Yesterday it was Ravnica Weekend at your FLGS if it does the whole MtG thing. Which means they were running a new D&D MtG cross over one-shot, plus a poorly promoted store championship using the draft format.

Sometimes, especially recently since Arena went into open beta, that WotC are trying to push everyone to the digital format of the game. They deny it naturally, but as the saying goes “actions speak louder than words”. And the actions of WotC are sending a very clear message to players and FLGS’. But this rant should be for another day and another post. Let’s get back on topic.

I went along to my FLGS The Hobbit Hole with the hope to test out my latest iteration of my Simic deck.

Naturally there were a few D&D sessions in progress when I arrived. Plus there was a Pokemon tournament about to kick off.

Table space was at a premium. Luckily I was able to find a player to test my deck with and more importantly a corner of the shop to play.

Michael who I was playing against was playing a mono white aggro deck. It was using life gain as an effective way to pump up some of his creatures. Which was very effective and in one particular game fast and deadly.

I didn’t use the sideboard. I think that still needs to be settled on. But just playing the main deck and getting a feel for it was good.

I know technically I have a 50/50 split between creatures and spells. But I’m counting Frilled Mystic as a counter spell. I think it’s a nice two for one in this deck. Counter spell and body on the ground.

In a recent MtG podcast I listened to there was mention that Nexus of Fate was being used in one or two decks that were Simic. I thought that sounds interesting, I have a couple of them. So I thought I’d add my copies to the deck give them a whirl. See what the fuss was about.

However against this white aggro deck I either needed more bodies out or bounce spells like Blink of the Eye.

I definitely wasn’t hitting the counter spells consistently enough in this match up. When I did they were the games I won. I was thwarting the game plan of my opponent, buying me time to get my pieces into play.

My feeling at the moment is that Steel Leaf Champion and Carnage Tyrant get moved to the sideboard fully and replaced with counter spells.

Ok here is the version 2 of my main deck that I played yesterday.

Creatures:19

4 Llanowar Elves
3 Hydroid Krasis
2 Incubation Druid
2 Steel Leaf Champion
3 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Biogenic Ooze
1 Carnage Tyrant

Spells:19

2 Open the Gates
4 Syncopate
4 Essence Capture
3 Thought Collapse
3 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid
2 Nexus of Fate

Lands:22

2 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
1 Hinterland Harbor
5 Island
1 Memorial to Genius
2 Memorial to Unity
4 Simic Guildgate
1 Woodland Stream

Michael and I finished off the afternoon of MtG with a couple of 1v1 Commander, his vampire deck against my Simic Horrors from the Deep deck. I’m not a big 1v1 Commander fan. For me it’s not Commander, at that point it’s Highlander (and that’s a different way to build decks).

The draw back of having a fun afternoon of playing MtG was Michael and I didn’t qualify for any of the cool promos that were being given away for Ravnica Weekend. But still a fun afternoon.