The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1769

Remember what I said about opening stuff?
I get passed Burning Avatar again, P1P2, so I look out for RW or RG, and G is mostly merfolk and shit like dryads at first while white is mostly vampires (U and B are both cut). Red had a bunch of cards, as in 3-4 per pack, that were filler to barely playable.
Pack 2 I see no red at all, or almost (neighbour passes me Rampaging Ferocidon), but I get flooded in Black. I don't move in because I know there'll be nothing in pack 3, but I could have 2x Vanquish the Weak, 2x wind drake that drains, Walk the Plank, Wanted Scoundrels, 1-2 Contract Killings and Vona off pack 2 alone. I picked Vona 'cause I'm splashing that.
Pack 3 is full of red at the start, but this time it's quality cards. I pass Imperial Aerosaur and Tilonalli's Knight to take Lightning Strike pick 2 or 3, pass another Knight for Hammerskull, pick the 3rd knight passing Fathom Fleet Firebrand... and then starting pick 6-7 there's nothing left and I pick up a Vampire's Zeal and a couple things like that.

So what happened?
We were a 9-man pod, I moved into RW but passed mediocre multiple mediocre red cards early on. That means that of the 4 people to my left, despite me always picking red when there was something playable in the pack (so the 5 cards pack 1 that weren't red were a red-less pack), 3 moved into red since they thought it was open.
They picked everything pack 2, including the BR guy who passed the pseudo-drakes and removal and Vona for red.
Then pack 3, me and my right neighbours opened packs with multiple red cards, so the people across me got fed good cards up to picks 6~8; meanwhile, they opened much worse packs for RW, picked the one or two good cards in it, and by the time it came to me there was nothing left.

So by virtue of the packs' contents in pack 1 and 3, they got more (good) playables than me despite me being the sit that fed them.

Match 1 had me playing against UB splashing heavily (opening Vraska and cutting the good W in packs 2-3 helped), I win a game with a combo of Hammerskull and flyers, he stops lethal when Vraska comes down and I'm forced to spend a trick and Lightning Strike to remove her and a chump blocker, then win next turn.
Then I lose because he goes Stormtamer -> Aerialist -> 2/1 looter to prevent my lifelink bear from swinging and Run Aground t4. I have charging Monstrosaur and Vona but never hit the 5th land, and since his turn 5 is Storm Sculptor -> replay the Stormtamer, who gives a fuck, finding neither one of my 10+ cheap creatures or a land fucks me over.
Game 3 has me mulliganing and not getting one of my 7 2-drop again, but I can play Vona turn 5. Doesn't matter, he's got treasures from t2 Treasure Map and Vraska in hand so he kills her, hey guess what, I autolose it never fucking whatever I did.

Match 2 is against RG dinosaurs.
I flood a ton game 1 and he plays t2 Drover and more creatures so it doesn't matter, even Burning Sun's Avatar t6 can't save me. He's got a Deathgorger scavenger to make matters worse so I can't ever race him in the air.
Game 2 he goes Drover -> Grazing Whiptail -> Spiketail Ceratops -> Sun-Crowned whatever. Does it even fucking matter what I do? Perfect curve-out and the Whiptail alone prevents me from ever doing anything since I'd need t3 Hammerskull to even get a chance to attack once before his next creature came down. I played the Ferocidon so we both took 5+ damage from our creatures since I had to match his board. Eventually Monstrosaur and Burning Avatar both do jack shit 'cause I can't attack, never draw my splash for Vona and I can't use her anyway because of Ferocidon (which wouldn't even kill a creature if I attacked because too many blockers). Eventually he draws Hostage Taker so let's just scoop, who gives a damn, I didn't play I just put creatures on my side waiting for him to draw a couple more or a removal.

Match 3 vs Naya was a match that could have been played by bots.
I'm on the play and go Pretosaur (RW unco), then Nest Robber, then Ferocidon, and we keep attacking each other. He plays New Horizon + Savage Stomp to trade a creature (because I pump Ferocidon with a trick so he doesn't just get eaten), eventually he's at 4, Deeproot Warrior + Ixalli's Keeper and 8 mana, I'm at 7 with unco and Nest Robber. He has to block the Robber to not die, but a single life point more and he'd win, since 2 + 5 (keeper) + 1 (if I block) is 8 and the robber only has 1 toughness. We both played like automatons with 5 spells and 7-8 lands respectively.
Game 2 is similar, with me on a mull to 5, we race because I have my knight and him his Deeproot Warrior again. Lightning Strike on his Otepec Huntmaster because I lose if he plays any dino bigger than 2/2 and gives it haste, then RW unco topdecked a turn before (LS had priority obviously), Tilonalli's Skinshifter (that's how fucking short on playables I was) copying the flyer, and next turn Dinosaur Stampede to finish the job.
Never had a decision to make, always a single obvious play possible and attacking with everything.

That draft was an exercise in frustration from start to finish.
Get fucked over by pack composition and opening badly for most of us in red pack 1, then good pack 2-3 when they're the ones benefitting from it so even though that was the open pair for me my it got jack shit.
Then games lost without any agency on my part.
Then games won without any agency on my part.
Brain not called upon for the whole evening.