The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1696

Game 1 is pretty slow as he plays a bunch of... cats!? So my Trial rots in my hand and my Stalwart has to Exert to get through, and I don't want to play Banewhip Punisher until I see an actual threat, but I'm flooding hard (4 spells 6-7 lands on turn 5) so I use it on a Hooded Brawler. Lethal Sting removes that Afflict 4 "free spells" red rare, and after punching a bunch I finally force blocks (using tricks). I end the game with Torment of Hailfire for X=5 when he's at 12 with one creature and one card in hand, he loses everything and takes 8 and my creature finishes the job, but I see a topdecked Samut. Uh.
Game 2 he goes turn 3 Rhonas, turn 4 the Gw cat. Do I need to say more? I concede 2 turns later 'cause there's only 15 minutes left. At this point I decide that my removal lines up too poorly against his god+go-wide strat and I need to be more aggressive if I want to win before time, so I side into the linked deck.
Game 3 I play several 2-drops while being short on mana (stuck at 3 iirc) and he goes turn 3 Rhonas. But he never has the mana to activate him (t4 Prowler instead of holding activation mana—I had Blur of Blades tho) and I press as hard as I can. Turn 5 time is called as he plays the Gw cat (and no activation mana) again, so on t6 I attack with everything, exerting, and after he blocks I kill him with Blur of Blades' burn.

He had a really sweet pool with these bombs + some removal and he played 6 cats on top of the lord, that gave him stalling power on top of creatures like Hooded Brawler. Don't know his final record but he didn't draw that well round 2 and died to BG curving out (into 6+ mana giant beaters).
1-0

This match went somewhat quick, as it turns out my new deck is more likely to play stuff on turn 2 than most of my recent draft decks, and I drew my removal. My opponent seemed to have few early creatures, and he spent the midgame ramping and countering/bouncing my stuff. Granted, Rampaging Hippo, Greater Sandwurm, Colossapede are out of my removal's reach, but since I pushed so much damage and went wide he couldn't block them all and I finished him with Open Fire.
Game 2 I actually kept a 5-lander thinking I'd be super likely to draw gas and I didn't then he answered my 2-drop. I still won 'cause he bricked some and Granitic Titan let me handle his Colossapede. Khenra got there as I made him block my bigger creature then pumped it.

He had a great pool card-quality wise, he had 4c during the games but it was for aftermath cards. Driven // Despair, Farm // Market, Struggle // Survive... Hapatra, Plague Belcher, 2-3 removal and decent creatures in R (only 9-10 playables tho), same in B (bit less playables)... but it was too spread out amongst the colours.
2-0

Game 1 I keep a 2-mountains hand, with any land letting me curve out (even moreso with a forest tho), then disaster strikes: missing the 3rd land drop, and t1 Ruthless Sniper from my opponent. Exemplar of Strength, Channeler Initiate, Fervent Paincaster... this harsh.
When I get a 3rd land my Charioteer dies to Cartouche on a Prowler + splashed Magma Spray.
I open Fire his Sniper, bit desperate, then start dropping all my creatures, Paincaster saves me by killing a Carrion Screecher while a Frontline Devastator keeps the 2/4 Prowler at bay (opp gets through once by sac-ing the unco G desert tho). I'm at 4, with a Rampaging Hippo on board. A bunch of things kill me so the Hippo gets in and I play Sandwurm, block one of his 3-power attackers, go to one... and win.

Game 2 he goes Rootwalla, Initiate's Companion, turn 3 my Exemplar can't block so he hits for 6, untaps a forest, plays a Prowler, I'm at 13, yikes.
Exemplar attacks, Ambuscade is a dumb spell as I grow it to kill the blocking Prowler while killing the Companion... then he doomstuffs it, and next turn drops Cartouche of Strength.
He keeps punching me and I go to 4, then I start playing t5 Hippo, t6 Wurm and t7 (removing the last counter on Channeler Initiate to let it live) Chaos Maw. He only keeps his Bitterblow Archers and doesn't block my Wurm (could have traded, I guess he didn't think about the marked damage?), then loses next turn as I have too many things.

