On the Sealed train again, in hopes of at least a single win. I got in the Phantom queue again and got the following card pool

[d]
Creatures
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Nessian Asp
1 Nylea’s Emissary
1 Nessian Courser
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
1 Nemesis of Mortals
1 Pharika’s Mender
1 Keepsake Gorgon
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Erebos’s Emissary
1 Cavern Lampad
1 Blood-Toll Harpy
1 Returned Phalanx
1 Polis Crusher
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Spearpoint Oread
1 Purphoros’s Emissary

Spells
1 Sip of Hemlock
1 Lash of the Whip
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Read the Bones
1 Boon of Erebos
1 Titan’s Strength

Land
1 Unknown Shores
9 Swamp
3 Mountain
4 Forest

Sideboard
1 Yoked Ox
1 Setessan Battle Priest
1 Triton Shorethief
1 Omenspeaker
1 Nimbus Naiad
1 Annul
1 Lost in a Labyrinth
1 Priest of Iroas
1 Deathbellow Raider
1 Bronze Sable
1 Fleetfeather Sandals
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Ordeal of Erebos
1 Last Breath
1 Felhide Minotaur
1 Triton Tactics
1 Dissolve
1 Agent of Horizons
1 Pyxis of Pandemonium
1 Scholar of Athreos
1 Aqueous Form
1 Silent Artisan
1 Coastline Chimera
1 Meletis Charlatan
1 Crackling Triton
1 Chronicler of Heroes
1 Vaporkin
1 Shredding Winds
1 Stymied Hopes
1 Demolish
1 Thassa’s Bounty
1 Witches’ Eye
1 Commune with the Gods
1 Hunt the Hunter
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Peak Eruption
1 Ephara’s Warden
1 Boon of Erebos
1 March of the Returned
2 Vulpine Goliath
1 Spark Jolt
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Arena Athlete
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Battlewise Valor
1 Anax and Cymede
2 Two-Headed Cerberus
2 Minotaur Skullcleaver
2 Wingsteed Rider
2 Dauntless Onslaught
1 Portent of Betrayal
1 Divine Verdict
1 Nylea’s Presence
1 Dragon Mantle
1 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
[/d]

In hindsight, I think I should have gone with two colors 🙂
I think I maybe even could have gone with a green-white Heroic or a red-white Heroic.

Match #1

In the first round I got run over by his big blue fliers. I tried sideboarding in a Shredding Winds amonst other things, but he then ran me over on the ground. Bummer, score 0-1.

Match #2

The first round went back and forth, but in the end I got pulled down by fliers and then a lethal [mtg_card]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/mtg_card]. I tried taking out the red cards and lands and putting in some more black and green cards, but out of nowhere my opponent pulls out an [mtg_card]Abhorrent Overlord[/mtg_card] and 5 tokens. Again, I got nothing to mop up the fliers, but a Sip of Hemlock and only five lands on the table. A late [mtg_card]Nessian Asp[/mtg_card] couldn’t save…
Oh well, score is now 0-2 🙁

Match #3

Going into this match I could feel how much I wanted to win and at the same time how unlikely I thought it would be.
My opponent played a white-green Heroic deck, showing a solid opening. He fielded a [c]Phalanx Leader[/c], a [c]Leonin Snarecaster[/c] (tapping down my [c]Nessian Courser[/c]) and a [c]Staunch-Hearted Warrior[/c]. After a few turns of me taking damage and us trading off creatures, the game slowly swung back in my favor thanks to my [c]Pharika’s Mender[/c] and [c]Polis Crusher[/c]. My Crusher then went to town on him, making him decide to trade off three creatures for it relatively fast. A few turns later I finally won the first round.
I boarded in a [c]Hunt the Hunter[/c] and the [c]Shredding Winds[/c] only to discover he was now playing a green-blue Heroic deck. He rolled out a [c]Vaporkin[/c] and put on an [c]Ordeal of Thassa[/c] and I was dead by turn 8. Ouch!
Ok, final game. I got a nice draw with a [c]Mistcutter Hydra[/c], [c]Felhide Minotaur[/c] (which I had boarded in) and plenty of land. We only got to turn 4, when my opponent rage quit after only playing lands. Apparently a [c]Stymied Hopes[/c], scry for one wasn’t enough for him. Thank you [c]Mistcutter Hydra[/c] 😀

Conclusion

So what can I take with me, besides a 1-2 result? Well, my deckbuilding is still flawed, but at least I tried to stay the course with some normal sideboarding underway. I guess what I need is to practice, practice and practice some more. I’m going on vacation, which seems like a perfect time to listen to some Limited Resources and get my game leveled up.

With dedication
Lars

So I did a Sealed Theros Phantom Event tonight on MTGO. I was hoping to get out of my loosing streak which is 0-4. Long story short I didn’t really fare any better.
The event was a standard 8 person sealed, but the only win I got was on a bye and I don’t really consider them real wins. So the streak is now 0-6 *sigh*.

The event was not a real blowout however. I felt like a made slight improvements on my deck building as well as my general game. With regards to the deckbuilding I put together a pretty solid midrange white/blue deck with a few early aggro elements (hooray for Vaporkin). Both rounds I won the first match, but my deck fell through on the second one and I the both times decided to sideboard aggresively into a black/green control deck. That didn’t improve the situation. I got especially annoyed in the last game, where my opponent got a [c]Fleecemane Lion[/c] out and I didn’t play a [c]Time to Feed[/c] on my [c]Nylea’s Disciple[/c] to take it out before it got monstrous. Apparently I didn’t totally internalize what Marshall Sutcliffe and Brian Wong spoke about on Limited Resources episode 211.

So my key learning points from this is:

– Stick with the deck and don’t just throw it away because you lose one match

– Remember what works when playing or holding back spells

– Don’t get greedy

Until next time, with dedication

Lars