You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
It doesn't seem too complicated, does it? I mean, you're pretty much dead and the only line that doesn't immediately get you killed is Flattening the Quartermaster, trading for it with Hand of Silumgar, and chumping the Elemental with Aven. Maybe this is one of those "pro" situations where I just totally don't see something?
Either that or flatten the shorecrasher, doubleblock the quartermaster and untap at 1 life with a loremaster in play.
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I think that above line does get him killed immediately, doesn't it? (Quartermaster will still trample for 1 and the Elemental can trample for 4). He's going to have 13 trampling power after the Bolster and Tahn's guys + Flatten can only suck up 8.
I think the only thing that doesn't lose immediately is for you to Flatten the Elemental in response. He can save it by using his Blue to pump toughness, but then he doesn't just kill you. You have to double block the Quartermasters and take 2, lose both your guys, but the Quartermasters die. Then you untap and he's got a 5/5 to your Loremaster + Pyrotechnics and you have to draw something. But I see a bunch of draws you could make.
Edit: and if the guy actually flickers the Elemental in response to the Flatten, it's great. He'll have an untapped 4/4, but that just dies to the Pyrotechnics.
Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
If you try to Flatten the Quartermasters pre-combat, he can go +1/-1 on the Elemental and still get the bolster on it.
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Ambush Krotiq makes me laugh so much. I keep rereading the card and it keeps not having Flash. In what sense is this an ambush again? I just have visions of this huge Krotiq poorly concealed in some bushes, feeling slightly sad that his carefully planned ambushes never seem to work.
I think you want to Flatten the Elemental at some point, and want to block Quartermasters only with your Aven, but I'm unsure when you use Flatten.
I think probably you wait to play Flatten. If you let him bolster onto the Elemental and then let him attack, you block Quartermasters with Aven and Elemental with Hand. You then Flatten the Elemental. At that point, he can't pump its power or it dies and he can't pump its toughness or Hand of Silumgar kills it and lives. He has to either trade with Hand of Silumgar or exile it (losing the counters and letting you keep Hand). His best play is probably to trade it for the Hand. In that case, you win if you draw Kolaghan Skirmisher or Qarsi Sadist and he didn't have another card he could play. If he exiles the Elemental, then you still win with Kolaghan Skirmisher or Qarsi Sadist, and also win with Tail Slash.
One advantage of playing Flatten before the Sunbringer's Touch resolves is that it makes him use mana, so he is unlikely to play something after combat. However, that means he ends up with a bigger elemental, and it seems less likely you find a way to kill him.
I don't think you want to play for a situation where you merely live another turn, without having a chance to kill him next turn. With him looking at two cards a turn, it seems unlikely that works out well.
I think that above line does get him killed immediately, doesn't it? (Quartermaster will still trample for 1 and the Elemental can trample for 4). He's going to have 13 trampling power after the Bolster and Tahn's guys + Flatten can only suck up 8.
He only gets 13 power if Tahn targets the Quartermasters with Flatten. If he flattens the 5/5 elemental, the opponent can't pump power because it would drop the elemental's toughness to zero.
I would flatten the Shorecrasher immediately because then he has to activated an ability that reduces its offensive power in order for it to survive. So you're dealing with less damage coming in this turn that way and should overall have more flexibility and options. In particular you don't have to block with anything but hand of silumgar if you don't want to. He's not playing red, you can be at 1 life.
Flatten Shorecrasher immediately.
If he lets it die, quartermaster can be double blocked and you survive at 1 life, with both your opponents creatures dead, a 4/3 in play and pyrotechnics in hand. If he exiles, shorecrasher comes back as a morph, gets 2 counters and trample but has summoning sickness, so you can safely single block the quartermasters with aven if he attacks and have lethal if the shorecrasher doesn't chump on the swing back, though safer is probably to double block and make sure both your opponents creatures are dead by the end of your next turn. If he double pumps the toughness of shorecrasher, it becomes a -1/3 until eot, and again you can block the quartermaster safely like above. It does bring shorecrasher out of pyrotechnics reach the next turn though, which is not an amazing spot to be in, and your best chance then might be to swing and hope for the block, finishing it off with the pyrotechnics. But being at 1 life in topdeck mode vs a Monastery Siege would suck.
Worst case is if he double pumps toughness and doesn't attack, in which case you're definitely behind and just have to pray that he continues to play conservatively while Aven chips away at him.
Waiting with flatten lets him attack with both and gives him much more freedom in how to use his mana along the way. You would still be in a reasonable spot if you chump quartermaster with Aven (take 3 trample) and shorecrasher with Hand, then flatten. He can either exile and lose the +1/+1 counters, or just lose the elemental to hand without doing any damage. You then have hand and the 4/3 left on a board with tapped quartermaster, morphed shorecrasher and pyrotechnics in hand, which is 1 damage short of killing him outright and leaves quartermasters in play to deal with afterwards (unless he gets greedy), so doesn't seem optimal.
Flattening the Quartermaster now makes it a 4/4, shorecrasher a virtual 5/1, both with trample, and you with 4 toughness, so you die on the spot.
Flattening the Quartermaster later doesn't kill it, and again leaves him with 9 trampling power vs your 4 toughness.
So you have to flatten the elemental to survive, but the timing determines whether it as a 5/5 or quartermaster as a 6/6 survives to bother you later. Either is not great, but immediately flattening makes it easier for your opponent to screw up, so I would chose that.
