There’s nothing quite like a knock-down, drag out battle where every player gets the chance to take command of the game at least once. Three decks, all of the same relative power level, making strong plays, and sowing fear and excitement into their competitors.

Our trip down nostalgia lane continues as we continue to take down Cortex’s henchmen, snatching the crystals out from under him in this quest across time and space.

Next up we enter the domains of two devious mad scientists. First up, Dr. Nefarious Trophy: Keeper of time and creator of the Time Twister we’ve been using to traverse the course of history. And once we’ve cleaned his clocks, we’ll start to prepare for the machinations of Dr. N Gin.

It’s an epic of the ages, and there’s no telling when we’ll be next.

Since I’ve done enough of them by now, this might be good place to start talking about the Time Trails. Although they were available to us in the first two games, we didn’t bother partaking. That’s because they were added to those games retroactively as part of the N Sane Trilogy.

You can also tell that a lot of those levels, especially in the original Crash game, were not built with speed in mind. A lot of the traps and pitfalls rely on timing and precise movement, which clash with the need to save time and move quickly. The frustration factor, in light of the fact that they weren’t required for 100%, meant that it just wasn’t worth my while.

That’s changed here in Warped. This was the game where Time Trials were first added to the series, and the relics are necessary to reaching full completion, making them fair game for this series. We’ll eventually do them all, but for right now there’s a reason we’re focusing on gimmick levels. As you might assume, our objective for one of these events is to reach the end of level in the fastest time possible.

However, there’s a little wrinkle that spices them up. Many crates in each level are changed to special time crates, numbered 1, 2, and 3. When one of them is smashed, the clock is frozen for the number of seconds indicated on the box, and any additional boxes broken will add to the duration of the freeze cumulatively. What this means just breezing through a level as quickly as possible isn’t enough to ensure a great final record. Speed is important, but so is routing to ensure that we break as many crates as we can without wasting too much time doing so.

And that tension is a large part of what makes them so interesting. Whenever we see time crates on the run, we have to do the math and calculate if the time we lose trying to break them is worth amount we’ll save from the timer getting stopped, as much as test of pathing as it is in execution.

Additionally, Naughty Dog realized that these unique constraints meant that players would die more frequently in Time Trials than they world when platforming normally. For that reason, dying does not cost us lives. This could have easily been a source of great frustration for us, so it was a smart move. You might also notice that protective masks spawn more frequently as well, also because we’re expected to take more hits in our pursuit of the fastest time.

You might also notice that I haven’t been dying as often in this game compared to the previous Crash games in general. The game does a much better job of fairly telegraphing what obstacles we need to overcome and how we’ll need to do so.

All of this combined turns what could have easily been an exercise in frustrating into a challenging, yet super entertaining exercise in trying to execute as quickly and skillfully as one possibly can. And if all we’re aiming for is 100%, then we can settle for a Sapphire relic, without bothering with the Gold or Platinum rewards.

Just don’t ask me to attempt the Time Trails for the first game. Those levels are far too long as far too lethal for me.

There’s been a series of much needed shakeups in Standard as of late, and the dust appears to be finally settling. This isn’t the first we’ve experienced bans on this channel, and we’ll be able to adjust as we always do.

Thankfully for us, the field is wide open, and we’ll be able to see new decks, and a few old ones that were forced out, take the stage. It’s time to throw that Cat in the Oven, because Jund Sacrifice is back baby.

While we didn’t pick up any new pieces in Ikoria, Woe Strider from Theros makes it’s way into our deck. Not only is the extra sacrifice outlet valuable, but that extra token makes the difference more often than I expected. Very often, it means that we play Priest of Forgotten Gods on turn 2 and use her ability to start chipping away at our opponent with her ability on turn 3.

As for the rest of the deck, from the Cat/Oven combo, Gilded Goose, and Claim the Firstborn to generate fodder for our sacrifices, to cards like Mayhem Devil, Trail of Crumbs, and Korvold to capitalize on them, isn’t anything new. The ratios may be different, but the core deck and strategy is much the same.

The reason we can play this deck has less to do with what entered Standard and more to do with what left: Specifically Fires of Invention and Agent of Treachery. As I explained in the video, both of these cards were such several payoffs for control decks that they were becoming oppressive powerhouses in the format.

