(fixing this one to be readable again as well, no pictures or links though)
And that, my friends, is where it all started really going wrong.
I mean, yes, this twist ending was fairly contrived, and yes, the whole arc about the Primevals more or less inexplicable and owing to J. Robert King’s annoying penchant for inventing new and unnecessary epochs in Dominaria’s prehistory, and yes, the prerevisionist planeswalkers were with little to no development and the lack of ceremony characteristic of a writer who didn’t care to do research about them, and yes, there were numerous moments that, even for fantasy, strain suspension of disbelief. But between the nobility of Agnate and Eladamri —not to mention the latter’s increasing sexual tension with Sivvi —the first two sets of the block had enough to redeem their faults.
I mean, sure, the essential outline for Invasion was “Banter! Explosion! Tragedy! Repeat!”, and for Planeshift was “Banter! Explosion! Explosion! Betrayal! Repeat!”. There were some campy moments that seemed reminiscent of an Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure novel—amusing, but not actually quality. However, the formula for Apocalypse was similar to the accursed one King would use two years later, writing Onslaught block: “Banter! Explosion! Inexplicable! Banter! Banter! Inexplicable! Catastrophe!” Instead of the reader going, “Neat!” and “Oh no!”, the reader goes “Huh?” and “I guess?” and “What the deuce?”…
Aww, hell, you’ll see what I mean.
The Lord of the Wastes (though this title isn’t mentioned after Exodus, really) delights in the victory of his two greatest enemies changing sides (though I suspect they’d be about as useful to his cause as Italy was to the Axis). However, simply accepting their loyalty would not be the Phyrexian way—they must earn Yawgmoth’s good favor, through battle. Whoever can kill the other shall be his most trusted servant, and be granted any boon they wish.
Before you mention the obvious, Yawgmoth also temporarily disables Urza’s planeswalking and magical abilities, putting them on a relatively even footing. If Urza wins, he wishes to be taught the glories of Phyrexia, how to make machines truly live. Gerrard ’s desired boon, to the surprise of no one, is to have Hanna returned to him, alive and free of Yawgmoth’s will. For Urza , Gerrard has meant more than his own son ever did, and now he must destroy his greatest mistake. For Gerrard , Urza is more responsible for him than his actual father, and the author of all the tragedies in his life. Both men want blood.
Outside the Stronghold, Eladamri has tried again and again to retake Portcullis, the massive main gate and symbol of Phyrexian power, but it has been to no avail. Much like Koilos, endless Phyrexian legions flow out of the gate, making further advance impossible. However, the oddly increased seismic activity may have opened up a fortuitous back door.
The increased seismic activity turns out not to be so inexplicable—a cadre of dwarven rock priests have journeyed, unhindered, to the Stronghold, to cleanse the mountain of the evil within. (My personal fanon here is that these dwarves are descendants of the Sarpadian dwarves who, according to legend, were to return to save all dwarfkind.) Eladamri forges an alliance with the diminutive folk, and lets them get about their work.
Lord Windgrace is the first of the Four Titans to return to the site of Urza ’s betrayal, though the others soon follow and find the panther man mourning his ancient friend. In a rite from his native Urborg , he tears out Taysir ’s dead heart, and places it safely next to his own.
Freyalise had never liked Urza, and has always loathed Phyrexia. Their betrayal by one has no chance of stopping her from destroying the other. However, their suits are no longer safe, as Urza can simply order them to kill their occupants, and since Urza disabled the master bomb, all the charges must be set off manually.
They split into two teams, one ‘walker acting as defense while the other sets off the bomb. Bo Levar and Commodore Guff (who makes increasingly blatant allusions to the real-world editorial/publishing process) comprise one team…
While Lord Windgrace and Freyalise make up the other. The sylvan planeswalker is more than delighted to blow increasingly larger holes in the largest realm of black mana in the multiverse. Freyalise has no problem destroying, so long as the world she wants is created in the process. The ‘walkers set off the bombs, and “spontaneously” planeswalk away from the blasts (King uses this word each time to describe their quite intentional retreat… I do not think it means what he thinks it means).
On Weatherlight itself, Karn reveals to the crew many things that he has realized. His memories have all flowed back to him—his, and Xantcha’s, things he has no right to know. Unlike all of Urza ’s other creations, the Legacy has shaped its own destiny, grown along parameters it decided itself. Karn is part of the Legacy, Weatherlight is part of it, and so is Gerrard , and the rest of the crew. And now, all the parts are ready for their final evolution.
The ship transforms again, this time without Karn and Multani guiding it. In fact, Multani has to explain himself to the ship’s manifesting consciousness, or risk being consumed in its transformation. The maro and the golem attend Weatherlight as she is reborn, and once that is done, Multani is free to return home. However, he knows that Yavimaya cannot sit out the war, and so gives his life to transfer several square miles of the forest to Urborg , complete with all its kavu , elves, spiders, even raging gorillas.
Crovax is distressed to feel so much filthy green mana intruding in the pristine blackness and decay of Urborg , and goes to investigate. The entire might of Yavimaya descends upon him, and even with his many Phyrexian enhancements, he cannot defeat the forces of Gaea . At one point, he is literally buried by saprolings. Still, Crovax will not flee, and continues to fight.
While the master is away, Ertai has fun playing his favorite new game—‘slaughter the goblin cabin hand.’ It’s like whack-a-mole: no matter how many times you bash in the bugger’s head, he just keeps popping back up for more. However, Squee ’s flailing makes one of the wizard’s spells backfire, wounding him. Angrily, Ertai retreats to the mana infuser.
Unfortunately for him (and really, what ever HAS gone his way?), Squee regains consciousness, and mistakes the wounded Ertai for a giant bug. He starts munching on Ertai ’s face, and finds this bug doesn’t taste so good. When it moves, Squee jumps back, stumbles into a lever that causes an overload, and fries his former crewmate. After a few minutes, Squee even realizes who it was.
The battle between Urza and Gerrard lasts hours, possibly days. Fighting deep within Yawgmoth’s psyche, anything is possible. Both have shed more blood than any ten men should hold. Both have died twice, though none of the victories was to Yawgmoth’s satisfaction. Gerrard time and again devises some clever new stratagem—such as mentally manipulating the flowstone floor—only to see Urza survive it, claim it as his own, and perfect it.
Urza scores the most kills, but Yawgmoth is particularly displeased with them, as they are largely indirect, the results of traps and strategies. Yawgmoth wants to see a tooth-and-nail, man-to-man, intensely personal slaying, and when it comes to that, Gerrard has the advantage—he may be less than a hundredth Urza ’s age, but Urza was never a warrior. After numerous reverses, Gerrard uses one of Yawgmoth’s soul-piercing blades to remove the head of Urza planeswalker .
Yawgmoth is overjoyed, and showers boon after boon on the victor. Gerrard is given superhuman strength, supreme intelligence, indomitable will… he accepts all these things patiently. But once Yawgmoth is done, he demands the boon he was promised— Hanna. She has sat in the stands, watching the battle unfold. Yawgmoth is displeased, but holds to his word. Hanna asks Gerrard for Urza’s head, and Gerrard realizes that the Hanna before him is not his Hanna at all—merely another manifestation of Yawgmoth. He attacks her, attacking Yawgmoth himself by doing so, and is vomited up out of Phyrexia for this betrayal, so quickly Yawgmoth doesn’t even get a chance to rescind his gifts. Not like he’s a near-omnipotent demigod or anything.
Once Weatherlight is again airborne, she starts searching for her missing crewmembers. Sensing at least Squee within the Stronghold, she flies through the open caldera to save her tail gunner. Though the defenses have done massive damage to Weatherlight in the past, her new mirrored hull makes her not just impervious to the attacks, but actually reflects them back at the Phyrexian gunners.
