The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1288

I went with Sensations, and saw a couple cards potentially nice with Delirium... then no black. Welp (2 of the 3 first people on my right were B). U seemed kinda open too though so I picked a couple things, I didn't wanna go R because I didn't see nearly as much good stuff (though I passed a Temper).

Pack 2 comes, and in literally 4 of the first 5 picks, half the pack is B+W and they're good to great, or even 1st pick-worthy.
This includes a pack with Dead Weight and Sinister Concoction. There was a Murderous Compulsion along with a Crow of Dark Tidings, a Nearheath Chaplain, Reaper of Flight Moonsilver, etc. I didn't care about W 'cause I draft it often and I want to switch things up a bit, but with so much stuff working well with Delirium... sadness, as it also meant I didn't have much to pick in my colours.

Toward the end I noticed I was short on 2-drops, when I passed a Quilled Wolf (for something with much higher payoff), so I thought "I'll grab any 2-drop pack 3, even if it's garbage I just want wolves not to flip till I get my courier/mangler/builder."
So I didn't see anything but a Dryad (that I didn't include because I already had one) the whole pack 3. And my first pick was between Welcome to the Fold and Ongoing Investigations.
In my colours (UG), I saw Homonculus x2, Quilled Wolf, Dryad x2, Seagraf Skaab, Daring Sleuth (that I picked and played), Manic Scribe, Moldgraf Scavenger early pack1... so 9 2-drops in my colours over the whole draft.

RIP.

The good news/cards:
Crawling Sensation/Epitaph Golem, Ongoing Investigations/Ulvenwald Mysteries, Stitched Mangler, Pack Guardian, Reckless Scholar.

The bad news:
2-mana slot is Sleuth/Press for Answers/Jace's Scrutiny/Just the Wind/Fork in the Road/Aim High.
The closest things I had to a finisher was Dire Swine or Stormrider Spirit, and I cut the former in the end.

Basically I'm playing UG recursion where I try to grind my opponents out with either infinite tokens (from sensations/mysteries since I can recur clue-makers) or my lone flyer or decking people.
Great prospects all around!

Match 1 I get trashed by the usual 1st (he'll get 3rd this time, looks like he lost a match for once since it's a 10-man pod), getting screwed game 1.

Match 2 I'm against UW splashing R for Burn from within, which I know about.
Game 1 my bigger creatures push damage through, and I make him spend some bounce before he gets creatures out to deal with my Uninvited Geist (I used Aim High to clear the board till I could transform it). I get Ongoing Investigations out but from this point on I can't attack anymore due to the multiple blocks he can present. At least I force his Shepherd to block while he's tapped out. I keep him low and my deck has 4 cards left so I'm close to recursion. However, when he taps my Watcher in the Web I foolishly forget about Burn from Within, and put him down to 2 while allowing a crack back that isn't lethal... but puts me at 7 when he has 9 mana. RIP.
Had I actually exiled more creature cards with Investigations, I would have been out of reach and won that game. He wouldn't have done it had I not tapped out that turn either. So despite my bad draft and draws (Stormrider Spirit and Golem were the last two cards of the deck, Sensations came super late, Mysteries got milled) it's all on me.

Game 2 plays out similarly but his Aberrant Researcher flips when it mills Burn From Within. This time I reach my empty deck and get to play Investigations and make a bunch of tokens, and seeing how we're super short on time, he concedes when he notices that I will get wide enough to kill him in a couple turns. There's only 5 minutes left so we can't play out the last one, so we draw.
That guy was incredibly nice, first match they drew (his opponent misplayed because the clock was getting to him, could have won, def. would have with one more turn) but he told the organiser to write it as a 1-2 loss for him seeing how he'd have lost. I hesitated to return the favour by conceding this match to him but I misheard that there was another draw so refrained (2 match draws meant we'd play each other and avoid pairing others up/down).

Match 3 was against BW mix.
Guy had Bound by Moonsilver x2, Call the Bloodline and a couple madness cards, several spirits for flyers... decent midrange all-around.
Game 1 I mull to 6, 2-lander with Courier, Scholar, Ulvenwald Mysteries in hand, on the draw, so I'm confident. I draw the 3rd land on turn 5 when I'm about to die. RIP. Opponent's genuinely disappointed too since none of us played a game.

Game 2 goes 1-lander, 1-lander, no-lander, 1-lander that I keep. I somehow don't die by drawing enough lands and getting clues out of my stuff, trading, etc. and get back to parity on cards (then slightly ahead).
The board is stalled because I'm bigger but he has Rancid Rats and flyers, although I ambush one with Stormrider Spirit.
I assemble the Sensations/Golem combo, use Jace' Scrutiny to bait and kill his rats, and have had Sleep Paralysis on his twins for awhile. He then makes the play that decides the game: sac twins to Angelic Purge to exile Ulvenwald Mysteries, cast Macabre Waltz getting rats and twins back, discard twins to trigger madness, cast rats.

It's well played but since he didn't exile the Golem instead I just combo off... through multiple misplays such as not playing my lands and being one mana short to replay the Stormrider I recurred two turns in a row. My opponent's really frustrated from all the durdling and me being overly defensive (gameplay, not behaviour) at that point and concedes so we can try a game 3 with 3 minutes left on the clock. It obviously ends in a draw and since he has to leave he tells the organiser to make it a win for me.

So I could have went 1-1-1 (or even 2-1 given enough time), instead went 0-1-2, and it was counted as 1-1-1 in the end, placing 5th out of 10.

Press for Answers, Jace's Scrutiny, Just the Wind, Sleep Paralysis, Stitched Mangler.
In a pinch, Aim High and Stormrider Spirit can be used to ambush something that isn't too big.
I kept 1 of my 2 Confront but my curve had a hard time getting both a creature+clues out to make it better than +1/+1 when I had to burn it. I cut Gone Missing because it's so expensive while it's hard for me to get ahead with what I built (I had decent tempo plays turn 3-4 but lack of turn 2 plays usually set me behind to begin with).

My opponent has Explosive Apparatus and no creatures out, while I have Ongoing Investigation.
My hand is Reckless Scholar, Uninvited Geist, Watcher in the Web and enough lands to get to 5 on curve.

On turn 3 I have to decide whether I trade the Scholar or the Geist for his Apparatus. I knew the games would be slow-ish unless he gets all his flyers out and no defense on my side, I had almost no Madness cards in my deck, would probably want to keep a land if I drew Pack Guardian.
I decided to let the Scholar die (I could count the number of times I've looted with one on one hand this whole set, despite how good the card is :') ) because if he didn't have a 2-power creature to throw at me I'd flip the Geist and get to investigate every turn while putting a clock on him, while the scholar would only smooth my draws post turn-5.

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