I am posting my sealed build, partly because I did well with it, but also because I can revisit it for laughs in a few months- when we know what is going on in the format. I regret not being able to play more blue/white, but I decide to go green/black for a few reasons. We had talked about how pairing enemy colors freed up more of the hybrid cards for inclusion. If I go G/B I only lose the W/U hybrid stuff, whereas if I go (for example) W/U I lose the hybrid G/R and the B/R stuff. I got to play most of my bombs this way as well. Maybe I should have gone W/B but then I lose dudes and gain removal. I tend to prefer running more dudes in sealed if possible, since sometimes you just win that way. The singleton mountain can be fetched by Farhaven Elf in case the Valleymaker is out.
Sealed Build:
8 Swamps
7 Forests
1 Mountain
1 Sapseep Forest
1 Medicine Runner A fine two drop, especially with persist guys.
1 Oracle of Nectars Bomb.
1 Rhys the Redeemed
2 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Juvenile Gloomwidow
1 Valleymaker He’s big.
1 Ashenmoor Gouger Turn three he is awesome.
1 Cultbrand Cinder Very solid.
1 Murderous Redcap Bomb.
1 Faerie Macabre Never regretted drawing her.
1 Inkfathom Infiltrator Solid.
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae Bomb.
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Barkshell Blessing
1 Shield of the Oversoul Your Mileage May Vary.
1 Giantbaiting Better than it looks.
2 Scar Gets persist guys to go away.
1 Incremental Blight Bomb.
1 Scarscale Ritual Quite good, especially against players with white removal that doesn’t kill your guys.
Sideboard:
Ballynock Cohort
Barrenton Medic
Goldenglow Moth
Inquisitor's Snare
Kithkin Rabble
Mistmeadow Skulk
Strip Bare
Curse of Chains
Mistmeadow Witch
Repel Intruders
Silkbind Faerie
Thistledown Duo
Consign to Dream
Deepchannel Mentor
Drowner Initiate
2 Kinscaer Harpoonist
2 Sinking Feeling
2 Whimwader
Fate Transfer
Helm of the Ghastlord
Oona's Gatewarden
Cinderhaze Wretch
Hollowsage
Smolder Initiate
Wound Reflection
Emberstrike Duo
Sootstoke Kindler
Bloodmark Mentor
Boggart Arsonists
Crimson Wisps
Intimidator Initiate
2 Mudbrawler Cohort
Power of Fire
Rustrazor Butcher
Smash to Smithereens
2 Runes of the Deus
2 Gloomwidow's Feast
Presence of Gond
2 Toil to Renown
Safewright Quest
Seedcradle Witch
Chainbreaker
Heap Doll
Madblind Mountain
Round One: White removal is really good.
I am mana flooded, but come out of the gates swinging Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers. Which is met with Curse of Chains. Then I drop Cultbrand Cinder. The first swing in- Inquisitor's Snare. Then I drop my Thornwatch Scarecrow. Nope. Gleeful Sabotage. I lose. Game two he plays his Wilt-Leaf Liege. Then he plays his foil Wilt-Leaf Liege. I could not resist doing the droll Captain Bondage Goth-esque “Nice. Open.” comment. He went on to go 3-1, losing only to our own Scoop_Phase (who 4-0ed the pod). Vengeance!
Lesson 1: Curse of Chains, Inquisitor's Snare, Last Breath, Prison Term. White may have the best removal at common and uncommon of all the colors in Shadowmoor. How often has that ever been said? Also, there will be that one time that you Curse of Chains your own dude that has an untap ability.
Lesson 2: You can run disenchants in the main. There are awesome enchantments, and lots of scarecrows. No fear. Do it.
Lesson 3: Finally, double Liege creatures are the bomb. Good luck opening them.
Round Two: Murderous Redcap is Amazing.
I play against a gentleman who is obviously pissed to be 0-1. He looks at me oddly when I shuffle his deck after he presents it. Game one I curve out with turn three Ashenmoor Gouger. I proceed to trade three of his guys for my Murderous Redcap. Win. Between games I go to shuffle his deck and he stops me, saying that I’m not allowed to do so, “Because it wears on the cards [he did not use sleeves] and is rude.” Dude is obviously pissed and I have no desire to be a jerk. I try to think of a way to tell him that actually, at higher level tournaments players are REQUIRED to shuffle their opponents decks, but instead of saying something that might diffuse the tension, I opt for “You don’t play at a lot of tournaments, do you?” I decided I did not need to bother trying to enlighten this opponent to the DCI floor rules, so just said “You know, never mind,” and cut his deck. I curve out again and win on 20 life. Afterward I apologize about the whole shuffling thing, telling him I didn’t mean anything by trying to shuffle his deck. He picks up his things, stands up, and walks away without responding.
