Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign - League

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

This deck is a little different than my normal decks. Specifically, it is constrained to a budget for a League a few friends and I are doing. The prize differences are mostly inconsequential (first place gets 7 packs; last place gets 5 packs. There isn't a huge spread) so I am not looking to make this the most competitive deck possible. At least, not right away.

The only real rule for the League is that no individual card can be above $50. If a card ever gets that high, it needs to be cut. A lot of this is on the honor system and it is possible certain cards can get that high without us knowing so there might be a couple games played where something went up before we catch it. But this is why this deck doesn't have Duals or Mana Drain for example.

I have had a few decks that were built with a specific purpose in mind and that eventually become permanent decks in my "rotation". Sygg, River Cutthroat, Queen Marchesa, and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight all started off being built for play in League style settings. Marchesa underwent a huge overhaul when things were done but the other two were reasonably close to the current lists. At least in spirit if nothing else.

I am hoping for the same here. I don't expect the deck to survive but I wanted to build one that could. As such, I looked at one of my favorite 3 color combinations that I didn't have a deck for and that was Esper. I technically do have an Esper list in Varina, Lich Queen but being tribal means it is sort of in its own category. I wanted an Esper list that offered a bit more freedom.

The problem is that a lot of Esper generals sort of suck. Oloro, Ageless Ascetic never needs to be cast and I hate that design space, Sharuum the Hegemon really wants to gravitate towards either combo or at least being Artifact heavy and I don't like either strategy. I actually started off with doing Alela, Artful Provocateur for this League (months ago; we have taken a long time to actually get this started) and I changed that into Kykar as I didn't like the Voltron style as much as I thought I would.

Of the rest, none really stuck out to me as something I wanted to build. Other than Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign. I had a Yennett deck built right when she was released and it was fun. So I revisited that list and started trying to update it with the last 2 years worth of cards. When going through the list, I realized I was banking on the Commander a lot more than I typically like to. So I wanted to get away from that a little. Here is where I am now:

Yennet, Cryptic Sovereign

Approximate Total Cost:

Now, the first thing to comment on is that the deck seems a little disjointed. That is, there isn't really a cohesive identity to the deck. I won't say this is by design, but it isn't exactly unintentional either. There are quite a few cards that let me Scry or put things on top for Yennett's trigger. There are a few blink elements to the deck. There is plenty of removal/counters because I am positive more than one person is going to be going for infinite combos.

Most of the creatures are simply ones I liked to play with rather than them being part of a well-oiled machine. I am banking on Yennett to get me draws along with Rocks and Smothering Tithe to get me mana. The overall expectation for winning is just attacking with big creatures. Most creatures do have an odd CMC so I can cast them for free and the ones that don't are there because they seem like they will work well with the other cards in the deck.

I intentionally decided to eschew extra turn spells except one: Expropriate. This is because it is an odd CMC and I have never played with the card so I wanted to see what it could do. Which, honestly, could probably be said for a lot of these cards.

I do hope that over time I can tighten up the themes and the focus of the deck. One major reason I left it sort of open ended to start is that I wanted the ability to simply move in a different direction if I needed to. Specifically, if every other person in the league is running combo (I don't really expect this to happen) I can simply shift into running combo myself. Yennett can help enable a few and Esper has quite a few options for combo if I want them.

Change Log

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07/30/20

CUTS

1 Crystal Ball

1 Notion Thief

1 God-Eternal Bontu

1 Island

ADDS

1 Gift of Immortality

1 Doom Whisperer

1 Blatant Thievery

1 Mystic Sanctuary

Approximate Total Cost:

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I played my first game with this deck last night. I played against Otrimi, the Ever-Playful, God-Eternal Oketra, and Tishana, Voice of Thunder.

My first play of the game was basically Smothering Tithe. As turns went on, people very rarely actually paid for it so I ended up accumulating quite a few tokens.

Yennet came down the next turn and I was able to attack the turn after. I revealed a Disallow and decided not to cast it (obviously) so I just drew it. I was able to cast a Sensei's Divining Top and a Druidic Satchel in the next couple turns as well. For some reason, I never was able to get a land on top of my library for the Satchel. Even after 5 or so turns with them both out. Which was pretty disappointing.

At this time, someone wrathed the board so I just activated Emergence Zone, sacrificed a bunch of Treasures, and recast Yennett and cast Enigma Sphinx. The Plowshares was able to exile Oketra's Solemn Simulacrum that had returned to the field after the wrath. I started my turn with 2 decent fliers.

