I sat the promo and felt good about it, though against any deck with an appreciable number of fliers I'd have subbed it for Evangel. I ended up facing 3 G/W decks, so that was never an issue. I thought Ray of Revelation was going to be a lot better than any of the various board cards with Archetypes running around, but I boarded it out each round, though I'm not sure it was incorrect to run it. In general I feel like Cavalry Pegasus got a lot better in this set, as I noticed a lot of random creatures were Humans, and Ornitharch is as good as advertised, if not better.
I enjoyed the seeded pack experience much more than I thought I ever would, but I guess 4-0ing helps.
Picked the red promo. Played RU and splashed green for Xenagos. Went 4-0-1. Tied for 2nd and 3rd with my best friend. We got paired up in round 5 with one other player at 4-0. We considered playing it out but when we mentioned possibly taking the draw (and getting 1st and 2nd if the other 4-0 guy lost) a lot of people emplored us to take the draw so there wouldn't be a round six. Since we had things to do and the tournament started late we were happy to oblige. Still had to wait for the other guy to play out his match to see if we'd get 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd but that was ok, still no round six. The place I go to really needs to start them earlier, on time, and not give an hour for deck building.
My deck was really strong and pretty much ran everyone over, only lost one game to getting stuck on two mana till turn 7. Had good control with blue and good beats with red. I'd take a bit of a beating early game and then take control and smash. My favorite was this: I was at 1, he was at 3 with some tapped ground dudes and 5/5 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix untapped. I was on the go and had only Spellheart Chimera out at 1 power. Played a Xenagos, God of Revels, played a Titan's Strength targeting my Chimera (putting it's power 5). Went to combat, targeted my Chimera with Xenagos, swung in for 10 trample in the air and the win.
Xenagos was really strong. Many times I'd play him and have no creatures out and they'd tap out attacking into me and then I'd play a dude and swing at them for a lot. On one I played that 5/2 guy, then titan's strength on him and swung for 16. It was good.
I think my favorite thing though was that I had one of those rare days when I got to play every card in my deck at least once. I hate it when I have some great cards that I never see throughout the day.
Man, I wish I could play sealed more often, there really isn't enough support for it in my area.
Went Blue and ended up with a (rather good) UW Heroic pool. 2x Akroan Skyguards, 2x Wingsteed Riders, 2 Ordeals, Crpysis, Glimpse the Sun God, etc. I got turn 2 Skyguard into turn 3 Ordeal really consistently and that ran over most decks. My only loss was to a guy who got the entire Xenagos family in his pool: Xenagos, Xenagod, and the Fanatic.
The real story of the night, however, was my apparent unholy "luck" with rares. Seeded booster had a Mindreaver. Last booster for my pool had a Mindreaver. What was in my last prize pack?
This was my first prerelease, and I picked blue. I went BG after picking Mistcutter Hydra, Courser of Kruphix, And Tromokratis. The local store was hosting a four-round tournemant, and my deck was pretty neat. First match I lost 1-2, the final game tense until my opponent knocked out my Archetype of Imagination. I learned that Mistcutter Hydra was pretty powerful. Second match I won 2-0 easily, Courser of Kruphix helping me play Tromokratis. Third match was tense, Mistcutter Hydra winning me a 2-1. Fourth match was totally my favorite. The dude I was playing was really nice, and was a good opponent. First game lost after drawing Forests and blue cards. Second game won with Mistcutter Hydra, where my opponent faced the same dilemma as I had in the last game. Third game my opponent got a bunch of creatures, but I held up pretty well, keeping my hand with 6 land. It totally paid off after drawing Tromokratis. One turn later, I tap all my land, play Tromokratis, and say "Good game." My opponent picks it up, looks at it, nods, and puts it down. He then picked it up again, looked at it, and said, "Wow." He defended well, and when he got a Sedge Scorpion, I thought I was sunk. Then two turns later, I drew Crypsis, and swung for eight while he was on one life. My four packs gave me a great feeling, being the first matches ever won in a mtg tournament.
Was my first ever event. I've drafted some THS online, but no MTG experience other than that.
I chose U as my seeded pack color, and was really happy with my pool. I got strong W cards, so I thought that was my 2nd strongest color. But looking into my pool in retrospect, I probably should've scrapped my W cards and gone U/G Heroic.
