optml
10-14-2015, 04:02 AM
Hi legacy community, I thought I’d tell you about the recent weekly event I attended at my local magic store; 4-0.
I took burn, of course. The meta here can be difficult to judge – there are a few ‘once-in-a-while’ dudes, who’ll appear once in a blue moon and whip out an unusual deck. Everyone does play tuned, optimised competitive decks, with all the latest tech. There are also a couple of guys (and I mean guys... NO girls attend) who have enormous collections and bring something different almost every week.
So... It makes it tricky to sideboard.
That said, burn rocks. I’ve got a couple of decks (manaless dredge, Oops! All spells, and my own astral slide) but none are as interactive or fun. And, I would even hazard, as skill intensive as burn.
The deck list I played is a more budget version but I find it still strong. I just don’t own any fetchlands.
Deck List; pretty much stock list.
Enchantments
2x Sulfuric Vortex
Instant / Sorceries
4x Lightning bolt
4x Price of Progress
2x Searing blood
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lava Spike
4x Fireblast
4x Rift Bolt
Creatures
1x Grim Lavamancer
3x Monastary Swiftspear
4x Goblin Guide
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
Lands
20x Mountain
Sideboard
1x Flame rift
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Grafdigger’s cage
4x REB / Pyroblast
3x Smash to Smithereens
2x Vexing Shusher
2x Ashen Rider
24 attendees last night, and when wandering around I saw 2x Painter, 2x miracles, 2x nic fit, 1x Sneak + Show, 1x Charbelcher, 1x RUG, 1x Dredge, 1x BUG, 1x 4C Delver, 1x Elves, 1x MUD 1x Infect.... That’s all I saw, but as you can see you kind of need to cover all bases.
Also, I haven’t attended in 6 months. Stuff has changed in magic! No Dig through time! No Treasure cruise! SCRY AFTER MULLIGAN!?!?
Anyway...
Card choices;
Searing blood over searing blaze as I have no fetchlands. Also why I only play one lavamancer.
I never regretted maindeck searing blood; it even won me a game against miracles, which is always nice. May go up to 3 next time.
Sideboard-
Ashen rider, as almost always at least one Show and Tell variant, but one week had 4. So for 2 slots, as a potential win, can’t complain.
Vexing Shusher was underwhelming, but not sure what I would prefer. Pyrostatic pillar can’t swing for damage, so not ideal. Open to suggestions.
Everything else is pretty stock I think.
My matchups this time were pretty favourable for burn; no combo or graveyard, just (mostly) fair decks.
Games:
Match 1 -Nic-Fit; against a regular. Plays very well every week, very quick and a pleasure to play. Tough to beat though.
G1; I keep a solid hand; 2 lands and plenty of creatures (I think Eidolon and 2x guide). He goes first, plays fetch and whips out a Veteran Explorer. I attack with the guide, he blocks and let’s his die. I search 2 mountains, the cast eidolon. I had a feeling it would all be over before we even started.
He manages to stabilise well though; as next turn he plays land and a pernicious deed. He only had 1 untapped land at this point, not enough to activate, so he passed the turn.
I held back by not playing my 2nd guide, and attacked. He took the damage, and I passed the turn. On his turn, he played a land, cracked the deed wiping my board. Played a veteran explorer, a cabal therapy, which I responded to by playing 2x bolts. He named guide (told you he’s good...) and left me with nothing in hand.
By this time he’s on around 8 life. Unfortunately over the next 4 turns I just drew lands, and he played tarmo, tarmo, and beat me for the win.
0-1
-4 Price of Progress
+1 Flame Rift, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Smash to Smithereens. (Upon reflection, smash had no targets. But I didn’t know what would be better, and he ended the first game with 8 lands, all basics so PoP would be just a pointless)
G2: This game was fairly exciting. I started, guide, then lots of damage spells. It got to a stage when he built up an impressive army; werewolf dude who becomes 4/4 if I don’t cast a spell and gains him life & makes token, tarmo, deathrite, and the werewolf token. I had guide and eidolon.
He really struggled with taking so much damage from eidolon, but he did play 4... FOUR cabal therapies, ALL flashbacked. THAT’S EIGHT THERAPIES?!?!
But he kept getting unlucky with them. Everytime he went blind on it, I was holding all lands. Then I would topdeck a bomb.
Anyway, he’s just got this huge army, and if I don’t kill him that turn, it’ll all be over. He’s on 6 life, I have lava spike in hand, and I top decked a lava spike. Job done.
