Friday Night Magic: The Winner’s Circle #13

Hi everybody! I’m Bill Carrig and welcome to another addition of the Winner’s Circle. This past Friday at Dave and Adam’s we had our Holiday Party. Unfortunately, I do not have a recap of that night for you. Some things will have to remain a mystery. I was able to catch up with our FNM winner from two weeks ago, Brett Feind.

Brett played a mid-range White/Red/Black deck that’s just Jam-Packed with goodies. Check it out!

4x Soldier of the Pantheon
4x Pack Rat
3x Legion Loyalist
3x Boros Reckoner
2x Fiendslayer Paladin
2x Tajic Blade of the Legion
2x Blood Baron of Vizkopa
2x Stormbreath Dragon
1x Chained to Rocks
2x Hammer of Purphoros
3x Mizzium Mortars
2x Magma Jet
2x Dreadbore
2x Read the Bones
1x Hero’s Downfall
4x Mountains
3x Plains
2x Swamp
4x Blood Crypt
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Godless Shrine
2x Temple of Silence
2x Temple of Triumph

Sideboard:
2x Doom Blade
1x Legion’s Initiative
2x Renounce the Guilds
2x Glare of Heresy
2x Slaughter Games
2x Sin Collector
1x Duress
1x Thoughtseize
1x Chandra Pyromancer
1x Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Bill: I played the Aristocrats back in the last standard season to a lot of success, so I love this color combination. I think it allows you to play many of the best cards available in standard right now. Blood Baron of Vizkopa is very good. Stormbreath Dragon wins games all the time. Boros Reckoner is a standard staple. Sprinkle on some removal and you’ve got yourself a deck. Is that how you came up with this list?

Brett: My thought process in making this deck was pretty much to just get a bunch of hard to remove creatures and win from there. One of the most important ways to insure victory is actually battalion trigger with Legion Loyalist. I can’t think of any other one drop that is as useful turn one as he is turn 10. Also, the Hammer of Purphoros is a quick and easy way to trigger battalion. Whether I’m making a golem, a pack rat token, or something with more teeth like a Blood Baron come in with haste it’s always very good.

Bill: Legion Loyalist is very underrated. Giving all your guys first strike and trample is well worth the one mana investment. I’d bet a lot of your opponents didn’t see that one coming! So what are the matchups like for this deck? Midrange decks are typically well positioned against most of the field, but some agro matchups and some control matchups can be tricky.

Brett: As match ups are concerned, it seems to perform well against most agro decks. It is hit or miss against control, but it has the most problems with big creature decks.

Bill: Have you considered increasing the size of your removal package to help you against those big creature decks? A lot of the time they will fold when you use spot removal to take out their big guys.

Brett: Yea! I do sideboard some extra removal like Chain to the Rocks, Doom Blade, Renounce the Guilds and Glare of Heresy. The problem I’ve found out that if I add too much removal to my main deck it doesn’t function as well in the ways I need to win. I’m going to keep that in mind and see if I can tweak it and maybe drop a Mortars for some bigger creature removal.

Bill: Right. It’s a delicate balance between creatures and removal. Too much one way or the other and you’ll be stuck with all the wrong cards all the time. You’ve got to be very careful when making changes to your list. So can you tell me how the deck performed for you at FNM?

Brett: Sure! In round one I faced a burn deck. Game one I lost due to him casting the Trouble half of Toil/Trouble three times. In the other two games, he had to use his removal to try and stop my creatures but to no avail. My next opponent also played mono red. I was able to win one game by drawing a Legion Loyalist, then making my Stormbreath Dragon monstrous, and then triggering Tajic and Loyalist battalion to win the game! In round three, I played against a Green/White/Black deck. Game one, I had no answer to a Witchstalker with Gift of Orzhova. Game two wasn’t any easier. I didn’t draw the removal I needed to deal with his Loxodon Smiter with Gift of Orzhova until I drew a Stormbreath Dragon. Fortunately for me, my opponent misplayed several times forgetting Stormbreath had protection from white. This gave me enough of an advantage to squeak out a win and in game three, things went very smoothly for me. Round four, I was playing a Black/Blue/Green ramp home brew. This was very well made deck that was immensely difficult to deal with once he got things rolling with Aetherling. I beat him the first game because he got mana screwed. The cards I used almost looked like I was playing red deck wins and he sideboarded accordingly. Since I saw so little of his deck, I was unable to sideboard at all. Game two was a very close back and forth struggle and he ended up winning with an Aetherling. Game three, I got off to a fast start and kept hitting him hard with an army of creatures he was able to get out Aetherling but it was already too late and I was able to win.

Bill: Wow! Aetherling is such a powerhouse. Being able to win the game while he’s on the field is quite an accomplishment. So is winning FNM! Congrats to you on that! Anyone you need to thank before we go?

Brett: I got to thank Dylan Bajer and Buddy for helping me out designing this deck (Legion Loyalist). Also a shout out to the whole L1M2 crew.

Bill: L1M2 gets another big win to add to their growing collection. I like it! Be sure to join us for the big return of FNM. We have a lot of special prizes picked out for this week. I’m really excited to see who wins those packs of The Dark. We just gotta crack them open! And two Commander Decks in the raffle as well, man this week is going to be nuts! Be sure to get there early for the Pizza Party! I’ll see you all again this Friday and one of you in the Winner’s Circle!