Spear pulled me towards aggro for some reason, while control skewed play would've been much stronger in my U/W pool.
Also I got a lot of solid 2-drops in B and W, and combined with the spear, this pulled me into these colors.
I went 2-2-2.
I regret playing W, because I have so many strong G heroic creatures. Going U/G Heroic / tempo would probably a lot stronger, and playing spear leads to very long games unless I have a very aggressive deck (which I didn't have so..).
Notes to self for next event:
1) Play faster.
2) Try to skew more heavily towards either aggressive or control, not get stuck somewhere in between.
3) Probably not get as strong pool as I did now, which is a bit sad.
Well well, 2-2-2 was a decent result as my first event. And I'm looking forward to the next one.
Edit:
Can also mention that I lost 2-1 to a player running 2x Charging Badger, where game 3 I was 1 damage short of winning (had Tromokratis in play). That was really sad. Although she also had Prophet of Kruphix, 2x Nyxborn Wolf and a Siren of the Fanged Coast. So it was a very strong deck, not sure why the badgers were in there, cause she played very solid. The Siren was sooo gamebreaking every time I saw it during the event.
Wow - surprising number of first timers! Glad you had fun. Thanks for taking the time to do writeups! (That goes for everyone else too - I've been loving this thread!)
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(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
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MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
This was my second prerelease. I ended up playing both events on Saturday.
The first time I pick the green pack and ended up going G/W heroic. I was lucky that I got the g/w scry land in my pack as well as a few decent heroic creatures, such as the Hero of Iroas and several bestow creatures. I enjoyed all the mechanics and ended up going 3-1 at the event and won 5 boosters. I opened up a Xenagos, god of revels, 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, a Perplexing Chimera, a Chromanticore and a foil Nessian Wilds Ravager. So this just about paid for the first event.
The next event I picked blue and ended up going U/W. I would have like to done heroic but I barely got any heroic cards. I also got the u/w scry land to help out some. I had lots of low cost creatures to put hurt on them early and a few higher costed ones to hold them off until I got something that can get through for damage. I also had several cards to stall them, such as Nullify and Revoke Existence. Hold at Bay also helped out several times, letting me play long enough to squeak out a win. I ended up going 3-2 and I won 3 packs. I got a Temple of Malice and a few other cards that I can quite remember at the moment.
I also got several cards that I plan on adding to my standard decks. I just wish I saw more tribute and inspired mechanics in my pools. The one tribute I had was Ornitharch, and she was nice because I was able to pump the two birds I got from her up with Reap What is Sown and use them to take out a 7/7 Polukranos, after he tried to kill those same two birds. And the only good inspired mechanic I got to use was the gain 2 life one, I never really got to use my promo card's inspired mechanic in the second event.
Not a whole lot of excitement, except for Forgestoker + archetype of finality. That caught people off guard big time. "activate the dragon three times. targeting each of your creatures. He has death touch." Quite confused as to how he had death touch.
Got some good stuff, though, in my kit:
Kiora
Thoughtseize
Satyr firedancer other stuff
Boon Satyr
other stuff
Then, in my two prize packs, pulled a temple of malice, which I wanted for my minotaur deck.
I went 3-2 with the deck, loosing the first place player who was playing mono-white with two Eidolon of Countless Battles and two the 3rd place player who was playing two Arbiter of the Ideal with HEAVY blue black control. I think red is second tier in sealed as your limited on cards that are need for fast aggro. Elite Skirmisherand Everflame Eidolon are cards I can see being good in draft, but I didn't feel they pulled their weight in sealed. The primary weakness I found with the deck is that most of the red removal was hitting at 3 damage, which is really easy to get above.
Well, now that the site's done updating, I can finally post my story.
My local game store runs 2HG Sealed on Saturday (which I don't go to) and regular Sealed on Sunday, so I got to spend all day Saturday reading reddit and MTGS prerelease stories to glean information on what color to pick for the Sealed prerelease. I pretty much affirmed what I had already suspected and heard - blue or green was the way to go.
As it stood, when I got there I picked blue - Retraction Helix has to be the best common in the new set, not close, and I wanted to have as many chances as possible to crack them. Unfortunately, when I got my pool, not only did I not open any at all...but I didn't open much of anything.
