I won my local one with UW flyers with a Totem-Guide Hartebeest package, although the two final decks I faced were both insane BG elf decks with a buttload of removal and Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen, which is paticularly troublesome for enchantment based removal to deal with.
Bomb(s): Willbreaker (I played him in all 5 of my final games, and he was promptly removed by a black 5 mana emoval spell each time).
Most fun card: Sword of the Animist. I initially thought you had to damage the player to ramp. But it's just declaring an attacker. Just amazing.
I 4-0-1'd with Boros aggro. Bombs were Kytheon's Irregulars and Knightly Valor Almost every creature card in my deck had renown. Topan Freeblade and Ampryn Tectician were 2 ofs and were insane at common. I only lost one game where i flooded to 11 lands after a mull to 5 against a sweet B/G elfs and removal deck. Enshrouding Mist was also surprisingly great, it almost always was a complete blow out when cast.
Played a UB aggro deck to 3-1 finish. Started out trying to do the general sealed thing but realized my top end wasn't strong enough to compete with other sealed pools and instead went all in on aggro, throwing in 2 Bonded Constructs, extra Screeching Skaabs, and Send to Sleep. The best cards in my deck were Whirler Rogue(Only card I'd call a bomb), Harbinger of the Tides, Artificer's Epiphany, Read the Bones, Infernal Scarring, and Dark Dabbling.
I cast Artificer's Epiphany 5 or 6 times, once off Possessed Skaab, without ever discarding. Instant speed was relevant since I also had 2 Calculated Dismissals.
3-2 with a pool that flipped from W/R aggro to W/B...tempo? Control? Well, a long-game type deck. Realized midway through that other people had stronger aggro tools than I did (W/R aggro was very popular: three of my five opponents were running it), and beating them on that front wasn't going to work out. Unfortunately, I failed to adjust my curve or mana to compensate for the changes, since I made the switch in the middle of a round during sideboarding, and the many cards that had BB in their costs proved troublesome when I was stuck on one Swamp for the longest time in the second game of the final round.
Wanted to play Red, but all of the boxes were spoken for, so I settled for White. Sealed pack rare was Gideon's Phalanx, which won me every game I managed to cast it in. Good amount of solid White creatures (a Lieutenant, a couple of Freeblades, etc.), decent amount of White removal (pair of Celestial Flares, a Suppression Bonds that was great but I always ended up putting on the wrong creature). Thought I had a good Red pool, but the Gearcrafters weren't as strong as I thought they'd be, and even Scab-Clan Berserker was surprisingly tough to push through. Didn't have much in Black outside of removal, but the removal was strong (two Unholy Hungers, a Reave Soul, an Eyeblight Massacre, and a sweet foil Gilt-Leaf Winnower that was actually a bit underwhelming in practice), and combining the removal to keep the board clear with White renown creatures and the bonkers Sentinel of the Eternal Watch was a winning recipe when it all came together.
The rares were irritating, in that they were all two pips in their respective colors, and very few in shared colors, which made it basically impossible to realistically splash for any of them (especially since I didn't pull any Evolving Wilds): Dark Petition and the aforementioned Gilt-Leaf Winnower fit together, but the others were Sigil of the Empty Throne (not nearly enough enchantments in the set to support it in Sealed), Gaea's Revenge, Soulblade Djinn, and Scab-Clan Berserker. Only Abbot of Keral Keep was splashable, and it didn't seem at its best in Sealed, either.
Not a bad experience, all in all, though I do wish I'd been able to pull through for prizes. At least if I'd lost the second game earlier I could have gone home at a reasonable-ish time. On the plus side, pulled a Nissa in one of the boosters from the traditional intro pack I buy every prerelease, so that softened the blow a bit.
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
Opened a rather weak pool in terms of creatures, had lots of removal though. Went RW aggro with my curve topping out at 5 (Seismic Elemental and Knightly Valor).
