FNM

[Into the Aether]

I figured I might as well make this thread seeing as nobody else has.

I enjoy going to FNM to test my decks. Winning isn't as important as seeing how well my creations do against the current meta. In my hometown FNM is very big and all of the powerhouse standerd decks are present such as Jund, Mythic, Vamps, RDW, RUW walker control, and a variety of other basment creations.

I plan on posting about the various FNM events I plan on going to starting with one tonight. If anyone else has any coll FNM stories, feel free to join in.

[Into the Aether]

So, My fellow mages and I crammed into my car as we drove off to FNM. It was a completly new environment for us with an unknown meta. My weapon of choice, the alara blades. My comrades, Browncoat and two others one who used to play magic alot and is resisting our urges to get back into it, and the other mage is named Richard who is a eager new mage ready to jump into standerd. Neither of them had decks of there own so I lent them My Vampire beat (Killian) and my Eldrazi Elves. (Richard). Blades is the weakest of the three but I aim to have fun, and in a new meta I figured I would go completly rougue in my build.

The deck consists of:
1x Maelstorm Pulse
2x Terminate
4x Blightning
4x Bloodbraid Elf
3x Knight of New Alara
4x Jund Hackblade
3x Enlisted Wurm
4x Bant Sureblade
4x Esper Stormblade
4x Naya Hushblade
1x Bitumonus Blast
3x Emerge Unscathed
1x Every Basic Land
2x Rootbound Crag
2x Drowned Catacombs
1x Glacial Fortress
3x Savage lands
2x Seaside Citidel
1x Arcane Sanctum
4x Terramorphic Expanse
1x Ancient Ziggurat
2x Celestial Colonade
1x Evolving Wilds

The deck runs fairly smoothly, though can be either very fast or very slow and controlling. This inconsistancy proved to be both usefull and annoying later in the night.

Round 1: Another rougue build. It was a black/white board wiper with luminarch ascension as a win condition. I was on the play game one and dropped a turn 2 stormblade followed by a turn 3 hackblade that swung in for 6. He dropped an o-ring targeding the stormblade which was countered by my emerge unscathed. I threw down a hushblade and swung for another 6. Turn four he wiped the board with day of judgement. I landed a bloodbraid into a hackblade. He scooped. I didn't see enough of his deck to really know what to sb other than violent outburst to add some speed. Game two I simply played around the boardwipe and triple blightninged him into defeat. I felt like a jerk having been on his end of the blightning my share of times but thats the way it goes.
1-0

Game 2:
After round 1 we all gathered and shared info on opponents. Perry, ie Browncoat had RDW and blasted through to win 1-0. Richard had beaten a bant build to go 1-0 as well. Unfortunatly Killian had run into the jund and that deck is tough already but vampires loses 99 out of 100 matched against jund to begin with. Game 2 matches were posted andI was playing Richard. Unfortunatly for him it was my deck and I knew its in and outs.

I knew I had to win fast because all he needed to do was drop the eldrazi monument and it would be over. I also knew it was removalless. I had a sureblade, a hackblade and a bloodbraid to his 2 elvish archdruids, 1 visionary and 1 llanowar. After blightning him down to 1 card he dropped warcaller kicked twice and swung in hard. Luckily I had opened with a terminate in hand and was ready. Next turn I dropped the knight of new alara. That was game. I sb in qasali pridemage and swap out emerge unscathed. He dropped another warcaller early in the game and when i went to terminate it, he gave it shroud with vines of vastwood. I was impressed and he was learning. I have been killing his walkers with my flying stormblade and stopped his monument with my pridemage. His deck ran out of gas as I continued to cascade for the win.
2-0

Perry had also won moving to 2-0 and killian had the bye 1-1. Richard and Killain were matched in game three and I was matched with jund.
Match 3:
I knew I was in trouble and that I had to move fast. I beat him down to 2 life before running out of steam. My board was slowly killed as he bitblasted into a terminate. Then he dropped broadmate and I was done. I sb in violent outburst and bolt, taking out wurms and stormblades. However I was blightninged to turns in a row and was then destroyed with sarkan the mad and sprouting thrinax.
2-1
I didn't mind losing, He was a nice guy and would later offer some pointers on how to upgrade the deck.

Perry had also tasted defeat in losing to a white weany aggro build complete with ajani and giddeon. Richard had beaten Killian advancing to 2-1. Killian had to horrible draws and Richard had Great Sable Stags in his sb.

My next opponent was none other than the white weany player. This was also going to be tough.
Match 4:
I opened very slowly with 3 tap lands and he had dropped turn 1 and 2 Elite Vanguards, followed by Honor of the Pure. I lost quickly and painfully. Game 2 I had the play and managed to drop a hushblade followed by a hackblade to gain a quick upperhand. This was followed by a bloodbraid into a blightning to criplle his hand. He was also slightly mana screwed and had kept a slower hand asuuming I would be as slow as I was in game 1. Game 3 was interesting. He had sbed in O-ring,Journey, and Path. I had sbed in Qasali to deal with the honor of the Pure but it also helped with the Ring and Journy. I also put in bolt over the wurn assuming I would not play it. I started quickly with a sureblade and a husblade. He pathed the sureblade but this only helped my manabase. I bolted his ajani and the board was left with his Kor skyfisher and my bant sureblade. I was down to two life and he had dodged my first terminate with a brave the elements. I dropped another and waited for the response which was him saying crap. I then blightninged the rest of his hand next turn and proceded to beat him to death with a sure blade and a bloodbraid.
3-1
Perry and Richard had both won to go 3-1 as well. Killian won and finished at 2-2. Now we waited to see who would go to the top 4. Jund had lost to another elf deck but was also 3-1 and the elf player went 4-0. The end result was Richard and I moving into the top 4 as perry got 5th.

Match 5: I was with Jund... Again. And unfortunatly the matched followed the same pattern as before. I was left with no hand both games and was considering putting in ming spring. However the jund player commented saying he loved the idea of blades and reccomended using just naya colors to stabalize the mana making it slightly fater as well as giving me the ability to run wooly thoctar or behemoth sledge. I do like the idea of the sledge but as for the naya colors I wasn't sure. I like being on the other side of blightning . I walked away with my FNM promo Anathamancer. I was slightly saddend by the lack of price support but it was free so no complaining. Richard beat the other elf user in 2 games and proceded to meat the same fate as me against jund. I was happy though. My decks faired well. Now the only thing left to do was try and find our way home (it was much easier than finding our way down). I also won a free cheeseburger at BK so all in all it was a good day.