Bismillah.
Simon writing, it was my 3rd Lega day with en-Kor Combo, which is this:
Use the en-Kor ability to target a Cleric with Daru Spiritualist or Task Force a billion times for a billion toughness (2 billion and 1 and 3 billion and 3 respectively to be exact nerd smiley) …
… and either gain a lot lot of life …
… or deal a lot lot damage.
Match 1 against Clemens, Grixis something I think. I already have few chances against any blue-ish control, if they understand the Combo they just counter my outs and there’s little I can do about it besides hoping them to make mistakes like wasting their Counters or tapping out, or to somehow find and then play 2 or 3 outs in the same turn, so they run out of Mana or Counterspells. Still, this match was even worse: they find enough Counterspells to control me entirely, I lose two games in 10 minutes or so, with no shimmer of hope at any moment, in addition to the bad match-up I properly land-flooded one of the games. Quite an ernüchternder start, but then I knew against blue I’m scr**ed. 0:2
Match 2 against Moritz Rakdos something. I already know I can perform against Mono-red, but against Rakdos with Snackers the fliers cause a problem I otherwise wouldn’t have, when I can block anything once I have clerics and Nomads on board. Plus, game 1 I miss a lethal attack: Sac Benevolent Bodyguard to give Daru Spiritualist - with Treefolk Umbra and infinite toughness already - protection from red against only two red blockers. My bad, Moritz was nice and told me after the match, I was properly blind for that extra-escape-tunnel-ness of the Bodyguard against mono colored blockers, and still didn’t get it even when they started to play strangely around always having two blockers of different colours untapped, snackers or Imp + some red guy. Not that I didn’t know the rules, I know that protection amongst others makes unblockable, I just didn’t have it in my gameplan altogether, and the mind is not getting younger I guess ¯_ (ツ)_/¯ Until that day I played the Bodyguard only as a removal-protection and extra-cleric blocker. (I promptly switched from 2 Bodyguards and 4 Flagbearers main to 3 each after the matchday) Game 2 I combo off quickly and have high hopes, game 3 I can’t find the life-gain before again their fliers end me. 1:2
Match 3 against David, I’m sorry I can’t even recall the archetype, something with black I think - game 1 I combo off for a billion life turn 3 or 4, they go on some turns before they concede. Game 2 I mull to 5 if I recall correctly, but then got lucky - they had removals, knew the Combo by now, but I had two of Daru Spiritualist/Task Force and a Jolted Awake for the Nomads in time. They conceded immediately when I hit the billion life again, even though I had boarded out the Umbras now, which I regularly do when I don’t see infinite damage, infect or mill (if that’s even a thing in Pauper) game 1. Obviously they couldn’t know, but that means they could’ve tried decking me. When I told them after the game they even showed me a Campfire main (I only have one Barkform Harvester for that purpose). That’s not the most fun Magic to play, and again they didn’t know I had no Umbras, but it would’ve forced me to board one or two back game 3 and worsen the statistics on having the life-Combo so early. 2:0
Match 4 against Felix Cycle Storm. I didn’t know the deck yet, game 1 is over turn three, 0:1. Even if I had known their Combo I couldn’t have done anything. I board in 4 Thraben Charms, with the fixed plan to mull even to four cards to find one. Then, on drawing seven, I find two combo pieces and a Prismatic Strands, of which I play 4 main, so I change my mind and hope I can at least buy two turns with the Strands and maybe draw the combo or Thraben Charms in time. Turns out I can only buy one turn of time: One of their cards triggers on the end-step-discard during the clean-up phase, that gives them priority somehow in the void between turns, where it’s not my turn yet but my Strands’ effect has already ended. That was nice to learn though, we had to call Ash two times to solve different things, and it was fun thinking about the board (mostly their side ^^) together with Felix. Game 2 I survived two or three turns after once disrupting their Combo, but didn’t draw the missing Combo piece nor Thraben Charms nor another Strands. I can’t fully recall by now, but I think they even finished without the Combo, by just attacking with what they had on board by then. 0:2
Match 5 against Benjamin Mono Red Madness. I see them lay a Blood token next to their playmat, I ask them whether it’s Mono red madness, they affirm, and I couldn’t have been happier about the matchup. After match 2 I realized that with a bitta luck I have veeeery good chances against Mono Red, and I sortta know how to play against it now, like drop a Bodyguard turn 1 and Nomads only turn 2, or even only turn 3 after a Flagbearer turn 2, slowing down the Combo but protecting the Nomads against an immediate Bolt, things like that. Both games I drop Nomads + Spiritualist/Task Force safely yet early, turn 3 or 4, thereby have two blockers unkillable by both combat- and spell-damage, and manage to combo off before they have enough burn to the face. They didn’t know the combo yet and wereabit surprised, both that it performed so well, and that it at all exists in the otherwise more healthy Pauper-world. Anyways I got particularly lucky that last match, too, both games I found the combo pieces more quickly than average, so the impression the deck might have given to them was certainly off. 2:0
Soo - I went 2:3 overall, with two very clean and quick victories, and had I not missed the lethal against Rakdos match 2 and actually mulled into Thraben Charm against Cycle Storm match 4 it might have - not considering I would’ve met very different and more difficult decks ;) - in another universe ended 4:1. Which means this was by far the best of the three match days I’ve played, and neither is the decklist properly tested or optimized nor have I played super-sharply, so there’s much Luft-nach-oben. In particular I don’t know many of my opponent’s deck-lists, sometimes I don’t know their gameplan altogether, but even the small details obviously matter, like knowing whether Snuff-Out or Cast-Down is usually played in a certain list. I have a lot to learn still. Then this deck probably won’t get to where Pit’s Tireless Tribe is performing, it’s just too bad against Counter-magic, but it might, might might might might, reach Tier-3-strength anyways some day.
