"In that case, I'm a black guy"

Tuesday 12 July 2011

Just because Solemn is back, doesn't mean Golems is a deck

About six weeks ago, i started playing on Cockatrice.  It has its flaws, and you play against a noticable number of mongoloids, but it's free and i'm always broke.  At least it automatically adds pictures, which is an improvement on Magic Workstation.

Naturally, i've been testing Mono Black Control a fair bit and today I had a beautiful moment.  My opponent was playing an "original" white/green Golem deck using Solemn Simulacrum (good) and Tempered Steel (good) alongside the Splicers (not so much).  Naturally, i drew badly and was playing my removal spells almost immediately - the incidental lifegain just about keeping me alive.  After he cast Precursor Golem i had to use my Black Sun's Zenith just to stay alive, shrinking all his Golems to 1/1 (and killing the Splicers, but who cares).

And then my eyes lit up.  I drew Consume Spirit and laughed out loud as i sank all my mana in to it, happily raising my life total from two to 26 and killing all of his Golems, thanks to Precusor.  I was happy to stabilise for the time being, but it was even better than I first thought.  Looking at the chat window, my opponent had given me a fairly standard "??"  followed by "you targetted Lodestone." I explain to him, since he apparently doesn't understand his own cards, that it copies to every Golem since Lodestone Golem is, shockingly, a Golem.

Next, he did was any self-respecting 'netizen' would do when made to look like a moron: he left the game.

Saturday 9 July 2011

Worldslaying the M12 prerelease

So, yeah, Worldslayer is awful.  But since casual cards often make for the best stories i figured i'd throw this one out there.

I was playing against the guy who always says "if i just drew this card..." and the like.  He was playing Worldslayer... maindeck... so not really a surprise that he's that guy, right?  I was playing UB with a red splash (for Incinerate and Fireball, because d'uh) and a Grave Titan.  It was a fairly control-ish deck (although i did win one game with a bunch of bears and an Aether Adept), stalling for six lands (or seven for FoF Sphinx, who's actual name escapes me).

Villain was playing some kind of RB aggro deck with nothing super exciting.  He had a ton of mediocre one-drops, so he had me down to a single life by the time i stablised.  He had a Tormented Soul on-board when i hit seven mana to cast the Sphinx.  I hit some lands, a card i can't remember and, crucially, Wring Flesh.  For some reason unbeknownst to me, he gave me a swamp and the Wring Flesh... which is exactly what i needed.  Okay!

So i proceed to attack with my Sphinx, praying that he wouldn't draw a Shock or an Incinerate.  He didn't, and i bashed him down to Fireball range.  With a genuine sigh of relief, that was game one.

Game two, the Worldslayer came into play.  He was behind on the board, what with me having a Grave Titan in play.  So he equips the Tormented Soul, takes 4 damage from my zombies (after Assasinating my Titan with Royal Assasin) and, sure enough, slays the world on his turn.  I held back an Island and a Fireball which i had been unable to cast.  I then drew three lands in a row, followed by a Salamander Rogue (best creature type ever, by the way) and started beating at his then-14 life.  He eventually drew a guy to stall me, and cast a new Twisted Soul, with enough mana to equip the Sword of Stupid and Dumb.  We were both at 7 life by now and he was vaguely ahead on the board: two guys, one of which was unblockable, to my one.

I was still holding the fireball at this point, and drew my Manalithe to put me in-range of Fireball-ing him to death.  I was just praying he wouldn't equip the Worldslayer and reset the game again (although I did still have an Elixir of Immortality to draw at some point).  Forunately, he didn't, and i untapped and killed him with said Fireball.  The moral of the story is, even when Worldslayer might be good, it's still fucking awful.

P.S. it should be mythic.