G3: 1st turn goblin, 2nd turn eidolon, 2 fireblasts, a lava spike and bolt, aided by his sacrificed veteran explorer. It was over by his 2nd turn.
Score: 1-0
Match 2; Painter. Not a guy I’ve played before, but I’ve seen his foiled out Japanese, ultra pricy BUG deck before. Today he’s on a foiled out Japanese, ultra pricy Painter deck. Well... My one of my Price of Progress is foil; so suck. on. that.
Side note; everyone I played that night, and most of the guys there generally, play quickly, professionally, declare the various steps / priority / triggers, etc. If you make a mistake, no ‘take-backs’. It’s how magic should be played and I had a really great time!
Guys, if you’ve never played painter with burn, you should know... It’s our dream match up! They have 8... EIGHT moon effects that essentially do zero against us. They use 8 REB / Pyroblasts - again useless unless they have painter... which is their main win con. Which can be shot down easy-peasy.
G1: He didn’t do anything major. He assembled the combo, but was mana screwed. He only managed to play the painter and grindstone through spirit guides and one mountain.
I had a bolt in hand, and everything else was useless against his painter. I decided to wait to kill it until he assembled the combo. Reasoning was that he was totally mana screwed, so I figured he’d eventually do it in desperation, without keeping mana open for REB. Also, they play ancient tomb, which can help knock down their life.
So board state was:
Him – 1 mountain (untapped), painter, and grindstone. Him on 7 life.
Me – Eidolon and goblin, attacking each turn, and some mountains. Bolt in hand.
He had to do something, as I was getting through 2 damage a turn through attacking. Drew and played Ancient Tomb (left 5) activated grindstone, I bolted his painter and he didn’t have the mana for his REB in hand. Game was over after that.
G2:
-4 Price of Progress, -2 sulfuric vortex, -2 Searing blood,
+3 Smash to Smithereens, +1 Flame Rift, +4 REB / Pyroblast
REALLY good match up post board.
Highlight of the match for me was when we had a counter war! (in a match up with pure red decks!!). He had a flying start, with city of traitors, mountain, monkey guides which let him assemble his combo by his 2nd turn. His 3rd turn, he floated his 2 city mana, tapped his one mountain, then played another mountain. So current state is:
Him: painter, grindstone activation on the stack, one untapped mountain. He was on quite low life, around 10, as I’d spent the first 2 turns hitting him hard.
Me: 1 guide, 3 untapped mountains. I cast smash to smithereens his painter in response to activation (he had no artifacts in graveyard), he REB’d to counter, I Pyro’d that, he exiled a monkey to Pyro that, so I fireblasted his painter. He was out of mana, out of steam.
I won a couple of turns later.
2-0
Match 3- Miracles. So far been really lucky with match-ups; time for my winning streak to end...
I managed to come blasting out of the gate, very quickly, before he had a chance to dominate the board early game. That said, I do find playing just one creature at a time against miracles is best. Terminus is totally backbreaking, and they almost always have it ready to rock, but if it just removes one guide, only to be replaced by another, they are on the back foot.
I got to an interesting situation; he was tapped out playing Counterbalance on his 5th turn, with sensei’s out. He was on 5 life.
I had 2 lands, and a few cards in hand – fireblast, searing blood, sulphuric vortex. I knew he had a counterspell in hand from a goblin flip, and he had been keeping the top 3 cards from ponder, top and brainstorms earlier, so I knew he had something he wanted to keep. It normally means he has a 1, 2 and 3 mana spells on top, so he can lock me out with countertop.
So... I played a move I’m not sure about but still feel it was the right one. He had 2 cards in hand, one was the said counterspell, so I decided to go for fireblast. I didn’t want him to stabilize on 5 life, much better on 1 so it shuts off all fetchlands and future FoW’s he may draw. So I sac’d my lands, dealt him 4 to his face in my EOT.
It resolved.
So now we’re in a very delicate state. I don’t have any lands, nor 1 mana spells. He has 1 life, so no fetchlands or FoW’s, and he’s on around 3-4 lands.
Bring on... TOP DECK MODE.
I hate miracles. It’s boring, and every turn can last an eternity. I understand it takes skill, but anyone who is slow it just goes to time every fucking game. Fortunately this guy is speedy. So we’re both just in ‘draw-go’ mode for around 8 turns, with him manipulating top, never shuffling, and both accumulating cards.
