Game #157: Yasova Dragonclaw (A)

Game #157:  Yasova Dragonclaw (A)
Date: 2015-03-25
Location: Family Game Store
Vs.: GrimGrin; Sidisi, Brood Tyrant
Result: Fun Win

vs

I switched tables after being the first one out in my previous game. The first land I drew was the only Forest (Snow-Covered) in the entire deck. I played Yasova on turn 3. Sidisi had an Amulet of Vigor. I stole something with Yasova, but then GrimGrin’s Fleshbag Marauder killed her. I drew a LOT of lands this game.

Sidisi came out and also played a Magus of the Bazaar. I played a Rune-chanter’s pieke and Grimgrin had a Nether Traitor. I stole Sidisi, but didn’t attack and just Fling-ed it back. I also grabbed a Solemn Simulacrum which died (and I drew a Land). Yasova sat around with nothignt to steal (and I had a bunch of Threatens in hand). Grimgrin got out a Rooftop Storm and a Gisa and convereted GG into 7 zombies. At some point I also pongified a Grimgrin. I was also stuck stealing Magus of the Bazaar to try to draw into non-lands (and put instants in my graveyard for the pike).

Grimgrin got to live the dream of creating a big 8/8 zombie with Geralf (eating my Nucklavee) and turning it into 8 zombies with Gisa. Wonder Twin Powers Activate! Grimgrin hit me pretty hard with an attack. I cast Mob Rule for 3CMC and under (I had considered doing it for 4+ to get Grimgrin), and in response Sidisi created a ton of zombies. Grimgrin sacced all of his, but I had 11 zombies plus my general and Grimgrin was at 22. I swung for the kill and then cast a Relentless Assault to get the win.

Yasova was cast 3 times, Sidisi 3, Grimgrin 2

About the Deck (Tapped Out someday)
This is the “Non-Green” Yasova. Thanks to the brilliance of the FRF legends’ design, you can bascially play a UR deck with her. The only cards in the deck that require Green Mana are Yasova and Temur Ascendancy. There’s one forest in the deck, but enough mana fixing that it’s not hard to have the G needed to cast the general. Hybrid cards are a big part of the deck (though I didn’t have Biomantic Mastery in the deck yet). The plan is to beef up Yasova for optimal stealing, and also play other steal-stuff cards that UR likes. Red is mostly the stealing color and Blue is mostly for support.

Game #156: Feldon of the Third Path

Game #156: Feldon of the Third Path
Date: 2015-03-25
Location: Family Game Store
Vs. Gisa; Daxos of Meletis; Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Result: Fun Loss

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I recently decided that Feldon would be more fun as a Real commander than a Tiny Leader, so I added 50 cards to this deck to bring it up to the big leagues (keeping the TL core so I could revert back if I wanted to).

I started the game with 2 lands and a Thornbite Staff in hand, but drew some lands and played an early Hissing Iguanar followed by a Phyrexian Soulgorger. Gisa started with a Sol Ring AND Ancient Tomb. Daxos came down with a Thada Adel soulbound with Elgaud Shieldmate as well as a Battle Mastery for double strike. Dax took a Howling Mine and Sol Ring from Jarad, before coming after me (taking Bosh and Perilous Myr).

I played Feldon, reanimated the Soulgorger, gave it double strike, and sent it at Daxos do force a block and kill the Shieldmate. Daxos came after me again to take Illusionist’s Bracers and Ashnod’s Altar. Jarad had Boundless Realms’ed for 7 with a Lotus Cobra, and then cast an Eternal Witness to get back Boundless Realms (and also had some big creatues).

At some point I had played an Altar of Dementia and sacced a token Soulgorger to mill myself (too many reanimator decks), and I noticed that I had a Priest of Urabrask in the ‘yard AND a Thornbite Staff and Sac Outlet. I waited patently for my turn, tried to combo out and realized that I was one mana short (I needed to use the first Priest Mana to equip the staff). Daxos wiped the board before I could do it again, and Gisa hit me big (no blockers) with a WurmCoil Engine for the life. Jarad’s Vorinclex was countered, but he had the ability to sac something to Jarad to make us all lose 14 life. I was at 14.

Two other players were waiting for a game, so I went and played with them. This game took a while to finish, but I think Gisa won.

About the Deck (TL version: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/able-without-cane/ )
Feldon is the centerpiece. It has the ability to combo, usually involving Priest of Urabrask. When I added in 4+ CMC cards I focused on big Red creatures, cool ETB effects, and Mill things. Self mill to fill my graveyard, but also as a potential win condition.

