Catching up with Dave & Adam’s Friday Night Magic

By Dave & Adam’s Gaming Staff

Hello everybody, and welcome back to Dave and Adam’s FNM recap. A lot has happened since we last met. Formats have shifted, cards have come into and fallen out of favor, and most importantly, we’ve opened our brand new megastore. We’ve got a mix of old and new for you this time, so let’s take a look at what’s been doing well.

First we have one of our last winners from our old location, Jordan small with his Modern Naya Burn list:

Arid Mesa x4

Bloodstained Mire x4

Wooded Foothills x3

Mountain x4

Stomping Ground x1

Sacred Foundry x 2

Skullcrack x3

Lightning Helix x2

Lightning Bolt x4

Boros Charm x4

Rift Bolt x4

Shard Volley x1

Searing Blaze x4

Lava Spike x4

Atarka’s Command x3

Monastery Swiftspear x4

Goblin Guide x4

Eidolon of the Great Revel x4

Grim Lavamancer x1

Sideboard:

Anger of the Gods x1

Path to Exile x2

Molten Rain x3

Destructive Revelry x2

Deflecting Palm x2

Relic of Progenitus x1

Rending Volley x2

Kor Firewalker x2

Mono-Red burn has been around essentially as long as Modern has been a format. Brewers have been adding splash colors in an attempt to gain access to other spells which will make your opponent dead ASAP. Black was a popular splash color for a little while, but after the printing of Boros Charm in Gatecrash, White became the go-to color for the majority of decks. Jordan’s deck goes one step further, incorporating Green as another light splash for the freshly printed Atarka’s Command as Skullcrack number 4 through 6. This new instant can be far more than just a Skullcrack, however, with its “Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn” mode, and enough creatures on the battlefield, that one spell is able to do large swaths of damage all at once.

Here we have Nick Cummings showing off his Standard Sultai Control list in our Winner’s Throne. The player who wins their event and has the highest tiebreakers between our two events gets to sit in the Winner’s Throne for the entire tournament the next week and play on our awesome gaming table.

Our next featured list is a combo deck that’s somewhat off the radar. It’s a known entity but no one usually expects to see it. This is Jacob Gertz’s winning Ad Nauseam list:

4 Ad Nauseam

4 Angel’s Grace

4 Lotus Bloom

4 Pentad Prism

4 Serum Visions

4 Sleight of Hand

3 Spoils of the Vault

3 Pact of Negation

3 Phyrexian Unlife

2 Lightning Storm

4 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Seachrome Coast

4 Gemstone Mine

4 Temple of Deceit

1 Temple of Enlightenment

2 Plains

1 Tolaria West

1 Dreadship Reef

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of Sanctity

3 Darkness

2 Esper Charm

1 Echoing Truth

1 Laboratory Maniac

1 Pact of Negation

1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All

1 Patrician’s Scorn

1 Slaughter Pact

This list is a doozy. The goal of the deck is to play an effect which prevents you from losing the game, such as Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife and then cast Ad Nauseam. At this point you pick up your entire deck (losing life equal to the converted mana costs of all the spells remaining in your library), exile 3 Simian Spirit Guide and cast Lighting Storm at your at your opponent, discarding all of the remaining lands in your deck. This deck is difficult to interact with, and players aren’t likely to have sideboard cards to bring in against it. Notoriously difficult to play online, as the controls can be confusing at times, as well as in real life, the deck is one of the more fun and unusual combos available in modern at the time and one of the most fun to watch.

