Another game my opponent got a Rhox Warmonk on turn three and a Behemoth Sledge attached to it on turn 5. He got me to 7 and went to around fifty or so life. All around me, people were telling me to concede. But I dropped Sphinx of the Steel Wind and went on to win the game at fifty life myself.
This format is horrifically fast. The hybrid two drops and Putrid Leech end games quickly.
I wasn't blessed with wonderful fixing. Just two obelisks, a borderpost and a panorama. It seems that, for an all multicolour set, fixing can be a problem. My good cards were spread throughout all five colours, and all but impossible to play together. I ended up going for a naya deck, but I splashed black and blue off of an Obelisk of Esper, anObelisk of Bant, a swamp, an island, and a Grixis Panorama for Sharuum, the Hegemon and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I just couldn't resist. While the rest of my deck was aggro-esque naya goodies, those two massive flyers helped to save me when the game stalled out for a while. A little odd, but at a prerelease you just have to let go and have fun with fat things.
What was used for deck building? (i.e. what sealed product did they give out?)
I'd love to see a list of cards and deck list. It would be fun commenting (especially since you were building at midnight and might have missed something... due... to... the... darkness; and all, you know).
I just got back from one of the Sydney events, and had an absolute blast. I got really destroyed though, winning just a few rounds. Dragon Broodmother (a regular one, not the official pre-release!) really made for a devastating move when played, especially when one of the babies ate the tokens from a recently deceased Sprouting Thrinax.
Behemoth Sledge is amazing, and is frustrating to play against. Wall of Denial is AWESOME, and getting two in my sealed pool was splash worthy. Once one is on the table, it's generally impossible to get past.
I got milled to death by a Nemesis of Reason that I just couldn't get rid of in time, and numerous Terminates showing up made for a lot of people using BR as two heavy colours. The pile of Islands and Plains on the mana tables during deck building were significantly taller than the other lands, which really shows the strengh of BGR in the format.
It was a pretty great day, and ended up with two Maelstrom Pulses amongst some other pretty great rares.
Came back from one of the Melbourne pre-releases, same format as Sydney (and I guess everywhere else). Built quite an interesting U/W/G deck after first deciding to go U/W/B but then realized I had a couple of really good G/x cards I had to play. Went 2-0-2 in the end for 3 prize boosters. My deck:
MoM goes to Behemont Sledge, I won every game I cast it. Once I was down on 2 lifes before I drew, played and equipped it onto a Kathari Schreecher and got back up to 35 lives before winning comfortably. Also worth mentioning is the Kederekt Leviathan, he is one scary lategame card...
Most fun I had was playing Kederekt Leviathan to bounce 6 of my opponents creatures plus 3 mana producing artifacts and 2 enchantments, only to have him Oblivion Ringed, then later destroying the ring to bounce everything again. As if that was not enough, he then got killed and later Unearthed once more to provide the final kill...
If you see a Behemont Sledge in your sealed pool, play it! I doubt that I need to tell you that but I will anyway. The thing is insane...
The deck was remarkably resilient and managed to bounce back from situations I had no business getting out of - regardless of how bleak it looked I always felt like there was an out in there with a lucky draw.
Any comments of changes to the deck that should have been made? Keep in mind that I have not played limited for more than a year and had never even seen Shards of Alara before today so there may be some obviously bad choices in the deck
Got to my local shop about 15 mins before midnight and got turned away because they only sent enough product to support for 36 people and nearly 50 showed up. Thanks Wizards! This was so much more fun than the big prereleases! I had based my entire day's scheduele around it and got to watch people play instead.
All around me, people were telling me to concede. But I dropped Sphinx of the Steel Wind and went on to win the game at fifty life myself.
Hurrah! Bet that was satisfying!
But wait... you said it was a very fast format and yet you still have time to play an eight mana creature when you're being beaten down by a 5/6? How was that possible?!
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I threw up a little bit in my mouth at this end of turn step.
