Used my hoarded daily-quest gold to enter the sealed-deck Arena Open today.
First try, got myself spanked, as one would expect. Went 2-3 with this weak-ass deck.
Notes on each round
1L: Cyclone Summoner wrecked me - he had two other giants on the board and bounced his Egon artifact to hand. I missed land drops twice.
2W: RG aggro. Kept 4 land hand, drew 3 more in a row. Way behind on board. Made mistake tapping mana, cost me 2 life. Saved by Run Ashore bouncing two creatures to keep me at 1, then got through with Yeti.
3W: BUG snow. Multiple flyers, double Spirit of the Aldergard, and Narfi. Run Ashore was big again, caused enough delay for Yeti to get through before he killed me.
4L: Mana screw, kept three tapped lands, had to Behold to find 4th, drew no more. He had turn 3 Jorn, turn 4 Harald, turn 6 kennel master, turn 7 wurm…totally stomped me.
5L: His Firewalker attacked twice and got playable lands off the boast both times. I had to trade a Yeti for it. He followed with packmate and outrider. Got Nexus out, slowed him with Run Ashore. He had Aegar and Raven to follow though, couldn’t keep up, and had his own Run Ashore to finish.
Second try, ended up with this wierd 4-color thing that went 5-3. Would have liked to play aggro with the two Hammers, but just didn’t have the 2-drops to be feasible.
Notes on each round
1W: Kept 2-land hand, but it had both Sculptor and Replicating Ring. Drew third land, good to go, then got really lucky with Dragon and a Hammer dwarf. He killed those but couldn’t handle the follow-up Cyclone Summoner.
2L: Ridiculous UGW deck with a zillion creatures, including Toski and Maja. Plus Path to the World Tree. Used Cyclone Summoner to reset, and got Narfi out. But he replayed Toski and a Wings, started drawing cards, and got a wurm to clog up the ground. Played Righteous Valkyrie too, and Ravenformed my Narfi. Got close, but he just had too many extra cards from the Toski and the Path.
3L: Kept hand with no green but Behold, had to use it to find a forest. Opponent was GW with multiple angels, splashed red for removal, curved out and just stomped me.
4W: Turn 2 Magda, turn 3 Firewalker, turn 4 Toralf’s Hammer. Nothing in my deck can stop that hammer, but it doesn’t help if he has no creatures. Battle of Frost and Fire saved me, then Disdainful Stroke saved me again by countering his Mammoth. Hammer was still out, but no creatures so I was able to get in with a Troll and Hammer dwarf. Cyclone Summoner finished it off.
5W: UR giants and spells. Used Sculptor and Frost to get Narfi out. He had Hawk with Pick, got the Invasion of the Giants saga, and played two Squash plus Berg Strider. Killed a bunch of my things, but a Hammer dwarf, packmate, and Narfi were enough to get through.
6W: Had to mull a hand with no early plays and bad color combos. Kept three lands but drew no more, had to Behold to find fourth. Opponent was BW and played Starnhelm Unleashed, too short on land to counter though I had a Stroke. Fortunately got land to play an Elven Bow and Outrider to stall the angels, though he made me discard a Hammer in the process. Eventually drew the Dragon and a demon bolt that let me kill the angels, then flew in for the win.
7W: Turn one Throne of Death, turn two Disciple for discard. Both of us missed land drops, but then he got one and played Harald. Killed him with Poison the Cup and scryed to some land. Eventually got to cast the Battle of Frost and Fire to get two of his guys, then Dragon. He never got his fifth land.
8L: WR aggro, opened with Oracle and Story Seeker then Goldmaw Champion. Dead on turn 6.
And the third run, another green-based 4 color deck that was terrible, ended up 1-3.
Notes on each round
1L: Halvar’s equipment and a Tormentor’s helm on a Story Seeker. Killed that, Righteous Valkyrie equipped with same, then a Hammer dwarf. Had both Squash in my hand but no red.
2W: Played the changling artifact guy naming giant, then Doomskar, Cinderheart, and Aegar in succession. Plus equipment, and a Cosmos Elixir. Got Squash plus Masked Vandal to remove his big guys, then blockers to stabilize, then Svella and started pulling things out for free.
3L: Lost to poison. Fymn plus two Valkyries, couldn’t block enough of them, got no removal.
4L: Bloodsky Berkserker plus Throne of Death turn 3, Braggart turn 4, Draugur Necromancer turn 5. Had to block, but then he just got my guys back with the necromancer. Finally drew a Squash to kill it but too late.
Fourth pool, went RG splashing black and white and that was even worse, 0-3.
Notes on each round
1L: Had to mull after drawing all forests and no green cards. RG aggro on the other side, and he got both squash and demon bolt to remove my blockers. Then he dropped Vorinclex and killed me.
2L: RG again, this time with black splash. Removed three of my creatures then played Svella. Got Fynn with the Sword of the Realms, but drew no removal for Svella and couldn’t keep up. Eventually he got Toralf’s Hammer and overran me.
3L: Svella again, on curve on turn 3, but this time I had Binding to kill it. Then he played Calamity Bearer followed by Cinderheart Giant, and I couldn’t kill either.
Fifth pool, tried RW aggro. This one went all the way, 7-1.
Notes on each round
1W: Kept 2-land hand, missed next two land drops. Finally drew third land but by then he was set up, GW with lots of creatures. Lucky for me he got mana screwed and never drew his fifth land, was able to trade to clear off the board and then get across with Arni Brokenbrow.
2L: First hand 4 mountains and no early plays, second one land, ended up mull to 5. Opponent also RW, played Magda into Breakneck Berseker into Master Skald. Drew 4 lands in a row, he dropped a Conderheart Giant, got run over.
3W: No 2 drop but had haste 3 drop into Braggart. Opponent was slow, doing 3 foretells. Finally got a Berg Strider down but used Wings to fly over for the win.
4W: RG aggro but I had the quicker draw plus a demon bolt. He got a wurm on turn 6 to go up to 8 but I had enough creatures to go wide for the win.
5W: Slow opening hand with no plays, mull to 6 had only two mountains, but kept anyway since it was mostly red and had demon bolt. Drew a mountain and plains next two draws, so lucky there. Had him at 3, but then he played Rise of the Dread Marn for 2 zombies, Righteous Valkyrie, and kept drawing creatures and combat tricks. Finally he got Rise of the Draugur and got back two angels, but still I just barely was staying ahead. Then somehow I screwed up and killed the wrong one of his creatures on a block, and he had me dead to rights, but next turn made a mistake of his own blocking and let through exactly lethal.
6W: He got Koll out right away and played a Spectral Steel on him, and I had no removal. But he eventually blocked so I could kill it…and then used a Master Skald to get back the Steel. But that wasn’t the worst, because then he played Toralf’s Hammer. Luckily I was sitting on Shackles of Treachery and it didn’t matter.
7W: Got a good aggro draw and he was mana screwed, stuck on 3 swamps. Still, I almost messed it up by throwing away a Wings of the Cosmos when it made no sense to play it. Fortunately I drew a few more good cards and finished it out.
8W: Five color snow deck, got down Battle of Frost and Fire on turn 5 and wiped out most of my board. I screwed up again with Wings of the Cosmos and “saved” my Bloodline Pretender, though he would have survived anyway. Then he dropped Waking the Trolls - but I drew a hasty guy and finished him off.
I’ve certainly learned that I’m best at playing aggro in these sealed environments. I just don’t do as well with the slower decks, probably gives me more opportunities to screw up.
First time I’ve done day 2 in one of these things. I’ll be shocked if I win more than one match…but who knows, maybe my pool will have good aggro again.