Then, we reach a pretty crucial turn. We’re both at max hand size, at around 5-6 lands each, plus his 2 pointless uncracked fetchlands. It’s his turn, he draw’s his 8’th card...
He plays Vend Clique, targeting me, leaving him with 2 untapped lands.
My hand, which I have been sculpting / playing / discarding, to ensure I have lots of different mana cost instants, is:
Fireblast, searing blood, bolt, price of progress + some sorceries / creatures.
I’ll try and get the stack right on this, but it was a very tense and exciting interchange! Remember through this, he’s on 1 life.
So, with the clique trigger on the stack, I searing blood his creature. 3 mana left for me, 2 for him. He uses 1 for top activation. I respond with fireblast to his face, floating 2 mana. He responds with brainstorm, putting (undoubtedly) terminus on top. 3 mana left for me, 0 mana for him. I respond with a bolt, and he responds by tapping his top and putting it on top of his library. 2 mana left for me, 0 mana for him. I respond with a price of progress.
He’s out of answers.
Long game, and lots of spells to get one damage through. But yay for burn!
G2:
Really aggressive start, with guide, 2 lava spikes, and 3rd turn vortex. Then he got counter-top lock out again.
He managed to plow my guide pretty quickly, so board state was, on his 3rd turn:
Him: 7 life, counter balance, sensei’s top, 1 tapped land (terminus) 1 fetchland, 1 untapped.
Me: Sulfuric vortex. 3 tapped lands.
In my hand I had fireblast, rift bolt, lightning bolt and land. I decided to go for broke, before he stabilized again. In his end-of-turn, I cast fireblast. He didn’t counter vortex, so I figured he didn’t have FoW. He could counter with counterspell, but would need to crack his fetch, which would leave him on 6 life, -2 from vortex next turn, so 4 life (or 2 turns to destroy vortex), and he’d have 3 random cards on top of his library. He didn’t have counterspell, so his only out was to hope terminus (lucky to cost 6 mana!!!) could counter through counterbalance my fireblast. Even then, he’d be tapped out for my damage next turn.
He top’d, no answers, fetched (down to 6 life), top’d again, no terminus, so took 4 damage.
Burn wins 2-0 against miracles! Whoo!
Match 4: Infect. I’d seen him playing earlier, and he knew his stuff. Side note; I was pretty unlucky that in all 3 games against him, I didn’t draw a SINGLE bolt....
G1; I kept an ok hand, but a little slow. It was 2 lands, searing blood, lava spike, goblin guide, lavamancer, eidolon. I figured if I could survive the first couple of turns, he’d be dead in the water.
He played first; pendelhaven into infect elf.
Me: mountain into lavamancer. Reason being that I was going to chump block, next turn searing blood his creature, then play guide + eidolon to bring on quick damage. If I had a bolt / chain lightning I would have killed his creature in my turn.
His 2nd turn; played land, attacked (I blocked), he tapped pendlehaven, cast invigorate, cast berserk, dealt 11 poison damage.
Onto game 2.
G2:
-2 Sulfuric vortex, +1 vexing shusher, +1 flame rift
I had 2x chain lightning in my opening hand. There was nothing he could do this game. I played; first turn laid guide.
He cast infect elf.
I cast lightning. He tried to save it with invigorate. He succeeded. Also, always make them waste their pump spells in your turn if you can. No reason to let them pump in response, then attack. Foolish.
Next turn, he laid blighted agent, but didn’t attack with his elf. I figured he had no boost spells (or wanted to save them for his agent).
My turn; I searing blood his agent, chain lightning his elf. Both resolved. Attacked with guide. After that, he never really got any steam back, and I won easily.
G3:
Really exciting game. Lots of back and forth, him countering my key stuff, and me killing his attacking flying lands.
Crucial turn of the game, maybe turn 6 or 7, board state is as follows.
Him:
9 life, with blighted agent and elf.
Me: Tapped out with Fireblast in hand, eidolon and guide on the board with 3 mountains. I’m on 5 poison counters – he attacks with both, I block elf with eidolon. He pendelhaven’s the agent, then casts berserk on him (takes 2 from Eidolon, so left 7 life) . Makes the agent 4/3, and would bring me to 9 counters. I wasn’t hasty. No reason to kill his creature unless it’s going to kill me outright.
He casts a second berserk (down to 5 life) – I fireblast his dude in response, he doesn’t have the FoW, and I attack for the win in the next couple of turns.
4-0 in matches, and I won a scrubland for my troubles.
