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

The Usual Crap

Section 1-Ask, and ye shall receive

So I was just bitching to Hot Sauce the other day about how they should totally reprint Skulltap. Probably I was upset about not drawing enough cards in my black decks. Anyways, I was going through the card preview archive for Shadowmoor today when lo, and behold...



I guess I should have been asking for a complete upgrade. This is teh nutz. I like drawing cards. I like commons. Sexay.

Section 2-Why do I have a sudden urge to play Flash?

Here's another one that I had somehow missed...



Okay, I know it's 8 mana. I know you only get it back once. I know it doesn't hit creatures. I know, okay? Still. This is definitely the type of card that gets the old best-case-scenario juices flowing.

I realize it's not as good as Hulk because it's not instant win, but Flash'ing this out kills 2 land, or a land and a mox or whatever and leaves you with a 5/5 trampler. Which is you know, good. Such a sexy reanimator target. Makeshift Mannequin anyone? It's not like you can't find ways to discard in the present standard.

Section 3- A Large Set? In Spring? You Bastards

With the Shadowmoor prerelease only a little over a week away, I find myself progressively more cheesed about the fact that Wizards is releasing a large set in spring. Don't get me wrong, I love me some cardboard crack and more cards is awesome. But I don't know what benefit we are getting here that we wouldn't be getting from a third set. Look, I know the primary motivation for the new SOP has to do with profit, but I did feel like R&D was going to do their best to make this totally worthwhile for us, given the extra scratch we'd (again) be laying out. When this was announced, I really (perhaps naively) expected that this was going to be awesome. Instead, I wonder how I am going to be acquiring chase rares from yet another 300+ card set. I could do what scoop_phase does and just ebay the money from redrafts and ignore my collection. But a large part of me really likes the collecting aspect of the game. Future Sight is the last set I didn't buy at least a box to crack and I really regret it. Sure, Tarmogoyf made that set eminently crackable, but didn't have the money at the time and it seems pretty pointless now that it's rotating in six months, especially with another large set barreling down the 'pike. I don't regret missing out on cracking Tarms anyways. What I really miss is having a random assortment of FS rares to loan people, trade, toss into EDHs and get deckbuilding fever from.

Section 4-A video



--CBG

Shadowmoor Wallpaper

Here is the newest glimpse of Shadowmoor. We have: Murderous Redcap, Reaper King, Grief Tyrant, Faerie Macabre and Ashenmoor Gouger. The Gouger is obviously red, while the Reaper King certainly looks Green. This means they are not in WUBRG order. Faerie Macabre is either Blue or Black, while the Redcap appears to be White(?). To me Grief Tyrant's possible color seems entirely ambiguous. Maybe the Tyrant is Blue and the Faerie Black. The Redcap's armor and weapon do not look at all White-aligned, so maybe the Kithkin-esque creatures of Shadowmoor have moved to Black. That would leave Grief Tyrant at White, which sort of makes sense. Thoughts?

Shadowmoor Previews

Well, the Shadowmoor Card Preview Archive is up at the Shadowmoor Minisite, but the only card on there as of today is Demigod of Revenge. However, over at MTGSalvation people have been busy with the Orb of Insight. I see a few old reprints that I will welcome back, assuming they're accurate. Prior to the Orb hitting the Shadowmoor spoiler over there had only basic lands and the Demigod. Not sure if MTGSalvation was just playing nice with Wizards on that one, or if Wizards was actually keeping that tight a lid on things. Anyway, they're there if you like spoilers.
T

Holy Crap

Good morning!

Hybrid is back (and apparently all over the place)!

Hmm...guessing time!

Sickle Ripper, 1B. Creature-Elemental Shaman. 2/1.

Loamdragger Giant, 4(G/R),(G/R),(G/R). Creature-Giant Warrior. When Loamdragger Giant CIP, you may return up to two target lands from your graveyard to your hand. 6/6.

Torpor Dust, 2(U/B). Instant. Hmmm... Destroy target Non-Faerie creature.

Boggart Arsonists, 2R. Creature-Goblin ?. 2R, sac Boggart Arsonists: Boggart Arsonists does 3 damage to target creature or player. 2/2.

Kinscaer Harpoonist, 3U. Creature-Kithkin Archer. U, T: Kinscaer Harpoonist does damage to attacking or blocking creature equal to the number of merfolk and kithkin you control. 2/2

Wanderbrine Rootcutters, 2(U/B),(U/B). Creature-Merfolk. When Wanderbrine Root-cutters CIP, destroy target treefolk. 3/2

Scar, (R/B). Instant. Put 2 -1/-1 counters on target creature.

Ballynock Cohort, 2W. Kithkin Rogue. First Strike. 2/2

Juvenile Gloomwidow, GG. Creature-Spider. Reach. Deathtouch. 2/2

Turn to Mist, 1(W/U). Instant. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by target creature this turn.

Blistering Dieflyn, 3R. Creature-Elemental. When Blistering Dieflyn becomes blocked, it deals 2 damage to each creature blocking it. 2/2.

Beseech the Queen (Here comes another HOLY CRAP moment) (2/B),(2/B),(2/B)-Sorcery. Umm? Draw 6 cards and lose 6 life? I have no idea.

Lurebound Scarecrow, 3. Artifact Creature-Construct. Lurebound Scarecrow must attack each turn, if able.

Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, (G/W),(G/W),(G/W). Creature-Elf Warrior. First Strike. Vigilance. 4/4.

Demigod of Revenge, (B/R),(B/R),(B/R),(B/R),(B/R). Creature-Demon Wizard. Flying, Trample. Whenever a creature deals damage to Demigod of Revenge, destroy that creature at end of combat. 5/5. Smells like a cycle to me.

Post your wild assed guesses in comments.