I lost to Aquaeous Form on the hexproof 4/5 blue common. :/ Talk about impossible to kill in this set, literally the only thing in the whole set that kills that creature is the black rare heroic Agent of Fates.
And Polis Crusher is stupid good and if someone plays it you pretty much lose because the bestow creatures are good in every match except that one so there is no reason to not play them until you realize your opponent has that creature and your whole deck is worthless.
Nemesis of Mortals handed my ass to me in my only match loss of the night. That card is seriously scary.
Prophet of Kruphix is also a serious threat if not handled quickly. It's almost a time walk each turn with a creature heavy deck.
Yes I went U/G and prophet helped me win games all afternoon long
As for Nemesis of mortals? you know what's better then a 10/10 snake? a ten 10 snake with aqueous form. That was fun.
Also have to mention Horizon chimera if nothing else the gain 1 life each draw was really helpful but more often then not i could swing for 6-9 points of damage before they had a way to remove it if that
Even better was the time i could buff it with Thassa's emissary
So in my sealed pool I pulled 2 of the gods...Heliod and Nylea I chose blue but with them and stronger green/white pulls I decided to shift. Heliod and Nylea were terribad Heliod being only a slightly better option. Nylea did nothing when I drew her "late" game due to devotion being rough to keep on the board. Heliod at least was able to make me dudes when I had mana free, but since I was constantly trading resources with my opponents neither saw godhood.
During my second round before dropping game two I had two solid fat bottom blockers on the board with no heliod in sight. we were stalled pretty good until he dropped abborent overlord on the field and it was clearly just game over. I was running 16 lands 17 creatures 7 spells since I had no problems with land drops. in my 7 spells were decent removal though I was forced to trade 3 cards some times just for removing 1 problem.(a dude an enchant and the fight spell) Which it would have been nice if my scorpions would have shown their faces for.
all in all I think I was far to tired(only had 6 hours of sleep between thursday and friday) to do decently at the midnight prerelease. My deck had a lot of really strong cards I think I just preformed poorly due to exhaustedness. hence my dropping at 0-2 and just going home and sleeping for work the next day.
I lost to Aquaeous Form on the hexproof 4/5 blue common. :/ Talk about impossible to kill in this set, literally the only thing in the whole set that kills that creature is the black rare heroic Agent of Fates.
And Polis Crusher is stupid good and if someone plays it you pretty much lose because the bestow creatures are good in every match except that one so there is no reason to not play them until you realize your opponent has that creature and your whole deck is worthless.
There is also instant speed enchantment removal and Hythonia the Cruel, which beat me by itself game 1 of the finals.
My proudest part of the entire tournament was successfully grinding through Thassa, God of the Sea, into Elspeth, Sun's Champion, into him scrying away a second Thassa, into Shipbreaker Kraken. My opponent actually managed to scry every single card in his deck to the bottom before he hit 10 lands.
Shipwreck Singer and Whip of Erebos were the MVPs of that game. Singer dealt with not only the 9 1/1 tokens from Elspeth, but was the sole remaining flier to finish off Elspeth when she used -3 to kill my other fliers. Whip of Erebos + 2x Returned Phalanx combined quite well with the Singer, giving me a healthy 59 life total before my opponent locked my board down with Shipwrecker. Being able to take 3 18 damage hits and survive was very important.
The best preforming cards for me overall were Triton Fortune Hunter, Nimbus Naiad, Read the Bones and Insatiable Harpy. Naiad and Read were always live and always strong; there wasn't a single game where I didn't want both of them. Triton and Harpy were amazing creatures to just stack enchantments on.
I took green, ended up g/u. No mythics, no weapons, nothing fancy. Ended up 2nd. How? 2 Nimbus Naiad and the gift that keeps on giving- the akroan horse! I got it down 4 times, three of them my opponent was forced to waste a card on his creature just to get rid of it:) My other bomb the mistcutter hydra was so-so. Unless of the naiad was on it, then the flying hydra was beastly indeed. I encountered a lot of folks playing some blue or green in some combination. I can personally attest to the royal pita that the artisan of forms. Put down the nice hydra, have it copied. YUCK. It was fun to play though and I have lots of ideas for cards for other decks.
