My pool was ok...mostly was happy because I got stuff I really needed for EDH, got my Diabolic Revalation, Xathrid Gorgon (the promo, which was the version I wanted), Trading Post (for my chaos deck), and Omniscience.
I ended up going 2-3 after having a great first 2 rounds, which pissed me off a bit but I had fun regardless. Looking at my pool now, I probably could have built a pretty solid deck compared to what I was running. My main issue was a lack of removal in my colors...if I'd gone RUG instead of WBG it'd have been a bit different, using Primadox to bounce Archeomancer to recur the burn and unsummon I had would have worked for removal. But hindsight ya know?
Hard to ignore a bomb like Captain of the Watch though, which is why I ended up in white.
Only saw Garruk twice during the tournament, and the Cleansing once. So it was mostly down to my cheap creatures plus exalted.
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Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
As I opened my packs, it was very obvious that I'd be playing green/black. I knew my pool was good, but wasn't sure how it would do. I've had card pools that I felt much better about than I felt about this one. Some of those disappointed me with a 1-3 or 2-2 record, so I hoped for the best.
Thank god for commons, I'll just say that. Grabbing Phylactery Lich and Wit's End in the first 2 of 6 packs made me pretty emotional. Then I settled with Faith's Shield, Disciple of Bolas, and Stuffy Doll, and almost played Quiron Dryad but decided it was too slow and too situational, and I wanted only the most effective of my green pool as a splash.
Game 1: 2-0
Versus a green/white deck. Pretty unfortunate deck construction, he had 2 Tormod's Crypts out at one point, I can't even imagine what he was thinking. Freaked out a little when I saw Intrepid Hero and a sizeable blocker in my way. The hero really is a gigantic middle finger to exalted. Attack with everything and lose your best guy, attack with one and have it destroyed... so I had to bait him to remove one of three exalted guys in order to get in with a 3/3 unblockable Tormented Soul a couple more times afterwards. It's removed when he's at 1, with stronger blockers and a flier to go through the rest of the way. Too bad I find Sign in Blood and it ends. Didn't think it would come in quite so handy, but it was really amazing.
Game 2: 2-1
Mirror match, exalted black/white, no splash. Saw Interpid Hero on his side again, I rolled my eyes. This time I drew oblivion ring before too long and resumed as normal. Second game was brutal on his behalf, I was swinging for 6 to 7 each turn, but after I remove his little flier with Mark of the Vampire, Vampire Nighthawk shows up which I couldn't get in the way of or kick off the board just kept him up. I was one turn from lethal, but I used Sign in Blood on myself to search for some answers. O-Ring and a flying chumper come up, so I'm good as long as he can't find 3 extra power. Turns out one more exalted creature and that terrible 5 mana bird come down and I facepalm. Game 3 was a great match, went to time, on turn 5 of 5 I swing with everything leaving him at 2. Sign in blood gets me another game.
Game 3: 1-2
Versus blue/white control. Game 1 has me doing stupid crap like using O-Ring to remove a Talrand's Invocation token just so he can't double block my flier who swings 3/3 after exalted. I figure I keep up my aggression hard, but next turn he enchants Divine Favors token, gains 3 life, and suddenly the sky is his. ANOTHER Interpid Hero shows up... I let him know how surprised and disappointed I am... then I lose. Game 2 is a fantastic aggro curve for me. I bait him into some desperate trades, then I hit Faith's Reward and get ahead. He finds some lifegain, but again I swing with it all and leave him at 2 life. Second main phase I tell him I'm casting Sign in Blood, he wonders what I'm digging for, but inform him it's targeting him. Game 3 is long again, we go to time, but he ends it on turn 4/5 with a simple enchanted flier, I forget which, probably just Aven Squire. Lifegain put my aggro rush out of the question, a Ring of Thune went unchecked on Pillarfield Ox and the flier, then just grew out of control. Really wish I had found a protection from white knight among my uncommons this match.
Game 4: 2-1
Versus blue/black control. My winning games I have way too much pressure and blockage for his meager ground force of zombies. His winning game was Sphinx of Uthuun finding Unsummon, Switcheroo, and a Disciple of Bolas of his own. I don't really imagine that Unsummon is that dangerous versus my weenies, so I split Unsummon with Switcheroo, because I don't want to fight through more life and have him find more which was my downfall. It was all he needed to steal my one flying exalted guy, slow down the Stuffy Doll and hit me twice to outrace me to the end. He was pretty flooded in the last game though, with the amount of removal I saw (Murder, Public Execution, Downpour, Switcheroo, Unsummon, Essence Scatter) I wouldn't be surprised to have seen him come back. He told me he had Stormtide Leviathan somewhere in the deck, which would have almost certainly put me to a dead stop.
Overall:
- Prey Upon is just delicious removal.
- Rancor is Scary. Well worth the splash for these 2. First strike trample 7/5 is crazy.
- The curve was nice. A bit more removal in place of probably Captain's Call or Servant of Nefarox might have been nice... there wasn't any left though without hitting blue or red, (double blue no less) which was just not possible.
- I really wanted to use the Bloodthrone Vampire in conjunction with Faith's Reward to swing huge, but it's not a trick with exalted; if you attack with more than one they know something is up, and if you attack with just it there will almost always be a chump in the way. I did get to draw 7 cards one game and 10 cards in another (plus life) via token eating, exalted, and Disciple of Bolas. Bolas' little minion surprised me with his usefulness. 2nd main phase plus leftover exalted bonuses is hot.
- Sign in Blood as a killer means that I really wanted some reach. Essence Drain burn would have been welcome as a finisher or removal, but it wasn't around. I lost the only game I decided to use it to draw cards.
- Fun format, there didn't seem to be much I found to be too powerful.
Perhaps you should just send WOTC a resume and tell them why you're better at Magic than one of their employees instead of complaining here, where nobody really has any authority on the matter.