That was a veru lucky string of plays from me, having both the lands and the creatures to chain, without dying (I ended game 1 at 1 life, this one at 2). Turns out his deck was kinda similar to mine, but without the high-end (archers was his biggest creature). In the morning prerelease he went 3-0 with the unco Sphinx, Glyph Keeper, the 7/7 unco scry 3 wurm, the mythic Manticore, etc. and enjoyed it more as he dislikes aggro.
3-0 but let's be honest, I got lucky against a stronger pool match 1, met a "soft" deck match 2 and had a fair bit of luck round 3.

Game 1 he plays Kefnet monument so I assume he's not too experienced, and only swamps... Monument can't even deal with most of my creatures as Spearmaster + Dauntless Aven lets me attack fast. He reveals Torment of Hailfire for X=2 but I just take 6 and finish him in 2 turns.
Game 2 he shows me more stuff and I have a slower start, countering a Sandblast, then hitting me with Torment of Hailfire for X=4. I sac Adorned Pouncer and discard a now useless creature, take 6, untap, play Neheb... who promptly dies. But the coast is clear for Eternalized Adorned Pouncer, Gilded Cerodon, and his 3/3 zombie can't block.

His pool sadly seemed poor. B had removal but he didn't have enough playables in R for the few good cards he had, same with G.
1-0

One of the matches I've enjoyed most. My opponent's a draft regular (better than me) and our matches are often interesting... save when one of us gets unbelievably screwed/flooded (which is a very common occurrence sadly).

Game 1 I keep a 5-lander, thinking my slew of 2/3-drops should work out. I'm on the play and draw land-land-compulsory rest. 8 lands 3 spells.
I end up playing some things, but I clearly can't compete, and he kills the first creatures I finally draw with -1/-1 counters, then Ambuscade when I finally burn a removal on his B cartouche'd up creature, he's at 30 life now. Then he plays that 3/2 for 3 unco that pumps creatures for 4G, and my pacifism is useless against it.
I could have lived longer had I used my Puncturing Blow, but I was saving it for his Scorpion God (which never came) and considering his top end and amount of life I'd only have delayed the inevitable I think.
For style points he recurred Evolving Wilds with the Beetle for the 2nd R source to shock me with the R desert.

Game 2 I keep a 2-lander, miss my 3rd land drop then stay stuck on 3 for the longest time, but because I have several 2/3-drops including the Paincaster I get to deal some damge before he mounts a defense that doesn't crash on my removal.
Most importantly, my first creature if Vizier of Remedies. Once Ambuscade disposes of it tho, I lose 2 creatures to Splendid Agony. Yup. My opponent decided to cycle his ramp spell rather than play it, so he doesn't have the 6th land for his Rampaging Hippo and cycles it, which I'm certainly fine with. Some aerial beats and I close the game.

At this point it's clear that my army of X/1s is just fodder for his -1/-1 spreading spells (can't remember if he put Nest of Scarabs in, he mentioned its synergy with his deck and the god), so I board into RG midrange for game 3.
He starts by punching me pretty hard and hitting my life total, but I hit some removal, don't shy of burning Puncturing Shots when it's obvious he doesn't have the God yet and I need to stabilise, and I keep an eye on his mana count considering he's got Ribbons sitting in his yard.
I finally get to stick something ('sup Shefet Monitor) and use Edifice to prevent his Scrounger of Souls from blocking.
Now we hit the situation:
He's got 2 cards in hand, potentially 9 lands next turn, a Scrounger that can't attack/block, Hope Tender, and he's at 10 life.
I've got Firebrand Archer and Puncturing Shot in hand, Bitterbow Archers, Shefet Monitor and Resilient Khenra in play, I'm at 11 life. Only 4 untapped lands because of Edifice + a cycle (7 total).