Long winded report; if you made it this far, you’re the real champion!
Optml, over and out.
I took burn, of course. The meta here can be difficult to judge – there are a few ‘once-in-a-while’ dudes, who’ll appear once in a blue moon and whip out an unusual deck. Everyone does play tuned, optimised competitive decks, with all the latest tech. There are also a couple of guys (and I mean guys... NO girls attend) who have enormous collections and bring something different almost every week.
So... It makes it tricky to sideboard.
That said, burn rocks. I’ve got a couple of decks (manaless dredge, Oops! All spells, and my own astral slide) but none are as interactive or fun. And, I would even hazard, as skill intensive as burn.
The deck list I played is a more budget version but I find it still strong. I just don’t own any fetchlands.
Deck List; pretty much stock list.
Enchantments
2x Sulfuric Vortex
Instant / Sorceries
4x Lightning bolt
4x Price of Progress
2x Searing blood
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lava Spike
4x Fireblast
4x Rift Bolt
Creatures
1x Grim Lavamancer
3x Monastary Swiftspear
4x Goblin Guide
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
Lands
20x Mountain
Sideboard
1x Flame rift
2x Relic of Progenitus
1x Grafdigger’s cage
4x REB / Pyroblast
3x Smash to Smithereens
2x Vexing Shusher
2x Ashen Rider
24 attendees last night, and when wandering around I saw 2x Painter, 2x miracles, 2x nic fit, 1x Sneak + Show, 1x Charbelcher, 1x RUG, 1x Dredge, 1x BUG, 1x 4C Delver, 1x Elves, 1x MUD 1x Infect.... That’s all I saw, but as you can see you kind of need to cover all bases.
Also, I haven’t attended in 6 months. Stuff has changed in magic! No Dig through time! No Treasure cruise! SCRY AFTER MULLIGAN!?!?
Anyway...
Card choices;
Searing blood over searing blaze as I have no fetchlands. Also why I only play one lavamancer.
I never regretted maindeck searing blood; it even won me a game against miracles, which is always nice. May go up to 3 next time.
Sideboard-
Ashen rider, as almost always at least one Show and Tell variant, but one week had 4. So for 2 slots, as a potential win, can’t complain.
Vexing Shusher was underwhelming, but not sure what I would prefer. Pyrostatic pillar can’t swing for damage, so not ideal. Open to suggestions.
Everything else is pretty stock I think.
My matchups this time were pretty favourable for burn; no combo or graveyard, just (mostly) fair decks.
Games:
Match 1 -Nic-Fit; against a regular. Plays very well every week, very quick and a pleasure to play. Tough to beat though.
G1; I keep a solid hand; 2 lands and plenty of creatures (I think Eidolon and 2x guide). He goes first, plays fetch and whips out a Veteran Explorer. I attack with the guide, he blocks and let’s his die. I search 2 mountains, the cast eidolon. I had a feeling it would all be over before we even started.
He manages to stabilise well though; as next turn he plays land and a pernicious deed. He only had 1 untapped land at this point, not enough to activate, so he passed the turn.
I held back by not playing my 2nd guide, and attacked. He took the damage, and I passed the turn. On his turn, he played a land, cracked the deed wiping my board. Played a veteran explorer, a cabal therapy, which I responded to by playing 2x bolts. He named guide (told you he’s good...) and left me with nothing in hand.
By this time he’s on around 8 life. Unfortunately over the next 4 turns I just drew lands, and he played tarmo, tarmo, and beat me for the win.
0-1
-4 Price of Progress
+1 Flame Rift, +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Smash to Smithereens. (Upon reflection, smash had no targets. But I didn’t know what would be better, and he ended the first game with 8 lands, all basics so PoP would be just a pointless)
G2: This game was fairly exciting. I started, guide, then lots of damage spells. It got to a stage when he built up an impressive army; werewolf dude who becomes 4/4 if I don’t cast a spell and gains him life & makes token, tarmo, deathrite, and the werewolf token. I had guide and eidolon.
He really struggled with taking so much damage from eidolon, but he did play 4... FOUR cabal therapies, ALL flashbacked. THAT’S EIGHT THERAPIES?!?!
But he kept getting unlucky with them. Everytime he went blind on it, I was holding all lands. Then I would topdeck a bomb.
Anyway, he’s just got this huge army, and if I don’t kill him that turn, it’ll all be over. He’s on 6 life, I have lava spike in hand, and I top decked a lava spike. Job done.