This went totally undefeated, mostly because of the steady stream of fat creatures and various Primadox shenanigans. I basically won every single game I ever cast the Wurm (even if I did have to recur him), as well as the one game where he got stolen (protip: never ever let it get into combat if there's the slightest chance of Divine Verdict, which is a lesson that opponent learned the hard way). Odric pretty much threatens "remove me or die," and he'd be good even if he was just 3/4 first strike since that's a combat nightmare and he's safe from an unassisted Searing Spear/Flames of the Firebrand. Captain's Call was never useful for anything other than enabling Odric, and Griffin Protector is kind of underwhelming.
Second flight just because I still have the deck constructed:
Still won me the flight (although I intentionally drew the final round), but this one was noticeably weaker, to the point where I actually had rounds that went 2-1. Getting Odric a second time amused me, though, and he still won several games both by enabling an unstoppable alpha strike and by acting as a combat-powered Plague Wind. Thragtusk doesn't take over a game quite like the Wurm does, although he does provide significant value and the 5 life helped win several races. Kitesail on anything remotely big is more or less game over the majority of the time. Chronomaton was kind of an "I was desperate for a 23rd card" kind of include, and wound up being too slow for anything useful. Oh well, it still proves G/W Stompy is a glorious thing when it works.
Also I find it interesting I didn't see a single Pacifism in either pool.
My pool was really skewed, blue and green had no bombs or splashable cards that were worth cutting my R/W cards. I thought about black since I had 2 Murders, but at the cost of 2 black it wasn't worth it.
I went 4-1 only losing a match due to being mana flooded, I drew 5 lands in a row and couldn't do anything but chump block and watch my opponent's board grow. Exalted did serious work and the archangel needless to say won me the game many times. There was the 4th round, 3rd game where I was down 3-16 in life, pulled mark of mutiny and took control of my opponents only flying blocker, my archangel swung for exactly 16 to win the game or else I would have lost next turn (it was funny how I removed my opponent's air blocker and added another exalted stack to my angel).
I don't play magic very often and my limited experience is... limited:
-Mirrodin Prerelease sealed
-Betrayers of Kamigawa draft
-Ravnica sealed
-Rise of the Eldrazi sealed
-Magic 2011 sealed
-1 AVR draft in May
and Magic 2013 sealed
Round 1:
My opponent was playing a U/B deck. I overheard him talking with his friends about maindecking an Angel's Mercy, so I expected to play him or his friends round one and get defeated.
Game one, I won and didn't see much beyond a Wind Drake, so I sided in Plummet.
Game three, my opponent played a Talrand's Invocation. I got rid of one token, but he set up a ridiculous little combo with a Courtly Provocateur, forcing my guys to crash into his Harbor Serpent. The token took the game.
Round 2:
I considered the possibility of keeping red and adding a second mountain, but I wasn't comfortable with that. I cut the Searing Spears and the Flinthoof Boar for Titanic Growth, Ajani's Sunstriker, and Stuffy Doll. My opponent was playing a G/W deck; she came with her brother/boyfriend/husband.
Game one, I had the superior board position, but she cast a Planar Cleansing, and punished me for it. She ended up playing a Primal Huntbeast, rendering the majority of my removal irrelevant, dropped a Rancor on it, and equipped it with Ring of Kalonia. Much to my extreme fortune, she didn't understand how to deal with Stuffy Doll, and held back on the attack, allowing me to win. She specifically stated that I shouldn't help her out after I pointed out her Rancor going to the GY, but I felt like **** afterwards anyway.
At this point, I actually had a chance to win something. Rather then spend the rest of the round reviewing my deck or watching other people play, I bothered the shopkeeper and looked through their merchandise.
Round 4:
My opponent was a grown man, a parent, who entered the event with his kid. Both of them were 2-1 by this round. He was playing a G/r deck with several solid cards.
Game 2: I managed to take out his Yewa, Nature's Herald with a Titanic Growth on an attacking Elvish Visionary, but the rest of the match was a blur. I don't think I drew into enough threats/answers relative to my opponent.
2-2
After this point, I talked with my opponent, and apparently he had a round two loss to my round one opponent, something about a Dark Favor on a flying creature. Though he seemed to be playing some sort of constructed deck prior to to the start of the event, he said that he rarely did much sealed.
I durdled around the store for a bit longer before officially dropping. The round four guy got into the top 8 with his kid, though my round 1 opponent had no such luck.
Went 3-1 winning against RG, UW, GB and losing to RB in the final round; 4th out of 27. I didn’t know what to expect from the deck so I was quite happy. My impressions:
The deck was capable of pretty aggressive starts. One game I dropped Tormented Soul turn one followed by two Duty-Bound Dead turn 2 to swing for unblockable 3 damage for the next rounds topped off with Yeva's Forcemage and Titanic growth.
The Rings were good, forcing early removal or just taking over the game. One game I had a 7/12 Silklash Spider with trample.
Staff of Nin is a bit expensive but great once it's online.
Roaring Primadox is my favourite card so far. Synergies with Liliana's Shade (if you're really desperate for land), Bloodhunter Bat, Forcemage and especially the Beetle are fantastic. Putting counter after counter on my unblockable exalted attacker was devastating.
Liliana's Shade was really good; fetches Swamps, gets big forcing unfavourable blocks, also good on defence. Very solid.
I liked Crippling Blight to kill small critters or just make them unblockable to push through some damage.
Overall, I really enjoyed the format; appears fairly balanced although I still think that green is probably strongest. Looking forward to drafting it.
I went 3-1 today and got 4 packs. I played a Bant aggro deck.
My curve was the best it had been all weekend (played 3 seals and 1 2HG) in sealed events. Key cards were 2 Pacifism, O-Ring, 2 Downpour, 2 Timber Wolf (relentless rats cousin), Clone and Thragtusk. Also had Serra Angel and Stormtide Levi, but neither landed in 4 matches.
