It’s that time of the year again – the dawn of the first set of an exciting new block. Let’s share our experiences from the Theros Prerelease. What rares did you pull? How did your deck perform in the casual tournament environment? Were there any memorable plays that will stay with you for the rest of your Magic playing career? Which cards were your favourite and which ones underperformed?
For me, I had an absolute blast! Preregistered at my LGS the week before, and chose White as my colour. Chose it on a whim to be honest, I felt like playing a weenie deck revolving around Heroic and maybe Bestow. Eventually found out that you can actually get the God cards and their weapons from the seeded booster, and immediately regretted my decision as I had wanted Purphoros and his mighty hammer. Oh well. Arrived on the day, and was very surprised to see that my LGS was fully packed! At least 100 people squeezed into a not-so-large game store. I can tell you, there was plenty of shuffling and nudging past other people throughout the whole day. In fact, there were so many people that there weren’t even enough chairs for everyone to build their decks and a few had to make do on the floor. Anyway, I bought some new sleeves and a deck box and met up with a few of my friends. It turned out we all chose different colours. Except for green. Nobody was playing green.
The Prerelease packs finally arrived and I opened them all. Rares were Mistcutter Hydra, Soldier of the Pantheon, Chained to the Rocks, Anax and Cymede, Thassa, God of the Sea, a couple of jank rares and of course, Celestial Archon. Pretty stoked with them actually, especially the awesomeness that is Mistcutter Hydra. Been hoping to crack once of those ever since it was previewed. No Fleecemane Lion but that would be being greedy. Was thinking W/R but the the bulk of the red commons/uncommons were poor, and the rest of my card pool screamed “PLAY GREEN WHITE”. The random thought of splashing blue just for Thassa, God of the Sea (Scry every turn!) and a trio of Agent of Horizons was tempting but wisely decided against it. G/W it is!
So I ended up building a fairly fast weenie-dominant deck that came out early to deal quick damage, with a plethora of Bestow cards to make them larger and more threatening later on. Almost all of my spells triggered Heroic, and a couple of green Fatties were shoved in for good measure to finish things off. Didn’t look half-bad at a glance. Hopefully if the gods are willing (sorry, pun intended), then I might do okay with this deck. Not that the result mattered or anything, as the 4-round casual flight I had entered had fixed prizes (all participants get 4 packs at the end).
Round 1 – Opponent was playing a G/R deck. Game 1, I plopped down a Turn 1 Soldier of the Pantheon, followed by a Leonon Snarecaster, Bestow’d them and chipped away at my opponent’s life total with little to no resistance ‘cept for a Defend the Hearth and a Portent of Betrayal that grabbed my 3/3 Nessian Courser that delayed my inevitable win. Second game was a better match, with both of us having a slow start. A Polis Crusher came down on my opponent’s side of the table to ruin the Aura party that I had planned with my similar hand to the first game. Gained 1 life with Soldier of the Pantheon (the only time it did anything other than being a reskinned Savannah Lions). Eventually plopped an Observant Alseid on my Guardians of Meletis, which would normally be a bombo, but my 2/8 held out the monstrous 7/7 Polis Crusher before the flying cavalry Wingsteed Rider and Celestial Archon soared me to victory. 1-0.
Round 2 – My opponent was a young-ish bloke who had only been playing for a year. His deck was mainly blue, with a mix of black. First game was a long one, with both players amassing a whole of bunch of creatures and no one looking to break the stalemate until I played a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra. It proved to be impossible to deal with at first in the face of my opponent’s blue creatures including Wavecrash Triton, Triton Fortune Hunter, the latter enchanted with a Baleful Eidolon, and my opponent chump blocking my Hydra with a Opaline Unicorn. Next turn, I attacked again, thinking that the end was near for my opponent. Nope. What I witnessed was a fantastic play from the other guy, as he proceeded to play Rescue from the Underworld, sacrificing his Triton Fortune Hunter, allowing Baleful Eidolon to come out as a 1/1 black creature with Deathtouch, which proceeded to block my Hydra, while also bringing both the Triton Fortune Hunter and Opaline Unicorn back into play the next upkeep. Great combat trick, totally unexpected and I was almost in shock watching it unfold. Unfortunately, my opponent’s life total was close to 0, and after a few more turns, he scooped as the monstrosity-activated Nessian Asp and Nemesis of Mortals (played for 2 mana!) proved to be overwhelming and there wasn’t much time left in the round.
