The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1180

My right neighbour said that he'd cut all W from me seeing how I had Avacyn, I wasn't sure if he was joking... he passed me Bound by Moonsilver so I figured maybe he was.
I ended up picking a couple white cards (Reaper of Flight Moonsilver) but I was clearly lacking some choice, figured someone was drafting it upstream. I received some G though, and I figured maybe I can go GW clues (had the mole, byway courier and confront the unknown).
Thraben Inspectors didn't make the wheel sadly.

Pack 2 I open Declaration in Stone. There's at least 3 other cards I'd be happy to take, but at that point...
Then I get passed a pack with Always Watching, Pack Guardian, Rabid Bite, and another good W card that I forgot. I cringe a lot, but go for AW. After the games, a couple guys are baffled by my choice and hard that Pack Guardian is snap pick and much stronger (I reasoned that I already had removal and a couple decent creatures, so I could outvalue, plus I had a couple double-W costs so putting double-G in that'd also require me to discard lands for full value seemed tight).
I get a bunch more W out of that pack, mainly spirits and small drops.

Pack 3 lets me "round up" my deck, with a censer (passed a second one), a lot of 2-drops, some more removal.
I end with AW, Angelic Purge, Bound by Moonsilver, Confront the Unknown, Rabid Bite, Aim High, Censer, Declaration, and the rest is creatures with a bunch of 2-drops (including Drifters to allow Apothecary Geist), only two 4-drops and topped up by Avacyn, Reaper and Emissary of the Sleepless.

Turns out the guy to my right 2nd picked Thalia's Lieutenant and got passed Hanweir Militia Captain later, so obviously he'd go W too... he ended up BW (he picked up the inspectors that wheeled to him first), with a bunch of humans and some B removal.
Then, two places to my left was another GW guy... I got his remains pack 2, basically, with my bombs being what I opened and what I got passed by the guy between us.
I ended up really lucky I got this deck with how the table was set up. Two guys ended up with UR "what am I passed" decks.

Match 1 vs GW yup, same as me, he even had an Always Watching himself.
Game 1 he mulls to 4, I get removal for the creatures he can play and my low curve lets me hit till he scoops.
Game 2 I keep a 2-hander with 2-drops and 3-drops, but I get stuck on a single plain with Always Watching and Reaper in hand. 17 cards later, I have 6 lands (sac'd a plains to Angelic Purge) and a single plain out of 9. At another table a guy got 5 non-land cards out of 13 draws and won. He points it out but I think I managed worse.
Game 3 he gets Silverfur Partisan out, Bound by Moonsilver isn't an instant/sorcery, aha! ... 'cept he can still target it (with confront the unknown) and create tokens. I cast Rabid Bite (using the mole) to kill it, he casts Aim High to keep it alive, more tokens. Fine, I'll put all these tokens in stone and no clue fo you.
Pack Guardian comes in to surprise kill two of my creatures when I attack, I exile it in exchange for yet another token. I finally hit a second plains and Always Watching comes in. After a couple more turns and flyers to prevent him from blocking I take it. The Silverfur was a real pain and withtout Declaration and AW it'd have escalated I think. My opponent sighed and showed his mostly-lands board, I reveal my hand consisting of 2 lands. Eh.

Match 2 vs BR vampires
Keeping it short, I got destroyed.
He played call the bloodline both games and made a fuckton of tokens while madnessing twins and youth out. Game 2 he even used Stensia Mascarade to blow me out. Because he's got so much tempo even an Indolent Neonate can't be blocked because he's too wide for me.
He also plays Accursed Witch both games. The first one was a bit closer, but the drain combined with the lifegain from the tokens he spews means that I can't reduce his life total signifcantly (he prob took close to 20 damage himself that game) and the clock doesn't let me stabilise, with the Apothecary (that I didn't draw) as the only lifegain.
We play a couple other games, he goes 4-0, with Call the Bloodline in his starting hand everytime. I just can't match it. Really impressed by the card, but with people to his right drafting mainly GW (guy between us was one of the "built UR out of the remains") he had all the R he wanted and cut it from his left neighbour (the other UR guy), and the people playing B were on the othe side of the table. I don't think it'd be easy to reproduce his deck.
One day maybe I'll beat him in a match.

