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impossible-rat-babies · 5 years

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DWC!!! “ you were too late. ”

Bull + Dimitri | 1744 word count | Fluff!

for @dadrunkwriting

The sounds of wood against metal—training dummies abandoned to the frost—along with whoops and hollers in the early morning light filled empty training yard. The sun was hanging above them, but the morning light hadn’t warmed the slick, frost touched grass beneath their feet.

Dimitri skidded back from a blow, his own parrying attack slipping off Bull’s shield, teeth rattling at the force. He carried the momentum down and spun himself back and away from Bull’s next blow, staff pointed before him. He breathed deeply, cool mountain air of Skyhold sharp and almost painful in his lungs. It set his bare copper skin to shivering gooseflesh, sweat rolling to settle in the hollow of his throat.

“Almost late there, Boss!” Bull followed the mage as he circled, wide grin on his face. He swung his mock sword around, his own bare chest moving at a quicker clip. A quick laugh bursted from Dimitri’s chest, tongue wetting his lips.

“Maybe you’ll get your timing right this time, Bull!” He goaded, a grin across his own face and he swung his practice staff around, priming it for another attack. Bull squared off—set and steady like always—before he charged.

The strike of sword and staff rattled arms, but Dimitri parried the blow with practiced ease, giving him enough time to slip past a blow from the shield. Bull easily countered and kept up the attacks, just as relentless in practice as he was on the battlefield. Half of a battle was morale and with Bull coming after you, it was easy for Dimitri to see how terrifying he was.

‘You see a Qunari in full armor, you run.’

Bull’s warning bounced in his head as he parried another series of blows, feinting to the left before going low on his blind side. He gave a harsh whack to Bull’s ribs, momentum carrying him out of reach of the counter.

Bull remained unfazed by the blow, raising his sword and shield.

Seeing his blade raised and the battle in his eyes made Dimitri’s heart race and his blood sing. The thrill of it—the rush of adrenaline. In the heat of the spar, the pair of them trading hits back and forth, Bull’s one eye staring him down like it was a contest he was going to win, Dimitri felt that humming thrill beneath his fingernails. Akin to the lightning he could so easily conjure—the thrill of mana untapped. Danger around the corner.

Fear was for many, but the thrill of a fight was for the few.

One foot ill-placed—slipping on the wet grass—and he corrected even though he didn’t have the time. Bull caught him, using his imbalance to catch him off guard. He lifted his staff to block the blow, but he knew it wasn’t worth it.

“You’re too late!” He goaded, the mock sword slipping between his arm and his side, staff just barely too short of blocking the blow. Bull gave him a grin like he had won, but Dimitri matched that, the advantage obvious in his eyes. Hands no longer tensed around the grip, sword locked between his hold on his staff, easily to knock aside…

Dimitri tensed, quickly and harshly twisting his staff, knocking the blade from Bull’s hand in a flash. It flew off to the side, leaving him defenseless. He pointed his staff at Bull’s face, triumph crossing his face as he tapped Bull’s neck and chest.

“Match.” Dimitri declared, stomping his staff into the ground, bare chest swelling with deep breaths. Bull conceded the victory even as Dimitri saw a light of contention in his gaze.

“I think the rules went surrender or lethal blow.” Bull huffed at him and Dimitri rolled his eyes.

“A stomach wound isn’t lethal.” Dimitri reminded him, leaning against his staff as he observed Bull picking up the thrown sword, measuring the blade in front of him.

“Most of the time when I stab folks in the stomach, they die.” Bull pointed out and Dimitri smoothed a few hairs from his face, tucking white strands into complex braids.

“Most folks you fight aren’t Mages like me.” He added and Bull let out a laugh.

“A lot of Mages aren’t like you.” Bull supplied helpfully and Dimitri snickered yet again, watching as Bull’s eyes trailed down to his exposed stomach and the gnarled scar tissue covering most of it. A scar with a story he had yet to hear.

“Ever so kind to point that out to me.” Dimitri commented, knowing the observation was just that, even with the teasing gleam in Bull’s eye. Dimitri wasn’t like many Mages and Bull knew that as well as everyone else.

“Since when did the Inquisitor have so much fun sparring?” He observed and Dimitri let out another snicker.

“Since it’s become so much fun to watch you get overconfident and have me best you.” He remarked and Bull let out a loud laugh, the sound filling Dimitri’s chest with a comforting warmth.

“Ha, we’re that matched in combat?”

“I’d say so since you only have two fights ahead of me on the count. We’ve been sparring for months.”

It was always a back and forth of who was going to win. Their evening spars used to host bets from the soldiers who enjoyed watching their antics. Most had figured the odds in Bull’s favor, considering many didn’t think a mage to have it in them to best a warrior of Bull’s size. But, ever since Dimitri had laid Bull flat on his back with a staff directly as his neck, people placed their bets more evenly.

But it eventually turned to a distraction and Cullen had seen fit to send many off on evening duties and briskly insinuate the pair were better off sparring in the morning. The cold air did Dimitri good anyway, no matter how much he loathed it.

“Well, looks like we’re up one to one this time.” Bull replied and Dimitri tapped his staff into the ground in response.

Not far off, the chittering of people caught his ears and he turned his gaze, spying a host of soldiers all dressed for their own morning practice. Inevitably a squad heading out into the Western Approach, trying to get in some practice. They would be departing themselves for the area in a few days; Hawke and Loghain’s leads in Crestwood only confirmed the reports they had gotten from the region.

The soldiers looked on the pair hesitantly and both of them looked to each other, a grin filling Bull’s face. He didn’t even have to ask--his expression eager enough--and Dimitri thumped his staff in the dirt, lifting and swinging it around. Bull loudly knocked his pommel into his shield, the sound echoing across the field.

Dimitri lingered on the balls of his feet, adrenaline singing in his veins as Bull charged. He parried the blow from his sword, bare shoulder briskly meeting the shield with a loud THWAK!

He held tight against his hold, grinding his teeth even with the pain sliding all the way down to his toes.

“You okay there, Boss?” Bull taunted with a grin and Dimitri chuckled, sweat beading under his brow.

A sharp knock of his staff to the side of Bull’s knee caught him enough for Dimitri to disengage, dancing away from Bull as he shook off the vibrations in his bones.

The pair continued to trade blows and grazes, easily drawing the attention of the soldiers. They gathered on the edge of the ring, their conversation lost to Dimitri in the heat of the spar, blows flying past him. The crowd whistled and their small talking grew louder, but Dimitri has naught the ears nor eyes to keep up with them.

Bull tweaked just enough to the outside for Dimitri to easily slip past, easily and roughly landing a few hard whacks to Bull’s back. Bull quickly flipped back around--faster than Dimitri had thought--the shield landing a harsh smack to his side. The pain blinded him a moment as the scars screamed, but he conjured enough sense to keep his staff raised and pull away from Bull. It took naught a moment to get his bearings back, but the brief moments counted. Even so, the blow had hit and hurt hard.

Bull kept him on the defense after that--only leaving him time to parry blows-- but he could see how the growing crowd made it a performance for him. And a performance meant showing off; the stakes were low enough for some gravitas and Dimitri knew it.

Bull took his stance too wide and Dimitri’s hands stung with electricity, quickly and sharply snapped his staff against the inside of Bull’s thigh, the lightning quickly discharging. He flinched and the falter was enough for Dimitri to swing his staff back up, whacking him in the jaw. The blow sent him stumbling into the ground and Dimitri swung his staff back around to point in his throat, placing his foot over top of his chest.

