Sorry to be a downer, but I've very rarely had an awesome victory in Standard as of lately. Yesterday, I did have an awesome match in play testing with GR Devotion vs. Mono Black. It actually came down to 1 life vs. 1 life and going from 3 to 1 life, drawing a card of Erebos, was not enough to pull out the win. There also was some good interaction with blockers with Whip of Erebos on board with Gary on board. So, GR had to attack delicately to not die to a Whipped Gary, all the while a Nightveil Specter was making the window smaller and smaller.
Mind you, this is in probably about 60 matches of Theros Standard in tournaments and 200 play testing matches.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
My RDW VS BRU control, he hits me with Master of Cruelties while my bench is clear but has nothing to follow up for the kill. I top deck an Act of Treason, hit him with his own Master and we spend the next several turns drawing, looking for the burn to end it and I luck out with a Fanatic of Mogis draw for the on measely damage I needed to win the match.
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“Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
My RDW VS BRU control, he hits me with Master of Cruelties while my bench is clear but has nothing to follow up for the kill. I top deck an Act of Treason, hit him with his own Master and we spend the next several turns drawing, looking for the burn to end it and I luck out with a Fanatic of Mogis draw for the on measely damage I needed to win the match.
Sam Black casting his opponents Gray Merchant off of Nightveil for the win a couple days ago was awesome to watch.
For me personally it was probably being 1 turn away from dead playing Naya a few months ago, ripping an Aurelia off the top, then getting in with her second attack and blood-rushing a Rampager + Double Strike from a Boros Charm FTW. My opponent just about lost it
In a draft yesterday, I was playing blue / black against a mono white opponent. First game he got me down to 3 life and passed the turn with me dead on board. I bounced his only flier and swung in for 5, cast boon of erebos for exactly lethal, dropping me to 1. The following game, he had me down to 6 by turn 5, I barely managed to stabilize at 1. We played draw / go for 2 turns until I manage to voltron up a flier and hold him off with a clogged board state. A gary off the top brings me to 4, but he brings me back down to 1 the turn before he dies from a combination of flying and a cavern lampad with intimidate for exactly lethal again. Fun games, but it must have been frustrating on his side of the board.
In the semi finals of a regional tournament I was playing esper vs UWR control, it was game 2 and I was controlling the game very well. Unfortunately early on in the game I resolved a jace and took rev+land over aetherling (my only one). My deck had a bunch of other threats so I chose the card advantage over finisher. He was able to resolve both of his big jaces from the side and while I did have answers immediately he milled me for at least 20 (maybe 30 due to glare of heresy'ing my sphere which his jace was under). I eventually drew my aetherling but lost it to a counterflux, having little jace on the table I was able to calculate my only winning line as:
-cast a new jace and go for the ult
-get his aetherling + no cards from my deck
-fog any removal because if I used the blink he'd get his aetherling back
-kill him with exactly 0 cards in my library
I managed to pull it off, he shocked himself for the last 2 on his own turn realizing he couldn't stop his own aetherling from killing him on the last possible turn and I moved into the finals.
This was just a friendly match between me and a friend but I just recently won a game with an opening hand of seven lands. 2 are scry lands though and he wasn't really able to curve perfectly with his WW deck, I was running Big Red and I ended up winning with 2 Fanatic of Mogis by turn 5.
I was not very awake, to say the least, and had had a tough day at work with a lot of complex issues. As I'm sideboarding at FNM with my red devotion splash white deck, I shuffle in 6 cards, and go through my deck and remove 6 cards. As I play through the match, we hit a stalemate, and I topdeck... what's that doing in my deck... an Assemble the Legion. I run 1 maindeck, and when sideboarding I found other cards to take out before getting to it, thus forgetting it was there. Normally it would have been sub optimal in that match, but for this exact boardstate it allowed me to win the game and the match.
During another stalled boardstate, game 3 where it looks like I'm about to fall behind, I play Fanatic of Mogis for 8, then topdeck another one for a lethal 9 as I had hit my opponent for 2 and he had shocked once.
Playing mono black against Jund, I am behind on board in game 3 and down to my last card in hand, a Grey Merchant. I Merchant for 4, my only other permanent being Underworld Connections. Surviving another turn, I draw a blank and Connections up another Grey Merchant, I live another turn, and draw another Merchant... and then, another for the win. Needless to say my opponent was not happy, although removal might have effectively done the same thing.
I am playing Jund and my opponent is playing Bant Prophet. He sequences together a Jace AoT, prophet, and Primeval Bounty on turns 3, 4, 5 i think. I only have one Golgari Charm in the main for game one, and am staring down a dark tunnel of hurt with that Bounty out.
