Final Records at 6-1: Warrior's Guild (warriors) Bounce Da Mage (wizards)
4-3: IWCOWABNIP (thopters) Bearing the Elements (elementals)
3-4: Iron Lion Scion (eldrazi)
2-5: Spirits in the Sky (spirits) Dork Alliance (allies)
Round 2 games (last 4 with each deck)
Warriors comes within a hair of going undefeated (6-1 overall), but a T3 lily/T6 flamecaller with lots of little speedbumps along the way hold up in game 6. Games:
Spoiler
G4. Win vs. R35 4c Walkers Keep a 4 lander that's a little slower than I'd like, but we go initiate into garrison with a lightning to clear the path, so seems good enough. Early turns go initiate->oath of nissa->garrison->little lily (+to kill initiate). This and the 4 colors already down has got me a little worried, because although I can probably take lily out, it's going to take a little bit, and I suspect their late game is going to go way over the top of what I'm doing. I poke lily with garrison and make a couple of tokens (he's at 15 now). Cartouche of solidarity on one of the tokens. He's got an oath of chandra for garrison (rawr) and debuffs my 2/2 to add a turn to my lily clock. I swing to put her at 1 and add honored crop captain to my board. That gets an oblivion strike and lily + takes out my cartouche token. I get her off the board next turn and add militia captain. He's got a greenwarden though to get lily back in hand. I top a harvester, and misplay a bit since I should've dropped it first main for the energy and just taken greenwarden with lightning. Instead I swing with the tokens, he blocks the 1/1 and I lightning (he exiles for oblivion strike), dropping harvester 2nd main and taking him to 12. He passes back despite lots of cards (2 are lily which would be suicide, and oblivion strike, which kinda seems like it would've been good enough). I've got angelic destiny, but with oblivion strike in his hand, and just shy of lethal I just crew up and swing with the harvester/token taking him to 7. That draws the languish next turn, along with baby lily, but I've still got a pilot in hand (glory chaser), so harvester gets destiny for lethal.
G5. Win vs. R37 Golgari Ramp He's on the play, but doesn't do anything until a T4 explosive vegetation. Meanwhile I go initiate->harvester->garrison (after his vegetation), so he's at 11. The Gitrog Monster comes down but he concedes when I angelic destiny garrison and crew up harvester (actually misplayed that - on initiate it would've been lethal in the air, as it was it put him to 1, but same difference).
G6. Loss vs. R35 Grixis control T3 lily is such a pain. Play goes inciter->land->initiate (pushed after haste)->lily (gnoshing on inciter)->garrison->harnessed lightning->honored-crop captain->Titi. I probably should've declared his titi in stone to get through for 1, but I cartouche and lightning instead to get some power on the board, since I've also got an injury. He +'s to shrink captain and passes back. I think I probably should've injuried now to get her off the board, but I've hit land 4 and want to gideon (never mind that I've only got 1W), so I swing to get littly off imminent ultimate and settle for harvester 2nd main instead. He's on up to Flamecaller though, so captain gets shrunk and away goes my board. I whiff on my next draw and have to pass back, but hit white on the next and harvester can still eliminate chandra, so I try to stick gideon, but opponent breaks my concentration and that effectively ends it, as flamecaller tokens and later torrential gearhulk wrap me up.
G7. Win vs. R35 Dimir…vehicles? Get myself a little over-exicted about T1 inciter, T2 honored crop captain, and miss that everything else in my hand is 3. Turns out to be good enough even though I miss T3 (drew a tap). We go inciter->heart of kiran->crop captain->land->land to put him to 12 and get me up to 3 lands, and now I've got insult, putting him to 2 and drawing the concession.
Dorks avoid going un-victorious on the ladder (whew!), going 2-2 (2-5 overall) in the afternoon set, one eliciting cackles of glee with double healer->cliffhaven->procession->gideon. Yahtzee! Games:
Spoiler
G4. Loss vs. R35 4c Superfriends I go no-land, no black 2 land into a decent 6 with a healer and some removal. Early turns go healer (pushed)->vastwood seer. I've got a murder and a grasp in hand, but decide maybe I've been too loose with my removal in this deck so I let her plink away for a couple of turns. He drops ob-nixilis on 5, so I decide to murder Nissa (don't want her to flip as I focus on getting to Ob). I go envoy (oath of lily'd), masterwork (no creatures, and draws creeping mold!), and get cliffhaven off the top just in time for him to suicide ob for an emblem. I get to land 6 so I can drop angel of renewal, but he's got blessed alliance for cliffhaven and again the following turn for angel of renewal and the emblem holds up with a hand from gideon ally and little lily.
G5. Win vs. R37 Azorius Spirits Wahoo! Of course this is the plan, how could it not be the plan, it's UNSTOPPABLE! Early turns go Illuminator->healer->bishop->murder->bishop->cliffhaven. Now we're staring at each other for a turn or so with him putting down a topplegeist for a couple of clues and a swing, and me putting down a procession. I've got gideon in hand along with never and murder (just to give you an idea of where my head's at). I top another healer and plunk it down along with abbey and that's enough to force the action a bit, putting him to 12. Avacyn comes down at my end step. I go for murder at his attack, but he's got long road home for it (of course he does!). I try the never when I untap, but he's got an essence flux for that and I decide 1 blue is going to have to be good enough - plopping gideon down and with double ally token nugging him to 4 (with triggers for days!). That draws the concession since I'm well out of lethal range and he can't kill gideon without swinging with his side, but gideon or the swingback is super lethal the following turn.
