He attacks with spawn (cause bloodfray giant is detained by the martial law), i then flash in hussar patrol and cast swift justice twice with all of my remaining mana. He just scooped afterwards and said "sure why not, thats realistic"
Who scoops on that? Like bateleur said, you 2-for-1'ed yourself. He's got 5 mana, 3 colors and 6 cards. He can't beat a 2/2 and a 2/4?
On the (non-) vaguaries of the shuffler... in a 4xRTR sealed:
My opp goes: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.
Second game: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.
I think MTGO's shuffler was borkened.
Then, in the final round, I face a guy with triple annihilating fire (!!) and double frostburn weird (!!!), plus street spasm. (I somehow 2-0 him, because he misplayed his deck so badly (i.e. not waiting to have damage dealt before playing the fire, allowing me to use switf justice to 2-for-1 wreck him.)
I just keep facing controlish / combo-ish deck in 4xRtR sealed. I frustratingly keep getting 2-1 results. Two days ago, it was conjured currency + cylonic rift. Yesterday...
I faced an early codex shredder two games in a row. Nothing to worry about... yet he also had both azorius and izzet charms on top of supreme verdict; he always had an answer to any board state... which he could reuse later in the game thanks to the codex. First game I finally had him down within burn range with my double explosive impact on hand. After the first, he's low enough and i'll kill him next turn. He untaps, plays his 7th land, use the codex to get azorius charm back, gives all his guys lifelink, and gets out of burn range. I don't ever recall anyone using that lifelink side... but it was exactly what was needed here. Second game, he's once against within burn range, this time it's izzet charm to counter the spell.
(I also faced a guy with both Jace, architect of thought *and* niv-mizzet in the first round of that same sealed!)
Had fun in my latest 4-3-2-2 draft. Round two I'm playing against a UW deck. Pretty solid with fliers and detain.
I'm playing a Golgari deck splashing for Rix Maadi Guildmage. Game 1 I manage to get him down to 1 life while I'm at 27 (thanks to Daggerdrome Imp and scavange). He then plays Angel of Serenity wiping my board. He then proceeds to get me down to one life. What do I topdeck? Stab Wound ftw!
Next game, I don't get off to as fast a start, so when he plays the Angel again, I really think it's going to be game over for me this time. What do I topdeck? That Aerial Predation I sided in! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! It was actually a close game that came down to the wire, but I managed to finish him off.
Beating Angel of Serenity twice is very satisfying.
game 1:
opponent at 12, have 8 8/8 pack rat ready to kill me next turn
i have only have Rix Maadi Guildmage on board since i lost everything last turn blocking his army of rats to survive. I can't even use it's ability because there's no way I can deal damage to him at this point. And all i have is rakdo's charm in my hand. So I was about to scoop and...
End of my turn, opponent use his underworld connections to draw a card... i was like... LOL, ping ping ping, rakdo's charm
game 2:
opponent drops turn 2 pack rat
on my turn: pithing needle name pack rat
opponent rage disconnect... and never came back
Note: didn't play the mountain because I had only 1 in my deck, and I didn't want my opponent to play around removal and slowroll the rat or something. Though from this picture it seems pretty likely that he has Giant Growth, but if he has it, he has it. Nothing I can really do about that... and in both cases, I think waiting is the better play.
Turn 3, Me: Gore House Chainwalker unleased with Izzet Guildgate and some other lands in play against an empty board
Turn 4, Him: Ogre Gatecrasher, no gates in play.
Turn 4, Me:Pursuit of Flight, Deviant Glee, pay U for flying. Put him to 13.
Turn 5, Him: Draw, go
Turn 6, Me: Traitorous Instinct the Gatecrasher, kill him.
Opponent annihilates me game 1 with a pack rat. Game 2, I side in 3 electrickery. He goes turn 1 Drainpipe Vermin, turn 2 another vermin and a Centaur's Herald. My turn 2 is overloaded electrickery, he gets stuck on lands and I slam a Deviant Glee on a lifelink imp.
