March 7, 2010

Faster, Vampire! Kill! Kill!
Psst - this was posted

Howdy, I’m James Mathias, Mathew asked me to help author this blog, and this is my first post, a little story about how last Friday I went down to my local spot for some Type 2 FNM. I decided to play a Vampire deck, as the last time I played competitively I played Jund and ended up having no fun. I promised myself I would only play fun decks from then on. I have a couple other decks that would have been fun too, but I decided that Vampires would be fun, and at least a little competitive.

By 1am, I had a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and 0 draws. Not bad, considering I’m not a really competitive guy and also considering three of the five rounds were bad match ups for Vampires.

Round one was against “Turbo Fog”. I got a strong start, then he ramped into his Angel Songs and Safe Passages, I promptly lost game one. I conceded game two, I didn’t feel like wasting time playing against a deck I couldn’t possibly beat. I told the kid that it was a douche bag deck designed to be douche-y and not fun. He packed up his stuff and left very quickly, pretty sure I damaged him psychologically. 0-1-0.

I made some big trades in between rounds one and two, I got all but two of the cards needed to complete my full play set of Worldwake. Also pretty sure the first guy I traded with stole two Stone Forge Mystics from me, bummer.

Round two was against a Bant variant. Bant, even with Birds and Noble Hierarch is too slow for a good opening Vamps hand. This match went to 2 games I won both handily. 1-1-0.

Some more nice trades in between two and three, which netted me 3 of the 9 cards I needed to finish my Zendikar full play set. Boom!

Third round, against my friend Andy, who played “Summoning Iona”. First game I overran him with tiny vamps, and dropped a Vampire Nocturnus turn 4, he scooped. Game two, he faired much better and dropped Iona naming black on turn 5. I scooped. Game three I got a great opener and ran him down again quickly. 2-1-0.

More trades, now I have all but 3 cards for Zendikar, and a few new generals for EDH and a play set of WolfBriar Elemental for my son.

Round four, I got paired with a Red Mage. “Red Deck Wins” is a bad match for Vamps, really bad. Game one went like this, Not kidding. Mountain, Bolt, 3 to face, pass. Swamp, pass. Mountain, Burst Lightning, 2 to face, pass. Swamp, Gatekeeper of Malakir, pass. Mountain, Ball Lightning, 6 to face, pass. Swamp, and so on. He did 11 points of damage to me before I got to swing. Needless to say this match went 2-0 him. 2-2-0.

Traded for another general and a few cards for M10, including Garruk Wildspeaker and two Ant Queens.

Last round, against Boss Naya, boo. I won the first game, easily. Second game went to him, easily. Pretty even match so far. Game three. He drops a Sunpetal Grove. I drop swamp and Vampire Lacerator. He misses his second land drop but plays a Noble Hierarch. I drop swamp and then Gatekeeper of Malakir, 2 to his face. He misses third land, plays another Noble Hierarch. I’m swamp, and Nighthawk. He misses land, Great Sable Stag, I’m “Oh, No!” He won the game with two Stags and three Noble Hierarch and one land.

After all was said and done I came in 21st in a field of 43 players, not too bad for my fifth Magic competition ever.

While waiting for my buddy who made top 8, I made some final trades that netted me a full play set of Worldwake, including one epic trade for Jace the Mind Sculptor. Also picked up another General, who I think I will be building my next EDH deck around.

All in all it was an epic night, and a ton of fun.