I went black box and got promoLanguish with no real support to play black. My other rares were Harbinger of the Tides, Thopter Spy Network, Despoiler of Souls, Flameshadow Conjuring, Orbs of Warding, and Yavimaya Coast. I played a decent UR artifact/tempo deck but went 2-2 and got a free win because my round 5 opponent left. Flameshadow Conjuring never copied anything because I got mana screwed or color screwed every time I drew it. I had the Harbinger of the Tides and Separatist Voidmage in hand with conjuring in play but had 5 mountains and 0 islands in play.
3-1, won second. Weird tiebreakers. Picked white box and went GW. Had a lot of 2 drops and three good bombs. Only had 3 removal spells but overall it was a strong deck! I lost to UR thropper/tempo deck. I say weird tiebreakers because I placed ahead of the guy that beat me.
I also won mine with UW fliers. Ran 10 cards that were either fliers or created flying tokens. Sentinel of the Eternal Watch was a beast. Otherwise, nothing in the deck was special: enchantment-based removal, a couple of bounce spells, a couple of anthems, and cheapish fliers. The last few slots were tough because the choices were between a large number of mediocre cards that could have all worked ok. War Horn was fine with thopters. Thunderclap Wyvern is great--probably the single card that put me in UW instead of UB. Anthem effects were actually pretty important since many of the fliers in this set have underwhelming stats and when you're using bounce or enchantment-based removal, you need your hits to count because your opponent will eventually recover from the setback if you just hit for 2 damage here and there.
Turn 2 Topan Freeblade is horrible to deal with. Sometimes I'd manage a bounce spell or something after taking a hit or two, but often that thing would just hit me and then I couldn't profitably block for several turns. It presented a real conundrum--how long do I take hits from this early drop before I resort to plays I'd rather not make?
Hangarback Walker was really good. I played it early, I played it late. I never got a single thopter off of it, but I could tell that every single opponent was playing around giving me thopters, leading them to use stuff like Suppression Bonds on it when it was a 1/1 or not attacking after it had a couple of counters, or always letting it through on attacks where it would otherwise die. It never did anything broken, but it was always a headache for opponents. I started off trying to play it later for like 6 mana, but then I realized it was sometimes correct to just drop it on turn 2, then add a counter the next turn and let my opponent start worrying about what its top end might be--or whether I might find a way to sac/suicide it. They didn't even want to bounce it because I might replay it with even more counters.
I ran a RW deck as that was what my pool dictated. I chose white and I was hoping to get some decent blue cards, but that wasn't the case. This is probably the first time I didn't go blue in a release. The person who won at mine was also UW fliers. UW is a strong deck. I went 2-2 in the event. Could of done better if I knew how to play aggro lol.
This deck was sweet! I only went 2-2 but both losses were very close games and overall I had a great time playing the prerelease. It looked super bad when I was building it but it worked out better than I expected!
-My wins were against white/black with a bunch of Renown creatures and fliers and a red/green aggro-ish deck.
-My losses were against Blue/White with a bunch of Renown creatures and fliers and a black/green deck that had a ton of rares/bombs - Liliana, Priest of the Blood Rite, Gilt-Leaf Winnower and Gaea's Revenge. (I sideboarded in Touch of Moongloves just to have a real answer to that card)
-Dark Petition worked out surprisingly well, and I was usually able to enable spell mastery by the time I could cast it. Being able to tutor for my finisher or an answer to my opponent's was great.
-Guardians of Meletis and Nivix Barrier both block like champs. Nivix Barrier is particularly good when you have another creature out with actual power. Also - even though Touch of Moonglove isn't great, they work decently with these guys.
-Foundry of the Consuls gets ya. The card was better than I expected.
Definitely excited to prerelease again later tonight.
The rares were irritating, in that they were all two pips in their respective colors, and very few in shared colors, which made it basically impossible to realistically splash for any of them...