Hoping for a quick match, we sped up our play and life totals dropped quickly as my white weenies like Wingsteed Rider and Leonin Snarecaster, and his blue fliers (Vaporkin, Nimbus Niad, Shipwreck Singer) had a race to see who could deal more damage first. I top-decked a Mistcutter Hydra and played it a 4/4, and it was quickly looking like I was going to win when I followed that with an Ordeal of Heliod on my Hydra and attacked, immediately triggering its activated ability and I gained 10 life back to 21. Woot, combo! That is, up until my opponent played a Prescient Chimera and Prognostic Sphinx on successive turns and my life total plummeted faster than it rose. Uh-oh. Things weren’t looking so good now, and the tides began to turn even after I sac’d a Flamecast Wheel to kill off a Nimbus Niad and remove a threat. I can’t remember how, but my Hydra again met its end after my opponent read the bones, went down to exactly 1 life, and did another instant-speed combat trick with his newly drawn card. Eventually the fliers were all too much for me, and my opponent won a game with minutes to spare in the round. 1-0-1
Round 3 – Was up against this really nice American dude with what was mainly a mono-black deck with a splash of white. Can’t remember much from this round, except for this one time where my opponent played multiple Gray Merchant of Asphodels on successive turns, first draining me for 4 life, then another 6 life for a 20 point life swing! I joked that I hoped he didn’t have a third copy in his deck, and to my relief my opponent confirmed he only had two copies. Phew! Anyway, my fliers dominated the two games we played, with an Archon as a creature bestowed with Observant Alseid proving to be an absolute beast as a 6/6 flier with first strike and vigilance. Akroma, eat your heart out! 2-0-1
Round 4 – Last round was with this Asian dude with this really cool hairstyle that would put Korean pop stars to shame. He was playing green-black, with some sort of ramp deck using Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Burnished Hart. Game 1, I didn’t play anything early on as everything was 5+ to cast. Thankfully, my opponent’s deck was slow enough for me to recover in time. Got out my Nessian Asp eventually and that was doing okay until a Keepsake Gorgon made an appearance. Thinking it’ll kill my 4/5 snake, I played a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra (you can probably tell it’s my favourite card at the Prerelease!), attacked to bait out the block from the Gorgon and both creatures did hit the graveyard. My opponent looked at me quite confusingly like that was a bad play or something (who knows, maybe it was) and expected me to have some way of bringing it back. He latter killed the Nessian Asp anyway, and then played an Arbor Colossus. Sigh, reach? That made the Celestial Archon in my hand half as useful. Flopped down the Celestial Archon as an Aura on one of my weenie creatures the turn after that, swung with the bestowed creature for a single turn before Monstrosity was activated on my opponent’s next turn and whatever creature I had came crashing down. Having used up a Divine Verdict earlier in the game, I top-decked a Plains and died shortly at the hands of a 9/9 Giant that was bigger than any single creature I had on the battlefield.
The second game was won by me, or more specifically lost by my opponent by what seemed like a trivial decision at the time, but on hindsight contributed to his downfall. I mulligan’d down to 4 cards with nothing much more than a Nemesis of Mortals and three lands. My opponent plays a Returned Centaur on his fourth turn, targeting me. So far, so expected, right? I flip over Mistcutter Hydra, Nessian Asp and another creature among the four cards. Minor grumbling by me as I watch my win conditions get milled away. But then I realised what just happened. Keep in mind I have not drawn any more lands at this point, have not played anything at all and I am stuck on 3 mana with what looked like a six-drop in my hand. By milling me, my opponent actually helped me as it allows me to play Nemesis of Mortals as a 5/5 for 1GG on my fourth turn! Got some early momentum after that, triggered Monstrosity on the snake at a bargain price of 3GG, and survived for long enough to eventually win the game with a 3/5 Wingsteed Rider who had been chosen by Heliod himself.
Last game of the Prerelease I attended turned out to be a one-sided affair. My opponent remained on only a few lands for much of the game and didn’t play much other than my good pal, Returned Centaur (my opponent targeted himself this time, haha!). In what was a clinical showing of the power of the synergy between Bestow and Heroic, I got out my Centaur Battlemaster, and targeted it with Gods Willing on my opponent’s next turn to make it a 6/6 when it untapped on mine. I then bestowed it with an Leafcrown Dryad and I swung with my 11/12 Reach and it got chump blocked. Next turn, I bestowed my centaur with an Observant Alseid and at this point all the maths I had to do is hurting my brain, but I think it came to a 16/17 with reach and vigilance and a couple of swings later, that was the end. 3-0-1.
So as you can probably tell, I had a fantastic time at the Theros Prerelease. And I’m happy to say that white was the right colour to choose after all. Everyone had a good time, the cards were SO much fun to play, Bestow and Heroic are brilliant mechanics (at least in the Limited environment) and I am already looking forward to the next set. Sure, I didn’t see any Gods or Planeswalkers in action and there was no sign of Fleecemane Lion (I’m keeping my packs for a future Booster draft, so fingers crossed it’s in one of them!) but as I’m typing this, I’m still feeling the buzz from the great day I had.
4-1-1. Drew the last match, won in the "for fun" games we played... got 5th place (6 packs), realized that if I had played it out I would have gotten 2nd place (15 packs).
...however, I pulled a Thoughtseize in my pool, traded it and a Voice for a freaking foil Xenagos.
And then in my prize packs, I opened a foil Erebos.
(The guy I traded to get the Xenagos also opened a foil Swan Song. We didn't think anything of it, but I just looked at the price a few minutes ago and it's a $50 foil. Wow.)
First off, that Bow of Nylea can go get exiled for all I care, that card is absolutely ridiculous in draft.
My losses were to a GU deck that utilized the bow and 3/2 unblockable guy and he just kept pumping and swinging for the win. I had a white-weenie splash black and green deck at this point but he played 3 Defend the Hearths in a row so I lost in that regard.
