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Friday, October 2, 2009

Zendikar Launch Party or FNM?

Yesterday I drafted Zendikar with few other players. And as I already played drafts and sealed decks during the past few days I did not want to spend even more money on Zendikar. We had an appointment with Molik and NX but he said that he does not have time so I ended up in Outpost. There I spent some time testing my Vampire and Soldier T2 decks but I did not learn much.

Launch party started but no one was really interested in sealed deck. Many people came for a draft though. I signed up after some time trying to figure out if I want to spend money on it or not (as I hardly sold anything from previous drafts).

Now a more serious report from the FNM. My final result was really bad but the games themselves were really "epic" or "hilarious" as some people would say.

I started drafting mono black getting black vampires. Later I got 2 Hagra Diabolists and started getting Allies in Black and Green. I did not get too many of them and got slightly of color getting Narrow Escapes, white quest and some creatures. In the meantime I got green baloths, larva, gladeheart etc.

1st Round
Game 1
I was paired against Ivan playing a blue/red deck with flyers (blue) and some bigger creatures (red) and burn. My opponent got a wall-like creature (some Kraren) in play. Later he added two fliers (both being 1/2). Each round he was attacking with them. My first creature on the table was Giant Scorpion (1/3 Deathtouch). Too bad that it does not have Reach. I used him for attacking as I was sure my opponent does not want his defender dead. Later on my opponent got a bit more lucky then me and top decked a 4/3 vanilla creature. He thought he would kill me with it and it actually looked like that. Too bad that I top decked Spidersilk net^_~ and equipped the Scorpion with it. In the next turn my Scorpion finally killed one of the attacking creatures (the 4/3 vanilla). In that round I played Narrow Escape on one of my lands. In my next round I did almost the same. I killed another creature with my scorpion and then bounced back my Kabira Crossroads (at that time it was my only source of white mana). I also top decked Grazing Gladeheart. With this I could gain more life and I managed to get 15 life from 1 life. (in the meantime my opponent was still attacking me with his creatures and I was always killing one of them hoping that he would run out of them sooner or later). I started getting creatures on my own too and managed to get to the point where my opponent had 5 life. I was waiting just for one Ally to finish the game fast. But no... Ally did not want to come. Anyway after a really long fight I won the first game.

My and my opponent's life total during Game 1, Round 1

Game 2
In game two I started with doing two silly mistakes resulting later in the game losing just because of that. I would have won easily if I wouldn't be stupid. eh...rather not comment on this. The game was rather short compared to the first one.

Game 3
When we were starting our third game we had heard that we have just 3 minutes to finish the game. My opponent's draw was good and he thought he would kill me in those few minutes. He got 3 creatures in play (1/2, 2/2 flyer and 4/3) and was attacking me each round. 7dmg per turn? Not bad. But he had to deal with Narrow Escapes and Vampire's Bites. The game ended in a draw each of us having 12 life.

Round 2
Game 2
I started wuth Kabira Crossroads gaining two life and then I was just putting lands in play. My opponent showed me two Zekthar Expeditions early in the game (I wasn't happy about it). I used disfigure on one and I had to let the other one pass through. In total I lost 13 life in that round (could have been much worse...ufff). At end of turn I played Narrow Escape. In my turn it was my turn to attack and than I played another Narrow Escape on Kabira Crossroads.

When I finally thought that I might actually win the game Ob Nixilis "entered the battlefield". My opponent put a land into play and triggered the ability. I wasn't happy about that either. I thought it would be my end but I top decked Grazing Gladeheart and started gaining life. Ob managed to do more damage but I was drawing lands and putting them in play. Eventually I got the chance to block Nixilis and kill him with my scorpion. After this it was my turn to start dealing damage. My opponent went down to 6 life and I went to having 22 life. When I thought the game can't get worse Nixilis came back. And it still wasn't the worse thing that could have happened because my opponent pulled out Sorin Markov out of his sleeve!

This guy killed one of my creatures and gained him two life. That meant that I could not kill my opponent with one attack (I should have killed Sorin and dealt with the player later but I messed that up). In that attack all but one creature my opponent controlled died. Sorin was still there killing my creatures though. Another red Expedition arrived in play. With Electropotence, Sorin and Trusty Matchet this elemental could have dealt 18 damage. My opponent got distracted though and did not manage to kill me. I went down to 11 and was ready to fight for my life till the end but my opponent gave up thinking he would die. (I dealt 2 dmg to him with river boa/he got two life but did not use Sorin's ability in the previous turn).

With the mistakes on my side he should have won. But I guess he was too nervous for that. Even though I have to note that my first opponent was REALLY nervous when playing against me and losing the first game. He was SO CLOSE to winning.

Round 3
Game 1
In the last round I played against blue/green deck. The game looked somewhat like
STS: Kabira Crossroads
OPP: Island, Caller of Gales
STS: land
OPP: the U land that gives you 1 life, attack with Caller of Gales
STS: land
OPP: the U land that gives you 1 life, attack with Caller of Gales
STS: land, Giant Scorpion
Few turns later my opponent had still the Caller of Gales in play. He had completed green quest and Territorial Baloth in play. He sacrificed the quest, played a land, gave Baloth flying and attacked for 10. I was just smiling. My life total went down to ten.
In my turn I had Larva, Giant Scorpiom in play. I played Territorial Baloth, my opponent's expression on his face suddenly changed. I played a land and played Harrow. My opponent's expression went even more grave. With Harrow I put two forests in play and attacked for 15. I won the game.

Game 2
STS: Kabira Crossroads
OPP: Island, Caller of Gales
STS: land
OPP: the U land that gives you 1 life, attack with Caller of Gales
STS: land
OPP: the U land that gives you 1 life, attack with Caller of Gales
STS: land, Giant Scorpion
... we spend about a minute laughing and wondering how this is possible. Note that I shuffled my cards by piling them, doing few faro shuffles and letting my opponent cut the deck. I took a mulligan and shuffled the deck the very same way as before drawing the first 7 cards. Note that this was LIMITED!!!! I had few cards in play sets in the deck (narrow escape and vampire's bite) but not these ONES. (same story on my opp's side)
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Even though I placed badly I have to say that I don't regret spending the money. I had lots of fun playing those games. But now...I should finally stop drafting 3x a week!! (or I should sell some of my cards to get some money for that)

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