Surviving a Fire

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to play FrostyNinja in a friendly game. I chose to go with my anti-Core Naroom deck again.

I ended up going first. Tiller started off with Vortex of Knowledge and drew cards like crazy. I played out a single Furok and Robe of Vines. FrostyNinja revealed Barak and used Firefly Swarm upon the Furok. With a Lava Balamant in play, Barak was setup to begin an offensive I didn't want to have happen. Barak also set down an Ash Hyren. This could've been a real threat to a Naroom deck that easily grew its small creatures large. With some card draw, a Wasperine and Tap Roots would take the Lava Balamant, while Giant Carillion and a Weebo combo took out the Ash Hyren. Since the tap had been done before the Wasperine rushed in, Bythan's Gift on the surviving Wasperine made for a rather large Weebo. With a strong position established quickly, Tiller would take out Barak. It was then Gar's turn to step onto the field. Gar allowed Cald to step up with some add energy basics that nearly matched my Naroom. Gar also used Thermal Blast and Wildfire cut the Naroom swarm back in its early stages. Unfortunately for Gar, Tiller was still working hard on the card draw, sacrificing at least one Tillant to draw more cards. A few quick turns, and Tiller slammed the Naroom rush on over Gar's defenses too. This left Valkan to deal with Tiller. A Volcano Hyren combined with Brushfire eliminated all but the Giant Carillion and left the Weebo with one energy at this point. If the previous two Cald magi had stalled better and thus setup Valkan, I am sure that the burn would've been far more intense under the control of this little pyromaniac. Fortunately, Warrior's Boots and Wasperines would make Valkan's appearance short lived. A fast and furious game it was. I loved seeing FrostyNinja's deck unfold, even as little as it did. I saw some beautiful burn.... I just wish my actual physical card collection included some Volcano Hyren. Using Valkan like that is just so cool!