Here's my thoughts on M13 now after 4 events:
-G/B is really good
-Red is not as bad as I thought
-W/B exalted is a real thing
-Blue is underwhelming, unless you get every good blue card
-Farseek DOES NOT search for Forests
Fun fact: Here is the (claimed) combined record of everyone in the thread:
114 wins
32 losses
7 draws
Not counting the draws, that's a 0.78 win rate. (I didn't include people who claimed to be undefeated but didn't state how many rounds they played.)
I guess you can color me skeptical (although observation bias may be a better explanation).
Except the people who went 1-5 are far less likely to come and post about it. And knowing that MTGS even exists probably puts you in the top half of pre-release players.
First match (2-1): Opponent played B/R/U with a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. I went 2-1, only losing when my opponent stalled the game out long enough to get enough mana to play Nicol Bolas.
Second match (2-0): Opponent played B/R/G with a Primordial Hydra. I got Intrepid Hero on the second game, and was able to kill off one of his creatures he put a Ring of Kalonia on.
Third match (0-2): Opponent played U/W with Ajani, Caller of the Pride[/CARD]. I got screwed with my draws and had to mulligan twice on both the first game and the second game. I played my Slumbering Dragon both times, but it didn't matter. The first game, she Unsummon on my Slumbering Dragon as it got its fourth counter, and ended up killing me with lots of flyers. The second game, she got Ajani out third turn (ugh). She stalled me with various high toughness creatures, then killed me with the ultimate.
Fourth match (2-0): Opponent played R/G/W. I steamrolled the guy pretty fast. In the second game, my opponent was down to 12. I had a Prized Elephant, Yeva, Nature's Herald and Spiked Baloth in play. He had an Arms Dealer and a Krenko's Command token out. He blocked my Yeva with the token, then sacrificed the token to deal 4 damage to my Prized Elephant. I responded by tapping two and playing Titanic Growth on my Prized Elephant, dealing 12 damage to him. I thought that was a good play.
In the end, I got finished 9th out of 58 people, and got five booster packs. So I was pretty happy for my first sealed tournament.
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Focused on limited for now. Occasionally play some standard/modern as well.
Imagine people who frequent and discuss magic being members of salvation and posting about their winning records in a thread discussing the M13 prerelease... what are the odds?
You expecting casuals or 10 year olds to come discuss prerelease and how 3 Vastwood Gorgers failed to make them go better than 1-3?
Been over a year since I played due to a layoff at work... Drafted M13 on Friday, went green-red, and did the same on prerelease day... Took a 7-0 over the weekend.
I wasn't around for the olden days of Magic when Rancor was originally printed. You know what I learned? Rancor + creatures = good. I drew one when I had a Goblin Arsonist on the board... thought "bahaha, Arsonist with Rancor... how silly." Then I realized that it was Rancor, and Rancor rules.
Soon after, Arsonist found himself Rancor'ed... and eventually, Encrusted.
To summarize, Rancor, Rancor, and oh yeah... Rancor.
That's what I mean about observation bias. I have to admit I am still skeptical.
I don't see what there is to be skeptical about. Obviously, the more skilled players who do better in these tournaments are more likely to brag about their accomplishments, while the people who go 0-X aren't as likely to want to talk about that on a public forum. I know a bunch of the people at my LGS either don't know what Salvation is, or else they see Magic forums as something for people who are too serious about the game. In the end, this thread's going to skew more towards people who placed highly in a bunch of independent tournaments, rather than collecting the results from one big one, which would give a much more balanced record.
went 4-1 and got 3rd with this deck (pretty sure it is the optimum build for my pool). Worth noting there were no 5-0s and I happened to beat the guy who got first in the final round. That's how swiss goes though.
Two cards which surprised me how good they were were Ring of Xathrid and Veilborn Ghoul. Being able to make any of your creatures have regenerate is an amazingly powerful ability which makes for some pretty questionable attacks being completely okay. The card putting counters on black creatures in addition just seems unfair! And, though it can be pretty useless on a losing board, not many cards can close the gap to victory against a removal heavy deck like Veilborn Ghoul. It turns a flood into a damage fest.
Also: I can't believe how bad Thragtusk's art is. "Oh right, you get another creature? Let's just draw another one on the side, yeah that looks good!"
We had a two day prerelease.
Day 1 I went 5-0-2 into the Top 8 and then won my first match and lost in the semi-finals.
I had an absolutely ridiculous pull with Jace, Void Stalker, Serra Avenger, Trading Post, and Staff of Nin and my self-proclaimed UW Goat Control was pretty much unstoppable until I lost a close game 1 to a really aggressive GW deck and then stalled on two mana game 2.
Day 2 my pool was good but not as insane and I went 3-2 running UBw missing the top 8.
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UW Control :symu::symw:
UWr Control :symu::symw::symr:
I swept my first match against GW aggro by simply outracing him, though I was amused and impressed in game two when he used a Yeva's forcemage to pump up my Krenko so that he could kill it with Intrepid Hero.
Later I was paired against a friend of mine who had drawn a pool strong enough to go almost mono-green (he had a white splash for pacifism and oblivion ring). In one game he absolutely devastated me by bouncing Acidic Slime repeatedly with Roaring Primadox and taking out all my mountains.
In another game against him, I got him down to one life before he got Garruk humming. I had Xathrid gorgon out so each turn he was pumping out a beast statue and I didn't have anyway to get through because I wasn't drawing my fliers or my burn spells. Finally, I drew Goblin Arsonist on the exact turn that Garruk was ready to go ultimate. I played the arsonist, he put 9 6/6 Wurms into play, and then I swung with Arsonist for the win... Except that he had Safe Passage.
I crushed him game one on the back of turn one Tormented Soul, turn two Dark Favor, turn three Vampire Nighthawk.
Game two went almost thirty turns because I had Xathrid Gorgon online and kept turning all of his guys into walls, but then didn't have any way to punch through. In general, my experience was that Xathrid Gorgon is really unfun in Limited. It just puts games into topdeck mode. Eventually he drew one of his Volcanic Geysers and was able to burn me for my last eight life because we both had a billion lnad in play by that point.
