The Talk Box Presents: CONSPIRACY! - Part One, Pod Two

If you'd like to listen to the podcast featuring the drafting process, click here!

Pod Number Two: Chad, Matt, Jared and Morgan

In the pod containing Chad, Matt, Jared, and Morgan, the match escalated quickly and never slowed down, with flashy spells and big plays being made all over the place. Chad was playing Orzhov (white-black), Matt was playing Mardu (red-white-black), Jared was playing Jund (black-red-green), and Morgan was playing Izzet (blue-red). And now, decklists!

Chad's Orzhov

Matt's Mardu

 Jared's Jund

(Sadly we didn't get a photo of Jared's deck)

Morgan's Izzet

Before dice could even be rolled to see who went first, Morgan revealed his Power Play conspiracy, making him the player to start the game. The game began tame enough, with a few creatures played and a Tyrant’s Choice from Jared clearing the board early.

Eventually, Chad made the first big move, dropping a 15/15 Lurking Automaton that caused everyone’s chairs to shift unsettlingly towards him. The hidden agenda conspiracy of Secret Summoning allowed him to tutor up another one, and he eventually had two giant Automatons that threatened to end the game within a few turns. Luckily, Jared and Matt both had removal spells to respond to his threat, Jared casting a Tragic Slip and Matt casting an Assassinate.

As the game progressed, Jared kept his hand full with not one, but two Deathreap Rituals, benefiting from the mass amounts of removal getting slung around the table. Eventually, Jared drew enough cards and ramped enough mana to cast Phage the Untouchable, the next big threat to appear. With all combat drawn to a stalemate with Phage out, everyone began bolstering their defenses. Chad played multiple copies of Rousing of Souls, giving his opponents some diplomatic card advantage while he built up an army of 1/1 flying spirits. Matt kept himself protected with multiple defenders such as Vent Sentinel, Cinder Wall, and Pride Guardian, doing what he could to find an answer to this clogged board state.

Morgan was the one to break the silence, first casting a Dack’s Duplicate to copy Jared’s Phage. He immediately began swinging away to force blocks and build up +1/+1 counters with his copy’s dethrone ability. In the following turn, Morgan cast Mana Geyser to amass 16 red mana, all of which he filtered in to a multikicked Deathforge Shaman that instagibbed Chad, dropping him immediately to zero life.

With Chad and his army of spirits out of the way, the focus was now mostly between Jared and Morgan, each with a Phage and ready to strike for lethal. Jared was unable to draw a removal spell for Morgan’s, and Morgan dropped a Marchesa’s Smuggler, making his copied Phage unblockable and killing Jared. Meanwhile, Matt was busy durdling and pinging with his Vent Sentinels, hoping to draw into an answer. In a topdeck of the ages, Matt drew into the Assassinate that he then cast to kill Morgan’s Phage, and proceeded to ping him down with his Sentinels over the next few turns for the victory.

Overall, the game was chaotic and fun, and was finished much quicker than Pod Number One's game. Everyone got the chance to be a supervillain mastermind and make a big flashy play, and the consensus of the group seemed to be that the game was hilariously enjoyable.