The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1354

The guy at our table who opened both parts of Hanweir, and Liliana.
He happened to mostly play small-ish creatures and some removal however, so when I slammed Tamiyo on turn 4 and plussed on his creatures, he couldn't attack her because he wouldn't even kill my blockers and I'd just draw cards.
So I used bounce and pacifism effects to deal with his bigger attackers, killed Liliana with flyers, drew a fuckton, not even casting Scour the Laboratory because I spent most of my turns at 6-7 cards in hand. I got a bit greedy pushing her to 8 rather than ulting right away, as player burn or some kind of hasty/evasive creature could have ruined the plan, but it didn't happen, and I had Bruna in hand when I ulted so she hit the board right away. 5-power flyer ends games, who'd have thought?
Game 2 also had a turn 4 Tamiyo, and she also got to ult, it was pretty disgusting.

I took away from the games that more aggro/evasive decks would likely kill Tamiyo before I could do such things, or would at least grind me out by forcing me to chump blocks with weak-ish creatures. I was already aware that my build wasn't nearly as strong as people thought my pool was.

Game 1 Gisela shows up turn 4 or 5 and beats down, basically.
Game 2 I remember stumbling on mana and creatures a bit, after I cast turn 4 Gisela and she eats a Boon of Emrakul to the hair. My opponent has flip wolves, the B slug and Gryff's Boon, so I can't handle big flyers and lose (he actually only played SOI cards in this game, and maybe the match actually).
Game 3 is kinda the same, I also draw somewhat badly, and fail to find an answer to flying slug before it's too late. He also plays Long Journey Home which trumps my Bound by Moonsilver (without losing him Gryff's Boon for real).

Clearly, the plan I discussed with my first opponent happened: bigger creatures (with 3/3 being "big" and 3-thoughness in general requiring double blocks) that I can't really handle and the weakness of White's removal in EMN with all the bouncing, sacrificing, etc. going on. We agree that my Blue's really poor, and he convinces me to just splash Tamiyo and put bigger creatures (mostly from Green) in there. Coincidentally it switches the plan from tempo/defense to a more aggressive one, although I still keep 2x Ulvenwald Captive rather than run Bloodbriar and Logger. I'm rather uncomfortable with aggro so the deck still doesn't "feel" that strong to me, it's mostly a removal-less pile of medium creatures with bombs that loses if they get removed.

He plays a fuckton of removal. I could actually cast Gisela on turn 4 on the draw, but his own turn 4 play is a Pick the Brain that obviously exiles her. He's got Murder, Murderous Compulsion, Boon of Emrakul, so my flyer kinda just die, and with both of us out of resources and me starting to flood badly the game grinds to a low life slugfest. At some point he emerges It of the Horrid Swarm and I'm afraid he's going to immediatly sac to remove my board and start punching. He attacks first, and I cast Blessed Alliance to force a sac and gain life, thanksfully for me he doesn't flip her beforehand (his board's still better than my Halmet Captain and Dawn Gryff).
I used the gained life to not chump block the 4/4 while I draw a couple more lands, then finally find Tamiyo. A couple shenanigans later It is dead and replaced by a Bloodbriar, I have an Inspiring Captain, and pushed damage through minused tokens to threaten lethal if he attacks. I get to finish him off. He shows me the card he was waiting for: Seasons Past. Getting back at least 2 pieces of removal would prob have been too much for me to handle, with Pariah and a couple creatures on top... yeah.

We don't have much time but start game 2 anyway. He gets a small lead on life and removes an early Gisela, but I get to cast Bruna later on, while we're on turns. Even if she had trample she wouldn't have won me the game, needing 12 damage in a single turn through Pariah and a chump block on the ground. Oh well, moral victory.
My lack of removal made itself felt in that game, where the threat of flipping my wolves was basically my boon versus his average-sized creatures.

My opinion is that U has some incredible cards in the spirits and spirit synergy department, but because a lot of them are rares and uncommons it's more a draft thing than a sealed thing, and even then more of a "from time to time in a draft" thing.
Well, that guy lived the dream.
He also seemed aggro and super fast because he played his round 1 besides me and won the match before we ended game 1 (turn 6 kill on his game 1, in sealed with UW).

Game 1 he's not hot on mana, and my turn 3 (I think?) Gisela using a Captive eats an Angelic Purge, but he has to sac a land for it. The tempo hit and lack of lands (he stops at 3 after this) is apparently too much and I beat him down with basic creatures.

