Hello again, and welcome back to limited strategies, today I will talk about the last week Thursday Night Magic Online, the format was 4-booster sealed with a deck of 30 cards, obviously with 30 cards milling is a powerful option, but that’s not the only choice in this format, it’s basically like normal sealed, but the only difference it’s that the luck factor it’s more influence in the card pool you’ve got than in the draws, I intended to play in the 5:00 pm CTD, but I had a lot of things to do and ended up playing in the 10:00 pm CTD.
I was a bit nervous because I wasn’t sure how much lands to play and stuff like that, after doing some math I came to the conclusion that playing 13-14 lands it’s the equivalent to playing 17-18 in the 40 card deck. So the event began at 10:00 pm exactly and I saw my card pool which was a little bit awesome.
So the first thing I saw was the 2 Juggernauts in the card pool, that card just rocks, so it was obvious that I was playing those 2 no matter what.
The other thing that caught my eye was the 3 Wild griffins I opened, also in white I had other good cards like condemn and Siege Mastodon. I liked the idea of playing 3 flyers and 2 Juggernauts, so I kept in mind playing white.
In blue I liked the thing that I had 2 Jace’s Ingenuity which is a very good card, casting one is awesome and well having two it’s better, but something lacked blue that I didn’t like, creatures, my card pool didn’t have any creatures so I didn’t considered and checked out the next color.
My black wasn’t strong but it was nice, Assassinate, Gravedigger, Sign in Blood and Nightwing Shade are all nice also I liked that I had two pieces of removal in this color (Stabbing Pain and Assasinate) I also had a pretty neat sideboard with duress, to keep him out of a removal card or a good card like a Planeswalker or an aura that could affect seriously the table, with this in mind I considered black and checked out the next color.
Green was all about the 2 Greater Basilisk and the Spined Wurm, which it’s not bad but, if I’m playing G/W creatures I’d like some removal like pacifism or stuff to support it, also I liked that cultivate to splash that nice Fireball in red, but I think it’s not enough to make it so I let it pass.
The red card pool was awful, the only card that was worthy playing was Fireball and since I’m not making any splash I didn’t considered so I let it out of my mind right away and I focused on the two colors I liked the most Black and White.
So the cards that I liked in those two colors were the griffins. Gravedigger, condemn , excommunicate, assassinate and sign in blood. It seemed it could be a nice deck, I ended up playing this decklist
With my deck ready and after a nice dinner, I’m ready to start playing my matches and I start against a G/W aggressive deck with a lot of bombs.
Round 1
Game 1
I liked my starting seven which was (2 Plains, Swamp, Viscera Seer, Squadron Hawk, Assassinate, Wild Griffin) so I kept it, my opponent won the roll and chose to play first.
[T: 1] My opponent played plains and casted Goldenglow Moth and passed the turn. [D: Swamp] I played my swamp and casted Viscera seer.
[T: 2] My opponent played forest and casted Ajani’s Mantra. [D: Swamp] I played my plains, attacked with seer [O: 19] and casted my Squadron Hawk.
[T: 3] My opponent chose to gain a life in his upkeep [O: 20] played a plains and casted Sword of Vengeance. [D: Plains] I played my plains, attacked with both of my creatures [O: 18] and casted wild griffin post combat.
[T: 4] He chose to gain life with mantra [O: 19] then played his plains, equipped his moth with sword and bashed [DL: 18] he then casted another moth. [D: Condemn] I played a plains and passed the turn without a play.
[T: 5]He gained life [O: 20] attacked with moth [DL: 16] and casted Giant Spider, in his end step I sacrificed seer to scry [Plains : Bottom] [D: Stabbing Pain] I played my swamp and killed his Equipped moth.
[T: 6] In his upkeep [O: 21] played a forest and equipped his goldenglow moth I chose to condemn his moth [O: 22] and took the spider damage [DL: 14] [D: Safe Passage] I played my plains and assassinated his spider, then I proceeded to attack with both of my creatures [O: 19] and passed.
[T: 7] Upkeep [O: 20] played a plains and passed the turn. [D: Juggernaut]. I attacked with my creatures [O: 17] and then casted my Juggernaut.
[T: 8] [O: 18]My opponent passed without a play. [D: Wild Griffin] I attacked with my team and he condemned my Juggernaut [DL: 17] [O: 15] and then casted my wild griffin, he casted plummet into my untapped wild griffin in my end step.
[T: 9] [O: 16] My opponent played forest and passed the turn. [D: Siege Mastodon] I attacked with my team [O: 13] and casted my Mastodon.
[T: 10] [O: 14] My opponent played Infantry Veteran and then equipped with sword. [D: Swamp] I attacked with my whole team [O: 8] played my swamp and passed the turn.
[T: 11] [O: 9] My opponent played Ajani’s pridemate, equipped with the sword and attacked with it helped with a veteran pump. [DL: 12] [D: Plains] I attacked with my team [O: 3] and then played my plains.
After that my opponent concedes when I casted my Safe passage.
Game 2
In this game I had an opening hand of (2 Swamps, Plains,2 Wild Griffin, Gravedigger, Siege Mastodon)
[T: 1] Opponent plays forest and casts Wall of Vines, [D: Sign in blood] I play swamp and pass.
[T: 2] My opponent plays plains and passes [D: Nightwing Shade] I play swamp and cast Sign in blood [DL: 18] [D: Plains, Safe Passage] and discard Shade before passing.
[T:3] Opponent plays forest and pass [D: Plains] I play plains and cast wild griffin.
[T: 4] Opponent plays plains and casts Giant Spider. [D: Assassinate] I play plains and cast Gravedigger returning Shade to my hand.
