So I decided to go Blue-White flyers with a splash of black and it worked out pretty well. The deck took a few turns to go online, but once I had one or two Aven Sentry, Cloudreader Sphinx, and Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp the deck was basically unstoppable.
One problem with my deck was that Aryel, Knight of Windgrace really didn't fit well. as she fits better in a deck with a critical mass of knights.
How would you build this pool? Would you have gone with Blue-White? I'm still not convinced entirely that this was the right way to go.
Given then amount of removal I already have, would you have run Fungal Infection?
Is three Mesa Unicorns too many? Pardic Wanderer and Yargle, Glutton of Urborg were thrown in to add some beef at the top end, but neither of these cards are very good. Would you have done differently?
Would you have splashed for anything?
The only creature with bomby inevitability was Torgaar, Famine Incarnate, but the number of creatures that black had was very low. Overall I had a very hard time finding a color pair that had enough playable creatures.
Initially I made a RG deck with a very heavy splash of black. I was trying to splash Windgrace Acolyte, Torgaar, Famine Incarnate and Vicious Offering. I figured that my Gilded Lotus and Llanowar Envoy would help me get the black mana that I would need, and I had 3 Swamps in the deck as well. Right before playing I sorta panicked and worried that my mana base was too unstable. I took out the back splash and replaced them with Ghitu Lavarunners with the hope that they would power my Firefist Adept. That did not go as planned. Instead I got skinned alive.
After coming home and untilting, I took a look at the pool again and decided that something like this might be more effective, but I really would like to hear what you guys would do here:
So this is still a pretty heavy splash with red for the removal: Fiery Intervention, Shivan Fire and Wizard's Lightning. I would hope that the 3 Mountains and a Gilded Lotus would help me to have the red mana available to cast removal spells when I need them the most. I'm slightly light on creatures but I would hope that Memorial to Folly would help to alleviate that problem a bit.
I counted [Academy Drake] as a 7 drop because I really only wanted to play it kicked.
Mana Curve:
2 CCCSS
3 CCCCS
4 CCCS
5 CCSP
6 CS
7 C
8 C
Some cards like Precognition Field were played just so that I could try them out and see if they were good or not. I was not very impressed by Precognition Field.
Here's the deck that I had. I probably should have gone Gw or Gr instead. I ended up being creature light, having to play a lot of spells that I don't really like (enchantments) and having a weird curve.
I'd put together the decklist I'm picturing, but this is on my phone and it would be quite difficult. I can revisit this on Sunday to put something together.
I played some BFZ sealed last night and at the time I felt like BR was the only viable deck I could build from my pool. Now, looking back, I'm wondering if I possibly could have gone BG with Oran-Rief Hydra and Brood Butcher. Perhaps I could have splashed Brood Butcher. Any advice would be appreciated.
My deck's curve was really weird, I think I would have liked to smooth it out with one or two less 3 cmc creatures and maybe some 2 cmc creaures. I'm kinda at a loss about what to do here.
This is probably best-case-scenario thinking, but the sequence I was really hoping to fire off was to hit 6 land, cast Oblivion Sower ramping myself into Eldrazi Devastator. That never happened despite having both Sower and Devastator in my hand on multiple occasions but never being able to find a 6th land to play.
As you can see, I'm playing 18 lands in my deck because I don't have any creatures under 3 cmc and I have two 6 cmc creatures and an 8 cmc creature. As a result, I ended up having mana flooding problem. In one game I had a 7 land starting hand, and mulliganed down to a 5-land 6 card hand. One other occasions I had a 6-land 1 non-creature spell starting hand. Mana was rough the entire night.
In the first round I played against a UB Ingest deck that was a bit inconsistent. My deck did well against this deck despite flooding. In the second round I played against an RG landfall aggro deck. When this deck curved out I was already at less than half my life with only 4 lands on the table and possible 1 creature.
The few dollars you are wasting on gas driving around could've bought how many full art lands?
This exactly. Traffic where I live (Los Angeles) is horrendous. I could easily see burning through a tank of gas by making multiple trips to the Targets and Walmarts in the area, just to end up empty-handed. At that point, it would have just been cheaper to pay the scalpers on Ebay - and I wouldn't have wasted all that time.
