Our pod was all the regulars + the people who either had already drafted here so were assumed to know more than the other newbies, or were coming back and knew stuff.
The draft still started with my neighbour passing me an Invocation Scarab God.
...
Yeah I'm letting that sink in.
He's the guy who only drafted like twice recently, so I stop the whole table, explain the deal about Invocations and make it clear to him that it's not redrafted and will be his after the draft, and ask for a sleeve.
The pack also had Ramunap Hydra and good uncommon, dang.
The guy in front of me, who's the most veteran (I played more the last couple months but that's all) opened a Scarab God and passed it too. I thought he was joking at first and dismissed it, shoulda asked what he picked over it.
Pack 1 is almot monoU with my P1P1 Ammit Eternal and some other stuff, but with 2x Thirst, 3 deserts, 2x Unsummon, 2x Spellweaver Eternal (and some of these cards on the wheel wtf) I'd really love to go UR and just tap/bounce everything and murder people, God be damned (or splashed). I think I even got an Hour of Eternity among the last 3 cards?
Pack 2 gives me Burning-Fist Minotaur, Ramunap Ruins, Bloodwater Entity... it gets really hard tho 'cause it's a couple of good cards and rest is meh in both B and R. I get Ifnir Deadlands mid pack, no UR payoffs in sight...
I finally decide on UB at the start of
pack 3 when I'm given a choice between Baleful Ammit and Edifice of Authority. Tho now G is flowing while it was meh pack 1, for my pick 6 there's even Synchronised Strike / Shefet Monitor / Initiate's Companion, and a couple picks later I see Trial of Solidarity and Hour of Reflexion, despite
knowing people are in GW at the table. What. The. Hell. Meanwhile I'm starving for decent U / B cards, 'cept that one fucking pack where there's 4 card I want but none of them are amongst the 5 worst for me to be able to wheel one of them.
It turns out the guy 2 sits to my right with the other God picked stuff of 4 different colours early on and only fixated on UB with pack 3, which cut me hard, and 2 sits to my left saw the Abandoned Sarcophagus and picked one up on the wheel, solidifying himself in UB.
Table is:
- unknown
- BW zombies
- GW go-wide (the guy who passed the god... he got Sync Strike in the last 4 cards of the pack, and pack 3 gave him Convergence and Honored Hydra)
- UB control (the colour switcher)
- RW (he didn't listen to the pre-draft explanation well and thought the decks were 60 cards, so... prob scattered)
- UB pile (me)
- RG stompy (his pack 1 green couldn't be great, people switching colours gave him a literally free pack 3 tho)
- UB cycling
I'm literally full of 2/x and my only removal is 2x thirsts. On the plus side with Strategic Planning, Sunset Pyramid, Supreme Will, Mirage Mirror and Naga Oracle I
will find my good cards if the games are slow.
Round 1 vs BW zombie+ Show Spoiler +Game 1 I drop Sunset Pyramid on turn 2 and figure I can abuse his lack of 2-drop to get going. He looks slow but that's because he doesn't have a plain: t5 Final Reward my Baleful Ammit (leaving me with a 1/2 for 3 on board) into t6 Unraveling Mummy. I try to race him thanks to Aerial Guide and Painted Bluffs to give lifelink using the Mirage Mirror, but he finds a flyer and topdecks a blocker the turn I hope to kill him, leaving him on 1 and me dead. The Pyramid cycled for 4 mana, welp. He kinda flooded but that let him activate lifelink on 2 creatures at once, and when I sac'd a desert to Ifnir Deadlands to at least shrink the unco Mummy he blinked it with Vizier of Deferment, RIP.
Game 2 he's a bit slow on colours again, I have to play a tapland so am slowed by a turn but t4 Ammit Eternal + t5 Aerial Guide is a killer combo. When he plays a blocking flyer I drop a Thirst on it.
Game 3 he drops Khenra Eternal and the Camel, uses Djeru's Resolve and Supernatural Stamina to trade with my own blockers. I have the God in hand but instead try to t4 Wander in Death both my Spellweaver and Baleful Ammit, t5 play both of them and block again, t6 God, t7 reanimate Ammit with a counter on the God.
But meanwhile he's found a flyer, I'm super low from Afflict and taking damage multiple times, and when I drop the god he plays Unconventional Tactics and drops me from 10 to 3. Luckily I can Thirst the flyer... he doesn't topdeck a zombie, and I get to punch for lifelink for 4 and stay alive. He then topdecks a zombie, but it's too late.
These game were pretty damn close, that's too bad he loses round 2 to mana screw twice againt GW.
1-0 or something like that
+ Show Spoiler +He probably moved to U super late but was at least in B early, got to pick all the removal. Then the rest of his deck is cyclers. Oh, he also picked the Dark Ritual in my pack 2.
Game 1 he plays Rat, I have Baleful Ammit in my hand so I smash my Spellweaver Eternal in it and play my creature. He plays Claim (first half of Fame) to bring back the rat. So I get 2 creatures exiled, RIP God and Hour of Eternity hopes.