Game 3 I keep an iffy one lander just to see if the deck can get there (this draft was a practice for the PTQ this weekend, no prizes). He plays a pack rat turn 2, and I top deck the mountain I need to electrickery it. I go on to win that game, even though it was fairly close.
Just got extremely pwned by my opponent in the finals of an MtGO draft.
It's game three and I won game two thanks to an overloaded Mizzium Mortars. I am playing only the second pure Izzet deck I've ever drafted and it's absolutely nuts - triple Frostburn Weird, double Teleportal, Chemister, Mortars...
Anyway, my WGu opponent's fast start has knocked me to five but I've got a board full of good stuff. More to the point, I drop my sixth land this turn and have Mizzium Mortars in hand ready to sweep his board. One catch: he has WGU up and I don't want to lose to Rootborn Defences. So I decide that instead of playing Mortars straight away I'm going to play my Isperia's Skywatch, detaining his Soulsworn Spirit so that I don't take any damage in the meantime. If I can draw another way to kill Spirit I can keep the Mortars to secure the win later if he either taps down or I reach counter plus Mortars mana.
Nope. He responds with Mizzium Skin, untaps, equips his Civic Saber to the Spirit, casts Knightly Valor on it and kills me. Oops!
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If so, it was boarded in to deal with my double Voidwielder - I didn't have removal besides Mortars.
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<Limited Clan>
If so, it was boarded in to deal with my double Voidwielder - I didn't have removal besides Mortars.
I'll almost always board in a Mizzium Skin against an Izzet deck if I'm running Izzet or Azorious - it's a safe hedge bet against a guild that's known for targeted removal of varying kinds.
Not quite limited, but I was playing Momir Basic earlier, and we were making drops as usual on our trek to 8CMC. My opponent, being on the draw, plays his ninth land and pays for a 9CMC instead of an 8, which isn't quite standard but sometimes happens. What does he flip?
I'm suddenly dropping in card advantage as he begins hitting his land drops every turn beyond 9, which is generally game over in Momir Basic. As he hits turn 13 and 14, he continues to cast 12 drops (which is the right play) and manages to flip double It That Betrays, and suddenly I feel that the writing's on the wall. I cross my fingers, pray, and flip the last 8 drop that I can possibly play before he hits his 15CMC drop...
His board only has 5 creatures - a couple midrange fliers, 2 It That Betrays, and as he flips his 15 drop, he hits Autochton Wurm. I fistpump at avoiding Emrakul, untap, and swing in with Lorthos, tapping down his blockers two turns in a row and take him down from 17 to 0 in short order.
Protip: Never concede, no matter the odds - it's not over until your life points are at 0!
I was drafting for FNM a couple days ago, opened Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius pack 2, switched into U/R for the rest or pack two. In pack three I opened Cyclonic Rift and then for pick two the guy to my right passes me ANOTHER Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius! So I brewed a sweet RUG control deck and only got beaten by a guy playing G/BPack Rats.
During round 3 of my FNM tonight, I was seated next to a girl who had never drafted before. Her opponent was also a new player, and I seem to always sit near him at some point and always see him playing tons of bad cards.
While I'm shuffling up for game 2, I look over at the game. The girl is swinging in with 2 Centaur Healers, a Centaur token, a Drudge Beetle, and an Azorius Justiciar into her opponent's Hypersonic Dragon and Blistercore Weird. She's about to write down the change in life total when he slams Chemister's Trick, turning one huge swing into another. On the following turn, he figured he was far ahead enough on the board and attacked with his creatures. She had two turns left to stop the dragon, and she finally rips her seventh land for her bomb: Angel of Serenity. And what is he holding? Essence Backlash. I gave out an audible, "Awww," and she couldn't do anything but shake her head in defeat.
In the third round of a GPT the day before GP Lisbon (already had 3 byes, but was playing for fun + experience), I slammed Niv-Mizzet with UR up against a board with about 4 guys including a Seller and her songbird, a Centaur Healer, and Axebane Guardian. He has eight mana total and two cards in his hand, and bashes with the team. I'm on 7. I'm like :shrug:, guess I have to get in the way, so I block his Healer. He taps four, considers, untaps, taps. I'm expecting Chorus and essentially GG, but instead he plays Eyes in the Skies. Then Chorus of Might.