I revealed Venser, Shaper Savant off Yennett and then the turn after I revealed Expropriate. This got me two extra turns and 2 bouncelands from opponents. I swung in for some more Commander damage at Otrimi. They were at 18 at this point.

Oketra was doing a lot to build their board though during this time. Luckily, I had a Devastation Tide on top so I drew it on their turn (thanks to Top) and bounced everything. I did lose 10 treasures in the process but it was worth it.

On my turn I recast Yennett and Smothering Tithe and passed. On my next turn, I cast Agent of Treachery off Yennett and stole something (I forget what). I then killed Otrimi which actually prevented my from drawing off Agent's trigger since I now only controlled two permanents my opponents owned.

I was able to get an Eldrazi Displacer a turn or two later though and started blinking Agent to steal more stuff. I only had 2 colorless mana at the time though so I had to use the ability sparingly. But it was still worth it as I stole an Anointed Procession and Nahiri, the Lithomancer from Oketra. Processing then gave me double Treasures from Tithe and tokens from Nahiri. Until I killed them.

I was able to use Agent and my fliers to just beat down on Tishana as well and I finished the game off pretty quickly after that.

Now, this deck had a really good showing for its first outing. It did take a long time to play, which is expected, but the stuff it did was pretty fun. I did get stuck with Slaughter the Strong in hand but that is mostly because I used other removal instead of it. I like the card since I can save Yennett but it also would have allowed Oketra to be saved too. I am not sure how it will play out but I wanted to give it a try.

Smothering Tithe was huge in this game. I ended up using about 12 mana off it. And that doesn't count the 10 tresures I bounced to hand above. Liliana Vess was able to tutor me a Fierce Guardianship so I didn't have to worry about something wrecking me. And Yennett then drew it for me. It was somewhat odd to be tutoring for anything just to get a counterspell but there wasn't much else worth getting.

The Scry effects are nice to have though I am debating cutting Crystal Ball since it only Scries. That is probably better off being something else but I don't know what that would be yet. Our first league games are this Saturday so I want to wait for that before trying to make changes since I will want to make changes based on my opponents' lists.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 3 years ago

I play a pretty solid Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign list with a sphinx subtheme (to balance the extreme control elements in the list). A few well-performing cards in my deck that isn't currently in yours, and is under $50:
Doom Whisperer - strong flier, makes your commander's trigger stronger but the ability is strong on its own
Gift of Immortality - I know your list shies away from dependence on your commander, but in my list this is great, castable off my commander's trigger, and I use a ton of strong fliers with strong ETB abilities and this is another good use of it
Blatant Thievery - my version of the deck is pretty slow, and it sounds like yours is too. You also use some theft. I like this because it's castable off the commander trigger but is useful enough in the late game to hardcast
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - I use more extra turn spells than you (notably Nexus of Fate is a house in this list) so my walkers get more bang for their buck, but this is castable off the commander trigger but solid otherwise, and is a source of card draw that you dont have to dump mana into because this list is mana intensive

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I had thought about Doom Whisperer early on and decided against it for whatever reasons. I might need to rethink it. As you said, Surveil is pretty good with Yennett and it is a pretty beefy flier on its own anyway so it isn't a dead card or anything.

Gift is one I hadn't thought about though. But it makes sense. It keeps my Commander on the field or gets me more triggers off of any number of other creatures if I simply choose to put it on something else to begin with.

I had Blatant Thievery in the list as well but I wasn't really thinking of it being much of a theft deck. The game above shows that I might be doing more stealing than I thought I would and it might be good to pursue that particular path a little more anyway. And I like that it can be re-used compared to Expropriate which might lead into me adding in Mystic Sanctuary.

Yeah, this list is definitely mana intensive which is why Smothering Tithe was so good in the game above. Tamiyo seems like a decent addition to try to keep my hand full without paying mana. I am willing to give her a try.

The main thing I need to figure out then is what to cut. I am thinking God-Eternal Bontu, Notion Thief, and Crystal Ball stand out to me right away. Druidic Satchel is probably too "cute" as well, even with the amount of stuff manipulating the top of my library but I do like the potential it has to ramp me. I would like to keep it since the ramp is very useful.

Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage might not be good enough? It does let me cast 16 cards with Flash though; with my General being chief among them.