Then, in game three, I decided that I should side in a Gem of Becoming, two Evolving Wilds, a Clone, an Unsummon, a Negate, and three Essence Scatters to help me deal with his relentless army of boars and hatchlings. It was a good plan, except that I forgot to side in any islands...
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I ended up going 2-3 after having a great first 2 rounds, which pissed me off a bit but I had fun regardless. Looking at my pool now, I probably could have built a pretty solid deck compared to what I was running. My main issue was a lack of removal in my colors...if I'd gone RUG instead of WBG it'd have been a bit different, using Primadox to bounce Archeomancer to recur the burn and unsummon I had would have worked for removal. But hindsight ya know?
Hard to ignore a bomb like Captain of the Watch though, which is why I ended up in white.
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
On second prerelease, I finished 3-1 with an U/B splash red for Chandra + Flames of the Firebrand, with all the cool black exalted guys including Nefarox. Oh, and a Stormtide Leviathan.
We decided to draft with our prize boosters. I drafted a U/R monstrosity with Stuffy Doll, Magmaquake, Talrand's Invocation, 2 Searing Spear, 2 Turn to Slag and 3 (!) Archaeomancer. And a Stormtide Leviathan. Went 3-0 undefeated with it.
Leviathan's such a troll card, especially with countermagic backup. Nice army you got there. Too bad it can't fly.
Only saw Garruk twice during the tournament, and the Cleansing once. So it was mostly down to my cheap creatures plus exalted.
Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
1 Disentomb
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Knight of Infamy
1 Murder
1 Nefarox, Overlord of Grixis
1 Ravenous Rats
2 Sign in Blood
1 Tormented Soul
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Arbor Elf
2 Deadly Recluse
1 Elvish Archdruid
1 Farseek
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
1 Rancor
1 Ranger's Path
1 Sentinel Spider
1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Staff of Nin
8 Forest
8 Swamp
I went 4-0 without losing a game. I won 9 packs, but split with my last round opponent - so I got 7 and he got 6.
1 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
8 Forest
Creatures:
2 Welkin Tern
2 Fog Bank
1 Bond Beetle
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Quirion Dryad
1 Faerie Invaders
1 Arbor Elf
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Negate
Enchantments:
1 Encrust
1 Rancor
Sorceries:
1 Index
1 Prey Upon
1 Fungal Sprouting
1 Farseek
2 Talrand's Invocation
1 Akroma's Memorial
I won my pre-release with this deck going 4-0-1. The top 3 cards were surprisingly: 1. Welkin Tern, 2. Akroma's Memorial, and 3: Rancor.
Sealed:
M13 Pre-Release: 4-0-1
RTR Pre- Release: 5-1
Standard:
Bant Control: 25-4-6
Thank god for commons, I'll just say that. Grabbing Phylactery Lich and Wit's End in the first 2 of 6 packs made me pretty emotional. Then I settled with Faith's Shield, Disciple of Bolas, and Stuffy Doll, and almost played Quiron Dryad but decided it was too slow and too situational, and I wanted only the most effective of my green pool as a splash.
1 Faith's Reward
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Knight of Glory
1 Aven Squire
2 Griffin Protector
1 Captain's Call
2 Attended Knight
1 Divine Favor
1 Disciple of Bolas
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Servant of Nefarox
2 Duty Bound Dead
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Tormented Soul
1 Sign in Blood
1 Stuffy Doll
1 Chronomaton
1 Rancor
1 Prey Upon
Land: 17
3 Forest
8 Swamp
6 Plains
Game 1: 2-0
Versus a green/white deck. Pretty unfortunate deck construction, he had 2 Tormod's Crypts out at one point, I can't even imagine what he was thinking. Freaked out a little when I saw Intrepid Hero and a sizeable blocker in my way. The hero really is a gigantic middle finger to exalted. Attack with everything and lose your best guy, attack with one and have it destroyed... so I had to bait him to remove one of three exalted guys in order to get in with a 3/3 unblockable Tormented Soul a couple more times afterwards. It's removed when he's at 1, with stronger blockers and a flier to go through the rest of the way. Too bad I find Sign in Blood and it ends. Didn't think it would come in quite so handy, but it was really amazing.
Game 2: 2-1
Mirror match, exalted black/white, no splash. Saw Interpid Hero on his side again, I rolled my eyes. This time I drew oblivion ring before too long and resumed as normal. Second game was brutal on his behalf, I was swinging for 6 to 7 each turn, but after I remove his little flier with Mark of the Vampire, Vampire Nighthawk shows up which I couldn't get in the way of or kick off the board just kept him up. I was one turn from lethal, but I used Sign in Blood on myself to search for some answers. O-Ring and a flying chumper come up, so I'm good as long as he can't find 3 extra power. Turns out one more exalted creature and that terrible 5 mana bird come down and I facepalm. Game 3 was a great match, went to time, on turn 5 of 5 I swing with everything leaving him at 2. Sign in blood gets me another game.
Game 3: 1-2
Versus blue/white control. Game 1 has me doing stupid crap like using O-Ring to remove a Talrand's Invocation token just so he can't double block my flier who swings 3/3 after exalted. I figure I keep up my aggression hard, but next turn he enchants Divine Favors token, gains 3 life, and suddenly the sky is his. ANOTHER Interpid Hero shows up... I let him know how surprised and disappointed I am... then I lose. Game 2 is a fantastic aggro curve for me. I bait him into some desperate trades, then I hit Faith's Reward and get ahead. He finds some lifegain, but again I swing with it all and leave him at 2 life. Second main phase I tell him I'm casting Sign in Blood, he wonders what I'm digging for, but inform him it's targeting him. Game 3 is long again, we go to time, but he ends it on turn 4/5 with a simple enchanted flier, I forget which, probably just Aven Squire. Lifegain put my aggro rush out of the question, a Ring of Thune went unchecked on Pillarfield Ox and the flier, then just grew out of control. Really wish I had found a protection from white knight among my uncommons this match.
