Cucho, you won’t be able to buy a few rares and mythics. Sounds like packs only. The only way to get specific fix cards is to get wildcards with the appropriate rarity. The part I didn’t understand was if you don’t use a wildcard, or don’t open it, it increases your chance of earning a better rarity wildcard? Is that right?
You are right, you can´t buy singles.. but the system seems fun, coz you will be getting those wild cards to specifically improve your spikiest deck, therefore increasing your win rate and so on and so on.
On the wild cards I think it´s addresses the regularity in which you get a wild card, if it where completely random you may end up getting far to many or not getting anyone, so I guess it has some sort of a timer build in so it makes sure you end up getting your wild card on a regular basis, thus rewarding the time you play and not only the win rate you have.
It would be amazing if a bunch of us could draft together
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
Went and tried out "smells like flaky's spirits".
Got a tight win against the AI, thanks to a wyvern giving me lethal the turn before Samut and friends would finish me. Then I tried it on the ladder and... I've gotten so used to Arena holding priority, I kept missing the crucial eot casts and totally blew it against a pretty lame Gruul energy/counters deck... I misplayed so bad, I'm not even gonna count the loss. Man, could this deck ever use some favourable Winds...
bzzt's Bearing the Elements goes 6-1. It's an interesting deck with a pretty unique feel, and it's super powerful if you can get to the midgame intact. Roil/Omnath/Tracker/Mina & Denn all work so well together, and when they're rolling it feels great. The planeswalkers make it really solid with those tokens gumming up the board too. But I also had a lucky run of favorable matchups, mana screwed opps and AI games. I think those last two games are most indicative of its potential against good decks with good pilots; with the right draw it can demolish just about anything, but it's prone to slow starts and can be totally non-competitive against an aggressive opponent.
Record: 6/7 Build: 4/5 Enjoyment: 4/5 Elementals: 3/3 I like how you get to cheat with all those non-creature elementals, everything had a good synergy and feel. Total: 17/20
1. WIN vs 4c energy. A bunch of tap land and Wilds to start, but I've got both Oaths to keep it moving, plus Lightnings and a Terrain Elemental that I trade for a cub and a couple Refiners. They have Rhonas, but they stick at 3 land for a while, and that gets me to Kiora. Then I bring in Omnath and a token. They Lightning Omnath but I Grapple it back. They take out Kiora with Rhonas cause I don't want to chump with my Tracker. I'm okay with that; Omnath comes back in followed by Mina & Denn, so now I can go crazy with tokens and clues. I do so.
2. WIN vs Orzhov Control. They stick on land too, so it doesn't matter that I don't play anything until T4. They use their Unmakings on a Roil and Flamecaller, and a Cast out on Nissa Steward, but that leaves me with Tracker and Revenge and they're out of responses.
3. WIN vs 4c Superfriends. Start with a funny hand of Revenge and all 3 lightning. They get a useless Bontu; I get Tracker, ramp and hit once for 4 but they Skysovereign it. Revenge comes out; they crew but reconsider blocking and go to 8. They play Gideon and plus instead of taking the token? I guess so... Maybe trying to emblem and block with Bontu. Next turn iOS Duels low battery/lags me into trading with Skysovereign when I wanted to Heaven, but their end step I just Lightning their token, Grapple Revenge and get a do-over.
4. WIN vs 5c Superfriends (AI). I have an Advocate up against their Liliana early, so that doesn't do much for me. Ramp, get a Roil and six lands but the Advocate eats removal, and Lily keeps ticking up. They add GideotT and flip baby Jace. I play and flip my Nissa, next turn Omnath + Wilds. They Baral's Expertise Omnath and Co., but that's the extent of their disruption so I just replay and Veggies. Nobody ever taught the AI to ult Lily, but even if they had I've got double heaven in hand and I'm churning out elemental tokens like a boss; I don't think those zombies could have stopped me.
5. Win vs 4C Superfriends. Whew, this was tough. I have Terrain and Tracker, but they drop Tezzy and back him up with Nissa and from Beyond and I think for sure I'm toast. They keep cracking Cells and Scions for mana though, and they put the shields down to ult Nissa and finish it with Chandra. They play Chandra of their own, but I get up to double Roil and start going around. With a surprise Earth to clear their chumpers, I finish off their Chandra next, then Tezz, but by then they've got Arlinn and Nissa Steward and Kiora and little Lily. Alright, just keep plugging away. I get my own Nissa Voice and Arlinn goes down. They crack Nissa Steward to knock out my Chandra, but then they're down to just Kiora and Lily, both a couple turns from ult and not much threat. They've cracked or chumped all their scions so they still don't have 10 for Ulamog. I play Revenge, ignore their PW and go for face. Grapple a Wilds for an extra 4 tokens and I kill them in two turns. A major grind, and I think this is a loss against a better opponent - they made a ton of questionable plays.
6. WIN vs Selesnya Value (AI). T2 Advocate for me, and after a Veggies I trade it for a Tracker and Duskwatch Recruiter. After that it's Omnath, then I topdeck Flamecaller to wipe out Visionary/Bygone Bishop/another Recruiter (Thalia survives with a Blossom). Easily out muscle them from there. Pretty perfect curve for me, just lacking a target for my Rec Sage so I didn't make a T3 play.
7. LOSE vs Golgari Snek. I had a lot of easy matchups here against slow decks, so this was the test I was waiting for- on the draw, no early play. They go Cub, Hapatra, Hydra, Grasp my Tracker, win.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17752 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Ok back to round two playtesting! Haven and Nomad have already made it through
Cuchos thopters up next...close win against Orzhov life gain 2-0
Bzzzts elementals will close out the round...rank 40 BGWU enchantments. Had a real slow start thanks to two lander but Kiora gets things moving. Can’t draw a 6th land to play Onmarh tho. As soon as Kiora is about to ultimate, he drops Ulamog and devastated me. If I can’t beat four colour enchantments , the deck can’t be that great. 1-1 BELETED
Round three, only three decks remain!!
Cuchos thopters up first...up against Azirious thopters?? I get mana screwed on three forever and he gets out WPT network . I eventually get out a nice fleet but I’m at one life and he top decks baraka expertise to take it out and sneak one through. Sky whiskers shot destroyed me this game. 2
Let’s see how nomads mages Do...
