The LiquidLegends Lounge - Page 1879

His first time playing Modern, he built the deck and played it for the first time yesterday. Also he doesn't have bolts.
Game 1 doesn't have a great hand to handle the early Hollow One and Angler, I don't remember much but die quickly.
I side in Auriok Champion, Condemn and a couple other things.
In game 2 I keep a hand with Champion, Selfless Spirit, Path... feels pretty good, until a t1 Burning Inquiry from my opponent takes it all away and I now have 5 lands. Whoops. t2 Thalia slows him down (although I forgot to make him pay 1 more when he pays life for Surgical Extraction on Auriok Champion—I'd been so pumped for it he assumed it was an important card I'd have in multiples).
Phantasmal Image copies his Hollow One and he calls the judge to ask about its CMC, deciding that it can't be targeted with Fatal Push (it actually can because Push says "destroys if", so it'd do nothing itself but targeting the Image forces me to sacrifice it regardless). He also forgets that Thalia has First Strike when I block giant Flameblade Adepts.
My notes have him going from 14 to 11 then dead. I flashed/vialed in 2 lords at end of turn, didn't expect it to be so explosive.

I get over my fear of overboarding and put in both Rest In Peace.
Game 3 he keeps 2 mountains and I slam RIP on turn 2. It doesn't look great for him although I'm getting pinged by his Flameblade Adept for 5 turns because I don't have much going on.
Then I make a stupid: he attacks with Adept, I double block to kill it because I now have lords in play and know he can't discard at instant speed outside cycling Street Wraiths. He assigns 1 damage to Drogskol Captain, and proceeds to cast Sweltering Suns. The lord now dying cascades and wipes my board. What's dumb is that I had lethal on the crackback and was on 8 life, I just had to let it through.
Thanksfully for my sorry ass, we go to time the turn before I'd die to Hollow One (unless I topdeck something, but it was a topdeck war on 2 life vs 10 and he has bloodghasts and firewake phoenixes so... yeah).
0-0-1

Paired up.
Game 1 his Thoughtseize sees a hand of Vial, Supreme Phantom, Spell Queller, Selfless Spirit, Drogskol Captain and 2x lands. Yup. He takes the Vial, then turn 2 takes the Phantom after shocking himself because of the Mausoleum Wanderer I played, then fires off a couple removal spells but floods and I do the thing with a lord in play.

Game 2 I keep a super greedy Cavern of Souls, 2x Wanderer, Rattlechains, Sphere of Detention, Spell Queller, and Thalia, on the draw. I hesitated a lot, figured I had 2 spells with CMC 1, 2 more if I drew a land, was on the draw... at least the hand was discard-proof. But absurdly greedy.
I drew 2 lands then got stuck awhile, and a Clique on my draw step turn 3 (to dodge Queller) took Drogskol Captain. We spent some turns watching each other as he cantripped and made some tokens with a Young Pyro.
Couldn't attack through Eidolon of Rhetoric which slowed the game until I screwed up and lost it.
I drew Path to Exile for the Clique and started attacking, then ended up firing the Sphere on the Pyro (he had 2-3 cards in hand, so I should probably have removed the tokens instead, as he bolted in response for more tokens. I had Spell Queller by then, 2x Wanderers, and a lord.
He untapped, casted Kolaghan's Command on Queller (bolt under) and discarding my held 7th land, then tried another to get back his Pyro and finish off Queller, but Mausoleum #1 was sac'd, he tapped out to pay, I sac'd the other, and he conceded as I had lethal in the air.

He was hoping I'd try a race in the air or something so he could KCommand back his Clique from what he told me, while I was waiting on lords and path to do anything.
I didn't try too hard to protect my Thalia, which would have required sacrificing both Wanderers to counter a Fatal Push on turn 4 or something. I know she's strong, and he'd need Pyro + 2 tokens (or 3 tokens to save Pyro) to block her, which she'd slow down, but I felt like I wanted ways to counter big spells, and be able to swing for a lot with these spirits if I drew one of the lords.
I also played terribly around my Eidolon of Rhetoric and my opponent was slowed down but still used his instants on my turn, while I couldn't counter. the Push that killed it after I pathed the Clique (was my spell for the turn).
I'm there to learn anyway! And I definitely got lucky, too.

1-0-1

Game 1 was a decent start for me, although topdecking Vial on turn 2 makes me sad (I went t2 Thalia, t3 Vial missing 3rd land). I also didn't try to save Thalia with a vialed Selfless Spirit because my opponent was on 4 mana by then and I figured he'd do whatever he wanted.
He bought some time with counter+draw Cryptic Commands so I only hit for a bit, then once I have a lord down he goes Damnation—responds to Selfless Spirit sac by bolting Drogskol Captain. I hit him down to 1, have a Deputy of Detention I can vial in... Stéphane had been frantically checking his mana for the last couple turns, and when he untaps he drops Cruel Ultimatum on me. Whoops.
I vial in the Deputy to sac it and not discard anything, but there's also a bolt on top of it. I die 2 turns later to Creeping Tar Pit beats combined with the 5 life loss.

