Week 11 (12/21/21)
Game 1
Alex – Obuun | Sean – Arcades | Keegan – Ur Dragon
Ryan was unable to attend this week, so it was just the Three Stooges for this week. Sean won the die roll to go on the play, and both Sean and Alex took the free mulligan. It is truly amazing that Keegan did not have to take a mully with the behemoth that Ur-Dragon is. That bastard never gives me a good hand lmfao.
It was a slow T1 and T2 for most of the players. Keegan was feeding coal into the locomotive, while Alex had a bad set of lands and no ramp (great keep). But Sean was able to hit an on curve Sylvan Caryatid to boost himself forward.
The game continued normally through T3 and T4, with Keegan continuing his ascent, and Alex having slow and suboptimal mana available to him. Sean saw a T4 Sunscape Familiar, followed up with a Transmutate option on Drift of Phantasms. This T4 play from Sean would end up being the decisive decision within the match. He decided to grab a friendly familiar, Ghostly Prison. We will talk about this at the end.
By T5 the game is heavily leaning towards Sean’s favor. He has been beating down Keegan and drawing sole aggro from him. Sean spoke to this and was afraid of not having the ability to stop flyers with his deck. But he is the only one at the table with a presence early on, and was rearing back for an all out assault. He was able to follow up his previous turn as well with a Fortified Area, which just made everyone scratch their head and hate Alex (walls need to band together). Alex was still stumbling due to his decision to keep only a single colored land in his opening hand. Keegan around this turn or T6 was able to resolve a Nico Bolas, the Ravager, but was swiftly dealt with. Around T6 Alex being the giga brain he is, decides to use his Vesuva to copy his own Maze of Ith, furthering his mana issues.
To follow this turn up Keegan decided the world was not enough, and slammed an Atarka, World Renderer onto his mat; then he spent all his gold he made from selling Astral Runes he crafted to buy and equip a Sword of Vengeance. Alex was just having fun with the fact that he had 3 colors to tap for mana, while Sean finally unveiled the bomb of Arcades: Rainbow Vale. Keegan and Alex had blast taking a piss about with never giving it back Sean, but also never giving themselves mana.
Sean on his next turn decided to snap off a board wipe to get Atarka off the board, but Sean shoulda known he couldn’t get rid of ’em that easily. Keegan was able to get Bladewing, the Risen out and get Atarka back, as well as the sword back in her hands. Alex is still looking for the minotaur within his maze’s. Throughout this whole time Keegan and Sean have just been beating the hell out of each other. Sean drew first blood and it devolved into the fucking Hatfield and McCoy between those two. All while Alex just chased butterflies and sat and watched the bloodshed.
Keegan resolves a Domri Rade and uses their -1 to have Atarka fight and a naked Arcades to get it off the board. He then slams into Sean with his keyword soup and knocked Sean down a couple pegs on the life total. The following turn Sean attacks full board minus Wall of Glare with his convoluted banding walls, which results in Keegan getting killed. The life total before the start of Sean’s turn was him at 2, Keegan at 7, and Alex at 37. Like I said, Hatfield and McCoy.
Alex ends up casting a Naya Charm in order to tap down the Wall of Glare and swings with lethal, killing Sean while he is still sitting at 37 health. He was out under the radar like a damn blackbird.
Speaking to the Tragedy of the Transmutate, Sean should have grabbed something like High Alert or Spidersilk Armour out instead of the prison. Hindsight is 20/20, but ultimately that lost him the game unfortunately.
Game 2
Alex – Arcades | Sean – Ur Dragon | Keegan – Korvold
The second game we have two repeat offenders, and the most played commander OF COURSE had to make an appearance. Absolute knob. Both Sean and Keegan ended up taking their free mully, and of course Keegan wins the die roll.
Keegan opens up with a T1 Impulsive Pilferer, and then on his T2 he promptly lets Sean know that “I’m gonna kill he fuck outta you this time” and argument and discourse between them ensued. I was serious, Hatfield and McCoy level of dispute. It was glorious.
