Wydwen makes a Banefire

Yesterday was FNM Standard. And I played (surprise, surprise) Cruel Control.

// Lands
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Island
1 Exotic Orchard
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Mystic Gate
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Crag
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Crumbling Necropolis

A word to Sanctum/Necropolis. I needed some color-fixing and my wife was playing with my other Vivid-lands. The rest of the manabase is without surprises.

// Creatures
4 Mulldrifter
2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale

I expected much control mirrors so I was playing two Wydwen in the main deck. I like Wydwen by the way. This is a real control creature. It reminds me of an old friend from Ice Age, Blinking Spirit.

The good thing about Wydwen is her speed. Makes her even more controlish. And she can fly and survives a Fallout without additional action. The downside beside beeing legendary is of course the cost to get her out of trouble. But having this ability for free made the Spirit to annoying.

// Spells
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Banefire
4 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God
2 Martial Coup

I wanted to try Martial Coup, because I’ve had good experience with it in my first FNM and I expected a plethora of solutions for the Dragon. And yes I was always aware that 1/1 soldiers are going to die to Volcanic Fallout. But since it is only a kill condition and is nuking all other creatures anyway, the little soldiers will at least not die to my own Fallout.
And why was I playing Path to Exile and Wrath of God over the walls? First, I don’t like permanents other than lands and sometimes the finisher. And second, the same thought that axed the dragon from my list. Everybody should have solutions for the walls. Plus, as mentioned above, I expected many mirror matches. And I feared boring matches where both control players are sitting behind their walls increasing life total until one is unable to draw.
So, my plan for the control mirror was to get the opponent into Banefire range with Wydwen, Fallout or Cruel Ultimatum and Banefire him for the kill.

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Wydwen, the Biting Gale
SB: 2 Wrath of God
SB: 3 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 3 Celestial Purge
SB: 3 Vendilion Clique

Obviously an anti-control sideboard. Which leads us to the question, why don’t include the anti-control cards into the main deck and saving the creature removal for the sideboard?  At least I’m sideboarding 12 cards in the mirror. But until the opponent is not bringing in his anti-control stuff, my own anti-control stuff can’t shine. For example Needle against Scepter of Fugue. And I need a way to get rid of walls until they are replaced by e.g. said Scepter.

So how successfull was this deck in combination with its pilot yesterday? It started with

Match 1: Cruel Control
After having the better start, I screwed up game one by trying to resolve a cruel ultimatum.  I knew better. Before tapping the mana, I was sure it will be a mistake. And I was not listening to myself. And I lost.
I also screwed up game two before it actualy started by forgetting to bring in the Pithing Needles. And of couse the first thing that hit the table was a Scepter of Fugue. But to my own surprise the game was far from beeing over. I resolved a Vendilion Clique and almost got my opponent into Banefire range. Then I wanted to speed up things and resolved a second Clique. For everybody not aware of this really stupid mistake, Vendilion Clique is legendary. To restore parts of my honor, I heard this is a pretty common mistake. But anyway, this was the end of this match, because I had to throw to many lands to the Scepter to make a big enough fire. And I had a feeling that I will get a second chance to (im)prove my skills to play a mirror.

0-1-0

Match 2: Cruel Control
I conceded game one after facing Obelisk of Alara, a dragon and its mate and a countered last chance Martial Coup. Save time where you can to avoid the time limit. Game two and three followed the plan. Wydwen and friends were beating the opponent into Banefire range. And making the fire big enough makes it uncounterable. But you always have to fear Swerve. Interestingly this was a pretty fast match even though one would expect a three games control mirror to take days.

1-1-0

Match 3: Grixis something
Exactly what I needed after two control mirrors. Time to relax. This Grixis deck was built and piloted by a newbie. So I went 2-0. The biggest threat ever hitting the table on his side was Onyx Goblet. But he was a nice guy and I think he enjoyed playing without thinking to much about winning. I like this attitude. At least from my point of view magic should always be more about fun than about winning at all costs.

2-1-0

Match 4: Elves with Bitterblossom
I lost and I lost without having fun playing because I had to mulligan down to 5 in both games, followed by manascrew in the first and manaflood in the second. But even with the right amount of mana I have the feeling that this is one of the harder matchups for 5cc. Hopefully I get a second chance to play against this kind of deck in the near future.

2-2-0

At least not a negative record…

So we learned something from this FNM.

• You should always listen to yourself. If the inner voice says “don’t” than you better don’t.
• Stick to your sideboarding plan. Just as Logen Ninefingers says. (If you don’t know Logen, I recommend “the first law” trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.)
• Even tiny faeries can be legendary.
• I finished every game with Banefire so there is a chance that I will face Swerve or the like next time. Or others will also get to the Banefire plan and I should bring Swerve myself. And Swerve is a versatile card, because beside the obvious target changing thing it can change the target of a counterspell on the stack to itself.
• Manascrew sucks as much as manaflood.
• Perhaps I should go back to the Dragon.

Next friday is the next Standard FNM so I don’t have to wait to long to (hopefully) get in control again.

Until then…

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