One of the worsts limited environments I played in my entire life, basically. I played 2 preleases with Ojutai and Atarka and went 4-1-2 and 5-2, so I'm not crying because I failed and wanna blame everybody except me. All these points are just my impression, so probably I could be wrong on most of it.
1) The mana fixing is TERRIBLE, which leads you to play 2 colors only and maybe splash to a third one if you you're lucky enough to open a pair of Evolving Wilds. The fact that the mana rocks are uncommon doesn't help at all.
2) The seeded boosters is the typical idea that could be great but it's shaped horribly. First of all, in a format without common mana fixing, the seeded booster must guarantee the monument of your brood. Neither prelease I get any of the monuments of my clan, so I played a lot of matches with the Ojutai one praying to draw the second plains or island. Special mention to Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, which I opened on my fate reforged booster and cannot pay the ability on the whole tournament because the double white requirement. Fantastic. Secondly, I seriously wanna meet the guy who decide the promo card pool, just to thank him/her because it's hard to do it worse. My 2 promos were Stratus Walker and Volcanic Vision. I could complain about the first one being promo while there are plenty of huge bombs to put inside, but at least is a 3/2 flying that could stop a trick of the oponent. But Volcanic vision is inexplicable. Unplayable in any existing format and most of the future ones, putting this as a promo it's about being a terribly bad person, like the Grinch or Cruella de Vil. I totally agree that both cards must be rare for being part of a cycle and complexity terms respectively, but putting in a product that comes up to help playing the prelease it's totally insane.
3) Dash when most of the instant removal on the common ground are combat tricks, specially Sprinting Warbrute. Deciding that this ogre should be common, or put it 4 of toughness, deserve an applause for one of the worst decisions taken. If the ogre was a 5/3 it'll be more balanced, but in it's actual form I could see how most of the games this silly creature deals 10-15 damage easily, unless your oponent want to chumpblock again and again. And when you achieve to kill this bastard, most of the time it will be a 2x1, maybe because you double block or because you're forced to spend a combat trick to deal with it, because with his stats he'll probably kill your creature too. Bonus points if you have a Warbringer in your deck.
And that's all. I enjoyed Khans and Fate reforged a lot more than this one,
1. You do realize that's actually pretty normal right? Usually you're supposed to only run 2 colors maybe with a light splash if you get lucky. This was just going back to basics after two sets with tons of fixing letting you get greedy.
2. People used to complain about either A. not being able to use a cool promo or B. the promo always being terrible so they never wanted it in their deck anyway. Then, for a while when they said you could use the card, people always just went for whatever the most powerful promo was and stores ran out of it quickly. Just proof you can't please everyone.
3. I'll give you that the Warbrute is nuts but considering how even though he was my MVP and did a lot of damage he still got blanked by a silumgar player hard who took advantage of Mind Rot to rip him from my hand after blunting my early assault I have a hard time thinking your statement isn't a bit of hyperbole. Now, don't get me wrong, I agree with you that a lot of the removal being sorcery speed is awkward against the Dash decks but stuff like Flatten and a couple others are at common.
It's not going to be. The reason it was 3/3 was because Fate was the newer set and they wanted to emphasize it. DDF is going to be 4-2 Dragons. It's already been confirmed.
I went Silumgar and pulled a foil Dragonlord, Sarkan (which I didn't use) Thunderbreak Regent and Shockmaw Dragon with 2x Dragon Tutors and a Crux of Fate. I went 5-1 playing B/R splashing blue for the dragonlord. I have to say that the real star for me was Corpseweft! Being able to instant out a 4/4 or 8/8....heck even a 2/2 to block was so timely. I'm not sure it's going to pan out in constructed, but in limited it's a bomb. Our TO has to bolster his prize pool with Fate boosters along with the Dragons prizes and I pulled a foil Tasigur, an Ugin and a Narset in my prize packs!
I had fun...but I went in knowing that I wasn't going to be able to play 3 colors....and was shocked that splashing blue worked out for me with any mana fixers.
Dragon.DEC was a blast
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"Talkin outta turn....That's a paddlin'. Starin' at my sandals....That's a paddlin'. Paddlin' the school canoe....You better believe that's a paddlin'!" --Jasper
You're right you just won't see many gold colored cards from FR. Most of the time you'll see 2-3 cards tops, and half of the cards are in the same color pairs as Fate. Really the only odd cards are the 5 commons from Fate that are hard to fit in since the colors don't match the Dragon colors. You can certainly just run Enemy colors and play them though. Only thing keeping you in allied colors are rares anyway.
i didn't like the look of this set on paper. its bloated with reprints, the power level of most cards feels weak, dragons feel slapped onto everything, mechanics feel under explored or just underwhelming, there is just an avalanche of things of i don't like about this set.
that said i gave it the benefit of a doubt. i figured, hey maybe i'm wrong. maybe this set will be awesome to play, so i went to the prerelease anyway.
what a huge mistake.
i've been playing this game for 20 years. this is the first prerelease i have ever gone to where i have felt completely ripped off. after sitting there at the table for about 15 minutes i couldn't make a viable deck. i asked a few other guys to take a look. two other people couldn't build anything viable either. there was tons of dragon support - and no dragons. there was almost zero removal. almost zero combat tricks. no bombs. not enough creatures. the few good cards i did pull were in colors where i didn't get enough support to viably be in those colors.
it was awful. just. awful. i actually really wanted my money back. the cards were bad, and a deck wasn't workable so actually playing wasn't even an option. i took the spindown and left the box on the table before round 1 even started and went home. the whole experience has actually soured me to prereleases in general now.