Game 4: 2-1
Versus blue/black control. My winning games I have way too much pressure and blockage for his meager ground force of zombies. His winning game was Sphinx of Uthuun finding Unsummon, Switcheroo, and a Disciple of Bolas of his own. I don't really imagine that Unsummon is that dangerous versus my weenies, so I split Unsummon with Switcheroo, because I don't want to fight through more life and have him find more which was my downfall. It was all he needed to steal my one flying exalted guy, slow down the Stuffy Doll and hit me twice to outrace me to the end. He was pretty flooded in the last game though, with the amount of removal I saw (Murder, Public Execution, Downpour, Switcheroo, Unsummon, Essence Scatter) I wouldn't be surprised to have seen him come back. He told me he had Stormtide Leviathan somewhere in the deck, which would have almost certainly put me to a dead stop.
Overall:
- Prey Upon is just delicious removal.
- Rancor is Scary. Well worth the splash for these 2. First strike trample 7/5 is crazy.
- The curve was nice. A bit more removal in place of probably Captain's Call or Servant of Nefarox might have been nice... there wasn't any left though without hitting blue or red, (double blue no less) which was just not possible.
- I really wanted to use the Bloodthrone Vampire in conjunction with Faith's Reward to swing huge, but it's not a trick with exalted; if you attack with more than one they know something is up, and if you attack with just it there will almost always be a chump in the way. I did get to draw 7 cards one game and 10 cards in another (plus life) via token eating, exalted, and Disciple of Bolas. Bolas' little minion surprised me with his usefulness. 2nd main phase plus leftover exalted bonuses is hot.
- Sign in Blood as a killer means that I really wanted some reach. Essence Drain burn would have been welcome as a finisher or removal, but it wasn't around. I lost the only game I decided to use it to draw cards.
- Fun format, there didn't seem to be much I found to be too powerful.
7x Forest
7x Plains
1x Swamp
2x Evolving Wilds
Creatures:
1x Arbor Elf
2x Centaur Courser
1x Roaring Primadox
1x Griffin Protector
1x Odric, Master Tactician
1x Garruk's Packleader
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Silklash Spider
1x Serra Angel
1x Battleflight Eagle
2x Vastwood Gorger
1x Elderscale Wurm
1x Show of Valor
1x Safe Passage
1x Divine Verdict
Sorceries:
1x Farseek
1x Revive
1x Captain's Call
1x Rise from the Grave
Enchantments:
2x Oblivion Ring
This went totally undefeated, mostly because of the steady stream of fat creatures and various Primadox shenanigans. I basically won every single game I ever cast the Wurm (even if I did have to recur him), as well as the one game where he got stolen (protip: never ever let it get into combat if there's the slightest chance of Divine Verdict, which is a lesson that opponent learned the hard way). Odric pretty much threatens "remove me or die," and he'd be good even if he was just 3/4 first strike since that's a combat nightmare and he's safe from an unassisted Searing Spear/Flames of the Firebrand. Captain's Call was never useful for anything other than enabling Odric, and Griffin Protector is kind of underwhelming.
Second flight just because I still have the deck constructed:
8x Plains
7x Forest
1x Mountain
1x Evolving Wilds
Creatures:
1x Chronomaton
1x Arbor Elf
1x Ajani's Sunstriker
1x Knight of Glory
1x Deadly Recluse
1x Centaur Courser
1x Griffin Protector
1x Odric, Master Tactician
1x Spiked Baloth
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Acidic Slime
1x Thragtusk
1x Duskdale Wurm
1x Titanic Growth
1x Safe Passage
1x Divine Verdict
Sorceries:
2x Farseek
1x Flames of the Firebrand
Enchantments:
1x Oblivion Ring
Artifacts:
1x Kitesail
1x Ring of Kalonia
1x Ring of Xathrid
Still won me the flight (although I intentionally drew the final round), but this one was noticeably weaker, to the point where I actually had rounds that went 2-1. Getting Odric a second time amused me, though, and he still won several games both by enabling an unstoppable alpha strike and by acting as a combat-powered Plague Wind. Thragtusk doesn't take over a game quite like the Wurm does, although he does provide significant value and the 5 life helped win several races. Kitesail on anything remotely big is more or less game over the majority of the time. Chronomaton was kind of an "I was desperate for a 23rd card" kind of include, and wound up being too slow for anything useful. Oh well, it still proves G/W Stompy is a glorious thing when it works.
Also I find it interesting I didn't see a single Pacifism in either pool.
Modern:
:symu::symw::symr: UWr Geist :symr::symw::symu:
EDH:
:symb::symb::symr::symr: Rakdos, Lord of Riots :symr::symr::symb::symb:
My deck was:
2x Ajani's Sunstriker
1x Attended Knight
1x Aven Squire
1x Battleflight Eagle
1x Chronomaton
1x Dragon Hatchling
2x Goblin Arsonist
1x Griffin Protector
1x Guardians of Akrasa
1x Knight of Glory
1x Krenko, Mob Boss
1x Reckless Brute
1x Rummaging Goblin
2x Silvercoat Lion
1x Stuffy Doll
1x Sublime Archangel
1x Kindled Fury
1x Searing Spear
1x Mark of Mutiny
Enchantment (1)
1x Pacifism
Land (16)
6x Mountain
10x Plains
Planeswalker (1)
1x Chandra, the Firebrand
My pool was really skewed, blue and green had no bombs or splashable cards that were worth cutting my R/W cards. I thought about black since I had 2 Murders, but at the cost of 2 black it wasn't worth it.
I went 4-1 only losing a match due to being mana flooded, I drew 5 lands in a row and couldn't do anything but chump block and watch my opponent's board grow. Exalted did serious work and the archangel needless to say won me the game many times. There was the 4th round, 3rd game where I was down 3-16 in life, pulled mark of mutiny and took control of my opponents only flying blocker, my archangel swung for exactly 16 to win the game or else I would have lost next turn (it was funny how I removed my opponent's air blocker and added another exalted stack to my angel).