Within the volcano itself, the dwarves have breached the massive chamber housing the Stronghold, and summoned a torrent of magma into the City of Traitors beneath it. The il city is quickly enveloped, and lava fills the chamber at the rate of a cubic mile a minute. Nevertheless, Eladamri, Sivvi, and their army charges in through the dwarven tunnel, though it’s not quite clear why they’re bothering.
Gerrard ’s graceless return to Crovax’s throne room summons the Evincar away from his battle—something guaranteed to put him into a foul mood. Neither hesitates from the inevitable clash, but as inevitable as Ertai had thought Crovax’s victory over Volrath, so is Gerrard ’s defeat of Crovax .
As the vampire dies, his angel descends from above, and kneels beside him. As she rises again, so too does Crovax’s soul—unstained by vampirism or the Phyrexian enhancements. Gerrard is glad to see there is some hope for salvation even for the darkest of souls, but he has other problems.
At least, he thinks he does, as Phyrexian guards come to deal with the Evincar’s assassin. Even with Squee ’s help, he cannot overcome them all. However, Urza’s severed head WAKES UP and kills all the guards with a magic blast. The Weatherlight away team arrives with some help—freed prisoners—and all the characters have a banterful reunion.
Then, Eladamri and his entire wing of the cast arrives, and everyone banters and laughs and has a good old time. Seriously. The tonal incongruity was strikingly hard to read. Urza’s head is the first to come to his senses, and the party begins to ascend toward Weatherlight, which Orim is doing her best not to crash (and is much more successful at it than Gerrard ever was).
The remaining Titans have blown up all they could of Phyrexia , but have little cause to celebrate. As Guff observes, the destruction of Phyrexia only gives Yawgmoth no choice but to abandon it, and take Dominaria. In fact, Guff says it is destined to happen, he already approved it. And this is where my soul dies. According to Commodore Guff, history is already written in his library, and Dominaria loses. The other ‘walkers point out that if Dominaria loses, Guff ’s library will be destroyed. Guff says, “Oh, bother,” produces a cartoonishly large eraser, and does the planeswalking equivalent of scampering off. I cannot even begin to describe what’s next, so here it is directly from the book:
Originally posted by Apocalypse, page 250
Madly, he erased. Madly, yes, for what editor erases so fervently the words an author has written? What editor allows his author to write a hundred thousand words only to erase ten thousand of them? Only an editor desperate to get history right.
“Bother.”
Commodore Guff crouched upon a gnarl of basalt and feverishly applied the massive eraser to the history of the Dominarian Apocalypse. There went a sentence about the death of Eladamri . Just after, Liin Sivi[sic] no longer died, for all the way through she had been paired to him as though she were his gimp leg. And what about this paragraph where Bo Levar lights a cigar in a swamp and is blown to smithereens? Guff didn’t even erase that bit, but crumpled up the whole page and threw it into the lava that seeped from a nearby crack. What else had to go to make this goddamned trilogy work out? How about the legal material, and the dedication and acknowledgments? After all, who gives a goat’s droppings for the editor of an epic? Commodore Guff hurled those pages aside and saw them catch fire. He threw out the teaser too. It had given away the destruction of Dominaria anyway, something that was completely undecided at this point.
Commodore Guff turned his face from the ravaged book in his hand and looked skyward. “This would never have happened when I was in charge of continuity.”
And crashing down the fourth wall went
By writer’s ill-advised whimsy, rent
And at least this lonesome reader sent
Into a five year long lament.
Well, at least Guff didn’t erase the part where he dies, half a page later.
Worse off, this is the point where everything basically stops making sense at all. After the better part of a year since the early days of the Invasion, Phyrexia still has not conquered Yavimaya, Llanowar, or the Ocean. Yawgmoth has regained Koilos, but lost most of Urborg (like trading the Everglades for Death Valley—basically a wash). The millennia-long plan involving creating an artificial world and overlaying it atop Dominaria net the bad guys NOTHING.
But Yawgmoth has more tricks up his proverbial sleeves. See, up until Invasion, there was no hint that Yawgmoth had the ability to resurrect the dead— Phyrexia was a borglike realm of machines and mutant cyborgs, and while there were a few zombies thrown in, there was no reason or justification ever given for them. But oh well, Yawgy is too crazy to know what he can’t do, so not only is he a necromancer, he’s the LORD OF DEATH. And being such, he casts a spell reanimating all dead matter on Dominaria to his service… including TOPSOIL.
Not only does every dead body on the entire realm—including all the heroes killed in the war—rise to Yawgmoth’s call, but the entire surface of the planet forms itself into basically mud golems, and attacks the natives of Dominaira. This begs the question: why didn’t Yawgmoth do this in the first place? But worse still, is the fact that, strategically, nothing changes . Yawgmoth literally controls the ground, but gains no territory.
Weatherlight escapes out of the volcano as lava reaches the bottom of the Stronghold—and some scary black mist starts to flow from it. According to Urza, the mist is none other than Yawgmoth himself, entering onto Dominaria to personally deliver the deathblow. Let me repeat the part of that that is stupid: Yawgmoth is now a black mist Nobody really questions this, and they start thinking of ways to stop him, starting by dropping a plague engine atop the caldera, plugging the volcano like a djinn in a lamp.
They crash the plague ship right where they want it, but the plan fails. Around the world ravaged by a straight year of global war, the fighting reaches its most desperate. Lord Windgrace retreats from the Yawgmoth-cloud, taking the minotaurs to their homeland. Bo Levar gives his life to defend some artistic merfolk, while Freyalise defends the Skyshroud .
Having been offloaded with the ground troops, Sivvi and Eladamri have since fled the hostile ground by scaling the boles of their magnigoth allies. But seeing Yawgmoth appear above them, the shadowy mist killing all he grasps, and seeing the writhing doom of the undead below, they make a decision. In a final act of defiance, they leap into death, together, rather than let it take them.
Yawgmoth straddles half the world, but Urza has a plan. Now that he has come personally into the field, he has exposed himself to danger. The early stages of the war were meant to rid the world of any white mana that could oppose him, and while green has managed to resist, it is not strong or concentrated enough to kill him. However, Weatherlight ’s core contains all the energy, all the white mana that had made up Serra’s Realm. Of course, that would destroy half the planet, but the other half would live.
The crew thinks of another plan that doesn’t amount to yet-another Sylex Blast. Karn reveals that the Null Moon is in fact a Thran artifact, the Null Sphere, and has been collecting white mana since it rose into the heavens after the Thran-Phyrexia war. Even Urza didn’t know this. Ratcheting up the shift envelope that protects the ship between worlds, Sisay sets a course. Into space. At this point, why not?
Weatherlight accedes to this plan willingly, knowing that channeling all the mana from the Null Moon will kill her. She asks Karn to take her personality into him, as he contained that of Xantcha, and the Thran artificer Glacian, as he was the embodiment of the Legacy itself. He agrees, sadly, and the plan is carried out. Weatherlight floods Urborg with white mana, and Yawgmoth starts to burn away.
Yawgmoth tries to retreat back into the shattered spheres of Phyrexia , but his point of access, the Stronghold, does not exist anymore—the dwarves, too small and powerless for him to bother noticing, have destroyed it. Trapped, he lashes out at Weatherlight, thinking of her both as Gaea and of Rebbec the woman who scorned him so many centuries ago. Although he’s obviously mad, he’s still quite powerful, and manages to attack Weatherlight and disengage it from the flow of mana from the Null Moon .