So you got a bad pool. Big deal. But every reason is good for badmouthing the set, I see.
there's more to it than that. i've had bad pools before and still had fun, haven't felt completely ripped off, been able to at least build a deck.
bad pool is the vomit icing on the ***** cake that is dragons of tarkir.
but sure, recognize i make my dislike of this set very well known and then just ignore every single reason why. thats cool.
You know, Xcric, if I was not seeing the same things from you for every set, maybe I would take you seriously.
But it is the same over again and again. It gets old and boring very quickly. Okay, "vomit icing" is new, I grant you that
On topic - I am looking for drafts very much. I see already at least three drafting strategies I would like to try. This is going to be quite different than KTK-FRF, but I think I will like it.
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100% Vorthos Spike and Storyline Expert
Former Fact Prospector of the Greek Alliance.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Attended a 2HG prerelease at a different store than I usually attend since my friend wanted to try 2HG. Honestly I really enjoyed it, maybe just because having two pools let us make a pair of really solid decks. Didn't open anything remotely bomb-y though, my promo was Living Lore. Between us we only pulled one Boltwing Marauder (which only ended up on the field once) and two of the uncommon cycle, only one of which actually ended up in the deck. Worked out prety well though, we ended up in first place with 2 wins and a 1-1 draw. The pool wasn't super exciting but I was really happy with how both our decks turned out in the end.
Shame prizes were a bit rubbish. We each got an intro deck for first place, second place was the store owner who was piloting two decks to avoid having to give anyone the bye, not sure what he got. I don't remember seeing anyone else actually get anything at all though, which kinda sucks.
We played nothing but 2HG this weekend ourselves and we had a blast. We got decent pools for 3/4 events we played in but still managed to go 4-0 in every event. Each and every time we played UB control with a splash of white for Pacifisms and GR beats. (The sad part of the story is even though the store pays out 24 packs to 4-0, we still basically opened rubbish. One Sarkan all weekend and no Narsets. )
I did find the 2HG Sealed format enjoyable - I've been burned out on individual sealed since they started the Prerelease boxes - I hate them. I wonder if that's a factor as to why so many people felt like they got unplayable pools (I realize some complain about every prerelease.)
Saturday: chose Kolaghan and went 3-1, ending 3rd. The deck was really fast with 10/14 creatures having dash, which allowed me to put a lot of early pressure and play efficiently at every point in the curve. Warbringer and Ambuscade Shaman were simply amazing and led to impressive plays, but Sprinting Warbrute did a ton of work too. Lady Kolaghan was my promo card, she showed only once during the event but won that game by herself in 3 hits, which was cool.
Sunday: chose Dromoka and went 3-0, ending 1st. I ended up playing Naya, I had to splash red because of removal (Draconic Roar and 2x Sarkhan's Rage), but also because I opened Shaman of the Great Hunt in my FRF pack. Shaman is obviously a powerful card by itself but it also worked surprisingly well with the rest of the deck, interacting nicely with cards like Lightwalker and Gleam of Authority. Speaking of Gleam of Authority, I'm usually against playing auras but man, that card is worth the risk. MVP should be Gleam or Sarkhan's Rage (instant Lava Axe which also doubles as removal sounds very good in my book). Overall I was a bit worried of playing 3 colors with no Evolving Wilds and no gain land, but 2x Sheltered Aerie helped me get there.
I picked Azorius. My rare was living lore. Only other rare I got in those colors was Illusory gains. I ended up playing neither up them, since they looked like traps to me (and when I saw other people play them, they were quite bad). I ended up playing Grixis. The rares I played were Blood-chin Fanatic, Pitiless Horde, and Flamewake Phoenix. Pitiless Horde was quite underwhelming, and I think overall it did more damage to me than my opponents. Flamewake Phoenix overperformed with my exploit creatures - had the sign in blood dude, 2 life drain dude, gravedigger dude, and -3/-3 dude. Also had the blue black dragon that makes an opp sac a creature whenever I do, and a merciless executioner. Pretty decent black cards all around.
