I went 3-1 at my prerelease with Gruul box and a splash of white. I ended up going 2-0 with everyone I played with except for the person who beat me since I flooded game 1 and drew only 2 creatures game 2. A lot of my games were decided because I played against two Orzhov decks the first two matches and Gruul Charm is just brutal for them. Making all their ground dudes not block and killing all their flyers is too epic. My pulls were medicore at best with Sacred Foundry and Clan Defiance being the only ones I could even play.
Our local tournament had 79 players... so 7 rounds. Boros and Orzhov seemed to be the two guilds to beat. 1st place was Boros splashing Orzhov, second was Gruul, third was a sick Dimir build.
I went 5-2 with a weak Simic pool, placing 8th. Pulled Skarrg Goliath, Sylvan Primordial and Simic Manipulator, but had very few evolve creatures. The simic guildmage and the promo were my all-stars when they were able to survive a turn.
Round 1: Boros. Got steamrolled by a perfect curve both games. 1 drop, 2 drop, Frontline Medic. Both games.
0-2
Round 2: Bye. Lucky me. I said if I lost again I'd drop and draft.
Round 3: ... someone was playing approximately a 70 card, 5 color Dimir deck. Easy win.
2-0
Round 4: Boros, again. This guy didn't know how to pilot it, but it was still close thanks to Foundry Champion.
2-0
Round 5: Orzhov. Opponent had a ridiculous deck, but no desire to play anymore. He scooped game one with board position over me... and game two at 12 life when I had little on the board.
2-0
Round 6: Boros. Again. This one was close. Simic Manipulator won me both games, stealing his fliers. I won at 4 and 2 life, respectively.
2-0
Round 7. Orzhov. This deck was insane. 11 extort cards, 4 beckoning apparitions, 3 smite. The deck was so insane that he smited his own creatures on the attack in order to extort... for 4 or 5. I had a 6 power unblockable creature, starting on turn 4. He finished the game at 17 life. Ugh.
0-2
Out of my rares, I only ran Rubblehulk, Assemble the Legion, and Biomass Mutation. Biovisionary didn't call me to splashing blue at all because...well, it's Limited. Ogre Slumlord and Treasury Thrull weren't bad, but my black wasn't great at all, nor were my Orzhov golds...
As far as in color, I got ONE Gruul Guildgate, ONE Gruul Charm, and ONE Gruul Keyrune. No other charms in ANY color, only guildmage I got was Orzhov's. I got ONE Smite, zero Pit Fights, Zero Skullcracks or Muggings. Just an overall bad pool.
Second guy I was playing I'm fairly sure was cheating with his group of friends. He was playing Gruul (I saw the promo both times...I guess that's what happens when his pre-match shuffle only consists of a single, three-pile shuffle,) but somehow had TWO Fathom Mages (neither was the promo obviously, or that'd be a CLEAR sign,) and THREE Ground Assaults. His pool seemed fishy for sure, but I didn't have anything concrete.
Oh well...RTR went well, GTC didn't. I'm just glad we have the rest of the guilds.
I went Orzhov for a $15 win a round, win a pack pre, and ended up going 3-1. (can't argue with 9 packs for $15). Had Obzedat and Merciless eviction, and great removal and extort.
For the 64-person swiss, went Orzhov again and ended splitting the top 2. ANOTHER Obzedat, Luminate Primordial, Boros Reckoner, and Lord of the Void. Plus 7 kill spells. It was wonderful.
Seemed to me like some guilds have better matchups against others; Orzhov is good against Boros, punishes anything that stumbles on mana, and has a fair matchup against Simic. I didn't play dimir, so I'm not sure about that one, and Gruul was tough but doable. The mirror is also very skill-intensive, which was a lot of fun.
Best part of the night? Got a foil Skullcrack:D
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Stop wasting your time here and come to a forum that actually fosters intelligent discussion: Fires Rf Salvation
My prerelease experience was all over the map, but I think that overall it rated VERY highly.
It started off on a sour note when I was unable to play Simic because the store ran out of Simic Guild packs (I was rather upset at the lack of promo Fathom Mage), so I was forced to go Dimir. I opened my packs and ended up with a very strange pool. I pulled Domri Rade and Godless Shrine, so there was my prerelease payed for right there, but as for building a deck, it was quite odd. I had plenty of cards in Dimir colors, but somehow I couldn't build a consistent strategy. I played the first match with an Esper deck which was part aggro, part mill, part control. It was not up to par, and I was 0-2 at the first match.
So between the first two matches, I looked at my pool again and determined that I would have a MUCH more solid strategy if I went for a Naya aggro build. So after checking to see if there were no rules against it, I completely changed my deck, with five matches left to play.
I did MUCH better, actually winning games. Granted, I still lost the next two matches I played, but I lost them at 1-2. The fourth match was a draw, but if we had been allowed to keep the last game going one more turn I would have won it 2-1 (that was easily the most frustrating part of the night). Match five I won 2-0. Match six I got a bye (lame). So I ended up with a record of 1-3 at the prerelease.