Last edited by Black Barney on Thu Jan 18, 2018 9:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17752 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Nomads mages come up against rank 36 mono green wolves and get totally decimated after flooding bad. He had lots of removal and boosts too. 2-
Well if havens warriors win, it will win. If not then we have a three way tie for first and I get to keep three decks
Here goes... up against rank 3 golgari who gets early plague belcher and flesh at to clear my board but I get Nahiri to stick and ditch both his enchantments then I get oktera to drop with a glory chaser to protect and that’s that. 3-0!!
Haven’s warriors win!! Yay cuz I love that deck. It feels so right. I shall foil it and make it my own.
Final scoring from Barney which I shall forward to Flaky:
Havens warriors - 6 points Cucho thopters and Nomads mages - 4.5 points each Mowie scions and bzzzts elementals - 2.5 points each Soups allies and Flakys spirits - 0.5 points each
Congrats to Haven. Look forward to playing it more
Played another 4 with Dork alliance but with the chosen + healer 4 in place of the emissaries I had in there for the first batch. This time went a much better 3-1, although I think it was primarily just a tough string of luck in the previous batch of games b/c I'm not actually sure I played any of the swapped in cards (I had a chosen in hand during the loss below, and 2 of the wins featured multiple healers, but it's tough to say those were #4).
The one loss here was just crappy luck, kept a tasty hand with healer/push/murder and 3 land + something bigger, Ai killed the healer and then didn't play anything until 5 and it was a glyph keeper that I never got black #3 to deal with. In the meantime, I drew nothing but 4+ spells to the point I was having to discard. Dumb shuffler. I do finally get land 4, but still no answer to the sphinx which is lethal on the following turn.
There was also a bonkers game where I had a bunch of early removal that drug out, eventually stalling into a board of double procession/gideon/retreat facing off against a big ol' green hoard. The stall broke when hero of goma fade showed up so waves of indestructable allies crashed in for the next couple of turns and put the game away.
Cucho's Thopters go 5-2. Much like Elementals, this can be really slow to start, but gets awesome from the mid game onwards. Flyers + Chiefs + Throne can mean a lot of damage in a hurry, especially with an engineer in the mix for haste. There's a lot of double blue that I got stuck waiting for a couple times; I realize Thopter lands are critical to the tribal count but I never cracked one and would rather have had better colors generally, but at the very least a 6/9 basics split, maybe even 7/8. I think because you're often trying to catch up mid game the Rebukes aren't all that helpful; because of the engineers you're often not going to have any untapped Thopters sitting around for Improvise. I got one off but generally I would have been happier with the third Flux instead, or maybe just adding a couple Inventor's Apprentice/Fireweaver/Aether Swooper for early board presence.
1. LOSE vs AKH Golgari. Picking up almost exactly where we left off with bzzt's Elementals, this puts me on the draw vs an aggressive Golgari curve, where they go Dread Wanderer, Siphoner, Duskwatch, then double Trial of Ambition for my first Engineer + Thopter. Pia gets a Never, I can't find a second blue for Whirler or Spy Network, and I go down quick. 2. WIN vs Boros Eldrazi. I'm not sure I should even count this as a match; I got distracted with my son and I skipped my second turn entirely, then paid very little attention for most of the game before turning it off and finishing the last two turns later against the AI. Somehow I won despite that. They had decent small troops like Kytheon, Goblin Glory Chaser, Eldrazi Displacer and Matter Reshaper while I had Copter, Engineer, Chief, Spy Network. I traded the Chief for a Kytheon + Magma Spray along the way, while keeping pressure on in the air with the Copter and Thopter. Closed it out the turn before they had lethal with a hasty Harvester and a Throne for the final damage. 3. WIN vs Esper Tempo. Start with Throne, finish with Throne. Man I love that card. Saheeli gets a queller, Chief gets Dec Stone. They play Ballista for 2 which looks like trouble, and I respond with P&K. They ping away the tokens, so I finish off the Ballista sacking the clue to P&K the next turn. After that I try a Harvester to see if they're holding counters, and it sticks, so I Improvise a Virtuoso and start crewing/tapping for Throne damage. Next turn it's Skysovereign time. That kills queller, which releases Saheeli, who clones Harvester, which attacks along with the original, and Throne does its business. 4. WIN vs mono green ramp. Terrible matchup for them. I get time to build, including a couple draws and tokens off Spy Net, before they Ulamog, and I'm ready with Flux to save my Chief when he comes. Careful last turn, where they come up with Nature's Way and flip Nissa's already showed me a Primal Bellow in their hand, but I use the Way victim to crew, Vial the trampler and chump everyone else, winning on the crack back. Thank goodness they went Ulamog; I have a feeling this build cowers in the face of Sandwurms. 5. LOSE vs Dimir Control. Keep 2 lands cause the colors are good (I've had some issues getting double blue along the way) and I don't want to go to 6. Take a while to find the third, and that's a problem cause they start with Titi. I have Lightning but the Harvester I cast to power it gets Censored, so they flip, follow up with Kalitas and ride the removal train from there. 6. WIN vs mono black aggro. Their deck looks really close to my Scrappier Stamina rebuild from last contest - Thornbow Archers, Key to the City discarding Amalgam, Bone Picker etc. The only card I see from them that I don't run is a Walking Ballista for 1 that pings a Thopter and dies (cause Ballista just isn't great in fast low-land builds). Too bad for them I know that type of deck so well, so I'm playing around their tricks and messing with their pacing, while I don't think they know it well enough, and go suicidal with their elves needlessly when they should be Keying. It's close, but I get too wide for them and bear down. 7. WIN vs Orzhov Zombies. They start out looking good with a Wayward Servant and Lord, but then Chandra kills the lord and they can't make effective attacks. They do Never Chandra and Unmake Saheeli, but my thopters keep flying over.
Last edited by CardboardNomad on Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
My Bounce Da|mage goes 3-4. Well way to make me look like a moron, deck. I had a bad streak there; game 2 I got overpowered despite decent draws, but the others were mostly down to crap draws against reasonable opponents. The last three matches felt much better; the game plan worked, and I got to have lots of tricky fun. I'm not going to pretend this is top tier; I'm playing Spire Patrol and KefMon, not Avacyn and Thalia. But the synergies played nicely and winning with this jank is highly satisfying. Didn't even see a Docent across the 7 matches, but everything else put in good work.
