[HLL]Scoreboard - Season III

[grizzledmage]

coldcrow (R/U Storm) : grizzledmage (U/B control) 1:0


Was a loooong one, Stuff got countered , manabases were built up, My grandma was planting a tree...

Yep; seems like these are the only kinds of games I get involved in!

I made 2 mistakes: playing desire too early for only a 5 count, then countering teferi as he countered my gifts...

All true... and on the next turn I reanimated my buddy Teferi...

In the end he ran out of counters and I topdecked an eye of the storm with a lightning bolt in hand and recoup + chain lightning in yard = 12 dmg.

Very frustrating, as I was hoping for a next-turn kill with Teferi for 2 combat damage (had an Animate Dead on it) and Profane Command for about 16 more... assuming, of course, it resolved.

Update for game two will follow.

Yep! Now I am in the middle of THREE suspended matches...!!!

[Mythrandir]

Michael103 VS Mythrandir

0:1 (not finished..)

uWG?? VS control

we only played 1 match.. and not an exciting one

game 1: he was a bit mana screw but playd scabbling claws and tormod crypt and a kor haven. i kept my initial hand. 3 lands + jace + gifts + counter (nice hand) jace really gave me the game. i vindicated 1 temple garden of his and then went for garruk + eternal witnes + FOF + hide/seek (to see his deck). i kept fof and garruk. i played garruk and then FOF.. by this time i was in complete control he had: kor haven + mutavault + terohs faithful + court hussar i had  a 3/3 beast, 3 1/1 soldiers (Via decree) 1 loxodon, 1 ohran viper + nantuko monastery + 2 mihsras factory (1 factory + vesuva) i went for garruk overrun i also had demon fire in hand.

i guess we'll finish the rest of the match another day.

here are our MWS security codes:
Mythrandir[PT]'s Security Code: FABD1532 [Type 1.5]
michael0103's Security Code: 7C84F1E0 []

[Vazdru]

Grizzledmage (UB-Control) - Vazdru (White Clouded Skies) 1:1 (game 3 will follow next days/week)

1: My first seven showed my no lands at all  so i took another seven. Luckily they were quite ok. 2 Islands, 1 Plains, Freewind Falcon, Soltari Champion, Swords of Fire and Ice, Fathom Seer. Unfortunately Swords got countered. Freewind Falcon didn't deal enough pressure on the board. Champion got killed by spot removal so his landbase increased well. Teferi was again the gamebreaker when he hit the board. Treachery + Dominate hit me hard as well. Back to Basics didn't have the impact on the game like last time so his mana-base worked well. Eventually i've played Empyrial Armor + Gush to increase my falcon to 8/8 while he had 8 LP...but his untapper Conclave saved his life. Next turn Profane Command for the win.

GG mate! Looking forward for next games..

Lucky win for me this time 

Not even 5 min after we finished the game the power system crashed because of a thunderstorm/lightning bolt.

2: I've never believed i could be flooded with White Clouded Skies but this time it happened. My first 7 showed me already 4 Lands. I put back one of them + two spells. Afterwards I've had again 4 Lands, cc2 Critter (Sprite), Wargear + Interdict. My next cards were Land, Land Tax. After ten long minutes (Sprite got killed quickly) I've got my second critter on the board Cloud of Faeries. Enough time for him to collect some stuff to get control of it - equipped with Wargear. LP 20 - 7 in my favour at this time...but this changed quite quickly from now on...only the Yedi Mind Trick would help now...

He had 8 untapped lands and played Teferi eot. Cause i would never get any use of Force Spike i used it targeting Teferi...but instead of tapping one mana he played Forbid to counter my Force Spike (surely in fear after paying for Force Spike facing  an non-counterable threat - but indeed I've had nothing at all ). He discarded Diabolic Tutor!  + Damnation for the Buyback.   