• Agent of Treachery was being so consistently cheated out by both Winota Ryder and Lukka that, combined with it’s ability to steal anything, even lands, meant that it was almost impossible for an opponent to make up for the loss in tempo and value.
• Not only was Fires of Invention making it far too easy to cheat out absurd play-lines of several high mana cost spells in a row, but it was becoming a problem to design around when it came to future sets in this next year’s worth of Standard. With more cards, it was only set to get stronger, and it already took up over half of the meta.

Additionally, both of these cards were also strong payoffs for control decks hoping to play the long game. With both of them removed, midrange magic becomes much more viable. Decks like this, which hover between aggro and control, are now much easier to pilot since they no longer have to compete with the sheer value Fires decks accrue once they reach a certain point in the game.

Companion as a mechanic has also underground a huge change to combat how ever-present and dominating it’s been both in Standard and other formats, as I talked about over a month ago. Now, instead of being able to cast it directly from the Sideboard, players must first pay 3 mana to move it from the sideboard to their hand.

This will have a profound affect on the playability of low-cost companions like Lurrus are going to severely hit by this new tax, but are still available to play in formats where they’re legal. Others, like Yorion, that already anticipate a long game, aren’t as affected, but may still see an impact. Already, we’re seeing fewer companions, but time will tell what the long-term impacts will be.

Between this, and the Oko bans of last year with Eldraine, we’re definitely in a tumultuous and experimental time with Magic: The Gathering. Among other scandals like the War of the Spark novel and… overt systemic racism in Wizards of the Coast, I can only hope that this turns into a time of grown and learning for the company. Otherwise, things are likely only going to get worse.

Commanders die!

If you aren’t an EDH player, that phrase means absolutely nothing to you. But for the rest of us, this is a huge difference. Previously, whenever a commander returned to the commander zone, it never hit the graveyard so any death triggers would not activate.

Thanks to a recent statement by the Rules Committee, we are in a new era of Commander. We are finally freed from the tyranny of technicality.

And I could not think of a better way to celebrate than to build around a creature that I’ve wanted to for a long time, but was dissuaded from doing so by the old rules. The card that was forever trapped in the 99 until now: Elenda, the Dusk Rose.

My hybrid Vampire-tribal/Aristocrats build went up against Urza, Lord High Artificer, the Ur-Dragon, and the partners Pako/Haldan.

Urza attempted to run a Stax build, and since the rest of us were running much more aggressive decks they got quickly frozen out of the game.

As for my deck, though I didn’t win I did have a brief moment where I was able to live the dream with Elenda. My board consisted of her, Cruel Celebrant, Corpse Knight, Cordial Vampire, and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

The Ur-Dragon had a Steel Hellkite out, and not much else. In order to start to claw their way out of their disadvantageous position, they played Crux of Fate to clear out the rest of our boards. Since there was a 100% chance that Steel Hellkite would take of any Elenda tokens out with it’s ability, I figured it was pretty much time to go for it.

Using Yawgmoth, I sacrificed my creatures, and Elenda, to generate tokens and draw cards, while also using the -1/-1 counters generated to kill the Hellkite and draw a ton of cards while still caching in on my death triggers, accidentally killing Urza in the process. (I didn’t want him to die because he was drawing heat off of me.)

Unfortunately, none of those cards I drew were lands, so after a few rounds I found myself quickly falling so far behind in terms of mana that I was no longer able to compete with the remaining two decks. I still managed to get my licks in, but after that it was a struggle simply to remain in the game.

Even though the Ur-Dragon had an army of fliers, Paco was able to consistently deter their attacks thanks to the tokens generated by Vivien, Monsters’ Advocate. Up until the end game, when the dragon army was too strong to completely block, those Beasts with reach counters diverted attention away them and onto me. Additionally, Nissa, Steward of Elements in conjunction with Vivien’s ability to always look at the top card of their library to cheat out quite a few creatures. And again, with that small army of blockers, neither one of them was getting attacked.

Aside from the Commander, the other card that helped the Ur-Dragon stay in contention was Kindred Discovery. Thanks to those two pieces, the pilot was able to keep a full grip of cards in hand at almost all times, which allowed them to amass an army that quickly established a dominating presence. With Ramos, Dragon Engine on board, and cards in hand, they were able to consistently answer threats that appeared before them. Even despite Pako and Haldan’s Shark Typhoon, they were able to push through and finish the rest of us off.