G6. Loss vs. R34 4c Superfriends He drops eight (8!) walkers in the course of the game, largely powered by fevered visions and protected by a combination of walker abilities and a pair of languishes. That same visions gets me to enough critters and never so I do manage to kill off 4 of them, and delay the demise for awhile (I end up seeing 28 cards) but two eventually ultimate - little lily and kiora which on paper is a killer combo. I have the pleasure of assuring you that it is as good as advertised, you should definitely try to do it as often as possible.
G7. Win vs. R38 mono-black…zombies? Looks like a game of magic at the start, going T1 wanderer->land->cryptbreaker->healer->grasp of darkness->emissary->dark salvation (for 0)->cliffhaven->push (post attacks after I eat cryptbreaker)->hero of goma fade. He sticks at 2 land though till we're 16 cards deep and conceeds to a board of hero, envoy, bloodbond with a full hand of cards. The AI sorts that out and has land + murder for bloodbond on the next turn, but it's too late. Kinda **** luck for him, still counts!
Bounce da mage does its thing in style, going 4-0 (6-1 overall) in the evening session to tie it up with warriors on record. 3 of them exactsies. Glorious. I think it enhanced the experience of both dorks and wizards having them back to back because they're such stark contrasts - Dorks have these extremely intricate plans that work out sometimes to crushing effect. Wizards have this ridiculous plan revolving largely around tricky bears, but you could set a watch by it. Games:
Spoiler
G4. Win vs. R38 dimir control Kinduv an odd game, he's hitting his land drops for the most part, and I'm not off to a bonkers start dawdling at land 2 for a turn without a second play, just plinking away while he casts 3 telling times. He concedes after tapping the T2 gust walker once with grip of the roil, and then later murdering it (while trophy mage continues getting in) and dispersing a castigator. I get docent down and the AI kills that with ob nixilis (but trophy mage finishes ob off). Torrential gearhulk recurs disperse to bounce a harvester, but I've got a disperse of my own and lethal on board.
G5. Win vs. R40 orzhov tokens So very sweet. Early turns go castigator->anointer->reflector->land->gust walker->double anointer. At this point I've got deep fiend, and I'm not nuts about main phasing it without a great follow up, but I figure this will get him to 7, with 3 in the air next turn and a big body so we go with that. He's got a liliana's mastery on his turn which brings him back to 11 and gives him some real nice blocks, but I top open into wonder with just enough mana to get the ground through and gustwalker exerts for exactsies.
G6. Win vs. R36 5c control Crashed post-game so I don't have the precise plays. Effectively though he's dropping tap lands and powering up pyramid of the pantheon while gustwalker and harvester are chipping away. He *just* about gets there with pyramid, but there's a disperse in hand before he can untap with it. Oath of liliana forces me to drop a non-reflecting reflector mage to continue piloting. He's got removal for the mage, but we let that go and drop a river marshall to carry on piloting. Swing with harvester and him at 9 draws an anguished unmaking, but that gets the queller, putting him to 6. He's got ajani to exile the queller during his turn and make a token off oath, and uses unmaking on the harvester putting him to 3. River marshall taps the zombie and puts him directly on zero.
G7. Win vs. R36 orzhov tokens Early plays goes cat->river marshall->land->cartouche->cat->declaration in stone (crack clue)->kytheon (crack clue)->separatist void mage. He redrops kytheon along with a cryptbreaker and he's at 7. I'm just short on mana for open into wonder to get the team through, but I use it on the void mage and river marshall putting him to 1 and trading the token for cryptbreaker. He's got Yahenni's expertise the following turn wiping my board and putting down little lily. I've been holding though, so harvester and gust walker go down. He can't find an answer, lily + on the gustwalker and I oblige, attacking and exerting to put him directly to zero.
Elements go 1-3 (4-3 overall). One T6 kill (I can go fastish!), a pair of too-fast aggro matches where I've got early plays but they're not quite good enough, and a pretty epic G7 with lots of plot twists (ultimately ending in a loss though). Games:
Spoiler
G4. Win vs. R40 grixis reanimator Early turns go advocate->oath of jace->land->pieces of the puzzle->Chandra, Torch. Nothing for him on T5 and I hit my land with revenge in hand so + for mana and get in for 10, putting him to 4. He's got Yahenni's expertise with a little jace to block, but I've got harnessed lightning to clear the path (or chandra, but lightning is what got used).
G5. Loss vs. R36 RDW Nightmare matchup on the draw as opponent goes flameblade adept->infectious bloodlust->thopter engineer before we are able to play anything. Harnessed lightning goes on the engineer pre-attack to prevent the thopter from attacking, but in retrospect probably should've either done the thopter or the adept (probably adept). On my T3 I drop vastwood seer to keep the land coming since I can't manage blocks this turn. He's got a mage-ring bully and a second infectious bloodlust on his turn, so Nissa chumps that and we go to 10. T4 we have advocate and terrain elemental, but a fiery temper first main on advocate pumps bully and prevents blocking the adept again so we're chumping bully again. I have blocks with lumbering falls on the next turn to get another draw step (veggy/kiora/pair of roils in hand) but can't find a solution (pretty sure there isn't one in the deck tbh - basically if I'd topped heaven at 5.
