Cucho vs R31 Simic Fog BS: On the play for the 5th time in a row, I mull an almost playable hand of Forestx2 Swamp 2 sweepers, Vegetation, and Tutor (basically, I’m a sitting turd till I top land #4) into 3 lands, Paradise, Rec Sage, Convergence, and Ulamog. Meh, it’ll do. Neither of us do anything but drop lands until T3. I top 2 more land and another Rec Sage and play Gift on T3. Opp plays Animist’s Awakening T4 netting one land. I reflex click ok before looking at the revieled cards but I glimps a Festivities. I top more land which is cool - getting close to enough for Convergence. Opp plays Pieces of the Puzzle but whiffs hitting 3 land, Tutilage, and Luxa. Oh, so it’s fog-mill, eh? Glad I haven’t been playing Rec Sages for damage, then. I top a likely useless Grasp and activate Hissing Quagmire and peck at him, taking him to 15 (3 Deserts so far). He plays a Tutilage. I Sage it and Hiss at him again. He plays Commit on my Gift for some reason. I top Languish and whack him for 4. He plays a fetchland and gets a 2nd Island (he had 4 Forest and an Island at this point). He prolly wants to Memory his Tutilages back. I’m leading in mana and holding a few dead removal cards so I’m cool with that. I top Gift and play it but unfortunately I tap wrong (nearly impossible to avoid on ios) and end up tapping the Desert I’m trying to target, making it impossible to activate Quagmire. I peck him with Sage. He plays Oblivion Sower and plays one Swamp off of it. I top a Grasp and double Grasp Sower and peck him again. He plays Pieces and reveals Fogx2 and Rise from the Tides. I top land (I’m at 10 now!) and swing. He Fogs. I Mog his land. He quits. Stupid fog deck, U deserve to lose!
bzzt vs R39 Azo-Embalm: On the draw, finally. I mull a one lander into 4 lands, Censor, Map, and Whir. Opp plays a Labyrinth Guardian which I kill with a bounce spell and then Hanweir Captian. I Shock it. He plays Anointer Priest and tries to play his 2nd Captain but Censor eats it. After that he lands Avian Guide and gets a few hits in. I keep dropping land and bouncing stuff until I top Whir #2. I use one to get Key which lets me use the other next turn to find Orrery. But my opp has been chipping away at me and starts dropping big guns like Oketra and Gisela. Fortunately the bounce keeps coming and, while I can’t stop the slow bleed, I manage to drag it out. I Commit and then Memory. I Solvent little weenie things. I wait and pray for a Vortex. I get Whir again and find the other Orrery. I finally manage to clear his board at 2 life with a combo of bounce and Kozi’s. It can’t last tho. But it does! I hit Vortex at last and start grinding back. I manage to hit double Orrery triggers 3 times, keeping me fueled to deal with his weenie storms (he quickly realizes that his only hope is to go wide and starts dropping as many 2 drops each turn as possible). I get Fumarole and stsrt supplementing damage with it and, with 4 cards left in deck, manage to take him down. My poor opp stuck yhe whole game out, too. I feel bad for him but good for winning with such a difficult wincon.
Psycho Killer vs R38 Golgari Rockstars: I’m first again with a dicey hand of Wilds, Forest, Mountain, BOTH Hammers, Mina, and Smasher. Ugh. I don’t like it, but I don’t want to pass on an optimal land setup so I keep. Hopefully my opp is playing something slow. I start with Wilds for the Wastes. Opp plays a Swamp and drops Thornbow. Crud. I top a Forest and play Mountain and Hammer. Opp swings for 2 and plays Druid of the Cowl. Crud! I top Lightning. Yay! Drop Forest and zap the Druid. Opp plays a Forest, hits for 2 and passes. Kewl, I guess zapping the Druid was the right call. I top Heaven and play Mina, expecting some removal but what else can I do? Opp drops another Forest and passes. I top Embodiment and swing. Opp chumps. I play Embodiment and opp Pushes Mina (wrong chioce!). Opp draws and concedes. Elvis has left the building! I play it out and top Pilgrimage, setting up for a huge 10 point swing. Opp does nothing. I play Smasher and a land and swing for lethal but opp has one last Push up his sleeve that takes out the land. I get him on the next turn tho.
