First time Modern Constructed

The stack with prizes.

A couple guys on Google+ wanted to know how my first time Modern Constructed went with my Theros White-Blue deck. Well, here's a short rundown:

The Games

1st Round vs. Martin Kern
Martin played a Blue monodeck where I couldn't block his sea creatures because I had islands in my deck. Obviously this rock-paper-scissors wasn't in my favor at all. I could have done better against him if I hadn't had any islands in my deck, but even then he could have flooded my lands and turned them into islands.

2nd Round vs Florian Locher
Florian played a Red monodeck and used his incendiary spells every round to either reduce my life or destroy my creatures, so I was not able to build up any substantial threat at all. I could have done better against him with counterspells, but I didn't have any.

3rd Round vs Yannik Wedking
Yannik played a White monodeck that included a couple a lands that could change color to Black so he could play his cards that enabled him to look through the cards on my hand and drop a creature with power 3 or less. I think I did best in this matchup, but that and him spamming 1/1 flying tokens to me to an early grave as well.

What I learned from this tournament
I got confirmation of what I expected: good players have a better concept than just mixing cards won at the Booster Draft the previous week. What worked best for me tonight were the Heroic cards in my deck, especially the Battlewise Hoplite and the Favored Hoplite were either doing well or were removed early by my opponents because of the perceived threat, so I decided to shift my deck more into that direction.

My pull

The Wingsteed Rider and Dauntless Onslaught immediately caught my eye, so did Triton Tactics.

My modifications

One thing I didn't modify was my section with lands. I always felt very comfortable with the lands I had, so that worked.

Still in my deck: 14 White, 10 Blue, and 1 Unknown Shores for versatility.

As my rare pull I got the Temple of Deceit above, bringing me up to three temples, but I don't have a concept for them, so I leave them alone. I feel I need to have a strong concept for a land that starts tapped when it enters the game plus I need to have a clear idea on the synergies I want to trigger with them.

These continue to stay at home, though Temple of Silence is currently listed at 4USD. I don't have a concept for a Black/White deck, however.

One of the local players encouraged me to play more spells targeting my own Heroic cards to make them stronger, so I did my heaviest modifications to my spell section.

Spells in the top row went out of my deck, those in the bottom row went in.

After that I did a tiny modification to my troops. I wanted my deck to be more either Heroic or Flying:

The Soldier of the Pantheon left because he doesn't have Heroic, the Wingsteed Rider entered for that very same reason plus Flying.

So my current deck composition is as follows:

Spells.

White creatures. I am feeling especially good about the Cavalry Pegasus here.

Blue creatures. I have the feeling I am top heavy on Mana here...

Last but not least my White-Blue creatures.

So that's it. Any suggestions?

Dystopian Wars MMBB I

This Yuletide hat had a "Magazine Explosion" label on its front and you got to wear it whenever you scored one. :-D

Since my last blog post I finished painting my EotBS starterbox and participated at the Dystopian Wars MMBB I today - without having played a single game first, so I guess that puts me on par with +Andre Suwanda and his adventures in wargaming, I guess. :-D It's at tournaments where you learn to play games. :-D

My list:

EotBS (Tora! Tora! Tora!)

1x Sokotsu Class Battleship

3x Nakatsu Class Cruiser
3x DFA-170 Class Bomber

4x Uwatsu Class Frigate
4x Uwatsu Class Frigate
3x Fujin Class Corvette

5Tft Torpedo Bombers
5Tft Torpedo Bombers

Game 1 vs. Stefan "Geddon" Werz (7th Shetland Patrol Squadron)

This is how we set up.

In his first turn, Stefan made sure to sink my small ships - I didn't know yet how good they really are and thought they are just canon fodder to protect the biggies. I didn't really do any damage in return.

In the second turn, Stefan methodically continued to tear my fleet apart while my Bombers went submarine hunting. :-D

In the third turn, Stefan took down my Bombers as I didn't wasn't aware yet one can shoot flyers with the main guns if near enough. My flyers in return were harassing his flyers and my Sokotsu Class started its main barrage fire.

At this point "Dice Down" was called and Stefan won an overwhelming victory - duh! :-D

Things I learned from this game:

• Don't run your large ships too far in the back - they wanna kill things.
• Small Torpedo Bombers are terrific against naval vessels.
• DFA-170 Bombers wanna stay either far away from ships or get really close to them - inbetween they are just canon fodder.
• Uwatsu Class frigates want to be the 2nd wave of attack.

Game 2 vs. Pascal "Sir Mauriac" Rüegge (казачий хор)

Forgot to take a picture at the very beginning, but one can still guess how we set up - and since I already knew that the Russian fleet races towards you, I simply had to hold the narrow between these two islands.

In turn 1, Pascal did only little damage and I just sneezed at one of his Novgorod Class frigates in return.

In turn 2, I put into practice what I learned game 1 and my Uwatsu broadsides all but eliminated the 8 Novgorod Class frigates. Pascal focused fire on my Bombers, took one down and severely crippled the other two.

In turn 3, Pascal's Rostov Class destroyers did an incredible turn to sink my Sokotsu Class battleship before Dice Down. He managed to damage the weapon systems and remove two hull points, but the Sokotsu was still going strong. On my side, everything - EVERYTHING - continued to fire into his Borodino Class battleship (because my mission was to sink it), but it survived with 1 hullpoint!

Things learned from this game:

• This game is fun! :-D
• Playing the mission helps. :-D Borodino Class is *heavily* armored and difficult to take down, but I could have done it with just a little more luck. Firing everything at the Borodino Class meant I neglected everything else, though.

Game 3 vs. Axel "Seph" Le Brize (черноморский флот)

Axel set up his evil Bunker in the center of the table so I had set up my entire fleet shifted to the left to avoid it as much as possible.

In turn 1, Axel's Bunker hit one of my Nakatsu Class. The Sokotsu Class answered with a volley from its main turrets.

Turn 2 was long fought and *very* bloody. Axel managed to score a "Magazine Explosion" on my Sokotsu Class battleship. The Sokotsu had 8 hullpoints so the explosion meant 16 dice against every ship within four inches - erasing three Uwatsu Class frigates, destroying one Nakatsu Class and seriously crippling the two others. At this moment I thought I had lost this game... but then I remembered that playing the mission helps. :-D I had to remove all his medium size ships as my mission and there were only two damaged ones left.

Turn 3 was my epic moment when my two small Uwatsu Class frigates indeed did kill his remaining two Suvorov and Tamboc Class with rolling hot on sixes. In return, his Borodino Class battleship and the Bunker sent everything I had left into a wet grave.

Things I learned from this game:

• Playing the mission helps!
• I am confident I'd have one this if my Sokotsu hadn't blown up in turn 2 because my fire power on the refused flank would have killed his medium sized ships much quicker.
• A mindset developed in Warmachine/Hordes definitely helps in Dystopian Wars games, but in the later movement is way more complex whereas in the former everyone just runs into a zone and you play a game of guessing millimeters. In Dystopian Wars you premeasure anything at any time and have your ships perform a ballet instead. I think that's way more entertaining.