1. LOSE vs 4c ramp. Terrible mana screw, and they keep bouncing my Harvester or sweeping so I can't make any headway while they ramp. I draw my 4th land the turn after they've Ulamogged lands 2&3. Luckily that land fuels my Dec Stone, but then they Cast Out Harvester and beat me down with Woodland Wanderer and a big Nissa land. One more land somewhere in the first 15 cards and I think I take this. 2. LOSE vs 5c superfriends. I get them to 2 with a Harvester on board and Spire Patrol in hand to tap down their stupid flying whale for the win, but then they hit a Nissa's Revelation to jump back up to 10. That and the Chandra, Nahiri, Lily DM and Ajani on their side hand me the loss. 3. LOSE vs White Weenie. Close back and forth, but they're on the play and an early Initiate from them makes a huge advantage, and late game they draw into their power cards and I don't. 4. LOSE vs White Weenie. Rematch, and same scenario as the first, but here I just flood out instead. 5. WIN vs Azorius Spells. That's more like it. This is a grind. They've got flip Jace and all the Skywhalers and Dec Stones you could hope for, but not much in the way of their own creatures. I have a Declaration of my own for their Eldrazi Displacer. I peck away with my shrunken wimps, get them low and finish with a surprise Deep Fiend off Castigator that taps down their Harvester and swings to win next turn. My Trophy Mages fetching Harvesters and ameliorating card disadvantages were huge here. 6. WIN vs Rakdos Madness Vamps. They ignore the Castigator and build their scary board. I Quell an Olivia, but they still have a Copter and both Bloodhall Priests, along with Scrounger and a flipped Heir of Falkenrath and Inventor's Apprentice and Neonate. I've got my little Monument making things hard for them, and even taking a turn off to leave River Marshal mana up in case of Glorybringer they can't race me, cause they let that Castigator hit them three times. 7. WIN vs Esper Artifacts. They play some nice vehicles with nothing much to crew them, while Casty and Gusty go to work. I'm wary of sweepers so I let them do their thing without overplaying my hand. A Tezzerret and a Foundry of the Consuls slow things down a bit, but then my Reflector Mage gets a double Cartouche for the last 4 damage.
Haven's Warrior's Guild goes 5-2. Really solid aggressive build. I love going fast and this does that. I think my issues were mostly mana based; I don't think hubs have a place in non-energy two color decks, especially in aggro, and I'd go with basics there. I also don't love Oketra. I know she adds another dimension, but she's too conditional for me and I hate having a potentially dead drop at the top of my curve. For the last Warrior slot I'd go with the third Goblin or fourth Cartouche (probably Cartouche). And I know Destiny is a game winning bomb, but what if it was Trial of Ambition instead? That's two fewer 4 drops, one fewer double white and lots more aggression.
1. WIN vs Sultai Sneks? Don't know what their plan was here - I see a couple Constrictors, Vizier of the Tumbling Sands and Nissa Voice. I Lightning a snake and fly over that stuff for a while with Copter while I try to fix my land. Eventually it's Insult + Garrison that closes out the game. Really clunky though - I hate the Hubs in here. 2. WIN vs blackdrazi. Great early curve - Goblin/Spirit/Minotaur - gets them down to 11 but they Yahenni's Expertise so we move into a longer grindy game. Their longer game involves the power eldrazi 3-4-5 drops followed by a couple Gifted Aetherborn, but it's more annoying than threatening cause my longer game has both walkers, both Copters and Oketra. Takes a while but I push the Copters through their lifelinkers. My favorite part is where they have to take out their own Siphoner with Noxious Gearhulk for the life cause I'm only offering Oketra. 3. WIN vs Esper Control. Not very controlling. I forgot to take notes, but really the only thing they did was an Essence Extraction. Hasty Crop Captain wins the day. 4. WIN vs Mardu Control. This opp at least throws up a Chandra and Nahiri, but I've got a good enough draw with double Copters that I mostly ignore them. I hold back a minotaur for the final attack to mess with their planning. 5. LOSE vs Boros Aggro. Kind of a mirror match, and they're on the play with the better draw. They have Kytheon, Spirit & Initiate + Always Watching, plus a Cast Out when I Angelic Destiny, and I can't find a third creature to get Militia Captain on line. 6. LOSE vs Golgari Crats. My only two creatures get Bone Splinters, and I just draw land and vehicles while they get double Priest of the Blood Rite. 7. WIN vs Selesnya Angel Ramp. Mulligan to 5 and take a Spirit and Harvester over the top of a Primal Druid for a few turns while they do nothing at 3 lands. Then add my Crop Captain, Garrison and Spires to the attack once they hit a 4th land and Gisela.
Cucho's Thopters go 5-2. Much like Elementals, this can be really slow to start, but gets awesome from the mid game onwards. Flyers + Chiefs + Throne can mean a lot of damage in a hurry, especially with an engineer in the mix for haste. There's a lot of double blue that I got stuck waiting for a couple times; I realize Thopter lands are critical to the tribal count but I never cracked one and would rather have had better colors generally, but at the very least a 6/9 basics split, maybe even 7/8. I think because you're often trying to catch up mid game the Rebukes aren't all that helpful; because of the engineers you're often not going to have any untapped Thopters sitting around for Improvise. I got one off but generally I would have been happier with the third Flux instead, or maybe just adding a couple Inventor's Apprentice/Fireweaver/Aether Swooper for early board presence.
IDK if it would be worth it to add Black for UD and Push, but I agree that the deck need a couple more T1-T2 drops, the rebukes and the 2 vials can be the swaps for that, and yes the thopters lands are not cracked very often. Thanks for testing!
I will finish building this piles, I have tried Flakys spirits which I liked , The elements are not as powerful as i thought they would but they certainly have some game, those mages are funny to play, Soups allies are a big fat mess, that can win specially stalled boards, I just need to build Movie´s & Haven´s piles and I´m good to go! ---´ @Barney you can´t be Spike Jonze spike judge and finish your testdrive at 3-0, that´s not good enough to Valhalla!
Finished up my testing and updated the post on page 7! Decks all did pretty well, my rank on steam started around 38 and ended up at 37. Planeswalkers was the toughest matchup overall in general, and a couple of the blue decks I noted I missed not having a censor or 2.
