Pack 1, Pick 1:
My Pick:
The most flexible and possibly the strongest card is Brittle Effigy. However I just want to force blue regardless of anything and Adept is one of the best blue commons. Blue is actually just that good.
Pack 1, Pick 2:
My Pick:
Pyromancer and Specter are both stronger. But we're forcing.
Pack 1, Pick 3:
My Pick:
Either the pack had a foil rare or one person on my right is braindead. Triskelion is stronger than all the commons in the format.
Pack 1, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 5:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Blue decks don't need Strongbox as they can play Foresee and Scroll Thieves/Jace's Ingenuity. Spider is the best card left.
Pack 1, Pick 8:
My Pick:
Good with any Scroll Thieves we can get later.
Pack 1, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 1, Pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 1:
My Pick:
+30 tix. Also strictly better than Yavimaya Wurm. Could very well be U/G now.
Pack 2, Pick 2:
My Pick:
Yup. U/G.
Pack 2, Pick 3:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 5:
My Pick:
I have no fixers to splash the Pacifism other than Titan. Cloak is good with Thief and with green fatties.
Pack 2, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Gotta protect my Trisk and Cloak
Pack 2, Pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 2, Pick 15:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 1:
My Pick:
I already have the set of Obstinate Baloths. So it comes down to which card is better. While the green five drop spot is usually clogged making the Baloth curve better, the Packleader is one of the best 5 drops you can have and in the long game will be better than Obstinate.
Pack 3, Pick 2:
My Pick:
If ever there was a deck that wanted Sleep. This would be it.
Pack 3, Pick 3:
My Pick:
We already have enough fatties that Yavimaya Wurm and Stormtide aren't desirable. So it's Cultivate vs Crystal Ball. At this point I require fixing and acceleration more than card selection since my overall card quality is very high and I just need the speed boost to not be behind my opponent the entire time.
Pack 3, Pick 4:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 5:
My Pick:
The second Cultivate is nowhere near as important as the first Foresee.
Pack 3, Pick 6:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 7:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 8:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 9:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 10:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 11:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 12:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 13:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 14:
My Pick:
Pack 3, Pick 15:
My Pick:
The deck:
I could've gotten away with 1 less land but I had 2 Foresees to prevent flooding and generally needed to hit my first 4 land drops to stand a chance. The countermagic was left in the board in favor of Giant Growth and Merfolk Sovereign to enable my early game to be stronger since I will dominate the late game.
Round 1: memnarchsrevenge with R/W
Game 1: I am on the play and play turn 3 Cultivate against my opponent's sick curve of Dragon's Claw into Squadron Hawks, fail to find. I bounce his Hawk with Adept to start a clock, leaving Mana Leak up. He replays Hawk and Silvercoat Lion. I trade with Lion on the next attack and am content to take Hawk beats and not waste Plummet on it. I wait to play Triskelion with Leak backup. My opponent plays Vulshok Berserkers, then Solemn Offering right into the Mana Leak. Should've learned to sequence his spells better. After Trisk is Pacified and kills off his Hawk and Berserkers, he Axes me a question. I fall to 12. My Titan and Garruk's Companion easily finish him. Especially as his Berserkers of Blood Ridge has to suicide into my 6/6.
Sideboard: +1 Negate -1 Whispersilk Cloak
I won't need the Cloak to break through any stalls since all my guys are bigger than his. Whereas Negate is good against removal and Armored Ascension/Shiv's Embrace.
Game 2: He puts me on the play and I am happy to keep 5 lands Scroll Thief and Triskelion. I have Thief staring down Silvercoat Lion and Goblin Tunneler before Giant Spider also joins the party. Foresee draws me Preordain and Spined Wurm , shipping 2 lands. Preordain keeps a second Giant Spider and another Foresee. Trisk shows up and trades with Solemn Offering, Elite Vanguard, and Goblin Tunneler. I ping'd the Trisk with the last counter to prevent the gain 4 since I wanted to race with 5/4 Wurm. The plan goes flawlessly as I negate his Chandra's Outrage and my team kills him through his Blinding Mage's best attempts to lock down the game.
