The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1684

Oketra's Monument, Cast Out shove me into W early, U is underwhelming as usual and I'm hesitating between R and B on my next picks, with an early B cartouche, 2 Consuming Fervors in a row (I only pick one and decide not to see a signal 'cause people don't like it here).
I end up BW again, 'cause that's what seems open despite my bad experience yesterday. Pack 2 is a lucky P2P1 Oketra but aisde from her has very little for me, and there's R flowing quantity-wise, but that ship's sailed and it don't really have the cards/curve so far so really want Thresher Lizards. Considering I cut B a lot and didn't pass much good W either ('cept for foil Dusk // Dawn when I took Cast Out) pack 1 I'm surprised, especially when Start // Finish doesn't wheel (took Compulsory Rest over it, yesterday and the "gold" card making me decide it's not premium and unlikely to be cut by RW or RG decks) and neither does an In Oketra's Name.
I picked up Rags // Riches in the middle of the pack, a Temmet right before the wheel (few 2-drops, ways to make tokens -> why not?) and Fetid Pool as the last card in the pack. Uh, sweet!

Pack 3 turns out to be super poor in W (first W drafter is the one passing me the 5th pack but people between us just opened terrible in that regard), and even Festering Mummies don't wheel. I pass another cartouche for Splendid Agony to have removal, pick Watchers of the Dead just because it's a bear, and Irrigated Farmlands in the middle of the pack for my splash and 'cause it's super poor otherwise.

I'm both surprised that someone else is in BW (zombie cards not wheeling), and that they'd go so far as to pick 2 Festering Mummies, but it turns out the guy 2 spots to my left was RW, opened Liliana's Mastery P2P1 and forced BW zombies off it, to his left is Wx (WU iirc?) and cut all the 2-drops incuding P2P2 and P2P3 Gustwalkers (wtf?) and to his left is another BW zombie... I have no idea how the fuck that happened, and since the guy to the left again is B, I share each colour with 3 players, and my archetype with 2...
On top of that we opened Mastery, a Wayward Servant, a Binding Mummy (picked by Wx guy), 2x In Oketra's Name and that's everything in terms of zombie synergies. So our decks look to be poor piles thrown together. I can't complain, at least I have the Temmet splash and Oketra to save my hide out of nowhere.

Match 1 vs BW zombies
The guy across me, who was more justified in being these colours (but still passed 2x Gustwalkers, I can get one if you've got a stronger W card in the pack but otherwise... ?).
Let's just put it this way: he picked a Devoted Cropmate late pack 1, got his own Dusk // Dawn (not the foil I passed), his own Gravedigger. 2x Fan-Bearer and a couple other cards make his recursion game strong.
I have Rags, Gravedigger, Wander in Death. Our games were grindy. Game 2 he actually floods out but since I have Rags in hand I want him to play a couple creatures, which I can then sweep and play mine, Wander in Death available to further hit. He plays a couple removal and looks out so I finally commit a couple things, including my B Cartouche to shrink his devoted crop-mate... so he Dusks to shrink the board instead.
Crop-mate + Dawn + Gravedigger makes the following turn super complicated for me, 'cause I have Rags, Watchers of the Dead, Miasmic Mummy, Wander in Death (Gravedigger in the yard) which would normally wreck any opponent, and now I have to think about now to give him value instead. I end up going with Rest on Winged Shepherd to reduce the damage done, Rags, and Watchers which I sac during his upkeep so he has to choose between value from Crop-mate or keeping Dawn.
I still lose that game 'cause he's got Oketra's Monument out and I can't play enough blockers, and we draw game 3 'cause these grindy games took ages.
Looking at the games from individual turns was interesting with what we knew from each other's deck, what to commit, and how to sequence stuff, but the match itself was pretty dull and boring aside from these moments, because 2/3s and such crashing into each other can only last so long.

He gets paired up against URw (Drake Haven, Glyphkeeper, As Foretold, Approach, cyclers) and me down, against...
Match 2 vs BW zombies
... the mirror again, this time joking I'll get my revenge against the guy stealing my cards.
Game 1 he's stuck on 2 lands for a couple turns and I end up with Bone Picker + Blighted Bat clock so he concedes.
Game 2 he sticks a t2 Trespasser's Curse, but his hand seems poor. I stay on 2x Blighted Bat to race him and it does the trick, after a B Cartouche and Vizier of Deferment on Liliana's Mastery token makes sure I won't die.
Not much to say after game 1, he had a bomb and cut cards from me but he didn't have synergies either (he had the foil Dusk // Dawn).

