The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1406

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I open Collective Defiance, nice. I pass Wretched Gryff for it (surprised my neighbour, I told him about the rare then).
Then I get passed Sigardian Priest... I've been forced into W in almost half my drafts (probably half or over it if you exclude the first couple thursday drafts when we had 6 people max), it's felt miserable due to various reasons all but maybe one time, there's always somebody with emerge or U-bounce matched with me, I'm sick of it and I just want to be allowed to play and maybe get some fun, so I pick Thermo-Alchemist instead.
Brazen Wolves and another Alchemist later, I feel like forcing UR, and I keep passing good W to my left (when I pass a couple good W and the rest mediocre 'cause I'm drafting it people go into W anyway and get passed top W cards that I thus never see, so whatever), while noting U isn't that good, G has some decent cards but kinda dries, and B is obviously open but doesn't have anything bomby.
After pack I should have clearly been either RW or RB (RB since I skipped W).
I also noticed a Priest, at least 3 Slayers, Borrowed Grace all making their way to me. This is already as good as most W pools I've seen, and there's only one of the 2 EMN packs.

Pack 2 I open Elder Deep-Fiend. I suspect my left neighbour is RW because of the W I passed and he picked an Outcast (I'd have liked it but there was a higher pick for me; really need these creatures in the format, even in a spells deck), so I figure I'll get little R and am gonna take as much U as I can.
I get some mediocre U, W is clearly being picked, a bunch of G including Emerge enablers and I realised I could have maybe forced a mediocre UG emerge deck. Bleh.
I pick up some R, notice B is still opened from that side but still underwhelming (though I could have had 2 Certain Deaths and a Raise from the Grave at that point, and I got passed a Distended Mindbender that could have been pick 2).

Pack 3 I get passed Declaration in Stone pick 2. Then I also pass to my neighbour Bound by Moonsilver, Angelic Purge, Nearheath Chaplain, Dauntless Cathar... just... fucking stop it?
Of course the day I decide to skip W because I'm sick of it it's wide open and we get a very good pool for it (and for once) and I don't have a neighbour stupidly believing it's gonna be open.
I pick up some bounce and burn.

Then I notice that the good U has been taken by my right neighbour... Emerge guy. The one who always forces blue no matter what, focusing on Emerge but taking UB (since B's seen as the worst colour and thus somewhat open if no vampire spam) when G's really dry.
He's taken emerge enablers and stuff and only received It of the Horrid Swarm so he kinda clinged to what he could get and cut the U from my right, also the reason why G looked semi-open, because he went all-in on payoffs and let stuff like Survivalists pass early on.

My deck is 10 creatures, 11 spells including Rise from the Tides, and a couple auras.
'cept my creatures are Alchemist x2, Tattered Haunters x2, some more 2/1s or 2/2s, and Silent Observer + Elder Deep-Fiend.
My spells are Make Mischief x2, Drag Under, Fiery Temper, Collective Defiance, Reduce to Ashes, Galvanic Bombardment, Press for Answers, Compelling Deterrence... hopefully enough burn to carry me through.
My creature base is shit again and I'll get rolled by anyone with their hands on 4/4s or even 3/3s.

My left neighbour has Priest, 2x Slayer, Choking Restraints, Bound by Moonsilver, Angelic Purge, Faith Unbroken, one R burn, Nearheath Chaplain and Dauntless Cathar, 2x Borrowed Hostility, Declaration in Stone... basically all of it save for Restraints and Faith Unbroken is cards I passed him. So I could have had a good W deck for once... if I didn't skip it because it was hot garbage all the other times.
He's actually got more removal than me.