Notable points in my pool:
- Only three two drops out of all five colors - one of which being Mindreaver, my rare in the seeded pack
- Three Gray Merchant of Asphodels and only two other black permanents in my pool
- The start to an aggressive white deck, but not enough to build around
- A red pool with only a smattering of burn spells and aggressive cards
+ Opening Xenagos, the Reveler and Bow of Nylea strongly incentivized me to want to at least play green and splash for red if possible
+ A blue pool that had double Divination alongside double Griptide and other solid blue playables
My game store, fortunately, gives a full hour for people to build their sealed pools - and I used all sixty minutes grueling over what to play. I tried almost every possible color combination, mixing and matching various colors to figure out a workable curve, before finally resigning myself to fate and registering the following:
- "Charging Badger maindeck? Wha?" I received a lot of laughs about this, but the deck was starved on low-drops and I wanted anything that could stand in the way of low drop X/1's - surprisingly, I found myself crossing my fingers and hoping it was always in my starting hand. I also got to live the dream and have it eat a Minotaur Skullcleaver with the help of a Mortal's Resolve in one game. Adding to the hilarity in that game, a few turns later my opponent cast Anger of the Gods to sweep away two of my creatures, one of them being the Charging Badger, which caused me to turn to my friends around me and joke that "it took the anger of the gods to kill this badger!" Honey badger don't care.
- I had a Whelming Wave in my pool and elected not to play it, which I'm still not sure whether or not is correct - I have nothing that can stay on the board, which makes it a pseudo-Evacuation with potential downsides against blue opponents, but having something to handle quick aggressive decks definitely would have been nice in a couple games as this deck is glacially slow.
- Two maindeck Mountains was plenty - I didn't ever have a trouble hitting one when I needed it, as both Divinations and Traveler's Amulet could find one relatively consistently.
- Hunter's Prowess is insanely good. Three times in the tournament I got to live the dream and cast it on a monstrous'd Nessian Asp, but it also did a lot of work on both Thassa's Emissary and Purphoros's Emissary, who weren't slouches either with it. Giving the creature trample dissuades your opponent from blocking, which just means you get more cards. I had dug into my deck so hard in one game that I had five cards left in my library when my opponent finally lost. Certifiable grade A meat, this card is. Pick it highly in drafts, don't play it into open mana like a silly buffoon, and slam the door on your opponents like a boss when your Nessian Asp nets you close to half your deck in one swing.
- Siren of the Fanged Coast was a lot worse than I gave it credit for, which wasn't that much to start with. I almost always boarded this out for a Fade into Antiquity to handle troublesome enchantments and the smattering of gods floating around. In traditional "punisher"-esque style, it always seemed to come down in precisely the wrong way.
- Pillar of War actually isn't that bad in a slow deck like mine. It almost feels like a slightly more expensive, yet colorless Returned Phalanx - it comes down early to do its blocking, and then when I have a chance, I can bestow one of my enchantment creatures on it and get in the beats. This situation came up every time I played him, in no small part to the fact that I had enough bestow creatures to reliably get there when I needed to.
- Wasn't a big fan of Nyxborn Wolf in my glacially slow controlling deck. This almost certainly should have been either the Reverent Hunter I opened (and elected not to play because of devotion reasons) or Whelming Wave - both of which would have performed better. Died too much to too many things - this card's best in aggressive decks and only there, because the one toughness is a huge knock against it.
I ended the main rounds of the tournament at 3-1-1, with the draw being intentional in Round 5 to secure a Top 8 position. My only loss was in Round 4 against an aggressive R/B minotaur deck that managed to curve out in Game 1 with T1 Everflame Eidolon into Ragemonger into Kragma Warcaller and killing me when I tried to play a blocker and had it sufficiently burned down EOT. In Game 2, he didn't have nearly as aggressive as a draw, but when he landed a Mogis, God of Slaughter to supplement his aggressive creatures, the writing was on the wall. In the Top 8, I lost focus and made some crucial play mistakes that cost me the match, but at that point, it was already kickoff time for the Super Bowl anyways, so I wasn't too saddened. Losing in the top 8 got me two packs, which ironically enough had the green and black promo creatures as rares. I'll take what I can get!
