It was a small night. Maybe 10 players. Had a bye my second round, so only got to play three matches.
1-2 v Sultai Energy Ramp ..?
Rotation, no meta, people trying out new decks. Faced this deck which felt a lot like playing into Temur Energy, but it played Black instead of Red. He told me he was trying for a ramp deck dedicated to casting big creatures and Torment of Hailfire's. Which he did. Dire Fleet Ravager and Torment of Hailfire gave me the most trouble. For a deck that relies on lifegain to hold in the mid and late game, Dire Fleet Ravager makes that much harder to do.
Game one I got mana screwed and couldn't get any pieces of the engine on the board.
Game two I managed to get Solemnity down early which stunted his ramp, got a nice Fumigate out, and was able to go wide.
Game three I misplayed by not saccing my Anointer Priest in response to him targeting it with Hostage Taker. I lost my lifegain as a result, and couldn't draw into Fumigate in time to stabilize. I lost to a six-mana Torment of Hailfire and a follow up swing with Dire Fleet Ravager.
2-1 v Izzet Flying Aggro
Another homebrew, I'm assuming. Designed to go very, very fast with all flyers and Favorable Winds. Ran standard burn spells in Red. He used Aethersphere Harvester for his own lifegain.
First game went off poorly. Had to mulligan down to six, and then couldn't draw into any engine pieces. Scooped before showing too much of the deck.
Second went much better. Sideboarded in Duress and Authority of the Consuls, which shut down the aggro plan very fast. Game went long, but he couldn't out-damage my lifegain. He scooped after a Fumigate.
Third game went nearly identical to the second. I got out two Anointed Processions and a Hidden Stockpile early, drew into my Revolt triggers and my Anointer Priests.
2-1 v GR Dinos
According to my opponent, this was supposed to be the potentially meta dino deck. Not sure how accurate that is, but it was a formidable deck for sure.
Game one I got mana screwed after mulliganing to five. He hit his curve perfectly, swinging with five giant dinos on turn six. I scooped before showing any of my deck's win cons.
Game two I sided in Authority of the Consuls, which completely stopped his aggro and gave me the breathing room to building out the token engine. This game went to a scoop after I fumigated his full dino tech.
Game three was ridiculous. I was able to slam Authority of the Consuls on turn 1 for the second time in a row. The engine came in on-curve. He had sided in his boardwipes (Sweltering Suns) to deal with my low-toughness tokens. After the first sweeper dropped, I was able to cast, sac, and re-cast an Anointer Priest, and get two of them on the board. At that point the game was just a formality. He board wiped again, I dropped a Fumigate as well, and he ended up scooping. I finished that game with 58 life, four 3/3 Zombies, ten 1/1 Servos, and two 2/4 Priests on the board.
Final Thoughts
The deck is just sick, honestly. I'm not sure how long I'll be welcome at the shop playing it, given just how tough of a wall it is for opponents to climb over. I'll need practice to smooth out the plays. Also need to practice into control decks. But so far, it's great.