I've had 10 LP after the attack of Teferi + stolen Looter il-Kor + Wargear. He discarded Rend Flesh - which he needed badly two turns later - for the Looter. I've had 6 Cards in Hand (4 Lands, still Interdict  and Rebuff the Wicked  ) and Sword of Fire and Ice + Emyrial Plate and ~ 10 Lands on the Board.

Useless card from the top...down at 3 LP. At this time I was sure to lose this game...Flying Men from the Top...so I've tried it still aware he had the necessary Counter Spell to get rid of it. But he said ok 

So i equipped the Men with Sword of Fire and Ice + Wargear (killed his/my Looter) + equip Plate and Interdicted the effect for a Cantrip to find another critter, WHICH got countered. Next turn he tried Persuasion on my Men ... but they were of course protected against being coaxed  thanks to their Sword. On his turn he only found Sudden Death - not strong enough to kill my 6/5 Flying Men - so i euipped Plate next turn and attacked for 12 Damage, Sudden Death reduced the dam by 4 -> 8, he was still on 7 LP.

Thx for the gg!   

[grizzledmage]

He discarded Diabolic Tutor!  + Damnation for the Buyback.

I believed - apparently incorrectly - that keeping a hard counter in hand was more important in that situation than board sweeping or library searching.

Flying Men from the Top...so I've tried it still aware he had the necessary Counter Spell to get rid of it. But he said ok

Jedi mind tricks indeed. I knew that he knew that I had the Forbid, yet he played the Flying Men... now, thinks I, why would he play this if he knows that I can simply counter it? Truly he must have something else up his sleeve... and I believe I can tolerate the Flying Men (forgetting about his Sword's pro blue). So I wait for the other shoe to drop... which it doesn't.

Sometimes I wonder why I play this game!! If I do the obvious thing (in this case, counter his Men) then I usually suffer for it. Here, I AVOID the obvious thing... and I suffer for it!

In retrospect, it may be that allowing his Sword to CIP may have been the critical error in judgment. I recall that I was able to do so in our Game 1, and that had been quite helpful... well let's see what happens in Game 3, perhaps next week...

hmmm... if his jedi mind tricks work on me, then we know how that qualifies me... maybe time to go back to music lessons and fishing....

[Mythrandir]

Jedi mind tricks indeed. I knew that he knew that I had the Forbid, yet he played the Flying Men... now, thinks I, why would he play this if he knows that I can simply counter it? Truly he must have something else up his sleeve... and I believe I can tolerate the Flying Men (forgetting about his Sword's pro blue). So I wait for the other shoe to drop... which it doesn't.

lol.. sometimes players make elaborate plays sometimes they just make an obvious straightforwad play. u can never be 100% sure, specially while playing online.

[MErcator]

MErcator (WWu) vs. Payron (UGw)
2 : 1

First gmae was decided by Wasteland and Life from The Loam. He killed Tundra and Hallowed Fountain, so i was allways low on mana an could not race his beasts.

Second game Cataclysm and Tagle Wire screwed Payron. He had Jotun Grunt, but didN#t draw any lands until he died.
Third game was nearly the same. This time i had first Ravages of War and afterwards Tangle Wire, whereas Payron was stuck on no lands and a lonely bird.

Tough choices to play the wrecking spells around counterspells, but otherwise they were screw game with only one of us playing.

[MErcator]

MErcator (Rb gobo) vs. Michael0103 (5c controll?)
2 : 0

First game was mulligan to 5 for him. i wastelanded first turn, but he was flooded and i scrwed on 2 mana.
after a time he had academy rector to get a moat, but had only 4 dmg left to deal, with burn...