Ok time to hit the ladder Flaky spirit first! Vs R38 Esper control He plays bad Gid, T4 Lily, hes got lots of mana but doesent do anything else, I play a couple of spirits, flux them to avoid 2-/-1 from lily and manage to kill both PW, then he drops big Lily which I Commit, he is at 13, I swing with 5, and hold Scattered to the winds, he plays a big Pull from tomorrow I counter it and put the +1/+1 counters on my Island swing for 8 to a tapped out opponent! 1-0
Next Bzzt Elements Vs R6 enchantment Aristocrats once we got lethal we will give the man his coins This board is getting ridiculous But now we got, that Zendikar enchantment, flipped Nissa and the jelly man, so pretty much done here.. as we promised we give the man some coins 1-0
Last one coz I got things to do Haven for a quicky Vs R30 Izzet prowess hes got Jorin and storm chaser I got Goblin 2 copters so its on!
I play like a boss and slip Angelic destiny on the goblin! HA one turn later the game is ours! 1-0 more to come during the weekend
Mowie's Iron Lion Scion goes 3-4, with some really tough matchups. There's a huge hole in its air defenses, and those first three matches that was fully exploited. Hard to settle in for a long game when they can just fly over. Too bad cause I really like the build otherwise; messing with all those scions makes for fun planning and I love how resilient it can be. I think it probably needs even more than just one Sandwurm Convergence thougb. Maybe Aethersphere Harvesters as well? Ulvenwald Hydra?
Record: 3/7 Deck: 3/5 Enjoyment: 4/5 Eldrazi: 3/3 Total 13/20
1. LOSE vs White Weenie. Nightmare scenario: Topan Freeblade, Heliod's Pilgrim, Angelic Destiny. Need either Fatal Push in response or Rec Sage, find Never instead. Destiny moves to a gust walker and I have Abbey in hand t6 but only 4 creatures on the board and have to Return for a token instead. Gusty Walker exerts to bring me to 0. Sandurms wouldn't have saved me that quick, maybe this deck needs Ulvenwald Hydra? 2. LOSE vs Orzhov Control. Scion my way through an early mana short, get removal on my Sifter and Abomination, then get into a stand-off with dueling Cruel Realities. You'd think I'd be well positioned to endure that, and you'd be right, I've got wimps for days. What I'm not so good against is the rest of their board, namely Emeria Shepherd, Ob Nixilis and Skysovereign. Angelic Destiny makes an appearance too, just to rub it in. 3. LOSE vs White Weenie. At least there's no Angelic Destiny? Instead there's Lone Rider, Selfless Spirit, Gisela, Angel of Invention, Militia Captain and Rogue's Passage. I have wimps that can't attack or block the flyers and no chance. 4. WIN vs 4c trials. Opp concedes after missing a land drop T3, AI misses another and I'm at Reality and Ormendhal before they muster anything. 5. LOSE vs Abzan Control. They kick to AI right away, then hide behind GideotT and Nissa Voice, dropping Verdurous Gearhulk, Rhonas and Ulvenwald Hydra. I get Gideon off but can't get wide enough to hit Nissa, then they drop Sorin too. I'm chumping Rhonas with wimps while growing Rot Shambler and building to Ulamog, so I get that down and remove Sorin and Rhonas. I still can't get through but I can deck them. But then they play Cataclysmic Gearhulk, wipe out my board and kill me with the giant Verdurous. Ouch, just needed one more turn. 6. WIN vs Orzhov Lifegain Allies. Weird totally reactive draw, luckily their deck sucks. They Ayli, I Push. They Bontu's Monument, I Sage. They Lantern Scout, I Push. They Kalastria Healer, I Noxious. I get Bontu and Cruel Reality, but have no creatures left to sac, and they get Gideon so they're just feeding tokens to Reality and neither of us draw anything. Eventually I find the last Push for that token so Gideon goes, and some other creatures finally show up for me to let Bontu go to work. 7. WIN vs 5c superfriends. I get a good draw for this one. Never takes out Gideon Ally, and a couple Pushes clear out tokens to give me a shot at Chandra. Then I get Oblivion Sower for a surprise Nissa flip, along with Evo Leap and Aid and From Beyond all working together. Just grind them down from there, eventually with a Nissa ult and Ulamog the same turn.
Last edited by CardboardNomad on Sat Jan 20, 2018 8:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I can understand Soup´s logic... what other reason could anyone have to play Orzhov freaking allies? Ok lets continue... with Soups allies. Vs fancy avatar R31 GWB something with artifacts Hes got Spynetwork down Heart of Kiran, Overdose gearhulk, flipped Nissa, Good Gid... I got 3 Flyers Gid Emblem and that guy that makes allies indestructible... it going to be close!! hes at 6 I´m at 21 I top deck Kalastria healer and all the triggers just go crazy! Amazing win!
Mowie´s Zions next... Vs R40 BGW good stuff control I play form beyond, he´s got Sage I play Evolutionary leap they unmake it I play that fat 6CMC eldrazi they Never him! I play Bontu... they oat of Lily her! They play big Lily and Ob... its just to much... I had cruel reality and almost cast it before the end... but they just had the right answer to every threat I cast 0-1
Thopters next Vs R34 4C superfriends slow start but I got Copter Throne and a Vial ready to kill some PWs! He drops Little Lily, I kill her with a combo of Copter and Whirler rouge, he drops Tezzeret, rinse and repeat, he drops that horrible Gid.. and sticks I keep swinging he start casting Fog... he Fog´s me twice and I got lethal but that stupid Gid Emblem prevents him from dying for a couple of turns. I got Chandra at 7 Loyalty and swinging big time, then he drops Elemental Nissa... ultimate's her right away, tickle his bad Gid, and crew heart of Kiran with the remaining counter on Nissa... Swings with everything I got one thopter on def... cunning bastard played me like a champ. 0-1
Nomad next Vs R30 Mono blue all went exactly like planned... I could feel them whining how they where forced to counter a unworthy kor castigator! LOL 1-0
R1 is done Mowie and I are going commando from now on. lets start with thopters I know they can do better! Vs R37 4C PW the new or Zombies on iOs I hate the archetype so much... T2 throne T3 Engineer T4 Rouge hes got huge walls on the ground... they watch in horror the thopter onslaught then he cast Languish... bastard! he then cast blessed alliance on my chief.... drops that crappy Gid... followed by amazing Nissa vital force... I got lands... and flood to death.... BELETED!!!
