I played two games last night, and they were a bit of a doozy. Nothing clicked quite as well as the first night, but there were some interesting places overall anyways.
Game 1:
Emmara, Soul of the Accord vs.
Tuvasa the Sunlit vs.
Linden, the Steadfast Queen vs.
Kaalia of the Vast
Game 1 'ended' very quickly. I decide to keep a one land hand, as I had
Weathered Wayfarer,
Sword of the Animist, and
Idol of Oblivion in hand. My one consolation this game, is that I did out-ramp every other deck on the table... kind of.
Emmara started off with a sol ring, into Emmara and a
Smugglers Copter turn 2, into a
Citanul Hierophants. Once the tokens started running, and he followed up with
Primal Vigor,
Rhys the redeemed, and
parallel lives join the table, and even though one of the doublers (as well as my
Heliod, sun crowned) got exiled, he still had more than enough to drop a
Craterhoof Behemoth, with over a hundred creatures, so... We voted him out as winner and kept going. This was made especially painful, as I was holding a
Ravnica at war the entire time, which was entirely useless. While I might have been able to hit Rhys, it was only preventing overkill at that point.
As we continue for second place, Tuvasa sits behind a pillowfort, and slowly suits up his commander with some scary auras. This unfortunately leaves me at the mercy of the Kaalia player, who has simply hardcast some angels, With my board set back, I'm able to hang on a little while, but eventually succumb. During this entire time, I'm faced only with mono-white angels, and
Ravnica at War was entirely useless.
Tuvasa and Kaalia duke it out a while, but I was helping someone else make modifications to their deck, and I didn't quite notice who won.
Game 2:
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician vs.
Tuvasa the Sunlit vs.
Linden, the Steadfast Queen vs.
Derevi, Empyrial Tactician vs.
Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
This time Tuvasa keeps the one land hand, but that hand is a
Serra Sanctum,
Leyline of Anticipation, and
land tax. So, that's a thing. Yawgmoth starts off with some land difficulties as well, while I have a rather standard start, but unfortunately shy on removal. Xantcha tries to give his Commander to Yawgmoth after dropping a
Tome of Legends, but yawgmoth drops a sac outlet and sacs it after combat, not willing to help Xantcha, even though it would temporarily benefit him as well. I try to build up a board with [[Linden, the Steadfast Queen, and
Reverent Hoplite, and I swing in with my team - planning to get the hoplite killed and resurrect it with my
Angelic Renewal. Sadly, my Commander gets removed before damage, which would only leave me with devotion of two after sacrificing the renewal and returning the hoplite, so I opt not to. This messes up my future plans involving a
Cathars' Crusade I have in hand as well, since I don't have a good enough army to try and force it to stick. [[Tuvasa builds up crazy quick with the
Serra Sanctum and
Land Tax, and Derevi tries to slow him down, but unfortunately Tuvasa becomes pro-blue, and gets double powered a couple of times from a
Nylea's Colossus. With Derevi out of the game, Xantcha gets donated to me, and I load up a
Sword of Light and Shadow and get a free hit on Tuvasa, but switch to a hit on Yawgmoth after a
Dissipation Field hits the board.
During this time, Yawgmoth has dropped his commander and is using an
ophiomancer to pop off my tokens every turn, so my field is quite barren. Tuvasa becomes scary again, and I enquire as to whether Xantcha would have enough mana to replay his Commander again the following turn. After an affirmative, I change targets again to Tuvasa, to get him closer to dead. During this time,
Sword of Light and Shadow has returned my hoplite, so I'm still sitting on hoplite+crusade in hand, but don't have the mana or turns to really make it work. Xantcha gets replayed, donated back to me, and I suit up the Sword, pay the
Propaganda tax, and take out Tuvasa, which nullifies the bounce trigger.
Here we finally enter phase two of the game - the three player portion. I thought that one way or another that the game would end quickly here, and boy was I wrong. It was long enough that I don't remember exactly what happened where, but a few highlights are:
- Yawgmoth saccing a Kokusho, the evening star to stay alive.
- Xantcha resurrecting the Kokusho with Necromancy to block Yawg's attack. Yawg sacrificing his Erebos (and his board) ahead of the Kokusho in order to try and Living Death, but Xantcha responding with a Rakdos Charm to exile his yard.
- Yawgmoth wrathing the board to keep Xantcha off the board from killing him.
- Me recovering with Sun Titan.
- Yawgmoth wrathing the board to keep Xantcha off the board from killing him.
- Yawgmoth reanimating his Kokusho. Xantcha playing his own Kokusho. Both of them conspiring to kill their Kokusho's to drain me 10 in order to get closer to killing me.
- Me recovering my board with Emeria Shepherd, which also returned a Sun titan and stuff.
- Yawgmoth wrathing the board to keep Xantcha off the board from killing him. But Sun Titan survives thanks to Angelic Renewal.
- Me dropping Cathars' Crusade and following up with Leonin Warleader - Also, I get back the Emeria Shepherd with Sword of Light and Shadow.
- Xantcha casting Wheel of Fortune, getting rid of my Shepherd, but also gets rig of Yawgmoth's Exsanguinate, and also an Oblivion Stone that yawgmoth has been unable to play and sacrifice due to my Aura of Silence.
- Yawgmoth getting his Black Sun's Zenith back from the Wheel, plus a land to crank it up to 8, but thanks to the Cathars' Crusade counters, Sun Titan and Xantcha, Sleeper Agent survive on my board, and I sac Angelic Renewal to keep the Leonin Warleader.
- Finally, on my turn, I drop enough stuff to remove the -1 counters, and finally kill Yawgmoth with Xantcha Commander damage, while simultaneously killing Xantcha with regular damage from Sun Titan and Leonin Warleader.
Yes, Yawgmoth wrathed the board 3 turns in a row, and almost a 4th. It was rather impressive.
Also, during the second game I also got
Ravnica at War, and it was also useless. I know I really wanted it to be good, but it's getting replaced by a real wrath now.