I won 14 booster packs (first time winning anything) and ended up opening another Sublime Archangel Garruk, Primal Hunter Serra Avatar. Needless to say I went home very happy.
GWU Value Town (Roon of the Hidden Realm)
WUB Durdle (Oloro, Ageless Ascetic)
WU Brunatron (Bruna, Light of Alabaster)
Garruk, Primal Hunter
Yeva, Nature's Herald
Staff of Nin
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Sunpetal Grove
Redirect
Started RG, and didn't have enough playable red cards to support my green. So I decided to play the most greedy deck I could. Here is my deck:
3 Arbor Elf
1 Deadly Recluse
2 Elvish Visionary
2 Farseek
1 Titanic Growth
1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Primal Huntbeast
1 Vastwood Gorger
2 Duskdale Wurm
1 Searing Spear
1 Volcanic Geyser
Black (3):
1 Bloodhunter Bat
1 Giant Scorpian
1 Public Execution
Multi (1):
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
Artifact (2):
1 Gem of Becoming
1 Staff of Nin
8 Forest
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
1 Island
2 Evolving Wilds
Went 4-1, only losing to mana flood (drew/ramped all of my lands, with Garruk and Bolas and 2 of my removal still in the deck. Rough.... :-/)
Take a mechanic from the pre-mirrodin era, and a mechanic after the mirrodin era, and create a card that flavorfully melds both mechanics.
1x Crusader of Odric
1x Knight of Glory
1x Prized Elephant
1x Rain of Blades
1x Ajani's Sunstriker
1x Angel's Mercy
2x Battleflight Eagle
2x Captain's Call
1x Divine Favor
1x Divine Verdict
1x Erase
1x Pacifism
2x Show of Valor
2x Silvercoat Lion
2x War Falcon
1x Warclamp Mastiff
1x Battle of Wits
1x Stormtide Leviathan
1x Courtly Provocateur
1x Downpour
1x Encrust
1x Faerie Invaders
1x Index
1x Kraken Hatchling
1x Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
1x Negate
1x Tricks of the Trade
1x Harbor Bandit
1x Veilborn Ghoul
2x Bloodhunter Bat
1x Dark Favor
1x Disentomb
1x Giant Scorpion
1x Mind Rot
1x Ravenous Rats
2x Walking Corpse
1x Zombie Goliath
1x Torch Fiend
1x Canyon Minotaur
2x Fire Elemental
1x Goblin Arsonist
1x Goblin Battle Jester
1x Kindled Fury
1x Krenko's Command
2x Searing Spear
1x Volcanic Strength
1x Wild Guess
1x Predatory Rampage
1x Flinthoof Boar
1x Rancor
1x Roaring Primadox
2x Bond Beetle
1x Centaur Courser
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Fog
1x Plummet
1x Prey Upon
1x Ranger's Path
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Serpent's Gift
1x Spiked Baloth
1x Timberpack Wolf
1x Titanic Growth
1x Chronomaton
1x Ring of Evos Isle
1x Ring of Thune
2x Tormod's Crypt
1x Drowned Catacomb
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Evolving Wilds
-Mirrodin Prerelease sealed
-Betrayers of Kamigawa draft
-Ravnica sealed
-Rise of the Eldrazi sealed
-Magic 2011 sealed
-1 AVR draft in May
and Magic 2013 sealed
Here's my first version of the deck:
1x Crusader of Odric
1x Knight of Glory
1x Prized Elephant
2x War Falcon
1x Flinthoof Boar
1x Roaring Primadox
2x Bond Beetle
1x Centaur Courser
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Timberpack Wolf
1x Rancor
2x Captain's Call
1x Divine Verdict
1x Pacifism
1x Prey Upon
2x Searing Spear
1x Mountain
8x Forest
7x Plains
My opponent was playing a U/B deck. I overheard him talking with his friends about maindecking an Angel's Mercy, so I expected to play him or his friends round one and get defeated.
Game one, I won and didn't see much beyond a Wind Drake, so I sided in Plummet.
Game two, my opponent went to town with a Knight of Infamy enchanted with Dark Favor. He also played a Void Stalker, which apparently made Roaring Primadox with a Prey Upon useless.
Game three, my opponent played a Talrand's Invocation. I got rid of one token, but he set up a ridiculous little combo with a Courtly Provocateur, forcing my guys to crash into his Harbor Serpent. The token took the game.
0-1
1x Crusader of Odric
1x Knight of Glory
1x Prized Elephant
1x Ajani's Sunstriker
2x War Falcon
1x Roaring Primadox
2x Bond Beetle
1x Centaur Courser
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Timberpack Wolf
1x Stuffy Doll
1x Rancor
2x Captain's Call
1x Divine Verdict
1x Pacifism
1x Prey Upon
1x Titanic Growth
8x Forest
8x Plains
I considered the possibility of keeping red and adding a second mountain, but I wasn't comfortable with that. I cut the Searing Spears and the Flinthoof Boar for Titanic Growth, Ajani's Sunstriker, and Stuffy Doll. My opponent was playing a G/W deck; she came with her brother/boyfriend/husband.
Game one, I had the superior board position, but she cast a Planar Cleansing, and punished me for it. She ended up playing a Primal Huntbeast, rendering the majority of my removal irrelevant, dropped a Rancor on it, and equipped it with Ring of Kalonia. Much to my extreme fortune, she didn't understand how to deal with Stuffy Doll, and held back on the attack, allowing me to win. She specifically stated that I shouldn't help her out after I pointed out her Rancor going to the GY, but I felt like **** afterwards anyway.
Game two, I overextended again, but managed to play both Predatory Rampage and Captain of the Watch before she hit six lands.
1-1
Round 3:
I was fairly satisfied with my deck at this point and I didn't make any significant changes. My opponent this round was playing a G/R deck.
