The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1676

12-man pod again, though I wouldn't have minded 2x 6-man (esp. with only 5 of us veterans, we could have had decently balanced pods).

P1P1 between Lord of the Accursed and Scaled Behemoth, Lord requires zombies but I like it more so I take it. 2nd pick is Start // Finish and I feel encouraged to stay in BW if I can, then P1P3 gives me a choice between Insult // Injury and Trial of Solidarity.
... what.
Pack was opened by the store clerk who played to even our numbers, I think it was his 2nd or 3rd draft? He took Magma Spray over it, no idea what my neighbour picked. Either way it makes me think BW and BR could be wide open, especially with a P1P4 Stir the Sands.

Then B and R both dry up, G is nothing special and U is wide open but well... it's U (I picked up Rags // Riches but that's because I'm in B and have a lord). I'm picking up as much B as I can, a Cartouche, a couple Wander in Death, etc. since with nothing wheeling I feel like it's more important to stay open and cut hard enough to make sure your colour should be open.
P2P1 is Archfiend of Ifnir so rewarded I guess? I'm still on the BW plan if I can but I can absolutely no W at all (wth?) and not many R cards, though there's a Merciless Javelineer which I'm really tempted to take. I'm sending a million Hooded Brawlers downstream, pick up a Deem Worthy...
Seeing how W is never gonna be open and R is lacking in this pack, I notice that I actually have more U playables (though of ridiculously lower quality than my W/R) partly due to the end of pack 1 and I cave in, seeing more enablers for the Archfiend showing up (plus it has some embalm too).

Very late in the pack I get hooked up with Approach of the Second Sun and Pull From Tomorrow.
Merciless Javelineer wheels and I take it P2P12, wtf.

Pack 3 I pick up some more U to shore up my curve and playables, Shadowstorm Vizier, etc. but I also see another Javelineer, 2 Grim Striders in a row (I pick up the 1st, but I'm biased as I love that card while my hand is supposed to be filled by cycling), I pick a Gust Walker very early over Fan-Bearer, and I send a Time to Reflect and Sweltering Suns (+ Warfire Javelineer in that same pack, RIP UR drafters) downstream.

Final pool has Start // Finish, Trial of Solidarity, Approach in W vs Deem Worthy, 2x Merciless Javelineer, Canyon Slough in R. It's a cycling deck... so after talking a bit with other players I go with W, and cut the Trial as I'm not aggressive. I guess that choice between Insult // Injury and the Trial P1P3 ended up not mattering, uh. I even cut the Lord from lack of zombies.
The usual winner, 2 sits to my left, was in BW in pack 1 too despite the lack of W, off of P1P2 Wayward Servant. He cut all the W that I half-expected to see pack 2, which wasn't plentiful but high quality (Outcast, Time to Reflect, etc.), and still a bunch of B (Splendid Agony x2, I didn't see even one in the whole draft) then pack 3 he got hooked up with all the W I left through (couple In Oketra's Name, a Fan-Bearer, Those Who Serve, another Time, etc.). Not sure if I got punished or if he simply had a better sit than me for BW, what with being further from the W drafters.

My deck ends up with 3x Seekers of Insight, Vizier of Tumbling Sands, 2x Wander in Death, but my interaction is limited to Cartouche of Ambition and Winds of Rebuke, so proactive/aggro is very scary. Also no Illuminations or things like that.
Then of course there's Rags // Riches, Archfiend of Ifnir, Pull From Tomorrow, Approach of the Second Sun.

Match 1 vs GB
I win 2-0 off the back of Rags // Riches, with both of us flooding (and he had to cycle 2x Greater Sandwurms earlier so less top end). First game he kills his Initiate's Companion for a 4/3 Ammit so Riches is a virtual 3-for-1, w/o counting Rags' initial value. Game 2 he plays around it more but it allows me to find something to double block his Plague Belcher and stabilise, and I find most of my bombs after casting Pull for X=5 (I'd been flooding prior to that and suddenly most of my bombs appeared in that batch).

