~Earth~ kirchj33 3 - 2 Mithicarion ~Phase 2 Trials 4~

[kirchj33]

Game 1 - Win: Rainbow vs. Entropy duo

by kirchj33

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4sa 4sa 4sa 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 590 590 590 590 590 590 595 595 595 595 59c 5c1 5f6 5f6 5f6 5og 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rl 71a 77c 8pm

Fairly scary match here because he played something I was totally not expecting.  I saw the entropy mark and guessed that I had a pretty sizeable advantage here.  His EQs kept my rainbow quantum generation at bay for the most part, but the discord he played ended up being his biggest enemy as it only continued to give me to open up my grabbies with.  A scary purple nymph was immobilized by a BB, then my earth nymph did the heavy lifting from there out.  He was able to play an AM part way through, but instead of petrifying my own grabby, I burrowed it and saved my earth quanta (seemed like the right decision with the game in control).  I had a chance fairly early on to deflag the discord, but left it alone because I figured it was doing me more good than not and I was worried a dis shield would show up.

Game 2 - Win: Aether stall vs. Aether stall

by kirchj33

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58o 58o 58o 592 592 592 59c 59c 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 77a 77a 77b 77b 77e 77e 8pu

His stoneskins meant he had a deck advantage in terms of survival so I focused my attention entirely on doing the most damage I could in case his dim shield dropped.  No early golem meant I needed to improvise by fractalling gnome riders in order to try and push out my two dragons more quickly.  If he had two more dim shields he would have won, as his chain ran out with 4 cards left in my hand.  Unfortunately for Mith, he did, but misclicked and played another pendy instead   This may have ended up being the mistake that cost him the final result.

Game 3 - Loss: Ghosts & Grabbies vs. Aether Stall

by kirchj33

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58u 58u 58u 592 592 592 59c 59c 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 61t 61t 61t 61t 622 622 77a 77a 77b 77b 77e 77e 8pu

I wanted to change decks, but expected Ghosts and Grabs with EQ, since he hadn't played it yet so I stuck with this.  In the end I got eternity locked early on before I could really do much so adding in the extra gnomes backfired.  I was expecting RTs & EQs and got eternities and BBs.  I keep replaying this game in my mind trying to figure out where I made a mistake, but I think I just made a poor counter.

Game 4 - Loss: Ghosts & Grabbies vs.  Ghosts & Grabbies

by kirchj33

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590 590 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 593 593 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5ro 5ro 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 78q 8ps

I was again expecting Ghosts & Grabbies, but figured I would counter with my own because I figured a mirror match would be, at worst, a coin toss & I wanted a strong deck in case he came with something else.  I lost the coin toss.  I pushed out a bunch of early quanta since he had used BB's the game before and I wanted to win the race.  He blew it all up.  The threat of my turn 2 eternity kept his grabs burrowed, although I didn't have much intention of sending them home with little quanta now to power the stick.  The one thing that saved me was that I kept drawing grabs.  I had a huge lead and kept them burrowed until the turn before last.  I felt like I was making a mistake by going for the gusto by unfurling my little army + playing a ghost, but looking at my own health, I knew he would win in two turns as well.  To my dismay, he RT'd all 3 and I didn't have the quanta to play anything.  I only had enough left in the tank to get him to one health.  Had I RT'd one of his grabs and held my ghost back or kept one grab burrowed I would have won by preventing him from topdecking his 4th RT.  I couldn't have known this, but I think I could have mathematically guaranteed myself victory by playing it differently.  I guess I gave game 2 back here.  Definitely the most epic loss I had ever suffered.

Game 5: Rainbow vs. Death stall

by kirchj33

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4sa 4sa 4sa 58o 58u 58u 58u 58u 590 590 590 590 590 590 595 595 595 595 59c 5aa 5f6 5f6 5og 5og 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6rl 71a 8pm

He told me this was an untested deck for him, and I knew my rainbow was about 50/50 vs. ghosts and grabbies and probably 90% vs. everything else so I played it.  He probably wasn't too surprised to see it, but I went with it anyways.  Turn 1 gavel helped me a lot.  He played an early arsenic, which I had a deflag waiting for quanta to blow it up.  The turn after I got it, he PA'd it.  He had a fairly large stall mechanism trying to break free from my defense on the board, but I kept it at bay with BB.  I replaced the gavel with an arsenic midway through, in fear of a bonewall.  In the end, even with only 2 grabs drawn, I had more than enough damage to win on the turn before the last.