Respect due for waiting until you had priority.
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Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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Someone activated Sarkhan's ultimate only for his opponent to play Karthus next turn. Everyone knew about it by the time the prerelease was over, such was the epicness.
Someone activated Sarkhan's ultimate only for his opponent to play Karthus next turn. Everyone knew about it by the time the prerelease was over, such was the epicness.
That's just mean... How did the Sarkhan dude react?
No idea. Didn't observe it personally, so for all I know it could be an exaggeration or even a complete invention.
If it really DID happen, though, and I was the Sarkhan controller, I would probably drop in depression. Seriously, being owned by your own dragons is not fun.
I had a great pre-release going 3-1 losing to the winner thanks to my insane rare pulls. They also helped me pull off the most devestating play I have had the honor of playing.
Game is going normally with small creatures on each side, then on turn 5 I play my Spellbound Dragon. The next turn I proceed to attack with him and discard Sphinx of the Steelwind dealing 11 damage with the dragon. I then play Sharuum the Hegemon to get back the Sphinx shocking my opponent. People were talking about that throughout the tournament.
Top8 draft, Opponent has Goblin Outlander, Blood Cultist (2/2), a Wild Leotau, and plays Deathbringer Thoctar before sending his team in to kill me. I block the Leotau with my Jund Sojourner, and play Volcanic Fallout, getting a 4-for-1, and killing his bomb.
Druid of the Anima into Knight of the New Alara into Giant Ambush Beetle - fun times.
By the way, Breath of Malfegor is pretty good.
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DCI L2 Judge GP:Madrid 2010 45th GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th GP:London 2013 67th Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
Top8 draft, Opponent has Goblin Outlander, Blood Cultist (2/2), a Wild Leotau, and plays Deathbringer Thoctar before sending his team in to kill me. I block the Leotau with my Jund Sojourner, and play Volcanic Fallout, getting a 4-for-1, and killing his bomb.
I'm not sure if that actually works in terms of killing the Thoctar, and this is a point of the rules I'm actually curious on. I wanna say it does, given that he's the active player and thus his Thoctar triggers would go on the stack before your Sojourners trigger. So the Thoctar dies before he can receive any +1/+1 counters? S'how I think it works, just making sure.
I'm not sure if that actually works in terms of killing the Thoctar, and this is a point of the rules I'm actually curious on. I wanna say it does, given that he's the active player and thus his Thoctar triggers would go on the stack before your Sojourners trigger. So the Thoctar dies before he can receive any +1/+1 counters? S'how I think it works, just making sure.
It works, since he's the active player, therefore his triggers are put on the stack first, and mine resolve first. So I get to ping his Thoctar before it grows huge.
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Original quote byTacosnape "All ideas that give me knowledge without any effort involved on my part are good ideas. Chop chop, my dear fellow."
DCI L2 Judge GP:Madrid 2010 45th GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th GP:London 2013 67th Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
But wait... you said it was a very fast format and yet you still have time to play an eight mana creature when you're being beaten down by a 5/6? How was that possible?!
Respect due for waiting until you had priority.
It was tremendously satisfying.
I think I was somewhat biased as to the speed of the format. I played a further flight the next day and there were nowhere near the amount of Putrid Leeches crushing people in a few turns. Regarding the Warmonk game, it was a balanced affair; creatures trading left and right, with the exception of the Warmonk pounding in turn after turn. A Naya Charm helped me out for a turn and my obelisks on turns 3 and 5 helped me to get the sphinx, while two drops collided upon each other in a dramatic melee to force through damage.
I'm going to the two headed giant flight later today, I can't wait.
I just went 4-0, then drew with the other 4-0 guy for a final result of 4-0-1. Took home 17 prize packs, traded 5 away to a guy for a new Meddling Mage.
Ran Grixis. I'll post the deck & cardpool later. 2 Executioner's Capsules ftw.