Mowie... next Vs R32 Rakdos ZOmbos... opponent brainfarted several times before he decided to end the embarrassment and concede 1-1 I end last!!!! damn!!
ok Flaky´s next Rakdos Aggro to fast for our spirits 1-1
last one of the night BZZT elements... gimme a win to end the night! Vs R39 Rakdos Vamps super aggressive start but Heaven/ Earth wipes the board he manages to activate Olivias dragon discard to save him, he then cast 2 Priests and keeps the pressure up We are forced to suicide flip Nissa and Elemental Nissa to survive, then we drop our MVP the one and only Jelly man, sac a evolving wild and cast explosive vegetation, hes got one cut/ribbons on the GY and is one land away from lethal so we must be quick next turn I attack with 3 Jellys he makes a mistake... and double block the Jelly man with his priests - he´s got one card left but If he managed to triggered those guys + Ribbons and he´s got lethal - so I kill both priest, one with the jelly man and the other with the 3 points of damage of his dead... we just have to pray that he don´t draw a land!!!
Spoiler
He did not find it, instead he cast a pilot less copter that we destroy with sage on our turn and swing with 4 jelly elemental 2-0
So I decided this round I was going to break it in to ~halves since it felt like last round some of the decks were a little hosed by rank fluctuations/time of play. Anyrate, 3 games with each. (for allies played 3xdrana's emissary since it was located in the 3 cmc area in the list and we can't play 3xdrana's chosen. Also it's ~"bloodbunny vampire" and it would just take the fewest assumptions to be correct -and Nomad's response tipped my uncertainty).
Through the first 3 games, at 3-0 we have: Warrior's Guild (warriors) Bearing the Elements (elementals)
2-1: Bounce Da Mage (wizards)
1-2: Iron Lion Scion (eldrazi) Spirits in the Sky (spirits) IWCOWABNIP (thopters)
0-3: Dork Alliance with emissary (allies)
Started around R35 (brewing was hard on rank) and ended at R37, so pretty pleased with all of them. Matchups still played a huge role with basically all of the decks with losing records getting one or two super nasty matches or just complete blow-outs from the shuffler, along with all happening earlier in the day (even allies which I played last, but the following day), whereas elements got one mostly walk and a couple real decks that just happened to be good matchups. Hoping it will even out in round 2. Games below, in order of play and part 2 to follow (several more games with each, in randomized order).
Comments from the ~half-way mark -Warrior's is still looking good on record and nothing here changed the read on that -All of them had at least one really fun game but I think wizards G3 probably was my favorite, although I was super invested in spirits G3...if I'd been able to sneak out with that one, it would've been double fist-pump worthy (wtb rattlechains!). -It's going to be a pretty big upset if Iron Lion Scion doesn't carry the enjoyment category. It's just got so many lines, playing too many cards that tickle my jank bone. (Allies are the dark horse here, it's playing the sort of Rube Goldberg/Voltron of jank game that is just terribly satisfying when it comes together). -Tribal breakage is going to be tough, all the decks have a very distinct feel beyond just the plan (maybe ambiance is the right word?). It's been a lot of fun playing them for that reason.
Iron Lion Scion (1-2):
Spoiler
G1. Loss vs. R32 Boros Humans Early play goes Honored Crop-Captain-> carrier thrall->trade/Iroa's champion->Vastwood Seer->champion #2. I let one swing with champion through, and then on the next decide I'm going to chump with vastwood seer but not with scion since I've got sifter of skulls to get me to 7 mana to drop cruel reality facing down the champions. That exchange gets followed up by dropping knight of the white orchid and another honored crop-captain and what was a shaky plan now looks like suicide. I shift gears and drop a bontu from off the top. At his attack, I sac a scion to activate bontu and in response he's got a cast out. (on bontu obvs) that essentially clinches it even though I survive that swing- I've got just chump blocks available and no answers in hand. I did have a leap in the opening hand, and maybe that should've been the T3 instead of seer, just to keep me in bodies and perhaps then sifter or leap draws the cast out and bontu holds the fort, but I suspect the opponents line just wins there still, despite more cowbell.
G2. Loss vs. R40 4c Superfriends I have a pretty nifty curve with blisterpod, visionary, leap, opponent though goes T3 lily, T4 tamio, T5 Ob Nixilus. Evo leap does a formidable job keeping me in bodies, and I find a never that gets used on tamio so the lil' biddies can keep swinging to keep the walkers from ulting for a long while. I get from beyond down but in the meantime he's got vastwood seer who flips immediately and tokens. I've got a bone splinters along with sifter/blisterpod for the token, and maybe I should've knocked Nissa off the board now, but I opt to keep lily off ult for another turn since I've got Ulamog in hand and don't want to have to use an exile on the emblem. Sifter gets predictably nixed. Probably the key turning point then is the following turn - I somehow talk myself into the safer line being to swing into his foundry of councils to ping the walkers again and get the blockers out and drop another couple fodder (seriously evo-leap got in work this game, I was actually about 5 cards ahead in library despite Nissa and Ob) rather than just saccing my scions to cast Ulamog and solve Ob Nix and Lily permanently. I never get another chance as he's got a planar outburst + anguished unmaking for from beyond the following turn and I'm never quite able to cobble enough mana together from there to Ulamog or board enough to keep lily off ult and the hordes and hordes of zombies carry the game. I'm about 99% sure that was a serious mis-play, although the extra draw off Nissa/Obnix had him flush with cards, and Ulamog never gets to swing in the alternate scenario due to unmaking, so I *think* its still a loss.
G3. Win vs. R33 Selesnya Humans Keep a 2 lander with a visionary+2xthrall and leap. Ends up working out as early play goes visionary->land->thrall->citadel castelian->thrall. I maybe should've gone leap there, but I was wiffing on land and wanted to present blocks +potential scions to get me up to my higher drops (sifter/from beyond). Instead, the thralls get a declaration in stone and castelian gets a couple of counters. Finally start getting the land going though with some help from the clues and Nissa. He's dropped a milita captain, thalia's lieutenant and abbey so there's some really nasty stuff on the horizon. By now though I've got leap + fodder to throw in front of his beats. He tokens creature #4 with abbey, but a bone splinters on the militia captain, and a noxious gearhulk reveal from leap during his swing draws the concession even though he's still at 18. The AI does have a little fight left, flipping a nissa and getting a nice 1 sided board wipe with dusk followed by dawn to retreive a couple of creatures, but leap and my now flipped nissa has my hand overflowing with doods that make doods. From beyond tutors up ulamog to seal it.