[T: 5] Opponent plays forest and casts Garruk Wildspeaker [L: 4] untaps 2 lands and casts Sword of vengeance. [D: Stabbing Pain] I cast stabbing pain tapping Spider and then I Assassinate it, then I attacked Garruk with both creatures [L: 2] and pass.
[T: 6] Opponent plays Juggernaut, untaps two lands [L: 3] and equipped his Juggernaut with his sword bashing in the combat step [DL: 11] and passes. [D: Safe Passage]
[T: 7] Opponent attacked with Juggernaut [DL: 4] casts another wall of vines and made a token with garruk [L: 2] [D: Juggernaut] I pass without making a move.
[T: 8] My opponent made a beast token [L: 1] excommunicate the shade and equipped his beast with sword, he bashed with everything, I tried to fight back but eventually I lost.
Game 3
I keep my inicial seven (Juggernaut, 2 Plains, Swamp, Gravedigger, Excommunicate, Siege Mastodon) and my oponent as well.
[T:1] I play my plains and pass. My opponent plays plains and casts infantry veteran
[T: 2] [D: Safe Passage] I play swamp and pass. My opponent plays forests and attacks [DL: 19] post-combat he casts a wall of vines.
[T: 3] [D: Swamp] I play plains and pass. Opponent plays plains attacks with veteran [DL: 18] and casts another wall of vines.
[T: 4] [D: Swamp] I play swamp and cast juggernaut, then pass. My opponent plays juggernaut as well and passes.
[T: 5] [D: Stabbing Pain] I play swamp and kill Veteran with stabbing pain, then I attack, my opponent decides to trade his juggernaut and I cast safe passage to save mine. Opponent plays War priest of thune and a third wall of vines.
[T: 6] [D: Condemn] I attack with Juggernaut [O: 15] and post-combat cast Mastodon. My opponent casts Garruk Wildspeaker making a 3/3 token [L: 2]
[T:7] [D: Nightwing shade] I excommunicate the beast token, then I attack with both of my creatures the planeswalker, my opponent blocks both of them and I pass. My opponent plays forest, uses -1 garruk ability [L: 1] and casts Sword of vengeance.
[T: 8] [D: Assassinate] I attack with both of my creatures, my opponent blocks both and a Gravedigger post combat returns my Juggernaut to my hand. My opponent excommunicates Mastodon, and untaps two lands [L: 2]
[T: 9] [D: Siege Mastodon] I recast my mastodon and pass. My opponent plays a land, makes a token [L: 1] equips the token with the sword and attacks [DL: 13]
[T: 10] [D: Plains] I play my plains and cast my shade leaving mana up to condemn his token. My opponent doesn’t attack and passes.
[T: 11] [D: Mind Rot] I cast the mind rot recently drawn and my opponent discards his hand (Condemn, Plains) I attack with my shade and my opponent decides to offer his wall of vines. My opponent makes a token [L: 1] and attacks with the equipped beast, I condemned him [O: 18] and post combat he equips the sword.
[T: 12] [D: Swamp] I play my swamp and kill garruk with my shade and pass. My opponent plays Giant Spider and attacks with beast [DL: 8]
[T: 13] [D: Wild Griffin] I attack with my shade and pump it two times [O: 14] post combat I cast my Wild Griffin. My opponent plays a forest and casts Triskelion then he attacks with the beast I block with all my creatures, he kills the griffin with his triskelion and I killed his beast because he misclicked and ordered awful my mastodon lives.
[T: 14] [D: Swamp] I play a swamp and attack with my shade which I pump two times [O: 10] then I cast a Juggernaut. My opponent equips the giant spider and attacks I misplay blocking with both creatures and no damage passes
[T: 15] [D: Juggernaut] I attack with shade and again pump it two times [O: 6] and cast another Juggernaut. My opponent attacks again and this time I make no mistake and block only with mastodon.
[T: 16] [D: Swamp] I play my swamp and attack with both creatures my opponent decides to trade his spider and triskelion. My opponent casts a Giant spider and equipped it with sword and then attacked [DL: 4]
[T: 17] [D: Swamp] I play my swamp and here we are in an interesting situation
Ok here if I attack with both creatures, the opponent has to block the shade and he goes down to 1 but if he plays another cheap creature and equips it with the sword, he wins, after thinking a bit, I decide it’s better to play it safe only attacking with Juggernaut because he has to and pass the turn. Opponent draws and passes.
[T: 18] [D: Wild Griffin] I cast griffin and pass. My opponent casts Ajani’s Mantra and passes.
[T: 19] [D: Plains] I attack with my shade and he eats the spider. My opponent concedes in his main phase.
I don’t have any replay from the other two rounds, I hate MOL for that but anyway I will try to remember pretty much everything I can
Round 2
Game 1
My opponent was playing a R/G with a little black and white splash for pacifism and doom blade, in this game he gets out his two bombs (Hoarding Dragon, searching for Whispersilk Cloak, and Protean Hydra) I draw blanks and he wins.
Game 2
I remember my first play was a first turn duress which discarded him his Shiv Embrace, then I drew my Juggernauts and Flyers he didn’t do anything.
Game 3
He played a Pyromancer and enchanted him with Shiv embrace, I excommunicated it and attacked with flyers, then he played Hoarding Dragon which he didn’t traded with juggernaut, later he did traded it but I was ready with a Gravedigger, and he conceded.
Round 3
Game 1
This deck was basically the same that on the first round but instead of having Sword he had Hydra, so in the game he drew his bombs and I drew blanks.
Game 2
He drew garruk and hydra and overruned my army.
So with 6 points I had a lot of fun and won 3 boosters which was awesome, TNMO is a great way of preparing for the FNM and having a lot of fun, I liked this format and I think my deck wasn’t bad. Hope you liked this week article.
