3-0 AFK Games 9/20/2018 (Pauper)

Any Further work on this deck can be tracked here:
https://deckstats.net/decks/85796/1092204-apes-dec/en

I took my madness list to the GP, and after discussion with some other players, decided Looter Il-Kor is not a card I want, as it forces me to want an Island much earlier in the game than I'd like. Also I felt like mulldrifter is just too slow. It is a great card, and it wears moldervine cloak especially well, but I just don't want to have to hit 5-6 lands consistently. I'd like to be able to live at 4-5 lands so I can focus on converting the rest to more gas. So my cuts and replacements are as follows:

cut 1 mulldrifter and add 1 terramorphic expanse
cut 1 island and add 1 evolving wilds
cut 2 rugged highlands and add 2 kird ape

For the island and drifty boi, I'm going to replace them with kird ape and just go for value and good rates. I don't think I'll want the full 4 because it pushes me to want a forest earlier in the game than I'd like. I'm not looking to cast this guy until turn 3 or 4, using my earlier turns to set up and remove early threats. This isn't an aggro deck, it's a midrange deck that looks to present better value for it's mana than it's opponent.

I ended up keeping looter in the deck for now, along with a single mulldrifter. Mostly because more than 2 kird apes puts too much stress on the mana base, and i don't have a better option to replace them with at the moment.

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AFK Games Tournament Report

Game 1 vs 5 color bad Zuberas 2-1
Match 1 I stomped him with burn and really fat creatures.
|| out: -2 lightning Axe -1 something | in: +2 Faerie Macabre +1 Pulse of Murasa

Sided out some lightning axes and something else for faerie macabre and pulse of murasa as opponent was running a lot of supernatural stamina, unearth, etc. His deck wasn't focused on comboing off though, and I think was built more like the modern version, but without the mass reanimation that that deck has access to. I ended up losing game 2 closely as I didn't draw enough burn or chump blocking creatures and his carrion feeder got out of hand. Also realized I forgot to side out electrickery, but it never mattered.
|| out: -1 electrickery | in: +1 Pulse of Murasa

Match 3 I had a lot of faeries and pulses early and was able to kill all his things at inopportune times and interrupt his reanimation plan. Won pretty handily.

Game 2 vs Burn 2-1
In Match 1 I was able to scrape out a win with a hooting mongrels and a moldervine cloak that went unanswered. This was the Gitaxian Probe / Ghitu Lavarunner version of burn so I was able to kill a few creatures with firebolt and keep marauder's off the board enough to get there with my bigger creatures and racing.
|| out: -1 electrickery -1 lightning axe | in: +2 Pulse of Murasa

Match 2 has a strong start for burn followed up by a strong finish. I remember it coming down to the last turn and if he couldn't take me from 9 to 0 that turn I would win and he did, with fireblast, a seal of removal, and a lava axe for exactsies. Match 3 came down to a similar ending, but I had a second pulse in my hand and I was at 11 and I had a 10/10 trampler staring him down. He wasn't able to make it and I went on to the finals.

Game 3 vs Mono U Delver 2-1
Match 1 I was able to point more removal at his guys than he could deal with, and ran him over with cheaper better threats.
|| out: -1 lightning axe -2 moldervine cload | in: +3 blazing volley

The gameplan against delver is to actually just be more efficient and draw more cards and present better threats. I opened on faithless looting into double basking rootwalla, but then made the mistake of cracking my evolving wilds for an island instead of a second mountain. It was incredibly greeding to not go for my necessary mana base of mountain mountain forest. I spent the rest of the game with 7+ cards in hand, looking at kird ape kird ape lightning bolt lightning bolt with just one mountain and never having the mana open to actually overload my opponents countermagic. It was a punt that literally cost me the the match.

After talking with my opponent, and realizing that even if I lost, I would be taking second place, I conceded the third match so he could go 3-0. I'm a bit older with a good job and I think he's still in high school, and I've seen him trade cards in to play before, so I knew that ultimately, he would be able to use the winnings more than me from first place. I did demand we play a 3rd game for glory though after signing the paper, and proceeded to crush him game 3.

For the first turn or 2 we both durdled a bit, and it came to me with a kird ape on the board and no forest, with a blazing volley in hand, and my opponent with a delver on the board, and one untapped island. I had an evolving wilds and mountain in hand and had to decide if my opponent had daze. I decided to just go for it, and cast blazing volley. my opponent cast vapor snag to save his delver, and I fetched up a forest and cracked in for 2, with the tempo severely in my favor. And that's about how the game went, feel wise. My opponent would vapor snag my kird ape, and I'd follow up with a one mana hooting mandrils. Every time he tried to make a tempo play, I'd out tempo him and eventually got there with burn pressure and bigger beaters. I never felt like I was losing or could lose the entire 3rd match.

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All in all, kird ape over performed, but I don't think running more than 2 would be correct. I like having the singleton mulldrifter available, although I'm not convinced having it instead of a kird ape in hand the one time I had it was best. Although seeing the delver players face when I pushed it through his countermagic to win game 3 was pretty magical.

As always, this deck is gas, you should give it a go too.