Lesson 1: Murderous Redcap! Draft him. If you are green/white draft him. If you are blue/white draft him. If you are green friggin' blue draft him. No you can’t splash him. But if you are getting shipped Murderous Redcap at any point, more black and red will be coming your direction. I literally 4 for 1ed an opponent in my second draft of the day with him. It is entirely possible that he the best uncommon for limited in a set with tons of amazing uncommons.
Lesson 2: Sorry you’re losing man. I am all for good stewardship to less experienced players, but some guys are bound and determined to be pissed off, and not willing to learn anything either. I really do feel sorry for them, because I’ve been there. But the phrase “cutting off your nose to spite your face” comes to mind.
Round Three: Aggro Wins (also, don’t play with 47 card sealed decks).
Yeah, nobody reading this blog is going to learn anything by me recounting how hitting your land drops and curving out wins against opponents who can’t buildi a 40 card deck. Also Rhys the Redeemed is a reasonable rare. It really needs to be dealt with in about three or four turns, or sick things occur. I will say that my opponent was a genuinely pleasant human being who was enjoying himself regardless of wins or losses. We did some trading later. I think he had different reasons for being at the prerelease than I did. Nothing wrong with this.
Lesson 1: There is no lesson. Actually there is a red/black aggro deck (Giantbaiting FTW!) out there waiting to be built in draft, but that’s a story for another night.
Round Four: Down to the wire
Game one I am very flooded and he cannot take advantage of it. I feel like I am ready to win because my Faerie Macabre is plunking away, but then he gets a blocker. He could have won this game by choosing to attack about two turns earlier, but is uncertain and doesn’t press his advantage. When he finally has overwhelming board presence he comes in. Next turn I rip Oracle of Nectars and now I am gaining more life than he can attack for. He Memory Sluices with the conspire, milling 8 away. I have 7 cards left in my library. With almost no offense left on the board, I have to be seriously worried about decking. Then I rip… Oona, Queen of the Fae! The turn I cast her I still can mill him for four (yes, I had 11 mana. It was very late-game, I know), then I untap, mill for ten, GG. Game two is a race. I see a Prison Term I didn’t in game one, and it is the key for him. Also key were the two Gloomlances on two of my green guys. Rough Beats. I get him to 7 life, that’s it. Now we have five minutes for game 3. I know I can tempo him out with the right draw. I see what I want and I keep. He is a little slow on the play speed, but I only warn him once and he is moving just as fast as I am. I begin my attack with a few dudes on the board, swinging in for four a turn. He plinks me to 18 and then time is called. He leaves his only guy back as a blocker. He is at 12, me, 18. A judge is there immediately. I get turn one of extra turns. I have a decision to make. I can either play another guy and swing for 3 with my Raven's Run Dragoon (leaving my Medicine Runner back against his 2/3 blocker) and cast another dude or I can cast Incremental Blight targeting his 2/3, my Prison Termed Oracle of Nectars, and the Raven's Run Dragoon. Then I swing in to his empty board for 4. I only have 3 turns, and in three turns (if he has no other blockers) my four power of guys will get there. But if he drops another guy (with power less than three) next turn I can two for one him on the Incremental Blight. I decide that the chances of him laying another blocker with under two power are probably better than the chances of him laying no creatures at all, and so I swing for three, drop the extra dude (can’t remember what it was, but I think it was Faerie Macabre) and pass turn. Turn two of extra turns, he lays a one-butt. He has to play for the draw, even though at 2 wins 1 loss it gets him nothing, because he can’t race me when I’m at 18 and he’s at 9. So he passes turn with two blockers. I play the Incremental Blight, wipe his board, swing in for 7 (taking him to 2), he has no tricks to stop me. Turn four he lays a blocker but turn five my guys pile in and get there on the final turn! Hell of a match. He is a great sport and extends the hand, “Good game!”s all around, all that sort of thing.
