Apparently I have comprehension deficit disorder, or senile dementia, or some such. The way I understood the schedule for FNM was that "every other week" was Modern. The way the schedule actually works is the first and last Fridays of a month are Standard, and everything in between is Modern; a monthly Modern sandwich. Me, being the gregarious slug that I am, had already rounded up Riddles and John, and off we trundled for some Modern FNM.
All Dressed Up and Nowhere To Go
John and Riddles didn't really want to play Standard, and we didn't have decks anyway. I shouted across the room if anyone had a deck to loan for the evening. Would you loan your deck to some random bellowing wild eyed homeless looking old man you had only met a few weeks ago, and have only seen once or twice? Didn't think so. No one had a Standard deck available.
As we were getting ready to make our way back home, Shane shouted out for us to hang on a moment, he had an idea. Shane asked me to sleeve up his Jeskai deck while he made his way upstairs to purchase the Magic 2015 Clash Pack: Fate and Fury. (I liked what I saw of Shanes puppy during the sleeving process) When he came back down, Riddles really didn't wanna play Standard, but John was down. John and I flipped over who got which half of the Clash Pack. I became a victim Fate. Story of my life.
I had just enough time to break the seal on the deck and shove it into penny sleeves. I was trying to figure out how this thing worked from the cards I was seeing while hurriedly sleeving. As soon as I had the last card in its sleeve, the pairings were called, and off I went.
Derek / GR Devotion
With a new deck in virgin penny sleeves, my first attempt at a shuffle exploded across my lap, the table, and the floor. After gathering up my cards and counting 'em twice to make sure, I got 2 passes into the shuffle before I did it again. *sigh*
Pick up the cards. Count 'em. Ok. I slowly and carefully finished shuffling.
We got down to business, and there was not a lot I could do to keep him from ramping out fatty after fatty. It was quite discouraging. I stalled and pinged as best as I could, but he was hitting me hard. Soon enough, he bashed in for a whole bunch and took me to very low single digits. On his second main, he popped out another Hornet Queen, with its attendant tokens. I had no cards in hand, was looking at more than lethal, and didn't believe there was anything in this deck that could save me. After all, it was an off-the-shelf WotC preconstructed deck. One half of a Clash Pack that was designed to play against the other half.
I decided to scoop.
I've been kicking myself ever since. I looked at my next draw. Aetherspouts. The one and only card in the entire deck that may have changed that first game. I'm still kicking myself. I keep telling myself that in the long run, with this deck, on the first game playing it, not knowing exactly what's in the deck... with all those factors, that one play didn't mean much.
Still. It was an anencephalic move. Perhaps it was fate conspiring to teach me a lesson. (see what I did there?) Well, lesson well learned: never scoop before your draw. Ever.
As if to spank me for being a Dumb Ass, Game Two was a much more direct stomping. I don't believe I had much of a chance to begin with, matchup-wise, and I'm sure my piloting made it an easy shot for him.
L 0-2 / 0-1 Overall
Linden / Stuff
Linden was joking about how his deck wasn't really competitive, and how he got trounced in the last Round, but his deck came out picture perfect on Game One, and we were on to Game Two quickly. Rinse and repeat
Linden's deck wasn't really White Weenie; the creatures and CMC of the spells made it more like White Soldier Heroic Prowess; or Cheap Good Stuff w/synergy. I really didn't get a chance to note what was what before I was dead, so I don't have any specifics. We were talking about that, and what to call this deck. That issue was left unresolved, so I'm calling it Stuff.
L 0-2 / 0-2 Overall
Jeskai Aggro
Shane Horton, 1st (3-0-1), FNM, Oct 3rd 2014 @ Tramps
I had a lot of time to kill before the next round, so peeked in on Shane, who was playing against Cory. Shane was playing a Jeskai Aggro deck with murderous efficiency.
I only caught Game Two, but a pair of Monastery Swiftspears were proving to be vicious: with two or three Prowess activations per turn, they were tearing away at Corys life total in huge swaths while he was still struggling to get set up. It was not pretty.
Jeskai has been doing well here at the beginning of the new Standard. Compare the Aggro plan Shane chose to the Tempo plan played by the pros at SCG New Jersey.
The immediate difference (it practically jumps in your face) is the addition of four Monastery Swiftspear. Sure, it only dinks for one on Turn One, but on Turn Two, it's not unreasonable to lay a second Swiftspear and swing for four, and your opponent is already a quarter dead. It only gets better from there.
