My third Standard Showdown, and the first opportunity to defend my win, and spread the Keyforge love.

In this Standard Showdown there was 8 participants.

Round 1 – Dean

Dean took the first game easily. Well relatively. There was a too and fro, but his deck kicked in and took the victory.

Second game I should have taken a photo of the board. It was getting very wide, I had stabilised at 6 health. But the numbers were in my favour. I had an Assassins Trophy in hand to make sure. Drew a Vraska’s Contempt while looking for my Find//Finality. I was happy to flood the board until that happened. I had the upper hand. Dean swung in. But as expected I came out on top. I finally got my Find//Finality to give me the extra edge as I cast the Finality side. That was enough to give me the win.

The decider between us was a by the numbers win for me using my weenies, my removal and a Steel Leaf Champion.

Result: Win 2-1

Round 2 – Alfie

Dean’s nephew was playing with an improved deck from the previous week (I wasn’t there remember, I was having a good time in Ipswich), that was meant to be fast. But it really was an easy match up for my deck. I was able to control the battlefield through my removal, get my creatures out. To be fair I don’t think I got to see Alfie’s deck working as intended. But that’s the luck of the draw sometimes.

Result: Win 2-0

Round 3 – Andy Hall

Andy is one of those players that goes to GP’s, plays very competitively. I don’t think I’d be wrong in saying he is one of the stores top MtG players. And I think this was the first time I’ve played against Andy. And what a time to play him, battling for the top slot.

It’s not fun being killed by your own creatures. But that is what happened in the 2 games we played. I did some damage to him, so it wasn’t all one sided. The 2 games went this way. I’d do some early damage, then Thief of Sanity would come out, hit me, steal a card (usually one of my big hitters, like Carnage Tyrant in game 1). Then because I didn’t draw into my removal or have enough lands (oh they would be in the graveyard thanks to that awful card) I’d be at the mercy of my own card.

Although I feel I had a moral victory with Andy misplaying my Assassins Trophy. He’d stolen and cast my Nullhide Ferox, then with only enough mana spare to cast the trophy tried removing my Steel Leaf Champion until I pointed out that he couldn’t. The Ferox was stopping him from doing so.

Result: Loss 2-0

The dust settled, results entered and analysed by the WotC website. Which meant that with the way it calculated things I came in third out of the field of 8. If a result had gone my way in one of the other games, despite having the same win/loss record with second place I’d have ended up in second place.

In respect to what prizes people got there is no difference between second and third place. We both got a Standard Showdown pack, a participation pack, and an extra booster for being second/third.

Final standing: 3rd with a record of 2 Wins 1 Loss

This is what I pulled from the Standard Showdown pack…

I was really happy when I opened up the Standard Showdown pack as you might guess. Foil Angrath and plains. Angrath will potentially fit in nicely with the new deck with that +1 ability. Already had Karn, but still what a pull.

Highlights of the 2 boosters (I went with 1 Amonkhet and 1 Hour of Devastation because Guilds of Ravnica had sold out, and they are awaiting stock)…

Once again reasonably happy with the pulls. Aven Mindcensor saves me digging out my playset to use one in the death and taxes deck. A cycle land is always welcome. Hour of Devastation and Razaketh’s Rite also cards that will go well in the new deck.

And I’ll repeat over and over, sounding like a broken record. But the way I evaluate new cards is will they fit well into a deck of mine, or be of use in one I’m building.

There were a couple of games of Commander afterwards. Less said about them the better, one player was using a totally OP deck and just crushed all before him.

I didn’t get to play any Keyforge. I did ask Dean and Andy if they had heard of it, and I might as well been talking to my chihuahuas at that point. The local awareness at my FLGS is literally zero.

Ok the bit for those that are remotely interested, my deck list for the Standard Showdown.

The main change for this version is the addition of a second Vivien Reid Planeswalker to the sideboard, and the 4 Find//Finality (2 in main deck, and 2 in the sideboard). The cards that made way for this were the Silent Gravestone, Status//Statue, Mastermind’s Acquisition.

Creatures:26

4 Llanowar Elves
2 Skittering Heartstopper
4 Vicious Conquistador
3 Dire Fleet Poisoner
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Nullhide Ferox
3 Ravenous Chupacabra
2 Carnage Tyrant
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger

Spells:13

4 Assassin’s Trophy
2 Find // Finality
2 Never Happened
4 Vraska’s Contempt
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:21

6 Forest
1 Foul Orchard
4 Golgari Guildgate (a)
1 Overgrown Tomb
7 Swamp
2 Woodland Cemetery

Sideboard:16

2 Skittering Heartstopper
1 Dire Fleet Poisoner
2 Kitesail Freebooter
2 Thrashing Brontodon
1 Demon of Catastrophes
1 Doom Whisperer
1 Ghalta, Primal Hunger
2 Find // Finality
2 Ritual of Soot
1 Vraska, Golgari Queen
1 Vivien Reid