Spirits in the Sky (1-2):
Spoiler
G1. Win vs. R33 Selesnya Ramp Pretty straightforward game that the opponent wanted none of. We're land go till his T3 with Vastwood Seer where I give it a quick pause, just because I like to lean into the obnoxiousness that is spirits, and I've got a rattlechains at his end step. I let nissa through on the attack, but queller his explosive vegetation which draws the concession. Tracker gets some fine nebalghasting, and collective effort gives lethal on or about 6. I love spirits so much with a rattlechains on 2!
G2. Loss vs. R38 mono red NRG Early turns go land->bomat->dec stone->thriving grubs. I probably play it a bit too slow, letting grubs go by with some help from looming spires on his 4 to qualler his 3. I do net lathnu hellion for a time as a result, but he pumps his grubs to get through (maybe should've just traded here since it would've wasted a turn on hellion). Next turn he collectively defies queller pre-combat, but that won't do so I commit it. Gisela from me draws an exquisite firecraft. I can't stop the collective defiance the following turn so continue to swing with queller, declare in stone his grubs, and flash-chump the freed hellion with thunderclap wyvern. It's basically out of hand at this point, but I've got a niblis in hand, so a topped spell would get me straightned up a bit, but I wiff and niblis gets a 2nd collective defiance + hellion swing for lethal.
G3. Loss vs. R36 Rakdos hellbent I almost flip the empty-handed script on him here, pitching back a slow 5 land, for a no land, for a blue land with only white plays before finally settling on a 5 card hand that has the mighty nebalgast illuminator combo. Sorry flaky! Ends up closer than I expected, but still comes up short. Turns go illuminator->scrounger->land. I tap down his scrounger pre-combat, but in response he drops an heir and a mountain, flips and tempers the illuminator (that surprised me at the time, but turns out was probably the right call, since I'm holding a thunderclap wyvern). I don't have a spirit, and I'd prefer not to trade, but holding back for a block I'm not going to do won't work here I suspect (although maybe trading now should've been the line - it certainly would've changed the course of the game, but I suspect not for the better). He lets it through. He swings back and I wyvern at his end step. Land-swing-go from me and at his attack blessed alliance nets 4 life and a sac'd scrounger which gives me a temporary edge on the clock, but I'm still well behind in hand. Push on the wyvern and hazoret during his 2nd main. I swing back, holding up flux and commit. He moves to attack without enabling hazoret, so I flakyghast the heir. He has a bloodrage brawler 2nd main and pings with hazoret to enable attacks, which would've put me in a bit of a bind first main, but isn't quite so bad here. I decide with nebelgast I have a couple of outs if I keep racing, and trading at this point is effectively a concession since I'm not going to have a permanent solution to hazoret, so I swing to put him to 9 (with me at 14) and hold up commit. Land swing from him, so hazoret gets commited and nothing comes 2nd main. I'm out of tricks though and even if I had had the land to do it (still at 4), I suspect memory would be a Real Bad Idea. I've got a pair of bygone bishops that I've drawn, so I drop one and swing to put him to 6. Bishop eats a lightning axe and he gets in for lethal.
IWCOWABNIP (1-2):
Spoiler
G1. Loss vs. R35 izzet Prowess Keep a slow 7, with 4 land, a copter, and a pair of thopterists. Early play goes mage-ring bully->copter->umara entangler->copter#2->stormchaser mage+slip through space. Ouch. But I've got loads of thopters coming up so there's a chance. I drop a whirler rogue and leave everything back to block. He has a second stormchaser and a firecraft first main that goes to the face and swings with the team. I'm dead to lots of things at this point, so I line up optimistic blocks (copters on 1 stormchaser and bully, rogue on entangler) and that resolves leaving me at 6, but he's thinned down to a pair of stormchasers, empty handed and I've got some thopters, a copter, and a fistful of thopterists. I drop one of them the following turn and swing with copter - I could've dropped 2 with improvise, and maybe that would've been the better line with him on empty and me so far behind. But I don't. He tops a Jhessian thief and passes back with no attack. Thopterist #2 comes down with another attack from copter to get us to 14-6, but I'm way ahead on board. Next turn he finds a slip through space, which cascades into a pair of telling times and Jhessian's unblockable for 4 and finds him a land. I look real hard for a path to lethal, but can't find it this turn, and end up with Pia + Saheeli, cloning a thopterist (blocked) and another swing from copter. He untaps and sure enough has a twin-bolt to burn for lethal. Close though.
G2. Loss vs. R37 Izzet Mill Mull a slow 7 to no land to a pretty good 6 with copter and pia. Early turns go cathartic reunion->copter->land->pia. He's got a pair of bombardments for pia and copter though. Rats. He untaps for tutelage. I drop spy network first main and swing with the thopter. Next turn fevered visions. mmmm.....Unfortunately I don't have a ton to accelerate the board, so I drop a vial and swing which finds me...another vial. Fine. He drops baral and Titi. I'm hitting a ton of land, but all the draw gets me another network, so that goes down and a swing nets a thopterist and a whirler. Next turn he pores over some pages and has another Titi. I throw down whirler and thopterist with a sliver of hope - but it's too slow as he's got double reunion into collective defiance to eat through the remainder of my library (and in the process wipe out my token army with titi- but that's ultimately irrelevant).
G3. Win vs. Gruul mid-range No-land first gets me to a funky double chief, vial, rebuke hand. Not how we drew it up, but good enough for sure. Early play goes vial (drawing chief 3, teehee)->Kari->chief. No blocks for kari or the monkey, and sylvan advocate comes down 2nd main. I land and drop chief#2 and swing. No swing from him, and Rhonas gets rebuked. Chief#3 goes down, and I swing - no blocks. On his turn Samut comes down, but he's not in the mood to trade (I'm not sure I would've been either) and leaves kari back as well. I've found Chandra Torch though, so Samut gets merc'd and I swing, he chumps with advocate and goes to 1. He's got Flamecaller, but that's not good enough with 3 chiefs on board so he draws a new hand and torch minuses for lethal when I untap.