He then casts Dark Ritual for a 3-mana Hollow One that gets a U cartouche. 5/5 flyer, shit! At least I got him low, but I quickly go from 23 to 11 before he has to play defense. I find a Thirst, then Ammit Eternal with our hands empty, he Lethal Stings it, plays a couple blockers, then I use Wander in Death to get back Ammit Eternal (can't even shorten that since I've got the other one :< ) and a flyer and he scoops.
He also showed the Consign // Oblivion I didn't pick pack 2.
Game 2 it basically comes down to me playing Ammit Eternal early again, he Consigns it at some point and me, having 6 mana, could replay it, hold up Supreme Will and go to beatdown city on him again, but I play 2 3-drops. Opponent untaps and plays his Scarab God. PUNT!
The game comes down to him having more mana so he can start activating his God more often, especially since he kills it once or twice, also denying me the lifeloss (he's at 11 so 4 damage is a bunch when there's a Cunning Survivor to reanimate in his yard and cyclers in my hand), and I have to concede when he's got 3 eternalised creatures and goes Lethal Sting -> eternalize my God to exile it.
Game 3, well. I get an early Ammit Eternal again while he cycles a bunch of creatures 'cause his hand is apparently slow. I slam my God, he slams his, so I reanimate his discarded Dreamstealer which he Lethal Stings. I bash in (since my God is now bigger than his), then bounce his God. He replays it, and this time I set up the counter with Supreme Will and get rid of the damn thing. He scoops.
I think the game could have been more interesting without the Gods. The difference from playing him first and abusing each other's yard had too much impact on the match, while managing our resources (his removal vs my other recursion cards) was fun too.
2-0
He calls his deck ramp and decides he'd rather let me go first because his deck needs cards and... wait, what? I mean, I let him do it, but he's playing RG and I'm removal-less UB. Just play a fucking 3/3 for 3 and enjoy 2-for-1ing me all day with or without tricks.
Game 1 starts like that, I have to Thirst a Sidewinder Naga and Khenra Charioteer 'cause I only have Sunset Pyramid, Mirage Mirror and Seeker of Insight to begin the game.
I get willingly 2-for-1'd by a trick a couple turns later 'cause I know I can slam the God tho, and I do. From here he's pinging me with his turn 2 Wall, prevents me from attacking with Edifice of Authority, but I return the favour with the mirror once he plays the Shefet Monitor I had to pass, reanimate stuff and at that point just bin 3 creatures with Naga Oracle 'cause he stops the ground with Monitor and Scaled Behemoth, and can Edifice my flyer, so killing him with the upkeep trigger is enough.
He tries stuff like sac-ing the Hashep Oasis at instant speed and I have to remind him tho. On the other hand he played from at least Theros up to BFZ, disliked it and stopped, so you can pass that.
Game 2 I never find a swamp while he goes t3 Khenra Charioteer, t4 Ramunap Hydra, t5 Excavator (I opened it so it was his P2P8, I don't know wtf the people at the table were on today) and he's got Hashep Oasis again.
I'm a bit miffed 'cause with a swamp he'd face Ammit Eternal and Baleful Ammit on curve, and vigilance is exactly what he needed to prevent me from stabilising since I don't even have one of my 4 deserts for Thirst, meh.
Game 3 same thing, I just never get a swamp (t3 Ammit Eternal t4 Aerial Guide with Unsummon back-up and a thirst woulda been the play otherwise), and he goes t2 Naga Vitalist, t3 cycle Shefet Monitor, t4 Scaled Behemoth, and he's got the Excavator + Oasis combo in hand again. Meh.
Now that I write it, I realise that from what he told me he had 3 pieces of ramp in his deck and he had them all in hand in game 3. That and he got the specific Excavator combo twice too.
I told him his deck was better than mine regardless, but actually both times with a swamp I'd have taken the lead tempo-wise, and probably straight up won game 3 by racing him since he didn't have his Electrify to deal with the flyer. I didn't pay attention to it because his deck was better than mine in the match-up, but he did get very lucky with both these hands and never played around anything I did (aside from hoping I didn't have the God) so I guess I could have won with a bit less variance on his side.
2-1
I also figured I'd get top 2, and I opened an Invocation, so sure now I wasn't assured to pick the Scarab God and get a promo Fatal Push, but from the complete variance lean in round 3 I also had Ammit Eternal in hand a lot and got a share of luck myself.
Turns out we also opened Hazoret and Gideon, and the dice roll (10 promos, 2 tables, so winner gets one and we roll a die for the rest) gave the very last one to me, so I still got that and the Scarab God (I ended up 3rd because the 2nd had the exact same opponents and w/l than me, I guess he won some 2-0 since I went 2-1 in all 3).
Looks like Gideon is on the upswing thanks to Modern so he picked him after the first pick Hazoret.
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/59QTp1p.jpg)
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