I ended up splitting the finals of my prerelease. I didn't think my deck was that good, but I think other people are just really bad at building sealed decks. Playing 3 colors without any fixing is very rough, and I drew a total of 5 islands in 8 games. That just goes to show the power of the red/black cards I have I guess, or 3 mana 2/2s.
lets see, other overperformers -
Sarkhan's Rage. This card was super good for me. It won me pretty much every game I drew it. Being able to hit players and creatures at instant speed is amazing, and it's 5 damage.
Ojutai Interceptor. This guy did a lot of work. I got two of them, and they won every game they went unchecked. 4/2 fliers are nothing to sneeze at.
Butcher's Glee. At first glance, it looks underwhelming. But, what most people don't realize, that it's actually a charm with 3 modes. Lifelink helps you win a race. +3/0 finishes an opponent. Regenerate saves your dude. When combined all into one, this card was sweet for me.
-edit- Best moment. Opponent had his own living lore out with a dragonlord's prerogative imprinted on it. I used the 4 mana threaten on it, hit him for 6, sacced it, and drew 4 cards. talk about blow out.
The store I went to was running 2 headed giant pre-release. I chose GR and my partner was BR. I had some pretty good pulls for my colors including Atarka, World Render, Dragonlord Atarka and Atarka's Command along with a couple Sarkhan's Triumph to dig them out and Shaman of Forgotten Ways to pay for them. All four games I played, I was able to get at least 1 version of Atarka into play. Sometimes she would get immediately blown up, but if not she closes games out well. The last game we played, my partner made very clever use of Lose Calm to take control of my dragon to give it haste and close out the game. We went 2-2 and all but 1 game was close (which I had a very early Atarka for 18 damage in the air on turn 6).
The first one I picked Atarka and ended playing Black and Green plus a splash for a FTF Kolaghan. I went 0-2 drop (it was midnight and I wanted to go sleep before playing twice on Saturday during the day). My deck was okay but I kept getting blown out by bombs.
Next I picked Ojutai and I ended up played Blue/Black. Again my deck was kind of marginal and I went 2-2. I won a pack for my efforts.
Saturday in the evening I picked Kolaghan and actually got to build Black/Red. I got a ton of raid including 4 copies of Reckless Imp. The highlight of this event was easily the game where I had Warbringer undashed and I dashed three Imps on one turn and then all of them again the next turn plus another creature for the win. I went 3-1 losing to a 4-0 player who had tons of removal that I couldn't get around.
Then on Sunday I picked Silumgar and I got to play those colors too. I had Icefall Regent and a lot of good exploit cards and good removal. I went 3-1-1 in the swiss (they had a top 8) and then won in the top eight before the top four decided to split the prize packs.
Apparently I really like playing Black in this format. Exploit is really strong, I don't think there is a bad exploit card. Dash is a lot better in this set with the cards that support it and I didn't even get the +2/+2 guy. Rebound is really nice when you remember to use it. Bolster is as good as always if not better. I thought formidable was going to be pointless but some of those cards are really good when you get their bonus. I'm really enjoying the new set and I can't wait for our draft on Friday at FNM.
Oh and a special shout out to Lose Calm. I almost lost both games in a match to that card (Stratus Dancer) saved me.
Let's see... I did 2 pre-res this time around. Friday midnight and Sunday afternoon.
1st one: I chose Dromoka. I opened Zero (0) dragons from all of my packs, but I did open Narset Transcendent. Wanted to make her work by splashing blue, only to discover she doesn't really work well in limited. Her "+1" won't hit too often in a format where you want as many creatures as possible, and her "-2" doesn't actually work with a lot of spells (Enduring Victory for example). So I just went White/Green with no real spectacular pulls. All my creatures were cheap and weak. I came in last place.
2nd one: I chose Ojutai this time around. Slightly more luck; this time I pulled one (1) dragon from all of my packs and it wasn't even in the colors I chose. I can't complain though, I opened a Sarkhan Unbroken. This time I just went for it; I played Green/Blue/Red. My white was decent, but all of my white creatures had defender, so I was worried I wouldn't have enough creatures that could actually win me the game. Sarkhan, unlike Narset, is really really good in limited. Every single game he hit the table I won. If I didn't get him, I usually lost to some random dragon or another. I tied for 4th place.
My final thoughts about this set after 2 pre-res: There are weenies (early-game) in this set and there are dragons (late-game). One side is clearly stronger than the other. If you don't have any dragons, you had better have a way of beating them, or you will lose. There wasn't really any mid-game. Just my opinion.
Thanks for reading.
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Standard WUControlWU
Commander (EDH) WBRKaalia of the VastWBR WRGMayael the AnimaWRG
Well i picked Kolaghan got the command and roast and some other notable r/b cards. Started cracking my DTK packs got dragonlord dromoka, new surrak, and sunsorch regent, and very few actual playables in black green or white. Got the super sweet elite scaleguard and my mind was made. Started building gw trying to go in on counters could only come up with 14 actual playables and 3 cards id be willing to play if i had to. Ended up playing naya because my black had 3-4 removal spells but not a single good creature and i was already low enough on that count, got to play with the GR dragonrock and it overperformed, the red was probably better than my green on a whole even though i think i only had 6'ish red cards.