Nomad vs R36 Gruul Energy: I get a tempting hand of Hub, Plains, Censor, Kefnet, Glimmer, Jace, and a Sweeper. But 2 lands, and Hub as my only blue? Idk... Plus I’m on the play, so even if I could get Kefnet out, I’d have to durdle to get him online. Mull into 1-lander into 4 lands, Wall, and Disciple. K. T1 we both drop lands. T2 I top Outburst. Opp drops Voltaic Brawler. I top land #5 (yay!) and play Wall. I animate a land and pass. Opp Harnesses some Lightning to D my L. That sucks. But IIRC, the deck is land heavy so hopefully I’ll top another soon. I top another Outburst. Opp plays Thriving Rhinos. I top Arrogance. Crap. Opp swings with both and pumps the Rhinos to 3/4. I block and take 3 from Brawler. Then Opp plays Longtusk. I top Displacer. Here I make a critical misplay. I don’t want to trade it right before sweeping, and I’d rather Outburst than Arrogance so I hold it in my hand. Opp swings and I block the Cub to prevent him getting energy. Opp passes. I realized right after passing that I shoulda played Displacer and just used Arrogance if I hit a land so I’m set to cast it this turn. Which is probably why I misplay again and cast it instead of the Initiate I topped. Opp punishes me hard with a nasty Crop-Crasher locking down my wall. I’m forced to trade Displacer for his wall and still take 9, going to 2. I finally top a land snd Outburst. Opp is stuck at 3 land and plays Rec Sage. I top Jace and play it, bouncing the Sage. Opp tops Hub and plays Bristling Hydra. I top Tradewinds and plus Jace for a land. I could try Initiate and chump and then Tradewinds in response to him pumping to try to get a bit of lifegain but if he has burn I’d lose for sure. Better to just sweep and hope he doesn’t top another land to play the Glorybringer I just KNOW he’s been holding. He tops a land. And plays that Glorybringer. Oh well. Sry, Nomad, I shoulda played that better.
So, at the end of round 2, everyone is tied up 1-1! Exciting!
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
Ok time to wrap this up Me first Vs Aiko 1.26 R31 Playing RBG something this seems some sort of cycle deck must play around censor he plays a Rise from tides of 6 zombies that got sweep Ok he pulse from murasa Green Warden the zombos, I play grasp on him and cast Nissa leaving him at 10 and then he cast throne! So I draw my own Green Warden fetch for the sweeper swing for 5 more and hold a Cut in hand GG
8-1 - this win puts us back to R40 +1 for everyone!-
Nomad Next Vs Garasuruy R31 We got a dual and a hub , 2 counters and initiate lets roll! Initiate gets cut but we got our counters online ... at least for one turn I got the wall but I will hold for now good call we counter Olivia and then drop a wall -not putting any counters on our lands tho- we need that second blue in a rush Akuum firebird is trouble here... We use commit on her and our opponent disconnects... then we draw our island and everything is ok Censor the firebird and drop the displacer... and its a 3/3 Desert swinging Ok so we attack with our desert and he blocks with Bloodhall priest ... so we bounce the wall and made it a 6/6 Next turn we are casting //memory Gid comes down... will update in the end Mirroring dragon has nothing on tradewinds! ha! we drop Disciple tap his creatures and swing for lethal 8-1
Me next Vs RJChistof R35 Playing Orzhov zombos so far we have nevered his lily He has all the good zombos down so I tutor a yahenni´s expertise I cast Greenwarden but I **** it up and fetch for Ulamog instead of languish... silly me... its orzhov zombies!! damn it! 8-2
Lets see if nomad can take the crown Vs LerAt911 R33 Nissa´s oath can mean only one thing... PWS and counters are PWs best friends muajajajaja now he is casting some emerge stuff... weird Distended Mindbender kilss our tragic arrogance we run out of counters.. he is holding DECIMATOR...we got tradewinds .... ok we didin´t pull this one out, he had too much card advantage with Distended Mindbender and 2x Foul Emissary we counter what we could but... Decimator decimated us 8-2
and it´s a tie! I will add everything up and provide the CUTS results in a bit
OK so during the CUTS the Cucho points goes like this Flaky Nomad Cucho Bzzt
Record to Nomad and Cucho Desert brekeage to bzzt for making one of the most bizarre wincons ever seen on this contests Fun to Cucho -that´s me!- coz this is totally subjetive, and I did enjoy this deck a lot I will continue playing it with it... coz I felt in love with Hagra.
