The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1641

Bounty of the Luxa promo. Pack 2 had Glyph Keeper and foil Glorybringer, so it kinda yelled "U/R bombs gogo!" to me, so of course I proceeded to open the UR spells-matter drake, the unco spells matter flametongue minotaur and cryptic serpent... then less than 5 instant/sorceries between U and R (2 bounces, the hieroglyph draw, cancel, "deal 1 to each enemy creature" and maybe something else.)
Our group of 5 sat at the same table to build and opened 3 Glorybringers, 3 Bounties of the Luxa and 4 Oracle's Vaults. Eh. My deck was slow so I didn't include either.

I ended up with a weird URb deck splashing for Final Reward because I needed removal, although I'm fairly certain UG or RG would have been more stable (and potentially let me splash for the other bomb... ? I got a foil Honored Hydra too).
Basically try to survive with a bunch of 2/3s and pray I draw my bombs, or steal theirs wth 7 mana control magic.

Match 1 vs UG ramp had the guy with mana dork t2, Oracle's Vault t3 and the 3rd brick on it by turn 5 thanks to quarry hauler. I'd prob have ran him over by then if I played aggro, but that was not the case so it was super scary. I ended up having exactly the right number of blockers to not die after I made the frebreathing minotaur unblockable with Pathway Initiate to race him.
Game 2 I get flooded quite a bit and he drops Nissa turn 4 vs my empty board... scoop time!
Game 3 he seems to lack early plays but I don't apply pressure... I end up with 6 lands and Lay Claim in hand on my turn 6 so I'm thinking any draw feels good next turn. He plays Nissa on his turn 6, +2, I topdeck a land and steal her, +2 and see Glorybringer and New Perspectives, and he can only lower her down to 5 loyalty at best next turn... that was dirty, but I'm not complaining!

Match 2 vs 5c cycling
It's actually Jeskai but he's playing every single card that cycles for generic mana in his pool. He's got 2 of the UR drake, Cast Out, Lay Claim, Deem Worthy, Magma Spray against my embalm stuff, a Fan Bearer to force Glorybringer to nuke it...
Game 1 goes with an early drake from him and slow start from me, I take a bunch of damage but he hits a lull (and a bunch of lands) midgame while I'm saving a bunch of removal. He handles Glorybringer but unblockable 2/3 makes the distance after I drop to 5 or so life, have less than 8 cards in library, and Lay Claim one of his flyers.
Game 2 he gets a bit faster and... also draws an additional bomb: the non-Gideon W mythic. Sure Glyph Keeper trades with it but I can't embalm first of I get fucked. I reduce the embalm to an 0/2, and get a couple flyers to force him to chump (while pretty low myself but he's at 6) but then he straight topdecks the UW uncommon and since he's embalmed a couple creatures I'm fucked, RIP. Insult//Injury also removed another creature to prevent me from swinging for lethal a couple turns earlier.
Ends with a draw as time is called while we're cutting decks for game 3. He actually played 15 lands, 10 or so cycling cards, and the other 15 were his bombs, removal and good cards (the worst was the 2/4 zombie, rest was like the bear that flies with exert).

He "topdecked" a lot during our games save for his game 1 lull, but when you consider that lategame he'd topdeck then cycle till he hit a land or a non-cycler (eg. a card he deemed pretty good), it made sense. Sure was an interesting take, but his pool certainly supported it with all that removal and bombs.

Match 3 vs RG beats
Game 1 ends up pretty close, he's got expensive cards, the rare mana dork 3/4 and lands so despite my pretty slow hand I don't take too much damage... till he plays a 7/7 wurm t6, punches me down to 9 the following turn, then to 5 as I steal the tapped wurm with Lay Claim and he doesn't have enough to finish me off. Past that the 7/7 is the biggest thing around, he loses his whole board trying to push damage (I bounced the only thing he didn't block), I get Glorybringer... he's at 18, I swing for 11 leaving a blocker behind, in case he kept the bounced creature in hand hoping for a hasty topdeck. He gets it with the enchant that gives +2/+0 and haste, plays and exerts his creature for a 5/3 trample and I'm pretty happy I kept a blocker (didn't change my clock anyway).
Game 2 he mulls to 5 on the play but I kept a 2-lands hand with multiple 3/4-drops... he's flooding a bit (slightly more lands than spells) and I'm screwed hard (10 spells 3 lands... I end up drawing Glorybringer and Glyph Keeper, RIP). 4th land lets me flametongue minotaur his Pathway Initiate to preserve my dwindlign life total, I trade a couple creatures for his, get to play the Glyph Keeper... he plays a trick then threaten on it to beat me down from 6 to 1 (without the "counter the first" clause I was dead). He played Insult and has Injury in hand so targeting any other creature kills me, so I pray he doesn't remember... and topdeck Cancel, so I hold instead of developing the board and only keep a blocker. He topdecks Brute Force which I happily Cancel 'cause he'd trample over for lethal, and he indeed forgot about Injury, so I get to win!

