Architect Blue Once around the FNM block
Round 1 - Emmet U/W Venser (with my Vensers!) and Mimic Vat. Win 2-0
Emmet brought a pretty good U/W for which he had borrowed two of my Vensers. Our games weren't short but involved me putting on pressure pretty consistently and having multiple points in the game where the board on both sides was wiped. However, I have more threats than most control decks, and I have such selection with my tinker packages, that even in topdeck mode I am putting out better more consistent threats. In both games I beat down over the course of a long two games.
Rogue Insight 1 - World 0
Round 2 - Kevin WW with Honor the Pure, Mystics, SoFaF, and Hero of the Bladehold. Loss 1-2
This is a tough matchup. He has early creatures that are hitting me pretty hard and fast. I'm at 10 or lower by turn 4 each game, and I'm only able to sneak out a win with my boarded tumble magnets combined with a timely Contagion Engine in game 2. otherwise I simply can't deal with weenies. I think I need to pick up ratchet bombs, as right now I have place holders in my board.
Rogue Insight 1 - World 1
Round 3 - Ryan (I think) with Valakut. Win 2-0
Ryan, I need to take better notes about my opponents names, as I'm not sure if you're actually Ryan or something completely different, like Luke or William. If you read this, post your name will you please?
Ryan kept a hand of 1 mountain game 1 and never saw a green source the entire game. I think I killed him where he had two permanents, one mountain and one Valakut. Tough beats, but that was probably a mulligan. So I've proved I can beat a goldfish, but not a Valakut deck, so we move on to game 2.
Game 2 is far more interesting, but I'm faster on the ramp into threats than he is. I get a turn 5 Kuldotha Forgemaster with a Renegade Doppelganger on the board, which allows me to tinker in a Blightsteel Colossus. He then gets blocker after blocker while setting up the valakut kill. However I have the fog ready, with the original Kuldotha Forgemaster, 3 more artifacts and a Platinum Emperion in my deck to tinker in response to Valakut triggers. He never gets there, though as Poison counters get him for exactly 10 through his Primeval Titan and Avenger of Zendikar blockers because I have Grand Architect and make my Inkmoth Nexus & Colossus Blue for the extra 2 points of infect, allowing exactsies! Poison FTW!
Rogue Insight 2 - World 1
Round 4 - James Mystic Boros Loss 1-2
Again I am able to pull out game two with some tumble magnets and contagion engines. In both games 1 and 3 though, I am usually one turn away from stabilizing with Emperion or Contagion Engine. It made me feel like I had a chance against the aggro decks of the format. And given my good matchup versus Control, if you ride the win bracket, you'll probably find yourself in against decks you want to play.
Rogue Insight 2 - World 2
Top 4 - Kevin Loss 0-2
Kevin very nicely beats my face in two games in a row, and these are not what I would call close games.
Rogue Insight 2 - World 3
So a 2-3 record isn't bad and about what I expected given I played aggro matches 3 out of 5 rounds.
I definitely want to keep working on this deck. It's good. It's got some rather gaping holes but those might be fairly easily filled. I'll keep working and keep everyone updated here.
On to my other pet deck: Walkers.
This is the deck that I put all of my favorite cards into one deck and see what happens. I almost played this last night, and it definitely would have had better matchups versus the aggro decks, while still having fairly strong control matchups.
Anyway here you go:
Bant Walkers 60 cards, 15 sideboard 3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Forest
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Stirring Wildwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
27 lands
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Frost Titan
2 Sunblast Angel
12 creatures
1 Oust
1 Contagion Clasp
3 Sphere of the Suns
2 Jace Beleren
1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Day of Judgment
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
3 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Contagion Engine
21 other spells
Sideboard
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Baneslayer Angel
3 Corrupted Conscience
15 sideboard cards
Hope you like it! Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Mike
Emmet brought a pretty good U/W for which he had borrowed two of my Vensers. Our games weren't short but involved me putting on pressure pretty consistently and having multiple points in the game where the board on both sides was wiped. However, I have more threats than most control decks, and I have such selection with my tinker packages, that even in topdeck mode I am putting out better more consistent threats. In both games I beat down over the course of a long two games.
