FNM Playtesting

So, last night I took one of the decks I'm testing up to the local shop to get some games in.  As it turns out, all the most casual players turned up to support the new set.  Well, the catch is, all the casual players were playing all of the most casual decks.  I got to play 4 sets.  I showed up a little after they started, so I had to sit the first round out, but that was fine, I needed to finish buying a few cards and getting a few in trade as well.

I played RWB Tokens (A list I'll disclose later.)

Round 1- Loss.

Round 2.
Played against a poison deck that was very typical.  Green and blue with some unblockable guys, a lot of infect, and a bunch of random combat tricks to secure the win.  I crushed his hopes and dreams.  First game I got a slow hand (At least it looked slow at first glance).  I played a tapped land first turn, second turn another and a Champ of the Parish.  Third turn Thatcher Revolt and swung for 7, Fourth turn Thatcher Revolt and Swung for 10.  Fifth and 6th turn were dropping tokens to get winning damage through.  Pretty fun game, he didn't have enough steam to keep me down.  Second game was a more normal game, with me dropping tokens to chump block while pushing some vigilance tokens into the redzone for a fairly quick kill.
(1-1, 2-0)

Round 3.
Played against the only competitive deck I saw all night.  He was running Esper Spirits.  Not exactly top tier, but still fringe competitive.  First game I out paced him early on and got a fairly quick win.  Thatcher Revolt provided a significant damage percentage in this game, too.  Second game he played all the tricks but couldn't stem the tide of tokens coming in and I flash-backed a Rally the Peasants to pull down the win.  The only real mistake I made in this one was side board options.  I saw delver and snapcaster and I got locked in on them without paying attention to what else he played, so I made a bad deck call.  I read it as UW Delver instead of spirits, so I put in a few cards to improve my matchup against control instead of against the swarm.  Fortunately for me, he never hit his swarm and I was easily able to out pace him for easy wins.
(2-1, 4-0)

Round 4. 
Played against RG Werewolves.  Won the first game by sneaking across in the air to get the win with some Lingering Souls tokens pumped by Intangible.  Second game was very grindy and we both have very locked up board states.  He managed to get out a Mayor of Avenbruck and a pair of Huntmasters and after that it was all down hill.  Third game, I resolved a Sword of Feast and Famine on turn 3, Turn 4 Piled it onto a Champ of the Parish and played a Honor of the Pure and started the one sided beating.  Being able to untap my lands every turn and then drop chump blockers or anthem effects won this game with ease.  He did manage to get in some good damage via Kessig Wolfrun and a Daybreak Ranger that had been beefed up with Increasing Savagery.  I did toss out the chump blocker tokens before he started giving it trample, but after that, I focused more about getting damage across.
(3-1, 6-1)

Round 5.
Played against another UG Infect deck.  This one was even less evolved than the other and the guy just got lucky.  Apparently, he'd been getting lucky every round because he was 3-1 when he sat down with me, too.  First game, he got the nuts draw and beat me into the ground by turn 4 in much the same manor I'd seen most infect decks work.  Game two, I kept a hand I felt good about that was going to have me locking down the board and getting damage through pretty quickly.  It worked out just the way I expected, with him being forced to chump block and lose creatures.  Finally, the turn before I could deal lethal damage, he suited up a Cystbearer with a few auras, a few combat tricks and, a trepenation blade.  He swings, pulls my top 3 cards for a total of 10 poison in a single attack.  Yay variance.
(3-2, 6-3)

End thoughts?  Well, the casual players made this one a hard night to judge from a competitive stand point.  I'll most likely never see infect decks when going to PTQs.  I may, on some weird off chance, see one at the Grand Prix Qualifiers, but even that isn't likely.  So what do I take away from the night?  When you take Thatcher Revolt and pair it with a copy or two of Intangible Virtue and a Champion of the Parish, it goes from being a pretty weak card, to being a huge swing.  Paired with a Champ and even a single Intangible gives you nine power spread across 4 bodies to swing in with.  I wasn't sure I'd like it or not, but I really do.  So the deck list?

4 Champion of the Parish

2 Hero of Bladehold

2 Zealous Conscripts

(8 Creatures)

4 Lingering Souls

4 Gather the Townsfolk

4 Rally the Peasants

3 Thatcher Revolt

4 Intangible Virtue

2 Honor of the Pure

1 Sword of Feast and Famine

1 Sword of War and Peace

1 Angelic Destiny

1 Day of Judgement

(25 Spells)

1 Gideon Jura

2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

(3 Planeswalkers)

4 Clifftop Retreat

4 Isolated Chapel

2 Slayers' Stronghold

2 Vault of the Archangel

2 Mountain

2 Swamp

8 Plains

(24 Land)

Sideboard

3 Oblivion Ring

1 Day of Judgment

2 Elspeth Tirel

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Grafdigger's Cage (Meant to be 3 Cages, no Nihil, but I couldn't find my other cages in time.)

2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (Bad choice and I'd almost never put her in.)

2 Torpor Orb

2 Grand Abolisher

So my thoughts on the deck go something like this...  I never got to play the Conscripts, so I don't know how good they are or aren't yet.  I think if I had the chance to play them against another more competitive deck like Ramp, I'd love them.  Sorin... I find myself holding him and playing more tokens or more anthem effects a lot of the time.  I like him, I think he's really solid, but I just don't know if he's good enough in this deck.  I do like that he gives me more reach into a long game, but I'm wondering if maybe Elspeth or another copy of Gideon wouldn't be better.  Game enders in the deck are the Sword of Feast and Famine and the Angelic Destiny.  I can't tell you how fast those two cards just put games away after they resolve.  Another great finisher is Hero of Bladehold.  So hard to stop after it resolves. 

Really, what I think the deck needs are a few better card choices in the midgame phase to help pull wins across.  Maybe the right call is to drop Sorin for another sword and another Angelic?  Not sure yet.  Suggestions or thoughts?

SD13