Good ol' Domri is absolutely sick with Courser of Kruphix, especially when you can chain Nykthos activations into a huge Polukranos monstrous off the top.

3 Garruk, Caller of Beasts: This guy is perfect to top off the curve with in order to find more big things to beat your opponent into submission.

11 Forest: You need to cast an Elvish Mystic from your opening hand.

1 Mountain: 'Cause value.

4 Stomping Ground and 4 Temple of Abandon: You need red sources, and Temples are sick with Courser.

3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: The reason this deck is a thing, Nykthos allows the deck to do obscene things that not even Mono-Black can keep up with these shenanagains.

 

Sideboard: Most of the things are self-explanatory, but the one card I had questions about was Sylvan Primordial. This would be Acidic Slime or some variant thereof, but this is actually better in this deck because you hit 7 mana more reliably, it hits planeswalkers, plus the whole legality issue with Acidic Slime.

I ended up going 3-1 heading into the top 8, and then proceded to make my way to the finals to lose to Naya Hexproof.

 

Swiss Rounds (4)

Round 1: I played against mono-white heroic the first round, and ended up going 2-0.

Round 2: I ended up against a newer player to the shop in round 2 who was playing what appeared to be mono-red burn, but kept mentioning missing blue mana in both games we played. Either way, I soundly won 2-0.

Round 3: I played against GW Hexproof in round 3, and had to overwhelm my opponent with a board state so impressive it barely fit on my playmat. I barely won the third game but won 2-1.

 

Round 4: I was matched against a player piloting Wg Voltron. I kept greedy hands both games and ended up paying for it, going 0-2.

 

Top 8

 

Top 8: I was paired against the same opponent I fought in the third round, and, using the same strategy, I got the same result - 2-1.

Top 4: I got matched with a familiar face, my 'friend', Alex. He was not playing Gr Monsters as I have come to know him for playing, this time piloting a Bant Superfriends build that was very similar to a list I had thought about piloting a few weeks ago myself. We went to a third game after he got ran over in the first game and Elspeth and Ajani had ultimated in the second. I kept a greedy hand that needed 3 more lands to even try to begin working. Thankfully, I drew into the required lands and a few turns later, I had a monstrous Stormbreath Dragon beating him in the face that he was unable to deal with pushing me into the finals.

Finals: I played against my good friend Greg in the finals, immediately offering to split the prizes so we could all go home. He thought about it, but decided against it, having confidence in his deck to take him to those 10 total packs sitting, waiting to be claimed by the winner. I had been sitting close to him the entire night, so I knew he would be playing Naya Hexproof, but he also know I would be piloting Gr Devotion. The first game swung in my favor thanks to another overwhelming board state. The second game I kept a hand consisting of 3 Burning-Trees and lands. I drew into a few mana dorks and big guys but nothing to stop his giant creature from beating my face into a pulp, tying the record at 1-1 going into the third game. I starting dumping my hand onto the board, as did he. Sadly, I didn't amount a defense to stop his giant, lifelinking, flying, double striker. I claimed the second prize of promos and 7 packs and went home at 3 in the morning.

Whew. I needed to write that. Next weekend I will do another FNM Report as well as a 2-Headed Giant event report. In the meantime, I'll be in summer school unfortunately, but will continue to work on my storm wizard. Just remember,

"Good luck, don't suck."

~The Ravenhunter

Long-Awaited Updates

Hey guys, time for updates! First, I crafted Lord of Night! Woo!

Shortly after crafting it, I decided to do this:

'Cause why not? I can't think of anything. ANYWAY! I've been PvPing lately, and I've arrived at this gear:

With this deck:

 And this side deck:

No *boop*s given. I discard aggressively and often lose, but whatever. It's fun either way. The people I've been facing in the practice arena have mostly consisted of Fire and Storm. Aggressive Fire and Storm. This may not be a surprise to those of you keeping up with the current top-level practice 1v1 metagame. That may be a small niche, but whatever. The key to these matches is HEAVY discarding and fast tempo. To those of you who don't know what tempo is, allow me to explain. Tempo is the speed at which the match progresses. For example, an aggressive storm player will want to spam low-pip spells to keep the tempo in their favor. I keep the tempo in my favor by doing the same and also using Infection, Weakness, and Doom aggressively. I came across this setup somewhere on twitter. ANYWAYS......

I am still single (foevah aloan), but I remain hopeful (kinda). I've felt depressed lately because of this and my grades reflect this, which is another reason why I haven't been able to get on long enough to post any updates. I've been talking to some new people, which is good, but I can tell that I've already been shoved into the friendzone. So, that's (not) fun.

Anyways, it's getting late for me. Hopefully (probably not) have an FNM report for you guys next time. Until then,

~Ravenhunter

Death Finished Azteca! and RBP

As the title implies:

My death wizard finished Azteca! Woo! This is all thanks to Mercenaries for Hire over at W101 Central.
M4H Site: http://wizard.mercenaries101.com/
M4H Central Page: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?149-Mercenaries101
These guys are the best people. My Xibalba run today took about 40 minutes. That was with me (90 death), and Scarlet (90 life and 90 storm). We just buffed up her storm and hit with Tempest. Very fast, very effective.

Red Bell Peppers

I mentioned RBPs in the title. This is the reason why:

Yes, I started a RBP garden where some KPs used to be. I will be updating this blog on the status of them when necessary.

I don't have time right now to discuss Theros spoilers, but I will be back later today with more updates! May the cards be ever in your favor!

~Ravenhunter

Wizard101 Birthday Celebration! and updates

Hello everyone! First and foremost...

