I swear that I wanted to start doing play-by-play again. Like every New Year’s resolution, it’s now sitting in the corner of the TV room with well-intentioned exercise clothes hanging off of it.
Trotting out my new Oros, the Avenger deck, I took pen and paper with me. I figured that I’d do some play-by-play of a few casual games just to have it in the can, in case I didn’t want to do it for League because I was playing in a heavy social interaction game with some of the great folks that hang around Armada Games.
Corner of the TV room.
I even started. "Jesse with Uril, the Miststalker, Shawn with The Mimeoplasm, Adam with Karona, False God." I figured, "Meh, it’s early afternoon. I’ll do this later." The game got social, full of laughs, and I ignored the sheet.
That evening, I even restarted. "Round 1:Â Madison with Rafiq of the Many, Shane with Teneb, the Harvester, Mike with Karador, Ghost Chieftain. I’m changing decks because I don’t want to mess up Mike (who’s new) playing his only deck."Â
That’s about as far as it got. We shuffled up, there were announcements, we started chatting, ran through the first few turns, and I realized that I was thoroughly disinterested in recording the details. I want to report the details so you folks can be part of Embracing the Chaos, but writing down everything is really time-consuming and drags the game for the other players. Clearly, we’re going to have to come up with a better way to record the games.
The offer, which I made more than a year ago, still stands. I’ll pay someone $20 ($10/hour tax free while you’re hanging around a game shop!) to sit by the game and record it. That someone could probably even use a laptop, which would make transcription pretty easy. Video or audio recording is an option, but that means going back through it to write it down anyway. Although I suppose we could record it, and I could just pay someone the fee in order to put it into a readable format.
If you have reasonable ideas, feel free to ship them along. Again, I’d love to bring the hot play-by-play action to you, but getting it recorded in a fashion that doesn’t eat up piles of time (and cut into the fun of playing) is the challenge.
That’s not to say I don’t have a report. The first thing is that I made some changes before playing Oros based on some of last week’s forum feedback (and some for my inability to find cards).
Austere Command came out for Akroma’s Vengeance. I’m a fan of Austere Command’s flexibility, but I simply didn’t have one lying around. They’re all obviously in decks.
Armillary Sphere replaced Coalition Relic. In the end, I figured that having the extra lands was preferable to the additional mana rock. I dreamed of some proliferate foolishness with the Relic, but I set that idea aside for something a little more reasonable.
Archon of Justice was another card that I just couldn’t find, so Angel of Despair replaced it. I’ve gotten miles and miles out of the Archon in Karador, but the Angel is a fine replacement.
I also couldn’t find a Bloodgift Demon, so I grabbed Rune-Scarred Demon instead. Tutoring is great and it was the difference in one of the casual games we played, but once I dig up a Bloodgift it’s probably coming back in.
I also couldn’t find a Hateflayer, and I simply replaced it with the nearest card at hand, White Sun’s Zenith. I had been thinking about WSZ anyway as support for Mistveil Plains, and I think I like it better.
Phthisis was one of the forum suggestions and I wanted it in, so out came the cool-but-janky Debt of Loyalty. Phthisis is definitely a card that punishes someone for going to extremes with creature size, so it’s indeed a good fit for the deck.
There were combined forum sentiments that led to taking out Leyline of Punishment and putting in Wild Ricochet. The first is that I’m doing a fair amount of damage prevention myself, and Leyline is contrary to that plan. To replace it, I took the suggestion of Wild Ricochet since it can be amazing on its own and certainly an awesome fetch with Sunforger.
I pulled a Mountain to put in Thawing Glaciers. The deck doesn’t need huge piles of mana save for a huge Brightflame or White Sun’s Zenith, but it does like the correct colors. The Glaciers gets me there.
Finally, I somehow had 101 cards in the mix, so I pulled Myojin of Night’s Reach. I don’t want to be that guy.
The forum suggestion that I didn’t yet take but am going to is Reito Lantern. The most likely thing to come out is one of the mana rocks. The Lantern helps with any number of things in recursion decks, can be a great mana dump, and doesn’t have the same requirements as Mistveil Plains. Thanks to Robert Fitzpatrick for that great idea.
The first game I played with Oros was with Vaughn (Dromar, the Banisher), Rob (Zedruu), and Adam (my Lord of Tresserhorn). Adam was quite excited to tell me that he had finally built a deck—but then left it on the counter at the shop and it disappeared. The silver lining here is that Armada employee Jesse Fisher had mistakenly put it into his bag before leaving (along with all his own decks, which also happened to be on the counter). While Jesse was on his way with his crazy new Karona build, Adam borrowed one of mine. It does serve as a cautionary tale to keep positive control of your stuff even when you’re in a friendly environment. It just so happened that this one was a simple mistake involving one of the good guys, but it might have been a fortuitous mistake. Had Jesse not grabbed Adam’s deck with all his own decks, someone less honest could’ve easily slipped away with it. The end lesson is to make sure you always know where your stuff is.