Rogue Insight 1 - World 0
Round 2 - Kevin WW with Honor the Pure, Mystics, SoFaF, and Hero of the Bladehold. Loss 1-2
This is a tough matchup. He has early creatures that are hitting me pretty hard and fast. I'm at 10 or lower by turn 4 each game, and I'm only able to sneak out a win with my boarded tumble magnets combined with a timely Contagion Engine in game 2. otherwise I simply can't deal with weenies. I think I need to pick up ratchet bombs, as right now I have place holders in my board.
Rogue Insight 1 - World 1
Round 3 - Ryan (I think) with Valakut. Win 2-0
Ryan, I need to take better notes about my opponents names, as I'm not sure if you're actually Ryan or something completely different, like Luke or William. If you read this, post your name will you please?
Ryan kept a hand of 1 mountain game 1 and never saw a green source the entire game. I think I killed him where he had two permanents, one mountain and one Valakut. Tough beats, but that was probably a mulligan. So I've proved I can beat a goldfish, but not a Valakut deck, so we move on to game 2.
Game 2 is far more interesting, but I'm faster on the ramp into threats than he is. I get a turn 5 Kuldotha Forgemaster with a Renegade Doppelganger on the board, which allows me to tinker in a Blightsteel Colossus. He then gets blocker after blocker while setting up the valakut kill. However I have the fog ready, with the original Kuldotha Forgemaster, 3 more artifacts and a Platinum Emperion in my deck to tinker in response to Valakut triggers. He never gets there, though as Poison counters get him for exactly 10 through his Primeval Titan and Avenger of Zendikar blockers because I have Grand Architect and make my Inkmoth Nexus & Colossus Blue for the extra 2 points of infect, allowing exactsies! Poison FTW!
Rogue Insight 2 - World 1
Round 4 - James Mystic Boros Loss 1-2
Again I am able to pull out game two with some tumble magnets and contagion engines. In both games 1 and 3 though, I am usually one turn away from stabilizing with Emperion or Contagion Engine. It made me feel like I had a chance against the aggro decks of the format. And given my good matchup versus Control, if you ride the win bracket, you'll probably find yourself in against decks you want to play.
Rogue Insight 2 - World 2
Top 4 - Kevin Loss 0-2
Kevin very nicely beats my face in two games in a row, and these are not what I would call close games.
Rogue Insight 2 - World 3
So a 2-3 record isn't bad and about what I expected given I played aggro matches 3 out of 5 rounds.
I definitely want to keep working on this deck. It's good. It's got some rather gaping holes but those might be fairly easily filled. I'll keep working and keep everyone updated here.
On to my other pet deck: Walkers.
This is the deck that I put all of my favorite cards into one deck and see what happens. I almost played this last night, and it definitely would have had better matchups versus the aggro decks, while still having fairly strong control matchups.
Anyway here you go:
2 Forest
3 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Plains
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Stirring Wildwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
27 lands
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Lotus Cobra
2 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Frost Titan
2 Sunblast Angel
12 creatures
1 Oust
1 Contagion Clasp
3 Sphere of the Suns
2 Jace Beleren
1 Ajani Goldmane
4 Day of Judgment
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Elspeth Tirel
1 Gideon Jura
3 Venser, the Sojourner
2 Contagion Engine
21 other spells
Sideboard
4 Ratchet Bomb
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Baneslayer Angel
3 Corrupted Conscience
15 sideboard cards
Hope you like it! Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Mike
For your consideration:
ReplyDeleteAll of your early game plays are very important to keep around...Renegade Doppelganger, Thrummingbird, Grand Architect, obviously making the aggro matchup hell-on-earth by forcing you to choose between staying alive or sacrificing your deck's engine. My previous incarnation, Blue Steel, circumvented this obstacle by throwing out what was essentially dangerous fodder in the forms of Overseers, Myrsmiths, and Palladium Myr. Any one of them left unchecked gave me an advantage at any point in the game, but if I lost them it wasn't the end of the world. If you're looking for holes to fill, that might be an easy one to start with.