I recently reached 45,000 total cards entered into my database of Magic cards via my bot (currently in Discord form). To celebrate this milestone, I told my group I would supply everyone with an extra pack, specifically a March of the Machines Aftermath Epilogue booster. (I had bought a box a month earlier with this plan in place.) I was hopeful that would draw a bit of a crowd, but we still had four and four is the magic number! Even better, one of those people was the first (and so far only) person to complete a trade with my bot!
We decided to open the Epilogue packs at the end and on it's own. I expected that we would open them and add them to one of the other packs, but I'm glad I was dissuaded from that, because it worked out well on its own.
Anyways, here's what we all opened:
The drafting part was tough. I got a lot of great threats but I didn't have good focus. I had some attempts to combo around counters, legends, and enchantments; in the end I had to choose between them. My mana fixing was a bit shoddy as well, though it turned out okay. Here's everything I picked:
The only card I really kept from the enchantments theme payoff was the Fear of Infinity. Recently I haven't had many hard cuts to make, but this time I started with well over 30 playable cards. Partly because of the extra cards, for sure, but I also just felt like I got a great pool. Here is the deck I built. I figured I had enough fixing to run only sixteen lands. Please tell me which changes you would have made! (There is one exception card that I was honor-bound to run.)
We decided to do a full best-of-three format round robin. That was probably a bad idea because I am a slow player and we got a late start, but it was well worth it for me. I shuffled up against my first opponent, running Mardu lifegain, and got a hand with the leyline but not enough lands. I mulliganed and got the leyline again. (I promise I was adequately shuffling and we were cutting... I wasn't cheating!) I got Invigorating Hot Spring down on turn three with all five colors available to me. I followed that up the next three turns with creatures that all got hit with removal. Unwilling Vessel met a Makeshift Binding, the Weight Room (turn five, thanks leyline!) token was Easy Prey, and my Spara's Adjudicators Claimed the Precious. Fortunately, I had given each of those a nice +1/+1 token, so they got to swing in once each. I followed those three up with Vadrok, who became a 4/4 with the last hot spring token. I had a tough choice to make later on with my Drag to the Roots: the Makeshift Binding, a Returned Pastcaller, and a Tunnel of Hate. I chose the Returned Pastcaller which turned out to be the correct choice. Vadrok was enough to win me that game, though I won at only three life.
In the second game, I started with an all Simic hand, including the lands. Nevertheless, I thought I had some good gas with Goldberry and Ent-Draught Basin, which came down on turns two and three. They kept swinging in with efficient creatures and got me to twelve, then six. I had to block (I never did anything comborific with those two cards) and let my board die. On my sixth turn I played the Generous Ent. Now I had a blocker and a food!
On the next turn, they Abraded my food and attacked me down to two. That Markov Baron was their Ringbearer, so it skulked right past my Ent. I lost while they were at 28. Yikes.
In game three they started off by trading Lotho for my House Cartographer when I swung. I got Altanak down, but that was met with Makeshift Binding. I pulled off a great two-for-one when I Dragged to the Roots that Binding when attacked, then ate a big creature with the suddenly-appeared Altanak. A few turns later it was over. 1-0.
In the second round I was up against the player who has actually used my bot, running another Mardu deck, this time supported by a bunch of removal. They got a Possessed Goat down and got Sticky Fingers on it. I did not catch up and lost the first game. In the second game they started with a Rohirrim Lancer that wound up dealing me around 15 damage. (It did become the ringbearer and got a +1/+1 counter, which helped.) I got Sigarda down early, but it stepped into a Quicksand Whirlpool. I was stuck without blue mana and got my Generous Ent down on turn 6 which stopped the bleeding a bit. I finally drew Spara's Adjudicators to provide blue mana and played Gold-Forged Thopteryx followed by Vadrok the next turn. I held Fear of Infinity, but I kept having to delay casting it because I needed a new blocker each turn. I came out good on a big combat, though I was down 3 against 21 and still facing down the Lancer, Eagles of the North, Coppercoat Vanguard, Savior of the Small, and Seven-Tail Mentor. I drew an island and cast Tolarian Contempt right before I would have otherwise died. I survived another big attack but again came out ahead on the board and went to one life. From there I played the Fear of Infinity and managed to win, ending the game with ten life.
In the third game that Goat came out to bleat and beat. I did get Vadrok out, but it stepped into some sketchy looking sand.
I did not survive much longer. 1-1.
In the third round I was up against a Golgari deck. (Yeah, we were all playing black, why not?) In game one I didn't get to go to the Weight Room because it is a room.
Sigarda died to Blot Out. (At least that makes more sense than quicksand.) I went down to five, but then I played Altanak who got powered up by the Invigorating Hot Spring and won in two turns.
I mulled twice in the next game and started to die, but Slimy Aquarium created a manifested creature that just happened to be Altanak looking down. I was down to five, so I couldn't just swing out. Instead I flipped Altanak when a Bashful Beastie came through the red zone, eating it. Sadly Altanak died to Blot Out two turns later. Gold-Forged Thopteryx saved Saruman the White by doubling up the ward 2. I got the Adjudicators and was able to win from there. 2-1.
Tie-breakers came down to game records and I lost 5-3 vs 5-2 to my first opponent. It's excellent for things to come that close!
This was a great event. I think the MotM Aftermath packs were a great choice for the bonus and everyone seemed excited to be a part of it, despite the silly reason to celebrate. It contributed to a bit of Happy Magicking!
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