The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1432

BW goes first and drops first early, telling us he'll attack whoever attacks him (I missed him adding "or plays creatures") first, and my Tunneler earns me his ire. Since he's developing his board fast and also becomes the Monarch with a growing Palace Warden, we ally against him, both lacking air defense though. He reveals the conspiracy Boon to scry off of Gods Willing when my Palace Jailer tries to exile the Warden to reset its counters.
We make him burn some removal on our creatures, and force some blocks when he's short on mana, and my Tunneler helps BG get through.
She gets Flying Menace 4/4 Animus out and starts bashing, making life totals closer (since I took a lot of hits early, BW almost none, and Possessed Copperhorn + Asp stops the air force).

I used my mana badly and couldn't save Strength in Numbers or Beast Within early on (SiN doesn't say "attacking creatures you control which gives it flexibility, I liked it).
At some point I notice I'm one mana short to make Leucrocota unblockable, attack and make it monstruous to kill BG (Animus died to Kill Shot so the air force took her low)... tbh I don't think I'd have done it anyway, treasons are part of the game but I felt like she may have ressented it and fun comes first.
She ends suiciding to try and take out BW after he plays Knights of the Black Rose, seeing how she's at 1 life and I made one of her attackers unblockable. He has to block but something's small enough that Knights can block w/o dying so when she takes the Monarch it kills her, and it then floats down to me.
I prepare my defenses to prevent a retaking, and the following turn apply the "make Leucrocota unblockable then grow it" plan to win this table.

I'm scared of Weight Advantage, and when he drops a 0/3 defender which freezes blocked creatures, a 1/3 for 1U bird and a Guttersnipe, it starts getting really scary. He plays a removal to get rid of a blocker, attacks us both, that's 4-5 life a turn, I end up at 15 and BW around 11 so we ally against him.

Copperhorn scout doesn't do anything obviously, but I force him to expend some burn when I ambush Guttersnipe with Raise the Alarm, and the next turn Hollowhenge Spirit removes the bird from combat and is poised to trade with Guttershot. Stunt Double is cast in reaction and here we make mistake (I only realised now checking the cards): BW casts Gods Willing on his own creature with Boon so he can copy it and give protection from U to my spirit, however since it's "creatures you control" it shouldn't have been possible... damn. Here, tho, Stunt Double dies from sba, and Guttersnipe is cleared too.

I next cast Palace Jailer to create a Monarch and remove the flyer from play. UR doesn't like too much the lengths to which we discuss our plays, starting when I point to BW that if he tries to take the Monarch from me, he'll get to drain with Garrulous Sycophant but the 3/3 flyer will outrace it and we have no antiair.
On one hand I can get how seeing people sync their plays against you can be frustrating, on the other I believe scheming is part of the game and finding weird plays to help one another can be fun (he's fine with us allying, less so with us discussing details of plays and what's available to us in hand and stuff—not "do you have X" but "do you have sth to deal with that?").
Especially when UR casts Followed Footsteps on my Jailer, and I then encourage BW to actually kill my creature, otherwise UR will always get the Monarch during his upkeep, and will be able to exile a creature even if we take it back afterwards. BW obliges and finds antiair so he takes back the Monarch too.
Next turn my Kill Shot gets rid of the bird.

BW starts to develop a board, even big enough creatures to force chumps/trades from the UR's walls, and while I stop hitting him once I realise his hand is way smaller than ours and he doesn't have the means to deal combat damage either, BW keeps going on him.
It actually gets a bit disheartening to see him draw either creature burn/exarch he holds to protect himself, or a land, and just pass each turn. I realise we probably overestimated how powerful he'd be, or he had a bad draw, but his lack of creatures makes itself felt (even a Jeering Homunculus would have helped a lot to divert a fatty) and we kinda ran his hand out with the 2v1. I'm not responsible for BW keeping hitting him till death instead of turning on me but the way it played out makes me feel a bit sad.
As long as UR looked very threatening it was like a fun puzzle, how can we combine our resources to survive him and put some pressure back, but it turned so fast that suddenly it felt like not letting him play.
Tbh if I see him next week I'll apologise to him about how we overreacted.

Meanwhile I didn't do much because BW's board was stronger (although Tunneler let me sneak a couple hits, or rather bait removal on the attackers) but my creatures in hand would make me the Monarch so I wanted to save them as long as I was it.
I played Forgotten Ancient and made a couple Lieutenants of the Guard bigger, also got some life through Orchard Elemental (I didn't notice it got 2 counters each time, that's better than it looks at first). Beast Within destroyed Hedron Matrix for the second time tonight, but UR still ended up dying despite what little help I could give him.
I started responding to the Ancient's upkeep trigger with a Tunneler activation to make a token unblockable then grow it, but I lost a couple to removal spells this way.

It kinda looked like a board stall, although BW didn't want to attack for fear of a crackback I guess (he had more creatures so he could ensure he'd be the monarch and that'd drain me whenever I'd try to get it back). I drew a Leucrocota and noticed I'd forgotten to fetch one after my first Lieutenant and, well... it has 2 power, vigilance, and can grow.
I tried to force a chump/weaken him by attacking with my last token + Domesticated Hydra first... he blocks with Hundred-Hand One and open mana, I tap out for a 12/12 Monstruosity... Regicide. Welp.
This turn's Monarch draw gives me Overrun though.
He makes me chump a bit with an attack that can't take the Monarch back, and I stack Tunneler and Ancient to make Leucrocota unblockable and give it 4 counters, then cast Overrun, attack with several things to use the buff in case of trap or something (and to go over the Monstruous Hundred-Hand One too), check a reponse to Adriana's Valor making Leucrocota indestructible, then ask if he's got blocks or responses... and he shows me his last card: a plains.

Win!
Although now I think back about it, I probably should have lost that one (that's for the release one where I went 2nd because I didn't understand how the guy stacked Adriana's Valor triggers and would have won off Hail of Arrows otherwise I guess ^^' I keep making mistakes), even without the Gods Willing mistake.
When he used removal on my attacking unblockable tokens, he could just as easily have taken out Possessed Copperhorn Scout to get through the air/remove my pseudo-vigilance, or Forgotten Ancient to stop me from pumping my sneak attacks into sucker punches, or simply the Tunneler itself to stop my shenanigans altogether.
That's part of the game, sure, and I make a lot of gross mistakes from tunnel visioning myself, but it's something pretty simple/obvious so I'd have been blown out against most of the regulars.
Lacking that, Tunnelers more MVP than at Helm's Deep (and because you can't get friggin' rid of elves, Emissary's Ploy was too, indirectly).