Luckily I am able to Rakdos Return him to drain the last few cards in his hand and kill his Jace. I end up killing his Prophet but he ends up with a 9/9 scavenging ooze, a master biomancer, and a bunch of 5/5 beasts due to the bounty, plus a few 3/6 Caryatid's. It was disgusting how powerful bounty is in that deck, especially with Master Biomancer out. Oh and he's gaining 3 life for every land he puts out.
On my side I have a few Sylvan Caryatid's and a Xenagos that has pumped out a bunch of tokens, plus a Reaper that is preventing him from swinging with his massive ooze. Oh and a 8/8 Monstrous Polukranos. I also have a Stormbreath Dragon. Long story short, I draw a hero's downfall, kill his ooze, use xenagos's mana ramp ability to monstorous my dragon, play double anger of the gods, kill his whole team and swing for 15 for the kill and victory! It was a great game that lasted close to 35 minutes with plenty of back and forth action.
Unfortunately I had to mull to 5 game 2 and got stomped and then ran out of time in game 3.
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"We have always counted time with sand; this pinch is your meaningless life."
I'm playing u/w versus the r/g spew deck with garruk, nykthos, you know the one. It's game 3 and he starts slamming massive mistcutter hydras on me (which I boarded in blind obedience for, which he has also killed by this point with destructive revelry.) So he's doing his thing. He probably drops half his deck into play and is going for the kill with 20 creatures or so. It takes him about 10 minutes to actually set this up with counting devotion a hundred times for nykthos, plus xenagos, and I just watch calmly, struggling to contain my grin. I casually slam down an overloaded cyclonic rift when he attacks. He has no untapped mana to play any of his cards, and he's forced to discard about 20 cards at the end of his turn. He got soul crushed that day, and I hope he reads this because it was funny as heck. It's easily the most brutal thing I've done this standard season.
A couple of weeks ago at FNM I was playing a WUR heroic deck can a friend who was playing Mono U Devotion. We both have a bunch of dudes in play, last turn I used Brave the Elements to alpha strike him down to 2. The final turn I was thinking hard how to kill him that turn and he said, ''you can probably just swing and kill me.'' I look at my hand and realize he's right. I swing with only Boros Reckoner and he blocks with Omenspeaker. I cast Titan's Strength on his Omenspeaker and he dies to Reckoned trigger. All involved had a good time.
Note: sorry for no card tags, I'm typing this from my Zune.
Guess this is my best top deck(s) in a while. I'm playing Izzet against a G/W deck. I've been burning the creatures I can but I'm at 10 he is at 12. Opponent plays his last card Scion of Vitu-Ghazi and now has 2 bird tokens, and a Voice of Resurgence. I've got Guttersnipe out, cast Goblin Electromancer and my last card Inaction injunction on the scion drawing a land but taking him to 10. He attacks me down to 6 with the tokens and "unblockable" Voice leaving mana open and one card in hand (probably Advent of the Wurm). I draw traitorous instinct, awesome!! Cast it on the Scion making it a 6/4 and guttersnipe takes him to 8 and attack with all for 10. He flashes in Boon Satyr and has to block the scion to not die and goes to 4 and gets 2 for 1'ed off a Traitorous Instinct of all cards. He draws and doesn't do anything and I draw lightning strike to burn him out.
I was at FNM a few weeks ago playing U/W control and my opponent was on jund midrange. It was game 2, and he slaughter games'd my revelations and my syncopates. I was in topdeck mode with us both at 4 life and was facing down a reaper of the wilds, stormbreath dragon, and desecration demon. I had my aetherling in play, but he had a pithing needle out naming aetherling already (I guess he didnt have a kill spell, lucky for me lol). I proceed to topdeck a detention sphere with like 12 lands in play and win.
Was playing boros burn vs G/R monsters G2, had archangel of thune in from the sideboard. Boardstate was my sole archangel with a blind obedience vs his 3 voyaging satrys, xenagos satrys, and nylea, and enough land to threaten 14 damage next turn. I was sitting at 9 to his 16. I was lucky and had a shock and boros charm in hand. Shock satyr, extort, counter. Boros charm double strike, extort, counter, swing for 5, counter, swing for 6. Not a win on the spot, but certainly put me in the safe zone for the next turn!
Sam Black casting his opponents Gray Merchant off of Nightveil for the win a couple days ago was awesome to watch.
