The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1873

Picked Dimir, got to listen to the bitching "I have my exact list of money cards I want and won't be satisfied if I don't open at least one mythic (of the specific ones I want) or the 15€+ rares" guy from our drafting group until he yelled 'cause he had Vraska is a non-promo card. RIP my ears.

The seeded pack probably held a third of my deck. We joked with another pal from that group because my Dimir pack had more Boros gold cards than Dimir, and more than his Boros pack... in return he ended up playing Grixis 'cause he opened more Dimir gold cards and Black cards than me, including the mythic demon.
I had something like 26-27 playables in my colours and no "cross-guild" fixing (all Boros, Selesnya or Dimir, so couldn't splash R or G easily) so build was fast. Half my rares were lands too.

Match 1 was a Dimir mirror, I opened with Thoughtbound Phantasm into Nightveil Sprite. Risky off of 2 lands but I drew the 3rd and after that the surveil every attack helped, along the t3 Darkblade Agent. After that I was holding Dazzling Lights so a double-block would have been a disaster.
Game 2 I had to keep a not-great hand, Thought Erasure took my Rain of Notion and I started seeing a bunch of lands while my opponent drew 4, surveiled one to the graveyard and was only gas for a good 6 turns, so I already wasn't great, but when we both played and buffed a Dimir Spybug, and he used his promo (rare Dimir split card) to mind control my bug, well... yeah.
Game 3 I should have mulliganed and got punished, but it didn't matter. t4 he tapped out immediately so I knew Nightveil Predator was coming, but he paused, hesitated, and played Rampaging Monument. Yup, Predator def. coming turn 5 and growing the Monument. I wasn't gonna compete with that + bounce.
He told me later that he lost twice to Boros running him over after that.

Match 2 vs Golgari. I kept a 2-lander on the draw with the Faerie Sprite again, and got my 3rd land on turn 6 after binning Dead Weight, Nightveil Predator and Disdainful Stroke. What a start. My opponent played a couple walls and 1/Xs so Snitch + Sprite actually had me pinging for damage. Once I got my lands I actually just played blockers and a Muse Drake and kept hitting since he had the ground locked up but not great attacks. I ended up making a copy of the Snitch with Quasiduplicate and draining him over a couple turns. He flooded super hard after turn 4-5 sadly.
I don't remember game 2 much but it involved Dimir Spybug and Thoughtbound Phantasm growing almost every turn.

Match 3 vs Boros, the SO of one of the drafters, she likes playing but lacks experience due to not doing it too often.
Game 1 I had Sprite, Guildmage, something else, Spybug, and a duplicated Spybug when she used Defeaning Clarion to get a 5-3 and clean my board before I cracked in with 2 4/4 menace flyers. That hurt. I got to chain Muse Drake and Snitch to ping a bit (healer's hawk gave her a cushion), and hesitated between cloning Snitch or a surveyor with jumpstarted Quasiduplicate, and opted for the Snitch. Got to bounce an Agent of Whispers on my turn, surveil a Watcher in the Mist top and drain twice, then on her turn flash the Agent to surveil again, draining 2 and knowing I'd untap and do it a third time. Synergy's cool.
Game 2 I had 4 spells and 10 lands. Yeah... interestingly enough Gateway Plaza allowed me to stem the bleeding by providing bigger creatures, and had I found a surveil card at any point I'd have been able to offer a Darkblade 2-for-1 (double block or I draw), grow the Spybug to 3/3 to match Parhelion Mentor, and pay 3 to bring Blood Operative back to my hand and replay it. With all the synergies, doesn't take much.
Game 3 we played fast to avoid going to time so she did some misplays (she's still a bit slow, and not too used to aggro so it usually took her a bit of time to review her lines) but mostly she couldn't handle Douser of Lights cloned twice 'cause she never got to get the mentor train going.

I ended up 2-1 that way, too bad my Golgari opponent flooded, and his deck was missing clear cards (he played walls over Might of the Masses, Golgari Findbroker, the 4G rare that rebuys 3 gold cards, etc.). The consistency was there (when I got stuck on lands with Surveil going, it was because the 3rd land was the 13th card), deck was full of little synergies, the payoffs are great, so it was very satisfying to play.
I had the Increased Surveillance uncommon and Guild Summit too, but they didn't fit the deck's tempo plan at all.

Here's the pool which I found super interesting.
On the surface level it's straightforward: just play Abzan with all the fixing and the good W/GW cards. But with something like 35 playables not counting the lands, cuts had to be made and I probably didn't get an optimal build.

