Q2 Cup (1/23/22)
Seemingly in a flash the second quarter cup has come and gone. This cup was packed full of 3 intense and wild games that could very much be declared the best night of play so far throughout the league. Buckle up, for this is going to be a wild ride.
Game 1
Sean – Teysa | Ryan: Omnath | Alex: Arcades | Keegan: Kodama
Our first game of the night saw 3 of the 4 decks coming from Alex’s stable, and had a good spread of decks archetypes. Keegan, Sean and Alex all took their free mulligan, and unsurprising to anyone Keegan had the opportunity to go on the play.
From the jump Sean had an Authority of Consuls to keep the two creature decks on their heels while he had time to setup some spicy aristocrats. Following this though Alex dropped an on curve Sunscape Familiar and Sean elected to tax the general populous with an Esper Sentinel. The game did not have an explosive start beyond Keegan hitting every single land possible, but these decks are more of a snowball vibe anyways.
Around turn 4 we saw the board starting to populate with commanders Like Arcades and Kodama (is the other partner even a commander???), while Sean was wallowing in the classic Orzhov mana screw that we see from Teysa often. With the rest of the table praying to Bolas that they do not find themselves without mana, the game officially started. Keegan dropped in a Reclamation Sage to knock out that pesky Authority. Alex followed this up with a Shalai, Voice of Plenty and a Resolute Watchdog (im safe). With fear of FOMO in his eyes, Ryan ran out Omnath to let the table know that doomsday was around the corner. Sean dropped a Sol Ring and with a big middle finger to Keegan a Blind Obedience.
By this point in the game Keegan was miles ahead of everyone else in terms of mana and was going to let the table know. He dropped a Birthing Pod into a into a Defense of the Heart, which was almost guaranteed to pop if it stayed till his upkeep. Upon seeing this the table had despair in their eyes, well almost everyone. Ryan just casually untaps and moves onto his main phase. Which provides a nonchalant Trade Routes and an Eternity Vessel at 40.
I need to start a new paragraph to just dive into the upkeep of Keegan’s turn 7. Fuckin bastard. His Defense pops, which he goes and grabs a Ghalta, Primal Hunger as his first snatch. Kodama triggers and he follows her up with a very free casual Impervious Greatwurm. His second grab was an Avenger of Zendikar, which gave him 8 plant tokens on etb. I do not know if Keegan had no more lands to drop in for free of if all the blood drained to a certain part of his body and he couldn’t think straight, but he got no free lands off the plants. BUT, the Avenger being part of a group as his names says, brought along a free friendly Phyrexian Hydra. Stoned off value the first thing he does in his main is pod away the Rec Sage for an Arasta, of the Endless Web which got birthed with a free Quicksilver Amulet around it’s neck. Keegan spent a total of 2 mana (he actually paid for a pod activation, that is the first for the MTG archives) and got 13 bodies and portal. Weak shit honestly.
So here is the funniest part about Keegan’s turn, it was incredible and threatening borderline lethal for at least one member of the table on the next turn. Alex and Ryan both have no answers and pass around the turn to Sean. Sean with a measly force on the board due to poor mana casually untaps and drops down a Dusk onto the stack. The table sits with no response. Keegan’s entire previous turn is negated with a 4 drop conditional board wipe. There is a rules debacle between Ryan’s Omnath, Locust of Rage and Sean’s Elenda, the Duskrose when it comes to trigger order. This causes the council of Addicts to adjourn and eat some stromboli while our judge figures out the ruling.
Once the stromboli has been consumed and mozzarella sticks are presented as an offering to the table, the game continued. After the rules debacle, Ryan decided to try and gigabrain the table and left Elenda untouched while picking off walls that wouldn’t have died in the sweeper. This left Sean with a big fat Elenda who swung at Keegan to consume his life total, leaving him dead. Second main we saw a Reinmate rip Omnath, Locust of Rage out of Ryan’s bin. Sean was now the captain.
A couple of turns passed and Sean and Ryan were looking strong with Alex watching his life total dwindle down to almost 0. He did manage to get a Tree of Redemption out to buy him a bit more time. By turn 9 we saw Omnath up and running like normal, which means nothing but nonsense value. From Ryan’s grip of cards we saw Mouraug, Fury of Akoum hit the field sean: ‘that comes in tapped’. Seeing this threat from Ryan, Sean decided to drop in a Phyrexian Arena and Victimized Elenda and some other friend.
