A taste of FNM success

all this time it was right under my nose! a legit magic store right outside my school gates! i'm such a dummy for not checking around my neighborhood. this is the closest i've ever been to an MTG store. i could honestly go there during my lunch break, its so close. theyve got many good rares and most commons and uncommons the store owner gives away FOR FREE! everything else is pretty darn cheap. packs are under 3 bucks, i bought 3 Demigods for 4 bucks each, and more! i'm gonna go back and buy the bitterblossom set they have for 100 kuai each, thats roughly 15 bucks a piece and i'm gonna try haggle the price down a little. but on to the real story.

today i went to my local MTG store and played magic against chinese people at their FNM. It was a ton of fun and i plan to go back. the guys are all super nice and speak a little english, so it makes it easier for me and my friend dennis to communicate.

They were super accomodating and asked us which format we wanted to play. Lots of them wanted to draft so being new and all (and not having competitive constructed decks) we felt it was best to draft. I feel that Limited is one of my stronger magic skill sets and so it was great for me...also, it put me on equal playing field (card wise) with everyone. we would be drafting Chinese cards so i had to keep my ears perked and be as attentive as possible to my cards.

we got situated and started drafting right away.

First Pack, i open my pack and immediately go to the rare...and what did i see? Master Etherium staring me right in the eyes. easy pick one...initially i was hesistant to take it but decided it was the best card by far in the pack...(little did i know it really was a bomb rare). the rest of the pack i got shipped 2 agony warps, two tri lands(esper and grixis) 2 call to heels, and two esper obelisks. i was very happy with my first pack...i knew that my esper build would be very consistent and that i would never have any issues casting my spells. i was a bit worried about the lack of creatures as i was really busy trying to get my fixers this pack so that next 2 packs i could just worry about getting good creatures...especially Conflux which by far has the best esper creatures. time would tell if my gamble would pay off.

next pack, another awesome rare...Scourglass. now i was all in in Esper. a mass removal spell that only cleared my opponents? ridiculous. the pack went around and i was able to nab 2 screeching katharis, one cloudskate drake?, cancel and a couriers capsule. sadly, that was all and i was still very short on the creature front. i did not see any executioner capsules or sanctum gargoyles going around so that probably meant someone else was Esper too. good thing esper is a strong enough shard to support a few decks in drafting.

Conflux pack opens and i find myself in a real hard place. i forget what the rare card was because it really sucked a lot and so i found myself grabbing a sludge strider. a good card, but not a great first pick. next pick though really saved me, a cumberstone...the pack came around and i was able to nab a scepter of card drawing, the black sedraxis guy that bounces creatures, vedalken pro red guy, zombie outlander, traumatic visions, gleam of resistance, and two golden late round picks, esper cormorants and a darklit gargoyle. all in all it was a decent pack but not amazing.

i was pretty confident my deck was a good deck...but i was a little scared that i was a little creature light. decent removal and combat tricks would have to carry my light creature load.

Here is my deck list:

Creatures:
Master Etherium
sludge strider
zombie outlander
vedalken outlander
darklit gargoyle
sedraxis alchemist
cloudskate drake
esper cormorants
2 kathari screecher

Artifacts:
scourglass
cumberstone
scepter of card draw
2 esper obelisk

Spells:
2 call to heel
resounding wave
2 Agony Warps
gleam of resistance
cancel
traumatic visions

Match one: some guy playing a weird U/B/G Unearth deck. i come out strong and win the first game on the back of master etherium/cumberstone/scourglass. i lose a close one game two after having all my guys removed and killed, my deck ran out of gas at the end as my opponent just had more creatures in his deck than i did. so sad. game three is another long one, but i lose. it was close and i should have won. why? b/c the entire time i forgot about master etheriums special ability of giving all my artifact creatures +1/+1 as well! this is something that would have never missed, IF THE CARDS WERE IN ENGLISH! my opponent was not an honest guy and did not let me know this, also he tried getting a forest with a grixis panorama, i caught him immediately and told him i knew what the card did...he was pretty embarassed that i caught him trying to cheat...dirty. all in all, nice guy, but tried to take advantage of a foreigner. his antics would bite him in the rare end when all was said and done though. Record 0-1 (1-2)

