i assume you lost that game in the end as you didnt say you won by that start? but it wouldnt bother me cause such a turn can lead to heavy burnouts.
I did lose, but only because the Samut player killed Wort before my next turn (leaving me a mana short for entwining Rude Awakening, swinging to deal 8 damage [1 land blocked by Samut], then sacrificing my 5 lands to deal the extra 5 damage I needed to win)
Three-player game. RG Wort (me), budget Samut, and Scarab God mill.
At the start of my turn, I control Phyrexian Altar and 5 lands
I cast Tempt with Vengeance for X=4. Both opponents take the offer.
I sacrifice 3 Elementals for Eternal Witness (get back Tempt), then sacrifice the remaining 9 Elementals to cast Tempt with X=8. Both opponents take the offer.
I sacrifice 2 Elementals for Regrowth (get back Tempt), then sacrifice the remaining 22 Elementals to cast Tempt with X=21. Both opponents take the offer.
I swing my 63 Elementals at the Scarab God player, knocking him down to 4 life.
Post combat, I sacrifice 4 Elementals for Pyrohemia, then sacrifice Witness and my remaining Elementals, pouring all but 6 of my floating mana into activating Pyrohemia, wiping the board, killing the Scarab God player, and bringing myself and Samut down into the teens (14 and 13 respectively, IIRC). With my remaining 6 mana, I cast Wort.
That's how you ritual
With different sequencing, I could have done more, but it was cool enough as-is.
Brutal, but to be fair, it was Prossh with a Goblin Bombardment, and I didn't have any enchantment removal.
I hit some of the best token-producers in his deck (other than his commander), too, plus Parallel Lives.
He basically topdecked land until the mono-blue player cast Timetwister. The Bombardment didn't actually get dealt with until after he had done somewhere around 25 damage with it. Prossh was gunning for me all game, but I felt vindicated by how much use he got from the enchantment I targeted him for.
Play Crypt, Petal, and Opal. Tap Opal for U, sacrifice Petal for B, and tap Crypt for 2. 2UB floating.
Play Lab Man, B floating.
Cast Consultation, naming a card not in my library, exiling the entire thing.
Cycle Street Wraith.
(Looking at my list, there are a number of redundancies for this same basic T1 play. The Petal or Opal could be replaced by one of the Spirit Guides + Wild Cantor or by Chrome Mox+a blue or black card, for example. Street Wraith could be Gitaxian Probe, etc.)
Thraximundar (me), Meren, and Ramses Overdark at the table.
I've got Honden of Night's Reach in play, targeting the Ramses player each turn because why in the world would I target Meren. Beyond that, I'm not doing very much beyond milling myself (Codex Shredder), drawing cards (Rhystic Study), and hitting all my lands drops (Crucible of Worlds). Thraximundar is in play, but he's only attacked once (forcing the Ramses player to sacrifice his general, because Meren has been doing a good job of killing his other creatures).
Ramses has 1 card in hand on his turn, so he knows I'm going to make him discard it if he doesn't play it. He overloads Cyclonic Rift and passes.
My turn, I drop down my mana rocks, followed by Feroz's Ban and Mizzium Transreliquat, turning the Transreliquat into a Feroz's Ban, and then Tangle Wire. The next turn, I cast Sphere of Resistance. By the end of the game, the only creature either of my opponents play after that point is Ramses re-casting his general, which I follow up with re-casting Thrax and forcing him to sacrifice it. The only noncreature spell either one casts is Ramses trying to draw into an answer with Betrayal on my Thraximundar, and casting then chump blocking Thrax with Dimir Keyrune.
Meren was particularly sad, because he had some reanimation spell in hand, but Ramses had popped a Relic of Progenitus earlier, and Meren had played a Reliquary Tower early game, so couldn't discard one of his many cards in hand.