Match 1 vs RW aggro
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Tiredness makes you do dumb shit, but I think he'd have been favoured game 3 either way (unless I draw a bunch of removal and he gets his bombs early so I can wreck them, while also finding at least one fat butt to hold the fort).
0-1

Match 2 vs BG Delirium
I never thought I'd find Autumnal Gloom so scary... turns out when your deck has shit for creatures again and you rely on burn to remove stuff, it's not too pleasing.
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As much as I love the concept the BG, he showed me why it's bad now and I shouldn't try to draft it: it's hard to play on curve while reaching delirium reasonably fast, and you leave yourself open when it happens, while still losing to (a real) UR spells, Emerge, and probably Werewolves in the long game.
1-1

Match 3 against BR vampires
Not as strong as last week's thanksfully.
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He had Collective Brutality, Bloodhall Priest, Cryptbreaker, Distended Mindbender, and I don't remember his red rare... didn't need to play them all but yeah, good value deck.
1-2

The finals are between both RW decks.
"Aura on your guy
- No, Aura on your guy
- 'k I'll sac him to move Bound by Moonsilver then
- so the next time you try to move it, I sac the creature it's attached to to Lunarch Mantle to get it down"
And in the end the guy who got his Slayer online was winning the match. My neighbour beat my round 1 opponent 2-1 (more removal and slayers are the reasons I guess).

Two other guys drew (UB vs UG without emerge creatures), and we were running later than usual so the 8th just dropped right after his 0-3 loss to catch the last sub, leaving me as 6th out of 7 remaining.

Our table has the least stuff (our usual winner came in the shop last so ended up with a much less experienced table, he had Spell Queller, Bruna, Docent, Emrakul's Evangel, Coax, Heron's Grace Champion, Drogskoll Cavalry in his pool, playing UWg; he first picked Queller and got Ishkanah as his second pick as the more "casual" players didn't realise its power and took other cards over it; the other table had Tamiyo, Eldritch Evolution and a couple other cards).
Deep-Fiend was the first pick, Selfless Spirit, Collective Defiance and Thalia got picked too, so I got Gisa and Geralf, Foreboding Ruins, Ulvenwald Observers and Niblis of Frost out of the night.
At least some of the games were fun and I didn't have many expectations so I didn't get salty or anything!

I open some good R, and get passed W but I've been forced into it so much that I refuse to play it again, especially since the pool seems to often be very poor for that colour.

I end up in a mediocre UR spells deck (ignoring W, I should have been in BR but without any aggro elements, eg. the grindy removal-based deck that's just super weak and wouldn't give me its strong cards if I went into it anyway) and do badly.
I partly get screwed by sitting at the right of "force emerge whatever you open" dude who screw me out of powerful U and doesn't get any emerge creature.

The guy to my left basically builds what I would have had had I went into W, minus my very strong P1P1, and goes 3-0, while the W pool was probably one of the strongest we got, able to support more than one player which we couldn't even say of our 10-man pods, and with an higher-than-average amount of the pivotal commons.

I'm tired and at this point quite beyong it so I'm not even salty.
I'll remember SOI much more fondly than EMN despite all the cool delirium/recursion cards, the completeness of UR spells and some other cool stuff it offered.

https://streamable.com/r5yz

Opened Bruna, second and third pick were Ulvenwald Captive then Sigardian Priest I believe. I think I had something like 8 creatures before I started thinking about spells. Second pack first two picks were Choking Restraints. Disgusting cards I got passed that never should have been passed to me: Collective Effort, Lone Rider, Clear Shot, Heron's Grace Champion. I basically had my deck before pack 3 came around where somebody apparently switched into G/W cause everything dried up, but I picked up an Ulvenwald mysteries anyway somehow.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/gw-hoooooomans-emn/
I had a sideboard of a bunch of delirium enablers like, Terrarion, the white Vessel and Fork in the Road, some enablers for Lone Rider like Lunarch Mantle and Strength of Arms, and some other stuff like Mockery of Nature and Puncturing Light. The only card I ever brought in was Puncturing Light for Bruna. This was probably the best deck I've ever built in this format.

Match 1: v UB Zombies
Me and my friend got paired up right away. I helped him sorta build his deck so I kinda knew what he had and he knew what I had. He had a solid UB deck with Dark Salvation. Had to convince him not to run red as well just for Collective Defiance and Scourge Wolf (double R cost just not worth it imo). I don't remember much how the games went, though I DO remember losing a game with Bruna out because of 2x Spontaneous Mutation and Dark Salvation --> Vexing Scuttler --> Dark Salvation. In the end I won 2-1.