Game 1: He was stuck at three land for too long and I managed to take advantage of that.
Game 2: I had to mul to 5: 4 lands and Knight of Infamy. I kept drawing exactly what I needed afterwards. Pacifism on my opponent's Hamletback Goliath seemed to upset him somewhat, especially when he followed up with Fungal Sprouting. I countered with Captain of the Watch, and took the game.
2-1
At this point, I actually had a chance to win something. Rather then spend the rest of the round reviewing my deck or watching other people play, I bothered the shopkeeper and looked through their merchandise.
Round 4:
My opponent was a grown man, a parent, who entered the event with his kid. Both of them were 2-1 by this round. He was playing a G/r deck with several solid cards.
Game 1: My opponent started the game by casting Yewa, Nature's Herald, followed up by Thragtusk, as well as Searing Spear and Flames of the Firebrand. Stuffy Doll showed up this game and my opponent was mystified by just about every line of text. Unfortunately, he cast a Kitesail and took me out with a 4/3 flying beast token and Dragon Hatchling.
Game 2: I managed to take out his Yewa, Nature's Herald with a Titanic Growth on an attacking Elvish Visionary, but the rest of the match was a blur. I don't think I drew into enough threats/answers relative to my opponent.
2-2
After this point, I talked with my opponent, and apparently he had a round two loss to my round one opponent, something about a Dark Favor on a flying creature. Though he seemed to be playing some sort of constructed deck prior to to the start of the event, he said that he rarely did much sealed.
I durdled around the store for a bit longer before officially dropping. The round four guy got into the top 8 with his kid, though my round 1 opponent had no such luck.
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
2 Duty-Bound Dead
2 Liliana's Shade
2 Tormented Soul
1 Bond Beetle
1 Centaur Courser
1 Primordial Hydra
1 Roaring Primadox
1 Silklash Spider
1 Timberpack Wolf
1 Yeva's Forcemage
2 Crippling Blight
1 Murder
1 Prey Upon
1 Titanic Growth
1 Ring of Kalonia
1 Ring of Xathrid
1 Staff of Nin
8 Forest
Went 3-1 winning against RG, UW, GB and losing to RB in the final round; 4th out of 27. I didn’t know what to expect from the deck so I was quite happy. My impressions:
The deck was capable of pretty aggressive starts. One game I dropped Tormented Soul turn one followed by two Duty-Bound Dead turn 2 to swing for unblockable 3 damage for the next rounds topped off with Yeva's Forcemage and Titanic growth.
The Rings were good, forcing early removal or just taking over the game. One game I had a 7/12 Silklash Spider with trample.
Staff of Nin is a bit expensive but great once it's online.
Prey Upon is great (Surprise!)
Roaring Primadox is my favourite card so far. Synergies with Liliana's Shade (if you're really desperate for land), Bloodhunter Bat, Forcemage and especially the Beetle are fantastic. Putting counter after counter on my unblockable exalted attacker was devastating.
Liliana's Shade was really good; fetches Swamps, gets big forcing unfavourable blocks, also good on defence. Very solid.
I liked Crippling Blight to kill small critters or just make them unblockable to push through some damage.
Overall, I really enjoyed the format; appears fairly balanced although I still think that green is probably strongest. Looking forward to drafting it.
114 wins
32 losses
7 draws
Not counting the draws, that's a 0.78 win rate. (I didn't include people who claimed to be undefeated but didn't state how many rounds they played.)
I guess you can color me skeptical (although observation bias may be a better explanation).
My curve was the best it had been all weekend (played 3 seals and 1 2HG) in sealed events. Key cards were 2 Pacifism, O-Ring, 2 Downpour, 2 Timber Wolf (relentless rats cousin), Clone and Thragtusk. Also had Serra Angel and Stormtide Levi, but neither landed in 4 matches.
Here's my thoughts on M13 now after 4 events:
-G/B is really good
-Red is not as bad as I thought
-W/B exalted is a real thing
-Blue is underwhelming, unless you get every good blue card
-Farseek DOES NOT search for Forests
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
Except the people who went 1-5 are far less likely to come and post about it. And knowing that MTGS even exists probably puts you in the top half of pre-release players.
GW seems pretty obvious, the only question is if you splash for Searing Spear. Looks like you can to that conclusion as well.
I think ultimately you are deep enough on playables to just run straight GW.
Here's what I would have run different from your second build:
2x War Falcon
1 Chronomaton (either as a 2/2 or 3/3)
1 Ring of Thune
This was my card pool.
Initially, I thought of making a black/green deck, to take advantage of the Vampire Nighthawk and Ring of Xathrid but I went with green/white to take advantage of Intrepid Hero and Yeva's Nature's Herald. I splashed a little red for Slumbering Dragon and giving the buff to Flinthoof Boar.
1 Arbor Elf
1 Duskdale Wurm
2 Vastwood Gorger
2 Spiked Baloth
2 Centaur Courser
1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
1 Ranger's Path
1 Farseeker
1 Titanic Growth
2 Ajani's Sunstriker
1 Intrepid Hero
1 Prized Elephant
1 Warclamp Mastiff
1 Aven Squire
1 Warpriest of Thune
1 Divine Favor
1 Angelic Benediction
1 Pacifism
1 Ring of Kalonia
Lands:
7 Forest
7 Plains
1 Rootbound Crag
2 Mountains
First match (2-1): Opponent played B/R/U with a Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. I went 2-1, only losing when my opponent stalled the game out long enough to get enough mana to play Nicol Bolas.
Second match (2-0): Opponent played B/R/G with a Primordial Hydra. I got Intrepid Hero on the second game, and was able to kill off one of his creatures he put a Ring of Kalonia on.
Third match (0-2): Opponent played U/W with Ajani, Caller of the Pride[/CARD]. I got screwed with my draws and had to mulligan twice on both the first game and the second game. I played my Slumbering Dragon both times, but it didn't matter. The first game, she Unsummon on my Slumbering Dragon as it got its fourth counter, and ended up killing me with lots of flyers. The second game, she got Ajani out third turn (ugh). She stalled me with various high toughness creatures, then killed me with the ultimate.