G3: 1st turn goblin, 2nd turn eidolon, 2 fireblasts, a lava spike and bolt, aided by his sacrificed veteran explorer. It was over by his 2nd turn.
Score: 1-0
Match 2; Painter. Not a guy I’ve played before, but I’ve seen his foiled out Japanese, ultra pricy BUG deck before. Today he’s on a foiled out Japanese, ultra pricy Painter deck. Well... My one of my Price of Progress is foil; so suck. on. that.
Side note; everyone I played that night, and most of the guys there generally, play quickly, professionally, declare the various steps / priority / triggers, etc. If you make a mistake, no ‘take-backs’. It’s how magic should be played and I had a really great time!
Guys, if you’ve never played painter with burn, you should know... It’s our dream match up! They have 8... EIGHT moon effects that essentially do zero against us. They use 8 REB / Pyroblasts - again useless unless they have painter... which is their main win con. Which can be shot down easy-peasy.
G1: He didn’t do anything major. He assembled the combo, but was mana screwed. He only managed to play the painter and grindstone through spirit guides and one mountain.
I had a bolt in hand, and everything else was useless against his painter. I decided to wait to kill it until he assembled the combo. Reasoning was that he was totally mana screwed, so I figured he’d eventually do it in desperation, without keeping mana open for REB. Also, they play ancient tomb, which can help knock down their life.
So board state was:
Him – 1 mountain (untapped), painter, and grindstone. Him on 7 life.
Me – Eidolon and goblin, attacking each turn, and some mountains. Bolt in hand.
He had to do something, as I was getting through 2 damage a turn through attacking. Drew and played Ancient Tomb (left 5) activated grindstone, I bolted his painter and he didn’t have the mana for his REB in hand. Game was over after that.
G2:
-4 Price of Progress, -2 sulfuric vortex, -2 Searing blood,
+3 Smash to Smithereens, +1 Flame Rift, +4 REB / Pyroblast
REALLY good match up post board.
Highlight of the match for me was when we had a counter war! (in a match up with pure red decks!!). He had a flying start, with city of traitors, mountain, monkey guides which let him assemble his combo by his 2nd turn. His 3rd turn, he floated his 2 city mana, tapped his one mountain, then played another mountain. So current state is:
Him: painter, grindstone activation on the stack, one untapped mountain. He was on quite low life, around 10, as I’d spent the first 2 turns hitting him hard.
Me: 1 guide, 3 untapped mountains. I cast smash to smithereens his painter in response to activation (he had no artifacts in graveyard), he REB’d to counter, I Pyro’d that, he exiled a monkey to Pyro that, so I fireblasted his painter. He was out of mana, out of steam.
I won a couple of turns later.
2-0
Match 3- Miracles. So far been really lucky with match-ups; time for my winning streak to end...
I managed to come blasting out of the gate, very quickly, before he had a chance to dominate the board early game. That said, I do find playing just one creature at a time against miracles is best. Terminus is totally backbreaking, and they almost always have it ready to rock, but if it just removes one guide, only to be replaced by another, they are on the back foot.
I got to an interesting situation; he was tapped out playing Counterbalance on his 5th turn, with sensei’s out. He was on 5 life.
I had 2 lands, and a few cards in hand – fireblast, searing blood, sulphuric vortex. I knew he had a counterspell in hand from a goblin flip, and he had been keeping the top 3 cards from ponder, top and brainstorms earlier, so I knew he had something he wanted to keep. It normally means he has a 1, 2 and 3 mana spells on top, so he can lock me out with countertop.
So... I played a move I’m not sure about but still feel it was the right one. He had 2 cards in hand, one was the said counterspell, so I decided to go for fireblast. I didn’t want him to stabilize on 5 life, much better on 1 so it shuts off all fetchlands and future FoW’s he may draw. So I sac’d my lands, dealt him 4 to his face in my EOT.
It resolved.
So now we’re in a very delicate state. I don’t have any lands, nor 1 mana spells. He has 1 life, so no fetchlands or FoW’s, and he’s on around 3-4 lands.
Bring on... TOP DECK MODE.
I hate miracles. It’s boring, and every turn can last an eternity. I understand it takes skill, but anyone who is slow it just goes to time every fucking game. Fortunately this guy is speedy. So we’re both just in ‘draw-go’ mode for around 8 turns, with him manipulating top, never shuffling, and both accumulating cards.
Then, we reach a pretty crucial turn. We’re both at max hand size, at around 5-6 lands each, plus his 2 pointless uncracked fetchlands. It’s his turn, he draw’s his 8’th card...