Yes! It's Wizard101's 5th birthday! Also, if you couldn't tell, I have a buttload of King Parsley in the back and a new mount in the front. I'll get to the KP in a minute, but let's discuss the giveaways that are happening right now. The place where I got all this:

is here: https://www.wizard101.com/game/5th-birthday-celebration
The potential prizes to be gotten can be found here: https://www.wizard101.com/game/5th-birthday-items
Also, another giveaway is happening right now over at W101 Central: http://www.wizard101central.com/forums/showthread.php?369857-Wizard101-Central-5th-Birthday-Celebration-Everyone-is-a-Winner-Raffle!
I have not received any prizes for the Central raffle at the time I'm writing this. I can't think of anything else to say on the subject, so let's move on.

King Parsley

 Yes, it's that time of the post to do updates on my KP garden. Here's what it was:

And here's what it is now:

"He's forgetting something now, but what is it?" you're probably wondering. That would be what I got off these fine KPs. Here are the reagents:

So, 6 Amber. Not bad. Oh yeah, there's one more thing; the 100+ KP seeds that I got from them. So my banks (!) are now chock full of KP seeds. This glorious KP empire all started with 7.  Yes, you read right. 7.  Allow me to tell you the story of how this whole obsession with Amber began.

At the start of this year, as my New Year's resolution, I promised myself how I would have Deer Knight by the end of the year. As I was looking up sources of Amber, I found that King Parsley seeds have a chance to provide Amber at elder. I thought, 'Ooh, I have have had tons of KPs stored away for no reason at all, until now.' I logged on and looked in my shared bank for them, and found a grand total of 7. I was thinking, 'OK, this is a start. But I don't really want to start planting anything until I have at least 9.' So, I started farming random places in Dragonspyre for KPs. The results were less than helpful. I thought, 'Eh, heck to it, I'll just plant the 7 seeds and see what happens.' These seeds, after Elder, brought me to a total of about 20 or so seeds. This was a good place to stop and plant a bigger gardening plot. So I did,  which is the plot you see to your right in the pictures above. I planted those seeds, and ended up with about 70-ish seeds, but still no Amber from KPs (I'd already gotten about 3 Amber from Red Huckleberries). I was thinking, 'Wow, I need more room.' This is when I planted the stacked plots over to the left in the above pictures. It snowballed very effectively, as you can see.

Whew, that was long.

From this point, I don't really know what I will be doing in W101 for a while, after I finish Azteca on the death. I might pick back up on my life wizard and quest with him, or I might go for Lord of Night on death, or maybe both at the same time. Anyways, enough about W101, you probably are here for Magic anyways. Fine, here we go.

FNM Report(s)

I know I haven't posted about anything for a while, but let's catch up on FNM reports, shall we?

August 16, 2013

This was a Modern event, and, if you know me personally, I love to play burn in Modern, so, it shouldn't be that much of a Shock (I am so punny) to you that I played none other that this:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/modern-burn-81613/
I ended up going 3 and 1 in the swiss rounds and from there getting to the finals to lose miserably to mana flooding. I had a good time nonetheless.

August 23, 2013

This was a 2-headed giant standard event. I teamed up with one of my best friends, Eric, and these were the decklists that we ran.
Mine: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/battle-of-wits-82313/
Eric's: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/extortionists-82313/
Yes, you can get onto me about running Battle of Wits again, I don't care about your negative feedback. We ended up going 3 and 1 in the swiss rounds and making it to  top 4 and losing from there. We still got prizes though.

August 30, 3013

This was a standard event and I didn't have a deck ready to go 2 hours before the event started, so I scrambled together a good old favorite of mine. Burn.
Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/burn-83013/
I went 2 and 1 in the swiss rounds and made it to the finals to be defeated and put in 2nd place. I know I made some misplays and made some wrong choices when constructing the deck and sideboard, but hey, to end up in 2nd place, it did pretty well.

On to the next segment.

Theros Spoilers

I like to use Mythic Spoiler for previewing activities (mainly because my school's filter allows it).
Mythic Spoiler:  http://mythicspoiler.com/
I'm really excited for Theros in general, but Magma Jet being a potential reprint is an awesome bonus.


This has been a long post so far, and I've been writing it for the past 4 hours, so I think that's enough for one day. I will hopefully be back tomorrow to discuss some Theros spoilers and what I'm doing next in Wizard101. Until then, may the cards be ever in your favor!

~Ravenhunter

'Useless' Amber! Woo! and FNM Report

My KP reached elder today! Woo!

From them, I got 3 'useless' Amber:

At any rate, now that I have crafted the almighty Deer Knight, I'll continue questing in Azteca and maybe craft Lord of Night along the way. I'm off to do that, right after this ext segment.

FNM Report

As you guys may or may not know, I have been working on a Battle of Wits list the past few weeks, and I'd like to share it with you.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/battle-of-wins/

It's still a work in progress, obviously. I won the FNM that was on the 2nd, but got my butt handed to me on the 9th. I went 3 and 2, with my 2 losses being to Maze's End (another fringe deck) and a singleton Assemble the Legion in the second opponent's Naya Midrange build. Game Day was yesterday, and I used a neat little Aggressive Jund deck which can be found here:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/jund-aggromidrange-m14/

I went 2 and 2 with this deck yesterday (the 1oth).  I lost to Bant Hexproof and a very aggressive Boros deck. My dad still won the event, and therefore the mat (which looks sweet). I can't think of anything else to say on the matter.

School starts back soon (bleh), and I have to finish To Kill a Mockingbird. About 70 pages to go at the time that I'm writing this.

That's all the time I have for today, see (or write) you guys later!

-Ravenhunter