Kicked off 2014 at the last FNM Booster Draft in a reasonable way, placing 8th on 16 (although there were twice as many players attending, hence 4 draft pods). I was strongly determined to go with the flow, i.e. fully adapt to the cards without prior color preference. As it happened, my first pick was a Ember Swallower, so definitely playing Red. A Triton Tactics and a couple of Crackling Triton plus a couple of Wavecrash Triton later, I was OK to stick with Blue and Red. However, I splashed some White, because I didn't want to pass on a Divine Verdict, and also a couple of Priest of Iroas might become useful. To speed up my couple of very playable Ill-Tempered Cyclops (and for generic ramping reasons, anyway), I also picked a Opaline Unicorn and a Burnished Hart. I almost fell of my chair when I got a Sea God's Revenge presented to me as a 7th or 8th pick ! That helped me quite a lot during play ... A couple of Coastline Chimera against flyers, and and a couple of Mnemonic Wall (to recycle my direct damage), and even a couple of crazy (not much pick choice left) Boulderfall made me feel relatively comfortable for my sideboard. During the 1st round against a pimarily White weenies (plus some Red) deck (mostly opening Favored Hoplite and then Chosen by Heliod ), I ended up 1-1 after time was called for, almost having finished off my opponent if it weren't for his bestowed Hopeful Eidolon. This all happened after my early unfortunate 3rd game mistake, casting some other creature instead of Opaline Unicorn which would otherwise have enabled my Sea God's Revenge a turn later, presumably having avoided my opponent's Ordeal of Heliod to go off, unless he would have held a Gods Willing, of course). My 2nd opponent played primarily Black/Red, including some nasty Stormbreath Dragon, Keepsake Gorgon, surprise Mogis's Marauder, and additional Thoughtseize for hand disruption : 0-2 loss (although I did come close twice). Finally, my last opponent played Black/Blue control, however playing a lot of mediocre Returned Phalanx. I won 2-1, after killing my opponent during my very last turn (after time was called for). Yes, a lot of excitement and big fun ! Also, play buddies Jan and Sven managed to get some points in their draft pods, respectively.
I managed to obtain a reasonable result again (2-1, 1-1, 0-2, 1-1), at the 2014-02-01 Born of the Gods prerelease. This Sealed Deck format contained 50/50 Theros / Born of the Gods, however requiring an upfront color choice regarding the third Born of the Gods booster pack (containing a predefined rare promo card). After extensively having reviewed the set myself, I went for Green (which I rated slightly higher than Blue). I had a difficult card pool, eventually settling on Green plus less White (plus even less Red, although not splashing, since a decent core bi-color unfortunately wasn't playable). I actually used the Nessian Wilds Ravager promo a couple of times during play, but in some late game low life spots the lack of trample was problematic. I obviously played some enchantment creatures, like a couple of well powered Nyxborn Wolf. My Aspect of Hydra stayed in my sideboard, making room for primarily Red combat tricks (like Rise to the Challenge and Fall of the Hammer), and White removal (like Excoriate). I sometimes played Kragma Butcher, and sometimes the debatable Impetuous Sunchaser. My couple of also debatable Loyal Pegasus didn't always stay out of my sideboard either. Bottom line : not so much consistency, and simply hoping for the best ... That actually worked out well against my first Black/Blue opponent, but time prevented a 2-1 win against my second (almost mirror) Green/White opponent. During the third Swiss round, my opponent's Blue/Red deck was simply better than mine. I was probably lucky that the call for time left me at a 1-1 end result against my fourth Black/Red minotaurs opponent. After getting mana-screwed during the first game, he managed to play his awesome Mogis, God of Slaughter during the second game, plus Claim of Erebos onto a Servant of Tymaret, a Spiteful Returned, and so on. The third game might have gone the same way, because his God showed up yet again during the last 5 turns in the third early game stage (i.e. after time was called for). Anyway, I received 1 Born of the Gods booster pack as tourney prize money, and guess what ... it contained 2 mythic rares : Ephara, God of the Polis plus no less than a foil Chromanticore). Pure magic !
