Last weekend Shawn, Jobey, Wesley, and I skipped FNM to get an early start heading out to Dallas/Fort Worth for the Standard portion of the Starcitygames Open. We left a little before six. As we approached Lafayette, we decided to audible some Outback so Shawn and Jobey could do their best to kill themselves via cheese fries. The rest of the drive was fairly uneventful with conversation best left inside the car. We eventually made it to Plano where Shawn’s cousin allowed us to bunk down for the night after some last minute sideboard changes and some test games. After a few hours of Sleep, we finished the journey to the Fort Worth Convention Center. Shawn and Jobey, always the value seekers, sold some cards to Starcitygames before registration.
Earlier, Shawn was saying I should play Tempered Steel as it has somewhat fallen off the radar again. I’ve played various variants of it before to some good effect (Boros, Moorland, and Gavony). But I had grown a bit dissatisfied with the deck after a couple of run-bads. I was thinking about some variant of Humans as I’ve been a champion of the Champion of the Parish. But this is what I sleeved up after some final convincing from the crew.
My Deck:
Creatures
4 Etched Champion
4 Vault Skirge
4 Signal Pest
4 Memnite
4 Glint Hawk
Spells
4 Glint Hawk Idol
4 Mox Opal
4 Tempered Steel
4 Dispatch
4 Origin Spellbomb
Lands
9 Plains
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Razorverge Thicket
3 Gavony Township
Sideboard
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Spellskite
3 Hero of Bladehold
2 Celestial Purge
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Shrine of Loyal Legions
Round 1 vs Zach playing Werewolves
Game 1:
He was on the play. He dropped a Copperline Gorge and I thought I was playing against Huntmaster Ramp. I was sitting there evaluating my hand and the fastest way to deal 20, when he passed turn. I responded with a Vault Skirge off of my first land drop. He made his second land drop and passed again. I was a bit confused at this point and a little relieved since it seemed he was stuck with no action. I dropped my second land, swung with my Vault Skirge, and then paid another two life to stick another plus a Signal Pest. Figured I’d take advantage of the situation while I could. Third turn comes the surprise from my opponent: Immerwolf. Not a standard card in the Huntmaster Ramp decks, so now I realize I’m playing against a Werewolf deck. I’ll admit to a minor mental fistpump. On my turn I turned my guys sideways and played more guys. The Dispatches in my hand kept him from getting any action on the field.
Game 2:
This game took a left turn. I started kind of action light off of a mulligan to 6. He brought in Ancient Grudge, I brought in nothing. He managed to stick more of his werewolves and started chipping away my life total. Eventually, I was sitting at 11 and he was sitting at 16. My army consisted of a couple of Signal Pests and a single Vault Skirge all buffed by Tempered Steel. I’m also pocketing a second Tempered Steel. He was sitting on a couple of Full Moon’s Rises, an Immerwolf, and a Wolfbitten Captive (if I’m remembering this correctly, the math seems right). He swung in and I do the math. Even with a Moonmist, I figure he can only hit for 9, so I decide to be pro like Finkel and not block, figuring I can get my life total back up with Vault Skirge. I had neglected to consider the Wolfbitten Captive’s pump ability. Luckily, he didn’t have Moonmist and swung in for 10, bringing me down to 1. I play the Steel in my hand and swing in. Although I was just planning for the 7 life gained from Vault Skirge (pumped by two Tempered Steel and the Battle Cry from both of the Signal Pests), the two Signal Pests each did an additional 5 damage for a total of 17 lethal damage.
2 – 0 (this round)
1 – 0 (match record)
Round 2 vs Chris playing Huntmaster Ramp
Game 1:
Game 1 went pretty rough for me. He curved out well into a Huntmaster of the Fells, made it flip a couple of times and took me down relatively quick.
Game 2:
I boarded in my Spellskites, Celestial Purges, and Heroes of Bladehold and took out the Origin Spellbombs and a few other singles for the next couple of games. He managed to lay down a Batterskull, but I was able to respond with a Hero of Bladehold and Gavony Township to swarm him.
Game 3:
This one wound up being a lot closer. He dropped the Batterskull again and began a dedicated plan of gaining 4 a turn while I walled with an Etched Champion. Eventually, I landed a Spellskite. I managed to Redirect a Kessig Wolf Run from the Batterskull to the Spellskite. Next turn he popped it with an Ancient Grudge. The turn after I dropped my Hero of Bladehold and was able to start taking chunks of his life total. A few swings managed to take out the bulk of his force then I started popping in for over 10 a turn. He was able to get me down to 1 life, but a turn to late as I had the lethal in response.
2 – 1 (this round)
2 – 0 (match record)
Round 3 vs Powers playing UW Human
Game 1:
They can’t all be winners. He played Champion of the Parish followed by more humans while either bouncing or countering my threats.
Game 2:
I had to mulligan down to 6 and thought I had kept a decently fast hand. While I did manage a good start, getting my opponent down to 6 off the back of a couple of Vault Skirges, he managed to clear them off the board. Pretty soon after, he cleared me off the board.
0 – 2 (this round)
2 – 1 (match record)
Round 4 vs Matt playing W Humans
Game 1:
On the play, he mulliganed down to 5 to drop a turn one Champion of the Parish. I was able to land an early Vault Skirge / Signal Pest pair. He never saw that many lands and I saw another Vault Skirge. He scooped to try his luck in game 2.