The next cycle we saw Alex cast a dawn and a handful of creatures back onto the board. During this time we also saw Shalai, who was saved by a Jeskai Barricade during Sean’s wipe, come back into play. Ryan snapped off a Mystical Tutor at Alex’s end step and grabbed a Scapeshift. He cast this for 6, giving himself 6 extra combats and ended up, wait no, this cannot be right. He did not use a single one??? Sean finally got around to casting Teysa during this turn cycle, as well as a Blood Artist. Wincon locked and loaded.
Alex decided to equip his Lightning Greaves to Shalai, for he knew what events were coming. Promptly after he puts a Wave of Reckoning onto the stack, which triggers a sacrifice of Elenda for double the token generation and thus more death triggers from Blood Artist. There was enough triggers to kill everyone on the board for Sean, but then there was one small issue, Shalai. With the Artist having to target, Alex was safe. So after he burned out Ryan, killing him on the spot, he had to target himself netting no life on the exchange.
Over the next couple of turns Sean has no answers to the walls and the hexproof on both his creatures and Alex. Alex is able to swing full board each time unblocked thanks to Levitation being in play, as well as being able to hold back Wall of Glare and Resolute Watchdog. This gives Alex the win, clawing a very thin victory away from the grasps of Sean.
Game 2
Sean – Locust God | Ryan – Kami | Alex – Korvold | Keegan – Teysa
For the second game of the cup we see 3 out of the 4 players running with a deck from their pool, and the third is a pseudo deck of their own due to the colors and gameplay being close to their own. Both Alex and Keegan took their free mulligans, and guess who won to be on the play? Yup, it was him.
Zooming out the gates like Nami does in her dreams, Alex dropped a Sylvan Safekeeper on his first turn. Everyone else looked with jealous eyes, for they had no one drop. Next to hit the field was an Orzhov Enforcer from Keegan, closely followed by a Jace’s Erasure from Ryan. During this Alex forgot to shock in an Overgrown Tomb due to raving about muff in the winter. The next turn cycle we saw a Demonic Tutor from Keegan (how does this man always find the tutors???), and a Tireless Tracker from Alex. Kami was getting into the groove as well and we saw a Howling Mine and Ruin Crab make an appearance. Next on deck was Sean and all he had was a cool Rhystic Study. Nothing too big, small plays.
On the fourth turn cycle we saw the All-Star of game 2 appear from Keegan, Kambal, Consul of Allocation. This cheeky advisor drained a floor of 14 hit points over the course of the game. He was an absolute house with Alex going head through the breach with spells. Following that power move, Korvold summoned Azusa, Lost but Seeking to help him. She brought along two fetch lands with her. Midnight Clock and Kami both made an appearance from Ryan. On the next cycle Alex was feeling bold and ran out an on curve Korvold, which quickly got eaten up by a counter from Sean. He then decided it was time to DT for a Scapeshift. Love seeing some mono blue ramp, and Ryan delivered well with a Nyx Lotus. But the thrill is in the mill, so he also dropped a Drowned Secrets. Sean who had been relatively quiet dropped down the Locust God a turn ahead of curve.
On the 6th turn cycle Teysa finally decided show up from Keegan. Alex dropped in an Eternal Witness which got back a Carpet of Flowers. He paired his bouquet with the rotting flesh of a reanimated Avenger of Zendikar. Second main with the help of your friendly neighborhood Carpet Alex was able to get Korvold out to the field. Ryan adds a Teferi’s Ageless Insight to his mill arsenal, as well as a Propaganda for protection. Sean needed even more mana and spent a Vesuva on copying a Temple of the False God, and somehow created a plethora of insect tokens. ‘
From this point on my notes are nonexistent. A Scapeshift from Alex was countered by Sean, but at a later date a Splendid Reclamation resolved and brought back double digit worth of lands. This resulted in a series of doubled triggers for the Avenger of Zendikar, getting buffed off of an Ancient Greenwarden. Se had found is Impact Tremors and was slowly burning Alex down, but he convinced Sean to leave him at one. Once the turn cycle got back to Alex he had roughly 6 38/39 plant tokens, and a board full of beaters. In an attempt to keep both Keegan and Ryan from winning the game in order to not put his chances of winning the quarter at null, he swung lethal at them, and the rest at Sean. By this point Sean had so many insects that Alex would not be able to block, so he was dead from Sean regardless. This was announced and could not be argued, which left Sean with a true and honest win.