Totally agree. I got a sword of the animist which is great but didn't even allow for a splash because there was really nothing worth the risk of trying to get two lands of a third color. But I guess that's the point.
Went 2-1 with a RB removal heavy deck. Lost the mirror match against the deck with 2x molten vortex meaning he had this turn 1 reliably every land he had was a shock making it tough to build a good board. I think it did ~ 14 damage to me in one game.
Lightning Javelin was so annoying to try to use optimally. 4 mana... sorcery... argh. So hard to use well because you want to wait to see if there is a better target to try and get 4 mana worth of value but then you just end up taking extra damage. Mostly used to deal the final 3 damage.
I was initially scared of renoun but I think the key is to block and force them to use their tricks which opens them to 2 for 1 or not allow them to build their board.
I think they did a good job all in all. Every card seems to be a decent threat but not unbeatable.
I went blue and got the promo Jace and three of the bounce 2/2's I played green with it with Outland Colossus and Gaea's Revenge. I went 4-1 with my loss being to mull's to 5 both games and then running out of gas.
I'm a mediocre Limited player, and I barely play Sealed, so I went 1-2 (LGS only has 3 rounds, for some reason). But my pulls were amazing. (I'm only listing cards which I feel have value overall)
Seeded pack: Goblin Piledriver
Other packs: Chandra, 2x Llanowar Wastes
Built a RG aggro deck which was good aside from the fact I had only 1 removal spell. Which caused me to lose many games, sadly.
Decided to buy another prerelease box, because why not.
Seeded Pack: Chandra
Other Packs: Shivan Reef, Foil Despoiler of Souls, Woodland Bellower
Going home with a Piledriver promo and 2 Chandras is always nice. Piledriver is going to be especially fun this Standard format, with Rabblemaster.
I went white blue, my two rares were Vryn Wingmare and Djinn Soulblade while the rest of the deck had four Topan Freeblades, two of the 4/4 angels that pump +1/+1 counters and three of the 3/3 ETB team gets +1/+1 EOT and two claustrophobias
I won the whole event going 6-0, the deck was just insane: whenever I got the Anointer of Champions out on Turn 1 I felt unstoppable
This format is all about the 2 drops. You either have them and you pool is insane or you don't and you have to hope for a bit of luck. I think I won the dice roll in my first few games so I had that going for me.
Colossus is gross and is basically a green Abyss, never Renowned it though. The Revelation was surprisingly good. I completely whiffed with it once, hitting nothing but lands, but more often it was draw 4+ and gain 4+. I had another Rhox Maulers but I kept siding in the Naturalists, so I eventually just kept it in.
I picked a green pack for my first pre-release, and the best I got out of it was a foil Gaea's Revenge, which won games the two times it dropped. I ended up adding U as my best pull from the six packs was Harbinger of the Tides. I was leaning towards GW, but in hindsight I don't know if it would have been any better than UG. The two counterspells I packed always came in useful.
I ended up going 2-1-1 (with an immediate "I want to go to sleep" concede in the last round at 4:00am) so I ended up eking out a pair of prize packs.
Next pre-release is tomorrow, and I will probably pick Green again, although the potential for Lili is almost enough temptation to go Black. I would be happy getting one walker, and consider any great rare/mythic a win, even if I don't do well in the rounds.
Today I discovered that B/R sacrifice is completely viable, assuming you have enough cheap removal like Reave Soul to stay safe from agro until you stick a Nantuko Husk. 3-0-1, only dropped one game to a ridiculous Timberpack Wolf start with pump to protect from Reave. Granted, I had TWO Priest of the Blood Rite, 3 Act of Treason and an Enthralling Victor to go with the Husks, on top of some good removal and a Hangarback Walker for additional shenanigans. Split with last op, played it for fun, and crushed him with both the normal deck and my transformational B/G sideboard deck with Gaea's Revenge. Twas a good day, and I'm hoping for just as good tomorrow!