The plan has failed. Weatherlight is dead, and cannot glide forever no matter how hard Karn tries to keep it aloft. The world is covered in darkness and death, and even Urza ’s original drastic plan won’t work now. There is only one option left: that of Deus ex Machina. Within Karn and Weatherlight, all the mechanical components of the Legacy are united, but there are a few parts yet remaining. Urza’s eyes, the Mightstone and Weakstone that hold Glacian ’s soul and caused the Brothers’ War, and Gerrard himself. Urza is out of reason, but he believes that the final synthesis of these elements will bring the Legacy into its final culmination. Gerrard reaches into Urza ’s head, and gouges out his powerstone eyes. After a gory moment, the planeswalker is, truly, dead. With a final sigh, Gerrard reaches into Karn’s hollow chest, and forces the two stones together. The white mana in Weatherlight s engine bursts forth, but not in a simple explosion—this blast has a will of its own. In a few shining minutes, the Legacy of Glacian and Urza and Gerrard scours the world clean of Yawgmoth and all his minions. Every Phyrexian on the planet is destroyed, and the war is over. W. T. F. ?
Times Weatherlight has crashed: 7?
Number of cataclysmic events Urza causes: 5?
One year later, the surviving dignitaries of Dominaria meet at Urborg , for the dedication of a monument to all those killed in the war. (As to how any sort of nobility survived devastation that total, much less rebuilt to the extent needed to organize a meeting and build a huge monument while rebuilding their own homelands, and all in the course of a year… who am I to judge?) Nobles from across the globe show their respect to the fallen, and to those who yet live— Sisay, Tahngarth, Orim, and Squee highest among them. After a brief oration by Freyalise —she and Windgrace were the only Titans to survive—the ceremony adjourns, and the remaining Weatherlight crew is greeted by one other survivor— Karn. Somehow, when the Legacy was brought together, not only was Yawgmoth destroyed, but something else impossible happened: a golem became a planeswalker (though there were hints to that happening throughout the trilogy). And with Glacian, Urza, Gerrard, Xantcha, Weatherlight, and probably Saint Catherine all living in his head, he’s already well on his way to crazy. After the brief reunion, Karn again departs, taking Orim along to drop off with Cho-Manno on Mercadia. Now with only Tahngarth and Squee to keep her company, Sisay returns to her new ship—a merchant galley called Victory .
How could it have come to this? All the ominous potential of the Rath Cycle, all the build up of Urza’s Block, all of it culminating in this? Many of the ideas here (though not Guff ) could even have been salvageable, only, it seemed as if nobody on WotC’s side cared anymore. Where at the beginning, the storyline was the headline for each new set, now it was treated as an obligation grudgingly continued and put out of the way as quickly as possible. “Stuff happens to some characters. Now on to the cards!” Possibly the only thing worse than abandoning the story midstream (as many of the prerevisionist storylines had been) is to force someone with waning interest to continue. But perhaps this is unfair. Scott McGough continued as head of continuity for a while afterward I believe, and has since written some of the most popular Magic books, particularly Chainer’s Torment . After the debacle The Weatherlight Saga became, WotC moved on to a different mode of storytelling for sets. Two blocks—Odyssey and Onslaught—took place on a remote corner of post-apocalyptic Dominaria , during which the storyline presence on the cards was toned down considerably, but most major plot events were represented, and major characters showed up on multiple cards and flavor texts. Starting with Mirrodin, even that diminished storyline presence was washed away—someone looking at only the cards in a modern set would be hard pressed to notice that there is any storyline going on there at all. Instead, cards themselves are obligated only to evoke the setting, with storyline buffs only getting a bone when it comes to the cards for characters themselves—and even then there have tended to be a plethora of extraneous legends wandering about. Though WotC wished it and tried its hardest to make it so, Magic simply cannot support a parallel novel line the way that Dungeons and dragons can. I blame all of you for not reading enough. Slackers. The game itself, which had been in such dire peril before Invasion, ironically exited the block stronger than ever. The player base of the game exploded during the block, as new players fled the sinking ship of Pokemon and old players flocked back to the game. Before Ravnica block, Invasion was inarguably the most beloved block in the history of the game. Magic had weathered its storm and stayed afloat—what matter if the storyline had been washed away in the meantime? As for Dominaria, more horrors were yet to come. After what should have been his final defeat, after performing unspeakable acts for which many thought and hoped he would be banished from Dominaria forever, the destroyer returned. J. Robert King got to write more books. And not just a new book, to show he could play nice. No, he was given the responsibility for writing the second trilogy about the wars on Otaria, concluding that entire plot arc—because he had shown himself to be so good at ending storylines. Proph… *gag*, PROPHECY could be ignored easily enough, as it did not impact the plot in any way. Onslaught block had repercussions across the entire plane, possibly the entire multiverse, and by all accounts, Legions and Scourge took the inexplicable insanity of Apocalypse to an entirely new level. Imagine what it would have been like if The Phantom Menace had turned out to be the BEST of the prequals, and you’ll know about how storyline aficionados felt. Apocalypse was grossly disappointing, but Scourge was a true debacle. Though no formal comment was ever made on the subject, to my knowledge, King has not written for Magic since. And now, three years after Scourge , five years after Apocalypse Magic is finally ending its sojourn into the multiverse. We are going home. It may not be the greatest of planes anymore, but we know what glories it has seen in the past. The cumulative effect of disaster after disaster has taken its toll, but Dominaria has always recovered from it before. Thought it may need a helping hand, Dominaria shall rise again. And, like as not, be virtually destroyed again, and every time that happens, I’ll think of Weatherlight , and give a little smile.
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Feb 26, 2015semioldguy posted a message on Remember the Weatherlight, Part V(c): Imperfect PartsPosted in: Articles
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Feb 26, 2015semioldguy posted a message on Remember the Weatherlight, Part V(b): Imperfect PartsI wanted to make this readable again (though it doesn't include pictures and links)Posted in: Articles
After months of fighting, the Dominarians hold Yavimaya, Llanowar, Koilos, and the deepest oceans. Two forests, a desert, and some water. Sure, a few holdouts remain in various parts of the world, but organized resistance is limited to these few distant realms. And then, the overlay happens.
When Weatherlight took its day trips there during the Invasion, the dread plane of Rath was covered in Phyrexian troops. The crew could not figure out why. But suddenly, to its horror, the entire Coalition at Koilos finds itself utterly surrounded. The flowstone plane reached completion and the entire surface overlayed itself upon Dominaria —carrying the Phyrexian armies with it.
Weatherlight returns to the skies as the army rushes to prepare itself for battle. Then, it disappears. The Weatherlight crew is stunned as more and more of its allies disappear, and the Phyrexian army and antiaircraft tighten around the skyship and the one remaining titan engine— Urza himself. The last second before they are destroyed, Urza planeswalks ship and engine both away.
They appear off the coast of Urborg, where Barrin had fought his last, losing battle. However, Urza has miscalculated, and gets to take a bath.
The outer Urborgan isle is swarming with Phyrexians, but something is odd about them. They are not acting as fighters or killers, but pilgrims . . . and Gerrard realizes that the center of their adoration is the devastated ruins of Crovax’s childhood estate. He wonders: just how high has Crovax risen?
Crovax has changed a lot since he was a Weatherlight cabin hand.
He is having a casual chat with his parents’ remains when the hastily repaired Tsabo Tavoc is brought before him. She thinks she is to be his second in command. He has other plans for the general who abandoned her army and lost Koilos.
The flowstone beneath her legs holds her fast as Crovax rips her apart. She screams, and asks
if she is to be fed to his vampire hounds. Crovax gives a shark-toothed grin—no, that privilege belongs to the Evincar.
