AROUND THE BLOCK #2

A Profusion of Faeries

The big deck tonight was UB Faeries. First time player and BPDC 2.04 winner eldawg was piloting a successful Faerie deck. Here it is:

1st Place: Flash Faeries
4 Dreamspoiler Witches
4 Faerie Trickery
10 Island
4 Latchkey Faerie
3 Mulldrifter
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Nightshade Stinger
3 Peppersmoke
3 Pestermite
3 Ponder
4 Sentinels of Glen Elendra
4 Shimmering Grotto
4 Spellstutter Sprite
7 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Broken Ambitions
4 Disperse
4 Footbottom Feast
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nightshade Stinger
1 Peppersmoke
1 Ponder

This seems like a fairly straightforward Faerie build (not that is any less powerful because of that!) I think that one of the strongest cards I saw that night was Footbottom Feast. Late in the game, you can set yourself up to topdeck all of the threats you need for the rest of the game. Footbottom Feast + Spellstutter Sprite (returning the Faerie to your hand with Footbottom's draw effect) is even better.

I talked to eldawg after the game:

LordSanada: Alright, first of all, congratulations on your victory. Have you participated in this season of BPDC before?
Eldawg: No, this is my first pauper tourney ever.

LordSanada: Well, you started off on the right foot! What made you decide to do PDC or BPDC?
eldawg: Well, I have more free time now that school is finished, and I really wanted to play this deck. I had been playing it for standard and doing ok, and it only took a couple of card changes to make it block

LordSanada: What do you think your deck's strengths are in block?
eldawg: I tried to model it off the Faerie decks that have been dominating, so, almost all the cards are instants or flash. I play most stuff on my opponents turn. Also, to make up for the lack of Ancestral Vision and Bitterblossom , I added as many sources of drawing/cantrips as possible. Finally, Mulldrifter, the best card ever.

LordSanada: How did you feel playing against Bates' HomeBRU in the finals?
eldawg: It was tricky to play around the Festercreeps , but he didn't seem too have many threats so I could play slow. Also, it looked like he got stuck on few land a couple times and passed the turn with no play.

LordSanada: Are there any changes you would make to your deck?
eldawg: Yes, my sideboard is a mess. I need some Eyeblight's Endingsand a couple more land.

LordSanada: Do you have any advice to new PDC players?
eldawg: I started MTGO online about 2 months ago to learn the game and get practice for playing paper magic with my friends. Pauper is a great opportunity to try deck building and playing. It is definitely the best place for new players to start.

LordSanada: Is there anything else you would like to add?
eldawg: I've been having a great time playing pauper magic, and would like to encourage everyone to try it out

LordSanada: Alright, well congrats again, and good luck in the future!

Treefolk Incoming

Besides the profusion of Faeries, perhaps the second most popular tribe was Treefolk. Check out the meta report at http://www.pdcmagic.com/gatherling/eventreport.php?event=BPDC%202.04

Cloudcrown Oak seems like a good choice to hold back the Faeries and Mulldrifters. However, I wonder if the deck is too slow to compete with the agro decks yet not powerful enough to compete with the likes of HomeBRU and others.

Control Wins the Day

By my count, the Top 4 consisted of 3 1/2 control decks: HomeBRU, LOR Control, Flash Faeries, and a 3 color Elemental deck. It looks like the slower decks are able to hold off the tribes and aggro until they can seal the deal. Are there any untapped cards that the aggro players are missing? We'll see next week!

Speculation: The Ideal Creature

What would the ideal LOR block creature look like? I think it would be on that would be able to go toe to toe in combat and dodge most removal.
- It would be a 4/4 (Avoids Nameless Inversion and can kill most creatures in combat)
- Is black (Dodges Violet Pall)
- Is a Changeling (For Eyeblight's Ending and Faerie Trickery)
- Has reach, to handle all of the flyers

Supercreature 4B
Creature- Changeling
Reach
4/4

Join me next week for another exciting night of BPDC! LordSanada out.