Match Two: i come out strong a play a real nice guy named Apu. He played a Grixis Unearth deck with a white splash for esper charm. game one, turns 2-6 were as follows, vedalken outlander (perfect against his deck), master etherium (by this time i had finally figured out that the master E's other pump ability), cumberstone, cloudskate, scourglass. my opponent laughs and then scoops. Game two, he wins a long one after both our boards are cleared and he starts unearthing creatures like crazy. game three, another long game, but this time i'm able to clear the board and stall like crazy with the cumberstone, by then i'm down to 7 life . Master E and cloudskate go the distance for me taking him down 24 life points as he draws land after land...it didnt matter though, b/c i was holding cancel and traumatic visions to protect my board position.
Record 1-1 (3-2)

Match Three: Nice guy named txaaj (so i called him bed) he was playing a bant exalted deck...with a hilarious twist. game one, all is going well and it looks pretty promising until he sacs three creatures and pulls out yep you guessed it EMPYRIAL ARCHANGEL! with him being shroud and my life total too small to do anything, i scoop. crazy. game two now that i knew his twist i would be more prepared. i come out flying with zombie outlander and cumberstone stalling his ground game, kathari screecher and darklit gargoyle. Master E joins the table, giving my guys a pretty awesome boost. i attack his life total down to 7 and then he does it again, sacs three guys to put out empyrial Archangel. this time though it was not enough as i attack with all four creatures and all 12 damage goes to the angel. she dies and eats my master E. next turn Bed plays a Pro artifact guy and another creature that gets met with counter. i untap cast agony warp on the guy and attack for seven for the win. phew, Empyrial Angel is crazy good. game three, he starts piling up the board with guys to sac to find the Angel again. i build up a board of Master E, Cloudskate, cumberstone, scepter and scourglass. my upkeep i blow up his board and attack him down to 15. his next turn he drops his 8th land and cold casts, yep...you guessed it Empyrial Archangel!!!!! too bad for him as i have a traumatic vision i had been holding on to all game for that purpose exactly. he smiles and then gives me a handshake. I cant believe he cast that angel on my 3 times. too funny. great guy, great game. Record 2-1 (5-3)

the swiss rounds are over and we tally up the points. AND............


i come in second place!!!!!! i win two packs of morningtide...get all garbage cards but it was totally fun. i should have won it all but i failed to realize that my Master E gave all my creatures +1/+1...oh well, next time though i will not make that same mistake. it was really awesome playing against other people and knowing that i can stand up to most players. the locals here are all pretty good to excellent players with good grasps of the mechanics and card knowledge. i was pretty rusty but was really happy with my playing and drafting. Playing competitively makes you a much better player and i learned a lot about my playing ability from this. i plan to play hard and come home a much better player than before. these guys here are good and i feel that will only make me better.

okay, here are my allstars of my draft

Master Etherium: when i first picked him i didnt know how awesome he was...now i know. simply an amazing card.

Scourglass: if your all in esper, this is a mega A-Bomb on your opponent. i honestly cleared the board 5 times with this little bad boy. having to wait a turn is not the greatest but it is super good when it blows things up and leaves you with a board full of creatures. awesome.

cumberstone: easily my #2 card in my deck. it is so good at slowing the game down for you to set up your board favorably. one is awesome, if you can get ahold of 2 its pretty much good game. i loved casting this card almost as much as i loved casting the master E.

Suprise Sleeper MVP's: Cancel and traumatic visions...once you got the board locked down, these guys will make sure you keep it that way. they make sure your opponent never successfully casts their bombs on you. if i'm in esper again next draft i will try to squeeze in two counters.

so there you have it, my first FNM success story. i was very pleased with how things went and cant wait to play again to try to win it all next time!

josh out.

p.s. if you've read this far...thank you.