Game 2 he plays a Bygone Bishop on curve. Eek. He keeps playing small flyers, starting with a Nebelgast Herald, a couple 2-3-drops (dawn gryff, guardian of pilgrims, spectral reserve for tokens, etc.) and taps my defenders to get through.
Did I mention how my deck has no hard removal and how uncomfortable I am with this? I think I might have touched upon it.
The card advantage accrued is insane, and he's got more lands than me and 5 cards in hand even while I'm drawing more lands than usual. He emerges the temp-hexproof crab, and seals the deal with a Fortune's Favor that includes Selfless Spirit and Choking Restraints. Even though I'm the one making the piles, as soon as that card finds at least 2 decent cards it feels pretty bad trying to get something off it.

Game 3 I keep a land-heavy hand with no other creatures than Ulvenwald Captive, and draw Tamiyo turn 1. My opponent seems kinda stuck, only playing islands despite his high amount of low-drops.
I play Tamiyo turn 4 and she's hit by a Convolute. Sure. In my head I'm already defeated because the average quality of his deck is much higher than mine, and even if he takes things slowly I'll be dead way before I can flip wolves and try to race him (and he's got bounce when that happens), and contrary to me he has hard removal to send the other two wincons of my deck packing.
At least I have a bunch of mana, so when he plays his Bishop I try to exile it with Restraints over 2 turns, he answers by simply emerging the temp-hexproof crab, further cementing my dislike of W's "removal" in this format.
He's played too scared when he's got a superior board though, because of my Geist of the Lonely Vigil apparently, and only attacks with the crab. I have a Swine out, which I wanna use to buy a couple turns (or find Confront to kill the crab), but before I draw an answer he draws Stern Constable, and starts binning cards to tap Swine and beat down with Crab.
At that point I've noticed that I do indeed have a bunch of wanna. A couple turns before I lose (he'd won for 3 turns before he finished me I think, either he played around Tenacity/Aim High or he didn't realise his 7-creatures board could alpha my 7 life, 3-creatures ass easily), I count my draws. 13 lands, 7 non-lands. That's flooding alright. Swine gets purged, I draw Gisela, likely a turn too late, she gets tapped and I die.

I think I've taken it rather well, considering I didn't get to play game 3. I think it's only when it got really sluggish that I realised how bad my luck of the draw actually was. Either way contrary to what people calling my pool the event's best said I think I simply couldn't beat his deck. An unanswered Gisela could win if only because lifelink would do its thing against chump blocks, but he had multiple answers for her, bounce, pacifism, tapping and hard removal, so it was unlikely to happen, and nothing else could compete (I'd basically need to double-block his flyers to kill them and lose a creature in the process, so he'd be able to grind my blockers out since he had so many flyers).
He had Spell Queller too, his deck was really sweet and full of synergy.
Also reinforces my desire to draft spirits at least a couple times.

Game 1 is a bit sad, he's blocked at 3 mana and I discover that my deck can actually do legit aggro stuff.
Hamlet Captain -> Guardian of Pilgrims -> Dawn Gryff -> Inspiring Captain (coulda played it turn 4 but wanted a bigger boost; because of Hamlet playing it on curve would have been 1 more damage though) vs a lonely Indulgent Aristocrat.

Game 2, well... I mull once, my hand is not stellar, and on turn 4 or 5 from a Farbog Revenant emerges a Distended Mindbender who takes away Choked Restraints and Bruna, leaving me with a lonely Forest in my hand. Yeah that's game.

Game 3 was a clownfest.
We trade a bit and both take damage, partly because I know he has tricks and would rather take 2-3 damage from an Indulgent Aristocrat, even against an aggro deck, than lose my Ulvenwald Captive without trading. I Restraint his Liliana's Elite who'd be a 4/4 otherwise, bigger than what most of my stuff can handle, but not before his Haunted Cloak made me hasty to punch me.
Then my opponent drops a Cryptolith Fragment... and starts using it every turn, even when he's got nothing to cast. I realise that he simply wants to race me down by flipping it, since I let myself go down so low and he took a couple hits himself.
I keep my creatures on defense because of the cloak, and cast Bound by Moonsilver on an Ember-Eye Wolf, then find Tamiyo... shenanigans on: I minus the artefact (he activates it in response to drop me to 7), then attack his defenseless board to drop him below 10 too, and flip the fragment on his upkeep. It doesn't untap, and on the next turn I move Bound by Moonsilver to it, saving my ass.
He played Thraben Foulbloods during his turn and used the cloak to kill Tamiyo though. I could have chumped, but then with Ember-Eye unrestrained I'd have to either topdeck a solid creature, or plus Tamiyo, attack and find something to save me. Way too specific, so I let her die.
It's a 2/3 Spider and a flipped 4/6 werewolf vs Ember-Eye Wolf, non-delirious Foulbloods, Haunted Cloak and enough mana to pump the wolf twice. He can wipe my board by moving the cloak to the Wolf (for trample) and force me to block his 3/2 with my 2/3, and the up-to-7/2 Wolf with my 4/6, but doesn't move the cloak, so the spider kills the wolf, and mine survives the Foulbloods... until it gets Reduced to Ashes (hence the lack of firebreathing to kill the spider).
So now it's topdeck mode. For both of us.
He gets a Gibbering Fiend that becomes delirious later, putting me on a 5-turn clock, and I get to hardcast It of the Horrid Swarm to get rid of the chumping Fiend. He finds another creature but he's dead on board.
He shows me that he was waiting for the BR rare that can burn face when hellbent. That would have left me at 1 between the cast and the attack that It would have had to block.