Lesson 1: There is a mill deck floating around there somewhere. Scoops got milled for 12 cards in one turn. In sealed! Drowner Initiate turn 1, Drowner Initiate turn 2, turn 5 Memory Sluice with conspire, paying all four Drowner Initiate triggers. Opening Oona, Queen of the Fae would help, too.
Lesson 2: Play your bombs. But you already knew that. Oracle of Nectars. Oona, Queen of the Fae. This is sealed. Make the mana work.
Lesson 3: Incremental Blight is really good. Don’t expect to see these going too late around the draft table. Double black is a commitment, but it is really worth it.
I went 3-1 and got 3 packs. There are so many other cards I want to discuss, but I am out of time and energy tonight. Next week I want to discuss drafting Shadowmoor, and I will hopefully have a few more drafts under my belt to help.
T
Showing posts with label Shadowmoor Prerelease. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shadowmoor Prerelease. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Winning Out
So the prerelease was awesome. This was actually the very first large set prerelease event that I have ever entered, barring the one time I got to do a 2HG with a very new player on Sunday. I managed to bum a ride with the Captain and Hot Sauce. We arrived at the venue at 8:45 am for the 9:00 start and there were already dozens of people lined up outside. We ran into Pseudonymous Drama Student, but he had preregistered and got into flight 1. By the time we made it to the front of the line, it was flight 3. We got our product immediately upon paying and started registering. This is awesome. Go go gadget prerelease. The prerelease foil, Demigod of Revenge reminds me of the Guildpact foil. That is to say, I can see why they ordered an alternate art version of this.
I am not going to list all the cards in my pool because I can't link, but I will say that I had some very strong RG, but not quite enough playables and decided to go with a U/W/b build instead. Here's the cards and the build I played...
G/W Hybrid - no green sources
Safehold Elite-1(G/W)-Persist. 2/2. A bear that comes back and chumps after he's been outclassed.
Raven's Run Dragoon-2(G/W)(G/W)-Can't be blocked by black. 3/3. Hill Giant with an upside. This is sealed.
White - Primary color due to this...
Armored Ascension-3W-Aura-Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each Plains you control and has flying. Blanchwood armor just wins games without evasion. 'nuff said.
Niveous Wisps-W-Instant-Target creature becomes white until EOT. Cantrip. I played it as a one mana cantrip. ymmv.
Safehold Sentry-1W-2W,Q:Safehold Sentry gets +0/+2 until EOT. 2/2. I had to have the captain remind me to play my bears. Never actually used the ability, but the threat of it held off attacks a couple times. Would play again.
Rune-Cervin Rider-3W-Flying. (G/W)(G/W):Rune-Cervin Rider gets +1/+1 until EOT. A shade with evasion. Very solid though I didn't draw him much.
Prison Term-1WW-Aura-Enchanted creature can't attack or block and it's activated abilities can't be played. When a creature comes into play under your opponent's control, you may attach Prison Term to that creature. I only played this once and managed to stick it on a Giantbaiting token (rtfc, gets sacced EOT). I was really curious how good it would be and didn't get a chance to really explore it because I failed to draw it much.
Inquisitor's Snare-1W-Instant-Prevent all damage target attacking or blocking creature would deal this turn. If that creature is black or red, destroy it. All kinds of good.
Steel of the Godhead-2(U/W)-Aura-As long as enchanted creature is white, it gets +1/+1 and has lifelink. As long as enchanted creature is blue it gets +1/+1 and is unblockable. Nobody played any of these hybrid auras against me. They are pretty much nuts if you can maximize them. The GW is insane, and the BR is br-don-ken. UW is okay. Didn't run into the RG or UB, but how bad could they be if they can give +2/+2?
Glamer Spinners-4(U/W)-Flash. Flying. When Glamer spinners cip, attach all Auras enchanting target permanent to another permanent with the same controller. 2/4. Okay, this guys is being played because he is a flash 2/4 flier. the ability is occasionally relevant.
Godhead of Awe-(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)-Flying. Other creatures are 1/1. 4/4. Yeah, she just wins games. Often a one-sided Wrath of God. Kills anything with a -1/-1 counter on it. I failed to lose a game in which I cast her.
Barrenton Cragtreads-2(U/W)(U/W)-Can't be blocked by red creatures. 3/3. Hill Giant #2.