I have a pretty bad tendency to have a couple too many drinks and play swiss queues, drafting the biggest abomination I can. It costs a bit, but leads to some pretty hilarious plays. I generally try to force mill with Psychic Spirals, but it doesn't always go to plan. Last night in game one against a fairly solid azorious flyers deck, I had successfully milled my library, but he played Cancel on my Psychic Spiral (the bastard), having also shown me a second cancel earlier in the match. This is obviously pretty bad for me, so in sideboarding, I tried to make a real deck out of the cards I had. It was a 5-colour mismatch, midrangey kind of thing, pretty hard to describe, but it's pretty safe to say rakdos ragemutts probably shouldn't be in the same deck as hover barrier. I won the second game due to some mana screw on his part. Game 3 I managed to get him down to 5 life due to some timely removal, but he completely stabilized and having cleared my last creature out of the way, swung with the team putting me dead next turn with an azorious keyrune just in case. In my turn, I play Rakdos Ragemutt, then play and equip a Civic Saber and swing. He activates keyrune, which I then tap my last island to cast blustersquall tapping it down, probably the only time I've ever seen or played it non-overloaded. He was pretty gutted to lose as my deck was such a joke, but took it on the chin.
Why yes, I do like 15-minute rounds. About half of my games consisted of turn 2 Chainwalker > Shred-Freak + Deviant Glee > Shred-Freak.
Round 2 was against a very solid Selesnya deck. I managed to get him down to 1 life before he stabilized, but I topdecked Lobber Crew a few turns later and pinged for the final point. Game 2, I kept a hand with only one creature, and paid the price when he had removal. Game 3, he managed to stabilize at 13 or so, but I got Lobber Crew shortly afterward. I then topdecked Rix Maadi Guildmage, and began pinging for 2 instead of 1 (I only had one black mana throughout the whole game). He started to amass an army by using Codex Shredder to recur his Eyes in the Skies, but I played very cautiously and killed him off after he attacked me down to 6 life.
Personally, I think he should have used Codex Shredder to recur Avenging Arrow, since that would have dealt with the Lobber Crew and left me with almost no way to get past his team.
Round 3 was a total blowout, though. Game 1 consisted of "Chainwalker, Shred-Freak + Deviant Glee, topdeck two more Shred-Freaks and win at life," although game 2 was a bit more interesting. I got him down to 10 before he dropped Trestle Troll and Sluiceway Scorpion, and the only card in my hand that could win me the game was Rakdos himself. So at that point, my game plan was simply "get damage through and play Rakdos." I topdecked a Shred-Freak and rejoiced, but my hopes were dashed when he cast Golgari Charm. I cleared his board afterward, but Corpsejack Menace came down next turn (which traded with Frostburn Weird). I then cast Grim Roustabout, and he played yet another blocker. After swinging with Roustabout, I cast my Slum Reaper in the hopes that he wouldn't have another blocker. Thankfully he didn't, so I hit him with the Reaper and slammed Rakdos, thus prompting the concession.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Round 7. I'm playing Izzet splashing Azorius with a Lobber Crew, Frostburn Weird and Guttersnipe in play. My opponent is at 14 life, I'm at 11.
At the end of his turn, I tap Lobber Crew (1,) cast Azorius Charm for Guttersnipe's ability (3,) re-tap Crew (4,) cast Chemister's trick and re-tap Crew (7.) My turn: Explosive Impact to the dome for 14 damage total. I did this sort of play a few times that draft. It must hurt to die out of nowhere.
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My Decks: EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn Modern: Polytokes IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
On his turn he plays Recurring Nightmare saccing gloom surgeon for sheoldred.
Turn 5:
On my upkeep, I sacrifice the jackal. Then I topdeck Time Walk like a champ. I level up dragonlord another 3 times. Swings for 4 in the air (14), then casts time walk.