The cards that I would say helped the most were a pair of Skyknight Legionnaires, Syndic of Tithes, Gift of Orzhova, Sunhome Guildmage, and, most strangely, Primal Visitation. Skyknight was rarely getting blocked (especially if I had ways to pump him), Syndic's Extort was a lifesaver more than once, Gift of Orzhova was beastly if I put it on something like Ruination Wurm, and Primal Visitation on a Legionnaire was absolutely brutal.
Even though I lost more than I won, it was a fun prerelease all around! Oh, and I was able to get someone to trade me for their promo Fathom Mage, so the only thing I really missed out on with the Simic experience was actually playing an Evolve deck (which I will certainly be doing with my buddies as soon as the set is released and I can get my hands on the Simic precon!). And I also traded for Master Biomancer and Thespian's Stage, the first I wanted for a casual Simic deck and the second I wanted for sentimental reasons.
All in all, I rate this prerelease as a good one, even with the negative parts of the experience!
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Someday, I will own all of the dragons. All of them. 43/111, approximately 39% complete. Over a third done.
(calling it now; there will be a cycle of Legendary dual lands with Basic Land types in Theros block)
... AAAAAAAAND I was wrong
First time around I got Dimir (played Esper). Lost first round to the nuts (2 Aurelia, Assemble the Legion, 2 Firemane. I mean, c'mon). Second round I played a guy who was very new to the game. First game I stomped him, but he dropped like 3 counters, so I was well aware of them for game 2. I, for some reason, had been having a serious problem with mana screw the whole day (including FNM. My decks were built perfectly fine, it was just one of those days), so I put in 18 lands. Drew 4 in my opening hand. Figured it was a blessing and kept. I played mindgrind earlier than I wanted, for 4, because he was tapped out at the time. We exchanged removal here and there and I milled him for a bit. During this time, I proceeded to draw lands consecutively, and ended up with THIRTEEN of my eighteen lands. Thankfully this player didn't seem to understand alpha striking terribly well, and failed to put pressure on me. I got an Undercity Informer on the field and proceeded to rip into guys to play, block his 3454303/3454303 Consuming Aberration, and sac to mill for a land. He's left with 7 cards in his deck and I'm about to lose. Draw a creature. Cast the creature. Pay, sac, mill. Guy has 4 cards left in deck. Have informer sac himself. The guy's last land is the last card in his deck. I win the match. Best. Win. Ever.
Second time around I got Boros and played Naya. So dumb. So so dumb. lol Stomped all the way to the top. Dimir was more fun, imo, but I figured I should probably make up for the night before. ^^"
It's a one mana protection from multicolored enchant, not a creature. I saw seven played against me and I was able to remove them in every instance I needed to.
I saw a friend of mine use agoraphobia, but I did not play against him. I saw artifacts and enchantments in nearly every game. two mana removal is good, especially when you lack effective creature kill and rely on counters...
My competition may have been sparse, yes, but it was a midnight prerelease, so they had all the excuses in the world for playing poorly. I did go 5-0, with my matches as follows: 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0.
If my decklist doesn't look all that great, perhaps the consistency of its performance says something. Oftentimes the local meta requires some different choices. In any event, I'm glad to say that Simic can win rather handily. I'm looking forward to trying out Boros Sunday, to get the guild letter and box.
Sorry, I meant giving a creature pro multicolor with an aura isn't worth a card. The fact that you saw 7 speaks wonders. The card is utterly unplayable.
Went 4-1-1 as Orzhov, ID'ing into the last round with a friend to guarantee neither of us went lower than 6th place. My only real loss was against a Dimir deck, and even that was very close, going into turns on game 3. Turns out Lazav as a copy of Wight of Precint Six with Wings of Orzhova can't be beaten with four Extorters.
I did open well; foil Blind Obedience (Anyone else notice that foils are behind the rare now instead of at the very back of packs?) and a Domri Rade, for pure value. And as it turns out 3x Kingpin's Pet and 3x Syndic of the Tithes with a Basilica Screecher is good. Didn't open Knight of Obligation or Basilica Guards like I had hoped though, so splashed red for two Act of Treason.
I definitely like the format, but I swear I don't ever want to get into another Extort war again. Getting a guy down to 2 four times and taking up three columns of my life pad before finally killing him was annoying. We nearly went to time on that one.
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Sigpic by me, 'Angel of Despair' by Todd Lockwood, 'Kaalia of the Vast' by Michael Komarck, 'Defiler of Souls' by Paul Bonner
So being on the west coast, most of my fellow grinders had already heard stories about which guilds to pick for the midnight release. Unfortunatly for us, we had about 1.5 times as many people as we did for the RTR release (95-ish people) so we were assigned guilds randomly and were given a few minutes to trade with other people for the guild of our choice.
I got dimir and it player to a nice 4-1 finish. In fact we had showings of all the new guilds in the x-1 bracket before top eight, including 1 selesnya deck (green beats with extort back up). But there was only 1 guild in our x-0, boros.
With only 2 undefeated people both being boros I basically realized that it was a nightmare playing against them. The guy I played first round of the top eight just CRUSHED me with his fat people boros. It wasn't even hyper aggro or anything, but he had 2 foundry champions and the red primordial along side many of the 4/4 W:vigi guys.
All in all, mvp of the night was Madcap Skills. A card I splashed for. It did everything you wanted to everyone you wanted to do it to. At worst it was a Volcanic Hammer to the dome, but most of the time it jsut killed them.
