Monday 26 February 2018

[MTGO] 'Darefire' Deck in Action, part 7.

This time 'Darefire' vs a deck with Time Vault & Black Vise.

A victory of 2-0 in a match.


Duel 1:

... i am not sure how opponent meant to win, but his Time Vault play confused me, so i didn't take full advantage of my extra turn.

... i suspect a some sort of combination with Galvanic Key or Voltaic Key.

... with my Sol Ring could play the Bloodline Keeper in my turn 2nd.

... still won in my turn 5th, thanks to my large Vampire tribe.





Duel 2:

Opponent's 2x Black Vise almost got me, but i won in my turn 6, again thanks to my Vampire tribe that could be quickly played.

Black Lotus allowed to play Vampires faster, with transformation & haste.

... every turn counts when one faces the Time Vault with Galvanic Key or Voltaic Key combination.

... a victory in 6th turn.





Story.

... in his travels with Liliana Vess, Attentus the Planeswalker faced many rivals & enemies - who were challenging them for resources - for mysteries, spells, artifacts, power sources & allies mostly.

As soon as a planeswalker was in vincinty, rivalry usually ensued, even if diplomatic efforts occasionally proved a success, as well.

This time letter was unanswered, and pursuit of information began.

Enemy's reputation was considerable, rumours told of his vast magickal lore & wealth - Liliana wanted Attentus to quickly defeat him and steal his secrets for them both.

Attentus prepared with black & red magick spells, allied himself with a Vampyre Clan - this was his fastest opening, and Liliana wished for a hurry, afterall.

What Attentus could not foresee, was a time-meddling challenge, probably enemy was trying to take over the time flow with artifacts of his.

When the time is at stake, one should hurry - as is told by the Wise.

Attentus constructed the Sol Ring Artifact of Power in a mere eight of hours, then used it with a spell to contact Amaranth, the Bloodline Keeper.

'Thou shall recruit more of yours, with utmost haste. do not attack personally as of yet' -- Attentus ordered.

Vampyr preferred to obey this time, recognizing great magickal power within the planeswalker, as well as being seduced by ideas of rising in ranks, and of feasting upon the enemy planeswalker as well. On the noble planeswalker's blood.

Soon after, enemy gained access to the Time Vault, so at first Attentus was confused with the resulting erratic time flow, with it's leaps & stops - but maitained enough of focus to analyze his mistakes & adopted to the new rules of the duel within just one of a night.

First of Amaranth's recruits did a quick recon-attack, didn't report any opposition - he managed to drain some of enemy's life-blood using his supernatural powers, then was forced to retreat.

A quick analysis of the battlefield told Attentus that he should be persistent with initial plan of summoning as many of Vampyr as is possible in the shortest time, preferably the ones with powers to increase strength of the whole clan.

Enemy still played with time's ebbs & flow, Attentus untiringly performed summoning rites of his own, in a nervous hurry of the time-pressure.

He made sure that Vampyres obey him for a while, tempting them with noble & powerful, magickal blood of enemy planeswalker.

Two days later, he did summon enough of Vampyr, that by his hasty judgement was enough to foil enemy's plan of the local time-stream domination. They were numerous enough to arrange for Transformation, to adopt to a Clan-Tactic which increased their powers considerably.

Attentus ordered the attack, part of his forces were able to participate. Yet it proved a partial success - enemy fled weakened in last moment, forgoing his plans for long time. A second round of a magick-duel ensued.

The chase went for months, a game of hide & seek, of covering own tracks & following a trail.

Clan left him, but allowed Attentus to contact them again in future - when enemy is proven to be close.

Enemy warned, enemy prepared - in his pursuit Attentus fell into two artifact-traps that started to torment him, making his spell-advantage a tool of demise.

There was no opportunity to construct the Sol Ring this time, so the summoning rites took one day longer.

Amaranth ansered again, with more of summon spells his clanmates joined as well.

Tortured almost to his death, Attentus did maitain focus for enough to summon enough.

To prepare for the attack, Attentus needed to invest mana - magickal power - into his Vampyr allies.

Problem was it was time consuming, but a solution appeared - he could draw it from the Black Lotus, as he could once a while - transformation was complete, hastening as well.

Vampyres fell upon their prey and feasted fully this time, while Attentus & Liliana Vess gained access to the Time Vault - perhaps they will research it more fully in future.





