Tuesday Post-Tournament Post - MPDC 23.06

On Mondays, I always try to play in the MPDC  Player Run Event on Magic Online.  This weekly gathering is a long-standing Standard Pauper tournament run through PDCMagic.com and hosted by gwyned, author of a blog similar to here, Writer Adept.  I recommend frequenting these places regularly if you're interested in or serious about Standard Pauper.  The best place to get started if you're brand new is the MPDC Season 23 Master Document, which gives you all you need to know to get started (and good for all players to refer to).

So on Tuesdays, I'll post my brief thoughts and take-aways from the tournament experience, which is always good fun (even if my luck is bad).  I used to write blog-length ramblings and play-by-plays right in my deck descriptions on Gatherling, but I think this new blog will save that sites memory and grant me more free rein here.

Then let's get to it!  Yesterday twenty-five Standard Pauper players got together to compete in the sixth event of MPDC's twenty-third season.  It marked the third week in a row that SPP Clanmate MudnisV has piloted the dreaded Dimir Mill deck to victory!  He's got a great post talking about how he's developed this monstrous control deck over at the Standard Pauper Players Clan Blog.

Dimir Mill is definitely the deck to beat in the early Theros season.  I was playing it the previous couple weeks as I always give the "best" deck a shot.  But I am an Aggro player at heart and was not playing the deck very well.  So instead, I built up a Boros Aggro deck based on rhysticy's winning list  from before MundisV's Milling streak began.

Here is my Boros Aggro from MPDC 23.06:

Boros Batallion Unleashed

RW Aggro by Cabel in MPDC 23.06 (1-2)

Creatures 4 Daring Skyjek 4 Gore-House Chainwalker 4 Skyknight Legionnaire 4 Viashino Firstblade 4 Wojek Halberdiers 3 Bomber Corps 3 Foundry Street Denizen 3 Splatter Thug 2 Rubblebelt Maaka 31 cards Other Spells 3 Madcap Skills 2 Gods Willing 2 Lightning Strike 1 Celestial Flare 1 Chandra's Outrage 5 cards

Lands 9 Mountain 7 Plains 4 Boros Guildgate 20 cards Sideboard 3 Keening Apparition 3 Electrickery 3 Chandra's Outrage 3 Celestial Flare 3 Annihilating Fire 15 cards

Join the glorious Boros Reistance against the Dimir Mill oppressors!

I did not end up doing well in the Swiss.  It's been like that all season so far.  But damn if it didn't feel good to turn dudes sideways and blow stuff up again!  Constantly staring at a fistful of blue counters and black removal with nothing but land and Archaeomancers on the battlefield is just not action packed enough for me right now.  I need some good old red-based excitement!  I'm really liking some of the Boros options; had fun trying out Bomber Corps, but I think I should stock up on Haste creatures and put Rakdos Shred-Freak back in that slot.  What do you think of the switch?  Feel free to make suggestions about Boros Aggro in the comments below!

I tried to practice a bit more than I did in preparation for previous tournaments and think I played a bit tighter than normal.  Still not good enough, though.  Some of the decks I faced were completely new to me and threw me off.  The Bant Enchantments deck the clan captain is working on and an interesting Simic Evolve both bested me and got me thinking I'll have to plan for them in the future.

But I'll stick with something Red for now.  I'm a Red Mage at heart and it felt great to have some burn at my disposal and army of quick little beaters.  I will likely try Boros again next week, practicing more and refining the list further.  Then again, I might not be able to resist building a straight Red Deck. No ice!  Mono Red has been placing fairly well, which gives me hope for the future :-)

And there you have it!  The first installment of my weekly post-tournament musings are up on The Web.  I hope  to see you for the tournament next week.  Thanks for reading.  Have fun, good luck, and good games!

Peace,

- C

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