The second difference is the spell base, which shows some major surprises. First off, the "Tempo" builds do not pack any mainboard countermagic, it's mainly burn.
Meanwhile, the Aggro build packs mainboard Mindswipe, which also happens to double as burn.
Aggro being Aggro, it's not surprising to see a mainboard combat trick "gotcha" like Deflecting Palm. It was fun watching Cory swing in with a fatty only to have it suddenly reversed right back into his own face. This took him down to 2, and a Magma Jet sealed the deal.
I see Clever Impersonator in the decklist, but I never did see it hit the table. According to Shane, he only drew and played it in one game, and that game didn't really matter. (Shane and Derrek (my Round One opponent) officially ID'd for Round Four, but played it out "for funsies" after reporting. Shane won 2-0) In the first game, it became another Goblin Rabblemaster. In the other, a second Mantis Rider.
After seeing this deck in action, I think it's going to be a long three weeks refining Animal Quackers.
It looked like there was still plenty of time; three games were still going on. I wandered outside to enjoy a tobacco refreshment and watch the crowds on Scarth St. Not that there were many people out, we're starting winter up here. We already had out first snowfall and everything. Anyway, it seems my cigarette kept going out because I was ignoring it while people watching, amongst other things. It took me much longer than I realized to finish my smoke, and only when John came out and told me the pairings for Round Three were up did I scurry back downstairs to find that I had been paired with...
BYE
During the BYE, I was sitting at a table going over my notes, and going through this Fate deck piecing together all the various interactions and implications. I heard a pounding on the back door. Since everyone else was playing, I hobbled up the stairs to answer. Halfway up, I heard the pounding again, so I shouted out in my "carry-across-the-field" dad voice "Hang on, I'm coming!" Just before I open the back door, I shout again "What's the password?"
Silence.
I open the door. No one. I step outside to look about. No one.
As I turn to head back in, I heard a rustling across the alley, and a little girl (late teens? early 20s?) bolts out of the shadows of a doorway, and said "I didn't recognize your voice so I ran away!" as she scurried past me (taking care to stay out of arms reach) and ran downstairs.
Sometimes I don't realize my own powers.
BYE / 1-2 Overall
Mitch / Temur
This game took a long time, and it was the only Round during which I won a game. By this time, I had an inkling of how the deck was supposed to work, and piloted it a bit better. There was lots of skull sweat involved on every turn as I agonised and weighed this over that versus the other. I don't even remember which game I won; only that the whole match was one long thinkfest. We were second to last table done.
I was pleased as punch that I had managed to win one game (not match, game) playing an off-the-shelf wizzos core set precon deck w/no sideboard, no forewarning, and no deck content knowledge, in a "competitive" event. I don't like playing . I'm much more of an "in your face" style player. The Fate deck is best utilized by a play style pretty much the polar opposite of how I like to play.
Still. I won a game!
L 1-2 / 1-3 Overall, last place
I'd like to note that John, who was playing the Fury half of the Clash Pack, ended up 2-2. The Fury deck is more of a straightforward pump & bash. He said it was relatively easy to pilot, and Arbor Colossus was his all-star, and saved his butt many times.
Man. All these years writing about Modern, and now I'm subjecting you to Standard. No worries. I have 3 weeks of Modern FNMs coming up.
One more thing before I wrap this section up:
Haha, approve of the nickname Taylor Swiftspear. For God's sake, she wrote an entire album named Red!
Overdrive!, which started on July 4th, 2011, is the original Modern format Player-Run Event! In fact, Overdrive! is even older than Modern, having started out as an event in the Overextended format. Overdrive! is a single elimination event: two men enter, one man leaves. Registration is done via Gatherling. You can find more information at the main event thread here.
Overdrive! #152
Players: 13
Champion: pelao26 / Soul Sisters
Runner up: ChineseNotebook / Melira Pod
Decklists and results from all Overdrive! events can be found here.
pelao28 brought his signature deck, and once again showed 'em how it's done; plowing through GW Exalted, U Tron, a mirror match, and Melira Pod to come out as Overdrive! #152 champion. This is his 14th time sitting on the podium!
ChineseNotebook took Melira Pod out for a dance. He podded his way through MBC Vampires, Slivers, and DuskCrank before being shut down by Soul Sisters.