“Match.” Dimitri called, a grin on his lips and something like fire burning in his eyes and in the pit of his stomach. The crowd whooped and hollered, Bull raising his hands in surrender. Dimitri stepped off him, offering a hand.

The squad captain barked at the lot of them from across the field as Dimitri helped Bull to his feet. They all quickly obeyed the order, leaving the pair alone once more.

“You cheated.” Bull promptly told him and Dimitri slouched, a tic forming in his jaw.

“You are incorrigible.” Dimitri countered, planting a hand on his hip with an incredulous look.

“Cheating is less than being an ass, Kadan.” Bull remarked and Dimitri rolled his eyes.

“You were enjoying giving a show, so it only felt right to take matters into my own hands. Briefly. Plus a little shock never hurt anyone.” A bit of lighting buzzed between Dimitri’s thumb and index finger, a snap sending the brief spark rolling with a whiff of ozone.

“Still cheated.” Bull grumbled and Dimitri breathed out, a chuckle rising in his throat.

“Come on…” Dimitri patted his chest, a soft smile on his face that was growing to only be reserved for Bull. The sun broke across the training yard, the dawn breaking through into the day to color the grass and old stone walls. It painted across the both of them, grey and copper glowing in the warmth. “This place is gonna fill up soon.”

#dragon age #da fanfic #bull x lavellan #bullavellan #iron bull #oc tag #dimitri #otp: oh lord don't take that sinner from me #thank you!#i've been sitting on this prompt for a week now #buzzing about posting it #ashetrashe #owen writes

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remembertherandler · 6 years

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WIP Teaser - “Lucidity”

So, I’m workin’ on it, y’all. I’m workin’ on it.

Forward:

“Let’s suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream you wanted to dream…” - Alan Watts

“That’s not ‘G’. The sheet says there are four of those, and we’ve only got two.” Link pointed to the diagram on the instructions. “If anything, that’s ‘F’.”

Rhett stood, shaking his head as he snatched the instructions from Link. “It’s too long to be ‘F’... see?” He turned the sheet upside down. “No. It’s definitely ‘G’.”

“Then, where are the other two, Genius?” Link said, looking around at the pile of boards and plastic. “If these two are ‘G’, then there’d be two more long pieces.”

“Like the ones you’re sitting on?” Rhett smirked.

Link shimmied to the side and pulled out the two boards, sighing as he piled them with the others. “That’s…. Look, fine. There are four.” Link conceded, shaking his head in frustration as he got up from the floor. “Maybe if you didn’t pick the most <i>ridiculous</i> shelf ever conceived by man—”

“Mmhmm, here we go!” Rhett cut him off. “‘The Loft’s a mess’, you said. So I, being the excellent friend that I am—”

“Oh, stop being such a—”

“Let me finish, dangit!” Rhett hushed Link with a finger to his lip. “I go out of my way to buy an organization apparatus to meet your needs, and now I’m the bad guy?” Rhett said, eyes wide in bemusement.

“Well—”

“I didn’t design the damn modular beast from hell, or write these useless instructions.”

“So... you’re saying this is IKEA’s fault?”

“Are you saying it’s not!?”

Link shook his head, his lip curling up in a smile. “Look, I think we’re just ignoring the obvious solution here.”

“Oh? And what’s that? A blow torch and a stiff drink?”

Link laughed. “No, you drama queen.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Where can you find the answers to all of life’s questions?”

“Google?”

Link sat down on the edge of the bed, tapping at his screen. “I’ll do ya one better, big guy. Youtube video tutorial.”

“Ah, yes,” Rhett said, sitting down next him. “The great and powerful YouTube. May it deliver us from this brutal torture.”

“See,” Link smiled. “This poor sap’s figured it all out for us,” he said pointing to the thumbnail depicting the completed shelf.

“Smug lookin’ shit,” Rhett muttered.

Link clicked the video, and a pre-roll ad began to play, the skip timer counting down.

The screen was blank as the announcer began reading out the script. “Imagination, desire, escape. The sleeping human mind an untapped well of potential wonder.” The darkness began to fade away, a brilliant pulse of colour building behind a logo which read: Lucidity.

Link was about to click past the ad when Rhett stopped him, grabbing his wrist.

“Let it play.”

youtube

#rhink #rhink fanfiction #teaser #you get the idea #it's a lucid dreaming fic #;)#<3 #lucidity fic

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mtgsharzad · 5 years

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the cool thing about doomsday is it’s a very efficient tutor for multiple cards

so you can set up your clunky combo onetwothreefourfive justlikethat

(and how do you like your blue-eyed boy mister death)

I. DOOMSDAY CONTEXT AND HISTORY

Doomsday in Constructed is originally a Vintage combo deck that uses Black Lotus to pull off some really quick combo kills. There's a Legacy port of it, which is where most of my knowledge comes from, but it's a different beast without Lotus and Yawgwill. The OG OG OG kill is Lotus, Recall, Mana Vault, Mind's Desire, Beacon of Destruction - so elegant! - but Doomsday decks have killed in a number of ways. Vintage Doomsday is brutal and uncompromising while legacy doomsday is a lot more work than every other combo deck for no discernible edge, so of course I have a soft spot for the card and not the anger it deserves.

Some early piles used Ill-Gotten Gains, a Storm engine card from a beautiful deck from a bygone age. It was called IGGy Pop, and it abused Ill-Gotten Gains to generate mana and storm and featured Intuition both as part of the combo and a tutor for its initiator (intuition for IGGx3, loop 2 IGGs, Lion's Eye Diamond and cabal ritual for mana and storm, eventually IGG for Intuition for three Tendrils of Agony for lethal). Sometimes you could just use fast mana to slam IGG as a Mind Twist that sets up your combo a turn or two later, also.

Obviously IGG says "each player", so it could only really work in a meta without Force of Will control decks (which indeed is when it lived up until like original rav block) and so it died out. Traditionally you'd get recursion, protection and a kill, cast your Duress first to strip their Force, and then go off. As if Force of Will weren't cruel enough, New Phyrexia dealt the death blow. Now IGG had a real enemy - Misstep on Duress, Force exiling the other blue card. [c=Counterbalance]Counter[/c][c=Sensei's Divining Top]top[/c] control's rise to prominence was also less than kind. Good luck setting up your clunky kill! Doomsday used Top itself (it filters for the combo before you go off and then taps to draw you into it) but didn't really gain an edge until it started to kill with the uncounterable combo of Shelldock Isle casting Emrakul.

Contemporary Doomsday builds usually kill with Lab Maniac in Vintage and Tendrils in Legacy, (siding in to Shelldock/Emrakul against counterspell decks) but they're flexible enough that they can play (and play around) all sorts of things, which is what Doomsday in particular enables. It's not that hard to go through the motions, the challenge is in working out which kill gets around what sideboard hate and how many turns you should do it in.

II. HOW TO PLAY DOOMSDAY

Here's how you build piles: card draw and mana on top, combo and protection in the middle, recursion on the bottom. That's Doomsday, now you know how to pilot Doomsday. You're welcome!