Thursday 15 February 2018

[MTGO] 'Shadows under Westvale' Deck in Action, part 1.

... this time a Legacy format match, 'Shadows under Westvale' vs 'Poison-Proliferation' deck.

When opponent summoned a creature with infect, it was my clue to speed-up, to go more aggressive.

i didn't do it enough, even that i had Dark Rituals on hand, it was my mistake.

... still i won, barely, in 6 turns.

... opponent conceded 2nd game as well, during my sideboarding phase.




Monday 12 February 2018

[MTGO] 'Shadows under Westvale', a Deck.




A Deck.

... another, unrefined yet, a deck idea - without finished sideboard for now.

... this time it's not in the Vintage, but in the Legacy format.

... it has unlimited mana potential, with Magus of the Coffers & Umbral Mantle.

... Chalice of Life can transform with life-ganing abilities,

... Umbral Mantle works well with Bloodline Keeper, Royal Assassin, or Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet - especially if we have unlimited mana. ;)

... Umbral Mantle can be passed between creatures for a 0 mana equip cost.

... Hecatomb works well with mono-black decks / lot of Swamp /, with token creation / Westvale Abbey, Bloodline Keeper, Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet, Creakwood Liege /.


 



Story.

In the Westvale area, covered with swamps, there's Ivory Tower surrounded by four wings of Westvale Abbey.

Each wing corresponds with one of four elements: Air, Water, Fire & Earth.

Ivory Tower in midst is associated with Spirit that binds elements together.

Rumours say that in the Ivory Tower, the Planeswalker Mage resides, summoning & commanding minions, creating artifacts, casting spells, duelling with other Planeswalker Mages.

... for what reason these duels are waged?

... difficult to tell, exactly.

Another rumour claim that Planeswalker Mage researches topics of Life, of Death, of Mass Destruction, of Dark Ascension & Immortality, of Unlimited Magickal Power.

... it seems he didn's succeed fully as of yet, despite his great Magickal Powers.

He seems unnaturally long-living, however, his Ivory Tower & him been there for over two hundred years.

About Westvale Abbey, it's claimed that it's corrupt at it's core.

Rumours claim, again, that dark rituals & unholy sacrifices are performed there, that vampyres & other evil creatures dwell in it's catacombs.

Vile slithering beasts are bred in catacombs, and there are sinister prophecies of dark times when these army will be unleashed, under flying vampyr warriors & other, to wage the mass-destruction war.

So far Planeswalker didn't confirm these rumours, but there are those who claim they have seen something similar under a moonlight in the Tower-nearby swamps.

People serve this Planeswalker Mage, fearing his wrath.

Sometimes they have dreams of his presence, requiring them to do tasks.

People suspect that a cursed well of Westvale affects their dreams and steals what's precious in their spirit.


--
... inspired by Ars Magica 3rd edition, a roleplaying ame about Art of Magic in a Feudal, Medieval Fantasy world, as well as by Planeswalking, Necromantic & Unholy ideas of Dominaria and D&D.

Sunday 11 February 2018

[MTGO] 'Darefire' Deck in Action, part 6.

This time 'Darefire' vs a deck with land destruction, creature removal & with big monsters,
a challenging match consisting of 3 games.


Duel 1st:

After playing Badlands, and having them destroyed with Wasteland, summoned the Bloodline Keeper with a Dark Ritual in turn 3rd.

Opponent summoned Blade Splicer, then i had opportunity to play Olivia's Bloodsworn, and gather 5 vampires to transform Bloodline Keeper.

Opponent made me sacrifice a token with Chainer's Edict, but conceded this game nevertheless.

A quick victory in 6 turns.





Duel 2nd:

Opponent playd creature removal Vindicate & Wrath of God spells on my Vampire tribe, until could summon the Rune-Scarred Demon.

He destroyed my Mind's Eye as well, with Revoke Existence.

Couldn't destroy Rune-Scarred Demon with Grave Pact, because my only creature, Gatekeeper of Malakir didn't have flying ability.

With advantage on table, he destroyed all lands with Ravages of War ... while keeping his or her Crucible of Worlds' ability to play lands from his or her graveyard.

At this point i stood no chance, so did concede this game.





Duel 3rd:

This was most exciting & interresting part of a match.

Early Asylum Visitor did a lot of damage to opponent, as i struggled with lack of black mana.