All my creatures got 18 +1/+1 counters added to them
When you attack, two triggers (myriad and Garrison) are put on the stack. When the myriad trigger resolves, you get a token for each opponent other than the one the original Captain is attacking (in order to get 4 tokens, it would need to be a 6-player game), and you get two triggers for each (Cathars' plus the token's ETB). Then the token's etb resolves, you get 3x Cathars' triggers.
All of those Cathars' triggers have to resolve before the Garrison trigger resolves, so those two tokens don't get all those +1/+1 counters, just 2 from the Cathars' triggers on their ETB. If you were in fact playing a 6-player FFA (oh god, why?), then stacking your triggers optimally your existing creatures plus 16 new tokens would each get 18 +1/+1 counters, and 2 new tokens would each get 2 +1/+1 counters.
For the more common case of a 4-player game, this line of play would be 10 +1/+1 counters on the existing creatures and 8 new tokens, plus 2 +1/+1 counters on 2 new tokens. Still a lot, but much closer to manageable.
Players: Thada Adel (me), Kynaios & Tiro, and Meren
Meren cast Mazirek, and I stole it with Aethersnatch. Two rounds (and 4 Mazirek triggers) later, I grabbed Notorious Throng with Mystical Tutor.
I hit my own land with Ghost Quarter for another Mazirek trigger, swung Thada (w/Whispersilk Cloak) and Mazirek (no flying blockers) at Meren for 14 (stealing Skullclamp), and prowled Throng.
With my extra turn and clamping 4 faerie tokens, I stole Meren, Necrotic Ooze, Kalitas, Gray Merchant, and Jarad. (Also, hitting Meren for a bunch more damage, but he had gained 44 life from Gary already, so it wan't a huge dent.) At EOT on my extra turn I'd managed to get 2 experience for Meren, so I reanimated Snapcaster Mage, and used my single open mana to flash back Mystical Tutor for Blatant Thievery.
On Meren's turn, he triggered Mazirek a few more times, then cast Thief of Blood to steal 63 +1/+1 counters from my creatures.
On my turn, I cast Blatant Thievery to get Thief of Blood. Kynaios & Tiro tried to counter it, and I Commandeered the counter. I cast Phyrexian Metamorph copying my Gilded Lotus, and then tapped my two Lotuses to sacrifice the Thief of Blood to Jarad.
Atraxa starts going crazy from very early game, so me and Zur work together to keep him down. Midgame, I use Chromeshell Crab to steal Atraxa to stop the proliferating, but she's got Pacifism so I can't attack.
Eventually, Zur loads up with Steel of the Godhead and Ethereal Armor to become a 2-hit KO (combined with the various other enchantments he controls) and takes out Atraxa, giving me Chromeshell Crab back. Zur brings out Sen Triplets to try and control me.
On Zur's next turn, he uses Sen Triplets to silence me, and casts Journey to Nowhere to get rid of my Chromeshell Crab, just in case (Zur takes 2 hits, after all, so I'm going to have another turn). I flip up Willbender to redirect the triggered ability to the Triplets, because turning a morph face-up is not an activated ability, and Triplets doesn't stop it. Zur is unhappy about losing Triplets to his own Journey, but he moves to combat anyway.
Before attackers are declared, I flip up Master of the Veil to turn Chromeshell Crab face-down, and I've got 5 mana left open. I flip the Crab up and take Zur.
Zur doesn't pull up any answers to his own general before I hit him twice, on top of knowing (thanks to Triplets) that I've got Remand and Forbid in my hand. I've also got both Leovold and Rayne, Academy Chancellor (with an aura) in play, so each time he tries to use targeted removal, I draw 3. The first swing with Zur gets me Monastery Siege, Dragons mode.
I run a stax deck too, but it isn't a full on prison build like this Derevi deck was. First card that comes down was an Ensnaring Bridge which stopped Rakdos in his tracks. Next turn after that was a Winter Orb. My Bolas deck is a giant hate-everything deck with tons of draw and discard. At the turn Winter Orb dropped I had four lands, a Sol Ring, and a Phyrexian Arena.
