Report: League 18, Week 1

Last week, we talked about raising the Prime Speaker Zegana deck from the ashes of the previous build of Animar. Next week, we’ll talk about rebuilding that Animar deck. This week, we’re going to talk about what went down during the first week of Armada Games EDH League 18, including the rebuild of my Oros, the Avenger deck.

We’ve completed seventeen Leagues. That’s 54 miles, but nowhere near the point. Each League being eight weeks, that’s 136 weeks. Adding in two weeks between each brings us to 168. Add in skipping weeks for holidays (it’s a Thursday League, so we’re going to be off for Thanksgiving, for example) and special events, that brings us to about 175 weeks. Special events have generally included a portion of the folks running the League being gone, such as when Armada owner Michael Fortino, employee Todd Palmer, and I were all judging at Pro Tour San Juan. Those 175 weeks translate into three and a half years, or roughly the same amount of time I’ve been back writing here on SCG (this is episode 179). In both cases, we’re still having a great time.

Over those seventeen Leagues, the points system has transformed from a heavy, multi-page monstrosity to a streamlined, single-sheet masterpiece. Creating it in the earliest days was fun. We came up with cool names for the awards and dreamed up wild scenarios for them. Using it wasn’t. Players were constantly flipping back and forth wondering, “What was that point for again?” Point farming was easy and detracted from the flow of the game. Now, things are simpler, but the system has done just what we’d hoped for: it’s sculpted an environment that’s a great deal of fun. More importantly, it’s sculpted an environment that players keep coming back for. 28 players showed up for L18, W1, not to mention the dozen or so that were in the shop all afternoon playing pickup games.

My primary goal for the first week was to play that sweet Prime Speaker deck from last week. It ended up getting quite a workout, as I played it in the second game pickup game, the aforementioned Michael in the first League round, and played it once more in a “let’s run one more” game after League was done—which was actually the second post-League game we played. Needless to say, it was a full day of awesome action.

I had actually planned on waiting until League time to play the deck, but Michael asked if he could give it a whirl later on. The Armada owners don’t get to play as much as we’d like, so I was happy to oblige. I was already shuffling up Animar with Melvin, Apple, and Baby Ben in the first game. We’ll have more Animar stories next week.

For pickup game #2, since Michael told me he wanted to play the deck again for League, I took the opportunity to give it a run myself. Run it did. Slow starts out of Apple (Aurelia), Melvin (Obzedat, Ghost Council), and Anthony (Kresh Humans) let me get my engines roaring. Thanks to a Wood Elves ramp, I dropped Doubling Season on turn 4 and Seedborn Muse on turn 5. What really kept me in the game was Spike Weaver. My offense wasn’t quite anything yet, but I had the D.

Once I started with the other +1/+1 counter guys, like Master Biomancer, Fathom Mage, and friends, even a few board wipes couldn’t keep me down for long. I cast Prime Speaker three times, drawing a total of 22 cards. Anthony’s attempt at recursive Patriarch’s Bidding wasn’t quite enough either. What really did it in this game was the fact that no one blew up Doubling Season. I would have done well enough without it, but with it staying in play the entire game, I got well out of hand. A well-timed Brine Elemental let me keep their dudes tapped down an extra turn, and I swept the board.

My secondary goal was to play the other two decks that I had put together during the week. One was the Animar deck that I mentioned above; the other was a rebuild of Oros, the Avenger. The deck was originally titled “Oros, Pretty Much the Punisher.” It had in it a handful of “mean deck” things such as Painful Quandary, Everlasting Torment, Underworld Dreams, and the like. I’m not above building a “Your Tears Sustain Me” deck. In fact, I’ve even had a friend of the format draw a custom playmat with those words on it (thanks Amber!). My version of that deck would probably be more along the lines of Ruhan—not mean in a vacuum, but really mean if you try to do something broken. Nonetheless, the Oros deck was failing.

I’d tried to cram a Sunforger package in this hot mess after having taken it out of Ruhan. It was just flat. Occasionally I’d catch someone with Phthisis or Backlash, but in the trim it always felt left wanting. I decided to try to tighten up the deck and be a little less cute with stuff. Here’s where I ended up:

Oros, the Avenger

Sheldon Menery

0th Place at Test deck on 02-24-2013

Commander

Creatures (24)

Lands (37)

Spells (39)

I played in the first round with Michael (Prime Speaker Zegana), Jesse (Animar, Soul of Elements), and Shea (Karador). I was happy when Michael, sitting to my right, won the die roll. I had Land Tax in my opening hand. It ensured that I didn’t miss a land drop through turn 13.

This game was very much a case of both Michael and Jesse letting Shea off the hook. They both had chances—one obvious, one kind of hidden—to keep him from blowing us out with Karador shenanigans. The first came eight or nine turns in. Shea had already run out Karador and Jarad, but I was there with a Black Sun’s Zenith. Of course, wipes don’t really keep Karador down long. I think the only thing keeping us in it in the midgame was Shea missing a few land drops. Anyway, Michael had dropped Maze of Ith on turn 4. Now he put down Vesuva, copying it—and forgetting (to be fair, the rest of us did too) that Shea had played Bojuka Bog on turn 1.

