My roommate and I went 3-0 at prerelease last week and a release party this week. Both were sealed, not draft, and unusually each player got 6 packs, rather than 6 packs per team. So, everybody's pools were a bit busted, and that could have an effect on my findings. But regardless, here are my impressions.
It feels like a really good decision to have both players try to adopt the same gameplan. At the prerelease we paired a RB control deck with a UW control deck, and this week we played RW aggro and UB tempo. Any time we were matched up against opponents who tried to split responsibilities between aggro and control, I felt like we were at a huge advantage, as we were able to execute our strategy much more consistently.
It may have just been our pools, but green seems like the worst color in this format. The ground gets cluttered up quickly, and big beaters without any evasion are easy to double- or triple-block.
I also want to echo what Hawk7915 said in the previous comment. Situational cards that wouldn't normally make your maindeck in limited, like Negate, Silverchase Fox, and Solemn Offering are great, and I'd make sure to run at least one of each in any control deck. In 2HG, these situational cards will almost always find a target, and will be great whenever they do.
Aggro especially only seems viable if both players commit to it and have good ways to get rid of blockers. Ditto for Warrior tribal. Proud Mentor, Aurora Champion, and Frost Lynx were huge for us, making it very difficult for our opponents to keep up any blockers in the early turns, letting us chip in enough damage to finish off the game with flyers, Pathmaker Initiate and Blaze.
Overall, this format is a blast, and I'm really looking forward to drafting it, too.
It feels like a really good decision to have both players try to adopt the same gameplan. At the prerelease we paired a RB control deck with a UW control deck, and this week we played RW aggro and UB tempo. Any time we were matched up against opponents who tried to split responsibilities between aggro and control, I felt like we were at a huge advantage, as we were able to execute our strategy much more consistently.
It may have just been our pools, but green seems like the worst color in this format. The ground gets cluttered up quickly, and big beaters without any evasion are easy to double- or triple-block.
There are a lot of under-the-radar finishers for a control deck to clock your opponent and give you inevitability, or simply bait out your opponent's removal spells. In our control decks, Flamewave Invoker, Jubilant Mascot, Chakram Slinger, and the pair of Pathmaker Initiate and Battle-Rattle Shaman were all must-answer threats, which sometimes won the game by themselves and sometimes ate removal spells that allowed our real bombs (Krav, the Unredeemed/Regna, the Redeemer and Zndrsplt, Eye of Wisdom/Okaun, Eye of Chaos) to take over. Worst case scenario, most of them were able to trade early if we fell way behind.
I also want to echo what Hawk7915 said in the previous comment. Situational cards that wouldn't normally make your maindeck in limited, like Negate, Silverchase Fox, and Solemn Offering are great, and I'd make sure to run at least one of each in any control deck. In 2HG, these situational cards will almost always find a target, and will be great whenever they do.
Aggro especially only seems viable if both players commit to it and have good ways to get rid of blockers. Ditto for Warrior tribal. Proud Mentor, Aurora Champion, and Frost Lynx were huge for us, making it very difficult for our opponents to keep up any blockers in the early turns, letting us chip in enough damage to finish off the game with flyers, Pathmaker Initiate and Blaze.
Overall, this format is a blast, and I'm really looking forward to drafting it, too.