FNM 2/21/20 - Sarkhan’s Retirement
Last night was a bittersweet night for me. Today is my birthday (the big 3-0) and I was planning on taking the night off to celebrate but my dad said I could go so I decided to go and try my luck and to also use my Sarkhan playmat one last time. It was sealed and I was expecting it would be like the other times I’ve done it where I get absolute garbage pulls and I end up with a crap deck but that wasn’t the case at all. Since I wasn’t planning on going I didn’t bring my limited deck box with the empty sleeves and basics so I had to break out my emergency kit which I put together full of sleeves and basics that I keep in the glove compartment of my car in case I forget sleeves and basics like last night. Second pack I pull a Heliod, Sun-Crowned which made me build a deck with white but I was struggling to come up with a second color. I was leaning towards Boros because I pulled a Hero of the Nyxborn and a Haktos the Unscarred but I didn’t have that many lower-cost creatures so I did Selesnya instead.
First round I lost but won one game at least so I figured my deck wasn’t that bad. Second round I went up against the guy who conceded to me last week to avoid a tie. Another notable pull last night was an Archon of Sun’s Grace which he beat me with last week. I ended up winning that match with the help of both Heliod and Archon. I was only able to get Heliod into a creature (or “online” as my opponent calls it) once but by then it was too late. That was the game I lost.
Third round I went up against this little kid who was clearly new to Magic because his deck must have had around 60 cards without sleeves. Once we got to playing he built Grixis and had trouble drawing cards he needed. I won in absolutely no time at all. It was still a little early to call it a night so I decided to stay for the fourth round but the round went over by around 20 minutes so I decided to drop. I got my two packs in credit and traded in the Heliod for credit to get myself two each Temple of Silence and Godless Shrine for my Zombie Rally deck.
So all-in-all I went 2-1 which is rare for limited, yet alone sealed. It was also the perfect night to retire my Sarkhan playmat in favor of the new one I custom-ordered for my birthday. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a HUGE wrestling fan and my all-time favorite is the late great “Rowdy” Roddy Piper so as soon as I saw this artwork for Elvish Piper I had to make it into a playmat. It came out a lot better than I expected but it still seems a little “empty” so I’m probably going to order a second one with the artist’s signature at the bottom right and maybe one of his most famous quotes on the bottom if I can find a good placement. Next week I’m going to bring it for the first time and hopefully people will recognize him.



















