The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1536

There were only 6 of us, and the pool wa set up for a monster of a BW deck: 3x Skywhaler's Shot, 3x Conclusion, 1-2 Essence Extraction, Eliminate the Competition, 2x Kambal, Master of Marionettes, Revoke Privileges, Visionary Augmenter, Wispweaver Angel, 2x Aetherborn Marauder, 2x Servo Exhibition, Make Obsolete...

Sole issue is the builds at the table were BW, Rb, GW, BW, UW, UG.
I think we could have supported 3 people at the table, but 4 was too much. Of course it wasn't helped by the first 2 packs being universally bad and the 3rd one charged for most of us (UG dude got a P3P4 Cub, and the pack wasn't empty afterwards, and we all got decent stuff before it).

I wavered between UB and BW during pack 1, and opening Skywhaler's Shot #2 pack 2 made me try that, though if the Contraband Kingpins had wheeled I may have moved to UB. At that point I had Eliminate the Competition, 2x Skywhaler Shot's, Essence Extraction. So much removal, just needs early creatures for the curve and a finisher.
Pack 2 had, in blue, 2x Kingpin, a Gearseeker Serpent, and I got an Aether Meltdown P1P7 (so on the wheel) and early pack 2 Shrewd Negociations.
I think BW at my sit was reasonable, but UB would prob have yielded a better deck in the end.

I only had 13 creatures, including 2x Skygate, Fretwork Colony, and Servo Exhibition counting as one. I really dislike Kaladesh's print runs, as the uncommons' ones are pretty imbalanced, and here in the common ones I had Mastodon+Harrier in the same pack thrice, and I ended up not being able to pick up a Mastodon (picked Eliminate and Harrier in these packs).
2x Skywhaler's Shot, Eliminate, Subtle Strike, Tidy Conclusion was a ton of removal though, and I could create some more servos/make my pioneer beefier using Acrobatic Maneuver and Wispweaver Angel to win in the air. I ended up playing Inspired Charge despite the low number of attackers because I needed some reach. That went in over the Morbid Curiosity I'd taken early on (told you our packs were weak).

Match 1 vs UW servos
He had my Responder, Aetherworks Marvel, a bunch of small creatures, and then flyers/big vehicles (Barge, Aradara Express) to try and push damage.
Game 1 was a ground stall that let me use my various bounce to put counters on my fabricate creatures, drop the Marauder to make it a 5/5, and attack with Inspired Charge up to clear his own flyers. Marauder ate Malfunction the following turn but it was over.
Game 2 I side in Whirlermaker and it solo wins me the game after another ground stall and my opponent flooding really hard (I think he drew 15 land and 7 spells max?). I'd already killed his Train with Skywhaler's Shot and still had another and Eliminate the Competition in hand, so I would almost certainly have won, his deck was exactly what mine should beat: low number of big threats and slow enough that I can set up.
1-0

Match vs mono-R
He splashes for the Scrounger I pased him pack 2.
Game 1 he curves a couple creatures out and has removal to kill all my stuff and simply keep attacking. I was heavily flooding (mulliganed into a 4-lander, had to scry Eliminate bottom, then drew lands all but one turn), and being the only Red drafter at the table gave him all the grubs, also Welding Sparks (after Skiff to kill a skygate) and Harnessed Lightning (to kill my Maulfist Squad and save energy for the grubs).
Game 2 turns into a race because I keep a turn 2 Fretwork Colony and he plays Scrounger so we can't block. His stuff is better than mine and I don't have a curve though, so it looks grim until I can potentially survive an alpha strike and swing back thanks to Harrier topdeck... but he had Hijack in his starting hand and I go down.
Don't think I could beat this kind of deck without a very good start and drawing the good flyers to prevent him from pinging me down.
1-1

Match 3 vs UG energy
The other G drafter was the least experienced guy here (he passed the Cub he opened pack 3), so he got a bunch of good stuff in both colours (match 1 opponent definitely lacked solid U, playing Nimble Innovator, Curio Vendor and such).
Game 1 could have been kinda close, since my removal is so powerful, but I don't draw my token makers and get stuck on 5 lands. I end up eating an Hydra with Ambitious Aetherborn (not sure why he didn't try to save it) + Rush of Vitality, bounce with Angel, and Eliminate to remove a Tiger, a 4/4 crab, and Oviya... so he makes an 8/8 in response, and next turn topdecks a Tiger. Can't beat that. On top of it, he played a Theorist turn 3 and had the energy to scry the 10+ turns that followed, giving him a huge advantage.
It could have been much closer, considering that hitting a 6th land earlier would have let me Eliminate 2 turns earlier (he'd only get a 6/6 by then and I can handle it with survivors, using Inspired Charge on a double block), and also play 2 cards a turn later on when I was forced to hold more costly ones without developing my board.

Game 2 he mulls to 5 and I get my only good start of the evening, rolling him over thanks to tokens.
Game 3 I'm the one who mulls to 5, I forget that Oviya is a 1/2 and not 1/1 so Subtle Strike can't kill her so I end up burning that + Make Obsolete just for him to buff her with a trick. I wasn't winning a mulling game vs his bomb-filled deck anyway.
It's kinda the reverse from match 1: Hydra beats my bodies and ignores my removal, Oviya dodges my removal and will grind me out if I hope to take the game late, and he's got a bunch of 4/4s and an Empyreal Voyager for me to deal with, plus a fuckton of energy that'd make even his turtles dangerous.

1-2, 4th overall, there was nothing past 2nd place tonight anyway (Spirebluff Canal and Aetherworks Marvel).
I'm a bit disappointed that BW again gave me a mediocre deck despite looking open, but it looks like deck quality had a huge discrepancy based on the least experienced/assertive drafters' sits, with the mono-R guy reading the table correctly (R was overall poor and would have never supported a 2nd drafter), UG getting fed by the two weakest players passing him good cards in their colours, and the other BW guy got passed better stuff than me (both my neighbours in W, none of his, he got Kambal, Freighter, opened Master, etc. so he ended up with a higher card quality and better curve overall, while my removal was the best at the table but my creatures lacking; him also being the best at the table helped).

Card quality was crappy early on today because of a bug, but we're being compensated, yay. I was fairly satisfied with my pulls as they were. Jade miracle n'zoth rogue feels surprisingly alright but it's new expansion meta so annnyyything goooes. I just hope jade is a less broken mechanic than I think it is and that jade druid is not a thing.