3-0'd playing RG with a red seed pack that gave me Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh and 4 green rares. Ended up with tons of fuel to get off to a quick start or stall out long enough to get work done with Outland Colossus or my two Gaea's Revenge.
My tie went to turns (the first game went 30+ minutes on its own and the 3rd game left us with 7 minutes) and turn 5 was his turn. He was absolutely dead on my next turn with 0 cards in hand, 1 creature and 2 life against 2 first strikers and 2 vigilant knights.
Lost to the guy who got a pretty good BW elves pool including 3 Llanowar Empath, 2 rhox maulers, 3 reave soul, and eyeblight massacre. I almost got him the first game, but the second game he just destroyed my tempo early and I couldn't find white mana in my first 6 land drops (running 10R / 7W).
4-0 with a pretty strong aggressive WB build featuring Tragic Arrogance as my sealed pack rare. That card is insane if you can build your deck/board state well.
Other cards that did work: Sword of the Animist (and a Relic Seeker to occasionally find it). This card was 1/3 of my long game plan. One game I got 15 of my 17 lands into play, pretty much ensuring that I would outdraw my opponent eventually. Topan Freeblade This card puts so much pressure on your opponent early. Basically forces a trade if they can, and puts the heat on them if they can't. Fetid Imp Totally saved me in several games where my opponent got off to a faster start then I did. Also plays really well with... Enshrouding Mist Great 1 mana trick that usually trumps other combat tricks and red removal. Shadows of the Past The second 1/3 of my long game plan. Had to be a little careful about when to play this, but oh the scry triggers! Creatures trade so much in this format. The games where I stuck it early, I never even had to activate it, as the card selection won me the game before I got the chance. War Oracle Shuts down opposing offenses and makes it almost impossible to race. Charging Griffin Usually my finisher. Mage-Ring Responder The last third of my late game plan. My only card with CMC>5, this card didn't show up until both games in the finals, where my RW aggro opponent didn't really have any answers in his deck if I could live long enough to stick it.
Observations:
This seems like a fairly fast format, as most of the decks I saw were pretty aggressive. However because of renown, these aggro decks often just had to trade off creatures a lot early, paradoxically leading to a lot of long games. I did see one guy playing a UW control deck that was trying to win with Sphinx's Tutelage. He did pretty well, but he was also a much more experienced player than most of his opponents.
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Bomb(s): Willbreaker (I played him in all 5 of my final games, and he was promptly removed by a black 5 mana emoval spell each time).
Most fun card: Sword of the Animist. I initially thought you had to damage the player to ramp. But it's just declaring an attacker. Just amazing.
What were your results?
My wife was on MTV with this video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUutIZg2EpU
I cast Artificer's Epiphany 5 or 6 times, once off Possessed Skaab, without ever discarding. Instant speed was relevant since I also had 2 Calculated Dismissals.
Wanted to play Red, but all of the boxes were spoken for, so I settled for White. Sealed pack rare was Gideon's Phalanx, which won me every game I managed to cast it in. Good amount of solid White creatures (a Lieutenant, a couple of Freeblades, etc.), decent amount of White removal (pair of Celestial Flares, a Suppression Bonds that was great but I always ended up putting on the wrong creature). Thought I had a good Red pool, but the Gearcrafters weren't as strong as I thought they'd be, and even Scab-Clan Berserker was surprisingly tough to push through. Didn't have much in Black outside of removal, but the removal was strong (two Unholy Hungers, a Reave Soul, an Eyeblight Massacre, and a sweet foil Gilt-Leaf Winnower that was actually a bit underwhelming in practice), and combining the removal to keep the board clear with White renown creatures and the bonkers Sentinel of the Eternal Watch was a winning recipe when it all came together.