III. DOOMSDAY IN CUBE

Now this is where this post stops being pointless b/c even though Doomsday is allegedly REALLY COMPLEX or whatever it's honestly not that hard to play if you have an idea of what's up and don't care about mastering the deck. Obviously some people have exhaustive tables of potential weirdo combinations (kill around two swords to plowshares and Leyline of Sanctity is one i remember being impressed by) but you're essentially going to look at the resources you have, the kills you have available, and build a pile that takes you from A to B. With fast mana, Brainstorm and recursion, the Eternal formats get a really sweet package out of it.

In the Lab Man case, you need lab man, mana to cast him, a way to draw five cards, and protection for Villain's meddling. Thought Scour is cool because it's not just 3 cards off your pile for 1 mana, it's valid protection against removal (thought scour in response, can't draw the card, win), so where you put it in the stack can depend on what you need it to do. Flexible cards like these are probably key to making Doomsday/Lab Man work in Cube.

The key to porting it to Cube is you probably need to give up on the idea of winning the turn you cast Doomsday. That's fine, I think! It lets us really focus on its strengths and show them off. First off, it's a combo-agnostic tutor; it doesn't care what you wanna do, as long as you don't need more than 5 (12) cards to do it. This excites me because conceivably I (one of my drafters?) could use it to support whatever janky corner-case interaction I think is interesting that draft. It's "for" DDLM combo though, that's just a bonus.

I'll go through a couple of Cubable DDLM piles at the end of the post, so don't worry if this doesn't make sense yet. Doomsday's interesting as a combo enabler in that you're not doing anything to your hand when you cast it. Any spells already in your hand are part of your combo resources, but remember that Doomsday also looks through your graveyard so if your fair spells are part of the combo you get to cast them as fair spells first! This is really key to making it work over other combo archetypes IMO - you can cantrip away in the early game and then have those cantrips all over again post-resolution.

IV. PRACTICAL EXAMPLES

You do some stuff, maybe draw some cards, make some mana sources, and then you cast Doomsday. We're doing Soft Doomsday here so let's assume we pass the turn and kill next turn or the turn after that. This lets us draw 1 or 2 cards off our pile naturally, which is huge, because then we can build looser piles. Instead of 'draw six cards and you win', we just need to draw 4. It also means we're probably putting protection at the top of our pile so we draw it first. If we don't have any protection, that's okay, we can recur Doomsday somehow, draw into it, and make a new pile (remember, we can tutor from the graveyard).

We drafted Brainstorm, Snapcaster and Unearth, so we'll untap, cast a cantrip from our hand (activate a planeswalker?) to go to 3 cards in deck, and then we'll cast Lab Man. Maybe we fight over it on the stack - maybe we drew into Thoughtseize and that isn't a problem - or maybe Hero (at this point I concede I am in fact the villain here) tries to bolt it immediately. We could either cycle Unearth and then brainstorm in response (winning the game) or wait for Lab Man to die, Unearth it, and hold brainstorm in case there's a second piece of removal. Or just make a pile of Lab Man, recursion, brainstorm, and two flex slots for draw or protection.

Remember for these examples that we're passing the turn and drawing into the first card naturally unless otherwise noted. If you've got a Ponder still in your hand when you cast Doomsday, that resilience should count for something, no? You get to go off a turn faster, and the tightest builds get to go off really early (esp. with Dark Ritual).

Left card is the top of the deck.

'just the brainstorms, thanks' pile: (negate on the bottom brainstorms out a turn faster but doesn't protect your first brainstorm)

'he's already in the lab' pile

'high school boyfriend' pile (eternal witness gets back doomsday but he forgot to bring protection)

'johnny five aces' pile (he gets all the goods)

Conveniently there's actually all sorts of marginal stuff (at a few power levels!) we might already be running to support DDLM combo and probably wouldn't suck that much to include (although I think Brainstorm and Unearth will be key to making it work):

Sensei's Divining Top

Unearth

Thoughtseize

Darkblast

Lotus Petal

Chromatic Sphere

Conjurer's Bauble

Duress

Eternal Witness

Thought Scour

Painful Truths

Tezzeret's Gambit

Breakthrough

Meditate

Dark Ritual

Cabal Therapy

Gitaxian Probe

Brainstorm

Snapcaster Mage

Mnemonic Wall

Ancestral Vision

Relic of Progenitus

Faithless Looting

Red Sun's Zenith

Emerge Unscathed

Chain of Vapor

Ill-Gotten Gains

Unearth is awesome because, like Thought Scour from earlier, it pulls double duty: recurring Lab Man or drawing the last card you need (since if lab man dies in response to the cycle, you'd lose and be unable to unearth regardless). Brainstorm's resolution involves drawing three cards before you put back two; if there's two cards in your library it'll win the game as well. These are the heavy hitters in Cube, but obviously the looseness of the tutor leaves our panicked drafter open to alternatives.

Next time, I’ll talk about the Tendrils of Agony kill, but this has already gone on for long enough.

ALLEZ CUISINE

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nicolasmatamoros6675 · 4 years