G6. Loss vs. R39 mono black aggro Blech. Gifted aetherborn->Yahenni while I'm playing out taplands on the draw. Harnessed lightning on Yahenni at his T4 attack draws supernatural stamina with siphoner second main. I drop Mina and lands 4, 5, but he's got grasp for her first main and gets in again putting me to 5 (some help from sunscorched deserts along the way). Harvester comes down second main. I've got roil + EW which buys me a turn if he doesn't have a pilot, but he does, dropping bone-picker first main to pilot up copter, and I give him a hand with stevens, blocking yahenni and aetherborn.
G7. Loss vs. R36 Gruul NRG Fun, hard fought loss, where I start just a little too slow and it just wasn't quite good enough. Early turns go brawler (lightning)->tracker->lightning->land->hydra->roil (no bear)->brawler (16-20)->Nissa, Vital Force + land. He's got a lightning for my animated forest, and elemental chumps hydra and drops a prowling serpopod. No land drop from me but terrain elemental and rec sage go down and I animate another forest. He swings in with the team and terrain trades for brawler, forest eats serpopod, and sage chumps hydra while he drops another brawler. Land off the top nets me a token, animate forest, and leave up mana for lumbering falls. He's got Verdurous Gearhulk on his turn, making a 6/6 trample, a 4/3 brawler, and a 5/4 hydra and swings with brawler and hydra. I activate falls and trade my board for his two creatures. I top a pilgrimage, so we put out a board of 5/5 and a pair of 2/2's. First main he's got a Rishkar's expertise drawing 6 and playing out a new hydra which probably decides the game. He swings in and trades gearhulk for my forest. I top an EW to put me to 4 elemental bears, animate a mountain and swing, no blocks, 15-16 my favor. No swing from him. He plays out skysovereign, pinging Nissa for 3, putting her back down to 1 along with a greenbelt rampager. Since plan-nissa looks short lived, I use her to double tap a land to get omnath on the board, swinging with two bears. Initially he goes to block but then sees where I'm going with that and opts to let them through. He's got vastwood seer (flipping immediately) and tokening, glorybringer, and a long tusk cub and swings in the air. Both target omnath to remove him (pinging his nissa off the board on his way out), glorybringer destroying Nissa and Skysovereign going to the face. I find roil # 2 and a gaea's revenge that I can't cast on the next two draws, and that won't be good enough.
Iron Lion Scion goes a delightful 2-2 (3-4 overall). Scion aggro is the new meta . Games:
Spoiler
G4. Loss vs. R34 Temur turbo mill One of those games where if you know the matchup you keep a different hand. I've got blisterpod, splinters, push, good land, and from beyond which I'm pretty happy with. No plays on my turn 2 or 3 though as he drops fevered visions and does some cycling. From beyond gets censored (I probably should've just run out blisterpod 2 here, but with visions filling up my hand I wanted to use the mana efficiently. He finds his tutelage next turn with cathartic reunion and the race is on as I'm not actually sure he was running anything to interact (just draw and tutelage). I drop that blisterpod and a thrall from the top. Following turn I gearhulk with no target, and on the final turn manage to get him to 1 with an assist from quagmire, but he's able to mill out the last 15 cards of my library pretty easily.
G5. Win vs. R40 RDW That's how a deck's supposed to play! He's on the draw, but we get going right out of the gate, with glory chaser->blisterpod, leaving push up. He swings in, and has a titans strength post-block, but that's what push is for. He's got a flameblade adept second main and on my turn I've got a visionary. Opponent drops an ahn-crop crasher, exerting to keep the visionary from blocking and swinging with the adept. I chump the crasher with blisterpod and push post-combat. On my turn I have a thrall, but he's essentially out of gas, as he twin-bolts my visionary (both pings) and concedes with me still at 18. I play it out and it takes a few turns from there, but the AI eventually has to trade for thrall and by the time he finds anything else of note I've got a noxious gearhulk for it.
G6. Loss vs. R40 orzhov tokens What fun decks (his and mowie's). I have a little trouble finding colors and end up with a slow 6, but early turns go copter->land->weaponcraft enthusiast (push on copter from me)->from beyond->abbey +master trinketeer->blisterpod+visionary+bone splinters (off pod, on trinketeer).->resourceful return + trinketeer->never (on trinketeer). He resourceful returns on his trinketeer again, but goes with a 2nd abbey + visionary augmenter. I untap with enough pods and land to ulamog, or I could wait for trinketeer to come back and ulamog later and just go with oblivion sower here. I decide ulamog, and I probably should've exiled both abbey's just to relieve the pressure from his creature count, but I took augmenter and 1 abbey. His turn is a wild plot twist though as he's got marionette master as a 4/6 and 3 servos on board, me at 14 along with 42 cards in his library. I decide I'm not probably going to be able to turtle it out to find an answer for marionette with abbey sitting over to the side and I can deck him if I can survive one turn (even if he can manage another artifact, I can get to 5 creatures to attack/sac to abbey before damage). That and I've always wanted to ulamog->sower. Swing with ulamog to put him to 22 cards, he throws all of the servos in front to ping me for 12. Oblivion sower comes down, netting 6 more land and putting him to 18. Sac from beyond for abom, play it out and drop a visionary off forest+scion for sac and a couple of draws. He's got another augmenter, though, and pushes his own token to ping me for lethal.