A few of Urza’s allies don’t go straight to their rendezvous point on the first sphere of Phyrexia. Tevesh Szat has a little chat with Darigaaz, returning him and the dragon nations to Shiv where the Phyrexians are attacking an ancient mural of a dragon. Szat tells Darigaaz the tale of the Primevals, five dragons that ruled the world in ancient times that could be resurrected to fight the Phyrexians and make dragons the dominant species once again. The Phyrexians had already destroyed the remains of the first. . . .
. . . But he does take them to the second, deep in Yavimaya. Darigaaz doesn’t really know how to free the Primeval from her prison inside a magnigoth treefolk, but he feels her calling to him. When the leader of the black dragon s grows impatient and even hostile, Darigaaz’s normal diplomacy is overwritten by rage. He impales the other dragon on the tree, and it begins to open
Darigaaz is enamored with Rith as soon as she emerges. The green dragon is beautiful, and powerful, and commanding… and hugely disappointed with what has become of her race. She takes de facto command, and leads the dragon nations to free another. Just after the dragons leave, the magnigoths awaken. Trees the size of cities, they were charged with holding Rith for eternity after the Primevals were first defeated by mortals, millennia earlier. Now, they started moving to get Rith back. . . . With a few thousand kavu hitching a ride in their canopies.
Eladamri and his Llanowar elves, meanwhile, appear in the frigid reaches of Keld. Eladamri gasps as he recognizes the forest nestled in the Keldon hinterland—the Skyshroud. His home has followed him to Dominaria. And now, it is dying. The trees of Skyshroud, the Rootwater underneath, neither can survive in this climate. So he calls in a favor.
He had become the “Seed of Freyalise” to save the elves of Llanowar, who worship the planeswalker. Now, he prays to her, demanding (politely) that she protect his homeland in return. She consents, casting a spell to protect the forest from the climate and the natives, but if he wants to protect it from the Phyrexians to come, he’ll have to make an alliance with the Keldons, even then furiously circling the forest, wondering why they aren’t able to enter it.
As the ground war on Urborg heats up, Agnate’s metathran take mile after putrid mile—the battle is much more fluid than the grinding trenches of Koilos. However Agnate gets overconfident, and is lured into a trap . . . before being rescued by a powerful new ally.
The metathran are saved by an army of undead, who fall upon the Phyrexian zombies and machines, while pulling the metathran out of the quicksand trap. The Phyrexians are defeated, but Agnate is not sure what to do about this new undead ally… who looks disconcertingly identical to Thaddeus.
The Lich Lord Dralnu tells Agnate that he and his undead minions are all former soldiers, serving as they can in this unlife. There is no afterlife, he says, no Valhalla—simply nothingness. He offers warriors an afterlife of service and duty. In this way, he pays tribute to the honored dead. Agnate accepts this alliance, performing a ritual of unity with him by washing his feet.
Looking down on the battlefield, Weatherlight ’s crew notices Agnate and many of his troops go missing, and muses on where reinforcements could be found. Gerrard suggests Tahngarth ’s homeland, Talruum, though the minotaur is grimly hesitant. His culture puts a lot of emphasis on appearance, and after his stay in Volarth’s dungeon, he is a mutated, monstrous caricature of a minotaur . Nevertheless, once Gerrard gets the idea, he can’t be swayed.
Tahngarth is slightly disturbed to find that his homeland simply doesn’t exist anymore, thanks to Teferi ’s meddling. He is silently thankful for not having to face his brethren, but Gerrard ’s one-track mind simply thinks of the next source of minotaurs—the storied Hurloon range. Weatherlight shifts there, only to find that the Hurloon capital was burned during the planeshift, and the male fighters have been drugged and prepared for transformation—just like Tahngarth. Of course you know, this means war.
Chain of command be damned, Tahngarth orders the ship into landing, and loading a full thousand of the unconscious minotaurs aboard. The ship takes massive damage in the battle, and is too heavy to lift off. They accelerate to planeshift speed, cruising on their landing spars, and flash to Yavimaya , where Multani (residing in the living boards of the ship) has the trees catch the ship so the crash doesn’t kill all aboard.
Times Weatherlight has crashed: 5
Oceans away, Rith and Darigaaz arrive in New Argive, or what’s left of it. The nation that arose out of the unification of Balduvia and Kjeldor had been a powerful source of White mana—and thus a priority target in the early days of the invasion. The great library of New Argive had been razed, all its books burned. Beneath that library, however, was the foundation of an even greater ancient one, beneath which the White Primeval is pinioned. Rith tricks the leaders of the other four dragon nations into mana burning themselves to death, and that sacrifice frees Treva .
Oceans away from that, (the same oceans, actually,) Eladamri has formed an alliance with the Keldons in the same way he had won metathran allegiance—trial by combat. Now, the small elvish army joins the huge Keldon host, marching for the Necropolis , the most holy site in the Keldon Twilight religion.
The Necropolis is the resting place for all the great heroes of Keldon history. According to the Twilight legends, at the end of time, the heroes of Keld will rise to fight invaders. Atop the Necropolis is the dock of the Golden Argosy , a mystical ship that will carry those heroes to their destiny. However, now a Phyrexian army outnumbering the combined Keldon and elvish (Kelvish?) host is marching for this hallowed ground, and the alliance rushes to prevent its desecration.
The Kelvish host fights as hard and as fast as it can, but colos and longships cannot outpace the huge Phyrexian army. Not just the Necropolis , but all of Keld seems lost. Then, as the Necropolis is overrun, there is a flash, and the legends of Keld ’s history rise again.
Problem is, they fight on the wrong side. The Keldon dead rise to fight the Keldon living. The religious shock alone is enough to render many Keldon s unable to fight. Then, things REALLY get nasty, when a holy artifact strikes one of the Keldon dead, and through such blasphemy, causes a volcano to erupt beneath the glacier on which the battle is fought. Soon, a geyser of lava is surrounded by a whirlpool of icy water, in which everyone is equally doomed.
On Phyrexia , the Nine Titans have already begun their destructive descent down the spheres. Both Urza and Szat have visited the plane in the past, and Urza has spent centuries discovering critical junctures and support structures, and the Titans systematically attack each of these, while fending off the deadly and endless defenders of the hellish plane, although Urza is increasingly pausing to marvel at the mechanical perfection of it. (Incidentally, I think that is Taysir on the left there, next to the implosion)
However, a tragic ‘accident’ quickly occurs, when Kristina is forced from her engine into the area Tevesh Szat was breathing a huge acid cloud. Taysir attacks him immediately—she was an old flame of his after all. Szat insists it was a tragic accident, and the Eight Titans continue.
After another session of refit and repair, Weatherlight again sets sail. The now-conscious minotaurs have learned of Tahngarth ’s insistence on helping them; they show him that only his courage matters to them, not his appearance. However, the same is not true when the minotaur commander, Grizzlegom, encounters his new allies. While he holds Agnate in high esteem, Dralnu he does not trust at all.
Agnate will not be swayed from his alliance with Dralnu , insisting the undead man is a noble warrior. Moreover, Dralnu ’s zombies, skeletons, and other ghoulish troops make up the bulk of Coalition forces on Urborg . With Dralnu ’s help, Phyrexian forces have been driven back almost to the Stronghold itself.
In the end, Agnate provides Grizzlegom the proof the minotaur needs of Dralnu ’s duplicity—the metathran general is dying of a slow rotting disease, spreading up from where the lich had washed his feet in the alliance ceremony. Grizzlegom finally makes Agnate recognize the truth—he has turned Death against Death, merely chosen one to rule instead of the other. If Dralnu is not stopped, he will take control of the entire Coalition, by taking control of Agnate . Agnate agrees to pass command on to Grizzlegom , if only the minotaur will do for him what he did for Thaddeus . Grizzlegom ends Agnate’s life, then his unlife, assassinates Dralnu , and leads the living army against their undead allies.
