IW Modern - 2nd with Wildfire

At our local Modern tournaments I like to alternate between playing my good deck (Soul Sisters) and building something rogue - out metagame is fairly casual and turning up with the same deck every time gets boring. The rogue decks don't always work out so well (Enchantress, Pox), but this was an exception.

This tournament's deck was inspired by
a) my love of land destruction, and the discovery that Wildfire is both modern legal and cheap.
b) this tournament report from Jon Johnson: Hanweir Watchkeep, keeping legacy fair

It wasn't inspired by Gavin Verhey's Daily MTG article, published a couple of weeks before the tournament - that was just a coincidence.

Looking around the Magic Madhouse website revealed some other budgets gems, such as Arc-Slogger (which I described on twitter as "2% of the cost of a Thundermaw Hellkite" and Detritivore.

2 Epochrasite
4 Hanweir Watchkeep
Shivan Wumpus
3 Detritivore
3 Arc-Slogger
Wurmcoil Engine

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Dead // Gone
4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Wildfire

4 Everflowing Chalice
2 Talisman of Indulgence
2 Talisman of Impulse
15 Mountain
4 Tectonic Edge
4 Molten Slagheap

Sideboard
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Boil

2 Leyline of Punishment
2 Pithing Needle
2 Shattering Spree
3 Guerilla Tactics

After playing the deck my main thought is that Arc-Slogger is awesome. 
Usually it's like you've just drawn three or four Shocks just by playing it, so I think playing all four would be reasonable (you can replace the terrible Shivan Wurm which was supposed to be Epocharsite anyway).

Also, an actual black splash would be easy enough and might offer some better sideboard and removal options.

We had 11 players on the day, so we played 5 rounds before cutting to top 4.

Round 1: Oliver playing RUG (without Tarmogoyf for budget reasons), won 2-0
Game 1 goes very long, as I'm not entirely sure what he's playing but he obviously has a variety of counterspells. Without Goyfs he struggles to kill me as everything in his deck dies to Volcanic Fallout, and he has me down to 10 when I resolve a 6/6 Detritivore that has been nibbling away at his lands. It grows to 7/7 and as Wildfire takes out more land he decides to throw the three Lightning Bolts he has in hand at me, but fails to untap and draw another burn spell and loses a 36 minute game.

Game 2 is considerably shorter as he taps out at the end of one of my turns for a Cryptic Command bouncing my storage land and I respond with Boil and a Lightning Bolt for his Vendilion Clique, leaving him with no permanents. He concedes.
1-0 (2-0)

Round 2: Paul playing Pod, won 2-1.
I win game one as I am able to Wildfire away most of Paul's board and my Detritivore kills him before he can recover, and lose game two as I have a Pithing Needle on Birthing Pod, but Paul draws Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki and is able to kill me.

In game 3 after destroying his first Pod with Shattering Spree and taking some damage from a pair of Kitchen Finks I resolve an Arc-Slogger with red mana open and about 40-something cards in my library. The Arc-Slogger means Paul can't combo me out, and it and my Bane of Hanweir finish him off with a few cards left in my library.
2-0 (4-1)

Round 3: Charlie playing Esper Gifts, lost 2-0
I don't have an answer for Iona and Charlie puts her into play twice very quickly (via Gifts Ungiven for Iona and Unburial Rites).
2-1 (4-3)

Round 4: Graham playing Soul Sisters, lost 2-0
This time I lose quickly to cards I definitely have answers for. I mulligan both games, and even though I have an opening hand Leyline for game 2, I don't draw Volcanic Fallout or Wildfire in either and lose to a load of Spectral Procession tokens.
2-2 (4-5)

Round 5: Dickie playing Kithkin, won 2-1
I win game one with a Wildfire, which kills all his creatures, but lose game two to a turn two Kor Firewalker, turn three Honor of the Pure, when my attempt to race with Shivan Wumpus plus Wildfire is foiled by an unexpected Refraction Trap which takes out the Wumpus.

Game 3 I again face a turn two Kor Firewalker, turn three Honor of the Pure, but this time Dickie's draw is otherwise sub-par, and I'm able to race with two Bane of Hanweir, as thankfully I can shoot his Baneslayer Angel three times with my Arc-Slogger before it gets exiled. With me on five life and Dickie on four I remove his second blocker and his 3/3 pro-red guy can't prevent him losing to my two 5/5s.
3-2 (6-6)

I make the top four as the 3rd seed. The rest of the top four is my last three opponents, as Dickie is the other 3-2 to make it on tiebreakers and Graham and Charlie were able to ID the last round.

Top 4: Graham playing Soul Sisters, won 2-0
This time I do draw Volcanic Fallouts and Wildfires! In game one I draw lots of them, but hardly any creatures (which get Pathed) and I finally win a very long game with an Arc-Slogger after casting three Wildfires. Crucially Graham is only able to Soul Warden and Martyr his life up to 28 mid-game so I was able to deal with his Serra Ascendants.

In game two I have a turn one Pithing Needle for Graham's turn one Martyr of Sands (he has another in hand) and I again am able to sweep away his creatures a few times and kill him with an Arc-Slogger.
4-2 (8-6)

Final: Charlie playing Esper Gifts, lost 2-1
Game one goes as expected - I lose to Iona.

