Jonlim vs Mark (Friendly Draft, 30/1/2008)
Jonlim’s Deck
1 x Avian Changeling
1 x Benthicore
1 x Changeling Hero
2 x Dewdrop Spy
1 x Goldmeadow Harrier
3 x Ink Dissolver
1 x Judge of Currents
1 x Merrow Reejerey
1 x Paperfin Rascal
4 x Stonybrook Schoolmaster
1 x Distant Melody
1 x Idyllic Tutor
1 x Neck Snap
2 x Oblivion Ring
1 x Sage's Dousing
1 x Springleaf Drum
1 x Summon the School
1 x Thieves' Fortune
7 x Island
8 x Plains
Jonlim’s deck has a vague Merfolk + Wizard theme, using Stonybrook + Summon the School engine to generate a lot of merfolk tokens for the win. Alternatively, he can use his obscene number of Ink Dissolvers to mill out a draggy game. He has surprisingly few counters for a Blue Block Constructed deck, but he does have removal in the form of Neck Snap and Oblivion Rings. His deck also features some big creature bombs in the form of Benthicore and Changeling Hero.
Mark’s Deck
2 x Ambassador Oak
1 x Elvish Branchbender
2 x Elvish Warrior
1 x Fertilid
2 x Nath's Elite
3 x Skeletal Changeling
1 x Warren Pilferers
2 x Winnower Patrol
1 x Wolf-Skull Shaman
3 x Woodland Changeling
1 x Wren's Run Packmaster
1 x Wren's Run Vanquisher
1 x Eyeblight's Ending
1 x Peppersmoke
1 x Reins of the Vinesteed
12 x Forest
5 x Swamp
Mark, on the other hand, is firmly into Elves, and has made a strong almost-all creature deck. His bombs are quite few, with only the Packmaster bigger than a 4/4, but he has very solid cards – some gamewinning – in the form of 2 Ambassador Oak, 2 Nath’s Elite, Wolf-Skull Shaman and 2 Winnower Patrol. His deck will need to be shit down quickly, or it can flood the board with a horde of small and not-so-small creatures that should ensure the victory.
Note: The draft was conducted with two other humans (Tongjie and Wei Xiang) as well as 4 bots. The draft was conducted on ccgdecks.com, and was in the form of LOR/LOR/MNT. Tongjie and Wei Xiang played another match which Wei Xiang won 2-1. The report may or may not come later depending on how lazy the two of them are.
Note 2: The match Jonlim and Mark played was supposed to be a best of 3 match, but due to waiting for the other two players, an extra game was played out of boredom. The match is included here but can be discounted for the purposes of the draft standings (which were never done because Tongjie had to go halfway).
Game 1
1. Mark wins the roll (13 v 11) and elects to go first. Dropping a Forest, he ends his turn.
2. Jonlim starts, dropping a Plains and playing his Goldmeadow Harrier. Solid start.
3. Another Forest hits the field and out comes a Woodland Changeling. Mark’s deck is all about playing fast creatures and it looks like his strategy is already under way.
4. Jonlim plays an Island and drops an Ink Dissolver. The card is capable of milling 3 if Jonlim gets lucky with his Kinship.
5. Swamp hits the field, and Mark plays a Skeletal Changeling. Jonlim is tapped out and so cannot prevent the Woodland Changeling from attacking, so he takes 2 damage. (20 v 18)
6. No Kinship, but there is another land (Plains) and a Judge of Current hits the field. The Harrier is called into action, tapping Mark’s Skeletal Changeling. Jonlim then attacks Mark with his Ink Dissolver for 2 damage, while Jonlim gains 1 from Judge’s effect (18 v 19).
7. Surprisingly, Mark doesn’t play a creature this turn, but instead drops a Forest and then plays Reins of the Vinesteed on his Woodland Changeling, making it a 4/4. It attacks along with the Skeletal Changeling for 5 damage (18 v 14)
8. Jonlim fails the kinship check again, but drops another Plains and attacks with both the JOC and the Ink Dissolver. (15 v 16) He then plays a Stonybrook Schoolmaster for token generation.
9. Mark plays a Swamp and then a Nath’s Elite. This creature would be able to draw all of Jonlim’s tokens to him, letting Mark’s other creatures do damage. Mark won the clash making Nath’s a 5/3, but Jonlim tapped his Harrier to prevent the 4/4 Woodland Changeling from doing anything. Mark ends.