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After we wrapped up the first round, one of us had to head out, but the rest of us were surprisingly down for one more match. Tempting as it was to stick with Elenda for another match, I chose to give another one of my brews a try: A Kelsien, the Plague voltron build heavily inspired by Seth Cross at Praetor Magic’s deck tech on the same commander.

The Ur-Dragon stayed on point, but the third switched to the Gay Kings of Meletis.

I managed to keep a firm grip on the flow of the game for most of it with many of the minor synergies I had set up, especially in the early game. One easy example was Kelsien’s ping ability in combination with Forbidden Orchard. What would normally be a nominal downside to a card that taps for all colors of mana is immediately transformed into fodder generator to generate experience counters. And by throwing in the bounty counters from Mathas, Fiend Seeker, we’re able to generate extra card draw and life that benefits us more than the rest of the table, especially when a Smothering Tithe is thrown in.

Unlike the last time where the Ur-Dragon took control of the game, this time they didn’t really get an opportunity to do the same. Thanks to General’s Enforcer, I was able to keep swinging in with Kelsien even in situations where doing so would normally be utterly foolish. This was a major factor in how the they fell before it had a moment to establish a board presence. While their Ryusei, the Fallen Star set me back briefly, it was not enough to keep me completely off balance, and I was able to get it that last bit of damage and clear the board one more time thanks to Chandra’s Ignition.

Despite my presence and powerful commander, I was not able to close the match with the Gay Kings of Meletis. Not only did they have massive quantities of life thanks to Venser’s Journal, but they had defenses in the form of both Kefnet the Mindful and Nezahal, Primal Tide. Though my deck does have tools that can either rob creatures like Kefnet of their indestructibility, I was sadly unable to draw those crucial pieces. For that reason, I wasn’t able to obtain the necessary commander damage to tip the scales in my favor and finish them off. Thanks to a combination of vast amounts of card draw, Jace, Wielder of Mysteries, and Thassa’s Oracle, they were snatch away victory.

And yet, I find myself unable to complain about my performance. I may not have won, but the Kelsien deck did what it set out to to by powering up it’s commander to absurd levels so that he can quickly take command of the table. Sometimes, we just don’t draw into the pieces we need to tip the scales in our favor, and that’s okay. The match was still an extremely close one. I performed to the best of my ability and simply was outplayed. It certainly beats being mana screwed out of a match.

After our detour through the wreckage of Raccoon City, it’s time to go back to our PlayStation platforming nostalgia series. Though a few months have passed since our last sojourn with the blunder from down under, neither Crash nor his sister Coco are any worse for wear.

With a new threat from old enemies on the loose, we’re in for one final adventure. The crystals are scattered through the ages, and it’s time for us to step into the Time Twister to reclaim them before Dr. Cortex can.

As I said in the Let’s Play, this particular game has a special place in heart. It was one of the first  three games I ever got for my PlayStation when my parents bought it for me. That makes it one of my most formative gaming experiences.

That’s why I chose to play the Spyro and Crash games in the order that I did. The first Spyro and the third Crash games are both really positive experiences for me, so I figured they would make excellent bookends. Additionally, playing one franchise and then switching to the other was my way to avoid being fatigued with either one.

Watching the footage back, I am so glad that the enthusiasm I have for the Warped comes through while I’m playing. Even the commenters on stream noticed that I wasn’t getting frustrated, smiling even through any/all death I may have suffered.

I said that Crash 2 is my favorite in the trilogy and I do stick behind that, since I’m of the opinion that platforming games are at their best when they stick to a core set of mechanics and explore them to the fullest. That said, it’s clear that by the third entry Naughty Dog had learned much from building two whole games prior.

The most obvious example being the chase sequences, which are paced much more reasonably than they were back in the other two games. You can see that I had more time to react to the obstacles coming up than I did in those game. Though I still made mistakes, those were all mostly my fault for trying to rush when I didn’t have to.

