Game 1
Ryan: Phylath | Keegan: Torens | Sean: Dragons | Alex: Atla
No new faces in the command zone for the first game of the night. Sean on paper was at a large disadvantage due to having the only snowball commander. But if he survived with some pieces to the mid to late game he had high odds to win.
Ryan took a free mulligan, he also rolled the highest to go first.
The game was pretty on par with how most of the games had recently been going. Keegan was putting early pressure on Ryan to make sure he did not get any points and close the gap. Alex setup early game with some nice pieces on curve. Hitting a Goblin Bombardment and Spidersilk Armour on curve is always nice to see in Atla. Sean was also doing his best to setup.
Eventually Ryan got beatdown by Torens going wide, with a lot of the work being done by Champion of Lambholt. Mid-game Atla was able to crack a couple eggs and found both the Blightsteel Colossus and Darksteel Colossus. The arrival of the Blightsteel put a timer on the table.
I cannot remember how, but Sean got knocked out of the game. This left Keegan and Alex at the table, and the odds were heavy in Keegan’s favor thanks to his enormous board. It was a do or die moment for Alex, even if he beat in Keegan had the blocks to fend off lethal from the Blightsteel and enough un-blockable on the clapback to get the win. Alex made 2 eggs off Atla thanks to an Anointed Procession, and cracked them into the Bombardment. First egg hit a Craterhoof Behemoth, but due to the lack of a board, it was not as impactful as was truly needed. The second egg found a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, potentially the only card that meant a win on the spot. Alex copied the Hoof and blew in for lethal from poison or damage. Atla and the lottery of fate showed up for Alex this one time, locking in a W for him.
Game 2
Ryan: Obuun | Keegan: Tuvasa (Natural 20) | Sean: Torens | Alex: Kami
Second game saw the titan that is Tuvasa getting picked out of the pile thanks to a natty from Keegan. This is normally a death sentence for the table, but the recently rebuilt Torens is packed full of spot and mass enchantment removal. Potentially the only predator of Tuvasa. Keegan was the only person to take their free mully, and he also won to go on the play.
This game was drawn out, but not in a painstakingly brutal way. It was a true arch enemy game. Ryan missed a ton of land drops for Obuun, and Keegan putting the pressure on from the jump put him into an early grave. He did have to mill a hand full of lands, which had him tilting out lol. At least he had a T1 Sol Ring, which I think Sean blew up with an Aura Shards.
It was truly Alex and Sean against Keegan for the rest of the game. Alex was hitting lands drops and a bit of interaction, but had a grip of high cost spells and zero mill pieces. Kami was glad to let everyone draw, but did not want to expedite his win condition it seemed. Luckily Sean was able to setup a wide board and help chump and keep Tuvasa out for as long as he could. It does need to be noted that Sean missed about 5-6 turns of extra land drops and draw from Obuun’s Rites of Flourishing. This hurt him due to having a T2 Land Tax that was triggering a ton.
Tuvasa though was quickly becoming a monster. Luckily though, Alex was playing the ultra patient mono blue control mage. Thanks to both a hard cast Leyline of Anticipation and a Nyx Lotus, he was able to hold up a bunch of mana even after playing a spell or two on his turn. Once Tuvasa became enormous, he was able to spit out a River’s Rebuke, which bounced all of Tuvasa’s items back to hand. With Keegan dumping his hand and refilling thanks to draw on his first main, he did not have a lot of mana open to redeploy, burning most of a turn and eating through his deck.
But it took only a turn maybe to have Tuvasa back in full form and ready to beat in. Luckily though Sean found a Cleansing Nova, and chose to destroy all enchantments and artifacts. A top tier play from Sean, knocking Alex off a bunch of mana as well as wiping almost all of Keegan’s board. The issue though was that Keegan’s draw engines were almost all creatures, and was slated to quickly rebuild.
He ended up pumping up Tuvasa with pieces like Ethereal Armour and glued a Spirit Mantle onto her. This meant she could beat right past Sean’s defenses and took him out in a single moment of beatdown. This left just Alex and Keegan, with lethal on board. Keegan ran through the rest of his mana, which left him with a very, VERY mean looking board. But he had tapped out as Alex had been praying he would. During his end step, Alex snapped off an overloaded Cyclonic Rift, bouncing his board back to hand. Due to the greedy nature of Tuvasa, Keegan was sitting with more cards in hand than in deck. Alex untapped and ran out a Windfall he had announced he had many turns before, forcing Keegan to draw through his deck and losing. He did have a Maddening Cacophony as backup luckily.
It was a wacky win due to Alex having little to no mill pieces, but Sean’s clutch wipe and Alex’s one sided wipes gave him the W.
Game 3
Ryan: Shrines | Keegan: Atla | Sean: Krenko | Alex: Uril
For the final game of the night we saw some heaters in the zone. Krenko loves showing up as the new kid on the block, and Alex had to face his biggest fear of pure voltron. Everyone but Ryan took their free mulligan, and Sean was the high roll to go on the play.
I do not remember much of this game, just that Alex won through pure voltron. Maybe he had finally conquered his fear of being tall.
A very funny and absurd concept that happened during the game was that Alex had out a Mirri’s Guile. This revealed an Avacyn, Angel of Hope, which he fetched away. After grabbing his land and shuffling, who shows up? Ya girl Avacyn. Something something RNJesus. I also want to note that the game was so wacky that Keegan actually hardcast a Blightsteel Colossus lmao.
But with the W Alex swept the night and secured a decent lead.