2014-02-07 : first Born of the Gods Booster Draft (containing 2 Theros boosters). I started off with 2-1 wins, but lost the last round 0-2. Getting the hang of it, I again wanted to go with the draft pick flow, and my very first pick actually was a Pillar of War, keeping all options open. This matched my hope to build boats, i.e. go for the bestow game mechanic. After picking a Bile Blight and Black staying open further on (yes, even an incredible Nighthowler third pick later on), I hoped the emerging Akroan Conscriptor would keep me in Red. However, I necessarily switched to Green, eventually turning up with a very reasonable Black/Green deck, including some useful situational cards, like a couple of Fade into Antiquity, a couple of Claim of Erebos, a Servant of Tymaret, and multiple intimidate cards : Mogis's Marauder, Forlorn Pseudamma, and 2 Cavern Lampad. Although playing 17 lands, there were a lot of Mulligans (both ways) against my first round Blue/Green opponent, where my continuous stream of optional 4 to 6 mana bestow spells eventually overwhelmed him, resulting in a 2-1 win. My second round was very interesting, in that it was the first time I actually played the mirror, i.e. facing a very similar Black/Green deck. Very strange to see the exact same lands and creature come into play during the initial turns. With all the bestow/deathtouch/trample and black removal from both sides, there was a lot of calculation involved. Luckily, I could immediately exile my opponent's Bow of Nylea during one of the games. I managed to trample my opponent into an overall 2-1 win during the very last turn in the third game, after time had been announced. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep up with my third round opponent, who played a fast Red/White deck, including low cost targeting such as Nyxborn Rollicker and Mortal's Ardor onto Akroan Crusader, the usual annoying combat tricks, plus an additional Felhide Spiritbinder. I came close but couldn't get even during the second game, hence a 0-2 loss. Somehow, despite the usual 3 Swiss rounds variance, that still put me in 5th place of 34 (as a combined 4 drafting pods result). Well, it's always what it is : serious competitive fun in a well-organized friendly FNM atmosphere !
My eventual 2014-03-07 Born of the Gods Booster Draft card pool didn't turn out as I wanted, after necessarily having abandoned cut-off colors. There wasn't much synergy in my URg (= Blue + Red + splash Green) deck, resulting in a (nevertheless better than expected) 1-2 loss, 2-1 win, 1-2 loss record, against BU, UGW, and UR decks, respectively. During the second game in my last match, on the draw, I actually mulliganed down to 1 card : a Mountain. I simply was prepared to explore the mulligan limits after successively having hit Murphy, who unfortunately provided me with zero land hands beyond 4 cards. Anyway, I successfully applied some recently acquired (bluffing and virtual information) knowledge from the TCGplayer.com 'Classroom' articles, so my serious fun time was definitely not wasted ...
On 2014-03-08, I participated in a 4-player private 'Born of the Gods'-only Sealed Deck + Booster Draft tourney (twice round-robin). I managed to emerge undefeated, although it came close at times : 2-1, 2-0, 2-1, and 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, respectively. In the Sealed Deck tourney, I constructed a RWu deck (including 7+7+3 basic lands, which I soon changed to 7+6+4, in order to support both splashed Vortex Elemental, in addition to both maindecked Sudden Storm and a Chorus of the Tides). I didn't have an easy card pool, but I managed to reasonable fill a slightly too high mana curve with a heteregeneous mix of Red/White non-bombs. Combining this with some good sideboard options, like a couple of Scouring Sands to supplement my maindecked other red burn spells, apparently turned out to be good enough to beat the competition ... The Booster Draft tourney was quite an adventure ! After my God-Favored General first pick, I was already dreaming about a RW tempo deck. During the first booster, I mainly picked Red and White removal, a couple of lovely Rise to the Challenge, and just a couple of creatures (including the Green Pheres-Band Raiders bomb). During the second booster, I grabbed only a couple of Red and White creatures, necessarily also including some moderate Green ones, plus a couple of Black Felhide Brawler. Since Black was heavily underdrafted during the first and second boosters, I also picked a Asphyxiate, to complement my Excoriate. Hence, after the second booster, I still didn't know which final color combination I would go for (although White would certainly become a main color, and Blue was out of the equation). Because I very often splash a third color, that wasn't my main concern. The third booster would actually need to come up with enough creatures (preferably Red and/or White), because I was still low on those. As it happened, Black again got underdrafted, so I simply took all Felhide Brawler (ending up with 5 in total), and luckily 2 more Excoriate (i.e. ending up with 3 in total). This very nicely completed my initial RW beatdown/tempo idea, which actually turned out as a similar aggressive very low mana curve BWr deck (including 7+7+4 basic lands, hence excluding both initially picked Bolt of Keranos). The green creatures (including mana acceleration) plus a Reap What Is Sown didn't make the cut, but I was extremely pleased with my build (despite only 14 creatures), especially considering my very late switch into Black. During play, I just lost 1 game because no Swamps appeared. Admittedly, I won a couple of close games due to tactical and strategic opponent errors, but the end result would not have differed much. For the non-believers : yes, my third and fourth splashed Red cards (Satyr Nyx-Smith and Lightning Volley) did pay off !
