Monday MtG: Play Report

I got to play some proper 3- and 4-player pod Commander games a few weeks back, when work took me to Opelika, and in turn, to the awesome game store Game Time Hobbies.  Over the course of several games, I piloted Dragonlord Dromoka, Heartless Hidetsugu (x2), and Xyris, the Writhing Storm (x2) - note these links run to decklists that need updating, but are close to what I ran.  

Dragonlord Dromoka did quite well, using Fracturing Gust to devastate my opponents (one being a well-equipped Wyleth and the other being Morophon and its mana-rocks) and ensure victory.  It wasn't until this game that I realized that Fracturing Gust was an instant, making it quite the one-sided sweeper (and me the unobservant player - the card is nearly 15 years old).

Heartless Hidetsugu led strong its first game, with a turn 2 Generator Servant into a turn 3 Heartless Hidetsugu.  I kept folks low on life, but ultimately lost to Skithiryx, who infected the table with Karn's Bastion and Ichor Rats.  The second game I drew no haste-makers, so never got to use my commander.  Both of which are typical results of the deck in multiplayer games.  

That second game also featured someone playing Jeleva stealing cards with Harmonic Prodigy in play, which didn't win, but DID make things interesting. So now Jeleva is on my to-build list.  One day.

Xyris was more a live practice duel for the deck, as my opponent was curious as to what the deck would actually do, which was spam the field with snake tokens and accidentally win with Epic Struggle.  By this, I mean I played it and it stuck, but neither of us noticed the win until three turns later. The second game with Xyris saw it do nothing but die to bad draws.

All things considered, I left the shop in a grand mood with a few new cards in mind to purchase (Karn's Bastion and Harmonic Prodigy, among others) and changes to be made to decks (revising which haste cards are in Heartless Hidetsugu).  I did not browse the single cards at the store, but saw they were in binders by set - ideal for impulse purchasing, which is why I didn't browse that evening  as I would have purchased many.

I'm looking forward to visiting Opelika and Game Time Hobbies again, if only for next year's work-related convention.  If you're in the area, I recommend checking them out, especially on Monday afternoons for Commander play.