Well...Seeing as I seem to have been the only one afraid of The Promised End, maybe I should have run it myself...And perhaps using these sweet techs that I didn't even bother looking for. That Initiate, Skyshroud Elf...3s across the board would be preferable to one 2 and a bunch of 0s.

I actually built my deck with Lotus Lotus Emrakul in mind.

EDIT: Interestingly, it never mattered if my deck went first or second. The outcomes were always the same.

I looked really hard at ways of mitigating The Promised End's ability to wreck me, but couldn't work it out. A lotus, the opponent could spend on me. An Initiates, the opponent could force to sacrifice. I really needed a 1-cost filterer that couldn't suicide, but that just wasn't to be. Orochi Leafcaller needing green, Manaforge Cinder capped at 3 per turn, Initiates of the Ebon Hand dying if you use it too much, and Bog Initiate, Skyshroud Elf and more costing too much to play without Lotus which is its own Promised End problem. So I said F it, I'd rather not abandon plan to do better than 3/3 split anaginst NewEmmy... I knew there would be lots of decks I'd do no better than 3-3 against anyway (any T1 disruption).

I was also scared of Artifact Blast and almost went with a lotusless version (Swamp - Initiates of the Ebon Hand - Lab Rats), but figured the wrath ability of Martial Coup was more likely to earn me points than going A-Blast-proof. (I was hoping anyone considering running A-Blast would back down if they realized infinite mana was available without artifacts, but no such luck).


I think some people may have underscored against me because of a flaw in my deck - if I Martial Coup for more than 4, my Skyshroud Elf dies. So if I want to be able to use my mana engine to pay Tabernacle or Ghostly prison taxes, I need to limit myself to only Coup'ing for 4. And I don't think my 4 dudes can outrace POSV's Mayor. I do break down into a stalemate against cgalcic, and my 4 dudes do outrace the Soltari Monk that can't block them, so those lines seem to be right. I just don't think there's a line where I can actually beat POSV. I think the best I can do is hold cards in hand for a tie.

infinite mana never crossed my mind honestly

curious how promised end would have done

CJ's engine into Promised End would have gone:

3-6-3-3-6-6-3-6

Lotuses into it would have done worse (because artifact blast and tabernacle).

How does it go 3 against my deck? I built my deck specifically to counteract Promised End. I have hexproof from the very beginning of the game, so no extra turn or controlled turn. And once Emrakul hits the battlefield, I keep it tapped down with Frost Titan (which when I'm going first taps my Leyline).

Oh, oops, wasn't paying attention, just saw "Lotus, that gets eaten". Forgot NewEmmy targets.

Yeah. There'd probably be no hope of winning (except through T0 shenanigans) if NewEmmy didn't target.

I believe Aaarrrgh's deck would beat NewEmmy 6-0 if it just ran an island rather than Lotus.

@Mark: Yeah, I forgot you blow up your elf and thought you could pay the tax.

Oh man, running Prison in a round with infinite mana

This was fun.

If it makes you feel better, I chose Mayor because I expected a tax deck or two

Annoys me that I would have done better with my original plan of swarms of flyers (Entreat the Angels or Decree of Justice or Dragon Roost) than what I thought was a more versatile defensive option in Martial Coup only to have that wrath removing the one thing that keeps me from being able to keep my tokens paying their taxes, or being forced to keep my 'army' tiny.

Defense is always a worse call than offense

In all honesty, I'm just really upset I missed an opportunity to play a card I've been looking to play forever: Gelatinous Genesis

Yeh, I looked at Gelatinous Genesis for the lols, but quickly realized if I was just going to go big-army it'd be safer to go with flyers (to be able to beat old Emrakul play and draw; without flying blockers Emmy wins over nonflying swarm on the play unless it has an answer to that like Martial Coup).

Out of curiosity, if I'd played the other Emmy, I would have gone 3+6+0+6+6+3+6 = 30, which is only two points below what I got. It would've done better against Martial Coup (because of Black Lotus), but worse against the anti-promised-end deck and Energy Field.

Anyway, it's been fun to actually win a few rounds. Next season I'll have to play some sillier decks, though, because I feel a little sketchy every time I win at this game that I also host.

lol, sometimes I wonder Jim...sometimes I wonder

That was one of the advantages when I ran 3CM. I never won, so I didn't have to feel bad.

I have a lot of stuff going on right now, so don't expect the prizes to be posted until tonight. To give grand prize winners enough time, that means the next season won't start until Friday night. (I'll be too busy Thursday night anyway, so that sort of works out.) Shouldn't be too much of a problem, but I just wanted to give an update.

Unless some massive correction is pending, it looks like this round just reinforced the already established ranking before this round. CJ was #1 before this round and #1 this round. POSV was #2 before this round and was #2 this round. And GS was slightly ahead of me at 3 with me at 4, and GS and I tied for third this round (with GS winning the head to head tiebreak). This round was basically a recap of the whole season to date.