I loved having the experience of playing the new cards; when BNG releases on MTGO, I'll feel a lot more confident about evaluating my sealed pool and draft strategies to incorporate the new set.
Went 4-0 with a Blue box. My seeded pack had a Tromokratis in it, which was nice, but I never saw him. I ended up with a U/G monstrosity, that was just really consistent and always had a threat in hand or on board. All of my removal was combat tricks, but that didn't hurt at all. 5 on color rares is the luckiest I've ever been. Here she is:
Round 1 I played a W/G Bestow deck that just couldn't get off the ground. Both games I saw a a Deepwater Hypnotist, and Courser of Kruphix came down early both times as well. He couldn't keep up with not trading on blocks after the third or fourth attack.
Round 2 I played a W/U fliers build that had a lot of similarities to my own. Game one I got rickrolled by not drawing a forest. I sided in 2 Shredding Winds and a Graverobber Spider, and in game two we both stabilized into a stalemate, until I hit Arbor Colossus followed by Siren Song Lyre, which I equipped on my Pheres-Band Tromper. Once I hit my 8th land I blew up a flier, tapped another one down at EOT, and then swung in with a Crypsis'd Arbor colossus and a STratus Walked 9/9 Pheres Band Tromper. Game 3 was about the same, with both Shredding Winds making an appearance, and Nullify killing his (pack pulled) Arbiter of the Ideal.
Round 3 I played a R/W Heroic deck, which could not deal with Agent of the Fates being unblockable with a Leafcrown Dryad bestowed on it. Game 2 of that match was decided by 2 Aerie Worshippers tokens and an Archetype of Imagination to go the distance.
Round 4 I played a Mono W build, which was crazy, but he pulled 29 white cards in 6 packs. His deck was consistent, but had no real curve and got easily slowed down by Crypsis, Mortals Resolve and unblockable Agents. It was over in 6 minutes.
I like the set a lot in limited, as the creatures are fun and splashy, and inspired makes for fun interactions that you wouldn't normally see...but the seeded pack thing has to go. I opened my packs and made 5 piles, and my deck was staring me in the face. That would not have been as easy without an Arbiter and a seeded blue rare (Tromokratis) to push me in that direction.
I did three prerelease events, with one being 2HG.
In the 2HG event, we went 4-0 with a GU (mostly U) deck (me) and a RW Heroic deck (my partner). My next event I went 3-1 with a WU Heroic deck that became a (stronger) GW Heroic deck for round 4. Third event was 2-2 with a pretty awful pool that had no creatures, no fixing, and no powerful cards that didn't have RRR or GGG in the cost (meaning 3-color was out of the question).
Arbiter of the Ideal is quite slow, but at the end of the day it's still a very solid variation on Horizon Scholar, which was already a great curve-topper.
Sudden Storm is a great tempo play. I'll happily be playing it alongside Griptide in my blue decks.
1-drops are more important than ever, at least for green. Before, they were nice if you had multiple Ordeals or you were looking at a Favored Hoplite, but now you need creatures as fast as possible to use Karametra's Favor and actually ramp (or if you're in blue, to use Retraction Helix). One reason I expect to see (and play) a lot of Charging Badgers over the next few months.
Setessan Oathsworn is, in my (current) opinion, at least as good as Staunch-Hearted Warrior. My opinion may well change if the increased number of remarkably good creatures with 1 toughness leads to everyone maindecking stuff that kills them, but for right now I favor the mana cost. It feels like "green Wingsteed". Speaking of which:
Akroan Skyguard -- much has been made about how it's half the size of Wingsteed Rider. After seeing and playing it, I believe it is better than Wingsteed overall. Aside from coming into play a turn earlier and having a much more forgiving mana cost, I realized that as a 2-drop it made many otherwise risky hands into strong openings. If you have a Mountain and a Plains, you can do anything.
Excoriate is some of the best removal in the set, on par with Divine Verdict. Yes, it makes you eat the damage, but it also exiles instead of destroying. Play both if you get them.
Glimpse the Sun God is white's Sea God's Revenge, and it also activates all of your Heroic and Inspired effects if you need it. Play all of them, every time.
Griffin Dreamfinder does not pull its weight in the average deck. I suspect there may be a BW enchantment deck somewhere in there, though.
