Snakes Redux

So me being stubborn and goddamn dogged about the whole thing, decided to just grab the entire Snake deck that so ungloriously bombed on me in the qualifiers two weeks ago and proceed to try to win back some morale in last week's Friday Night Magic.

The stake: Coldsnap Booster packs for the Top 4 players and a copy of a foiled Astral Slide card imbued with the FNM logo - the giveaway flavor for the entire month of September.

"Cannot buy one, must win then can get," said the shopkeeper.

So I lan lan lah, must play lor. Would prefer to just buy the card though as Astral Slide is one of my tournament favorites...

Booster packs to me were a hit / miss affair since they are giving out Coldsnap boosters. The set's isn't exactly being raved about online and the cards that were chase rares were few and far between AND I have already gotten most of what I needed from the set overall.

Ok, cutting to the chase, I got into Top 4 with the damn Snakes on a Plane.dec.

Here's the build (or what I can remember off-hand while typing this in the office...):

Land
Forest x 4
Island x 4
Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers x 1
Minamo, School at Water's Edge x 1
Breeding Pool x 3
Simic Growth Chamber x 4
Novijen, Heart of Progress x 1
Yavimaya Coast x 4

Creatures
Sakura-tribe Scout x 4
Sakura-tribe Elder x 4
Coiling Oracle x 4
Ohran Viper x 4
Patagia Viper x 3
Seshiro, the Anointed x 2
Meloku, the Clouded Mirror x 1

Spells
Sosuke's Summons x 4
Remand x 4
Coat of Arms x 3
Umezawa's Jitte x 3
Gifts Ungiven x 2

Sideboard
Pithing Needle x 4
Spell Snare x 4
Sundering Vitae x 4
Arashi, the Sky Asunder x 2
Silklash Spider x 1

First match: Erayo Ninja Win 2-0

Both games saw me somehow making my opponent so screwed on mana with my shuffling and cutting "techniques" that he was cursing after the match. He's kind of a gaming friend of mine and I felt sorry that he has to lose that way. But sorry pal, the foil's at stake, man. I really want it so I guess I was really meant to win it tonight.

Anyway, Earyo Ninja is the top deck at the recent German Nationals so the deck's no pushover. I played another game with it after the game proper and promptly lost. Heng I won the real thing... :P

Second match GWR Zoo Lose 0-2

Cheebye Zoo. I love the deck to bits but really hated playing against it. Not to mention that my opponent was kind of irritating at times and shuffled my deck in piles of three to try and screw me but it didn't work in the end. But I still lost la.

There's something about undercosted, overpowered creatures that wins games I tell you. Turn one Isamaru (2/2), turn two Watchwolf (3/3) and turn three Burning-Tree Shaman (3/4) are no laughing foes when all you've got are a bunch of 1/1 snakes to try and block with. Bad trades...

At least I can still block, you say?

He then proceeds to run me over with a timely, top-decked Bathe In Light naming Green. That bloody card makes his zoo critters unblockable since all my Snakes were green! Sigh...

Both games ended this way, I tell you.

Third match U/R Vore Win 2-0

Now's the turn for my opponent to experience the good old mana choke. Not the kind that sees you drawing two lands and then stalling mind you, but the type that sees you drawing land after land with no spells in sight.

In such cases, the hungry pythons in my deck normally swallow you whole...

Ok, so there was a point in the second game when he threatened to stabilise with a Keiga, the Tide Star in play which bashed my face for 5 for three whole turns, dropping me to five life. This was my fucking final turn to do something. He had no blockers (the only creature being Keiga), had three cards on hand which could be a handful of stupid counterspells and plenty of mana to counter me with.

I've got a couple of snake tokens and two Patagia Vipers (these are the only snakes capable of blocking the Keiga since they fly). I topdecked an Umezawa's Jitte, cast it, no response.

I equipped it to a Patagia Viper, no response.

I bashed.

He scooped.

Yay!

Fourth match Wierd-ass R/G Land Destruction Win 2-0

Now this is some wierd deck. Must be homebrew. Anyway, the idea of the guy's deck is to accelerate his mana, nuke your bloody lands and then plonk down some big-ass shite and eat you alive.

Doesn't work man.

The snakes love me that night as they gave me land after land and Sakura-tribe Scout working her tight reptilian butt overtime to throw lands for me. I ain't got no mana problems that night when my opponent has to try to keep me off Sosuke's Summons' mana AND making sure he's not getting nicked in the arse by 1/1 snakes.

Second round we sideboarded.

I took out Seshiro and Meloku and put in the Silklash Spider and Arashi, the guys with high defense aka butts for fear of Wildfire. You never know these rogue decks, I tell ya.

The second game saw him laying a Burning-Tree Shaman and a Ohran Viper of his own while he stares at my army of Samuel L. Jackson fans. He attacked, I used four snakes to block his Shaman and killed that heretic. I then used another snake to block the Viper.

No damage to moi. But the vermin population is still being kept under control. Barely.

I then recast a cheap Snake to retrieve my Sosuke's Summons from my graveyard and then cast the Summons for two more Snake tokens. My opponent groans. The fact that he was stalled on red mana didn't help his cause.

I then top decked a Coat of Arms to accompany one that was already on my hand since the round started. I cast it, my opponent Naturalizes it in response.

No surprise there as I sort of expected that coming from a Red/Green deck. I had creature number superiority so I was not too worried unless he Wildfires whch he didn't to this point, phew.

The next turn sees me casting the second Coat. My opponent "wah lau-ed" and asked me how big were my snakes now.

"They are all 7/7 now," I said.

"Die la you, how much life you have also not enough la," remarked Lucas, one of the regular good players at the shop.

Opponent scooped. He had not blockers, ergo, butt gets raped by snakes...

Oh well...

And so I got into Top 4 with a score of 3-1 and the rest of the top three players decided to split as it was late and they wanted to go clubbing.

Got five packs of Coldsnap and here's my rare haul:

1 x Garza Zol, Plague Queen ($1 rare crap)
2 x Arcum Dagsson (Chao cheebye crap, $1 rare, get two some more!)
1 x Jester Scepter (at least something but not terribly valuable either...)
1 x Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper (crap crap crap)

Still, not bad for a Snake's night out...