From what I could tell I wanted a bunch of cheap stuff, to defend early and be able to trade often to slow the games down and fuel Undergrowth, or to make the Swarm Guildmages' menace ability a threat. But on the other hand the meat of my deck was in the CMC 4+ slot with the payoffs. I didn't really have value creatures outside of the District elf, Generous Stray, etc. and trading to make Rhizome Lurchers decent 4-drops meant no convoke as my stuff'd die.

I ended up running 16 lands because of Flower and District Elf, 2x golgari guildgate, 1x gateway's plaza, 1x selesnya guildgate, overgrown tomb, a single plains.

Match 1 was against Boros. The guy's not new but he doesn' thave much experience, mainly playing with coworkers on lunch break from what he said when I faced him in draft yesterday (he had a cool RB sac deck but lack of experience was clear).
And then he drops t4 Aurelia. Welp. I immediately fired Undercity's Uprising to remove her, screw the 1-for-2. He came close to killing me, with Healer's Hawk dealing a good half of the damage.
Game 2 was more of the same, without Aurelia but pushing enough damage (Demote for W is great to let him affect the board). I played Kraul Foragers to heal myself for 3 rather than the Swarm Guildmage, and my opponent topdecked the +3/+2 aura, slapped on the Hawk, and killing me in 2 swings (so before I could untap with the Guildmage to buy a turn, RIP).
Game 3 had me flooding super hard from the very start, to the point that with 16 cards left in the deck only 3 were lands. My opponent ended up hitting a pocket too and after firing removal after removal to prevent his Wojek Bodyguard to have a buddy to enable its attacks, I drew a couple creatures and turned the corner. My opponent probably had openings to kill me earlier as he had Gravitic Punch and Direct Current in his yard and didn't think about Jumpstart. He was very pleasant to play with, a bit loud but having fun whenever he learnt a thing, whether it worked for him or me.

Match 2 vs that guy with his Izzet pack.
He's one of local "that guy", the one who plays UG and tries to splash Serra Angel with no fixing other than 3-4 plains and complains that it got stuck in his hand. Drafts greedy and refuses to listen to advice when his dumb manabases don't work out. While at the same so unable to refrain from talking all the time that he exposed his tone deafness by commenting "That's not an ideal week-end" completely seriously to a clerk mentioning he'd attend a burial and clearly not being in the mood.
So yeah, having to sit near him is a shore in itself.
This time he was playing Niv-Mizzet (UUURRR) in the same deck has Deadly Visit (3BB) with a manabase of one Izzet Guildgate, one Steam Vents, and all the rest was basics. So his sources probably looked like 8/7/4 or 8/8/3, not enough for either of his double pips, let alone the triple ones, let alone the "both triples at once."
Game 1 we both mull and he's bitching about how he had to mull in round 1 too, as he's playing a t2 Burglat Rat against somone who mulliganed on the play. He then chains his good flyers and removal (Lava Coil just so you're sure I don't get undergrowth going), cast Niv on turn 7 that I kill immediately (he still fucks his triggers up but hey, not knowing your rules and being tone deaf and grating on multiple people are definitely not conflicting with your stated goal of becoming a judge), and 2 turns later Deadly Visit. Sure.
Game 2 I have to mull again (still on the play) and he's again muttering "let's hope I don't have to mulligan for once". Just. Shut the fuck up. I proceed to be one land behind the plays I can/need to do, which buys him time to get other cards than the ones he's selling absurdly hard, passing without doing anything as soon as I hit my 4th land since he doesn't have Disdainful Stroke at all in his hand. I can tell about what 2/3rd of his hand is at any time but stuck on lands means I can't act on it, so I pity throw him a bone to the game can progress 'cause he'll end up topcking whatever, or even removal, if I wait. The whole time I'm missing a land for my "make 3 tokens" rare or to double spell and he topdecks the second Lava Coil when I play another 4/4 as a blocker.
But hey, better lucky than good right?
I asked him, in a conversational tone since I know he's so defensive on that topic, about his fixing a bit later. Immediately closed himself with "enough" when I mentioned the number of swamps he estimated for BB spells. Sure thing, keep trucking, as long as luck doesn't fail you.

Match 3 vs Golgari
Mythic demon on turn 5 both games. I don't have any of my 5 maindeck pieces of removal that can handle it game , and game 2 I mulled to 5 and he played a 3/1 on turn 2 anyway so who gives a fuck.

I didn't get to play much magic that one.