Loyal Pegasus only works if you've got a pretty finely-tuned aggro deck. It still can't go into turn-2 Ordeal, though.
I don't like Satyr Wayfinder, but I believe we're just going to have to get used to playing it. The fact is, he's the only way green gets in BNG to smooth mana that early without using two cards. I had two and didn't play them, which I believe was a mistake.
If you have a decent board state Prowess just absolutely slams the door on the game. Like people said above, don't play it into open mana if you possibly have the choice, but if you get the chance to land it that kind of damage and card advantage is just unreal.
T3 Fabled Hero followed by T4 Grisly Transformation was a lot of fun and one opponent scooped right there.
Unfortunately, I only managed a 3-2 over 5 rounds due to a flying Tromokratis and Centaur Battlemaster when all my removal decided to hide at the bottom of my deck.
Like a few others here I played in my first prereleased. Ended up opening a crazy pool and going 4-0 (2-1, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0). All my rares were in my colours (R/B), except for Chained to the Rocks which was an easy splash (and saved me in a few games).
Only change I would make it possible swap out one of the Forsaken Drifters for one of the 5/2 cyclops guy for 2RR, however didn't want to stretch my mana too far...
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2 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Favored Hoplite
1 Omenspeaker
1 Cavalry Pegasus
1 Akroan Skyguard
2 Wavecrash Triton
1 Nyxborn Triton
1 Archetype of Courage
1 Chorus of Tides
1 Heliod's Emissary
1 Ornitharch
1 Sphinx's Disciple
1 Evangel of Heliod
1 Mortal's Ardor
1 Ordeal of Heliod
1 Stratus Walk
1 Ray of Revelation
2 Griptide
1 Curse of the Swine
Lands: 17
9 Plains
8 Island
1 Last Breath
1 Nullify
2 Revoke Existence
I sat the promo and felt good about it, though against any deck with an appreciable number of fliers I'd have subbed it for Evangel. I ended up facing 3 G/W decks, so that was never an issue. I thought Ray of Revelation was going to be a lot better than any of the various board cards with Archetypes running around, but I boarded it out each round, though I'm not sure it was incorrect to run it. In general I feel like Cavalry Pegasus got a lot better in this set, as I noticed a lot of random creatures were Humans, and Ornitharch is as good as advertised, if not better.
I enjoyed the seeded pack experience much more than I thought I ever would, but I guess 4-0ing helps.
My deck was really strong and pretty much ran everyone over, only lost one game to getting stuck on two mana till turn 7. Had good control with blue and good beats with red. I'd take a bit of a beating early game and then take control and smash. My favorite was this: I was at 1, he was at 3 with some tapped ground dudes and 5/5 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix untapped. I was on the go and had only Spellheart Chimera out at 1 power. Played a Xenagos, God of Revels, played a Titan's Strength targeting my Chimera (putting it's power 5). Went to combat, targeted my Chimera with Xenagos, swung in for 10 trample in the air and the win.
Xenagos was really strong. Many times I'd play him and have no creatures out and they'd tap out attacking into me and then I'd play a dude and swing at them for a lot. On one I played that 5/2 guy, then titan's strength on him and swung for 16. It was good.
I think my favorite thing though was that I had one of those rare days when I got to play every card in my deck at least once. I hate it when I have some great cards that I never see throughout the day.
Man, I wish I could play sealed more often, there really isn't enough support for it in my area.
The real story of the night, however, was my apparent unholy "luck" with rares. Seeded booster had a Mindreaver. Last booster for my pool had a Mindreaver. What was in my last prize pack?
A foil Mindreaver.
I chose U as my seeded pack color, and was really happy with my pool. I got strong W cards, so I thought that was my 2nd strongest color. But looking into my pool in retrospect, I probably should've scrapped my W cards and gone U/G Heroic.
Spear pulled me towards aggro for some reason, while control skewed play would've been much stronger in my U/W pool.
Most valuable cards:
Tromokratis
Archetype of Imagination
2x Chorus of the Tides
2x Stratus Walk
Floodtide Serpent
Spear of Heliod
Glimpse the Sun God
Strong commons/uncommons:
Also I got a lot of solid 2-drops in B and W, and combined with the spear, this pulled me into these colors.
I went 2-2-2.