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sneakyhomunculous · 4 years

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Last PT Report

Day 1: Wake up fresh; shower normally and then turn it freezing for the last 30 seconds. Shadowbox for 5 minutes. Stand on head against the wall for 3 minutes. 20 push-ups, get dressed and shuttle 0.4miles to site. Walking would be better, but it’s a bit cold and I don’t wanna worry about a jacket. Arrive at 8:55, pods go up minutes later. Arrive at the table to see Zvi and 6 others I don’t recognize. Zvi is two to my left. Open my pack Ayara, Edgewall Inkeeper, Slaying Fire, Fierced Witchstalker, and thankfully a Charmed Sleep. Slam the Charmed Sleep. I’m not going to let the way some early packs break determine my fate in the last PT ever. I’m passed clockwork servant and a bunch of mediocre cards like scorching dragonfire scalding cauldron maraleaf rider. Slam clockwork servant. Pick 3 there are no good cards, luckily I’m greeted with a Fabled Passage. Take it easily over middling things (I did briefly consider taking corridor monitor). 4th pick I am greeted with a gift from the gods. A 4th pick Opt!!! One note, at this point corridor monitor is the only blue card I’ve passed. This pack contains no blue cards besides Opt. Many people would panic thinking Blue is being cut. While the chance that is happening are not 0, they are not significantly more likely just because you haven’t seen blue cards in 2-3 picks. The packs easily could’ve just been light on blue cards. But what is certain? No one on my left has even seen a single blue card they can take. Pick 5 no blue cards. I take Jousing dummy over middling cards in other colors. Pick 6 a welcome sight. Corridor monitor! Slam it so fast as I wouldn’t want to give the players on my left a faulty signal. Pick 7 there is a mad ratter that I assume my fellow draft mates did not see in the pack. Pick 8 there are no blue cards but a wicked guardian will do. I already have servant and monitor, to go along with Opt and this mad ratter. Not sure how I’ll cast it but we’ll see I round out with another joustin dummy and that early corridor monitor tables!!!!! Pack 2 I crack open a pack without a blue card. Luckily there is an epic downfall that I may end up playing. Pick 2 I get passed a pack with the best common in the set, draw 3 sry 3. I take it quickly over reave soul and other irrelevant cards. 3rd pick Stolen By the MF Fae. Thanks Worth! 4th Pick Frogify over nothing. They aren’t going to give this draft to me easy. 5th pick No blue cards 😡 take Witch’s Vengeance I probably won’t play. 6th pick SO TINY; The second best common in the set with a run away together and didn’t say please in the pack too. Bad distribution tilt. 7th pick spinning wheel. I can’t wait until they fix these bots and we can get REAL practice in 8th pick Draw 3 scry 3 😂 this is when I knew I had 2-1 at least locked up. Around this pick I notice the player on my right (I’m on the edge so he’s directly across from me) has an opportunistic dragon sticking out of his pack C. So I call a judge and they have to replace the pack with no issues. I round out the pack with dregs. Pack 3 I open Folio of the fancies GG yo I get passed a pack so blank I almost cried but then I noticed a scaulding cauldron, whew. 3rd pick I face the decision of mystic sanctuary vs hate drafting, and sanctuary is completely busted so I take that. Pick 4 I am greeted with another 4th pick Opt!!!! 3 for 3 baby. 5th pick there is nothing great I take a searing barrage I hopefully won’t have to play. 6th pick I get passed a pack with didn’t say please! But there is also a Lochmere Serpent and a Drown in the Loch. I take the serpent 7th pick is blankish if I recall correctly and I got sad. 8th pick another mad ratter, I recall being happy/content. And saying to myself in my head... I think I shall play it all! I do end up playing everything! 4 swamps 1 mountain 1 Fabled Passage 1 Sanctuary 10 Island. My SB is pretty weak but I do have a couple searing barrages, a forever young and a few expensive fliers/jousting dummy type things I can bring. [Insert Picture of deck 1 here] (I’m trying but can’t figure out Tumblr maybe I’ll post all the pics at the end?)* Wouldn’t be a PT without a Round 1 Doozy I’m paired vs someone I don’t recognize. Apparently it is their first PT but I don’t know this at the time. They seem confident but reserved and ready for battle. We both keep 7 and I am on the play. My opponent plays a turn 1 witches Cottage. On turn 2 he plays a swamp and an order of the midnight. It immediately becomes So tiny. On turn 3 I do nothing. My opponent plays a mountain and a redcap raiders. I miss my land drop but put the raiders into a Charmed Sleep. On turn 4 my opponent plays swamp Lochtwain Paladin with Cheese. I untap and draw Fabled Passage. My hand is expensive cards like mad ratter Draw 3 Serpent and something else. I am about to fetch and then I realize his hand is facedown on the table but looking thicc. I just double check how many cards and he picks them up no problem and says 5. And it’s correct it is 5. However my brain says it should be 4. Turn 1 land. Turn 2 land 2 drop. Turn 3 land 3 drop. Turn 4 land 4 drop. This means he started with 7, drew up to 8. Played his land down to 7, and he didn’t miss any land drops so far. So turn 2 his card played should mean he is down to 6, then turn 3 down to 5, and now his Paladin down to 4. He has an extra card!! I count 5 times just to confirm, and sure enough he is 2 cards ahead of me. I call a judge and after a quick count and discussion it is confirmed he has one too many. He is extremely calm but also quiet during all of it. I didn’t get any vibe of him trying to be dishonest or hide anything. At the same time it’s incredibly sketchy of course. How and when did he get an extra card? He is on the draw so he’s already got extra cards, seems like he’d notice if he had 9 to start or something?? The ruling is that I get to Thoughtseize him basically and he has to shuffle what I pick back in his deck. I really hate this rule as its putting so much of the onus on me to always track my opponents hand so vigilantly. If I would’ve noticed he drew 9 to start, it would be hugely beneficial for me to Thoughtseize him. But now I Thoughtseize him and see 5 spells as I’m already behind on the board and want to throw up. Did he just draw 2 cards at once on turn 4 because he needed a land? I’ll never know. But his hand is completely fucking stacked and I can’t find myself ever beating it. He has another lochtwain paladin, Murderous rider, another order of midnight, lash of thorns, and a festive funeral. I take the murderous rider but miss a land again and by the time I can play serpent I am forced to block into his Lash and have no outs so I just concede without showing him. Game 2 I don’t remember a ton of, but I know he plays multiple rimrock knights and order of midnights and I am so close to dying so many times. I had spinning wheel and he made a few small errors, and it let me survive at one life but needing to topdeck a cheap creature/play to survive at all. I peeled a Charmed Sleep and it left me actually in control with mana left over to tap his one other attacker. Well, as in control as you can be with 1 life. Shortly after I find a draw 3 and turn the game around over 2-3 turns before he can find a way to deal me 1 damage. Unfortunately the time is about out in the round and we only have a 7 minute extension. I slam in the 2/1 bloodcrazed wolfthorn guys and both searing barrage hoping to have time to finish game 3. Instead I am on the backfoot and in serious danger of dying. T2 order. T3 rimrock it and play rimrock. T4 rimrock it and play rimrock. I am all the way down to 4 before I have any chance at stabilizing. I play in the only way I think will give me any chance to survive and it involves letting him untap with me at 4 life and him having a Brimstone Trebuchet in play, knowing he has at least two cheap knights he has returned with order of midnight/forever young combo. He did only have 5 mana so I wasn’t that scared (I had witch’s vengeance for walls ready on my next turn). But the prospect of surviving at 1 still seemed grim at the time. Oh yeah somewhere in there he played a murderous rider and pumped it with rimrock knights so he was at 30 and me at 1. I never felt safe until around a minute before time was about to be up. Unfortunately my opponent was still at 30. The judge called time right as I passed so I got turn 1. On my Opp turn 2 I flashed in serpent and untapped and sacrificed two swamps but could only find more lands. I made it unblockable and attacked with it and all 4 of my stolen by the Fae tokens and 8 of my mad ratter tokens leaving back a few more to make sure I wouldn’t die to the swing back from my now 3 life. My opponent took 17 down to 9 so they must have been at 26 at the time. On turn 4 I had a small sweat as I left myself dead to barge in (hadn’t seen one, did pass multiple in draft though) as I really wanted the win and not the draw. Luckily my opp not only didn’t even attack, but they played out their entire hand and were clearly dead on board by 2 points more than lethal. Win on turn 5. Wild start. The rest of the day was a lot smoother. R2 vs ZVI Mono G Zvi Mulligans on the play g1 but leads t1 Goose. I have so tiny and Charmed Sleep draw 3 and bunch of lands so I ignore goose. He plays a wildwood tracker at some point I so tiny and I Charmed Sleep a Fierced Witchstalker. He is hitting me for 1 with gingerbrute when I cast draw 3. Then I cast another. Then I play serpent and folio etc and I’m still above 10 life and he dies in short order. In g2 I get sloppy and lose a game I have no business losing. I turn 3 clockwork servant turn 4 Wicked guardian draw a card, but this was just a mistake. I did this knowing I would take 5 damage this turn but I had no business taking it as I already had everything I needed to win this game. I needed to preserve my life total. On turn 5 I do start preserving life, but when I flash in serpent on turn 6 to block Zvi has Insatiable appetite on his gingerbrute that has counter from weapon rack to kill me from 7. G3 is a lot smoother as I so tiny a gingerbrute, and at some point am up so many cards I decide to use a searing barrage on the untapped gingerbrute with so tiny on it (only 3 cards in Zvi yard) just so I don’t have to worry about losing to double insatiable appetite when I tap out for stolen by the Fae and or serpent. R3 vs GW I play vs the person feeding me and my heart drops. I assume he is blue and will have many secret keepers and didn’t say pleases and I know I am screwed because I have 0 counterspells. Instead he leads forest curious pair food turn 2 the 1/3. Then he misses land drops and eventually beanstalk giants up to 4-5 mana but just plays some medium GW creatures. I win without much resistance and G2 goes about the same. 3-0 and now it’s break time. I immediately start running to subway as I want to beat the crowd on our short lunch break. Unfortunately as I open the door I am greeted by a 50+ deep line. I turned around and dive into the fried chicken place. 30 person line and 1 lady working. GG yo. I am feeling good despite not having any lunch options. At some point in the beginning of the constructed rounds Allen Wu shares his protein cookie with me, and I think that was just enough to save me from crashing too early. R4 JetSki Fires I don’t recognize my opponent but I Open his list and see a Sam Roflo Specialeee. 