Ok so using the finger system this ends like this Flaky Nomad Cucho Bzzt
Congrats Nomad! Regular points goes like this Nomad: 3 Cucho: 2 Bzzt: 1 Flaky: 0
And I thought Barney was a terrible judge! I miss ONE payment on your Ferrari and pbbt! Bottom of the list! Well that’s fine, then. Guess who’s getting framed for my next heinous murder, Mr. Cuchoooooo? *starts humming Psycho Killer while sharpening chef’s knife*
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
TFM vs R38 Sultai Snek: On the draw, I mull a 1 lander into 5 lands, Nissa’s and Devour. Ugh. Just gonna home for the best. My opp DCs right st the start leaving ai to pilot. He drops a dual land and passes. I top Impulse, play Forest (mistake, shoulda played Wilds and fetched Mountain) and pass. He drops a checkland and plays Snek. I top Advocate and play it, along with checkland. Opp drops land, Glint-Sleeve, and Push on the Advocate. Crap. I tale 2 from Snek and top Harnessed. I only have one red source in play with Looming Desert, and Wilds in hand so I Impulse the Glint (don’t want him drawing cards!) and ping him with Desert. He plays Tracker and drops a land (nooo! Stop playing draw engines!) and thumps me with the Snek. I top Samut and Harness @ Tracker and go ahead and play Looming. Opp plays Tracker #2 and lays down another land. This guy is drawing like a god! I take my dose of SnektotheFace and top Waste. I’d love to get Samut on the table but that Tracker will get big fast with Snek out so first I Devour, picking up Desert and playing it again. Opp cracks a clue at my eot and then plays his other Glint-Sleeve. Dude srsly haxed the game and is cherrypicking his hand! Snek smeks me to 12. I top land bc I am not him and pass - he has 3 mana up and some of it is blue. He cracks a clue eot again so I take that opportunity to drop Samut. He’s like, thanks, I’ll take that and Confiscates her. I go to 2 and top Vegetation ftl. Now I hate everything and everyone and its all his fault!
Cuchoooo! vs R36 Boros Exert: I keep a dumb hand of 5 land, Tracker, and Grasp before realizing that Quagmire is my only B mana source. (2 Forest and 2 Deserts) On the draw. Opp plays land. I top Deathcap (yay!). Opp plays land and Gust Walker. I top Languish play land and Deathcap. Opp drops land and Magma Sprays Deathcap. Crap. He swings without exert. I top Forest and play Tracker. Opp plays Always Watching. Crap! Swings with extert. I top another damn Forest and play land for the Clue. Opp plays Tal Crop Elite and hits me for another 4. Im at 10! Crack the clue for Ulamog. I top Retreat and play it plus a land and swing. He doesn’t block so I crack the clue and get a Swamp, finally. Prolly too late tho. Opp plays True Heart or whatever the 5 drop that pumps stuff for exterting. Swings with walker and Elite and does 13.
Nomad vs R30 Izzet Prowess: Game was too long to remember play by play. He got the hasty flying 2-drop out and chiseled me down with it. I played Displacer. He tapped it with Grip of the Roil and locked it down with Containment Membrane. I got an Initiate down and pelted him with it with exert. He Membraned that, too but Displacer eventually broke it out. He managed to get me to 6 with Firecraft and I countered several removal spells. Initiate bought me time before eventually eating an Impulse. But by then I had Wall to block his Fumarole and then Gideon to null his flyer. And on the turn he finally got enough mana to activate both Fumarole (he was def flooding) I had Torrential ready to ambush em and win the game.
bzzt vs R40 Boros Exert: (Same guy as Cucho’s match.) I get a decent hand with 2 land, Map, Cencor, Tradewinds, Devour, and Orrery. I’m on the play and play Map. He plays Flameblade Adept. I top Vortex and crack Map for a basic (my other land is Fumarole) and leave up counter. He tries the red 2-drop Exert and I counter it. I top land and play Fumarole and Vortex. After that, I have trouble remembering the play by play. Opp had 2 Crashers, Initiate and another red 2-drop. I got a few bounce spells and land and used Vortex and Devour to kill the Crashers and Initiate and even manage to get Orrery out. But having to Vortex those early lands to deal with his haste ended up hurting later when I drew too much spells and no land with Orrery. Opp got Glorybringer out and I choked on spells, bouncing it once but getting stuck with Whir and Solvent in hand and only 4 mana on table. I play Solvent on the following turn but didn’t take care when casting it and it tapped one of my 3 blue lands so I couldn’t Whir for Key. He replayed Glorybringer and took me to 3. Then I drew the other Vortex.
So at the end of Round 3, Nomad yet again is ahead of everyone else.
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
I'm still here! My Won if By Sand goes 5-2. The first two losses I was worried I was totally wrong about this deck, and it can definitely be a struggle against other control/superfriends if it doesn't have an early threat to put the pressure on, cause late game it's usually their power cards vs my jank. But the rest of the games it settled down and did a great job of answering everything and being fun and flexible. 4 of the 5 wins here via Desert! The 100% desert win game 6 was especially satisfying. I'm no control player usually; I was totally surprised at how much fun I had with this.