This has probably already been discussed here. I can't see what the payoff is for the processor deck is - once you have gone through all the trouble of ingesting a bunch of cards. Most of the process abilities seem fine, but none of them really stand out as game winning or swingy. If anything, I guess you could use Void Attendant or Blight Herder to get some scions in order to ramp into Desolation Twin or something else huge. It just seems like a lot of work for not a lot of payoff. Maybe I'm missing the point of how you play processor decks, or maybe I'm just wrong. Thoughts?
I played some Origins Sealed today and I really didn't know what to do with this pool I ended up building a Blue/White skies deck, but it wasn't very good. What would you have done with this poll?
We're now in that horrible week between pre-release and set release, so maybe we can talk about which color pairs/archetypes did well in prerelease, and which ones will emerge as strong archetypes when we start drafting the set.
I attended three prereleases and consistently saw Wx decks do exceptionally well. WR and WG Renown decks seemed to win most matches at the events I attended. UW flyers also seemed strong. A few uncommons like Consul's Lieutenant and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch seemed really pushed. Is this what other people observed at their prerelease events?
I also played against a thopter deck, an elf deck, as well as a BR deck with lots of burn and 3xDragon Fodders. These decks seemed decent, but didn't seem to be as dominating as the White-based decks.
Which archetypes/color pairs did well at your prereleases? Will any archetypes/color pairs that did not do well in a sealed-prerelease format emerge as competitive in draft?
Initially I tried to go Blue Green because of Tatyova, Benthic Druid, but I was severely lacking in removal. I tried to build a saproling deck to take advantage of Sporecrown Thallid, but with the lack of Saproling Migration and Deathbloom Thallid, I think only have 2 saproling generating cards.
So I decided to go Blue-White flyers with a splash of black and it worked out pretty well. The deck took a few turns to go online, but once I had one or two Aven Sentry, Cloudreader Sphinx, and Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp the deck was basically unstoppable.
One problem with my deck was that Aryel, Knight of Windgrace really didn't fit well. as she fits better in a deck with a critical mass of knights.
How would you build this pool? Would you have gone with Blue-White? I'm still not convinced entirely that this was the right way to go.
2 Aven Sentry
1 Benalish Marshal
2 Blessed Light
1 Charge
1 D'Avenant Trapper
1 Dub
2 Excavation Elephant
1 Knight of New Benalia
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Serra Disciple
Blue (12):
1 Academy Drake
1 Arcane Flight
1 Cloudreader Sphinx
2 Cold-Water Snapper
1 Curator's Ward
2 Divination
1 Relic Runner
1 Syncopate
1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
Black (15):
2 Blessing of Belzenlok
1 Cabal Evangel
1 Cabal Paladin
1 Caligo Skin-Witch
1 Demonic Vigor
1 Drudge Sentinel
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Feral Abomination
1 Fungal Infection
1 Lingering Phantom
1 Rat Colony
1 Soul Salvage
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Yawgmoth's Vile Offering
2 Bloodstone Goblin
1 Fervent Strike
2 Fire Elemental
1 Firefist Adept
1 Ghitu Chronicler
1 Goblin Warchief
1 Keldon Overseer
1 Radiating Lightning
1 Rampaging Cyclops
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Warlord's Fury
Green (18):
1 Adventurous Impulse
1 Broken Bond
2 Corrosive Ooze
1 Gaea's Protector
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Llanowar Envoy
1 The Mending of Dominaria
2 Primordial Wurm
1 Spore Swarm
2 Sporecrown Thallid
1 Thorn Elemental
1 Untamed Kavu
2 Wild Onslaught
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Artifacts (8):
1 Amaranthine Wall
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
1 Powerstone Shard
2 Short Sword
2 Skittering Surveyor
Land (1):
1 Memorial to Glory
1 Academy Drake
1 Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
2 Aven Sentry
1 Benalish Marshal
1 Cloudreader Sphinx
2 Cold-Water Snapper
1 D'Avenant Trapper
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
2 Skittering Surveyor
1 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
1 Arcane Flight
2 Blessed Light
1 Divination
1 The Eldest Reborn
1 Short Sword
Land (18):
8 Island
1 Memorial to Glory
7 Plains
2 Swamp
Curve:
1 SS
2 C
3 CCCCS
4 CCCC
5 CCSSS
6 CCC
7 C
8
Here's my most recent Dominaria sealed Pool. There is a very heavy Knights theme here.
