Apparently Thor has been a Marvel villain a few times, such as during the Blood and Thunder storyline. I had Lightning, Thunderbolts, and Villains in last night's draft, so maybe that was me. I'm already way ahead of myself, though. I got some people over and we drafted a bunch of fun packs:
Here are all my picks:
After taking The Dawning Archaic second, I pushed towards instants and sorceries spellslinger-style. I took the Regal Leosaur to have more than just one Mutate creature. In the second pack, I was thrilled to open Cosmic Cube and then saw Thunderbolts Conspiracy and figured I could work to make that happen. I got a few more Villains and went deeper into Black in the rest of pack two and then even further in pack three. Also in pack three, I tried to make Castle Doom work, but I decided in the end it wasn't worth it. The other Archaic (Rancorous) was an obvious choice. I took Labratory Maniac because I had a couple big draw spells (Boon of the Wish-Giver and Steal the Show) and if those went off twice with the Dawning Archaic, I might have a second win condition. (The obvious flaw in that logic is that if the game goes that long, I should be winning anyways.)
Given all of that, here's villanous "Thor" deck that I built:
That's a bit of a lie. This isn't what I built right off the bat. I started the night with Regal Leosaur in instead of the Barbed Bloodletter.
Nevertheless, this deck seems like a winner. We had planned to do a round robin, so there would be three rounds. The curve is pretty low and reaching the late game will be good for me. Can this deck of bombs go 3-0? We paired up shuffled.
In the first round, I was up against an Izzet Flyers deck. My opponent dropped a Goblin Assailant on turn two. (I miss vanilla creatures.) I had Lightning, Army of One in my hand, but no red source for a while, so it got in for some damage. They played Iron Man, Master of Machines on turn four. I flashed in Thunderbolts Conspiracy, but was still without creatures. Thankfully, I drew into Firdoch Core and then was able to play Lightning on turn five. They played Hawkeye's Bow and hit me again with Iron Man, putting me to 11 life. On turn six, I couldn't safely get in with Lightning. I had Stolen Stark Tech in my hand, but I elected to cast Rancorous Archaic with full converge instead. Sadly, that got Temporally Cleansed and they also played Aerial Doombot. On their attack I killed the Goblin Assailant. I swung in with Lightning on turn seven, but then they played Goblin Assault Team and came in. I animated my Core, blocked, and cast Stolen Stark Tech to keep it alive. I made a big play mistake on the next turn and equipped the Stark Tech to Lightning. Sadly, Iron Man had the Goblin's +1/+1 counter, so it blocked and safely killed Lightning. I replayed the Rancorous Archaic, but my opponent had Frozen in Ice the next turn. I passed on turn eight, but hit the Doombot with Zuko's Exile after they powered it up. They attacked and I went down to 3 life. They played First-Time Flyer. I played Killmonger, Scourge of Wakanda, and took out Iron Man (byebye, Archaic) but they had enough to kill me in the air. That's okay! Maybe if I hadn't accidentally sent Lightning to her death, I would have pulled that off.
In game two, they had three good early turns with First-Time Flyer, Seize the Spoils, and Goblin Assault Team on turns two, three, and four, putting me to 14 real fast. I played Oscorp Research Team, perfect for blocking the Goblins. They dropped Ran and Shaw and I immediately hit that with Zuko's Exile on turn six. They played Aang's Journey (that's a lesson) then swung in. I confidently blocked with the Research Team.
I wasn't out of it yet, though. I cast Kang, Temporal Tyrant, who put in work for me all night. Kang pales in comparison to Prismari, the Inspiration, which my opponent dropped next. I had 9 life. My opponent had nine flying power. I cast Pull from the Grave to last another turn, but they played Vibranium Energy Daggers on their turn. 0-1.
Okay, maybe I lost because of a bad play mistake and because I couldn't deal with multiple dragons. I'm still had a great deck with all kinds of bombs. I shuffled up and played against my next opponent, running a Simic Clones, Life, and Counters deck. They started off with a turn one Adventurous Impulse. I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two. (I am very curious about a strategy decision I made over and over: if I have a tap land and two basics in my hand, should I play a tap land on turn one or play the Lunatic Pandora? I chose to play the land because I didn't feel like thinking about it.) They followed that up with A.I.M. Synthoids. I played Firdoch Core on turn three and then they played Hellcat, Undying Vigilante. (I love the flavor of the name and ability.) They cast Zimone's Experiment, which is a great card. I dropped the Cosmic Cube on turn five and went to attack with an animated Firdoch Core on the next turn. My opponent beat me to the punch, however, by flashing in Tigra and then Band Together to kill my Core before moving to attacks.
They played Pterafractyl with five counters and I played Kang on my seventh turn. I cast Pull from the Grave with no targets just to stay alive. My opponent cast Omni-Changeling to get their own Kang and put me to 1 life. I attacked on turn eight and got Killmonger from the Cube. I was able to take out the Pterafractyl, but needed one more blocker to stay in the game. That game seemed really close!
