Joined: Jun 21, 2014 Posts: 8338 Location: Singapore
For the first time in a while, I had both ample time and inclination to go for a prerelease. And so I did. I started Magic with Zendikar block, and in its own roundabout way, Battle for Zendikar felt like a homecoming for me. I brought two of my friends and we had an absolute blast.
My Sealed pool was a pile of jank. Naturally, I decided to play FIVE COLOR CONVERGE CONTROL. Here's my decklist:
The deck was an absolute blast to play and did surprisingly well. I piloted it to a cool 3-0, thanks to Bane of Bala Ged in conjunction with my removal suite. It turns out that throwing all the best bombs and removal in your pool into your deck actually isn't a bad strategy in BFZ limited!
Did anyone else attend the BFZ prerelease? How did your prerelease experience go? Feel free to share.
Joined: Sep 23, 2013 Posts: 6317 Location: New York
Went 2-1-drop with this. Drop wasn't bc the deck was bad, I actually like it a lot, just needed to head home to help the wife, and the difference between 2-1 and 3-1 was one pack.
Nothing really special here. Game 1 was intense, with him 2-for-1'ing me with that instant-speed Act of Treason. Eventually a 4/4 sky rider elf and a couple silent skimmers got me there. Game 2 he stalled on mana, and I got my Bane out, eventually destroying his board.
Round 2: RG Aggro (0-2)
Game 1 was really close, but he just deployed a threat every turn, then topdecked that 4-mana green guy that makes two 1/1 scions. I had him dead on board, but he used that 5-mana act of treason to fog the turn, and won on the backswing. Game 2 I mulled to 5, managed to curve out somehow, got my Sire on the board when he had 5 lands... and he just proceeded to play removal and five drops the rest of the game, never giving me a chance. I think RG aggro/landfall is going to be very good in this format.
Round 3: Grixis stuff (2-0)
He played a bunch of cheap ingestors while I stalled on mana, but then I started playing real cards and he just couldn't keep up. Game 2 I got my skyrider elf and woodland wanderer on the board, and he was just unable to keep up..
I feel like I could've gone 3-1 tbh, but it's a beautiful day, wanna hang with my wife and kid
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"In all fairness that probably is a sight that would make you stop and reevaluate your life choices." ~ Garren_Windspear
Exert Influence is much better than I though. I won every game that I casted it (5 or so), stealing things like Territorial Baloth, Brood Butcher and Defiant Bloodlord. The Awaken spells were also very good.
I like what I saw from the format. And a guy next to me opened a Godless Shrine. Fun times.
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Yes, I'm from Brazil and no, I'm not an annoying ****.
There was a real lack of color focus to choose from. When the rest of the cards showed me a slew of White allies (and some green ones, too), and Retreat to Emeria it was clear what I had to do.
I went WGb allies ... splashed black for two cheap allies (Kalastria Healer and Hagra Sharpshooter) and to be able to tri-converge on my Tajuru Stalwarts (which always entered the battlefield as 3/4s, about ten times total) . The only creatures in my deck that weren't allies were Felidar Sovereign and Endless One.
Went W-W-L-W-L-L . The winner tables were all full of white. Mostly WR. Decks with many many many removal spells. Finished 17th of 46. Then played a match against the #12 finisher afterwards and won that, too.
Prerelease was fun, although we were only 8 players. I went 2-1, finished 2nd ex-aequo with two other people. As a prize I gained one pack that contained Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, woot!
I actually had a decent amount of good white cards, including many allies and two very good rare ones, Lantern Scout and Hero of Goma Fada. As it turned out I also had a good amount of black allies that while not very exciting, were very compatible with the life gain subtheme I had going in white, and Drana's Emissary also made this archetype even more obvious.
The problem was that I lacked 2 creatures to fill my curve with these two colors, so I had to splash some red and included Firemantle Mage, which is another good ally enabler and Vestige of Emrakul which was just a solid filler for the shallow 4 drop slot. Also included two mountains.
I lost the 1st match, which was a very weird one. My opponent was playing a 4 color midrange Ingest/Processor deck, mainly Grixis colors with a splash of Green for that Scion spamming enchantment I forgot the name of. He didn't get the lands he wanted first game and couldn't do anything while I curved perfectly to win in turn 5 or 6. Game 2 I kept a seemingly good hand but got mana screwed and blocked at 2 mana, could just play my two drop and then died pretty quickly while he got his thing running. Game 3 was pretty intense, we were both doing well and I was slowly taking things back to my advantage by removing his dangerous creatures when suddenly he slapped a Dragonmaster Outcast at a time where I had no more removal available for it. I used Smite the Monstruous on his first token to buy some time, and sadly one token got through before I could find removal to kill the Outcast. From there Lantern Scout combined with Hero of Goma Fada helped me stay alive for a few more turns, but then Hero got killed and I had no flier big enough to race the Dragon token and almost no removal left in my deck to deal with it so I decided to scoop ultimately.
At this point I realized the importance of fliers and included Ghosltly Sentinel instead of Ondu Greathorn that I originally had in my deck, that made the curve a bit wonky but it's a choice I don't regret as it helped me a lot afterwards.
Match 2 and 3 went very smoothly on the other hand, I went 2-0 for both and it was not even close. Second match was against a Bant awaken deck, didn't get to do much of anything. Third match was against a Gruul ramp deck, match was pretty easy I just had to hold on removal to kill is bombs and slowly kill him with drain effects and fliers. I sweated a bit when he got a Plated Crusher in play at some point but I was like at 23 life and him at less than 10 so it didn't really help him swing the game in his favor.