On my second upkeep, I activate mishra's factory and sacrifice it. Topdeck like a champ again with Goblin Guide. Level up dragonlord 2 more times and swings for 8 (6). Then casts goblin guide and Mana Crypt which I use to cast Winter Orb.
On his turn he could only untap one land, and even though sheoldred reanimates wurmcoil it is far too late.
Turn 6:
I sacrifice goblin guide and swing for the win.
Signalling is like farting: it's a natural thing that helps people avoid being where you are, and if you try to do it deliberately, things turn to crap fast.
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I hereby found the American Chapter of the Zealots of Semantics. All glory to The Curmudgeon.
Last round of a 4-pack sealed last night, I was playing UWg against GW, and he'd been smashing my face in for several turns with his numerous centaurs, etc. My goal up to this point was to stall the board until I could get my Archon of the Triumverate cast and start detaining his bigger threats, but by the time I had it out, these were the critters on the board:
You can see that this is going to go rather badly for me. Mana was mostly irrelevant at this stage, but I will note that he had roughly six lands on the table, so plenty of mana to activate either of the Guildmage's abilities.
The turn right after I cast the Archon, he drops Knightly Valor on his 3/3 in lieu of creating another token, and swings. I have to chump with the seller. He passes, and I draw into Frostburn Weird, which joins the Archon on the board.
So, do you fold?
I thought about it for a minute. I didn't really have any other way to stop the guildmage barring Detain, so I swung, detaining his Valorous centaur and the guildmage, leaving the weird behind to stop his 2/2 knight token.
He untaps, and casts another centaur (off of Call of the Conclave), but elects to stay at home.
He has 4 mana untapped.
I drew Martial Law, and kind of slumped my shoulders because I knew he had me dead next turn. So I cast my enchantnment, and opted to swing again with the Archon, targeting his guildmage and 5/5 centaur again.
And he did not activate in response.
I kind of paused, confused, but there it was on my screen - Guildmage, Detained.
On his turn, he swung with his 2/2 and 3/3, I opted to block the 3/3 with my Weird, but he had Common Bond, killing the Weird and taking me to 2.
I found another blocker on my draw, then I tried the Archon again, and again, no response. So while my Martial Law and other random dudes kepts pace with every new addition he dropped on his side, the Archon kept on swinging. I was lucky enough to manage to keep drawing men to block, because at any point he might have swung past had he found one more man than me.
Archon swung in for the last bit of damage, and the match was over.
Afterwards I asked him what had happened, why he hadn't responded. He said that he was on the Beta, and somehow the stops weren't configured to let him respond to my Detain, but that doesn't make much sense to me. Could be he simply forgot. In any case, had he made a token instead of casting Valor, he would have had the one additional man he needed to kill me.
So yay, I got lucky. Or, he got pwned by the Beta.
I got owned by an opponent who had four timely top decks in a row. Not just one, not just two, not just three, but FOUR. They needed every single one of them to win.
The board state around turn 8 or so was:
Them: Centaur token, knight token, a bunch of plains and forests, 17 life, no cards in hand
Me: Sluiceway Scorpion, Centaur token (with Stab Wound), Centaur Token (with Knightly Valor), knight token, a bunch of plains, forests, and swamps, 14 life, 2 creatures in hand + Collective Blessing
I played the Collective Blessing and attacked with my 5/5 scorpion, which they let through. Now they're at 12 life.
Their top deck #1: Grove of the Guardians
I attack with Sluiceway Scorpion for 5, they let it through (now they're at 7 life) and make an 8/8 vigilant token. I play a dude.
Their top deck #2: Swift Justice
I attack with my scorpion again, not knowing what they top decked, and it gets killed by their 9/8 first strike lifelink token. Now they're at 16 life. I play Rubbleback Rhino.
Their top deck #3: Druid's Deliverance
Scavenge onto the Rhino, which is now an 8/9, and attack with it. Their play: Druid's Deliverance for another token. I play another dude. I still have more creatures on the board and more in hand so I just need to build up a fatal mass of dudes.
