The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1526

Didn't have much in the way of W, he indulged himself into most of the B, but... his deck was basically topping at 4 with Harrier, Ambitious Aetherborn and Master of Marionettes thrown on top of it.
He had nice artifact synergies with Operative, Embraal Bruiser, Daredevil, to go with Maulfist Squad, Iron-League Steed, Pillarbug, Chief of the Foundry, Cargo. Only non-creature spells I saw were Skywhaler's Shot and Die Young (nother energy sources).

Game 1 I get stuck on 4 mana for 4-5 turns, with only a single plains and Visionary, Conclusion and Demon in hand.
He plays t3 Screecher, t4 Cargo+Exemplar. Now if only I had a 5th mana all this time, I could have played a 3-drop + Subtle Strike to get rid of the Exemplar and block the Cargo. My pillarbug would become a 3/4, bigger than pretty much anything he plays (save for Master of Marionettes) and able to stabilise my life total.
Instead I'm screwed with 10 spells and 4 lands, only find something I can play (Gearsmith) when Pillarbug is dead, and he goes wide with Ambitious, Visionary making servos.
I passed a Make Obsolete in the draft, but granted if I could reach 6 mana (like he does, of course) the Demon would destroy is whole board save for the Ambitious Aetherborn, grant me 6+ energy, and stabilise by itself.
Na, still screwed, and when I get a 5th land for Conclusion it's far too late (he went wide anyway and my artifact creatures are dead). Kinda miffed I don't get to play.

Game 2 is again painful to get started, despite my 4-4-5 curve (2 to 4) it's hard to find stuff to play while he spams the board with little shits again.
I play a risky (because slow) plan of Pioneer into Marauder for the counter, making sure he'll be alive once I get a 6th land for the demon. Also topdeck my 2nd Self-Assembler turn 5 to deny me the value (woulda played Marauder anyway).
It kinda works, and I grow the Marauder (thanks Lawless Broker) to deny his Harrier, then start swinging to help my life total. He's wider than me but I'm bigger and Gearsmith + the demon's reanimation helps (I also go wide with fabricate to almost self-sustain said reanimation).
... then he drops Master of Marionettes with 3 artifact creatures in play. I have enough blockers that he doesn't swing this turn though. On my turn I reanimate Propeller for one Servo, swing with Marauder to gain some life, then survive his alpha strike by chumping my tokens to keep his artifacts alive and playing around tricks to save the demon. Crackback's lethal.
Less miffed, but still a bunch that I drew so little of my removal and still had issues finding my early drops.

Game 3 has me flooding hard early, all I can do is play Thriving Rats and t3 Subtle Strike just to kill his Exemplar.
In returns he's got the only card in his deck that can push through (no tricks, no energy for Die Young, but he gets Skywhaler's Shot).
Then of course I get stuck at 5 mana again with the Demon in my starting hand, and I only draw my 4 and 5-drops.
Time gets called and he kills me on his last turn because what are 2-3 mana spells?

I think my deck's much stronger if I can stabilise because my value synergies trump his artifact ones, and he doesn't have removal to break through a board (literally only creatures, wtf), but variance says "0K coming late put you in a lower level table that even had BW kinda opened for you to finally play, so the logical step's to balance this by preventing you from playing."
What surprises me is that he goes all-in into his go-wide strategy but when I mentioned the late Cultivator he called it bad and weak (due to the stats I assume). He shrugs when I point that a GW fabricate/wheeny deck with stuff like Ornamental Courage to keep it alive does his one's job better.

His curve tops at 3, but he plays mostly lookout, spireside infiltrator, reckless fireweaver, operative, familiar... and he drafted Underhanded Designs! C'mon man, that's my card, that's my BW day, don't do this to me. D:
He also has 3x Welding Sparks (he passed one of the Harnessed Lightnings I saw, maybe he thought he had enough?), Noxious Gearhulk... so he's got some late game but it looks like he really has no aggro outside of a curve-out early game, and he lacks the ability to push damage to pave the way for his finishers.
Deck has sweet synergies, but... incomplete?

Game 1 I notice I can wreck his board if the demon comes, so I get greedy and instead of trading I let his Operative punch me a couple times. Then right before the demon hits he plays Hijack and steals my self-assembler, threatening to drop me to ~4 with a lookout/infiltrator pair on board as a potential finisher.
Thanksfully the demon clears everything but a Fireweaver, and though it takes me several attacks to seal the deal (Lookout + Underhanded Designs + Familiar is a bunch of life gain) it's kinda back-breaking. Still, I almost lost for my greediness.

Game 2 has him on the lookout + skiff plan early on, so I decide to put some pressure with my bigger creatures (Operative, Pillarbug, then when he kills it Gearsmith to get it back... it's very hard for him to block profitably with his small creatures as long as I make him decide between Lookout and a 3/2 to clear the way), and up getting rid of the skiff, then the Lookout chumps... he hangs on for a bit because when I tap out to attack he just Hijacks the Pillarbug (with a counter from Subtle Strike, another spells which destroys his blocks) and pays for the lifelink, but we're both flooding with over half lands... and while I run 17, he's on only 15, and he doesn't even get the Gearhulk or a Welding Sparks to stall better.
After his blockers are depleted I swing twice and he dies. I think the match-up could have been sweet had he had more mid-size creatures to support his plan. As is I wasn't playing anything outrageous like a Peema but the pressure was still clearly on my side.

It's the first-timer, apparently the job/full internship he has makes him work all evenings but one. I'm glad he seemed to have a good time for his day out.
My r2 opponent received the bye so he sit with us and looked at the guy's hand, explained mechanics or some potential plays to him, etc.

Game 1 he mulls to 5 on the play, me on 6, I feel kinda confident with my Die Young to deal with his 2-drop into stuff of mine, but it's a Kujar Seedsculptor. Followed by missed land drop + Giant Spectacles turn 3 and he starts beating down with a 4/4 menace.
Oops.
Revoke Privileges to show him how auras are vulnerable to removal... but he has Appetite in hand and resumes the beats on his turn. Oops.²
I also fuck up and put a counter on my Propeller Pioneer, thinking about a Marauder next but unable to deal with menace... (first time I drew Goggles tonight and it was in my starting hand). I end up at 8 life due to the beats, Thanksfully able to Die Young his Terror of the Fairgrounds, but he's got the module that makes counters out of energy and a fairgrounds trumpeteer.
He messes up here and trades with the 5/5 Visionary Augmenter I made out of the Goggles, rather than take 5 then next turn activate his module to get a 6/6 menace and 3/3. I have a Gearsmith so I don't care too much, and a Marauder + Goggles is more than enough to stabilise me.
When the Arborback Stomper he plays hits my Lawless Broker on block, I play the Demon to finish it off and uses the opportunity to highlight the risk difference between me attacking with open mana or tapped out.

Game 2 he again looks short on creatures (as mentioned, he drafted quality stuff, esp. for a first-timer, but didn't draft that many creatures and it bit him) and Rats+Kambal hold the fort for a Propeller (+ Goggles, again turn 1... ) to beat down.
I give him the opportunity to double-block my Self-Assembler with his Salivating Gremlins for a decent trade while I'm trying to push damage, but he takes it. After that, he can't deal with my bigger stuff and I actually have lethal on swing, so again the whole "If I'm tapped out and I lose a big creature for a small of yours, it's a good way to stall the game."