1 Benalish Honor Guard
3 Excavation Elephant
1 History of Benalia
1 Knight of Grace
2 Knight of New Benalia
3 Mesa Unicorn
1 Sergeant-at-Arms
3 Tragic Poet
Blue (14):
1 Artificer's Assistant
1 Befuddle
1 Cold-Water Snapper
1 Curator's Ward
1 Deep Freeze
1 Divination
2 Homarid Explorer
1 Opt
1 Rescue
1 Sage of Lat-Nam
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Syncopate
1 Wizard's Retort
Black (14):
1 Blessing of Belzenlok
1 Caligo Skin-Witch
1 Cast Down
1 Chainer's Torment
1 Dark Bargain
2 Divest
1 Eviscerate
1 Fungal Infection
1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
1 Rite of Belzenlok
1 Stronghold Confessor
1 Vicious Offering
1 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
1 Bloodstone Goblin
1 The Flame of Keld
1 Frenzied Rage
1 Ghitu Chronicler
2 Ghitu Journeymage
1 Ghitu Lavarunner
2 Keldon Raider
1 Keldon Warcaller
1 Rampaging Cyclops
1 Run Amok
1 Verix Bladewing
1 Warlord's Fury
1 Wizard's Lightning
Green (11):
1 Adventurous Impulse
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Broken Bond
1 Gaea's Protector
1 Gift of Growth
1 Grow from the Ashes
2 Krosan Druid
1 Saproling Migration
1 Song of Freyalise
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
1 Arvad the Cursed
1 Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
Artifacts (8):
1 Aesthir Glider
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Helm of the Host
1 Jousting Lance
2 Pardic Wanderer
1 Shield of the Realm
1 Urza's Tome
Land (4):
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Memorial to Folly
2 Zhalfirin Void
1 Arvad the Cursed
1 Aryel, Knight of Windgrace
1 Benalish Honor Guard
1 Caligo Skin-Witch
1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
1 Knight of Grace
2 Knight of New Benalia
3 Mesa Unicorn
1 Pardic Wanderer
1 Sergeant-at-Arms
1 Stronghold Confessor
1 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
1 Cast Down
1 Eviscerate
1 Fungal Infection
1 Helm of the Host
1 History of Benalia
1 Jousting Lance
1 Rite of Belzenlok
1 Vicious Offering
1 Memorial to Folly
8 Plains
8 Swamp
My mana curve was a bit unusual:
1 S
2 CCCCCCCCSSS
3 CS
4 CCCSSS
5 CC
6 C
A few questions:
Given then amount of removal I already have, would you have run Fungal Infection?
Is three Mesa Unicorns too many?
Pardic Wanderer and Yargle, Glutton of Urborg were thrown in to add some beef at the top end, but neither of these cards are very good. Would you have done differently?
Would you have splashed for anything?
Here's the pool that I opened. It features multiple copies of some very underwhelming creatures like three Homarid Explorers, four Ghitu Lavarunners, three Feral Abominations and three Serra Disciples.
It has some strong red removal like Fiery Intervention, Wizard's Lightning, and of course Shivan Fire, as well as removal in other colors such as Deep Freeze and Vicious Offering.
The only creature with bomby inevitability was Torgaar, Famine Incarnate, but the number of creatures that black had was very low. Overall I had a very hard time finding a color pair that had enough playable creatures.
1 Adamant Will
1 Baird, Steward of Argive
1 Call the Cavalry
1 Daring Archaeologist
2 Excavation Elephant
1 Healing Grace
1 Knight of New Benalia
2 Pegasus Courser
3 Serra Disciple
1 Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle
1 Tragic Poet
Blue (12):
1 Blink of an Eye
2 Curator's Ward
1 Deep Freeze
1 Divination
3 Homarid Explorer
1 Opt
2 Tolarian Scholar
1 Wizard's Retort
Black (13):
1 Cabal Paladin
1 Dark Bargain
1 Deathbloom Thallid
3 Feral Abomination
2 Fungal Infection
1 Rat Colony
1 Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
1 Vicious Offering
1 Windgrace Acolyte
1 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
1 Fiery Intervention
1 Firefist Adept
1 The Flame of Keld
1 Frenzied Rage
4 Ghitu Lavarunner
1 Keldon Overseer
1 Keldon Raider
1 Keldon Warcaller
1 Orcish Vandal
1 Shivan Fire
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Warcry Phoenix
1 Wizard's Lightning
Green (14):
1 Ancient Animus
2 Arbor Armament
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Gaea's Protector
1 Gift of Growth
1 Krosan Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Envoy
1 Pierce the Sky
1 Song of Freyalise
1 Spore Swarm
1 Wild Onslaught
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Jodah, Archmage Eternal
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Artifacts (10):
1 Aesthir Glider
1 Amaranthine Wall
1 Bloodtallow Candle
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Howling Golem
1 Powerstone Shard
1 Short Sword
1 Sparring Construct
Land (2):
1 Memorial to Unity
1 Memorial to Folly
Initially I made a RG deck with a very heavy splash of black. I was trying to splash Windgrace Acolyte, Torgaar, Famine Incarnate and Vicious Offering. I figured that my Gilded Lotus and Llanowar Envoy would help me get the black mana that I would need, and I had 3 Swamps in the deck as well. Right before playing I sorta panicked and worried that my mana base was too unstable. I took out the back splash and replaced them with Ghitu Lavarunners with the hope that they would power my Firefist Adept. That did not go as planned. Instead I got skinned alive.
