This was an odd week for me, as I wound up staying home on Tuesday night, so my only EDH was on Sunday in our weekly Commander League.
It's week two of May and I went into the week well out of first place. Last week had two pretty quick losses and it looks like one of the league's best players is making a push to win another month, so I had scaled back my goals to my usual aim: win a game over the course of the month.
GAME ONE
The first game of the day was at a pretty challenging table. The players and decks were good but not overwhelming. They're shown below, in order of how we started the game. Check out that guy in the middle, sitting to my left and playing right before me.
I was in the unenviable position of playing a dragon deck at a table with Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. When Kaarthus comes into play, that player gains control of all dragons - not just until end of turn but for good or until I can boardwipe or steal him back. Yikes.
The game wound up nearly going to time. The Kaarthus player and the Saskia players had strong pushes and Kaarthus did steal my commander once. I made at least one push to draw my deck using Niv-Mizzet and Ophidian Eye, but the Saskia player stopped me. I spent most of the game with Dragons stuck in my hand unable to cast them for fear they would just get stolen. To his credit, the Karrthus player had picked that deck before knowing I'd be at the table and he felt a little bad about the position I was in.
I'm never cheery when having a game like that, but I tried not to be too miserable about it. I wouldn't blame the Karrthus player for playing Karrthus at any table I'm at for the rest of the month, as I generally (not always) play the same deck all month long and it would be a logical and strategic choice to make. Also, the Kaarthus player is "player number two" from the past 2 month, and is a fine player and a pleasure to play against. I'd understand and if he did that I might even switch to a different, but probably much worse, deck for the final week. It'd be an excellent plan and I'd be both amused and honored if I was enough of a threat to be countered like that. Also, it'd serve me right for being predictable and sticking with one deck all month.
As it turned out, the Karrthus player got too threatening and someone - I think it was the Saskia player - was able to take them out. I was pretty much ignored both because I barely had a boardstate and because I had been locked out by Karrthus for so long.
Once Karrthus was out of the game, I might not have had access to my Niv-Mizzet draw-your deck combo but my Conflux was still in my library and I was lucky enough to draw into a Mystical Tutor. I finally played Ramos and on my next turn was able to play Conflux, draw Aura Thief and Enchanted Evening, along with Grapeshot, Dromoka and Corpsejack Menace. I only needed the first three cards to win, and I was able to pull five counters off of Ramos to power out the win. I played Enchanted Evening, turning all permanents into enchantments. Then I played Aura Thief, and killed it with Grapeshot, gaining control of all enchantments. Soon after that it was game,
Our point system has points for having the most of different types of permanents, but this game-ending play didn't actually net me as many points as I had expected. The Ghave player had gotten out an early Marit Lage, so he got the Power and Toughness "Size Matters" points, and another player had gotten a planeswalker out but it was no longer around when I stole everything.
I stole my win for the month. If I can somehow get another one I'll be thrilled, but I'm not holding my breath. If I can get two I'll probably be in position to push for the month's top total, but that's not really my goal. I just want to try to have some fun, play some good games and get a win along the way.
GAME TWO
The second game was an even odder one, but this time it came down to the social side of the game. Politics is usually something I'm pretty good at, but I think I didn't play that part of the game that well in round two. I was at a table with Kami, Kraj, Tana the Bloodsower, and Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. I went last. The Kami player was the same person who had been on Saskia in round one, and the Drana player was the Karrthus player from round one. All in all, it was a table of folks I really enjoy playing with, so I was initially expecting to enjoy the game.
The weird thing about this round is that the Tana player, who I normally like a lot and enjoy playing games with, make a big production out of making sure the table knew that I was going to die first. His only goal was to kill me. I know his deck and his Tana build is quite capable of killing someone early if that's what he sets his mind to. My Ramos build isn't totally incapable of surviving but it's not built for handling heavy early game pressure. It's light on removal and generally tries to chill out until it can combo off. In short, I had been told in no uncertain terms that I was going to be knocked out as quickly as possible and would have to go amuse myself while everyone else played Magic.
The Tana player wasn't joking around, though he also wasn't issuing his threat in a mean way. He had a smile on his face, but he was being a bit of a bully. I really, really don't like bullies, but I like this guy so I just jokingly accepted my fate and shuffled up for the game.