Warrior's Guild (3-0):
Spoiler
G1. Win vs. R37 Rakdos Revolution I keep a two lander with taps that is probably not good enough, but lots of plays to follow with copter, double cartouche, inciter and an intiate. A mountain off the top and early play goes vial->copter->revolutionl->inciter+initiate (swing)->scrap trawler. Copter's found an insult, so I cartouche initiate, crew copter and insult which draws the vial on copter. He chumps initiate with trawler getting vial back. He's got an inspector, vial, implement of combustion, and battle at the bridge (on initiate) on his turn, leaving inspector up to block. I drop the other cartouche, glory chaser (incited), injury the inspector and swing. He sac's implement and drops a treasure keeper. I've got a declaration in stone for the keeper but vial prevents lethal that turn. Resourceful return on his turn gets inspector back, but the draw wasn't good enough and he concedes. This one was actually much closer than it sounds like, with revolution +implement taking me to 4, but ultimately not quite quick enough.
G2. Win vs. R35 Ohrzov Control Early play goes inciter -> land ->initiate (blessed alliance)->land->cartouche+selfless spirit. He's got a Kalitas on his turn and I've got a harnessed lightning, so I cartouche the token and swing with the inciter. I didn't think he'd block so I left the token back, but he blocks and lightning gets Kalitas out of the way. He's got a Gideon Ally that tokens, but spirit and a pair of 2/2 first strikers eliminate him with no blocks and I play out copter 2nd main, a bit wary of languish. His turn he's got a never for spirit, which I take to be a green light, so I add militia captain to crew copter and swing with the side. He's got another blessed alliance, but it just nets him the 1/1 token and he chumps a first striker with his ally token. Return on his turn delays his demise a turn, but that won't be good enough.
G3. Win vs. R36 golgari sac Bit of an odd one here - It starts out predictably, inciter (on 2)->visionary->cartouche (miss land 3, and this seems better than copter…why I'm not sure I could say)->fleshbag marauder (I sac token)->crasher (exert). Seedguardian comes down and fleshbag swings back to put us 12-17. Gideon + token go from me. He uses eldritch evolution on marauder, getting a gilt-leaf winnower to knock off crasher and drops a scrapheap scrounger. I don't love my attacks and turtle up with gideon, so cartouche on ally token and drop harvester, and token. He drops another seed guardian and evolutionary leap. I misplay great, and attack with harvester, relearning the lesson that you should RTFC (seed guardian). He's got a bellower that fetches up a rec sage for my copter. I token and hang back. He drops vastwood seer and flips her, and is content to hang back, not wanting to swing into my first strike + tokens. I top angelic destiny, pop it on garrison, and attack nissa with gideon and garrison that draws chump-leaps from a seed guardian and sage, fetching a visionary and another rec sage. Strangely he doesn't block the tokens, so now we're 10-17 and I've got a couple spare 1/1s. He brings most of the team at gideon (4/4 token, bellower, winnower, and scrounger), leaving back seed-guardian. But I've got good blocks, with a 3/3 first strike + buddy for winnower (suspect that he missed this), and a 2/2 first strike for scrounger. Bellower gets a 1/1 chump, and I double up ally tokens on his 4/4 seed guardian token. He concedes. I top a honored crop captain, she goes down and gets haste from inciter and I swing with the team for lethal. I'm not actually sure I was winning this - he had sage in hand for destiny, and I was going to have a real hard time getting around his creeps to stop nissa from ulting, but that's not what happened, and he ends up at 0, so it counts!
Bounce Da Mage (2-1):
Spoiler
G1. Loss vs. R34 Gruul NRG Just one of those games, 2 blue/all white plays->no land->1 land. Settle on a 5 with both colors, 2 land, and trophy mage as my first play and that ends just like you'd think. Castigator does show up promptly to make it appear as if I'm playing magic and opponent ends up at 12, but after a brief moment where it looks like a reflector mage may give us a shot, sky sovereign comes down to dispel the notion.
G2. Win vs. R32 Esper Zombies? Control? I curve gust walker->havester->spire patrol and his first play is Gideon on turn 4. I drop a castigator to crew, and knock gideon off with patrol and harvester. Planar Outburst on his turn cleans up the board. I've got another castigator to keep the harvester running though. Dark salvation on his turn makes a couple zombies and takes out my pilot, but blue #2/land 5 shows up just in time and docent comes down to continue the harvesting and though that only takes him to 4, draws the concession. AI gets another salvation off the top killing docent, I go harbinger of tides + docent number 2 on the next two turns though and that ends it.
G3. Win vs. R40 Orzhov drain/sac What do you know…frustration can be a wincon. I'm a little slow with reflector mage as my first play, but its just in time to bounce his wayward servant. He's got Drana's Emmisary, and that meets a spire patrol with a swing from reflector. He murder's the patrol when he untaps, I drop monument and trophy mage (grabbing harvester) to keep the emissary tapped and poke him again with reflector. Wayward servant comes back down, and trades with trophy mage on my swing. Castigator comes down to continue tapping emissary. He has another wayward servant, and that trades for castigator on my swing (reflector getting in again). Docent comes down to keep tapping emmissary, and that draws an anguished unmaking, that grows all the more anguished when I disperse docent to fizzle it and make a wizard, which draws the concession. The reason I know frustration is a wincon is because from there the AI proceeds to whoop me but good - with the end turns going Linvala (bricks me and pulls board and life effectively even)->Harbinger of tides (bouncing emissary)->Sorin->Docent #2 (trade docent #1 for linvala)->Oketra+Kambal->Declaration in Stone (oketra) which transforms docent and lets me kill Sorin->Dusk + angelic destiny, wiping my side and leaving a 6/7 Kambal - him at 15 and me at 5. I got coins so everyone agrees that's a win.
Bearing the Elements (3-0):
Spoiler
G1. Win vs. R35 Boros Vehicles Missed land drop by the opponent ripples throughout the game, which is kinda too bad b/c I think this woulda been a good test otherwise. Early play goes grapple->veteran motorist->harnessed ligthning->miss->tracker->depala->swing with tracker, no block, advocate->Renegade wheelsmith. I drop land 6 and swing with tracker/advocate and wheelsmith chumps tracker after I eat a couple of clues. He's got skysovereign, but a turn late since both of my guys are out of range. Depala gets a harnessed lightning on my turn, crewing skysovereign in response. I drop Mina +2 land and swing with both, trading advocate + heaven for 1 for skysovereign and swing for lethal on the next turn.