Match 2 vs RW aggro/burn
Game 1 starts with Bloodlust Inciter on the play. He proceeds to miss his 3rd land drop till turn 5, but hasty Emberhorn Minotaur against a couple 1/3s is still a beating, especially when he plays Sparring Mummy next turn, grants it haste, and exerts the minotaur again. Through dubious blocks I manage to survive till I draw Approach, and I then try to cycle as hard as I can, taking 3 turns to win. Bit lucky as I played to my outs and he didn't have Insult // Injury nor Manticore of the Gauntlet when I was down to 2 life.
Game 2 I get a worse start and turn 6 Insult // Injury kills me after I had to chump a couple times.
Game 3 was the most interesting of the evening, as I didn't have an early play but neither did he (t2 Inciter is still an early Inciter but so much better for me than Entangler).
Turn 3 Vizier of Tumbling Sands, t4 Seeker of Insight, I have Rags // Riches in hand but only a single Swamp, so I'm thinking about casting it using the Vizier to untap the swamp, with the Seeker available to cycle. His board is Inciter + Minotaur Sureshot (which I can't block with my x/3s) and I have a Cartouche of Ambition in hand. Counter from Cartouche + Rags should kill about anything.
I miss the t4 play of untapping a land to cast the Cartouche shrinking the Minotaur and making attacks unlikely, then t5 Rags untapping the swamp if I don't draw one. I pass and immediatly regret it as I find the (obvious) line during his upkeep. Instead, when I do it next turn targeting the Minotaur while he has a Thresher Lizard in play, my opponent guesses that I've got Rags and plays a Cartouche of Zeal on the Lizard to put it out of range. I'll never kill the lizard until very late because of that (he kept Mighty Leap mana each turn in case I tried to block his small creatures, so he saved one from Rags too).
I find the Approach and dig super hard, using Pull + Seeker activation for 4 cards during blocks, finding stuff like Archfiend... but it's not enough and Approach is the next card after my draw. I choose to discard Wander in Death, then comes my turn and I draw my Winds of Rebuke... making it deader than a basic land. I have the mana to cast Archfiend and cycle only because I didn't discard a land, and I don't have another cycler to shrink his board.
It doesn't matter anyway as my opponent drops Manticore of the Gauntlet + Cartouche of Zeal, so I've got one effective blocker to 3 creatures and am at 2 life.
If I didn't misplay that turn 4 he'd have walked the lizard into Rags and I'd have easily saved 8+ life over the course of the game (then not had to double-block it), which would have bought me the turn to win. Only got myself to blame on that one.

Match 3 vs BW removal
A bit to the left of the other BW player, he's got 3x Final Reward, what.
Game 1 gets pretty aggro with Glory-bound Initiative, Binding Mummy, a couple zombies and Spearmasters. I get by with the Cartouche of Ambition and Shadowstorm Vizier surviving 3/x attackers when I have cyclers, and win off Approach after stabilising (read: massively discard in a single turn after finding Sniper to get rid of a 3/3 flyer while on 2 life, using Seeker of Insight and Vizier of Tumbling Sands 'cause not drawing cyclers).
Game 2 I go t1 Ruthless Sniper, t2 lose it to Supernatural Stamina when I cycle to let it block a 2/2, t3 Seeker of Insight, t4 Scorpion that I then sac to Trial of Ambition. Turn 5 goes Wander in Death, get back both creatures, replay Sniper, loot with Seeker and pay with my last land for the Sniper trigger. Sniper then eats a Final Reward. He did his job wonderfully, although I placed my counter on a bear instead of the exerted 3/1, thinking I'd have a turn to handle it). After Rags wipes the board, I cast Pull for X=3 and find Archfiend. From there, I climb back from 4 or so life by dropping Cartouche of Ambition on it and attacking, with Approach slowly getting back to the top of my deck. My opponent went from 33 life to 8 despite drawing Glory-bound Initiate and I was at 30+ myself when he scooped.

That somehow gave me 3rd place, with my round 2 opponent ending 2nd because he was paired down for round 3. 12-man pods are weird.