Highlights from BronyCon 2018: Three-Way Magic · 10:41pm Sep 23rd, 2018
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In which son_of_heaven176 plays his first multiplayer Magic game, and loses despite not having taken a single point of damage.
Saturday, July 28, 2018: Day 2 of BronyCon
A little while after coming back from Shake Shack, I eventually made my way to StableTop Games again. Another MTG player stopped by us. I forget what name was on his badge, but he goes by “Cyle” on Discord. He was an older person, and he had some older cards on him as well.
Cyle told Flash and me that he generally does not play one-on-one; he tends more towards multiplayer games. Me still being a novice at MTG, I asked what the differences were. I was told that in a multiplayer game, you decide which player each creature attacks. (Of course, like in a one-on-one game, you have to declare all of your attackers at once.) Cyle, Flash, and I decided to play a game. However, a few turns in, I had gotten a few good hits on Flash. None too pleased that his deck seemed to be failing him again, he decided to bow out.
The game was then down to just Cyle and me. I had my Blue/Green Merfolk deck, and Cyle had a mono-Blue deck. A few turns in, I had inflicted some damage on Cyle, while Cyle didn’t put a dent in my life points at all.
But he wasn't planning to put my life points down to zero. He had a more insidious strategy in mind.
The first part of his strategy was Giant Oyster:
Giant Oyster 2UU
Creature — Oyster
You may choose not to untap Giant Oyster during your untap step.
[T]: For as long as Giant Oyster remains tapped, target tapped creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step, and at the beginning of each of your draw steps, put a -1/-1 counter on that creature. When Giant Oyster leaves the battlefield or becomes untapped, remove all -1/-1 counters from the creature.
0 / 3
Translation: For as long as he wants, he could stop a creature of mine from attacking or blocking, and weaken it each turn. And, of course, if a creature's toughness (the second number on the bottom of the card) reaches zero, that creature goes to the graveyard.
I don't recall if Giant Oyster killed any of my creatures, but by the time the game was over, that malignant mollusk was munching on my merfolk, Giltgrove Stalker:
Giltgrove Stalker 1G
Creature — Merfolk Warrior
Giltgrove Stalker can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
"The only gold I need is the sheltering shimmer of the trees."
2 / 1
The next nail in the coffin was Traumatize:
Traumatize 3UU
Sorcery
Target player puts the top half of their library, rounded down, into their graveyard.
He was left with just enough memory to understand what he had lost.
Behold, the face of evil.
By this point in time, that meant that I had to get rid of over 20 cards!
The next nail in the coffin was Mesmeric Orb:
Mesmeric Orb 2
Artifact
Whenever a permanent becomes untapped, that permanent's controller puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.
A step in one direction is two steps away from another.
In fact, he eventually had three of them on the board.
Behold, the faces of even more evil.
Mind you, my brother’s deck only has 64 cards total, and I had about ten cards already on the board. Three Mesmeric Orbs meant that once my turn began, I had to discard about 30 cards!
And if you’re out of cards when your turn reaches the draw phase (or at any other point where you need to draw a card), you lose.
The life count was 20 – 6, my favor. But the results belied the life count. Victor: Cyle.
The final board state. And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you; we did use Pandemic cubes as +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters.
I had originally planned on stopping by Bronypalooza for a bit, then going to the Grand Galloping Gala afterwards. However, by the time these games were over, it was around quarter to eight, and my dress shirt wasn’t ironed yet! So unfortunately, Bronypalooza wasn’t in the cards for me. It was off to the hotel to get my clothes ready, then off to the Grand Galloping Gala.
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Ah, mill decks. Precisely as fun for the person playing it as it isn't for his unfortunate victim. Still, Giant Oyster of all cards? This highlights the importance of running removal in your deck. Granted, green-blue is the worst color combination for actually killing creatures, but still, if one 0/3 is locking you down, something is going very wrong.
That being said, be glad he wasn't running a blue-black mill deck. Then you get access to tools like Haunting Echoes and the iconic Glimpse the Unthinkable.
Yes, that's ten cards in your graveyard for two mana.
4942683
The thing is: the deck did have two Unsummons and a few "counter target spell" cards. It's just that IIRC, none of them were in my hand when Giant Oyster showed up, and with those mill cards, they were likely among the unfortunate cards sent to the graveyard.
EDIT: Just looked at the cards you mentioned Thank [insert whichever deity you want] that I wasn't dealing with a blue-black deck! Haunting Echoes by itself would have likely ruined my day if played at the worst (for me) possible time.