Fox Murdoch's first time...

Well it wasn't THAT amazing. The world didn't move until round 3 when I lost against Tempered Steel. It turns out counters are great, but when you need to save one for Tempered Steel itself, they just play a load of guys that don't cost much and don't amaze on their own but over several terms that just get the job done while you can't tap out. My realistic solution would have been to drop a Wurm asap so I could bash and gain life every turn, meaning any combat was atleast against -6 but I didn't think that until after the round. He went on to win the FNM, so fine by me.

Back to round 1. I'm against kid-jo who's brought his favourite deck. I always wonder if it's OK to play well (not go easy, not utterly devastate them) and figure that yeah, it's OK. They usually enjoy just playing, and normally upon the death state just dump their favourite spell onto the field because hey, they wanted to play it. He had a Mana Leak at some point, but that was it.

Round 2 I was against mono black infect, which I wasn't sure about. Game 1 I keep a Ponder/Hero of Bladehold/5 land hand and it works quite well. He just doesn't draw anything, I see an Inkmoth/Plague Myr and he dies as the tokens go 2 4 6 dead.

Game 2 he rises against me and I can't counter his spells that'll matter, while game 3 we have a real game of it, and it goes long and he nearly gets to kill me but I'm only down to 4 when I can swing back for the win that he can't combat. I resolved Sphinx against him which is really rather game.

Round 4 I'm against the Solar Flare deck, and he had a better position on things though I played well enough until Gideon showed up. He's like a Manual when you drive an automatic. The board clutters up with him controlling a Wurm and me having a Wurm (Mind Control'd) and two Solemn Simulacrum's and I make him attack Gideon, then swing in with my own guys... so his Wurm never dies! I die.

Game 2 it's not so close, as he gets his goods out and I realise how he has +8 counters on me, because he can allow creatures to resolve then kill them with Go for the Throat, which rather beats my 4 Mana Leaks. He came 2nd, so also good.

I'm 2-2 and top the 6 pointers. I get plenty of good info about how to improve the deck, and pretty much it is "play the stuff that's already being played by everyone." There is one card I'd love to slip into the main, so we'll how the changes go from here.

Below, the decklist. The sideboard is one million percentage scramble, apart from the Timely Reinforcements and Ratchet Bombs being vs aggro (tho who can even PLAY vamps anymore?)

8 Island
8 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
---
24 lands

4 Hero of Bladehold
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Mirran Crusader
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Frost Titan
1 Consecrated Sphinx
---
17 creatures

4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Think Twice
4 Sphere of the Suns
1 Mind Control
1 Gideon Joura
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
---
19 others

4 Timely Reinforcement
3 Blue Sun's Zenith
2 Day of Judgment
2 Sun Titan
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Jace Memory Adept
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15 sideboard

What the deck needs is a better sideboard. 4 Steel Sabotage in the sb (or 3) to combat the artifact heavy decks. 3/4 Dissipates in the main because Mana Leak isn't enough and isn't a hard counter, gets bad really quick. I think 2 Looters in the SB makes sense for the longer games where more cards will be better, and allows me to cycle the Mana Leaks once they're useless.

There is an obv case for Snapcaster being introduced, but what do you think I am, all money!? I would play him if I could, but I'm currently enjoying the fun of the deck rather than the lock downishness.

Jace could be removed to make space for other impressive Planeswalkers who don't give Solar Flare +2, such as Venser and Elspeth. With the two Elspeth can make tokens, Venser reset her to many counters, then next turn life gain and the turn after go ape. Especially with a Wurm on the board, having some 1/1s and 3/3s sounds good.

Lastly there is a big want also for Oblivion Rings and moving the Sun Titan to the main. Titan's great but I don't feel like I'd wanna play that game, with the obvious Sun Titan > Phantasmal Image > Sun Titan > O Ring gg play. Though it would be bloody fun! So I'll rework the deck and get back to you all.

I feel with better play this could easily have beena 3-1 result, but I didn't feel like I had a good chance against tempered steel, it's just so quick without the as-quick counters.

Ta for reading!