Hey guys! Full spoiler is available today. What color are you picking?
Personally I'm very undecided. I think all colors have their merits. Perhaps I pick nissa because I want to open it, because it is good and I like hitting land drops. Which are you choosing?
Doing 3 Pre-release events. I'm thinking Red, White, and Blue respectively for each.
I was originally signed up for 3 Green, but I'm going to change tonight. U/R Thopters looks like a blast and White looks to be a powerhouse in limited.
I think I'm not picking black. Doesn't seems to have the number of good commons i'd want, even though some of them are great. However I think if you pick white and open the right cards, BW auras can be great. This and RU artifacts seems to be the most sinergistic decks from the set.
White has a lot of really good looking common and uncommon creatures. It also has two pieces of removal at 2 CMC. Looking at the spoiler, cheap removal is at a premium, particularly at instant speed. Celestial Flare gets the job done and Swift Reckoning will occasionally be instant speed. Other than that, you've only got Fiery Impulse or Fiery Conclusion (which comes at a high cost anyway) to kill things cheaper than 4 CMC at instant speed. Even cheap sorcery speed removal is lacking only adding Reave Soul and Claustrophobia below 4 CMC. Given all that, it may be very hard for most decks to fend off a quick aggro push. I think this also bumps up the value of combat tricks because you can use them as removal pieces instead due to the relative lack of cheap removal. W/R and W/G both look like solid aggressive options for the pre-release.
I think red will be better than white. Whites rares aren't that great but almost all of reds rares are good. Celestial Flare was fine the last time it was printed but it will be slightly worse this time around because of all the thopters and little elves. Blacks rares seem very good to. I think I would be happy with only one of the white rares. The legendary flash guy.
I think Red looks he strongest. Menace seems really powerful and red has it on some very well costed creatures. The 3-drop 3/2 with menace at common looks very, well... menacing. If you get a good equipment or two forget about it. Of course I think if you open seeded red then you can expect white to be your second.
Although in long games I think black has the edge, some of the best removal and repeatable effects.
I am afraid to go green since if I don't get a lot of elves then a lot of the elves I did get become pretty bad.
Do you think you're good at sealed, or not? I think most people that put enough thought into limited that they visit a subforum like this are pretty good at sealed. With that in mind, I think that White is the safest pick for most of the people here, if winning is what they're after.
White is the safest pick that insulates you the most from a bad pool that will keep you from putting your skill factor into the game. Seeded packs -suck- you into that color. Not because of the rare, you don't know for sure you will get a rare that is limited usable or bomby because there are rares designed for constructed in every color. Because of the commons and uncommon, getting a chunk of guaranteed ones really guarantees that X will be one of your colors, if not your depth color.
White has the broadest amount of average to above average stuff at common and uncommon and the fewest unplayables at those rarities. It's almost impossible for you to get sucked into white and be upset. The other colors have a lot of duds you could open in the seeded pack and/or open in the normal packs, and then you'll be playing the color anyway because it's still slightly better than your other colors, but you'll be down by such a heavy margin against people that would have picked their seeded color before seeing their 7th pack that you will have no opportunities to even begin to outplay them. Which is extra bad with the average calibur of a prerelease player.
Concern about opening bad commons and uncommons is increased if they still haven't changed the thing where they don't really have a method for print running the seeded packs, they just kind throw the cards in there. So you can have a huge stack of duplicates.
Last prerelease I played, I picked based on the top of the line cards, and I pulled a seeded pack with the weakest the colors had to offer, which I hadn't paid much attention to and was worse than the weakest the other colors had to offer. I think it was the worst sealed record I ever got. This time I'm not even going to pay attention to the best case scenarios.
Way too long a post I guess. I just got kinda set off by someone saying they "expected white to be their secondary color". Then don't risk it! Grab the white, it's a safer ball and chain if you draw the -bad- cards from the other colors your interested in playing. You still have the flexibility to pick that color if you get its good cards, or pick another color if you don't.
I'm going with white because of the 3 premium removal spells at common and uncommon. Black also has a lot of removal, but I think it is actually not as good as white's. Which is weird to say for sure.
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Black seems like the color that will take the longest to figure out, since it seems to be the most reliant on synergy plays. That probably means it'll be the weakest color in sealed by a solid margin.
Green and white both seem a lot less reliant on synergy, and have some easy turn-guys-sideways cards that should make those colors easy to play at the prerelease. Color me surprised if Green and White aren't the best.
Red is the burstiest color, with cards like Boggart Brute and Prickleboar that can just be impossible to deal with in combat and are basically unraceable. It should pair very nicely with both green and white, but I don't see it excelling as a main color.
