Shadowmoor Prerelease and Elder Dragon Highlander, Sek'Kuar.

Ahh, the spring Prerelease is almost here! Time to put away the shovel, shave off the beard, and rejoin the 40-odd contiguous states that are not bound in ice for 8 months a year. It is also time to witness the completion of a draft archetype with the third set of the bl… what? You mean there is no third set this time around? You mean there’s a second large set this year? What’s that you say? Reading sentences only ending in questions marks isn’t entertaining you? Well shit. That was supposed to be the schtick for another four paragraphs.
Seriously, there are some positives and negatives to doing this whole large set-small set thing twice in one year. I am a fan of drafting three different packs in a draft. I really think that there’s kind of a purity to that old three block system which the Lor-Lor-Mor thing really can’t approximate. (Then again, I am a fan of Carroll draft, with 24 unique packs, so what do you expect?) Does that make me a Melvin? I’ll be honest, I can’t tell, because I read that article more than once and still have no god damned idea what a Melvin is. So, that’s one negative. Another bad thing about this whole second big set of the year is that we have to buy more cards. (See how I did that? As if we have no choice in the matter at all! Wizards of the Coast releases product, and we MUST buy three boxes of it! Actually, I can’t even tell if that last sentence was sarcastic or not. Because that is exactly what happens. Maybe people like us don’t have a choice in the matter…) I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there is not quite really, but pretty much unofficially, actually, IS this whole United States recession going on right now. For a variety of reasons which I don’t understand, food costs like one and half times as much as it did a year ago and gasoline costs as much a gallon as pack of Morningtide at Games by James. (I just found out Games by James is not a national chain. Sorry, guys.) And no, you can’t borrow against the equity in your house ‘cause there isn’t any left and the value of the dollar is worthless and all our kids are going to have to work in Chinese strip clubs just rent a shitty flat in West Allis ‘cause they’re gonna own us and the world is going to HELL! Jesus I am getting old, all ranty and shit. All right. Back under control. The point is I am guessing that most of you have less disposable income right about now to throw at cardboard crack. So that’s a problem with releasing this whole second big set too.
Now to the positives. Well, one actually. The large set prerelease is my favorite prerelease of the year!!!! No one knows what the hell they are doing and it is super fun to look at your sealed pool or draft deck about six months later and just laugh at how terribly you misbuilt your starting forty. It is super enjoyable to just throw stuff together on a hunch to see what works. It is also the best time of year to be ahead of the learning curve.
I was going to do a quick run down on combat tricks and instant-speed removal from MTG Salvation, but I know some of you guys don’t want to have cards spoiled and there are also surprisingly few commons that have been spoiled thus far, making it a useless exercise.
I will, however, hopefully provide a recap of the action next week, along with soon-to-be hilarious decklists after everyone figures out the format. On to EDH!

Tuning Sek’Kuar

I officially debuted my Sek’kuar EDH deck during our last multiplayer night. It went alright. I took one game. But there are a lot of things it needs to do better.

Color-fixing: I got mana screwed in numerous games, and kept some hands which I shouldn’t have (although that can be tech against reactive opponents), but the biggest issue was not having enough mana in the colors I needed. I have been running a basic land-heavy theme since green is so great at getting basic out of the deck. But I need to skew more toward duals, because that shit just wasn’t getting there. I’d love to drop $60-$75 on singleton copies of the relevant original duals, but that ain’t happening right now (see the above recession rant). So I will have to up the non-basic count to compensate. It really should not impinge too much on the mana search capabilities of the deck, since I can still run 5-6 copies of each of the basics.


Mana Ramping: I need more of it! I’m green and went with more flexible tutoring instead of “put in to play” type cards. (Think Evolution Charm instead of Kodama’s Reach for an example. The Charm works great with my recursion theme, but if I can’t CAST my dude that I return, who cares!)


Draw-replacing Tutor abilites: I had Elemental Harbinger in the deck because of all the kick-ass Evoke guys in my deck, but man, I really can’t afford to wait a whole turn in multiplayer to get my Shriekmaw or Ingot Chewer. Shit needs to die NOW. And I lose my next draw step. And I really thought Volrath’s Stronghold was busted! It’s not! It is SO not worth the mana and losing your draw step to get back some shitty utility creature. Volrath’s Stronghold should have a sign that says “Bomb Ass Creatures Only Please” because spending seven mana and losing your draw step to replay your Indrik Stomphowler will NOT win you the game. It will piss off your opponents one by one and they will kill you with their Dragons and Angels, which is what you should have been bringing back with the Stronghold in the first place.