Consign to Dream-2U-Instant-Return target permanent to it's owner's hand. If that permanent is red or green, put it on top of it's owner's library instead. The more I play limited, the more I love bounce.
Merrow Wavebreakers-4U-1U,Q:Merrow Wavebreakers gains flying until EOT. 3/3. A flying vigilant 3/3. This is costed correctly, which means there are times you are not going to want to run him. Decidedly mediocre for me all day.
Faerie Swarm-3U-Flying. Faerie Swarm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of blue permanents you control. Usually and evasive 2/2. Sometimes better.
River's Grasp-3(U/B)-Sorcery-If U was spent to play River's Grasp, return up to one target creature to it's owner's hand. If B was spent to play River's Grasp, target player reveals his or her hand, you choose a nonland card from it, then that player discards that card. Bounce, removal, coercion...what's not to like?
Inkfathom Witch-1(U/B)-Fear. 2UB:Each unblocked creature becomes 4/1 until EOT. 1/1. Yeah, this one is awesome. I was moderately surprised, but there's a lot of evasion in the set.
2 Gloomlance-3BB-Destroy target creature. Destroy target creature. If that creature was green or white, its controller discards a card. Unconditional removal, which I needed. Sometimes boarded one our for a Torpor Dust if my opponent's curve was low.
Watchwing Scarecrow-4-Watchwing Scarecrow has vigilance as long as you control a white creature. Watchwing Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. 2/4. Scarecrows are the changelings of Shadowmoor. Very awesome in draft. I would expect them to settle in just below removal and bombs, though some are better than others. There is one which changes colors of things and fixes your mana and it's a 2/2 for 3. It is very, very awesome. Totally wrecked us in 2HG.
Lurebound Scarecrow-3-As Lurebound Scarecrow CIP, choose a color. When you control no permanents of the chosen color, sacrifice Lurebound Scarecrow. 4/4. A little marginal in sealed, but I think this is rather bomby in draft when you should be pretty close to monocolor.
Wingrattle Scarecrow-3-Wingrattle Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. Wingrattle Scarecrow has persist as long as you control a black creature. 2/2.
Pili-Pala-2-Flying. 2,Q:Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 1/1. Crappy color fixing is still color fixing. They seem to have really nerfed color-fixing in the format (at least among the cards I saw). I think you so need to really focus on using hybrid to the max. Pick two or three colors. If you have 3, avoid double costs on the border colors.
I also had a Mystic Gate which is the UW rare dual.
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Round 1-vs. UW control. I won game one on the back of a timely Godhead of Awe. He had a scarecrow that is a 6/6 for 5. It puts a -1/-1 counter on it at end of combat if it attacked or blocked. In other words, once Godhead was down, he couldn't do anything with his threat. Games 2 and 3 were very similar to one another, as he got down double 6/6 scarecrow both games. There wasn't a ton I could do about it and died. Only drew one Gloomlance and never saw the Prison Term. Not sure if that would have helped. It wasn't particularly close.
So my back was up against the wall right away, which I guess helped focus my efforts. The next round I was up against a guy who didn't do a whole ton but still managed to beat me game 1. Then, I killed him. Godhead of Awe totally got stranded in my hand with 4 UW sources and a swamp for like 3 turns. That mana cost looks easy, but one splash can kill it.
Round 3 was interesting in that I again lost game 1. I don't think my deck was nearly as powerful as some of the builds, but I think I had a pretty good grasp of operations management and that managed to get me there. I took game 2 on the back of Pili-Pala and Safehold Sentry. I had Godhead in hand and the mana to cast it, but his side of the board was empty and I didn't feel like playing into removal. He didn't cast anything for four turns and I took our slogan to heart. Sometimes all you need is a 1/1. Or a 1/1 and a 2/2. Anyways.
Round 4, I got paired up against a guy who must have had some amazing stuff that he didn't draw because I crushed him with Godhead in game 1, and a pantsed-up Glamer Spinners in game 2. Lifelinked, unblockable dudes with +1/+1 for each Plains are some good.
So, 3-1 and 6 packs. Hot. I think I agree with TS that the format is going to be pretty fast in general. I chose to play all day and never regretted it. Draft is going to be ridiculously fast, I think. There were people who were casting 4/4s on turn 3 and then pants-ing up for ridiculous evasive 6/6s all over the place. Thank goodness I lost my first round. Also, the dude who beat me round 1, totally went 3-0 and got paired up with the Captain in round 4. The Captain crushed him. Thank goodness for carmates. REVENGE!