On 2014-04-13, I managed to place 39 out of 155 participants during the Theros Block (Theros + Born of the Gods) Sealed 'PTQ Portland' event at Outpost Antwerpen , i.e. not making it into the top 8. During the 8 Swiss rounds, I lost the first 3 ones against UW, BG, and GW, respectively (unfortunately getting mana screwed 1 game per match after 2 lands + 3 CMC creature opening hand keeps, despite, deliberately instead of 18, 17 = 9 + 4 + 4 basic lands + Voyaging Satyr and Burnished Hart in my Green + splash Blue for Sudden Storm and a couple of 3 CMC bestow creatures + splash Red primarily for Fall of the Hammer and a couple of Kragma Butcher creatures deck). After that, I won against G/W and crushed 3 R/W decks in a row, even after getting an official Warning during the 7th round for accidentally drawing an 8 cards opening hand, where 1 (all unsleeved) card was precisely sticking after another one during my ever cautious 3-1-3 face-down cards tabling count. By far the most interesting match (against a versatile B/U/W deck during the last Swiss round) ended in a draw, after losing the first half an hour blocked board game (but proceeding to 1-1 in game 2 and getting 'time' early during game 3). During the entire event, I only missed a trigger once (on my Pheres-Band Tromper), which actually didn't make any difference. Amongst my 10 Green creatures (out of 15 total) were the great Polukranos, World Eater (which I happily played on turn 3 a couple of times for a devastating effect), Nemesis of Mortals (which actually didn't help me that much), Mistcutter Hydra (whose haste effect helped decide some games), and a Nessian Asp. Sometimes, in low life points circumstances, I could get the deciding overwhelming number of attackers on the board by means of Fated Intervention, and my Time to Feed wasn't so bad either. I was a bit disappointed by my Mischief and Mayhem (which was too situational, and unfortunately sorcery speed). Apparently, I always forgot to swap in my sideboarded Graverobber Spider against flyers, but made active use of a.o. Voyage's End (against heavy hitters), Omenspeaker (against weenies), and even sometimes Horizon Scholar. During round 2 (on my first-round opponent's recommendation), I swapped out my entire red splash in favor of smaller blue critters. That didn't work out so well, so I stuck to my 3-color 'addiction' afterwards. All in all, a great MTG endurance workout (which must have been even a greater challenge for the top 8 contenders) at a great venue. Quite a different (i.e. now fully prepared) experience after my first GPT 1 year ago (which was my first official tourney after a 15+ years MTG break, when I had never even played the Sealed Deck format before ...). Wish I could prioritize playing more local GPTs/PTQs !
At the Journey into Nyx prerelease on 2014-04-26, I did not choose the Blue, nor the Green, nor the White (and certainly not the Black) box upfront. Instead, I went for the Red one, just to get out of my comfort zone. Unfortunately, the chosen color was not prominently present in my rather moderate card pool. During the 4 Swiss rounds, I tried 3 different deck configurations : first RGu, then WGu, and finally WGr. This resulted in a 1-2 loss (against BW), 2-0 win (against UW), 1-2 loss (against GR), and 2-0 win (against GW), the eventual equivalent of place 24 on 35 participants. Just some (mixed rarities) cards worth mentioning : Ajani, Mentor of Heroes (which I could never activate more than once, i.e. only whenever it came into play, immediately getting destroyed), Sudden Storm (which is a card I apparently never can resist putting in any deck), a couple of helpful evasive Bladetusk Boar, a Spawn of Thraxes promo (which I actually managed to cast), a couple of Magma Spray early game control, a debatable Sightless Brawler, and an ambiguous Oppressive Rays. Nevertheless : a fun experience, as always ...