He plays Vend Clique, targeting me, leaving him with 2 untapped lands.
My hand, which I have been sculpting / playing / discarding, to ensure I have lots of different mana cost instants, is:
Fireblast, searing blood, bolt, price of progress + some sorceries / creatures.
I’ll try and get the stack right on this, but it was a very tense and exciting interchange! Remember through this, he’s on 1 life.
So, with the clique trigger on the stack, I searing blood his creature. 3 mana left for me, 2 for him. He uses 1 for top activation. I respond with fireblast to his face, floating 2 mana. He responds with brainstorm, putting (undoubtedly) terminus on top. 3 mana left for me, 0 mana for him. I respond with a bolt, and he responds by tapping his top and putting it on top of his library. 2 mana left for me, 0 mana for him. I respond with a price of progress.
He’s out of answers.
Long game, and lots of spells to get one damage through. But yay for burn!
G2:
Really aggressive start, with guide, 2 lava spikes, and 3rd turn vortex. Then he got counter-top lock out again.
He managed to plow my guide pretty quickly, so board state was, on his 3rd turn:
Him: 7 life, counter balance, sensei’s top, 1 tapped land (terminus) 1 fetchland, 1 untapped.
Me: Sulfuric vortex. 3 tapped lands.
In my hand I had fireblast, rift bolt, lightning bolt and land. I decided to go for broke, before he stabilized again. In his end-of-turn, I cast fireblast. He didn’t counter vortex, so I figured he didn’t have FoW. He could counter with counterspell, but would need to crack his fetch, which would leave him on 6 life, -2 from vortex next turn, so 4 life (or 2 turns to destroy vortex), and he’d have 3 random cards on top of his library. He didn’t have counterspell, so his only out was to hope terminus (lucky to cost 6 mana!!!) could counter through counterbalance my fireblast. Even then, he’d be tapped out for my damage next turn.
He top’d, no answers, fetched (down to 6 life), top’d again, no terminus, so took 4 damage.
Burn wins 2-0 against miracles! Whoo!
Match 4: Infect. I’d seen him playing earlier, and he knew his stuff. Side note; I was pretty unlucky that in all 3 games against him, I didn’t draw a SINGLE bolt....
G1; I kept an ok hand, but a little slow. It was 2 lands, searing blood, lava spike, goblin guide, lavamancer, eidolon. I figured if I could survive the first couple of turns, he’d be dead in the water.
He played first; pendelhaven into infect elf.
Me: mountain into lavamancer. Reason being that I was going to chump block, next turn searing blood his creature, then play guide + eidolon to bring on quick damage. If I had a bolt / chain lightning I would have killed his creature in my turn.
His 2nd turn; played land, attacked (I blocked), he tapped pendlehaven, cast invigorate, cast berserk, dealt 11 poison damage.
Onto game 2.
G2:
-2 Sulfuric vortex, +1 vexing shusher, +1 flame rift
I had 2x chain lightning in my opening hand. There was nothing he could do this game. I played; first turn laid guide.
He cast infect elf.
I cast lightning. He tried to save it with invigorate. He succeeded. Also, always make them waste their pump spells in your turn if you can. No reason to let them pump in response, then attack. Foolish.
Next turn, he laid blighted agent, but didn’t attack with his elf. I figured he had no boost spells (or wanted to save them for his agent).
My turn; I searing blood his agent, chain lightning his elf. Both resolved. Attacked with guide. After that, he never really got any steam back, and I won easily.
G3:
Really exciting game. Lots of back and forth, him countering my key stuff, and me killing his attacking flying lands.
Crucial turn of the game, maybe turn 6 or 7, board state is as follows.
Him:
9 life, with blighted agent and elf.
Me: Tapped out with Fireblast in hand, eidolon and guide on the board with 3 mountains. I’m on 5 poison counters – he attacks with both, I block elf with eidolon. He pendelhaven’s the agent, then casts berserk on him (takes 2 from Eidolon, so left 7 life) . Makes the agent 4/3, and would bring me to 9 counters. I wasn’t hasty. No reason to kill his creature unless it’s going to kill me outright.
He casts a second berserk (down to 5 life) – I fireblast his dude in response, he doesn’t have the FoW, and I attack for the win in the next couple of turns.
4-0 in matches, and I won a scrubland for my troubles.
Long winded report; if you made it this far, you’re the real champion!
Optml, over and out.