A Miscalculated Endgame

It has been week since I played the following game. I was a bit embarrassed. No, I didn't lose. However, that had been my goal and I failed to pull it off like I planned. Let me see if I can explain the how and why of it.

Jing-Jack offered to play me a game. They asked me to go easy on them as a new player. That was fine by me. I contemplated my Restricted Weave deck, but decided the Uwamar was too much of a problem. Last time I recall playing it against a newbie, I spent a good bit of the game trying to get rid of my own Uwamar just so they could get past my first Magi. I didn't want to repeat that for now. So, I chose my Storm of Fishes deck. Jing-Jack started off with Agram. Agram tossed down a Wudge, Zungg, and Corathan. A good opening, I think. Aula Mindseeker started off my side of things with Tradewinds and then used her windsight, discarding Cataclysm. With a Wudge in play, I chose to actually play her starting Typhoon. A roll of four eliminated the Wudge. For a single creature, Aula played out a Rayalon. Agram would answer with a Raveled Drush and Warrada's Ring. Rayalon would defeat the creature and fetch me the Tradewinds back. While a good move, it didn't make for overpowered play thus far. With a Hurricane Orish played, Aula would follow up with that Tradewinds and using her power again to draw cards. Agram would attack with the Corathan finally. Agram would play a Severos and then stole the Hurricane Orish. This defeated Aula Mindseeker. That was a good move. Voice of the Storm was in a good spot with all the card drawing I had been doing. However, it would be up to me to play the deck out a little incorrectly. Orothean Goggles and Tradewinds would make things a little better still. I actually tossed out big at this point to be sure Voice of the Storm got through Agram. Hurricane Orish, Wellisk, Pharan, Spray Narth, and Reef Hyren made for a strong creature showing. I debated using the power of the Spray Narth targeting one of my creatures, but figured that using it for my magi would still net me a solid energy gain to use without putting it into the field where it could be most devastating. So, with extra energy now on my Magi and two creatures down, I Sandswirled Agram to keep him from using his power to upset my efforts by stealing one of my creatures during his next turn. Voice of the Storm would use rebuke from Reef Hyren to destroy a Grim Pyder Agram played out. Abwyn's Gift on the Wellisk on my next turn would leave Agram wide open for defeat. Instead of playing back out the Wellisk, my Magi played out a Rayalon. Morag would stand in for Core next. Borgor, Core Grag, and an Rous would make a decent creature stand. I skipped rebuking any of them on purpose. Normally, I would've at least rebuked the Core Grag. After using all the powers, Morag used his 'Gift' to return the Rous to hand. Now, this next part is where I did some stuff that I am not sure how it really would've worked. I will have to check the Rules Digests some time. See, I played Hand of the Sky and used to play Corrupt. The problem I wonder is whether the Corrupt would've been shuffled back into the deck when the power of Hand of the Sky resolved or if it would when Corrupt would've discarded itself later when the next creature was played. In other words, did I totally was the energy to play the spell? Don't know. I chose to play things out as if I had. The only other spell in their hand was Vaporize, and they didn't have any relics in play. Morag then played an ROUS. Now, this made for a number of new questions. If the Corrupt was still in play, would it have triggered and saved the ROUS from discarding itself because I had creatures in play? Or, would the ROUS just discard itself first before I managed to gain control of it? Granted, I wasn't even sure the Corrupt would've been in play. So, we decided to play it out to Morag's advantage. ROUS gone. Corrupt used up and/or gone. I attacked with my one energy Rayalon, so I wasn't doing too great either. That is fine. Remember, my goal wasn't to overpower my opponent. Morag would answer by playing a Gorath Cub and Crushing Darkness would take away the Rayalon. I played out another Hand of the Sky, peeked at Jing-Jack's hand, then sacrificed Voice of the Storm by eating up a bunch of energy with Sandswirl and using Storm of Fishes for relics. Why? To deny Morag any benefits from Morag's Gift. Morag answered with a Tar Hyren while waiting for Niffer to appear. Niffer would toss down big. Probably too big. Phrup, Orathan Flyer, two Spray Narth, and two Pharan played in one turn, with an assist from the Orathan Flyer. I used the Spray Narth power to gain some energy and then used Abwyn's Gift to get rid of the Tar Hyren. Even still, this left me with an impressive bit of creatures and Morag would play no creatures. I began to fear that I had panicked the Jing-Jack with that power play. Though, Morag did attack some, getting rid of the Wellisk and Phrup. Niffer would play Tradewinds, Sandswirl, and then attacked. It wasn't enough to get Morag this turn. I dumped another Spray Narth and Pharan combo into the Hurricane Orish, plus I played out a Wellisk. On the next go around, she did get Morag. I also spent all the energy of the Orathan Flyer on a Rayalon and dumped the energy from my surviving Pharan into the Wellisk to make it more of an energy waste to actually use its effect. Lanyx Reaper would stand in for Core under what appeared to be desperate straights. I was thinking that I would just reset the mess I had by using Cataclysm. However, it wasn't to be. Morag's Gift was played first, a mistake really, but I let it slide at this point. Rayje's Belt would look down the Wellisk, so I couldn't waste energy that way. Borgor would do some damage to my massive creatures. Mind Blank would deny me of all my spells, so that Cataclysm idea was out the door. Chaos Sphere and Agram's Plaything would also appear. After using Lanyx's power, I would have to say that is a fair play considering the situation. However, I still heavily outweighed the opposition. So, it would be painfully obvious if I completely threw the game at this point. I would've had to stop playing.... Niffer had the Wellisk wipe out the two energy Borgor and Lanyx Reaper would be defeated by a one energy Rayalon.

