A new paradigm.
So I went to FNM last night and didn't know what it was that I was hoping to play. I knew that my esper walker list from last week wasn't an option as I didn't have access to the Jace 2.0 this week, and though baby Jace is good, its still not quite the same. So I arrived at TOGIT and started brewing.
I knew I wanted to use 4x Mirran Crusader. I knew I wanted to use Ajani Goldmane. No idea where else I'd end up going.
So I started blocking out a deck. This is what I came up with.
White 60 cards, 15 sideboard
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
2 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Marsh Flats
15 Plains
2 Tectonic Edge
24 lands
4 Signal Pest
2 Accorder Paladin
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Mirran Crusader
1 Hero of Bladehold
2 Baneslayer Angel
19 creatures
2 Brave the Elements
1 Condemn
3 Honor of the Pure
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Sword of Body and Mind
2 White Sun's Zenith
3 Ajani Goldmane
1 Bonehoard
1 Elspeth Tirel
17 other spells
Sideboard
2 Mimic Vat
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Brave the Elements
4 Kor Firewalker
4 Leyline of Sanctity
15 sideboard cards
Cards that stood out for me:
Mirran Crusader was exactly as good as I wanted it to be. It stole games turned off entire strategies, and completely blanked whole hands full of removal. This card is the nuts.
White Sun's Zenith was really strong, but almost always telegraphed, as this deck doesn't want to leave mana open when there are cards in hand, so your opponent is probably going to know what's up. Despite this, making 4 3/3's thanks to your Honor of the Pure or Ajani Goldmane on their end step is really strong. Having it shuffle back in when it resolves is gravy.
Baneslayer Angel may not be a 50$ card anymore thanks to reprinting and being outclassed by titans, but it is still really good. I liked having them main deck, as a lot of decks have answers for her but only in the sideboard. A turn 5 baneslayer game 1 is game over against a lot of decks. In games 2 & 3 they get sided out a lot, while your opponent sides in their mark of mutinies and other hate that becomes far less useful when all they can steal is a stoneforge mystic or squadron hawk.
Round 1 I played a blue black infect list running corrupted conscience. I got killed by my own corrupted Hero of Bladehold. Silas is a good player and usually runs good decks, but I wasn't particually impressed by this version of infect. The best part of it really was the corrupted conscience. That card was very good for him. However in games 2 & 3 I was able to put too many beaters on the board for him to deal with, especially one Mirran Crusader with brave the elements in hand.
Round 2, (I think, these rounds may be out of order.) Anthony with vampires. Anthony and I had play tested before FNM started and we had split games evenly, but agreed that I probably had a good matchup vs him. Again Mirran Crusader pretty much shuts off half his deck, and Brave the Elements shuts off the other half, as he's playing the red black vamps. He wins game one, I think, pretty quickly. I take game two by declining to block an alpha strike with my mirran crusaders while he has kalastia highborn on the table, which would have drained me for 2 and allowed him to kill me the next turn. But instead I was able to swing with double mirran crusaders and a Honor of the Pure on the board for exactly lethal. I take game three on th back of some amazing board cards: Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity. I can has boar cards.
Round 3 I play Jeff with red deck wins. I take game 1 as I am able run him out of enough of his removal that when bane slayer angel hits the board that's game. Game two he runs me over so fast I'm barely in the game before I'm dead. Game 3 is another I can has board cards game. My Kor fire walkers and leylines make half his deck irrelevant or completely dead cards, and Ajani plus firewalkers get there.
Round 4 intentional draw with Jesse and his very strong blue red counter burn monstrosity. Jesse and I played a few games for fun while waiting for top 8, and I took most of the pre-board games.
Top 8 - Quarter finals
Matt with grand architect blue. Having played the architect a lot in the recent past, I knew exactly how the deck worked, so I knew to do things like journey his thrumming birds and grand architects that might not have been obvious as the right play to someone not familiar with the deck. He takes game 2 but I am able to take games 1 & 3. These games are long and interesting, but my notes aren't good enough to give specifics here.
Top 4 - Semi-finals
Dave with 3 color infect running groundswell and assault strobe. Again he's able to take one game and I am able to pull out the other two. Mirran crusader shines again in this matchup. His one win was rather dramatic with him killing me from 4 poison with a groundswell for exactsies. However Ajani's +1/+1 counters negate a lot of the -1/-1 counters his infect creatures have dealt to my team and I win the match.
Top 2 - Finals
Jesse again with U/R counter-burn. We draw, leaving my official record 5-0-2. But Jesse and I play it out for fun and he wins two out of three, leaving my actual record for the evening 5-1-1.
Rob took my U/B tezzeret grand architect mashup for a spin and he went 2-1 before he had to drop to head to a party. So both decks I built in the hour or so before the tournament ended up having positive records on the night.
So all in all I was very happy with how things went. There are some things I would change with the list as it stands. First Emeria was useless. Second, the ink moths should probably be more tec edges and maybe a mystifying maze or two. I would want at least one more brave the elements in the deck, with the fourth in the side. There should probably be one more Hero of Bladehold, and two more Stoneforge Mystic, plus one Sword of Feast and Famine.
