"EDH Battles:The Hello Kitty Hug Incident"

"I am now a part of your nightmares..."

 "EDH Battles: The Hello Kitty Hug Incident"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

       Yes this is still a Magic Blog and for today I have another 1 on 1 EDH story to tell so please read on. 

     A couple of years back(While playing in the office pantry) my friends and I talked about this particular scenario."What if you played against an opponent who had Hello Kitty Sleeves?" One of my friends started laughing."I mean seriously would you be distracted by the sleeves? Would you underestimate that player?" There were various answers. Some of them deep , some of them shallow.  So I added , "What if he or she really had a killer deck hiding under that distracting set of sleeves and he or she totally dominated your deck or killed you with so much speed that you didn't even have enough time to blink in the match? If he or she traumatized you , would you start breaking out into a sweat or start to shake uncontrollably every time you see your sisters Hello kitty products? Would you have Hello Kitty Nightmares where you keep on saying No No No please don't do that?" There was laughter all around but you could see on my friends faces that they were really thinking about it.

     Fast forward in time where I recently played in a 1 on 1 EDH event. After going 1-1 and nearly winning in my early loss I was pretty confident that I could adjust and take on most of the opponents in the event. I looked at the 3rd round pairings and found a name that I have not battled with before( I tend to take note of names just so I can anticipate beat down or control or a mix of both as most players tend to always play decks based on their individual styles.) This new opponent was an unknown and for a country that literally has hundreds of players ( at least 1000 based on the Last GP Manila) chances are there would still be a lot that I would not be able to play against in this lifetime.

"Merieke: You are mine....
Creature: Ok Sige..."

     So when I sat down in front of my new opponent I tried to scope out his style of play. The first thing I looked at was his commander. I was amused to find an altered art version of Merieke Ri Berit. And yes it was a Hello Kitty wizard that stared right back at me.I read the text and gathered that this would be control. I saw a flash of the future if I was not careful. Hello Kitty would tap , gain control of my creature and bash me in the head with it. I remembered my story from way back. It was catching up on me.

     The match went on like I predicted. I would dominate with damage early  because of my Aggressive turn 2 drop Skullbriar that kept on growing. At one point I would be within one swing commander damage for the win.I was controlled in the late game where the decks reanimator and control features emerged.I died to a Sheoldred that Swampwalked me to death.

"Excuse me while I Swampwalk you to death..."

    The 2nd match saw me going to town with a +5/+4 Lotleth Troll in the early goings. Once my opponent was able to cast Hello Kitty though the beat down ended. Lotleth was given a big hug of love , joined my opponents creatures and never came back to my side. My opponent was happy to merely counter any mass removal or creature that I would play on the field. I was sweeped , 2-0. In total control fashion. Hello Kitty was just there tapped and grinning full of love as all the other creatures rushed me including my usually dependable Lotleth Troll in the mix. I shook my opponents hand.

I think I'm going to have those Hello Kitty Nightmares now.