Game 2 starts with a hand a bit sketchy: Vial, Seachrome Coast, Thalia, multiple other creatures... but the only other hand is Mutavault so no gold cards for me unless I draw another land.
Spoiler: I won't over the 8 or 9 turns of the game.
Another spoiler: I still won.
We traded 1-for-1 a lot and my hand got locked out of 3-drops when the Vial got destroyed; but I still got to hit a bit and at some point I had 2x Supreme Phantom in play. I was hoping to play Thalia too to fight against Ultimatum this time by delaying it, but Cryptic Command is cast in my upkeep, to tap the team and bounce Mutavault. I'd let him tap, but I don't want the mana constraint so I tap out for Disdainful Stroke and hit Stéphane down to 3.
With the Mutavault being a 2/2, he needs to get rid of both Supreme Phantoms, or at least one and the Mutavault (including animating a land to block). He has Jace and Anger of the Gods in hand, but not enough mana to do both (and the Phantoms protect each other). He still had 5 cards or so in hand so I assume the others were Opt, Electrolyse (without the 3rd R mana) or such, to be honest I was floored that I won it.

Then I mulled in game 3 and ended the game with 3 Vials and 5 lands in play, RIP.
At least that got me to notice that Deputy of Detention is not a "may" and as such can't ever eat a lone Snapcaster, only tell your opponent "bolt this when you want a discount flashback".
1-1-1

I mistakenly pegged it as Izzet Phoenix until super late (no idea if he plays Blood Moon, and I only realise now typing this that I never played around it the whole tournament with my fetches).

Game 1 goes Vial into Thalia -> TitI -> on turn 3 he bolts Thalia, I vial in Selfless Spirit but let her die since there's a blocker. From there I get a couple lords down, Path TitI before it flips and despite the removal close it.
I see Things in the Ice, Serum Visions, Bolt... so, Phoenix that didn't drew it, yeah?
Got no Chalice but I side in Condemn, Detention Spheres, Declaration in Stone, Eidolon, Auriok Champion and Damping Spheres.

Game 2 starts with Damping Sphere and Eidolon of Rhetoric to slow the game down... but I don't get a better clock. I end up casting Sphere of Detention on a Grim Lavamancer because it effectively prevents me from playing anything unless I draw a Supreme Phantom, and still thinking he's on Phoenix I don't want to attack and lose the Eidolon to a bolt.
My opponent ends up playing Jace, so I Path the TitI just to drop Jace to 1, and he plays another TitI, then when I try to go to attacks with Rattlechains flashed in EoT to get through the air a flashed in Staticaster wrecks my plans.
From there I slowly lose as Jace's repeated brainstorms find Guillaume the removal and more draw needed, and when a TitI ends up flipping I can't recast enough creatures to get the lock back (because he's got 6-7 cards in hand) and avoid dying.

Game 3 has me flooding early on and dealing a couple points of damage while getting rid of TitI, then we end in a topdeck war but I have Mutavault and Moorland Haunt while he draws "normal" lands, and we traded enough resources early that Moorland Haunt gives me the gas to end it.

I probably played Eidolon of Rhetoric terribly again, especially because I was too afraid to commit Rattlechains and Mausoleum Wanderer in game 2 with the Staticaster under a Sphere of Detention. A Cryptic Command that I can't counter would immediatly wreck me but maybe I should have just went for it.
2-1-1

So... Titanshift. Yeah, I know I can't do much about that match-up, but hope I draw lords and Quellers rather than too many Vials.

Game 1 starts a bit slowly but I find a lord, then another one, and he scoops on turn 5 with lethal on board—I don't remember if I used a Queller or sacrificed the Mausoleum Wanderer to stop his Sweltering Suns.

I get to side in Disdainful Stroke, and Champion just in case (since my mana base isn't too painful I figure if I have no other 2-drop and it gains me a bit of life I can survive the Scapeshift, and with enough pressure even force some triggers on creatures as a result).
But then in game 2 he just goes his merry way while I draw 3 Rattlechains and 0 lords, Quellers or Disdainful Strokes so I'm pretty much dead after Titan resolves, and to add insult to injury he has Sweltering Suns to wipe my board next turn.

And in game 3 I mull to 5 on the play, miss my 3rd land and it doesn't matter because he has Titan instead of Scapeshift so Queller could never do anything.

I'm a bit frustrated because of the shit hands/draws I got dealt, and my opponent tapping out for Bloodbraid Elf into Thalia (even suiciding the Elf afterwards 'cause he forgot about first strike) and hitting Sakura Tribe Elder both times rather than any of Farseek, Bolt, Sweltering Suns, Search for Tomorrow... you get my drift. He even declined to pay to cast Search for Tomorrow out of suspend to cast the Elf the second time.
But I understand that it's a bad match-up to begin with and that I'm trying to race and praying to have a Stroke for the Titan, eg. my redundancy with only 8 lords and 2 counters isn't as good as his ton of ramp spells.
2-1-2