I played a GR deck that had a foil Purphoros, God of the Forge and just dropped super-huge fatties that shocked me. He used 2 Anger of the Gods to wipe my field while his was safe.
My last opponent was a naya player using the green promo and Anax and Cymede with every ordeal, bestow, and combat trick in the book.
I ended up dropping since I was tired and had no shot to get packs but I picked up an intro-pack and ended up getting a Thoughtseize and a Chained to the Rocks so I broke even on almost everything so I can't say I'm not pleased.
I did embarrassingly bad. I often blame my sealed pool for my performance at prereleases, but this time around I've got no excuse. I'm pretty sure a pro would have easily taken my pool to first. I wound up going 2-2.
Though my box was actually black, and I got a fair amount of black stuff, I actually wound up going RG (no surprise,) splashing black for removal. In retrospect, I don't think the splash was that great because Lash of the Whip is way worse than I expected it to be. Most of the removal just felt bad to play. In fact, the only time it (deservedly so) felt good killing an opponent's creature was when it was Time to Feed my Sedge Scorpion with my opponent's Reaper of the Wilds. It'll be funny if it turns out green for once has the best removal in a set, how strange would that be?
One thing I observed - black seems to be the most dedicated to the devotion strategy, which is cool, except it makes it really difficult to really splash for anything good from it. Pretty much, if you're not going to be mostly black, it's generally not worth using it at all.
Bright side - I've essentially just paid for my prereleases for the next two years. These rares alone are collectively worth over $100.
4-1-1. Drew the last match, won in the "for fun" games we played... got 5th place (6 packs), realized that if I had played it out I would have gotten 2nd place (15 packs).
...however, I pulled a Thoughtseize in my pool, traded it and a Voice for a freaking foil Xenagos.
And then in my prize packs, I opened a foil Erebos.
(The guy I traded to get the Xenagos also opened a foil Swan Song. We didn't think anything of it, but I just looked at the price a few minutes ago and it's a $50 foil. Wow.)
Not sure where you are getting swan song as a $50 foil Starcity is selling it at 15
I went 3-1-1 with my draw in round one. picked white. My pool was fine but not great need to add a lot of filler cards to get up to 21.
I went undefeated over four rounds (8-0-0) with a BR deck featuring 7 minotaurs, Stormbreath Dragon, and solid removal (Lash of the Whip x2, Sip of Hemlock x2). My opponents, especially in the first two rounds, weren't the most skilled deckbuilders or players. I twice won at 1 life.
2 - 2,
I choose blue pack
but i don't care with the result, since i got Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and FOIL Ashen Rider.
my first lost because i insist making my deck color to be Esper.
then game 2 i change it to UB, and got another lost
then i just don't care about the match anymore and make it UW, since i just want to play Elspeth. and unexpectedly i won the last 2 games.
Everytime Elspeth come out, i am guaranteed winning the game. and Elspeth almost always coming out because the number of scry on my deck is just too many.
I also play scry recklessly, when i scry and it's not elspeth i just put it to bottom.
Wizards print good rares, players complain about cash grab. They print underwhelming rares, players complain that the cards suck. They spoil the best cards first, players complain about the insane prices of preorders. They spoil the meh cards first, players complain that this is the worst set ever.
So. I think I understand now.
As far as these forums are concerned, WotC can never do anything good because:
Card that is new and probably good = "pushed"
Card that is new and probably bad = "EDH/casual fodder"
Card that is a reprint = "lazy"
Card that is a better version of an older card = "power creep"
Card that is a weaker version of an older card = "worthless"
I dismantled most of my pool, but had some white cards
Lagonna-Band Elder
Divine Verdict
Hopeful Eidolon
Vanquish the Foul
Ordeal of Heliod
Last Breath
Ephara's Warden
Battlewise Hoplite
The reason I set these aside, was because I also opened Heliod, God of the Sun. I really wanted to play the God, but I think the red/blue was a much better fit. I only lost one round and that was to Dumbledore Sphinx. I also miss prerelease in the US, because out of 37 or so people, I placed 3rd and only net three booster packs (First place guy got a whopping four packs).
Some things I noticed:
1) Scry is really nice. Smoothed me out against a lot of people. Often times, I'd play Omespeaker and scry those two dead lands out of the way to draw more gas.
2) Of Gods and Monsters: Some shined (Erebos, Thassa, Heliod, Purphoros), while a certain other one just fumbled (Nylea).
3) Slow and steady wins the race: This makes Ravnica block draft look like Zendikar. Slower, bigger spells edged by heroes that with tricks, help kill off monsters. Fair trade, no?
4) Gods were so common. It's nice they show up in booster sealed and I was pretty happy to get mine, but in an event of 35+ people, I only met a few people who didn't have any God or planeswalker of any kind.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Just got back from my Pre-release in Beijing. I was at a store I'm not that familiar with, and the rules were somewhat unusual (or maybe my Chinese was just bad and I didn't understand). That said, I squeaked into 8th place out of around 25-30 people and won 5 packs (better than my American LGS would have given for that place), with an overall score of 4-2-0.
The rule at the store was that all the boxes were random, because they didn't have enough stock to give people the choice (otherwise everyone would have gone Red for Purphoros). I really wanted Black, but I got Blue instead.