I regret playing W, because I have so many strong G heroic creatures. Going U/G Heroic / tempo would probably a lot stronger, and playing spear leads to very long games unless I have a very aggressive deck (which I didn't have so..).
Notes to self for next event:
1) Play faster.
2) Try to skew more heavily towards either aggressive or control, not get stuck somewhere in between.
3) Probably not get as strong pool as I did now, which is a bit sad.
Well well, 2-2-2 was a decent result as my first event. And I'm looking forward to the next one.
Edit:
Can also mention that I lost 2-1 to a player running 2x Charging Badger, where game 3 I was 1 damage short of winning (had Tromokratis in play). That was really sad. Although she also had Prophet of Kruphix, 2x Nyxborn Wolf and a Siren of the Fanged Coast. So it was a very strong deck, not sure why the badgers were in there, cause she played very solid. The Siren was sooo gamebreaking every time I saw it during the event.
Wow - surprising number of first timers! Glad you had fun. Thanks for taking the time to do writeups! (That goes for everyone else too - I've been loving this thread!)
(I'm on on this site much anymore. If you want to get in touch it's probably best to email me: dom@heffalumps.org)
Forum Awards: Best Writer 2005, Best Limited Strategist 2005-2012
5CB PotM - June 2005, November 2005, February 2006, April 2008, May 2008, Feb 2009
MTGSalvation Articles: 1-20, plus guest appearance on MTGCast #86!
<Limited Clan>
The first time I pick the green pack and ended up going G/W heroic. I was lucky that I got the g/w scry land in my pack as well as a few decent heroic creatures, such as the Hero of Iroas and several bestow creatures. I enjoyed all the mechanics and ended up going 3-1 at the event and won 5 boosters. I opened up a Xenagos, god of revels, 2 Spirit of the Labyrinth, a Perplexing Chimera, a Chromanticore and a foil Nessian Wilds Ravager. So this just about paid for the first event.
The next event I picked blue and ended up going U/W. I would have like to done heroic but I barely got any heroic cards. I also got the u/w scry land to help out some. I had lots of low cost creatures to put hurt on them early and a few higher costed ones to hold them off until I got something that can get through for damage. I also had several cards to stall them, such as Nullify and Revoke Existence. Hold at Bay also helped out several times, letting me play long enough to squeak out a win. I ended up going 3-2 and I won 3 packs. I got a Temple of Malice and a few other cards that I can quite remember at the moment.
I also got several cards that I plan on adding to my standard decks. I just wish I saw more tribute and inspired mechanics in my pools. The one tribute I had was Ornitharch, and she was nice because I was able to pump the two birds I got from her up with Reap What is Sown and use them to take out a 7/7 Polukranos, after he tried to kill those same two birds. And the only good inspired mechanic I got to use was the gain 2 life one, I never really got to use my promo card's inspired mechanic in the second event.
Not a whole lot of excitement, except for Forgestoker + archetype of finality. That caught people off guard big time. "activate the dragon three times. targeting each of your creatures. He has death touch." Quite confused as to how he had death touch.
Got some good stuff, though, in my kit:
Kiora
Thoughtseize
Satyr firedancer other stuff
Boon Satyr
other stuff
Then, in my two prize packs, pulled a temple of malice, which I wanted for my minotaur deck.
Played Red-White with the deck being 75% red.
Notable Cards:
2x Fall of the Hammer
2x Revoke Existence
2x Divine Verdict
1x Bolt of Keranos
1x Felhide Spiritbinder
1x Forgestoker Dragon
1x Oracle of Bones
1x Lightning Strike
I went 3-2 with the deck, loosing the first place player who was playing mono-white with two Eidolon of Countless Battles and two the 3rd place player who was playing two Arbiter of the Ideal with HEAVY blue black control. I think red is second tier in sealed as your limited on cards that are need for fast aggro. Elite Skirmisherand Everflame Eidolon are cards I can see being good in draft, but I didn't feel they pulled their weight in sealed. The primary weakness I found with the deck is that most of the red removal was hitting at 3 damage, which is really easy to get above.
Yeap, still not a huge fan of sealed.
My local game store runs 2HG Sealed on Saturday (which I don't go to) and regular Sealed on Sunday, so I got to spend all day Saturday reading reddit and MTGS prerelease stories to glean information on what color to pick for the Sealed prerelease. I pretty much affirmed what I had already suspected and heard - blue or green was the way to go.