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When does lightning bolt kill Emrakul? When your opponent's at three.
At my prerelease last night I went Simic and got a pretty decent pool with Master Biomancer, a splash for Domri Rade, and multiples of evade creatures and some decent evolve creatures. First two rounds I got to play against Dimir Mill and got stomped. All for games featured multiple copies of the mill counterspell and both players landed Consuming Aberration in 3 out 4 games. After those first two rounds, I managed to start winning and doing it in a fun way(ie. Stolen Identity on a Master Biomancer).
One thing did happen that drove me crazy, and that was how someone incorrectly informed nearly everyone at the event that you DON'T get the other effects of a card with Cipher if you exile it with that ability and told them it was because the card won't resolve since Cipher exiles the card if you want it to. I had to sit there for a good 10 minutes for someone to figure out that you get the effects above the Cipher ability.
Highlight of my pre-release was turn 4 Act of Treason his 3/1 and smash with it and my Slaughterhorn. Turn 5 with him tapped out, I attack with Slaughterhorn, bloodrush with the 5/4 swine giving him +5/+4, then double strike with Boros Charm for 16 damage. Bloodrush led to some silly plays.
I picked Orzhov and got 3rd overall (went 4-1). I Opened no real bombs (best card other than the promo thrull was Merciless Eviction), and played boros every round except for one (two splashed green for Gruul). My commons were awesome in Orzhov, but I didn't really have enough playables in any other colors to splash. The guy that beat me (and got 1st) also went Orzhov but opened another Thrull, Obzedat, and Assemble the Legion, which seems unbeatable if it gets going (I had no enchant removal in my pool).
Boros was usually pretty fast, but 1/4s stop them dead unless they get a lot of fliers. MadSkills seemed to be doing a lot of damage to everyone around me and probably stole the most games out of anything.
The 1 mana regenerating thrull was an all star, since I never ran into trample.
At my prerelease, only 1 player went Gruul, most choosing Orzhov of Simic.
1st went to an Orzhov player, I tied second with Simic (4-1) against Boros and Dimir took 4th Place. Biomass Mutation won me quite a few games.
Midnight prerelease went gruul, pulled 3 mythics wenr 2-3. Saturday at noon (didnt go to sleep between) went boros, two mythics. Went 3-2. If you went 3-2 or better your prize was another guildpact. Picked orzho and pulled 3 mythics one was foil aurrilea. Traded in foil for another guildbox and two pacts. One of the pacts had the orzho guildmaster. The guildpact had three more mythics. Can you say luckyyyy.
I went 0-1-5 for my worst prerelease (or even tournament) record ever.
Boros was the guild I choose, but unlike the other Boros players (#2, #6, #9 at least) I did not have enough playables. By far.
From my guild booster came the only on color rares/mythics (I had the Assemble the Legion pack). I opened an Obzedat and a Zegana. In green I had a total of 8 creatures, only 5 of which were playable. Even less in the other non-white/non-red.
White/Red was ok, but no 1 drops and no 3 drops and 17 creatures (of which only 13 playables). So getting Battallion would probably almost never happen, which made all the guys pretty sucky.
I ended up playing Boros for the first 2 matches anyway, and wound up being horribly slaughtered by another Boros deck (featuring Frontline Medic in both games with small support and him having removal as well, he ended up 6th) and an Orzhov deck (beating me up and when I stabilized extorting for the win). So my initial thoughts were correct, I couldn't play Boros with my pool. But everything else was pretty shakey too.
I switched to Esper so I could play Obzedat and counters.
I had a bit more fun, but in 2 games had to mull to 6 (and mull to 5 is not an option if your average card quality is 'suck'), and in no less than 5 games I ended up drawing more land than spells (and that means like 10 land, 5 spells. One game, I kept a hand of Plains, Island, Swamp, Obzedat, Angelic Edict, and 2 other spells I don't remember. In the following 9 turns I drew 7 islands(!?!?!?!?!) 1 Swamp(!) and Agoraphobia. That was it. 9 turns of nothing.)
The overall impression I got from other people was that some people opened ridicuously and some got the very end of the shaft. Example of ridiculous: the #1 was Gruul and ended up playing Boros with a splash of green. He played 8 rares/mythics. Yes, 6 from boosters, the promo AND a foil rare (Firemane Avenger, Frontline Medic, Boros Reckoner, the gruul fightbeast, the gruul promo, 2 WR shocks and forgot the others)!!!
Not a lot of the normal pros (and I count myself around them, as I nearly always finish in top 6 for Prereleases) were not in the prize area.
Overall pretty disappointing for me.
Simic also did pretty disappointing in the tournament (which was actually my first choice, but they were out).
Midnight Prerelease
Go with my gut instinct for power Boros; am not disappointed one bit. Opened Legion Loyalist in my guild pack and Wrecking Ogre is my only other R/W rare. I'm not even mad because in place of rares I have an endless supply of 2 and 3 drops, we're talking 3 Halberdiers, 2 Ember Beasts, 3 Court street denizens, 2 Skinbrand Goblins. That's not everything that lands in my 2-3 drops, because I also get sweet removal. 2 Mugging, 2 Massive Raid, 1 Angelic Edict, 2 Arrows of Justice. I was very unsure of Madcap Skills but I ran 2 of them and while sometimes opening myself up to be 2-1'd I'll admit they punched through good amounts of damage while they lasted. I finished off my curve with the Foundry Champion, the Wrecking Ogre, Assault Griffon, that's all I remember for sure from that deck.
