The postman broke the morning routine with a delivery that I wrote about in yesterday’s post. Otherwise there was no other deviation from my routine. My viewing whilst enjoying my morning caffeine fix was Northern Rescue on Netflix.

You also read about the 3D stuff I picked up on the way to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole yesterday. So nothing extra to report on that. Except I got soaked.

Whilst waiting for Standard Showdown to start I managed to play some friendly games with Kar-Fai who was there for Pokemon this week. Before his tournament started we managed to squeeze in three games. Two of which were with my mono blue mill deck, and the third was my Simic deck.

Friendly result: Win 2-1

In this weeks Standard Showdown there were 9 participants, which meant 4 rounds.

Round 1 Dean’s Nephew

I thought my day was off to a bad start when I rolled a 2 for who would go first. But Dean’s nephew rolled a 1! I wasn’t expecting that. I’d go first.

My opening hand was 6 lands and a counter spell. I decided to risk it. At least I’d hit my land drops. I drew into a second counter spell on my turn 2. If nothing else I could delay things a little.

The cards were kind to me, I was able to frustrate whilst getting my pieces into play. And the inevitable happened, and I took the first win.

Game 2 saw me win comfortably also. Helped a little by my opponent not getting all their land drops.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 2 Rob (blue/white mill?)

I think this was a first time playing Rob. I had no idea what to expect. But that’s the fun of the game. Does your deck have the answers for whatever your opponent has in their deck?

It was an interesting match up. There was little pressure on me early on in our games as Rob was playing walls. They only became a problem once he played the enchantment that switched off the defender, and allowed them in combat to do damage based on their toughness. Mix in a little control and mill and it was an interesting deck.

However if my deck is given that time to get its eggs in a row then it’s game over. And Rob’s game plan gave me that time.

Result: Win 2-1

Round 3 John (merfolk)

Once more John and I end up playing each other during a Showdown. During this season John’s deck has had the better of mine. Because of the nature of Standard Showdown between Saturday’s you tweak your deck based on the local meta. John had removed his Simic Ascendancy from his deck. Not sure what he replaced it with. He commented that he hasn’t seen the replacement card since adding it! My deck at the moment is fairly stable. If there are going to be any tweaks now it’ll be to the sideboard I think.

I took the first game comfortably. John sideboarded some cards in. He needed to be quicker off the mark he said. And he was in game 2, and took that one easily.

Game 3 the decider. Back to being frustrating while getting my Ooze and Krasis into place, before swinging in with massive damage.

I thought the games would be close based on previous experience. But these were not as close as our previous games had been. Which surprised me a little.

Result: Win 2-1

Pay attention to your opponents Planeswalker That’s the lesson from this friendly game. Especially when it’s about to ultimate and kill you. My excuse is I was distracted trying to end the game quickly to get on with the next round.

Friendly game: Loss

Round 4 Andy Hall (Blue/Black)

I nearly had a bye. Andy had gone off to collect his daughter and wasn’t back to start the round. But he did eventually turn up. Andy was sitting on a 2-1 record at this point to my 3-0. Boy was I feeling the pressure. Andy is one of the stores top players. I’d played him once in the previous season of Standard Showdown, and had my butt handed to me.

Game 1 was a back and forth, but I got some pieces out and got the win. I was happy I had won a game. Achievement unlocked.

Game 2 was evenly matched until Andy got out his 6/6 flyer that I had no answer for and didn’t draw into one. Andy got the win.

These were intense games. Both control decks. Hardly exciting to watch. Play a land, and pass turn. Waiting to react to whatever the other player did. A battle of the minds, waiting for the other person to blink first.

It was going to happen at some point in the day, and the deciding game was when I finally got mana screwed. It was quick and one sided. The lack of mana, particularly blue was enough of an advantage for Andy to execute his plan.

Result: Loss 2-1

As the dust settled there were four of use on 9 points. Andy and I were offered a play off for top spot. But I was happy to take second place based on the WotC algorithm.

Final position: Second with a 3-1 record

Prize: 1 participation pack, 1 pack for second place, and 1 Standard Showdown pack (had a baby Karn in it – I have 3 of these now so tempted to build a deck round him).