G7. Win vs. R32 4c NRG Scion aggro is the new meta. Early turns go blisterpod->land->lightning on pod at attack, thrall->land->push on thrall at attack, scion summoner->whirler virtuoso. Here I drop rot shambler (mvp!), blisterpod, and cast bone splinters, saccing the pod. He makes a thopter before going to the gy, and then we swing and he trades for a scion, growing rot shambler again. Nothing from him on the following turn, so I get a free swing with the side. The following turn he has a 6/6 woodland wanderer, but it still dies to sac+push, and the team swings in to put him right on 0.
IWCOWABNIP goes an impressive 3-1 (4-3 overall), with the only loss being an iffy keep vs. a non-iffy opponent, and 3 pretty commanding wins. Games:
Spoiler
G4. Win vs. R32 Golgari Sac Starts off a little slow, with early turns going blisterpod->land->altar's reap->land->altar's reap->Saheeli->Seed Guardian->P&K. A swing from seed guardian gets chumped by a thopter and a second seed guardian comes down. I've got a chief on my turn and clone P&K for another pair of thopters. No swing from him, and an eldritch evolution gets rebuked leaving him with a 2/2 token and a seed guardian. I improvise in a thopterist and pass back. He's just got a smothering abomb, but hangs back. I swing with 2 thopters, and he blocks one with seed guardian and lets the other through, which along with Saheeli pings puts him at 14. P&K sacs another thopter to take out the weakened guardian and I pass back. He sacs the 2/2, and drops a foul emissary finding primal druid which also comes down. At his endstep though, I've got harnessed lightning for the abomb and a flux for P&K to make another pair of thopters giving me lethal with thopters + pings.
G5. Win vs. R40 mono-green ramp Slowish, but quick once it's moving. Early turns go druid of the cowl->harvester->vastwood seer->whirler rogue->verdurous gearhulk (7/7 trample + 1 on nissa). Looks bad right? That's an awful lot of power on the board for T4. But no, we've got a chief so he's going to 9 (with us up to 23). He promptly conceeds, and he was super right but he misses throne 2nd main and tapping whirler to put him to 4.
G6. Loss vs. R38 Superfriends This one may've been on my keep - first mulligan with 3 mountains (but only thopterist needing U). Pia, throne, and harnessed lightning otherwise which seemed OK. I hold up lighting at 2, but nothing comes so pia goes down on 3. She gets an oath of chandra. On my turn thopter swing and throne. He's got an oath of liliana that sacs my thopter. I top a blue, and it's also land 5, so down goes thopterist. What no one expected was he's got a conclave naturalist(?!) which takes out throne. I swing with the thopters and top a flux, so I pass back. He swings with naturalist, no block, and then drops little lily and deadcap cultivator (also makes a zombie). 1 thopter down. At his end step though, I lightning the cultivator and flux the thopterist. Saheeli off the top will do nicely, and she goes down cloning thopterist and we swing with the side at lily (should've sent 1 of the thopters to the face here, math is hard...whatever. He blocks the for-realsy thopterist with his zombie, but lily goes down and I've got 5 thopters and Saheeli Vs. naturalist and the oaths. That's the high point though. Next turn I chump naturalist, but he's got ob nixilis 2nd main which triggers chandra's oath to kill saheeli along with siphoner (and a zombie from oath). I find a 2nd blue for a whirler rogue that I've drawn, so he goes down and I swing at ob with the remaining thopters, but just shy of killing him. He's got Vital Force first main but thinks better about animating and swinging, since he's got mana up to recur lily as well. I trade whirler for siphoner (thopter assist) but recurring lily to kill another thopter is exactly what happens. The swing along with oath puts me to 6, so even though I could kill off nissa and ob with my remaining thopters, it won't do any good, so I swing to the face and drop my island to empty the hand as a white flag.
G7. Win vs. R34 Simic goodstuff Early plays go illuminator->land-> Vastwood seer (lightning on illuminator)->thopter engineer. He's got a tracker land next, but I go ahead and thopterist at 4 since I have harvester+lightning and land 5 in hand. He's just got another land and sacs a clue leaving up UGG. I go ahead and play into it, so harvester/crew and lightning happens, all resolving putting him to 11 and trading thopterist for nissa. I guess he was holding up pulse, because that's what he does at my end step bringing him back up to 17 and recurring nissa. She comes back down on his turn, but that's all he's got, and my aerial assault continues with a whirler rogue putting him to 9. He finds a rec sage off the top for harvester, but I do one better with chief to give me lethal in the air.