In the first game, Oros did what it does. Adam and Vaughn were the early aggressors, but Vaughn ran out of steam (and failed to get much card draw) and Adam didn’t get much of the graveyard recursion going after a timely Wrath of God. Anathemancer plus Galepowder Mage did a fair amount of damage to Adam, but that too eventually got Wrathed away. I caught Rob with an EOT Sudden Impact when he had about fifteen cards in hand, which got his life total manageable, and right after got Sunforger online. Lord of Tresserhorn got a little scary with Sword of War and Peace on it, but I peeled Return to Dust like a boss. Rob’s Sphinx of Uthuun ruled the skies for a little bit and he took out both Adam and the still-stalled Vaughn, but in the end I got out Spiteful Visions and the Sunforger package was just too much for him (casting Oblation on his Fog Bank being the operative play).
The second game was the crazy one. Jesse had shown up with Adam’s deck, so he (with Uril) tapped in for Vaughn, and Rob gave up his seat for Shawn (with Thraximundar). My turn 4 play was Galepowder Mage. Shawn’s turn 5 play was to Bribery me—for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. When Adam and Jesse face-tabled, I offered him take backs. He refused, and we all assumed he had a plan. Turns out he didn’t.
Adam followed up my retrieval of Ulamog with Font of Mythos. When it came around to my turn, Jesse had already gotten out a fair number of permanents. So it wouldn’t have been that bad to Annihilator him, but table sentiment seemed to be that Shawn needed to be reminded of being aware of on-board tricks, so he was the first target. I then dropped Spiteful Visions. When the roar subsided, we were drawing and taking four per turn.
A few turns later, after hitting both Jesse (who had some level of protection in a creature enchanted with Spirit Mantle) and Adam, Ulamog was gone due to some timely Wrathing and a Sheoldred. Adam got Karona out, and the hilarity was on. He attacked me, and then shipped it to Jesse, who may have been able to kill me with it or certainly was setting me up for Shawn to be able to. The Exile in my hand was useless, although I did have Delirium. I wanted to be cagey with it, and when it looked like Jesse was going to point Karona back Adam’s way, I was a little more than relieved. Jesse cast an Avenger of Zendikar for some Karona protection. Shawn did attack me with it, but I figured eating that one would be so bad. I also sent it back at Adam and figured that enough was enough, so I cast Akroma’s Vengeance (especially since Jesse could name "Plant" with Karona’s trigger). It left me with enough mana for Delirium should Adam recast Karona, but he didn’t, instead opting for Guile. Someone then mentioned Dovescape. He cast it next turn.
Jesse fortunately cast Qasali Pridemage. On my turn, I cast Rune-Scarred Demon. Jesse cracked the Pridemage in response to the trigger, but Adam said he didn’t really want to make infinite Birds; he liked the combo to simply slow the game down a little and he was happy to let Dovescape go. I told him he was welcome to create all the dudes he wanted, but he didn’t take the bait. He put it in the yard, and as I was searching I showed him both Netherborn Phalanx and Massacre Wurm, which he got a pretty good laugh out of.
Karona made a reappearance, getting enchanted with a Vow of Something-or-other. He eventually killed Jesse and Shawn and had his sights set on me. The Exile was still useless (is Condemn maybe a better choice there since it can tuck a general?). I Wrathed away Karona, but Adam had more white dudes and was just beating my face. At six life, I cast White Sun’s Zenith for thirteen in order to stay alive, chumping with a few of them. Someone asked why I didn’t use all of them to kill his guys, and I showed him. On my turn, it was time to swing the game. I cast Brightflame for thirteen, enough to kill all his guys and put me at 162. I was still in danger of getting Karona’d out, but I always had at least one guy available. He was within range of a single hit from his own general, so he left him in the Command Zone. At that high life total, it was only a matter of time before I could wear him down.
I’m a fan of Adam’s moderately chaotic Karona build. I’ll see if I can get a list and feature it eventually.
Moving on to the League proper, 24 players showed up for Week 3. It seems as though the grumbling about the League ban on Primeval Titan hasn’t kept away too many folks. There were a few new faces, which is always good.
In fact, two of the folks I sat down with in round 1, Madison (Rafiq) and Mike (Karador) were new. The third, Shane (Teneb), was also moderately new, but we had met a few times before. As I mentioned above, I was going to play Karador, but I didn’t want to throw any monkey wrenches into Mike’s plans so I grabbed Kresh.
We (rightly) feared Rafiq, but when he didn’t come down turn 4 I realized that Madison didn’t have any blue mana. We all started moderately slowly, although I had cast turn 2 Melira, Sylvok Outcast. I got Solemn Simulacrum on turn 4, and then a weird thing happened. Mike was taking his turn, and Madison said, "Crap!" On his last turn, he had cracked a Terramorphic Expanse, and now he realized that he had somehow shuffled his hand back into his library. He had had a full grip, and now he was empty. I verified with the other two guys that it was just okay for him to draw seven new ones, which he did. I came to find out later that he had been holding blue mana sources in his hand and now didn’t have any. It mostly came down to not being able to cast Rafiq. It didn’t otherwise keep him from being a factor in the game, because his deck was mostly comprised of Knights and white cards.
