My quick report playing
Ritual OathRound 1: Graham Tez Grixis...G1:Graham is on the play and drops an early Goblin Welder
Turn 2 he tinkers Battlesphere into play. I would have been in real problem should he tinkered for Colossus but he doesn’t play Colossus!
My turn 2, I play Oath
Turn 3, Graham deals 12 damages, I’m on 8. He then skullclamp away 3 Myr tokens netting him 6 cards and tapping most of his mana. He didn’t draw gas and pass turn.
My turn 3, I oath up a Griselbrand and draw 7 bringing me to 1 life. I manage to get there Wishing for TimeWalk and Tendrils.
G2:I play a first turn Demonic Consultation of my Orchard. Graham missteps.
Graham lands a Baleful Strix turn 2
My Turn 2, I manage to hardcast Griselbrand using Tolarian Academy and Dark Rituals.
I draw 14 cards. I had a greedy win available but it would have involved starting by casting a Dark Rituals. I decide to pass turn because a single misstep would have stopped me straight. I discard a lot of cards, keeping a hand full of Tutors, Wishes, Draw7, Flusterstorm, Hurkyl’s Recall and 3 mana open on the board to cast both if needed. I’m on 4 life.
His turn he plays Mox and Tinker it away. That’s just enough to get Flusterstormed. He declares attack with Baleful but I bounce it back using Hurkyl’s. He can’t play it back. Turn. Graham’s master plan was to put me on 3 life using Baleful Strix and then weld my Mana Crypt back into play to kill me with the dice roll during the next upkeep! Not good enough Jedi!
My turn I’m on 4 life. Attack, Draw7, Tendrils, Win.
I was expecting much more permission for Graham’s deck. Mana Drain & Jace seemed very clunky in that match-up. He played a lot of his instants such as Izzet Charm, Thrist for Knowledge at sorcery speed but they didn’t give him the fuel he was expecting and it actually back-fired giving me a good window to play my bombs. I was expecting him to mind-trick me a lot more and control the game. I had no idea of how many counters he was running and I would have certainly wasted more time & resources trying to play around his potential permissions.
Round 2: Dion UW LandstillG1: I’m on the play. I have no Land in hand.
I open up with Black Lotus. It resolves. I crack Lotus for 3 Blue to cast ACall with Flusterstorm back-up. Acall Resolve and draws me Orchard.
I play Orchard, then Oath. Dion FOWs. I Flusterstorm!
Next turn I go broken.
G2: Dion mulls to 6 and plays a Land.
I cast an early Duress revealing: Balance, Steel Sabotage, Crucible, Island , Library of Alex, STP. I remove the STP.
Dion resolves a Standstill. I play through it and a combination of ACall + Lotus + Oath in the first 3 turns get me there again.
I was expecting a tough match-up, working around multiple Engineered Explosives and loads of counterspells. I had two good opening hands and manage to cast about 2 Acall & 2 Lotus in both games. We played a few more games after, the match-up was in my favour only loosing a couple of times after fizzling badly such as exiling 2 Griselbrand from Demonic Consultation