So we go into draw-go's for a while until Derevi comes down. Rakdos Doom Blades it for lack of better things to do. I topdeck a Diabolic Tutor and get a very evil idea as I'm flipping through my deck. I grab out my Mind Over Matter.
Derevi amps things up with a Static Orb and a Ghostly Prison over the next few turns, as I painfully untap and play lands one by one, having to crack a Myriad Landscape for 2 more Islands. Finally he taps himself out for Derevi again, and seeing my chance, I cast Mind Over Matter on my turn. With a massive hand built up off of the Arena and a Thought Vessel.
He moved to his upkeep. I pitch a card and tap down his one land. He moves to combat. I pitch a card and tap down Derevi. Rakdos plays a creature that can't swing and scoops after a second. I draw 2 cards and say go. At his upkeep I tap down his one land and Derevi. I untap my land and draw 2, say go. I tap his land and Derevi. I'm on a bit of a clock because of the life loss from Arena, but I have effectively shut him out of the game with his own stax effects, while I keep untapping all my stuff. Finally what do I topdeck, but Arcanis the Omnipotent. I tap down his land on my turn, he doesn't float mana. I cast Arcanis, and he groans at the counterspell in his hand. Pass. Tap him down at upkeep again. My turn, combo out with Arcanis and MOM, drawing my deck and cycling it with Ulamog. Pitch a ton of cards to untap a land and Rakdos's Return him for 65 or so.
Reminds me of a game I had with my Thraximundar deck a while back. The player to my right was playing 5C superfriends and at one point cast Decree of Annihilation with two planeswalkers in play, intending to use them as his wincon while everyone else tried to build back up.
I respond with my Sensei's Top to ensure I have land coming up, and I also had Liliana of the Veil in play. My turns following the Decree were Swamp, Sensei's Top, Pithing Needle (naming one of his 'walkers), Sol Ring, Sculpting Steel copying Pithing Needle (naming his other 'walker). Each turn I was making people discard the cards they weren't able to play, and his game-ending haymayer only got him a few extra turns with his 'walkers. After my Sculpting Steel, the scariest thing any of my opponents accomplished before I won the game was the Rafiq player casting his general, which I killed with Liliana.
Thraximundar (me), Xenagod, Numot:
Late game, Xenagod knocks both me and Numot down to 1 life each. Numot and I have combined knocked Xenagod down to 5.
Numot swings at Xenagod with a 4/2; Xenagos has 3 1/1 tokens he can block with, but Numot and I convince him to take the 4 damage 'cuz it'll be funny.
On Numot's next turn, I have no blockers. Numot swings at me for lethal (not that that's a high bar).
I respond: Volcanic Fallout.
IF I GO DOWN, YOU'RE ALL COMING WITH ME~!
-----
At another table, at the same time;
Thada Adel (my deck, borrowed by a friend), RW Gisela, ??? (I can't recall what deck P3 was piloting), Roon:
Thada exploded early game, stealing things left and right. He had pretty much been controlling the entire game, and had managed to stick a Magus of the Future since turn 5 without it leaving the board.
Near the end of the game, Thada casts Treachery on Gisela's Heartless Hidetsugu. A couple turns later, Thada activates Hidetsugu's ability to try and bring his opponents closer to death within a reasonable timeframe; although he had been controlling the table for most of the game, he didn't have a particularly large amount of power to attack with. I think the other players were holding back somewhat, not wanting their stuff stolen.
In response to Hidetsugu's ability, Gisela casts Dictate of the Twin Gods. Both Gisela and Roon are at odd life totals and will survive. (Then Gisela will take his turn, cast Inferno Titan and win.) Thada scrambles for an answer, drawing cards, shuffling, and using Sensei's Top. He eventually activates Kuldotha Forgemaster stolen from Roon, and his only out is Memnarch (stealing a source of W and then untapping it with Voltaic Key to activate his stolen Righteous Aura)... but by the time he searched with Forgemaster, he didn't have UUU any more.
