Polyjak's SPDC Finale Report

Here's the deck I ran:

Polyjak's Standard Boros
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
10 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Boros Garrison

4 Frostling
4 Kami of Ancient Law
4 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Kabuto Moth
2 Kitsune Blademaster
4 Guardian of the Guildpact

2 Blessed Breath
4 Gelid Shackles
2 Shock
2 Skred
2 Seal of Fire
4 Yamabushi's Flame
2 Cackling Flames

Sideboard
4 Faith's Fetters
2 Sun's Bounty
2 Skred
2 Kabuto Moth
2 Cackling Flames
2 Blessed Breath
1 Kitsune Blademaster

My 1st match was against mountainProud and a green/white deck. I won 2-0. The first game, he filled the sky with Hawks and dropped a couple Ledgewalkers but I had burn to counter his defensive pumps and I had Gelid Shackles to incapacitate his Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi so my forces kept hammering down on him. I feared lifegain, but I had been holding a Blessed Breath and countered his Fetters with it for the win. I boarded out Cackling Flames and Yamabushi's Flame and brought in more Skred, the Moths, and the Breaths. That may not have been the smartest call, but I knew I needed to protect myself in the air and I anticipated pump effects (Skred) and Fetters (Blessed Breath). I wish I hadn't needed to remove Yamabushi's Flame, but at least there's nothing recursive in green/white. Game 2 he mulliganed to 5 then didn't see a 3rd land for almost the whole game, while I was mana flooded. I rode two Guardians and a Skyknight to victory, Frostlinging and Skredding Llanowar Elves to keep him relatively mana-screwed. Cruel, but strategic.

Match two was against jlai47 and a white/black deck. Game one I was out-paced and out-played by a clearly superior deck. Boros just doesn't have the tools, range, or long-game that Orzhov has. Plus, I forgot to activate my Gelid Shackles a number of times which is a frustrating way to lose. He had two Ghost Wardens on the board which are surprisingly effective. Combat math is hard at 11:00pm on a night you have to wake up at 6:00am. To fight him, I took out the Skred and Cackling Flame, and stupidly added Sun's Bounty (haven't mastered that card's use yet) and Kabuto Moth. I probably should have had 4 Moth in the main deck. It was always useful. My opponent was mana-screwed for most of game 2, but I couldn't quite finish him off. We played topdeck for a while before he conceded in frustration. (He was at 3 with clearly superior board position and sure to draw one of those life-gaining 4-drops at any moment.) I found out I hadn't boarded in all of my Blessed Breath so I did that. Game three, more of the same. Orzhov is not a good matchup for Boros. The Legion doesn't really have many good matchups (except Pauper Selesnya, I guess). Why did I bring this deck when I knew the field would be full of the Syndicate? I guess you could say I love playing decks I enjoy more than I love winning. Or else you could say I'm stubborn.

Match #3, I somehow got paired up with ioginy of white/black fame. (I use his net-deck when I play Orzhov for testing. He seems to have mastered the color combo, at least in the current environment.) He got stuck on two plains game 1 and my Skyknights rolled over him. I boarded out Cackling Flames and Skred and brought in Moth and Breath. I might have traded one Frostling for another Blademaster, too. Game two, I made tons of dumb play-errors when faced up with an early Guardian and a Gutless Ghoul. Those Ghouls need to die ASAP. It might serve me to make a chart of burn priority for the Orzhov matchup, because tonight I never seemed to kill the thing that was causing me the most problems. Match three was, again, more of the same, with two early Blind Hunters compelling me to concede the match and save us both a few extra clicks.

I came up with a card idea while I was playing Orzhov tonight: a red common that lets you remove a creature you control in play from the game to deal damage to something. Obviously it'd have to be a sorcery. Even if it only hit creatures, it's still an effect red is in dire need of. Is it even in flavor? Possibly... it's like sacrifice, only SUPER-sacrifice.

I also came up with a couple new deck ideas that may be more viable post-rotation, since Boros is losing Frostling, Blessed Breath, and Yamabushi's Flame, and Kabuto Moth (and Kitsune Blademaster, if anyone cares about him). Both of my new ideas use red and white. I'll be working on those secret tech decks... secretly.

I enjoyed the few Standard PDC events that I attended, even if I didn't have the best of luck through most of them. It's fun to see lots of different decks being played (though never against me), and it keeps the format... dynamic? Alive? I don't know. The initial turn-out tonight was stellar, but as predicted people dropped fast and hard, usually after their first loss. It's too bad that has to be the case but it's a pretty late event. I'm actually done writing this now, because I need to sleep myself.