1 Aesthir Glider
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Firefist Adept
1 Gaea's Protector
3 Ghitu Lavarunner
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Keldon Overseer
1 Keldon Raider
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Envoy
1 Spore Swarm
1 Warcry Phoenix
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Ancient Animus
1 Fiery Intervention
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Shivan Fire
1 Short Sword
1 Wizard's Lightning
8 Forest
10 Mountain
After coming home and untilting, I took a look at the pool again and decided that something like this might be more effective, but I really would like to hear what you guys would do here:
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Cabal Paladin
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 Feral Abomination
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Krosan Druid
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Llanowar Envoy
1 Slimefoot, the Stowaway
1 Spore Swarm
1 Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
1 Windgrace Acolyte
1 Yargle, Glutton of Urborg
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Ancient Animus
1 Fiery Intervention
1 Forebear's Blade
1 Fungal Infection
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Shivan Fire
1 Vicious Offering
1 Wizard's Lightning
7 Forest
1 Memorial to Folly
3 Mountain
7 Swamp
So this is still a pretty heavy splash with red for the removal: Fiery Intervention, Shivan Fire and Wizard's Lightning. I would hope that the 3 Mountains and a Gilded Lotus would help me to have the red mana available to cast removal spells when I need them the most. I'm slightly light on creatures but I would hope that Memorial to Folly would help to alleviate that problem a bit.
The mana curve is a bit wonky though:
1 CSS
2 SS
3 CCCCCSS
4 CCS
5 CCCSS
6 CC
1 Academy Drake
1 Aven Sentry
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Homarid Explorer
1 Kwende, Pride of Femeref
1 Mesa Unicorn
1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Rona, Disciple of Gix
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1 Tolarian Scholar
1 Voltaic Servant
1 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
1 Blessed Light
1 Deep Freeze
1 Gideon's Reproach
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Precognition Field
1 Seal Away
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Land (18):
1 Memorial to Genius
9 Island
5 Plains
3 Swamp
I counted [Academy Drake] as a 7 drop because I really only wanted to play it kicked.
Mana Curve:
2 CCCSS
3 CCCCS
4 CCCS
5 CCSP
6 CS
7 C
8 C
Some cards like Precognition Field were played just so that I could try them out and see if they were good or not. I was not very impressed by Precognition Field.