Their top deck #4: Rogue's Passage.
Game over. They have the mana to make one of their tokens unblockable and I'm at 8 life so I die.
I've never seen an opponent top deck 4 timely cards in a row, each being exactly what they needed at that moment.
I have video proof and will post it to Youtube at some point ...
Who scoops on that? Like bateleur said, you 2-for-1'ed yourself. He's got 5 mana, 3 colors and 6 cards. He can't beat a 2/2 and a 2/4?
but yeah i'd still never scoop there.
My opp goes: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.
Second game: unleashed thug, rix maadi guildmage, rakdos keyrune + unleashed thug, a turn or two later) skull rend. Three 3-power first striker with guildmage backup. I lost.
I think MTGO's shuffler was borkened.
Then, in the final round, I face a guy with triple annihilating fire (!!) and double frostburn weird (!!!), plus street spasm. (I somehow 2-0 him, because he misplayed his deck so badly (i.e. not waiting to have damage dealt before playing the fire, allowing me to use switf justice to 2-for-1 wreck him.)
I faced an early codex shredder two games in a row. Nothing to worry about... yet he also had both azorius and izzet charms on top of supreme verdict; he always had an answer to any board state... which he could reuse later in the game thanks to the codex. First game I finally had him down within burn range with my double explosive impact on hand. After the first, he's low enough and i'll kill him next turn. He untaps, plays his 7th land, use the codex to get azorius charm back, gives all his guys lifelink, and gets out of burn range. I don't ever recall anyone using that lifelink side... but it was exactly what was needed here. Second game, he's once against within burn range, this time it's izzet charm to counter the spell.
(I also faced a guy with both Jace, architect of thought *and* niv-mizzet in the first round of that same sealed!)
I'm playing a Golgari deck splashing for Rix Maadi Guildmage. Game 1 I manage to get him down to 1 life while I'm at 27 (thanks to Daggerdrome Imp and scavange). He then plays Angel of Serenity wiping my board. He then proceeds to get me down to one life. What do I topdeck? Stab Wound ftw!
Next game, I don't get off to as fast a start, so when he plays the Angel again, I really think it's going to be game over for me this time. What do I topdeck? That Aerial Predation I sided in! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! It was actually a close game that came down to the wire, but I managed to finish him off.
Beating Angel of Serenity twice is very satisfying.
opponent at 12, have 8 8/8 pack rat ready to kill me next turn
i have only have Rix Maadi Guildmage on board since i lost everything last turn blocking his army of rats to survive. I can't even use it's ability because there's no way I can deal damage to him at this point. And all i have is rakdo's charm in my hand. So I was about to scoop and...
End of my turn, opponent use his underworld connections to draw a card... i was like... LOL, ping ping ping, rakdo's charm
game 2:
opponent drops turn 2 pack rat
on my turn: pithing needle name pack rat
opponent rage disconnect... and never came back
Note: didn't play the mountain because I had only 1 in my deck, and I didn't want my opponent to play around removal and slowroll the rat or something. Though from this picture it seems pretty likely that he has Giant Growth, but if he has it, he has it. Nothing I can really do about that... and in both cases, I think waiting is the better play.
Turn 3, Me: Gore House Chainwalker unleased with Izzet Guildgate and some other lands in play against an empty board
Turn 4, Him: Ogre Gatecrasher, no gates in play.
Turn 4, Me:Pursuit of Flight, Deviant Glee, pay U for flying. Put him to 13.
Turn 5, Him: Draw, go
Turn 6, Me: Traitorous Instinct the Gatecrasher, kill him.
Game 3 I keep an iffy one lander just to see if the deck can get there (this draft was a practice for the PTQ this weekend, no prizes). He plays a pack rat turn 2, and I top deck the mountain I need to electrickery it. I go on to win that game, even though it was fairly close.
That rakdos deck was the nuts.