2nd was even shorter, for he played about 4 spells and sulfuric vortex with gobob brought it home

[grizzledmage]

Grizzledmage (UB control/robbery) vs. Mythrandir (5c Control)

1-1, to be continued... 2-1 final

Let me preface my report by saying that I have only recently begun delving into control-style decks. It started most recently about 4 months ago with an Extended tournament our local play group held, and I tried a MUC deck (which did fairly well). Having been on the receiving end of control decks for years, I decided to try it. (This particular style of control used in this deck is based in part on an Elder Dragon Highlander deck I say over a year ago). Now to my point: I am not sure that I have the stomach to live through these games, as they do tend to be very long!!

Game 1: An early Shadowmage Infiltrator got through a couple times for some hits and a couple of extra card draws but he placed a Kor Haven to slow that down. He then removed the Infiltrator with a Flametongue Kavu, and countered an Ancestral Visions from resolving, but I played Treachery on his Kavu. He got his Nantuko Monastery going and tried to Hide (via Hide/Seek) the Treachery but I Hindered his attempt. He then played Gifts Ungiven to get his land-hate going via Wasteland, Vesuva, LFTL. I got more land-based men/tokens going with Faerie Conclave and Urza's Factory and started pressuring him, eventually getting him to 1 LP. But he evokes a Shriekmaw to kill the Kavu and plays a Maze of Ith to further blunt my attacks. He uses Intuition to find some life gain, which he realizes via Ravenous Baloth. I get a Vedalken Shackles out but too few Islands for it to make a difference, and he has been systematically removing my NB lands with Wasteland. I try a Liliana to tutor up some grave hate but he counters it. His Monastery keeps coming back (LFTL) and I am steadily losing ground; after 45 minutes I concede mostly from mental exhaustion.

Game 2: This one is even longer (1 hour 14 minutes), and I won't drive everyone crazy with ALL the details. Highlights include more Shadowmage Infiltrators (on both sides), Jace Beleran (his side), Guile (my side), a Staff of Domination which helped me a lot, Teferi, then Teferi recurred with Animate Dead, a countered Collective Restraint. He starts giving me real trouble with Venser comboed with Karakas, and I finally draw Wasteland to remove the Karakas. I was exerting steady pressure and slowly gaining the advantage, and then when I thought I had him (attacking with Guile and a Withered Wretch) he cycled a Decree of Justice to place 4 soldier tokens in play, threatening to remove my Wretch. I use Sensei's Diving Top to find a play (w buyback) a Capsize on one of his tokens, saving my poor Wretch. He attacks next turn, threatening to bring me to 3 LP but I take it, saving my lands in case I need to respond... and then counter (Faerie Trickery) his Damnation. He concedes.

He agrees to stop here and do the last game later, as (1) it's been 2 hours already, and (2) I'd received a tragic phone call in the middle of the second game, informing me of a death in the family... in fact I will be leaving to attend the funeral in about 10 minutes.

GGs!! As I said, I don't know if I have the stomach for these long control games... but definitely looking forward to the tiebreaker!

We finally got together to do the tiebreaker.

I see, in reviewing the previous games, that I made an error... I thought (erroneously) that I'd lost the second game, so I started this Game 3 by stating "I play ok?" Mythrandir, being the gentleman that he is, simply said ok.

He starts with an early Call of the Herd. I play Nevinyrral's Disk, and wait for him to play the second elephant token (via flashback) before I activate it, in the absence of any other removal. He probably knows this and avoids playing it, meanwhile attacking me repeatedly. I can't stand it after a few turns, and activate the Disk to remove the elephant. He tries Engineered Explosives, which I RFG with Faerie Trickery. I resolve  Liliana Vess; who manages to tutor up a couple of key cards for me before she falls to a redirected Demonfire. Teferi and Vedalken Shackles come along, helping a lot, although he Swords to Plowshares Teferi. The Shackles take control of his finally-played second Elephant token.