Treva and Rith lead Darigaaz and the terrorized dragon nations to an ocean trench where the next Primeval is imprisoned. Darigaaz tries to object to the escalating sacrifices of mortal dragons, but can do nothing against the two Primevals, and hundreds of his kin die diving toward Dromar’s gilded cage.
Dromar is the greediest of the dragons, and was captured by giving him all the wealth he could desire. Rith destroys it, thus forcing the Primeval back into the world. With three Primevals holding him in thrall, Darigaaz’s better self is virtually dormant. His temper is short, and his anger a terror to behold. He flies with Rith, Treva, and Dromar, virtually their equal in power, as they make their way to the site of the final, Black Primeval. And where else would that be, but Urborg ?
The Eight Titans have split up, each to plant a charge on some essential support struts of the third sphere (probably). Daria , outside her suit, has wriggled her way between some really tight pipes toward some target that creates an inconvenient ‘prevents planeswalking’ zone. She sets the bomb, turns to leave, and finds herself face to maw with Tevesh Szat . She tries to run, but the draconic walker is to big, too fast, and too hungry. Afterwards, Szat returns to his own Titan Engine.
When Taysir finds out Szat ate his adoptive daughter, he becomes furious, but Urza calmly replies that he expected Szat to betray them, and matters are well in hand. He explains that he had devised a powerful weapon known as a "soul bomb," that would take the souls of many thousands of mortals to charge . . . or of just one planeswalker . Barrin had told him there was no ethical way to charge it. So, being Urza (i.e. insane), he deliberately included a ‘walker in the Titans whom he knew would betray them. And the moment he felt justified in doing so, he initiated the kill rubrick in Szat ’s suit.
Under the glacier in Keld , Eladamri and Sivvi have somehow survived, along with a few odd Keldons and elves here and there. Most miraculous of all, though, is that they do so from the decks of the Golden Argosy , sailing immaculate and radiant among the dark depths. The surviving Keldons realize now the truth of Twilight: the dead legends of Keld were simply that—dead. Now, the Argosy was picking up the true heroes of Keld , and it would take them to the battle to decide the destiny of the world. Eladamri and Sivvi take comfort in each other as they await to face the dawn.
The advance at Urborg has ground to a halt, without Dralnu’s undead armies to support it (and with Grizzlegom’s living army diminished by destroying it). Weatherlight controls the skies, granting one significant advantage for the Coalition forces. That is, until its old enemy rises to challenge it.
When Weatherlight and Predator first met, the Dominarians got their ass kicked. The second time, they won by a quirk of chance. This time, Predator is no contest. Weatherlight has grown bigger, faster, stronger . . . the crew has about 50,000 more experience points each, the armaments have been improved five or six times over.
However, Predator is not expected to truly challenge Weatherlight , to the point that Crovax is really just throwing it away to make a point. Greven, in his ONLY SCENE in the Invasion trilogy, is being mind-controlled by Crovax , and is flippantly tossed to his death.
Ertai, broken by the loss of Belbe as well as some torturous mutations, is Crovax’s loyal lapdog now, but even were he not, he would enjoy taking some measure of revenge against Gerrard . With a simple teleport spell, he appears behind "our hero." Squee jumps Ertai to try to save Gerrard , but in the end only gets himself captured along with his commander.
Crovax is delighted. Not only has he captured his former commander and crewmate, his counterpart among Urza ’s forces, but he also has Squee to play with. Gerrard must first be dealt with, starting with the classic villainous “We are not so different, you and I,” speech. After that, though, comes the true temptation: Yawgmoth sends Crovax Selenia, makes her manifest. She is tangible, real—alive. Crovax beheads Squee, who (thanks to Yawgmoth) rises only a moment later, whole but confused. All of this is to show Gerrard one thing: Yawgmoth controls death. And he can bring Hanna back.
The deeper the Titans (now Six) get into Phyrexia , the more Urza laments every step in its destruction. The others— Bo Levar and Freyalise particularly—call him on it, questioning his loyalties. He assures them that he is committed to destroying Phyrexia, masterpiece though it is.
However, when it comes time to set the master bomb, that will set off all the other soul bombs at once, Urza cannot do it. Yawgmoth speaks to him in his head, seducing him, and Urza turns. Yawgmoth does not act surprised, but cannot accept the change of heart in his millennial nemesis so quickly. He puts Urza through a test, summoning the ‘walker to the punishment sphere. There, Urza sees his brother, Mishra, still alive after 4000 years of torment. He is given the choice—save Mishra, or serve Yawgmoth. He tells Mishra, "goodbye," and walks away.
The dragon nations arrive at last at Urborg , and Rith explains to Darigaaz how the quest will truly be completed. Each Primeval stands for a part of the life cycle: Rith is birth, Treva is childhood, Dromar adulthood, and Crosis, the last, is Death. The sacrifice needed to reawaken Crosis is the sacrifice of the other four Primevals. And what of the Red one? Why, the Red one is, and has always been, Darigaaz himself—rebirth.
Four mighty dragons plunge into the muck of Urborg ’s deepest swamp, and five omnipotent ones emerge. Their control over the mortal dragons is complete. They give no thought to the plight of the other races, and when they see something else daring to claim the sky as its own— Weatherlight they attack it with the anger of gods. The ship may be powerful, but five dragon -gods is more than it can take.
Weatherlight does all it can to fly evasively, but there doesn’t seem much hope . . . until what looked like a fast-moving Sargasso rises from the ocean. The Magnigoth treefolk have finally tracked down Rith , and Multani guides Weatherlight among their branches as the kavu bound down from them to join in the ground battle. Rith is captured, and Darigaaz regains a little of his mind—but not enough. He attacks Weatherlight latching onto the side, digging into it to tear out its Thran heart. But the power of another god gets in his way— Karn blocks his path, and with the touch of a burgeoning deity, reawakens the memories of the mortal Darigaaz . Horrified at what he has become, Darigaaz plummets toward a volcano of his own making, sacrificing his life to weaken the remaining Primevals.
As Weatherlight plummets again to the ground (Times Weatherlight has crashed: 6), the ground battle has stalled, when a golden ship unloads an army of the mightiest heroes of Keld — elf and human alike. The advance resumes.
The crew defends the ship and otherwise does what it can, but the damage this time is just too extensive. They have lost Hanna. They have lost Gerrard. The engine is smashed. But Karn, increasingly cryptic Karn emerges from below, holding the Thran Tome, and saying he knows how to save Dominaria .
. . . while on the ninth sphere of Phyrexia, Dominaria’s two greatest heroes bow in fealty to Yawgmoth himself.
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Slitherhead is amazing. It adds so much utility here and there, there are just so many little useful things about it that help you out. As someone else mentioned, a big part of what Slitherhead is doing is making you Vengevines into 5/4 creatures instead of 4/3. They kill faster (and I'm hoping you do this when they don't have red open) that one counter puts it out of lightning bolt range. Though I just as often tossed the counter on any other creature to make a faster clock or get bigger than a blocker.
As far as sideboarding, generally I don't like bringing in/out more than six cards. Bringing in more can hurt your deck since there is so much synergy between all the pieces and you don't want to take too many of those pieces out. Super fast dredging isn't usually a priority after game game one, so usually a Burning Inquiry or two can come out, I often went down to three Slitherheads, or cut Gnaw to the Bone. If Darkblast doesn't have targets, take them out, but aside from that I don't usually take out all of the same thing, just one or two from here and there. I know it's not a match-up by match-up sideboarding guide, as the sideboard is likely to change more than the rest of the deck from tournament to tournament. If it helps you, figure out what you want to bring in and out of popular match-ups beforehand and write it on a small slip of paper to put in your deck box.