Result 5-0-1 (Split in finals because everyone in top 4 has the same type of Boros deck and I'm not confidant vs the guy I would be playing so hedge my bets and make a medium payout)
1st/2nd place +30 packs
Early morning flight
I was torn on which guild to pick, I'm a huge fan of Orzhov and Dimir guilds. Having seen the power of Boros in this style of sealed, I had to go with Boros again and I wasn't disappointed. Same type of deck with just a few different cards, still had 2 halberdiers (This guy is INSANE in how many games he put away), this time around however I landed 2 hellraiser goblins, and 2 skyknight legionnaire, and a frontline medic. Frontline medic was such a powerhouse and it seemed like people rarely had the removal soon enough to save themselves. I did get 1 madcap skills and it had done alright by me in the first one so I ran it and I'm not quite ready to preach the second coming of it but it's pretty powerful in limited.
Result 5-1
2nd Place +20 Packs
Boros seemed to be overpowered when your guaranteed 2 on color rares, guild gate, and the rest of 1 pack to be on color, +5 other packs to build a deck with.
8 Extort creatures on a stupidly low curve and evasion up the wazoo let me outrace pretty decent Boros and Gruul aggro decks, plus a lightning-quick Dimir mill deck. Activating both of Vizkopa Guildmage's abilities is quite juicy.
3rd round in particular was good, with triple flying extortionists triggering off of consecutive casts of Devour Flesh, which in turn made my opponent unable to get any Cipher shenanigans going.
Closest calls I had both came from Boros decks. One guy sideboarded out red for black. He dropped a Balustrade Spy on me, nullifying all my evasion. A timely Angelic Edict (double Extort) allowed me to swing in with 3 attackers for the win.
The other close call revolved around my own Balustrade Spy - the opponent got me down to 1 life but couldn't finish me off thanks to Extort. I was grinding him down, but couldn't do it at a comfortable pace. I drop my Spy and end up milling what would have been a game-winning (for him) Molten Primordial.
Didn't get much in terms of money cards, save for a Breeding Pool and a Stomping Ground. Hoping Crypt Ghast will rise in value; I cracked a foil one in a prize pack.
Got 4th out of 40ish as Orzhov splash Red for Foundry Champion, two removal spells and Madcap Skills (which is basically Pursuit of Flight without the color commitment for the evasion).
My matches weren't particularly unique for Orzhov, so I'll just relate an amusing play. My opponent Devour Flesh'd his 3/3 Syndic of Tithes with a One Thousand Lashes and an Ogre Slumlord on his field, and extorted it twice. In doing so, he:
Gained 5 life.
Made his opponent lose 2 life.
Put a 1/1 Rat with Deathtouch on the field.
Prevented a point of damage a turn.
He lost (wee Guildmage), but that struck me as quite possibly the most Orzhov-y play in the prerelease. The Church would have been proud.
Took 1st out of 70 playing as Orzhov splashed just a tad of blue. I really had nothing stellar just got an amazing pool of low casting cost creatures with extort. Oh yeah I guess the two Immortal Servitude were nice.
Most fun I had with that card was in game 3 of the final round. Playing VS a Dimir mill deck. I had gotten a Servitude in my starting hand and just kept sitting on it. He mills me again I do a quick count and see that I have 6 3CMC creatures in the yard.
He passes the turn I Servitude for 3 and he just puts his head down.
Felt so good to get an instant army 3 of which had extort. Only took 2 turns from there to take over and win.
Going 4-0 with what was my LGS's largest event turnout ever was pretty sweet.
I don't have any amazing prerelease stories except it feels good to have a 13/13 Consuming Aberration beating face for Dimir in most of my matches.
Would have went 4-0 if this guy didn't get the magical Christmas draw leading into a kingpins whatever followed by madcap skills... Dimir Charm came too late to kill it from the stupid enchantment boosting its power.
Played my morning flight and went 2-2 drop in a 6 round flight of 50+ folks. Played Simic which was very fun. Had no real bombs, but splashed red for an Arrows of Justice, Wrecking Ogre, Ghor-Clan Rampager which went well with 2x Simic Fluxmages (which are insane with the right mana curve). Had a singleton Cloudfin Raptor, who is gross on T1 into T2 Frilled Oculus and T3 Drakewing Krasis, which I was able to do 4 times due to doubles of both those guys. Aggresive Simic is nigh unstoppable unless you are in heavy early removal in Orzhov. Both losses came to hyper aggressive Boros decks featuring Wojek Halbardiers and other aggresive Battalion cards. Hold the Gates is the perfect complement to a dedicated Boros deck with 2+ gates. The toughness boost and vigilience allows them to trigger Battalion while still being able to block.
I got a really weird pool in my Dimir box-
2 decent Mythics (Master Biomancer, Duskmantle Seer),
and rares that were almost all in BUG.
