Game 2:
We both have to mulligan, and we end up just Duressing each other a good two times each in the first few turns. My opponent unfortunately gets stuck on one land, and I just have a bunch of mana with nothing to play. At one point, I play a Brainstorm and have these incredible cards in my hand: Mox Emerald, ESG, Mox Diamond, Xantid Swarm, and something else that really sucks. I bury the Diamond and whatever sucks, and play the Xantid. It resolves. Neat. I crack my fetchland to shuffle that shit away, and draw Brainstorm my next turn. It finds me another Xantid Swarm and ESG. Fantastic. For lack of absolutely anything else to do, I decide to cast the ESG and start going aggro. Did I mention that I have a Mana Crypt in play too? Yeah, so this game has devolved into a race between my Crypt and the ESG. Man, I love Vintage. He finally plays a Brainstorm on turn infinity, and still can’t find a land. I attack for a few turns, hitting damage from the Crypt here and there, drawing nothing but mana. After a few turns of looking at my board of like 8 mana and nothing to do, I decide to cast the second ESG. My opponent is at 15 or so, and I’m at 11. He draws a terrible card and passes. I get hit by Crypt and attack for 4. He draws and passes. I miss the Crypt and attack for 4. Score: me 8, him 7. I get hit by Crypt this turn, and attack for 4. He draws and passes. He has no second land yet, and I have a board full of green creatures. Wow, Mox Emerald is a really good card. I cast three green cards with it this game. Anyway, I get hit by the Crypt, going to 5, but attack him down to 3. I can’t lose to the Crypt next turn, and finish him off with the ESGs.
Afterwards, he reveals his hand of three Dreadnoughts. He said that he drew them off the Brainstorm and couldn’t get rid of them. While I ended up winning, I had to do it through the combat step…with 2/2s…that cost 3 mana and don’t have any abilities.
This was one of the best games I’ve ever played, and I mean that in the “When did Vintage turn into draft?” sense. I’ve actually resolved ESGs because of Xantid Swarm three times when I’ve played combo, and I’ve won each game. One time, I used a pair of ESGs to beat Brian Demars (playing Oath nonetheless) down to 10 when he had Chalices at 0 and 1 and no mana, finishing him off with a Tendrils that followed 4 other things into the Chalices. The other time, at Origins 2005, Josh Alverez also had Chalices at 0 and 1, and I beat him down to 7 with a pair of ESGs. When he cast Merchant Scroll to get Echoing Truth, and discovered that he boarded it out, he conceded.
Man, I love ESG. I knew there was a reason I loved Belcher so much. This is better than that one time I beat Dragon on the draw when he went to animate a Dragon, and I removed two ESGs for GG and cast Naturalize.
The moral of the story is that if I cast ESG, you should counter it. You will lose otherwise. I didn’t even have to use infinite Time Walks to do it either! How good!
Wow. This gets my nomination for funniest thing on TMD of 2006.