For now ... I have dishes to do, to appease the wife.
Later!
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Went 6-1 finishing 2nd on tiebreakers (beat the only undefeated guy in round 7 for a 4 way 18pt tie). Not much to say about the deck, got swapped into Broodmate Dragon and Lavalance which are the two biggest bombs in my favourite shard :D.
Bituminous Blast is every bit as insane as advertised but really almost every single Cascade card is more than playable (Friend of mine played a grixis draft after and picked up 2 of the 0/1 Reg cascade dudes, and I watched in awe at how good they where every single time).
Fun game was turn 5 Corpse Conneseur getting Broodmate dragon into the graveyard (hadnt thought about the play until I had the combo in my hand) then turn 6 returning it with Vengeful Rebirth killing his Rhox War-Monk. He then plays Bloodbraided Elf in his turn flipping up a Meddling mage (!) naming BMD... a few turns later I play Demonic Dread cascading up Terminate on Meddling Mage allowing me to play Broodmate dragon and turning the game around at 1 life.
In other news the big MVP of the tournament (it was all around the top tables and won games all over the place) was Gloryscale Viashino. Insane plays includes returning Naya Charm with Naya Charm playing Naya Charm tapping down your opponent and attacking with a 9/9 and some other dewds :P.
I was stuck on mana and only had a couple goblin tokens from dragon fodder, my opponent plays a cascade spell, and flips a PtE. He was sad, no PtE for him
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Thanks for the Sig! SpiderBoy4 at [High~Light Studios]
I'm back from the prerelease in my town and it was really good. Nice players, relaxed atmosphere, no quabbling, no rules issues, oh, and I won all my games ^^.
I was a bit disappointed by the griffin, who never did anything than fueling opposing Branching Bolts. And I'm glad I only played one of my two Mageslayers because the extra damage never worked out for me.
But artifact removal is great, and if its only a borderpost I kill. The Pridemage and the Blades are excellent and did most of the work. So did these creatures on my opponents side. Also nice were the two landcycling creatures, early in the game they fixed my mana nearly perfect and after that they were big creatures stomping on my opponent. My luck was, that I had so much removal. There was even more like two Quetzals with deathtouch and a Bolas Slave, but a fourth color would have made it difficult to get the right mana early to play all these cheap, fast and strong creatures.
What made me wonder was, that with all these players and prizeboosters, there was only one Morbid Bloom (and the owner didn't want to trade it with me *sniff*) and some other uncommons were also quite difficult to get.
Manaplasm was the best card in my sealed pool for sure (4-0, ten packs). It has AMAZING synergy with Cascade and the Borderposts... dun think I have to explain that one. Also had Sigil Blessing, Resounding Roar, Soul's Fire... even Trace of Abundance works great with it.
Violent Outburst / Bloodbraid Elf were the all stars of my deck, flipping my Rip Clan Crashers and Jund Hackblade all day... (2 crashers, 1 hackblade). There is now a ton of synergy within red/green... haste, pump, removal, cascade all go together great. Borderposts help out Jund Hackblade and Ember Weaver and friends, while acting as great fixing. I'm really looking forward to drafting SCR next week.
I was JUND, went 2-2. Deck had some nice bombs, but was pretty slow. I didn't get any Terminates either which made me sad.
But here's a pretty nice top deck story. My opponent was at 5 life, I had a couple creatures out which were taken care of by blocks + removal. Opponent had seemed to stabilize and was on his way to winning next turn. I draw, verify that he's at 5 life, then show him the Breath of Malefor. Was a pretty lucky top deck to win the match 2-1.
Other than that, I'd say my favorite card of the day was Slave of Bolas.