True to his word, I got hit for 12 commander damage very, very early on. I had no real answers and given that Tana has trample, I saved my only creature - a Utopia Tree - for later. It didn't make sense to lose it unless I was blocking a lethal threat.
Our point system has a "bodyguard" point. The Drana player was the same dude who had been playing Karrthus in the previous round and I think he felt a little bad for me. I felt a little bad for me. Also, points matter, and on Tana's next attack he was kind enough to kill Tana and pick up a bodyguard point. You can only get one of those per opponent, so I was now on my own. Fortunately, the Tana player is also in the habit of going after anyone that stops him from killing somebody, so he now focused all his attacks on the "player number two".
If I remember correctly, the Kraj player got eliminated first. He had a fairly rough day, also getting eliminated first in round one. I spent most of the rest of the game having very little going on and always being in fear of getting knocked out by Tana. I wound up using a tutor to fetch up removal to use to help out the Drana player, though it wasn't exactly payback, and I also fetched up removal to help out the Kami player. Both of those tutors would have been better spent looking for stuff I actually wanted, but sometimes you have to pay favors back and this was one of those games.
Towards the end I was creeping closer and closer to being able to push for a win. I had Fire Servant in hand and was hoping to dig out or draw into Rite of Replication and Grapeshot. Earlier I had discarded Aura Thief, in part because I didn't want to go after the same wincon twice in a row. In retrospect that probably wasn't the best choice but I've got zero regrets. I might even drop that combo out of the deck now that I've landed it this month, though I'm not sure what I'll put in its place.
As it turned out, the Kami player was able to combo off, draw their whole deck, play everything out including their lands and win via Laboratory Maniac. The delightful irony is that I gave her zero gen points because I hate losing like that, but all of the wincons in my Ramos deck pretty much come out of nowhere just as much. I'm such a hypocrite. At some point in the future I'll have to throw her an extra gen point to make up for that little bit of hypocrisy.
I also gave my bully (the Tana player) zero gen points because I do hate bullies.
Kill me in a game. That's fine. I don't mind losing and can often lose with a decent attitude.
If you spend the first twenty minutes of the game going on and on about how you're going to kill me first, you can go fuck yourself. I don't appreciate crap like that, though I suspect I'll still get along well enough with this player. He's not a terrible person, he just has an odd sense of humor and we had a moment where his approach to the game was the kind of approach that I really don't care for. No tables were flipped. I was even lucky enough to survive, but it definitely didn't make for a fun early game for me.
In comparison, the previous week the Bruna player killed all of us in incredibly short time. It was brutal. He was an absolute gentleman about it, and there was no hard feelings or salt. He just played his deck, everyone died, and we then played a pick-up game.
Apparently the sin I was targeted for was having won two months of league in a row. Honestly, I totally understand his position. It's not good for one player to dominate the league, but in actual fact I had lucked into both month wins by a single point and by a lot of little things going right. I hadn't been dominating play, but from his perspective he wanted to make darn sure I was out of the running for May. I might have appreciated a side conversation about the matter rather than being bullied in a game, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter.
I had thought I'd be writing less this week, but apparently today I'm waxing philosophical.
PICK-UP GAME
We had time for a casual game after our second round of league, and I wound up playing a game with Marwyn, the Nurturer. It was a five player game but I didn't write down the decks I was up against.
I had only played four games with Marwyn but she had won three of those.
I was able to look unthreatening, get a few creatures out, survive a boardwipe, play a Swiftfoot Boots, Genesis Hydra, Marwyn, play a bunch of elves and get a bunch of counters, play Titania and Temur Sabertooth over the course of several turns. A fellow player then pointed out that I had infinite mana. I am used to going after one of the equipment-related wincons so this one had slipped under my radar. She was right, I had game.
That puts Marwyn at 4 wins out of 5 games and I may have to stop playing her at causal tables.
Yikes.
Final Thoughts.
That's all I've got for you today. Tomorrow over on GatheringMagic.com you'll get a look at the first draft of my Yargle deck. It's already been tweaked a little, but it's quite close to what I'll be running for Yarglefest, which you should totall come to, but only if you bring a Yargle deck.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!