4 Bonecrusher 1 Shimmer 1 Fae 1 Realm Clock 4 clarion 8 cavalier stock fires. I have a t2 Oko on the play, but otherwise my hand is Shite. Joe Demestrio is birding and brings up my line after the game saying he would have done things differently. That is why Wallace was on the rail and I was in the streets. The point was that my opponent played a turn 2 shimmer. On my turn 3 I made my food an elk and attacked for 3 missing a land drop and said go without playing paradise Druid. The reason being that if my opp has clarion you always want to have a food back to start attacking immediately. This way I could make food with goose in response to clarion untap make it a 3/3 and play Druid. Instead my opponent did nothing, and I passed turn 4 with a lethal attack if I untapped (9 damage from elks and 2 from Druid I just played with opp at 11). But They play 4th land and say go? I am worried about going for it as if they have bonecrusher giant for my Druid and then untap and realm cloaked giant I will have an Oko no food and 2 lands with no plays. But I don’t see any real other options. If I don’t make My 3rd elk and attack with everything I still will die to the realm cloaked. My opponent just concedes when I right click attack all. I sort of forgot what Joe even wanted me to do. Maybe it was not playing Druid T3 he didn’t like, or maybe it was when I turned my goose into an elk the following turn. But that was mandatory as it left me a food back Incase my opp had the t4 clarion or fires/clarion, and left me with a lethal attack if they did not. G2 I play a T3 nissa untap Breeding Pool attack, my opponent plays 4th fires and I Aether Gust it and untap and krasis for 6 or something. I won that one. R5 Jack Kiefer on JetSki Fires. His list was notably a bit cleaner and played less bad cards (except he had a bunch of shimmers I guess, that does qualify as a bad card) This match was really good, but just showcased how good the food deck is. He beat me g1 with no real sweat as I couldn’t pressure him nearly fast enough. G2 and 3 details are blurry to me but I know a surprise brontodon really threw him off in one of the games. He cast fires into drawn from dreams turn 4 and when I untapped and played and brontodonned his fires he seemed frustrated. I don’t know if he could have taken different cards with drawn but his next couple of turns were not good enough and I won. Oh I remember now. I absolutely ravaged him with a casualties of war in the other game killing his 5th land and only white source, his fires, his sorcerous spyglass and his cavalier. 5-0 R6- Oscar Christensen Mirror Oscar had a good list with 2 Casualties and I was a bit worried going into this match as I hadn’t practiced much at all with my deck and I felt he was probably well prepared for these mirrors. That proved to be true as he seemed to play very well in all the games. I think I just ran away with one game on the play, and the other game I won was solely bc I jockeyed myself into a position where he was forced to make plays to keep parity and left himself tapped out and dead to my 1 SB casualties. That 1 card I put in my sideboard at the last possible second after discussing how much I hate duress with Collin is certainly the only reason I made this run. It singlehandedly won me 4 matches. 6-0 R7- Craig Krempels Mirror Craig has a Karn’s bastion in his deck! I immediately screamed judge to get an Oracle as I had no idea what that was. But the rest looked pretty normal. I don’t know Craig well but I knew he was old school and at least a good to great player. I was in the zone this round and I think I got extremely lucky in a few ways. First was the seating arrangement. By the 2nd game a huge crowd was forming and I could sense them around me, but couldn’t really see any of them. He had them over his shoulder but also could see all of the people behind me up close and looking on. He made a few glaring strategical errors (Multiple times in Nissa fights he attacked with a land which let me kill his nissa for free where otherwise I would’ve had to overextend/throw things away to get to it), but he also just literally forgot to activate his planeswalker one turn and also forgot to play a land in another. He ran away with game 1 with a t2 Oko followed by an early Nissa, capped off with a Karn’s Bastion threatening to activate no less! In game 2 we have a bit of a back and forth affair but I am starting to fall behind. I am not giving up hope as on turn 5 I draw the black source I need for Liliana on the following turn. My board is two wicked wolves and a food, and I have 4 forests and a watery grave after playing land this turn. My hand is Liliana and my freshly drawn overgrown tomb. Howver Craig has just deployed Nissa to go along with his Oko on 10 counters, and his own goose and wolf. On his turn he makes an attack after I had attacked his walkers with my wolves. His only blockers now are the lands and one goose but his Oko has so much loyalty and nissa is now at 4 because I hit it with a wolf last turn. Fortunately he says go without even using his Oko. I untap ready to slam Liliana and hope I can fade krasis for a couple turns and claw back from a dangerous life total (I was at under 10 but don’t recall exactly). Instead I draw my 1 casualties 🏆 I kill both his creature lands and his Oko which leaves his nissa at 4 loyalty and him only having a goose to chump. But I have two wolves and a food so he can’t save nissa and chooses to not block with goose. He’s down to 3 lands goose and I end up winning easily with Liliana a few turns later. Game 3 is another back and forth affair but this time I wrestle control in the middle turns and also have my casualties ready. He is fighting back and has a vraska in play for a couple of turns, but I manage a krasis for 3 which will threaten to kill it as its at 1 going up to 3. He does remember to use it and has a goose he can use to jump in front and protect it for one turn. But I have nissa and casualties ready this turn and when I untap I know it’s over. I start by attacking Vraska with Krasis. He blocks with Goose and Bins it. I ask how many cards he has as they are on the table and he spreads them out slowly and it’s 4. As this is happening someone behind me on the huge rail screams Judgeeeeeee. My eyebrows raise and I immediately realize he left his Vraska at 3 but it should have gone to 2 from Krasis Trampling over his Goose. So I tell him this. Craig looks incredulous. I said yeah u chumped with goose it should be at 2. He says well trample is your ability. You have to remember your own abilities. So I said wait what? Did you think maybe I just wanted to go ahead and assign all 3 damage to the goose this time?? Really fuck that goose up good huh??? He kind of shrugged and said something back but I said let’s just call the judge. Lengthy call but I just lead with exactly what happened. I tell them that the person behind me screamed judge after a few seconds and that is what prompted me to scan the board and realize he didn’t tick his vraska down. It’s been 5-10 seconds since binning goose and all I have done was ask how many cards he has. I acknowledge that it wasn’t even on my radar until someone screamed judge (bc I was so happy and knew I was going to win. Also probably bc I suck and can’t seem to remember what my own cards do) They basically rule that trample does not have a default rule, so it’s on me to assign it. And also that someone behind me saying judge seems to have prompted me to realize I missed it. So the vraska stays at 3 I think this rule is kind of BS in the first place. Trample should be automatic default lethal + rest at you. (That’s how it works on Modo and Arena no?) But also barely any time has passed and no actions have been taken here, so I snap back and ask “What if I would’ve just called you over and told the exact same story, but left out the part about someone behind me screaming out judge?” You would rule differently right? “I cannot answer that hypothetical at this time” Ok well when can you?? “After the match” Ok thanks. “You can appeal if you are not comfortable” No it’s all good. Nissa float Gb with overgrown tomb untap casualties your entire board except vraska and a useless wolf go. The crowd goes wild!!!! “Olldddd Schooooooollllll” rings heard throughout the hall. He died the next turn or so. I bring it back up with Craig and I just let him know it’s not 1999 anymore. It’s actually the future now, 20 years later. And almost everyone in the room would just tick their own Vraska down to 2. He didn’t agree with that, but I have faith in the new guard. 7-0 R8 Eli Kassis on GB Adventures I was starting to fade hard at this point. The lights also got to me a bit. Its extremely bright up there and I was actually having trouble even reading what lands/cards he was playing. Game 1 I was feeling the head spin from not eating and having such a long day. I managed to keep it together and I am proud of myself for recognizing what I should be doing in this game. I had a wolf and 2 goose and on turn 4-5 I untapped and could slam nissa, but he had left 3 mana open and had some cards still. And I identified massacre girl as a massive blowout if I didn’t get my food count up ASAP. On top of that Nissa was so likely to just die to Murderous Rider or Grasp as he’s not doing much proactive stuff and I haven’t given him a great window to use either of those cards either. The issue is mostly that I didn’t practice so I haven’t played this matchup. But I totally blanked on Liliana for a few turns. The passive plays I was making left me completely fucked if he had one removal spell (kill a goose) into Liliana make me sac two. I still think I made all the correct plays, but after a few turns of skipping my plays to make food with geese to play around massacre girl and abyss him with my wolf, I realized how big of a threat Liliana was and finished the game off while playing around that as well. I win and he drops his hands of all lands. He played well but literally drew all lands so any plays I made throughout the game probably would have been good enough to win. G2 and G3 I think I play quite poorly. I don’t remember specifics but every time I made a play I felt like I was guessing and second guessing and I would just tell myself to make a play u are thinking but actually not getting anywhere. Go ahead, guess you monkey!!! No amount of thinking can save you. And then I’d just listen to The Oko Devil on my shoulder and make a random play. It all culminated in me scooping when I wasn’t dead. (I was dead as shit, but not technically dead. He had 2 cards and a castle, and any 1/1 or removal spell in the top 4 cards would kill me immediately) but I never would have scooped if I knew wasn’t dead immediately. You see the problem was Lovestruck Beast. Eli had 2 of them, a massacre girl, and a 1/1 human. I had a wolf that could kill the human and now help double block Massacre girl. The bigger problem? I played the entire match as if Lovestruck Beast was just a 5/5 for 3. Totally forgot it can’t attack without a 1/1. There is no excuse as I had the card multiple times in draft, but after a long day it just totally slipped my mind. 7-1 [Happy] One other note. Open decklists. I think this is a massive reason for my success at this tournament. I don’t have much time to practice these days, and there are so many damn formats and they are always changing! Magic is already so hard, but when you don’t have the practice + confidence in what your opponent will have in their list + confidence in your ability to remember and understand all of the possibilities/interactions/situations in the entire format it makes each game so much harder to form your long term strategical plan, which in turn makes all of your tactical ideas harder to execute as well. Knowing exactly what I am working with and against every round makes me 10x as comfortable/dangerous. I know it goes both ways, but I feel like most players at the top level have a huge edge on me without open decklists. I struggle to play around cards/piece together what they might have until it’s too late so often. Mostly because I’m bad at it and scattered, but also because of the lack of reps. I can never remember what set a card was from or how long ago a standard was or all the decks from the old formats etc. I actualy can barely ever tell you what sets are in standard and which cards are in which set! And that’s when I’m actively playing. So yeah. Shoutout to Open decklists. I’m sure many people hate them, but I strongly prefer them. I’m always going to bring caw blade anyway; GG yo. Day 2 & Day 3 Coming soon!

