The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1221

10-man pod (the ones I dislike most because basically nothing wheels and they feel more RNG wrt "getting into the right colours" and stuff).
We do cross pairings, first pack the guy "across" me opens Avacyn, and the guy 2 sits to my left opens Arlinn Kord. I pick what I get passed and see a bunch of decent/solid G cards so even though I don't particularly want to take it from him, I get them along with other good W cards that really shouldn't get to me so late (the Descend upon the Sinful was the rare from the Avacyn pack, so I guess noone wanted it knowng they'd fight with him, or they underestimated it, but Inspector, Dauntless Cathar, etc. have no excuse).

My right neighbour is constantly complaining about packs being bad, that being the rng sometimes, etc. and at several points proceeds to pass me a pack with multiple playables and even good cards (Bound by Moonsilver 6th pick, wtf), and he starts getting on my nerves. Even when I open TitI pack 2 and passes it to him (GW only open colours for me in the end, no B from the left and UR mostly taken from the right even though they pass stuff like Just the Wind and Stitchwing Skaab super late) he doesn't seem at least satisfied.
(He kept sighing and making loud remarks about not having good hands, or whenever he had to mull, and you knew whenever he drew a land during a stall. Overall a drag.)

Avacyn-guy turns out to be GW too, so since we were perfectly across that explains why nothing decent ever wheeled for me. When he notices all the good delirium cards I passed to my GB left neighbour he starts constantly going crazy on the whole post-constructing chat about how I should never pass that stuff and take it and it's so good and wtf and...
Of course when I point out I don't pick a fork in the road just because I got his Descend, or that the only other notable delirium enabler I got was a vessel of nascency I passed with 6-7 picks left, he doesn't listen. He seems to think I should try and force Delirium with under 10 picks left, in a 10-man pod so pilfered to hell and back, when I get a choice between Soul Swallower and Briarbrige Patrol in a GW human payoff draft. Well, sure, go crazy, but if you're gonna harp on me then don't ignore my counterarguments (arguably, my neighbour won the draft and I passed him cultivators and 2 swallowers for stuff like Bound by Moonsilver, the Patrol, Rabid Bite or Angelic Purge, but he also took a bunch of decent B for himself, and opened Gitrog pack 1 and Markov Dreadknight later).

Match 1 is vs the Avacyn guy.
I get stuck on 2 mana for 3 turns while he plays Duskwatch Recruiter, Hanweir Militia Captain, a couple other small drops, and Avacyn t6 (he got value out of it because he had 4 mana open and I forgot the Krallenhorde Howler's ability).
Game 2 is more or less the same, I mulled once and kept an hand without a 2-drop, so he goes Heirloom, Recruiter, equip and pass ('cause I got stuck on 2 mana for one turn), then starts hitting with a 6/6 first strike. Aim High+Rabid Bite to kill him once he flipped back, answered with Avacyn.

I'll sum it up.
Pick 1 Avacyn.
Pick 2 Hanweir Militia Captain. Yeah, he got passed that bomb.
Pick 3 Duskwatch Recruiter. Arguably the guy who opened him ended up 3rd with an UW draft, but still, what the hell did his pack have that'd make the Recruiter a 3rd pick?
He also got cards like Tenacity, Dauntless Cathar, Censer that I passed (he criticised that again, shut the fuck up I took a Veteran Cathar in a human deck instead) despite there being 4 other players between us.
While discussing I also jokingly mentioned how when I opened Avacyn, DiS and got passed Always Watching, Avacyn was in my hand multiple times but had to be mulled away, or the games ended before I reached 5 mana. He got Avacyn by the time he had 5 mana in 3 of the 4 games of his that I saw (in the other one she was milled so he'd have gotten her otherwise), he only missed a land drop once on his way to 6, so I got a bit salty over the guy giving lessons or having crazy on curve openings, on top of most of the strong G/W cards of the pool going through him when we both had half the other players passing to us.
Didn't say anything but holy shit don't be so arrogant when the stars align so hard for you. Even if my mana didn't shit all over me he'd have crushed me by sheer card power anyway.

On match 2 I was hoping he'd win, but only because he was matched against the rambling whiner who doesn't stop even when he's winning.