Overall, I'm a little surprised at my pulls. The blue in the 5 packs was not great (unsurprising), but my special 'supposed to help build blue pack' had my Pre-release foil and 3 other blue cards; most of the cards were either white or black. Not sure whether it was everyone or just me, but my special color pack had extremely little of its color in it. Nevertheless, I ran with Green/Black, using Whip of Erebos, Reaper of the Wilds, two Gray Merchants of Asphodel and two Centaur Battlemasters as MVPs, with a bunch of other stuff working alongside. I had most of my power around 4-5 drops; I had very few good 1-3 drops, and I had almost no removal; as a result, I'm actually quite surprised that I placed as well as I did. My thoughts:
Bestow and Heroic are extremely powerful in Limited. There are a lot of heroes that quickly turn into bombs; after the first game of each round, the opponent pretty much always expected my Centaur Battlemasters to be 6/6 or higher (usually higher). Bestow creatures are tricky decisions for Limited; you always want to get more value out of them for the Bestow costs, but sometimes it is more important to play them as creatures. Few of my opponents played Black, so often my Cavern Lampad would get played as a creature so that it could be enchanted on turn 5 and swing in. It's tricky to figure out when to get the most value out of your Bestow dude, but every Bestow guy I saw did work.
Also, all five Ordeals are not to be underestimated. I saw a lot of people trashing them as being Limited-unplayable, but they do horrible things to heroic cards. Having an opponent drop turn 1 Tormented Hero, turn 2 Ordeal of Erebos is scary, and even late-game the Ordeals have a lot of value. In the last game I played, a guy dropped Staunch-Hearted Warrior turn 4, then enchanted with Ordeal of Nylea and instantly cracked, swinging with a 5/5 and getting extra lands. If he wasn't out of cards in hand, I would have insta-died.
Scry was insane value. The scry from the Reaper of the Wilds won me games that I would have lost from mana-flood, as time and again I just swept away the extra lands. Everyone I saw scrying basically did incredibly well unless they were up against other people scrying a lot too.
Finally, and most importantly, all five colors seemed really strong. After RtR block, in which a lot of colors were stupidly OP (generally Rakdos and Selesnya in RtR, and Boros/Orzhov in GTC), I'm really happy that all five colors seemed really strong. Blue has a lot of tricks, and some of their heroes are really strong. White has a lot of power, especially in the air (which no other colors really have much defense against). Black has a lot of strong commons (looking at you Grey Merchant of Asphodel!) and has potential for lightning-fast Black/Red. Red has scary early-midrange stuff, with a few strong common Monstrous guys. Finally, Green seems like it has a ton of strong Heroes, and a lot of strong spells and Auras to boost them up. All five colors look powerful and viable for play with; I saw strong decks and crazy plays from all five colors. I'm really loving Theros so far, and I can't wait to go back tomorrow for another day of Theros!
The absolute biggest thing for me was having my hours and hours of Limited research validated. I'd been telling everyone that it seemed like this Limited format was designed around 10 two-color pairings, not monocolor like so many people suggested. I even went so far as to try and figure out exactly what each two-color pair did....
...cue the prerelease, everyone opening their packs, and finding those cards that went and explained that it was all about two-color pairings, and seeing that my guesses were 100% correct. Huzzah!
Started off the night by product distribution. My friend sitting next to me gives me his box and takes the next one....he pulls Thassa, Heliod, and Thoughtsieze For rares, I got the Bident of Thassa (seeded rare), Kraken promo, White promo (in a pack) and nothing else really good. Ended up going 1-2 drop mostly because of either land screw or not drawing one of my 10 bombs in the deck when I needed it. Although I sucked, I thought it was a really cool set for limited. Didn't have a chance to play heroic, but bestow and monstrosity are both really cool abilities. Looking forward to some drafting!
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Got Elspeth and Xanagos.... went 2-1-1. Timed first match, won second, lost third because i was tired and made a stupid block mistake, won the fourth because i had Elspeth and Xanagos
Chose black as my alignment but got packs ful of RUG bombs so I went that instead. Won my first three, lost my last two and ended up 9th of 40 when the prize pool went to 8th place... all together the most fun limited experience I've had at a prerelease, seemed like the majority of the decks were very fairly matched. Just really bummed I couldn't pull out that win in round 4 or id have been in the running for second place :c also, monstrosity was HUGE in every situation it was activated. Always turned the tide of the game and it happened at least a couple times every game.
Went 4-0-1. As mentioned above, the Whip of Erebos is insane, but I managed to steal Game 3 from the one guy I played who had it by blasting it off the field when it hit, which allowed me to topdeck a Lightning Strike later on and kill him with it.
Heroic was pretty fun to play. At the very least, Chosen by Heliod acts as a card draw that activates heroic, which is always nice.
Won 13 prize packs and $40 worth of store credit. Ended up walking out with Thoughtseize, Purphuros, Ashiok, Xenagos, Sylvan Cartayid, Fleecemane Lion, and a pair of Fabled Hero. Not a bad haul for the evening.
