Trying out the Big Beast. Modified Big Beast Nature in Midnight Shadow Weekend Ranked.

I thought I might as well try out the deck covered by kstreet in this post here last week. See if I manage to get more Mortal Judgment packs this week. I also noticed a lot of the deck advice is for Mythic, and since the meta at lower levels is a bit different, I thought covering this weekend ranked at the Midnight Shadow level could be useful for people who don't have many Mortal Judgment cards yet and are at lower ranks like me right now.

My deck isn't exactly the same, since I don't have any Underbrush Boars, or Selenas, or Finnians. I replaced them with other cards which I think makes this deck a bit cheaper and more accessible for new players too. I didn't have the other cards that kstreet recommends, which was too bad, and I don't think I played the most optimized version of this deck because of that.

I have to say though, that those cards I don't have are pretty good, and I probably would have had a much better run with those cards included.

Game I
Well, my first game vs Magic for the weekend, they didn't have any card draw luckily, and were running out of cards quite early.

I didn't get any early creatures this game, so it started rather slowly, them managing to kill all the first creatures I did play.

Pretty soon though as I kept on laying down big beasts that required more than just a card to kill, my board started building up. They ran out of cards completely and I still had quite a bit of life.

Their one creature was not enough to stop the big beast stampede, and after I buffed my creatures up with wildfire they quickly conceded.

Game II

This game vs Nature went pretty bad for me. I hadn't been able to mulligan or draw a Canopy Barrage, and on they started building up their board early and buffing their creatures up as expected.

Things just got worse and worse for me. At this point it was too late. The one Canopy Barrage I did get to play killed their Howler, and they just summoned another to buff their creatures even more. That was it for me, a quick defeat.

Game III

This time vs Nature I had a better starting hand. They on the other hand were only playing blessed and drawing cards.

My board was dominating this time, and my buffed up Valewarden Minotaur with Guerrila Training was too much for them to get rid of.

I guess they just couldn't deal with the Big Beasts, and their life was so low at this point, they conceded right after I cleared their board again.

Getting another pack is always nice.

Game IV

First game vs Light this weekend. Again, they started rather slow. I barely even needed to remove anything directly.

I had enough creature removal to easily deal with their creatures at this point, and they just could not deal with my armored buffed up frontline.

They tried to play the Guild Enforcer card too, but I still had a Lightning Strike to get rid of that, as my board just kept on getting scarier.

I was dealing a lot of face damage at this point, and had several cards in my hand to remove creatures or if they played an relic.

With so much face damage coming at them their life went down very quickly, letting me win.

Game V

I had never seen a Death deck quite like this one. They started putting cards into their void, I should have suspected their were up to something. Not sure I could have done anything about it with my current deck though.

Here I still didn't suspect their next moves, and I figured the first creature card was in their deck to deal with Anubians only. But then they summoned this beast on their third turn. I thought wow, maybe I can deal with that.

Then they summoned an Aetheric Hydra from the Void on their fourth turn. My hopes dropped at that point. That was pretty much it, I could of conceded but I was curious about this deck.

I did try to see if by any chance I could deal with these kinds of early played titanic creatures, all I could do was stall a bit. I did manage to get rid of the Hydra's protection.

Then they summoned another crazy huge creature from the Void to top it off. I was out-beasted by far. I guess maybe a Magic Combo deck, or other kinds of Magic decks maybe, or an Anubian deck would have some way of dealing with this. Not the deck I was playing though. Another defeat for me.

Game VI

I was happy to see that in my first weekend game vs Deception they didn't play any of those early pesky cards like Patient Pickpocket. I had some effective creature removal in my hand in case they did. At this level you get to face an odd assortment of decks, this one in particular didn't pose much of a challenge it seemed. Or maybe they were just unlucky. They stole control over one of my creatures for a turn, but it didn't work out particularly well in this case for them either and all my creatures survived until a couple of turns later. I got rid of their creatures, and kept on pinging at them, and they conceded more quickly than I expected after I summoned a Guild Enforcer. Didn't have time to Guerrilla Train it.

Game VII

This game vs Deception, they started very quickly to build their board. My Canopy Barrages were not enough and I didn't have enough mana for the Hunt.
They got some card draw and a buffed up creature with Guild interactions.

I did manage to get rid of most but not all of their creatures, maybe if I would have got luckier with the Canopy Barrages it would have gone differently. As it is they killed me before I had enough mana to use the Hunt.

Game VIII

Death started a bit slow and tried to get a Zombie engine going, but I was able to clear their creatures every single turn.

I put Guerrilla Training on my Minotaur, and was wondering if they would find a way to deal with. Meanwhile I was clearing their board every turn and attacking them with a bunch of little creatures, getting quite a bit of favor.

They conceded at this point, I could maybe have finished them off earlier, but was making sure to keep their board clear every turn just in case. Also had the centaur card in my hand in case I needed relic removal.

Game IX

Here vs Nature they started relatively quickly. Not quite quick enough though it seemed.

They rebuilt their board and buffed it again, but they were running out of cards, and I had a bunch of big beasties left to play.

Even though they kept on playing creatures and buffing them, they needed at least 2 creatures to remove my big beasts each time.
The Hunt probably saved me here, and with all the favor from killing so many creatures I picked up a Bronze Servant to deal with their relic.

At this point I played Guild Enforcer and cast Guerrilla Training on it. I was betting they wouldn't be able to get rid of it.
They built up a board again but here The Hunt came in handy, not sure I really needed it though. They had no cards in their hand and I still had a bunch more creatures I could play. After this they conceded.

Game X

Here vs Nature again, they didn't start terribly fast. But those Broccolis just kept on healing, and I didn't deal with them fast enough.

My Guild Enforcer would have been useful here, but unfortunately they had a Lightning.

I had some hope that maybe somehow my two big beasts, one of them with Guerrila Training, plus the 2 The Hunts in my hand could still save me.

But then they buffed up all their creatures with a Howler. Things were not looking good for me.
Those Broccolis had so much life my The Hunt wasn't very effective, and I didn't have time to play the other one before those Broccolis finally killed me.

Game XI

Vs Light I was rather relieved they hadn't started off too quickly. I figured if I could stay in the game until now they wouldn't be able to deal with me dropping big beasties turn after turn.

They had to sacrifice a bunch of cards to remove my Guild Enforcer and I was gaining control fast.

I used Nefarious Briar to get rid of their pesky relic, and used my own club to get rid of their last creature.
After I summoned another big beast and cleared their board they conceded before I could play the rest of my big beasts.

Interesting, never seen some of these before.

Game XII

In this game vs Nature, they started out quickly playing creatures and buffing them up and I wasn't able to keep up.

They just did not slow down, and although I tried using The Hunt, I had barely life left and the finished me off with a relic and some small creatures they quickly summoned again.

Game XIII

This game vs Death started a bit slow, and I thought I could easily deal with the Zombie army they were building.

They just brought it back the next turn though. My creatures weren't helping too much either, and with confused weren't attacking the right creatures. I lost pretty quickly that time.

Game XIV

I was surprised to see Magic play mostly creatures, and not very scary either. I summoned two big beasts and was able to deal with their board.

I wasn't running out of big beasts to summon, and the Valewarden Minotaurs gave me more big beasts to summon afterwards, at which point they surrendered.

After that I actually lost a bunch of games. Here are some more screenshots from some of them.

Here Light totally overran me with buffed up creatures.

Here vs Relic War I lost pretty quickly, their relic damage was just massive. Too bad I didn't mulligan or draw any relic removal.

Anyways, although I didn't do too well, big Nature beasts are sort of fun, although this deck probably needs those Boars and Finnians to really shine.