Beat mastery of the unseen by making the guy deck after he mirror mockery my dromaka, he should of won but for some reason didn't want to trade his hexproof dragon for my dromaka to prevent me from gaining life over the next couple turns and basically giving me lifegain to deck him through it. Best match i played all day. Went 4-0 and split in finals played for fun(i won) it was basically a mirror as this guy sat across from me when we were building and he also pulled a dragonlord dromaka and sunsorch regent and also picked rakdos...
New surrak was pretty great the 3 mana 5/5 and the 3 mana x/3 trampler were great. Sunscorch regent kinda underperformed for what i was expecting from it never was that great when i had it, the red uncommon first strike dragon typically pulled more weight. Dragonlords are obviously insane bombs and roast was good every game.
Format reminded me of stuff from apoc to a extent i enjoyed that i don't want to draft onslaught without dmg on the stack(its not complicated enough boardstates without it anymore and makes me sad)and happy it wasn't just perma board stalls every game.
I had THE WORST PRERELEASE EVER! I went Ojutai and pulled a seeded Ojutai, the rare UW dragon that gains protections, the dragon Dungeon Geist, and two of the uncommon UW dragon w/ double prowess.
To make it worse, I pulled a Monastery Mentor and a Flooded Strand from my Fate pack.
My pull had deep Green and Blue but it wasn't deep enough, so I had to use my Strand and 2 Evolving Wilds to splash white. Ugh.
Then I proceeded to go 4-0 and win 12 packs, pulling two Narsets (one foil), an Atarka and 2 Atarka's Commands.
To top it off, I rolled a 44 in Dragonfury.
The absolute very WORST! I don't know if I'll ever play Magic again.
I had THE WORST PRERELEASE EVER! I went Ojutai and pulled a seeded Ojutai, the rare UW dragon that gains protections, the dragon Dungeon Geist, and two of the uncommon UW dragon w/ double prowess.
To make it worse, I pulled a Monastery Mentor and a Flooded Strand from my Fate pack.
My pull had deep Green and Blue but it wasn't deep enough, so I had to use my Strand and 2 Evolving Wilds to splash white. Ugh.
Then I proceeded to go 4-0 and win 12 packs, pulling two Narsets (one foil), an Atarka and 2 Atarka's Commands.
To top it off, I rolled a 44 in Dragonfury.
The absolute very WORST! I don't know if I'll ever play Magic again.
Sounds rough. At least I pulled the best rare in the set, Hedonist's Trove, twice! I got a lot of jealous looks from the other players.
Got the Atarka Pack. Opened Arashin Sovereign, Foe Razer Regent, and some good white removal so went Naya. Went 4-0. MVP was the 5/1 megamorph efreet that pings. He got through for 7 way more than he should have.
i didn't like the look of this set on paper. its bloated with reprints, the power level of most cards feels weak, dragons feel slapped onto everything, mechanics feel under explored or just underwhelming, there is just an avalanche of things of i don't like about this set.
that said i gave it the benefit of a doubt. i figured, hey maybe i'm wrong. maybe this set will be awesome to play, so i went to the prerelease anyway.
what a huge mistake.
i've been playing this game for 20 years. this is the first prerelease i have ever gone to where i have felt completely ripped off. after sitting there at the table for about 15 minutes i couldn't make a viable deck. i asked a few other guys to take a look. two other people couldn't build anything viable either. there was tons of dragon support - and no dragons. there was almost zero removal. almost zero combat tricks. no bombs. not enough creatures. the few good cards i did pull were in colors where i didn't get enough support to viably be in those colors.
it was awful. just. awful. i actually really wanted my money back. the cards were bad, and a deck wasn't workable so actually playing wasn't even an option. i took the spindown and left the box on the table before round 1 even started and went home. the whole experience has actually soured me to prereleases in general now.
So you got a bad pool. Big deal. But every reason is good for badmouthing the set, I see.
there's more to it than that. i've had bad pools before and still had fun, haven't felt completely ripped off, been able to at least build a deck.
bad pool is the vomit icing on the ***** cake that is dragons of tarkir.
but sure, recognize i make my dislike of this set very well known and then just ignore every single reason why. thats cool.
You know, Xcric, if I was not seeing the same things from you for every set, maybe I would take you seriously.
But it is the same over again and again. It gets old and boring very quickly. Okay, "vomit icing" is new, I grant you that
On topic - I am looking for drafts very much. I see already at least three drafting strategies I would like to try. This is going to be quite different than KTK-FRF, but I think I will like it.
yawn. inflamatory post is inflamtory.
i enjoyed theros, i enjoyed khans i enjoyed rtr. update your biography on me sometime.