All these scenarios ignore anything relevant in his hand, but if he does have anything else this turn I think you lose whatever you do.
I think this is the most accurate answer.
Now, there's one tiny bit of extra information. After I was thinking for a while, my opponent typed "..." in chat. Does this change your play?
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
Flatten Shorecrasher in response. No matter what he does, he can only attack with the Quartermasters. Block with just the aven and go to 2. If he flickered the elemental, on your turn Pyrotechnics the face-down elemental. If he pumped it's toughness instead and you don't draw another blocker, you have to attack with loremaster. He has to block in case you have Sarkhan's Rage so you can finish it off with pyrotechnics.
Your opponent getting impatient with you choosing your blocks only increases the likelihood that he doesn't think his play through properly and might make a mistake. Other than that, given that the important decision you have to make is a card that he has no way of knowing about I wouldn't read too much into it.
BTW: what did you get back with Loremaster? If it was the reach of shadows as I've been assuming my previous post stands. If it was either Pyrotechnics or Flatten that would given him enough information to make it much less likely that he misplays, in which case flattening in combat might be safer because the 6/6 is easier to deal with in the long run? Not sure.
It was Reach of Shadows, so he doesn't know about either card in my hand.
I had not figured everything yet when my opponent typed '...', but I had figured a way to win if he misplayed badly (Flatten SRQ, he doesn't pump in response and attacks with both). My hope when seeing his impatience was that he would be certain of the win and therefore more likely to do this bad play, so I went for it. If I had completely figured out the alternatives I wouldn't have done this, because I think now that the best play is Flattening the Shorecrasher after declaring blockers (2/3 chumps, deathtoucher blocks Shorecrasher) and this gives a decent enough shot at winning (even if it's still not great, considering he has almost certainly two spells in hand and draws 2 more cards) that hoping for this misplay isn't needed. Luckily for me, my opponent did exactly that and I won the game. Despite the win, I almost immediately had second thoughts about my play there.
You really just need to embrace the rage. I keep a small colony of hamsters next to my computer and every time I lose a match to mana screw I throw one against the wall.
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For completeness: it's game 1, and this is the decklist I'm playing:
4 Mountain
2 Plains
1 Island
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Dismal Backwater
1 Scoured Barrens
1 Hand of Silumgar
1 Kolaghan Skirmisher
1 Marang River Skeleton
1 Qarsi Sadist
2 Dutiful Attendant
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Minister of Pain
1 Custodian of the Trove
2 Vulturous Aven
1 Sidisi, Undead Vizier
1 Pilgrim of the Fires
1 Goblin Boom Keg
1 Flatten
1 Reach of Shadows
1 Ire Shaman
1 Monastery Loremaster
1 Ruthless Deathfang
1 Harsh Sustenance
1 Tail Slash
1 Pyrotechnics
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I think the only thing that doesn't lose immediately is for you to Flatten the Elemental in response. He can save it by using his Blue to pump toughness, but then he doesn't just kill you. You have to double block the Quartermasters and take 2, lose both your guys, but the Quartermasters die. Then you untap and he's got a 5/5 to your Loremaster + Pyrotechnics and you have to draw something. But I see a bunch of draws you could make.
Edit: and if the guy actually flickers the Elemental in response to the Flatten, it's great. He'll have an untapped 4/4, but that just dies to the Pyrotechnics.
I think probably you wait to play Flatten. If you let him bolster onto the Elemental and then let him attack, you block Quartermasters with Aven and Elemental with Hand. You then Flatten the Elemental. At that point, he can't pump its power or it dies and he can't pump its toughness or Hand of Silumgar kills it and lives. He has to either trade with Hand of Silumgar or exile it (losing the counters and letting you keep Hand). His best play is probably to trade it for the Hand. In that case, you win if you draw Kolaghan Skirmisher or Qarsi Sadist and he didn't have another card he could play. If he exiles the Elemental, then you still win with Kolaghan Skirmisher or Qarsi Sadist, and also win with Tail Slash.
One advantage of playing Flatten before the Sunbringer's Touch resolves is that it makes him use mana, so he is unlikely to play something after combat. However, that means he ends up with a bigger elemental, and it seems less likely you find a way to kill him.
I don't think you want to play for a situation where you merely live another turn, without having a chance to kill him next turn. With him looking at two cards a turn, it seems unlikely that works out well.
I think this is the most accurate answer.
Now, there's one tiny bit of extra information. After I was thinking for a while, my opponent typed "..." in chat. Does this change your play?
It was Reach of Shadows, so he doesn't know about either card in my hand.
I had not figured everything yet when my opponent typed '...', but I had figured a way to win if he misplayed badly (Flatten SRQ, he doesn't pump in response and attacks with both). My hope when seeing his impatience was that he would be certain of the win and therefore more likely to do this bad play, so I went for it. If I had completely figured out the alternatives I wouldn't have done this, because I think now that the best play is Flattening the Shorecrasher after declaring blockers (2/3 chumps, deathtoucher blocks Shorecrasher) and this gives a decent enough shot at winning (even if it's still not great, considering he has almost certainly two spells in hand and draws 2 more cards) that hoping for this misplay isn't needed. Luckily for me, my opponent did exactly that and I won the game. Despite the win, I almost immediately had second thoughts about my play there.