And we wrap with Flaky's poor Spirits in the Sky. Clearly Flaky told the shuffler he'd call, but then never did...something about "just being suuuper busy". I'd keep a close eye on your tires Flaky. Finishes out 1-3 in the second session (2-5 overall). I even replayed one since it was comedic, there's no reason this deck should draw this poorly it's just mathematically got the safest mana-base of all the decks with a fine curve for 24 land...idk, maybe I'm missing something, like maybe it needs a one-of oracle's vault? At anyrate, when I didn't spot the opponent multiple cards, it was loads of fun and I enjoyed it immensely-felt extremely sneaky. Games:
Spoiler
G4. Loss vs. R40 RDW I debate long and hard, but keep a 4 land hand with 3 of each color, dec stone, scatter, and blessed alliance. I don't think that's good enough though. I realize I'm in loads of trouble when adept comes down, followed by aether chaser. I dec stone the chaser (maybe blessed alliance at the attack would've been better? - I really didn't want him making a token for some reason). He's got thriving grubs on his turn and I have declaration remorse. I top a rattle chains, and hold up scatter, but I'm really too far behind on board to be playing that game. He sacs the clue and attacks and I rattle chains at his end step (maybe I should've traded for grubs here? Probably). I swing and hold up alliance and scatter. He runs Kari out to clear the way and I decide she's worse than the adept I'm going to get with alliance. He swings again making grubs 4/3 and casting invigorated rampage to put me to 5 (ow). I drop always watching to swing and then be able to trade, but he's got harnessed lightning to clear the blocker. I probably should've just taken for lethal, but I'm no quitter so I alliance for his adept going to 1. I top an illuminator so that goes down and I've got a 2nd scatter in hand that keeps hellion off the board. I chump grubs, but top land and drop it, and I guess as punishment for not rolling over he fleetwheels and invigorated rampages for ultra-lethal.
G5. Loss vs. R40 4c Superfriends Bleh, I'm screwing this up. I throw back a very similar hand to my last game (lots of removal, first creature at 4), draw a 2 land that maybe was the keep, but it started at 3. No land at 6 obvs and end up with a 5 that's not much better than the first mulligan and notably worse than the original hand (I think). I do top the land and he's not playing things, so maybe there's a chance. I get nebalghast down at the end of his 3, and I hit him once, but he's got anguished unmaking at my end step. He and I both draw-go (him 2x) and I wyvern at his end step, and that gets spell shrivel. That gives me a chance to drop Gisela, but when he untaps he's got Sorin who minuses to kill her. I put down a bygone bishop, but when he untaps he goes for cast-out. This is almost certainly super wrong, but I queller the cast-out, netting a clue and buying a swing into Sorin. Mr. Sorin finds him a harnessed lightning though so that all unravels. We dink around from there, but he's revealed a spell shrivel so I'm playing around that, while he drops Nahiri and then Ob Nixilis and I never really mount a serious threat till Nahiri ults for ulamog (sorin has me to 10) and ob kills the blocker.
G6. Win vs. R40 Simicdrazi ramp Whew…after an earlier game 6 that we just won't talk about, feel like we're playing magic again (albeit vaguely lucky magic). Early turns go selfless spirit (spatial contortion immediately)->weaver of currents->declaration in stone->Thought-knot. I'm holding a pair of collective efforts and Gisela + land, so he exiles Gisela. I decide to use some effort and get another draw, netting nebalghast and rattlechains (Victory!). He's got Kiora on his turn (minus and whiff on creature), and I land-go. He taps out a drowner of hope (ick) but I go ahead and flash in my doods end step. I've topped a Niblis, and decide effort isn't good enough here, so move to attacks and he taps down nebalghast and I take Kiora to 1, and drop niblis. He's got a 2nd drowner though (ick) and swings with the first putting me to 15. I've got always watching and collective effort but just 3 W - maybe effort was the play here the more I think about it, but he's got a lumbering falls plus the drowners and I opt for always watching. He taps down the team in response. On his turn he suicides kiora finding an arborback stomper and land, but he loads up the falls and puts me to 2. I topdeck like a pro and find a declaration in stone, so he gets a couple of clues. He drops a thought-knot and steals my collective effort passing back, but I've still got lethal in the air...until that is, he commits my always watching at my attack step. Fortunately for the good guys, what he doesn't know is I've topdecked an essence flux, so I go ahead and put him to 2. He loads up the falls, but at his attackstep, I flux niblis, tapping thought-knot and bricking falls, and his arborback isn't quite good enough.
G7. Loss vs. R40 Sultai Control Jesus the shuffler hates you flaky. 1 land, 5 land, 1 land, and I'm back to 5. I've got a selfless spirit T2 and proceed to pecking away. I'm durdling at 3 land and just leaving up queller since he doesn't appear all that interested in stopping me (or doesn't want to cast into open blue maybe?). He drops land 6 (tapped) and goes for nissa vastwood seer, I throw out the queller, but he's got an essence scatter for that. I decide to dec stone nissa now while he's tapped because I doubt he's going to just let me kill her. Sure enough, when he untaps he's got a push, but I've got a flux. He's at 12 though and decides maybe spirit needs languish (always a good sign). I'm out of critters though so I can't capitalize (another flux and collective effort in hand) so land-go and he drops a hydra. I land-go again, but I've topped a nebalghast. And that gets cast at his attack step. He burns his hexproof on the tap and I debate about fluxing to tap in response, but decide to let it go since I'm still at 20 so 5 isn't the end of the world. Fortunate for me, since he's got a battle at the bridge 2nd main, so that gets the flux. I don't guess it would've mattered, but I decide with him at 12, the clock is the same whether I add a counter or not (which the astute reader will note is precisely why you just kill the hydra and swing....) so I absolutely add a counter...and my giant nebalghast gets a never as soon as he untaps. We're both a bit on fumes (well I am anyway, there's a not horrible chance he's just waiting). I find another nebalghast and that goes down at his endstep and gets in once, but he's got a noxious gearhulk for that, and returns a zombie with me empty handed. I top a commit, and maybe that should've happened on the first attack, but I'm still at 5 land and don't particularly want to have gearhulk kill another creature, so I let a swing through going to 8 and he passes back (he's got an abbey, so now I have to commit). I top a blessed alliance that could also be an option, but with the 1/1 decide on commit. Ultimately it doesn't matter though because it gets scattered and the swing lands for lethal.
