The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1462

That's literally how he drafted: P1P1 Gonti, decided to go BW so he had access to blink effects (hoped the Wispweaver Angel would wheel). He got passed some Aether Tradewinds and hesitated about splashing U, then opened Rashmi pack 2 and went straight 4c.
Luckily for him he got passed Cultivator Caravan, 2x the BG fastland, and Fumigate all in pack 2 (woulda so snap picked Fumigate D: ).
His deck was base BW, splashing U for Tradewinds, and G for Rashmi, Attune with Aether, and maybe something else. It worked fairly well for him but the amount of fixing was pretty decent.

Game 1 I stayed stuck on 3 lands with no swamp, he played Fretwork Colony t2 so I used Revoke Privilege on it, shit hand but potentially good help for me down the road. He proceeds to bounce it and one of my lands with Tradewinds, then replay it (his t3 was the Caravan so he had 5 mana t4).
Let's just say I didn't win.
Game 2 I had 5 spells and 8 lands drawn by the time I conceded. Didn't even have a second swamp to cast Essence Extraction or Tidy Conclusion on his stuff and save me a bit. He got to cast Gonti and by his face I knew he had the Aethersquall exiled. He cast it the following turn and I conceded so we'd save time (he had a 2-turn clock even without it).

Numy, this one's for you. When I tell you this set's theme is "mana fucks Alaric over" (gentle reminder that my first prelease was 3-2 courtesy of the likes of "mull to 5 then 2nd land on turn 8" or "3-drops in hand but miss 3rd land twice then 3 more turns for the 4th one" non-games.)

Game 1 we traded a bit of stuff, and Dhund Operative and Kambal stuck (he bounced Kambal when I put a counter on it with Subtle Strike during a fight, drained him but saved life in the process).
Unfortunately he didn't draw creatures after that, but rather the only 3 vehicles from his deck one after the other, including the rare dragster; which becomes a creature on etb but isn't cast as one so it triggers Kambal too.
I attacked an empty board and Kambal ended up winning it for me, draining for 8 over the course of the game.

Game 2 he had a decent start while I didn't have anything special, Aether Theorist, U puzzleknot, Lathnu Hellion, Thriving Grubs did a number on my life total and the Hellion didn't wanna go away. I topdecked one of the Pacifisms so he let it die but it was stupidly close and, again, I didn't have a 2nd swamp to play a creature + have subtle strike up to not trade, or just Essence Extraction.
When I played Self-Assembler, he Hijacked it and dropped me from 9 to 1. Consulate Shieldguard came down, answered with Familiar, so I added a naked Aetherborn Marauder (couldn't swing and use Subtle Strike, then play it, 'cause only one swamp).
I swung with the ground next turn, opponent didn't block, so I played Cataclysmic Gearhulk and kept the Marauder. From here he didn't draw answers to finish me off and I gained life with the Marauder and a finally topdecked Extraction.
By the end he had 9 of his 16 lands, despite scrying 2+ to the bottom. So the match and his lack of finisher can in large part be attributed to mana. He topdecked Cathartic Reunion on the last turn, so I pointed out that with his low curve and knowing he had that in the deck, maybe holding the excess lands is better.

He won the toss and played Cub turn 2 on the play. I told him that game was over, and sure enough, since I couldn't play something until turn 4 (kept a somewhat slow hand and kept drawing lands... ) it was huge and I conceded when it was obvious I'd have died in 2 more turns at worst.
This is pretty indicative of the format: a flipped Logger was strong in SOI and hit you hard then traded, but it didn't single-handedly win the game. Unanswered Cub grows bigger, and even though it doesn't have trample survives fights, plus your turn 3-4 can be stuff granting energy to make sure your opponent has to chump it (and not trade).
Miss a land/early creature, lose. Welcome to Kaladesh!

Game 2 had him stay stuck on 3 lands for awhile. He still played stuff and did some damage with his decent creatures, and the W enchant that makes stuff enter tapped and gain him life helped a ton, since the hasty Snare Thopter couldn't bash in and he had a bunch of cards in hand by the time he hit his 4th land so slowing down really didn't help me.
In the end my flyers won me the game, and a 3/3 Marauder was MVP, keeping me around 15 life while opponent was still attacking then up to 21. Multiform Wonder was answered by Revoke Privileges so he wouldn't block my flyer, Snare Thopters traded with each other, Kambal came down and drained even when a removal was finally drawn to kill the Marauder, and a Screecher finished the job.
His missed 4th land drop did a lot for the game, even though we played a bunch, I still believe it decided it as he couldn't develop enough to threaten me (maybe he could have raced the Marauder without that).

