Re: Kykar, Wind’s Fury
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:12 am
I got another game in with this deck over the weekend:
It was against Marchesa, the Black Rose, Winota, Joiner of Forces, and Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern. I was probably least worred about Tergrid since this deck has very few permanents.
I started off with a 3 land hand and Sol Ring. One of the lands was Command Beacon which made the mana awkward as I could cast Kykar with the mana I had even though I had 5 mana in hand.
So, I just started off with Purphoros, God of the Forge and hoped everything else would come together. Winota was doing a fair amount with building up tokens with Legion Warboss and I was basically just trying to get to another white source for Cleansing Nova.
Winota cast their general and hit a Geist-Honored Monk and a Drannith Magistrate and got Tergrid down to 12 on turn 4. Tergrid then cast a Mindslicer and Marchesa ended up wrathing since I couldn't get the right colored mana still. I had the chance to turn off Mindslicer with Mirrorweave but I felt that it was way better for everyone to have nothing in hand.
So, the game slowed to a crawl with Tergrid, along with their Geier Reach Sanitarium taking over a little bit. And, of course, they hit a Jace, Mirror Mage off me. It ended up working out in the end though.
My next turn I drew a Cyclonic Rift which I waited on. Tergrid activated their land again and got my Sensei's Divining Top (again, a good thing). They then attacked me with Hypnotic Specter since I was the only one with a card in hand so I got my Jace and Top. Jace was huge here. I Kicked him and, with Top, was able to draw 2 cards per turn with one always being a land so the Jace with 1 counter never lost that counter.
The main issue here is that I had Ancient Tomb and Fiery Islet eating away at my life total. And I was still really hosed on specific colors as I only had 5 lands. Top and Jace got me more though the next one was Reliquary Tower![Sad :(](./images/smilies/10-sad-fb.png)
I did get a Sea of Clouds right after that though which helped. Winota cast a Silence and Winota, Joiner of Forces on their turn and, while I could counter Silence, I had nothing else to do after that so I let it go and hoped they whiffed on Winota. I was at 9 life at the time so this was a pretty huge turn.
They did whiff so I went to 5. Tergrid then attacked Marchesa luckily and I used [[Sphinx of Revelation to draw cards and get back to 7. It would have been more if I hadn't needed to spend 3 life to activate lands.
I then cast Kykar into a couple Talismans which drained Tergrid thanks to Purphoros. They were at 3 when my turn ended and I was back to 5. But, I had 3 blockers now so I could survive an attack from Winota if they whiff again. Which they did.
I was able to kill Tergrid with Opt into another spell to deal them 4 damage.
From there, I was able to mount enough of an offense and defense to kill Winota and Marchesa. I don't think I ever got myself back above 5 life though I had a Mystic Sanctuary that I was a turn away from being able to use to gain more life. Sword of the Animist was also important during this late stage of the game so I could get more lands and quit taking damage.
I think Jace was really the standout here. I am sure this is more situational but the fact that he basically single-handedly was able to bring me back into this game (I guess Top helped too
) is a testament to him. I ended up drawing around 8-10 cards off the two of them over the rest of the game which I don't think many other cards would have been able to do. Granted, Top fueled this so without that, it would have been 4-5 which still isn't awful. Though, that does get closer to "just use Fact or Fiction" territory as that would let me see the same number of cards.
The other thing worth pointing out was the mana base. It is very painful but I like the Horizon lands for allowing me to draw cards late in the game. I might need to rethink them. It also was disappointing to get all 3 of my colorless lands in the same game. Normally it isn't a big deal to have one or two, but it did make things tough to start with. I don't really know what to do about that though. I am thinking maybe Ancient Tomb isn't that great here since it doesn't really let me cast Kykar quicker (though it helps on subsequent casts) and it does a lot of damage to me which is not ideal. I might try to swap it for something else? I might think on this a little more and think on the Horizon lands just to see if maybe I don't really need them as they are costly in terms of life too.
It was against Marchesa, the Black Rose, Winota, Joiner of Forces, and Tergrid, God of Fright // Tergrid's Lantern. I was probably least worred about Tergrid since this deck has very few permanents.
I started off with a 3 land hand and Sol Ring. One of the lands was Command Beacon which made the mana awkward as I could cast Kykar with the mana I had even though I had 5 mana in hand.
So, I just started off with Purphoros, God of the Forge and hoped everything else would come together. Winota was doing a fair amount with building up tokens with Legion Warboss and I was basically just trying to get to another white source for Cleansing Nova.
Winota cast their general and hit a Geist-Honored Monk and a Drannith Magistrate and got Tergrid down to 12 on turn 4. Tergrid then cast a Mindslicer and Marchesa ended up wrathing since I couldn't get the right colored mana still. I had the chance to turn off Mindslicer with Mirrorweave but I felt that it was way better for everyone to have nothing in hand.
So, the game slowed to a crawl with Tergrid, along with their Geier Reach Sanitarium taking over a little bit. And, of course, they hit a Jace, Mirror Mage off me. It ended up working out in the end though.
My next turn I drew a Cyclonic Rift which I waited on. Tergrid activated their land again and got my Sensei's Divining Top (again, a good thing). They then attacked me with Hypnotic Specter since I was the only one with a card in hand so I got my Jace and Top. Jace was huge here. I Kicked him and, with Top, was able to draw 2 cards per turn with one always being a land so the Jace with 1 counter never lost that counter.
The main issue here is that I had Ancient Tomb and Fiery Islet eating away at my life total. And I was still really hosed on specific colors as I only had 5 lands. Top and Jace got me more though the next one was Reliquary Tower
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/10-sad-fb.png)
I did get a Sea of Clouds right after that though which helped. Winota cast a Silence and Winota, Joiner of Forces on their turn and, while I could counter Silence, I had nothing else to do after that so I let it go and hoped they whiffed on Winota. I was at 9 life at the time so this was a pretty huge turn.
They did whiff so I went to 5. Tergrid then attacked Marchesa luckily and I used [[Sphinx of Revelation to draw cards and get back to 7. It would have been more if I hadn't needed to spend 3 life to activate lands.
I then cast Kykar into a couple Talismans which drained Tergrid thanks to Purphoros. They were at 3 when my turn ended and I was back to 5. But, I had 3 blockers now so I could survive an attack from Winota if they whiff again. Which they did.
I was able to kill Tergrid with Opt into another spell to deal them 4 damage.
From there, I was able to mount enough of an offense and defense to kill Winota and Marchesa. I don't think I ever got myself back above 5 life though I had a Mystic Sanctuary that I was a turn away from being able to use to gain more life. Sword of the Animist was also important during this late stage of the game so I could get more lands and quit taking damage.
I think Jace was really the standout here. I am sure this is more situational but the fact that he basically single-handedly was able to bring me back into this game (I guess Top helped too
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/1-smile-fb.png)
The other thing worth pointing out was the mana base. It is very painful but I like the Horizon lands for allowing me to draw cards late in the game. I might need to rethink them. It also was disappointing to get all 3 of my colorless lands in the same game. Normally it isn't a big deal to have one or two, but it did make things tough to start with. I don't really know what to do about that though. I am thinking maybe Ancient Tomb isn't that great here since it doesn't really let me cast Kykar quicker (though it helps on subsequent casts) and it does a lot of damage to me which is not ideal. I might try to swap it for something else? I might think on this a little more and think on the Horizon lands just to see if maybe I don't really need them as they are costly in terms of life too.