The Rakdos charms should be something else, maybe they should be a couple more Thoughsiezes, or I was thinking about Dreadbore after this past weekend. The toughest match-ups have been Burn and Tron, but combo can always be a potential problem if they get an explosive hand since you aren't interacting much. Have a couple cards in your sideboard that are good at slowing down whatever combo decks are currently popular.
Another reason to dredge less in games two and three is that a lot of your sideboard cards are better when drawn, and having more draw steps increasing your chance of getting them.
Regarding Bloodghast:
I have tried adding Bloodghasts, and they just aren't as good as I thought they'd be, at least not as a four of. It may be good to fit one or two into the deck for a little extra value, but you'd have to re-adjust the mana base a bit since 22 is not a whole lot of lands to reliably get them back later. Dakmor Salvage is Probably the worst land in the deck, only making one color and coming into play tapped. Between a trial and the tournament I dredged it back once and other times I just wished it was a Swamp. It's also not a Zombie and Landfalling it doesn't help you return Vengevine.
Regarding Darkblast:
I wouldn't cut this card, it is so good/important in a lot of match-ups. There are so many things it kills, Dark Confidant, pesky token blockers, almost everything in Affinity. You can kill two toughness creatures by playing it in your upkeep and dredging it back. There were plenty of time where my opponent just couldn't profitably block because he knew I had a Darkblast in hand that would keep his creature from trading with mine. Darkblast was Stellar all weekend.
Golgari Thug vs Shambling Shell:
Thug dredges for one more, costs one mana less to cast, and has a better ability (trust me, his ability is awesome, choosing which creature to draw next is amazing with a full graveyard). Being able to get back a two drop makes returning Vengevine a load easier. Many times I would have a one drop in hand, or only one Gravecrawler and the different between three and four mana is huge in a deck with so few land, once I get to three mana you are usually set. You can't waste turns dredging back a Salvage. You almost always want to avoid playing your one drops on the first turn. Shambling shell jut costs too much mana to cast for Vengevine purposes, and dredging only three is significantly worse than that extra fourth card. If you have three mana you can get back two Gravecrawlers with an unearthed Dregscape Zombie to trigger the Vengevines.
22 lands makes this a three mana deck, you don't want to rely on hitting that fourth mana most of the time because many games it just doesn't happen. Dakmor doesn't help because it doesn't get you there fast enough.
Playing Burning Inquiry:
You either play it on turn one before they get a turn or play a spell, as it can really mess up a hand they choose to keep (and you generally don't care) or you wait until turn three/four. There are a lot of exceptions to this of course depending on your hand for a turn one Inquiry, and there aren't any hard rules to when not to do this. Faithless Looting is often better on turn one, and you want to make sure you have enough discardable cards in hand that you want to discard most of them (which most of your deck you are okay with discarding). If you don't cast it on turn one, I usually wait until turn three or four, depending upon the speed of my opponent's deck and size of his hand. By that time they have made their land drops and probably still have some of their bigger/better stuff still in hand. What turn is your opponent's deck most likely to play it's big move? Play Burning Inquiry the turn before that happens (For example, the turn right before the Urzatron is complete). You have the best chance of stripping their best cards from their hand if their hand is small (and replacing their good cards with lands is pretty sweet).
Grave Hate:
I encountered grave hate most of my rounds. Among the hate cards I played against Relic of Progenitus, Grafdigger's Cage, Rakdos Charm, Rest in Peace, Surgical Extraction, Chalice of the Void and many, many Deathrite Shamans. In post-board games, before seeing hate, I will usually stop dredging once I get a single Vengevine into the graveyard (unless I know I am getting it back that turn). One Vengevine plus a couple other random guys can do a lot of work. Aim for a turn three Vengevine. Lotleth Troll is often your best card after game one. I'll go through the specific hate by Category.
Relic/Crypt/Rest in Peace/Rakdos Charm/etc.
Generally, and what I really like about this list, is that many of your cards are aggressively costed. You can just cast your Gravecrawlers, Lotleth Trolls and Vengevines and they are good creatures for their cost, so the Graveyard Hate is not as effective most of the time as your opponent hopes it will be. Troll is your best card here. It lets you discard things one at a time and then use them immediately all while getting bigger. They either aren't going to waste their hate getting rid of a single card or they do, and that's fine too, you get 1-for-1'ed, no big deal.
Grafdigger's Cage:
Grafdigger's Cage is the worst card against you, I smile inside whenever they play it because it's like they mulliganed and wasted their turn one play. It slows them down more than it hurts you a lot of the time. I just play my guys, it doesn't stop the dredging, so Darkblast is still awesome. When Golgari Thug dies, I get to draw a card of my choice, and things like Vengeful Pharaoh still work just fine.
Deathrite Shaman:
If the game is short, this guy doesn't do enough. You should fill your graveyard faster than he can deal with it. Though if there is a window for it, I usually try to double Darkblast this guy. Do this while he is summoning sick or doesn't have a black open.
Others:
Surgical Extraction is only a small pain. Vengevine will usually be their first target, but Trolls and Gravecrawlers will get there surprisingly fast. An early Chalice of the Void on one can be annoying, but really doesn't do a whole lot (in fact it lets you cast the same Gravecrawler twice to trigger Vengevines, score!).
Again, what I like about this list is that all of your cards actually do something if your Graveyard is out of order. Not like Hedron Crab who attacks for zero or Glimpse the Unthinkable which does nothing or Bridge from Below which is useless out of the graveyard. At the very least all your guys can attack for at least one, and that gets there more often than your opponent thinks it will.
I haven't really been a part of the modern forum here at all, only occasionally at MTG Salvation in the Legacy forums, but figured I'd contribute my list here since several people asked me about it at the GP.
4 Stinkweed Imp
4 Gravecrawler
3 Golgari Thug
4 Slitherhead
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Vengevine
2 Dregscape Zombie
Other Spells
4 Faithless Looting
4 Burning Inquiry
4 Darkblast
1 Gnaw to the Bone
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Copperline Gorge
2 Blood Crypt
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Dakmor Salvage
1 Gemstone Mine
4 Ancient Grudge
3 Rakdos Charm
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Big Game Hunter
1 Vengeful Pharoh
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Thoughtsieze
Abrupt Decay is arguably situational, but hits almost anything in play in the format, and discard can sometimes do nothing. But other than that, everything else is almost always a live cascade. Even Lightning Bolt can at least burn the opponent.
As in my previous post and from experience I disagree that BBE is terrible.
The difference between Hymn and targeted discard is a point worth discussion and can come down to a metagame choice. I don't think there is an inherently right or wrong answer here. There are times Hymn is better and there are times that it isn't. I don't think 4 Hymns is necessary at all, but I;d like to have at least a couple in the 75 someplace.
Destructive Flow could be a good sideboard card. It might require a slight tweaking of the mana base to more easily accommodate and hurts your ability to play manlands, but it's definitely worth exploring the option.
I'm in agreement with you about neither Jitte or punishing Fire being necessary.
Also people should not be playing Sensei's Divining Top in their decklists. Just learn to not be afraid of your own Dark Confidant; a large majority of the time it wins the game before it ever kills you and wins you many games you otherwise wouldn't.
I don't follow your logic on thinking that BBE is a bad card in practice. All the situations you mention, while not being optimal are actually not bad situations to be in. For instance:
(1) When you want to cascade into removal and get a creature: this is often okay. Two creatures for one card is not bad and can often buy time/presence to find removal or just race damage.