Don't think I have time to do the final writeups till Friday, but I'll send Flaky some preliminary scores ya'll can use in case everyone decides to wrap up early.
MOVED - discussion re: allies and emissary Yeah, that was my initial inclination too - I think it was the 2xanointed procession, 2xanointer priest, only 2xretreat to emeria that threw me off when mowie's post made me realize that drana's chosen was an actual card, and a token generator to boot.
I think that's been my primary takeaway on allies to this point, its using a decent chunk of the non-ally cards to play to a token piece that is mostly a footnote to what the allies in the list are doing (particularly with emissary instead of chosen). It seems to result in a fair amount of low-value draws with the periodic demolition when you stick 3 degrees of combo. Maybe that's the point, and I'm on board, just doesn't pan out in the record very well when piloted by one of my limited juju.
Last edited by bzzt on Mon Jan 22, 2018 11:22 pm, edited 7 times in total.
bzzt, your juju must be limited cause I stole it all! Soup's Allies hit one of the most absurd lucky streaks I can recall having to go 5-2. If you get the perfect curve out this deck will give you a decent chance. I got that perfect curve out 6 games in a row. But other than that, yeah it's pretty bad. It's kind of two separate decks (lifegain and tokens) smooshed together, woefully inconsistent and requiring 3+ pieces to stay in play together over the course of a long game, cause it isn't quick by any means. Had a terrible time in AI testing getting useless 4 drops (Cliffhaven, Bloodbond and Procession are all bad without support) and I was dreading bringing it to the ladder. I was going to be happy with that first vs win showing the upside of the deck. But then the high ranking iOS players decided to have a crap deck convention this morning and here we are! One positive note: the full slate of flyers was a good choice, and made the difference in every one of those wins.
Record: 5/7 Build: 1/5 Enjoyment: 3/5 middle ground between the absurd 5/5 delight of those perfect games and the 1/5 of every other game. Allies: 2/3 Total: 11/20
1. WIN vs Bant Blink. Pretty perfect draw here. Double Healer, Bloodbond, Cliffhaven and Emissary, plus a Grasp for the Spell Queller they try to throw at me. Bloodbond gets Dusked, and they find a Dec Stone for the Healers but it's way too late. The Vamps fly over while they build a useless ground crew.
2. LOSE vs 4c superfriends. Opp decides Healer is worth hitting with Battle at the Bridge? I don't really agree, cause I never get close here. Greenwarden brings that Battle back later to kill Ormendhal, which is pretty much game.
3. WIN vs Dimir Control. Step 1: Start with two Healers. Step 2: Have your opponent stall at two lands: Step 3: Have Bloodbond and removal for the one creature they can play. Step 4: Win!
4. WIN vs mono black jank. Pretty perfect curve again, Healer to Drana's to Cliffhaven. Now here's a challenge for you. Tell me the text of the following three cards without looking them up: 1. Gurmag Swiftwing 2. Consecrated by Blood 3. Infernal Scarring. How many did you get? Well opp played two copies of each of the first two, which I was happy to remove while my Vamps did their vampy things. This was a R36 opp too. Did they lose a bet? Is there a second break a card duels contest happening in another corner of the internet? I'm so curious.
5. WIN vs mono green jank. OMG I'm gonna go 6-1 with this terrible deck by having perfect draws and opponents driving terrible decks, aren't I? T2 Healer again, T3 Envoy, T4 Bloodbond that stays home and grows the whole game cause I'm thinking Primal Bellow. You know when your opponent opens with fertile thicket in their mono green deck it should be a fun one. They don't play much, some big fatties that aren't big enough, and I fly over the top. Finish the game at 38 life with a 15/15 Bloodbond just sitting there.
6. WIN vs Orzhov Crats. Hahahahaha I totally am. T2 Healer (6 for 6), T3 Envoy, T4 Cliffhaven, t5 Bloodbond, t6 Envoy + Dec Stone their solemn recruit.
7. LOSE vs Orzhov Zombie jank. I don't have my Healer! Should I mull to 6? Nah, I'll keep. Probably lose though. And I do! To a bunch of zombie bear tokens. Terrible. Oh well, the streak was fun while it lasted.
I totally wiffed on gurmag swiftwing! Infernal scarring I only knew because I toyed around with it in the angels list (it was not the answer!), and consecrated by blood just because I like sacrifice builds a lot and it always pops up (can't say I've ever been masochistic enough to slot it in though).