10. Jonlim finally triggered kinship, milling Mark for 3 (Winnower Patrol, Elvish Branchbender, Forest) before playing his newly got Ink Dissolver – now there’s the chance of milling 6 per turn.
11. Playing a Forest, Mark plays ANOTHER Nath’s Elite – but not before the first one gets tapped. He wins the clash again (Elvish Warrior v Plains) and he keeps it on top of his deck, while Jonlim puts the Plains at the bottom. He then swings with the Woodland Changeling (15 v 12)
12. Jonlim plays his bomb Changeling Hero, championing the Harrier, and ends.
13. Mark plays two creatures (Skeletal Changeling and Elvish Warrior) and hits with his 4/4 Woodland Changeling, his other Skeletal Changeling, and a Nath’s. The Nath’s perishes in combat after killing the Hero and the JOC, but the other two creatures go through for damage. Jonlim gains 4 back due to lifelink, so he only takes 1 damage (15 v 11).
14. The Harrier is back, and Jonlim plays an Avian Changeling and ends.
15. The moment Mark goes into his Precombat Main Phase, his Nath’s is tapped by the Harrier. He plays another Woodland Changeling and swings with his 4/4 Woodland Changeling and his Elvish Warrior for 6 damage (15 v 5)
16. Nothing. Plays Island, swings with the Avian for 2. (13 v 5)
17. Mark draws a Swamp and plays it, his Nath’s gets tapped by the Harrier again, and he swings with the same two creatures as he did the previous turn. This time, Jonlim flashes a Dewdrop Spy to block the Elvish Warrior, then adding his Ink Dissolver to the blockers. Mark’s Elvish Warrior dies, but takes down the Dewdrop with him. Jonlim takes 4 from the Woodland Changeling (13 v 1)
18. Jonlim triggers kinship (Packmaster, Skeletal Changeling, and Winnower Patrol) and attacks with his Stonybrook Schoolmaster as well as with his Avian Changeling. Probably a bad move, as Mark two-blocks with both his Skeletal Changelings and regenerates them both (11 v 1)
19. Mark’s Nath’s gets tapped again, but he plays a Forest and alphas. He thinks he’s won, but another Dewdrop hits the field, and Mark is forced to regenerate his Skeletal Changelings again. Jonlim is hanging on.
20. Ink Dissolver, end.
21. Mark alphas again, killing the Ink Dissolver. He regenerates his Skeletal Changelings again to protect from the Avian and Dewdrop.
22. Jonlim draws O-Ring and uses it on the 4/4 Woodland Changeling (the Reins go to grave). A respite?
23. Nath’s is tapped again, so Mark plays a WSS and ends.
24. Jonlim appears to have stabilised, as he hits Mark with the Avian and then prowls Thieves’ Fortune, before playing Summon the School from hand. Has he managed to survive?
25. Nope, as Mark top-decks Warren Pilferers, getting haste, then alpha-swings for the win.
Mark 1-0 Jonlim
Game 2
1. Jonlim, having chosen to go first, starts with a Plains followed by the Harrier, which makes another first-turn appearance to Mark’s disgust.
2. Forest, end.
3. Jonlim plays an Island followed by hitting Mark with the Harrier (19 v 20). He then plays an Ink Dissolver and ends.
4. Mark plays a Swamp and then immediately uses Peppersmoke on the Harrier, sending it to the graveyard. Mark then ends his turn, with Jonlim’s board controller out for good.
5. No kinship, but Mark gets hit by the Dissolver (17 v 20) and Jonlim then lays down a Springleaf Drum.
6. Mark plays another Forest and then plays Winnower Patrol. With his deck full of elves, the card can get big very fast if his Kinship is lucky.
7. Jonlim still doesn’t get a land, and plays another Ink Dissolver before ending his turn.
8. No kinship, but Mark plays an Elvish Warrior, a vanilla 2/3, and a Woodland Changeling. He then attacks with the Winnower Patrol, trading with a Dissolver. Perhaps Mark should have waited for his kinship to build the creature up before attacking, but he felt that the threat of milling 6 was too big to allow.
