EPTI just realised that in my previous post I both say I'm down on EDM and watching a ballet that evening. That... depicts an unintended image!
+ Show Spoiler [MTG sunday pre-release] +
No 2HG 'cause my friend is sore from his sport classes and dislikes multiplayer MTG in general.
My pool's bad but at least it isn't a stinker like yesterday's.
Without any obvious bombs, R being as mediocre as can get and B being weak aside from again a bunch of removal (I got lucky with these in general), I'm initially attracted to W because Raff again, Serra Angel, and its creatures don't look half-bad in general (also removal).
Initial build hesitates between UWb and GWb, Woodland Cemetary and Grow from Ashes would help a ton with the fixing, but overall G looked like the usual "it gives a curve of creatures but nothing stands out" for me since... I think I noticed the trend in AKH?
On the other hand U gives me Naru Meeha would can, maybe, do some things? Syncopate is actually a decent way to handle bombs if you can afford to keep some mana up (esp. post-game 1), In Bolas' Clutches is one of my few bombss, Raff's a wincon, and Snapper handles the ground well enough (plus Pegasus Courser).
If I had to redo things, I may have tried G or sleeved it up at least, given Chainer's Torment a try in that configuration, and tried both decks depending on what I face. My head hurt and I was tired, so I missed all the keywords on Song of Freyalise, in particular the vigilance+indestructible combo that lets you swing at least once for free. Card's busted, and I thought it was more of a build-around if your pool could either go-wide or use the mana.
I may have tried The Mirari Conjecture too, what with running my removal in a 2/2 instant/sorcery split. On the other hand since most of it is splashed chances to get it stuck in hand are high.
Match 1 vs RW flyers/equip
I don't like playing against him because he's extremely slow and I've went to time a couple times against him, including while he was playing an all-in aggro pirates deck in RIX. I'm sure Wave knows what kind of thing I'm talking about.
+ Show Spoiler +
Match 2 vs jeskai pile
+ Show Spoiler +
Match 3 v GW this-is-DOM-sealed
+ Show Spoiler +
My pool's bad but at least it isn't a stinker like yesterday's.
Without any obvious bombs, R being as mediocre as can get and B being weak aside from again a bunch of removal (I got lucky with these in general), I'm initially attracted to W because Raff again, Serra Angel, and its creatures don't look half-bad in general (also removal).
Initial build hesitates between UWb and GWb, Woodland Cemetary and Grow from Ashes would help a ton with the fixing, but overall G looked like the usual "it gives a curve of creatures but nothing stands out" for me since... I think I noticed the trend in AKH?
On the other hand U gives me Naru Meeha would can, maybe, do some things? Syncopate is actually a decent way to handle bombs if you can afford to keep some mana up (esp. post-game 1), In Bolas' Clutches is one of my few bombss, Raff's a wincon, and Snapper handles the ground well enough (plus Pegasus Courser).
If I had to redo things, I may have tried G or sleeved it up at least, given Chainer's Torment a try in that configuration, and tried both decks depending on what I face. My head hurt and I was tired, so I missed all the keywords on Song of Freyalise, in particular the vigilance+indestructible combo that lets you swing at least once for free. Card's busted, and I thought it was more of a build-around if your pool could either go-wide or use the mana.
I may have tried The Mirari Conjecture too, what with running my removal in a 2/2 instant/sorcery split. On the other hand since most of it is splashed chances to get it stuck in hand are high.
Match 1 vs RW flyers/equip
I don't like playing against him because he's extremely slow and I've went to time a couple times against him, including while he was playing an all-in aggro pirates deck in RIX. I'm sure Wave knows what kind of thing I'm talking about.
+ Show Spoiler +
He assembles the Voltron combo of Orcish Vandal + an equipment + Tiana, urgh. Thanksfully I have a bunch of X/3s, but Teshar goes down quick. Raff did a good job letting Serra Disciple trade with jousting lance-equipped flyers on defense, and from there Courser + hexproof turtle puts pressure, but I have to leave myself open in order to tap both his Serra Angel and Tiana to get in. I math it out and he can sac lance in my 2nd main and get it back, recast and equip it, swing, and sac again to deal 13 of my 14 life. Because it takes him 5 mana and he's going to have the remaining card + his drawn one I figure it's my best chance, and it works.
Game 2 he slams History of Benalia on turn 3 on the play, follows with Courser and Dub on it. Holy shit. I go super low to set up Surveyor -> Teshar -> flash Raff to bring back Surveyor. The pegasus ends up exiled, as I save control magic for... whatever bombier he may have. Serra Angel. I play mine too and go to town.
It's looking decent and I have a fun combo in hand so I decide to go for the flashy play, casting Eviscerate on a creature and flashing Naru Meha to copy it, bringing back Surveyor again (prob shoulda brought a 2/3 instead), opp is empty-handed so nothing bad can happen right?
