Friday Night Magic: The Winner’s Circle #6

Hi Everybody! Bill Carrig here again in the Winner’s Circle. This week I have two winners to chat with. Andrew Bloomingdale won the largest FNM in the history of Western New York with a Black/Red/ White Deck and Miranda Harder Fortified her way to a Game Day victory with Mono-White Weenies!

To get things started, here is Andrew Bloomingdale’s winning decklist:

1x Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Boros Reckoner
3x Descration Demon
2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2x Obzedat, Ghost Council
1x Stormbreath Dragon
1x Rakdos Keyrune
2x Chain to the Rocks
2x Mizzium Mortars
3x Anger the Gods
2x Dreadbore
2x Read the Bones
2x Heros Downfall
2x Doom Blade
1x Lightning Strike
1x Warleader’s Helix
4x Godless Shrine
4x Blood Crypt
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Temple of Silence
2x Mountain
2x Swamp
1x Plains
4x Temple of Triumph

Sideboard
1x Chain to the Rocks
4x Thoughtseize
3x Devour Flesh
1x Hero’s Downfall
2x Sin Collector
1x Underworld Connections
1x Wear/Tear
1x Anger of the Gods
1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa

FNM Winner Andrew Bloomingdale

Bill: So Andrew, what’s so good about this deck?  How do you win with it?

Andrew: The deck is simply just strong for standard at this point in time. The way the deck wins is by slowly killing its opponent through an Obzedat, Blood Baron or Desecration Demon. When choosing black/white/red I took into consideration a lot of things. One being the scry lands that are currently available in the format. I wanted to have access to a lot of them as well as a lot of unique tools that most people don’t take advantage of.

Bill: Standard is wide open right now. There are lots of different decks out there now. How do you handle all of that?

Andrew: The way the main board is set up is to handle agro. A few removal spells with a Reckoner has a chance to cripple any agro deck. The main board is still really good against the devotion deck in the fields because of the removal again. Against any control deck I think I have very favorable match round 2 and 3 with Thoughtseize and Sin Collector clearing the way for any counter magic problems you might have for either your Obzedats or other threats.

Bill: So how did the event play out for you?

Andrew: Round 1, I beat Mono-White Devotion 2-0. In Game 1, I removed everything with Anger of the Gods on turn 3. I resolved Desecration Demon on turn 4 and that was that. In Game 2, it was a close game, but at some point I resolved a Blood Baron that he can’t handle and it was over. Round 2, I defeated Boros Agro 2-0. In Game 1, I had a turn 2 Doom Blade, turn 3 Reckoner, turn 4 Desecration Demon, turn 5 Obzedat, and turn 6 Elsepth. I ended up pulling out the win with an Elspeth Emblem! In Game 2, he plays turn 1 soldier, turn 2 2/2 and turn 3 Anax and Cymede. Then I cast Anger the Gods. He was far behind after that. I resolved Blood Baron and won from there. In Round 3, I beat White Weenies again 2-0. The games both played out the same way: Removal into Blood Baron. Pretty easy. For the last round, I took down Esper Control 2-0. In Game 1, I won my first dice roll of the night! I stuck a couple Soldier of Pantheons onto the board. He didn’t have a Doom Blade, so he was forced to Supreme Verdict. Then I cast Obzedat and it was lights out. Game 2 was a hard fought game. I ended up stripping his hand of counter magic with a Thoughtseize then resolving a late game Blood Baron while I had a Soldier of the Pantheon on the field. He had already used his Supreme Verdict and couldn’t draw another one in time.

Bill: Wow! 8-0 on the night! Quite an impressive feat! Well done! Looks like Anger of the Gods is the real deal. Take notice agro decks. You need an answer for that or you will get your board wiped and then your guys outclassed by bigger creatures. Thanks Andrew for showing us how it’s done. Any shout outs to add?

Andrew: Yea, I just have to throw a shout out to my cousin, Peter Bloomingdale, for letting me run a few cards and helping with the decks construction.

Bill: Awesome! Thanks Andrew. I also caught up with our Theros Game Day Champion, Miranda Harder. Here is her winning decklist from Saturday:

4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Imposing Sovereign
4x Precinct Captain
4x Boros Elite
4x Dryad Militant
4x Cavalry Pegasus
2x Judge’s Familiar
2x Heliod, God of the Sun
4x Brave the Elements
3x Spear of Heliod
3x Fortify
4x Mutavault
18x Plains

Sideboard:
4x Fiendslayer Paladin
4x Banisher Priest
4x Pacifism
3x Celestial Flare

Theros Game Day Champ Miranda Harder

Bill: A Mono-White Weenies deck. This seems pretty straight forward. With lots of 4 ofs in the deck, it’s got to be pretty consistent. So how did it perform for you at the event?

Miranda: The main purpose of the deck is to flood the board with creatures to the point where it’s too fast for the opponent to deal with. Cavalry Pegasus was awesome giving all my humans flying. It definitely won me games. Fortify was also a big game winner for me by giving all my creatures +2/+0. I could usually attack with the Pegasus or Brave the Elements for the win.

Bill: Right. Attack early with the 1 drops, then fly over with Pegasus and Fortify for the win! Very deadly! So what’s the hardest matchup for this kind of deck?

Miranda: My hardest match up by far had to be Black/White/Red Midrange. The deck has so many power cards against white and agro decks. Anger of the Gods and Chained to the Rocks was definitely hard to deal with. I ended up losing 2-0 and don’t want to play against it again.

Bill: Ha ha! Yea, as we saw above, that deck can be a nightmare for decks like yours. What was your favorite moment of the tournament?

Miranda: Definitely, making the finals of the tournament! My last match up was against a unique Black/White deck. It was hard to deal with Agent of the Fates. His heroic ability made me sac a lot of my creatures. Gift of Orzhova was also a problem for my deck with the lifelink and flying. Going into game three I had to really utilize my sideboard the best I could. I decided to put in 4 Pacifism, 2 Banisher Priest, and 3 Celestial Flare to deal with his creatures. The decision to put in the four Pacifism in the end won me the game, once they were on his creatures there was really no defense on his end leaving it open for my creatures to get right through.

Bill: That was a lot of fun to watch. A pretty epic battle! Any shout outs you’d like to add?

Miranda: I would like to shout out to Dave and Adam’s Card World for being the best place to play Magic in the Buffalo area. The competition is great and I always have a good time. Also thanks to my partner in crime Mike Toczek who is the second brain of this deck. We worked together on this one and did a lot of play-testing. Thanks again to Dave and Adam’s for providing a great atmosphere for Theros Game Day!

Bill: Thanks Miranda and congratulations! I’ll see all of you again on Friday for another great FNM and Dave and Adam’s Card World on Transit Road. Maybe I’ll see you in the Winner’s Circle too!