I decide to kill the Hope Tender to remove his only blocker and swing (12 damage total). During combat, cracks Evolving Wilds then casts Torment of Venom to put 3 -1/-1 counters on Archers.
I'm now swinging for only 9. If I sac a creature I deal even less, if I sac the Edifice he'll be able to block with the lifelink Scrounger next turn, and if I take 3 I go to 8, meaning a held/topdecked untapped land is lethal.
I decide to sac Khenra, figuring I can eternalize it next turn and have 2 lethal threats even if he plays a blocker, and put him down to 3.
At the of my turn, he pings himself with the R desert to cast Open Fire on my face. If he doesn't topdeck something to save save himself next turn, he loses. He topdecks a land and Ribbons me for exact lethal.

That went down to the wire, was exciting as he tought about his potential outs, when I was thinking about which Torment to take, and when it was obvious he'd need to topdeck the land (a blocker wouldn't be enough because I could use Edifice + Eternalize).

Oh, of course I could have just discarded my useless Firebrand Archer and won because that'd put him to 1 so he couldn't cast Open Fire, even with a topdecked Blocker I'd have 3 attackers, all lethal, but since when it comes to it I'm still pretty trash I didn't think about it.
Didn't matter, it only means I had the game in my hands and I fucked up, can only blame myself and it was fun and tense regardless, especially since I really didn't see myself beating his deck in the long run!
1-1

(Spoilers: he went on to completely trash his finals' opponent next round, finally drawing his God too, and won the pre-release. I don't think I'd have beaten most of the 2-0 bracket considering my deck's main strength was consistency and bombs/midrange beefies would trash my X/1 creature base.)

Game 1 I keep a reasonable hand again, or so I think, draw no early plays while my opponent drops a t2 Sunset Pyramid, t3 Manalith, then starts drawing. On one hand it's obvious he's drawing a lot of lands, on the other my aggro deck is having a very slow start, he's outdrawing me period too, and while I'm not telling him what's in my hand I'm drawing over half lands.
He finds a Wall of Forgotten Pharaohs and Solitary Camel, then a couple turns later a Desert, so my "play Neheb and start bashing" plan doesn't work too well. I attack with Neheb and 2-for-1 the Camel by killing it in response to a trick, then use the leftover mana to drop Edifice.
Couple turns later he's using God-Pharaoh's faithful to gain life and drops Oketra, which stops me from attacking till Edifice reaches 3 bricks. Neheb does work, letting me play a removal pre-combat to make sure he can't block me, then playing another card post-combat. I end up winning because I held stuff to handle further bombs/blockers and adding flyers to the mix.

He sideboards, and game 2 rolls out.
I keep a 2-lander, miss my 3rd land drop, then turn 4 Violent Impact kills a land. I draw and play my 3rd one but can't play my 3-drops anymore, pass and he plays Violent Impact again.
What the fuck?!
Needless to say I'm as salty as I'm keeping myself quiet, even after I realise he boarded that in because of the edifice (and then he gets both early and I'm mana screwed, geez).
Because his deck is super slow he's pinging me with the Wall and Steadfast Sentinel while Pathmaker Initiate makes me ping him ('cause God-Pharaoh's Faitful gains him one life each turn basically).
I almost stabilise by having removal for both the Wall and a flyer he played if I can live this turn (and I'll be at 1 anyway), he drops Sparring Mummy and finishes the goldfish session.

Game 3 I get a better start and it's his turn to be stuck on 3 lands (and Manalith) while he uses Sunset Pyramid to dig. Since 0/4s are annoying for 2/1s, Pathmaker Initiate and a flyer are trying to put pressure on him.
At the end of the game he complains that he only needed a 5th land to just win. When he concedes, he reveals Hour of Devastation (which would basically kill everything but Neheb and Oketra in both our decks).
Boohoo, wanna talk about game 2 again? At least you got to play some cards.
2-1