I'm surprised. I was under the impression that cards like coax from the blind eternities would work similarly to wishes, in that the only cards they can target from outside the game are sideboarded cards. Ulamog may have gotten exiled, but he was still part of the game. Is that not how it works in online magic?
Read Coax again. It says "from outside the game or in exile".
Near the end of the game, I managed to pull out Memnarch and started stealing blockers to fight against the swarm of monsters Karametra had out. Of course, that meant that Anafenza and Dromoka didn't have blockers to fend off Karametra. At one point, Karametra was about to swing lethal at me despite my best efforts, but he tapped out during precombat to cast more creatures (and a Concordant Crossroads), so I stole Dromoka's Ghostly Prison to save myself. Both Dromoka and Anafenza died.
The next turn, I topdecked Future Sight and cast it, revealing Phyrexian Metamorph on top of my library. I realized I was saved, cast Metamorph, copied Archetype to get rid of everyone's hexproof, and then started stealing monsters.
Unfortunately, it didn't end up being enough, and I got sent to -10 life the following turn thanks to a lucky topdeck Worldspine Wurm on Karametra's part, but turning the Archetype around felt really good.
Krenko lead strong, but got cut down by Maralen with Profane Command killing Goblin Chirurgeon and Deadly Tempest wiping the board. Unfortunately, Krenko had Siege-Gang Commander, Skirk Prospector, and Boggart Shenanigans, so every 3 goblins sacrificed was 5 damage to Maralen's face. Krenko lost no life, and Maralen went from 45 to 19. Fortunately, the Prospector was the only thing actually keeping Krenko afloat, as he was stuck on 3 mountains for the rest of the game.
Nylea came around next, building up an elf army and swinging into Krenko's open board, eliminating the goblins. As the Nylea player turned his attention to Maralen, Maralen panicked; after I cast my own board wipe (which didn't affect Nylea as much as I had hoped it would), Maralen tapped out for Exsanguinate, X=35 (he had two Cabal Coffers, I had Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth). Nylea was at 33, and Maralen thought he had won, until he noticed my life total sitting at 4 after removing the 35 life lost.
I started my turn, lost 3 life to Maralen (tutoring Phyrexian Altar), killed Maralen, sacrificed everything on my board for mana, and cast the Living Death that had been sitting in my hand since before Krenko was eliminated. Maralen's graveyard had Burnished Heart. My graveyard had every single spirit in my decklist, thanks to an Iname, Death Aspect.
Unfortunately, I had no haste source, so I sacrificed my two Zuberas to He Who Hungers, reanimated them with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker, and passed the turn. I also gained 5 life that turn, so I was at 6.
Maralen drew his topdeck, exiled my Altar, and re-cast his general. At my upkeep, I said "*****".
6 life
Losing 3 to Maralen at my draw step.
Losing 2 to Seizan, Perverter of Truth trigger on the stack.
Losing 1 to Graveborn Muse trigger on the stack.
No cards in hand.
Phyrexian Altar is gone.
He Who Hungers is a sorcery-speed sac outlet. Phyrexian Tower had been destroyed early game. High Market wasn't on the board.
I stared at my board, hard. Then I realized I had Lifespinner, and Graveborn Muse only counts the number of zombies on resolution. I sacrificed two spirit tokens from Dripping-Tongue Zubera and my Muse (failing to find anything, since all of my spirits were in play), and had 1 life after Maralen's trigger resolved. I tutored for Footsteps of the Goryo, wanting an Arcane spell to trigger Kodama of the South Tree, and realized I also had Kokusho, the Evening Star in play. I sacrificed her to He Who Hungers (Maralen @ 84), reanimated her with Footsteps, sacrificed her again with he Who Hungers (Maralen @ 79), and swung for 90 trample (with 5 total toughness on Maralen's board).