1. LOSE vs Bant Superfriend Ramp. This is Cucho's dude LIMBOCENTRAL and they wipe the floor with me. I don't have much pressure to start, and they ramp so much they can start casting 2 walkers per turn and just push some through counters. They ult big Nissa so all their ramp now draws cards too, no chance. 2. LOSE vs Jeskai Superfriend Control. Another bad matchup, I think they have a similar counter/threat ratio to mine, but instead of janky walls as threats they have Planeswalkers (and Ulamog). Those force me to blink first and get countered, so of course they follow up with more planeswalkers. I do manage a Tradewinds to clear a path for Initiates+ bounced Desert to kill a Chandra and that's sweet, but they follow up with two more walkers. Both these first two losses I totally fail to draw Arrogance or Kefnet or Displacer, which I guess are my true power cards. 3. WIN vs Naya Tokens. Here Arrogance and Kefnet show up big time, Arrogance takes out a Procession (since they were kind enough to Cartouche of Zeal their sacred cat) and leaves them with a single Garrison, then Kefnet and Endbringer sit around saying no until I'm ready to kill them. Use a Desert ping for the kill, that always feels nice. 4. WIN vs Simic Ramp. I kinda throw caution to the wind here and it really pays off. I throw down a wall T3 and start hitting with the land. Recalling how things got out of hand the first game, I Censor their veggies, then hold back my land a turn (they have a lumbering falls, so it doesn't look too obvious) and Scatter big Nissa with Awakening to make the land 6/6. I go back to attacking, and Scatter an Outland Colossus, which they pulse back and leave an Aether Theorist to chump. They replay the Colossus so I Crush and hit again. They replay Colossus again along with a Druid, so I Outburst and swing them down to 1. They have a great answer in Baral's Expertise, then they answer the Kefnet I drop with Sandwurm Convergence, except now I can just pick up the desert I played and take them to 0. Sweet! 5. WIN vs Bant Enchant. I start with Initiate, but they slap an Aether Meltdown on that. I top a Displacer that's looking really nice against their Trial of Strength and aura strategy. Then I answer their Sigil of the Empty Throne with Tragic Arrogance which completely wipes their board while letting them "keep" the Meltdown on my sacrificed Initiate. Looking strong, until then they play blessed spirits and fight my Displacer with Cartouche of Strength. Now I'm looking at big Jace and a bunch of counters with no second blue. I cycle a Censor into an island though, and use Jace to bounce blessed spirits a couple times till I can counter it. I use an Awakening Scatter, but that land gets a Thopter arrest. I'm in control now though, Jace my way through a flood and counter everything they try till I get a couple walls and 6/6 Sunscorched the win. 6. WIN vs orzhov zombie tokens. This is close, I have a few counters to start but they're playing multiple zombies per turn, so after a Confirm Suspicions on their Mastery I just clue/Glimmer my way for sweepers as fast as I can. Get a wall up to slow the tide a bit, find an Arrogance to leave them with just a Festering Mummy and I'm stabilized at 5. They Gisa's Bidding and I lose the wall to a Fleshbag, so I Outburst and Awaken a second desert, then start swinging. They resolve a Procession but don't have anything to trigger it with, and I get a second wall animating my third Desert for a 100% Desert Damage win! 7. WIN vs Sultai Ramp Control. I'm afraid of this matchup, but unlike that first game I've got Kefnet here early. They're playing a bunch of Fog and Pulse and bounce, so I stay patient, get in with Kefnet when I can, let them languish away my wall/land along with their cantrip guys. Counter a Jace, counter Disciple of the Ring 3 different times, let Kefnet get committed and counter the Memory, then they're finally out of cards. Finish them off with Gearhulk and Gideon.
bzzt vs R30 Orzombies: I keep a 2 lander with a Map, Censor, 2 bounce spells and a Solvent on the draw. Opp has a hand full of 2 drops and draws enough land to play them all. I get an early shock and a Vortex but never hit any land until its way too late. Opp just zombie shuffled all over me.
TFM vs R40 Red Aggro: On the draw and I keep a 5 lander with Vegetation and Lightning. As long as I don’t just draw land I should have a good shot. So of course I draw one Impulse and 6 land. Thanks shuffler.
Nomad vs R20 Simic Ramp: On the play this time with 4 land, Censor, Glimmer, and Disciple. I top Outburst and then Initiate. Opp drops a Jaddi Offshoot, Take Inventory, and Pilgrimage on t3 (right after I’d played Initiate or I’dve countered). I top Arrogance, swing with exert (misplay) and pass. Opp tries Pore Over the Pages but I Censor it. I top another Initiate but I want mana so I Glimmer mainphase, hitting a land and Tradewinds after scrying 2 to the bottom. Opp plays another Jaddi and bounces my Initiate. I top another Censor and play one Initiate and pass. Opp bounces it again. I top land and play both Initiates. Opp playes another Pilgrimage. I swing with both Initiates. Opps takes and then plays Rise from the Tides. I can’t Censor it so I cycle Censor and hit land. On my turn, I top Broken Concentration and swing with both Initiates, exerting one. Then I Arrogance leaving a zombie token and the unexerted Initiate. Opp drops Ulamog, hitting a land and Initiate. I respond with Tradewinds hitting his Zombie and my Initiate. I top more land and play Disciple. I tap Ulamog at the beginning of his attack step and he passes without playing anything. I top Confirm Suspicions and play Initiate and swing. I tap Mog again and opp passes. I top land, swing with both creeps taking him to 6 and pass. He tries Displacement Wave x=5. I Broken Concentration it. He Confirm Suspicions Concentration. But his Suspicions Confirm MY Suspicions. And I still have 1 mana left for Disciple to tap down the Mogster letting me swing ftw. Nice win there, staring down an Ulamog without blinking and finishing with a little counter war. Control at its best.