Even in the world of gimmick levels, this game is much better about them than it’s earlier siblings. Aside from the racing levels, which can get pretty annoying later in the game, most of them are polished and feel great to control. In doesn’t hurt that I’m particularly fond of both the jet-ski levels and the Great Wall levels where Coco hops on Pura.

It’s good to play Crash again. I’m excited to continue this series. Until next time, I leave you with this:

Since we wrapped up Resident Evil 3’s campaign last week, David and I thought it might be fun to play the other game that came packaged in with it: A co-op multiplayer game titled “Resident Evil: Resistance”.

It was certainly… an experience.

It’s genuinely hard to access a multiplayer game, partly because the community is such a large aspect of what can make or break it. It’s entirely possible that if I had played on Day 1, then I would have a much different experience than the one on display here.

This problem is compounded by the fact that this is undoubtedly going to be a niche game mode. Most people who purchased Resident Evil 3 likely went through the same though process as David and I. “I’m here for Resident Evil 3. This other game is cool, but I’m not interested in it.”

Only a handful of users are even going to launch it, and an even smaller percentage will enjoy it. Among that already minuscule group, an even lower percentage will stay past the first few weeks before moving on to something else. Those that remain will either fall into the category of new or die-hard players, with very few people in between.

And since they appears to be a progression tree, where players unlock new skills, equipment, and abilities as they complete matches, players who are just starting out, like me, don’t have the same baseline set of tools that other players do. Factoring in lack of actual player skill and map knowledge, they become an obvious load for an veteran player to carry.

Honestly, including progression in something like this was probably a mistake, because it severely caps the player base. After the game has been out for a sufficient length of time, newbies aren’t going to want to stick with it, case in point, because the other players simply outclass them before they’ve ever had a chance to start improving their own skill.

Which exacerbates the problem we experienced at the end of this video: Wait times. The sad truth, as Lawbreakers found out, is that a multiplayer game can be good on its own merits, and still completely fail if the player base isn’t there to support it. Low retention numbers mean that wait times are long, so less people play, and the vicious cycle continues.

I doubt Capcom cared too much about that with RE: Resistance, since it was packaged in with Resident Evil 3, but it’s a lesson to consider for future projects. Shame, because I like the premise here of a Left 4 Dead-style game with another player directing the enemy forces in an asymmetrical combat. I just arrived too late to join in on what fun there could have been.

While I suspect that these protests will still be ongoing by the time this goes live on my blog and YouTube, I want to reiterate that this footage was recorded, and this post was written during the protests against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police office Derek Chauvin.

This is not an isolated incident, and such occurrences are well-known and feared by the American-American community, and other minority communities across both the US and the world.

As small a platform as I have, it is nonetheless a platform. To that end, I want to share some resources that might help you join in supporting our brothers and sisters struggling in the fight for justice. Do note that this list is far from comprehensive, but a good way to get started.

Research-based solutions to the systemic police violence: https://twitter.com/samswey/status/1180655701271732224

Resources to get educating and involved: https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/#

Places to donate:

• Black Lives Matter: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_blm_homepage_2019
• Color of Change: https://colorofchange.org/
• Donation Split Among Various Support Groups: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/bail_funds_george_floyd 

Once you’ve finished doing your part to show solidarity with those protesting a violate, fascist police state, we can proceed to lead a nation of pirates and sea monsters to victory against fascist police states by giving them the ol’ Bilgewater Welcome.

Both of the decks we’re playing today are heavily focused around using the new cards from Bilgewater, with support from the Shadow Isles and Freljord respectively, to entirely different yet effective ends.

As always, I take the deck ideas that I use in this show from Mobalytics. The decklists are as follows:

•  Deep Monsters: 
• CEBQKAQGDUTS6NJYAIAQKHJIAEBAKCQDAIBAMJJMAIBAKBYIAIAQKGJWAIBQCBJLFY2ACAQFAM
• Tempo Sejuani:
• CEBQUAQGAUFRIFQ4EEWTCOR6AEAQCFQCAIAQEBYAAEAQEBQR

The game plan of the Sea Monsters deck is a simple one. Our goal is to go Deep as quickly as possible, which is triggered once we have 15 or fewer cards remaining in our deck. To that end, many of our cards use the new Toss mechanic, which is a form of self-mill where cards from the bottom of our deck get removed from the game, ignoring champions. A significant chunk of our forces, like Dreg Dredgers and Deadbloom Wanderer, and card advantage pieces like Salvage, have Toss as an ancillary effect, allow us to maintain our board while arriving at our win condition. Once we’re at the precipice, we can use Jettison to go over the edge.