It's game three and I won game two thanks to an overloaded Mizzium Mortars. I am playing only the second pure Izzet deck I've ever drafted and it's absolutely nuts - triple Frostburn Weird, double Teleportal, Chemister, Mortars...
Anyway, my WGu opponent's fast start has knocked me to five but I've got a board full of good stuff. More to the point, I drop my sixth land this turn and have Mizzium Mortars in hand ready to sweep his board. One catch: he has WGU up and I don't want to lose to Rootborn Defences. So I decide that instead of playing Mortars straight away I'm going to play my Isperia's Skywatch, detaining his Soulsworn Spirit so that I don't take any damage in the meantime. If I can draw another way to kill Spirit I can keep the Mortars to secure the win later if he either taps down or I reach counter plus Mortars mana.
That's only bad if he has Supreme Verdict, right?
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Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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<Limited Clan>
If so, it was boarded in to deal with my double Voidwielder - I didn't have removal besides Mortars.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
I'll almost always board in a Mizzium Skin against an Izzet deck if I'm running Izzet or Azorious - it's a safe hedge bet against a guild that's known for targeted removal of varying kinds.
Not quite limited, but I was playing Momir Basic earlier, and we were making drops as usual on our trek to 8CMC. My opponent, being on the draw, plays his ninth land and pays for a 9CMC instead of an 8, which isn't quite standard but sometimes happens. What does he flip?
Bringer of the Blue Dawn
I'm suddenly dropping in card advantage as he begins hitting his land drops every turn beyond 9, which is generally game over in Momir Basic. As he hits turn 13 and 14, he continues to cast 12 drops (which is the right play) and manages to flip double It That Betrays, and suddenly I feel that the writing's on the wall. I cross my fingers, pray, and flip the last 8 drop that I can possibly play before he hits his 15CMC drop...
...and hit Lorthos the Tidemaker.
His board only has 5 creatures - a couple midrange fliers, 2 It That Betrays, and as he flips his 15 drop, he hits Autochton Wurm. I fistpump at avoiding Emrakul, untap, and swing in with Lorthos, tapping down his blockers two turns in a row and take him down from 17 to 0 in short order.
Protip: Never concede, no matter the odds - it's not over until your life points are at 0!
MtG:RPG - Kai
While I'm shuffling up for game 2, I look over at the game. The girl is swinging in with 2 Centaur Healers, a Centaur token, a Drudge Beetle, and an Azorius Justiciar into her opponent's Hypersonic Dragon and Blistercore Weird. She's about to write down the change in life total when he slams Chemister's Trick, turning one huge swing into another. On the following turn, he figured he was far ahead enough on the board and attacked with his creatures. She had two turns left to stop the dragon, and she finally rips her seventh land for her bomb: Angel of Serenity. And what is he holding? Essence Backlash. I gave out an audible, "Awww," and she couldn't do anything but shake her head in defeat.
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.
MtG:RPG - Kai
Me: "Izzet Charm?"
Proceed to win very easily.
(EDIT: And it was a 10-man pod too, which I have habitually proven to be terrible in.)
2 Gore-House Chainwalker
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
2 Frostburn Weird
1 Rix Maadi Guildmage
1 Splatter Thug
1 Lobber Crew
1 Grim Roustabout
1 Dead Reveler
1 Slum Reaper
1 Rakdos, Lord of Riots
2 Deviant Glee
1 Ultimate Price
1 Auger Spree
1 Annihilating Fire
1 Traitorous Instinct
1 Launch Party
1 Explosive Impact
Lands: 17
2 Rakdos Guildgate
6 Swamp
9 Mountain
1 Mind Rot
1 Skull Rend
1 Explosive Impact
1 Electrickery
2 Essence Backlash
1 Rakdos Ringleader
1 Catacomb Slug
1 Hussar Patrol
1 Pithing Needle
1 Stealer of Secrets
1 Trestle Troll
1 Destroy the Evidence
1 Centaur Healer
1 Assassin's Strike
1 Batterhorn
1 Pyroconvergence
Why yes, I do like 15-minute rounds. About half of my games consisted of turn 2 Chainwalker > Shred-Freak + Deviant Glee > Shred-Freak.