Match 2 vs BR vampires I was paired up (10-man pods woo).
Game 1 Gorger -> Heir of Falkenrath -> flip Heir to Bloodmad Vampire -> Stromkirk Mentor targeting Heir -> Uncaged Fury on Heir.
My draws shat over me mana-wise again, but against such a power on-curve start it didn't matter.
Game 2 he was a bit slower but got a Call the Bloodline to discard his Senseless Rages and attach them to Heir then Sanguinary Mage. The second didn't really matter, he had Uncaged Fury in hand again. This time I flooded after mulliganing. The Shepherd I played hoping to block/stall the Heir if things came to that again got blown out by the "discard Senseless Rage to flip it and block" obviously.
That player ended up 3-0 and 2nd, because of this pairing. He had both vampire-related enchantments, a couple removal, the auras for blowing people out and the Fury as a finisher. I passed the Call to him, that was pack 3 and during my 5th pick, I have no idea how it traveled down to be his 8th pick, and getting crushed by people with the nut decks while having mana issues all 4 games made me some more salty thinking about the draft's level being lower than usual but circumstances screwing me over.

Match 3 vs UG clues+Rise from the Tides he was 1-1 and I was being paired up again
At that point my best placement possible was 5th anyway if I won, and being paired up twice would ensure I'd get the tiebreakers.
Game 1 he played Fleeting Memories somewhat early, then Ulvenwald Mysteries, and a Manic Scribe (without delirium at that point). Descend upon the Sinful cleared the board (I was stronger with Censer, Inspector and Militant Inquisitor to force double blocks, but Mysteries would chump me for days), then I had Thornhide Wolves, Apothecary Geist and even drew Kessig Dire Swine, so all good options to abuse the Censer's power.
He chump the wolves a couple turns then used Ghostly Wings+Just the Wind to send them and the Swine back to my hand, later double blocking the Swine with the U turtle and a token to kill it. At that point I was getting milled fast because of mysteries so I played the Apothecary, gave it the Censer and started attacking while letting his Byway Courrier through (I'd win the race without tricks or other stuff, and didn't him to get more clues).
The turn I won I drew my very last card. I dunno if he had answers to flyers apart from bouncing them, and his last draws apart from the Courier were something like 6 lands and a clue-making "cantrip."

Game 2 I sided Angelic Purge in for his enchantments, mulled to 5 on the draw, and seeing how I got lucky last game and would prob run out of gas earlier there and get milled if the same situation happened, before I could close it, I told him honestly I expected to lose due to my curve and stuff. I added, so as not to sound whiny, "unless you really don't draw shit."
When he played the scribe, it milled the purge so it looked pretty grim, esp. as my hand was 2 forests, Thraben Inspector, Inspiring Captain, and something else, and I could potentially curve that out nicely if only I drew a plains... which happened on turn 4 iirc (windmill slam it down, play inspector).
My following draws were good however, playing Captain, next turn another Captain (he blocked with the Scribe), then he played an Epitaph Golem so I played Byway Courrier and passed, since 3/5 is too big. Next turn I swing with everything, he loses his board and the topdecked Aim High lets me kill the Golem and live, and I have 2 creatures to his 0. He draws, shows me his 4-land hand and scoops. He didn't draw shit indeed. I felt a little bad for him after how the previous game ended, although not going 0-3 was pretty nice considering I had mana issues in all but one of my games.


My neighbour had beaten the Avacyn guy, so not gonna lie that left me satisfied to see him not win the draft.
Top 6 went Neighbour -> match 2 opponent (tiebreakers) -> the UW guy, one I played EDH with yesterday -> Avacyn guy -> me -> a guy I met at game day and encouraged to meet others since he just moved here, played EDH with him too

Picks went Avacyn -> foil Sigarda -> Nahiri -> TitI -> Arlinn Kord (me) -> Gitrog Monster -> prob Sigarda
My other picks were Hanweir Militia Captain which I could play in white weenies decks, Geier Reach's Bandit to complete the playset, and Engulf the Shore (I didn't even notice that thing's a rare, it's on the weak side).

So now I only need 3 recruiters/breakneck riders to complete the playsets, another Sage of Ancient Lore, and 2-3 other cards to replace CoCo (ideally other Sages/Arlinn but eh) and a couple R/G producing lands to reduce the number of basics and I can run the casual list Cixah showed me if my BW control's too strong for people.