1 Adamant Will
1 Benalish Marshal
1 Board the Weatherlight
1 Blessed Light
1 Dub
1 Gideon's Reproach
1 Healing Grace
1 Pegasus Courser
1 Seal Away
1 Tragic Poet
Blue (13):
1 Academy Drake
1 Arcane Flight
2 Cloudreader Sphinx
1 Cold-Water Snapper
1 Homarid Explorer
1 Karn's Temporal Sundering
2 Opt
2 Relic Runner
1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1 Wizard's Retort
Black (16):
1 Chainer's Torment
1 Deathbloom Thallid
1 Demonic Vigor
1 Divest
2 Drudge Sentinel
2 Feral Abomination
1 Final Parting
1 Fungal Infection
1 Lich's Mastery
1 Lingering Phantom
1 Rat Colony
1 Thallid Omnivore
1 Vicious Offering
1 Whisper, Blood Liturgist
1 Bloodstone Goblin
2 Fiery Intervention
1 Fire Elemental
1 Frenzied Rage
1 Ghitu Chronicler
1 Ghitu Journeymage
1 Ghitu Lavarunner
1 Goblin Chainwhirler
1 Rampaging Cyclops
1 Seismic Shift
2 Warlord's Fury
Green (17):
1 Ancient Animus
1 Broken Bond
1 Corrosive Ooze
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Grunn, the Lonely King
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Llanowar Envoy
1 Mammoth Spider
1 Nature's Spiral
1 Primordial Wurm
1 Spore Swarm
1 Sporecrown Thallid
1 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Aesthir Glider
2 Bloodtallow Candle
1 Howling Golem
2 Navigator's Compass
1 Pardic Wanderer
1 Short Sword
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Sorcerer's Wand
Gold (3):
1 Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage
1 Rona, Disciple of Gix
1 Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
Land (2):
1 Memorial to Unity
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Aven Sentry
1 Benalish Honor Guard
1 Blessed Light
2 Charge
1 Gideon's Reproach
2 Healing Grace
1 Invoke the Divine
1 Kwende, Pride of Femeref
1 Mesa Unicorn
3 Pegasus Courser
1 Seal Away
1 Serra Disciple
Blue (21):
1 Academy Drake
1 Academy Journeymage
1 Arcane Flight
2 Artificer's Assistant
1 Deep Freeze
1 Diligent Excavator
1 Divination
1 Homarid Explorer
1 In Bolas's Clutches
1 Precognition Field
1 Relic Runner
1 Rescue
1 Sage of Lat-Nam
1 Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep
1 Tetsuko Umezawa, Fugitive
1 Tolarian Scholar
1 Wizard's Retort
1 Unwind
1 Vodalian Arcanist
1 Zahid, Djinn of the Lamp
1 Cabal Paladin
2 Dark Bargain
1 Demonic Vigor
2 Fungal Infection
1 Lich's Mastery
1 Rat Colony
1 Soul Salvage
1 Stronghold Confessor
1 Thallid Omnivore
1 Urgoros, the Empty One
Red (11):
1 Firefist Adept
1 The Flame of Keld
1 Ghitu Chronicler
1 Ghitu Lavarunner
1 Goblin Barrage
1 Keldon Warcaller
1 Rampaging Cyclops
1 Run Amok
1 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Warlord's Fury
Green (12):
1 Broken Bond
1 Corrosive Ooze
1 Fungal Plots
2 Gaea's Protector
1 Gift of Growth
1 Krosan Druid
1 Nature's Spiral
1 Pierce the Sky
1 Primordial Wurm
1 Steel Leaf Champion
1 Yavimaya Sapherd
1 Aesthir Glider
1 Damping Sphere
1 Guardians of Koilos
1 Mishra's Self-Replicator
1 Powerstone Shard
1 Skittering Surveyor
1 Voltaic Servant
Gold (3):
1 Adeliz, the Cinder Wind
1 Rona, Disciple of Gix
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
Land (1):
1 Memorial to Genius
2 Angel's Mercy
1 Attended Knight
1 Battleflight Eagle
1 Captain's Call
1 Divine Verdict
1 Glorious Charge
1 Griffin Protector
1 Guardian Lions
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Show of Valor
1 Warclamp Mastiff
1 War Falcon
1 War Priest of Thune
Blue
1 Arctic Aven
1 Divination
2 Downpour
1 Essence Scatter
1 Index
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Mind Sculpt
2 Scroll Thief
1 Spelltwine
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Unsummon
2 Blood Reckoning
2 Bloodhunter Bat
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Crippling Blight
1 Disentomb
1 Duress
1 Duty-Bound Dead
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Murder
1 Public Execution
1 Rise from the Grave
2 Servant of Nefarox
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Walking Corpse
1 Wit's End
1 Zombie Goliath
Red
1 Canyon Minotaur
2 Chandra's Fury
1 Craterize
1 Dragon Hatchling
1 Fire Elemental
1 Firewing Phoenix
1 Goblin Arsonist
1 Kindled Fury
1 Mark of Mutiny
1 Mindclaw Shaman
2 Searing Spear
1 Smelt
1 Torch Fiend
1 Trumpet Blast
2 Turn to Slag
1 Wall of Fire
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Garruk, Primal Hunter
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
1 Naturalize
1 Quirion Dryad
1 Revive