Fourth match (2-0): Opponent played R/G/W. I steamrolled the guy pretty fast. In the second game, my opponent was down to 12. I had a Prized Elephant, Yeva, Nature's Herald and Spiked Baloth in play. He had an Arms Dealer and a Krenko's Command token out. He blocked my Yeva with the token, then sacrificed the token to deal 4 damage to my Prized Elephant. I responded by tapping two and playing Titanic Growth on my Prized Elephant, dealing 12 damage to him. I thought that was a good play.
In the end, I got finished 9th out of 58 people, and got five booster packs. So I was pretty happy for my first sealed tournament.
You expecting casuals or 10 year olds to come discuss prerelease and how 3 Vastwood Gorgers failed to make them go better than 1-3?
I wasn't around for the olden days of Magic when Rancor was originally printed. You know what I learned? Rancor + creatures = good. I drew one when I had a Goblin Arsonist on the board... thought "bahaha, Arsonist with Rancor... how silly." Then I realized that it was Rancor, and Rancor rules.
Soon after, Arsonist found himself Rancor'ed... and eventually, Encrusted.
To summarize, Rancor, Rancor, and oh yeah... Rancor.
I don't see what there is to be skeptical about. Obviously, the more skilled players who do better in these tournaments are more likely to brag about their accomplishments, while the people who go 0-X aren't as likely to want to talk about that on a public forum. I know a bunch of the people at my LGS either don't know what Salvation is, or else they see Magic forums as something for people who are too serious about the game. In the end, this thread's going to skew more towards people who placed highly in a bunch of independent tournaments, rather than collecting the results from one big one, which would give a much more balanced record.
1x Duty-Bound Dead
1x Arbor Elf
1x Ravenous Rats
1x Flinthoof Boar
2x Servant of Nefarox
1x Duskmantle Prowler
1x Spiked Baloth
1x Veilborn Ghoul
1x Thragtusk
1x Acidic Slime
1x Zombie Goliath
2x Vastwood Gorger
1x Ring of Xathrid
Sorcery
1x Duress
1x Prey Upon
1x Sign in Blood
1x Rise from the Grave
1x Predatory Rampage
Instant
3x Murder
Lands
10x Swamp
7x Forest
1x Stuffy Doll
Two cards which surprised me how good they were were Ring of Xathrid and Veilborn Ghoul. Being able to make any of your creatures have regenerate is an amazingly powerful ability which makes for some pretty questionable attacks being completely okay. The card putting counters on black creatures in addition just seems unfair! And, though it can be pretty useless on a losing board, not many cards can close the gap to victory against a removal heavy deck like Veilborn Ghoul. It turns a flood into a damage fest.
Also: I can't believe how bad Thragtusk's art is. "Oh right, you get another creature? Let's just draw another one on the side, yeah that looks good!"
In the interests of balance, I also took three children to the pre-release. Their records:
2-4
2-1-3
3-3.
They do not have mtgs accounts however.
Day 1 I went 5-0-2 into the Top 8 and then won my first match and lost in the semi-finals.
I had an absolutely ridiculous pull with Jace, Void Stalker, Serra Avenger, Trading Post, and Staff of Nin and my self-proclaimed UW Goat Control was pretty much unstoppable until I lost a close game 1 to a really aggressive GW deck and then stalled on two mana game 2.
Day 2 my pool was good but not as insane and I went 3-2 running UBw missing the top 8.
UW Control :symu::symw:
UWr Control :symu::symw::symr:
My rares were Staff of Nin, Krenko, Mob Boss, Xathrid Gorgon, Clone, Intrepid Hero, and Battle of Wits.
Not very inspiring.
But I did pull two Murders, two Tormented Souls, a Dark Favor, a Vampire Nighthawk, and a Mark of the Vampire. So I combined that with my two Searing Spears, Krenko and my seven miscellaneous goblins and gave it a go.
I swept my first match against GW aggro by simply outracing him, though I was amused and impressed in game two when he used a Yeva's forcemage to pump up my Krenko so that he could kill it with Intrepid Hero.
Later I was paired against a friend of mine who had drawn a pool strong enough to go almost mono-green (he had a white splash for pacifism and oblivion ring). In one game he absolutely devastated me by bouncing Acidic Slime repeatedly with Roaring Primadox and taking out all my mountains.
In another game against him, I got him down to one life before he got Garruk humming. I had Xathrid gorgon out so each turn he was pumping out a beast statue and I didn't have anyway to get through because I wasn't drawing my fliers or my burn spells. Finally, I drew Goblin Arsonist on the exact turn that Garruk was ready to go ultimate. I played the arsonist, he put 9 6/6 Wurms into play, and then I swung with Arsonist for the win... Except that he had Safe Passage.
My other lost match was against a guy with a really unreasonably (almost suspiciously, but he seemed like a nice guy, so probably not?) good pool. He had three Bladetusk Boars, two Dragon Hatchlings, a Firewing Phoenix, a Magmaquake, two Volcanic Geysers, three pacifisms and an oblivion ring.
I crushed him game one on the back of turn one Tormented Soul, turn two Dark Favor, turn three Vampire Nighthawk.
Game two went almost thirty turns because I had Xathrid Gorgon online and kept turning all of his guys into walls, but then didn't have any way to punch through. In general, my experience was that Xathrid Gorgon is really unfun in Limited. It just puts games into topdeck mode. Eventually he drew one of his Volcanic Geysers and was able to burn me for my last eight life because we both had a billion lnad in play by that point.
Then, in game three, I decided that I should side in a Gem of Becoming, two Evolving Wilds, a Clone, an Unsummon, a Negate, and three Essence Scatters to help me deal with his relentless army of boars and hatchlings. It was a good plan, except that I forgot to side in any islands...