Mary
Well it wasn't so much a surprise, but Shipbreaker Kraken was an absolute house! I won every game he hit the table. So hard to come back after he goes monstrous. But the card that actually surprised me was Shipwreck Singer. Sometimes she was just a 1/2 flyer for UB, but sometimes she just takes over. With mana open she makes very profitable trades and anything with 1 toughness just dies. Bestow in limited is amazing, but I think everyone figured that out. The deck I ran up against that impressed me the most was a w/g/r heroic deck. So many heroic cards with enablers. Very fast and scary.
PROWLER'S HELM. In a limited format with a small amount of removal, this equipment is strong. Many rely on their big 6cmc creatures to defend and finish the game, but this card allows early pressure decks to keep the pressure on indefinitely. Was quite difficult to deal with in a couple of my games.
There is literally a single wall in Theros, and it is Mnenomic wall. Most of the time, prowler's helm is unblockable.
Unless of the naiad was on it, then the flying hydra was beastly indeed.
I picked Blue and had terrible pulls. I had a grand total of 1 bomb it was just the prerelease promo. My deck ended up being a BUG tempo deck. In my opinion, the cards which overperformed the most were the ordeals. If they aren't immediately answered, they generate so much advantage the opponent simply can't win. another card which overperfomred was Returned Phalanx. 3/3 for 2 shut down most aggro strategies. Another card which overperformed was Vaporkin. Not exactly suprising, 2 power 2 mana fliers are virtually always good. Horizon chimera overperformed considerably as well. 3 power flash flying is pretty good for 4 mana. In addition to the efficiency, it also gains at least 1 life each turn which puts the final nail in aggro's coffin.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
I chose green in hope to get monstous before my opponents, but I opened UWR aggro. My hero was SUPER AWESOME, having a solid +1+1 in play turns all combats into nightmare for my opponents.
I opened Soldier of the Pantheon, Firedrinker Satyr, a land, Medomai, Prophet of Kruphix and another rare I don't rememeber.
I had the two rares, 2 white eidolon and other 2 1-drops, but my win were an Arena Athlete (freaking awesome) and 2 Aqueous Form.
Turn 1 creature + turn 2 unblockable and scry, with the +1+1 hero are just awesome if not removed quickly. I won some games without using removal (wich i had: Spark Jolt, Magma Jet, Voyage's End and 2 divine verdicts).
Another VERY notable card is Heliod's Emissary (maybe the best emissary) wich was my only 4 drop -with the divine verdicts-. That guy+Athlete+a little bit evasion = WIN.
I won all 5 matches 2-0 but had to drop for top8
I think that this format is quite similar to GTC's limited: a ton of aggressive stuff, if you want to survive when you're not aggro you HAVE to trade turn 2-3 and gain some life.
I don't dislike the set for constructed, but i just LOVE it for limited. Can't wait to play some drafts =)
Wait, you were playing your Hero card? It's not allowed...
Insatiable Harpy and Keepsake Gorgon were two of my better creatures. I had two harpies in my deck and yet no one would let me have two out at the same time showed just how good they were. The gorgon was straight up beastly, holding back 3+ creatures or just walking through the same amount because no one wanted anything to do with her.
Triad of Fates was surprisingly lackluster, it was mostly just a 3/3 for 4 and I only used it's string of abilities one time to get rid of some enchantments.
There is literally a single wall in Theros, and it is Mnenomic wall. Most of the time, prowler's helm is unblockable.
You can't Naiad that hydra. It has pro: blue.
Mea Culpa, yes I did do that once and neither my opponent nor I caught it the until after the game was over. He was dead to rights in any case that match. The flying vulpine goliath did work just fine though. As for copying things, I never said myself or my opponent got it all right that match. I still stand by the naiad though, it was very effective. I forgot to get the details right, that's what happens when I post at 3am.