Could win in turn 8, but made a mistake of not summoning a Vampire Nighthawk before attack. It could gain haste by Olivia's Bloodsworn & finish opponent.

Opponent summoned Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite that decimated weaker parts of my Vampire tribe.

He didn't attack despite vigilance ability, probably because my Vampire Nighthawk had deathtouch. This was his or her mistake, as for deathtouch to work, at least 1 damage must be dealt. At this point Vampire Nighthawk was a 0/1 creature.

He or she summoned Obzedat, Ghost Council increasing his or her life points total and reducing mine's.

He or she was no longer within the Lightning Bolt's finishing range.

Then i summoned Olivia Voldaren, he or she didn't attack again.

In my turn 12 acquired the Black Lotus, flower. It gave me enough mana for Olivia Voldaren to invite Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite for a dinner, turn him into a Vampire, then to dominate, steal control from opponent.

Probably she had that flower in her hair as she dated the Praetor.

'If You don't wish my demise,
buy energy me at least'.
'Jeśli nie chcesz mojej zguby,
to energię kup mi luby'.


Opponent conceded game, then.




Sunday 4 February 2018

[MTGO] 'Darefire' Deck in Action, part 5.

This time one of 3-games match, one that i won.

Remaining two games were lost by me, because of poor starting hand while opponent had good starting hand, with many mana accelerators.


Impoertant points of the game, that let me win this part of a match were:
- Destroying Garruk Relentless with a Lightning Bolt spell - before he let opponent have too much of advantage on table,
- Destroying Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary with a Lightning Bolt spell - so summoned Mistcutter Hydra could have been defeated,
- Softening Hydra with Incinerate so a first-striking Stromkirk Captain could block & kill,
- Using Vampiric Tutor for the Bloodline Keeper, then summoning the Bloodline Keeper, for token production & other.




[MTGO] What to Remove?

When building a deck, we start with ideas of our strategy, of how we intend to win.

Then we choose cards and make a prototype. These cards cost money.

Then we refine the deck, replacing cards - often with more expensive ones, but not always.

After a while, the main deck building dilemma is: 'what to remove?'

By the M:tG rules, deck can consist of minimum 60 cards. It is a good practice to keep this minimum, as adding too much affects probability, predictability of drawing powerful cards, negatively.

Deck's speed & mana curve should be considered, but not only that - there are ways to turn the tide of battle & win with slower decks as well.

With a 'Darefire' Deck, i focused on a Vampire tribe & cards that do direct damage mostly.

Direct damage spells are used to remove opponent's creatures, or to finish him or her when he or she is in range.

Vampyres in this Deck are kept fairly small & cheap in mana, support each other, and scale their abilities with time.

In practice this results in doing 20+ damage in 4-6 turns when unopposed.

In a tribal deck there should be 20-28 tribal creature cards, in my opinion.

Recently i've 'armed' myself with some cards, but chose to not put most of these in this Deck.


Example 1:



... i've considered adding a powerful creature, Kalitas, Bloodchief of Ghet, but considering mana costs, mana curve & deck's speed - there was nothing to remove to give space to put him in.

Our current most powerful creature cards - Bloodline Keeper & Olivia Voldaren are far more powerful considering their abilities & costs, anyway.


Example 2:



Door of Destinies might be powerful in a tribal deck, but i prefer to increase creature count with creatures that also have power/toughness increasing abilities / Bloodline Keeper, Stromkirk Captain, Captivating Vampire /. Door of Destinies is worth nothing without a decent creature count, anyway.

... just had no space in a deck for these.


Example 3:




... i've considered replacing sideboard's 2x Hero's Downfall with 2x Dreadbore.

Mana cost is smaller & more aligned with 'Darefire' Deck's colors, so it was a simple decision.

Did it when i could afford the cards.


Example 4:



While Vanquisher's Banner might seem a nice replacement to Mind's Eye, there are other considerations.

Mind's Eye allows to draw at least 3x more of cards / there are 21 Vampire cards in 'Darefire' /.

But even more importantly, i need Mind's Eye for Art's purposes, as i wish to create art that uses ideas from my cards & decks.

Mind's Eye is also related with Buddhism & Esoterics, important parts of an Art Style i am creating: 'Art of Magick & Light'.

These arguments might seem not valid or silly to most, but M:tG is not my priority in life, i have different needs than most dedicated M:tG players.