Game 3 was me not having a turn 3 because I kept 2x plains and island and my 3-drops needed a swamp. Turn 4 Kambal against two 3/2s, opponent plays Verdurous Gearhulk on curve, makes both 4/3s and puts me at 9.
Turn 5 Revoke Privileges on the Gearhulk and save Subtle Strike so Kambal can kill one of the other creatures, and the next turn trade with the other, and depending on draws maybe I stabilise.
Hunt for the Weak comes out, so Subtle Strike only makes Kambal trade, and the other 4/3 puts me at 7 life.
At this point I have Tidy Conclusion and Essence Extraction to kill my opponent's 4/3 and stabilise, but still only one swamp...
So a couple more turns and my opponent wins (woulda needed 4 more turns for a swamp... 16th or 17th card, with 8 sources in the deck.
Yeap, another game decided by mana. Told you!

Playing Esper, his game 1 start was a bit slow, and he rambled and grumbled about his lands (nvm he had 5 by turn 5) because he couldn't cast his double-coloured spells on curve—after my experiences, I won't pity anyone playing straight-up 3c w/o fixing and not getting to play on curve, esp. if not playing Green.
Ended up playing Tidy Conclusion which Weaponcraft Enthusiast made way better by gaining him 5 life (Acrobatic Maneuvers to spam servos).
It wasn't enough though and while he was making servos I used the Ghirapur Guide to make them unable to block me and finish him off.

Game 2 I had a good start with Thriving Grubs, Lathnu Hellion, Sage of Shalia's Claim, etc.
Because I didn't have big bodies to dump afterwards my offense slowed, and he had Aetherworks Marvel with the U Puzzleknot... and he need to keep raging about his lands. First activation gave him Bastion Mastodon to kill the Hellion and get to keep his card. Still didn't stop him from loudly sighing every draw as if not getting an on-curve play was abnormal.
He also played Key to the City which he didn't use since he was defending. I forced his deathtouch Dhund Operative away with an Oviya token, and he kept accruing energy. And raging about drawing 5 of his 7 plains.
Second activation gave him his promo Torrential Gearhulk (he only had one island at that point), with a buyback on Acrobatic Maneuvers to draw more.
Some rage against his hearty hand and esper manabase, he discards a foil Gonti to the Key, whines about how his bad deck and my "super strong" start puts him in such a bad position, tells me that Aetherworks Marvel is garbage and he was only lucky because the stars aligned for him each time... obviously gaining energy from chumping to dig for his answers is garbage too.

At that point he's at 1 life but has enough energy to activate the Marvel, so I can't alpha strike for fear of what he actually has in his deck and potential blowouts (if he can live, the crackback will quite probably kill me with his hugeass bodies). Of course he doesn't activate the Key on his 4/5 Vigilance to hit me, because his deck is so garbage he has no way to win.
He topdecks Multiform Wonder the turn before I draw my Empyrean. Because I had Spontaneous Artist in hand, I could on paper play both, give Empyrean haste with the energy and swing for lethal, but now he has antiair too. Obviously I'm annoyed by the Marvel giving him a load of energy if I try to attack, and the potential for a flyer lifelinker. But he keeps complaining and sighing.

3rd Marvel activation has him wincing and sighing loudly again, and settling for a Tidy Conclusion on my 6/6 Oviya token (eg. bigger than the Gearhulk) before I can start attacking with it, and gaining him 5 life. My poor man, Marvel really is a garbage can leaving you in a dump.
He only now starts using the Key, putting me on a 5-turns clock (I have a Stomper to drop for lifegain), and by now I'm pretty sure he'd be too dumb and unable to read/evaluate his cards to think about making his Wonder a flyer, but it's too late since he's not at 1 anymore.

A friend of him walks by, sees the Marvel and asks him cheekily if he's making great things—he enthusiastically replies "oh yeah, I'm doing stuff!" Is that so? I thought your shit low-power deck (his own words) was bad and you couldn't do anything at all when behind?
We're in turns by now, and I don't think I could survive unless I topdecked Appetite to destroy the Key. It gets him Marionette Master and he proceeds to topdeck Syndicate Trafficker, getting an unblockable hit in, then playing both and sac-ing an artifact to finish me off.

Let's recapitulate. PR packs have 7+ rares, this guy played 3-colours, and his deck included:
- promo Torrential Gearhulk
- Aetherworks Marvel
- Multiform Wonder
- Key to the City
- foil Gonti
- Marionette Master
- Syndicate Trafficker
Meaning 7 of his 8 rares.

He didn't play any fixing, just a straight spread of 3 types of basics.
He had hard removal in B and several blinks in W (maybe U too) which protect his bombs and directly synergise with 4 of them.
His B was full of artifact synergies (Marionette, Trafficker, Tidy Conclusion, Dhund Operative, fabricate+bounce).
Aetherworks Marvel is hard to activate before you're reduced your deck to less than 30 cards, at which point you're checking 1/5th of it, with 6 other bombs to find (and the hard removal or other 5+ CMC creatures), meaning you will on average hit it.
Your deck is amazing. Aetherworks Marvel itself becomes amazing because by this point it's statistically a tutor for your stuff.
You play almost thrice the amount of rares in the average sealed deck.