I went 4-1 and came in 4th. I opened my pool, and there was pretty much no bombs (I mean, seriously, Time Sieve and Where Ancients Tread? This is like my 7th Where Ancients Tread!). So I just tried to make a deck as aggressive as possible. I ended up running 5 of those blades (2 haste, 2 first strike and 1 shroud) and went Naya aggro with a splash of black for some removal (Terminate, Bituminous Blast). The deck was pretty fast that I always had about 20-30min left in each round after all my matches. Either I lost really quickly (can you say, Jund Charm?), or I won quickly.
Going aggro is a pretty good call if you don't open up bombs, particularly in prereleases. There were so many 5colour decks running around, and aggro decks can totally take advantage of that if the 5colour decks even stumble a little bit on mana.
The bad beats stories from the prerelease all involved Cascade, Sledgehammer, or Lavalanche. It was expected.
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I'll begin.
Gloryscale Viashino.....
I played it on turn three thanks to a Druid of the Anima. Turn 4 a Firewild Borderpost and swing for 7. Turn 5 a Naya Charm tapping his creatures and a Sigil Blessing, before swinging for 14 more.
Another game my opponent got a Rhox Warmonk on turn three and a Behemoth Sledge attached to it on turn 5. He got me to 7 and went to around fifty or so life. All around me, people were telling me to concede. But I dropped Sphinx of the Steel Wind and went on to win the game at fifty life myself.
This format is horrifically fast. The hybrid two drops and Putrid Leech end games quickly.
On a table next to me I saw a Bituminious Blast into Bloodbraid Elf into Reborn Hope. I threw up a little bit in my mouth at this end of turn step.
This format is amazing and is great fun.
We have a midnight prerelease at my local store, hence the very early prerelease.
I'd love to see a list of cards and deck list. It would be fun commenting (especially since you were building at midnight and might have missed something... due... to... the... darkness; and all, you know).
*Mayreturn*
I have some EDH cards and rare Magic basic lands (APAC, EURO, ARENA, etc) so message me if you're looking.
Number of members banned after I posted a BTR: 7
Looking for honest buyers, sellers, and traders.
I just got back from one of the Sydney events, and had an absolute blast. I got really destroyed though, winning just a few rounds. Dragon Broodmother (a regular one, not the official pre-release!) really made for a devastating move when played, especially when one of the babies ate the tokens from a recently deceased Sprouting Thrinax.
Behemoth Sledge is amazing, and is frustrating to play against. Wall of Denial is AWESOME, and getting two in my sealed pool was splash worthy. Once one is on the table, it's generally impossible to get past.
I got milled to death by a Nemesis of Reason that I just couldn't get rid of in time, and numerous Terminates showing up made for a lot of people using BR as two heavy colours. The pile of Islands and Plains on the mana tables during deck building were significantly taller than the other lands, which really shows the strengh of BGR in the format.
It was a pretty great day, and ended up with two Maelstrom Pulses amongst some other pretty great rares.
Sideboard:
- 1 Akrasan Squire
- 1 Cradle of Vitality
- 1 Guardians of Akrasa
- 1 Rockcaster Platoon
- 1 Welkin Guide
- 1 Cathartic Adept
- 1 Banewesp Affliction
- 1 Bone Splinters
- 1 Dreg Reaver
- 1 Fleshbag Marauder
- 1 Glaze Fiend
- 1 Puppet Conjurer
- 1 Scavenger Drake
- 1 Dragon Fodder
- 1 Hissing Iguanar
- 1 Magma Spray
- 1 Resounding Thunder
- 1 Rockslide Elemental
- 1 Behemoth's Herald
- 1 Cylian Elf
- 1 Godtoucher
- 1 Jungle Weaver
- 1 Keeper of Progenitus
- 1 Topan Ascetic
- 1 Agony Warp
- 1 Ardent Plea
- 1 Blightning
- 1 Breath of Malfegor
- 1 Cerodon Yearling
- 1 Deadshot Minotaur
- 2 Demonic Dread
- 1 Demonspine Whip
- 1 Deny Reality
- 1 Double Negative
- 1 Etherium Abomination
- 1 Etherwrought Page
- 1 Flurry of Wings
- 1 Gloryscale Viashino
- 1 Grixis Charm