I think I might try the 3 cuts I mentioned and then add in everything suggested except Tamiyo. I might still try to find a place for her but I like the other options better and can't really think of a good cut for Tamiyo yet. So, my changes will be:

07/30/20

CUTS

1 Crystal Ball

1 Notion Thief

1 God-Eternal Bontu

1 Island

ADDS

1 Gift of Immortality

1 Doom Whisperer

1 Blatant Thievery

1 Mystic Sanctuary

Approximate Total Cost:

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I decided to play this deck online and it was a slog for the first game. I played against Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma, Toshiro Umezawa, and Roon of the Hidden Realm.

As a quick note, Fierce Guardianship is still expensive but coming down in price. I am trying to wait for it to bottom out before buying it. In its place I just slotted in Sublime Epiphany. Not the greatest due to mana cost but I like the card.

I basically started of by doing nothing for 7 turns. Goreclaw and Roon were piling onto Toshiro, for good reason, and I really only targeted them with Bojuka Bog to get rid of a couple instants.

On turn 7 I had Emergence Zone so I just waited for the player to my right to end their turn and I cast Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign with Emergence Zone. Toshiro then cast Force of Despair. What sucked the most about this was that I had Sublime Epiphany in hand. If I had Fierce Guardianship it would have played out much differently. I figured they would have removal so I wasn't too upset about actually losing Yennett but just knowing that if I had the right card I could have saved her.

Anyway, I say back a little longer as the other 3 fought it out. I could have done a lot to help kill Toshiro sooner by countering some stuff they cast but I figured it was in my best interest for everyone to keep beating up on each other. Unfortunately, after a round of Toshiro recasting a couple instants, Goreclaw scooped. And, of course, I cast Smothering Tithe right after.

The following turn I cast Spellseeker for Cyclonic Rift since Toshiro's board was pretty big and we needed to deal with it somehow. I did have Winds of Abandon in hand pretty much the whole game but giving Toshira more Swamps was not ideal when they had Cabal Coffers, Cabal Stronghold, and Manascape Refractor.

The following turn they cast Torment of Hailfire for X=20 which Roon luckily countered. I had Venser, Shaper Savant to put it back in their hand but countering it was better. So, I ended up casting Cyclonic Rift and cast Venser to bounce their Reliquary Tower since they had 20 cards in hand and I figured this was a good way to slow them down. Roon had cast a Meddling Mage choosing Toshiro so that helped too.

A couple turns later, Roon cast Agent of Treachery to steal their Cabal Coffers, I followed that up with my Expropriate I had in hand since my opening hand. And, of course, they were both in the process of conceeding since it was getting late anyway. Which was unfortunate.

I did feel I was in a good position there, especially with the extra turn and stealing Coffers. I am not entirely sure what I would have done to be honest since I have no instant wins in the deck. Maybe tutored for Enigma Sphinx and then tried to build a board with counter backup? This might be a legitimate weak point of the deck where I control and control and control but then never really get a significant board state once everyone else's is cleared.

In any case, I did win from them scooping. So, that is something. I might need to rethink a lot off the early game or mulligan more aggressively to get a quicker hand. Of the 8 cards I started with in hand, 3 were still there at the end of the game. Technically 2 I suppose since I cast Expropriate but it was there for a long time.

Interestingly, I did make a huge mistake that prevented me from killing Toshiro. And I didn't realize it until about 2 turns later. At the time, they had 1 mana open, I had Smothering Tithe on the field with 4 treasures, and they had Kothophed, Soul Hoarder. I went to cast Rift and sacrificed a treasure. When I did, Kothophed triggered and they drew a card and I got another Treasure (and they lost a life). I could have just done that, over and over. I could have had "infinite" mana (until they lost of course) by simply tapping/sacrificing a treasure over and over again. It would have meant my Rift was unnecessary and I could have saved it for later. It would have been a really sweet way to kill someone if I had been paying attention and it likely won't come up again anytime soon

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

Well, I had my first night of league with this deck and it worked out pretty well. I played against Ghave, Guru of Spores and Torbran, Thane of Red Fell. And we played 3 games.

The first game I basically got off to a quick start and cast Yennett turn 5 and Expropriate (thanks to Liliana Vess) on turn 6. Both players gave me an extra turn. On my first extra turn, I used Liliana to get Blatant Thievery and ended up stealing something of theirs anyway.

I was able to close the game out pretty quickly from there just by attacking with a couple fliers I had.