So, the UG player to my left was bragging that he was going to win on his next turn (because he's out of mana the current turn). I was playing WB Daxos, and had gotten milled for 20 earlier with a double strike Sword of Body and Mind, plus pitching some good stuff to a Windfall earlier in the game.
One player says something about digging for a board wipe, and the UG player says he doesn't care about his board, he's going to win with what's in his hand. The other two players are ready to pick up, believing that the UG player (with 14+ cards in hand) has the game when he says he's got it.
My turn, I untap and Demonic Tutor for Open the Vaults. Mr. "I'm gonna win" gets nothing, thanks to a Bojuka Bog the previous turn. I get Expedition Map (which I use to fetch for Serra's Sanctum as my land for the turn), a number of enchantments, and Thoughtrender Lamia. Once the Lamia triggers are done resolving, I spend all my white mana casting & bouncing Flickering Ward. Watching the blue player's face droop as I empty his huge hand is absolutely priceless. I pass the turn and he's hellbent. The last two cards he pitched were Tooth and Nail and Mystical Tutor.
I did lose, but only because the Samut player killed Wort before my next turn (leaving me a mana short for entwining Rude Awakening, swinging to deal 8 damage [1 land blocked by Samut], then sacrificing my 5 lands to deal the extra 5 damage I needed to win)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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At the start of my turn, I control Phyrexian Altar and 5 lands
I cast Tempt with Vengeance for X=4. Both opponents take the offer.
I sacrifice 3 Elementals for Eternal Witness (get back Tempt), then sacrifice the remaining 9 Elementals to cast Tempt with X=8. Both opponents take the offer.
I sacrifice 2 Elementals for Regrowth (get back Tempt), then sacrifice the remaining 22 Elementals to cast Tempt with X=21. Both opponents take the offer.
I swing my 63 Elementals at the Scarab God player, knocking him down to 4 life.
Post combat, I sacrifice 4 Elementals for Pyrohemia, then sacrifice Witness and my remaining Elementals, pouring all but 6 of my floating mana into activating Pyrohemia, wiping the board, killing the Scarab God player, and bringing myself and Samut down into the teens (14 and 13 respectively, IIRC). With my remaining 6 mana, I cast Wort.
That's how you ritual
With different sequencing, I could have done more, but it was cool enough as-is.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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T2: Reliquary Tower, Mind Twist the Prossh player who played a T2 Goblin Bombardment for X=6 (who had 6 cards in hand)
Brutal, but to be fair, it was Prossh with a Goblin Bombardment, and I didn't have any enchantment removal.
I hit some of the best token-producers in his deck (other than his commander), too, plus Parallel Lives.
He basically topdecked land until the mono-blue player cast Timetwister. The Bombardment didn't actually get dealt with until after he had done somewhere around 25 damage with it. Prossh was gunning for me all game, but I felt vindicated by how much use he got from the enchantment I targeted him for.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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- Mana Crypt
- Lotus Petal
- Mox Opal
- Laboratory Maniac
- Demonic Consultation
- Street Wraith
Play Crypt, Petal, and Opal. Tap Opal for U, sacrifice Petal for B, and tap Crypt for 2. 2UB floating.Play Lab Man, B floating.
Cast Consultation, naming a card not in my library, exiling the entire thing.
Cycle Street Wraith.
(Looking at my list, there are a number of redundancies for this same basic T1 play. The Petal or Opal could be replaced by one of the Spirit Guides + Wild Cantor or by Chrome Mox+a blue or black card, for example. Street Wraith could be Gitaxian Probe, etc.)
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I've got Honden of Night's Reach in play, targeting the Ramses player each turn because why in the world would I target Meren. Beyond that, I'm not doing very much beyond milling myself (Codex Shredder), drawing cards (Rhystic Study), and hitting all my lands drops (Crucible of Worlds). Thraximundar is in play, but he's only attacked once (forcing the Ramses player to sacrifice his general, because Meren has been doing a good job of killing his other creatures).
