MRD Tournament - Game commentary/Discussion

[juzamjedi]

Jatill, I have experienced this exact same thing when I play my Oath of Druids deck in Challenge mode. I Oath'd just to shuffle my library with Gaea's Blessing (I knew there were no more creatures in the deck). Lo and behold, I ended up receiving a creature from AI's deck. Against creatureless decks you will receive semi-random creatures (play an Oath deck against the Fog / Holy Day deck and you will probably end up receiving Rotlung Reanimator. Odd, but I never complained about the "feature".

[jatill]

Aww-
So Channel has been amazing for me. My best use so far was on turn 3, where I cast Mind Twist for 7 AND Ulamog.

[Cognis]

It has potential but for now it has been a dead card in my matches.

[juzamjedi]

I find it amusing that Aww1979 was able to keep 2 different 1-land hands with my deck and they were good keeps that won the game (LoA in one case and an aggro draw with Ponder in the other). Even more amusing are the powerful spells that you Force Spike 'd ... like Simic Sky Swallower.

You hit the nail on the head there are a *lot* of cool plays. I will point out one that you missed but only because it's cool. You can use Library of Alexandria, Pestermite to untap it (and go back to 7 cards) and then use Library again. Just sayin.

[jatill]

Here is the prize structure for this tournament:
For every round you survive, you get to pick 1 card.

[aww1979]

I'll be very very lucky to get a card then. I'm pretty sure I'll get wiped out in round 1.

[monopoman]

Yeah we need the update posted with unlocks Genesis was crashing my game a lot so I updated and now I don't have every card that was drafted unlocked.

Jatill help please!

[Nicdanger]

Play what you can for now. I'm hoping to have round 1 finished, decks redone, and round 2 started before the end of the month.

I haven't had any crashes with Genesis, in fact other than Oath doing weird things (which haven't effected the outcome of any games) my games have all played smoothly.

[aww1979]

I had several crashes with Genesis on the AI side, but fortunately in every case I was either going to win the next turn or was so obviously going to win in 2-3 turns that I just declared it a win. I played a replacement game anyway for when that happened, and won with those, too, so it hasn't impacted my results yet either, though it is still annoying :p

[jatill]

Yeah we need the update posted with unlocks Genesis was crashing my game a lot so I updated and now I don't have every card that was drafted unlocked.

Jatill help please!

This and all future updates have the option of unlocking all cards with a change of the config file.

// Unlock all locked cards
TournamentMode:1

http://www.mediafire.com/file/4396y11vk ... 101220.zip

[juzamjedi]

In my opinion Nicdanger's deck needed more mana sources. There were too many games where I would be unable to cast spells in hand (I only cast Tolsimir and Baneslayer a total of 1 time even though I drew them multiple times). If we are allowed to sideboard for next round (I think this is the plan right?) then I suggest cutting 2 spells and adding 2 more lands.

I would cut Harrow. It's the most expensive mana acceleration spell you have and doesn't seem to play well with Armageddon. I can't think of a situation where I want to play Harrow and Armageddon in the same game; you usually want non-land mana ramp to go with Armageddon.

I would consider cutting War Priest of Thune. In my games there were several times NicDanger's deck was the only one with Enchantments in play and it's just a grizzly bear in those situations.

[aww1979]

Heh, juzamjedi's comments made me go look at nicdanger's deck, and sure enough, there are only 20 mana sources. (counting mox but not elves) I usually play an extra land or two in an Armageddon deck, and I usually play 22-23 normally. I never had issue not getting enough land though that I can remember, at least so far. I do agree that Harrow and War Priest of Thune were never any use in any of the matches, and also surprisingly Terravore never made any impact, either; often I couldn't cast it because it would be 0/0.

I did a doubletake when juzamjedi said he couldn't cast Tolsimir or Baneslayer; I don't think I saw those in any of the games, on either side! AI might've had them and been stuck with them as juzamjedi was, but I didn't even know ANYONE drafted Tolsimir, and while I knew Baneslayer was drafted, I can't recall ever seeing it in play.

I think I would switch Harrow at least for a land, and try to fit one or two more land in as well in place of something else. (assuming we get to sideboard; I have no idea if we do)

[Cognis]

I played Tolsimir a few times but not BSA and I never really had problems with lands but sometimes the decks get randomized in such way that you draw 10 lands in a row or that you can't get a land even if you mulligan 4 times. Those things wouldn't happen a lot if we'd play with real decks but sometimes do in manalink so I play more mana sources than I would normally. Most of the times it's just enough but sometimes you just get screwed. 20 mana sources is little tough, 22 would probably be enough in a weenie deck. I didn't even know the deck used Harrow and War Priest of Thune is useless most of the time since artifacts tend to be the problem, but the possibility of Bitterblossom or Leyline of the Void might warrant a spot in the deck.

[juzamjedi]

I do agree Terravore was a little hit or miss. Some fetchlands, even "bad" ones like Terramorphic Expanse, would have been good for Terravore, Knight of the Reliquary and Crucible of Worlds. In the games I played where Terravore was good, it was AMAZING. Like, 8/8 Trampler attacking on turn 4 amazing.

It is true that Bitterblossom is a huge problem card. But, with 3 more naturalize effects out of 60 I think it would be OK to cut War Priest of Thune for another land.

Mostly I am giving this feedback because I really like playing this style of deck. It was just frustrating when I didn't get to play my haymakers. For example Cognis' deck was way too fast in the games I played. You would think LD would be good against Jund, but the Jund deck was curving out with powerful monsters while I missed land drops and played Qasali Pridemage 's. You can't play Armageddon when they have a better board position than you do.

For what it is worth I am also interested in getting feedback on my own deck. Which card(s) did I put in that aren't working out well for you guys?

[juzamjedi]

I completed my matches yesterday. Cognis and Shantak decks are pretty good in the hands of the AI. My very first game, very first match with Shantak's deck was awesome: T1 Magus of the Vineyard, T2 Natural Order for Progenitus, T3 Standstill. #stillhadallthese