- 1 Grixis Sojourners
- 1 Identity Crisis
- 1 Jund Hackblade
- 1 Magefire Wings
- 1 Mask of Riddles
- 2 Mistvein Borderpost
- 2 Monstrous Carabid
- 1 Nemesis of Reason
- 1 Rhox Brute
- 1 Sanctum Plowbeast
- 1 Sangrite Backlash
- 1 Sewn-Eye Drake
- 1 Sigil of the Nayan Gods
- 1 Stormcaller's Boon
- 1 Time Sieve
- 1 Violent Outburst
MoM goes to Behemont Sledge, I won every game I cast it. Once I was down on 2 lifes before I drew, played and equipped it onto a Kathari Schreecher and got back up to 35 lives before winning comfortably. Also worth mentioning is the Kederekt Leviathan, he is one scary lategame card...Most fun I had was playing Kederekt Leviathan to bounce 6 of my opponents creatures plus 3 mana producing artifacts and 2 enchantments, only to have him Oblivion Ringed, then later destroying the ring to bounce everything again. As if that was not enough, he then got killed and later Unearthed once more to provide the final kill...
If you see a Behemont Sledge in your sealed pool, play it! I doubt that I need to tell you that but I will anyway. The thing is insane...
Esper Stormblade was also impressive, as expected.
The deck was remarkably resilient and managed to bounce back from situations I had no business getting out of - regardless of how bleak it looked I always felt like there was an out in there with a lucky draw.
Any comments of changes to the deck that should have been made? Keep in mind that I have not played limited for more than a year and had never even seen Shards of Alara before today so there may be some obviously bad choices in the deck
Hurrah! Bet that was satisfying!
But wait... you said it was a very fast format and yet you still have time to play an eight mana creature when you're being beaten down by a 5/6? How was that possible?!
Respect due for waiting until you had priority.
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
That's just mean... How did the Sarkhan dude react?
If it really DID happen, though, and I was the Sarkhan controller, I would probably drop in depression. Seriously, being owned by your own dragons is not fun.
Game is going normally with small creatures on each side, then on turn 5 I play my Spellbound Dragon. The next turn I proceed to attack with him and discard Sphinx of the Steelwind dealing 11 damage with the dragon. I then play Sharuum the Hegemon to get back the Sphinx shocking my opponent. People were talking about that throughout the tournament.
Druid of the Anima into Knight of the New Alara into Giant Ambush Beetle - fun times.
By the way, Breath of Malfegor is pretty good.
DCI L2 Judge
GP:Madrid 2010 45th
GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th
GP:London 2013 67th
Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
I'm not sure if that actually works in terms of killing the Thoctar, and this is a point of the rules I'm actually curious on. I wanna say it does, given that he's the active player and thus his Thoctar triggers would go on the stack before your Sojourners trigger. So the Thoctar dies before he can receive any +1/+1 counters? S'how I think it works, just making sure.
It works, since he's the active player, therefore his triggers are put on the stack first, and mine resolve first. So I get to ping his Thoctar before it grows huge.
DCI L2 Judge
GP:Madrid 2010 45th
GP:Amsterdam 2011 74th
GP:London 2013 67th
Bazaar of Moxen 2013 32nd
It was tremendously satisfying.
I think I was somewhat biased as to the speed of the format. I played a further flight the next day and there were nowhere near the amount of Putrid Leeches crushing people in a few turns. Regarding the Warmonk game, it was a balanced affair; creatures trading left and right, with the exception of the Warmonk pounding in turn after turn. A Naya Charm helped me out for a turn and my obelisks on turns 3 and 5 helped me to get the sphinx, while two drops collided upon each other in a dramatic melee to force through damage.
I'm going to the two headed giant flight later today, I can't wait.
Ran Grixis. I'll post the deck & cardpool later. 2 Executioner's Capsules ftw.
