Here's what happened on Friday:
I did actually manage to put together the Darwin Kastle white budget deck, and realized that I've completely become the kind of person who can put together that deck because I have the cards in the house.
To get the 4 Honor of the Pures I had take apart a couple of other decks but I just made a list.
Here is the deck as Darwin listed it
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I was one Isolated chapel short so I put in an Evolving Wilds, and I was one Champion of the Parish short so I put in a Grand Abolisher ( also because I knew my local meta would have a problem with the Abolisher, they like to do stuff at the end of my turn).
I followed his suggestion in the Beyond the Build article and had some Divine offering in the sideboard since a lot of people are playing pod decks all of a sudden so I had 2 in the sideboard and 2 revokes but what I didn't have were shrines of the Loyal Legions. I put out a call for substitutes and had already thought of putting in one Heros of Blade hold and moving the Abolisher to the sideboard.
Realizing this was the last FNM before Avacyn restored and I still hadn't actually cast a planeswalker in my entire life I looked over the token strategy and figured WHAT THE HELL and put in a Sorin and Elspeth Tirel that I had never even sleeved up because I didn't have the Legions.
What I was really trying for was playing a focused deck with very little card variety to see if I could run a strategy that streamlined. Darwin was trying to build on a budget but even though the Hero's and Planeswalkers were expensive I was trying to play the deck because it was constructed in a way that was synergistic
So my final build was this.
Creatures (13)
Spells (24)
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Lands (23)
Sideboard (15)
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So this was my sideboard going into my usual Just In Case or I'm Playing Badly I Might As Well Get Used to Playing These Strategic Cards plan. I would have bought the Legions at the store if they were available but there were no loyal legions to be had.
As a matter of fact when I had gotten there I didn't realize that it was the end of the month so therefore it was 2 headed giant which is not my favorite format - especially since it would only be the second time I played it but Phil who is a very friendly and helpful dude who was friends with Married Keith ( remember there are many different Keiths, Dans and Kyles in Magic) needed a partner and I made the number to sanction the match ( and I really, really wanted to play I felt like I hadn't moved cardboard in FOREVER but it was really only 2 days since I played some casual) when we stopped.
The last time I had played 2-headed it was a sealed pre-release I had never played constructed. Phil said "Hell, we can't partner up you're playing Delver right?" Why did it matter? Because in constructed you can't have 8 copies of the same card between the two teammates ( or "heads).
But NO i had taken the time to put together the Darwin Deck and there was no overlap except Lingering Souls. But EVEN BETTER, Phil's Delver build didn't use Lingering Souls.
We spread everything out, checked the decks ( luckily I'd gotten there early). He's a much better player than I am but a looser competitor than many of the "good" players. He's fun to play with.
Preparation - Well I'd spent a good bit of time prepping for this one and absolutely no time prepping for 2-Headed giant so I was simultaneously prepared and flat-footed.
Comfort Level - It was good, I've been playing white but haven't liked my deck in competition but like it find to play. I couldn't tell if it was because my play had deteriorated from lack of tournament play or if my construction was just bad. So knowing that Darwin had made the deck meant that I could really focus on whether or not I was playing properly. I was a little thrown because it wouldn't be head-to-head but that was easily solved by just making Phil the primary player.
Results
We beat people quick - right until we didn't and that games was longer.
Our record was 2-1 out of 3
Takeaways
2-headed giant means 30 life points shared and you have to read cards that you are familiar with carefully, it suddenly makes a really big difference if it says "opponent's" or "opponents"
It was a good thing that I'd played because it meant I wasn't playing 2-headed giant cold the next day at the pre-release non-helvault version.
We lost game 3 because I had no removal and they cast an Elesh Norn. Checking my deck all my Oblivion Rings were in the lower half of the deck. One of the things you get used to playing blue is the ability to move through your deck and reorder things. One of the reasons I might not be playing my regular white deck properly is that I'm not thinking strategically enough about what happens if I DON'T get the cards I need next.
Elesh Norn pretty much shuts down this deck if they kill off your enchantments first ( which they did) we were in the game as long as we were because I could get a Hero out.
2-Headed giant doesn't let you sideboard since it only goes one game. So I let phil go through all the cards and substitute based on what we would need the most to compliment his deck, we took out 3 elite vanguards put in the other Hero, the Abolisher, and Elspeth. Elspeth never came into play but the Hero and the Abolisher both worked out for us. Also he had an Isolated Chapel ( foil!) with him and we swapped out the Evolving Wilds to run the proper amount. I bought one from my LGS after the game.
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