Ramses has 1 card in hand on his turn, so he knows I'm going to make him discard it if he doesn't play it. He overloads Cyclonic Rift and passes.
My turn, I drop down my mana rocks, followed by Feroz's Ban and Mizzium Transreliquat, turning the Transreliquat into a Feroz's Ban, and then Tangle Wire. The next turn, I cast Sphere of Resistance. By the end of the game, the only creature either of my opponents play after that point is Ramses re-casting his general, which I follow up with re-casting Thrax and forcing him to sacrifice it. The only noncreature spell either one casts is Ramses trying to draw into an answer with Betrayal on my Thraximundar, and casting then chump blocking Thrax with Dimir Keyrune.
Meren was particularly sad, because he had some reanimation spell in hand, but Ramses had popped a Relic of Progenitus earlier, and Meren had played a Reliquary Tower early game, so couldn't discard one of his many cards in hand.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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All of those Cathars' triggers have to resolve before the Garrison trigger resolves, so those two tokens don't get all those +1/+1 counters, just 2 from the Cathars' triggers on their ETB. If you were in fact playing a 6-player FFA (oh god, why?), then stacking your triggers optimally your existing creatures plus 16 new tokens would each get 18 +1/+1 counters, and 2 new tokens would each get 2 +1/+1 counters.
For the more common case of a 4-player game, this line of play would be 10 +1/+1 counters on the existing creatures and 8 new tokens, plus 2 +1/+1 counters on 2 new tokens. Still a lot, but much closer to manageable.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Meren cast Mazirek, and I stole it with Aethersnatch. Two rounds (and 4 Mazirek triggers) later, I grabbed Notorious Throng with Mystical Tutor.
I hit my own land with Ghost Quarter for another Mazirek trigger, swung Thada (w/Whispersilk Cloak) and Mazirek (no flying blockers) at Meren for 14 (stealing Skullclamp), and prowled Throng.
With my extra turn and clamping 4 faerie tokens, I stole Meren, Necrotic Ooze, Kalitas, Gray Merchant, and Jarad. (Also, hitting Meren for a bunch more damage, but he had gained 44 life from Gary already, so it wan't a huge dent.) At EOT on my extra turn I'd managed to get 2 experience for Meren, so I reanimated Snapcaster Mage, and used my single open mana to flash back Mystical Tutor for Blatant Thievery.
On Meren's turn, he triggered Mazirek a few more times, then cast Thief of Blood to steal 63 +1/+1 counters from my creatures.
On my turn, I cast Blatant Thievery to get Thief of Blood. Kynaios & Tiro tried to counter it, and I Commandeered the counter. I cast Phyrexian Metamorph copying my Gilded Lotus, and then tapped my two Lotuses to sacrifice the Thief of Blood to Jarad.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Leovold, Emissary of Trest morph (me)
Zur the Enchanter Astral Slide
Atraxa, Praetors' Voice superfriends
Atraxa starts going crazy from very early game, so me and Zur work together to keep him down. Midgame, I use Chromeshell Crab to steal Atraxa to stop the proliferating, but she's got Pacifism so I can't attack.
Eventually, Zur loads up with Steel of the Godhead and Ethereal Armor to become a 2-hit KO (combined with the various other enchantments he controls) and takes out Atraxa, giving me Chromeshell Crab back. Zur brings out Sen Triplets to try and control me.
On Zur's next turn, he uses Sen Triplets to silence me, and casts Journey to Nowhere to get rid of my Chromeshell Crab, just in case (Zur takes 2 hits, after all, so I'm going to have another turn). I flip up Willbender to redirect the triggered ability to the Triplets, because turning a morph face-up is not an activated ability, and Triplets doesn't stop it. Zur is unhappy about losing Triplets to his own Journey, but he moves to combat anyway.
Before attackers are declared, I flip up Master of the Veil to turn Chromeshell Crab face-down, and I've got 5 mana left open. I flip the Crab up and take Zur.