As it stood, when I got there I picked blue - Retraction Helix has to be the best common in the new set, not close, and I wanted to have as many chances as possible to crack them. Unfortunately, when I got my pool, not only did I not open any at all...but I didn't open much of anything.
Notable points in my pool:
- Only three two drops out of all five colors - one of which being Mindreaver, my rare in the seeded pack
- Three Gray Merchant of Asphodels and only two other black permanents in my pool
- The start to an aggressive white deck, but not enough to build around
- A red pool with only a smattering of burn spells and aggressive cards
+ Opening Xenagos, the Reveler and Bow of Nylea strongly incentivized me to want to at least play green and splash for red if possible
+ A blue pool that had double Divination alongside double Griptide and other solid blue playables
My game store, fortunately, gives a full hour for people to build their sealed pools - and I used all sixty minutes grueling over what to play. I tried almost every possible color combination, mixing and matching various colors to figure out a workable curve, before finally resigning myself to fate and registering the following:
1 Charging Badger
1 Satyr Hedonist
1 Nessian Courser
1 Pillar of War
1 Nyxborn Triton
1 Nyxborn Wolf
1 Horizon Chimera
1 Thassa's Emissary
1 Chorus of the Tides
1 Purphoros's Emissary
1 Nessian Asp
1 Sphinx's Disciple
1 Siren of the Fanged Coast
1 Arbiter of the Ideal
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Mortal's Resolve
2 Divination
1 Bow of Nylea
2 Griptide
1 Xenagos, the Reveler
1 Hunter's Prowess
Lands (17)
8 Island
7 Forest
2 Mountain
Relevant points:
- "Charging Badger maindeck? Wha?" I received a lot of laughs about this, but the deck was starved on low-drops and I wanted anything that could stand in the way of low drop X/1's - surprisingly, I found myself crossing my fingers and hoping it was always in my starting hand. I also got to live the dream and have it eat a Minotaur Skullcleaver with the help of a Mortal's Resolve in one game. Adding to the hilarity in that game, a few turns later my opponent cast Anger of the Gods to sweep away two of my creatures, one of them being the Charging Badger, which caused me to turn to my friends around me and joke that "it took the anger of the gods to kill this badger!" Honey badger don't care.
- I had a Whelming Wave in my pool and elected not to play it, which I'm still not sure whether or not is correct - I have nothing that can stay on the board, which makes it a pseudo-Evacuation with potential downsides against blue opponents, but having something to handle quick aggressive decks definitely would have been nice in a couple games as this deck is glacially slow.
- Two maindeck Mountains was plenty - I didn't ever have a trouble hitting one when I needed it, as both Divinations and Traveler's Amulet could find one relatively consistently.
- Hunter's Prowess is insanely good. Three times in the tournament I got to live the dream and cast it on a monstrous'd Nessian Asp, but it also did a lot of work on both Thassa's Emissary and Purphoros's Emissary, who weren't slouches either with it. Giving the creature trample dissuades your opponent from blocking, which just means you get more cards. I had dug into my deck so hard in one game that I had five cards left in my library when my opponent finally lost. Certifiable grade A meat, this card is. Pick it highly in drafts, don't play it into open mana like a silly buffoon, and slam the door on your opponents like a boss when your Nessian Asp nets you close to half your deck in one swing.
- Siren of the Fanged Coast was a lot worse than I gave it credit for, which wasn't that much to start with. I almost always boarded this out for a Fade into Antiquity to handle troublesome enchantments and the smattering of gods floating around. In traditional "punisher"-esque style, it always seemed to come down in precisely the wrong way.
- Pillar of War actually isn't that bad in a slow deck like mine. It almost feels like a slightly more expensive, yet colorless Returned Phalanx - it comes down early to do its blocking, and then when I have a chance, I can bestow one of my enchantment creatures on it and get in the beats. This situation came up every time I played him, in no small part to the fact that I had enough bestow creatures to reliably get there when I needed to.
- Wasn't a big fan of Nyxborn Wolf in my glacially slow controlling deck. This almost certainly should have been either the Reverent Hunter I opened (and elected not to play because of devotion reasons) or Whelming Wave - both of which would have performed better. Died too much to too many things - this card's best in aggressive decks and only there, because the one toughness is a huge knock against it.
