The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1399

Basically, pick 1 I end up picking Conduit of Storms over Faith Unbroken (I missed that one in the games... ) and Galvanic Bombardment. Then I notice 8. picked Smoldering Werewolf... but he's passing me Incendiary Flow too. I decide to take it in case the guy's not staying in red, but literally 4 of his first 5 cards are red werewolves DFC, so i jump off ship.
Pick 4 is Bruna. Not sure how she made it to me, but after a Borrowed Grace pick 3 well let's move in W.

R is obviously dry and after passing a couple cards like Survivalists (Choking Restraints and Slayer too good), U and G suddenly stop at the same time (literally no more green at all, blue is only Contingency Plan-type garbage) and I'm pretty afraid my round 1 opponent (since we usually sit people "across" their opponents) is in Emerge.
Also I'm kinda forced to go black...
I pick up a couple G cards (like a wheeled Prey Upon) just in case, am actually happy to see Campaign of Vengeance wheel, and Borrowed Malevolence/Certain Death.
My biggest mistakes apart from the first pick after seeing my neighbour's R DFC was certainly passing a 2nd Slayer for a 2nd Borrowed Grace. I couldn't know I'd get several auras, but they're still solid 2-drops.

Pack 2 sends me a lot of red and green, as in most packs have 2+ cards of at least one of these, some 3+ of both with a good card in each colour (like the Bedlam Reveler opened by UG and obviously slammed by 8., he didn't like it but he also didn't have the deck for it, contrary to UR spells).
The good news is I open Thalia's Lancers so it's an obvious slam, I get the revival card that I pick just in case (to fuck with Emerge fat asses and Bruna combos), a couple more creatures but I'm disatisfied with my curve/creature count, but BW seemed poor/scarce in that pod).
... on the other hand I also opened the Stag and it was picked 7th by the GW guy, not sure what Emerge boy picked because nothing in UG was better than that card in my pack.

Thanksfully, pack 3 comes together for me, pick 1 Angelic Purge, pick 3 Murderous Instinct (yeah, BR drafter prob opened it and picked something over it), pick 4 Unhallowed Sanctuary, a bit later I even get a Censer... then it's empty and I pick up a couple Apparatus (as I mentioned, the pool seemed really scarce for my colours), and even Open the Armory that I considered running with all the equipments and auras and only 12 creatures (and the revival).
Fun fact: GW guy got cut dry of W after ~4 picks by me pack 1, and cut from a bunch of G by Emerge boy pack 2 (still got the Stag tho, wtf), he was unsure... and pack 3 gave him Pacifist x2, Rabid Bite, etc. basically a feast of high quality Green cards that gave him a good fourth of his deck. got there!

Game 1 he drops Weaver of Lightning game 1 and it's a shut out. I have Grotesque Mutation in hand and try to make him block/wait for him to attack (never blocks with it, only attacked when I had no blockers) to kill it, it fails.
And then he starts just killing all my stuff. Galvanic Bombardment, Alchemist's Greeting, Make Mischief... with all my 2-3 thoughness creatures they straight die as they hit the board. Gavony Unhallowed sticks after that, but since he rarely bluffs him holding an island and swinging with all tells me he has Spontaneous Mutation, and ends up winning (also Mad Prophet in there).

Game 2 goes a bit slower for him, I end up using Restraints on Curious Homunculus turn 3 because my hand is super slow and I'm scared of it flipping... he follows with Smoldering Werewolf and Weaver of Lightning. I take some damage while dropping Campaign of Vengeance on an empty board, hit my 6th land for Certain Death, and now have a choice... kill the pinger that'll destroy my board, or the wolf that may become an 8-damage-a-turn clock. Go for the latter.
I have Bruna and Raise in hand, so I end up casting her and hitting for 5 with vigilance + the campaign drain, he counters an additional creature though... then topdecks his Niblis of Frost. Bruna is basically perma-tapped while he beats down, and he also plays Shreds of Sanity and discard Convolute to get Broken Concentration back.
My hope at this point would be to get Restraints back to exile the Niblis, but since he has a counter... I try to play Slayer, it's countered, and now I don't have the mana to cast Raise + Restraints and scoop. His previous topdeck was Spontaneous Mutation anyway so he'd have had an answer to Bruna.

He had some of the other R burn (8. had literally none, just creatures and tricks), but surprised me by playing maindeck Prophetic Ravings. He went t1 Cutthroat Vampire, t2 Thermo-Alchemist, t3 Ravings on the cutthroat and started pitching his madness cards (mainly 2x the 3/3 for 3B vampire, cast for 2B) and excess lands. Hit a bunch of lands it looks like, and his creatures were generally worse than mine, so Borrowed Malevolence did a bunch, and a couple selective suicides made Gavony Unhallowed bigger than whatever he had (Dragoon + Murderer's Axe).