Zur doesn't pull up any answers to his own general before I hit him twice, on top of knowing (thanks to Triplets) that I've got Remand and Forbid in my hand. I've also got both Leovold and Rayne, Academy Chancellor (with an aura) in play, so each time he tries to use targeted removal, I draw 3. The first swing with Zur gets me Monastery Siege, Dragons mode.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I respond with my Sensei's Top to ensure I have land coming up, and I also had Liliana of the Veil in play. My turns following the Decree were Swamp, Sensei's Top, Pithing Needle (naming one of his 'walkers), Sol Ring, Sculpting Steel copying Pithing Needle (naming his other 'walker). Each turn I was making people discard the cards they weren't able to play, and his game-ending haymayer only got him a few extra turns with his 'walkers. After my Sculpting Steel, the scariest thing any of my opponents accomplished before I won the game was the Rafiq player casting his general, which I killed with Liliana.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Late game, Xenagod knocks both me and Numot down to 1 life each. Numot and I have combined knocked Xenagod down to 5.
Numot swings at Xenagod with a 4/2; Xenagos has 3 1/1 tokens he can block with, but Numot and I convince him to take the 4 damage 'cuz it'll be funny.
On Numot's next turn, I have no blockers. Numot swings at me for lethal (not that that's a high bar).
I respond: Volcanic Fallout.
IF I GO DOWN, YOU'RE ALL COMING WITH ME~!
-----
At another table, at the same time;
Thada Adel (my deck, borrowed by a friend), RW Gisela, ??? (I can't recall what deck P3 was piloting), Roon:
Thada exploded early game, stealing things left and right. He had pretty much been controlling the entire game, and had managed to stick a Magus of the Future since turn 5 without it leaving the board.
Near the end of the game, Thada casts Treachery on Gisela's Heartless Hidetsugu. A couple turns later, Thada activates Hidetsugu's ability to try and bring his opponents closer to death within a reasonable timeframe; although he had been controlling the table for most of the game, he didn't have a particularly large amount of power to attack with. I think the other players were holding back somewhat, not wanting their stuff stolen.
In response to Hidetsugu's ability, Gisela casts Dictate of the Twin Gods. Both Gisela and Roon are at odd life totals and will survive. (Then Gisela will take his turn, cast Inferno Titan and win.) Thada scrambles for an answer, drawing cards, shuffling, and using Sensei's Top. He eventually activates Kuldotha Forgemaster stolen from Roon, and his only out is Memnarch (stealing a source of W and then untapping it with Voltaic Key to activate his stolen Righteous Aura)... but by the time he searched with Forgemaster, he didn't have UUU any more.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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I had been controlling most of the game with an early Gauntlet of Power, a Caged Sun stolen from Anafenza, a Sword of the Animist stolen from Anafenza, and Capsize. I couldn't actually do much to Karametra, unfortunately, when he cast Chord of Calling for Archetype of Endurance and rarely had many noncreatures on the board.
Near the end of the game, I managed to pull out Memnarch and started stealing blockers to fight against the swarm of monsters Karametra had out. Of course, that meant that Anafenza and Dromoka didn't have blockers to fend off Karametra. At one point, Karametra was about to swing lethal at me despite my best efforts, but he tapped out during precombat to cast more creatures (and a Concordant Crossroads), so I stole Dromoka's Ghostly Prison to save myself. Both Dromoka and Anafenza died.
The next turn, I topdecked Future Sight and cast it, revealing Phyrexian Metamorph on top of my library. I realized I was saved, cast Metamorph, copied Archetype to get rid of everyone's hexproof, and then started stealing monsters.
Unfortunately, it didn't end up being enough, and I got sent to -10 life the following turn thanks to a lucky topdeck Worldspine Wurm on Karametra's part, but turning the Archetype around felt really good.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
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Nothing was getting done that game.
