Ups and Downs

So I took my little Jund deck into another Standard 8-man queue last night. The results were not as pretty as my first post with the deck.

starting loot: 13 tix, 2 WWK, 4 ZEN

I loaded up the first 8-man and oh, look, it’s the mirror!

Game one was a good game. We went back and forth with Bloodbraids and Blightnings, Garruks and Thrinaxes, but eventually he drew into good cards and I drew into lands. For instance, my three-turns of drawing cards yielded me three lands, while his three-turns yielded 2 Siege-Gang Commanders and a Bloodbraid into Thrinax.  Not too shabby. So we were on to game 2.

I boarded in the Ruinblasters on the play, figuring I could jump ahead of his manabase. But I didn’t even see a Ruinblaster. Then again I didn’t need them either. He had a good draw, but mine was pure gold. Turn 2 Leech into Turn 3 Thrinax into BBElf/Blightning… Siege-Gang.  Brutal, I know! He didn’t recover and we were on to game 3.

For the last game I took out the Ruinblasters and put in the Anathemancers. I’m still not sure if that’s correct, because while the Anathemancers did do five points of damage, I was dead before I could unearth them. His Ruinblasters showed up for the final game and took down my ONE nonbasic land. I had a great draw with three basics and figured I could just wait on the nonbasic, well on turn 4 I had to play one to power into a BB Elf, and he blew it up. Follow that with another blaster and my mana was sufficiently disrupted. It was a tough loss.

So now I was down six tickets and some moral. What else to do but remain on tilt! I jumped in the queue again because it was at 5 and I knew it would fire quick.

Round 1 vs. Vampires
I didn’t know vampires was still that good. This guy certainly didn’t represent its strengths. He made some awkward plays like Disfiguring my Putrid Leech… um… pay 2 life? SHOCK! And in game two all he played were two Blade of the Bloodchief and removal. Awk.

Round 2 vs. Vampires
What? No, I didn’t stutter. Vampires two rounds in a row in the same 8-man! Those vamps sure are popular. Game one was a sick beating. This guy took Vampires to a whole new level in my mind. He was playing all sorts of good ones that the first round guy didn’t seem to draw. Nocturnus, Nighthawk, and the one that you gain 2 and opponent loses 2. That one was definitely sick. And let’s not forget the stupid Hexmage who kept my Garruk from going turbo. He ramped up to Nocturnus on turn 4 and, as it should always be, had a black card on top every turn until I was dead. I was really pining for Bituminous Blast in this match because it would have utterly destroyed his game plan.

Game two wasn’t much better than game one. His Vampires kicked my ass like

Give me back that filet-o-fish!

Brad Pitt vs. Antonia Banderas! Or like Blade vs…. well, pretty much all vampires. In fact, I would equate this matchup to Blade vs. Vampires. Jund is Blade and if the Vamps get off to a good start while Jund stumbles, it’s like Blade in the first movie where he was all lethargic from lack of blood. If he gets to that blood (mana for Jund) you’re done for. Ah you vamps and your sneaky plans!

So here’s what the loot looks like now:

Loot: 1 tix, 3 WWK, 5 ZEN

I’ll definitely have to give up some more packs before the next 8-man. Ah well. Maybe I’ll draft! Woo! Thanks for reading!

Vengevine?

Since everyone seems to be drinking the Vengevine Kool-Aid I figured I would put it to a vote!