MTG Salvation

The Khans of Tarkir prerelease has now drawn to a close (at least in Australia!) and I was wondering what other people thought of the prerelease environment with the new set, what kind of decks people had and what they thought worked and what didn't.

First off, I would just like to say this has been one of my favourite prereleases so far (although I have only played in half a dozen so that is by no stretch of the imagination a big statement). In my LGS it appeared that every clan worked. Obviously in the sealed environment the card pool is critical, but saw each clan doing rather well with at least one person.

I went Jeskai and did rather well. I found prowess didn't feature as much as I liked. It was hard to get the perfect balance of creatures and noncreature spells to make a deck in sealed that worked consistently. The way my deck really worked was by splashing into black and green for Ankle Shanker and Sagu Mauler (which together are a nasty pair!) and so by controlling the board state I could make sure these creatures came out to deal some damage. I also had Narset, Enlightened Master but she didn't do that much because by the time she came to the party the board state was full of much larger creatures so attacking with her never really happened.

I found Abzan was the most dominant on the day, which I could only defeat thanks to my evasion and consistent (by consistent... I mean topdecking) control. Abzan just loves to sit around and I need to sit around, too, to get out my bigger guys which by the time they come out, the Abzan battlefield is already enough to match it.

Temur was fun to play against with all the morph. Every morph creature was just a 5/5 nightmare waiting to eat my hopes and dreams, oh, and eat my creatures, too. Their only limitation is evasion which is what I tried to take advantage of.

Sultai was interesting because you were never quite sure what they would cast so long as they had a well stocked graveyard. That said, it is risky in sealed to self-mill to any degree because nearly everything is precious... especially a Sarkhan that I saw go down. Not a happy player when that happened, although I thought it was pretty cool to pull a Sarkhan so I think he won the day already.

Mardu is the only clan I didn't match up with so I only know from what others say. Apparently it isn't all that fast as it looks. But that is sealed for you.

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Quote from DrunkWolf »

Quote from MagicTheFlavoring »

What is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doing in here? I reckon just another normal land would go better in order to keep the mana going fast because it looks like you want to be fast with casting and not be putting down a land that doesn't really do much for you.

This makes me think you think Urborg can't generate mana, it's a swamp as well, because of it's own ability, and can produce black mana. (There is ofcourse still the thing that it might fix your opponents mana, and since you have 0 double B in the cost of anything, you might consider just leaving it out)

Yeah, initially I thought that! This is true, but then I actually thought about how the rules work, so I take back my comment about this. Perfectly valid to have it.

Oreskos Swiftclaw isn't terrible, that's true. I guess if it works then why not?

What is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doing in here? I reckon just another normal land would go better in order to keep the mana going fast because it looks like you want to be fast with casting and not be putting down a land that doesn't really do much for you. But that is just from my experience! If it works, keep it

With Athreos in there I think the amount of regeneration spells aren't needed, especially not Molting Snakeskin. If you want to save your creatures from death on the occasion that you don't Athreos will get it back for you then perhaps Gods Willing will do a better job. It's cheap and you get a scry.

Some suggestions for warriors, particular to replace Oreskos Swiftclaw include Sightless Brawler and Paragon of Open Graves. Both have their pros and cons and could also be for sideboard.

Otherwise, cool deck. Looking forward to making something similar!

I like Winterflame for being a flexible control/burn card so I guess I would pick that. The Hooting Mandrills are pretty good, too, but considering how things work, I wouldn't be surprised to see some more come around in later packs, so I would just take that Winterflame and then if the Hooting Mandrills came around I would think of going Temur.

Like others have said, you'd have to know the metagame and viable archetypes.

I wish there were more Ogres. They had a few in Ravnica and Kamigawa but they seem to be lacking nearly everywhere else.

I'm excited for the mystical masters of meditation known as the Jeskai and painfully pragmatic prowess mechanic that will make sporadic spiteful spellslinging something to truly be feared.

Door to Nothingness. I make decks to try and get it to work but the handle to this door is stuck fast. Maybe some oil...