Game 2:
This time I had to mulligan down to 5 while he dropped to 6. However, I was on the draw and having a 5 card hand on the draw with Tempered Steel is not the worst thing in the world. I hit some early Vault Skirges while he hit an early Champion of the Parish. Other than that, he wound up both land shy and action shy. Eventually I dropped the namesake of the deck and took the game.
Since he had a couple of bad draws, we decided to play another game just to test the matchup a little more. While he curved into some decent Human action, I was able to switch to the poison plan with an Inkmoth Nexus.
2 – 0 (this round)
3 – 1 (match record)
Round 5 vs Philip playing Delver Pike
Game 1:
I wish I had written more down for this game. It was a good race. When he finally took me out, he was at 2 life.
Game 2:
I mulliganed to 6. I tried damage. I tried poison. Neither worked. He slapped a Runechanter’s Pike on a Delver of Secrets and decided he didn’t like my face.
0 – 2 (this round)
3 – 2 (match record)
Round 6 vs Chris playing Spirits
Game 1:
I started out decently enough. Getting my Vault Skirge on board, and later some Signal Pests, Memnites and other members of the Tempered Steel crew. As I kept swinging, he just kept making more and more Spirits. Lingering Souls, Doomed Traveler, Drogskol Captains. Each came out, each had to meet a metallic death to protect their master. Eventually I stopped playing threats and just pumped with Gavony Township. As soon as he ran out of fodder, my army was so beefy he couldn’t hold out.
Game 2:
This one saw him getting a little more action on the board and start making a run at my life total. The board state was quickly getting clogged up. I was sitting on a Gavony Township, Mox Opal, three other mana sources, a Glint Hawk Idol, and some other dorks. After a thorough evaluation of the board, the end result was that if could I activate the Glint Hawk Idol and use the Gavony Township, I could squeak lethal damage through. That’s when I noticed the Glint Hawk in my hand. I was able to use the Mox Opal to cast the Glint Hawk, bounce the Mox Opal back to my hand, replay the Mox Opal to activate the Glint Hawk Idol, and then use the Gavony Township to boost all of my guys. After he took stock of the minimum damage coming through, he saw that it was lethal.
2 – 0 (this round)
4 – 2 (match record)
Round 7 vs Collin playing Get’er Dungrove
Game 1:
With Vault Skirge, Signal Pest, and Tempered Steel I was dropping beats like Skrillex.
Game 2:
It became his turn to drop sick beats. Strangleroot Geist and Dungrove Elder decided my face was a good place to do a quick little dance.
Game 3:
Another good swing in my favor. Stuck a Vault Skirge and Tempered Steel. And used a Phyrexian Metamorph to copy a Strangleroot Geist for a pretty quick win.
2 – 1 (this round)
5 – 2 (match record)
Round 8 vs Shawn playing French Rites
Game 1:
I managed to disrupt his mana production and he didn’t see any white sources out of his lands. I poisoned him to death with an Inkmoth Nexus.
Game 2:
This game saw me getting disrupted while he played an army down and took me to the cleaners.
Game 3:
I had a good run at this game. I stalled him a little and took him down a significant amount of life and took him up to 8 poison, but eventually he popped out an Inferno Titan that made a clean sweep of my dorks. Soon after, that same Inferno Titan made a clean sweep of me.
1 – 2 (this round)
5 – 3 (match record)
Round 9 vs Thomas playing UB Control
Game 1:
He played Darkslick Shores and passed. I played out my hand. He never saw any real action on the board and I had free run to beat face.
Game 2:
Much the same as the first game. Nearly down to the life totals every turn.
2 – 0 (this round)
6 – 3 (match record)
Round 10 vs Shane playing Naya Pod
Game 1:
I had to mulligan twice, down to 5. I tried to hit the ground running with a Vault Skirge, but he was able to use Birthing Pod to good effect, picking up either Fiend Hunter or Acidic Slime to neutralize my threats. His Huntmaster of the Fells and Strangleroot Geist made short work of my face.
Game 2:
While I was able to get a better start on him, especially since he had to mulligan down to 6. And even though I took the Hero of the Bladehold for a walk, once his engine came online, he made it into a repeat of the first game.
0 – 2 (this round)
6 – 4 (match record)
Conclusion
6 – 4, respectable showing. There were a few plays I could have made better. During one game, I played Memnite followed by a Glint Hawk Idol when I didn’t need to. I could have held the Memnite back to play the next turn for a free Glint Hawk Idol activation. And as always, there were hands I should have pitched.
I’m also glad I played Tempered Steel. I had grown dissatisfied with the deck and felt it wasn’t doing what I wanted. Especially after a particularly bad run one FNM. But today showed me that the deck still has some gas left in it. And I was able to find new tricks contained within. I had wanted to experiment with Faith’s Shield since Ancient Grudge and Divine Offering are still cards, but didn’t really have time to playtest with it.
Overall, the Starcitygames Open was a lot of fun although exhausting. A lot of that fun was because of my opponents. While the odds of running into a bad opponent at larger events are better than average, I managed to get some good pulls. All of my opponents were good-natured and fun to play. I can only hope they felt the same about me.
This coming weekend is going to be Grand Prix Nashville.