Cucho vs R40 Boros Auracars: On the draw and I mull an unplayable 2-lander into no land into 4 land, Grasp, and Yahenni’s. Opp drops Needle Spires and I’m optimistic. Prolly some Borose aggro build that will play into my sweep. Hopefully I’ll hit some threats soon. But nope. He drops Dreadnaught next turn and I hit land. As soon as I see Dreadnaught, I know its over. I got nothing to stop a 10/11 first strike. It takes him a few turns to enchant it but I’m just topping land (srsly, Cut was the only nonland I topped and I had no red mana) because the shuffler seems to hate me today unless I’m playing Nomad’s deck.
What a washout round. 1 Mana screw, 2 floods and Nomad’s deck has all the fun. Literally ALL the fun. Nomad’s build is 3-1 and all the other builds are 1-3 thus far.
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
Flaky’s goes 3-4. I really thought it was going to do better than that, but opponents just seemed to find its weak spots. The biggest one is turns 1-3; without much to do there you can get swarmed early, especially on the draw. Even once you hit your meaty 4 drops they're mostly offensive, and having to trade your Embodiment with some Scrounger or the like stings. Would have loved a Kozilek's Return and some Rec Sage action over the Hammers and some spot removal. Those Hammers just aren't good unfortunately. They'd be great if you could activate them pre-combat, but not getting the landfall bonuses is a real detriment. I liked that Spire tech; I thought it added a nice dimension to all the land pickups. Wish there was more ramp in Duels that fetched non-basics. I never actually ran out of basics to ramp into, though I got close. Deserts were decently used and good at helping Devour walkers or getting Embodied, but I'm not sure how much fear they struck into the hearts of my opponents.
1. WIN vs 4c artifacts. I have no idea what's going on here. It's kind of a Dimir artifact thing with Trophy Mage, Esperzoa, Harvester and Marionette Master, but also Ajani Unyielding and Dusk? Sure, why not? They bounce to AI right away so they aren't exactly playing optimally; they let me pump an Advocate with the Spires and block an obvious bait attack with Harvester (Heaven does the honors), and then of course AI doesn't know how to minus Ajani, so after losing one Embodiment to Dusk I play another, get M&D and a sixth land to trigger Advocate for some heavy land animation action. 2. WIN vs Simic Control. This is a weird one. Samut gets countered, Advocate gets countered, then I'm out of threats and I figure I'm toast. But they play big Jace and I Devour + Desert it. They play Simic Nissa and I spike a Hydra, and when they play Disciple of the Ring for defense I double Impulse that and knock out the walker. They Altered Ego my hydra but mine's bigger thanks to ramp, and I top Rhonas as a follow up for trample and the win. Nice comeback. 3. LOSE vs Boros Aggro Tokens. They're on the play with a fantastic draw, Copter to Thalia to Garrison to Militia Captain. Perhaps I make a mistake sending Lightning to the Copter and not Thalia, but given that they also have a Dec Stone for my double Tracker I'm not sure how much difference it makes. Earth could have saved me here, but that's about it. 4. LOSE vs Golgari Elves. On the draw again, mull to 6 and short on green while they have a nice curve out. Lose my tracker to a Winnower and have to trade my Advocate the turn before I can make it big. Still could have had a chance with a second green for the Nissa/Hydra/Omnath trio in hand, but no time to cast Pilgrimage. 5. LOSE vs Mardu Vehicles. Starting to feel like a recurring theme: efficient opening against me and I can't quite catch up. They start with Heart and that gives my removal fits. Impulse a motorist, devour Chandra but then they stick Nahiri and my own creatures see Never, Never and Unmaking. I have to go to the Orrery cause I'm out of gas but that helps them too. Samut plus Impulse does manage the Heart but gets the Unmaking the next turn, and they follow up with more Motorist/Harvester action to win. 6. WIN vs Mono Blue Control. They do me a huge solid by getting stuck on 2 lands for a while, bouncing and imprisoning my tracker and trying a wall, but Nissa's lands are big enough to take that down with help from an Impulse, then and Embodiment and we're off to the races. 7. LOSE vs Temur Ramp Combo. An early Kazandu and heavy ramp + fog keeps them alive, then they get into a Greenwarden + Crush of Tentacles combo. Somehow this game goes forever but I only have 2 red, and I'm using that to recast Omnath every turn so I can't even pressure Greenwarden with all the removal in my hand. Eventually they double geistblast a part the waterveil, making an enormous land, Crush again and kill me in one shot. Gross.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17748 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
OK sorry for the delay everyone
When we left off there were two decks remaining... nomad and Flaky both at 5-0
Let’s start round six...