The second was later when Shea had Reveillark in play and some really spicy stuff, including Jarad, in the yard. At this point, I was pretty much out of reach of a single Jarad plus Lord of Extinction because I had earlier successfully resolved Brightflame for seven. I’d targeted Experiment Kraj, so I wiped out all of Michael’s board, all of Jesse’s, and most of Shea’s, setting my life to 94. Still, I didn’t want the jackanapery to continue. Jesse cast Duplicant. The only reasonable target to me was Reveillark, especially since Shea didn’t have sacrifice outlet.

Nonetheless, Jesse—no doubt reasonably fearing Oros would wipe his board, which included Dragonlair Spider and a fistful of tokens—chose it instead. Jesse got his just desserts when Shea cast Massacre Wurm. It didn’t kill him, but it took him to low enough and few enough guys that when I played one of my own, Shea’s triggers would take him to one and then mine would kill him. Michael snatched that away by killing one of Jesse’s guys first, meaning Shea’s triggers actually got there. Chaos successfully Embraced. After that, Shea was just way too much for both of us, even with my relatively high life total.

With the Massacre Wurm stuff going on, Shea took the chance to mention he had Avenger of Zendikar in his hand for a long time in that game. He said he’s considering taking it out because it can be as much of a liability as an asset. Things like Rakdos Charm and Massacre Wurm do indeed make the Avenger trickier to play.

In the second round of League, I played Rith, as we did run-backs with Anthony (Kresh Humans), Melvin (Borborygmos Enraged), and Apple (Angus Mackenzie). I kept a greedy hand that had only two lands but Sol Ring and Solemn Simulacrum. There’s a penalty for playing Sol Ring turn 1, but I still almost went for it. I figured that none of the three decks were going to come out of the gate that fast, so I waited. I knew that Melvin’s deck can deal piles of damage later in the game (although it’s still missing Barrel Down Sokenzan). I drew into a couple of lands, ran out Rith on turn 5, and battled before Apple had Fog mana on Turn 6, creating five Saprolings.

I dropped Beastmaster Ascension on turn 7, attacking in spite of the Fog just to get my guys larger. I used my other mana to cast Brion Stoutarm, but I only got a turn with it active before Melvin, who had cast his commander, killed it with a few lands. There was a bit of stasis for a few turns until Apple, sitting to my right, misstepped by not keeping open Fog mana, thinking that I didn’t have enough to kill him. At his EOT, I cycled Decree of Justice for eight. I swung the whole team at him just in case. Melvin saved Apple by pitching lands and killing enough guys. That left Apple at four, setting Melvin up to kill him on his next turn.

Melvin had Life from the Loam in his graveyard along with a bunch of lands, one of them Forgotten Cave. He Dredged back three, and thinking he was in the clear, he cycled Forgotten Cave. He then pitched the remaining two lands at Apple’s head. With both those abilities on the stack (although I wouldn’t have minded if we backed up, letting one resolve before he activated the other—he was simply playing quickly, the way you do with friends), I played Orim’s Thunder, targeting Apple’s Doubling Season and killing him.

The best part was that I didn’t even have to sacrifice my only enchantment to Apple’s Martyr’s Bond. Orim’s Thunder blows up Doubling Season, dealing five to Apple and triggering Martyr’s Bond. When we went to put it on the stack, we first checked state-based actions. When Apple dies, all his triggers are removed from the stack!

Unfortunately for Melvin and Anthony, they had no answers, so my armies swarmed them on the ensuing two turns. I’d forgotten how savage Beastmaster Ascension can be. The game was over with better than an hour left in the round, so we did second run-backs.

Anthony and Melvin stayed with their decks, Apple switched to Aurelia, the Warleader, and I switched to Thraximundar. As Boros decks do, Apple was the early aggressor, spreading around some damage. We managed between us to keep his creature count pretty reasonable for five turns or so. The only thing I did early was drop Sneak Attack on turn 4. I had to Sneak in Puppeteer Clique without any decent creatures in graveyards just to stunt one of the attacks, but I at least killed the Firemane Avenger. I wasn’t doing much until Melvin decided to fill up everyone’s hands by attacking with Dragon Mage. It was bad enough for them when I EOT snuck in Reaper of the Abyss while having Greater Gargadon suspended. It got insane when I snuck in Deadeye Navigator with plenty of mana up.

Melvin declined for a few turns to fill up our hands, so I was pretty much stuck with the on-board tricks. There was some back-and-forth, but everyone’s hands were running low. I got a few hits in with Thraximundar, and it was already looking bad for Apple. The game turned with Anthony casting Insidious Dreams on my EOT. He pitched five cards and stacked the top five of his deck. The first thing he cast was Genesis Wave for five. It seemed a little dangerous, but since he hadn’t really done much of anything all game, I was willing to let it go despite having Draining Whelk in my hand and a red mana open. When Apple decided to Reverberate it, I changed my mind. It was a two-for-one that I couldn’t pass up. Anthony was out shortly thereafter, and I had way more going than either Apple or Melvin.

It was getting a little late, but Michael, having finished what work he needed to, asked if we could play one more. Anthony had left, so Michael jumped into that seat. He once again played Prime Speaker, and I played the new build of Animar—but the epic story of that game is just going to have to wait for next week.