Topdecks Tiana, he's got a short sword so she blanks the Serra Angel. Next turn he topdecks the +2/+1 menace aura so I have to double-chump her with my flyers and hope I can kill next turn since I'm at 5, I don't.
Time is called and it's a draw.
So I lost to on-curve absurd mythic and later a double topdeck of precisely the cards he needed, right?
Well, I can't say for 100% sure because I may actually have had lethal on board if I attacked with everything, in which case my headache made me miss it. So I'm not gonna get mad at it because I can't tell whether I fucked up (arguably a chance to climb back up yet another hill) or got fucked.
Game 2 he slams History of Benalia on turn 3 on the play, follows with Courser and Dub on it. Holy shit. I go super low to set up Surveyor -> Teshar -> flash Raff to bring back Surveyor. The pegasus ends up exiled, as I save control magic for... whatever bombier he may have. Serra Angel. I play mine too and go to town.
It's looking decent and I have a fun combo in hand so I decide to go for the flashy play, casting Eviscerate on a creature and flashing Naru Meha to copy it, bringing back Surveyor again (prob shoulda brought a 2/3 instead), opp is empty-handed so nothing bad can happen right?
Topdecks Tiana, he's got a short sword so she blanks the Serra Angel. Next turn he topdecks the +2/+1 menace aura so I have to double-chump her with my flyers and hope I can kill next turn since I'm at 5, I don't.
Time is called and it's a draw.
So I lost to on-curve absurd mythic and later a double topdeck of precisely the cards he needed, right?
Well, I can't say for 100% sure because I may actually have had lethal on board if I attacked with everything, in which case my headache made me miss it. So I'm not gonna get mad at it because I can't tell whether I fucked up (arguably a chance to climb back up yet another hill) or got fucked.
Match 2 vs jeskai pile
+ Show Spoiler +
Game 1 he mulls on the play and sighs about his bad hand.
t4 flashes Raff, when I try to Seal him Away next turn flashes in Shalai to hose me with Hexproof. I kill Shalai,, he flashes in Tiana, I cast Ice Manipulator and he unwinds it. Looked bad for sure, man.
Game 2 he keeps a risky hand and is stuck on 3 mana, but I only have Surveyor and a 2/2 and he played a Surveyor's Compass so it's not like I'm killing him anytime soon. Raff and Serra Angel get there in time though (after Manipulator gets countered again and Weatherlight brought in for his flyers is exiled by Blessed Light... and he goes control magic on the angel and I do it too with my own), but not before he shows me Jhoira too. Damn, man. 'k Cast Down is out I've only seen one non-legendary creature so far (also my hand at the end of the game was literally all 3 B removal and nothing else).
Game 3 he misplays by playing the rare R saga, using the ramp to play Tiana as I hold back... because he thought the "if you do [sac a mountain]" text means you can decline. So Tiana dies. RIP. From there I have to survive History of Benalia tho, then flyer + manip take over for me.
So, I'll just recap the stuff he played, and add he's playing 16 lands + compass for fixing.
Raff, Shalai, Jhoira, History of Benalia, In Bolas' Clutches, Jaya Ballard, Tiana, both R sagas.
You freaking madman.
(I joked that no 2 games would be similar for him as his deck looked like it had several packages of 2-3 cards synergies and it depended on which one he drew, and he agreed.)
t4 flashes Raff, when I try to Seal him Away next turn flashes in Shalai to hose me with Hexproof. I kill Shalai,, he flashes in Tiana, I cast Ice Manipulator and he unwinds it. Looked bad for sure, man.
Game 2 he keeps a risky hand and is stuck on 3 mana, but I only have Surveyor and a 2/2 and he played a Surveyor's Compass so it's not like I'm killing him anytime soon. Raff and Serra Angel get there in time though (after Manipulator gets countered again and Weatherlight brought in for his flyers is exiled by Blessed Light... and he goes control magic on the angel and I do it too with my own), but not before he shows me Jhoira too. Damn, man. 'k Cast Down is out I've only seen one non-legendary creature so far (also my hand at the end of the game was literally all 3 B removal and nothing else).
Game 3 he misplays by playing the rare R saga, using the ramp to play Tiana as I hold back... because he thought the "if you do [sac a mountain]" text means you can decline. So Tiana dies. RIP. From there I have to survive History of Benalia tho, then flyer + manip take over for me.
So, I'll just recap the stuff he played, and add he's playing 16 lands + compass for fixing.
Raff, Shalai, Jhoira, History of Benalia, In Bolas' Clutches, Jaya Ballard, Tiana, both R sagas.
You freaking madman.