The second game was much the same only this time Expropriate only got me 2 turns instead of 3 since Ghave made sure not to give me the extra turn this time. I ended up stealing Ghave from him who had 12 counters on it. I again won pretty quickly.

The last game was super quick for this deck. Ancient Tomb into a Talisman which let me cast Yennett on turn 3. Ghave immediately destroyed her and that was basically all there was to it. I ended up with a couple of tutors in hand but they only put cards in top. Enlightened Tutor was sort of a dead card in this situation. And Torbran was even faster than I was and killed me around turn 5 or 6.

E Tutor is sort of an odd card in this deck. There aren't a lot of choices with it so I think I either need to give myself more choices (in the way of Oblivion Stone or Solitary Confinement) to give me more outs if that happens to be the tutor in hand.

I am happy with the way the deck performed and it went a lot quicker than I expected. Part of this just comes down to only having 2 opponents instead of 3 but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. The last game also did have me cast Enigma Sphinx into Doom Whisperer and I am really liking the Doom Whisperer even though I didn't get to use its Surveil ability as it died pretty quick. A 6/6 Flyer on its own handles a fair number of things.

I didn't really come across anything beyond Enlightened Tutor I want to change, but I do think another haymaker or two would be good. Especially one that allows me to wrath/clear the board as necessary. I will have to think on it a little more.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I got my games in this week and I played against God-Eternal Oketra and Ruric Thar, the Unbowed.

The first game I was able to just beat down with a little removal as I needed it. I got Yennett out on turn 5 and just was able to to keep the value going with her. Expropriate didn't do much but, honestly, "not much" for Expropriate is still a lot. I took an extra turn, stole a land from Oketra and stole Ruric Thar. This didn't do a lot beyond making sure they couldn't attack me but it still worked.

I was able to flood the board with some smaller creatures and just swing out at both players with my army. Importantly, I was able to keep Oketra in check before they could really go off.

Game 2 was basically the opposite. Oketra got a really fast start and neither Ruric Thar nor I had any relevant interaction. Oketra just steamrolled us that game.

Game 3 was better in that there was a lot more interaction and a lot of back and forth. We kept Oketra down though Ruric Thar did do some damage to me. I think I wrathed or Rifted once or twice that game, but they ended up just doing too much. It got to the end where I had 1 card in hand (Utter End) and removed Anointed Procession so they couldn't get too many tokens. But I forgot I was at 18 commander damage and ended up just losing because I didn't remove Oketra. Had I removed Oketra, they would have had 4 tokens anyway and I would have just died to them since Yennett could only block 1 a turn and I was at 16 life.

The second game is bound to happen. A faster deck is going to roll over this deck fairly often if they get a fast start. I need time to set up and not being able to do that is not good. The third game was still really good. It did show just how bad Enlightened Tutor is in the deck and I need to find something else to put there.

I either need a way to wrath the board more often which is just adding in other wraths or a way to speed things up and close games out quicker. Time Wipe seems pretty good here if I want to add a wrath. Either that or I need something like In Garruk's Wake but that is almost uncastable without Yennett. Another big creature would be good too. I don't know if I want to go the route of something like Inkwell Leviathan as that has the same issue at Wake.

Or, I could just go further into the Comeuppance or Selfless Squire route as ways to protect me,

I have not been impressed with Winds of Abandon in this deck either so that might be worth looking at to cut. Oketra just floods the board and giving them a bunch of lands is very likely to backfire on me even without their creatures since Oketra herself is just an army in a can.

Hour of Revelation might be something I need to look closer at.

In addition to E Tutor and Winds being potential cuts, Druidic Satchel is on its way out. I ended up tutoring for it (since I had nothing else) and it did basically nothing. It is too slow and doesn't impact the board nearly enough to do anything.

I like the rest of my noncreature spells except maybe Slaughter the Strong. It saves Yennett but also allows Oketra, Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice to survive and those are a couple other generals people are playing. Maybe I should just toss in Drannith Magistrate and make people spend removal on him? I think I would be alright with that in this deck.