My 5 Cents On… the “Tuck” rule change

Much has been written of the recent official rules change regarding “tuck” (note that no one complains about the change to the “bounce” rule).  I don’t have a whole lot to say, but I’ll give my 5-cents worth anyway.

1. The Rule Change doesn’t bother me, in fact, it makes me happy.  Tuck is something that I almost never use, and never feel good when I do.  Having my General Tucked (or any Red Chaos-Shuffle effected) is something that I have never enjoyed being on the other end of.

2. There have been many criticisms of the “logic” employed by the Rules Commitee, and  I agree that the “fewer tutors now” argument is pretty lame. The argument that  I find most convincing is that this format is called “Commander” and the Commander should be special.  There should NEVER be a punishment for building a deck around your Commander.

3.  The rule makes things more consistent. Is your Commander leaving the Battlefield? Yes? Okay then, you can send it to the Command Zone if you want to.  That’s not “Dumbing Down,” that’s simplifying.

4.  The problem is not “problem commanders,” it’s Spikes and non-Social Contract players.

5.  This is not a sign that Wizards should take over Commander as this article from Brainstorm Brewery seems to suggest .  As always, if you don’t like that you can’t Tuck. House Rule it.  Commander is not, and should never be, an official sanctioned format where this stuff really matters. Kitchen Table forever.

 

Game #155: Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest

Game #155: Shu YMeun, the Silent Tempest
Date: 2015-03-18
Location: Family Game Store
vs. Gisa; Sun Quan; Jarad; Shauku the Endbringer
Result: Fun Win

vs

 

I had lots of land to start, but it was a good thing. Sunquan started with a Chasm Skulker and Shauku cycled a Decree of Pain. I cast Shu Yun and on the next turn attacked Shauku (no blockers in a creatureless deck) after playing a Sol Ring, Jeskai Banner and Brute Force with enough mana left over to make my 9/7 guy punch twice for a total of 18, which sort of woke up everyone else. Shauku was also building a pretty strong presence with Greed, Coffers, a Mirari, etc. I missed my chance to turn Shauku into a Monkey with pongify before he equipped her with Swiftfoot boots, and then Shauku at my guy (who could now kill him with no help… though I wasn’t going to go after Shauku next).

Gisa had a rings of brighthearth that never got to get used, and tried for Ugin, which Sun Quan countered. Shauku ate a Vorinclex (yay!) and then Hexed away some of my stuff and a bunch of Sun Quan’s tokens. I recast Shu Yun and Shauku ate him again. At this point Sun Quan had 2 Caged Suns AND a Gauntlet of Power (and I only had one basic Island). Jarad and Shauku come close to clearing the board again, and some how they both get out of the game. I had been trying really hard to get some Jeskai Ascendancy shenanigans going, but I only had one card in hand most of the time (I did have a 0-cmc artifact, so a Banishing Knack would have been pretty rad).

Gisa tapped out, and I was able to use the double “Prowess” and a Pongify/Curse of the Swine/Merchant Scroll for/Brainstorm/rebounding un-blockable spell to buff up Shu Yun enough to kill Gisa. Sun Quan had a Leyline of Anticipation but was at 8 life, and smacked me down to 4. In response to the rebound he flashed in an Ulamog, thinking he had me beat, but the card I had kept with my Brainstorm was Ajani’s Presence, and I made Shu Yun indestructible AND unblockable and swung in to win the game as the store was closing up.

About the Deck (Tapped out Someday)
I thought about doing a Tiny Leaders Shu Yun, but EDH was more fun (I also am considering switching my RWU humans deck to being a shu-yun deck, but that is not this deck).

I really wanted to mess around with Jeskai Ascendancy, which reminded me a lot of the glory days of Miracle Gro, and I wanted an exuse to get Monastery Mentor into a deck as well. The deck is mostly Monk Tribal, but not entirely. It also has a Sunforger package, and plays Epic Experiment. I didn’t realize how explosive it could be (granted Brute Force is pretty, well… brutal) with Shu Yun. I briefly considered building it as Shu Yun only, but I did that with Narset (whose Transendant version may join this deck)

Game #154: Ayesha Tanaka

Game #154: Ayesha Tanaka
Date: 2015-03-18
Location: Family Game Store
Vs.Gisa; Gisela, Blade of Goldnight; Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord; Horde of Notions
Result: Neutral Scoop Loss

 vs

I had lands to play with plus a Silver Myr to start.   I had an early Trinket Mage (which I foolishly used to grab Helm of Chatzuk for the fun of it), and I played Ayesha pretty early on.  Gisela had a Militia’s Pride, Gisa had a Whip of Erebos and stuff. Jarad was getting down with an Ob Nixilis the Fallen and Liliana of the Dark Realms.  Horde of Notions cast a Windfall that kind of sucked for me (I lost Qucksilver Gargantuan, Pili-pala and the Alchemist guy that un-taps things, all of which I had plans for).