The Commons and Uncommons were decent, but not deep enough for a solid 2-color deck,
so I built a janky BUG deck with evasive evolvers, a bit of cipher, and a bunch of counters/removal.
The deck was okay, but had plenty of weaknesses, so I mostly just made "fun" plays. Duskmantle Seer was in my opening hand (or drawn by t4) almost every single game.
While I've knocked SuperBob for not being as awesome as some people think, I will say this-
He makes games *incredibly* tense, and fun, so long as you don't mind him occasionally killing you
Oddly enough, the only game he lost for me wasn't from life loss-
I was against another Dimir player, with an army big enough to go in for the kill next round.
He knows it, so he casts a "Hail Mary" Mind Grind for a lot,
which just so happened to mill me down to a *single* card in my deck.
I untap, Superbob fails to kill my opponent by ONE POINT,
then kills me as I deck myself with my draw
So, while I still feel he's just as unreliable as I always did,
I can't deny he's anything short of EPIC in terms of cranking up the tension in a match
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
Here's the closest game I ever played. My opponent and I were tied at one game a piece and on turn 2 out of 5 before the match is declared a draw due to time restraints. I was at 4 life, and my opponent was at 7.
On my turn (turn 3), I top deck my foil Aetherize, and I decide to recast my Leyline Phantom leaving just enough lands open in case he attacks.
On his turn (turn 4), he doesn't cast any more spells and proceeds to swing in with all his dudes. I cast Aetherize sending all his dudes back to his hand. He recasts all of his dudes instead of Foundry Champion, and passes the turn to me.
On turn 5, I cast Prime Speaker Zegana for 5 counters drawing me 6 cards but it was still not enough to win as he chump blocked all my dudes. The game ended in a draw.
After the game, I told him he could have killed me just by casting Foundry Champion. And he proceeded to laugh and shake his head. His friends were saying the same thing, saying that he could have won by not casting Foundry Champion, but he could have lost as well if he decided to cast any spells before attacking into my Aetherize.
I went 5-2 with a weak Simic pool, placing 8th. Pulled Skarrg Goliath, Sylvan Primordial and Simic Manipulator, but had very few evolve creatures. The simic guildmage and the promo were my all-stars when they were able to survive a turn.
Round 1: Boros. Got steamrolled by a perfect curve both games. 1 drop, 2 drop, Frontline Medic. Both games.
0-2
Round 2: Bye. Lucky me. I said if I lost again I'd drop and draft.
Round 3: ... someone was playing approximately a 70 card, 5 color Dimir deck. Easy win.
2-0
Round 4: Boros, again. This guy didn't know how to pilot it, but it was still close thanks to Foundry Champion.
2-0
Round 5: Orzhov. Opponent had a ridiculous deck, but no desire to play anymore. He scooped game one with board position over me... and game two at 12 life when I had little on the board.
2-0
Round 6: Boros. Again. This one was close. Simic Manipulator won me both games, stealing his fliers. I won at 4 and 2 life, respectively.
2-0
Round 7. Orzhov. This deck was insane. 11 extort cards, 4 beckoning apparitions, 3 smite. The deck was so insane that he smited his own creatures on the attack in order to extort... for 4 or 5. I had a 6 power unblockable creature, starting on turn 4. He finished the game at 17 life. Ugh.
0-2
For once I'm happy that I didn't drop out early
I went Gruul, and other than the promo, my rares were Signal the Clans, Treasury Thrull, Biovisionary, Assemble the Legion, Biomass Mutation, and Ogre Slumlord. I decided to go Naya, because the supporting pool looked best there, and it was pretty bad.
Out of my rares, I only ran Rubblehulk, Assemble the Legion, and Biomass Mutation. Biovisionary didn't call me to splashing blue at all because...well, it's Limited. Ogre Slumlord and Treasury Thrull weren't bad, but my black wasn't great at all, nor were my Orzhov golds...
As far as in color, I got ONE Gruul Guildgate, ONE Gruul Charm, and ONE Gruul Keyrune. No other charms in ANY color, only guildmage I got was Orzhov's. I got ONE Smite, zero Pit Fights, Zero Skullcracks or Muggings. Just an overall bad pool.
Second guy I was playing I'm fairly sure was cheating with his group of friends. He was playing Gruul (I saw the promo both times...I guess that's what happens when his pre-match shuffle only consists of a single, three-pile shuffle,) but somehow had TWO Fathom Mages (neither was the promo obviously, or that'd be a CLEAR sign,) and THREE Ground Assaults. His pool seemed fishy for sure, but I didn't have anything concrete.
Oh well...RTR went well, GTC didn't. I'm just glad we have the rest of the guilds.
For the 64-person swiss, went Orzhov again and ended splitting the top 2. ANOTHER Obzedat, Luminate Primordial, Boros Reckoner, and Lord of the Void. Plus 7 kill spells. It was wonderful.
Seemed to me like some guilds have better matchups against others; Orzhov is good against Boros, punishes anything that stumbles on mana, and has a fair matchup against Simic. I didn't play dimir, so I'm not sure about that one, and Gruul was tough but doable. The mirror is also very skill-intensive, which was a lot of fun.
