Hour of Devastation! (Part 1)

Harvest Season
Ramunap Hydra (promo)
Djeru, with Eyes Open
Anointed Procession
Leave//Chance
The Scorpion God
Champion of Wits

This guy makes it no secret that he's playing 5 colors. I'm truly interested in what made him play every color he could. I didn't find out in Game 1. He played Pyramid of the Pantheon for fixing, Hooded Brawler, the 2/2 exert that can't be blocked by creatures 2 or less, 1/4 spider with Wither, 4/5 Beetle, etc. All more or less unblockable by my smaller fliers. Oh, also Oketra. I have 4 black cards sitting in my hand, two of them removal but I could not draw a single Swamp all game. Turns out I misboarded my lands and was playing an extra red Desert that I had intended to switch out. Not sure if it would have mattered because he then drops Overcome and I just scoop. So far only saw Abzan colours and his deck was way more aggressive than anything I can handle. Game 2 I get more fliers out, remove some things here and there and he is only able to play a few cards from his hand as he his color screwed. His board is Hooded Brawler, vanilla 3/3 and the 2/2 exert and I have a 4/4 flier, 1/3 flier, my 5/5 hexproof Serpent and couple other guys. I'm at about 9 or so life, he drops Overcome and attacks. I block his 3/3 with my 5/5, double block the exert guy and decide to let the now 7/6 trample go so I can likely win the next turn. Just as I'm about to pass priority, I realize he has 2 mana up. I throw the 1/3 flier in front of the 7/6---turns out he had a +3/+3 combat trick which would have lost me the game on the spot had I not realized and soaked up some extra damage by chumping. I know it was probably an obvious play but I'm really proud of myself for that one because it's something I'm not likely to do for whatever reason. Game 3 he drops Oketra but I immediately Torment of Venom her, effectively making her useless. He has a 1/1 deathtouch rat and all I have to attack in the air is the 1/3 flier so for 5 turns I'm literally attack for one each turn while we both do nothing else. Eventually I get an engine online I didn't even know I had (but I probably should have). Bloodwater Entity + Wander in Death + Scribe of the Mindful = infinite recursion of basically anything I want. I got back Torment of Venom to finish off Oketra, then he wipes the board with Bontu's Last Reckoning. Turns out that doesn't matter when I can just get back anything I need given enough time.

Turns out his reason for playing 5 colors was Scarab God + Oketra + Bontu's Last Reckoning + Hour of Revelation + Trial of Zeal + Open Fire. We talked about his pool and agreed that his best bet was playing Sultai for Champion of Wits and Scarab God and a more consistent (and slightly less greedy) deck overall.
Record 1-0

For his very first card in Game 1 this guy drops Endless Sands. Great, my removal is going to be blanked, I gotta be careful. He doesn't play anything particularly scary, just drops the 3/3 black zombie that can't block unless he controls another one and a couple other things I'm able to remove. I'm try to race him since his 3/3 can't block but he keeps drawing more and more removal every time I drop a creature, and ultimately I'm empty handed, staring down this stupid 3/3 (foil!) I could have killed ages ago at a low life total because I thought I could race him. I lost. Game 2 He didn't draw any red mana for a very long time and didn't hit enough removal to clear out my board so I flew over him and won. Still almost lost to the 3/3 again though! Game 3 more of the same. We each played creatures that got removed, I attacked his hand with Consign//Oblivion, he exiled cards from my hand and graveyard before I could recur things, a lot of back and forth. I finally get to play Scorpion God after he chose to exile a creature on board with Doomfall rather than see what's in my hand only to have it immediately Magma Sprayed and exiled. in the end I finally stabilize at something like 6 life and both our boards are empty. The top deck war begins and ends when he immediately draws Wander in Death before I draw mine. I lose once again to our little foil 3/3 friend after I'm forced to Unburden the Angel he recurred rather than cycle it. I joked at the end that he should have that stupid thing framed. Counting up at the end it turns out he was playing 11 removal spells and a couple of black tricks making creatures indestructible. Very hard for some decks to get around that. Interesting he was never able to activate his Endless Sands---not sure if he always seemed to tap it down on purpose and never wanted/needed to do it, or because he was just tapping badly.
Record 1-1

This may have been the grindiest game I've ever played at a prerelease. Turn one he drops God Pharaoh's Faithful and immediately starts gaining non-negligible amounts of life after he then drops flier after flier including a Riddleform and Aven Wind Guide. Thanks to his slow start I'm able to mostly stabilize after taking a few hits from Riddleform even after tempoing me out, returning my Angler Drake to my hand about 100 times. I have a bunch of removal and discard in my hand but against his deck it's so much weaker so I just rely on my own creatures to stall the board for the time being. It feels bad to have to wait to drop Angler Drake on Aven Wind Guide after I've already used a card to remove it once. Then he drops Gate to the Afterlife and my heart just drops. If he has a God Pharaoh's Gift in his deck I essentially just lose as he makes a bunch of vigilant flying 4/4s and gets even better value from his weaker embalm creatures. I have Abrade sitting in hand all game because I can't draw mountains---if he pulls the Gift before I can draw a mountain and kill it I'm screwed. He holds off, just playing a few more creatures here and there, still not doing much as the board is now HUGE on both sides. For some reason he attacks and opts to trade off a few of both of our creatures---but I have the beginnings of my recursion plan to fight his own, having no problem trading my 5/5 hexproof for his and losing a flier or two. Then he hits my 5 mana 3/4 flier with Capsize. CAPSIZE. With Buyback, mind you, since it's like 35 minutes into Game 1 and we each have like 10 mana+ on the board. How the hell am I suppose to beat an Invocation, never mind a repeatable one?! Turns out I already had the answer in hand. He activates Riddleform, tapped out. I bounce it back to his hand with Consign and then on my next turn, Oblivion both the troublesome Riddleform and Capsize out of his hand. Dodge a mega bullet there. From then on it was downhill for him. I got my recursion online and my fliers were bigger than his, forcing him to start chumping with fliers and embalm creautres alike. Eventually I ground him out well after Time was called (it was the last match of the night and no one was waiting on us or anything). He told me there was one card he was waiting for that could have won him the game in the end, then showed me what was on the VERY BOTTOM of his library---Hour of Revelation. Had he drawn that, he wipes my much bigger board, and more easily recurs his own guys (he had more of them) and likely goes on to win. Overall super tense, super grindy and super fun match.
Final Record: 2-1

Razaketh, the Foulblooded
Ramunap Excavator
Nimble Obstructionist
Earthshaker Khenra
Somehow despite the bad rares I opened in my pool today, I still managed to crush the expected mythic: rare drop rate. 2 mythics in 10 packs is kinda nuts. Can only hope for better tomorrow!