White is going to be the color of choice for spikes and red is very solid. It's hard to rank the other 3.
Doesn't matter; I'm going blue and I'll see where the cards take me. If there were ever a prerelease to go against the grain and try something a little different, it's this one. The set looks complex enough that people will have trouble evaluating their card pool and making a perfectly cohesive deck. I'm of the mind that you can go out on a limb at this prerelease and do very well.
I tried some pools on drafts.in and mtg mirror and played some matches. certainly tthis format is very agressive so i'd not be shy on playing agressive auras and opening myselfo to 2 for 1's. white is my first pick now. very good commons and many, many great uncommons. green would be my second pick. Red is good too, but really, it doesnt have the best 2-drops and has lots of unplayables, so if you finish in the wrong end of it you'll have few playables. BLACK SUCKS. blue has some good cards but the 2-drops suck, so you'd better play it only if you happen to open the powerful cards
I'm not sure how big of an impact this will have but this time you get six normal packs and a seventh seeded pack of seven cards. So you'll never get "stuck" with athe color, just have a few more in one than the others.
I think it will be the same as it has been lately, one foil of 8 possible for your color. for colors, if you look for the best, seems to be white, but all of them can make you solid decks (except for black of course)
I don't understand all the hate for black. It has so much removal everywhere. Sure it doesn't have any common/uncommon bombs but you can just splash green or white depending on what you pull and should end up with a really solid deck.
I don't know if this will affect anyone's decisions that much, but do note that the seeded pack is just going to be 7 cards on top of your six regular packs.
I don't understand all the hate for black. It has so much removal everywhere. Sure it doesn't have any common/uncommon bombs but you can just splash green or white depending on what you pull and should end up with a really solid deck.
I don't see that much common removal for black. There are a few, but what's there is highly conditional. Black is going to have trouble killing anything large, which is usually red's problem, not black's.
I'm not too impressed by anything black is doing at common either, but I'd characterize its removal as "above average" this set. We've got the traditional three entries:
Unholy Hunger is definitely above average, about as good as, or a little better than, something like Flatten but much better than Rite of the Serpent or Sip of Hemlock. Reave Soul is way better than normal, hitting nearly everything a Pharika's Cure or Debilitating Injury would while also hitting more 3- and 4-drops than the cheap black removal usually does.
Weight of the Underworld is poor, but the overall removal situation is still better than normal. My concern is that black doesn't seem to have any good common creatures. A couple look okay and most of them just stink up the place.
I don't understand all the hate for black. It has so much removal everywhere. Sure it doesn't have any common/uncommon bombs but you can just splash green or white depending on what you pull and should end up with a really solid deck.
I don't see that much common removal for black. There are a few, but what's there is highly conditional. Black is going to have trouble killing anything large, which is usually red's problem, not black's.
dark dabbling can work as removal in a pinch and while not excellent it actually creates a 0 for 1 or better in the right situation. Definitely something I would not mind having 1 of.
eyeblight assassin isn't great either but it can be pretty good especially against a thopter deck.
fetid imp is a pretty good thopter wall with the potential to take out anything really bothering you.
cruel revival and eyeblight massacre are potential blowouts at uncommon. Sure a lot of it looks subpar but it is the combination of it all. This format looks to be pretty aggressive so if you can get a solid amount of removal and a few bombs of another color I think black will be very good.
i agree. black looks > or = white in this limited format. so much removal. white has a fair amount as well. BG could be potentially the hardest hitting deck in this format, given the right commons. as jwf mentioned all the removal for black, green has common/uncommon level beefcakes that can get the job done.
I picked black blind, because hey, removal. At first I thought it was bad, but playing a couple test drafts, I think it's OK as long as you are fine with blocking until your 5 mana removal comes on line. And hey, it's pretty hard to get run over in sealed.
I picked black blind, because hey, removal. At first I thought it was bad, but playing a couple test drafts, I think it's OK as long as you are fine with blocking until your 5 mana removal comes on line. And hey, it's pretty hard to get run over in sealed.
I have played some game on cockatrice. you'd be surprised becuase most pools end up aggro and actually consistent aggro.
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Personally I'm very undecided. I think all colors have their merits. Perhaps I pick nissa because I want to open it, because it is good and I like hitting land drops. Which are you choosing?
I was originally signed up for 3 Green, but I'm going to change tonight. U/R Thopters looks like a blast and White looks to be a powerhouse in limited.