Best part of the night? Got a foil Skullcrack:D
It started off on a sour note when I was unable to play Simic because the store ran out of Simic Guild packs (I was rather upset at the lack of promo Fathom Mage), so I was forced to go Dimir. I opened my packs and ended up with a very strange pool. I pulled Domri Rade and Godless Shrine, so there was my prerelease payed for right there, but as for building a deck, it was quite odd. I had plenty of cards in Dimir colors, but somehow I couldn't build a consistent strategy. I played the first match with an Esper deck which was part aggro, part mill, part control. It was not up to par, and I was 0-2 at the first match.
So between the first two matches, I looked at my pool again and determined that I would have a MUCH more solid strategy if I went for a Naya aggro build. So after checking to see if there were no rules against it, I completely changed my deck, with five matches left to play.
I did MUCH better, actually winning games. Granted, I still lost the next two matches I played, but I lost them at 1-2. The fourth match was a draw, but if we had been allowed to keep the last game going one more turn I would have won it 2-1 (that was easily the most frustrating part of the night). Match five I won 2-0. Match six I got a bye (lame). So I ended up with a record of 1-3 at the prerelease.
The cards that I would say helped the most were a pair of Skyknight Legionnaires, Syndic of Tithes, Gift of Orzhova, Sunhome Guildmage, and, most strangely, Primal Visitation. Skyknight was rarely getting blocked (especially if I had ways to pump him), Syndic's Extort was a lifesaver more than once, Gift of Orzhova was beastly if I put it on something like Ruination Wurm, and Primal Visitation on a Legionnaire was absolutely brutal.
Even though I lost more than I won, it was a fun prerelease all around! Oh, and I was able to get someone to trade me for their promo Fathom Mage, so the only thing I really missed out on with the Simic experience was actually playing an Evolve deck (which I will certainly be doing with my buddies as soon as the set is released and I can get my hands on the Simic precon!). And I also traded for Master Biomancer and Thespian's Stage, the first I wanted for a casual Simic deck and the second I wanted for sentimental reasons.
All in all, I rate this prerelease as a good one, even with the negative parts of the experience!
43/111, approximately 39% complete. Over a third done.
(calling it now; there will be a cycle of Legendary dual lands with Basic Land types in Theros block)
... AAAAAAAAND I was wrong
The Attention Deficit Guy URGU
Second time around I got Boros and played Naya. So dumb. So so dumb. lol Stomped all the way to the top. Dimir was more fun, imo, but I figured I should probably make up for the night before. ^^"
Sorry, I meant giving a creature pro multicolor with an aura isn't worth a card. The fact that you saw 7 speaks wonders. The card is utterly unplayable.
2 Bomber Corps
3 Daring Skyjek
2 Boros Elite
2 Wojek Halberdiers
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
2 Sunhome Guildmage
2 Warmind Infantry
2 Skinbrand Goblin
2 Mugging
2 Massive Raid
2 Martial Glory
1 Angelic Edict
Lands (15)
3 Boros Guildgate
6 Plains
6 Mountain
Didn't get even a single boros playable rare.
1st round:
Against pure gruul. Which I feared most was Bloodrush beasts like Zhur-Taa Swine or Scorchwalker, but eventually I won both matches 2-0.
2nd round:
Against a bro. Had a really cool esper reanimator deck with 2 Immortal Servitude and black and blue primordials, he would stall you out with things like Basilica Guards, Basilica Screecher, dump his own cards with Paranoid Delusions + Deathcult Rogue and Undercity Informer, then reanimate one or both of his primordials. Unfortunately for him, my deck was too fast for that and I won 2-0
3rd round:
Another bro. Had an esper milling deck. Second match he casted Lazav, then Consuming Aberration, which spelt the doom for me there. 2-1
4th round:
Against another boros. First and third match he casted Aurelia and won, so I lost here 2-1.
5th round:
Orzhov based, boros splashed RWB deck. He would extort me all the time while casting Boros weenies for the win. Won 2-1
Also I opened a foil Watery Grave and a Duskmantle Seer in the same booster, aside from other nice things.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
I did open well; foil Blind Obedience (Anyone else notice that foils are behind the rare now instead of at the very back of packs?) and a Domri Rade, for pure value. And as it turns out 3x Kingpin's Pet and 3x Syndic of the Tithes with a Basilica Screecher is good. Didn't open Knight of Obligation or Basilica Guards like I had hoped though, so splashed red for two Act of Treason.
I definitely like the format, but I swear I don't ever want to get into another Extort war again. Getting a guy down to 2 four times and taking up three columns of my life pad before finally killing him was annoying. We nearly went to time on that one.
Sigpic by me, 'Angel of Despair' by Todd Lockwood, 'Kaalia of the Vast' by Michael Komarck, 'Defiler of Souls' by Paul Bonner
Should Blue Be Banned?
- U/W/r Control
MODERN
- N/A
LEGACY
- LED-less Dredge
I collect Phyrexian Ragers! (currently 41 nonfoils, 0 foils)
I got dimir and it player to a nice 4-1 finish. In fact we had showings of all the new guilds in the x-1 bracket before top eight, including 1 selesnya deck (green beats with extort back up). But there was only 1 guild in our x-0, boros.