I know this entry is rather long. I was surprised by the number of notes I had taken on the game. It has been suggested that I do a screen capture in the future and include it in this blog to make it more exciting. Hmmm, I guess I will have to write shorter descriptions of the game. They've been getting long enough as it is.

Reach Of Weave

On Friday, I played against Goo. Goo started the game off with Tiller. Tiller went through the usual draw card routine, but didn't play any creatures. Now, I've had a Traitor's Reach deck on gEngine for some time that I don't recall ever playing. So, I gave my TR Weave deck a trial run. Keru started off with card draw for Weave. I happened to open the game with another Drowl in addition to my starting one. So, Keru went nuts on the card draw too by playing both Drowl and a Tropical Jumbor. Tiller would answer with Warrior's Boots and Rayje's Belt. The belt locked down weave, and Warrior's Boots brought a Flame Rudwot into play. Tap Roots and an attack made for a good creature play. Ember Hyren was played after the attack step, along with a Weebo and Beam of Light. Keru took a lot of damage in that one turn. However, Weave Seed would return the favor, raking over Naroom. Wasperine and Wasperine Stalker would hit Keru back. Backhanding the Wasperine Stalker with a Pody brought into play was a cheap way to get Naroom back this time. It also meant the end of Tiller. Woot would step onto the field next. Again, Keru got the Wasperine and Wasperine Stalker combo hit. However, with the belt gone, weave saved the Pody from immediate defeat. Balamant and Crushing Roots would come next. With a very impressive Wasperine Stalker in play, I was almost dissappointed when Woot used Heal on both creatures. I almost wanted to cry. This is Weave we're talking about. While Weave has to splash to get Shockwave, it does have Sawgrass and that Wasperine Stalker had attacked. A five energy Wasperine Stalker is impressive enough, but the energy gains dumped into, I just couldn't skip using the Sawgrass I had drawn earlier. So much energy went away for a cost of five. With the spell eating up Keru's energy, the surviving Weave creature attacked the Balamant so Keru could officially step down. Woot would just draw two while waiting for the next Weave magi. Ah, it was time for Kesia to step up and show just why Weave is so fearsome. While I dreamed of an Uwamar, Kesia played out four Weave creatures anyways. A Vuryip, Aritex, Pody, and Sagaweave would make for a decent start. With her flute bending around the energy a bit, Kesia would have enough energy left for Brushfire. She sacrificed the Sagaweave at two energy to the Aritex, which survived by two energy itself. With Kesia starting into some mad energy gains, the Balamant used the hunt to trim her back by four energy. Tap Roots twice and Yaki's Gauntlets would allow Woot to pressure Kesia a bit. However, her creatures began to weave and gain energy. Woot would play out a Leaf Chogo after a somewhat depressing attack step. Kesia would attack with her Vuryip. With plenty of energy still left, she played out an Uwamar, Aritex (to replace the one lost), and a Seaweed Lascinth. Hmm, another Aritex. Can you see an energy pattern here? Well, Kesia was going full speed ahead with Weave. Now, it would be up to Yaki, Core Stalker, to stand up for Naroom. Wasperine Stalker would shave some energy off Kesia, and then Yaki place out Tillant and Furok for extra defense. With The Hunt at her disposal, Yaki was fortunate to keep a two energy Tillant in play. However, upon further reflection, Kesia opted to finish it off with Brushfire from the discard pile. After another Drowl and two Tropical Jumbor, I think Kesia was officially out of control. Yaki was determined to do his best. He played out a Flame Rudwot and crushed what was left of the Seaweed Lascinth. However, Kesia had quite sufficient force to simply attack and finish off Yaki without using spells or powers. It felt good to play something other than Naroom after playing it so much lately.