The rares were irritating, in that they were all two pips in their respective colors, and very few in shared colors, which made it basically impossible to realistically splash for any of them (especially since I didn't pull any Evolving Wilds): Dark Petition and the aforementioned Gilt-Leaf Winnower fit together, but the others were Sigil of the Empty Throne (not nearly enough enchantments in the set to support it in Sealed), Gaea's Revenge, Soulblade Djinn, and Scab-Clan Berserker. Only Abbot of Keral Keep was splashable, and it didn't seem at its best in Sealed, either.
Not a bad experience, all in all, though I do wish I'd been able to pull through for prizes. At least if I'd lost the second game earlier I could have gone home at a reasonable-ish time. On the plus side, pulled a Nissa in one of the boosters from the traditional intro pack I buy every prerelease, so that softened the blow a bit.
Ended up 3-2.
All bunk rares. Ended up playing 3 of them, Molten Vortex, Scab-Clan Berserker, and my promo Knight of the White Orchid
Ended up going with blue: Sigiled Starfish, Watercourser, Clash of Wills, and Reclusive Artificer over
Black: Fetid Imp, Nantuko Husk and Reave Soul
White: Topan Freeblade, Consul's Lieutenant and Suppression Bonds.
Not completely sure I made the right decision.
Here's the list:
Goblin Glory Chaser
Bellow's Lizard
Mage-Ring Bully
Sigiled Starfish
Runed Survivor
Akroan Sergeant
Thoptor Engineer
Ghirapur Gearcrafter
Watercourser
Reclusive Artificer
3x Firefiend Elemental
Prickleboar
Seismic Elemental
2x Fiery Conclusion
2x Exquisite Firecraft
Lightning Javelin
Clash of Wills
Pyromancer's Goggles
Molten Vortex
10 Mountain
7 Island
Ran it to 4-2. One of the rounds I should have won but I made a mistake. I would rate the deck a 7.5 / 10. It really needed Dragon Fodder.
Turn 2 Topan Freeblade is horrible to deal with. Sometimes I'd manage a bounce spell or something after taking a hit or two, but often that thing would just hit me and then I couldn't profitably block for several turns. It presented a real conundrum--how long do I take hits from this early drop before I resort to plays I'd rather not make?
Hangarback Walker was really good. I played it early, I played it late. I never got a single thopter off of it, but I could tell that every single opponent was playing around giving me thopters, leading them to use stuff like Suppression Bonds on it when it was a 1/1 or not attacking after it had a couple of counters, or always letting it through on attacks where it would otherwise die. It never did anything broken, but it was always a headache for opponents. I started off trying to play it later for like 6 mana, but then I realized it was sometimes correct to just drop it on turn 2, then add a counter the next turn and let my opponent start worrying about what its top end might be--or whether I might find a way to sac/suicide it. They didn't even want to bounce it because I might replay it with even more counters.
EDH
Roon of the Hidden Realms UGW
Modern
UW TronUW
Blocks Constructed
KamigawaU|Return to RavnicaUW|TherosUWG
1 Foundry of the Consuls
8 Island
8 Swamp
1 Fleshbag Marauder
2 Deadbridge Shaman
1 Watercourser
1 Guardians of Meletis
1 Aspiring Aeronaut
1 Nivix Barrier
2 Separatist Voidmage
1 Revenant
1 Rabid Bloodsucker
1 Gilt-Leaf Winnower
1 Skaab Goliath
1 Calculated Dismissal
1 Read the Bones
1 Bone to Ash
2 Unholy Hunger
1 Dark Petition
1 Weight of the Underworld
2 Touch of Moonglove
1 Rabid Bloodsucker
1 Nightsnare
1 Dark Dabbling
2 Send to Sleep
1 Calculated Dismissal
1 Dreadwaters
This deck was sweet! I only went 2-2 but both losses were very close games and overall I had a great time playing the prerelease. It looked super bad when I was building it but it worked out better than I expected!
-My wins were against white/black with a bunch of Renown creatures and fliers and a red/green aggro-ish deck.