For that sake, this is also a call-out of sorts: If anyone has ideas to improve a GW Combo against Counterspells - probably even splashing blue with 4 Escape Tunnels and 2 Landscapes main plus 4 Dispels and an island side, something like that (I don’t like Mana Tithe much) - without significantly worsening the deck against other meta match-ups, please do let me know!
After the 5 matches the closing ceremony of the Lega followed, which was so nice. I even got that brew-community-trophy thingy - thank you for anyone who decided on this, though I feel it was not fully deserved, I only played three matchdays, it’s not the craaazieeeest brew, Silvyus Sisters for example was also so nice, and they’re a steadfast brewer, too, bravely facing the meta-storm, I feel they would’ve also really deserved it, but anyways I’ll honor the altered Nomads-Lad-Duress forever :’) After the ceremony some players went to eat at an imbiss together and continued to a small bar, it was such a nice evening!
I first met the Pauper to the People folks when I stayed over at a friend’s place in between two Untermieten for a week last year, who lived next door from Libelle. One Thursday evening upon returning home I saw peeps playing Magic through the windows and asked the smokers outside who they were and what format they were playing, and they were nice and added me to the Telegram group. I had only played kitchen-table-legacy and Commander years ago and didn’t enjoy either any more, the Legacy for the sweatiness, the Commander for the never-ending self-balancing, but Pauper sounded nice, being properly competitive and yet healthy with a wide meta - and cheap obv. From the very first moment, when I asked in the Telegram chat for thoughts on the en-Kor brew, people helped me, Zimone made an entire decklist as a suggestion, everyone was so so nice. Since then all the people there already have won a place in my heart, which is not usual, and that’s the thing - I don’t even care much about the Magic part to be honest, I mean I enjoy the game, but had I run into the same people playing chess or highly-competivive-Doppelkopf that day, it wouldn’t have changed a thing for me. It’s really the people in the Leipzig community which are so nice, and to have any game like that to escape everyday’s life together for a moment, which is so wholesome. Literally it helped me recover from some things I’ve went through before, just by diving into another world of sorts, meeting with nice people in a safe space once a week, where the things outside don’t matter, where everyone’s friends and just enjoying the game. Without getting too oversharing or sentimental here, but thanks a ton <3
And at this place also sorry to everyone involved for first going all in with helping founding a Verein (a German non-profit-organisation) to organize the following Lega and tournaments and then suddenly leaving Leipzig for good. (maybee inspired the Nomad’s en-Kor flavour text? “The Kor forsake roots for the winding of the path; forsake voices for the silence of the mind; forsake all else for the poverty of isolation.”)
Bref - my life’s been like that some years now, but that’s no justification or excuse really to first sign up for something and then run away. So as long as I’m back in Leipzig again I’ll again try and help with what I can, not because I’d feel pressure now or anything, but because I enjoy to and want to give something back, so the schedule’s still to have the next Lega run by the Verein! For that purpose, we still need another 4-5 folks to become legal members at the founding gathering (a Verein requires at least 7) - if you’re up to that, please do reach out. It wouldn’t come with much work nor liability, which is with the chairmen/-women. For the regular members it will be only about joining the founding gathering, the yearly gatherings, agreeing to the statutes and putting your name and Thomas Jefferson under it. That said - if you do like to participate in the process, there’s also still space for that!
Thanks so much for all the people organizing the weekly meetings, the Lega, the tournaments, and making the Leipzig Pauper scene what it is! “They lift the spirit of their people so they may descend in wrath upon their foes.” - Daru Spiritualist flavour text