Snowfall by Phil Foglio.
I was going to start by saying that the only thing worse than being on a long losing streak is having to miss a night of games so you have to wait a little longer to break that losing streak. The truth is that there are lots of things that are worse, and one of them is having to shovel 28" of snow. A few weeks ago we had seventy degree weather here in New England and this past Tuesday a "Nor'easter" dumped two feet of snow on the region. Much to my surprise, the town I live in happened to top the snowfall totals and we got just over twenty-eight inches of white fluffy goodness.
Our local game store was closed due to the blizzard, so I had to wait a full week to see if I could break my 10 game losing streak. Saturday was Saint Patrick's Day so I baked a batch of cookies (green colored white chocolate chip) and headed to NexGen for our third week of EDH League in March.
Saturday EDH League
I went into Saturday a point ahead of a very good player with hopes of maybe netting another win at some point before the month was out. I'm playing Ashling the PIlgrim mono-red goodstuff and so far was 1-2-1. Our point system has all kinds of ways to earn points, and while I play to win (not just farm points), my deck is set up to have a chance at some of the categories.
Game one was a five player game with a bunch of pretty good players, including the guy who was a point behind me in our league rankings. As we shuffled up, I commented that I'd recently had several new players comment that our meta is really heavy with boardwipes. I consider it a sign of a fairly serious midrange meta to have lots of sweepers and removal. We don't mess around and if you're going to win, we're not going to make it easy for you.
True to form, the game was hard fought, with most players at some point having a strong boardstate, and with lots and lots of boardwipes. One player had Authority of the Consuls out for practically the entire game and had shot up to well over 100 life. We were all basically hoping someone else would have an answer for him. I was able to get three "tubthumping" points for casting Ashling, bonus points because she's "on theme", and an extra point for "first blood", getting the first combat damage in the game.
At one point in the mid-game I was able to amass a board of over 100 goblins, most of which were tapped thanks to Authority of the Consuls. I had Panharmonicon and Krenko out, but no ETB damage effects like Impact Tremors or Purphoros yet. With 11 goblins, Ashing and two other creatures on the field I played a Chancellor of the Forge to put 15 creatures on the field and then thanks to Panharmonicon I put another 30 creatures on the field. After tapping Krenko to double my goblins I wound up with 118 creatures, pretty much locking down the "biggest army" point for the game. We all knew another boardwipe was coming so I convinced the other players to let me get away with all that with the assurance that my goblins were all entering tapped and I was basically just doing it to seal up the "army" point. My prediction was right and the board was wiped before my next turn, so I never got to attack with them.
In the end I wound up winning thanks to Sunbird's Invocation. I had never gotten anything much out of it, and told my opponents as much. I wasn't lying, but I'll never be able to make that claim again. I don't remember the exact sequence because I cast an awful lot of spells in the turn. I don't even remember what I started with but between casting spells from my hand and casting spells with Sunbird's Invocation I was able to play Dictate of the Twin Gods, Impact Tremors and then a long sequence of spells including Siege-Gang Commander, Hordling Outburst, Mana Geyser, Past in Flames (which got countered), Past in Flames (flashed back from the graveyard), Mana Geyser again, and all in all I wound up with 31 open mana, a storm count of something like 17, and both Goblin Offensive and Empty the Warrens in my hand. I think I ended the game by casting Goblin Offensive for 24 goblins and then casting Empty the Warrens with a storm count of 19. It was one of those beautiful turns where everything goes right and you just keep casting and casting and nobody has any answers left. Without Sunbird's Invocation it would not have been possible, though Mana Geyser and Past In Flames also played pretty big roles in the win.
Our league has a point category called "Gen" points, which are awarded to you by your opponents at the end of each round. The amazing about that win is that my Gen points from round one were actually quite high. I genuinely try to be a good tablemate and even if I win, I do my best to not be a dick about it and to play slowly and carefully so as to make sure I don't screw up and inadvertently cheat or play in an unfair way. I also try to keep a sense of humor about me whether things are going well or poorly. Often when someone wins they get fewer Gen points just because people don't like losing and lots of players aren't good at winning in a way where everyone else winds up enjoying the game too. I can only assume that my dumb shenanigans or my attitude and sense of humor were engaging enough that some of my opponents wound up giving me extra Gen points.
In round two I was again in the same pod as the guy who started the day 1 point behind me. He was playing Maga for both rounds and we also had a Heartless Hidetsugu player, a Yidris player and a Selvala player at the table. The game was another long one with lots of boardwipes and shifting alliances.
The most amusing thing about the game for me was that my Etali, Primal Storm got passed around like a party favor thanks to a Sepulchral Primordial that the table wound up playing whack-a-mole with. Every time we thought we had seen the last of it, someone made a clone or brought it back from the graveyard. I never got to swing with Etali and I'm thinking more and more that I should probably run Etali as my commander for a game or two before the month is out.
One takeaway from the game was that Braid of Fire is amazing with Ashling. Even if it doesn't come out until mid-game Braid of Fire is still fantastic as a way to pay to put counters on Ashling. My most impactful attempt at a play during that second round was when the board was again out of control and I Gambled for Basilisk Collar and almost got to blow Ashling up with her having deathtouch and lifelink, wiping the board and gaining a ton of life. Unfortunately, Ashling was removed as I went to attach Swiftfoot Boots to her. We all died a turn or two later thanks to the Heartless Hidetsugu player, who had a Furnace of Wrath out and a way to ping us all for damage.
I didn't win, but I again got to cast Ashling three times, got the first combat damage point and managed to outlive one of my opponents.
I wound up the day not just one point ahead of the pack, but a full dozen points in first place. I attribute it to a combination of strong play, being "on theme", having a low-cost commander, and being simply delightful to be able to share a game with. OK - that last part might be a bit of an overstatement, but Gen Points matter in our league and you'll have a hard time competing with a mid-range (not top tier) deck if people don't enjoy playing with you.
Final Thoughts
In two weeks I'm going to have to decide whether or not I'm going to play a game of "Ashling & 99 mountains". Ideally I would not mention the idea to anyone, not write about it, and play the game with a straight face - pretending to be astonished at how mana-flooded I am. For better or worse, I'm terrible at keeping secrets and really enjoy sharing my thoughts and ideas. That means that any chance to play "Ashing 99", mulligan down to 3 cards and then act astonished at how I'm drawing nothing but lands isn't going to work. My friends know my goofy ideas because I tell them and because I write them down here. Dear readers - you should all know that this is a silly thing you should consider doing sometime, and if you do it you should feign astonishment at your bad luck and only show what your deck is made up of once the game is over. Also, you're probably not going to win.
I didn't wind up playing any pickup games Saturday, so I'm very much looking forward to Tuesday night. I have my new Oona build to try out, along with my reworked Ramos, Dragon Engine deck, a druid tribal Freyalise deck, and my Karona, Myr Queen deck. I want to play them all soon, though I doubt I'll be able to get in four games on Tuesday night.
Tomorrow over on GatheringMagic.com I've got a really long piece looking at all 34 of the new Dominaria legendary creatures. It's not your standard set review. I'm going to be choosing a creature that would pair well with each of the new potential commanders we'll have available to us in that set. In short, I'll be giving each of them a "sidekick". I think I've come up with some devastating combinations, and I'm really looking forward to seeing Dominaria come out. I'm definitely going to be picking up a box.
That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading and see you next week!