Two Hours of Weave Versus Cald

Wow! I got a few games in today. I think I'll break this up into a few entries. My first game of the day was with Juno about the time my wife was leaving to take a friend and neighbor into work. The whole process usually takes two hours for the two women with children. I was thinking I would play the game and then take the nap I needed. That wasn't to be. You see, the game ended up taking the entire two hour period I had available.

I started off with Taisa for my Weave deck. With only the Uwamar for a starting card, I played out the Uwamar and two other Weave creatures. Barak the Red would start off for Juno and played Granas and two copies of Tradewinds. Boomstick and Gorgle's Glasses would take my Uwamar and net a card for Cald. I attacked and sacrificed the Vuryip I had in play to net a card myself. Barak would burn all my creatures but Taisa managed to survive. Taisa would follow this up with another Uwamar and a Drowl. Barak continued the burn. So, Taisa answered with an Aritex combo. Abraxin's Crown and Inferno Xyx would counter that and return the playing field to where it was. With the Uwamars dying to the Cald heat, Taisa would answer the pressure with my third Uwamar, Grass Etiki, and a Tropical Jumbor. Firefly Amulet would end up proving annoying by making it so that the Tropical Jumbor could not attack. I know this rather simplifies the game up to this point. Taisa had quite a bit in creatures and energy when Barak used Cataclysm to defeat Taisa. Barak ended up losing all but a Tradewinds and drew two cards for the end of the turn. Things were looking good for Kesia. With Cald short on cards, Kesia quickly played out four creature and used her flute to get the energy gains rolling. Barak wisely made the choice to prepare for the next magi. Tradewinds and command made great choices. Kesia would finish Barak off while making an impressive wall of creatures. Good Ol' Ashgar would be her next challenger. I did warn that Flame Geyser really would be less effective unless something was done about the Three Leaf Clover in play first. This saved Ashgar some serious embarrasment. Another Granas would toss down to buy time, supported by Fire Grag and Krawg. Kesia answered with Weave Seed to get the two non-burrowed creatures. Another Aritex would keep the energy gains solid while Brushfire became the weapon of choice for dealing with Granas. Inferno Xyx would wipe out one of my monsters. Kesia answered with two Seaweed Lascinth to bring her count up to five creatures. Ashgar would finally be undefended on Kesia's next turn. Weave Seed on a Seaweed Lascinth was useful when Ashgar responded with combat reflexes and spent his last energy on Crushing Heat. Amanax would take up the anchor position for Cald. Boomstick would net Amanax a couple free energy and destroy one of my creatures. Syphon Vortex would then eliminate my largest creature. Amanax would finish off his first turn in play by playing Granas and a Core Grag. I attacked with a Vuryip and sacrificed what was left of it to another Aritex. Relic Stalker would destroy the Boomstick. Amanax would answer that with another Boomstick. Kesia wasn't going to put up with Amanax hitting her creatures so simply and used my other Relic Stalker to get that one too. Gorgle's Gift would allow Amanax to play out a fresh Granas and get another of my creatures in the process. The fact that Gorgle's Glasses was in play again wouldn't help my cause much. Amanax would finally get his own copy of Brushfire into play. So, Kesia answered with her own copy to keep her steady efforts to eliminate the annoying Granas. Gorgle's Gift would hit my creatures again and allow Amanax to play the Granas out fresh again. That Granas was getting to be a little annoying. Just when I thought I had it gone, it was snatched from my grasp and played anew. With a Lascinth in play, it had to attack and so it did. I had almost forgot that part of Lascinth, and it cost me some energy on one turn when I had attacked with another creature already first on that ever annoying Granas. Aritex would appear again. With a fresh supply of energy, Kesia would toss down another Drowl and two Tropical Jumbor. Eventually, I got the Granas and used Weave Seed on a creature that wasn't stopped by the Firefly Amulet which had reappeared. I wonder if Juno could've stalled even longer with another Granas. However, they had vowed not to stall anymore at the end there. The whole game took about two hours. My wife came home with our son and the neighbor's boy about the time we finished. In the discussion afterwards, I told Juno that they really hadn't done that bad. They had taken on one of my tournament decks from after Voice of the Storm. With the Aritex combo, they had battled roughly the energy of roughly six magi or so. Or was it just five? I lost count of the Aritex, really. I had been through my deck once already and so I was starting to see the Aritex a second time through.