While a step back in power level from our previous pod, these games where entertaining nonetheless. This group of decks fit squarely in to the middle tier of quality. When decks are on an even playing field, the games tend to be really good. This was the first night with no Worst of the Worst candidate, and only the second night with no undefeated deck. 

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Here are the decklists:
The Flowing Auditor of Blankburg
The Sri of Ashstol
Upgen, the Roboticist of the Hall
Aquarius, Arvapit Producer

Game Results

Game 1 – Auditor vs Sri

One Sentence Summary: Each deck battled for the board, and ultimately Sri prevailed by a single aember.

Card of the Match: Tendrils of Pain
This situational board wipe found a sweet spot in this game. It wiped most of Auditor’s creatures off the board while leaving the larger Brobnar and Dis creatures on the table. 

Notable Event: Sri was able to threaten to forge the final key while finding a way to prevent Auditor from using Key Charge to win. 

Winner: Sri
3 Keys to 2

Game 2 – Upgen vs Aquarius

OSS: Aquarius played its best game of the night and won in a quick fashion. 

COTM: Full Moon
This card really wants two or more creatures to be played for it to be be good, and anything over that gets crazy. Works well with Troop Call.

NE: Upgen used The Spirit’s Way to clear the board, but left a Dew Faerie alive. This allowed Aquarius to reap, play Full Moon, Troop Call, a Niffle Ape and a Fuzzy Gruen. This let a key get forged, and then those creatures reaped on the following turn to win the game.

Winner: Aquarius
3 Keys to 1

Game 3 – Auditor vs Upgen

OSS: The game boiled down to whether Auditor had a Key Charge in hand on the last turn or not. 

COTM: Key Charge
The biggest card of the match was not actually played in this game. Its always nice to have an out.

NE: On the second turn, Upgen made six aember with a crazy combination of Mars cards: John Smyth, Squawker, Mindwarper and Mating Season. 

Winner: Upgen
3 Keys to 2

Game 4 – Sri vs Aquarius

OSS: Sri wumped Aquarius right in the mug.

COTM: Mugwump
This giant was played on the first turn, and stayed in play for the whole game. Simply a must answer creature, or he will walk all over a game.

NE: The Brobnar giants took over the board so effectively, they were able to reap the game away.

Winner: Sri
3 Keys to 1

Game 5 – Auditor vs Aquarius

OSS: Aquarius spent several turns at two keys and 5 aember, but couldn’t close out the game.

COTM: Krump
This is an unassuming card that can do a lot of damage. Killing creatures and destroying aember will not win you the game, but it does a lot to keep the opponent from winning. Krump did just enough at the end of the game to let Auditor win.

NE: Dust Imp was brought back from the archives to die to Tendrils of Pain to generate enough aember for Auditor to forge the second key.

Winner: Auditor
3 Keys to 2

Game 6 – Sri vs Upgen

OSS: Sri spent a lot of time pushing nerds around, but forgot to actually try to win the game.

COTM: The Spirit’s Way
This card is really good in some decks since it can kill your opponent’s creatures and leave your problem creatures in play.

NE: The Spirit’s Way really swung this game. At one point, this game looked unwinnable for Upgen. By the end of the game, Upgen had almost every creature in the deck on the board.

Winner: Upgen
3 Keys to 1

Final Results

The Sri of Ashtol – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
This deck can kill a seemingly unlimited supply of creatures with power 2. This deck does not do well when it falls behind on the board. It can organize some unfair turns through Control the Weak and has some aember control with Grenade Snib and Effervescent Principle. It is very good at keeping the opponent’s creatures stunned, with two Tremors and two Smaaash. Really problematic creatures can be taken with Collar of Subordination. This deck does not generate aember very quickly and will need to reap with creatures to win most games.

Upgen, the Roboticist of the Hall – *Advancing*
2 Wins – 1 Loss
This deck is heavy on creatures, and really has to rely on them to win the game. The Sanctum package has some sticky creatures who do a good job of killing opponent’s creatures and protecting it’s own creatures. The Shadows side provides solid aember control. The Mars cards can provide a threat, and can explode into aember when they are no longer useful. Overall, a solid deck, but a little slow out of the gate. 

The Flowing Auditor of Blankburg – *Eliminated*
1 Win – 2 Losses
This deck will murder opposing creatures and then struggle to find ways to generate aember. Tolas is a powerful in this deck and combos best with Three Fates. It is easy to trigger Smith with this deck, since there are so many ways to kill creatures. Wardrummer is not great in this deck, since there are no Play effects on Brobnar creatures. The Untamed section of this deck is responsible for generating the bulk of Aember in this deck, and has a few must-kill creatures like Witch of the Eye and Dew Faeries. This deck has a fair amount of interaction, but doesn’t do much to stop the opponent from winning.

Aquarius, Arvapit Producer – *Eliminated*
1 Win – 2 Losses
The maverick Sequis is pretty cool, but this deck doesn’t quite gel the way other decks do. Double pawn sacrifice is particularly bad without a Bad Penny, since this deck wants to keep it’s creatures in play. Double Sniffer is also bad, and it could really only combo with Vezyma Thinkdrone. The average size of creature in this deck is small, and only three creatures have power five or greater. This deck is light on creatures, but does generate a lot of aember on cards it plays. Unopposed, the deck can generate enough aember for three keys by just playing the cards with aember bonuses, which not every deck can claim. 

Known Errors: We play several games when we are streaming and don’t always clean up the Key Totals and Aember after a game. These have always been caught before they have mattered for a game, but they can be misleading at different points in the game. Regardless of how many games we’ve played, its easy to forget the small things.
If your opponent plays Biomatrix Backup on your creature, if it dies during your turn, you can put it into your archives. This came up in game 5.

Meta Info: Through 42 games, everything is all tied up. First and second wins are at 21 wins each. Nathan regained ground and tied Justin at 21 wins. The more we play, it seems there is no clear advantage to going first or second.