This is a timely post, because I was going to write something about the game I played last week with my demons deck where I was in a terrible position all game and nearly won. Now, "nearly won" is the kind of thing you hear all the time, but I know when the difference between winning and losing is one more attack, one more spell, one more point of damage, or some other minor thing. This was one of those times.
It was a four player pod at my friendly local gaming store. We were given our table assignments, so I sit down to shuffle up. The kid next to me is pointing at his Ghost Chieftain and starts talking about how he was cleaning house just a second ago at the pre-game. I smiled and gave the raised eyebrow look to the other guys across the table. Yeah, he was toast. Everyone targeted him. It wasn't even spectacular. Just turn after turn of old fashioned beats. One down.
The guy across from me was playing Karona, but with a twist. His 5-color deck was Allies. It was actually pretty neat, without being too crazy. But, his team of Allies was growing. And dropping Karona into play meant swinging for bunches. He was toying with this idea until the other guy dropped a Blood Moon and ruined his plans.
The other guy was the guy who won. He had a nifty Norin the Wary deck that used Genesis Engine to pump out tokens along with Pandemonium to deal some hefty damage. Yeah, it was like that. Three damage per turn, each and every player's turn, adds up.
I'm sitting there doing what my black deck does. That is to say, I'm sitting there playing Swamps and not much else. With Pandemonium out, I was holding onto a few big demons, biding time until life totals around the table started to dwindle. I also had sweepers, like Black Sun's Zenith, to calm down the token army. But, it rarely pays to be too aggressive, so I just hung back behind a Pilgrim's Eye.
At one point, I cast my Commander (Nefarox) and pointed the 5 damage from the Pandemonium at the Karona player and passed. The Norin player, now on my left, did some crazy Skull Clamp dance on his tokens to draw a fistful of cards, but didn't cast anything. Here's the thing. The Karona player was at 15 life. I needed him at 13 to kill him on my turn, 6 damage from my exalted Commander and 7 damage off Pandemonium from the Lord of the Void I was holding. He passed his turn. I basically had nothing, just my tapped demon overlord. The Karona player had a full boat of allies with only the Blood Moon holding him back from running me over with the False God naming "ally."
He did the math and attacked the Norin player.
Norin went into exile, came back, and with the help of Pandemonium did the two damage I needed, just where I needed it. On my turn, Lord of the Void did the 7 damage and Nefarox did the rest. Now, the Norin player had one turn to kill me before any number of hideous, demon-themed things would happen to him. He dropped a Warstorm Surge, attacked with some tokens, then ended his turn. When Norin wandered back into play at the end of his turn, Pandemonium+Warstorm Surge+Genesis Chamber was enough to blow me up.
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