At the End of the Day: How Two Opponents Gifted Me 18 Packs
-Jeff Darran (phantom on SciFi Genre, and jcdarran@gmail.com)
Today I will tell a story of the Magic powers-that-be simply giving me games despite myself.
Let me start by saying that I was playing a deck that JohnnyK built from Justin's brain.... or something like that. I wasn't 100% familiar with the deck I just knew I was iritated at my own deck. This story is taken from a side event at the NC Regionals in Concord North Carolina. I started the day in the main event, but had an unspectacular 2-3-0 record and opted to drop.
round 1 vs dragonstorm game one, I stomp face game 2 I get face stomped game 3, snatching from the jaws of epic fail. Opponent is at 1 life. I had gotten him down to 3. No cards in hand. I pass turn, he draws his 2 cards, taking his 2 damage from the spiteful visions I had on the board. I believe I started the turn at 15 or 17. Something like that and I had previously earwig squaded, removing 3 of the 4 hellkites in the deck. So I passed turn, he goes to 1, and attempts to go off. He does go off, getting me down to 2. He thought he had me but he didn't have enough mana left to cast the last grapeshot in his hand. (in retrospect, if he had skipped the shard volley, he had a high enough spell count to kill me off that grapeshot). So he finishes his turn, looks at me (with 4 goblins on the board) and says, "good game" and scoops up his cards. Remember, I'm at 2 life with spiteful visions on the board. My only way of winning the game is for my top card to be a tarfire, so I can kill him between the draw trigger and the draw. Fortunately for me, he scooped. After his brother (who was standing behind him) got done fussing him out for not letting me play my turn, I lie and tell the kid that the next card was a tarfire and I would have had him anyways. It was truthfully a graven cairns. He scooped tho, so I won.
Round 2 ELVES
It was even more epic fail on both parts. First of all I had to wait almost another HOUR for my game to start, cause someone said there was no time limit on these matches. Brilliant. So anyways game 1 I stomp face. Game 2, I get stomped by a colossus. I had wort on the board and kept recurring a tarfire, but didn't know that I could tarfire the colossus in response to wort's trigger going on the stack. i.e. wort’s ability triggers, tarfire the colossus, tarfire in yard, return tarfire to hand, roast colossus. Oops, my bad (really oops, cause I can’t do that anyways lol, since the tarfire isn’t in the yard when the trigger goes on the stack). So we go to game 3. Back and forth, building armies, I can't punch thru, and he isn't attacking me. he gets colossus on the board. I have a goblin king on the board. a judge is sitting there next to us, to encourage a lack of slow play on opponents part. but aside from that, he isn't paying attention to what we are doing, just that we aren't stalling. Opponent may have attacked with the colossus, I may have blocked with the king and regenerated him. actually that did happen. I failed to realize, as did my opponent, that goblin king gives ALL goblins mountainwalk and +1/+1. thus begins the stalemate. opponent doesn't turn colossus sideways and beat face. I bring a murderous redcap into play, (2 mad aunties and a king on the board, so he hits at 5/5) and I deal 5 damage to the face. Actually I dealt 2 damage to the face. JohnnyK or Justin or Phil tells the judge we have performed a game state error. judge says we are to fix it as we are still in same phase. JohnnyK and Justin are secretly hoping I change my target of the redcap from opponents face to goblin king, but I don't cause neither me or opponent has realized that the colossus has mountainwalk. This goes back and forth for a while, I finally get auntie Wort on the board, so I have fear attack and can regen my tarfire. I swing with auntie next turn, opponent at 7, me at 9. during his turn everyone around us (about 10 people) are encouraging him to attack and get it over with. In a previous turn, he had cast a Yavimaya Dryad, giving me a forest, so he could forestwalk his guys. I knew he had Elvish Champions in his deck (thanks earwig) so I knew I could be in trouble. he played something and then moved to combat phase. He declares attackers as colossus (not enough mana to pump it) a Mutavault, and the Dryad. I declare the king as a blocker on the colossus, the redcap on the mutavault, and the dryad I can't block as I have a forest. judge says hold up, goblin king can't block the colossus he has mountainwalk. oh crud. I'm in trouble now. I’m being attacked by a 5/5 mountainwalk colossus, a 3/3 mountainwalk mutavault, and a 2/1 forestwalk dryad. I can't block any of it. 10 damage. 9 life. I am made of fail. I start to pile up my land, and as I’m thinking F*&# to myself, I remember I have a tarfire in my hand, cause I was gonna save it and kill the colossus next turn with Wort's ability (not realizing that I couldn't because of the way Wort’s ability worked – tho I didn’t know this then). I tap a red mana and say "before blockers are declared, I tarfire the dryad." I take 8 damage, left at one life, I have 10 creatures on the board, and opponent has 5 that are untapped and no cards in hand. I have won! I have just snatched victory from the jaws of epic fail and defeat.
This game was filled with misplay and a general lack of game state. Please not to be suspending me from DCI for not realizing that a goblin king gives my opponents colossus mountainwalk. I would like to thank my opponent for not turning his creatures sideways, cause turning creatures sideways is how one tends to win. Unless you are turning mountains sideways and burning face. Hope you enjoyed the story of how I stole 18 packs from the jaws of epic fail. PEACE
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