My first 'Journey into Nyx' Booster Draft (on 2014-05-02) resulted in a 2-0 win (against my brother's GRW deck) and then twice 0-2 loss (against a BR early damage + late fatties, and fast RW deck, respectively). In fact, I wanted to play Blue plus preferably Green upfront, but my deck eventually turned out UWg (because Green dried up). I was a bit low on 1- and 2-drops, but I mainly had a very useful Curse of the Swine and a couple of Excoriate to complement my many (flying) 3- (and 4-) drops. Next time better ...
Let's quickly forget the 2014-05-16 Booster Draft : 2-1 win against UGR (suffering from mana flood and mana screw), 0-2 loss against RW, and 0-2 loss against Bw. My GR deck consisted of 4 uncommons (because of unplayable 1st pick Revel of the Fallen God rare), and that was about it. I actually went in unprepared, but let's hope for no headache next time ...
Finally, my first FNM win (Theros block Booster Draft) on 2014-06-27 : 1st place on 18 participants, winning 2-0 (vs. UW), 2-1 (vs. GW), and 2-0 (vs. UG, in casu my own brother). I drafted a removal-heavy Red splash Black deck, with following creatures : Nyxborn Rollicker, Impetuous Sunchaser, (2x) Reckless Reveler, Flamespeaker Adept, Archetype of Aggression, Ill-Tempered Cyclops, Fanatic of Mogis, Borderland Minotaur, Pharika's Chosen, Asphodel Wanderer, Fleshmad Steed, (1st booster, 1st pick) Master of the Feast, following spells : Titan's Strength, Magma Jet, Magma Spray, Lightning Strike, Bolt of Keranos, (finishing touch) Harness by Force, (2x my favorite) Flurry of Horns, Boon of Erebos, Gild, and following sideboard : Pharagax Giant, Gluttonous Cyclops, Loathsome Catoblepas, Archetype of Finality, Epiphany Storm, (2x) Scouring Sands, Rage of Purphoros, Feast of Dreams, Font of Return, Tormented Thoughts, plus some low-CMC Green and White creatures. Yes, it can be done ...
During the last Theros block Booster Draft on 2014-07-11, (despite a Pharika, God of Affliction first pick) I again went for Red as main color, ending up with Black and Green splashes. I had considerably less removal than last time, but a couple more pump spells. Some key cards this time were : Mogis's Warhound, Satyr Nyx-Smith, and the ever lovely Flurry of Horns. After having won the first game, I lost 1-2 to a RW opponent. I won the next 2 rounds : 2-1 against GR, and 2-0 against UW.
I participated in both Sunday 2014-07-13 M15 prerelease events. Because my upfront M15 analysis indicated Black as worst color, Green not having enough removal, and Red being too heterogeneous on creatures, I decided to go for Blue and White as seeded booster packs, respectively. My first card pool was really diappointing, because I only got a Into the Void and a Encrust as removal, instead of what I had hoped for. Blue being my main color, there were some playable creatures, anyway, like a couple of Frost Lynx, a Chasm Skulker, a Illusory Angel, the tricky Mercurial Pretender promo, and of course Soul of Ravnica. The first 2 rounds I made the mistake of trying to go for beatdown with both Red and White splashes, primarily for my 3 copies of both Hammerhand and Oppressive Rays. That cost me 0-2 losses against UW and GW opponents. I went 50/50 Blue/Green in the last round, using my 3 Invasive Species copies, plus a couple of Netcaster Spider and the usual mana acceleration. This resulted in a 2-0 win against BW, even without any Green removal/pump. Only relatively strong creature not used during this first event : Hoarding Dragon.