9. And indeed, Jonlim triggers kinship, milling Mark’s Warren Pilferers, his Vanquisher and a Swamp. A good set of mill for Jonlim, who then taps everything for 3 mana and plays a Stonybrook Schoolmaster.
10. Swamp and an Ambassador Oak hit the field, as Mark attempts to increase his board advantage. He attacks with the Elvish Warrior and the Woodland Changeling, with Jonlim choosing not to block (17 v 16)
11. Still no land, so Jonlim simply ends.
12. Mark here again fails to take note of his opponent’s actions, as he doesn’t notice the purposely untapped mana – therefore his Packmaster gets countered by Sage’s Dousing. Still, Mark alpha swings, losing his token Elf in the process, but doing 7 damage to Jonlim (17 v 9)
13. Island, end. The draws just aren’t going Jonlim’s way.
14. Another Ambassador Oak and his accompanying token! Mark then swings with the above three creatures again, but Jonlim flashes in a Dewdrop Spy (revealing Forest). Due to using Springleaf Drum and Schoolmaster to pay for mana, he also creates a merfolk token. This allows him to absorb the brunt of the assault, only losing 2 life (17 v 7)
15. Jonlim gets his o-ring and uses it on the Ambassador Oak for some damage control as he tries to stabilise. He then attacks with the Schoolmaster for another token (16 v 7).
16. Forest, Winnower Patrol, attack with the Elvish Warrior and Elf token. Jonlim trades token for token and takes 2 damage (16 v 5).
17. Another o-ring, this time on the newly played Winnower. Grumbling Mark RFGs it as well and Jonlim sees the chance to attack – only for his Schoolmaster to get killed by Eyeblight’s Ending. However he taps it in response and makes a token, then plays Idyllic Tutor to avoid being mana burned. However his deck contains nothing left for Idyllic Tutor to tutor!
18. Forest, attack with the Elvish Warrior, Jonlim blocks with his solitary Merfolk token. Time is running out for him.
19. No luck, as he gets a Plains and ends.
20. Mark plays a Fertilid with two +1/+1 counters on it, and attacks with the Elvish Warrior (16 v 3), leaving Jonlim with one turn to find an answer.
21. Island – no answer. Jonlim concedes.
Mark 2-0 Jonlim
Jonlim’s Deck
1 x Avian Changeling
1 x Benthicore
1 x Changeling Hero
2 x Dewdrop Spy
1 x Goldmeadow Harrier
3 x Ink Dissolver
1 x Judge of Currents
1 x Merrow Reejerey
1 x Paperfin Rascal
4 x Stonybrook Schoolmaster
1 x Distant Melody
1 x Idyllic Tutor
1 x Neck Snap
2 x Oblivion Ring
1 x Sage's Dousing
1 x Springleaf Drum
1 x Summon the School
1 x Thieves' Fortune
7 x Island
8 x Plains
Jonlim’s deck has a vague Merfolk + Wizard theme, using Stonybrook + Summon the School engine to generate a lot of merfolk tokens for the win. Alternatively, he can use his obscene number of Ink Dissolvers to mill out a draggy game. He has surprisingly few counters for a Blue Block Constructed deck, but he does have removal in the form of Neck Snap and Oblivion Rings. His deck also features some big creature bombs in the form of Benthicore and Changeling Hero.
Mark’s Deck
2 x Ambassador Oak
1 x Elvish Branchbender
2 x Elvish Warrior
1 x Fertilid
2 x Nath's Elite
3 x Skeletal Changeling
1 x Warren Pilferers
2 x Winnower Patrol
1 x Wolf-Skull Shaman
3 x Woodland Changeling
1 x Wren's Run Packmaster
1 x Wren's Run Vanquisher
1 x Eyeblight's Ending
1 x Peppersmoke
1 x Reins of the Vinesteed
12 x Forest
5 x Swamp
Mark, on the other hand, is firmly into Elves, and has made a strong almost-all creature deck. His bombs are quite few, with only the Packmaster bigger than a 4/4, but he has very solid cards – some gamewinning – in the form of 2 Ambassador Oak, 2 Nath’s Elite, Wolf-Skull Shaman and 2 Winnower Patrol. His deck will need to be shit down quickly, or it can flood the board with a horde of small and not-so-small creatures that should ensure the victory.