Spit and Polish, Glue and sticky tape

Not really anything online related (except for gEngine in the background) but Doug's videos actually got me to make this:


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Printed on a HP 2600n, glued to commons from the base set. Liriel is shown on the right of the screen for comparison purposes.

Naroom Remembrance

On Monday, I played BobbyDoc2 with the eighth and final of my TW test decks. Tiller started things off with the usual card draw. He used exchange to put a Forest Hyren in the discard pile. Remember Ring would dredge that one back up. To top it off, Tiller tossed out the second Forest Hyren and a Weebo. It was massive energy mechanics on the first turn. Gia would start off things for the opposing Weave deck. Book of Ages would draw one card before Gia would sacrifice it for Reyhla's Scythe. With her own Tome and Weave Powder, Gia would toss down a Drowl, Frusk, Bungaloo, and Savanah Hyren. A massive Weave swarm in just one turn. With big plays starting off Naroom and Weave, Tiller would go into more massive energy tricks after using Relic Stalker on Rayje's Belt to open up energy transfer from his hyren. Tap Roots would make a good work of one small Weave creature, and the attacks Tiller conducted would put the three others under Gia's Tome. Brushfire from Gia twice would eliminate the smaller Forest Hyren. Weave Powder would fetch Weave Mat. Another Frusk and Bungaloo later, Gia was ready to defend herself again. Another Remember Ring would bring the Forest Hyren back from the discard pile. While it couldn't attack, it did make for some nice energy games for Tiller. After attacking, Gia was now up to four creatures under the Tomes. She played a Drowl and Brushfired the Weebo. TIller would respond by playing Tomes of the Great Library and researching for Bythan's Gift. Now, he had too big Forest Hyren in play. He finally finished off Gia. Kesia would make her stand next. She is one tough Weave Magi, and very good at what she does. She used Sawgrass on the larger Forest Hyren, wiping out twelve energy for a cost of three. Uwamar would start off her creature swarm, followed by Grass Etiki, Grass Hyren, Bungaloo, and Pody. It was nice to see that I am not the only one who uses Grass Etiki. Kesia's Flute played her energy tune, along with a number of other Weave relics. Rayje's Belt would reappear to haunt Tiller again. He researched Tap Roots this time to take out the Bungaloo. Kesia would defeat Tiller rather easily with Weave Seed. Now, it was up to Keelie to try and do something. She would use Nocturne to fetch a Giant Carillion. It was big move for her to play all three Weebo and another Giant Carillion. First she restored the first Carillion, stomped twice, and finished off the turn with using the last two Weebo to restore both the Carillions. Weave Seed and Brushfire would be the end of Keelie. It was a valiant effort, but the seeds were not in Keelie's favor. Sive would be my final magi. She would play a Lumber Hyren, Eebit, and a Furok. Remember Ring would fetch back one of the Forest Hyren, and Tap Roots would restore it some. Kesia would brushfire the Eebit and attack the Forest Hyren. She then played another Uwamar. Although Rayje's Belt locked down rebuild from the Lumber Hyren, Sive had a Relic Stalker handy. Sive would use Rebuild to try and begin a minor energy lock on Kesia and actually attacked with her rather healthy Furok. This gave her enough energy despite losses from an Everburning Wick to play another Lumber Hyren. Kesia would use Brushfire upon a Lumber Hyren and backhanded the Furok with a fresh Pody. Sive would use Bythan's Gift on her Lumber Hyren to make one big Furok. Figuring that the only way Naroom would make a comeback against Kesia's impressive energy mechanics was to use their own massive energy gains, Sive played out another Furok. However, the game would end here. Although Sive had been making an effort to destroy anything of Kesia's that could attack, a fresh copy of Rayje's Belt locked down wait on the Uwamars. And just to make sure they could do the job too, Kesia cast another Weave Seed. I had to concede it was a "gg."