We will start with Nomad...up against someone playing Chandra Avatar...rank40 mono red...im at 3 life after two outburs S. He’s got a Copter...he’s being a jerk, he drops crashes and I lose. 5-1
If flaky loses then it’s a tie, if he wins then he’s the sole champion!!
Let’s see how flaky does... I’m in a fierce battle with level 3 gruul...19-12 for him. Major lag and connection issues. He has hexproof creature and flame shadow conjuring on table. I have advocate, Nissa, fury, clue and hammer with 6 land and smasher in hand with onmath. I should be okay. I think the game might be frozen .... ok got into a big debate d’agrément with the guy who thinks I should concede cuz the game lost sync on my turn. We play mental magic to figure out who would win and both agree that I would win. So he leaves and I play AI. I topdeck land which lets me swing for 25, so he’s down to one life. He draws a creature and conjures a copy so he kills Nissa. I get to play Onmath which of course like cod the game for me with his eventual death. Yay. 6-0!!
Arg - so I'll probably retype the comments tomorrow but it logged me out and trashed the post and it's 1:15 so here's the quick version:
Flaky - 3 (4-1 record, total score of 9) Nomad - 2 (2-3 record, total score of 6) me - 1 (3-2 record, total score of 5) Cucho - 0 (2-3 record, total score of 4)
I actually procrastinated really bad and realized Barney was back today and we'd be wrapping, so I just played as many rounds as I could fit in, randomized (ended up with 5). Flaky has a pretty commanding lead at this point though so although us "also rans" are still pretty tight and could shift around, I feel fine submitting like that. Game logs:
Landslide
G1 Win vs. R31 RDW Gift+Languish handles his neonate, bomat,crasher opening. He's got a little more fight with abbot but I'm dropping greenwarden getting back languish. Warden chumps his Hazoret and languish clears up that issue and ultimately runs him out of gas with me at a fairly comfortable 12. Big Nissa gets back greenwarden who gets back languish, but it's not necessary and we just wrap it up from there.
G2 Loss vs. R33 UB control This one looked pretty good with yahennis, retreat, and veggie. Unfortunately that matches up poorly vs. baby jace who skidaddles just before I find the 2nd black for expertise, and Titi. He's got removal for tracker+greenwarden+ tracker again flipping Titi but retreat and desert have us far enough ahead there's a chance. Little lily and Kalitas slam the door though and a 2nd Yahenni's off the top is still not good enough.
G3 Loss vs. R28 mono green ramp This one felt kinda bad. We both ramp up fine, I've got a retreat, and find a cut and big nissa, but he's got a greenwarden (that gets out of range before I can find my mountain) and a pair of green retreats that are making his visionaries and blisterpods annoying. He's also got an offshoot and is healing with the retreats a lot more than I would've in his position which lets me kinda hang in. Quagmire eventually gets rid of his big greenwarden, and a land eats one of the largish blisterpods with cut taking the other. He's found a desolation twin though. I have a never and some chumps with land that hang in for a bit, but eventually he gets to an oblivion sower and hits triple land which makes his board huge enough to take out nissa and kill me over the next two turns despite my draining/healing.
G4 Loss vs. R26 Gruul Ramp I probably make an error, and stop to sage his bestiary and get retreat down after getting gift down, rather than just ramping straight to a fast convergence. Meanwhile he's got samut and chandra torch into a rhonas benediction revealing convergence. I drop nissa force and grasp samut and force a chump from his mana dork, but he wins to convergence. I double tap my gifted land to greenwarden sage to knock his convergence off the board and chump his sandworm after chandra kills greenwarden (who I exile to get back grasp since he's dropped flip nissa and tokened). I double tap gift again to get a convergence down, but he's found ulamog and exiles nissa and convergence which evectively wraps it up (he dawdles around a little bit with omnath and some other nonesense, but all I've got is another convergence and languish, neither of which are good enough to prevent ulamog from just swinging twice to deck me).
G5 Win vs. R31 Rakdos vamps We eschew the nonesense of dropping retreats and mostly just win playing GB ramp. He's got a stromkirk condemd that he plays into a stensia mascarade, to my nissa (no block) then veggies. He's got avacyn's judgement to clear nissa and take a nice chunk with condemed. I grasp on the condemend along with tracker+land. He's got olivia, but I've got enough land now to greenwarden back grasp and blunt that. From there he's got some moments, but greenwarden recurs grasp again when he gets removed, and that stalls us long enough that we've got a quite sizeable tracker and find an ulamog to end the stensia's mascarading along with an incorrigible youth. Languish pops in to clear up the board and our buddies get in to put him to 0.