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ashaya · 7 years

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My First Big Modern Tournament

So on Sunday I played at a $1K Modern Open tournament at Time Vault Games in Portland and it was a blast. Thought I’d do a rundown of how the matches went :p

I was on a list of U/R storm with a pretty standard main deck other than forgetting my main deck copy of Empty the Warrens.

Match 1 vs Mardu Nahiri: Game one was pretty tight, he had fatal push into path into liliana to kill all of my first 3 mana creatrues and had me down to 4 life with 5 power on board, I was able to turn the corner and storm off that turn to take game one. I hadnt seen nahiri, So i thought my opponent was on a mardu tokens/value plan, sideboarded for aggro. Game 2 I had to mull down to 5 with a 0 land hand on the draw, played my first land on turn 4 but the opponent didnt put pressure and got stuck on 2 lands the whole game as I cantripped my way up to 4 lands, stormed off and took match 1 at 2-0.

Match 2 vs Grixis Death’s Shadow: Had relatively nonfunctional draws and a pretty unexciting match, got steamrolled pretty quick but thats to be expected. Deaths Shadow is my worst major matchup and I pushed my sideboard plans toward matchups that are closer in board. Fast 0-2 putting me at 1-1 overall, didnt feel too great about the event at this point.

Match 3 vs. WU fair stuff?: Im not quite sure what the opponents deck was, they played a white dork and 2 Knight of the White Orchids before I stormed off on turn 4 game 1. Game 2,they had a tap land turn two, played a selfless spirit with no land drop turn 3. I draw, with empty board and the perfect hand. Played ritual, manamorphose to make blue, electromancer, 3 rituals, past in flames from hand, rituals from grave, gifts ungiven from hand. 2-0 for that round, at 2-1 overall.

Match 4 vs. UB Mill: most interesting game 1 I’ve ever had. I was playing around fatal pushes since im not super familiar with the list. When i was in a place to just play out the creature anyway he had double archive trapped me and i was stuck on 2 lands, so I had to hold back countermagic. I had 4 cards left in deck, remanded his mill spell and drew my third land. played the creatrue, rituals past in flames in the grave and they concede. Game two he has turn 0 leylines, gets my empty the warrens and all my past in flames, and I lose. game three he has turn 0 leyline but im able to do a mini-storm for 10 goblins on turn 2 and put too fast of a clock on him. 2-1 for that round leaving me at 3-1.

Match 5 vs. Lantern Control: Game 1 I kept a 1 lander with some good cantrips but full stalled on finding my other lands as opponent set up their millstones. They never got the Lantern of Insight so they were milling blind the whole game, eventually i found my third land and went off. Moving into game 2, i brought in shatterstorm, a wear//tear, Empty the Warrens and echoing truth, expecting a lot of hate adn needing to get rid of lanterns or ensnaring bridges. on about turn 3 I make 8 goblins after he thoughtsieze-surgical extraction’s my past in flames. He lays down an ensnaring bridge but still has one card so I take him down to 6 with the goblins, then play shatterstorm post combat. He untaps Welding Jar, Ensnaring bridge. Echoing truth the bridge, swing for lethal. 2-0 lantern, 4-1 overall.