But until then, our goal is also to keep our opponent’s board in check. For that reason, we have a ton of effects like Vile Feast, Withering Wail, and Grasp of the Undying to destroy their most valuable units before they become problems. We also use Atrocity as a finisher if we need extra reach.

Once we’ve finally gone Deep, then our victory is close at hand, because the Sea Monsters in our deck all gain significant stat boosts. In addition, our star champion Nautilus will provide us a mana discount on those creatures, freeing us up to flood the board with units that have incredible stats and abilities. We’ll also reclaim any powerful Sea Monsters we’ve tossed, throwing them back into the deck.

Our other headliner, Maokai, serves as an alternative win condition. When he levels up, after enough of units have been Tossed or killed, he destroys all but 4 non-champion cards in the enemy’s deck. In Runeterra, like Magic, players automatically lose the game when they draw from an empty deck, meaning that our opponent will then be put on a very short timer. With Thresh as our third Champion to summon the other two, we have a strong overall package that can out value most decks if we can buy enough time.

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The other deck in our arsenal once more makes use of Miss Fortune and her amazing ability to deal damage once she sees the we’ve declared an attack. Only this time, we’re not relying on Scouts to quick level her up. In fact, that single, reliable point of damage she does to the enemy Nexus is the most valuable thing she can provide, because our goal is to activate our various Plunder effects. If Miss Fortune can’t provide that effect, we have cards like Warning Shot or Make it Rain to accomplish that too. The latter can also be used early on to take care of the many value units that have a low cost and exactly one point of health.

Using Plunder, we can keep ourselves afloat by stealing cards from the enemy deck. Cards like Black Market Merchant, Yordle Grifter, and Pilfered Goods all allow us to make use of our opponent’s resources, which can otherwise make up for our own lack of card draw. Island Navigator also accomplishes a similar card advantage effect by creating a random 1-drop, but she also has Scout, which can be useful for piling on Miss Fortune attack triggers.

To close out the match, we have Sejuani which pairs well with all of our incidental damage and Miss Fortune triggers. Once she’s out, we should be able to consistently Frostbite our enemies and keep them from doing damage to us, quickly silencing their resistance. With it’s Plunder ability, Riptide Rex can also devastate an enemy board or deal that extra bit of damage we need to close out a match.

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One deck aims to control the board, and other aims to swing hard, fast, and consistently, but both express the true terror of the seas.

Remember the following:

• #BlackLivesMatter
• Wear a mask
• Wash your hands
• ACAB

This is normally the part where I would that we are “at last” finished with Resident Evil 3, but that would imply we played it for very long. The truth is that this was actually an extremely short series, this being the third episode. And yet, we have already arrived at it’s conclusion.

With my friends David Phillips and Andre Doucet in tow, I had nothing to fear braving the final act of this adventure to save Raccoon City.

Ignore all the evidence of your lying eyes and ears. I am, in fact, a good video gamer.

That said, it’s clear that my audio balancing skills could still use some work. Though I appear to have largely fixed the issue with my own audio, I did not set the audio for the Discord chat correctly, which made my guests difficult to hear. All I can do is promise to continuously improve the more I do this.

I might also try switching to XSplit if these issues with OBS continue onto other games, but thankfully that’s not as much of an earth-shattering issue because I can splice footage together.

As for the game we played, the real problem with Resident Evil 3 is that it’s difficult to talk about it outside of the context of Resident Evil 2. It’s not a bad game, and it holds up well when judged on its own merits. It’s not scary, but it plays well and has a great sense of atmosphere. And though it’s not a long game, that also means it doesn’t drag. While I have some frustrations with individual rooms, there isn’t a segment that stands out as overwhelming vexing. It’s all generally solid, polished content.

That said, it’s hard not to be disappointed in some respects. After the way Mr. X defined the Resident Evil 2 Remake, the Nemesis feels underbaked and underutilized. He’s less of an ever-looming threat and more of a recurring set-piece. Even when we do encounter him similar to how we had to keep away from Mr. X, just a simple grenade knocks him out for the duration of that encounter. Later in the game, we don’t even get that. We just get boss fights, and it’s difficult to feel like anything special about a standard video game boss fight.