One if by Land, Two if by Sea
G1 Loss vs. R34 UB zombies Really close game, he's got early zombies and a lord that make my displacer really expensive stall. Tragic arrogance stabilizes at 11 and then we've got a displacer + wall and desert facing off vs. a festering zombie and lord having a grand ol' time. There's an exchange with commit on the lord (to make his festering zombie vulnerable) and displacer gets compelling deterrenced in response which is a bit of a beating. I discard confirm suspicions, but maybe that wasn't correct. He gets as low as to 6, but he draws into removal while we draw into gearhulk, endbringer, and kefnet holding a 2nd displacer which all could've been great if I'd found land 6..
G2 Win vs. R34 boros aggro On the play and censor on his crop captain + commit on his T3 play make his missed turn 4 look real bad. He's got a suppression bonds for initiate but I do him one better and confirm suspicions on his Hanweir Garrison. The clues from there find me a wall and desert begins running amok and he expands his board out to 2 envoys, 2 bishops and Iroas's Champion. Unfortunately for him, I've got planar outburst, and another wall. Desert off the top makes it good for exactsies.
G3 Loss vs. R32 abzan goodstuff Keep a hand I'm pretty happy about with censor, displacer, wall, initiate. We do those things, and are feeling mostly OK, although he's gotten a heart of kirin down (censor hits flip nissa, and initiate gets in a couple of swings). And we're still looking for land 4 but keep drawing big ol' spells (there really aren't *that* many in the deck, but I'm drawing them like crazy). I get displacer down, but he draws a never. Opponent locates a nissa force which is pretty dire but wall can stem the bleeding a little. Kefnet off the top isn't the worst (although I'm not sure running lands wouldn't have been better). I offer a trade for heart with initiate, but he decides he'd rather give me a push. We end up at standoff for a turn or two (I think if I were him I would've gone ahead and ulted). Turns out he didn't need to though, he finds an unmaking for kefnet and I don't have anything to stop heart from mowing me down while I'm still waiting on land 4.
G4 Loss vs. R26 boros aggro On the draw feels real bad when they drop bomat/exemplar before censor is online. Next turn cartouche of solidarity neatly gets around censor with me at 2 land. Next turn I have broken concentration up, but it's not needed as P&K gets censor, but I'm still getting whallopped. Commit on his exemplar buys me a turn or two at his next step (just 2 damage, but it's putting me to 6). He's got a harvester 2nd main. I do some tradewindsy things, but none of it matters, he's got throne to put me to zero after his next attack.
G5 Win vs. R35 Temur Vexing Ramp This was a very satisfying game although I'm sure I probably did it wrongishly. I start out with a couple of censors, a scatter and gideon of the trials with both colors so I'm feeling pretty peppy. Catch a mana dork with one censor, and then at 3 decide to drop gideon instead of holding up counter since I really want the game to end before he finds ulamog. From there fastforward a little and I've got him at 11 (thanks desert!) but he's managed a primal druid chump to ramp a little. I've got 5 land two hard counters and disciple in hand along with 4 spells in the GY. He's got a treasure keeper. I decide to swing in anyway and he takes realizing after I activate gideon that he can just swing back and kill Gideon without a blocker. I go anyway, and he does take. So I decide disciple's got to be good enough. His turn he emerges a vexing scuttler off the treasure keeper (finding a grapple that he gets back druid with and scuttler retrieves a pulse of murasa that one of the grapples dropped there. I tap scuttler mainphase and swing with both to put him at 4. He tries to pulse, but that gets scattered so he settles for ishkanah which leaves me with 5 bodies and just 4 spells (thanks to the scatter - I probably should've awakened that which would've simplified things, but I wanted to make sure I didn't get disciple creamed or something screwy like crush of tentacles). End step I exile 3 spells from my GY and draw kefnet - who isn't a spell, but I tap the 2nd to last spider, emptying my GY and swing with both putting him to 1. Land Kefnet and he's just got chandra torch, who handles disciple and he can swing and kill gideon, but kefnet picks up desert and replays to put him to 0.
Sunscorched Vortex
G1 Win vs. R33 Esper control First game I've won with this deck where I never find orrery or vortex after he counters my initial whir. Evidently his deck had just a ton of creature hate, counters and a bit of draw. Fumarole, shocks, and desert bounce eventually wear him down while bounce and flames handle his avacyn that he keeps finding/reanimating.
G2 Loss vs. R32 4c Walkers These are the ones I hate with this deck. Fiddle with them for probably 12 turns looting through with key but never find an orrery and eventually gideon of trials and a cat poke me to death.
