Friday Night Magic

Friday Night Magic

In which son_of_heaven176 attends his first Friday Night Magic event, and has fun despite unfavorable match results.

Though I’ve been a nerd for almost forever, it’s only been relatively recently that I’ve gotten into Magic: The Gathering (MTG). My first exposure to MTG was joshscorcher’s Boros music video, featuring Sabaton’s “Gott Mit Uns”, but that was years ago.

I didn’t start playing Magic itself until 2018, when I picked up Magic Duels on Steam. Not too long afterwards, my little brother (who was in med school at the time) brought two physical decks with him when he came home on vacation. I brought one of those decks with me to BronyCon—you can learn more about that here, here, here, and here.

Nowadays, I play Magic: The Gathering Arena. I have had some measure of success with one of my Arena decks, so I decided to get a physical copy of that deck and try it out IRL (and hopefully make some friends along the way). I had done some research, and there was a card shop in my county that hosts an event called Friday Night Magic (FNM).

This past Friday, June 7th, the anticipation was quite high for me. I had bought my deck on Tuesday the 4th, and it was supposed to have arrived either the previous day (Thursday the 6th) or this day. It was originally forecast to arrive on Thursday, but the delivery was delayed, so I absolutely needed to have that deck arrive this day; how could I play Magic without a deck?! Fortunately, the deck did arrive … but when it did, I was not at home; I was house-sitting at my sister’s place, which was getting renovated. When the construction people were finally done, I sped off to my house … and was relieved that the cards hadn’t been stolen. I picked them up and headed off, as the card store was on the other end of the county from where I live.

When I got there (thankfully early), I took the time to get my cards out of the packaging, put the cards into sleeves, and sort out my deck and my sideboard. As I was putting the cards into card sleeves, another African-American came in. The card sleeves were quite unforgiving; one needed a steady hand to put the cards in. I asked the guy if he would be willing to help, and he did. As we sheathed my cards, I talked with him. The guy’s name was Anthony, and he happened to be the same age as me. He was an esports journalist. During the course of our conversation, I eventually asked if his site needed a proofreader. He did not, but I gave him my business card just in case he would need me in the future.

Finally, the event itself started. Now remember: this was my very first Friday Night Magic; I didn’t know all the ins and outs of the event. All I knew for sure was that there was an entry fee and that the matches were best of three games.

I was using my Magic: Arena deck, which was a Blue-Green Merfolk deck.

My first opponent was named Sean. He used a Red-Black deck focused on dealing direct damage.
The key card in his deck was Priest of Forgotten Gods:

Priest of Forgotten Gods 1B

Creature — Human Cleric

T, Sacrifice two other creatures: Any number of target players each lose 2 life and sacrifice a creature. You add BB and draw a card.

The Orzhov are not the only religious tradition on Ravnica, nor the oldest.

1 / 2

At the start of the first game, I was already on the back foot; I had mulliganed my starting hand down to five cards. (At the beginning of a game, you can take a mulligan, that is, shuffle your starting hand into your deck and then draw a new hand—but that new hand must have one fewer card than before. I had mulliganed twice, meaning that my starting hand had 5 cards instead of the default seven.) On top of that, my deck wasn’t working as it should, so I ended up taking a lot more damage than I was comfortable with.

During what would end up being the last turn of the game, Sean had Fanatical Firebrand on the table:

Fanatical Firebrand R

Creature — Goblin Pirate

Haste

T, Sacrifice Fanatical Firebrand: It deals 1 damage to any target.

"The Brazen Coalition is a firecannon pointed at our enemies. Goblins like him are the spark to its powder."
—Admiral Beckett Brass

1 / 1

I was low on life. It was Sean’s turn. He tapped Fanatical Firebrand; he was about to use its effect on me.

Not so fast! I thought. Merfolk Trickster!

Merfolk Trickster UU

Creature — Merfolk Wizard

Flash

When Merfolk Trickster enters the battlefield, tap target creature an opponent controls. It loses all abilities until end of turn.

Saved from destruction by one planeswalker's sacrifice, the Eliterate colony forswore the taking of life.

2 / 2

My hope was that if I could nullify the Firebrand’s ability, I could survive another turn. But Sean didn’t think that I could use Merfolk Trickster as a response to the Firebrand’s ability, and asked for a judge’s ruling. The judge showed up, and upon figuring out what was going on, ruled in Sean’s favor: the Firebrand’s effect requires tapping it and sacrificing it. In other words, when I tried to summon Merfolk Trickster, the Firebrand would no longer be on the field; my intended target would not be there for me to target!

And with that, the game was over.