Epic games altogether Mith.  I know you were pretty disappointed and I can honestly say your preparedness and intellect made you one of my most feared opponents ever.

[Mithcairion]

by Mithcairion

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4vl 4vl 4vl 4vn 4vn 500 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 592 592 593 593 594 594 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 77a 8pj

Since I had given at least some sort of synopsis of each of my games thus far, I figured I would go with a deck I hadn't played yet for what element of surprise I could muster.  Turns out, he didn't play a deck that was vulnerable to it, as he had Graboids and an early Arsenic for damage, aided by a Fog Shield and BBs to slow down what offense I could muster.  His Arsenic went unmolested, and I wasn't able to do much from there.  Got him down to around 50 health or so, but it was never really in doubt.

by Mithcairion

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58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 58u 594 594 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 61t 77a 80d 80d 80d 80i 80i 8pu

*Sigh* This was the game that ended up costing me the match (had it gone the other way, though, kirch could've said the same thing about the 4th game, so it evens out in the wash).  We played similar decks, both based on Fractal and Dimensional Shields.  Fractaled his Gemfinder early, so I had a massive edge in quanta which I used to Stone Skin a couple of times out of danger prior to starting my Dimensional Shield chaining.  Having gone first, he would've decked out.  Naturally, as my shield was due to expire, I went to play the pendulum in my hand in addition to the next shield, played the pendulum and...hit spacebar.  *failwhale*

by Mithcairion

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590 590 592 592 595 595 595 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5aa 5ru 5ru 5ru 5ru 77g 77g 77g 77g 7q8 7q8 8ps

Obviously, I had to go with my strongest deck here.  He had played effective, albeit slower decks thus far, so I thought I may be able to get somewhat of a lockdown.  Seeing the Aether mark again, I immediately got nervous.  I didn't get a good start, but his was also middling, so it enabled me to get an Eternity out and running before too long.  I rewound his nymph, and rewound/BB'd his creatures as necessary to try and keep the Dimensional Shield chaining to a minimum.  He played his end perfectly, but there simply wasn't much he was going to be able to do.

by Mithcairion

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 590 590 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 593 5aa 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 5rk 77a 77a 77a 77a 78q 78q 8ps

I decided to go with a modified version of the previous deck that specialized more in a lockdown than the previous one did.  Only problem was, he brought Ghosts and Graboids, probably the most dangerous deck for us to make in these Trials.  I was able to kill his quanta almost immediately, but he was still able to get three unevolved Grabbies out pecking away at me along with an Eternity, while I had two unevolved Grabbies of my own doing the same to him.  Eventually, I decided it was time to up the ante and played two Golems and evolved my Grabbies.  He decided to do the same as well as playing a GotP and knocked me down to 5 HP.  I rewound everything he had on the board, and with him having 2 and 1 , there was no way he was going to be able to finish me off before my horde killed him.

by Mithcairion

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58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 58o 592 592 594 594 595 595 595 596 596 596 59c 5aa 5aa 718 718 71a 71a 77c 77c 8pk

Oh, but for the want of a single card.  The exact blow-by-blow escapes me, but had I drawn any of my Stone Skins or Diamond Shields (got down to 9-10 cards left, never saw either), and I would've won this game without too much of an issue.  Kirch couldn't do a ton of damage due to me having my nymph and wardens scanning the field, but his Gavel and Arsenic did their jobs.

One game I lost because I hit spacebar before playing the Dim Shield, the one he lost, because he should've left a Grabby unevolved, but didn't.  Both relatively major mistakes, but they balanced out.  All in all, they were very intense, well play games on both sides.  If I had to lose, this is definitely the way I would've liked to do it.

[MatrimKK]

Just Wow... Epic
This had to be the most exciting match up yet 3-2?!?!

[kirchj33]

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