Note: The draft was conducted with two other humans (Tongjie and Wei Xiang) as well as 4 bots. The draft was conducted on ccgdecks.com, and was in the form of LOR/LOR/MNT. Tongjie and Wei Xiang played another match which Wei Xiang won 2-1. The report may or may not come later depending on how lazy the two of them are.
Note 2: The match Jonlim and Mark played was supposed to be a best of 3 match, but due to waiting for the other two players, an extra game was played out of boredom. The match is included here but can be discounted for the purposes of the draft standings (which were never done because Tongjie had to go halfway).
Game 1
1. Mark wins the roll (13 v 11) and elects to go first. Dropping a Forest, he ends his turn.
2. Jonlim starts, dropping a Plains and playing his Goldmeadow Harrier. Solid start.
3. Another Forest hits the field and out comes a Woodland Changeling. Mark’s deck is all about playing fast creatures and it looks like his strategy is already under way.
4. Jonlim plays an Island and drops an Ink Dissolver. The card is capable of milling 3 if Jonlim gets lucky with his Kinship.
5. Swamp hits the field, and Mark plays a Skeletal Changeling. Jonlim is tapped out and so cannot prevent the Woodland Changeling from attacking, so he takes 2 damage. (20 v 18)
6. No Kinship, but there is another land (Plains) and a Judge of Current hits the field. The Harrier is called into action, tapping Mark’s Skeletal Changeling. Jonlim then attacks Mark with his Ink Dissolver for 2 damage, while Jonlim gains 1 from Judge’s effect (18 v 19).
7. Surprisingly, Mark doesn’t play a creature this turn, but instead drops a Forest and then plays Reins of the Vinesteed on his Woodland Changeling, making it a 4/4. It attacks along with the Skeletal Changeling for 5 damage (18 v 14)
8. Jonlim fails the kinship check again, but drops another Plains and attacks with both the JOC and the Ink Dissolver. (15 v 16) He then plays a Stonybrook Schoolmaster for token generation.
9. Mark plays a Swamp and then a Nath’s Elite. This creature would be able to draw all of Jonlim’s tokens to him, letting Mark’s other creatures do damage. Mark won the clash making Nath’s a 5/3, but Jonlim tapped his Harrier to prevent the 4/4 Woodland Changeling from doing anything. Mark ends.
10. Jonlim finally triggered kinship, milling Mark for 3 (Winnower Patrol, Elvish Branchbender, Forest) before playing his newly got Ink Dissolver – now there’s the chance of milling 6 per turn.
11. Playing a Forest, Mark plays ANOTHER Nath’s Elite – but not before the first one gets tapped. He wins the clash again (Elvish Warrior v Plains) and he keeps it on top of his deck, while Jonlim puts the Plains at the bottom. He then swings with the Woodland Changeling (15 v 12)
12. Jonlim plays his bomb Changeling Hero, championing the Harrier, and ends.
13. Mark plays two creatures (Skeletal Changeling and Elvish Warrior) and hits with his 4/4 Woodland Changeling, his other Skeletal Changeling, and a Nath’s. The Nath’s perishes in combat after killing the Hero and the JOC, but the other two creatures go through for damage. Jonlim gains 4 back due to lifelink, so he only takes 1 damage (15 v 11).
14. The Harrier is back, and Jonlim plays an Avian Changeling and ends.
15. The moment Mark goes into his Precombat Main Phase, his Nath’s is tapped by the Harrier. He plays another Woodland Changeling and swings with his 4/4 Woodland Changeling and his Elvish Warrior for 6 damage (15 v 5)
16. Nothing. Plays Island, swings with the Avian for 2. (13 v 5)
17. Mark draws a Swamp and plays it, his Nath’s gets tapped by the Harrier again, and he swings with the same two creatures as he did the previous turn. This time, Jonlim flashes a Dewdrop Spy to block the Elvish Warrior, then adding his Ink Dissolver to the blockers. Mark’s Elvish Warrior dies, but takes down the Dewdrop with him. Jonlim takes 4 from the Woodland Changeling (13 v 1)
18. Jonlim triggers kinship (Packmaster, Skeletal Changeling, and Winnower Patrol) and attacks with his Stonybrook Schoolmaster as well as with his Avian Changeling. Probably a bad move, as Mark two-blocks with both his Skeletal Changelings and regenerates them both (11 v 1)
19. Mark’s Nath’s gets tapped again, but he plays a Forest and alphas. He thinks he’s won, but another Dewdrop hits the field, and Mark is forced to regenerate his Skeletal Changelings again. Jonlim is hanging on.