2 Roaring Primadox
2 Serpent's Gift
2 Timberpack Wolf
2 Titanic Growth
1 Yeva's Forcemage
Artifact
1 Gem of Becoming
1 Phyrexian Hulk
Land
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Angel's Mercy
1 Ajani's Sunstriker
2 Aven Squire
1 Captain's Call
1 Divine Favor
1 Glorious Charge
1 Griffin Protector
1 Guardian Lions
1 Healer of the Pride
1 Serra Avenger
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 War Falcon
1 Warclamp Mastiff
Blue
1 Battle of Wits
1 Divination
1 Downpour
1 Fog Bank
2 Harbor Serpent
1 Index
1 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
1 Scroll Thief
1 Switcheroo
2 Tricks of the Trade
1 Unsummon
1 Watercourser
1 Welkin Tern
1 Wind Drake
1 Cower in Fear
1 Crippling Blight
2 Dark Favor
1 Duskmantle Prowler
1 Duty-Bound Dead
1 Essence Drain
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Harbor Bandit
1 Liliana's Shade
1 Servant of Nefarox
1 Vampire Nocturnus
2 Vile Rebirth
1 Zombie Goliath
Red
1 Arms Dealer
1 Bladetusk Boar
1 Canyon Minotaur
1 Fervor
1 Fire Elemental
2 Goblin Battle Jester
1 Kindled Fury
1 Krenko, Mob Boss
1 Mark of Mutiny
1 Mindclaw Shaman
1 Reckless Brute
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Smelt
1 Trumpet Blast
1 Acidic Slime
1 Arbor Elf
1 Centaur Courser
1 Fog
1 Mwonvuli Beast Tracker
1 Naturalize
1 Primal Huntbeast
1 Ranger's Path
2 Sentinel Spider
2 Timberpack Wolf
2 Vastwood Gorger
Artifact
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Primal Clay
1 Ring of Evos Isle
3 Ring of Valkas
1 Ring of Xathrid
1 Tormod's Crypt
Land
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Attended Knight
1 Aven Squire
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Captain's Call
2 Erase
1 Healer of the Pride
1 Pacifism
1 Prized Elephant
1 Serra Angel
1 Show of Valor
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 War Falcon
1 Warclamp Mastiff
Blue
1 Augur of Bolas
1 Courtly Provocateur
1 Divination
1 Encrust
1 Faerie Invaders
1 Hydrosurge
1 Kraken Hatchling
1 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
1 Mind Sculpt
1 Negate
1 Rewind
1 Scroll Thief
1 Unsummon
1 Disentomb
1 Duress
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Mind Rot
2 Murder
1 Ravenous Rats
1 Rise from the Grave
1 Servant of Nefarox
1 Shimian Specter
1 Sign in Blood
1 Tormented Soul
1 Zombie Goliath
Red
2 Chandra's Fury
1 Cleaver Riot
1 Dragon Hatchling
1 Furnace Whelp
1 Mogg Flunkies
1 Reckless Brute
1 Rummaging Goblin
1 Slumbering Dragon
1 Smelt
1 Trumpet Blast
2 Turn to Slag
1 Volcanic Geyser
2 Wall of Fire
1 Acidic Slime
1 Arbor Elf
1 Bountiful Harvest
1 Deadly Recluse
1 Farseek
1 Flinthoof Boar
2 Fog
1 Fungal Sprouting
1 Garruk's Packleader
1 Naturalize
1 Prey Upon
1 Ranger's Path
1 Serpent's Gift
2 Spiked Baloth
1 Timberpack Wolf
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Yeva's Forcemage
Artifact
1 Clock of Omens
1 Gem of Becoming
2 Ring of Evos Isle
2 Sands of Delirium
Land
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Hellion Crucible
2 Angel's Mercy
1 Angelic Benediction
1 Aven Squire
1 Captain's Call
1 Crusader of Odric
3 Divine Favor
1 Erase
1 Faith's Reward
1 Guardian Lions
1 Guardians of Akrasa
2 Pacifism
2 Silvercoat Lion
Blue
1 Arctic Aven
1 Clone
1 Courtly Provocateur
1 Downpour
3 Encrust
1 Essence Scatter
1 Index
1 Negate
1 Switcheroo
1 Tricks of the Trade
2 Vedalken Entrancer
1 Watercourser
1 Crippling Blight
2 Dark Favor
1 Disentomb
1 Duskmantle Prowler
1 Duty-Bound Dead
2 Essence Drain
1 Giant Scorpion
2 Knight of Infamy
1 Tormented Soul
1 Vile Rebirth
Red
1 Arms Dealer
1 Cleaver Riot
3 Dragon Hatchling
1 Fire Elemental
1 Furnace Whelp
1 Goblin Battle Jester
2 Mogg Flunkies
1 Reckless Brute
1 Searing Spear
1 Volcanic Strength
3 Wild Guess
Green
1 Arbor Elf
1 Bond Beetle
1 Bountiful Harvest
1 Centaur Courser
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Rancor
1 Plummet
1 Prey Upon
1 Ranger's Path
1 Sentinel Spider
1 Timberpack Wolf
1 Vastwood Gorger
1 Yeva, Nature's Herald
1 Door to Nothingness
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Gem of Becoming
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Jayemdae Tome
1 Primal Clay
1 Ring of Valkas
1 Staff of Nin
Land
1 Cathedral of War
1 Reliquary Tower
Here's the deck that I had. I probably should have gone Gw or Gr instead. I ended up being creature light, having to play a lot of spells that I don't really like (enchantments) and having a weird curve.
