September 26th Friday Night Magic Recap

Hello and welcome back to Dave and Adam’s Friday Night Magic recap! Friday September 26th marked the first opportunity people had to use Khans of Tarkir in sanctioned play, including the highly-anticipated ally color fetchlands (Polluted Delta, Flooded Strand, Bloodstained Mire, Windswept Heath, and Wooded Foothills) which were originally from the Onslaught expansion. These lands are staples in eternal formats like Vintage, Legacy and Modern, and the reprints have been seen as a way to get new people into the older formats.

Despite the influx of new cards to the format, it was the reliable tag team of Goblin Rabblemaster and Stormbreath Dragon from just before rotation that managed to take down the Standard portion of the evening in Jared Rochez’s favor:

4x Firedrinker Satyr
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Goblin Rabblemaster
4x Fanatic of Mogis
2x Purphoros, God of the Forge
2x Stormbreath Dragon

2x Hammer of Purphoros
4x Dragon Mantle

2x Fated Conflagration
2x Magma Jet
3x Stoke the Flames
2x Lightning Strike

2x Chandra, Pyromaster

20x Mountain
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Sideboard
4x Magma Spray
3x Harness by Force

Mono red starts out quickly, hoping to curve Firedrinker Satyr into Eidolon of the Great Revel into Goblin Rabblemaster all the way to Stormbreath Dragon at the top of his curve. Purphoros works well in this deck also, as it turns your creatures into burn spells and it gives you something to do with your mana later in the game. Jared is running main deck Fated Conflagration as a concession to midrange decks, which cause aggro decks no end of trouble, with cards like the anticipated Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor.

Moving on to Modern, our winner this week was Robbie Palmer, who was running Green/Black Midrange. G/B/x decks have been popular in Modern for a long time, usually splashing red or white for cards like Lightning Bolt, Lingering Souls, and (prior to it getting banned) Bloodbraid Elf.

4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Misty Rainforest
3x Tectonic Edge
2x Treetop Village
1x Mutavault
1x Twilight Mire
4x Overgrown Tomb
2x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2x Forest
3x Swamp
2x Golgari Charm
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Liliana of the Veil
1x Nissa, Worldwaker
1x Dismember
3x Tarmogoyf
4x Abrupt Decay
2x. Raven’s Crime
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
3x Master of the Feast
3x Dark Confidant
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Pack Rat
2x Thoughtsieze
2x Life from the Loam
1x Bow of Nylea
1x Maelstrom pulse

Sideboard:
2x Grafdiggers Cage
2x Waste Not
1x Raven’s Crime
2x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Dismember
2x Geth’s Verdict
2x Drown in Sorrow
2x Smallpox
1x Garruk relentless

Robbie decided to forego any splashes and run just Green and Black, electing to have more stable mana, than a wider array of cards. Robbie’s version of G/B midrange has been set up to abuse the one card combo that is Life from the Loam. He used the Dredge card to recur Raven’s Crime to tear his opponents’ hand apart and Tectonic Edge to decimate his opponents’ lands. On top of that, his deck is packed to the gills with removal, to try to keep as many opposing permanents off the battlefield. Once his opponents were stripped of all of their resources he could ride large creatures across the finish line, like Tarmogoyf, Master of the Feast and even his own lands once they’ve been animated by Nissa, Worldwaker.

We didn’t see any new Khans of Tarkir cards make their way into the top decks this week, but all that could change once people have time to work with the new set. If you want to see the new cards in action, come down to our Transit Road store every Friday night for Buffalo’s biggest FNM.