Had our first Brawl night at the LGS yesterday! I brought my best-I-could-do- with-my-card-pool Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage deck. We had a total of six players, coming and going over the course of the evening such that we ended up playing four games in three batches:
So as you can see, Locust God ran away with it! Slimefoot did come pretty close in Game 1, and Locust God was down to 4 life in Game 3. (He was there for a while, in fact. We probably should have gone for the kill ASAP...) It was a pretty wild deck, running extra turns, tons of draw, and clinching with Insect hordes + Throne of the God-Pharaoh. I wasn't at the table for Tatyova's win, but I gather it was also an extra turn endeavor involving Timestream Navigator and Scapeshift, so overall it was a big night for turn-taking combos!
My MVP card, other than Raff himself, was Baird, Steward of Argive. I threw him in just because he happened to be historic and in the right colors, expecting everyone to have so much mana that his ability wouldn't really do anything. But there was a lot of go-wide at the table between Locust God and Slimefoot, so I got to live a lot longer as people went "eh, I'll attack the person who doesn't cost me anything"!
My play of the night: Locust God declares combat step with something like 20 Insect tokens on the board. I flash In Bolas's Clutches, steal his Windreader Sphinx, and proceed to draw half my deck. Haha!
Despite getting my butt handily kicked, I had a blast. (The Lyra player was more grumpy about all the combo kills. I guess she doesn't share my wide-eyed amusement when watching an opponent's engine go off.) It was some of the most fun I've had since my recent return to the game! The Goreclaw player, who also happens to be the store owner, even remarked, "I think I like this more than Commander. No friggin' Sol Rings."
We'll be Brawling more next week, and I'm hoping this will become the go-to activity to fill the space between set Leagues going forward. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get any of the other players' deck lists to post!
Brawl night II yesterday! Had five people, so we ended up with two lengthy five-player games. (I think there was a 3-player game before I arrived, but they cut it short to get a game started with the two players who didn't arrive as early.)
So it was Slimefoot's turn to shine, with two different players' builds of the commander winning games! I thought the Locust God player wasn't going to bring that deck again, but I guess he just loves his ridiculous card-draw engine thing too much, hah. It was quite satisfying when everyone teamed up to bring him down after he went off with Karn's Temporal Sundering.
For my part, I was surprised that the Radha deck did better than the Aryel. Heck, my Guttersnipe alone did over 20 damage, paired with a Chaos Wand (star moment: stealing Tatyova's Scapeshift, mwahaha). My Aryel setup must be better for 1v1, which is how I was testing the two decks against one another.
For next week's deck(s) I have to put in some hose stuff vs. Locust God. I'm thinking things like Damping Sphere and Amulet of Safekeeping... depending on colors, maybe Plague Mare (that was a crucial play by Slimefoot in beating Locust God, game 2) and/or Deep Freeze.
I think Brawl is here to stay, for this group! It's a perfect fit for between Sealed League series. The only thing that's bugging me a little bit is the diversity of the commander pool--even with this few players, we had two Aryel decks and two Slimefoot decks. That will improve some with the release of GRN, for sure, but I wonder if there might be other ways to spice things up. Maybe allowing legendary cards from Commander products, rotating as if they were part of the Standard sets released in the same timeframe?
"To keep things 100, anything I state is an opinion and not intended to be a fact. Any and all suggestions I give are a 100% opinion. If you need further clarification take the conversation to a PM. I am not in the business of assuming things. I'm only interested in 1 business and that business serves 2 things, Cold L's and Hot Dub's."
-Stay Frosty
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Game 1: Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, The Locust God, Slimefoot, The Stowaway, Tatyova, Benthic Druid (Winner: Locust God)
Game 2-1: Raff, Locust God, Slimefoot (Winner: Locust God)
Game 2-2: Goreclaw, Lyra Dawnbringer, Tatyova (Winner: Tatyova)
Game 3: Goreclaw, Locust God, Lyra, Raff (Winner: Locust God)
So as you can see, Locust God ran away with it! Slimefoot did come pretty close in Game 1, and Locust God was down to 4 life in Game 3. (He was there for a while, in fact. We probably should have gone for the kill ASAP...) It was a pretty wild deck, running extra turns, tons of draw, and clinching with Insect hordes + Throne of the God-Pharaoh. I wasn't at the table for Tatyova's win, but I gather it was also an extra turn endeavor involving Timestream Navigator and Scapeshift, so overall it was a big night for turn-taking combos!
My MVP card, other than Raff himself, was Baird, Steward of Argive. I threw him in just because he happened to be historic and in the right colors, expecting everyone to have so much mana that his ability wouldn't really do anything. But there was a lot of go-wide at the table between Locust God and Slimefoot, so I got to live a lot longer as people went "eh, I'll attack the person who doesn't cost me anything"!
My play of the night: Locust God declares combat step with something like 20 Insect tokens on the board. I flash In Bolas's Clutches, steal his Windreader Sphinx, and proceed to draw half my deck. Haha!
Despite getting my butt handily kicked, I had a blast. (The Lyra player was more grumpy about all the combo kills. I guess she doesn't share my wide-eyed amusement when watching an opponent's engine go off.) It was some of the most fun I've had since my recent return to the game! The Goreclaw player, who also happens to be the store owner, even remarked, "I think I like this more than Commander. No friggin' Sol Rings."
We'll be Brawling more next week, and I'm hoping this will become the go-to activity to fill the space between set Leagues going forward. In the meantime, I'll see if I can get any of the other players' deck lists to post!
My decklists: Aryel and Radha
Game 1: Grand Warlord Radha (me), Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Aryel, Knight of Windgrace, Slimefoot, the Stowaway, Lyra Dawnbringer. Winner: Slimefoot
Game 2: Aryel (me), Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, The Locust God, Tatyova, Slimefoot. Winner: Slimefoot
So it was Slimefoot's turn to shine, with two different players' builds of the commander winning games! I thought the Locust God player wasn't going to bring that deck again, but I guess he just loves his ridiculous card-draw engine thing too much, hah. It was quite satisfying when everyone teamed up to bring him down after he went off with Karn's Temporal Sundering.
For my part, I was surprised that the Radha deck did better than the Aryel. Heck, my Guttersnipe alone did over 20 damage, paired with a Chaos Wand (star moment: stealing Tatyova's Scapeshift, mwahaha). My Aryel setup must be better for 1v1, which is how I was testing the two decks against one another.
Quote of the evening: "It turns out there is a Cyclonic Rift in this format." In both games, Tatyova fired off a kicked Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep...
For next week's deck(s) I have to put in some hose stuff vs. Locust God. I'm thinking things like Damping Sphere and Amulet of Safekeeping... depending on colors, maybe Plague Mare (that was a crucial play by Slimefoot in beating Locust God, game 2) and/or Deep Freeze.
I think Brawl is here to stay, for this group! It's a perfect fit for between Sealed League series. The only thing that's bugging me a little bit is the diversity of the commander pool--even with this few players, we had two Aryel decks and two Slimefoot decks. That will improve some with the release of GRN, for sure, but I wonder if there might be other ways to spice things up. Maybe allowing legendary cards from Commander products, rotating as if they were part of the Standard sets released in the same timeframe?
-Stay Frosty