-My losses were against Blue/White with a bunch of Renown creatures and fliers and a black/green deck that had a ton of rares/bombs - Liliana, Priest of the Blood Rite, Gilt-Leaf Winnower and Gaea's Revenge. (I sideboarded in Touch of Moongloves just to have a real answer to that card)
-Dark Petition worked out surprisingly well, and I was usually able to enable spell mastery by the time I could cast it. Being able to tutor for my finisher or an answer to my opponent's was great.
-Guardians of Meletis and Nivix Barrier both block like champs. Nivix Barrier is particularly good when you have another creature out with actual power. Also - even though Touch of Moonglove isn't great, they work decently with these guys.
-Foundry of the Consuls gets ya. The card was better than I expected.
Definitely excited to prerelease again later tonight.
Totally agree. I got a sword of the animist which is great but didn't even allow for a splash because there was really nothing worth the risk of trying to get two lands of a third color. But I guess that's the point.
Went 2-1 with a RB removal heavy deck. Lost the mirror match against the deck with 2x molten vortex meaning he had this turn 1 reliably every land he had was a shock making it tough to build a good board. I think it did ~ 14 damage to me in one game.
Lived the dream of thopter engineer into a hastyMage-Ring Responder to destroy his Hixus, prison warden to get my card back.
Lightning Javelin was so annoying to try to use optimally. 4 mana... sorcery... argh. So hard to use well because you want to wait to see if there is a better target to try and get 4 mana worth of value but then you just end up taking extra damage. Mostly used to deal the final 3 damage.
I was initially scared of renoun but I think the key is to block and force them to use their tricks which opens them to 2 for 1 or not allow them to build their board.
I think they did a good job all in all. Every card seems to be a decent threat but not unbeatable.
Seeded pack: Goblin Piledriver
Other packs: Chandra, 2x Llanowar Wastes
Built a RG aggro deck which was good aside from the fact I had only 1 removal spell. Which caused me to lose many games, sadly.
Decided to buy another prerelease box, because why not.
Seeded Pack: Chandra
Other Packs: Shivan Reef, Foil Despoiler of Souls, Woodland Bellower
Going home with a Piledriver promo and 2 Chandras is always nice. Piledriver is going to be especially fun this Standard format, with Rabblemaster.
Mono-Red Aggro
Modern:
Boros Burn
BW Tokens (unfinished)
Legacy:
Burn
Notable contributions were 4 Topan Freeblade, 2 Thunderclap Wyvern, and Whirler Rogue
I won the whole event going 6-0, the deck was just insane: whenever I got the Anointer of Champions out on Turn 1 I felt unstoppable
This format is all about the 2 drops. You either have them and you pool is insane or you don't and you have to hope for a bit of luck. I think I won the dice roll in my first few games so I had that going for me.
Everybody had Managorger Hydra so I'm lucky I had 3 Suppression Bonds to deal with it almost every time it dropped against me.
I turned an average sealed pool into a good result through a bit of luck and using every minute of deck construction time pouring over my cards.
To me it feels like you shouldn't even bother with 6-7 drops as you're sure to lose to aggro unless you have a ton of cheap removal.
I've been over my sealed pool after the event and it is just so horrible I can't believe I won so many games.
Topan Freeblade format. The card is just the be all and end all of MO limited. I can see it being first pickable in draft when the rare is lackluster.
2 Topan Freeblade
2 Knight of the Pilgrim's Road
1 Stalwart Aven
2 Hitchclaw Recluse
1 Charging Griffin
1 Archangel of Tithes
1 Llanowar Empath
1 Rhox Maulers
1 Conclave Naturalists
1 Outland Colossus
1 Patron of the Valiant
1 Hixus, Prison Warden
1 Skysnare Spider
1 Titanic Growth
1 Veteran's Sidearm
1 Knightly Valor
1 Nissa's Revelation
Colossus is gross and is basically a green Abyss, never Renowned it though. The Revelation was surprisingly good. I completely whiffed with it once, hitting nothing but lands, but more often it was draw 4+ and gain 4+. I had another Rhox Maulers but I kept siding in the Naturalists, so I eventually just kept it in.