G2. Win vs. R36 Rakdos Goodstuff Tough one, but we hang on and pull it out. Early turns go bomat->Terrain Elemental->fiery impulse (on ele)->Terrain elemental->unlicensed disintigration (on ele)->tracker->infectious bloodlust (no block)->grapple+rec sage (on bloodlust, but he sacs bomat in response, which discards a couple of lands and a firecraft but fetches him a fistful of cards). On his turn he goes Yahenni + bloodlust and I let it through which puts me to 7. Fortunately I've got the roil in hand, so that comes down with a land to make a clue and a bear. Leave Sage and elemental back to block and keep chipping in with tracker. On his turn he's got a scrounger, and he decides to bloodlust that once and Yahenni for a second time. Unfortunately, that leaves Yahenni at 4 toughness which is precisely the power I have for blocks so I double block Yahenni and offer him the 5 damage. He sac's scrounger, and I lose my doods, but roil's got more where that came from and I stay at 7. I drop revenge and leave it back to block, along with an elemental and chip in again with tracker. He's got a copter and scrounger on his turn, so a severely oversized Yahenni gets chumped again, but now he's got to block since revenge and tracker + clues present lethal. Copter does block tracker, but clues make it a chump and the opponent is out of gas while Yahenni gets chumped one more time.
G3. Win vs. R35 Temur NRG Felt like a nailbiter, although I ended at 11. Early play goes oath of nissa->land->terrain elemental->rogue refiner->pilgrimage->tracker->roil (no bear). He swings in with tracker (2 clues available) and refiner, so I block refiner and he casts aether meltdown, and 2nd main drops a whirler virtuoso. I veggy for a couple of bears and to get blue and red 2 (steward of elements and omnath in hand). On his turn he casts telling time to find a land, but no swing. I top a harnessed lightning and decide I may not get another chance to get rid of tracker, so instead of omnath we go pilgrimage, lightning (on tracker), and steward for 1, scrying Chandra torch to the top + land. He sacs a clue to make me spend the full 3 energy, and makes a couple of thopters at his endstep. First main he drops glorybringer who takes out steward, and the thopters get in for 2 putting me to 15. On my turn, chandra torch, + for mana, omnath+land and swing with 3 bears. He decides to block with virtuoso, who gets pinged off by omnath, putting him to 16. He's got a lightning for omnath on his turn who zaps a thopter on the way out, and glory bringer + the remaining thopter take out chandra. I top greenwarden of murasa and swing with the remaining elementals. He trades refiner for one of the bears, but it puts him to 5. Warden gets omnath out of the bin, and a rec sage that's been sitting in hand comes down to take out the last thopter. On his turn he drops a long tusk cub and exerts glorybringer to kill warden (who I exile to get back chandra). He's got a lightning for the 5/5 token that he uses while Omnath is resolving on my turn, but it's not enough and the bears + sage get in for lethal.
Dork Alliance with emissary (0-3):
Spoiler
G1. Loss vs. R40 Abzan Goodstuff/Ramp Couldn't find another removal for a tracker that just got wildly out of hand (finished the game at 42 cards in library, he was at 21). Early play goes Anointed Priest->land->Kalastria Healer (push)->oath of nissa (revealing sorin). His first real play is gideon, facing down my priest and retreat (that hasn't triggered yet). I land for token and angel of invention (also for tokens) and get in for 2 on gideon. On his next turn he tokens gideon and drops tracker + land and sacs the clue. I swing with the side, all at gideon and he lets everything by and I drop Vampiric Envoy. Sorin comes down and kills AoI, but I've been hanging on to Never specifically for him since oath revealed it, and that's what happens on my turn. From there we dink around for a few turns, me pecking away with the envoy, him dropping some land, ramping a little saccing some clues, but not attacking with anything. He pushes the envoy eventually (post clue) so I put down Angel of Renewal, putting me up to 36...he lets me have a swing with that but I guess got tired of waiting for my "move" (not realizing I think that angel was it) and languishes the board leaving tracker, and drops a bellower fetching rec sage for my retreat. I've held up a couple cards, and still have priest to recur along with return, and being at 36 life I've got plenty of leeway to be pesky about it, but as mentioned up front, he ends up seeing 39 cards to my 18 and I'm not able to locate anything to solve the tracker.
G2. Loss vs. R38 Simic/colorless ramp He plays a though knot seer and sees my hand full of allies and decides (I think) to just kinda let it play out and see if I can kill him. I'm on the slow side with envoy, emissary, cliffhaven, bloodbond. Emissary gets exiled, but otherwise they all come down and we're chipping happily away while he ramps. He gains a quite a bit of life with pulse, renewal, and Nissa's Revelation. He plays out a bellower to grab an advocate and hold back the increasingly large bloodbond. The turn we'll present lethal in the air he drops from beyond (fetching ulamog) and commences the festivities (very theme appropriate!). Next turn he surges a crush of tentacles which dismantles my beast and then ulamogs the blockers I get down so he can swing by for lethal with the pair of advocates and an octopus.
G3. Loss vs. R38 4c Trials Just a sound thumping from one of our janky bretheren due largely to just drawing partial combos. I keep a mulligan with 3 land, both colors, a couple early removal + bloodbond/cliffhaven. We're both land-go till he drops a trial of strength. I hold up push on the next turn to see if it gets an aura, but it doesn't so it gets destroyed at his attack step and he end-steps a vastwood seer. I play out Vampiric envoy (had just drawn that - started with push/dec stone and a few 4 drops) and decide to dec stone her now since I've got high mana plays for days from here..Next few turns go trial of ambition->cliffhaven vampire->blightcaster+visionary->bloodbond->trial of knowledge+trial of ambition (clearing my side)->angelic procession+stoneforge masterwork->rogue refiner+trial of strength+narmnam renegade and that's what swings for lethal.
Last edited by bzzt on Sun Jan 21, 2018 11:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
Yeah, my tribal breakage scores here were kind of a nebulous "what is this tribe trying to do and how well does the deck support it?" as opposed to my build score, which is more of an overall power level.
Soup's gotta mean Drana's Emissary, right? It's listed in the 3cmc section of the deck.
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