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So then Pseudonymous Drama Student and I decided to pair up for the 2HG since Hot Sauce and The Captain were intending to do the same. We opened like fiends in GW, with Wilt-leaf Liege, the double stream of life, TWO Oracle of Nectars (2(G/W)-X,T:Gain X life.) Shield of the Oversoul (makes Oracle indestructible) and various and sundry, including 3 duals (one foil). The other deck was monored. Nice. Open. We thought our 3-0 chances were pretty good. We got our round 1 opponent down to 1. They bounced one dude to the top of the deck so we had to redraw it. Any guesses as to whether or not the top card was a burn spell when they killed us? We won rounds 2 and 3 handily. w00t for 3 more packs.
I hit up captain essex for 3 more packs so I have 4 sets total. All in all, a good take on the day. My tip: Lose in the first round and then win out from there.
I am not going to list all the cards in my pool because I can't link, but I will say that I had some very strong RG, but not quite enough playables and decided to go with a U/W/b build instead. Here's the cards and the build I played...
G/W Hybrid - no green sources
Safehold Elite-1(G/W)-Persist. 2/2. A bear that comes back and chumps after he's been outclassed.
Raven's Run Dragoon-2(G/W)(G/W)-Can't be blocked by black. 3/3. Hill Giant with an upside. This is sealed.
White - Primary color due to this...
Armored Ascension-3W-Aura-Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each Plains you control and has flying. Blanchwood armor just wins games without evasion. 'nuff said.
Niveous Wisps-W-Instant-Target creature becomes white until EOT. Cantrip. I played it as a one mana cantrip. ymmv.
Safehold Sentry-1W-2W,Q:Safehold Sentry gets +0/+2 until EOT. 2/2. I had to have the captain remind me to play my bears. Never actually used the ability, but the threat of it held off attacks a couple times. Would play again.
Rune-Cervin Rider-3W-Flying. (G/W)(G/W):Rune-Cervin Rider gets +1/+1 until EOT. A shade with evasion. Very solid though I didn't draw him much.
Prison Term-1WW-Aura-Enchanted creature can't attack or block and it's activated abilities can't be played. When a creature comes into play under your opponent's control, you may attach Prison Term to that creature. I only played this once and managed to stick it on a Giantbaiting token (rtfc, gets sacced EOT). I was really curious how good it would be and didn't get a chance to really explore it because I failed to draw it much.
Inquisitor's Snare-1W-Instant-Prevent all damage target attacking or blocking creature would deal this turn. If that creature is black or red, destroy it. All kinds of good.
Steel of the Godhead-2(U/W)-Aura-As long as enchanted creature is white, it gets +1/+1 and has lifelink. As long as enchanted creature is blue it gets +1/+1 and is unblockable. Nobody played any of these hybrid auras against me. They are pretty much nuts if you can maximize them. The GW is insane, and the BR is br-don-ken. UW is okay. Didn't run into the RG or UB, but how bad could they be if they can give +2/+2?
Glamer Spinners-4(U/W)-Flash. Flying. When Glamer spinners cip, attach all Auras enchanting target permanent to another permanent with the same controller. 2/4. Okay, this guys is being played because he is a flash 2/4 flier. the ability is occasionally relevant.
Godhead of Awe-(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)(U/W)-Flying. Other creatures are 1/1. 4/4. Yeah, she just wins games. Often a one-sided Wrath of God. Kills anything with a -1/-1 counter on it. I failed to lose a game in which I cast her.
Barrenton Cragtreads-2(U/W)(U/W)-Can't be blocked by red creatures. 3/3. Hill Giant #2.
Consign to Dream-2U-Instant-Return target permanent to it's owner's hand. If that permanent is red or green, put it on top of it's owner's library instead. The more I play limited, the more I love bounce.
Merrow Wavebreakers-4U-1U,Q:Merrow Wavebreakers gains flying until EOT. 3/3. A flying vigilant 3/3. This is costed correctly, which means there are times you are not going to want to run him. Decidedly mediocre for me all day.
Faerie Swarm-3U-Flying. Faerie Swarm's power and toughness are each equal to the number of blue permanents you control. Usually and evasive 2/2. Sometimes better.