I ended up going 2-1-1 (with an immediate "I want to go to sleep" concede in the last round at 4:00am) so I ended up eking out a pair of prize packs.
Next pre-release is tomorrow, and I will probably pick Green again, although the potential for Lili is almost enough temptation to go Black. I would be happy getting one walker, and consider any great rare/mythic a win, even if I don't do well in the rounds.
I had time for my bigger drops with a pair of Hitchclaw Recluse spiders in my deck.
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Veteran's Sidearm
2 Lightning Javelin
1 Animist's Awakening
1 Nissa's Pilgrimage
1 Fiery Impulse
1 Call of the Full Moon
1 Might of the Masses
10 Mountain
7 Forest
1 Mage-Ring Network
Creatures
2 Gaea's Revenge
1 Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh
1 Outland Colossus
2 Bonded Construct
3 Pharika's Disciple
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Firefiend Elemental
1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
1 Akroan Sergeant
I side-boarded in two Reclaims against a mill/control deck to recur Lightning Javelin to keep his blockers out of Gaea's Revenge's way.
My whole pool only had one card above 4 CMC and that was Gideon's Phalanx.
Rares were
Promo Goblin Piledriver
Gideon's Phalanx Amazing
Pia and Kiran Nalaar Amazing
Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen I only had 3 elves in my pool and the rest of green was mostly ramp/tricks...few creatures
Infinite Obliteration garbage in limited anyway
Graveblade Marauder I could have probably played black as my second color (I had 4 Undead Servant), but white just seemed stronger as a compliment to my red.
Shivan Reef My pool had terrible blue cards so there was no reason to even splash blue
My tie went to turns (the first game went 30+ minutes on its own and the 3rd game left us with 7 minutes) and turn 5 was his turn. He was absolutely dead on my next turn with 0 cards in hand, 1 creature and 2 life against 2 first strikers and 2 vigilant knights.
Lost to the guy who got a pretty good BW elves pool including 3 Llanowar Empath, 2 rhox maulers, 3 reave soul, and eyeblight massacre. I almost got him the first game, but the second game he just destroyed my tempo early and I couldn't find white mana in my first 6 land drops (running 10R / 7W).
It definitely was fun.
Other cards that did work:
Sword of the Animist (and a Relic Seeker to occasionally find it). This card was 1/3 of my long game plan. One game I got 15 of my 17 lands into play, pretty much ensuring that I would outdraw my opponent eventually.
Topan Freeblade This card puts so much pressure on your opponent early. Basically forces a trade if they can, and puts the heat on them if they can't.
Fetid Imp Totally saved me in several games where my opponent got off to a faster start then I did. Also plays really well with...
Enshrouding Mist Great 1 mana trick that usually trumps other combat tricks and red removal.
Shadows of the Past The second 1/3 of my long game plan. Had to be a little careful about when to play this, but oh the scry triggers! Creatures trade so much in this format. The games where I stuck it early, I never even had to activate it, as the card selection won me the game before I got the chance.
War Oracle Shuts down opposing offenses and makes it almost impossible to race.
Charging Griffin Usually my finisher.
Mage-Ring Responder The last third of my late game plan. My only card with CMC>5, this card didn't show up until both games in the finals, where my RW aggro opponent didn't really have any answers in his deck if I could live long enough to stick it.
Observations:
This seems like a fairly fast format, as most of the decks I saw were pretty aggressive. However because of renown, these aggro decks often just had to trade off creatures a lot early, paradoxically leading to a lot of long games. I did see one guy playing a UW control deck that was trying to win with Sphinx's Tutelage. He did pretty well, but he was also a much more experienced player than most of his opponents.