Went 3-1, made a really cool G/W deck with Elspeth, Boon Satyr, Fleecemane Lion, and my Archon. Lost to a G/R deck because I couldn't fight through his Asp's and other big creature bombs. Happy with my pulls though, got two B/W lands and another lion. Elspeth just wins games, she was so good.
Posting again just to say I won my first round by swinging with a monstrous Colossus of Akros and it was one of the greatest things I've ever done. I took him out after round 2 when I restructured my deck, but boy was it fun when he landed.
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For me, I had an absolute blast! Preregistered at my LGS the week before, and chose White as my colour. Chose it on a whim to be honest, I felt like playing a weenie deck revolving around Heroic and maybe Bestow. Eventually found out that you can actually get the God cards and their weapons from the seeded booster, and immediately regretted my decision as I had wanted Purphoros and his mighty hammer. Oh well. Arrived on the day, and was very surprised to see that my LGS was fully packed! At least 100 people squeezed into a not-so-large game store. I can tell you, there was plenty of shuffling and nudging past other people throughout the whole day. In fact, there were so many people that there weren’t even enough chairs for everyone to build their decks and a few had to make do on the floor. Anyway, I bought some new sleeves and a deck box and met up with a few of my friends. It turned out we all chose different colours. Except for green. Nobody was playing green.
The Prerelease packs finally arrived and I opened them all. Rares were Mistcutter Hydra, Soldier of the Pantheon, Chained to the Rocks, Anax and Cymede, Thassa, God of the Sea, a couple of jank rares and of course, Celestial Archon. Pretty stoked with them actually, especially the awesomeness that is Mistcutter Hydra. Been hoping to crack once of those ever since it was previewed. No Fleecemane Lion but that would be being greedy. Was thinking W/R but the the bulk of the red commons/uncommons were poor, and the rest of my card pool screamed “PLAY GREEN WHITE”. The random thought of splashing blue just for Thassa, God of the Sea (Scry every turn!) and a trio of Agent of Horizons was tempting but wisely decided against it. G/W it is!
1 Mistcutter Hydra
1 Soldier of the Pantheon
1 Leonin Snarecaster
1 Phalanx Leader
1 Guardians of Meletis
1 Nessian Courser
1 Wingsteed Rider
1 Nessian Asp
1 Centaur Battlemaster
1 Nemesis of Mortals
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Leafcrown Dryad
2 Observant Alseid
1 Celestial Archon
Spells (8)
1 Flamecast Wheel
1 Gods Willing
1 Savage Surge
1 Battlewise Valor
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Chosen by Heliod
1 Feral Invocation
1 Divine Verdict
9 Plains
8 Forest
So I ended up building a fairly fast weenie-dominant deck that came out early to deal quick damage, with a plethora of Bestow cards to make them larger and more threatening later on. Almost all of my spells triggered Heroic, and a couple of green Fatties were shoved in for good measure to finish things off. Didn’t look half-bad at a glance. Hopefully if the gods are willing (sorry, pun intended), then I might do okay with this deck. Not that the result mattered or anything, as the 4-round casual flight I had entered had fixed prizes (all participants get 4 packs at the end).
Round 1 – Opponent was playing a G/R deck. Game 1, I plopped down a Turn 1 Soldier of the Pantheon, followed by a Leonon Snarecaster, Bestow’d them and chipped away at my opponent’s life total with little to no resistance ‘cept for a Defend the Hearth and a Portent of Betrayal that grabbed my 3/3 Nessian Courser that delayed my inevitable win. Second game was a better match, with both of us having a slow start. A Polis Crusher came down on my opponent’s side of the table to ruin the Aura party that I had planned with my similar hand to the first game. Gained 1 life with Soldier of the Pantheon (the only time it did anything other than being a reskinned Savannah Lions). Eventually plopped an Observant Alseid on my Guardians of Meletis, which would normally be a bombo, but my 2/8 held out the monstrous 7/7 Polis Crusher before the flying cavalry Wingsteed Rider and Celestial Archon soared me to victory. 1-0.
Round 2 – My opponent was a young-ish bloke who had only been playing for a year. His deck was mainly blue, with a mix of black. First game was a long one, with both players amassing a whole of bunch of creatures and no one looking to break the stalemate until I played a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra. It proved to be impossible to deal with at first in the face of my opponent’s blue creatures including Wavecrash Triton, Triton Fortune Hunter, the latter enchanted with a Baleful Eidolon, and my opponent chump blocking my Hydra with a Opaline Unicorn. Next turn, I attacked again, thinking that the end was near for my opponent. Nope. What I witnessed was a fantastic play from the other guy, as he proceeded to play Rescue from the Underworld, sacrificing his Triton Fortune Hunter, allowing Baleful Eidolon to come out as a 1/1 black creature with Deathtouch, which proceeded to block my Hydra, while also bringing both the Triton Fortune Hunter and Opaline Unicorn back into play the next upkeep. Great combat trick, totally unexpected and I was almost in shock watching it unfold. Unfortunately, my opponent’s life total was close to 0, and after a few more turns, he scooped as the monstrosity-activated Nessian Asp and Nemesis of Mortals (played for 2 mana!) proved to be overwhelming and there wasn’t much time left in the round.