With only 2 undefeated people both being boros I basically realized that it was a nightmare playing against them. The guy I played first round of the top eight just CRUSHED me with his fat people boros. It wasn't even hyper aggro or anything, but he had 2 foundry champions and the red primordial along side many of the 4/4 W:vigi guys.
All in all, mvp of the night was Madcap Skills. A card I splashed for. It did everything you wanted to everyone you wanted to do it to. At worst it was a Volcanic Hammer to the dome, but most of the time it jsut killed them.
One thing did happen that drove me crazy, and that was how someone incorrectly informed nearly everyone at the event that you DON'T get the other effects of a card with Cipher if you exile it with that ability and told them it was because the card won't resolve since Cipher exiles the card if you want it to. I had to sit there for a good 10 minutes for someone to figure out that you get the effects above the Cipher ability.
:symu::symr::symg: Maelstrom Wanderer
Boros was usually pretty fast, but 1/4s stop them dead unless they get a lot of fliers. MadSkills seemed to be doing a lot of damage to everyone around me and probably stole the most games out of anything.
The 1 mana regenerating thrull was an all star, since I never ran into trample.
1st went to an Orzhov player, I tied second with Simic (4-1) against Boros and Dimir took 4th Place. Biomass Mutation won me quite a few games.
Boros was the guild I choose, but unlike the other Boros players (#2, #6, #9 at least) I did not have enough playables. By far.
From my guild booster came the only on color rares/mythics (I had the Assemble the Legion pack). I opened an Obzedat and a Zegana. In green I had a total of 8 creatures, only 5 of which were playable. Even less in the other non-white/non-red.
White/Red was ok, but no 1 drops and no 3 drops and 17 creatures (of which only 13 playables). So getting Battallion would probably almost never happen, which made all the guys pretty sucky.
I ended up playing Boros for the first 2 matches anyway, and wound up being horribly slaughtered by another Boros deck (featuring Frontline Medic in both games with small support and him having removal as well, he ended up 6th) and an Orzhov deck (beating me up and when I stabilized extorting for the win). So my initial thoughts were correct, I couldn't play Boros with my pool. But everything else was pretty shakey too.
I switched to Esper so I could play Obzedat and counters.
I had a bit more fun, but in 2 games had to mull to 6 (and mull to 5 is not an option if your average card quality is 'suck'), and in no less than 5 games I ended up drawing more land than spells (and that means like 10 land, 5 spells. One game, I kept a hand of Plains, Island, Swamp, Obzedat, Angelic Edict, and 2 other spells I don't remember. In the following 9 turns I drew 7 islands(!?!?!?!?!) 1 Swamp(!) and Agoraphobia. That was it. 9 turns of nothing.)
The overall impression I got from other people was that some people opened ridicuously and some got the very end of the shaft. Example of ridiculous: the #1 was Gruul and ended up playing Boros with a splash of green. He played 8 rares/mythics. Yes, 6 from boosters, the promo AND a foil rare (Firemane Avenger, Frontline Medic, Boros Reckoner, the gruul fightbeast, the gruul promo, 2 WR shocks and forgot the others)!!!
Not a lot of the normal pros (and I count myself around them, as I nearly always finish in top 6 for Prereleases) were not in the prize area.
Overall pretty disappointing for me.
Simic also did pretty disappointing in the tournament (which was actually my first choice, but they were out).
This great banner was made by Topher
Go with my gut instinct for power Boros; am not disappointed one bit. Opened Legion Loyalist in my guild pack and Wrecking Ogre is my only other R/W rare. I'm not even mad because in place of rares I have an endless supply of 2 and 3 drops, we're talking 3 Halberdiers, 2 Ember Beasts, 3 Court street denizens, 2 Skinbrand Goblins. That's not everything that lands in my 2-3 drops, because I also get sweet removal. 2 Mugging, 2 Massive Raid, 1 Angelic Edict, 2 Arrows of Justice. I was very unsure of Madcap Skills but I ran 2 of them and while sometimes opening myself up to be 2-1'd I'll admit they punched through good amounts of damage while they lasted. I finished off my curve with the Foundry Champion, the Wrecking Ogre, Assault Griffon, that's all I remember for sure from that deck.
Result 5-0-1 (Split in finals because everyone in top 4 has the same type of Boros deck and I'm not confidant vs the guy I would be playing so hedge my bets and make a medium payout)
1st/2nd place +30 packs
Early morning flight
I was torn on which guild to pick, I'm a huge fan of Orzhov and Dimir guilds. Having seen the power of Boros in this style of sealed, I had to go with Boros again and I wasn't disappointed. Same type of deck with just a few different cards, still had 2 halberdiers (This guy is INSANE in how many games he put away), this time around however I landed 2 hellraiser goblins, and 2 skyknight legionnaire, and a frontline medic. Frontline medic was such a powerhouse and it seemed like people rarely had the removal soon enough to save themselves. I did get 1 madcap skills and it had done alright by me in the first one so I ran it and I'm not quite ready to preach the second coming of it but it's pretty powerful in limited.
Result 5-1
2nd Place +20 Packs
Boros seemed to be overpowered when your guaranteed 2 on color rares, guild gate, and the rest of 1 pack to be on color, +5 other packs to build a deck with.