Match 2: v Sultai Zombies/Emerge
This dude basically had a constructed deck. Foul Emissary and emerge dudes in all three colours, 2x Mournwillow, Haunted Dead, and Gisa and Geralf plus the requisite zombies to go with. Lost game 1 because he just grinded me out with value despite me removing/locking down threats here and there. His board was bigger than mine and I had to keep chump blocking just to stay alive. Game 2 I curved out with Hoomans despite Siniszter Concoction sitting on the battlefield making me afraid to play Heron's Grace or Bruna. Game 3 he gets Sinister Concoction out again so I just have to play threats into it until he feels like removing stuff. He eventually does then I play Bruna, which he then removes with Certain Death, knowing I was gonna do that. (WP, buddeh ) He had me at 3 life and I played a Collective Effort on a full board, then flashed out Heron's Grace Champion and to add insult to injury. Back up to 20 life, I then wiped his board next turn with Borrowed Grace. I've been beaten by Borrowed Grace so many times it felt good to be on the giving end for once. Heron's Grace Champion has won me two entire drafts now, for the record. It's just ridiculous. If I didn't beat this guy I would have assumed he'd be the one to go 4-0 though. (I remember him too from OGW game day he's the guy I lost to in the first round with Mardu Dragons and would then go on to win the whole thing).


Match 3: v Naya Aggro
And BOY was this an aggro deck. Noose Constrictor turn 2, I play the fox. He attacks, I block, he discards two lands to keep it alive. I figure, 'ok well if he wants to 2 for one himself I won't stop him.' He then plays two Brazen Wolves over the next two turns and then just absolutely crushes me when I can't keep a board. I think he won T5 or 6. This was the guy I sided out Bruna for Puncturing Light. I knew my deck could beat this guy, I just needed to aggressively mull until I got my early drops/lifelinkers. And so I did, and then won. Turns out he had a Nahiri somewhere in there too I never saw. It might have gone different had she showed up, but he would have had to hold back attacking to protect her against my bigger guys so either way, once I started gaining life and clearing creatures I would've been fine I think.


Match 4: v RB stuff
Really nice guy, a pure pleasure to play against. I crushed him game one as he got stuck on lands, but not before he was able to scare me a little with removal/aggro. Game two was kinda funny. There were people watching and the life totals were something like 16 for him and 4 for me, and I said something like, 'Man this is really close.' A guy sitting next to me said, 'How is this close?' My opponent: 'Trust me. It's CLOSE.' I had a fairly stable board but I had sat too long holding onto my Choking Restraints instead of just plunking them on two Brazen Wolves (in the end I did anyway but not before eating too much damage). My choice was play a Fiend Binder and set up a huge play/Flip Lone Rider next turn or sit back and get hurt less by a potentially huge Vildin-Pack Outcast if he chooses to flip it. In the end I went with the Fiend Binder and would multi-Block if necessary to set up a flipped Lone Rider (and Life point gain the next turn). Turns out that was the wrong decision as he Murdered one of my multi-blockers and pumped the shit out of the Outcast (without flipping it) to deal lethal. Game three was amazing, in that we both kept really risky 2-land hands. He kept his because of turn one Village Messenger (which went on to beat my face in for a few turns). I kept mine because of 2x Choking Restraints and Heron's Grace Champion. Ultimately I drew my lands and he missed one land drop, which was enough to cost him the match. It could have gone either way if that were me instead.

I won every match in 3 super intense games, and despite winning, I think it would have been one of the most fun drafts I've been to in a while. It's nice to actually play against skilled players for once (no real offense to the people at my usual stores but I think the level here was a little higher than usual). Also nice to have two full pods to draw skill from.

Got a bunch of store credit and a Crumbling Vestige FNM promo (....yay...?). Dunno when I'll get to draft again but I'm hoping it's next week for CONSPIRACY IM SUPER PUMPED