Round 2: Bottomset with G/R/b
Game 1: I'm on the play and my opponent discards on turn 2 after keeping a 1 lander. I have Scroll Thief into Cultivate while he chumps with Sylvan Ranger after topdecking the land. His next Sylvan Ranger attempts to get my Thief by becoming Giant. But my Thief also grows and takes it down. I play Cloak and Mana Leak his Berserkers. He Slimes my Cloak while I set up with Foresee + Garruk's Companion. Companion makes it through for 3, and I play Gaea's Revenge post combat. He plays a Giant Spider postcombat and concedes to Sleep.
Sideboard: -1Plummet +1 Unsummon
Plummet is only good against Shiv's Embrace, while Unsummon will also be good there as well as being able to time walk a fatty.
Game 2: My opponent puts me on the play again. I Mana Leak a Garruk's Companion and follow up with Cloud Elemental. My Merfolk Sovereign trades with his Sacred Wolf and I play Packleader with Companion and Phantom Beast in hand. Beast draws into an island and Giant Growth trades for his Obstinate Baloth. He Acidic Slimes my Forest and I am stuck with Companion and Titan after Beast and Slime trade. My attempt to Cloak up Packleader is foiled by Chandra's Outrage and though my topdeck Scroll Thief makes it through via Cloak his Shiv's Embrace'd Sylvan Ranger plus Cyclops Gladiator to eat my Cloud Elemental proves too much.
Sideboard: +1 Negate -1 Merfolk Sovereign.
Sovereign is not big enough to be relevant in a fight and Scroll Thieves have enough cards that can force them through. Negate is good against the 2 Chandra's Outrages and Shiv's Embrace he's played and what I suspect is a Doom Blade on the splash.
Game 3:
I keep
and draw Triskelion and Cultivate with my first 2 draws. Team mise well represented.
I have turn 4 Packleader staring down Sacred Wolf and Cyclops Gladiator and turn 5 Triskelion instead of Foresee + leave up Giant Growth. My reasoning was that if he just attacks with Gladiator and offers the trade, I would Giant Growth and get blown out by Chandra's Outrage. This line of reasoning is flawed since I could just take the trade instead and be fine. But I was greedy and wanted to draw a card of Trisk. What happens is that he has Chandra's Outrage for my Trisk (which is a punt as I dome him for 2, then suicide the Trisk to prevent the Outrage from dealing 2 to me), then Giant Growths the Gladiator and eats my Packleader. My response to this miserable board position is to Preordain into Giant Spider, and Giant Growth against his attack and trade Spider + Growth for Gladiator + Wolf since I am at 10 life. I fail to use Mana Leak against Sacred Wolf when I could've since he only had 6 lands at the time and I was afraid of Shiv's Embrace. The game continues for a few turns with him being brickwalled by Phantom Beast though he gets to Sylvan Ranger for a swamp.
This is what happens on my turn. If he'd just mainphased the Blade, and bashed there was no way I make profitable exchanges and kill the Servant too. Instead I get to cantrip my way into more land. He plays a Sylvan Ranger on his turn and I bounce it with Unsummon to leave the way open for a topdecked Gaea's Revenge to kill him. This was a terrible misplay since I'd already spent both Foresees and there's no reason to play the Unsummon on his turn. I attack next turn after I draw a Titan for the turn even though it puts me dead on board as I don't think I can win the long game against the Fire Servant and if I draw a creature I'm still DOB but have improved position. I draw into a Garruk's Companion off the Thief and play my guys. My opponent plays another 1/1 and has the fear of a trick and doesn't attack. Should've not been a bitch. I attack with Titan and Cloud Elemental next turn to prevent the Spider and Fire Servant from double blocking the Titan if he doesn't want to take 2 off the Elemental. The Titan also represents lethal with a Giant Growth if it goes unblocked. So he basically has to double block to kill it unless he wants to chump and attack back, though since he didn't make the lethal attack last turn out of fear it makes no sense for him to attack next turn. He trades Servant and Companion for my Titan, leaving the board much more stable for me( read: not dead on board anymore).
The game continues until the last four cards of my library are Cloak, Gaea's Revenge, Spined Wurm, and land. I draw them in this order.
If he had a removal spell he would've played it when I tried to Cloak the Companion since the other creatures wouldn't deal enough damage to kill him before I decked myself. I wasn't a bitch and didn't have the fear of his one mystery card. Lethal Thief damage beats lethal Thief draw triggers.
Split finals to eat lunch.
Lesson Taught.
1 comment:
how to open obscene good cards by Kai
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