Mary
I want to echo the love for returned phalanx - a 3/3 blocker on turn 2, that can start attacking when you run out of gas, is really solid. I went black/blue, and started with 2 in the deck - by the end of the day I had sided the other 2 and was drawing one every game. Its exactly what you want.
Other good stuff? Black is a lot stronger than it seems. It is entirely possible to curve out the returned phalanx into the Disciple of Phenax into the Gray Merchant of Asphodel into the promo rare. Disciple of Phenax itself is quite a beating, especially so because most of the biggest threats that you are going to consistently face down are 5 or 6 drops.
Another big one - Viper's Kiss - kills/makes irrelevant some of the small creatures like mana dudes and the cheaper heroic creatures, but its best when you pin down a would-be-monstrosity with this 1 mana enchantment. Changing a Fleecemane Lion from a potential death sentence into a grizzly bear? yeah, I can get on board
This probably doesn't need to be said, but just in case, Annul is so crazy in this format. Definitely main-deck material. Counters everything from Nymphs and Eidolons to Ordeals to the Gods themselves.
How does Polis Crusher work when your opponent has a 'normal' creature that has been bestowed or has an other aura on it?
Polis Crusher doesn't get protection from the other creature. It can't be blocked by, targeted, or dealt damage by enchantments. Since that other creature isn't an enchantment, there is no protection.
I picked White and ended up B/W/u. The format's removal is awful but mine was great. Two of the 1W exile something with two or less power, a Hero's Downfall, Divine Verdict and a trio of blue bounce spells meant nothing stuck to my opponent's board for long. One land fixer and the 2/2 Elk that sacs to get lands was enough to spash some blue. Played eighteen lands.
I agree that Returned Phalanx was pretty good. It holds off the hordes of 2/3s and 1/4s in this set well. Grey Merchant of Asphodel was really killer too. It can swing games single handedly.
Rescue is very, very, very good, especially with the 3/3 Discard a creature card +2/+2 EOT. Great way to sneak a fattie into play while resetting another card. My favorite target was Keepsake Gorgon, but Akroan Horse is a great target, as well as anything you've bestowed but want to unbestow for some reason to make the enchantments creatures again. All at instant speed, although they don't come back until next upkeep. Not standard playable with Ooze out there, but neat in limited.
Rescue from the Underworld was great for me, too. I'd trade off a Baleful Eidolon in the early game, play a Disciple of Pherax (also better than I expected), then chump with the Disciple and send it on a journey to bring back the Eidolon and pluck another card out of my opponent's hand. I never got to use it with Omenspeaker but that would have been another great target.
As for obvious things in my pool, I played Black and opened Erebos, God of the Dead and Whip of Erebos, both of which were insane. (Whip was way better, though...when you're ahead, Erebos is devastating, but he's pretty much a blank when you're behind.) I also had Erebos's Emmisary, and I got to live the dream of discarding an Abhorrent Overlord and reanimating him in the same turn, swinging for a bunch and making 6 1/1 fliers. (I won that game.)
As for my not so obvious good cards? I ran RB, and figured I'd throw Tymaret, the Murder King in as a bear with a little upside. But he was an absolute house in an aggressive curve. He pretty much says that they can't win a long game, because he throws all your chump blockers at them, and he's nigh unkillable.
As for non-rares, with some of the common enablers, Akroan Crusader was very good for me as well. T1 Akroan Crusader, T2 Scourgemark or Dragon Mantle + pump is 3 damage on turn 2 with only 1 card invested. Definitely lead to some of my more explosive starts.
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A big thank you to Spiderboy4 at High~Light Studios for the awesome banner.
Favorite card quotes:
[card]Pinpoint Avalanche
[/card]"Some solve problems by thinking and talking. Others use rocks." --Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith
Fodder Cannon Step 1: Find your cousin. Step 2: Get your cousin in the cannon. Step 3: Find another cousin.
