I had a little time so I decided to grind a game with Karador. And it was certainly a grind as it clocked in at almost 2 hours. I still enjoyed it though and I think my last opponent did too until I dropped in Kozilek
The decks were
Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis,
Scion of the Ur-Dragon, and
Jori En, Ruin Diver.
I kept a somewhat reasonable hand where I was banking on
Satyr Wayfinder to get me my third land. Luckily it revealed 3 lands so I just picked a Swamp over a Forest and
Horizon Canopy.
A turn later I cast
Harmonic Sliver to blow up an
Izzet Signet from Jori En just because there was nothing else going on and I wanted to get some board presence because Jori En cast
Ral Zarek.
A couple turns later I cast
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician which worked out pretty well since I could sac the Wayfinder and Sliver to draw me cards when I needed. I waited on this since nothing really needed to die and the other players were going after Scion.
Scion had some good plays though where they cast a spell which got countered only to follow it up with
Reanimate to get
The Ur-Dragon. I had a
Damnation in hand since the beginning of the game but I had no reason to use it so I just cast my
Fauna Shaman and passed. The idea was to pitch
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth for something.
Kynaios copied The Ur-Dragon and Scion attacked to get a permanent on the board. For some reason, Jori En cast
Mizzium Mortars overloaded which wiped my board but nothing else. Maybe they felt that doing something to me was still worthwhile even if it didn't do anything to the threats. In any case, I sacrificed my board to draw 3 cards and then cast Damnation.
I probably could have still waited and let the other players go after each other but Kynaios had
Ohran Frostfang and was attacking to get triggers and I was wide open. So I felt it best to just reset the board and force others to rebuild as well.
Kynaios dropped in a
Flameshadow Conjuring and a
Watcher for Tomorrow. They got a copy which ended up giving them a card at the end of the turn. Scion cast
Command Beacon and
Monastery Siege so I figured I should just cast
Bane of Progress. These decks didn't seem to be doing much with Artifacts and Enchantments as it was and getting rid of Conjuring seemed right.
Kynaios then cast
Ogre Battledriver which allowed them to sped things up a little. They didn't do a lot with it and still went after the other two players. My next draw was
Pernicious Deed but since neither of the other two players were really doing a whole lot, I held onto it. Kynaios tutored for
Mimic Vat which Jori En countered. They then cast
Tendershoot Dryad.
At their end step, with Kyanios's trigger, I put in
Dryad Arbor. I was convinced I was going to have to cast
Pernicious Deed to get rid of Kynaios's board.
Scion ended up casting Scion and putting
Journey to Eternity // Atzal, Cave of Eternity on it which would have made things tough. They tutored out
Tyrant of Discord and swung at Jori En to kill their Commander and put them to 6 life. Jori En then cast
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon which was probably the best thing possible for me in that situation.
I had passed with all my mana up since I had a
Winding Canyons in play. This was huge for the rest of the game. And on this turn, I sacrificed Dryad Arbor to
Phyrexian Tower and Bane to
Diamond Valley so they weren't exiled. With the 2 mana, I activated Winding Canyons.
At their end step, I flashed in
Sun Titan which got me back
Remorseful Cleric because I didn't have a lot of good stuff and a Flyer was nice to have. I then started my turn and swung at Jori En with Sun Titan to kill them, getting back a land.
I cast
Archon of Justice as a way to deal with something on board if needed and
Collector Ouphe because it was cheap and something good to sac to Tower. It did shut off Scion's
Sol Ring which was nice too. Kynaios bounced Archon with
Cyclonic Rift and I let it go since there was nothing worth exiling at the time.
Kynaios started their turn and cast
Bribery targeting me. I thought for sure they were going to go with
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre but instead grabbed
Fiend Artisan. I found out why a little later, but it was a weird choice and very slow for them.
Scion started their turn at 10 life. They cast
Boneyard Scourge and
Steel Hellkite. I still had a
Path to Exile in hand which I used on Scourge and then swung at them for 10. With Sun Titan's trigger, I got back
Harmonic Sliver to blow up Steel Hellkite and get in 10 damage to take them out.
I passed my turn with all my mana up again. Kynaios cast
Zealous Conscripts to try to take Sun Titan so I just sacrificed it to Winding Canyons and again activated it. They cast a
Consecrated Sphinx so I figured this is worth getting rid of and I flashed in Archon and sacrificed it to exile Sphinx.
On my next turn I attacked with Cleric to prevent their
Luminarch Ascension from triggering and passed with all my mana up. They cast
Tempt with Vengeance which I took the offer. At the time I figured them having 3 tokens and me having 0 was basically the same as them having 6 and me having 3 but I probably should have not done it in case they had
Craterhoof Behemoth or something (which my Artisan could get them).
Instead, they activated Artisan to get Kiki-Jiki and tried to win that way. I flashed in
Karmic Guide to reanimate Archon which I sacrificed to exile Conscripts. Disaster averted.
On my turn I cast Deed and meant to activate Cleric and hold priority but I forgot MTGO requires a key to do that (ctrl I think?) so I ended up just exiling their graveyard before Deed could go off. I wanted to activate the Cleric, activate Deed, and then exile everything I was blowing up to be sure to get rid of Kiki. But, Deed still did its job.
Next turn they cast
Managorger Hydra and tried to cast
Rite of Replication on my
Farhaven Elf. Which I just sacrificed. I thought for sure they would have 5 more Hydras but I guess not.
This is when I got in Kozilek and attacked them 2 or 3 times with it. They eventually tried to steal it with
Gilded Drake so I sacrificed it to
Momentous Fall. Since I was in a pretty commanding position, I decided to make a fun play with all of these cards. At the end of the turn, I put
Bazaar of Baghdad on the field with Kynaios's trigger. I activated it and discarded
Kokusho, the Evening Star,
Cavalier of Dawn, and Sun Titan. I also
Entombed for
Luminous Broodmoth.
I then cast
Vampiric Tutor for
Eerie Ultimatum. I activated Bazaar on my turn to pitch a land,
Aura Shards and
Archon of Justice. Aura Shards was a bad choice and I would have been better with another land, but it didn't really matter.
I cast Ultimatum getting everything back and used Cavalier to blow up Kynaios. I cast
Qasali Pridemage to blow up the token. I didn't actually have to do this but I had set the triggers for Aura Shards to always no so I didn't have to deal with them. Otherwise, Aura Shards could have gotten rid of the token.
I attacked and passed. Kynaios cast Mulldrifter and got nothing so they scooped it up. I won with quite a commanding board presence.
As expected, Eerie Ultimatum was a beast. And it really only took 2 activations of Bazaar to make it worthwhile. The Entomb helped a lot but wasn't completely necessary. It would have been much better if I hadn't had to sac Kozilek to Momentous Fall but it was still really good.
The game ended with me with 4 removal spells in hand which meant I would have been able to do quite a bit to ensure I didn't lose even if Kynaios had found something.
Nothing else to really comment on. Every piece played their role very well and I was able to stop a couple of things that opponents tried to do so the deck grinded really well. A 2 hour game is, of course, long. But that is what this deck is all about so that isn't exactly a bug.
I never did cast Karador even though I probably had a couple opportunities. Part of the reason for this is because on MTGO it is kind of hidden anyway so I forgot about him and another reason is that I really had everything I wanted in hand and Winding Canyons was letting me play at Instant timing.
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