I went 5-1 playing B/R splashing blue for the dragonlord. I have to say that the real star for me was Corpseweft! Being able to instant out a 4/4 or 8/8....heck even a 2/2 to block was so timely. I'm not sure it's going to pan out in constructed, but in limited it's a bomb.
You can instant out the zombie token but it comes into play tapped so no blocks on the turn it comes out....
I had THE WORST PRERELEASE EVER! I went Ojutai and pulled a seeded Ojutai, the rare UW dragon that gains protections, the dragon Dungeon Geist, and two of the uncommon UW dragon w/ double prowess.
To make it worse, I pulled a Monastery Mentor and a Flooded Strand from my Fate pack.
My pull had deep Green and Blue but it wasn't deep enough, so I had to use my Strand and 2 Evolving Wilds to splash white. Ugh.
Then I proceeded to go 4-0 and win 12 packs, pulling two Narsets (one foil), an Atarka and 2 Atarka's Commands.
To top it off, I rolled a 44 in Dragonfury.
The absolute very WORST! I don't know if I'll ever play Magic again.
Definitely not believable. But thanks for the laugh.
I played Ojutai. Pulled zero dragons. Pulled zero good rares. Put together a deck of cheap flyers with megamorph. Ended up losing only one match and that to a buddy. Got third overall. However, the place we played at gave prizes to first and second, and then randomly assigned the rest of the prizes.
I played Ojutai. Pulled zero dragons. Pulled zero good rares. Put together a deck of cheap flyers with megamorph. Ended up losing only one match and that to a buddy. Got third overall. However, the place we played at gave prizes to first and second, and then randomly assigned the rest of the prizes.
I played Silumgar, but my blue was lacking. Luckily I pulled a citadel siege and a sunscorch regent so I went Orzhov. I had the regent and scion of ugin as my only playable dragons. My seeded rare was Silumgar's command so I didn't play it. I had a bye first round (my opponent didn't show) and I won my 2nd and 3rd rounds. Unfortunately I had to leave so I didn't get to play my fourth.
Citadel siege was a beast, but I only was able to find it in one game. The other games came down to some great bolster tricks. I didn't get a Dragonlord's servant promo which was the only thing I really wanted
I played Ojutai. Pulled zero dragons. Pulled zero good rares. Put together a deck of cheap flyers with megamorph. Ended up losing only one match and that to a buddy. Got third overall. However, the place we played at gave prizes to first and second, and then randomly assigned the rest of the prizes.
I was the only person to receive no prizes.
Seems like a really wacky price structure.
It really was. I expressed that if the prizes were random, the TO should have made sure they were handed out evenly. Some of the people received two prizes...
All in all though, it was fun even without the dragons, just didn't really match the set name, at least in my experience.
I choose Dromoka. My only rare in colors was the command from the seeded pack, but my seeded hardly had any green value and all my boosters gave me rares of red, black, and blue. All unplayble. I ended up makin a mono white commons/uncommon deck. After 7 rounds I went 5-1-1 taking 5th place.
I had three Heralds and 2 Champions and a bunch of other warriors. Having lifelink, vigilance, and double strike was crazy good. If my opponent played anything big my only hard removal was Enduring Victory .
Round 1 I drew because I was going aganist and old man (came with his son) and played very, very slowly. It was Esper. 1-1-1
Round 2 Kolaghan, played alot of big hitters but no early game stuff. 2-0
Round 3 can't remember
Round 4 can't remember
Round 5 mirror match, he had the dragons. I had an army and I bolstered alot and had life link to outlast. Finnally top decked my removal and took it 2-1.
Round 6 lost to Ojutai flying monks.
Round 7 Too much aggro for him. Won by turn 6. Game 2 he scooped when he had 3 mana on turn 6 and I had 3 creatures and he had nothing and around 10 life. He was playing Naya.
Sadly due to pure exhuastion of FNM then DTK prerelease my body only let me do 1 event the whole weekend but I wish I did another.
I played Ojutai. Pulled zero dragons. Pulled zero good rares. Put together a deck of cheap flyers with megamorph. Ended up losing only one match and that to a buddy. Got third overall. However, the place we played at gave prizes to first and second, and then randomly assigned the rest of the prizes.
I was the only person to receive no prizes.
Seems like a really wacky price structure.
It really was. I expressed that if the prizes were random, the TO should have made sure they were handed out evenly. Some of the people received two prizes...
All in all though, it was fun even without the dragons, just didn't really match the set name, at least in my experience.
Our prizes were two booser boxes. Everyone walked away with 1 or 2 boosters. Idk what 1-4 and 6-8 got but it was scaled fairly. I took 5th and recivied 12 boosters. I think first had like 16-20 and 8th had like 6-8. 9th down to 50% mark had 2, and everyone under 3-3-1 recived 1.
I had fun at my prerelease events, but my FRF packs gave me gigantic middle fingers all weekend long. I played in 5 events, picking a different brood each time.