Cuchos Shameful Copters FTW is Beleted -not really- at 0-2!!! I run a 9-1 test drive but nooo sir they had to embarrass me and take 2 hits as soon as the trials begun. Mowie is 1-1 Flaky 1-1 Soup 1-0 Nomad 1-0 Haven 1-0 Bzzt 2-0
So lets take Soup to the spotlight! Vs R35 [ouka] good player has the most annoying decks i played him yesterday twice.. lets see if I can pull a miracle This guy plays very spicy 4C ramp creatureless deck with that black enchantment with landfall and fevered visions FTW I payed him with RakDrazi and then my monoblue .... he is soo confused with Soups deck that he is taking his time... LOL ok... this guy eventually figures it out I got ****... and precedes to kill me nothing worth mention, but this deck reminded me of the true spirit of these contest... play crazy dumb decks and try to not finish last while your are at it! xD -I guess I will have to take my Cathartic Mill next time I play him Iand try to mill him out and reverse engineer that pile, it also had cut-ribbons somewhere in there- 1-1
Ok Nomad magicians next Vs R 30 Izzet Dynabolt they got, Baral, jhessian Thief, Glory bringer, Dynabolt, and Garrison... yikes I declare in stone the dragon, and 2 jhessian thiefs I´m pulling all sorts of magic acts here but the card advantage is becoming my doom. While i was writing this I´m down to 3 with no creatures no cards and hes got 7 energy and a tapped Dynabolt... So that's that 1-1
Haven throw me a bone! Vs R33 Temur turbo mill T1 Inciter T2 Honored Crop-Champion T3 Captain + a white Cartouche on the champ Opponent rage quit!! I hope he is choking on fogs coz he didin´t had a green source HAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHA He did had a Heaven Earth on the GY but I had lethal next turn with my Honored Crop-Champion even if he tapped out to wipe the rest of the board 2-0
Ok R2 is done Soup FTW next Same guy!! what an awful deck Soup!!! goddammit when this thing gets the chance to start working... it gets crushed so bad I was one turn to lethal and he drops Chandra Flamecaller... and wipes the floor with us then mill us... leaves us hopeless and toy with us a bit... 1-2 BELETED and this must be competing on a different league with DCGs first submission
Flaky show me some love!! R40 sssmagic playing madness vamps... tough match up AMAZING WIN!!! this went long.. he had Olivias Dragon triggering madness spells like there was no tomorrow, I played my counters wisely, and disrupt his board... he run out of fuel but I had no threats deployed yet so we start topdecking and I draw Niblis and Avacyn! great win Flaky! 2-1
Flaky’s Spirits go 5-2. I think it's generally a solid build, and fun to play. Lots of interaction and flash tricks, tapping lock downs, etc. My biggest criticism is that it can feel somewhat clunky; there are 9 spells (plus Blessed Alliance) at 4+ cmc here, and 8 more at 3 cmc with double color requirements. I feel like this wants to be more agile in a way, running Tattered Horrors over Illuminators and a Niblis or even both, perhaps dropping a Commit for Unsubstantiate, Disperse or Select for Inspection. There's a question too of how this stacks up against Copters since mostly you're talking 2 power pre-anthem, and the best answer might be Copters of your own, or Gideon's Reproach? I've also had good results making Spirits straight up race with the help of Throne, but there I go trying to turn everything into an aggro deck.
1. WIN vs Dimir Artifacts. On the draw, keep a defensive hand with Illuminator, Blessed Alliance and Always Watching. They play T2 Copter so I hold up Alliance and use it when their T3 is Tezz Touch. I draw a Niblis so I go with that T4 after AW T3, then the second AW along with Illuminator t5. They don't want to chump with their Copter, so I'm trading attacks with my Spirits and just letting their Syndicate Trafficker through. Holding up both Scatter and Effort, I just play carefully to keep my pair of creatures alive and win easily.
2. WIN vs Izzet Mill. Mull to 6, they get short on land a bit with no red, so they're using bounce against Rattlechains & Co which isn't super effective. By the time they find red I'm up to Avacyn, with a selfless spirit and flux hiding in my hand for extra protection. I zap both their attempts at removal and win.
3. WIN vs Azorius Life Comes At You Fast. They're running a version of my deck (I know it when they drop that sweet Wharf Infiltrator), but they've added removal and they're Dec Stoning my Bishop instead of building their board to put me under pressure. Maybe it doesn't matter; I get out an AW so I've got defense up, Commit their Lone Rider when they get it enchanted and flipped, Scatter their Reflector mage and Quell the Rider when it's replayed. Plus I know their deck really well. Pretty commanding position.
4. LOSE vs Rakdos Vehicles. This is really close- back and forth, I've got some great control plays along the way to mess with their aggro plan. I go to 1 but have a solid defense and lethal my next turn as long as they don't topdeck burn. But they do, oh well. A fifth land would have made a difference as well; I had Niblis and Commit in hand but needed to double spell first to stabilize before either would have done any good.
5. WIN vs Golgari Snek. This gets really tight- they start off with Copter, and a combination of Nebelgast and Rattlechains with a Dec Stone to their Siphoner lets me keep tapping them down EOT to take them to 8. They have a game breaking punt where they try to Fatal Push Nebbles without Revolt; if they'd hit Rattlechains instead this is a loss, cause they stabilize with the other Copter plus Heart, so my attacks just stop. I've got Selfless Spirit for insurance, but nothing in hand so I have to wait to restock tricks while they start building a scary ground board with Constrictor and friends. I get a second Nebelgast that I hold, then a Collective Effort. I Blessed Alliance a big incoming Tracker, play Nebelgast EoT, Effort and attack on my turn and I've topped another Rattlechains to fully tap down their air troops as they get crewed.