Game 3
Sean – Zaxara | Ryan – Mangara | Alex: Kaalia | Keegan: Dina
Entering into the final match of the night there was a lot at stake. Both Keegan and Ryan were still tied for first, and Alex was a game out from making it a three way tie. Our decision prior to the start of the night we decided that a stale mate would be a playoff of a random deck from 20 life. But the events of the night had everything locked up with a potential player three entering the chat. The stage was set to have the showdown of the quarter.
Alex and Sean both took their free mulligan, and for once Keegan did not go first and Sean instead rolled to go on the play.
First to break the standstill of the game was previous quarter winner Ryan, who slammed down a first turn Legion Landing. The following cycle saw both Keegan and Alex hitting the classic Arcane Signet ramp, and Ryan brought forth a Diamond Mare. The third turn was when the jets were warmed up for everyone and they opened the throttle. Sean played a Stonecoil Serpent with Alex dick riding the card. Keegan unhappy to see anyone but himself gain life cast a Bloodchief’s Thirst on to the Mare, with Dina swiftly following up the kill spell. Alex dropped a turn earlier Kaalia, and Ryan cast a Revitalize.
Continuing the trend of “kill all threats” Keegan snapped off an Epic Downfall on Kaalia, stunting her for a short while. Alex showed no signs of slowing down and cast a Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire (coolest art in the last stand sets???) ready to start DT’ing on a stick. Sean was finally able to sneak out Zaxara. The following turn cycle we saw Keegan try to be the sneakiest beakiest player on Earth. He quick jammed out an Exquisite Blood and sacrificed a creature with Dina and a Bastion of Remembrance. This would have meant that we would have seen a T5 uninterruptable combo. Now I was not paying much attention due to trying to take diligent notes, but my ears caught “any responses?” come from Keegan. I looked up and saw the combo unfolding, and I held the key to the archives. A good old Swords to Plowshares. I snapped that off and stopped the combo before it could unfold.
Following his triumphant stop of the combo, Alex banged in with Varragoth and boasted for a shock land that he dropped in. Ryan go in with a Cartographer’s Hawk and hit some well earned ramp. This resulted in Mangara making an appearance. The next turn cycle saw Sean cast as Mistcutter Hydra and missing his trigger for a free hydra off Zaxara🙁 . Alex and Ryan both saw this, but both were trying to win and kept hush hush about it. Keegan had a bit of drain and a forced sacrifice to clear some pieces off the board. Alex forced another Kaalia out with the impending combo doom looming. Ryan got out Mangara again.
After the forced sac Sean had to recast Zaxara on his turn. Keegan managed to get out Dina again, threatening to hit the combo next time he could. Now this next sequence was not planned in the manner it happened. Truly a bit of blind luck. Alex had drawn a Platinum Angel for turn, and was holding onto a Sower of Discord. His train of thought was that he would drop the Sower first then portal the Platinum on the Kaalia attack trigger. Since he needed Ryan and Keegan gone, he would choose those two to share damage. Now Alex’s monkey brain forgot how Exquisite works.
With taking this exact line with only the hope of a quick drain to his two competitors at the moment, he accidentally created a soft lock on the game. So he triggered the infinite combo with no option for stops, but with his Platinum portal he was unable to lose the game. Like I said, absolute monkey brain brought about a situation that would end in a tie. Alex discussed with the table how they would deal with a tie, but then Keegan noted that he was able to stop the combo with a sac outlet and the only two mana he had left up.
The table decided that Keegan had infinite life, and Alex was a negative infinite life. The next roughly 7 turn cycles saw Alex drawing a single card per turn, with one granting his Platinum Angel indestructible. Roughly 5/7 cards he drew were lands and none of them were protection. He ended the game with 2 mass removal spells in hand. Keegan on the other hand was able to draw about 3-4 cards per turn between Castle Locthwain and the enchantment that let him sac creatures and draw cards. I have no clue the turn number it took for the game to end, but it was actually relatively quick. Keegan eventually drawing into a Baleful Mastery that he was able to cast and exile the Angel, securing himself the win.
The ending may seem anti climatic with it being a race to essentially the right top deck, but I promise you it wasn’t. The T5 combo kill being disrupted by a Plow was unbelievably momentous for the table. And the seemingly big brain play with the instant kill and lock also created a very interesting arms race between Alex and Keegan. It was well fought win for Keegan, and one that he will not forget for a while I imagine.