First event: Atarka. Crater Elemental as seeded rare. Also got Volcanic Vision, Dragonlord Dromoka, Foul Renewal, and Profound Journey. FRF Rare was Sage-Eye Avengers, with no Blue of note and no way to splash. Ended up 2-1 with a somewhat passable Naya deck thanks to Dromoka and Journey.
Second Event: Silumgar. Silumgar's Assassin as seeded rare. Don't remember the rest of my DTK rares, but FRF gave me a Foil Daghatar and a Rally the Ancestors with no way to get White mana, not even Evolving Wilds. Ended up 2-0-1 with a straight UB deck.
Third Event: Dromoka. Sunscorch Regent as seeded rare. Also had Avatar of the Resolute, Crater Elemental, Megamorphling, and Arashin Foremost. FRF Gave me a Monastery Siege with no meaningful Blue in the entire pool. Ended up splashing Red for 2x Sarkhan's Rage, then went 1-2-1 thanks to drawing the first round.
Fourth Event: Kolaghan. Blood-Chin Fanatic as seeded rare. Also opened Deathbringer Regent, Radiant Purge, and Gleam of Authority. FRF Gave me Mastery of the Unseen. Zero White fixing with awesome White cards, but not enough to justify a no-fixing splash. Ended up straight RB and went 3-1.
Fifth Event: Ojutai. Ojutai himself was my seeded rare. Also opened Assault Formation, Living Lore, Secure the Wastes. FRF, as a final "**** You" gave me Shaman of the Great Hunt. Only red fixing I had was a single Atarka Monument, and not enough good red to justify the splash. Thanks to a Dromoka Monumnet and a Thornwood Falls, I was able to splash for Assault Formation with triple Updraft Elemental, double Custodian, and double Sentry. Ended up 2-2, losing the first and fourth rounds, both against Atarka decks.
Overall, despite the mana difficulties and the utter taunting of FRF, I enjoyed the format. I do with the Mythics were a little more solvable than "Remove Now or Lose Immediately"
1. You do realize that's actually pretty normal right? Usually you're supposed to only run 2 colors maybe with a light splash if you get lucky. This was just going back to basics after two sets with tons of fixing letting you get greedy.
2. People used to complain about either A. not being able to use a cool promo or B. the promo always being terrible so they never wanted it in their deck anyway. Then, for a while when they said you could use the card, people always just went for whatever the most powerful promo was and stores ran out of it quickly. Just proof you can't please everyone.
3. I'll give you that the Warbrute is nuts but considering how even though he was my MVP and did a lot of damage he still got blanked by a silumgar player hard who took advantage of Mind Rot to rip him from my hand after blunting my early assault I have a hard time thinking your statement isn't a bit of hyperbole. Now, don't get me wrong, I agree with you that a lot of the removal being sorcery speed is awkward against the Dash decks but stuff like Flatten and a couple others are at common.
Interesting
Good to know then, thanks
I had fun...but I went in knowing that I wasn't going to be able to play 3 colors....and was shocked that splashing blue worked out for me with any mana fixers.
Dragon.DEC was a blast
You know, Xcric, if I was not seeing the same things from you for every set, maybe I would take you seriously.
But it is the same over again and again. It gets old and boring very quickly. Okay, "vomit icing" is new, I grant you that
On topic - I am looking for drafts very much. I see already at least three drafting strategies I would like to try. This is going to be quite different than KTK-FRF, but I think I will like it.
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
We played nothing but 2HG this weekend ourselves and we had a blast. We got decent pools for 3/4 events we played in but still managed to go 4-0 in every event. Each and every time we played UB control with a splash of white for Pacifisms and GR beats. (The sad part of the story is even though the store pays out 24 packs to 4-0, we still basically opened rubbish. One Sarkan all weekend and no Narsets. )
I did find the 2HG Sealed format enjoyable - I've been burned out on individual sealed since they started the Prerelease boxes - I hate them. I wonder if that's a factor as to why so many people felt like they got unplayable pools (I realize some complain about every prerelease.)
Saturday: chose Kolaghan and went 3-1, ending 3rd. The deck was really fast with 10/14 creatures having dash, which allowed me to put a lot of early pressure and play efficiently at every point in the curve. Warbringer and Ambuscade Shaman were simply amazing and led to impressive plays, but Sprinting Warbrute did a ton of work too. Lady Kolaghan was my promo card, she showed only once during the event but won that game by herself in 3 hits, which was cool.
Sunday: chose Dromoka and went 3-0, ending 1st. I ended up playing Naya, I had to splash red because of removal (Draconic Roar and 2x Sarkhan's Rage), but also because I opened Shaman of the Great Hunt in my FRF pack. Shaman is obviously a powerful card by itself but it also worked surprisingly well with the rest of the deck, interacting nicely with cards like Lightwalker and Gleam of Authority. Speaking of Gleam of Authority, I'm usually against playing auras but man, that card is worth the risk. MVP should be Gleam or Sarkhan's Rage (instant Lava Axe which also doubles as removal sounds very good in my book). Overall I was a bit worried of playing 3 colors with no Evolving Wilds and no gain land, but 2x Sheltered Aerie helped me get there.