On a brighter note, I did get Doom Whisperer in one game as well as an extra game we played after. I don't feel like summarizing that game but Expropriate and Agent of Treachery made very little work off the opponents. Especially with Aminatou, the Fateshifter on the field to get more use out of Agent. The point is that Doom Whisperer was an all star in both games and I have not come even close to regretting adding him. I am going to look for more things like that. Not necessarily game winners but big creatures with odd CMCs that are good for their cost.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 3 years ago

Glad Doom Whisperer is working out for you. There aren't a lot of dudes that does anything like him, but in my Yennett list I also like Dragonlord Ojutai but he's just a dumb odd-cost beater that can help draw cards, no synergy with your commander.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

Yeah, I already have Ojutai and, as you said, he is an odd cost beater and he does "draw" me cards. He isn't bad by any means of course. I am not too focused on actual synergy with the commander because it is likely I won't find a whole lot. I might just run through the 5 CMC creatures and find the biggest creatures I can find or ones with good overall abilities.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 3 years ago

Sorry, I didn't see Ojutai already in your list. But I cannot believe you missed Kefnet the Mindful! Card is amazing, and doubly-so in this list. He comes down early, your list has tons of draw so he should always be active, and he can reset great lands like temples and Halimar Depths to continue to let you set up your commanders' triggers.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

Kefnet is a great idea actually. I left him off originally because I wasn't sure where I would be with cards in hand but he can do a lot in the deck. I will definitely give him a look.

As for 5 CMC, the creatures I can see potentially being added are:

Now, these obviously aren't on equal footing but they are ones that I would be willing to entertain as options. I stuck with 5 CMC as I wanted a bit of power and each one above does something a little different. Some are just solid beaters (the Angels) while some wrath or save me from dying. Some simply draw cards.

Even among those, the top tier options aren't exactly great or numerous. I think Baneslayer, Lyra, and Clackbridge Troll are my favorites. The former gain me life and block profitably and the latter allows for card draw while also (sort of) clearing out creatures. I wouldn't ever really expect to attack with it too often.

Kefnet is an obvious shoo-in but I do have a couple other cuts I would like to make so I might find room for some of the other options too.

Outcryqq · Post by **Outcryqq** » 3 years ago

I kinda like Thryx, the Sudden Storm, in your current list he'd discount at least half your dudes, make them uncounterable which can be relevant when cast even off your commander's trigger, and the art kicks butt too. He'd probably be even better in my list because mine is greedy and runs a lot of other expensive spells, but he's a cool idea.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I looked at him based mostly on the fact that my Expropriate got countered last game and this would be a way to stop it. I ended up getting the card back anyway so it didn't matter but maybe I need to look closer at that as an option. And he is a beefy (sort of), flashy, flier which allows for reaction with other spells without having to spend mana up front and go shields down for him.

And I can definitely appreciate the kick ass art

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I made the following changes:

08/11/20

CUTS

1 Druidic Satchel

1 Enlightened Tutor

1 Winds of Abandon

1 Slaughter the Strong

1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend

1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage

ADDS

1 Time Wipe

Approximate Total Cost:

So, I decided to cut Satchel and E Tutor as just not being good enough. Both work with the deck in terms of liking things on top, but neither is particularly good. Toothy and Raff were more chaff than I really wanted. Raff doesn't work with enough stuff and Toothy hasn't been as good as I would have liked.

Winds and Slaughter were just straight swaps for Hour and Time Wipe. I like Time Wipe over Slaughter as a way to save Yennett because then everything else is destroyed. And it is an odd CMC wrath if I want to cast it during combat. Hour is just something to completely reset the board when needed.

Lyra and Baneslayer are just big beaters and Clackbridge is more or less the same. I think I would prefer to have them sac a dude for the trigger but swinging for 8 is fine too (I guess

), And Kefnet I think is another beater that sometimes can't attack or block. Being able to draw a card and reset lands (as @Outcryqq mentioned) can be pretty good.

I didn't add Thryx because I simply forgot. I was doing this online and bought a Thryx but then went with the others first. I am going to stick with these for now and I wanted to document the changes because I played a game with the deck online. I with note if I add Thryx in later.

I will write up the game summary below in a new post.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I played this deck online against Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Reyhan, Last of the Abzan & Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, and Atraxa, Praetors' Voice.

Muldrotha timed out on turn 2 so the game was really a 3 player game.

I got down Yennett on turn 4 (thanks to Ancient Tomb) and just attacked in a couple times without setting up my top card. The first 2 were just lands.

During this time, Reyhan was getting out of hand. They had Semblance Anvil with an artifact creature under it and they got Toothy, Imaginary Friend, Reyhan, Corpsejack Menace, and Hardened Scales. They also cast Deepglow Skate which made Toothy and Reyhan pretty big.

