Week 1 (8/3/2021)
Game 1
Decks:
Alex – Phylath | Ryan – Zombies | Sean – Kodama | Keegan: Locusts
Our introductory game to league was a beater to say the least. We had two beaters with Phylath and Kodama, while Zombies (helmed by Gisa and Giralf) is a very snowbally deck, and Locust God is spell slinger into swarming the board. So there was a decent spread of deck variety which was nice.
(An important note to make is that some of these decks were brand new (Kodama) and not everyone had seen them. While decks like Zombies and Phylath have been staples in our meta for a very long time.)
The game started off with Alex and Sean ramping fast as green does, while Keegan stumbled a bit with mana, and Ryan his a normal curve with his deck.
There were some small swings, but nothing of true note early game. The one who got beat down early and fast was Ryan unfortunately. Once Gisa and Giralf hit the board, he milled only one zombie into the graveyard. Granted it was a Death Baron which he played the turn after. That act alone put a target on his back from Alex and he was wiped out due to lack of knowledge on how the lord worked with the deathtouch. So he took 4th.
Sean built his board quickly due to no one having spot removal for Kodama. His board grew fast, but he missed a trigger or two due to the unfamiliar commander. At one point he had a Worldspine Wurm and Keegan and Alex did not have the ability to stop that beast. So Alex decided to Chaos Warp it, and it only resulted in a land hitting the battlefield. Sean had a tough time in the end due to Alex and Keegan targeting him due to the power of his deck and his board presence. Alex was able to do a pseudo control with Phylath, and Keegan was able to run a couple counters out to control into the late game.
Eventually the locusts were able to chip Sean down through the air in the late game. Alex was able to take Sean out, as well as Keegan down to less than 3 health in a single swing. Due to lack of patience and a smooth brain, Alex did not do his damage calculation and most likely missed lethal on Keegan. The next turn Keegan was able to swing board and knock Alex out, taking the first win in league history.
*An important note for the league: Sean has “okay’d” land destruction due to the competitive nature of the league. For those not in our meta, that statement was less likely than it raining gold coins.
Game 2
Decks:
Alex – Ur-Dragon | Ryan – Korvold (Alex) | Sean – Knights | Keegan: Valentin
Due to writing this three weeks after playing, my memory on this game is very fuzzy, so sorry for the lack of detail on it all.
This game was a much different game. Alex had Ur-Dragon, which has a long history of bricking for him every time he played him. Keegan piloting Valentin was shaky for him, as was knights for Sean due to it being brand new. Ryan did not have much experience piloting Korvold, but he has seen it ran a good number of times by both Alex and Keegan.
What I can remember is that Valentin did extraordinary work in shutting off / slowing down both knights and Korvold due to them being a very heavy graveyard deck. It seemed that either deck there was no spot removal for Valentin, or it went elsewhere due to more pressing threats on board. (author’s note: Alex is a pussy when it comes to putting spot removal in his decks, and two were in play here).
Sean was knocked with Ryan due to lack of pressure he was putting on with the knights. I do not know why he was not turning them sideways, either due to the fact that Valentin shut off his graveyard or didn’t realize how built the deck was around reanimating and beating.
I believe Ryan was knocked out due to Valentin destroying his deck’s ability to function with creatures, leaving himself very vulnerable to creatures. Granted it is a land sac deck, but a large number of the payoffs / wincons come from creatures like Titania, Protector of Argoth and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. Valentin not allowing sac triggers due to exile shut the whole deck off essentially. Without that, the decks are dead in the water. I believe that the Ur-Dragon ended both of those decks in a single turn.
From here, Alex worked his way onto Keegan and beat him down through the air, giving Alex a rather cheap win due to Keegan’s deck doing most of the heavy lifting.
Game 3
Alex – Korvold (Alex) | Ryan – Walls | Sean – Kami | Keegan: Alela 🙁
This game was going to be a shit show from the jump. Alex getting his Korvold deck had him feeling like Augustus Gloop at the Chocolate Factory. Keegan having Alela is like giving a gambling addict the ability to play Russian Roulette with an atomic bomb button. Both players were very much right where they wanted to be deck wise, and with Sean playing Kami, it was adding fuel to the manure plant fire. Ryan had the recently modified walls deck, which seems to be a meme but is built to build fast and jam hard.
Now since this is the first article about our play group, let me just explain something. Keegan will target Alex without fail if they are playing these decks. He will use 1 of his 99 (/s) tutors in his deck to grab Hatred and jam Alela into his face before Korvold can snowball too hard or hit the field. And, that is exactly what happened on T4 or T5. So Alex was out first, as usual in this matchup.
The remainder of the game was exceedingly grindy. Alela is setup to stax and kill through fliers, Kami is meant to mill and draw group hug style, and walls plays cheap and big threats and gives them banding (lol) or unlockable to swing for lethal. There were a handful of wipes from Keegan and Ryan, but the game really got serious when it was starting go long.
Ryan had cast Yavimaya’s Embrace targeting Alela, but Keegan shut it down with a Mana Drain. Sean then on the next turn bounced everything with an overloaded Cyclonic Rift. This left a handful of enchantments on his board, and everyone else was back to square one. Keegan was up next turn and did not have a load of lands (theme with his decks you will see), so he used the 7 mana from the drain and an additional to cast Eugene. He ticked down 3 wiping the board of almost everything. Then played Alela and an artifact. What Keegan missed was that next turn Ryan had a monstrous Colossus of Akros out, and with another piece or two also out, he was able to swing for lethal on them both, clinching the victory on the last game of the night.