I  cast a Fabricate for Master Transmuter (also possibly a foolish choice), and then a Darksteel Juggernaut.   Jarad played the new Temur mill-8 and put 2 into play spell into a Massacre Wurm and Vorniclex (MAN do I hate Vorniclex), and I bit the bullet and turned it into a 0/1 indestructible insect artifact, but having to tap lands made it suck for me, and not for anyone else.  Gisa swung big at Gisela. I transmuted in a Colossus of Akros.  Jarad had built up a pretty big board and also had a Sheoldred that was messing me up a lot, and then Jarad cast Sepulchral Primordial taking my Quicksilver Gargantuan (who became a really big Gisa).

Jarad cast Wave of Vitriol, which really sucked for me since my entire board was artifacts (many indestructible ones that had to be sac-ed) and I had quite a few good non-basics in play. My hand at the time was two lands, and replacing my other non-basics with basics was going to do me jack squat.  I was basically out of the game, so I scooped to kill of the Quicksilver Gisa.

Actual Gisa swung huge at Jarad and went to 102 and then killed everyone else with a Gempalm Polluter.

About the Deck ( http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ayesha-tanaka-sonic-titan/ )

Ayesha Tanaka has two things going for her: Banding, and a somewhat unique tap ability (okay, and also Silver Samurai/Destroyer Armor in the background), so I decided to build a deck around her.  Banding is one of my favorite old-school abilities, and I decided for this deck that it represents her being some sort of Mech pilot. There are plenty of giant indestructible robots (Darksteel, Blightsteel, and of Akros Colossi) and a few little ones to band with and absorb damage.  There are also a number of swords (I love Hero’s Blade) and shields and suits of armor for her to suit-up into if she needs to go it alone.  Lastly, this deck is the perfect fit for the Kaldra pieces, which always end up getting cut from other decks.

There are also some mana generating tricks (Grand Architect/Pili-Pala,  Illusionist’s Bracers and Aphetto Alchemist, etc) to fuel a giant Rocket Launcher if necessary.

I was listening to a lot of Yamantaka // Sonic Titan while building the deck and it seemed fitting to name the deck after them.  It was almost Ayesha Battles the Pink Robots (but she’s totally on the robots’ team)

Game #153: Latulla, Keldon Overseer

Game #153: Latulla, Keldon Overseer
Date: 2015-03-18
Location: Family Game Store
Vs. Horde of Notions
Result: Fun Win

vs

I arrived to the store and the other 4 guys were in the middle of the game. One player died somewhat early, so we decided to play a fast game of EDH while the other game (that seemed to have some legs) finished. I suppose we could have played Tiny Leaders, but EDH is just more fun (and I didn’t bring any TL decks). I grabbed the Latulla deck that I had just finished. He played super rampy elementals.

I had good lands to start and a Seething Song let me play Caged Sun very early on, and then follow it up with a highly relevant Staff of Nin. He Fact or Fictioned and then played into a quck Boundless realms for tons of Mana and hit me a few times with Horde. I pinged a bit with Chandra Nalaar (who died to Horde) as well as playing a Thran Dynamo. I had decent Mana available. I cast Latulla and blasted him for 15 (wich put him to 20 because of the Staff and Chandra pings). Another Swing with a Molten Phoenix put him to 18. He cast Maelstrom Wanderer, but I had an untapped Latulla with the ability to shoot for 17, which I did, and then pinged with the Staff for the quick Win. Which was both fun and good (Because the other guys had finished and were waiting for us to be done.

About the Deck (tapped out: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/latulla-test-1/ incomplete list)
This deck is a mix of Phoenix “tribal” and other things that can come back to the hand in order to re-fuel Latulla. There are some goblins and Krenko to generate mana with the goblin Ritual and some other red rituals to help Latulla blast things. I also play a few of the “Punisher” cards just for fun. Mostly I built the deck because Latulla has baddass Brom art

Game #152: Asmira Holy Avenger

Game #152: Asmira Holy Avenger
Date: 2015-03-11
Location: Family Game Store
Vs. Sun Quan; Gisa
Result: Neutral Loss

vs

I had decent lands to start this game, and I cast a Hundred Handed One, as well as Asmira off of an Opal Palace.  Gisa had crazy amounts of stuff – Caged Sun, Rings of Brighthearth, Nihil Spellbomb, Strata Scythe, Urborg, an Inkmoth Nexus etc.  (though the Inkmoth with Scythe ended up becoming a bunch of Zombies).

