Hi everyone it's  Sorry about the lack of posts this past week. School has been pretty intense right now for all of us plus band, swimming etc. This weekend I went to the FNM as well as a tournament Saturday but for this post I'm gonna give you just a report on Friday. This week I was running a B/W tempered steel from which I borrowed the majority of from Ryan, and I gotta say I enjoyed it. It is a fun deck when you are putting such insane amounts of pressure on your opponent by turn 1. I was initially planning on just running tempered steel for FNM then switching back to my “Esper Flare” for the tournament the next day, but tempered steel ended up getting me 1^st place at FNM so I decided I had to take it to the tournament.

So my initial thoughts were that not many people were prepared for tempered steel at FNM which more less was right. I didn't play anyone who had cards side-boarded just for tempered steel.

Round 1: Zombies

Zombies has always intimidated me because of my control deck. I just don't know how to play around them super well with my control. But tempered steel held up very nicely and I enjoyed the fact that I can out aggro someone.

Game 1: I ended up loosing this game because I kept a bad hand and hoped for the best, he just happened to have or draw into 2 gravecrawlers and 2 messengers by turn 3.

Game 2: I won this game with infect from my inkmoths while he drew into almost all mana.

Game 3: Win as well but I did not have a super quick hand. I ended up wearing him down while he again, got mana screwed.

Round 2: Birthing pod

One of my buddies Steven who was playing mono-black heartless lost to this deck in the first round so I was a little unsure what to expect.

Game 1: Started off with a 2 Vault skirge turn 2 and by turn 3 I got out a tempered steel meaning I was dealing 6 and gaining 6 a turn all in the air. There really wasn't much he could do.

Game 2: This game was a loss. By turn 5-6 I was out of creatures and he had birthing pod. I lost my tempo and the confidence of being able to control the match. He got out 2 sun titans and just a ton of creatures.

Game 3: This game was a very fast match. I started off with memnites and a mox opal, and by turn 4 I had out a 2 etched champions, memnites, and a vault skirge.

Round 3: Planeswalker control.

As the pairings went up and I saw my table I just laughed. I was against Ryan who I've beaten every game at the game store we were at.

Game 1: Very fast game. I got out some memnites and a mox and played tempered steel turn 2. he was looking at 10 damage turn 2 and all he could really play was an island.

Game 2: Unfortunately I lost this match because Ryan just had to many answers to stall me long enough for him to start dropping planeswalkers. Once 2 planeswalkers drop I've lost my tempo and theres to much going on for me to handle.

Game 3: This game was almost the same as game 1. Tempered steel turn 2 and swing in for 10+ by turn 2-3.

Round 4: U/B zombies.

I sat down at my table and saw Josh ( who I played last week and beat) who is a VERY good opponent. The only reason I've ever previously beaten him was because he choose to play what he called “a weak deck”. But right now we both knew we were playing for 1^st or 2^nd .

Game 1: I had to mulligan down to 5 this game with 4 land in hand. For some reason I only drew land and I just couldn’t keep up with zombies.

Game 2: I choose to play first this game and hand a great opening hand with 2 memnites and a signal pest. So I dropped both of those turn 1 and just kept increasing the pressure each turn giving me a win.

Game 3: I won this game on the condition that he didn’t draw anything but lands. Turn 2 he managed to get out a phyrexian crusader ( which I thought was an odd sideboard card) and managed to get me to 5 poison counters before I got out a glint hawk idol and Etched Champion as well as tempered steel. So attacking with the crusader was pointless. I ended up swinging 4 a turn with the idol while he just drew lands until I slowly got him down to 0.

=

It was a good night and I had lots of fun. I’m pretty happy about the results even though I went 8-4 game wise. I still got first and I got a bad ass dismember in my binder now. I also opened two future sight packs and got a pact of negotiation as well as an akromas memorial. So very good pulls. As for the tournament yesterday I will write that probably by.....Wednesday? My goal there was to