Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Higher learning's just begun

Despite not having a decent substitute for Protean Hydra and feeling that I really do need one, I took Golden Blunders off to Rider's place to test it out. I didn't have Utopia Trees but I did have Harvester Druid and as it turns out, the budget version will work just fine.

Things went much differently and this is partly because I was in a multiplayer game. This meant a little more time than the 1v1 matchups which I think this deck benefits from. In addition, though facing blue on one side, I had white on the other and this meant that any time Animar landed-which it did in both games-that was going to present problems.

In game one, the deck functioned like I'd hope: mana boosters, fighting Hydropons, and a gently swelling Animar, reaching 6/6, allowing me to cast Primeval Hydras for 5 and swing for 10, then 20.

In game two, my opening play was Ulvenwald Tracker. It didn't meet an untimely death and after that, despite Rider milling at least half my deck, I was able to continually pick off creatures at will with a Vigean Hydropon and then Animar and a Primeval Hydra, whist holding off a Serra Avatar that was at 20/20 with Animar.

Repeatable fight effects are savage.

While Hydras were scary, the element that helped me seal it was Jin-Gitaxis. The addition of Harvester Druid meant that if I played one with an Animar on the table, I was actually gaining two mana instead of one, on top of helping to put Animar outside of easy burn reach.

What this meant was that I was able to make it to the midgame and play Jin, which in both matches, meant that the endgame begun.

Essentially, Jin is going to be better than nearly anything else if it survives a single turn, because it means that if I've made it to the midgame and I can make you play off the top of your deck whilst I draw into an extra 7, I've got the game won. If I just get Jin out, it lets me win by itself but if I have a Hydra out, this ensures a victory because unless they have the board sweep, I'm going to come in for lots of damage.

Even if they do get the board sweep, I've just refilled my hand and can immediately reapply pressure.

Of course, just having a Primeval Hydra is a problem so being able to increase my threat density is even better.

Now all I have to fix is Protean Hydra...

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