Ended 2-1-0 with a deck that certainly didn't deserve it. Feels weird to hit 5th place with such a pile, only doing 3 rounds rather than the full thing certainly played a part.

I open the first AKH prize pack and see Gideon, then the first AER one and see Fatal Push, after I resigned myself to buying the last one for my playset after I failed to open one at the final draft.
Build jank, play weirdly, get rewarded I guess. (Now to hope it works the same at my job... )

shittiest pool of my life, not even close, so i was like whatever yolo and built a second sun deck full of off-color cyclers and shitty stall cards
i actually won a match and dropped at 1-2 lul

solid pool, enough fixing to splash black and green bomb creatures + gidbro
mvps were cast out and the black exile spell i splashed for, erryone got gods and built otherwise sketch decks hoping they'd carry them. obligatory loss to manascrew, 4-1

Got bumped up from -81kg bracket to -90kg bracket due to -81kg being empty, so everyone had 10kg on me.

Guy I'd asked to film for me was stuck being a time-keeper on another mat while I was on so I didn't get my own recordings. Managed to get copies of matches 1/3 from the wife/GF of my opponents, but match 2 missing
+ Show Spoiler [M1] +

+ Show Spoiler [M2] +

+ Show Spoiler [M3] +

Supposedly that's a silver medal, medals were kinda trash this year considering it was the regional championships
for half the country :p

Basically UW "control" with only one 2-drop, multiple ancient crabs, my wincons were 2/3 or 3/3 flyers for 4+ cmc, rest of the deck was basically draw + 2x Gideon's Intervention, 2x Compulsory Rest, Illusionary Wrappings as removal.

Match 1 vs BR aggro
He played 1/3 prowess or 1/1 haste-granting dudes, but with a low curve that's enough to drop 2 a turn, monument makes them 5/7 tramplers and you just can't block, so I went to 5 or so life before he ran out of creatures. Gideon's Intervention MVP for stopping 2 Soulstingers with one card.
Second game he didn't get the monument and couldn't find the bigger creatures either. He used supernatural stamina to get around the pacifisms by casting it and sac-ing the creature under it. Games were long 'cause I take ages to kill.

Match 2 vs UGw ramp/flyers
W is for splashing Temmet. 2/3 illusion, monument, the hippo puts the counters on the illusion, then swing with both so Harvest Season is "ramp 2 for 3 mana." Then he starts playing creatures and bashing 'cause monument is a fair card, I drop down to 2 and counter Temmet, holding a bounce so I don't die to an unblockable token after embalming.
The game takes ages because Gideon's Intervention doesn't prevent blocking with X/4 flyer or X/5 and I can't swing with too many things for fear or him holding a couple creatures and dropping all at once to trample over (he played the pyramid and bricked it up during dead turns so he's got 12 mana by turn 9 or something).
He also plays a Glyph Keeper, trades it with an embalmed flyer, embalms it, I have 2 soft removals in hand so I wanna pop the "shield" then play Angler Drake to kill the token and have something bigger than his flying blockers but he held a counter for it since he bounced the drake himself... and I'm forced to burn another removal on the sphinx, ugh.
In the end he wins because he swings with stuff I can block (and a 5/5 serpent is a crackback threat to end him), I block knowing that no G trick gives trample this set, and he flashes in the Cheetah to make a 6/5 trample and fnish me off.
Game took 45 out of 50 minutes, I had 8 cards left in my library (next draw coulda helped as it was the second pacifism). The game itself was fun but when I think back on it, although the Glyph Keeper helped drain my resources, Monument is the main reason he won and defined the game.

Match 3 vs Rhonas aGgro
I joke to him about facing the monument on turn 3 in both matches and hoping for a bit of variety in my games, he drops monument t3.
I'm dead by turn 6 because it's a fair card.
Game 2 goes:
t3 monument
t4 2/2 for 3
t5 Rhonas (the god) for 2 thanks to monument, cartouche of zeal to remove the blocker I left back and give Rhonas haste (he's turned on by the monument buff he gave the 2/2 anyway), then a 3-drop for 2 thanks to monument. So it goes from 2/2 and monument to 8/8 trampling Rhonas and 4/4 trampling naga and I can't block.
t6 he just drops the trial of strength he topdecked and plays a discounted creature, that leaves him with an empty hand and the 3 mana to make Rhonas himself trample, and even if I block with everything I'm straight up dead.