More Hammer! Less Scalpel! Maybe I just can’t build a utility deck, man. Know how many times I recurred Ingot Chewer against Tabasco? Three! Know how many artifacts he had in play after this? Four! I need a fucking Shatterstorm. Targeted removal sux in EDH. In another game I cast Krosan Grip and needed to ask myself whether to cack The Door of Destinies, the Mirari’s Wake, the SoFI, or the Skullclamp. When you are asking yourself that question, you already have lost. What can a guy do? I can’t use my awesome creature-based graveyard recursion to get back a Tranquility or Shatterstorm. I guess I just need to run more old-fashioned card advantage generators.


Using Overrun effects to win was a pipe dream. Garruk is awesome, and still has a place in the deck, but he and his ilk will not be winning me the game with numerous hasty 6/4 trampling Graveborn tokens, as I had hoped. I cannot seem to keep more than one creature on the board at once, let alone get my General out as well. Netting a single token after a Wrath effect is pretty weak. I need to find another way to Just Win.


The good news: Sek’Kuar isn’t a bad General. He usually stuck around and when he was out I felt a lot safer against board sweepers. The deck idea is salvageable, I think.


More good news: Reanimation effects are teh nutz. I HATE casting my guys multiple times from hand, but I LOVE ripping them out of the graveyard for 2 to 4 mana. I need to pack more of these, and then find ways to draw them, cause they win me games.


The final good news: My colors have good threats to add. I was basically trying to go as “pure” a recursion deck as possible, with only comes in to play effect dudes included, so that my guys all did something right away, before they inevitably got killed. But now I know I also need some Big Scary Dudes in the mix too. They jump out of the grave just as quickly, if beckoned, and they help win games better than 2/1 echo guys that cantrip when they CIP.

T

Zvi agrees with Fugie

Horde! FTW!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/worlds07/fm6

Nice. Consuming Bonfire out of the graveyard off WUBRG. Why didn't I think of that?

What have we learned?

(1) My blue was a lot better on paper than in real life. In 4 matches, I think I picked up a total of 2 games. I would have sold my soul for a Mulldrifter.

(2) Playing multiple builds doesn't work when there are so many people. We should do an inner-circle testing session just for that. Sorry TS and Major_luck. You guys definitely had the correct mindset. My fault for not planning better.

(3) When you get 8 Magic players together, they will draft. Even if 4 of them are supposed to be practicing for a sealed ptq. Even if it's 10 pm and 4 of them have a vintage tourney with a playset of Bazaars on the line in 12 hours. Even if one of them has a wife who wouldn't mind getting to sleep sometime. They will draft.

(4) The Elemental deck works okay. You really have to be the only one at the table. But it works. It helps to have somebody passing all the good red in favor of Flamekin Bladewhirls. It also helps to get 2 X Mulldrifter, 2 X Aethersnipe, and 2 X Smokebraider. Was the phrase, "It's a 1/1!" heard? Yes, it was. Also heard was, "I'll hardcast Mulldrifter on turn 3" and "I think I just win now. You're on 18? Yeah. Good games."

(5) Mulldrifter has flying. Yes, I know I should have known this. If you ever needed any kind of proof that development is unreasonably fond of blue, think of this. Counsel of the Soratami reads 2U, draw 2 cards. Mulldrifter costs 4U as a hardcast. So apparently, the correct costing of a 2/2 flier is 2 colorless. Or something like that. I realize that isn't quite how the evoke creatures are costed. But holy cow. I would hardcast Mulldrifter for 7. Would that be a lot worse? Yes! But it would still be playable at 7. Sheesh.

Edit to add: I actually checked Gatherer twice while writing point 5 despite the fact that I hardcast the damn thing like 5 times last night. So. Broken.

