Top Cut VOD Review for Fates Voyage: Beyond (LoR)

Good Morning again!
Many more misplays in this one, but this time with higher stakes (single elim). But I hope there's still something enjoyable for y'all.
Please comment any thoughts. Otherwise, enjoy :)

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Been taking way too much time to get to it, but finally got to reviewing the vid! Thx again Spidz from Arcane from posting this content! (If I don’t comment on anything, you already explained it well and don’t have much to add myself.)
23:09 I really like this mull. Palm is a lot weaker when ur unlikely to want it T3, and T5 slamming temple is a lot stronger than palm, and at that pt it doesn’t really matter what ur hand state is pre-temple. With temple, you only want cards you want to play pre-temple, so only keeping mixo makes sense. (Also u mentioned me in a video UwU )


26:46 Personally, with this sort of hand where you’re almost entirely bricked, I instantly slam temple here. While ofc they can equip scout weapon which is somewhat spooky, it’s not scary on Jax since you have high note (only his lamp was buffed, he’s still a 3/2 base and the scout weapon is only +1/+0). They can scout + forge artisan and push 13 dmg, but getting the temple down this turn makes your T6 a lot stronger, since you can draw into removal or sett and stabilize the board sooner, instead of having to effectively pass T6 too by jamming the temple. In this sort of MU where the enemy has to play fair and push all their damage on their attack token, I feel like going down to low hp is fine as long as you find the answers to their big threats, and jamming the temple sooner gives u much better odds of doing that.

(Worth noting pass is interesting because you maintain sett mana, and if they do go for the scout artisan line, sett alone shuts down most of their attack since then only a forged Jax can swing and you get to threaten Jax next turn.)


46:33 I’m pretty rusty with Vayne aatrox tbh, so maybe this is a completely insane thought, but I thought Vayne was another ok option. My idea was that they already have a good target for small removal with the 4/2 bear, they dumped gale so 3 hp might be an awkward number for their hand, and if they remove her you likely won’t need form up for defector anyway. I do think my play would’ve been significantly worse against their hand of aftershock + high note (thought tbf they had already played 2 damage spells), but I was more worried that they could just slam temple t5 and then run away with the game, and getting the Vayne out early forces them to have a lot more removal.

50:59 Will note that smashing Ekko from the illaoi swain side is not a clean answer to Ekko: the tentacle needs to be really large to just get past scrying and/or survive, QS can be game losing if there’s no follow up disintegrate/scorched, and even if it goes through, it’s not a very efficient trade since the Ekko still gets the strike and an opportunity for a back(or time?)-breaking chronobreak. (Granted, the other answers to Ekko are either 6 mana sermon or 2 card combos.) I can sort of get why they’re dumping the smash just to get their tentacle online.
1:06:54 You skipped over it in the VOD, but based on what happened I assume they attacked in with reggie and you blocked with baccai. I think I honestly would’ve liked to see quicksand in that spot with that hand: it’s unlikely you’re going to be able to discard both, and you really need to get the jinx gameplan going with this hand. (Of course they can shoot baccai and keep reggie, but I think that’s the most value QS can get with this sort of hand: forcing a removal on a 2/1 that could easily get killed off from high note/riff/rocket barrage/slamma jamma. Also worth noting that reggie could easily die to jinx rocket anyway.) If you didn't want to QS there, then I think I wouldn't have blocked anyway to play for jinx rocket/chronobreak value, since that sort of swing never happens if they can clear the 2/1 with something like rocket, and you can't really afford to play around stuff in this bad of a MU anyway.
1:16:13 Personally, I liked only swinging with Ekko and leaving the other units behind. From my perspective, the bandle jinx deck is the one which is limited by board space (ex: dunehoppy mech is 3 units, and they’re 4 wide so they’re already got too many units). They’ve told you no trumpetecher with the T3 swing, and can’t wipe the board with jinx since these units aren’t 1 hp. I figured that by leaving the board as is, you can comfortably live their T5 while making a possible chronobreak significantly stronger. Even if they don’t attack next turn, you still have 2 more unit spaces for voices + possible drop boarder.
1:27:47 I’m personally not a big fan of nine lives in the mull, just because I think removal spells/small units are better in most situations. I don’t think would’ve kept nope either, though your reasoning to answer strike up the band is definitely fair, and with temple keeping situational cards isn’t incredibly punishing. (Will also note that if they play band T4, which seems like the initial plan with even token, you can potentially punish that with a rocket barrage, but then Ricko could exploit that to sneak gwen in.)
1:28:56 I think holding high note was better personally. While later on the exact number of hallowed doesn’t matter too much, for the t4 token they’re very likely to get value out of the extra +1 (or with gwen, +2), so the host is effectively a 1 atk unit this turn. The possibilities of chumping with the 1 drop from nine lives (which doesn’t really trade efficiently into much else from them, as anything with OW still pushes dmg and butler can’t be blocked), getting a value block with mixo on gwen, and using the high note later to clear another 2 drop or gwen with aftershock all make me prefer eating 2 dmg. (Sej lvl up is something that exists, but it shouldn’t realistically matter since by the time that aspect of Sejuani is pressuring you, the game has likely already been decided).
1:34:38 Agree that this MU likely centers around harp, as spear, aegis and bloodletters all are outscaled by freljord’s deck buffing and efficient tricks. (Personally I don't think RKD is absolutely necessary for harp to go nuts, as long as you have a way of atking multiple times like valor, vayne, cataclysms, etc.) I think you actually lose the lategame (darkin don’t go as tall as bard + deckbuffs, and world ender is really hard to play for when your units can’t survive combat), so you need to be the aggressor somehow. For that reason, I think full mull was honestly defensible, as harp + any unit (except maybe broadwing) is still significantly better than most other hand combinations since you can actually pressure them continually, and even if the harped unit dies, you can just reequip and force them to have a 2nd giant blocker. 

(I don’t think the exact same logic applies to gwen sej, since harp might not be required to win that MU since they don’t go as tall, but I don’t think I’m educated enough on that specific MU to know if your aggro gameplan gave you the best odds, since Morgana or more 1/2 drops were the only cards that win the game with that sort of mull. Regardless, I really can’t think of any way for you to win game 3 with the way the hands turned out, even if you knew exactly what Ricko had and what you would draw, since against 2x elixir and sej, starting T6 you can never break through.)

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