1 Aven Squire
1 Captain's Call
1 Crusader of Odric
1 Duskmantle Prowler
1 Duty-Bound Dead
1 Giant Scorpion
1 Guardian Lions
1 Guardians of Akrasa
2 Knight of Infamy
1 Primal Clay
2 Silvercoat Lion
1 Tormented Soul
1 Angelic Benediction
2 Divine Favor
2 Pacifism
1 Crippling Blight
2 Dark Favor
1 Disentomb
Land (15)
1 Cathedral of War
1 Reliquary Tower
8 Plains
7 Swamp
Curve:
1 CCSS
2 CCCCCSSSSSS
3 CCC
4 CCCS
5 C
Yeah thanks! I'd appreciate that!
1 Eldrazi Devastator
2 Oblivion Sower
2 Scour from Existence
White
2 Cliffside Lookout
1 Felidar Cub
2 Lithomancer's Focus
1 Makindi Patrol
1 Ondu Greathorn
1 Stasis Snare
1 Stone Haven Medic
Blue
1 Adverse Conditions
1 Anticipate
1 Cloud Manta
1 Coralhelm Guide
1 Dispel
1 Incubator Drone
1 Murk Strider
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Rush of Ice
3 Spell Shrivel
1 Ulamog's Reclaimer
2 Wave-Wing Elemental
1 Windrider Patrol
1 Bloodbond Vampire
1 Carrier Thrall
2 Complete Disregard
1 Culling Drone
1 Demon's Grasp
1 Dominator Drone
1 Geyserfield Stalker
1 Grave Birthing
1 Grip of Desolation
1 Kalastria Nightwatch
1 Malakir Familiar
1 Mind Raker
1 Silent Skimmer
1 Skitterskin
1 Swarm Surge
Red
1 Crumble to Dust
1 Kozilek's Sentinel
1 Lavastep Raider
1 Molten Nursery
1 Nettle Drone
1 Outnumber
1 Reckless Cohort
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Shatterskull Recruit
1 Tunneling Geopede
1 Valakut Invoker
1 Call the Scions
1 Earthen Arms
1 Eyeless Watcher
1 Giant Mantis
1 Infuse with the Elements
1 Lifespring Druid
1 Natural Connection
1 Oran-Rief Hydra
2 Snapping Gnarlid
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Tajuru Beastmaster
1 Tajuru Stalwart
1 Unnatural Aggression
Gold
1 Brood Butcher
1 Grovetender Druids
1 March from the Tomb
Artifact
1 Slab Hammer
Land
1 Evolving Wilds
3 Fertile Thicket
2 Looming Spires
1 Shambling Vent
Initially I was running 2 Scour from Existences but ended up switching out one of them for Swarm Surge.
1 Bloodbond Vampire
1 Dominator Drone
1 Eldrazi Devastator
1 Geyserfield Stalker
1 Kalastria Nightwatch
1 Malakir Familiar
1 Mind Raker
1 Nettle Drone
2 Oblivion Sower
1 Shatterskull Recruit
1 Skitterskin
1 Tunneling Geopede
1 Valakut Invoker
2 Complete Disregard
1 Demon's Grasp
1 Grip of Desolation
1 Molten Nursery
1 Outnumber
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Scour from Existence
1 Swarm Surge
2 Looming Spires
6 Mountain
10 Swamp
Curve:
1 S
2
3 CCCCCSSSS
4 CCC
5 CCCSS
6 CCS
7 S
8 C
I am counting Rolling Thunder as a 5 cmc.
My deck's curve was really weird, I think I would have liked to smooth it out with one or two less 3 cmc creatures and maybe some 2 cmc creaures. I'm kinda at a loss about what to do here.