Somewhere in there his Brion Stoutarm goes to his graveyard, and I pluck it out with Animate Dead. With 2 creatures (Brion and elephant) I can start getting past his Maze of Ith. Debtor's Knell comes in and the Shadowmage Infiltrators in each of our respective graveyards become fair game as well. He tries to clear things with Pernicious Deed; unfortunately for him he'd Enlightened Tutored for it, so I had time to tutor up a Counterspell to foil it. He gets Wall of Blossoms and Nantuko Monastery going but it is looking grim over there. He tries a Collective Restraint to slow me down but I Capsize it before I start my turn. He takes near-lethal combat damage, and I play Demonic Tutor to call up Profane Command for the coup de grace.

At the end I had 9 lands in play and he had 7, but his lands had definitely been slow to show up for him so I got lucky with mana advantage.

GG's!!

By the way, Mythrandir doesn't yet know it but he seems to be there at important real-life events for me... last time he'd been there when I received news of my nephew's passing, and today he was there a couple of hours after my oldest son announced as "official" his engagement to a nice young lady. (That son is, btw, far and away the best Magic player in this household...)

[Mythrandir]

He starts with an early Call of the Herd. I play Nevinyrral's Disk, and wait for him to play the second elephant token (via flashback) before I activate it, in the absence of any other removal. He probably knows this and avoids playing it

also because i only had 4 lands, 1 being mze of ith.. =/

Somewhere in there his Brion Stoutarm goes to his graveyard, and I pluck it out with Animate Dead.
GG's!!

i had to discard it at the end of turn, because of mana screw

By the way, Mythrandir doesn't yet know it but he seems to be there at important real-life events for me... last time he'd been there when I received news of my nephew's passing, and today he was there a couple of hours after my oldest son announced as "official" his engagement to a nice young lady. (That son is, btw, far and away the best Magic player in this household...)

congrats

not a very good game.. the other 2 were way better.

[Vazdru]

Pyyhttu (Rb-Gobbos) - Vazdru (White Clouded Skies)
1:2

1: I won the die roll. My first 7 showed me 1 Land so I took 6 new ones. 1 more land so i started. Adarkar Wastes - Lantern Kami. Turn 2 he tried to Shriekmaw my Critter - but got countered by Miscalculation. Turn 3 he tried Imperial Recruiter - got countered by Force Spike. Turn 4 his first Critter reached the ground -> Magus of the Moon - but after he played Volrath's Stronghold the Magus worked for me and not for him. Meanwhile  i dropped Azorius Herald, Chrome Moxe, Sword of Fire and Ice which decided the game for me. Herald + Sword is a nice combination vs Rb Gobbos. I killed all of his Critter but Magus of the Moon. Thanks to him he couldn't get back his Shriekmaw which he needed badly all the game.

2: He had an impressive start. Tattermunge Maniac, Squeking Gobling, Goblin Sledder. I suspended Riftwing Cloudskate Turn 2, Turn 3 morphed Exalted (with 2 plains 2 islands turn 4) but Shriekmaw took care of the Angel. Pendlehaven + Mishra's Factory looked grim. All the game i was in the defense for my life still ticking away. I was able to handle Wort once with the Cloudskate + Counterspell afterwards. But when he played Flametongue Kave + Patriarchs Bidding it was his game.

3: I've kept 3 lands (2 basics, Wasteland) and thought a while if i put back Blackvise or not. I decided to keep it even against such a fast deck like gobbos.

Me: Land - Blackvise.
He: LP 17 - Land - Aether Vial.
Me: Land - Looter il-Kor.
He LP 15 - Nonbasic - Sparksmith.
Me Wasteland + Echoing Truth on Vial - Attack for one.
He LP 12 - Sparksmith killed my Looter - 11 - Vial again
Me Grafted Wargear
He LP 9 attack with Sparksmith
Me Tithe - Go
He LP 7 still on one Land Mogg Raider + Weird Shaman
Me Pestermite from the top
He LP 5 Goblin King - All in dropping me down to 10 LP
Me Pestermite eot - equip Wargear and attack for 5 while he was tapped out.

