Previous blog can be found here: Pyromantic value - MTG QUEST blog - Session I
When we last left off, I planeswalked to Dominaria to go find Venser, the Sojourner and help him retrieve some artifacts. But instead of the famous Tolarian Academy, I was greeted by a wretched swamp that stretched for miles, infected by all sorts of vermin. The first enemies I encountered were some rather annoying snakes. Firebolt and Pillar of Flame not being instants really hurt me here and I took a bit of damage, but ultimately my deck's ability to play multiple spells a turn pushed through. I wasn't so lucky with the next encounter as a lvl 3 living swamp beat the shit out of my still lvl 1 pyromancer that mulliganed and didn't have a creature. Turns out 4 lands, Firebolt and a Fated Conflagration don't fare well against an opponent that timewalks you twice due to his levels, then proceeds to not play creatures for the rest of the game.
Waking up as my clone in a Simic Growthchamber, I payed the Loxodon beggar a visit to heal myself up for a gold coin, then proceeded to explore the swamp. After killing some rats I was once again defeated, this time by zombies. There's this interesting subgame: Usually in magic, it doesn't matter whether you're at 1 life as long as your opponent is at zero. It matters however if you're going up against multiple enemies before reaching your destination without a chance to rest. In a greed to avoid damage I Pillar of Flamed a Butcher Ghoul to push through some early damage only to have no quick answers to 3 Lord of the Undead the following turns. Only having Fated Conflagration against creatures with power 3 or more really hurt me here. But I knew what I was getting myself into when not playing with bolts.
Third time was in fact the charm as I managed to dodge some fights with lucky rolls and killed some lvl 0-2 enemies on my blind way through the swamp and even reached level 2 which gave me an additonal preparation turn. I managed to find Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon and wanted to dodge a fight because I feared he'd be beyond my capacities, but my jab at his animalistic side caused him to attack me nevertheless.
That fight itself was by far the most exciting one I had so far in this game, his cards can be ridiculously powerful but as a red mage I am in a unique position in that his life total and permanents are especially susceptible to my burn. Him being lvl 3 with me being lvl 2 meant he wouldn't get too much of a headstart (he started his curve with a Phyrexian Rager which I used Liliana's Moonglove Extract on to dodge some early damage and using Molten Rain to even the board. Due to me threatening his life early, forcing him to play removal that hurt himself his life soon became a precious ressource. The awkwardness of his Phyrexian 5/5s forcing him to sacrifice permanents and the inability to play Reckless Spite later which he apparently had in his hand all game made my friend really sweat, but I think he did amazing and almost won the game swinging with hasted bladewing putting me to 7 poison and forcing me to Magma Jet and Firebolt it in the following turn. Two turns later I had a lone phoenix with a Vial of Poison negating his commander hitting me for lethal. He was exactly at 5 life and thus couldn't use Reckless Spite, so he instead swung with 2 Phyrexian Rager and 2 Phyrexian Totem for 14 dmg. I chump-blocked one Totem going to 4 and won with Bone Saw on Phoenix and a final Firebolt. The artifacts I bought in Ravnica definitely pulled their weight in this fight as I wouldn't have won the match without them!
The Lich's Mirror I gained as loot afterwards didn't feel like something I'd really want so I considered selling it. On the other side I can see it being good in an attrition match versus a boss where drawing 7 fresh cards is good even if it means you have to play all your lands again. Definitely something I'll keep in my backpack for now to not accidentally get it destroyed a spell or some random fight.
Looking at the map I took a look at the dead end on the map hoping for some awesome hidden treasure. There was indeed a small bonus lore in form of Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded and an easy fight, but sadly nothing in terms of exp and loot.
Venturing to the haunted house that the dragon told me was the way to the sea by which I'd be able to travel to the Tolarian Academy, I encountered some ghosts and managed to jug my last Elixir of Immortality for 9 life. Eating some of the rotten food in the storage room put me to 9 poison counters, but boosted my life further which was neat since I didn't expect much infection in a haunted house like this and the additional life boost was nice. I encountered a creepy child hoping for an easy fight, but was instead punished with a humiliating -100exp for my recklessness.
The final fight against the ghost of Crovax in the Cellar finally rewarded me for having 4 Molten Rain in the mainboard. My opponent managed to get two spirits from Lingering Souls before getting blasted into oblivion by 3 Molten Rain while my Magmatic Channeler did his best Delver of Secrets
impression and hitting my opponent repeatedly.
After the fight, I found a boat near the Underground River and managed to travel to the island of Tolaria. Since this was a nice cut, me and my friend decided to end the session there.
My stats are now the following:
NAME: Pyrrhus
LEVEL: 2
MAXIMUM LEVEL: 6
EXPERIENCE POINTS (XP): 585
NEXT LEVEL: 800 (See the XP table here.)
MAXIMUM LIFE TOTAL: 17 (13 + 2xlevel)
CURRENT LIFE TOTAL: 15
POISON COUNTERS: 9
GOLD: 48
FORMS: None
PERMITS: None
HIGHEST ACCLAMATION POINTS SCORE: 0
STEALTH SCORE: +0
GORGON HEAD TROPHIES OBTAINED: 0
COMMANDER: None
OTHER COMMANDER SCROLLS: None
I talked to my buddy about my deck afterwards and I voiced the regret of not including some cards I forgot existed when I constructed it, namely Fiery Temper. See, I'm sometimes not very smart and I didn't read Fated Conflagration properly thinking it also hit players, otherwise I'd probably have included a playset of Brimstone Volley. Turns out it doesn't though which made the reach I had with this deck a lot more pityful than I first thought and didn't work well with Chandra's Phoenix either. Not being able to kill creatuers with toughness 3 or more before the fourth turn also hurts. So we agreed that I'd be able to buy spells that are not in the game later if they mentioned the deckbuilding restrictions I put on myself, namely:
- They cost around 50ct or less irl
- They fit the "Pyromancer" theme of the deck
- They're legal in Modern
We didn't put a price on them yet, but agreed that they shouldn't be cheap. 10 gold per cards seemed fitting as they weren't meant to be accessible (For reference: A lightning bolt can be purchased for 1 gold). Besides Fiery Temper, cards I had my eyes on were Cathartic Pyre and Seismic Spike. The latter I was still a bit unsure of as I wouldn't be able to stop my opponents from developing their board on higher levels, but we agreed that the chance to have a land with 8 Stone Rain effects seemed an interesting way to combat some of the big creature decks we both knew would be coming later in the story. Sadly Violent Eruption isn't Modern legal, but my friend said he'd allow me to buy the set since the card didn't seem broken and fit the deck well, but since it was an exception I'd have to pay 20 gold per card. Ouff! I didn't know whether to be upset or happy about this decision of his. I'm not even sure whether my discard will be reliable enough to be worth going into madness this heavily. That said the cool thing with all spells I want to discard is that they're all at least decent for their actual cost as well. If somehow possible I'd actually like to try finishing the game as an actual monored flame-themed deck. We'll see how it goes!
Anyways, that's it for today. Next session I'll be entering the famous Tolarian Academy to find Venser and help him fight back against the still ominous villain. I'm also hoping for some merchants, I still need that Jump spell for the thief back in Ravnica and wouldn't mind some sideboard cards, specifically some red artifact destruction seems good to have access to.
