Tournament of n00bs (Day 7)

On the final day of my active participation in the round-robin, I dropped my 8th and final match to the tournament’s dark horse. He played a Black/White deck – both life-draining and life-restoring (from the Time Spirals era of M:TG, IIRC). Nothing spectacular occurred this game outside the usual events. I found myself skipping the first several turns before I could play Onyx Goblet (meaning at least I wasn’t going to be shut-out). I played several Dragon Fodder, giving tokens promptly used as meat-shields until a Flying creature came around. The match was rather forgettable.

I walk away from this tournament with one all-important lesson: choose a strategy and stick to during deck-building. Conflux was so shiny and new and I easily bought into the idea of 5-colour play. Domain abilities were so tempting. The thought of Might of Alara granting +5/+5 to any creature was intense. Exploding Borders dealing five in damage instantly could turn the tide of any game.

But the key, I think, was to avoid such temptation. Domain could have been just as effective at 3 colours. I’ll take a +3/+3 boost any day if it costs only 1 mana to cast. Trouble came when my Hellkite Overlord, a star in my tournament deck showed up in my hand. It costs 8 to play, which is not a problem if you built your deck following the classic 60/40 card ratio rule and only 3 colours. On average you should be able to play it within the first 10 turns or so. But in my 5-colour deck, it was entirely possible my vast collection of mana was still missing a key Swamp, Mountain, or Forest.

I think my next step, sadly outside the tournament, will be to reduce the colours of my deck and go back to the classic Jund configuration. Seed all 4 Hellkite Overlord cards among all my other Jund “greatest hits.” And then worry about the cheap creatures I will need to populate in the deck. Most importantly, follow the prescribed Jund strategy of “dog-eat-dog.” Take advantage of the Devour keyword. Or even try using the Dragon’s Herald’s ability in combination with a Hissing Iguanar on the table. Sacrifice 3 creatures to automatically bring in Hellkite Overlord and simultaneously deal 3 in damage? Sold!

Now to put my theories into practice…

This is the end of my Tournament of n00bs column but I will post the occasional battle-reports. And of course, also my play-test results after I reconfigure my deck back to the classic Jund setup.