Hoping for a quick match, we sped up our play and life totals dropped quickly as my white weenies like Wingsteed Rider and Leonin Snarecaster, and his blue fliers (Vaporkin, Nimbus Niad, Shipwreck Singer) had a race to see who could deal more damage first. I top-decked a Mistcutter Hydra and played it a 4/4, and it was quickly looking like I was going to win when I followed that with an Ordeal of Heliod on my Hydra and attacked, immediately triggering its activated ability and I gained 10 life back to 21. Woot, combo! That is, up until my opponent played a Prescient Chimera and Prognostic Sphinx on successive turns and my life total plummeted faster than it rose. Uh-oh. Things weren’t looking so good now, and the tides began to turn even after I sac’d a Flamecast Wheel to kill off a Nimbus Niad and remove a threat. I can’t remember how, but my Hydra again met its end after my opponent read the bones, went down to exactly 1 life, and did another instant-speed combat trick with his newly drawn card. Eventually the fliers were all too much for me, and my opponent won a game with minutes to spare in the round. 1-0-1
Round 3 – Was up against this really nice American dude with what was mainly a mono-black deck with a splash of white. Can’t remember much from this round, except for this one time where my opponent played multiple Gray Merchant of Asphodels on successive turns, first draining me for 4 life, then another 6 life for a 20 point life swing! I joked that I hoped he didn’t have a third copy in his deck, and to my relief my opponent confirmed he only had two copies. Phew! Anyway, my fliers dominated the two games we played, with an Archon as a creature bestowed with Observant Alseid proving to be an absolute beast as a 6/6 flier with first strike and vigilance. Akroma, eat your heart out! 2-0-1
Round 4 – Last round was with this Asian dude with this really cool hairstyle that would put Korean pop stars to shame. He was playing green-black, with some sort of ramp deck using Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Burnished Hart. Game 1, I didn’t play anything early on as everything was 5+ to cast. Thankfully, my opponent’s deck was slow enough for me to recover in time. Got out my Nessian Asp eventually and that was doing okay until a Keepsake Gorgon made an appearance. Thinking it’ll kill my 4/5 snake, I played a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra (you can probably tell it’s my favourite card at the Prerelease!), attacked to bait out the block from the Gorgon and both creatures did hit the graveyard. My opponent looked at me quite confusingly like that was a bad play or something (who knows, maybe it was) and expected me to have some way of bringing it back. He latter killed the Nessian Asp anyway, and then played an Arbor Colossus. Sigh, reach? That made the Celestial Archon in my hand half as useful. Flopped down the Celestial Archon as an Aura on one of my weenie creatures the turn after that, swung with the bestowed creature for a single turn before Monstrosity was activated on my opponent’s next turn and whatever creature I had came crashing down. Having used up a Divine Verdict earlier in the game, I top-decked a Plains and died shortly at the hands of a 9/9 Giant that was bigger than any single creature I had on the battlefield.
The second game was won by me, or more specifically lost by my opponent by what seemed like a trivial decision at the time, but on hindsight contributed to his downfall. I mulligan’d down to 4 cards with nothing much more than a Nemesis of Mortals and three lands. My opponent plays a Returned Centaur on his fourth turn, targeting me. So far, so expected, right? I flip over Mistcutter Hydra, Nessian Asp and another creature among the four cards. Minor grumbling by me as I watch my win conditions get milled away. But then I realised what just happened. Keep in mind I have not drawn any more lands at this point, have not played anything at all and I am stuck on 3 mana with what looked like a six-drop in my hand. By milling me, my opponent actually helped me as it allows me to play Nemesis of Mortals as a 5/5 for 1GG on my fourth turn! Got some early momentum after that, triggered Monstrosity on the snake at a bargain price of 3GG, and survived for long enough to eventually win the game with a 3/5 Wingsteed Rider who had been chosen by Heliod himself.
Last game of the Prerelease I attended turned out to be a one-sided affair. My opponent remained on only a few lands for much of the game and didn’t play much other than my good pal, Returned Centaur (my opponent targeted himself this time, haha!). In what was a clinical showing of the power of the synergy between Bestow and Heroic, I got out my Centaur Battlemaster, and targeted it with Gods Willing on my opponent’s next turn to make it a 6/6 when it untapped on mine. I then bestowed it with an Leafcrown Dryad and I swung with my 11/12 Reach and it got chump blocked. Next turn, I bestowed my centaur with an Observant Alseid and at this point all the maths I had to do is hurting my brain, but I think it came to a 16/17 with reach and vigilance and a couple of swings later, that was the end. 3-0-1.
So as you can probably tell, I had a fantastic time at the Theros Prerelease. And I’m happy to say that white was the right colour to choose after all. Everyone had a good time, the cards were SO much fun to play, Bestow and Heroic are brilliant mechanics (at least in the Limited environment) and I am already looking forward to the next set. Sure, I didn’t see any Gods or Planeswalkers in action and there was no sign of Fleecemane Lion (I’m keeping my packs for a future Booster draft, so fingers crossed it’s in one of them!) but as I’m typing this, I’m still feeling the buzz from the great day I had.
So how did you all go at the Theros Prerelease?
I'm very happy. Super. just very, very tired.
Bestow and Heroic are super powerful. Really fun, looking forward to drafting it a lot.