For me personally it was probably being 1 turn away from dead playing Naya a few months ago, ripping an Aurelia off the top, then getting in with her second attack and blood-rushing a Rampager + Double Strike from a Boros Charm FTW. My opponent just about lost it
lol...just watched that. I thought Black was SO dead. He would've been if the opponent just went all in on Rat like he's supposed to. Here's the link. Second half of the vid.
Well recently no, but last standard I was running mono red against bant control loaded with Tusk and Revs and did over 60 damage for the win. I ended up losing the match keeping a bad hand instead of mulliganing.
lol...just watched that. I thought Black was SO dead. He would've been if the opponent just went all in on Rat like he's supposed to. Here's the link. Second half of the vid.
Even without the all in on rat (which would possibly lose to a cyclonic rift overloard), the plays that stands out to me is downfalling the weird over the specter, and playing the demon (which got rifted) over downfalling the specter. I just don't understand why he didn't kill the only thing keeping his opponent in the game, immediately. All he had to do was play downfall (against a tapped opponent) instead of demon, and he would have won, instead he gets wrecked by cyclonic rift. Taking a stupid amount of unnecessary hits from the specters is what got him killed.
Leaving the only thing giving your opponent any semblance of a game in play seems incorrect.
I was at 4 life and he was at 42 life. I had out an arbor elf and a 20/20 primordial hydra. He had like 2 blood artists, a faithmender, a vizkopa guildmage, and probably a few other things as well as an obzedat, ghost council coming back into play next turn. Basically I looked screwed. But I topdecked the 6th land I needed to play both sides of armed // dangerous and attacked with a 21/21 hydra with double strike while all of his creatures blocked arbor elf for exactly the 42 damage needed to win.
Early game was hard but mana a win 1-0,he cam back with siding making the score 1-1 and here come the fun part.
I start goes usual with a g/u scry land he goes drop a 0/1 evolve. turn 1
I go drop a w/g shock untap take 2 (18 left) and cast a cariatid and pass,he goes 0/1 evole + 1/1 flying that can sac to counter unless pay 1,he attack i take 1 (17 left) turn 2
Turn 3 i drop a forest and i pass,he drop a thassa and attempt to bash for 3,i tap 4 and flash in a horizon chimera blocking out the 1/1 sac dude (15 left) turn 3
Draw 1 gain 1 life (16) play an island and tap 5 for prophet of kuprix,his turn he drop a nightveil and another 1/1 flyer and attack for 9 (7 left). turn 4
Draw 1 gain 1 life (8 left) and at this point exactly i turn it around and thing jsut go stupid drop a forest tap 5 (1 mana g/w left) to play an urban evolution going back up to 11 and playing a forest + a fleecemane lion. on his turn he drop master of waves making 7 2/1 and attack for 11 i block the 1/1 flyer take 10 drop 1 one and then pop a sphinx for 4 gaining 8 life back to 9 and at this point it just chaining urban evolution and monster on my upkeep and sphinx/monster on his turn.
I was at 4 life and he was at 42 life. I had out an arbor elf and a 20/20 primordial hydra. He had like 2 blood artists, a faithmender, a vizkopa guildmage, and probably a few other things as well as an obzedat, ghost council coming back into play next turn. Basically I looked screwed. But I topdecked the 6th land I needed to play both sides of armed // dangerous and attacked with a 21/21 hydra with double strike while all of his creatures blocked arbor elf for exactly the 42 damage needed to win.
btw that doesnt quite work unless faitmender tap because he would gain 2 life from faithmender
btw that doesnt quite work unless faitmender tap because he would gain 2 life from faithmender
It's possible he might not have had the faithmender out, or maybe he had attacked with him the turn before. IDK, this was months ago so i don't really remember.
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Mind you, this is in probably about 60 matches of Theros Standard in tournaments and 200 play testing matches.
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
That's amazing! Haha!
For me personally it was probably being 1 turn away from dead playing Naya a few months ago, ripping an Aurelia off the top, then getting in with her second attack and blood-rushing a Rampager + Double Strike from a Boros Charm FTW. My opponent just about lost it
-cast a new jace and go for the ult
-get his aetherling + no cards from my deck
-fog any removal because if I used the blink he'd get his aetherling back
-kill him with exactly 0 cards in my library
I managed to pull it off, he shocked himself for the last 2 on his own turn realizing he couldn't stop his own aetherling from killing him on the last possible turn and I moved into the finals.
Multiplayer vs. White Weenie and W/U control, it ended like this:
Six devotion Merchant....12 life to meeeee! Let me just check with my Underworld Connections...
Eight devotion Abhorrent....swarm of harpies
Ten devotion Merchant...