And let me tell you folks, Keegan was not fronting about his decision making. He got out quick with his board and, including an on curve Awakening Zone to provide mana and sac outlets. He then snaps a quick Wasteland off on one of Sean’s triomes. Sean was a very small fan of this move, and he pulls up and pops trunk and pulls out a Hellkite Courser, slams down the fat ass Ur-Dragon, attacks Keegan, portals in Domri Rade, and then has his Ur-Dragon fight Keegan’s Rumunap Excavator. I heard that the dispute started due to someone badmouthing another’s sister. You know, West Virginia type of things. Sean then mutters to himself in an angered tone about the taplands in Ur-Dragon.
Nico Bolas, the Ravager makes another appearance shortly after, and on pitch Keegan bins a Carpet of Flowers. Shortly after this, Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest makes a friendly appearance. Ye know, just a casual wincon in the deck.
So yeah, Alex is still part of this pod actually, and he ends up casting Wall of Stolen Identity to gank Mazirek, and swings at Keegan for lethal. This leaves Sean at 17 and Alex at 34. Sean has no answer on his turn or in his deck, and he ends up scooping while Alex has lethal on board.
Once again, gang violence lost.
Game 3
Alex – Marisi | Sean – Edgar Markov | Keegan – Shrines
The third game was packed full of rookies and vets with new leaders. First off is Marisi, the master of manipulation. Deck is built around goading others and watching the world burn. Edgar Markov is a very fucked vampire deck that absolutely smacks the ever loving hell out of everyone with scantily dressed vampires. Shrines has a new leader in Sisay since Golos got banished to the shadow realm. She likes the tales of legends, and has lots of legendary friends.
Alex took his free mulligan, but Keegan got the short end of the stick and ended up having to go to 6. Keegan also went first, Alex cried about not going first.
Sean woke up and chose violence with his T1 Field of the Dead land drop. Keegan has a slow roll as the shrines does, slow and steady wins the race when you are praying at the shrines. Alex on the other hand wanted to see everyone perish. He went: T1 Forest -> Llanowar Elves -> T2 Dual Land -> Fyndhorn Elves -> Time of Need to find Kodama of the East Tree. Super weak T2.
Sean’s board multiplied each tun, with lots of help from Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord to keep his vampire’s spirits up. He was targeting Alex early due to the explosive start he had. He had flipped a Bloodline Keeper//Lord of Lineage and chose to beat into him with it. But, he overlooked the hidden reach on Kodama (and he was wielding a Sword of Feast and Famine); which ended up killing his expensive lord due to it.
Alex then gets ass blasted by a rules interaction he was unaware of due to not being present at an earlier session. He had goaded Sean with an unblockable Kodama. But he tapped out first main and Keegan had out a hefty costed Sphere of Safety (im safe). So the interaction of a War’s Toll from Alex and Sphere of Safety means that Sean is still able to attack Alex due to Keegan not being a legal attack target. So goader became the goaded.
Vampires started a full blown beatdown campaign on Keegan, but he was starting to get Exodia assembled. Sean halts progress from Keegan with a Captivating Vampire, ganking his Sisay. The leads to an incredible slow drain from Sean. He would contiually be able to get small pingers through to Keegan, but he was able to keep Sean’s fatties away with the spirits off of his Honden of Life’s Web.
Sean had about a 3 turn timer on Keegan if he found no answers, due to him having a growing flyer that Keegan had no answer for. Keegan ended up pulling out a thurible from a cupboard and swung it all around his deck as he chanted out to Brian. Never really struck me as the religious type, but guess in everyone’s hour of need they gotta have someone to reach out to. Well, Brian was a merciful god and gifted him with a Wrath.
Following the board wipe, Sean was able to only find a land. Keegan untaps and takes his turn. He runs Sisay back out, and pops a Honden of Night’s Reach off of a Sisay activation. Following up swiftly behind was a Sanctum of Sanity.
The tide of war were strongly in Sean’s favor, but after the wipe it was like all of the wind was blown out of his sails. He tries to stabilize and runs out a top decked Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle as well as Edgar Markov. By this point though Keegan was making a million mana and spirits, and had about 9 shrines out. He forces Sean to discard a Settle the Wreckage, which ended up being the nail in the coffin for Sean. Keegan’s ever growing snowball, and the lateness of the night due to a delay waiting to see if Ryan shows up, along with the lack of answers, forced a late night scoop.
Honestly this game of magic was one of the most intense that our group has seen. There was loads of drama, draining, and swings throughout it. Truly it was a fantastic showdown and it was marvelous to watch. It could be comparative to a theatre drama.