White > Red = Green >>> Blue > Black
White has a lot of really good looking common and uncommon creatures. It also has two pieces of removal at 2 CMC. Looking at the spoiler, cheap removal is at a premium, particularly at instant speed. Celestial Flare gets the job done and Swift Reckoning will occasionally be instant speed. Other than that, you've only got Fiery Impulse or Fiery Conclusion (which comes at a high cost anyway) to kill things cheaper than 4 CMC at instant speed. Even cheap sorcery speed removal is lacking only adding Reave Soul and Claustrophobia below 4 CMC. Given all that, it may be very hard for most decks to fend off a quick aggro push. I think this also bumps up the value of combat tricks because you can use them as removal pieces instead due to the relative lack of cheap removal. W/R and W/G both look like solid aggressive options for the pre-release.
Although in long games I think black has the edge, some of the best removal and repeatable effects.
I am afraid to go green since if I don't get a lot of elves then a lot of the elves I did get become pretty bad.
White is the safest pick that insulates you the most from a bad pool that will keep you from putting your skill factor into the game. Seeded packs -suck- you into that color. Not because of the rare, you don't know for sure you will get a rare that is limited usable or bomby because there are rares designed for constructed in every color. Because of the commons and uncommon, getting a chunk of guaranteed ones really guarantees that X will be one of your colors, if not your depth color.
White has the broadest amount of average to above average stuff at common and uncommon and the fewest unplayables at those rarities. It's almost impossible for you to get sucked into white and be upset. The other colors have a lot of duds you could open in the seeded pack and/or open in the normal packs, and then you'll be playing the color anyway because it's still slightly better than your other colors, but you'll be down by such a heavy margin against people that would have picked their seeded color before seeing their 7th pack that you will have no opportunities to even begin to outplay them. Which is extra bad with the average calibur of a prerelease player.
Concern about opening bad commons and uncommons is increased if they still haven't changed the thing where they don't really have a method for print running the seeded packs, they just kind throw the cards in there. So you can have a huge stack of duplicates.
Last prerelease I played, I picked based on the top of the line cards, and I pulled a seeded pack with the weakest the colors had to offer, which I hadn't paid much attention to and was worse than the weakest the other colors had to offer. I think it was the worst sealed record I ever got. This time I'm not even going to pay attention to the best case scenarios.
Way too long a post I guess. I just got kinda set off by someone saying they "expected white to be their secondary color". Then don't risk it! Grab the white, it's a safer ball and chain if you draw the -bad- cards from the other colors your interested in playing. You still have the flexibility to pick that color if you get its good cards, or pick another color if you don't.
Green and white both seem a lot less reliant on synergy, and have some easy turn-guys-sideways cards that should make those colors easy to play at the prerelease. Color me surprised if Green and White aren't the best.
Red is the burstiest color, with cards like Boggart Brute and Prickleboar that can just be impossible to deal with in combat and are basically unraceable. It should pair very nicely with both green and white, but I don't see it excelling as a main color.
Doesn't matter; I'm going blue and I'll see where the cards take me. If there were ever a prerelease to go against the grain and try something a little different, it's this one. The set looks complex enough that people will have trouble evaluating their card pool and making a perfectly cohesive deck. I'm of the mind that you can go out on a limb at this prerelease and do very well.
And is the list of promo cards available?
I like either green/blue or red/black but white can be played with any color so I'm not sure.
I don't see that much common removal for black. There are a few, but what's there is highly conditional. Black is going to have trouble killing anything large, which is usually red's problem, not black's.
Cheap, kills small creatures - Reave Soul
Expensive, kills larger creatures - Unholy Hunger
Other, usually something mid-priced or something odd/specialized - Weight of the Underworld
Unholy Hunger is definitely above average, about as good as, or a little better than, something like Flatten but much better than Rite of the Serpent or Sip of Hemlock. Reave Soul is way better than normal, hitting nearly everything a Pharika's Cure or Debilitating Injury would while also hitting more 3- and 4-drops than the cheap black removal usually does.
Weight of the Underworld is poor, but the overall removal situation is still better than normal. My concern is that black doesn't seem to have any good common creatures. A couple look okay and most of them just stink up the place.
dark dabbling can work as removal in a pinch and while not excellent it actually creates a 0 for 1 or better in the right situation. Definitely something I would not mind having 1 of.
eyeblight assassin isn't great either but it can be pretty good especially against a thopter deck.
fetid imp is a pretty good thopter wall with the potential to take out anything really bothering you.
unholy hunger is really good removal for limited.
weight of the underworld is unimpressive but definitely serviceable.
reave soul is a good card all around.
and then at uncommon you have
cruel revival and eyeblight massacre are potential blowouts at uncommon. Sure a lot of it looks subpar but it is the combination of it all. This format looks to be pretty aggressive so if you can get a solid amount of removal and a few bombs of another color I think black will be very good.
I have played some game on cockatrice. you'd be surprised becuase most pools end up aggro and actually consistent aggro.