During another stalled boardstate, game 3 where it looks like I'm about to fall behind, I play Fanatic of Mogis for 8, then topdeck another one for a lethal 9 as I had hit my opponent for 2 and he had shocked once.
Playing mono black against Jund, I am behind on board in game 3 and down to my last card in hand, a Grey Merchant. I Merchant for 4, my only other permanent being Underworld Connections. Surviving another turn, I draw a blank and Connections up another Grey Merchant, I live another turn, and draw another Merchant... and then, another for the win. Needless to say my opponent was not happy, although removal might have effectively done the same thing.
I am playing Jund and my opponent is playing Bant Prophet. He sequences together a Jace AoT, prophet, and Primeval Bounty on turns 3, 4, 5 i think. I only have one Golgari Charm in the main for game one, and am staring down a dark tunnel of hurt with that Bounty out.
Luckily I am able to Rakdos Return him to drain the last few cards in his hand and kill his Jace. I end up killing his Prophet but he ends up with a 9/9 scavenging ooze, a master biomancer, and a bunch of 5/5 beasts due to the bounty, plus a few 3/6 Caryatid's. It was disgusting how powerful bounty is in that deck, especially with Master Biomancer out. Oh and he's gaining 3 life for every land he puts out.
On my side I have a few Sylvan Caryatid's and a Xenagos that has pumped out a bunch of tokens, plus a Reaper that is preventing him from swinging with his massive ooze. Oh and a 8/8 Monstrous Polukranos. I also have a Stormbreath Dragon. Long story short, I draw a hero's downfall, kill his ooze, use xenagos's mana ramp ability to monstorous my dragon, play double anger of the gods, kill his whole team and swing for 15 for the kill and victory! It was a great game that lasted close to 35 minutes with plenty of back and forth action.
Unfortunately I had to mull to 5 game 2 and got stomped and then ran out of time in game 3.
Note: sorry for no card tags, I'm typing this from my Zune.
lol...just watched that. I thought Black was SO dead. He would've been if the opponent just went all in on Rat like he's supposed to. Here's the link. Second half of the vid.
Even without the all in on rat (which would possibly lose to a cyclonic rift overloard), the plays that stands out to me is downfalling the weird over the specter, and playing the demon (which got rifted) over downfalling the specter. I just don't understand why he didn't kill the only thing keeping his opponent in the game, immediately. All he had to do was play downfall (against a tapped opponent) instead of demon, and he would have won, instead he gets wrecked by cyclonic rift. Taking a stupid amount of unnecessary hits from the specters is what got him killed.
Leaving the only thing giving your opponent any semblance of a game in play seems incorrect.
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I was at 4 life and he was at 42 life. I had out an arbor elf and a 20/20 primordial hydra. He had like 2 blood artists, a faithmender, a vizkopa guildmage, and probably a few other things as well as an obzedat, ghost council coming back into play next turn. Basically I looked screwed. But I topdecked the 6th land I needed to play both sides of armed // dangerous and attacked with a 21/21 hydra with double strike while all of his creatures blocked arbor elf for exactly the 42 damage needed to win.
- Howard Shultz
CURRENTLY PLAYING
UWR: American Control
Early game was hard but mana a win 1-0,he cam back with siding making the score 1-1 and here come the fun part.
I start goes usual with a g/u scry land he goes drop a 0/1 evolve. turn 1
I go drop a w/g shock untap take 2 (18 left) and cast a cariatid and pass,he goes 0/1 evole + 1/1 flying that can sac to counter unless pay 1,he attack i take 1 (17 left) turn 2
Turn 3 i drop a forest and i pass,he drop a thassa and attempt to bash for 3,i tap 4 and flash in a horizon chimera blocking out the 1/1 sac dude (15 left) turn 3
Draw 1 gain 1 life (16) play an island and tap 5 for prophet of kuprix,his turn he drop a nightveil and another 1/1 flyer and attack for 9 (7 left). turn 4
Draw 1 gain 1 life (8 left) and at this point exactly i turn it around and thing jsut go stupid drop a forest tap 5 (1 mana g/w left) to play an urban evolution going back up to 11 and playing a forest + a fleecemane lion. on his turn he drop master of waves making 7 2/1 and attack for 11 i block the 1/1 flyer take 10 drop 1 one and then pop a sphinx for 4 gaining 8 life back to 9 and at this point it just chaining urban evolution and monster on my upkeep and sphinx/monster on his turn.
Prophet literaly won me the game.
btw that doesnt quite work unless faitmender tap because he would gain 2 life from faithmender
It's possible he might not have had the faithmender out, or maybe he had attacked with him the turn before. IDK, this was months ago so i don't really remember.