(I joked that no 2 games would be similar for him as his deck looked like it had several packages of 2-3 cards synergies and it depended on which one he drew, and he agreed.)
Match 3 v GW this-is-DOM-sealed
+ Show Spoiler +
Match 1 goes with Llanowar elf, some stuff, Song of Freyalise. My play is to bounce a creature to reduce the amount of buffed shit. Yay. That's when I realise the vigilance+indestructible keyword combo and Danitha is a lot worse when she can't even block a buffed saproling because of that. Then Lyra drops.
Fucking Lyra. I'm sick of seeing her fucking mug right in people's faces at literally over half the top tables all pre-releases this week-end.
Game 2 I have Danitha + Courser so after ramping with Elves and Grow from Ashes he just kicks the rare dino to fight her. I control magic the dino to send in the air but he just topdecks Serra Angel.
I end up winning because of some reason he stops chumping it at some point and I have a life buffer from Danitha that prevents him from racing with Serra Angel... until he kicks Krosan Druid. Couple turns later, I swing with everything but Teshar, losing Courser on purpose to the Serra Angel to push a bunch of damage. End of his turn flash in Naru, trigger Teshar and get Courser back, do it again.
Look I won one game! ... with my opponent's bomb! 'cause yeah if you look at mine...
Game 3, well... he mulls, scries to the bottom, keeps a one-lander on the play.
t1 forest go
t2 Llanowar elves topdeck
t3 Adventurous Impulse topdeck, keep a plains, Saproling Migration
t4 Song of Freyalise, use the creatures to cast Sisay
t5 cast 4-drop Aven thanks to creature mana
t6 draws the 3rd land, hits me for 16
I'm sure that looked fun to him.
That was also some fucking bullhit and he would have gotten crushed instead if he didn't topdeck Elf->Impulse and I could afford to leave Syncopate (which I had from the start) up.
But that's Dominaria. Chain bombs and make bullshit happen because high power level.
Fucking Lyra. I'm sick of seeing her fucking mug right in people's faces at literally over half the top tables all pre-releases this week-end.
Game 2 I have Danitha + Courser so after ramping with Elves and Grow from Ashes he just kicks the rare dino to fight her. I control magic the dino to send in the air but he just topdecks Serra Angel.
I end up winning because of some reason he stops chumping it at some point and I have a life buffer from Danitha that prevents him from racing with Serra Angel... until he kicks Krosan Druid. Couple turns later, I swing with everything but Teshar, losing Courser on purpose to the Serra Angel to push a bunch of damage. End of his turn flash in Naru, trigger Teshar and get Courser back, do it again.
Look I won one game! ... with my opponent's bomb! 'cause yeah if you look at mine...
Game 3, well... he mulls, scries to the bottom, keeps a one-lander on the play.
t1 forest go
t2 Llanowar elves topdeck
t3 Adventurous Impulse topdeck, keep a plains, Saproling Migration
t4 Song of Freyalise, use the creatures to cast Sisay
t5 cast 4-drop Aven thanks to creature mana
t6 draws the 3rd land, hits me for 16
I'm sure that looked fun to him.
That was also some fucking bullhit and he would have gotten crushed instead if he didn't topdeck Elf->Impulse and I could afford to leave Syncopate (which I had from the start) up.
But that's Dominaria. Chain bombs and make bullshit happen because high power level.
In conclusion, Skittering Surveyor is super good because fixing is ass if you aren't Green.
I'm sick of Lyra. Over ~155 people, of which I checked out less than half, I saw 14+ of her opened.
There seem to be 3 rules of Dominaria sealed, with the massive prince format it's been:
- if you don't have bombs, get fucked or pray they draw no lands and you can aggro
- if one of you draws his bombs (or more), landslide victory
- if both players draw bombs (or none), fun stuff actually gets to happen for both players, but in most game it still boiled down to people throwing haymakers at each other until somebody bricked on his topdecks.
We have a massive sealed tournament in 2 weeks, 100+ people expected, side events, etc. to revitalize the local scene.
To be honest, right now I'm just super miffed that it happens with what appears to be a massively bomb-heavy and lopsided format, because from what I've seen if I open another mediocre pool then (and opening 2-3 bombs in a pair seems to qualify for mediocre pools from the ones I've seen do well) I'm just going to spend my entire day getting steamrolled.
Alternatively, it feels a bit like the Unstable match when I realised there's a powerful discard deck in Bx augment: it felt counter-productive to the zany, do-fun-things format that a deck existed that could prevent people from getting to play the fun cards. I got lucky to get some fun synergy with Raff-Teshar-Surveyor, but when Icy Manip reads "stall till opp draws the next bomb", that's a bit disheartening.
![[image loading]](https://i.gyazo.com/efbeeb3f5e3b7ff62235c3e124c2b475.jpg)