If I had to rate the performers in my deck I would do it like this:
Overperformers: - Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Total bomb and didn't disappoint, despite eating a Scour from Existence in one of the games. - Drana's Emissary: As expected, was excellent in this shell and a 2/2 flier for 3 is great in Limited anyway. - Kalastria Healer: It's a bad card in general, but in this shell he did a LOT of work. - Lantern Scout, Hero of Goma Fada, Kor Bladewhirl: Very solid Ally enablers, attracted a lot of removal obviously but still served their purpose and helped other threats survive. - Angel of Renewal: Excellent finisher and lifegain/Ally enabler. Makes it even harder for the opponent to come back. - Hagra Sharpshooter: Because some people are bad at combat math and this card punishes them for it the hard way. - Wasteland Strangler: Totally worth including extra removal slapped on an aggressively costed creature, even with only two exiling effects in the deck (Complete Disregard, Grave Birthing). I managed to trigger it every time and could afford to hold onto it while waiting for exile effects since I had a lot of 3 drops.
Meh: - Nirkana Assassin: TBH I wasn't expecting much of this card and only included it as a curve filler that is also an Ally, but the deathtouch option on this guy never mattered in any of my games. - Bloodbond Vampire: I managed to get it up to a 6/6, but it didn't do much... I really wish it had flying or menace at least, then it would be fine even with lowered base stats to compensate. I had hopes for it to be good since this shell was the perfect one for it but you really need some kind of evasion or at least extra effect on your mid to late game creatures in this format if not they don't matter much (this is especially true for big ramp Eldrazi decks, but I figured out that this also applies to an aggressive deck like this one).
Firemantle Mage never showed up in any of my games... I was really excited to see how he would perform and see if the red splash was worth it and I think he could have helped a lot in breaking some board stalls.
Final thoughts: it seems there is a lot of variance in this set and it's hard to make good sealed decks in just two colors. Most players at my game store had to run 3 colors at least. Seeing the decks already posted here, I can see most people did the same as well.
My deck was pretty average, low on removal and kinda bad curve. It ruled the 6 spot but had lots of trouble dealing with big ol' eldrazi. It turns out that they are a thing in sealed, generally people just went over the top of me.
Not surprisingly I went 1-1-1 and 3-3-1 in games. The one draw I totally did not deserve vs. an excellent deck with 2 Soverigns, Endless One, and bane. Best card was, unsurprisingly, Greenwarden of Murasa. I basically stole a tie in M1 G3 with the 3-for-1 and in another game I 3-for-1'd myself to take out some 8/9 monster, only to play my 3-for-1 to come back.
I had 2 evolving wilds and a pilgrims eye plus green rares so pretty clearly a converge deck. I played with a devoid/process sub-theme, but I suspect that cutting blue for red might have been better.
After a game or two it was clear that I was going to have to a) play a guy bigger than a 6/6 b) have some way of killing one, so I played Bone Splinters and Devastator. By round 3 I ended up with Gruesome Slaughter as the last card, because of the synergy with Nettle Drone. I think the Elemental was probably a good choice because it would have given me a chance to close out some games in the air... but I could never figure out what to cut (the 4 mana 4/3? The 3 1/1s for 4? Seems wrong).
Clutch of Currents and Unnatural Aggression really underperformed in this deck. It's hard to fight anything with a bunch of 1 power or 1 toughness guys, and by the time I got my green "fatties" on like they were out classed by 8/8s. Clutch just delayed the inevitable and made a useless 3/3. Tightening Coils was also annoying, and another reason to play the 3/4 fliers instead of a big fat trampler. I mean, a 5/5 can't attack through a 2/8.
"Everything looks good when your opponent passes 4 turns in a row" -- rstnme "Something that does not look good when your opponent does nothing is not a thing" -- me
Didn't run Brutal Expulsion (I think it's >>> Lithomancer's Focus) and thinks he should have run at least 1 more mountain. I think I probably would have played Wave-Wing Elemental and maybe another creature over Rush of Ice, but what do I know.
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"Everything looks good when your opponent passes 4 turns in a row" -- rstnme "Something that does not look good when your opponent does nothing is not a thing" -- me
Did a midnight prerelease. Opened Gideon, March from the Tomb, and Shambling Vent, but had really low creautre count in wb. Went UR with a touch of Green for From Beyond, although it probably wasn't the best deck in the pool. Also sleeved up WB allies but never used it. Went 2-0-1, with the biggest highlight of the night being winning through a Gideon on a mulligan to five.
-Ugin's Insight was a beast, usually scrying for three or four and was a major reason for my win against Gideon. -Pathway arrows costing two to activate hurts a lot. In round one, I got caught off guard by a hasted Bane of Bala Ged (thanks forerunner of slaughter) and couldn't cast anything from my hand while keeping arrows mana up. -I think i hit one creature with Skyline Cascade all night.
Huh, as I was putting my cards away, I realized that my 6th rare was emeria Shepard. My white wasn't deep, but that card seems absurdly bomby in sealed. I think I misread it
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"Everything looks good when your opponent passes 4 turns in a row" -- rstnme "Something that does not look good when your opponent does nothing is not a thing" -- me
I wish I had held onto any of my actual pools so that I could show you how terrible they were. The worst one had three rare land, and triples of both Carrier Thrall and Dampening Field.
Huh, as I was putting my cards away, I realized that my 6th rare was emeria Shepard. My white wasn't deep, but that card seems absurdly bomby in sealed. I think I misread it
Round 2 of the midnight prerelease: Attack with Breaker of Armies after having finally stabilized against a faster deck. Trade Breaker of Armies for his board. Drop Emeria Shepherd Drop a Plains. The rest is history. And so is my opponent's life total.
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