The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1467

Turn 1 + 2 Toolcraft Exemplar. Sets the tone.
I had the Demon of Dark Schemes and Essence Extraction to reduce his stuff though, however he played the 2WW fabricate 2 cards so he'd start smashing me next turn with 3/2 first strike dwarves.
I had 5 mana, Servant of the Conduit and energy. In hand, swamp, Tidy Conclusion, Demon. So use energy to cast the Demon and kill 2x Servo, 2x Dwarves, the 2/1 and my own 2/2 (and 3/2) for massive blowout + energy, right?

Nope.

My mind went "I can cast Tidy this turn and swamp+Demon the next, let's go!"
I took 5 damage from that play, going from 10 to 5.
Later with a dominating board I attacked with several deathtouch things, the Bruiser and the Demon, forcing blocks 'cause it was lethal on paper. Opponent had Mastodon, Skiff, Balista, and the 3/2 red looter. He double-blocked the Bruiser with Mastodon and Balista to live, then cast Start the Engines, swung, pinging me for 1 with the Balista and the skiff finishing me off. Had I held the Demon, or played him correctly earlier on, that was a sure win. Shit happens, and it was my fault.

Game 2 was Skiff and Propeller Pioneer and hit me for 4 a turn consistently. I sided in Make Obsolete because with how his deck was and his propension to make servos for his pump and vehicles, it'd predictably blow him out. I never drew it.
I killed his ground-holding Mastodon and alpha struck for 11 (he chose not to block with his 3/2, otherwise he could trade and only take 9; I was on 10 at that point so I needed to pressure, at least I felt like it). Then he plays Brazen Scourge and it gives him exact lethal. Oh well.
BG super weak to flyers and he always drew them early and I don't deal with vehicles well.

He was 2 sits to the left of match 1 guy (who was my neighbour, feels a bit weird to play him round 1), so obviously he didn't get as many good cards.
I didn't know his colours and kept a risky hand game 1 on the play, Durable Handicraft, Wild Wanderer, Essence Extraction and 4 lands. But with 8 2-drops I expected to be able to draw one by turn 3.
We actually durdled a bunch, t3 Salivating Gremlins for him so slow start, killed by Essence Extraction, t5 Wanderer ramped me up and t6 Azorback Stomper put me at 28 life. Hard for aggro to make it back.
I just tanked both Hijacks on the Stomper, and kept playing buffed creatures, into a demon that made his board smaller without killing anything my side.

Game 2 was him mulling to 5 on the play vs my mull to 6, and despite me slightly flooding (something like 10 lands and 7 spells by the end), a Subtle Strike killing Sky Skiff + the 1-drop gremlin and a couple other bigger creatures to follow burnt his ressources and he conceded.

Paired up against the usual winner! He grumbles a bit since it means he's out of contention for 1st unless the other two 2-0 guys draw.
I haven't seen much of his deck aside from disgusting energy output when watching his friendlies after round 2 (mostly curious about how UG can play since U is so weak), and an Electrostatic Pummeler (which was like his 10th pick pack 3 or something) able to deal 16 by itself (12 energy for 4 activations: 1x2 x2 x2 x2).

Game 1 I actually get to deal a bunch of damage to him with Embraal Bruiser's menace, while he punches back a bit. I have a clear way to the Demon, and have to burn Tidy Conclusion on his Empyreal Voyager (too much thoughness and flyer), and here I make a huge mistake: instead of keep punching with Embraal and Servant, or trading them to his Sage or others, I just take damage, and when I play the Demon I don't attack beforehand so I get more energy.
It's not like I have major stuff to reanimate aside from the Voyager (which can fuel other reanimations by itself anyway), and I don't even have enough energy to reanimate 2 things on my next turn, so...
Then on the next turn, when he animates Freighter I cast Essence Extraction on it and he proceeds to Aether Tradewinds both the Freighter to deny the lifegain, and my Demon. Massive mana advantage and casting the Demon in the first place didn't help me more than him till I could reanimating stuff.
Which I had the mana to do in response to the bounce, but forgot.

I lost the next turn to the creatures he had in play anyway, after a flurry of misplays.
I also fuck up by not siding in my anti-air after seeing Voyager and Snare Thopter.

Game 2 seeing my Embraal Bruiser he simply decided to scry very aggressively with his Aether Theorist rather than trade, and took a bunch of damage as a result. However, Drake + Snape Thopter was going to be a huge clock either way. But since I was playing creatures mostly on curve, I could threaten racing him, and he kept his drake back on defense, buying me a couple turns (Durable Handicraft also made my stuff hit harder, and with all the 2-drops it's easier to find something to play).
He bounced stuff again to buy time however (including his Snare Thopter, hasty threat), and played the uncommon R guy who can ping for 6... and had the energy to do it, with me on 4 life.
I attacked with everything to try and make him sac it (he had to), but that didn't kill him, he kept his 4/4 crab alive, and that + Thopter was lethal.
According to him I could have won that one by attacking with the Menace Bruiser one more time at an earlier turn, then this one holding back something (since it'd have been potential lethal anyway) to survive his next turn, and potentially have something to do.
I'm not sure on the specifics but it's something I hadn't considered (thought it was lethal anyway when I actually had a way to survive by forcing blocks but keeping a blocker for the crab).
Getting a 3-drop bounced when I was stuck on 4 mana was still a serious blow, because I couldn't play 2 creatures on the next turn without the 5th land.

I'm still not sure I would have won this match, but it's true that in retrospect it looked like one of my more likely opportunities to beat him, and I clearly misplayed a lot regardless of whether it'd have made me win or not.