For now ... I have dishes to do, to appease the wife.
Later!
If you need to contact me, don't use PM's, use my IM handle or Email
Bituminous Blast is every bit as insane as advertised but really almost every single Cascade card is more than playable (Friend of mine played a grixis draft after and picked up 2 of the 0/1 Reg cascade dudes, and I watched in awe at how good they where every single time).
Fun game was turn 5 Corpse Conneseur getting Broodmate dragon into the graveyard (hadnt thought about the play until I had the combo in my hand) then turn 6 returning it with Vengeful Rebirth killing his Rhox War-Monk. He then plays Bloodbraided Elf in his turn flipping up a Meddling mage (!) naming BMD... a few turns later I play Demonic Dread cascading up Terminate on Meddling Mage allowing me to play Broodmate dragon and turning the game around at 1 life.
In other news the big MVP of the tournament (it was all around the top tables and won games all over the place) was Gloryscale Viashino. Insane plays includes returning Naya Charm with Naya Charm playing Naya Charm tapping down your opponent and attacking with a 9/9 and some other dewds :P.
I played:
Oblivion Ring
Resounding Silence
Cylian Elf
Naturalize
Skeletonize
Bloodpyre Elemental
Resounding Thunder
Wildfield Borderpost
Ajani Vengeant
Deadshot Minotaur
Rhox Brute
Rip-Clan Crasher
Valley Rannet
Devouring Wurm
Branching Bolt
Vithian Renegade
Mageslayer
2x Jund Hackblade
Naya Hushblade
Pale Recluse
Qasal Pridemage
Enlistened Wurm
Sangrite Backlash
Crystallize
Retaliator Griffin
Rakeclaw Gargantuan
Jund Panorama
Naya Panorama
3x Plains
5x Mountain
6x Forest
I was a bit disappointed by the griffin, who never did anything than fueling opposing Branching Bolts. And I'm glad I only played one of my two Mageslayers because the extra damage never worked out for me.
But artifact removal is great, and if its only a borderpost I kill. The Pridemage and the Blades are excellent and did most of the work. So did these creatures on my opponents side. Also nice were the two landcycling creatures, early in the game they fixed my mana nearly perfect and after that they were big creatures stomping on my opponent. My luck was, that I had so much removal. There was even more like two Quetzals with deathtouch and a Bolas Slave, but a fourth color would have made it difficult to get the right mana early to play all these cheap, fast and strong creatures.
What made me wonder was, that with all these players and prizeboosters, there was only one Morbid Bloom (and the owner didn't want to trade it with me *sniff*) and some other uncommons were also quite difficult to get.
Signature made by Spiderboy4 from High~Light Studios
Violent Outburst / Bloodbraid Elf were the all stars of my deck, flipping my Rip Clan Crashers and Jund Hackblade all day... (2 crashers, 1 hackblade). There is now a ton of synergy within red/green... haste, pump, removal, cascade all go together great. Borderposts help out Jund Hackblade and Ember Weaver and friends, while acting as great fixing. I'm really looking forward to drafting SCR next week.
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But here's a pretty nice top deck story. My opponent was at 5 life, I had a couple creatures out which were taken care of by blocks + removal. Opponent had seemed to stabilize and was on his way to winning next turn. I draw, verify that he's at 5 life, then show him the Breath of Malefor. Was a pretty lucky top deck to win the match 2-1.
Other than that, I'd say my favorite card of the day was Slave of Bolas.
Going aggro is a pretty good call if you don't open up bombs, particularly in prereleases. There were so many 5colour decks running around, and aggro decks can totally take advantage of that if the 5colour decks even stumble a little bit on mana.
The bad beats stories from the prerelease all involved Cascade, Sledgehammer, or Lavalanche. It was expected.
Check out my pauper cube!
and thanks to PurpleD @ [<--- Left Play Design <---] for making this awesome banner!
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