I ended the main rounds of the tournament at 3-1-1, with the draw being intentional in Round 5 to secure a Top 8 position. My only loss was in Round 4 against an aggressive R/B minotaur deck that managed to curve out in Game 1 with T1 Everflame Eidolon into Ragemonger into Kragma Warcaller and killing me when I tried to play a blocker and had it sufficiently burned down EOT. In Game 2, he didn't have nearly as aggressive as a draw, but when he landed a Mogis, God of Slaughter to supplement his aggressive creatures, the writing was on the wall. In the Top 8, I lost focus and made some crucial play mistakes that cost me the match, but at that point, it was already kickoff time for the Super Bowl anyways, so I wasn't too saddened. Losing in the top 8 got me two packs, which ironically enough had the green and black promo creatures as rares. I'll take what I can get!
I loved having the experience of playing the new cards; when BNG releases on MTGO, I'll feel a lot more confident about evaluating my sealed pool and draft strategies to incorporate the new set.
MtG:RPG - Kai
1x Flitterstep Eidolon
1x Nullify
1x Crypsis
1x Stratus Walk
2x Deepwater Hypnotist
1x Sudden Storm
1x Aerie Worshippers
1x Prognostic Sphinx
1x Archetype of Imagination
1x Arbiter of the Ideal
1x Tromokratis
2x Mortal's Resolve
1x Savage Surge
1x Nessian Courser
1x Courser of Kruphix
2x Agent of Horizons
1x Fade into Antiquity
2x Pheres-Band Tromper
1x Arbor Colossus
1x Siren Song Lyre
8x Forest
7x Island
Round 1 I played a W/G Bestow deck that just couldn't get off the ground. Both games I saw a a Deepwater Hypnotist, and Courser of Kruphix came down early both times as well. He couldn't keep up with not trading on blocks after the third or fourth attack.
Round 2 I played a W/U fliers build that had a lot of similarities to my own. Game one I got rickrolled by not drawing a forest. I sided in 2 Shredding Winds and a Graverobber Spider, and in game two we both stabilized into a stalemate, until I hit Arbor Colossus followed by Siren Song Lyre, which I equipped on my Pheres-Band Tromper. Once I hit my 8th land I blew up a flier, tapped another one down at EOT, and then swung in with a Crypsis'd Arbor colossus and a STratus Walked 9/9 Pheres Band Tromper. Game 3 was about the same, with both Shredding Winds making an appearance, and Nullify killing his (pack pulled) Arbiter of the Ideal.
Round 3 I played a R/W Heroic deck, which could not deal with Agent of the Fates being unblockable with a Leafcrown Dryad bestowed on it. Game 2 of that match was decided by 2 Aerie Worshippers tokens and an Archetype of Imagination to go the distance.
Round 4 I played a Mono W build, which was crazy, but he pulled 29 white cards in 6 packs. His deck was consistent, but had no real curve and got easily slowed down by Crypsis, Mortals Resolve and unblockable Agents. It was over in 6 minutes.
I like the set a lot in limited, as the creatures are fun and splashy, and inspired makes for fun interactions that you wouldn't normally see...but the seeded pack thing has to go. I opened my packs and made 5 piles, and my deck was staring me in the face. That would not have been as easy without an Arbiter and a seeded blue rare (Tromokratis) to push me in that direction.
In the 2HG event, we went 4-0 with a GU (mostly U) deck (me) and a RW Heroic deck (my partner). My next event I went 3-1 with a WU Heroic deck that became a (stronger) GW Heroic deck for round 4. Third event was 2-2 with a pretty awful pool that had no creatures, no fixing, and no powerful cards that didn't have RRR or GGG in the cost (meaning 3-color was out of the question).
Highlights/lessons learned:
T3 Fabled Hero followed by T4 Grisly Transformation was a lot of fun and one opponent scooped right there.
Unfortunately, I only managed a 3-2 over 5 rounds due to a flying Tromokratis and Centaur Battlemaster when all my removal decided to hide at the bottom of my deck.
Only change I would make it possible swap out one of the Forsaken Drifters for one of the 5/2 cyclops guy for 2RR, however didn't want to stretch my mana too far...