At this point Charlie hasn't lost a game all tournament but I board in all the land destruction, including Pithing Needle (for fetchlands), and though I have to mulligan to five cards, Charlie is able to Thirst for Knowledge away Iona but can't find Gifts or Unburial Rights. I suspend two consecutive Detritivores that leave Charlie only with a couple of land, and they and an Arc-Slogger means he finally loses a game.

Game 3 I probably misplayed. I am taking damage from a couple of Lingering Souls tokens with Boil in hand after taking out two Celestial Colenade with Tectonic Edges, and rather than just waiting and building up mana on my storage land I cast a Goblin Ruinblaster to try and keep him off four mana. He Gifts in response and has another land in hand so I lose to Iona again. If I'd waited I can probably possibly prevent him getting an Iona but might still have lost to the Lingering Souls tokens.
4-3 (9-8)

So Charlie wins this IW Modern tournament with Esper Gifts (he says Far // Away is terrible) and I finish second with Wildfire, and am the open player to take a game off the winner. I consider this a successful outing for WILDFIRE.

"Fire is always at the top of the food chain, and it has a big appetite."

Modern Masters draft - 2-1 with Domain

This was an 8-man Modern Masters draft where we were keeping the cards drafted and the prizes weren't really significant. So as well as Rare-grabbing there was also a certain amount of Uncommon-grabbing, though the Lightning Helix I took just on value did end up in my deck (but the Spell Snare didn't).

After first picking Glen Elendra Archmage, I got a second pick Tromp the Domains and picked mostly green for the rest of the first booster. With the green cards seemingly expensive (my 'curve' started at 4cmc with Imperiosaur and Masked Admirers) and no second colour I grabbed Search for Tomorrow's as a priority in boosters two and three, also got some land-cyclers, and tried to pick up removal. The table seemed to undervalue Torrent of Stone - I got one very late (the table also undervalued Incremental Growth, and I had a couple of them, but they didn't fit in my deck at all). The other rares I opened were Ethersworn Canonist and Lotus Bloom, nice for Modern but not much help for Modern Masters.

The final deck was:

Durkwood Baloth
Giant Duskwasp
Pestermite
Trygon Predator
2 Masked Admirers
2 Imperiosaur 
2 Sporoloth Ancient
Walker of the Grove
(11 creatures)

Lightning Helix
Tribal Flames
Glacial Ray
Electrolyze
2 Torrent of Stone
Tromp the Domains
(7 spells)

3 Search for Tomorrow
2 Sylvan Bounty
8 Forest
5 Mountain
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
(22 mana sources!)

The actual games were fun to play but not that interesting to relate(*). I beat UW artifacts decks rounds one and three, getting Trygon Predator active once against both, and in between lost to a UW deck when I stumbled on mana twice (and in one of them he had Kira blanking my removal) and both games he had T6 Aethersnipe and killed me the turn after with Blinding Beam.

With doubles of Amrou Scout, Bound in Silence and Blinding Beam the UW deck deservedly won the draft. The 2-1 decks were my Domain, a UB Fearies (with mill alternate win from Mind Funeral, Dampen Thought and Oona) and an interesting GR Suspend that used Fury Charm as a Ritual - for example suspending Pardic Dragon for RR and then using Fury Charm to remove the two suspend counters to have it enter play immediately with haste. Making up the numbers were the two UW Artifact decks and two BR Goblins.

Drafting Modern Masters this way was fun, but I'm definitely looking forward to later drafts organised, where I can draft without worrying about value and just for the deck.

* Though in one game I did cast Masked Admirers, splice Glacial Ray on Torrent of Stone, regrow Masked Admirer's and recast it, splice the other Torrent of Stone onto Glacial Ray, and Tromp the Domains for +5/+5. SO MUCH VALUE.

Dragon's Maze Game Day - *1st* with 16 Forests

This is the tale of how a deck with 16 basic Forests won a Dragon's Maze Game Day without casting a single rare...

It all started with this tweet from Jon Johnson. As soon as I saw this deck I wanted to play it. I assembled all the cards except the Revenge of the Hunted, which I couldn't be bothered to trade for and replaced with some more common pump spells, and went to FNM a couple of weeks ago. The deck performed well (4-1) but I decided I definitely didn't like Blessings of Nature - it was terrible if you drew it, which I always seemed to do, and it didn't seem that exciting as a miracle. So they went too, and I had the following decklist for Game Day:

4 Dryad Militant
4 Spire Tracer
4 Young Wolf
4 Wandering Wolf
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Somberwald Dryad < more unblockable creatures, boarded out if they don't have Forests.
4 Slaughterhorn
4 Rancor
2 Ranger's Guile
3 Hunger of the Howlpack < surprisingly effective, usually played on Undying creatures after they return themselves
4 Giant Growth
4 Titanic Growth
16 Forest < I won more than one game in which I kept a single Forest hand and didn't draw another for several turns. 16 seems about right.