Jill and Carlos are fun characters in inhabit, and they have a decent chemistry with each other. Both of them are capable people, making the best of the resources they have in an effort to do the most good. I also like that it seems that Carlos is starting to fall for Jill, but Jill herself doesn’t really go out of her way to accept his advances. She’s always focused on the task at hand, and while she trusts him, she’s still focused on keeping the city safe.

I hope I get another reason to come back to this series soon, especially if I can get the goon squad back together for it.

Just to add some variety to my usual streams, I figured that it would to challenge myself to do something new in Magic the Gathering: Arena. For that reason, I thought it would be fun to give Brawl a shot.

Building myself some new brews to test out this new (to me) format, let us see how the format, and my deck-building, holds up.

You can find both my Kenrith and Nethroi lists on TappedOut.

Though it’s obvious that the Kenrith deck didn’t pan out, I’m happy I still gave it a chance because it taught me more about Brawl than all my time theory crafting could ever teach me about the format.

As you all may know, I play a lot of Commander, and that experience playing King Kenny warped the way I built the deck. Unfortunately, there are key differences between Brawl and EDH that hurt my chances with the deck.

• Commander is primarily a multiplayer format, where Brawl is designed to be 1v1.
• The card pool is still limited to Standard playable cards, with a few exceptions added as part of Arena’s Historic format.

Both of those facts result in a lower CMC, and faster games than you’d expect from EDH, which gives someone like me less time to prepare and get their engine on board. Reliably reusing a 4B cost ability is a lot easier when pitting multiple opponent’s against each other than it is in a 1v1 fight. I think Kenrith can still work as a commander, but it requires an entirely different strategy than I’m used to.

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While Nethroi is also a general that I’ve piloted in EDH, the style I’m used to playing him with was significantly better suited to the Brawl format. Unlike Kenrith, Nethroi isn’t relying on too many activated abilities, and thus doesn’t need to be as mana greedy.

After my experiences with Nethroi in Commander, I counted on him being the way I would out-value my opponent after they used up all of their removal options. The deck is deliberately built using cards that either have low, or no, power in the graveyard, allowing me to maximize the potential of my 10 power allotment, so it’s no surprise that I can mass resurrect a ton of creatures.

What was surprisingly was that I was regularly able to do it multiple times in the same game. Cards like Gemrazer and Necropanther were thrown in purely because they are value creatures. However, if we mutate them onto the stack that Nethroi is already part of, we gain another trigger of that ability, which can allow us to mass revive a ton of creatures in the grave once more. It’s a synergy that let’s us sustain way more than we ordinarily could.

The other all star I want to shout out to, that I was shocked performed as well as it did, was Embodiment of Agonies. It partners well with Nethroi on several ways.

• By virtue of the fact that we’re playing a singleton deck, we will almost accidentally include many cards of different mana costs. This means that when it’s played, it will often come out with above average stats for his casting cost.
• It’s not human, meaning that we can mutate Nethroi onto him.
• It’s base power is still technically 0, so if it dies, it can be resurrected with Nethroi’s mutate trigger without eating into our 10 power budget.
• Since it has innate flying, and it’s power comes in the form of +1/+1 counters, mutating Nethroi onto it transfer those counters onto the mutated stack, and give Nethroi the flying ability it’ll need to help safely swing in for tons of lifelink damage.

I threw it into the deck just to serve as another easy revival target, and I was surprised to see it turn the tides in so many of the matches I played. Though the deck hasn’t been updated on TappedOut, I actually slotted in into my Commander deck after seeing how well it did here.

It was a ton of fun seeing board states and card combos that I don’t often get to see in Magic: Arena, so I look forward to playing much more Brawl. It’s no substitute for EDH, but I can’t help but think about what other possibilities and interesting synergies must exist for the format. My inner Timmy can’t help but get excited over the space of possibilities.

Finally, after two long weeks of no Commander gameplay from my playgroup due to extenuating circumstances, we managed to gather enough players for a round of my favorite Magic format. And on my birthday, no less.