20. Ink Dissolver, end.
21. Mark alphas again, killing the Ink Dissolver. He regenerates his Skeletal Changelings again to protect from the Avian and Dewdrop.
22. Jonlim draws O-Ring and uses it on the 4/4 Woodland Changeling (the Reins go to grave). A respite?
23. Nath’s is tapped again, so Mark plays a WSS and ends.
24. Jonlim appears to have stabilised, as he hits Mark with the Avian and then prowls Thieves’ Fortune, before playing Summon the School from hand. Has he managed to survive?
25. Nope, as Mark top-decks Warren Pilferers, getting haste, then alpha-swings for the win.
Mark 1-0 Jonlim
Game 2
1. Jonlim, having chosen to go first, starts with a Plains followed by the Harrier, which makes another first-turn appearance to Mark’s disgust.
2. Forest, end.
3. Jonlim plays an Island followed by hitting Mark with the Harrier (19 v 20). He then plays an Ink Dissolver and ends.
4. Mark plays a Swamp and then immediately uses Peppersmoke on the Harrier, sending it to the graveyard. Mark then ends his turn, with Jonlim’s board controller out for good.
5. No kinship, but Mark gets hit by the Dissolver (17 v 20) and Jonlim then lays down a Springleaf Drum.
6. Mark plays another Forest and then plays Winnower Patrol. With his deck full of elves, the card can get big very fast if his Kinship is lucky.
7. Jonlim still doesn’t get a land, and plays another Ink Dissolver before ending his turn.
8. No kinship, but Mark plays an Elvish Warrior, a vanilla 2/3, and a Woodland Changeling. He then attacks with the Winnower Patrol, trading with a Dissolver. Perhaps Mark should have waited for his kinship to build the creature up before attacking, but he felt that the threat of milling 6 was too big to allow.
9. And indeed, Jonlim triggers kinship, milling Mark’s Warren Pilferers, his Vanquisher and a Swamp. A good set of mill for Jonlim, who then taps everything for 3 mana and plays a Stonybrook Schoolmaster.
10. Swamp and an Ambassador Oak hit the field, as Mark attempts to increase his board advantage. He attacks with the Elvish Warrior and the Woodland Changeling, with Jonlim choosing not to block (17 v 16)
11. Still no land, so Jonlim simply ends.
12. Mark here again fails to take note of his opponent’s actions, as he doesn’t notice the purposely untapped mana – therefore his Packmaster gets countered by Sage’s Dousing. Still, Mark alpha swings, losing his token Elf in the process, but doing 7 damage to Jonlim (17 v 9)
13. Island, end. The draws just aren’t going Jonlim’s way.
14. Another Ambassador Oak and his accompanying token! Mark then swings with the above three creatures again, but Jonlim flashes in a Dewdrop Spy (revealing Forest). Due to using Springleaf Drum and Schoolmaster to pay for mana, he also creates a merfolk token. This allows him to absorb the brunt of the assault, only losing 2 life (17 v 7)
15. Jonlim gets his o-ring and uses it on the Ambassador Oak for some damage control as he tries to stabilise. He then attacks with the Schoolmaster for another token (16 v 7).
16. Forest, Winnower Patrol, attack with the Elvish Warrior and Elf token. Jonlim trades token for token and takes 2 damage (16 v 5).
17. Another o-ring, this time on the newly played Winnower. Grumbling Mark RFGs it as well and Jonlim sees the chance to attack – only for his Schoolmaster to get killed by Eyeblight’s Ending. However he taps it in response and makes a token, then plays Idyllic Tutor to avoid being mana burned. However his deck contains nothing left for Idyllic Tutor to tutor!
18. Forest, attack with the Elvish Warrior, Jonlim blocks with his solitary Merfolk token. Time is running out for him.
19. No luck, as he gets a Plains and ends.
20. Mark plays a Fertilid with two +1/+1 counters on it, and attacks with the Elvish Warrior (16 v 3), leaving Jonlim with one turn to find an answer.
21. Island – no answer. Jonlim concedes.
Mark 2-0 Jonlim