(2) When you want to cascade into something and get discard against an empty hand: While this is potentially the worst potential scenario, that is the risk that you always run when playing discard. at least BBE isn't a dead card in your hand like the discard spell would be. Additionally if you opponent has no hand, you should usually be in okay shape and may be winning.
(3) When you cascade into removal with no target: this seems like a good problem to have. If your opponent has nothing to remove, then you getting to attack seems pretty good. If you opponent has nothing to remove, you are probably winning.
(4) When you cascade into a second Liliana: If you have a Liliana on the board and she is surviving, then you are winning.
...so all these bad situations that happen to you "all the time," not only are they worst-case scenarios of which will not be the most common outcome, but they almost all describe a scenario where you should be winning the game anyway. Are you complaining that you cascade value is diminished when you are winning... and that this is a problem?!
When cascading I don't always hit the exact card I need, and I hit a fair amount of Deathrite Shamans, which are the worst card to hit on a Cascade, but none of the cards are bad to hit, and any time I hit a card that I can't/don't want to cast it is at a time when I am winning. Any time the gameis even, BBE pulls you ahead. there are games and matches I would not have won without BBE.
If your experience differs then I would suggest re-evaluating your lines of play or considering why a card in your deck isn't playable. Admittedly, you can build Jund without BBE, but it is a much different deck (I'd immediately look in to Green sun's Zenith if you do). If BBE is in your list, then your deck is built around it and everything you hit is good.
You should re-read Havoc Festival. It causes a player to lose life equal to half of his/her life total rounded up. If you are at one life, you will lose half of that rounded up... so you will lose 1 life, which brings you to zero and cause you to lose the game. If you double the life loss from Havoc Festival, it does not matter what life total your opponent is at, they lose it all. If it is even, they go to zero; if it is odd, they go to negative one.
Havoc Festival is a wincon by itself as long as you can outlast your opponent.
Also, an ability for lands in the graveyard might help, akin to flashback that exiles the land for an effect. My guess would probably be to make creature tokens, something like:
Awaken 3 - 2G (2G: Exile ~ from your graveyard and put a 3/3 colorless Elemental token onto the battlefield. Play this ability as a sorcery.)
Have the number on awaken set the power and toughness of the creature token it makes. This sort of ability will help to add creatures without making an abundance of manlands and make your lands important when they are somewhere other than the battlefield.
This would also need to come with some sort of sacrifice and/or discard theme among your other cards to support the mechanic.
Really... no one else wants to start with this?!?
Thoughtsize and Duress really hurt as there are plenty of cards they can take which hurt you if you have to discard them on the draw, taking away the discard step.
A first or second turn Relic of Progenitus by the opponent screws up your end step discard plan as well.
Since you don't know your seven beforehand you might not be able to keep your first seven and have to rely on resolving an outlet anyway, in which case by going second you have activated even more cards to be relevant against you like Daze as well as given up the speed of having the first turn.
This in addition to a lot of smaller things like letting a Goblin Lackey get a hit in.
There are matchups where it might help, but most of the time I'd advise against it. First game is different, if you know what you going against there are a decent amount of decks it's okay to draw first against. After boarding, it's almost always good to go first when you can.
This is another reason I like Darkblast, it's good against plenty of early plays, even if it doesn't kill a guy or resolve. It's a dredger that discards itself. I've cast a fair amount of upkeep Darkblasts that get me into a game faster than I would have otherwise been able to.
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
1 Golgari Thug
2 Ichorid
4 Narcomoeba
4 Putrid Imp
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Tireless Tribe
4 Bridge from Below
1 Brainstorm
1 Darkblast
3 Breakthrough
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Careful Study
1 Deep Analysis
2 Dread Return
2 City of Brass
2 Dakmor Salvage
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Angel of Despair
1 Woodfall Primus
4 Chain of Vapor
1 Darkblast
4 Force of Will
4 Nature's Claim
Deck Construction and Changes
I really like the comparison between the pros/cons of Ichorid and Bloodghast in the opening post, as I feel they fit most of my reasoning for choosing a Bloddghast build. With the weaker matchups generally being fast combo, I feel the small speed the Bloodghast can bring helps close the gap in those matchups. I also like that after sideboarding Bloodghast doesn't sit in the graveyard.
As I mentioned, I would cut Deep Analysis for a fourth Cabal Therapy. Having two mana isn't the issue behind choosing to omit Deep Analysis. It's more along the lines of rarely being needed to close out a game, even when it's there.
Rather than do a report recounting each game, I'm mostly going to recap my mistakes (the ones I caught either by reflection or upon discussing the games afterward with my opponent). Learning from my mistakes helps improve my play and hopefully by seeing the mistakes I make, you will be less likely to make the same errors that I did.
Round One - Goblins
I made a mistake in the first round that cost me the second game against a Goblins player. He got a turn two Goblin Sharpshooter off of a Lackey trigger which was pinging his own guys to remove my bridges and would then easily dispatch any Narcomoabas, Bloodghasts or Ichorids that came into play. I was tunnel-visioned on getting creatures into play that could survive the Sharpshooter and my plan was to dredge back my two Dakmor Salvages, then to start playing Stinkweed Imps to sacrifice and dread return a huge Grave-Troll. What I should have done was dredge to a Darkblast, remove the threat and then proceed as normal. By the time I realized this it was too late, I had lost all my bridges and had to rely on drawing a land for my Bloodghasts since I'd already dredged back the two salavges to get to three mana.
For this matchup I only board in the second Darkblast. If they have Crypts or something similar, I prefer to just play around them rather than weaken my deck. Unless two Crypt effects happen, you still have a very good chance to win as the Dredge player.
I was also counting on sideboards being light on graveyard hate for this event due to recent results. Expect this to change for a while and to have to sideboard more aggressively in certain matchups.
Round Two - Zoo
The mistake from the previous round really kicked me into gear here and I think I played much better. In game one he got a Gaddok Teeg out, but masses of graveyard guys and sacing them to therapy away his hand was more than enough.
When I see or expect Teeg, I board out the Dread Return Package. You can't cast it with Teeg in play anyway, so it essentially limits his effectiveness to just being a 2/2 dork. Since it stops Breakthough I board one of those out as well and bring in the Chains of Vapor.
Chain of Vapor usually comes in for the second game when I'm not sure what to expect, as it covers the most bases. Against Zoo it's also good because if they try to bolt one of their guys to remove your bridges you can bounce their guy in response which is good tempo for you.
Round Three - 1-Land Belcher
In game one when he mulled to five on the play and did nothing I put him on combo. I played accordingly and won a close game.
I boarded in Force of Wills. Take out the slow stuff, for me that's Ichorid, Deep Analysis and the like. Second game I kept a decent hand, but without Force, and got hit for 80+ before I had a turn. For the third game I kept a solid hand with a first turn Therapy and able to flash it back the following turn. This is where I make another mistake, and this time it costs me the game. I Therapy, and name Charbelcher. I knew it was the wrong choice almost immediately. At the beginning of the game my opponent took a bit longer to decide upon keeping and made a comment on the fact (while he could have been bluffing, I still should have at least though to consider his actions). I didn't take this into consideration and miss, seeing an Empty the Warrens hand about to go off. He empties for 16 Goblins on his turn and I don't recover.
In hindsight it's easy to tell myself that I miscalled on my Therapy, but I still think I could have taken my opponent into consideration prior to naming a card.
Round Four - Ad Nauseam
In this round I make another mistake. He made Top 4 so you can find his list there. Game one I lose a very close game, and two I win fairly easily after mulling to six for a decent hand with Force of Will, which I use to counter his early attempt to go off.I'm pretty sure this is how the two first games went, my notes are a little chaotic.