G3 Win vs. R33 Grixis control This one is top of the curve enjoyment with this deck. Have vortex in the starting hand and find an orrey and a whir (for key) before he's eally doing anything threatening. That clears out the hand in pretty rapid order but he's hitting his stride as well, playing gross things like disciple and combustable gearhulk. Disciple is a bit too early and I manage to commit it, and combustable gearhulk next turn gets bounced after drawing. On untap I memory those away and find a 2nd key and vortex which let me empty out before he can get setup again which lets me burn him to 11. He finds a talent of the telepath that bounces my key and orrey, and then goes for a displacement wave. I pop my maps, bounce an island and along with a shock put him to 3 with it on the stack. I don't find a land on draw, and just replay out the combo, but I'm short land to get the 2nd key and 2nd vortex out of hand - he's got a commit for the vortex and on his turn gets disciple down with a good sized pull. Unfortunately disciple doesn't work with a solvent that's already on the board. That does keep the 2nd key in hand along with commit that I've drawn though but I get both vortexes down. Pull found him ulamog though, and he wisely nukes both vorices and suddenly it looks like maybe I'm hosed. I discard commit to key. Off the top desert to put him to 2 and I memory to find a shock ftw. Pretty lucky tbh, but I'll take it.
G4 Loss vs. R27 selesnya goodstuff I think I'm adding another note to the play-notes: You better have an awesome hand otherwise to keep if it's got a vortex in it. Seems inevitable that you'll draw the 2nd vortex and unless you're flooding out like crazy they're both just dead. In my case I've got a pair of solvents. Still manage to durdle around and hold him off for 12 turns thanks to a bounce off of eldritch evolution, and a couple of shocks on things that would otherwise have gotten nasty (t1 kytheon, and a pre-flip lone rider) , but never find key, whir, or orrey to give me any velocity and eventually his stuff gets too big to handle with vortex.
G5 Win vs. R24 boros aggro I ignore my own advice and keep a vortex hand on mulligan with no whir/orrey/key. Turns out to be good here, because otherwise I would've flooded pretty badly, but as it was he's playing a bunch of little humans (t1 kytheon, t3 thalia's lieutenant both get land-shocked) and when whir shows up on T6 I've got an otherwise empty hand and an artifact on board to let me whir straight into orrery, still at a reasonable 12. At that point it's mostly academic. He blessed alliance's twice for healing, but orrery finds me a couple of keys and we're just machinegunning/bouncing weenies for days. He does find some burn and sneaks one or two pokes through to get me to 7, and I end up using solvent on his hanweir battlements to put a stop to that, before I finally find enough land to burn him out despite weenies.
Enter Sandman
G1 Win vs. R34 Simic NRG I wonder if he wasn't actually temur and just never found his red, because opponent doesn't do anything until I've pilgrimaged twice into consecutive turns with embodiment + EW. My suspicion in the moment was he was holding up pay X counters but didn't want to use them on the ramp and I played around them with the embodiments. Empyreal voyager + highspire infusion is not close to good enough.
G2 Win vs. R34 UR artifacts Keep a hand with heaven, impulse, and orrey with high hopes. It far exceeds all of them as his plan revolves around thopters and sigil and I manage to trek right down to hellbent while disrupting his board enough that I'm still at a pretty healthy 11 before it gets gross. Orrey screws up his padeem draw plan, and a second heaven and earth handles his thopterist / thopter engineer. Meanwhile I'm just drowning in value, with tracker, big nissa, and more removal. He manages to shut down the tracker, but I get empty handed again and find a smasher who's every bit as good.
G3 Loss vs. R32 Orzhov Trials Really thought we were going to pull this one out after we work through his weenies and a couple early enchants with removal, but couldn't find any land to fall to get nasty, with embodiment/omnath and he manages to hang in, with stockpile and vampiric rites eventually finding him a trial that he recurs to slow me down and stretch it out. Key turn comes with him with a pair of thopters off a foundry from the previous turn, me with a smasher. He plays heliods pilgrim to go fetch a cartouche and plays it into my harnessed lightning. I probably should've sniffed it out based on not fetching destiny, but I zap the thopter in response anyway to keep smasher, but he follows up with destiny on the other thopter, and I can't race it fast enough.
G4 Win vs. R32 Orzhov Trials Accidentally forget to switch decks, and end up with an exact rematch. This time he gets stuck at 2 lands, while I go Rhonas into tracker (with EW) and then mina & denn which ends up almost exactly like you imagine.
G5 Win vs. R28 Esper Control Nice straightforward game. Have an advocate, orrery, and omnath with a veggie to start and it plays out essentially uninterupted with advocate getting in some early damage putting him to 14 before he can handle it with noxious gearhulk the turn I drop orrery. I go ahead and omnath that turn since he's tapped out and I have a bonus land drop to make a token. That draws tragic arrogance, but I draw a 3rd impulse so I make a path for the token with 2 to put him to 6 and at his endstep pop impulse on my token to empty my hand. He scatters that to awaken his shambling vent, but orrery finds me impulse # 4 and a desert to put him to 0.
I’ve been procrastinating, too. I just need to play 1 game each with 3 more decks and I’ll be ready to post my results. I’ll post the winner this evening.
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The greatest blessings in life are the hardest ones to lose. Godspeed little girl. We miss you.
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