...however, I pulled a Thoughtseize in my pool, traded it and a Voice for a freaking foil Xenagos.
And then in my prize packs, I opened a foil Erebos.
(The guy I traded to get the Xenagos also opened a foil Swan Song. We didn't think anything of it, but I just looked at the price a few minutes ago and it's a $50 foil. Wow.)
WotC, please hire me already.
First off, that Bow of Nylea can go get exiled for all I care, that card is absolutely ridiculous in draft.
My losses were to a GU deck that utilized the bow and 3/2 unblockable guy and he just kept pumping and swinging for the win. I had a white-weenie splash black and green deck at this point but he played 3 Defend the Hearths in a row so I lost in that regard.
I played a GR deck that had a foil Purphoros, God of the Forge and just dropped super-huge fatties that shocked me. He used 2 Anger of the Gods to wipe my field while his was safe.
My last opponent was a naya player using the green promo and Anax and Cymede with every ordeal, bestow, and combat trick in the book.
I ended up dropping since I was tired and had no shot to get packs but I picked up an intro-pack and ended up getting a Thoughtseize and a Chained to the Rocks so I broke even on almost everything so I can't say I'm not pleased.
I pulled:
Xenagos, the Reveler
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Thoughtseize
Hammer of Purphoros
Firedrinker Satyr
Psychic Intrusion
and Abhorrent Overlord (promo)
Also, two Lightning Strike, two Pharika's Cure, two Lash of the Whips as well as Sip of Hemlock and Time to Feed.
Though my box was actually black, and I got a fair amount of black stuff, I actually wound up going RG (no surprise,) splashing black for removal. In retrospect, I don't think the splash was that great because Lash of the Whip is way worse than I expected it to be. Most of the removal just felt bad to play. In fact, the only time it (deservedly so) felt good killing an opponent's creature was when it was Time to Feed my Sedge Scorpion with my opponent's Reaper of the Wilds. It'll be funny if it turns out green for once has the best removal in a set, how strange would that be?
One thing I observed - black seems to be the most dedicated to the devotion strategy, which is cool, except it makes it really difficult to really splash for anything good from it. Pretty much, if you're not going to be mostly black, it's generally not worth using it at all.
Bright side - I've essentially just paid for my prereleases for the next two years. These rares alone are collectively worth over $100.
Not sure where you are getting swan song as a $50 foil Starcity is selling it at 15
I went 3-1-1 with my draw in round one. picked white. My pool was fine but not great need to add a lot of filler cards to get up to 21.
Rares were:
went W/R/b splashing for cerberus and 2 x emmisarry of erebos. the mana mase come back to bite me many times through the night
For my trouble I received 11 packs and open a lot of low-value rares. Another undefeated player cracked packs with me and pulled Xenagos, the Reveler, Thoughtseize, and then a foil Thoughtseize. But I traded for Gift of Immortality and Prophet of Kruphix, so I'm happy.
Went 2-3
Within my 6 packs I got
Purphoros, God of the Forge
Hundred-Handed One 2x
Celestial Archon Promo
Temple of Silence
Swan Song
Boon Satyr
Although I didn't place my shop gave each person (win or lose) one pack.
In my free pack I got.
Elspeth, Sun's Champion Foil
&
Stormbreath Dragon
I can't complain.
I choose blue pack
but i don't care with the result, since i got Elspeth, Sun's Champion, and FOIL Ashen Rider.
my first lost because i insist making my deck color to be Esper.
then game 2 i change it to UB, and got another lost
then i just don't care about the match anymore and make it UW, since i just want to play Elspeth. and unexpectedly i won the last 2 games.
Everytime Elspeth come out, i am guaranteed winning the game. and Elspeth almost always coming out because the number of scry on my deck is just too many.
I also play scry recklessly, when i scry and it's not elspeth i just put it to bottom.
1 Stoneshock Giant
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Borderland Minotaur
1 Wild Celebrants
1 Flamespeaker Adept
1 Master of Waves
2 Crackling Triton
1 Ordeal of Thassa
1 Omenspeaker
1 Benthic Giant
1 Arena Athlete
1 Ember Swallower
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Voyage's End
1 Spark Jolt
2 Lightning Strike
1 Dissolve
1 Titan's Strength
1 Fate Foretold
1 Griptide
1 Triton Tactics
1 Temple of Deceit
9 Mountains
6 Islands
I dismantled most of my pool, but had some white cards
Lagonna-Band Elder
Divine Verdict
Hopeful Eidolon
Vanquish the Foul
Ordeal of Heliod
Last Breath
Ephara's Warden
Battlewise Hoplite
The reason I set these aside, was because I also opened Heliod, God of the Sun. I really wanted to play the God, but I think the red/blue was a much better fit. I only lost one round and that was to Dumbledore Sphinx. I also miss prerelease in the US, because out of 37 or so people, I placed 3rd and only net three booster packs (First place guy got a whopping four packs).
Some things I noticed:
1) Scry is really nice. Smoothed me out against a lot of people. Often times, I'd play Omespeaker and scry those two dead lands out of the way to draw more gas.
2) Of Gods and Monsters: Some shined (Erebos, Thassa, Heliod, Purphoros), while a certain other one just fumbled (Nylea).