Elementals in Lorwyn Draft

We celebrated the release of Lorywn with a 5 man last night. We played round robin, I guess to get as much experience with the new cards as possible. I ended up in 2nd with an E/g/b deck (translation: elementals splashing for giants and goblins). Somebody (rhymes with MooBombastic) managed to draft 2 Lilliana (!) and took the whole shebang. Note to self: Briarhorn is the nut high in Limited. Its an instant speed Hill Giant with a Giant Growth attached. Seems fair.

So elementals haven't gotten a ton of love in the few Lorwyn draft articles I have read so far. People seem pretty fond of faeries and kithkin, though I confess I haven't read everything out there. I was able to go mono red. The biggest problem with the elementals is how small most of em are. I sure felt like I was playing a lot of one butts. Here's the deck I drafted...

2 Flamekin Bladewhirl (These weren't quite as strong as I expected. A 2/1 on turn 1 is nice, don't get me wrong, but everything blocks and kills it, and everybody is running weenies)
1 Flamekin Brawler (Blocks well and combos nicely with Ceaseless Searblades)
1 Needle Drop (Totally worth it, even just to cycle for R)
1 Tarfire (This is good, but I took it over a Hostility, hoping that would wheel. That was dumb)
1 Adder-Staff Boggart (Can someone please explain to me why I thought this was a first striker? Memories of Boros, maybe? Nonetheless, very strong card)
2 Soulbright Flamekin (Again, combos with the Ceaseless Searblades, nicely costed, relevant ability for giants)
1 Smokebraider (Would have been even better if I had remembered I could cast Hostility with it)
2 Fire-Belly Changeling (It's been mentioned that changelings are awesome. This is so nuts good. Whomever claims that the Changeling ability makes Mistform Ultimus less special should be shot. The comment may be true, but the changelings absolutely make these tribal decks flow. Tribe synergies are just as important as color and Changeling makes it work. The Fire-Bellys also combo nicely with Ceaseless Searblades)
2 Mudbutton Torchrunner (These were subpar versus the Faerie deck, since I have no way to get them killed, but they are very solid removal against everybody else. And they go to the face (relevant against planeswalkers)!)
1 Stinkdrinker Daredevil (This is so much better than I expected, since it enables the changelings as well and lowers the cost of Giant's Ire (which I think is being undervalued))
2 Inner-Flame Acolyte (I didn't evoke one of these all day. Why bother when it's a 4/2 haste for 3?)
1 Ceaseless Searblades (There were 3 games of 10 where this ability was really relevant, but wow is it ever relevant. Picture a board of Searblades, Soulbright Flamekin, Flamekin Brawler and 6 Mountains. Attack with Searblades and Flamekin Brawler, activate the Soulbright 3 times (Searblades becomes 5/4 with trample), add 8 mana to your pool and activate the Brawler 8 times (Searblades is 13/4 with trample, Brawler is 8/2 with trample). Seems okay, amiright?)
2 Giant's Ire (People always seems to undervalue Lava Axe effects but with any changeling and a Stinkdrinker in play, this says, 1R, deal 4 damage to target opponent and draw a card. That is nuts)
1 Changeling Berserker (This is good, obv)
1 Ingot Chewer ( So few relevant artifacts, but the body is nice in an archetype a little lacking in fat. On the plus side, the artifacts you are likely to hit are generally manafixing)
1 Sunrise Sovereign ( Changelings, duh)
1 Hostility (My stupidity paid off, as there were 2 in the pool. I still should have taken the first one over the Tarfire. Dumb interaction #476...Hostility, changeling and Stinkdrinker in play. Giant's Ire reads, 1R, put 4(!) hasty 3/1 elementals in play, draw a card. 12 power for 2 mana. Seems fair)
1 Hearthcage Giant (Rawr)
16 Mountain

Maybe this should be 17 land, but the elementals allow you to cheat the high mana cost stuff a lot. The deck usually plays nice, but if they have a way to remove your weenies, you are in a world of hurt, cuz you need those guys to commit shenanigans late in the game. Did beat an active Mirror Entity in the last game of the night though, so I was pretty happy with it. Release event on Sunday!

--CBG

PS Thank you Major_Luck, for correcting my game state. I am not being sarcastic. You make me a better player, even though I call you a dick for it. Thank you for not killing me, also.