This is a good strong deck that is a lot of fun to play if you are looking for a good FNM deck to try out.
Enjoy!
Mike
I knew I wanted to use 4x Mirran Crusader. I knew I wanted to use Ajani Goldmane. No idea where else I'd end up going.
So I started blocking out a deck. This is what I came up with.
White 60 cards, 15 sideboard
3 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
2 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Marsh Flats
15 Plains
2 Tectonic Edge
24 lands
4 Signal Pest
2 Accorder Paladin
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Stoneforge Mystic
4 Mirran Crusader
1 Hero of Bladehold
2 Baneslayer Angel
19 creatures
2 Brave the Elements
1 Condemn
3 Honor of the Pure
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Sword of Body and Mind
2 White Sun's Zenith
3 Ajani Goldmane
1 Bonehoard
1 Elspeth Tirel
17 other spells
Sideboard
2 Mimic Vat
3 Leonin Relic-Warder
1 Luminarch Ascension
1 Brave the Elements
4 Kor Firewalker
4 Leyline of Sanctity
15 sideboard cards
Cards that stood out for me:
Mirran Crusader was exactly as good as I wanted it to be. It stole games turned off entire strategies, and completely blanked whole hands full of removal. This card is the nuts.
White Sun's Zenith was really strong, but almost always telegraphed, as this deck doesn't want to leave mana open when there are cards in hand, so your opponent is probably going to know what's up. Despite this, making 4 3/3's thanks to your Honor of the Pure or Ajani Goldmane on their end step is really strong. Having it shuffle back in when it resolves is gravy.
Baneslayer Angel may not be a 50$ card anymore thanks to reprinting and being outclassed by titans, but it is still really good. I liked having them main deck, as a lot of decks have answers for her but only in the sideboard. A turn 5 baneslayer game 1 is game over against a lot of decks. In games 2 & 3 they get sided out a lot, while your opponent sides in their mark of mutinies and other hate that becomes far less useful when all they can steal is a stoneforge mystic or squadron hawk.
Round 1 I played a blue black infect list running corrupted conscience. I got killed by my own corrupted Hero of Bladehold. Silas is a good player and usually runs good decks, but I wasn't particually impressed by this version of infect. The best part of it really was the corrupted conscience. That card was very good for him. However in games 2 & 3 I was able to put too many beaters on the board for him to deal with, especially one Mirran Crusader with brave the elements in hand.
Round 2, (I think, these rounds may be out of order.) Anthony with vampires. Anthony and I had play tested before FNM started and we had split games evenly, but agreed that I probably had a good matchup vs him. Again Mirran Crusader pretty much shuts off half his deck, and Brave the Elements shuts off the other half, as he's playing the red black vamps. He wins game one, I think, pretty quickly. I take game two by declining to block an alpha strike with my mirran crusaders while he has kalastia highborn on the table, which would have drained me for 2 and allowed him to kill me the next turn. But instead I was able to swing with double mirran crusaders and a Honor of the Pure on the board for exactly lethal. I take game three on th back of some amazing board cards: Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity. I can has boar cards.
Round 3 I play Jeff with red deck wins. I take game 1 as I am able run him out of enough of his removal that when bane slayer angel hits the board that's game. Game two he runs me over so fast I'm barely in the game before I'm dead. Game 3 is another I can has board cards game. My Kor fire walkers and leylines make half his deck irrelevant or completely dead cards, and Ajani plus firewalkers get there.
Round 4 intentional draw with Jesse and his very strong blue red counter burn monstrosity. Jesse and I played a few games for fun while waiting for top 8, and I took most of the pre-board games.
Top 8 - Quarter finals
Matt with grand architect blue. Having played the architect a lot in the recent past, I knew exactly how the deck worked, so I knew to do things like journey his thrumming birds and grand architects that might not have been obvious as the right play to someone not familiar with the deck. He takes game 2 but I am able to take games 1 & 3. These games are long and interesting, but my notes aren't good enough to give specifics here.
Top 4 - Semi-finals
Dave with 3 color infect running groundswell and assault strobe. Again he's able to take one game and I am able to pull out the other two. Mirran crusader shines again in this matchup. His one win was rather dramatic with him killing me from 4 poison with a groundswell for exactsies. However Ajani's +1/+1 counters negate a lot of the -1/-1 counters his infect creatures have dealt to my team and I win the match.
Top 2 - Finals
Jesse again with U/R counter-burn. We draw, leaving my official record 5-0-2. But Jesse and I play it out for fun and he wins two out of three, leaving my actual record for the evening 5-1-1.
Rob took my U/B tezzeret grand architect mashup for a spin and he went 2-1 before he had to drop to head to a party. So both decks I built in the hour or so before the tournament ended up having positive records on the night.
So all in all I was very happy with how things went. There are some things I would change with the list as it stands. First Emeria was useless. Second, the ink moths should probably be more tec edges and maybe a mystifying maze or two. I would want at least one more brave the elements in the deck, with the fourth in the side. There should probably be one more Hero of Bladehold, and two more Stoneforge Mystic, plus one Sword of Feast and Famine.
This is a good strong deck that is a lot of fun to play if you are looking for a good FNM deck to try out.
Enjoy!
Mike
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