This is probably best-case-scenario thinking, but the sequence I was really hoping to fire off was to hit 6 land, cast Oblivion Sower ramping myself into Eldrazi Devastator. That never happened despite having both Sower and Devastator in my hand on multiple occasions but never being able to find a 6th land to play.
As you can see, I'm playing 18 lands in my deck because I don't have any creatures under 3 cmc and I have two 6 cmc creatures and an 8 cmc creature. As a result, I ended up having mana flooding problem. In one game I had a 7 land starting hand, and mulliganed down to a 5-land 6 card hand. One other occasions I had a 6-land 1 non-creature spell starting hand. Mana was rough the entire night.
In the first round I played against a UB Ingest deck that was a bit inconsistent. My deck did well against this deck despite flooding. In the second round I played against an RG landfall aggro deck. When this deck curved out I was already at less than half my life with only 4 lands on the table and possible 1 creature.
Any help would be appreciated.
This exactly. Traffic where I live (Los Angeles) is horrendous. I could easily see burning through a tank of gas by making multiple trips to the Targets and Walmarts in the area, just to end up empty-handed. At that point, it would have just been cheaper to pay the scalpers on Ebay - and I wouldn't have wasted all that time.
btw, good luck at prerelease tonight guys!
1 Ampryn Tactician
1 Auramancer
1 Aven Battle Priest
1 Grasp of the Hieromancer
1 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Healing Hands
2 Heavy Infantry
1 Knight of the Pilgrim's Road
1 Mighty Leap
1 Relic Seeker
2 Stalwart Aven
1 War Oracle
Blue
1 Anchor to the Æther
1 Claustrophobia
2 Deep-Sea Terror
1 Disperse
1 Displacement Wave
1 Maritime Guard
1 Mizzium Meddler
2 Ringwarden Owl
1 Scrapskin Drake
1 Screeching Skaab
1 Send to sleep
2 Turn to Frog
1 Deadbridge Shaman
1 Eyeblight Assassin
2 Eyeblight Massacre
1 Gnarlroot Trapper
1 Macabre Waltz
1 Malakir Cullblade
2 Nightsnare
1 Read the Bones
1 Revenant
1 Shambling Ghoul
1 Tainted Remedy
1 Thornbow Archer
1 Undead Servant
Red
1 Act of Treason
1 Akroan Sergeant
2 Bellows Lizard
1 Boggart Brute
2 Cobblebrute
1 Demolish
1 Dragon Fodder
1 Enthralling Victor
1 Ghirapur Æther Grid
1 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
1 Mage-Ring Bully
1 Magmatic Insight
1 Smash to Smithereens
1 Subterranean Scout
2 Aerial Volley
1 Elemental Bond
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Hitchclaw Recluse
1 Honored Hierarch
1 Llanowar empath
1 Might of the Masses
1 Reclaim
1 Rhox Maulers
1 Sylvan Messenger
1 Timberpack Wolf
1 Titanic Growth
1 Vine Snare
Gold
1 Blazing Hellhound
Artifact
1 Alchemist's Vial
2 Bonded Construct
1 Chief of the Foundry
1 Guardians of Meletis
1 Runed Servitor
1 War Horn
1 Ampryn Tactician
1 Auramancer
1 Heavy Infantry
1 Knight of the Pilgrim's Road
1 Maritime Guard
1 Mizzium Meddler
1 Relic Seeker
2 Ringwarden Owl
1 Runed Servitor
1 Scrapskin Drake
1 Screeching Skaab
2 Stalwart Aven
1 War Oracle
1 Anchor to the Æther
1 Claustrophobia
1 Disperse
1 Grasp of the Hieromancer
1 Mighty Leap
1 Send to sleep
2 Turn to frog
9 Island
8 Plains
Mana Curve:
2 CCCCSSSSSS
3 CCCCCSS
4 CCC
5 CCC
I attended three prereleases and consistently saw Wx decks do exceptionally well. WR and WG Renown decks seemed to win most matches at the events I attended. UW flyers also seemed strong. A few uncommons like Consul's Lieutenant and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch seemed really pushed. Is this what other people observed at their prerelease events?
I also played against a thopter deck, an elf deck, as well as a BR deck with lots of burn and 3xDragon Fodders. These decks seemed decent, but didn't seem to be as dominating as the White-based decks.
Which archetypes/color pairs did well at your prereleases? Will any archetypes/color pairs that did not do well in a sealed-prerelease format emerge as competitive in draft?