Match 6 vs. GW Hatebears: This match started with disaster. My table got chosen for a deck check, and apparently I had an unsleeved card in with my goblin tokens that I didnt know about. Got a game loss for additional cards in the deck box, which kinda put me on tilt for the whole match, it was a dumb mistake to make and especially since this match was for top 8 contention (whoever won could most likely draw into top 8). I chose to be on the play for our first game, Game 2 and had a pretty standard game, opponent didn’t hit thalia’s or leonin arbiters so I stormed off pretty quick and moved to game 3. Game 3 i small stormed early for 8 goblins but he put up enough defense to stonewall them so i kept them back to buy time. He clocked me hard with Kor Firewalker while i dealt with thalias. Had a chance to storm off the turn before lethal, but I had to hit Past in Flames off my peer through depths or hit a cantrip that then found past in flames, since his double leonin arbiter made gifts ungiven impossible. I full whiffed, finding nothing with peer and losing the match. 2-1, 4-2 overall.

Match 7 vs. GR Ponza: I was pretty nervous about this matchup since I know the player pretty well and he was packing maindeck trinispheres. He didnt see any game one and I was able to storm off just under his wire since he didnt have turn 2 stone rain. Game two I had a perfect hand with 2 lands a setup for a turn 2 storm. He turn 2 stone rains, turn 3 Mwonvoli acid moss and I never see another land, quick game 2. Game 3 on the play i figure I have to go for it hard since he’ll start killing my mana once he hits 3 lands. I make 8 goblins, pass it back. He beast withins his own utopia sprawl for a blocker, and I tear the other one. Get there with the goblins. He ended up having 5 and 6 mana planeswalkers in hand stuck there. 2-1, leaving me at 5-2 for the tournament.

Overall I’m very happy with how I did other than the game loss I received. I placed 13th in the event out 70ish players and got points for the Open series. Almost made top 8 and Im proud of a lot of the lines I found with the deck. Its not the easiest deck to pilot under weird boardstates and I feel very happy with my performance and I think I improved a lot as a Storm player.

#mtg #magic #magic the gathering #time vault games #tvg #storm #Gifts storm #tournament

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niuttuc · 2 years

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Kamigawa :)

Kamigawa: Your favorite Legendary Creature/EDH general.

I got a few of those, but I also got a number of commanders I really like, so it works out, I'll talk about one in each answer! This is the last Kamigawa ask of the first batch, but if you want more favorite commanders, you can keep sending them!

Alright, in case the first few answers didn't give it away already, I like options, I like versatility and I like tricks. The next commander on the docket has all of those in spades, maybe a bit too much for her own good: Merieke Ri Berit.

Merieke is a powerful commander that is simple in concept but incredibly complex in the details of her execution. I could probably write a ten-page essay on the various uses of her abilities, but I'll try to condense the most important bits of it here.

First and foremost, unlike most other creatures like her, Merieke does NOT untap during your untap step, whether you like it or not, there is no option to do so here, you'll have to bring your own untapping means if you want to use her again. The problem is that things start breaking down a bit when you do that.

The intent of her is to be able to steal one creature at a time, and if you can untap her, destroy that one and switch to another. The way she is worded to make her work with current rules has many holes, though. I'll list a few:

When Merieke is untapped, you do not lose control of the stolen creature. You only lose control of the stolen creature (immediately) when she leaves the battlefield.

When Merieke is untapped, she triggers to destroy the stolen creature and prevent its regeneration. Note, destroy. If the creature is indestructible, you do not lose control of it nor does it get destroyed.

When a creature is destroyed because Merieke is untapped, you still control it so you get all its death triggers or other fun stuff. However, if it is destroyed because Merieke left the battlefield, you lose control of the creature then destroy it.

If Merieke is untapped before her activated ability resolves, the delayed trigger that'll destroy the creature when she's untapped or leaves play hasn't been set up yet, so the creature you're about to steal isn't destroyed, and you can activate Merieke again to steal another creature, and get both the creatures. They'll both get destroyed when Merieke next gets untapped or removed after they are stolen, but you can also do that more than one time at once if you can untap her multiple times.

All of that insanity can be done at instant-speed. In the middle of combat? Steal an attacker that's headed to you. If it has vigilance, block with it. Or block with the stolen creature, then untap Merieke and steal another attacker.

My main issue with her is that she's too tricksy, in that you need a pretty detailed understanding of the rules to figure out that she can do all of that, or to convince the people you're playing with that she can do that. At some points, it can feel a bit like cheating for the opponents when you use arcane rules trickery on an old, outdated wording that makes you commander absurd. Plus many players don't like stealing effects, including some in my usual playgroups.

As a concession, her deck, Tap, Untap, Concede? is one I agreed with them to only pull out at most once per playing session, and often not at all. But every time I do, I have a ton of fun.

#mtg #commander #Merieke Ri Berit #planar asks #Tap Untap Concede?

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intrepidguardian · 7 years

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PPTQ Report: *1st* with Mardu Vehicles

Preparations:

There isn't much to talk about. Despite a lot of other players being impressed with Mardu Ballista, I found a lot more success with lists closer to Marco Carvalho's list from the MOCS, especially with UR-X Dynavolt Tower decks supplanting BG Snake as the “third” pillar of the format. I came to the conclusion that, between Mardu decks getting slower and other control decks creeping into the format, a more aggressive build for Mardu would be a good selection for the weekend.

Creatures (20)

4 Toolcraft Exemplar 4 Thraben Inspector 4 Scrapheap Scrounger 4 Veteran Motorst 2 Pia Nalaar 2 Archangel Avacyn

Vehicles (6)

4 Heart of Kiran 2 Cultivator's Caravan

Spells (11)

3 Fatal Push 4 Unlicensed Disintegration 4 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar

Lands (23)

4 Inspiring Vantage 4 Concealed Courtyard 4 Spire of Industry 1 Aether Hub 2 Shambling Vent 1 Needle Spires 1 Smoldering Marsh 3 Plains 3 Mountain

Sideboard (15)

4 Shock 3 Release the Gremlins 1 Fatal Push 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar 1 Anguished Unmaking 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

Round 1: 2-1 vs Jeskai Tower

After a fairly routine game 1, game 2 was within grasp. However, at a critical turn I announced combat with no Toolcraft Exemplar, and was too late to crew my Cultivator's Caravan with my Scrapheap Scrounger. He scraped by at one life with a series of good topdecks. Game 3, I got to play protect-the-planeswalker with a Chandra and won the match with her emblem.

Lesson learned.

OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Pia Nalaar, 1 Archangel Avacyn

IN: 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar, 1 Release the Gremlins, 1 Anguished Unmaking

Round 2: 2-0 vs UB Control

Not much to say for both games. Without seeing a Yahenni's Expertise, I was able to save my vehicles for a critical turn by forcing my opponent to use his removal on Veteran Motorists and Thraben Inspector. Unlicensed Disintegration finishes off a Torrential Gearhulk and my opponent.

OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Pia Nalaar, 2 Archangel Avacyn

IN: 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar, 3 Shock

Round 3: 2-1 vs Mardu Vehicles

Despite me being on the play, it was my opponent who dropped multiple Toolcraft Exemplars and Scrapheap Scroungers to put the beatdown on me. My opponent got stuck on mana game 2, and game 3 was decided by me being able to Release the Gremlins from a Heart of Kiran and a Skysovereign. I thought that he was on the Ballista plan, but after game 3 I saw that we were pretty much on the same game plan.