3) Slow and steady wins the race: This makes Ravnica block draft look like Zendikar. Slower, bigger spells edged by heroes that with tricks, help kill off monsters. Fair trade, no?
4) Gods were so common. It's nice they show up in booster sealed and I was pretty happy to get mine, but in an event of 35+ people, I only met a few people who didn't have any God or planeswalker of any kind.
One friend got Erebos, God of the Dead.
The second got Purphoros, God of the Forge and a foil Temple of Deceit in his pool, and then an Elspeth, Sun's Champion in one of his prize packs.
My third friend got Thoughtseize and a foil Thassa, God of the Sea.
The only cards in my pool that were worth more than the lint in my belly button were Soldier of the Pantheon and Fleecemane Lion.
The rule at the store was that all the boxes were random, because they didn't have enough stock to give people the choice (otherwise everyone would have gone Red for Purphoros). I really wanted Black, but I got Blue instead.
Overall, I'm a little surprised at my pulls. The blue in the 5 packs was not great (unsurprising), but my special 'supposed to help build blue pack' had my Pre-release foil and 3 other blue cards; most of the cards were either white or black. Not sure whether it was everyone or just me, but my special color pack had extremely little of its color in it. Nevertheless, I ran with Green/Black, using Whip of Erebos, Reaper of the Wilds, two Gray Merchants of Asphodel and two Centaur Battlemasters as MVPs, with a bunch of other stuff working alongside. I had most of my power around 4-5 drops; I had very few good 1-3 drops, and I had almost no removal; as a result, I'm actually quite surprised that I placed as well as I did. My thoughts:
Bestow and Heroic are extremely powerful in Limited. There are a lot of heroes that quickly turn into bombs; after the first game of each round, the opponent pretty much always expected my Centaur Battlemasters to be 6/6 or higher (usually higher). Bestow creatures are tricky decisions for Limited; you always want to get more value out of them for the Bestow costs, but sometimes it is more important to play them as creatures. Few of my opponents played Black, so often my Cavern Lampad would get played as a creature so that it could be enchanted on turn 5 and swing in. It's tricky to figure out when to get the most value out of your Bestow dude, but every Bestow guy I saw did work.
Also, all five Ordeals are not to be underestimated. I saw a lot of people trashing them as being Limited-unplayable, but they do horrible things to heroic cards. Having an opponent drop turn 1 Tormented Hero, turn 2 Ordeal of Erebos is scary, and even late-game the Ordeals have a lot of value. In the last game I played, a guy dropped Staunch-Hearted Warrior turn 4, then enchanted with Ordeal of Nylea and instantly cracked, swinging with a 5/5 and getting extra lands. If he wasn't out of cards in hand, I would have insta-died.
Scry was insane value. The scry from the Reaper of the Wilds won me games that I would have lost from mana-flood, as time and again I just swept away the extra lands. Everyone I saw scrying basically did incredibly well unless they were up against other people scrying a lot too.
Finally, and most importantly, all five colors seemed really strong. After RtR block, in which a lot of colors were stupidly OP (generally Rakdos and Selesnya in RtR, and Boros/Orzhov in GTC), I'm really happy that all five colors seemed really strong. Blue has a lot of tricks, and some of their heroes are really strong. White has a lot of power, especially in the air (which no other colors really have much defense against). Black has a lot of strong commons (looking at you Grey Merchant of Asphodel!) and has potential for lightning-fast Black/Red. Red has scary early-midrange stuff, with a few strong common Monstrous guys. Finally, Green seems like it has a ton of strong Heroes, and a lot of strong spells and Auras to boost them up. All five colors look powerful and viable for play with; I saw strong decks and crazy plays from all five colors. I'm really loving Theros so far, and I can't wait to go back tomorrow for another day of Theros!
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your fears to me."
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
http://store.tcgplayer.com/magic/theros/swan-song Median pricing, as always.
WotC, please hire me already.
...cue the prerelease, everyone opening their packs, and finding those cards that went and explained that it was all about two-color pairings, and seeing that my guesses were 100% correct. Huzzah!
WotC, please hire me already.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=11439737#post11439737
Reality is only what man allows it to be. Few shape it so that many may accept it.
Sig by myself! If you'd like a banner done, pm me! Avvie by DNC from Hero of the Planes Studio
Heroic was pretty fun to play. At the very least, Chosen by Heliod acts as a card draw that activates heroic, which is always nice.
Won 13 prize packs and $40 worth of store credit. Ended up walking out with Thoughtseize, Purphuros, Ashiok, Xenagos, Sylvan Cartayid, Fleecemane Lion, and a pair of Fabled Hero. Not a bad haul for the evening.
RGWMayael the AnimaRGW
UBRMarchesa, the Black RoseUBR
Modern Decks
RGWNaya BurnRGW
Played B/R, which seemed to be the big thing at the place i went. Got three packs, and pulled a stormbreath dragon.
Played a small minator (sp?) tribal, with three stingscourge.
Won first round, after fighting though polukanos.
Lost the second round, in the colour mirror, where i won game one, lost game 2 and three, due to fscrew/flood.
Got the win round 3 to assure packs.