6. WIN vs Jund good stuff? I think this has to be a loss- mulligan to 6 without finding any 2 or 3 drops, so I hold there with just Niblis and Avacyn. Opp has problems of their own though, just a Hazoret and Arlinn Kord. They trash their hand (mostly land and a Languish, they're clearly flooded) to Hazoret, then run a Deathcap into Avacyn. I decide to ignore Arlinn cause it can't touch my creatures without flipping first, and just go face over the top. Pre-attack their next turn I Commit Hazoret and tap down their activated Quagmire with Niblis. I'm feeling confident now with a Flux in hand, and two more unanswered attacks from me seals it. Got lucky with my matchup here- would've been past dead against anything aggressive.
7. LOSE vs Red Haste Wins. I Blessed Alliance their first attacker, but then they run rampant with that Vedalken haste guy, burn and Titan's Strengths. Much like the other loss, I'm left with multiple 4 drops (both drakes and Niblis) and unable to catch up. They get me low and finish with burn.
Sanitarium Skeleton is actually a good idea, but I've already thought of a card that's janky and we haven't done anything like it yet: Sunscorched Desert.
Now there's a card you'll have to rack your brain to break and we haven't done a Land yet...
Joined: Jun 08, 2016 Posts: 622 Location: noun, a particular place or position
Identity: Protozoan
Preferred Pronoun Set: Soup/Soup's/Soupself
I’m still being judgemental over here. Give me a couple days and I can post my criticism of all of your terrible, terrible decks and my terrible, terrible deck.
All right! lets wrap this up! Soup and I are at the vila Flaky is 2-1 Nomad 1-1 Movie 1-1 Haven 2-0 Bzzt 2-0 --- Ok lets go with Mowie´s ... what was it?... Zions! thats it lets go with that! Vs R40 Golgari Ramp nice deck he had Gaea Revenge T4 I chump blocked a lot but it was not enough, and now Mowie can come to Soups villa waiting room. 1-2
Nomad Next Kefnet monument!!?? R40 GW I got his Always watching trapped Kefnet monument is at its prime moment in all duels history! tapping everything! we can win this!!... No we don´t... Prepare untaps his dude then he kills our Spell Queller and we die... I thought we could pull this one.. damn this decks suck! 1-2
ok next Haven T1 inciter /I love that play! T2 Glory Bound T3 Captain T4 Harvester + Cartouche... Opponent Crypt breaker... and rage quit 3-0
Bzzt to end R3 Vs R32 Grixis arts close one but this deck takes its time, and sometimes your opponent has an aggressive start... 2-1
Round 4 I´m tired of losing lets go with Flaky again vs r36 Awful RDW we where in complete control this time 3 Alliances destroyed RDW plans... WIN!!! 3-1
Haven next Languish could not stop this deck! nice victory vs R36 esper opponent 4-0
Bzzt to Finish R4 R37 Esper... this time we dont survive languish and little lily 2-2 -- FINALS Flaky First Huge win vs R36 boros Auras 4-1
Haven next Vs R37 RBG midrange They play their very well timed removal and disrupt our plans untill glorybringer 4-1
Flaky vs r31 negative counters?! We flood... they won... yes Flaky we lost to negative counters... Barney must be glad Ok last game 4-2
Haven for the championship point! This is funny Vs r36 spirits Haven takes it home! Nice victory overrunning the board! 5-1
Congrats buddy! I will upload the final scores tomorrow.
bzzt: 4 Build: 2 wins 2 points Enjoyment: 4/5 It was fun to play when it lifted Elementals: 3/3 extra points for breaking a rare tribe Total: 8 Cucho points
Cucho: 2 Build: 0 shame shame shame Enjoyment: This was a fun build for me it outside the trials so 4/5 Thopters: 2/3 this pile can and will be tweaked, I think the 2CMC spot is key to improve Total: 6 Cucho points
Cardboard: 3 Build: 1 point for 1 win Enjoyment: 3/5 the game plan was hilarious so extra point for that +1 Wizards: 2/3 Docent with so few spells feels bad to me Total: 7 Cucho points
Haven: 6 Build: 5 +1 FTW Enjoyment: 3/5 nothing to fancy but effective Warriors: 2/3 nice tribe It has decent power in it but it feels very easy to disrupt, vehicles help a lot in that regard. Total: 11 Cucho points
Mowie: 0,5 Build: 1 Enjoyment: 2/5 I did not enjoy this pile that much Eldrazi: 2/3 there are some horrible eldrazi in here but the game plan work a fair amount of times Total: 5 Cucho points
Soup: 0,5 Build: 1 Enjoyment: 2/5 this was a torture to play but I was feeling a bit masochistic this week so 2 points Allies: 2/3 Total: 5 Cucho points
Flaky: 5 Build: 4 Enjoyment: 4/5 I liked this pile, in a different meta it could shine a lot more Spirits:2/3 this tribe is hard to break, IMO the control area need polish and I would swap the Hard counters for Spell shivers in a heart beat Total: 10 Cucho points
Thanks all you guys for the fun piles and to Flaky for keeping Duels interesting for this long! I will be out a few days so maybe I will miss the next one
Joined: Jun 08, 2016 Posts: 622 Location: noun, a particular place or position
Identity: Protozoan
Preferred Pronoun Set: Soup/Soup's/Soupself
I just have Mowie, myself, and Flaky to test and I will get around to it eventually, like the garbage, that mold in the shower, or that operation I desperately need.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum