The Year of the Ogre: Stories from the Battlefield

In passing this first-year mark for TGZ, I've been doing a fairly extensive reflection of the last year.

Normally, I do a lot of self-assessment and reflection, not only on in my own life, but I've found it to be pretty useful in Commander too.

I've hopefully said it before, but the things that I do as a deckbuilder and player are all goals I set to create memorable games. Not every night can be Legendary, but sometimes there's a game you'll have that really impacts you in one way or another.

The biggest change I've made in the past year is becoming better acquainted with Red as a color, and also kinda loving it. If you've been reading this for any length of time you'll know how I much I've been playing my Heartless Hidetsugu deck. It's also where the name of this article comes from.

 All that said, I don't talk much about my battles, but every so often I think there's enough content to share some of my favorite "war stories," and so we're going to talk about some of the more memorable moments I've had in games over the last year or so.

5. HH vs. Thada Adel vs. Nin vs. Jhoira

This first match isn't a game I won, but I was close. This little inter-Izzet League matchup were some early tests for Thada Adel and Jhoira players, who had maybe 2-3 games experience while HH and Nin had been seeing play for several months.

The Thada Adel deck got out and started attacking the two players with islands, searching and retrieving a few less-than-optimal choices. The Jhoira player, by that time, had already found Sphinx-Bone Wand and unleashed his Rogue burn strategy on Thada, and was able to dedicate his resources easily after the first Shiva-Blast to eliminate the Thada Adel player.

The Jhoira deck was eliminated pretty handily with a hasty Inferno Titan pumped. After that, I promptly played Glacial Chasm and Shiva-Blasted the Nin player.

With Basilisk Collars out, Nin and HH turned the game into a pretty decent stalemate. I was taking damage from Chasm steadily, and not drawing into any burn. Conversely, the Nin player had gained some serious card advantage blasting his own dudes and full abuse of Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar.

With Nin at 2 and HH at 8, the game ended when I drew into a Lightning Bolt, and Nin was able to draw into a Counterlash thanks to Tomorrow.

4. Animar vs. Wanderer

This matchup against GG's Wanderer deck is probably the toughest 1v1 matchup Animar has faced to date. With similar colors and the strategy of trying to create free spells, it's basically a mirror match, except for one important distinction: Converted Mana Cost.

It takes a lot of land to get Wanderer running. Keeps with Joraga Treespeaker or Thran Dynamo were the better ones, because Turn 5 Wanderer could beat whatever Animar was doing on Turn 5.

Ultimately, the match was dictated by the faster deck. Whoever got out ahead owned the game.

The two big MVPs were Progenitor Mimic and Birds of Paradise. Mimic was able to copy some ridiculous targets like Acidic Slime and Avenger of Zendikar, while a Birds in my opening hand ensured at least a turn 2 Animar and 1-turn swing if I was on the play.

Animar ultimately took the series, going 2-1, 0-2, and 2-0. It was a pretty sweet victory for me. I've lost a lot of games and matches to GG, mostly because I thought I had to compensate in my own designs for the style of game he wanted to play. Thanks to Animar, I got to prove this wasn't the case, no matter how small on the scale it compares to our overall matchup records.

3.Kami of the Crescent Moon vs. Chorus of the Conclave

In this particular game I had one of the best topdeck moments of my life.

VJ had me backed up staring down Blightsteel Colossus. Even with Chorus out and a few dudes with kicked counters, I needed a huge draw.
And I got it.

Gideon Jura gave me an extreme tempo swing right when I needed it. I was able to stay alive another turn and follow it up with a whopping attack step on the following to mount the comeback and get the win.

2. HH vs. Lu Bu

My actual Grandfather has repeated this saying his own father used to say many times.

"I'd rather be lucky than good."

I do battle a lot with Lu Bu. It's a very competitive all-in type deck which has the unique ability to win games out of nowhere.

In this particular game, I'd have to say I was the luckiest.

Lu Bu had me at 20 general damage and I was once again in a corner with little to do.

Then I topdecked Glacial Chasm, and gave the game a good Shiva Blast.

Then a Miracle-casted Reforge the Soul got me on the wrong end of a Chaos Warp.

Well, almost.

You see, sometimes, skill has nothing to do it. I shuffled Chasm into my library, and gave it to my opponent to cut.

And then I flipped back into Glacial Chasm.

By that stroke of luck, I was able to win the game. It'll probably never happen again, but it was awesome, and one of those games where you look back and you just think, "Whew! I'll never be that lucky again."

And I really haven't.

1. Zur vs. Kiyomaro vs. Chisei vs. Bruna vs. Grand Arbiter Agustin IV vs. Horde of Notions

This is perhaps one of the biggest games I've ever been in. By far, it is the most memorable, not only because of the nonsense that occurred, but also because I look at this game as a way to define the kind of player I always aspire to be at the table. And I hope that sharing this story helps you to work out what kind of player you'd like to be.

I ended up winning this 3-hour bloodbath of a game in perhaps the most poetic way I could. With a Solemn Simulacrum attached with a Nim Deathmantle and a Batterskull- but I'm getting ahead of myself.

A six-man pod is the biggest game I've been a part of, and ever will be.

The game didn't get interesting until the Horde of Notions player cast a Havoc Festival that stayed out for two turns around the board. This crippled the guy borrowing my Chisei deck after playing a Paradox Haze, and didn't do Bruna any favors either because I'd coaxed most of the table into attacking Bruna because of the volatility of her combos. Also, the kid had been pretty off-putting. I continued to build my board state with Weathered Wayfarer and Endless Horizons while dissuading Zur from attacking with a Change of Heart.

Zur and Arbiter both had planeswalkers in play, and without a whole lot of attacking, they went off pretty shortly after. Arbiter ultimated a Jace, Architect of Thought, taking a Greaves, an Oblivion Stone, a Furnace of Rath, and an Omniscience to cast all of it, which basically wiped out Chisei and Bruna when all of us were at around 5-17 life.

Arbiter's threatening state was short lived, thanks to a quick visit from Timbermare, which dealt the player an exact 10 damage thanks to the Furnace of Rath and gave him a pretty good shock.

Zur and I weren't necessarily on the list of threats, mostly because he'd used Liliana of the Veil's ultimate on me, leaving me with Endless Horizons and a Sun Titan. Politics was pretty key here. No one wanted him to do it, and by offering to let him ultimate her on me, he took it fairly easy. I was able to stay under the radar this way too.

The game continued with half the table eliminated, and that made it a whole lot easier for me. Though it really wasn't a more favorable matchup, I chose to work on the Horde of Notions player. He was playing basically Elemental tribal, but I'd severely underestimated him, and I wasn't going to let him surprise the table again.

By this point, I'd drawn into some of my decent tricks, like Stonecloaker, Dust Elemental, and Silverblade Paladin, so I was just beating down with Kiyomaro and flipping cards around to avoid any tricks the Horde player had left in the graveyard. Sun Titan and Endless Horizons were also helping me get back in the game quicker, and with adequate defense, the Zur player helped me get rid of the Horde of Notions player.

Of the 3-hour match, dispatching the first four players only took around an hour, maybe an hour and a half.

A whole new game basically started at this point, and it got ugly. Around 3-4 Wraths, including a triggered Planar Collapse were among the answers. One of the biggest struggles I had was getting access to his removal. Zur had used his attacks to play a Greater Auramancy and a copy enchantment to protect what he had, which was a Story Circle protecting him against white and a Phyrexian Unlife, making it very difficult for me to win.

Drawing into Batterskull was one of the big ways I had to skirt damage and get out of serious trouble with our life totals dwindling. It put Zur on the defense, and forced him to have to hold up white sources as I kept casting creatures, leaving mana open to protect them with Dust Elemental.

My late-late draws had become significantly better, with most of the Plains now out of my deck. This looked to be a considerable advantage, as Stonecloaker was able to take out Avacyn, and some of the other big threats in his graveyard, like Sun Titan and Animate Dead.

But with an Emeria activated and all kinds of Reveillark/Karmic guide nonsense, I was able to get Solemn Simulacrum out and attacking for lethal infect damage.

 Winning that game was super sweet, not only because I had to outplay Zur, but also because the adversity was massive. There were Wraths, there were P-Dub Ultimates, and there were insurmountable threats for 3-hours. I did well to create my path to victory with a deck that wasn't on anyone's radar, and I played it even better.

This particular game produces the kinds of results that a deckbuilder likes to see. Succeeding in a challenging environment with a deck of your own design really helps you to develop confidence and carve out identity as a sharper, better player.

We should always be looking for these kinds of games and challenges, and I encourage you to share some of those with me in the comments if you've got em.

Till next time, this is ya boi Landdrops telling you to be the very best, like no one ever was.

-UL