I ended up splitting the finals of my prerelease. I didn't think my deck was that good, but I think other people are just really bad at building sealed decks. Playing 3 colors without any fixing is very rough, and I drew a total of 5 islands in 8 games. That just goes to show the power of the red/black cards I have I guess, or 3 mana 2/2s.
lets see, other overperformers -
Sarkhan's Rage. This card was super good for me. It won me pretty much every game I drew it. Being able to hit players and creatures at instant speed is amazing, and it's 5 damage.
Ojutai Interceptor. This guy did a lot of work. I got two of them, and they won every game they went unchecked. 4/2 fliers are nothing to sneeze at.
Butcher's Glee. At first glance, it looks underwhelming. But, what most people don't realize, that it's actually a charm with 3 modes. Lifelink helps you win a race. +3/0 finishes an opponent. Regenerate saves your dude. When combined all into one, this card was sweet for me.
-edit- Best moment. Opponent had his own living lore out with a dragonlord's prerogative imprinted on it. I used the 4 mana threaten on it, hit him for 6, sacced it, and drew 4 cards. talk about blow out.
The first one I picked Atarka and ended playing Black and Green plus a splash for a FTF Kolaghan. I went 0-2 drop (it was midnight and I wanted to go sleep before playing twice on Saturday during the day). My deck was okay but I kept getting blown out by bombs.
Next I picked Ojutai and I ended up played Blue/Black. Again my deck was kind of marginal and I went 2-2. I won a pack for my efforts.
Saturday in the evening I picked Kolaghan and actually got to build Black/Red. I got a ton of raid including 4 copies of Reckless Imp. The highlight of this event was easily the game where I had Warbringer undashed and I dashed three Imps on one turn and then all of them again the next turn plus another creature for the win. I went 3-1 losing to a 4-0 player who had tons of removal that I couldn't get around.
Then on Sunday I picked Silumgar and I got to play those colors too. I had Icefall Regent and a lot of good exploit cards and good removal. I went 3-1-1 in the swiss (they had a top 8) and then won in the top eight before the top four decided to split the prize packs.
Apparently I really like playing Black in this format. Exploit is really strong, I don't think there is a bad exploit card. Dash is a lot better in this set with the cards that support it and I didn't even get the +2/+2 guy. Rebound is really nice when you remember to use it. Bolster is as good as always if not better. I thought formidable was going to be pointless but some of those cards are really good when you get their bonus. I'm really enjoying the new set and I can't wait for our draft on Friday at FNM.
Oh and a special shout out to Lose Calm. I almost lost both games in a match to that card (Stratus Dancer) saved me.
1st one: I chose Dromoka. I opened Zero (0) dragons from all of my packs, but I did open Narset Transcendent. Wanted to make her work by splashing blue, only to discover she doesn't really work well in limited. Her "+1" won't hit too often in a format where you want as many creatures as possible, and her "-2" doesn't actually work with a lot of spells (Enduring Victory for example). So I just went White/Green with no real spectacular pulls. All my creatures were cheap and weak. I came in last place.
2nd one: I chose Ojutai this time around. Slightly more luck; this time I pulled one (1) dragon from all of my packs and it wasn't even in the colors I chose. I can't complain though, I opened a Sarkhan Unbroken. This time I just went for it; I played Green/Blue/Red. My white was decent, but all of my white creatures had defender, so I was worried I wouldn't have enough creatures that could actually win me the game. Sarkhan, unlike Narset, is really really good in limited. Every single game he hit the table I won. If I didn't get him, I usually lost to some random dragon or another. I tied for 4th place.
My final thoughts about this set after 2 pre-res: There are weenies (early-game) in this set and there are dragons (late-game). One side is clearly stronger than the other. If you don't have any dragons, you had better have a way of beating them, or you will lose. There wasn't really any mid-game. Just my opinion.
Thanks for reading.
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Beat mastery of the unseen by making the guy deck after he mirror mockery my dromaka, he should of won but for some reason didn't want to trade his hexproof dragon for my dromaka to prevent me from gaining life over the next couple turns and basically giving me lifegain to deck him through it. Best match i played all day. Went 4-0 and split in finals played for fun(i won) it was basically a mirror as this guy sat across from me when we were building and he also pulled a dragonlord dromaka and sunsorch regent and also picked rakdos...
New surrak was pretty great the 3 mana 5/5 and the 3 mana x/3 trampler were great. Sunscorch regent kinda underperformed for what i was expecting from it never was that great when i had it, the red uncommon first strike dragon typically pulled more weight. Dragonlords are obviously insane bombs and roast was good every game.
