The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1763

Critique: FOUR AWFUL SECONDS LATER is redundant and undermines the last panel.

Basically, P1P1 Burning Sun's Avatar, a bit later Tilonalli's Knight and Firecannon Blast, good I wanna be red... but it dries. GW looks most open by number of cards but I instinctively dislike that and I'd lose 3 great cards, so I pick a bit of both and think I'll figure it pack 2.
P2P2 I pass Vanquisher's Banner for another Firecannon Blast iirc. I hesitated, but so far I had only one dino, the Knight is meh without them, I wasn't sure yet if I'd get enough red and whether or not I'd end up tribal or pile of stuff. Obviously a mistake, but well, live and learn. Red is indeed cut a bunch, I still get playables including a Thrash of Raptors and one or two of the 6-drop with "enrage: bolt opponent" and I pick a couple other green cards.

Pack 3 I open Hostage Taker, figure it's time to tryhard, pick Ranging Raptors because my curve so far is a fuckton of 2-drops but few 3~4 ones, then 6-drops (over a Knight and Otepec Huntmaster). Then I get passed a pack missing a common, with Rampaging Ferocidon, Raging Swordtooth, another Firecannon Blast, and yet another red card. Well at least I know I won't fight my neighbour.
In the pack I end up with the unco 1/1 with "enrage = token", a P2P5 Ferocidon #2, I wheel my 3rd Tolinalli's Knight, and a couple sideboard cards. I'm set. Aside from these red cards pack 3 more or less looked like "merfolk central" with multiple cards per booster till the wheel.

Deck is ridiculously stable:
3x Tilonalli's Knight, 2x Nest Robber, 2x Ferocidon, 2x "enrage bolt" 6-drops, Red Avatar, 2x Firecannon Blast, 2x Crash the Ramparts, Unfriendly Fire, Thrash of Raptors, a Swashbuckling to help make my 2-drops more relevant later and some more creatures.

Match 1 vs BW vampires
Know what breaks token decks? Tilonalli's Knight into Rampaging Ferocidon, keep the Ferocidon back (till I draw the other one). Highlight: "shit I can't even attack anymore" (my opponent after playing Mavren at a low life total). Game ends up somewhat close because I ended up with 4 green cards in hand and no forests till the last turn (for the lethal Crash).
Game 2 is a one-sided trashing despite me playing Ranging Raptors over Ferocidon t3 to bait tricks/removal. queen's commission is much worse with Ferocidon in play.

Match 2 vs UB pirates
Game 1 is a trashing too, Ferocidon's mainly a 3/3 menace for 3 here but that's plenty enough, and his creatures can't handle the Knights without double blocks, or avoid the Crash 2-for-1.
Game 2 I don't quite run as hot, mainly because a 2/3 Lookout stops my non-knight 2-drops, and when he drops a Vanquisher's Banner even the Knights can't go through and I don't draw any removal or trick. He's at 8 or something at that point, though.
He then proceeds to play Wanted Scoundrels and another Lookout, drawing him effectively 3 bonus cards (explored a land), and I keep not drawing the lands for my 6-drops that'd essentially kill him. When I do, I swing with everything, drop him to 4 and losing a couple creatures, then slam the dino and a green Keeper using the 2 treasures from the scoundrels. He chains an exploration (leave Chart the Course) into an attack, play another pirate to draw then cast Chart a Course, and plays the UR looter and passes. Damn. He's afraid of tricks so I force him to trade valuable creatures with 6-drop and he goes to 1, then I play the other.
He untaps, topdecks March of the Drowned, get back the "frost lynx" merfolk to stall the now-lethal 6-drop and hits a bit in the air. For his next turn, he untaps, topdecks the second banner, plays it and the Charging Monstrosaur I knew he had in hand, and alpha strikes since he's dead next turn.
Because of the 2nd Banner adding a bunch of damage, because Monstrosaur has trample, because I'm missing just one blocker to live on 2, I lose. I'm not salty because he saw so much of his deck and all game long I expected a bounce to blow me out (since he's in blue), but literally all that combination, with him tapped out and empty-handed, and after the topdecks to stall then lethal, are the only reason I didn't won that one. Oh well, can't get them all...
... 'cept, you know, I passed him the 2nd banner.
Game 3 I mull on the play, and run out of gas while he has Wanted Scoundrels in starting hand for the 3rd game in a row, he gets March of the Drowned to make sure he's got blockers after I force bad trades for him. He also gets to kill 2 of my creatures with Chupacabra and chaining explore creatures together (fuck me). Despite that he's at 4 when the game ends, and has a banner but only small flyers. Unfriendly Fire would have won the game, the 6-drops stopped him from attacking on the ground and bought a couple turns, Burning Sun's Avatar killed the Scoundrels and then the flyers wouldn't even win a double-block with it (and he'd be on 1), a trick for my last creature would have worked too. I had outs but drew 3 lands, crap.

Match 3 vs UB something
Knight -> dino and he's "stuck" at 4 lands (he uses quartermaster to fetch the pseudo-gilded lotus dagger, auras, 2/5 merfolks), this time I get Unfriendly Fire to finish him after heavy flooding threatens to run me out of gas.
Game 2 he doesn't play a 2-drop or 3-drop, and I go Knight -> Nest Robber, hitting him for 5 turn 3 and just grumbles and scoops. That was the only game I drew the Avatar and I didn't even get to cast it, blegh.

I believe I had the strongest deck tonight, and way stronger than average (2x Ferocidon is absurd, and 3 Knights with a 4th opened at the table is statistically stupidly unlikely) so it's probably one of the better decks I'll play in this format, consistency (even with average cards and not great ones like the Knight) is something people undervalue too much.
But I passed the Banner, and it was drafted by an opponent, and topdecked. Shit happens. Even with that I believe long-term I'd win more games because he expected to be aggressive but my attackers were always bigger than anything non-Scoundrels so without that+March I'd actually make him chump most of the time, not even trade, and I'd be more likely to draw a bomb than him both Banners.

The other table (club head did a bit of publicity to get the new members to try it out, so we had enough people to also make a newcomer pod which is great) opened pseudo-Cradle, 2x Hostage Taker, lands, and some cards that aren't worth a lot but still future standard playables, we got the Ferocidon, Hostage Taker, Deathgorge Scavenger, a land and that was all, RIP.

The format looks really straight-forward, what with so many colours having tempo tools, and the lack of actual control finishers aside from the bigger dinos (U doesn't even have a River Serpent of equivalent).
I'm going to value tricks very high here I think, with the scarcity of good/great removal and the fact that in a bunch of colours even 2-3 drops are legit threats, using that to leverage races, blow people out or protect your good creatures is going to be key.

Siren Lookout looks to be a pretty annoying card. Not in terms of whether it's good or not, but I've only had it a 2/3 once during my pre-releases, and it's a very good body (2/3 flyer for 3) when it hits a non-land, but mostly ignorable otherwise. Since the gap is so wide, having yours hit a land you don't need and your opponent get a better Wind Drake is probably gonna lead to some variance feels bad