My second prerelease card pool wasn't very strong either, but at least the (seeded booster biased) White spells were more than OK, containing a.o : 3 Selfless Cathar, a Hushwing Gryff, a strong Geist of the Moors, the Avacyn, Guardian Angel bomb, a Seraph of the Masses, the Resolute Archangel super-bomb, a very useful Spirit Bonds, a couple of Marked by Honor, and a Triplicate Spirits. Only 2 good and 1 very moderate Blue removal spells (without decent Blue creatures at all) made me go for Green + Red splashes, intending to give up on the Red Crowd's Favor and both Goblin Roughrider if this initial setup would backfire (which it did, after a 0-2 loss vs a GW deck). The bigger Green splash during the last 2 rounds primarily contained a strong Sunblade Elf, a couple of borderline Siege Wurm, 2 Titanic Growth, and a Plummet, excluding both Overwhelm. That brought me a 2-0 victory against a BUW Grindclock / Mind Sculpt mill deck (only having 6 cards left during the last game after unknowingly having played a Satyr Wayfinder, where my opponent remaining blocked on 1 Plains while holding a Resolute Archangel). I lost the last match 1-2 against a countering / card draw heavy Chasm Skulker UW deck. More than honorary mention : my brother Kris won this tourney (having chosen Red as seeded booster color, and having discovered a Scuttling Doom Engine in addition to a couple of Dragons) ! I bet the upcoming M15 Booster Drafts will be quite interesting ...
First M15 Booster Draft on 2014-07-18. I (sometimes mis-)played a mono-White deck during the first 2 rounds, and only then added my Blue splash. Alas, 2-0 win vs GR, 1-2 loss vs BUG, and 1-2 loss vs RW (where I unfortunately witnessed my opponent's Resolute Archangel). Some highlights from my (mainly small creatures, hence meager midrange) convoke driven deck : Will-Forged Golem, Paragon of New Dawns, Avacyn, Guardian Angel, Seraph of the Masses, Devouring Light, First Response, Sanctified Charge, and a couple of Triplicate Spirits. My blue splash contained 2 Void Snare, a Into the Void, and even a Chronostutter.
Played another M15 Booster Draft (unprepared, right after family vacation) on 2014-08-15 : 0-2 loss against my brother's mono-Red deck, 2-1 win against a Black/Blue Grindclock deck, and 2-0 win against a (higher mana curve) Black/Green mirror deck. Some highlights : a first-pick Ob Nixilis, Unshackled, 3 Necromancer's Assistant accompanied by a Undergrowth Scavenger, a couple of Shadowcloak Vampire, Ulcerate, Crippling Blight, Siege Wurm, and Invasive Species each, plus various fillers. Learned a couple of things after my relatively slow drafting phase.
Meagre 2014-08-29 M15 Booster Draft result : 0-2 loss vs BR, 2-0 win vs BU, and 0-2 loss vs BUR mirror. Yes, after U dried up, I only splashed this color for a couple of Welkin Tern plus some of the usual U tricks, in addition to my mainly anonymous B and R commons deck (with the exception of a Indulgent Tormentor, and a couple of Circle of Flame which I unfortunately never drew during play). Also, my Endless Obedience remained idle, especially against my first Gravedigger / Rotfeaster Maggot opponent. Apparently, drafting (i.e. colors choice/switching) remains non-trivial ...
Despite the perhaps strange situation of not owning any Magic cards (i.e. sticking to the Limited format and donating those cards to my brother), I have enjoyed designing some Constructed (albeit proxy) decks. A couple of months ago, I decided I (just once) wanted to taste the Standard format again, after I last successfully played it in 1996 (at that time still called 'Type 2'). I absolutely wanted to build something around the, in my view, most efficient Master of the Feast monster creature in the last maximal (i.e. 8 card sets) Standard incarnation. Getting that creature onto the battefield as quickly as possible implied including Elvish Mystic, and protecting it during the remaining 4 turns clock led to Gods Willing. I documented the brief (2 months) evolution of my resulting Junk Aggro deck in my (Archived) Decks repository. On 2014-09-05 (i.e. almost right before the Khans of Tarkir rotation), I went 3-1 with version 'v1.0' during a FNM event, placing 5th out of 23 participants. I won 2-0 against Mono Black, then lost 1-2 against a weird 4-colors deck (losing the 3rd game at 1 life versus 2 life after repeatedly drawing no or the wrong non-basic land), won 2-0 against a Green/Red Ramp deck, and (rather to my surprise) won 2-0 against a Mono Green deck (even after my opponent's triple Burning-Tree Emissary start). This was all possible by borrowing most cards from my brother Kris, 5 other cards from Level 1 Judge Michiel Klapwijk (who actually won this FNM tourney), and 1 remaining card last-minute before tourney start from another local guy. Thank you all for that ! I was quite happy that my rogue deck performed very well after only limited prior playtesting ... What's more : my deck's core would survive the aforementioned rotation, so perhaps a 'v2.0' version might emerge after all ...