They ended up attacking the two of us and I just took 14 from Toothy. Atraxa then destroyed it on their turn with Garruk, Cursed Huntsman which let them draw 14 cards and made Reyhan a 43/43.

I ended up exiling Reyhan with Swords to Plowshares since they attacked me. They had then cast Kalonian Hydra so they were still a threat.

On my turn, I cast Liliana Vess to get Expropriate, I cast it off Yennett and took 2 extra turns and stole Reyhan's Reliquary Tower. I started my first extra turn and tutored for Agent of Treachery. I stole a land from Reyhan.

After attacks on this turn, I cast Yorion, Sky Nomad into Hour of Revelation to blow the board. When Yorion returned Agent, I stole a land from Atraxa.

My second extra turn I tutored for Blatant Thievery (thanks to Yorion resetting Liliana) and stole another land from each player. I then cast Thassa, Deep-Dwelling to be able to flicker Agent to steal another land.

I passed the turn with Reyhan now being down to 4 lands. They scooped on their turn. Atraxa took their turn and cast Helm of the Host and passed. I ended up tutoring for Baneslayer Angel to cast for free. I also had Clackbridge Troll in hand that I never actually cast but I could have. I was going to cast Eldrazi Displacer instead to steal the rest of the lands but they scooped before I could

I don't know that the big beaters are exactly what the deck wants but they are far better than the cuts I made. I will continue to monitor when I can actually get them in play as I do like them. Hour of Revelation made a huge impact in this game and no other type of Wrath would have done the same as there were a lot of artifacts and enchantments I needed to get rid of in addition to the creatures I needed to blow up. Yorion was really nice to protect my guys. Maybe Eerie Interlude or Ghostway might not be bad as another option for the same effect. I am not sure it is really necessary though.

Otherwise the deck obviously performed exceptionally well, especially once Liliana was online. I do miss not having access to Scroll Rack so when this league is done, if I keep the deck around, I am positive I will be adding it.

Post by **WizardMN** » 3 years ago

I played a game earlier today against Sen Triplets, Braids, Conjurer Adept, and Slimefoot, the Stowaway.

I didn't do a lot to start with but I did try to counter Braids on the first cast. For some reason, Sen Triplets tried to counter my counter. I was completely unprepared for this as it seemed like a very risky play. I countered their counter and then became enemy number 1 for a little while. I was attacked/targeted by Triplets and Braids.

Of course, Braids came down the next turn and I ended up using Merciless Eviction to get rid of Artifacts because of Braids's Oblivion Stone. This might have been risky on my part too but I felt that was the better way to go about things and then just try to deal with Braids later. Which I never really got the chance to do.

Triplets basically never benefited from Braids so I have no idea why they wanted her down. Braids put in Pathrazer of Ulamog and Nezahal, Primal Tide as their first two card choices. Sen Triplets did go after them the second time they triggered and they had Force of Will, Counterspell, Cryptic Command, and Pull from Tomorrow in their hand. I would have expected them to spend two of those counterspells (they could have pitched their own Propaganda for Force's alternate cost) and then leaving them with just Cryptic in hand. Instead, they cast Pull and left them with 3 counterspells in hand.

Braids ended up putting a Consecrated Sphinx for free onto the field and I copied it with Stunt Double. I shouldn't have drawn much but I wanted cards in hand. This gave Braids 14 cards in hand before I stopped.

I ended up scooping because a) I needed to leave and b) the game was basically over. After I scooped, Braids won the next turn against both players.

Thryx might have been good in this game as Blatant Thievery was countered. But I didn't have a way to get to Thryx anyway so it wouldn't have come up. I do think the plays by Sen Triplets really messed things up. Needing to spend two counterspells to stop Braids and then them leaving them with 3 counters in hand shows a seeming lack of proper threat assessment. I can't say that it would have worked out better for the Triplets if I was able to resolve my Thievery, but they would have still had a counterspell in hand to counter Braids the next turn. I did feel that they were clearly the threat as free stuff is never good (as this deck can attest to).

Even if the Triplets player had played more conservatively or focused more on Braids, I can't say I would have won. Slimefoot wasn't doing a whole lot, though Braids helped them out a lot, so it would have come down to Triplets being the threat after a while probably.

It is a tough game to say what did and didn't work, but for the most part the deck worked as I expected. Things getting countered really slowed things down and Braids actually being allowed on the field sped things up for everyone else.

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