I am...(finally) victorious!
Went 2-1, but kirblinx got the full 4 points for losing. This means that if cloudshift hosting doesn't wreak things, we can have a complete upset next week in the rankings. Games were insane, except for the first game of every match where I was utterly destroyed. Deck would just not run well for some reason on game 1s.
This was the beast.
I've never gone into these UG tempo decks before, though I know they're good, but its super uncomfortable drafting them. You're always in that mindset of drafting removal heavily in limited formats, and these decks really askew that approach for a little bounce, evasion, disruption, and
massive productions of burst damage. You're ideally building towards one turn where you deal 10+ points of evasive damage, after chipping at them throughout the game. Lots of instants and tricks that they have to play around.
The draft was...well, by the end of it I knew I basically could just never beat a turn 2
porcelain legionnaire. The last couple rounds, I've largely attributed my losses to not having enough early creatures to starve off damage until my late game takes over, and I felt I failed in that regards again this week. The only high point in the draft was seeing mistfire, which I know is the best card in these sorts of UG decks.
His deck was really cool, and basically played like the boros kitty decks in pauper, where ETB artifacts, and replaying or blinking the ETB artifacts, becomes the decks source of card draw. His deck had some brutal bombs, card draw, good removal, and reasonable early pressure. Even worse, he managed to get a
master splicer and
wing splicer, with a bunch of other golems, and had a tribal theme going. Its a really intimidating pool to look at for me. Thankfully, this ended up being a reasonable matchup. He would hemorrhage tempo in the early game playing his artifacts; this meant he wasn't adding to the board, which was the thing I was most scared of.
Though there would be certain draw sequences that would be brutally hard for me to beat, but which I managed to avoid. Flickerwisp on a bounceland, turn 4 moltensteel dragon, and turn 2 legionnaire were going to be rough. I was also trying to avoid
prison term (which I considered hate drafting out of an insane pack where he could get there,
assault strobe, or
rolling thunder), as it basically wreaked all of my hexproof/buff/aura shannigans. His pool just looks like a bunch of cards that I basically can never beat.
However, the MVPs
Mistfire was the best card in the deck, bar none, and most of the games I won involved some combination of mistfire and become immense. Ambush viper is just adorable when you start pairing it up with auras, and even without that it feeds delve, acts as removal, blanks attacks, or sneaks in damage. What a little role player.
The games were so much fun though.
After m1g1 I thought I had really screwed up, and was going to board in a couple red 2 drops (which would have been a mistake) but had accidentally removed them from my pool. I was crushed by a turn 2
spined thopter into flickerwisp disruption on my bouncelands. Ugh.
m1g2 he had the sort of slower start I needed, where he went evolving wilds-
chronomaton->
ichor wellspring, while I was able to setup a bounceland without it being
flickerwisped and ran out
mistfire adept, destroyer of worlds. After it resolved, he
flickerwisped on his turn. I had a
gruul turf in play, and a hand of gas, and was pretty worried he was going to hit the bounce, but instead he flickered his wellspring.
I untapped, and the madness begins. I have the following hand:
which, of course, results in:
11/9 flying trampler...all the things I want in magic.
This drops him down to 9, but his deck is gas, and he drops a wingsplicer.
Than the turn sequences just got really tight. On my turn I draw
silumgar sorcerer, and drop a temple of epithany, seeing an
acidic slime, which I ponder about for a bit, but decide to top. Granted I have to worry about a 3/3 flying chronomaton and 3/3 golem token, but at the worst I can slime the token.
I crack in with an 8/6 mistfire, and he double blocks. He can tap and pump the chronomaton to still kill the mistfire even if I fire off stroke. I
could fire off stroke looking for an instant, but decide its better to keep stroke and sorcerer up. This was actually a little tricky, because I have to assign damage, so I make an even 3 split, with 2 going through to him. I figure if he decides to save his chronomaton thats fine: at this point I just want to keep the pressure up. I know I'm going to get a 3/3 token and rancor out of this, no matter what. He lets both creatures die, and on his turn he goes to
azorius arrester the elephant token. I crack terrarion, run out sorcerer (drawing the
acidic slime, which now looks kind of bad), and he
tarfires the sorcerer. I opt to pass on the exploit trigger, rather than killing my own elephant token. He cracks in, and drops me to 13. he is at 7. Than on his second main, glory be to jesus, he runs out a bounceland.
Draw for the turn is
scryb ranger. Everything is coming up millhouse. Acidic slim on his boros garrison, than holding up mana for scryb ranger, 2/2 deathtouch in play, 3/3 elephant token, and
rancor in hand. Slowly building up to the kill.
On his turn he hits me down to 10 and he runs out a
kor skyfisher, which is not the card I want to see on his side.