Up next we have another of our regulars who always seems to do well, Peter Bloomingdale, running Green/Red Devotion:

4x Courser of Kruphix

3x Dragonlord Atarka

4x Elvish Mystic

3x Genesis Hydra

1x Hornet Queen

3x Polukranos, World Eater

3x Rattleclaw Mystic

4x Sylvan Caryatid

1x Voyaging Satyr

4x Whisperwood Elemental

10x Forest

1x Mountain

4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

1x Rugged Highlands

4x Temple of Abandon

4x Wooded Foothills

1x Nissa, Worldwaker

2x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

3x Xenagos, the Reveler

Sideboard

1x Arbor Colossus

3x Den Protector

2x Hornet Nest

1x Nissa, Worldwaker

4x Nylea’s Disciple

Green/Red Devotion has been old reliable for a very long time in Standard, never really being the best, but also never really being bad. Peter doesn’t seem to have added anything from Magic Origins, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the cards here are strong on their own, and if he can ramp into them using Elvish Mystic, Sylvan Caryatid, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Xenagos, the Reveler, he can play some very powerful threats very early. The deck doesn’t have Stormbreath Dragon, which was the threat of choice for the deck for the longest time, but the hasty dragon has somewhat fallen out of favor, with players opting for more value creatures, such as Hornet Queen and Whisperwood Elemental.

Andrew Skorik recently won one of our Modern tournaments running one of the pillars of the format, Affinity:

Affinity is one of the most common aggressive decks in Modern and has been around nearly since the creation of the format. The deck is capable of incredibly fast starts, and with a decent draw is able to have your opponent dead around turn four a startling amount of games. Usually only featuring spells that cost 0, 1 or 2 mana, and having nearly colorless mana requirements (aside from the occasional Blood Moon, Galvanic Blast, Spell Pierce, etc.), Affinity is fast and consistent.

4x Blinkmoth Nexus

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Darksteel Citadel

3x Glimmervoid

1x Island

4x Vault Skirge

1x Spellskite

3x Memnite

4x Arcbound Ravager

4x Signal Pest

2x Master of Etherium

4x Ornithopter

3x Steel Overseer

3x Etched Champion

4x Springleaf Drum

4x Mox Opal

4x Cranial Plating

3x Galvanic Blast

1x Stubborn Denial

SIDEBOARD

1x Wear/Tear

1x Ancient Grudge

1x Dismember

2x Thoughtseize

2x Stubborn Denial

1x Circle of Protection Red

2x Whipflare

1x Blood Moon

1x Topor Orb

1x Grafdigger’s Cage

1x Spellskite

1x Master of Etherium

Finally, our most recent Standard winner, Mike Toczek with Jeskai:

4x Soulfire Grandmaster

3x Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

4x Mantis Rider

3x Goblin Rabblemaster

1x Dragonlord Ojutai

4x Wild Slash

3x Lightning Strike

3x Stoke the Flames

3x Ojutai’s Command

3x Valorous Stance

2x Disdainful Stroke

2x Dig Through Time

4x Flooded Strand

4x Mystic Monastery

2x Plains

2x Mountain

2x Island

3x Temple of Epiphany

2x Shivan Reef

3x Temple of Triumph

3x Battlefield Forge

Sideboard:

3x Anger of the gods

3x Nyx-Fleece Ram

2x Stratus dancer

2x Revoke Existence

1x Tragic Arrogance

1x Dragonlord Ojutai

1x Disdainful Stroke

2x Mastery of the Unseen

Jeskai aggro is a deck that recently did well at both Pro Tour Magic Origins and Grand Prix San Diego. Against creature decks, it’s looking to control the board early with its burn spells like Wild Slash and Lightning Strike before taking over with its 3-mana and higher threats like Mantis Rider, all the way up to Dragonlord Ojutai at the 5-CMC slot. The deck features one new card from Magic Origins in Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy//Jace, Telepath Unbound. Before transforming the card allows the deck a good deal of card selection with its activated ability and post-transformation the -2 ability allows the player to rebuy spells like Stoke the Flames and Dig Through Time. With Delve spells you can even control when you flip your Jace, keeping the number of cards in your graveyard below five.

Want to see your deck and photo on this page? Come to Friday Night Magic every week at Dave and Adam’s new store and see how you stack up against some of the best players in town.