Format reminded me of stuff from apoc to a extent i enjoyed that i don't want to draft onslaught without dmg on the stack(its not complicated enough boardstates without it anymore and makes me sad)and happy it wasn't just perma board stalls every game.
To make it worse, I pulled a Monastery Mentor and a Flooded Strand from my Fate pack.
My pull had deep Green and Blue but it wasn't deep enough, so I had to use my Strand and 2 Evolving Wilds to splash white. Ugh.
Then I proceeded to go 4-0 and win 12 packs, pulling two Narsets (one foil), an Atarka and 2 Atarka's Commands.
To top it off, I rolled a 44 in Dragonfury.
The absolute very WORST! I don't know if I'll ever play Magic again.
Sounds rough. At least I pulled the best rare in the set, Hedonist's Trove, twice! I got a lot of jealous looks from the other players.
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yawn. inflamatory post is inflamtory.
i enjoyed theros, i enjoyed khans i enjoyed rtr. update your biography on me sometime.
You can instant out the zombie token but it comes into play tapped so no blocks on the turn it comes out....
Definitely not believable. But thanks for the laugh.
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I was the only person to receive no prizes.
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Seems like a really wacky price structure.
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Citadel siege was a beast, but I only was able to find it in one game. The other games came down to some great bolster tricks. I didn't get a Dragonlord's servant promo which was the only thing I really wanted
It really was. I expressed that if the prizes were random, the TO should have made sure they were handed out evenly. Some of the people received two prizes...
All in all though, it was fun even without the dragons, just didn't really match the set name, at least in my experience.
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Best cards for me:
I had three Heralds and 2 Champions and a bunch of other warriors. Having lifelink, vigilance, and double strike was crazy good. If my opponent played anything big my only hard removal was Enduring Victory .
Round 1 I drew because I was going aganist and old man (came with his son) and played very, very slowly. It was Esper. 1-1-1
Round 2 Kolaghan, played alot of big hitters but no early game stuff. 2-0
Round 3 can't remember
Round 4 can't remember
Round 5 mirror match, he had the dragons. I had an army and I bolstered alot and had life link to outlast. Finnally top decked my removal and took it 2-1.
Round 6 lost to Ojutai flying monks.
Round 7 Too much aggro for him. Won by turn 6. Game 2 he scooped when he had 3 mana on turn 6 and I had 3 creatures and he had nothing and around 10 life. He was playing Naya.
Sadly due to pure exhuastion of FNM then DTK prerelease my body only let me do 1 event the whole weekend but I wish I did another.
Our prizes were two booser boxes. Everyone walked away with 1 or 2 boosters. Idk what 1-4 and 6-8 got but it was scaled fairly. I took 5th and recivied 12 boosters. I think first had like 16-20 and 8th had like 6-8. 9th down to 50% mark had 2, and everyone under 3-3-1 recived 1.
First event: Atarka. Crater Elemental as seeded rare. Also got Volcanic Vision, Dragonlord Dromoka, Foul Renewal, and Profound Journey. FRF Rare was Sage-Eye Avengers, with no Blue of note and no way to splash. Ended up 2-1 with a somewhat passable Naya deck thanks to Dromoka and Journey.
Second Event: Silumgar. Silumgar's Assassin as seeded rare. Don't remember the rest of my DTK rares, but FRF gave me a Foil Daghatar and a Rally the Ancestors with no way to get White mana, not even Evolving Wilds. Ended up 2-0-1 with a straight UB deck.
Third Event: Dromoka. Sunscorch Regent as seeded rare. Also had Avatar of the Resolute, Crater Elemental, Megamorphling, and Arashin Foremost. FRF Gave me a Monastery Siege with no meaningful Blue in the entire pool. Ended up splashing Red for 2x Sarkhan's Rage, then went 1-2-1 thanks to drawing the first round.
Fourth Event: Kolaghan. Blood-Chin Fanatic as seeded rare. Also opened Deathbringer Regent, Radiant Purge, and Gleam of Authority. FRF Gave me Mastery of the Unseen. Zero White fixing with awesome White cards, but not enough to justify a no-fixing splash. Ended up straight RB and went 3-1.
Fifth Event: Ojutai. Ojutai himself was my seeded rare. Also opened Assault Formation, Living Lore, Secure the Wastes. FRF, as a final "**** You" gave me Shaman of the Great Hunt. Only red fixing I had was a single Atarka Monument, and not enough good red to justify the splash. Thanks to a Dromoka Monumnet and a Thornwood Falls, I was able to splash for Assault Formation with triple Updraft Elemental, double Custodian, and double Sentry. Ended up 2-2, losing the first and fourth rounds, both against Atarka decks.
Overall, despite the mana difficulties and the utter taunting of FRF, I enjoyed the format. I do with the Mythics were a little more solvable than "Remove Now or Lose Immediately"
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