Game 2 he went Insolent Neonate into Ravings on it, I killed it with EoT Borrowed Malevolence so he sac'd it in response, nice 2-for-1 for me. Steadfast Cathar + Censer the following turn made a 4/4 when attacking which was bigger than his stuff (was throwing his 3/3s as soon as he topdecked them, raced a bit then started chumping).
There was another creature on my side and not much on his so it ended quickly.

Game 1 I mull to 6 on the draw, him 5 on the play, keeping a 1-lander and scrying bottom.
In the end he played 7 spells and had 9 lands that game. Including the mill from his Laboratory Brute I think it went 10-10, a bit less lopsided, but still, coming off a 1-lander...
He countered Censer, then used Certain Death pretty early on Guardian of Pilgrims because I'd attached Lunarch Mantle to it so it was the biggest thing around.
In the end he dropped me very low, I chumped to 3 or 4 but I managed to set up Restraints on Harvest Hand, exile it to get rid of the equipment too, kill a Gavony Unhallowed with Certain Death, play Campaign, all while waiting desperately for Raise or a 7th land for Bruna... swamp topdeck, Bruna into Slayer into Restraints, get down to 2, Skirsdaag Supplicant played, I Restraint something else so I have more blockers than he's got potential attackers, swing with Bruna and drain... 2 turns later he's dead. He then pointed out that one more turn and even with a blocker Supplicant would have ended the game.
Wooo, Campaign pulled its weight!

Game 2 we both mull to 6, I keep a 4-lander and scry Grotesque Mutation to the bottom. I proceed to draw a couple lands, play both my 2/2s and get faced with a 2/3 then a 2/4. Got 5 mana and Borrowed Grace in hand so I can react tho... Boon my Dragoon, swing. I still buff the other 2/2 to try and kill the 2/4, he casts Displace on it and gets another clue out of it (Drownyard Explorers), wasting my precious pump. Welp.
He also has Cryptbreaker that I Restrain, thinking I'll exile it as soon as I can get a couple blockers up... they don't come, or not enough as I'm too low and scoop when he points out that next turn his lethal after he shits a zombie token EoT.
His creatures aren't great, but the count is high, mine's low, it's not an unexpected outcome... I didn't think it'd be enough to kill me though.

Game 3, I keep no early plays again, but I have a couple good cards in my hand... turn 3 Slayer's Plate, turn 6 or 7 get my 5th land to play the Lancers, fetching Bruna. I can't really attack though because by that point he's got several creatures out, including Rancid Rats, I'm terrified of a potential Jace's Scrutiny that he showed me game 1, and he can very easily blow my only superior creature out with Ingenious Skaab triggers and other stuff. I'm holding a Grotesque Mutation just in case but since it's never enough to actually kill if he has these cards I simply don't attack (and he's got a couple clue makers so his hand isn't exactly empty either).
Knowing I have Bruna, I just want to expend my stuff then cast her for value, though, especially after seeing a Laboratory Brute mill his Certain Death. So Restraining then exiling his Advanced Stitchwing, playing Slayer, Restraining Gavony Unhallowed... being confronted by his Emerge card, that I assumed a Gryff or Crab or something. It's Distended Mindbender, making me discard Angelic Purge and Bruna. Welp!
I take one hit to 7, since he's got blue mana open when he does it, then I drop a 3rd 3/3 (Militant Inquisitor, thanks Plate) and he stops attacking which suggests he doesn't really have tricks in hand.
However a Wailing Ghoul mills Nephala Moondrake, and he's countered my flier a couple turns before saying "Now that I got rid of Bruna I don't need to hold it anymore"... 11, to my 7, previously 12 life. So I just swing in with the 8/6 first strike Lancers. They get chumped obviously, but I cast Grotesque Mutation anyway for the lifegain, back up to a comfortable 18. The thing is, he can technically kill the Lancers (he's played 2 Supplicants the previous turn, which helped not fear a trick too, but weirdly enough didn't consider the life loss plan once the Mutation resolved), but he pretty much loses his whole board for it.
I then find Lunarch Mantle and start hitting with a 10/8 flyer, pitching excess lands. Same, he could have lived through it by exiling the drake and blocked with everything, but it'd only have bought him a turn... and after the first hit (dropping him from 16 to 6) he draws and shows me his hand of 3 lands, scooping.
Fwiw Raise from the Grave to get Bruna back (and thus Slayer and either Censer or Restraints) was only 2 draws away for me, another out.