In game two, I got Lunatic Pandora out on turn two again. My opponent played Shopkeeper's Bane, which combos great with their Tigra. I played Oscorp Research Team on turn four, but they continued to attack in safely for a bit. They played Zimone's Experiment again and got Flux Channeler and another clone: Spark Double. I played a powered-up Ninja of the Hand and they played the Channeler. They dropped a Savage Land Dinosaur (what an amazing card) and I sacrificed the Lunatic Pandora to take it out the next turn. They played Tigra on their seventh turn, as well as Ant-Man's Army. I mutated Snapdax onto my Ninja and killed the Shopkeeper. They Omni-Changeling'ed the Snapdax. They thankfully couldn't mutate it because the card doesn't have that ability, but they did still get my Snapdax's deathtouch, which was not how I thought mutate worked. (I am bad with mutate rules.) Then they used Spark Double to get another non-legendary but still deathtouching Snapdax. Yikes! On turn nine, I played Killmonger, sacrificed the Oscorp Research Team, and took out the Spark Double. Finally, I had the initiative! I played Cosmic Cube the next turn and attacked, hitting Airbending Lesson from the cube onto the Omni-Changeling. I attacked again the next turn and got Kang. I was now in a strong enough position that I was okay with the trade of the two Snapdaxes. ("Snapdaxen"?) They played Call Damage Control, but when they couldn't get both creatures back, they scooped.
On to game thr-... Wait. My opponent had a flash of insight. What did I mutate Snapdax onto? Ninja of the Hand? That's a human! You can't mutate onto a human! (I am really bad with mutate rules.) I cheated and I cheated bad! (Not on purpose; I'm just dumb.) Not only did I cheat, but it was pretty clear I wouldn't have won that game without the mutate trigger. 0-2. (It was at this point that I went through my deck, counted up all the humans, and then sided out the Regal Leotaur.)
My round two opponent wanted to play a third game against me, since that second one had gone wonky, but the other pair had finished, so we moved on to the next round instead.
Okay, round three. My last chance to get a win. Time to focus. My opponent had built an aggressive nearly-mono white Boros deck, but maybe I could pull it out. I played Lunatic Pandora on turn two and they played Feisty Spikeling, then Political Triumph on turn three. I got Kang out on turn five, but they flashed in Flock Impostor and then played Anti-Venom on their turn. Turn five! Thankfully, I had a Zuko's Exile ready for it. They played Pigment Wrangler on turn six and I played Ninja of the Hand and Domri's Ambush to take out the Wrangler before it could cast Striking Palette. They flashed in Ambrosia Whiteheart and triggered the Political Triumph. I had eight life, so I would be able to survive the next attack. I attacked with Kang to get the trigger and the life, but they cast Spider-Man, to the Rescue to keep me from getting in. Okay, I was still going to be able to survive the next attack. I blocked Ambrosia with the Ninja because it could get bigger on future turns.
Avengers Assemble! took me out.
Okay, alright, round three, game two. This was now my last chance for a game win, not to mention trying to win a round. My deck is so powerful. This might be my worst match-up, but I do have a chance. I played the Lunatic Pandora again, but this time on turn one. My opponent played Political Triumph on turn one. Then Valiant Rescuer on turn two. Then Spider-Man, to the Rescue on turn three. Then Daily Bugle Reporters on turn four. They played S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier on turn five and I responded to it's entering ability with Zuko's Exile on the Political Triumph to try to stay alive.
I stayed alive one more turn after that. 0-3. 0-6 in games.
I did squeeze in that bonus game with my round-two opponent and I did win. They did not go easy on me (though they forgot to unsideboard and didn't have Zimone's Experiment) and even got out a combo with Tigra and Earth Kingdom General. I stayed in the game with Thunderbolts Conspiracy and a bunch of villans, then I got the Dawning Archaic out and took over the game from there. That game certainly doesn't officially count, though.
There have got to be some lessons here! Here's what I'm taking away:
- I still need to read my cards carefully. I've mentioned this before and somehow I continue to fail at this. For example, I don't think I fully read Cosmic Cube all night. Obviously, this also messed me up in the cheat-mutate game.
- I made a lot of other play mistakes. That doesn't always come out in my recollection of events. Not only did I make an unsafe attack, I also miscounted potential damage and creatures multiple times. Someday I'll be a good magic player!
- This deck was hard to play. There were so many things going on and there were some times where I had to make some risky choices. (Do I attack while the cube is out and see what I get or do I need to do something else instead?)
- Sometimes you're going to go 0-3. It just happens. It might be luck or bad play or bad deckbuilding or just that everyone built to beat you. It doesn't matter.
- I had a great time. Playing Magic is just fun. Many of my games were really tight and I was hanging on in the margins (or not) for a while. It's tough to be in that situation, but it's fun to figure out how to stay alive just one more turn. Not only that, I got to play big splashy cards and even activate Cosmic Cube. It's also great to watch your friends pull out big moments like winning off of Avengers Assemble that turn.
- It is good and fun to be dragged down to earth amidst your own hubris.
Happy Magicking, whether you go 0-3 or 3-0!
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