Pseudo-Newb and Plays White at FNM (1 week late)

This is actually the entry for last week's FNM - I typed it out and then got caught in homework so I didn't edit or post it , but I need to put it up before I do this weeks (Yep I managed to make it to TWO FNMs in a row! A Dark Ascension  season record!)


So time delayed here it is: 


I have to enter the build I played last night. It was almost the white deck I was trying to make at the last minute at GP Baltimore. I played against UB control, Delver, Tempered Steel and the new UB Zombies, almost everyone else was playing a variant of Esper Control or Delver.

So it's about six months in since I started playing competitively, and the first thing I noticed is that I could recognize all the decks I played against in the meta game. As much as everyone was playing blue and black or blue and white. I also noticed almost everyone was talking about the red 2 drop Planeswalker that had been spoiled for Avacyn Restored ( newb note: that means he costs 2 mana)

and of course ( all my social anxiety nonsense leading up to the game aside) everyone there was someone who knew me from being there the female equivalent of forever, and they know how much I HATE planes walkers (which is not quite as much as I hate infect). But I have to admit that I had softened up before I saw Tibalt, because they actually made the first Planeswalker that inner 10-year-old me loves without qualification. At least until they screw up her background or story with some sort of sexist trope that they have mistaken for being "empowering". And then I will hold on to the story in my head based on the slight spoiler they gave. You see they created a female planeswalker that doesn't feel like a bad retread of stories outside of Magic.

I will need 4 of her. I will attempt to play any pro build that uses her, I will buy stuff with her full art on it.

Look at this full art! LOOOK AT IT!!! (squee)

So they're pretty impressed that I had something positive to say about it.

That brings me to the actuall FNM Basic Data

Type of Game - FNM  Standard

Preparation: I did actually prep for the game and even made sure to blog about it, but due to the whole real life grown up stuff getting the in the way I ended up with no time to actually sort through the cards, grabbed the white deck and realized that I had moved the Honor of the Pures into a Hold the Line deck for my new Lady Planeswalker friend to have a competitive deck in case she wanted  come to FNM.

So since I decided to "pack light" I was missing HoP except for one and that was the ramp, However my LGS had a reasonably priced Angelic Desiney which upped the count to 2 and in honor of my enthusiaism for Tamiyo I purchesed a 10$ Elpseth Tirel ( the frigid "lawful stupid" character) to see if I could start getting used to playing with Planeswalkers. 

Comfort Level: Meh ( which is better than Panic Attack)

When I started playing I didn't have all the nonsense going through my head and I did have a good time, realizing that I didn't have my deck set up properly kind of made sure that I didn't beat myself up too much about "needing to win" 

Results

I won the first round 2-0 and lost the other rounds 1-2
That means I played a total of 11 games, won 5 lost 6
Win Rate % = 45.5 %

I did not get shut out.

I beat UB control 2-0 and quickly

We had 3 very close games with me and Delver which almost drew because of time. 

My third round opponent played tempered steel, the first game went fast, I sideboarded and played aggressively winning the second round with synergistic restrictions really boxing him in. Another close 3rd game went him.
The final round was UB Zombies - I wasn't close to having enough answers and my mana just didn't come through. I'm not sure the deck is balanced properly.


Takeaways: 
This White deck just isn't balanced enough - I'm sure that it will run over my casual games and be thought of as competitive but it just didn't play that way. Also I keep realizing that I want to play with cards to learn them but I don't have any time ( there's the mad scientist deck in my head that's waiting for me to come up with a fun build and my Pretty Angry Women red deck)

The biggest takeaway is that while I've been playing slightly more magic and keeping a good balance with my work/family/friend life I need to play more standard.

Metagame takeaway - My LGS is getting direct competition with another LGS that has more tournament players, they had a bad judge for events for a while and those players came to our store, but they have a replacement judge now and frankly it means that the metagame is less "last tournament" driven but is still pretty much netdecked with two high level players trying out experimental brews.