"Khans of Tarkir PR weekend: Ach Zurgo!"

"Khans of Tarkir PR weekend: Ach Zurgo!"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

When the spoilers for Speed and Cunning duel deck was first revealed I took a long hard look at Zurgo Helmsmasher and saw a killer. Since I was so enamored with playing Sultai colors I decided not to write anything about Zurgo since I may not be able to play him at all.

"Phasing....Jolats!"

Fast forward into my scheduled(Like for most Married Planeswalkers , Scheduling is key to not incur the Wrath of Wife) Khans of Tarkir PR game in Spiral Valenzuela where I was opening packs and getting gems like Meandering Towershell and Kheru Lichlord.Two creatures who had the worst interaction ever. If you reanimate Meandering Towershell via Kheru Lichlords ability you just wasted 3 mana and lost a creature! Yeah and I had a Sultai seeded pack too! None of the packs I was opening were leading me to a Sultai direction.

Then I finally opened the Ashcloud Phoenix and this guy.Zurgo Helmsmasher , he was a sight for sore eyes. Finally a bomb I can work around! And so I was going to play with Ruthlessness in a deck that was built for speed.I was Sultai by heart but Mardu by deck. Well, sometimes you lead the cards but in the limited format pre release you better damn listen where the cards lead you. 

Zurgo Helmsmasher though a difficult cast without the right colored mana combination would come out in all 4 of my matches that night.He would always play a pivotal part in both of my wins. And the only time he didn't come out in the 3rd game for me spelled my doom. Add to the fact that my last 2 opponents were killers! Dandy Sy outlasted me with his own Morph battalion and Enoja Frigillana , He killed me with a well timed Ankle Shanker just when Zurgo Helmsmasher came menacingly on the battlefield during my turn.Ouch!

To be fair to Jorell and Marvin , both were suffering from mana woes(Mana drought and Missing Plains respectively) at the beginning of our matches and all will go up to 3 enjoyable matches where there was no clear victor until the very end. Mana woes or not though Zurgo was such a constant draw from my deck that I was able to power these back to back wins.Normally when he showed up it was scoop up time. And the phrase"Pare na-Zhurgo ako!" was heard around the venue. So much so that when someone said Zhurgo there was a palpable , "Ach Zurgo" feeling in the room. That and the ever distracting Hentai moaning(ahhhh , ahhhh , ahhhhh)from one of the players which maybe distracting for some but may also provide some blood boiling inspiration for others. I didn't bother to ask which players had those effects. 

"Panalo!"

Though I was not able to repeat my success in the M15 PR I was still pretty happy to go the distance in 3 rounds after falling to just 2 games in the last round.Turns out that everyone was a winner because even those who got just 2 packs like me went home with a Fetchland.A Flooded Strand to boot! I am thankful for Zurgo Helmsmasher and I do owe him a proper post hahahaha.Well time to brew for Standard. There are serious decisions to be made for the battles ahead.