River's Grasp-3(U/B)-Sorcery-If U was spent to play River's Grasp, return up to one target creature to it's owner's hand. If B was spent to play River's Grasp, target player reveals his or her hand, you choose a nonland card from it, then that player discards that card. Bounce, removal, coercion...what's not to like?
Inkfathom Witch-1(U/B)-Fear. 2UB:Each unblocked creature becomes 4/1 until EOT. 1/1. Yeah, this one is awesome. I was moderately surprised, but there's a lot of evasion in the set.
2 Gloomlance-3BB-Destroy target creature. Destroy target creature. If that creature was green or white, its controller discards a card. Unconditional removal, which I needed. Sometimes boarded one our for a Torpor Dust if my opponent's curve was low.
Watchwing Scarecrow-4-Watchwing Scarecrow has vigilance as long as you control a white creature. Watchwing Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. 2/4. Scarecrows are the changelings of Shadowmoor. Very awesome in draft. I would expect them to settle in just below removal and bombs, though some are better than others. There is one which changes colors of things and fixes your mana and it's a 2/2 for 3. It is very, very awesome. Totally wrecked us in 2HG.
Lurebound Scarecrow-3-As Lurebound Scarecrow CIP, choose a color. When you control no permanents of the chosen color, sacrifice Lurebound Scarecrow. 4/4. A little marginal in sealed, but I think this is rather bomby in draft when you should be pretty close to monocolor.
Wingrattle Scarecrow-3-Wingrattle Scarecrow has flying as long as you control a blue creature. Wingrattle Scarecrow has persist as long as you control a black creature. 2/2.
Pili-Pala-2-Flying. 2,Q:Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. 1/1. Crappy color fixing is still color fixing. They seem to have really nerfed color-fixing in the format (at least among the cards I saw). I think you so need to really focus on using hybrid to the max. Pick two or three colors. If you have 3, avoid double costs on the border colors.
I also had a Mystic Gate which is the UW rare dual.
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Round 1-vs. UW control. I won game one on the back of a timely Godhead of Awe. He had a scarecrow that is a 6/6 for 5. It puts a -1/-1 counter on it at end of combat if it attacked or blocked. In other words, once Godhead was down, he couldn't do anything with his threat. Games 2 and 3 were very similar to one another, as he got down double 6/6 scarecrow both games. There wasn't a ton I could do about it and died. Only drew one Gloomlance and never saw the Prison Term. Not sure if that would have helped. It wasn't particularly close.
So my back was up against the wall right away, which I guess helped focus my efforts. The next round I was up against a guy who didn't do a whole ton but still managed to beat me game 1. Then, I killed him. Godhead of Awe totally got stranded in my hand with 4 UW sources and a swamp for like 3 turns. That mana cost looks easy, but one splash can kill it.
Round 3 was interesting in that I again lost game 1. I don't think my deck was nearly as powerful as some of the builds, but I think I had a pretty good grasp of operations management and that managed to get me there. I took game 2 on the back of Pili-Pala and Safehold Sentry. I had Godhead in hand and the mana to cast it, but his side of the board was empty and I didn't feel like playing into removal. He didn't cast anything for four turns and I took our slogan to heart. Sometimes all you need is a 1/1. Or a 1/1 and a 2/2. Anyways.
Round 4, I got paired up against a guy who must have had some amazing stuff that he didn't draw because I crushed him with Godhead in game 1, and a pantsed-up Glamer Spinners in game 2. Lifelinked, unblockable dudes with +1/+1 for each Plains are some good.
So, 3-1 and 6 packs. Hot. I think I agree with TS that the format is going to be pretty fast in general. I chose to play all day and never regretted it. Draft is going to be ridiculously fast, I think. There were people who were casting 4/4s on turn 3 and then pants-ing up for ridiculous evasive 6/6s all over the place. Thank goodness I lost my first round. Also, the dude who beat me round 1, totally went 3-0 and got paired up with the Captain in round 4. The Captain crushed him. Thank goodness for carmates. REVENGE!
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So then Pseudonymous Drama Student and I decided to pair up for the 2HG since Hot Sauce and The Captain were intending to do the same. We opened like fiends in GW, with Wilt-leaf Liege, the double stream of life, TWO Oracle of Nectars (2(G/W)-X,T:Gain X life.) Shield of the Oversoul (makes Oracle indestructible) and various and sundry, including 3 duals (one foil). The other deck was monored. Nice. Open. We thought our 3-0 chances were pretty good. We got our round 1 opponent down to 1. They bounced one dude to the top of the deck so we had to redraw it. Any guesses as to whether or not the top card was a burn spell when they killed us? We won rounds 2 and 3 handily. w00t for 3 more packs.