Ah, good old Pyxis! I actually like this card a bit in moderation. It is definitely not the kind of card I like to have 4 of, but 2 I find does the job well in my Mono-green monsters deck. I would not say it is competitive, but when you fill it full of expensive creatures plus ramp and things with good ETB effects, cracking the Pyxis open on turn 7 or 8 ends up being pretty amazing. This works best when the entire deck is filled with creatures. I get the mana from Karametra's Acolyte and mono-green gets the devotion going. Slow to start, but the pressure quickly builds and when the Pyxis pops it is over.

I guess the point is, make sure the deck is full of permanents so when the Pyxis is opened there is nothing for you to lose.

Plus it's lots of fun in multiplayer casual games! Kinda like the lottery...

To add to the list of big possibilities...

A reboot of the MTG RPG game from the 90's, Shandalar!

On a more serious note, probably something about KTK to help us get even more excited (or for those not excited yet, at least to a moderate kind of level). Although the idea he could talk about the movie... that is one I will secretly hope for... because with the way previous game-to-movie adaptations have gone there is cause for concern. I would imagine he might want to allay concerns. Perhaps tell us of the main character or plane.

Who knows!

Quote from leslak »

Quote from Palodios »

Prowess looks like it really wants a cantrip.

^ this

if not "why it is an uncommon?" is what i will be asking to MaRo...

This mechanic needs good instant speed cards

Something tells me that Prowess, Strive (instants), and Battlefield Thaumaturge are all going to be good friends, which leads me to think that Jeskai will be a clan that focuses on controlling combat more than anything else. Although, it's a bit hard to say at this point with only one card to go off. Once we see the Khan as well as the various instants and sorceries within the set we will be getting a better idea of what is going on.

Although... I was pretty sure that MaRo said they wanted to move away from cantrips...

Quote from Dontrike »

Quote from MagicTheFlavoring »

This stuff is fantastic! I can tell you, I am constantly thinking of these kind of things! Like Sigiled Starfish being such a tough creature that the Courser of Kruphix, the Scourge of Skola vale (unpumped) and Fiendslayer Paladin all fail to kill it! Iroas, God of Victory is certainly not victorious against Lash of the Whip. Master of Waves is hardly the master when a Whelming Wave comes along. Let alone all the other sea creatures that could stand up to it.

There's a lot more

I guess in a game of such vastness, there will be some fails... but when they happen in the same block... well... they ask for it to be noticed!

On the Starfish bit. Just because it is a starfish doesn't mean it isn't special, the flavor text clearly shows that these have prophecies written on them and these runes could easily have changed them to be survive most events or attackers bringing harm on them. Not to mention that said starfish can look into the future.

It is definitely a magical starfish... and I guess there is no size comparison within the picture so for all I know it could be 10 meters in diameter. Starfish can regenerate, too. Granted, this flavour fail is not so much of a fail!

This stuff is fantastic! I can tell you, I am constantly thinking of these kind of things! Like Sigiled Starfish being such a tough creature that the Courser of Kruphix, the Scourge of Skola vale (unpumped) and Fiendslayer Paladin all fail to kill it! Iroas, God of Victory is certainly not victorious against Lash of the Whip. Master of Waves is hardly the master when a Whelming Wave comes along. Let alone all the other sea creatures that could stand up to it.

There's a lot more

I guess in a game of such vastness, there will be some fails... but when they happen in the same block... well... they ask for it to be noticed!

I think that while Mono-black can work, there are certain attractions for red including evasion to the degree of Madcap Skills as well as various instants for combat control and the likes of Rakish Heir in order to boost every vampire on the board as well as the Stromkirk Captain and Stromkirk Noble. These are some good reasons for red. And the others that have been posted.

I think a perfect match between control and ramp would be a card like Plasm Capture, it is not currently expensive at all and it is a neat counterspell that really works towards your deck achieving massive creature drops early game. All the while, they are getting denied a creature. Use it to counter whatever, and get some mana for your troubles. A good spell to get an idea for what your opponent is running during the game could be Gitaxian Probe, that way you can get to know what you may want to keep Plasm Capture for to counter, and then get ready to slam down your own massive creature. This is based off my own Sea Creatures deck.