Rescue is very, very, very good, especially with the 3/3 Discard a creature card +2/+2 EOT. Great way to sneak a fattie into play while resetting another card. My favorite target was Keepsake Gorgon, but Akroan Horse is a great target, as well as anything you've bestowed but want to unbestow for some reason to make the enchantments creatures again. All at instant speed, although they don't come back until next upkeep. Not standard playable with Ooze out there, but neat in limited.
Erebos's Emissary was my mvp, I had 2. Played UB packed with other good creatures and evasion. Although I played my first 2 games as BW control then redesigned my deck to simply hit hard and fast.
The emissary is very hard to deal with profitably on its own or as a bestow, the threat of activation with some lands in your hand makes him a headache. Several games ended with a suddenly evasive emissary swinging for massive amounts. He did it all.
This probably doesn't need to be said, but just in case, Annul is so crazy in this format. Definitely main-deck material. Counters everything from Nymphs and Eidolons to Ordeals to the Gods themselves.
I second that one, I pulled two and there is nothing like countering a god for one mana:)
Mary
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And Polis Crusher is stupid good and if someone plays it you pretty much lose because the bestow creatures are good in every match except that one so there is no reason to not play them until you realize your opponent has that creature and your whole deck is worthless.
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Standard Deck:
BUPirates
Modern Deck:
B8-Rack
Yes I went U/G and prophet helped me win games all afternoon long
As for Nemesis of mortals? you know what's better then a 10/10 snake? a ten 10 snake with aqueous form. That was fun.
Also have to mention Horizon chimera if nothing else the gain 1 life each draw was really helpful but more often then not i could swing for 6-9 points of damage before they had a way to remove it if that
Even better was the time i could buff it with Thassa's emissary
The best part? It totally works on bestow creatures that you cast as Auras.
WotC, please hire me already.
That XG pro blue hydra was great.
I had some disgusting pulls, 4 mythics out of the 6 packs, but my commons and uncommons were weak and I lost.
During my second round before dropping game two I had two solid fat bottom blockers on the board with no heliod in sight. we were stalled pretty good until he dropped abborent overlord on the field and it was clearly just game over. I was running 16 lands 17 creatures 7 spells since I had no problems with land drops. in my 7 spells were decent removal though I was forced to trade 3 cards some times just for removing 1 problem.(a dude an enchant and the fight spell) Which it would have been nice if my scorpions would have shown their faces for.
all in all I think I was far to tired(only had 6 hours of sleep between thursday and friday) to do decently at the midnight prerelease. My deck had a lot of really strong cards I think I just preformed poorly due to exhaustedness. hence my dropping at 0-2 and just going home and sleeping for work the next day.
There is also instant speed enchantment removal and Hythonia the Cruel, which beat me by itself game 1 of the finals.
My proudest part of the entire tournament was successfully grinding through Thassa, God of the Sea, into Elspeth, Sun's Champion, into him scrying away a second Thassa, into Shipbreaker Kraken. My opponent actually managed to scry every single card in his deck to the bottom before he hit 10 lands.
Shipwreck Singer and Whip of Erebos were the MVPs of that game. Singer dealt with not only the 9 1/1 tokens from Elspeth, but was the sole remaining flier to finish off Elspeth when she used -3 to kill my other fliers. Whip of Erebos + 2x Returned Phalanx combined quite well with the Singer, giving me a healthy 59 life total before my opponent locked my board down with Shipwrecker. Being able to take 3 18 damage hits and survive was very important.
The best preforming cards for me overall were Triton Fortune Hunter, Nimbus Naiad, Read the Bones and Insatiable Harpy. Naiad and Read were always live and always strong; there wasn't a single game where I didn't want both of them. Triton and Harpy were amazing creatures to just stack enchantments on.
Mary
There is literally a single wall in Theros, and it is Mnenomic wall. Most of the time, prowler's helm is unblockable.
You can't Naiad that hydra. It has pro: blue.