Sun Quan cursed my whole team into Swine, before Gisa killed him. I recast Asmira with Opal Palace, and Saffi Erkisdottir as well, but I’m pretty sure I died to a crap ton of zombies.

About the Deck (tapped out Someday)

Asmira is one of the only Legends done by Rebecca Guay (by far my favorite Magic artist) so I’d always intended on building a deck around her. My kickstarted copy of “Evolution: the art of Rebecca Guay” arriving prompted me to finish this deck.  It plays the good old fashioned Enduring Renewal combo to do stuff and put a lot of creatures into the graveyard to try to buff up Asmira. There’s a bit of a reanimation theme as well as a few +1/+1 counters tricks.

Game #151.1, 151.2: Rosheen Meanderer

Game #151.1, 151.2: Rosheen Meanderer
Date: 2015-03-11
Location: Family Game Store
Vs. Rhys the Redeemed; Gisa
Result: Mana Screw Loss; Fun Loss

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In the first game I started with a Mountain and a Forest and a Gyre Sage (with a creature I could cast to give it a counter). The Gyre Sage died to a Fleshbag Marauder. I didn’t draw another land until turn 9 (and then Rhys’s Tempt with Discovery helped me almost get into the game… but I died to an attack before I even got to untap). Rhys did a bunch of Sun Titaning, Gisa had Vesuva and Coffers and lots of other stuff. I just discarded things all game.

GAME 2: Same Cast.

In this game I got to do things. I had a Primordial Hydra get up to 28/28 before being All is Dusted. I also cast Domri Rade for the first time. I had Mana Reflection and Rosheen and I did tricks with Mistcutter Hydra to activate Raid to Howl of the Horde on a Clan Defiance to kill Rhys and deal 14 to Gisa. I could have killed Gisa next turn, until he realized that he could kill me with Poison.

About the Deck: (Tapped out Someday)
This deck is the Joy of X. It’s basically Hydra Tribal and X spells. I even play some bad Hydras. Rosheen is pretty fun as a general as well. The goal is to cast many Hydras and X Spells. I bought a Mana Reflection for it so that Rosheen can tap for 8.

Game #150: Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E (Sliver Hivelord)

Game #150: Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E (Sliver Hivelord)
Date: 2015-03-04
Location: Family Game Store
Vs. Karona(Foils), Karona(Dragons), Grimgrin, Gisa
Result: Neutral Loss

vs

Game #150 is finally here. This deck has been well over a year in the making. The usual suspects were all gathered, despite the impending weather. The All-Foil Karona (with every card also in Top-Loaders, deck was present, as was another Karona deck based on the new Dragons, plus Grimgrin and Gisa (whose players only have the 1 deck). A nice mix of 5 colored decks and the balance of mono-deck-owning to my too-many-deck owning.

Gisa kept a 0 land hand (drawing into a land) and had 6 mana by turn 2, casting Gisa that turn. I had WUG lands and a Guard Gomazoa, Paradise Mantle and Gilder Bairn in my opening hand. 3 other players had turn 1 sol rings. K-Dragons played the mana-making Siege. A turn 3 Chromatic Lantern put me in a decent starting place, followed by a Guard Gomazoa.

Tabitha Smith

a very angry Howard the Duck

Grimgrin played a Noxious Ghoul. I got my first Planeswalker, Ajani Vengeant, out and -2ed him to Lightning Helix the Ghoul (which my indestructible general was not fond of), then Gisa killed Ajani. Next turn I played my Broccoli Man… I mean Sliver Hivelord and gave him a paradise mantle, but he died to a Black Suns zenith, as did Guard Gomazoa. I played Chandra Nalaar and started pinging people, She got two activations before being killed by K-Foils Nicol Bolas (Karona ended up playing nearly as many Planeswalkers as I did… silly duel decks).

Forbush Man

I played a Venser and blinked a land and also had replayed my general, but Kokusho and Sliver Hivelord got Ashes to Ashes’ed and Venser got zombie swarmed. I had clockspining in my hand and would have Ultimated Venser the next turn. I re-cast Sliver Boss, but then K-Foil cast Hallowed Burial and I lost it (Gisa went away too). Bummer.