Sean also showed me that the jig was up anyway: He had Priest of Forgotten Gods and more than two other creatures on the battlefield. One of them was a Devil creature token with the effect “Once this creature dies, deal 1 damage to any opponent.” So even if I could stop Fanatical Firebrand, he would just use Priest of Forgotten Gods instead and sacrifice the devil, thus dealing a total of 3 damage to me and ending the game.

During the second game against Sean, my deck decided to be uncooperative in a different way: I drew a lot of lands but few spells. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to put up much of a fight, and Sean won.

First Match: SOH176 loses, 2 games to 0.

Now this was my very first FNM, so I was wondering: what next? Was there more, or was this a single-elimination tournament? Sean answered that everybody plays three rounds, and prizes are allocated based on how well you do. So I still had more playing to do.

So perhaps there was hope for my deck yet!

The second round pitted me against Anthony, the esports journalist that I had talked to earlier.

Anthony had a mono-Red aggro deck. (Translation: hit ‘em hard and hit ‘em fast before they can do anything.) Almost every time I would summon a monster, he had a Shock spell ready to kill it.

The main player in his deck was Spear Spewer:

Spear Spewer R

Creature — Goblin Warrior

Defender

T: Spear Spewer deals 1 damage to each player.

"Don't waste time aiming, you lazy gob-slug! Fire!"
—Krenko, mob boss

0 / 2

So, both on my turn as well as his, Anthony would tap that Spear Spewer, and I’d be down a life.

During the first game, he also had Experimental Frenzy:

Experimental Frenzy 3R

Enchantment

You may look at the top card of your library any time.

You may play the top card of your library.

You can't play cards from your hand.

3R: Destroy Experimental Frenzy.

Turns out coffee is the weird aunt of invention.

Even though I had cards in my deck like Essence Scatter, Cancel, Blink of an Eye, and River’s Rebuke, none of them showed up in my hand at any useful point!

Even though I was able to hold my own a bit more ably during the second game than during the first, Anthony’s mono-Red aggro deck steamrolled my more deliberate Blue-Green deck.

Second Match: SOH176 loses, 2 games to 0.

My third match had me playing against an Asian guy—I believe his name was Dennis. Like me, he, too had lost both of his prior matches. I hoped that he might finally be the type of opponent that I could beat.

Dennis had a Red-White Boros deck. (Man, everyone that I’ve been playing against had Red somewhere in their decks!) His deck’s main player was Feather, the Redeemed:

Feather, the Redeemed RWW

Legendary Creature — Angel

Flying

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell that targets a creature you control, exile that card instead of putting it into your graveyard as it resolves. If you do, return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.

3 / 4

Of course, he had spells that buffed up his creatures, so basically, Feather allowed him to use the same spells turn in and turn out.

During the first game, he was able to whittle down my health quite a bit. During one of my turns, he asked if I had anything that could remove Feather. If I didn’t, Feather would attack and win the game.

I didn’t have instants or sorceries, but I did have an ace up my sleeve, metaphorically speaking.

I went through my turn. Didn’t do anything to Feather.

Dennis’s turn. Untap. Upkeep. Draw.

“Is it your main phase now?” I ask.

“Yes,” Dennis confirms.

Now! Before Dennis could do anything, I tap two blue mana and summon my Merfolk Trickster. It grounds Feather and removes her ability. Better think twice about buffing now, Dennis!

But I didn’t have the wherewithal to capitalize on that. Dennis eventually won the first game.

Between games, however, I sideboarded in some answers to Feather, most notably Watertrap Weaver:

Watertrap Weaver 2U

Creature — Merfolk Wizard

When Watertrap Weaver enters the battlefield, tap target creature an opponent controls. That creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.

The river is a powerful friend.

2 / 2

Sure, it was no Merfolk Trickster, but if I could stop Feather from attacking, then so much the better.

And indeed, I had quite the run of it during the second game. Watertrap Weaver actually showed up in my opening hand, and I was able to play it to stop Feather for a turn.

Later in the game, I was also able to wipe Dennis’s side of the board clean with River’s Rebuke:

River’s Rebuke 4UU

Sorcery

Return all nonland permanents target player controls to their owner's hand.

Carefully following the thaumatic compass Bolas had given her, Vraska blundered straight into the River Heralds' trap.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to keep up the momentum throughout the game. He was able to get Feather back on the field, buff her up, and win the game.

Third match: SOH176 loses, 2 games to 0.

But even though I lost utterly, I had a lot of fun. I was able to meet with some new people, and I didn’t go away empty-handed. I got a promotional foil card, which turned out to be Paradise Druid. On top of that, I got $5 in store credit, of which I cashed in $4.00 to get a booster pack and two copies of Negate.

In short, my first FNM was a fun night, and I certainly want to try again when I have the opportunity. And if you’re coming to BronyCon 2019, try to find me at StableTop Games. I have a deck looking for redemption.