3 Triumph of Ferocity
4 Fog
1 Somberwald Dryad
2 Splinterfright
1 Ranger's Guile
2 Plummet
2 Naturalize

A brief tournament report from memory (didn't take any notes). We had 15 players, so it was 5 rounds cut to Top 4.

Round 1: Derek playing Esper control (won 2-1)

I lost a game to mana flood, eventually losing to an Aetherling, but won the decider after forcing Derek to Supreme Verdict away a board that included his two Woodlot Crawler.
1-0 (2-1)

Round 2: young kid playing Black (won 2-1)

I actually lost game one to his turn three Vampire Nighthawk after my Wandering Wolf got him down to one life but I didn't draw any more pump spells and couldn't get past his blockers and Blood Artists. I won games two & three fairly easily with multiple Rancors.
2-0 (4-2)

Round 3: Graham playing Bant (won 2-0)

I won a game by using Rancor plus Giant Growth / Slaughterhorn to trample repeatedly over his blockers, and another with unblockable Somberwald Dryads.
3-0 (6-2)

Round 4: Charlie playing Esper (ID)

Lunchbreak.
3-0-1

Round 5: Jan playing UWR Flash (won 2-0)

We're both guaranteed Top 4 but play anyway. I don't bother sideboarding and win on turn four and turn five.
4-0-1. (8-2)

Top 4: Charlie playing Esper (2-0)

Both games I get a lot of early pressure, Charlie's draws aren't great, and he has to tap out for small Sphinx's Revelations to survive my attack and I kill him with lethal Titanic Growths.
5-0-1 (10-2)

Final: Derek playing Esper control (won 2-1)

We split the first couple of games, and in the third I keep a hand with three land and Triumph of Ferocity. It sticks and I draw two cards a turn for the rest of the game, though I can't push much damage through as Derek has double Woodlot Crawler. But he doesn't draw Blood Baron, Aetherling or Sphinx's Revelation, and eventually with him on about 10 life I am able to cast Wandering Wolf, give it +3/+3 with Hunger of the Howlpack (5/4), double Rancor it (9/4), attack and Giant Growth it (12/7) for the win with two Ranger's Guile for protection in hand.
6-0-1 (12-3)

This deck is the most fun I have playing Standard for a long time, so if you like casting Rancor and attacking a lot I recommend you try it.

Team Cube draft 20-03-2013

We had six for Cube draft at WNM last night, so we ran a team Cube draft,  and after drafting played three team rounds so we each played all three opponents. I can see know why Team GPs are so popular - even casual team play was a lot of fun.

The final result was Graham, Steve and I beat Derek, Kieran and Michael 2-1. Top performing deck of the evening was Derek's UB tempo which went 3-0 only dropping one game, which was not the game where he blew me out with Urge to Feed in response to me trying to Arms Dealer his Moroii (which turns out to be a Vampire).

These are my three favourite decks of the evening (not exact as I had to reassemble them from the draft pools).

Derek's UB Tempo (3-0)
(I can't actually re-assemble this deck as there are way too many playable cards - that what's you get for being the only U drafter)

Dregscape Zombie
Looter Il-kor
Highborn Ghoul
Glacial Wall
Fleshbag Marauder
Scroll Thief
Phantom Warrior
Skinrender
Moroii
Snapping Drake
Thieving Magpie
Belltower Sphinx
Mulldrifter
Murder of Crows
Shriekmaw

Remand
Into the Roil
Urge to Feed
Terror
Murder
Circular Logic
Capsize
Stupor
Cower in Fear
Concentrate
Fact or Fiction
Wash Out
Confiscate
Opportunity

Evolving Wilds
Terramorphic Expanse
Dimir Aqueduct

Sideboard: Pestilence, Vedalken Entrancer, Mass of Ghouls, Fettergeist

Steve's Gr Raaaamp! (2-1)
(Made a turn 4 Artisan of Kozilek)

Llanowar Elf
Arbor Elf
Joraga Treespeaker
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Priest of Titania
Wall of Roots
Civic Wayfinder
Gloomwidow
Blastoderm
Briarhorn
Acidic Slime
Crashing Boars
Indrik Stomphowler
Roughshoud Mentor
Oakgnarl Warrior
Artisan of Kozilek
(16)
Rancor
Vines of Vastwood
Giant Growth
Incinerate
Fires of Yavamaya
Grab the Reins
Overrun
(7)

Sideboard:  Spidersilk Armor

Kieran's Boros beatdown (1-2)
(This is definitely a few cards off how Kieran built the deck, but this is what I think it should look like)

Signal Pest
Kris Mage
Infantry Veteran
Doomed Traveller
Kruin Striker
Stormblood Beserker
Goblin Warchief
Plated Geopede
Youthful Knight
Nibilis of the Mist
Hissing Ignuar
Pyreheart Wolf
Rhox Pikemaster
Captains's Call
Galvanic Juggernaut
Staunch Defender
Kuldotha Ringleader
(17)
Temporal Isolation
Glorious Charge
Zealous Strike
Rally the Forces
Brimstone Volley
Windborn Charge
(6)

Sideboard: Rootborn Defenses, Smash to Smithereens, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Condemn