Weekend ranked Midnight Shadow with Card Draw Magic

I decided to take screenshots and share my progress through this weekend ranked. I started off in a lower rank than I was some weeks ago, but that helped me win the first games. This might be interesting for more beginner players though, hopefully.

What worked best for me was playing Oni and then using direct damage cards to clear their board. I won a bunch of games like that, but then once I rose in the ranks, they either started to be able to deal with Oni, or started playing creatures much too fast for me to be able to clear them off.

I went with a relatively cheap Card Draw Magic deck. I haven't bought any Mortal Judgment cards for Magic yet either, so not many of those in here. I'm sort of waiting to see if they nerf them more first I guess, and I ran out of cash for GU spending anyways. At this point, I think without Mortal Judgment cards it's hard to compete with the newer decks, but I thought I would try anyway this weekend to see how it went.

Started off pretty weak in this game, I saw too late I shouldn't have picked the get a 1 mana spell god power, since my opponent kept on playing creature spells.

I lost pretty quickly, with two 10 direct damage from 2 Wyrmbreaths to me from my opponent for the kill.

I reached level 100 anyway though. I got a Porphyrion which was nice. Those are worth 0.0014 ETH right now, but I already have two so not that exciting for me.

My next game vs Death went much better. They were never able to get my Oni Spellsword off the table, and I kept clearing their side, as my Oni grew stronger and I was able to finish my opponent off like that.

I was expecting a Land of the Dead which would have made things more challenging maybe, but it didn't come.

Easy win that time.

In this game my Nature opponent started pretty slow, and I again managed to play an Oni and destroy all of his creatures as he played them.

This game my opponent conceded when there badger got confused and attacked my Vortimer instead of killing off my Oni Spellsword.

I got a Universal Vial, which I don't remember seeing before. Is that new?
I hope I get enough wins to get some Mortal Judgment cards.

In my next game, my Nature opponent again started a bit slow, and my play the Oni and clear his board strategy worked pretty well. Luckily I had a Ratify on hand to deal with his buffed up 3/6 Broccoli with Guerrilla Training and 3 armor.

I think I am going to try to stick with my Oni strategy since it seems to do quite well at this level at least.

Game 4

I thought I might have a harder time when I started vs Deception, going second, and not being able to start with Oni this time. But luckily they started a bit slow.

I was able to keep their board clear, and they were having a hard time clearing my creatures. I buffed my All-Seeing Spire with a card I spent favor to get, just to make it a little harder to kill off, and draw more cards in the meanwhile.

They did manage to clear my board in the end, but it was too late, they were already down to 3 life.

Oni's ward ability came in handy again towards the end, letting me win.

Game 5

I got a bit worried when my opponent summoned a bunch of creatures and then used Wildfire to buff them up, but luckily I was able to clear them with the help of Tracking bolt and Street Conjurer.

After that things started looking better from my side of the board.

Oni Spellsword again was very useful in dealing damage and providing wards and Merlin cam in handy too.

They did manage to almost clear my board with The Hunt and a few trades and started building up their side, but at that point it was too late. I got rid of their frontline creature by turning it into a rat, and finished them off.

Game 6

I wasn't sure what to expect vs Magic, but I managed to keep their side clear. Oni's wards come are especially useful vs Magic. I was lucky to get Pallas' Wand in the beginning, giving me enough card advantage to control the board.

Oni, and 2 WyrmBreaths helped bring his life down relatively quickly.

I got another pack, but nothing too exciting.

Game 7

My Nature opponent had a relatively slow start again, and I was managing to keep the board under control, but was running out of cards. Luckily I had Pallas Wand to be able to keep on drawing.

At this point I got a bit nervous, but was able to keep on clearing his creatures thanks to Tracking Bolt and Pyre Shaper.

They summoned a bunch of Amazons and buffed them up, and I was worried for a second. It got pretty close, but I managed to pick them all off one by one.
Thankfully I had Achillean Dedicant.

Achillean Dedicant helped to clear his board and then finish them off. I didn't even have to use my Ratify's which I had in case they summoned something too big.

Game 8

I was a bit nervous when I saw my Magic opponent unlocking so many mana gems early on.

My 2 Ratifies worked as a charm vs their big bad meanies though, and those, Crystal Rain and a bunch of direct damage kept me mostly in control, as I kept on attacking to bring their life down to 0. At this point, I had gone
up in the ranks to Auric Gold.

Game 9

This my Nature opponent started a bit faster then the previous ones I faced, and I was running out of cards.

I totally ran out of cards, and was just trying to stay afloat. Luckily their board was not too scary.

They were clearing my creatures as soon as I played them, until I drew Achillean Dedicant, and after I summoned it and cleared their board with it, they immediately conceded even though they had 30 life. Fine with me.

Game 10

The next game started quite slow on both sides, since we both knew the other would just kill off any creature the other summoned. They kept on drawing a bunch of cards though all the while. This was until they summoned their big legendary baby dragon. It dealt me some good damage before I killed it by spamming several direct damage spells.

Crystal Rain and then Pyre shaper helped a lot. But it was too late, and after two Wyrmbreaths they finished me off with some more direct damage.

Game 11

Playing vs Deception, they started off strong, and starting dealing good damage to me with hidden and buffed creatures.

What I needed was some AoE damage, but the onslaught was too quick even if I had drawn a Crystal Rain I didn't have enough mana for it.

I used up all my cards but the face damage just kept on coming and they quickly finished me off. Starting to feel like I had worked my way high enough where people actually had good quick decks.

Game 12

I wasn't sure I would manage when they took out a Pyramid Warden and a Necroscepter. But actually things worked out quite well, thankfully I drew an Iron-tooth Goblin to deal with the Necroscepter and also had enough direct damage to kill his Pyramid Warden, which then brought my Oni back to life.

My Street Conjurer was helping me to kill of every creature they summoned, and the favor was giving me extra cards too. My Oni kept on getting stronger and stronger, and they didn't seem to be able to deal with it so the game ended quickly.

That was pretty much the last game I won though. I guess my rank got high enough where I started to face people with better decks, including some of the better Mortal Judgment cards, and I started losing. Or maybe I just lost my Mojo. Here are some more screenshots.

In this game vs War, they used their super buffed up relics to bring me down to 0 life. I only had so many anti-relic cards so it worked pretty well.

I was happy to get Inconspicuous Carriage though.

In this game vs Nature, they started pretty fast, and I just could not keep up, I ran out of damage spells and they just didn't stop summoning creatures and buffing them.

I didn't have enough spells or mana to clear their board, and they would kill any creature I lay down, so they started dealing damage at a pretty high rate.

At this point, I was finished, they were just toying with my creatures but had enough creatures to win.

In this game vs Light, they played Lysander's Spear in the first turn. I felt really silly because I had chosen not to keep an Iron-tooth Goblin which might have saved me. As it was, I didn't have enough firepower to kill his buffed up creatures and once I ran out of spells he finished me off pretty quickly.

Well at least I got enough wins to get a Mortal Judgment pack. Wonder when I will get back into Mythic again.