Meanwhile my round 1 opponent loses game 2 when t3 As Foretold into board stall makes a t10 free Approach of the Second Sun followed by Trial of Knowledge.
For game 3 he sides in... Embalmer's Tools and gets to play it turn 3 or 4. He can't attack through the 1/3s and such, but milling 5 cards / turn in draft sounds decent when the opponent can't attack either, uh. So said opponent counters with... the Memory half from Commit // Memory. Apparently mills still ends up winning;
He gets rewarded by being paired up again, and me down again (against both opponents from that round again).

Match 3 BG counters
At least I'll know all the B cards in today's pool uh.
Game 1 I get pretty much crushed as he plays an early Trespasser's Curse (what, again? And maindeck this time?) then slams Baleful Ammit, which I can stall with Vizier of Deferment but it still gains him life, then a Cursed Minotaur which 2-for-1s my Bats... on paper I embalmed an Unwavering Initiate and discarded Temmet to Miasmic Mummy so I can clock him at 4 unblockable damage a turn but Scaled Behemoth forces a naked Bone Picker, etc. and even if we trade creatures he doesnt care 'cause he's at 30 life and me below 10 from Ammut hits + the curse. He trades everything while I'm at 1 (read only B Cartouche could save me now) and flashes in a 3/2 after I attack to finish me.
Game 2 goes with me muliganing then getting both mana and colour screwed, while hit by a Miasmic Mummy... I still somehow manage to play Oketra and turn her on in time for him to play Decimator Beetle and attack one. From there he draws more lands, as do I but because I can chump his Soulstinger with a token each turn, then make another a 2/2 unblockable with Temmet the next, I slowly win the race.
Game 3 we both mulligan, he keeps a land without forests and I keep a 5-lander + Temmet, scry Wander in Death bottom, draw a land, then Miasmic Mummy t2. Obviously I slam it and he discards a G creature, a sign that his hand may be awkward. We both play a couple creatures and I let us trade boards again since my flood lets me embalm Temmet and start punching. I can play a couple creatures to hold the fort and prevent a race, and he loses with Scaled Behemoth in hand but only one forest, and a couple turns away from Final Reward to make me rely on Oketra or flyers to win.

Can't really say I'm satisfied with the games. Sure, 2-0-1 puts me at second with a pile that was pilfered by people forcing (BW to my left went 0-3, Wx Gustwalkers went 2-1 but beating 7th place and the weird URw Approach deck that was drafted "for the fun of it" knowing it'd be inefficient) then salvaged by bombs...
But match 1 was a boring grindfest with a couple turns of interesting puzzles, match 2 had that "stuck on 2 lands" thing and match 3 his deck was clearly better than mine but I drew my (mythic) rares and he got colour screwed one game.
And I would have gotten a Rhonas yesterday with that record, don't have one yet.

I didn't think about it enough yesterday, but today's drafting made me realise it in hindsight: BW is a very fragile archetype because aside from the need for payoffs (which get picked outside the pair when they're generally decent), it's a relatively aggressive/tempo-oriented deck, but its 2-drop slot is very shallow:
- Dune Beetle doesn't exist
- you don't want more than maybe 2 Miasmic Mummy because if you fail to get that low curve (or don't get 2 sources to play 2 cards a turn whatever their colours) they can be a hindrance for you
- Gust Walker is picked highly by any W drafter, and pick early period in pack 1
- Binding Mummy somehow seems to be opened rarely from my experience, I've seen drafts with 3x Magma Sprays, Hooded Brawlers, Fan Bearers, or Gust Walkers, but never these (and rarely 2), and even as a pure bear in a RW or GW list it's going to be picked "because it's in-colour"

So it's really hard to get decent chances at a curve-out (the deck's primary way to win, by tapping stuff and finishing with In Oketra's Name, in my experience, that or a go-wide with Stir the Sands and such while Bats/Cursed Minotaurs chip away), and it also means that between the scarcity of decent 2-drops and the specific payoffs, a pod normally can't support 2 people in that pair.

Contra III
Donkey Kong Country
Earthbound
Final Fantasy VI
F-Zero
Kirby Super Star
Kirby's Dream Course
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Mega Man X
Secret of Mana
Star Fox
Star Fox 2 (previously unreleased)
Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting
Super Castlevania IV
Super Ghouls & Ghosts
Super Mario Kart
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario World
Super Metroid
Super Punch-Out
Yoshi's Island