Game 3 vs UR:
I don't remember how he won, despite him playing next to me the two previous rounds. He lost to UB zombie/flyers (who's playing my own opponent) previous round. I think he relies a bunch on Aberrant Researcher flipping, and his tempo/removal.
Game 1 he doesn't draw much, I go wide and run him over, choosing not to show my options in hand.
Game 2 I play the cultivator dork, and have a couple creatures, AW and (this time) another plains in hand, but he drops Uninvited Geist. I want to prevent him from attacking, then drop AW and start swinging once I'm a bit wider so he can't just attack with the Geist, so I drop Unruly Mob and attach Censer to it, however he trades and loses a creature on purpose to put a counter on it, so next turn I can't block the Geist and it flips.
So I go along with my plan, play AW, remove the Silent Observer he plays and swing, however he has the Censer I passed and puts it on the geist for a 4/4 unblockable vigilance. The race begins.
He blows me out for the second time with Dance with Devils (I should have played around it, he kept a lot of mana open since UR has a bunch of instants, and reduced my 4x 2-drops by half in game 1 this way), killing the 4/4 Reaper, but it also means the Mob grows so I can hopefully outrace him. Once the mob has grown I play Apothecary Geist and put the Censer on it so I have three 4+ power creatures when he has 2 blockers and 4 life, and win.

Besides us, BR lost game 1 against UB zombie flyers (Accursed Witch, Prized Amalgam, 2x Ghoulsteed, 2x Stormrider Spirit, Throttle, Macabre Waltz, Silent Observer (maybe 2?), Crow, Drunau Corpsetrawler, Rats... basically pretty good at gumming up the ground and good flyers + the witch to put a block).
Game 2 he gets off a decent start, flips his own witch, then lets the UB guy lose to his own Asylum Visitor (emptied his hand with opponent at 1 HP).
Game 3 he had a slower start, notably no Call the Bloodline nor Masquerade in any of his losses, and as a result lost a bunch of his board (although dual shot blew big ass blockers hard, killing an observer and lamplighter at once), UB guy drops to 6 but then Stormrider Spirits gum up the board. Amalgam's been exiled with boarded in Shambling Back, as it and Witch were amongst the 4 cards milled by the Crow. Despite this, UB holds until the remaining flyers win him the game, holding on at 6 life. I wonder if his deck was really stronger, or if BR was just unlucky not to get any of his enchantments out.

Avacyn, Jace, Declaration in Stone, BR land, Fevered Visions, Bygone Bishop, Falkenrath Gorger, Thalia's Lieutenant, Always Watching x2, Militia Captain, foil To the Slaughter, Prized Amalgam... lots of good stuff.
I ended up 3rd, and Avacyn was obviously gone so I hoped the guy would go for value and pick Jace, so I'd complete my Declaration playset, but he picked it... well, went for Jace. I have a lieutenant, a bishop and 2 always watching, so I could easily get the remainder of a W deck (that'd leave Declaration, Avacyn and Tithe though, or CoCo if I go the GW route).
Welcome to the Fold and Silverfur Partisan rounded up my stuff (although I'm less and less sure of trying a WW deck, it's slower than humans and straight-forward, without much removal or tempo so I don't think it does that well.

Stuff I learnt:
- Call the Bloodline is ridiculously strong if you have madness pieces. I saw it was better than early limited reviews thought, but I didn't think it'd be that bonkers. I'll have to try and draft that, but I haven't had the opportunity to go BR madness once so far.
- I shouldn't try to push some damage against vampires when I know it'll be hard to trade with their stuff. It's too easy for them to drop a creature at the end of my turn and then I have no blocker. Bloodmad Vampire is a blowout if I do this. Stensia Mascarade with I thought is good with a decent curve but cuts on tempo, was played with madness as a pseudo combat-trick too and blew me out. I didn't know he had it so couldn't really play around it but I should pay more attention to the outlets available.
- I'd like to try and draft that at least once. It won't be doable at the LGS and club because people caught on BR madness being the strongest archetype (you can't match its speed if it draws well), meaning it'll prob be like BW in Oath: because everyone knows it's the best they'll fight for it if it appears open and noone'll get all the good cards. We'll see on xmage.