Nico Minoru

Gisa had been pounding on K-Dragons, and ended him with a Lashwrithed Inkmoth Nexus. I played Vraska to kill the Lashwrithe, and would have been able to Ultimate Vraska the next turn, but Vraska died to an All Is Dust. Then a Memory Jar absolutely hosed me (I lost Doubling Season, Chain Veil, Liliana Vess and Nicol Bolas to it ). GrimGrin hit me with a 9/9 Nether Shadow.

The Captain

Aaron Stack

Gisa was slowly dying to bad coinflips with Mana Crypt (to the point that he had to Unstable Obelisk his own crypt to not die). I cast Tezzeret and Garruk, and then Kiora and, unfortunately, Jace the Mind Sculptor* but K-Foils Comet Storm and and Karona Attack killed all 4. Next turn Karona killed Grimgrin by Damage and Gisa by Soul’s Fire.

Namora

Elvis MODOK

 

“Successful” Dirk Anger

 

My last hope was Sorin Markov. I set Karona to 10, but since Garruk had died, I couldn’t Overrun my Karona Attack, and left K-Foils at 2. He pinged Sorin, and I clockspun him to keep him alive, but I couldn’t protect him long enough to do the last two damage, so I scooped. It was a frustrating game. Not Un-fun, but there were way too many “I was about to do something exciting, but then couldn’t” let-downs for it to be a really fun game.

ABOUT THE DECK (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/agents-of-hate/ and Gallery Here: https://edh100.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/updated-nextwave-superfriends/ )

I had wanted to build a Planeswalker (“Superfriends”) deck for a long time (because I rarely play PWs). Originally I had thought of doing DC Comics Heroes as proxies (the actual Superfriends), but I realized that it would be WAY cooler to use my favorite hero team instead. (Seriously, you should all go read Nextwave right now, Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen are great).

It took me awhile to make all of the choices for who would play whom. I also ended up dipping into Runaways (another great series) for a few characters, and also Howard the Duck for Ajani, and Namora for Kiora.

The goal of the deck is to just play as many Planeswalkers as possible and use Proliferate and Clockspinning and GilderBairn (possibly Vorel/Liquimetal Coating) to cheat more Loyalty counters out. There are some walls to block and some recursion as well.

I was origninally going to see if people cared if I played Legacy Weapon (The Shockwave Rider) as my general, but then Sliver Hivelord came out (this doubly filled my need to make a Hivelord deck with NO slivers in it, where Hivelord was still relevant) and I knew that a 5/5 indestructible dude would be good for protecting Planeswalkers. Of course he had to be a Broccoli man (and If I ever put other slivers in the deck for fun, they will also be Broccoli Men).

*I believe I’m the only person to go, “Oh,darn… it’s only JtMS… 😦 ”  in the history of Magic: I thought it was Teferi,which would have been AWESOME, because I could have used Gilder Bairn to Ultimate him immediately for a super-rad emblem… silly confusing Proxies.

The Rest of the Night:

I played Animar for the second game. Had a really fun looking opening hand, but didn’t draw in to blue mana. Even after a Reforge the Soul (where I lost many great things) still no island. Animar never even got cast, and Karona(Dragons) got a pretty brutal Scourge of Valkas/Baby-dragon-every-upkeep/Utvara Hellkite combo on that killed us all. Bummer.

Next game I played Teysa #1 and was doing okay. Reforge the Soul (again) dumped stuff in my hand, but Teysa can get stuff back.  I had some Sun Titan, Murder Investigation, Karmic Guide, Debtors’ Knell, Teysa good times. I did get brutally NIhil Spellbombed because I forgot to exile a Junk Diver.  I had just played Grave Pact, Ashnod’s Altar and Soul Warden, when it hit closing time.

Updated NextWAVE Superfriends

This is the updated Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. “superfriends” collection.  I made a few adjustments, from the previous one.  Ajani wasn’t working as random  splash page sabertooth white-tiger, so he became Howard the Duck.  I also dipped into Runaways for a few planeswalkers, and did up a few Lands and other key cards (I really like my Doubling Season and Command Tower).  I’m also pretty psyched to have Devil Dinosaur as Ugin and I like the BabyMODOK/ElvisMODOK as Baby Jace/Big Jace (and Jace as Number None/Modok in general).  Not every one of these guys made it into the current deck, but they are still cool.