OUT (play): 2 Pia Nalaar, 2 Thraben Inspector, 2 Archangel Avacyn

IN (play): 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar, 2 Release the Gremlins, 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

OUT (draw): 1 Thraben Inspector, 2 Scrapheap Scrounger, 1 Toolcraft Exemplar

IN (draw): 3 Release the Gremlins, 1 Anguished Unmaking

Round 4: 1-2 vs RB Aggro

This deck was rad. My opponent had returned to his first PPTQ since quitting the game eighteen years ago. His deck was much-more creature-oriented with the likes of Kari Zev, Lanthu Hellion, and Scrapheap Scrounger and zero vehicles from what I saw. However, the real interesting part of the deck was the eight threaten effects he ran – four Kari Zev's Expertise and four Wrangle. Game one was about me failing to find a pilot for my three vehicles on the field while my life was whittled down by a Kari Zev and occasionally a Wrangled Thraben Inspector. I was able to outrace my opponent game 2, but game 3 was a complete breakdown on my part. Being on the draw, I mulliganed into a hand of Concealed Courtyard, Inspiring Vantage, three Scrapheap Scroungers and Cultivator's Caravan. I failed to draw a third land while my opponent played a Kari Zev into multiple Lanthu Hellions.

My sideboard plan was awful and I can't really remember it, but looking at it now, it probably SHOULD be something like this.

OUT: 1 Toolcraft Exemplar, 4 Scrapheap Scrounger

IN: 1 Fatal Push, 1 Anguished Unmaking, 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship,

Round 5: ID vs RW Tower

Despite the loss in Round 4, I was in third place, with the best breakers among the 3-1s. I figured that even if I played it out, I couldn't do better than third if the top table drew. They did, as did the table below me, so I took a chance with the draw, figuring that only one or two players could jump over me in seeding.

I got dinner with my opponent from round 4, and actually learned a lot about collecting baseball cards and how lucrative it could be. It was nice. :)

Quarterfinals: 2-0 vs RW Tower

As it turned out, only one player jumped over me in seeding, so I got to start the quarterfinals as the number 4 seed against the player I drew against in round 5. He had a Red-White control deck that looked to get advantage with Fiery Temper, Cathartic Reunion, and Nahiri, the Harbinger. As it turned out, it couldn't really deal with Scrapheap Scrounger coming back multiple times, and without Dynavolt Tower, it couldn't generate enough energy to beat a Heart of Kiran. Game 2 was a little closer, but without any counterspells or hard planeswalker removal, my opponent ate too many two-for-ones killing two Gideons and had nothing left for the third.

I couldn't help but think “I wish @languishedunmaking was here to see this.”

OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Pia Nalaar

IN: 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 2 Release the Gremlins, 1 Anguished Unmaking

Semifinals: 2-1 vs Mardu Ballista

Probably my most challenging match of the tournament. Even with me on the draw, I was able to curve out against my opponent, who didn't present any action besides a Scrapheap Scrounger. My opponent curved out on me game 2 and had the Unlicensed Disintegrations for my lone blocker. Game 3 presented an interesting board state. My opponent was at 8 life, with two Scrapheap Scroungers, a Thalia, Heretic Cathar, and a Nahiri, the Harbinger with six loyalty, and was tapped out. I was at 10 life with an Archangel Avacyn, a Thraben Inspector, a Shambling Vent I could activate, and a Cultivator's Caravan. My options were to crew the Caravan with the Thraben Inspector and the Shambling Vent and present lethal by attacking for 9, or attack for 7 with the three creatures. If my opponent's blocked, I would have lethal with the Avacyn flip. My opponent was in the tank for a while before letting the attack through and dropping to 1, which let me gain two life from my Shambling Vent and insulate myself from Unlicensed Disintegration if my opponent topdecked it. He wasn't able to and conceded the match.

OUT (play): 2 Pia Nalaar, 2 Thraben Inspector, 2 Archangel Avacyn

IN (play): 2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar, 2 Release the Gremlins, 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

OUT (draw): 1 Thraben Inspector, 2 Scrapheap Scrounger, 1 Toolcraft Exemplar

IN (draw): 3 Release the Gremlins, 1 Anguished Unmaking

Finals: 2-0 vs UR Tower

I hadn't been paying much attention to the other matches, but it turned out that my finals opponent was the player who jumped over me in the standings, so he got to be on the play. The match grinded out for about twenty-five turns. My opponent resolved two Dynavolt Towers, which chewed through a lot of my creatures and ran my out of Scrapheap Scrounger targets. With a few maindeck Negates from my opponent, I even ate through all four of my Unlicensed Disintegrations. Despite that, I had whittled my opponent down to two life when my opponent let me untap with a Toolcraft Exemplar. When he went to shoot it with the last of his energy, I was able to save it with Archangel Avacyn, which sealed the match when my opponent conceded. Game two was a little tighter on my end, as I was able to leverage my threats better and not expose them to removal unnecessarily. Despite my opponent negating two Gideons, I was able to pressure him with a Heart of Kiran and, when he found an Aether Meltdown for it, I was able to play a second Heart of Kiran and finish my opponent off.

OUT: 3 Fatal Push, 2 Pia Nalaar

IN: 2 Chandra, Torch of Defiance, 2 Release the Gremlins, 1 Anguished Unmaking

Review/Changes

While I'd love to say that I found a gaping hole in the meta, in all honesty I just picked a good weekend to play aggro. The meta is pretty much settled, but there's an opportunity to sneak under some opponents who try to sideboard against you expecting a heavy planeswalker package. Mardu Ballista is probably the more powerful version of the deck in a vacuum, but if the meta continues shifting to a midrange/control environment, an aggressively-leaning version of Mardu Vehicles could be primed to make a comeback. I won't have much opportunity to play competitive Magic between now and Amonkhet, but if I did, I would be tempted to try lists closer to Lucas Esper-Berthoud's PT-winning list that was still utilizing Inventor's Apprentice to try and overload the removal from the other decks in the format. In the meantime, I gotta get good at Sealed for the RPTQ. :|

Still think Mardu Ballista is the best deck? Is Veteran Motorist your favorite two-drop in this format? Let me know in the comments!

#mtg #magic the gathering #pro tour hour of devastation #pptq #rptq #competitive #standard

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goblintinkering-blog · 7 years

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Well I can live the dream.

I combo'd out on turn 4 with Merchant's Dockhand. Turn 1: Island, Sol Ring, Dockhand Turn 2: Island, Padeem Turn 3: Ancient Tomb, Gilded Lotus, Cogwork Assembler Turn 4: - Seat of the Synod, Paradox Engine with the mana rocks. - Solemn Simulacrum with the lands, untap trigger. - Activate Dockhand, tapping Solemn, Assembler, and Engine. Reveal Lightning Greaves. - Cast Lightning Greaves. Untap. Net 3 mana. - Activate Dockhand, tapping 4 artifacts. - Reveal Tormod's Crypt. - Cast Tormod's Crypt, net 5 more mana (8 total). - Activate Dockhand for 5. - Reveal Sculpting Steel. - Cast, Targeting Lotus, net total 10 mana. At this point I used seven of my leftover mana to activate Cogwork Assembler targeting Solemn, shuffling my library. - Activate Dockhand for 7 :-) My wife conceded.

#mtg #I love combo #I live for combo

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mitchellbelstead6675 · 4 years