I hit up captain essex for 3 more packs so I have 4 sets total. All in all, a good take on the day. My tip: Lose in the first round and then win out from there.
Friday, April 18, 2008
A Speedy Note on Shadowmoor Sealed
I might as well throw this out before the Prerelease, in case I'm actually right. Is anyone else concerned about how fast Shadowmoor Limited formats are going to be? Judging from the cards we've seen so far, numerous color combinations have incredibly aggressive early drops at uncommon, moreso than any format I can recall. I assume the commons will be less awesome, but DAMN. Just looking at officially spoiled cards, Wasp Lancer, Ashenmoor Gouger, Tattermunge Witch, Inkfathom Infiltrator, Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, Tattermunge Maniac, Plumeveil, and of course, Kitchen Finks, are all uncommon! Hell, Ballynock Cohort and the tempo machine Aethertow are COMMON! Will it all be over by turn 6? In sealed?! I know Evan Erwin is telling you to always draw in sealed, but I think this might be a format to be on the play. Think about a mono green draft deck with Tattermunge Witch and Maniac, Cavaliers, Finks and maybe a Wilt-Leaf Leige at rare. Don't worry about color fixing. You're mono. Just curve out, turn five Tower Above FTW. I personally will not be keeping any slow hands tomorrow, especially if I am on the draw.
T
T
Thursday, April 17, 2008
New Big Set!!
If you can't tell by the title that I am excited, then you don't have a pulse. While I am a casual player at heart, I enjoy going to a prerelease more than anything, with Big Sets taking top billing. I am not a morning person, but will gladly get up before the sun so that I can be in one of the first pods in some far off location (this time Chicago's west side). I am not quite sure which I enjoy more, sealed Big Set Prerelease or draft Big Set Prerelease.
While I do intend to agree with Coyote that Wizards is being obvious with some of the new game mechanics, I won't let that curb my enthusiasm (and for the record that show is absolutely awful and unfunny). I will gladly sit down with my bag of hundreds of counters and shuffle up with everyone else.
As far as going to Madison versus Chicago debate, to me it is a choice between: Quality Judging (Madison) & less competitive play (Chicago) (When I say less competitive play I mean fewer players who take this too seriously, after all it is a prerelase not a PTQ, i.e. fewer jerks). To me personally, I am on the fence and could go either way. However for others it is a mater of Geography. Our play group is scattered around the metro area and for some Chicago is closer and others Madison is closer. What really complicates this is that Madison's location is constant and Chicago's location moves around.
I won't really get in to the specifics of the cards, as I haven't been really paying too much attention to the previewed cards specifically. I tend to take the view that the individual cards aren't as import to know, as having an understanding of the mechanics and potential synergies, when going into a prerelease. Call it flawed if you must but that is my opinion.
Well, to those of you going to the prerelease, safe travels, may you get passed good cards (if you do deck swaps, if not may you open well), but most importantly have fun.
While I do intend to agree with Coyote that Wizards is being obvious with some of the new game mechanics, I won't let that curb my enthusiasm (and for the record that show is absolutely awful and unfunny). I will gladly sit down with my bag of hundreds of counters and shuffle up with everyone else.
As far as going to Madison versus Chicago debate, to me it is a choice between: Quality Judging (Madison) & less competitive play (Chicago) (When I say less competitive play I mean fewer players who take this too seriously, after all it is a prerelase not a PTQ, i.e. fewer jerks). To me personally, I am on the fence and could go either way. However for others it is a mater of Geography. Our play group is scattered around the metro area and for some Chicago is closer and others Madison is closer. What really complicates this is that Madison's location is constant and Chicago's location moves around.
I won't really get in to the specifics of the cards, as I haven't been really paying too much attention to the previewed cards specifically. I tend to take the view that the individual cards aren't as import to know, as having an understanding of the mechanics and potential synergies, when going into a prerelease. Call it flawed if you must but that is my opinion.
Well, to those of you going to the prerelease, safe travels, may you get passed good cards (if you do deck swaps, if not may you open well), but most importantly have fun.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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
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
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