I went for the Mardu 'wedge' at the 2014-09-20 Khans of Tarkir prerelease event, reasoning that all (planeswalkers and) hard removal could be found in precisely those BRW colors, in principle leading to more balanced deck building. However, this statistical view did not quite materialize upon studying my card pool. After contemplating Blue inclusion, I decided to just stick with the Mardu colors, putting maximum Goblin-esque flavor to it (by means of Ponyback Brigade, Mardu Ascendancy, and Hordeling Outburst, keeping Raiders'Spoils in reserve). I only had a couple of playable non-mythic rares : Bellowing Saddlebrute plus the aforementioned ones. My big splash of Red in favor of more Black and White brought me to a 1-2 loss against URW Jeskai, a 0-2 loss against BGW Abzan, and twice a 2-0 win against UGR Temur. To morph or not to morph was a recurring question, but my opponents seemed to make good use of this returned mechanic, especially via Master of Pearls, an accelerated Snowhorn Rider, and a Thousand Winds (which I timely destroyed). Yes, I also encountered (and killed) a Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. This prerelease was no exception to the fact that decks usually turn out weaker than anticipated (supposedly due to the provision of only one single seeded booster, thereby rendering any non-wedge cards from the non-seeded boosters pretty useless). Nevertheless, the prerelease was also no exception to the fact that people clearly always have big fun getting a first live feel for the new cards. I guess all upcoming rather 3-color oriented Booster Draft deck drafting/construction will be very challenging ...
I won all 3 matches in a private (6 players, 1 box of Khans of Tarkir) Sealed Deck event on 2014-10-09. I went for BRW Mardu, despite the Mantis Rider and other non-Mardu tricolor bombs in my card pool. Big fun, and I particularly liked the relaxed atmosphere which typically goes with this kind of events ...
On 2014-10-10, I played my first Khans of Tarkir Booster Draft event (for which I didn't prepare). I immediately went for the Jeskai wedge, after a first-pick Mantis Rider. I won 2-0 and lost 0-2 against 2 different BRW Mardu decks, respectively, after which I butchered a somewhat offbeat BGR deck (2-0). I only played basic lands (for a big White splash), which wasn't the best idea in retrospect. However, mainly small creatures (with or without the new 'prowess' mechanic), supported by strong removal and combat tricks (the somewhat unnecessary Flying Crane Technique superbomb, a strong Arc Lightning, a decent Jeskai Charm, but especially 2 morph killing Winterflame plus some Red removal, a very useful Disdainful Stroke, and a Hordeling Outburst tempo card), plus a burn reloading Warden of the Eye, worked well enough. I unfortunately always was behind in tempo against my 2nd opponent, so let's try to go from good to great next time ...
Out of reading order, I obtained a very nice FNM Booster Draft result on 2014-10-24 : (ex-aequo) winning my draft pod, resulting in an overall 2nd place (on 17). I went 2-1 against a Mardu deck, 2-0 against my Abzan brother, and 1-1 against a (Pro Tour winner inspired) 5-color deck. My last opponent played 13 non-basic lands plus a decent collection of bomb rares, counterspells, etc., which was quite interesting, to say the least. After primarily picking Green and White from the 1st booster pack, and going more into Red during the 2nd booster (including an irresistible Winterflame and a Mystic Monastery to cover no less than 2 of my 3 presumed colors), I definitely needed more creatures during the 3rd booster pack. Taking all removal picked so far into consideration, I decided to completely go for (very playable intermediate) White/Red creatures. I ended up with a predominantly commons based Jeskai deck, including only a mini-splash for above mentioned Blue removal (plus a sideboarded Disdainful Stroke), hence only 2 additional Island (already playing 7 Mountain + 7 Plains for a total of 17 lands). Apparently, keeping it simple (with a couple of Arrow Storm, Bring Low, Mardu Warshrieker, Ainok Bond-Kin, Alabaster Kirin, and Summit Prowler each, plus other useful mostly low-curve playables like Feat of Resistance, including some rather mediocre morph creatures like Ainok Tracker) apparently sometimes works. A decent mana base, mana curve, and enough (usually 8+) removal is recommended anyway, but in retrospect my 3-toughness creatures and e.g. Leaping Master evasion made all the difference during several stalling games ...