[Vazdru]

Grizzledmage (UB-Control) - Vazdru (White Clouded Skies) 1:2

1: My first seven showed my no lands at all  so i took another seven. Luckily they were quite ok. 2 Islands, 1 Plains, Freewind Falcon, Soltari Champion, Swords of Fire and Ice, Fathom Seer. Unfortunately Swords got countered. Freewind Falcon didn't deal enough pressure on the board. Champion got killed by spot removal so his landbase increased well. Teferi was again the gamebreaker when he hit the board. Treachery + Dominate hit me hard as well. Back to Basics didn't have the impact on the game like last time so his mana-base worked well. Eventually i've played Empyrial Armor + Gush to increase my falcon to 8/8 while he had 8 LP...but his untapper Conclave saved his life. Next turn Profane Command for the win.

GG mate! Looking forward for next games..

Lucky win for me this time 

Not even 5 min after we finished the game the power system crashed because of a thunderstorm/lightning bolt.

2: I've never believed i could be flooded with White Clouded Skies but this time it happened. My first 7 showed me already 4 Lands. I put back one of them + two spells. Afterwards I've had again 4 Lands, cc2 Critter (Sprite), Wargear + Interdict. My next cards were Land, Land Tax. After ten long minutes (Sprite got killed quickly) I've got my second critter on the board Cloud of Faeries. Enough time for him to collect some stuff to get control of it - equipped with Wargear. LP 20 - 7 in my favour at this time...but this changed quite quickly from now on...only the Yedi Mind Trick would help now...

He had 8 untapped lands and played Teferi eot. Cause i would never get any use of Force Spike i used it targeting Teferi...but instead of tapping one mana he played Forbid to counter my Force Spike (surely in fear after paying for Force Spike facing  an non-counterable threat - but indeed I've had nothing at all ). He discarded Diabolic Tutor!  + Damnation for the Buyback.   

I've had 10 LP after the attack of Teferi + stolen Looter il-Kor + Wargear. He discarded Rend Flesh - which he needed badly two turns later - for the Looter. I've had 6 Cards in Hand (4 Lands, still Interdict  and Rebuff the Wicked  ) and Sword of Fire and Ice + Emyrial Plate and ~ 10 Lands on the Board.

Useless card from the top...down at 3 LP. At this time I was sure to lose this game...Flying Men from the Top...so I've tried it still aware he had the necessary Counter Spell to get rid of it. But he said ok 

So i equipped the Men with Sword of Fire and Ice + Wargear (killed his/my Looter) + equip Plate and Interdicted the effect for a Cantrip to find another critter, WHICH got countered. Next turn he tried Persuasion on my Men ... but they were of course protected against being coaxed  thanks to their Sword. On his turn he only found Sudden Death - not strong enough to kill my 6/5 Flying Men - so i euipped Plate next turn and attacked for 12 Damage, Sudden Death reduced the dam by 4 -> 8, he was still on 7 LP.

Thx for the gg!   

3: I've had a decent start with Cloud Sprite, Force Spike, Mana Leak, Standstill and some lands. Standstill gave me the necessary card advantage. Pestermite and Vendillion Clique helped to get rid off his Counterspells. Echoing Truth + Gilded Drake + Wispmare gave me even more card advantage:

Board situation after short a while:
Flying Men - Wispmare - Vendillon Clique - Cloud of Faeries - Serra Avenger

vs no defense on the other side of the table (he had to kill his own "stolen by gilded drake" Teferi and tried to control my Serra Avenger via Control Mage - my Wispmare took care)

gg!

[grizzledmage]

3: I've had a decent start with Cloud Sprite, Force Spike, Mana Leak, Standstill and some lands. Standstill gave me the necessary card advantage. Pestermite and Vendillion Clique helped to get rid off his Counterspells. Echoing Truth + Gilded Drake + Wispmare gave me even more card advantage:

Board situation after short a while:
Flying Men - Wispmare - Vendillon Clique - Cloud of Faeries - Serra Avenger

vs no defense on the other side of the table (he had to kill his own "stolen by gilded drake" Teferi and tried to control my Serra Avenger via Control Mage - my Wispmare took care)

gg!