I saw 3 Tamiyo (including mine), 2 Liliana and 2 Emrakul. One or maybe 2 Thalia, an Avacyn, and another Brisela. He didn't draw his own this match though.

What he did was play Plate of the Slayer on curve. Gulp. I can't handle this because I don't have artifact removal and I don't think I have a single butt that can tank it, on top of 5/3 spirits being unmanageable.
He had Extricator of Sin and several werewolves (both SOI and EMN), a Terrarion to help Delirium...
I chumped. A lot. Used Bound by Moonsilver and Choked Restraints to reduce his amount of potential holders of the Plate, pushed a bit of damage here and there with Dawn Gryffs in-between chumps. I was still pretty low and there was no end in sight for me. I played Gisela who could handle most equipped creatures (or hopefully race) but he answered with the Somberwald Stag to fighter her.
When I drew Tamiyo, I made him move around the Plate by plussing creatures I didn't want to hold it, and my Shrill Howler, so that there were no blockers available for him, then I played the chump blockers I drew that turn, basically. At some point I had the mana to flip the Howler, and hitting face netted me a card and a 3/2 horror to protect Tamiyo, and for the first time I appeared to be in a good position. Still a lot weaker on board, but with ways to protect a planeswalker and draw.
Earlier I'd said that I didn't think I could beat the Plate, simply because it'd grind me out and I had to avoid giving him a flying token out of it, which was my analysis of the game (slow death once I'd run out of chump blocks).
Well, I'd also mentioned when the Stag killed Gisela that it was the second time she didn't get exiled. And Tamiyo helped me draw Bruna.
Considering what I said about not being able to beat that, and the widespread opinion regarding my pool, my opponent was a bit sarcastic and miffed (not salty; I think in that situation it'd be legitimate even if he'd gotten grumpy, giving how unlikely it was) as he conceded.

Game 2 was very similar, with a very early Slayer's Plate, me half-chumping, half abusing my pacifisms and the Shrill's clause to go in. I had my opponent down to 8 through gryffs, but basically no more chump blocks.
Spending mana for Confront the Unknown to kill the 2/4 werewolf (afraid of it being flipped a couple lands later, since it can force blocks), I decided to crack my Terrarion too, so I could get one more shot...
And then on my next turn I draw Tamiyo but can't play her. The Terrarion card was a Dire Swine, and with the Terrarion I could have played my creatures, then Tamiyo, minused to remove his blockers and killed him.
Instead, two turns later (without island or landscape) my opponent swings for lethal, I block a couple things, but he's got pump to make it lethal.
I was laughing at myself after that game for the greediness and short-sightedness that cost me the game. Every loss' a lesson (well, save for match 3 game 3).

There's less than 10 minutes left, we decide to still play it out, me believing it'd prob benefit my opponent more from how the games turned so far, but it doesn't matter I just wanna play games.
Then I go Forest -> Plains + Ulvenwald Captive -> Plains + Gisela on the play. Uh. Well. That's a thing. I drew her turn 2 and kinda prayed for turn 3 plains (had Terrarion for turn 4 otherwise).
She got Stag'd on turn 5 obviously, but by then my opponent was down to 12 and between that, the fight and spectral reserves I was up to 34 life. Certainly not a won game, but the draw at worst was pretty much ensured at that point.
Then I drew Bruna on 6 lands and my 7th left the next turn. For the 3rd time of the event, the angels melded into Brisela, and for the second time this match, it resulted into my opponent conceding.