At one point, Oloro sacrificed Codex Shredder targeting Humility, using Rings of Brighthearth to copy the ability, targeting Codex Shredder. In response, I activate Sensei's Divining Top to re-order the top 3 cards of my deck. I pay 1UR to turn Mizzium Transreliquat (currently an Unwinding Clock) into a Vedalken Orrery. I draw a card with Sensei's Top, and cast Nihil Spellbomb. I exile Oloro's graveyard, draw Sensei's Top off the trigger, flash in Sensei's Top, and turn Transreliquat back into an Unwinding Clock.
Justified payback for Oloro exiling my Codex Shredder a few turns earlier.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Krenko lead strong, but got cut down by Maralen with Profane Command killing Goblin Chirurgeon and Deadly Tempest wiping the board. Unfortunately, Krenko had Siege-Gang Commander, Skirk Prospector, and Boggart Shenanigans, so every 3 goblins sacrificed was 5 damage to Maralen's face. Krenko lost no life, and Maralen went from 45 to 19. Fortunately, the Prospector was the only thing actually keeping Krenko afloat, as he was stuck on 3 mountains for the rest of the game.
Nylea came around next, building up an elf army and swinging into Krenko's open board, eliminating the goblins. As the Nylea player turned his attention to Maralen, Maralen panicked; after I cast my own board wipe (which didn't affect Nylea as much as I had hoped it would), Maralen tapped out for Exsanguinate, X=35 (he had two Cabal Coffers, I had Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth). Nylea was at 33, and Maralen thought he had won, until he noticed my life total sitting at 4 after removing the 35 life lost.
I started my turn, lost 3 life to Maralen (tutoring Phyrexian Altar), killed Maralen, sacrificed everything on my board for mana, and cast the Living Death that had been sitting in my hand since before Krenko was eliminated. Maralen's graveyard had Burnished Heart. My graveyard had every single spirit in my decklist, thanks to an Iname, Death Aspect.
Unfortunately, I had no haste source, so I sacrificed my two Zuberas to He Who Hungers, reanimated them with Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker, and passed the turn. I also gained 5 life that turn, so I was at 6.
Maralen drew his topdeck, exiled my Altar, and re-cast his general. At my upkeep, I said "*****".
6 life
Losing 3 to Maralen at my draw step.
Losing 2 to Seizan, Perverter of Truth trigger on the stack.
Losing 1 to Graveborn Muse trigger on the stack.
No cards in hand.
Phyrexian Altar is gone.
He Who Hungers is a sorcery-speed sac outlet.
Phyrexian Tower had been destroyed early game.
High Market wasn't on the board.
I stared at my board, hard. Then I realized I had Lifespinner, and Graveborn Muse only counts the number of zombies on resolution. I sacrificed two spirit tokens from Dripping-Tongue Zubera and my Muse (failing to find anything, since all of my spirits were in play), and had 1 life after Maralen's trigger resolved. I tutored for Footsteps of the Goryo, wanting an Arcane spell to trigger Kodama of the South Tree, and realized I also had Kokusho, the Evening Star in play. I sacrificed her to He Who Hungers (Maralen @ 84), reanimated her with Footsteps, sacrificed her again with he Who Hungers (Maralen @ 79), and swung for 90 trample (with 5 total toughness on Maralen's board).
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
One player says something about digging for a board wipe, and the UG player says he doesn't care about his board, he's going to win with what's in his hand. The other two players are ready to pick up, believing that the UG player (with 14+ cards in hand) has the game when he says he's got it.
My turn, I untap and Demonic Tutor for Open the Vaults. Mr. "I'm gonna win" gets nothing, thanks to a Bojuka Bog the previous turn. I get Expedition Map (which I use to fetch for Serra's Sanctum as my land for the turn), a number of enchantments, and Thoughtrender Lamia. Once the Lamia triggers are done resolving, I spend all my white mana casting & bouncing Flickering Ward. Watching the blue player's face droop as I empty his huge hand is absolutely priceless. I pass the turn and he's hellbent. The last two cards he pitched were Tooth and Nail and Mystical Tutor.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)