You're playing at least six 5+ CMC spells (seven 4+, and below that there're at least 2 blinks and a puzzleknot).
You keep whining when all your double-coloured spells can't be played on curve.
You call Marvel garbage and "very very bad."
You call your deck bad and not going to win much.
You're displaying loud, visible annoyance when you're not playing on curve period in the first 3 turns, despite the top-heavy nature of your deck, triple colours without fixing.
You're despising the Marvel which saved you twice. You blow me off and refuse to acknowledge the strength of energy sources with Multiform when I tell you about the Empyrean and how no energy or Multiform (or just a removal topdeck for me) would have killed you on the spot.
You don't even think about using the "make a creature unblockable and rummage later" artifact after you've stabilised the board. Too busy whining about your plains I guess.

Seriously, what a bore. For all I complain here, aside from my obvious frustration when mana makes me not get to play I don't actually vent; I don't brag about big stuff right after I feel in a desperate situation (or I apologise to my opponent for being overly negative when I realise I misread how bad it was for me).
That guy was just a spoilt brat, the kind who'd expect to get 2 of each basic by turn 6, not miss any land drop, and play what little early drops he has on curve, otherwise his deck is having a bad start worthy of exasperately sighing about.
A moron who gets one of the most on-colour/bomb-heavy pools I've ever seen, and still believes (and actually grunts at me in desaprobation when I say otherwise) that his deck's late game is bad, and the deck overall isn't strong.

Just go fucking goldfish then.
(I'll hear him complain a bit during round 2, despite being 2-3 tables further and winning that match handily. On round 3 he sits besides me, gets his ass handed to him by the eventual 2nd, but at least doesn't whine about it.)

Game 1 we both played a couple creatures, then he played Durable Handicraft + Fabrication Module (I had them too, but lacked ways of putting counters)... the combo was obvious and gross. I didn't like it, but used Appetite to remove Handicraft.
It was a mistake and I should have targeted the module, but burning my turn 4 mana on this was backbreaking anyway.
Thing is, he also had a 9th Bridge Patrol in play, so when he attacked and I blocked his servos... the Patrol grew, triggering the Module for more servos (which would be ready to block).
Basically, take damage or make him use some mana to grow his dude and replace his tokens.

Short of a fuckton of flyers to reliably race him (and even then you may need some walls to blocks his normal creatures), an unconditional kill spell to remove the big Patrol, or Fumigate to remove the tokens and the Patrol all at once, I don't think his combo can actually lose if he gets all 3 pieces in play. That was impressive, and the guy predictably went on to take 3rd place with a 3-1 record.

The other game was me getting flooded with 6 spells and 10 lands while he played flyers and fueled his Architect of the Untamed to 2 activations so not worth mentioning.

Game 1 was a bit slow on his side, but I kept a very light hand after mulliganing (Speedway Fanatic, both G "fight" cards, 3 lands) and took my time so I could deal with his Aerial Responder without 2-for-1ing myself (esp. after a Seedsculptor made it a 3/4).
The 4-drop that fetches a land, Ripparian Tiger, then the next turn kill 2 creatures of his (including the Responder) and start bashing in when he lacks blockers. He didn't rebuild a board fast enough.

Between the games I noticed that I was lacking one card, determined to be Oviya. So I went to my match 3 opponent and asked to check his deck (same sleeves), got it back.

Game 2 was another mull and slow from me: Oviya, into Durable Handicraft, into the module that grants E. A set up that also left me pretty vulnerable, and Sage + Cobra + Chief of the Foundry put a lot of pressure on me.
Oviya made a (durable) servo to kill the cobra, but the artifact that brings another back to hand when it dies was played... and the following turn the Responder.
My creatures were big thanks to Durable Handicraft and Oviya could start shitting big things (Riparian Tiger did 4 through recursion artifact, then 7 'cause no G available for the replayed Cobra, but Responder gains a bunch of life) but I didn't have an answer for the Responder, and nothing to use my energy on. Basically I was waiting for my removal, any kind, or the Empyrean to start blocking.
I played Arborback Stomper to get back to 9, then my opponent made the mistake of cycling with Acrobatic Maneuvers, and 2 turns later I topdecked Dynavolt Tower, with already 10 energy. Instant fried dwarf!
Next turn I killed the Cobra too to remove the deathtouch, and a couple turns later I was big enough (Doorbuster to brick his Wispweaver Angel) to alpha strike for exact lethal through his blockers.
With 1 more mana I could have started bouncing the Stomper with my sided module then played it again fo 5 life a turn, so I didn't feel in danger at that point, thanksfully.