Meh; very one sided and I never even felt like I was in this game.... but thanks for the match anyway!

[MErcator]

MErcator (WWu) vs. GeorgB (Red sligh)
2 : 1

First game i had, chrome mox, Land tax and Mystic Crusader against a monored army
i played last, so the landtax was online, though i had more mana in play actually
when i cast crusade the game broke down (holysnow seems not stable to me...) but i had spectral prossesion and Georg fairly conceded, that he probably wound'not have won this game

Game 2 i kept ravages and drew into armagedon but had only prosession for creatures
so i played bonsplitter and aether vial, while he had beatings and a molten rain
i kept drawing lands, what was not bad with armagedon turn 5, but when i could stabilise with silver knight, he had goblin grenade for the kill... (it was turn 6, with delay on my hand, but only 1 mana =(...

Game 3 we traded early cretures, then i drew auriok champion, and played 2 critters turn 4
this and an rushing river for sword of light/shadow was allready win

[MErcator]

MErcator (GB-Rock) vs. Grizzledmage (UB-C)
2 : 1

First game started really slow for me, and he treachery-ed my spiritmonger and had afterwards counters, when i could only cast one spell per turn =(

2nd game i had river boa and hypnotic who dealt dmg. he had removal and counter and treachery again, but didn't take river boa, but the bigger guy
the boa went all the way nearly alone, but it was a close one, as i had to play from the top a very long time

3rd game i had withered wretch turn 2, he 2 mana stones, which got blown up by his disk, to get rid of my survival. after that i played a bunch of creatures, which he kept overtaking with controll magic, dominieer, copy enchantment...
but he had no counter the whole time, so i managed decree of pain, to kill 4 creatures
he had to play from the top, because he controlled my masticore *g*

nice games, some really tough...

[pyyhttu]

Pyyhttu (BR-Goblins) vs. GeorgB (5C-StuffyCombo): 2-1 for pyyhttu.

The deck I piloted was Aleksi Väänänen's BRGoblin: http://vaihdetaan.kapsi.fi/forums/index.php?topic=49289.msg200958#msg200958

1st. game: I started with some angry goblin meat, Frenzied Goblin, Sparksmith and Mogg Flunkies while George Boy gathered mana artifacts and mana. He later tutored for FTK and shot my sparksmith. I top decked later Goblin King and attacked with mountain walkers for win (He had Taiga in play).

2nd. game: GeorgB starts by playing Plateau. Go. I play Skirk Prospektor which he Lightning Bolts at EOT. He then plays Tundra, gives turn and I play some more threats in the curve: Goblin Piledriver. Georg gathers mana and ont the following turn I play Goblin Matron, fetching Goblin Recruiter. Georg plays some more mana, and I proceed the to do some idiotic, deep goblin stack with the Recruiter. I am clearly overextending here. At EOT he play plays Enlighetened Tutor for Collective Restraint. This is bad.
My goblin stack do have Sharpshooter and Siege-Gang Commander to get around restraint, but I idiotically go and play... Ruination as he has 5 non-basic lands tapped. After Ruination I noticed that there was one forest after all. So no attack. Better yet, I also had non-basic lands (2 of 4) so can't play anything for a while because of the 4 card goblin pile on top of my library.

I die on Liliana Vess, which resurrects my dead Goblins in late game, and as an insult on top of injury, Georg then sweeps all 4 1/1 goblins with MY Goblin Sharpshooter and attacks for the win (with my goblins obv).

3rd. Game: I decide to go first and get a good hand of Tattermunge Maniac, Goblin Cadets and Mogg something. I attack about 5 turns straight dealing 20 damage as Georg doesn't find solutions in time.