As I promised last week, this week will be about nothing – and better yet, about winning by doing nothing. Then again, doing nothing had to lead to doing something…
Okay, I’ll stop babbling now; just read it for yourself.
He’s No Angel, But He Can Still Win With Serra…Or Maybe Not by Nathan Brown
Seeing the story in Wacky Wednesdays #24 about the Minion of the Wastes reminded me of a another lifegain-related multiplayer story. One day, myself, and Chris, one of my Magic-playing cohorts, met at a third friend’s house. For the first game, Mike, the host, chose to play a deck focused on drawing cards. Every card in his deck – other than islands, of course – made him draw cards. Accumulated Knowledge, Exclude, even Confound: they were all there. Mike announced ahead of time that his deck was not capable of winning, so we should just leave him alone and watch him deck himself.
Consequently, I chose one of my crazy decks; everything in this deck is related to color-changing or works against a specific color: Vodalian Mystic combined with Blue Elemental Blast, Douse, or Gainsay, as well as Circles of Protection and Tidal Visionaries. Chris was the only one playing a "serious" deck – his mono-white lifegain deck that beats his opponents with a huge Serra Avatar.
Mike’s cantrip counterspells made things difficult for us – he countered some of the lifegain Chris needed, and he got all of my usual win conditions – but, eventually, he decked himself. However, at some point during this odyssey of drawing cards and countering our important spells, Mike had let two Reviving Doses through – and that decided the game.
How? Well, by the time Chris got his 35/35 Serra Avatar, I had two Circles of Protection: White out and more than enough mana to keep the Avatar from killing me. It was about this point that we realized that this game was going to come down to who had the most cards in his deck… And Chris had drawn two extra cards! So here I was, holding a hand full of Gainsays, Sways of Illusion, and so forth, knowing that if I played these cards I would lose. This is the only time I have ever won a game by discarding!
Next Week
I promised it ages ago, but finally I have the fully updated version of Peter Jahn story. This weekend I will be the head judge of the European Championships; I hope to get some fun games in somewhere as well. Maybe it’s good food for a future Wacky Wednesdays! If there is a story you think is definitely different, please send it to [email protected].