Round 2 was against a very solid Selesnya deck. I managed to get him down to 1 life before he stabilized, but I topdecked Lobber Crew a few turns later and pinged for the final point. Game 2, I kept a hand with only one creature, and paid the price when he had removal. Game 3, he managed to stabilize at 13 or so, but I got Lobber Crew shortly afterward. I then topdecked Rix Maadi Guildmage, and began pinging for 2 instead of 1 (I only had one black mana throughout the whole game). He started to amass an army by using Codex Shredder to recur his Eyes in the Skies, but I played very cautiously and killed him off after he attacked me down to 6 life.
Personally, I think he should have used Codex Shredder to recur Avenging Arrow, since that would have dealt with the Lobber Crew and left me with almost no way to get past his team.
Round 3 was a total blowout, though. Game 1 consisted of "Chainwalker, Shred-Freak + Deviant Glee, topdeck two more Shred-Freaks and win at life," although game 2 was a bit more interesting. I got him down to 10 before he dropped Trestle Troll and Sluiceway Scorpion, and the only card in my hand that could win me the game was Rakdos himself. So at that point, my game plan was simply "get damage through and play Rakdos." I topdecked a Shred-Freak and rejoiced, but my hopes were dashed when he cast Golgari Charm. I cleared his board afterward, but Corpsejack Menace came down next turn (which traded with Frostburn Weird). I then cast Grim Roustabout, and he played yet another blocker. After swinging with Roustabout, I cast my Slum Reaper in the hopes that he wouldn't have another blocker. Thankfully he didn't, so I hit him with the Reaper and slammed Rakdos, thus prompting the concession.
At the end of his turn, I tap Lobber Crew (1,) cast Azorius Charm for Guttersnipe's ability (3,) re-tap Crew (4,) cast Chemister's trick and re-tap Crew (7.) My turn: Explosive Impact to the dome for 14 damage total. I did this sort of play a few times that draft. It must hurt to die out of nowhere.
My Decks:
EDH: Sygg, River Cutthroat , Road to Scion
Grimgrin, Corpseborn
Modern: Polytokes
IRL: Progenitus Polymorph , Goblins
Just a friendly reminder that I will drive this car off a bridge
It is game 3 of the finals of a holiday cube. I'm playing RDW splashing for blue power. My opponent is mono black reanimate. I am on the play.
Turn 1:
I play Mountain into Tattermunge Maniac
He plays Library of Alexandria
Turn 2:
I play Scalding Tarn, crack to fetch Volcanic Island. Cast Ancestral Recall on myself, drawing 3 crappy lands. Attack with maniac (18). He activates library at my EOT.
He plays Swamp, Gloom Surgeon
Turn 3:
I play Mountain. Kargan Dragonlord, Jackal Pup. maniac suicides into surgeon milling 2 lands.
He activates library, then discards Sheoldred, Whispering One at EOT.
Turn 4:
I play Mishra's Factory. Levels up dragonlord 3 times, and passes. He plays Entomb at my EOT for Wurmcoil Engine
On his turn he plays Recurring Nightmare saccing gloom surgeon for sheoldred.
Turn 5:
On my upkeep, I sacrifice the jackal. Then I topdeck Time Walk like a champ. I level up dragonlord another 3 times. Swings for 4 in the air (14), then casts time walk.
On my second upkeep, I activate mishra's factory and sacrifice it. Topdeck like a champ again with Goblin Guide. Level up dragonlord 2 more times and swings for 8 (6). Then casts goblin guide and Mana Crypt which I use to cast Winter Orb.
On his turn he could only untap one land, and even though sheoldred reanimates wurmcoil it is far too late.
Turn 6:
I sacrifice goblin guide and swing for the win.
tl dr: dragonlord beats T1 library T2 unkillable 2/1 T4 sheoldred T5 wurmcoil
My opponent plays Heartbeat of Spring and then plays Kozilek, Butcher of Truth. With his one extra mana, he uses his Fauna Shaman to discard a Tarmogoyf and search up a Blightsteel Colossus. My board is a Mox Emerald, Azorius Signet and a bunch of lands.