So in summary, the cards which I saw overperform were:
ordeal cycle
vaporkin
returned phalanx
horizon chimera
- Manite
Wait, you were playing your Hero card? It's not allowed...
Standard: BG Golgari Midrange
Modern: U Merfolk GWUBR 5 Color Humans UBW Esper Gifts GW Bogles
Triad of Fates was surprisingly lackluster, it was mostly just a 3/3 for 4 and I only used it's string of abilities one time to get rid of some enchantments.
Time to Feed with Favored Hoplite was also great. Actually, the flash enchantments on anything were very good combat tricks.
Favored Hoplite in general was a very solid card. Great 1 drop.
Mea Culpa, yes I did do that once and neither my opponent nor I caught it the until after the game was over. He was dead to rights in any case that match. The flying vulpine goliath did work just fine though. As for copying things, I never said myself or my opponent got it all right that match. I still stand by the naiad though, it was very effective. I forgot to get the details right, that's what happens when I post at 3am.
Mary
Other good stuff? Black is a lot stronger than it seems. It is entirely possible to curve out the returned phalanx into the Disciple of Phenax into the Gray Merchant of Asphodel into the promo rare. Disciple of Phenax itself is quite a beating, especially so because most of the biggest threats that you are going to consistently face down are 5 or 6 drops.
Another big one - Viper's Kiss - kills/makes irrelevant some of the small creatures like mana dudes and the cheaper heroic creatures, but its best when you pin down a would-be-monstrosity with this 1 mana enchantment. Changing a Fleecemane Lion from a potential death sentence into a grizzly bear? yeah, I can get on board
Polis Crusher doesn't get protection from the other creature. It can't be blocked by, targeted, or dealt damage by enchantments. Since that other creature isn't an enchantment, there is no protection.
I agree that Returned Phalanx was pretty good. It holds off the hordes of 2/3s and 1/4s in this set well. Grey Merchant of Asphodel was really killer too. It can swing games single handedly.
As an aside, I haven't had a pool that was this sweet value wise in a while. Two Temple of Mystery, Thoughtseize, Anger of the Gods, Chained to the Rocks and an Elspeth in one of my prize packs made for a sweet midnight prerelease.
Rescue is very, very, very good, especially with the 3/3 Discard a creature card +2/+2 EOT. Great way to sneak a fattie into play while resetting another card. My favorite target was Keepsake Gorgon, but Akroan Horse is a great target, as well as anything you've bestowed but want to unbestow for some reason to make the enchantments creatures again. All at instant speed, although they don't come back until next upkeep. Not standard playable with Ooze out there, but neat in limited.
R Citizen Cane (Feldon of the Third Path)
As for my not so obvious good cards? I ran RB, and figured I'd throw Tymaret, the Murder King in as a bear with a little upside. But he was an absolute house in an aggressive curve. He pretty much says that they can't win a long game, because he throws all your chump blockers at them, and he's nigh unkillable.
As for non-rares, with some of the common enablers, Akroan Crusader was very good for me as well. T1 Akroan Crusader, T2 Scourgemark or Dragon Mantle + pump is 3 damage on turn 2 with only 1 card invested. Definitely lead to some of my more explosive starts.
A big thank you to Spiderboy4 at High~Light Studios for the awesome banner.
Favorite card quotes:
[card]Pinpoint Avalanche
[/card]"Some solve problems by thinking and talking. Others use rocks." --Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith
Fodder Cannon
Step 1: Find your cousin.
Step 2: Get your cousin in the cannon.
Step 3: Find another cousin.
Erebos's Emissary was my mvp, I had 2. Played UB packed with other good creatures and evasion. Although I played my first 2 games as BW control then redesigned my deck to simply hit hard and fast.
The emissary is very hard to deal with profitably on its own or as a bestow, the threat of activation with some lands in your hand makes him a headache. Several games ended with a suddenly evasive emissary swinging for massive amounts. He did it all.
Went 4-3 btw had lots of fun.
I second that one, I pulled two and there is nothing like countering a god for one mana:)
Mary