Despite the rainy weather in the past few days, local MTG players still gathered at Nth Dimension: Comics and Games to participate in their Wednesday Night Standard tournament. A total of fourteen people were present, I included as I was able to complete my Mardu Knights build. A big thanks to my teammates Ace and Ericson for providing the card pieces.

The first round started a quarter before 7 pm and I was faced against Speedy playing Mono-Red aggro. I initially thought he was in the control route as it was his favorite archetype. Game 1 I kept a decent hand with three shocklands for mana fixing but those life losses mattered as his board outraced mine. Game 2 was my comeback win as my Rotting Regisaur went all the way and he was not able to set up a decent board. The highlight of that game was me getting rid of his three Fervent Champions with Legion’s End.

The decider Game 3 was the most intense match as we were trading attacks but I eventually stopped to stay for defense. He got his fourth land for Torban and attacked with all his dudes. He got me down to one life with the pings from the two Scorch Spitters but he traded them in the attack. Back to my turn, I played an Acclaimed Contender and got another Knight creature and still decided to play defense. He drew his card, hoping it was a burn spell, but he just passed the turn. Inspiring Veteran got me to attack or trade to his Torban but he just took the damage. Two turns of no action his part later, he extended the hand. It turned out that he just draw Mountains. That is one lucky outcome for me.

Record: 1-0

Next Round was against my teammate Ericson who was playing Blue-White Control. The decklist was from GP Nagoya. I was able to win preboard by playing around Time Wipe. Game 2 and 3 were the worse for my part as he was just able to answer every threat I made, Glass Casket, Prison Realm and Deputy of Detention and I could not get a good board of attackers. I lost that match.

Record: 1-1

Round 3 was versus Gus, a pilot of Grixis Fires of Invention. It was another control deck, and I was hoping to auto loss game one once he sticks the enchantment. He did and the next turn my board just got swept by Time Wipe and Chandra. I boarded in my Drill Bit and Duress and also the Murderous Riders for his planeswalkers. Game 2 was just the right timing of the discard spell plus the early threats did the trick. He didn’t have the card to follow up with the Fires of Invention and died with the attacks. In the decider game, luck sided with me again. That is because he got stuck in three lands while I pinched in my damage. I made it to just two creatures to avoid the sweep in case he drew the fourth land. I just Drill Bit his Murderous Rider and my creatures, Knight of the Ebon Legion and Weaselback Redcap, just did the rest of the damage.

Record: 2-1

The last round was against John playing Boros aggro. I got paired down unfortunately and I politely asked him if he can concede the match so in case my finish will get me to the Top 4. He gladly agreed.

Record: 3-1

My final record was 3-1 and luckily the finish got me in fourth place. The prize was an ELD promo booster and one regular ELD booster pack. I joined the rest of the top 4 who were composed of Ace with Sultai Food control, Ralph with Mono-Red and Christian with Gruul Aggro.

Mardu Knights is a decent deck per se, but my tweaking did not go well. I made the changes right after the tournament and just followed what is listed on the deck websites. I am considering to sideboard Mortify as an answer against Fires of Invention in the battlefield and also on other enchantments. I might pilot the deck again this coming FNM, we will see.

Here are the pics I took during the course of the Wednesday Night Magic and spell slinging session.

Thanks for reading and until the next blog post.