Knowing all he has is the Colossus in hand, I tap out and cast Sphinx's Revelation during his end step for 9. On my turn, I Swords to Plowshares the Kozilek and eagerly await his Colossus. He dutifully casts it, and the next turn I cast Treachery on it and pass the turn with Venser, Shaper Savant, Momentary Blink, Vendilion Clique, Counterspell, and Memory Lapse in my hand.
Yeah, I won that game.
:dance:Fact or Fiction of the [Limited] Clan:dance:
Him (21 life):
Me (5 life):
You can see that this is going to go rather badly for me. Mana was mostly irrelevant at this stage, but I will note that he had roughly six lands on the table, so plenty of mana to activate either of the Guildmage's abilities.
The turn right after I cast the Archon, he drops Knightly Valor on his 3/3 in lieu of creating another token, and swings. I have to chump with the seller. He passes, and I draw into Frostburn Weird, which joins the Archon on the board.
So, do you fold?
I thought about it for a minute. I didn't really have any other way to stop the guildmage barring Detain, so I swung, detaining his Valorous centaur and the guildmage, leaving the weird behind to stop his 2/2 knight token.
He untaps, and casts another centaur (off of Call of the Conclave), but elects to stay at home.
He has 4 mana untapped.
I drew Martial Law, and kind of slumped my shoulders because I knew he had me dead next turn. So I cast my enchantnment, and opted to swing again with the Archon, targeting his guildmage and 5/5 centaur again.
And he did not activate in response.
I kind of paused, confused, but there it was on my screen - Guildmage, Detained.
On his turn, he swung with his 2/2 and 3/3, I opted to block the 3/3 with my Weird, but he had Common Bond, killing the Weird and taking me to 2.
I found another blocker on my draw, then I tried the Archon again, and again, no response. So while my Martial Law and other random dudes kepts pace with every new addition he dropped on his side, the Archon kept on swinging. I was lucky enough to manage to keep drawing men to block, because at any point he might have swung past had he found one more man than me.
Archon swung in for the last bit of damage, and the match was over.
Afterwards I asked him what had happened, why he hadn't responded. He said that he was on the Beta, and somehow the stops weren't configured to let him respond to my Detain, but that doesn't make much sense to me. Could be he simply forgot. In any case, had he made a token instead of casting Valor, he would have had the one additional man he needed to kill me.
So yay, I got lucky. Or, he got pwned by the Beta.
The board state around turn 8 or so was:
Them: Centaur token, knight token, a bunch of plains and forests, 17 life, no cards in hand
Me: Sluiceway Scorpion, Centaur token (with Stab Wound), Centaur Token (with Knightly Valor), knight token, a bunch of plains, forests, and swamps, 14 life, 2 creatures in hand + Collective Blessing
I played the Collective Blessing and attacked with my 5/5 scorpion, which they let through. Now they're at 12 life.
Their top deck #1: Grove of the Guardians
I attack with Sluiceway Scorpion for 5, they let it through (now they're at 7 life) and make an 8/8 vigilant token. I play a dude.
Their top deck #2: Swift Justice
I attack with my scorpion again, not knowing what they top decked, and it gets killed by their 9/8 first strike lifelink token. Now they're at 16 life. I play Rubbleback Rhino.
Their top deck #3: Druid's Deliverance
Scavenge onto the Rhino, which is now an 8/9, and attack with it. Their play: Druid's Deliverance for another token. I play another dude. I still have more creatures on the board and more in hand so I just need to build up a fatal mass of dudes.
Their top deck #4: Rogue's Passage.
Game over. They have the mana to make one of their tokens unblockable and I'm at 8 life so I die.
I've never seen an opponent top deck 4 timely cards in a row, each being exactly what they needed at that moment.
I have video proof and will post it to Youtube at some point ...