That’s right, we’re playing Tiny Leaders! No, wait. I mean EDH. Of course, I mean EDH.

We only had time for one match, but it was a good one. I played a deck helmed by Tayam, Luminous Enigma. My opponents ran King “Drivin'” Macar, and Gavi, Nest Warden respectively.

There were a number of solid synergies and combos that I saw from all of us at the table. The game lasted about 1.5 hours, so we all had opportunities to pull off our own impressive combos.

Macar was the first to get truly scary, or at least troublesome. Normally, Macar is not a threat because the best way to tap him is through combat, so he can be easily blocked and killed. This is where the “Drivin'” Macar aspect of the deck comes it… thanks to vehicles.

The one in question was Aethersphere Harvester. Using it’s crew ability, they tapped Macar, allowed him to untap and activate at the start of their turn without subjecting him to the rigors of combat.

Additionally, they were intending to set up ways to tap and untap him even more times. First, they played Clock of Omens to use the Gold generated by Macar to untap key artifacts. Then, they played Silverskin Armor in the hopes of turning Midas Automotive Services into an artifact to continuously tap and untap, which Gavi countered by cycling Decree of Silence for free. Still, it was impressive in it’s own right, and it kept me from committing too strongly to the board without a sacrifice outlet available to me. Macar managed to get an Umbral Mantle equipped later, but rarely did they have the mana to make much use of it.

As for me, I don’t think I ever had a chance to take the spotlight, but I managed to make my own moves when I could and protected myself from the worst of it. Every time one of my creatures was about to get exiled, my Altar of Dementia was there to build up my graveyard and keep them “in circulation”. When my graveyard was about to be exiled, I used an Elixir of Immortality to shuffle them back into my deck so that I still had access to them at some point. It made it difficult to get a foothold, but I was able to keep some form of engine in the form of Sylvan Library, and my Planeswalkers that were being largely ignored.

Among them, the one that exceed my expectations was Ajani, Caller of the Pride. It’s a simple ability, just putting +1/+1 counters on creatures, but it helps keep Tayam stocked with counters we can use to activate that recursion ability. In the brief moment I had Winding Constrictor and Evolution Sage on board, my favorite lion man was carrying his weight even more so. I even managed to get his loyalty high enough for his ultimate… except Macar had an Archfiend of Depravity keeping both myself and Gavi in check. Here I was, thinking I was being all sneaky and slowly building up to my ultimate, but in turns out that it’s hard to be sneaky about it when the effect I’m building up to is literally written on the card.

Naturally, the archfiend was also impacting Gavi’s ability to generate tokens, so they were willing to ignore me for a time. I could only be thankful that my board couldn’t be completely wiped by Macar, thanks to Yawgmoth, Thran Physician being on board. This may very well be the only time where his “Protection From Humans” clause was ever relevant, but because of it I was able to keep another value engine on board.

Eventually, I was able to use Ajani’s second ability to give him double strike and flying, forcing Macar to use the Archfiend to block my attack. Unfortunately, this was when Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to exile my Yawgmoth and my Altar of Dementia, but I did sacrifice one to the other to keep it in circulation.

And my other Planeswalker, Liliana of the Veil, was able to start taking center stage afterwards. Despite being mono-Black, Macar was sorely lacking in recursion, or they weren’t drawing into it. This meant that with the looming threat of Gavi on the other side, there was much stopping me from whittling away at their creatures. This pressure left me free to cast a perform a Pernicious Deed to reset the board. While I had intended to use Eerie Ultimatum to reestablish, it would have been Neutralized if I had done more that resurrect Liliana to get rid of Ulamog.

This prolonged attrition between the three players left all of us without much. So when Gavi managed to acquire a nearly full grip of cards with Boon of the Wish-Giver, she was basically free to dominate the endgame. Specifically, with The Locust God and a Psychosis Crawler. After performing a Cyclonic Rift to dispose of any final resistance, Gavi managed to take the win.

I genuinely can’t complain. Each player managed to get their own blows in, impacting the game for the other two. Though I wish I could’ve gotten my engine fully online, I did managed to use Tayam enough to feel satisfied. I’ll likely keep playing him a bit more and experiment to see how I might be able to modify the deck further.

A good way to end my birthday! 😀