Burning Naroom

I am debating a creature type to build a deck around to go with this month's tournament. Not sure if I'll get any tournament games in, but I thought it might be good to be prepared to do so. Anyways, CapAp was online and asked if I wanted to play a game. Not ready for the tournament yet, I opted to accept the chance to play a game for the fun of it.

CapAp was going to play with one of their not so good decks. So, I opted to take a chance and play my “unusual” Cald deck. Maybe not unusual in the grand scheme of things. However, it is the only nearly creatureless Cald deck I've ever built and played. It isn't my style and I find it a bit nerve wrecking to play. Without all the experience of a seasoned creatureless Calder, I thought it fitting to give it a run when playing for fun.

CapAp went first with Tiller. With Naroom digging in deep and fast on the card draw, it wasn't really surprising to see Tiller beat Vorga. However, Vorga did toast everything on her first turn. Tiller had tossed down two four-energy creatures and the Weebo. Vorga would Shatter the Weebo and burned the two others with Brushfire and finished them off with Beam of Light. A real lucky opening for Vorga. That Brushfire in the discard pile would remain the majority of my burn for a while. Tiller retaliated by using Warrior's Boots on a Giant Carillion. A wide open Vorga took a major hit, so the best choice was to sacrifice her on my next by spending all her energy to destroy the giant with Boomstick. Barak would have to expend a lot of my card resources, but he took advantage of Abraxin's Crown to bend the Brushfire and Firefly Amulet to go after Tiller's energy. Topped off with a Fireball, it was soon second magi versus second magi. Evu used Relic Stalker on the crown before going after my limited card resources with the dark ones from Evu's Jellybeans. I had never tried to sort the order of my cards like this before, so CapAp's simple instructions on how simple it was key to using Barak's power. This meant Barak not only had a Wildfire and the Scroll of Fire left over from Vorga, but I was able to setup my hand with another Abraxin's Crown after Barak toasted all the Naroom creatures in that one turn. I was gambling that with only three cards in my hand, CapAp would try the black jellybeans again. Evu fell to the crown since this all took place during the first spells-powers-relics step and no creatures were in play on either side of the field. While I was trying to manage my cards with Barak's power, a small hand like I had isn't the greatest. It was my guess that unless I cost CapAp their hand with retaliation from the crown, Narooom would take the game just from sheer card advantage. With CapAp set back to the two cards they drew at the end of the turn, T'dek was left in a world of hurt. I now had three of the five creatures from my deck in my hand. An Inferno Xyx would toast the fresh Giant Carillion, allowing the two Giant Arboll I had just played with it to grow a bit too. Brushfire with Blast Gloves on the five energy K'teeb Thumper would make for one small critter. So, it was two six-energy arbolls versus the thumper. T'dek would use his power on the thumper, crushed one of the arbolls (which lived), and the thumper hit my magi in retaliation for using Barak's ability on previous turn. But, it was still worth it for me. Barak had what he needed. Although the Scroll of fire had been stalked previously (or the thumper wouldn't have survived the Brushfire), Brushfire softened up the thumper and the Firefly Amulet finished it off. This left at least one very healthy arboll with which to attack an undefended T'dek.