My sideboarding here was both the forces, as well as a couple Chains of Vapor, keeping the Dread Return package in. I boarded in the Chains because after seeing both Silence and Orim's chant I figured there was a possibility he could bring some cards in against me since there are cards he could side out.
Game Three is where I make my mistake. I keep a good hand. 2x Cephalid Coliseum, Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp, Narcomoeba, Force of Will and some other non-land card. If he doesn't go off first turn I have a discard step to bin my Troll, and ifhe does go off first turn, which is unlikely, I'll need the Force anyway. First turn he plays Underground Sea, casts Dark Ritual, two Lion's Eye Diamonds and Infernal Tutor, sacrificing his LED's. I Force of will the Tutor. I should have waited to counter the impending Ad Nauseam. I was far ahead anyway, but I knew I wasn't completely out of it.
Four turns later he casts Dark Ritual, two LED's and another Tutor to get Ad Nauseam and win. Yes, I got unlucky that he got the four exact cards he needed (he also cast a Brainstorm), but I shouldn't have given myself the chance to get unlucky by holding back on my Force of Will just a little bit longer, effectively removing his Ad Nauseam from the deck.
Even things that seem like bad luck can often be linked back to mistakes.
Round Five - BRW Discard
Seems like a pretty good matchup for me.
I boarded in Chains of Vapor as I was pretty cure such a deck would need to be prepared against matches where the opponent wants to discard. I took out the Dread Return package as it appeared to be a slower matchup and I could grind it out easily enough without it.
Game Two he gets an early Nether Void out. I have to bounce it with a Chain of Vapor and Therapy it away, only to see a Jotun Grunt in his hand that I don't have a means to get rid of right away. He plays it, but there are only five total cards in the graveyards, the rest of his action in hand all required red mana and he doesn't have any, as I noticed when I therapied him. I wait for the Jotun Grunt to go away and then win.
Round Six Through Eight - Team America
This was the matchup I was planning/hoping to hit a lot due to recent success/popularity. It's a very good matchup for Dredge, their only real threat for you is Terravore and they have little means of positively interacting with you beyond Force of Will (and Pernicious Deed). For boarding I take out the Flame-Kin Zealot, and brought in the Angel of Despair. The fast win is often unnecessary in this matchup and Angel answers Terravore, which is the greatest threat they can throw at you and their best chance of winning in my opinion.
I dropped one game in the last three rounds, though I made a few errors, none of which lost me any games, but could have as it prolonged each game the errors were made in.
In one game my Bridges were all gone and my opponent low on life due to some Ichorid bashing. I don't remember his position exactly but I had four Bloodghasts in the yard, two Ichorids and a Golgari Thug. I remove the Thug to one Ichorid, and dredge a Dakmor Salvage to get my Bloodghasts back. It took me awhile to decide upon this play as I had considered removing the fourth Bloodghast to get a second Ichorid (potentially one more damage) weighde again there being less creatures in the graveyard when I planned to Dread Return a Grave-Troll that turn after attacking.
My reasoning for keeping the extra Ichorid in my graveyard was to ensure that my Troll was large enough to not be outdone by a Terravore. I had the regeneration mana for it should I need it as well. What actually happened is my Bloodghasts got Extirpated when the Landfall triggers went on the stack and I was unable to Dread Return my Troll at all due to only having an Ichorid and a Narcomoeba. The Ichorids and the lone Narcomoeba got there as my opponent didn't draw any answers, but I still gave my opponent more chance that I should have.
In another match I missed a Bloodghast trigger. It was the same turn that I received a warning and was a little flustered from making a dumb mistake. I "looked at extra cards" by accidentally dredging from the bottom of my deck. I don't know why I did this, it was the last round and, mentally, I was exhausted. I realized what I had done as soon as I pulled the first card into my graveyard and called a judge on myself immediately. Later that turn I missed the Bloodghast coming into play. Tormod's Crypt hit me before my following turn, and the Bloodghast that should have been in play was removed forever. His presence on the battlefield would have likely reduced the length of game by at least a turn and possibly even two or three turns. I won regardless, but it could have gone the other way had my opponent gotten different draws or especially if it was a less favorable matchup.
I also forgot to therapy once when I had the extra creature to do so. He was empty and drew and kept a card, but it could have been relevant and I should have either forced him to play it then or seen what it was before alpha striking. I was in complete control and it turned out to be irrelevant, but it could have made a difference.
So those are my mistakes. I finished 6-2, with my two losses coming from Belcher and Ad Nauseam, both made the top 8. I feel that both matches were winnable. I'm a bit disappointed by my performance, though I believe I made the correct deck choice for the event.
Sideboarding with Dredge
In sideboarded games you shouldn't need to be dredging a whole lot. Your Breakthroughs are an over-extension (there's a whole lot else I don't like about Breakthough as well, but it is a powerful card) and Coliseum activations aren't as powerful as they are in game one. These often serve to make you more vulnerable to the hate. Dredging 15-18 cards should be plenty to put on some pressure while making them blow their hate on a smaller graveyard. Don't lose all four bridges at once; lose them one or two at a time if you can. Drawing a card can be the right play a lot of the time in games two and three. Don't overextend with your graveyard. Keep backup in your hand in case your graveyard does get blown away.
If you only lose 15-18 cards to each Crypt, it will take three Crypts to fully take you out of the game! This is another reason I like taking out the Dread Return package. Often, 15 cards isn't enough to utilize your Dread Return effectively.
I don't like bringing in 8 cards when I can avoid it. It clunks up your machine too much. I count on people thinking that drawing a single crypt or other card is enough to stop you when in reality one hate card isn't enough a majority of the time. Add on top of that most people don't seem to know how to play against dredge effectively, using hate at the wrong times and making suboptimal plays. People are too premature with most of their graveyard hate (and I love it).
It isn't enough to throw four Tormod's Crypt or 4 Leyline of the void in the board and consider your Dredge matchup done. I am more than happy to board in less than eight cards and fight through their insufficient amount of hate.
The fewer cards you bring in, the better your Machine runs and the fewer cards you need to dredge and expose to run it.
BTW I'm Kyle, who ran the 14th place list. If I ran it again, I'd cut the Deep Analysis for the fourth Cabal Therapy. Of the eight rounds, I only used Deep Analysis once, and I'm certain I would have won that game without it. It has been useful for me in the past, but Cabal Therapy is just so much more important in your bad matchups.
Regarding the question earlier about what to take out when I bring in 8 anti-hate cards. The Dread Return package is usually the first thing to go if I am expecting graveyard hate. If they have hate, attempting to Dread Return could get you blown out and is your plan which their hate is likely to be most effective against anyway.
Other than that, it really comes down to what sort of hate you expect. Planar/Leyline of the Void, Yixid Jailer are really the only things that concerned me a great deal (and Ravenous Trap, though no one has been playing it, and you can avoid the trap by dredging a Dakmor Salvage or just drawing a card for the turn when you're ahead). Expecting Extirpate or Crypt-like effects will change my play decisions, but a single one of those is unlikely to do more than slow me down by a turn or two. By having both Bloodghasts (which tend to stay in play and out of the graveyard) and also having access to a pair of Ichorid, it isn't difficult to provide a sufficient threat without needing to dredge too much of your library.
I'll post some more coherent thoughts on my list sometime later tonight when I get home as well as a report detailing some of my play in the event.
Tarnished Citadel isn't good. I'd even consider playing Tendo Ice Bridge or Forsaken City before a Citdel. 3 damage is a lot to take, especially more than once, considering many of your other lands are painful too.