M15 Match report: Sure... I like dogs.

M15 Sealed
Apparently we all plunged into sealed at the same time! Pete and I headed down to Card Kingdom and signed into a 25 person booster draft. My opening pack was pretty bad: the rare was Sliver Hive (oy) and no very flexible uncommon so I grab an Ancient Silverback (“It does a decent impression of a bomb if you squint” -LR). Pack two (obscured) was just as uninspired so I took a Bronze Sable, basically on the “good against Intimidate and playable artifacts are above par here.” Then things get wacky.

3^rd round: passed a Lightning Strike

4^th: Borderland Marauder (a solid 2 drop)

5^th: Inferno Fist.

Red it is! I also take some blue out of opportunity along with two very late decent artifacts. Hoping to get Ensoul Artifact, Shrapnel Blast, etc. Also baffling: a round 13 Nimbus of the Isles and 14 Peel. Peel isn’t THAT great a card but 14^th? What the hell is going on here?

 

We switch directions and I pluck the Haunted Plate Mail. Frost Lynx, and then THREE Junkyard Dogs flow. Fine with me!

 

Pack three finalizes the confusion. I first-pick darksteel (giving me 5 playable artifacts), another Junkyard, and a pile of other cards. Heartbroken that no Ensoul or Shrapnel blast went around but I do have four dogs. I probably shouldn’t complain.

 

Looking over my deck I’m a little concerned that I just have a ‘pile of cards’ There’s some fast agro, some slower control-y, and mostly just a fistful of Junkyard dogs. There's not a real bomb in there. Are four 5/3 Tramplers enough to crush some fools?  Spoiler alert: yes.

Do you like dags?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQSnua3M2lo

Sure... I like dogs.

Round 1: facing off against a semi-mirror Red/blue deck but runs a LOT faster. He whittles me to 9, I get a dog, Illusory Angel, and swing hard to 4, feeling safe. But I’m an idiot, he has that stupid goblin that paralyzes a blocker, and gets me to 5 and Lava Axes me down. VERY frustrated with myself: there was no reason to swing with more creatures when my only goal is to stay out of Lava Axe Range. Fortunately I redeem myself in the other games, stabilizing more carefully and running over his tiny agro weenies with large angry dogs. As an interesting aside, he did get up double Military Intelligence in game three which gave his deck some pretty good legs. (2-1)

Next game was against a great theorycraft deck: green/blue trying to get synergies out of the boomerangs (Roaring Primadox, Invasive Species, Peel from Reality) and entry-triggers (Frost Lynx, Shaman of the Wild etc.) Fun gimmick… but it just takes way WAY too much mana. Both times he got to live the dream of a Roaring Paradox + Frost Lynx on the field and I would go, “Cool, my Dogs attack”. Frost Lynx is not that great on defense; definitely better at crippling blockers for two turns rather than stopping an attacker for one. Siege Wurms got out, and I attacked with my dogs. Haunted Plate Mail on the mongrel is just mean.  Hypothesis for further testing: using the green boomerangs on cheap red creatures that want to come back repeatedly (Forge Devil, Foundry Street Denizens) It still might suck. (2-0)

Third round was facing a very confused white/black deck. I keep another 5 lander and regret nothing. We’re both playing semi-control, except my control finishes up with Dogs and she never drew her kill cards (an Angel & something else) Game 2 did get a little dicey when she Entangled Sliver a dog, used the black sliver (now also exiling) another…. But there just wasn’t the wheels. Echoing Brent earlier about the Slyblade, that is definitely a fucker to attack into and I had a lot of pretty good removal. But it’s definitely about the attack and threat of activation and not forcing you to keep four mana up turn after turn. (2-0)

And now hubris slew the mighty. Both Pete and I were 3-0 so we were excited about a faceoff in the finals. Alas, I played down to a 2-1 white/green convoke deck and Pete played a damn near mono-red machine gun. I could tell that this would be the deck that really tested me because it would bring the noise. Also, I don’t have a great answer for triplicate spirits other than my two 3/3 fliers and a Gargoyle. Not fast enough to pressure, not control enough to protect myself (Pete dispatched him handily). Fortunately, it turned out not to really matter. I keep a 2 lander with two 2-drops… and don’t draw a land for the rest of the game. Triplicate Spirits + Charge pretty much ended me. Second game I mull into three islands with a 2 drop and a coral barrier. Not going to get better than that going to five, so I keep… and don’t draw a mountain for seven turns. So sometimes the cards betray you, it happens. (0-2)

Deck: Went with 17 lands because it runs quite happily on 4 lands and has a very minimal # of double manas.

Red (11): Altac Bloodseeker, Borderland Marauder, Lightning Strike x2, Inferno Fist x2, Krenko’s Enforcer, Scrapyard Mongrel x4.

Blue (7): Research Assistant, Coral Barrier x2, Frost Lynx, Illusory Angel, Amphin Pathmage, Nimbus of the Isles x2

Artifact: Bronze Sable x2, Gargoyle Sentinel, Haunted Plate Mail

Lands: 9 Mountains, 7 Islands, 1 Darksteel Citadel

Five two-drops, 4 removal spells

Sideboard: Rummaging Goblin, Torch Fiend, Negate, Crowd's Favor

 

It’s funny because the coral barriers both saved my life and also really slowed it down. I think this deck wanted to play like an agro deck with the dogs as finishers. But I’m still pondering.