3 Basilica Screecher
1 Vizkopa Confessor
1 Treasury Thrull
1 Deathcult Rogue
1 Vizkopa Guildmage
2 Dutiful Thrull
1 Luminate Primordial
1 Slate Street Ruffian
1 Balustrade Spy
3 Devour Flesh
1 Death's Approach
1 Angelic Edict
1 Smite
1 Arrows of Justice
1 Holy Mantle
8 Extort creatures on a stupidly low curve and evasion up the wazoo let me outrace pretty decent Boros and Gruul aggro decks, plus a lightning-quick Dimir mill deck. Activating both of Vizkopa Guildmage's abilities is quite juicy.
3rd round in particular was good, with triple flying extortionists triggering off of consecutive casts of Devour Flesh, which in turn made my opponent unable to get any Cipher shenanigans going.
Closest calls I had both came from Boros decks. One guy sideboarded out red for black. He dropped a Balustrade Spy on me, nullifying all my evasion. A timely Angelic Edict (double Extort) allowed me to swing in with 3 attackers for the win.
The other close call revolved around my own Balustrade Spy - the opponent got me down to 1 life but couldn't finish me off thanks to Extort. I was grinding him down, but couldn't do it at a comfortable pace. I drop my Spy and end up milling what would have been a game-winning (for him) Molten Primordial.
Didn't get much in terms of money cards, save for a Breeding Pool and a Stomping Ground. Hoping Crypt Ghast will rise in value; I cracked a foil one in a prize pack.
My matches weren't particularly unique for Orzhov, so I'll just relate an amusing play. My opponent Devour Flesh'd his 3/3 Syndic of Tithes with a One Thousand Lashes and an Ogre Slumlord on his field, and extorted it twice. In doing so, he:
Most fun I had with that card was in game 3 of the final round. Playing VS a Dimir mill deck. I had gotten a Servitude in my starting hand and just kept sitting on it. He mills me again I do a quick count and see that I have 6 3CMC creatures in the yard.
He passes the turn I Servitude for 3 and he just puts his head down.
Felt so good to get an instant army 3 of which had extort. Only took 2 turns from there to take over and win.
Going 4-0 with what was my LGS's largest event turnout ever was pretty sweet.
Would have went 4-0 if this guy didn't get the magical Christmas draw leading into a kingpins whatever followed by madcap skills... Dimir Charm came too late to kill it from the stupid enchantment boosting its power.
Overall, a good day, with some good pulls: Duskmantle Seer and Godless ShrineI'm super pumped to draft this set.
(450 unpowered, MMA-style archetypes in each color pair)
Commander:
Far too many to count...
2 decent Mythics (Master Biomancer, Duskmantle Seer),
and rares that were almost all in BUG.
The Commons and Uncommons were decent, but not deep enough for a solid 2-color deck,
so I built a janky BUG deck with evasive evolvers, a bit of cipher, and a bunch of counters/removal.
The deck was okay, but had plenty of weaknesses, so I mostly just made "fun" plays.
Duskmantle Seer was in my opening hand (or drawn by t4) almost every single game.
While I've knocked SuperBob for not being as awesome as some people think, I will say this-
He makes games *incredibly* tense, and fun, so long as you don't mind him occasionally killing you
Oddly enough, the only game he lost for me wasn't from life loss-
I was against another Dimir player, with an army big enough to go in for the kill next round.
He knows it, so he casts a "Hail Mary" Mind Grind for a lot,
which just so happened to mill me down to a *single* card in my deck.
I untap, Superbob fails to kill my opponent by ONE POINT,
then kills me as I deck myself with my draw
So, while I still feel he's just as unreliable as I always did,
I can't deny he's anything short of EPIC in terms of cranking up the tension in a match
Reprint Stasis!
Control needs more love.
EDH:
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
Melek, Izzet Paragon
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Bruna, Light of Alabaster
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Rhys the Redeemed
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Sen Triplets
The Mimeoplasm
WUBRGSliver OverlordGRBUW
WUBRGSliver Hivelord(Superfriends)GRBUW
On my opponent's turn (turn 2), he drops a Foundry Champion and drops me to 1 life. He swings with his 3 other dudes (Truefire Paladin, Wojek Halberdiers, and Towering Thunderfist). I chump block his dudes. I lose a Clinging Anemones and a Fathom Mage and he loses his Halberdiers to my Leyline Phantom (which is sent back to my hand).
On my turn (turn 3), I top deck my foil Aetherize, and I decide to recast my Leyline Phantom leaving just enough lands open in case he attacks.
On his turn (turn 4), he doesn't cast any more spells and proceeds to swing in with all his dudes. I cast Aetherize sending all his dudes back to his hand. He recasts all of his dudes instead of Foundry Champion, and passes the turn to me.
On turn 5, I cast Prime Speaker Zegana for 5 counters drawing me 6 cards but it was still not enough to win as he chump blocked all my dudes. The game ended in a draw.
After the game, I told him he could have killed me just by casting Foundry Champion. And he proceeded to laugh and shake his head. His friends were saying the same thing, saying that he could have won by not casting Foundry Champion, but he could have lost as well if he decided to cast any spells before attacking into my Aetherize.
Credit to Heroes of the Plane Studios for the Avatar & Miraculous Recovery for the Banner.
My 540 Card Cube (WIP)