FNM: Almost
I played my Hardened Scales deck at FNM again. We had 12 people. I lost in the first round to the eventual winner (it was a close game), and then won the next three, getting second place on tiebreaks.
Round 1, Ryan Searby was playing Mardu 'Walkers. I got him down to 1 life game 1, and then he stabilized and crushed me with planeswalkers. Game 2 I had 3 Managorger Hydras out on turn 5. He directed a lot of the assault back to me with two Deflecting Palms, but he didn't have enough removal. Then game 3, I flooded out horribly, giving him lots of time to bring in Gideon and Sorin. 0-1. Round 2, Matt Milosevich was playing Atarka Landfall again. I lost most of my life game 1 to a Titan's Strenth-Temur Battle Rage combo, and couldn't find a way back. But game 2 I rolled over him. Game 3 he came out fast. I had a Hidden Dragonslayer from the board face down, a Servant, and Hardened Scales. I blocked one thing with the Servant to put 3 counters on the face down Dragonslayer. I hoped I'd get a chance to kill one of his guys with the flip up, but I realized that what I had to do was flip him up on my turn and swing with lifelink. He had a bunch of guys and swung in for most of my life, but he didn't have a spell to finish me, and then I played Dromoka's Command to kill his blocker and gain life with lifelink and swing again, which had me safe, and then a Managorger Hydra finished him off. 1-1. Round 3 I got paired down to George Hodges, who's approximately 10, playing a deck that didn't seem to have any good cards except Managorger. Beginning the second game, I discovered that I had 61 cards in my deck -- I had failed to pull out one of my sideboard cards from the last game against Matt, and didn't notice when I pile shuffled for the first game. Called the judge on myself, which was awkward because Lucas wasn't there, but Justin eventually decided that since the infraction wasn't noticed until the first game was complete, the result stood. I won both games easily. 2-1. Round 4, Nick Menacher (I can't read my writing, not sure if that is the right last name) was running an Abzan + red mostly-control deck that I didn't recognize. He kept exiling my Hangarback Walkers, and using Goblin Dark-Dwellers to flash back Crackling Doom, but I managed to have more threats than he had answers, though the second game came down to my topdecking Surrak. 3-1 overall.
There's a net deck that's trying to do the same things that's slightly different. It runs 4 Nissas (of which I own 0) and 4 Endless Ones (which I own 1). I haven't tried playing with either of those cards. A couple of copies of Nissa might be worth running, but I'm fairly certain that 4 is too many. I haven't tried Endless One, but it doesn't seem very good. It also runs more fetches, which is probably a good idea. (I keep drawing hands with only white mana, despite having only 7 Plains in the deck.) I'm really happy to see my deck talked about and played at big tournaments, but I'm afraid it may not do as well when it starts to be something that people are actually expecting.
Round 1, Ryan Searby was playing Mardu 'Walkers. I got him down to 1 life game 1, and then he stabilized and crushed me with planeswalkers. Game 2 I had 3 Managorger Hydras out on turn 5. He directed a lot of the assault back to me with two Deflecting Palms, but he didn't have enough removal. Then game 3, I flooded out horribly, giving him lots of time to bring in Gideon and Sorin. 0-1. Round 2, Matt Milosevich was playing Atarka Landfall again. I lost most of my life game 1 to a Titan's Strenth-Temur Battle Rage combo, and couldn't find a way back. But game 2 I rolled over him. Game 3 he came out fast. I had a Hidden Dragonslayer from the board face down, a Servant, and Hardened Scales. I blocked one thing with the Servant to put 3 counters on the face down Dragonslayer. I hoped I'd get a chance to kill one of his guys with the flip up, but I realized that what I had to do was flip him up on my turn and swing with lifelink. He had a bunch of guys and swung in for most of my life, but he didn't have a spell to finish me, and then I played Dromoka's Command to kill his blocker and gain life with lifelink and swing again, which had me safe, and then a Managorger Hydra finished him off. 1-1. Round 3 I got paired down to George Hodges, who's approximately 10, playing a deck that didn't seem to have any good cards except Managorger. Beginning the second game, I discovered that I had 61 cards in my deck -- I had failed to pull out one of my sideboard cards from the last game against Matt, and didn't notice when I pile shuffled for the first game. Called the judge on myself, which was awkward because Lucas wasn't there, but Justin eventually decided that since the infraction wasn't noticed until the first game was complete, the result stood. I won both games easily. 2-1. Round 4, Nick Menacher (I can't read my writing, not sure if that is the right last name) was running an Abzan + red mostly-control deck that I didn't recognize. He kept exiling my Hangarback Walkers, and using Goblin Dark-Dwellers to flash back Crackling Doom, but I managed to have more threats than he had answers, though the second game came down to my topdecking Surrak. 3-1 overall.
There's a net deck that's trying to do the same things that's slightly different. It runs 4 Nissas (of which I own 0) and 4 Endless Ones (which I own 1). I haven't tried playing with either of those cards. A couple of copies of Nissa might be worth running, but I'm fairly certain that 4 is too many. I haven't tried Endless One, but it doesn't seem very good. It also runs more fetches, which is probably a good idea. (I keep drawing hands with only white mana, despite having only 7 Plains in the deck.) I'm really happy to see my deck talked about and played at big tournaments, but I'm afraid it may not do as well when it starts to be something that people are actually expecting.