MTG Salvation

Hi folks! I just went undefeated with a white-black deck at a small local prerelease. I played the following:



Lyra plus decent other white cards locked me into white. I had a solid green pool that included Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, but I didn't have any removal beyond Ancient Animus (and Icy if you count that). Because of that, I opted for the weaker black pool. I'm not sure it was the correct choice, but black/white worked out for me.

Round 1: I faced a black-white-red deck. Around turn there, my opponent attacked with Knight of New Benalia and cast Gideon's Reproach on my Knight of Malice after I blocked. I realized a turn or two later and mentioned it, but figured it was too late to go back. The game turned into a long grind that I eventually won. Good ol' Icy was amazing here. I would have won the game much faster if I'd caught that you can't target Knight of Malice with Gideon's Reproach. The second game went to time. I was ahead and probably would have won.

Round 2: I chose to draw against a black-green swarm deck. I kept a hand of three Plains and nothing to cast before turn four but still managed to stabilized against the Saproling hordes. Baird, Steward of Argive was useful here. Lyra quickly swung the game in my favor. Game two played out similarly. Lyra ate removal but I got here back thanks to Memorial to Folly. Amusing, I killed my opponent from 17 after they cast Grunn, the Lonely King and attack with nearly all of their available creatures into my Lyra, Arvad the Cursed, and company. Then I tapped down Grunn and their other remaining blocker and swung for 20.

Round 3: I went up against the mirror this round, at least in the sense that it was another black-white deck. Lyra won me both game one and two, though in the second my opponent was color-screwed. In the second game, Divest took Lyra, but I returned her with Soul Salvage. We played another game for fun; I won that one as well.

Round 4: Here it was black/white again. In the first game, after choosing to draw and having my opponent mull to six, I curved Voltaic Servant into Dub. My opponent miscalculated and made a horrible block with four creatures that left two of them dead and the robotic Knight alive. Eventually removal dealt with the Servant. We traded back and forth, but I was up on cards and gained advantage with a few two-for-one spells like Dark Bargain and Soul Salvage. In game two, my opponent tried drawing, but I still ended up winning. They made some dubious plays, such as casting Stronghold Confessor without kicker for no particular reason. I didn't have to, but I had the opportunity to win in dramatic fashion with Evra, Halcyon Witness. I attacked for 27 total between Evra and Arvad.

Analysis: I haven't Limited for the last few years, but everything felt utterly familiar to me with Dominaria. Choosing to draw, as I've done in previous Sealed environment, seems to have worked well. I love being on the draw with seven cards when my opponent goes to six. I didn't side anything in to speak of.

Because I partially split with my last opponent, I ended up winning fifteen packs. You can see me opening them here.

P.S. I misspelled the set name in the thread title. Lulz.

That's a solid set up. The only thing that I could see that would have pushed you over the edge would have history of benalia. I played green white and went three and one with two wins after side boarding in that card and it was a work horse for winning games. Both rounds played afterwards I went two and 0.
It was my first limited sealed pre-release in 13 years and I was worried I wouldn't do well but was very satisfied. The only problem I had was with a red white aggro deck that pushed out creatures fast with high power creatures backed by the solid combat tricks of white.

My round-one opponent had a History of Benalia! They cast it in one of the games. It was strong but not overwhelming in that game.

"I opened five amazing rare white bombs and a swingy artifact bomb. I wasnt sure what to do but I decided to play them all and win"

I had also a WB deck with a small blue splash and only lost in the final to another Esper built. I won all my matches 2-0, lostthe final 1-2 because I missed my 5th land drop and he didn't. My deck was the definition of the insane pool. Th eonly thing missing was enchantment removal, which is another thing that made a difference in the final game.



I won't bore you with my matches. They were so one-sided except the final that it was ridiculous. Playing Ruinous blast as an instant EOT of my opponent was so busted. Halcyon is too stupid of a card. Aryel is a slow but powerful engine attached to a big body. Vile offering is disgusting. Yada yada yada. My last round opponent had a deck almost like mine (Aryel, Halcyan, Avrad, icy), except he had Teferi and the ice saga. He won when I finally ran out of solution to his Halcyon on Serra's Wings.

Our store is 1 pack per win, so I didn't steal the bank. At least the people I unfairly crushed won some packs at the end. I opened no high-value cards. There were Karn aplenty. That card is nuts in limited. (So is Teferi.)

Hard to choose one MVP. I'll state the obvious:

Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage: the flash it gives is really powerful.
On Serra's Wings: so powerful.
Urza's Ruinous Blast: this card is actually not busted. In the final it often was a dead card because my opp had an all-legend board. When it's one-sided, well, it's one-sided.
Dauntless Bodyguard: I played this turn one many games, and it dealt 4-6 damage regularly.

W/B was an incredibly common archetype in the 16 man sealed I played in last weekend. I played it and faced two mirror matches in four rounds. I think it comes down to excellent removal (Eviscerate, Seal Away, Gideon's Reproach, Vicious Offering, Blessed Light, and Settle the Score) strong white common and uncommon creatures (Sargent At Arms, Danitha, Baird), and some strong W or B/W bombs Arvad (in some decks) and Aryel. I don't think mono-black has many truly incredible bombs outside of Demonlord Belzenlok. Also On Serra's Wings is the real deal. It was particularly sexy when I was able to resolve it on Traxos, Scourge of Kroog.