Again out of reading order, some notes about the first Spelfanaat Mechelen organized (KTK Sealed Deck + top-8 KTK Booster Draft knock-out) GPT (Strasbourg). This event took place on Saturday 2014-10-25 and drew 21 participants. Unfortunately, nobody ever keeps the card pool he/she registers at the start of the event, and after the redistribution I needed every minute to make the most of what I received. I finally settled on BRW Mardu (splashing Black, with a special role for my single Debilitating Injury and Murderous Cut copies). I chose Red to include some removal and a useful Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker. White joined the main deck primarily because of a couple of Kill Shot and some Warrior synergy, which also was represented in the Black splash via both Unyielding Krumar. A couple of Ponyback Brigade, a Mardu Charm, and a sideboarded Dead Drop turned out to be the most useful assets in this very moderate deck build. Getting slaughtered with slightly too few creatures and slightly too few hard removal in my main deck (i.e. losing 0-2 against a Mardu deck, and 1-2 against a 4-color BURW deck, respectively), I quickly realized I had to come up with something substantially more powerful upon sideboarding. During lunch break, I assembled a morph-heavy BUG Sultai alternative deck using almost all remaining Blue and Green cards from my card pool, completing the Black splash with above mentioned removal. This version revolved around the very powerful Sidisi, Brood Tyrant, supported by Sultai Soothsayer and Abomination of Gudul, but including more freeze/bounce/pump (e.g. Incremental Growth) than actual removal. However, this alternative build provided some useful ramping through Embodiment of Spring and Rattleclaw Mystic, plus some card draw/selection via Dig Through Time and Scout the Borders. Beating another BURW deck 2-1 during round 3, after losing the first game and sideboarding approximately 35 cards to come to my surprise Sultai setup, felt quite good. Unfortunately, fatigue struck when playing my next (BUGR) opponent, resulting in a couple of official warnings. After winning the first game, I decided to stick with my Mardu build, unfortunately encountering bombs like Surrak Dragonclaw, Sagu Mauler, and the like. I did switch to my Sultai version during the last game (which surely was a debatable decision), but I couldn't outrun my opponent (especially after a wrongly performed mulligan). The long game went into a complex stalled board, which I very closely lost after not topdecking anything that could immediately have won me the game (and match). A quick 2-0 win against my last opponent (who played Mardu) sealed my already known fate, i.e. missing any prize support, and of course missing the top-8 Booster Draft play-offs. Well, that's just the way things go, even after squeezing out the last drop to keep fighting a not-so-promising situation. In retrospect, I wonder whether including my Trumpet Blast would have tilted the balance more in my favor, but I guess we'll never know ...
Not having slept enough before the new Standard 2014-10-11 GPT (Stockholm) event (at Demo-Spel Leuven) slightly wreaked concentration havoc (although, in retrospect, having avoided those playing errors wouldn't have tilted the balance in my favor, anyway). Despite known manabase consistency issues, I took my barely playtested MiniRampie v2.0 rogue deck (see (Archived) Decks repository) to the event, just to see how things would work out within the new metagame environment. As it happened, I had a good start, winning 2-0 twice : once against another BGW Abzan deck (which represented half the playing field), and once against a BRW Mardu deck. Unfortunately, my latter opponent received a game loss for a detected sleeves pattern (upon random deck check), after already having lost the 1st game. After that, I closely lost 1-2 to a URW Jeskai deck, barely drawing any creatures during the entire relatively long 3rd game (eventually getting my face burnt with tons of removal in my hand). Then, I lost 0-2 to yet another BGW Abzan deck, getting mana screwed in the 2nd game. Finally, I lost 0-2 to an interesting UGR Temur control deck (which successfully utilized spell countering Magic, also playing various planeswalkers and the perhaps underrated Sagu Mauler). During the 1st game, I wrongly mulliganed to 7 cards (obviously receiving an official Warning), after which I simply couldn't recover. All in all, this very small GPT (only 11 contenders) proved quite instructive. It provided some tangible proof that the absence of shock lands in the new Standard format is crippling my prior low-CMC/Aggro Junk rogue deck concept. Hence, back to the drawing board ...