Well that sucked.
So we've been having a pretty good game so far--there's me, a Hazezon Tamar deck, a Kresh the Bloodbraided deck, and a Vhati il-Dal deck. It's fairly late in the game--two hours along--and things are looking grim for me. Kresh is a 10/10, and has a Spearbreaker Behemoth hanging around to protect him, and I'm scared. So I transmute Dizzy Spell for Condemn to protect myself, only to see Kresh pick up a Whispersilk Cloak before combat and smack me.
Things roll around to my turn, and I have very few possible outs. There's Prahv, which I don't draw. Return to Dust, which I also don't draw. Blazing Archon, which I once again don't draw (and can't tutor up because Isperia isn't on the field at the moment). I do, however, have a Glarecaster in hand...but there's a problem. I don't have the twelve mana available to both cast it and use it in the same turn. So if Kresh attacks me next turn, I'm dead no matter what I do, but if I drop Glarecaster now and get lucky, it's possible I'll live. I drop the Glarecaster, with some mana up for a counterspell just in case.
The Hazezon player does nothing relevant on his turn, so now comes crunch time. Kresh player untaps...and casts Violent Ultimatum, targeting Glarecaster, my Windbrisk Raptor, and something that's not mine. Cancel. Combat phase....and yes! Kresh attacks the Hazezon player! I just might live! It's the Vhati player's turn, but apparently his wife is getting mad at him, so he makes his apologies and says this will be his last turn.
OK, all right, no problem. Vhati's player makes an almost all-out attack at the Kresh player; most of his forces die, along with a few of the Kresh player's, boosting Kresh further. Meh, whatever--it's not like it wasn't lethal already. So now it'll be my tur--hey, wait, what? What's going on now?
Vhati taps to reduce Glarecaster's toughness to 1. (3 thanks to Oathsworn Giant.) His controller casts Consume Spirit for 3 targeting Glarecaster. My only out is dead. He then casts Barter in Blood, leaving me with just Windbrisk Raptor. So what does he say then?
"Well, that spices things up a little." And he leaves. No. No it does not. Playing kingmaker in a game you're not going to have any further involvement in just because you can is not called "spicing things up". It's called being a jerk.
You know what would have been spicy? Leaving me alone. I would have delayed Kresh for the turn, and quailed as his controller dropped an Avatar of Woe. I would have frantically racked my brain for an answer; the following turn I would probably have activated Glarecaster and cast Stonecloaker to save it from the Avatar, praying to draw the final land I needed to drop the Caster with activation mana up to delay for just...one....more...turn, until I could kill his controller with my fliers. What would have been spicy would have been seeing if I could simultaneously hold out against Hazezon's army long enough to drop Isperia and tutor up Blazing Archon to protect myself.
Being left in a crippled heap, gift-wrapped for my opponents' consumption, by someone who just picked up and left? Not so spicy. Certainly not for me, and probably not for them, either.