After a Wrath from Shane, which kept Madison’s Knights in check, I began the creature build, starting with Mitotic Slime and Skullclamp (two great tastes that taste great together). One of them was Withered Wretch, which meant I could keep graveyards clear of creatures. Then came Disciple of Griselbrand. When I peeled Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, I knew it was going to get very good for me.
Shane and Madison were also building pretty good armies, with Shane’s led by Grave Titan. He battled a few times into the other two and started amassing Zombies. Madison was doing okay as well, with Lightwielder Paladin threatening everyone else at the table’s position. Eventually, I played Living Death as a one-sided Wrath, being able to sacrifice all my guys to Devouring Swarm and/or Disciple and piling up the life.
The good news for everyone else was Shane followed that with a Living Death of his own. Sure, I got all my guys back, but so did they. We got into a fairly large creature stall, but with Mikaeus, Mitotic Slime, Skullclamp, and sac outlets, I was drawing a few cards and keeping my board healthy.
The other three realized that Disciple of Griselbrand and Devouring Swarm were really the culprits. Unfortunately, I had also already gotten Bloodshot Cyclops online. They teamed up to kill Devouring Swarm (my only flier). When Shane cast Oblivion Ring and targeted Disciple, it wasn’t all that bad, but with less than 20 minutes left in the round I figured it was time for action. Shane’s O-Ring had tapped him out, so I figured there was greater EV in killing Madison—who was next to play—and more importantly, at lower life, meaning I wouldn’t need to sacrifice too many guys to get Kresh big enough to fling. I drew Survival of the Fittest on the next turn, eventually pitching Lord of Extinction and Urabrask into the yard to keep Butcher of Malakir. Casting Victimize to bring those two back put a quick end to the game.
In round 2, I sat with Shea (Teneb), Chris (Kresh), and Tom (Thraximundar). I played Karador after making a few changes:
In: Doomgape, Feed the Pack, Woodfall Primus
Out: Knight of the Reliquary, Lurking Predators, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
Sorin had gotten shoved in because he was new and cool. He didn’t really do much for the deck, but when I make that Black/White token deck you know he’s going in. I talked about rearranging the land base to suit KotR but decided to save him for one of the other decks down the line. After taking out the relatively high casting cost Angels, I thought that Feed the Pack would be more interesting than Lurking Predators, allowing me quite some shenanigans with recasting the guys I sacrifice. As a final note, I’m taking Fallen Angel out of the deck because the only foil version of the card has awful art. I’m replacing it with Devouring Swarm, which basically does the same thing just a little worse. I think I’ll get a modified art version of the Legends Fallen Angel at some point. Until then, get thee hence, terrible art!
Shea mentioned needing to leave by a certain time to get up early for work, so we obliged him by playing pretty quickly. The four of us have known each other quite a while, so we were comfortable speeding through the earlier turns. This is also a group that I’d choose to play with regularly. I think each of them understands what makes the format best: playing rough without going over the top. They all also understand how to be social and have fun while playing, so it’s wins all around.
Tom and Chris were both aggressive early, Shea ramped a bit, and I got my small card drawers (Wall of Omens and Elvish Visionary). There were a few board wipes as Tom’s Zombies and Chris’ fatties started getting a little rough to handle. We kept Chris in check by Wastelanding at various times his Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Cabal Coffers, Kessig Wolf Run, and Mosswort Bridge.
There was some battling back and forth as I started assembling the major Karador pieces: Sun Titan, Karmic Guide, and Saffi Eriksdotter. I had about four guys, to include the very important Duplicant exiled via Tom’s Cemetery Reaper, although I eventually got the Duplicant shuffled back in with Riftsweeper. After I got sufficient mana, I was doing a reasonable job of slowing down both Tom and Chris’ reanimation with Stonecloaker. Once Feed the Pack came online and I could sacrifice Sun Titan at EOT after targeting it with Saffi, things got a little out of hand. I eventually swarmed Tom with Wolves because he was once again starting to assemble a pretty dangerous Zombie horde, and I figured our window was small.
It was Chris’ Xathrid Demon that got him mostly killed. It’s a cool but dangerous card, and he played it without the safety net of a sacrifice outlet. He was already down to nine when he cast it, with only one other creature in play. When I regrew Bone Shredder to kill it he fell to two on his upkeep, and Ghost Council did the rest. Shea dug for a few answers but didn’t have any, and we were done.
I really love the Karador deck. It feels like regardless of having some well-known pieces (like adding Reveillark to the parts I mention above), I still need to do a little work to make it go (as opposed to "make giant Kresh, fling it"). One of the major things I like is that it has a certain vulnerability, namely good graveyard hate. It feels like I’m always walking a tightrope, and I have to pay a great deal of attention to certain cards, like Tom’s Cemetery Reaper. In that game, I played a Wrath a turn before I otherwise might have because I feared the Reaper coming online.
After three weeks of the League, it seems like the Primeval Titan ban has had some small effect. I know the statistical sampling is small, but it looks like games are going a little longer. Epic plays are still happening; they’re just happening a little later (in the last game Chris had at some point all the major lands that get fetched with Prime Time; he just didn’t get them all at once). All in all, it feels healthy, but not something I’d necessarily choose for the format long-term. We’ll keep an eye on it and continue reporting.