I rancor up the ranger, and hes at 7, so I swing with the team for leathal. Our teams trade off, he goes to four, and has a flickerwisp and wingsplicer. I have an untapped elephant token, and rancor in hand. He EOT
brimstone volleys the elephant token, which is a really close play (I was at 10 and he had a 3/1 flyer) but I
think he had to do it at some point. If I can rancor up the elephant guide, I can swing for lethal through a one toughness blocker.
He taps out on his turn for
moltensteel dragon. My hand is
deep analysis,
stroke of genius,
rancor, and
golgari rot farm. I'm going to need a miracle stat, and fire off the stroke.
Perfection? Close to it? I'm kind of stunned and sit there running lines through my head. Draw for the turn is
saproling burst. I pass turn with all of that mana open, and discard the rot farm. 11 cards in the yard.
His turn, he cracks with molten steel and flickerwisp. Wingsplicer stays home. I'm at 6, but he can't really pump the dragon. Flash in
horizon chimera, cross fingers, hope no instant speed removal, delve
become immense onto the chimera making it a 9/8 and eating the dragon, dropping to 3 from the wisp. I have the win all setup and than...on his second main he ichor wellsprings into...
voyager staff!
I'm thinking of all the ways this screws up my plans, but he cracks the staff immediately, targeting flickerwisp, and than flickered the wingsplicer, which I'm pretty sure was a misclick. I think I would have still been fine, since I had deep analysis and saproling burst, as well as the somonophore. At this point though he is just dead, but I need to step away from the monitor for a moment to calm my nerves.
And thats a good thing, because M1g3 was another nail biter
He had another slow start, which I'm relieved about, especially since I'm having some trouble with my mana. I have memory lapse in hand, but am stuck on three lands, so I figure that I will tap out to
trinket mage for a
sylvok lifestaff, because why not pressure him?
Immediately punished.
Why...why me!?
So, I'm stuck on three lands, conceivably dead in a couple turns, with a stupid
trinket mage in play. To add salt to the wound, draw for the turn is
mnemonic wall. My only hope is to try to bait him to blocking so I can vines the trinket mage, which he of course declines to do. I run out the lifestaff (hope you were worth it). He cracks in at me for 6, and I drop to 14.
Draw is
compulsive research, and I just jam it, hitting big:
temple of mystery,
rancor, and
snap. Memory lapse and vines go the yard, as I figure I won't have time for them. Play out temple, seeing ranger, which goes to the bottom. Hes at 15 from his own dragon, and I drop him to 13. I have a plan.
On his turn I take another 6, he goes to 8, and he
sunlance's my trinket mage. He actually couldn't kill me here without killing himself, due to those trinket mage attacks, but I'm very dead next turn, according to the board.
So, now the standoff. He goes for the attack, and I let him bleed himself down to 9 life, before I snap the dragon back to his hand. He has four mana untapped, so if he wants to recast it, he goes to 5. He opts not to recast it, and runs out wing splicer. I stroke for 2 at EOT, and everything looks great. I run out the acidic slime to kill the golem token, followed by simic growth chamber, and will have enough mana to
mnemonic wall->
snap, next turn if I need to address the dragon again.
He skyfishers, replaying the wing splicer. Leaving two mana up for the voyager staff he played turn 1.
Now, my turn is adorable.
So, I want to deploy my
saproling burst,
elephant guide,
become immense, and
rancor, but his
voyager staff will royally screw everything up. However, he is unlikely to want to flicker the
acidic slime, because he knows this will cost him his golem. As long as this board state continues, I will be unable to really deploy my threats, and end up losing. Because he left red up, i'm also a little worried about tarfire on the slime, in response to anything I do.
So, I first put the lifestaff on the slime. Than I play out the forest, and cast
rancor on the slime, before the attack. I don't want to attack first, because he might opt to trade with the slime, rather than using the staff, and my whole goal is to induce the staff usage. Now he is in a spot. If he has
tarfire, and hits the slime, I go up three life, which is really nice in this spot. If he doesn't flicker I get to have a 5/2 trample death touch creature that gains me three life on its death. I'll get to swing, and if he blocks, he losses board position, takes damage, and I go up three. If he does flicker in response, than I get to blow up his token.
He flickers the slime in response, as the bait of rancor is too good. I play out a saproling burst, slime comes back, and blows up his golem.
On his turn, he drops me to 6, he's at 9, than plays out the dragon and
porcelain legionnaire, putting me in another precarious spot, but I've carefully developed the board for this kill. Make 3 tokens with saproling burst EOT.
mnemonic wall->
snap, tap
simic growth chamber and
temple of mystery to
snap targeting the dragon.
Elephant guide on the
acidic slime, leaving
temple of mystery up, 7 cards in the yard. Swing, and
become immense one of the unblocked tokens.
And I actually win!
m2g1 I get crushed, m2g2 I might do a write up later (it was really cool). M2g3 I feel was decided by a vines protecting an early
mistfire adept. Adept just took over after that.
