Went 3-1 with this:

1 x Jaddi Offshoot
1 x Sky Scourer
1 x Kalastria Healer
2 x Stalking Drone
1 x Hedron Crawler
1 x Scion Summoner
1 x Netcaster Spider
1 x Dominator Drone
1 x Warden of Geometrics
1 x Sifter of Skulls
1 x Zulaport Chainmage
1 x Silent Skimmer
1 x Emobiment of Insight
1 x Kozilek's Translator
1 x Kalastria Nightwatch
1 x Defiant Bloodlord
1 x World Breaker

1 x Visions of Brutality
1 x Grasp of Darkness
1 x Tar Snare
1 x Retreat to Kazandu
1 x Grip of Desolation

8 x Swamp
6 x Forest
1 x Hissing Quagmire
1 x Mortuary Mire
1 x Corrupted Crossroads


Match 1: 2-0 vs Boros

I don't know what his deck was supposed to do. I curved out, he played lands.

Match 2: 2-0 vs Chandra Jund

He couldn't beat a 1/2 flyer played on turn 2. Also think he had a pretty shaky mana base.

Match 3: 2-1 vs Boros Allies

Close games, but he needed to seal the deal quickly, and a mull to 5 on game 2 basically gave the game away, and game 3 my 4/4 landfall dude + my retreat and a timely Pulse of Murasa out of the sideboard put the game out of his reach.

Match 4: 0-2 Boros Allies

Notice a theme here? Anyway, guy played that 5-mana 4/4 menace dude and pumped him while I whiffed on removal/lands and drew the top of my curve.

I opened a foil Kozilek tho, so yay. Also I... think I may have won the tournament too? (It was a pack-per-win, so I didn't stick around for results after match 4.) The guy that beat me match 4 lost his first match, so I think my breakers were better? We were the only 3-xs at the end of the day.

I got a pool with what I thought was too little removal and too few low-cost things - felt it was about the worst curve I had ever built in limited. No one drops and only one two drop. Despite really wanting to play Crush of Tentacles, I couldn't swing the double blue and went with black-red-colorless Devoid. And piloted it to 4-1-1, and 4th place of 47. No value at all in the 4 prize packs though and hardly any in the kit itself... saw my buddy across the table open an expedition Breeding Pool out of one of his BFZ boosters though. Substantially more value in that card alone than all 141 cards I opened combined.

As for my deck... Eldrazi Obligator was far and away my MVP. That is such a HUGE swing, to have a 3-power hasty attacker plus your opponent's biggest creature, and your opponent without his biggest blocker. Many close games ended on my Obligator play. I'll try to post full decklist and pool list tomorrow, I've got it all saved in Decked Builder.

1 x Culling Drone
1 x Dominator Drone
2 x Eldrazi Aggressor
1 x Eldrazi Devastator
1 x Eldrazi Obligator
1 x Flayer Drone
1 x Havoc Sower
2 x Kozilek's Shrieker
1 x Kozilek's Translator
1 x Matter Reshaper
1 x Maw of Kozilek
1 x Null Caller
1 x Reality Smasher
1 x Sifter of Skulls
1 x Valakut Invoker
1 x Vampire Envoy
1 x Warden of Geometries

1 x Corpse Churn
1 x Demon's Grasp
1 x Oblivion Strike
1 x Stonefury

1 x Ally Encampment
2 x Cinder Barrens
1 x Holdout Settlement
4 x Mountain
5 x Swamp
1 x Looming Spires
1 x Unknown Shores
2 x Wastes



1 x Abstruse Interference
1 x Affa Protector
1 x Akoum Flameseeker
1 x Ancient Crab
1 x Angel of Renewal
1 x Baloth Pup
1 x Bone Saw
1 x Brood Monitor
1 x Chitinous Cloak
2 x Cinder Hellion
1 x Cliffside Lookout
1 x Clutch of Currents
1 x Crush of Tentacles
1 x Cryptic Cruiser
2 x Cyclone Sire
1 x Dazzling Reflection
1 x Fertile Thicket
1 x Giant Mantis
2 x Goblin Freerunner
1 x Goblin War Paint
1 x Gravity Negator
1 x Grip of the Roil
1 x Isolation Zone
1 x Jwar Isle Avenger
1 x Kor Bladewhirl
1 x Kor Scythemaster
1 x Lithomancer's Focus
1 x Loam Larva
1 x Mighty Leap
1 x Mindmelter
1 x Natural State
1 x Negate
1 x Netcaster Spider
1 x Oracle of Dust
1 x Prism Array
1 x Roil's Retribution
1 x Ruin in Their Wake
1 x Saddleback Lagac
1 x Scion Summoner
1 x Seek the Wilds
1 x Shadow Glider
1 x Shoulder to Shoulder
1 x Snapping Gnarlid
2 x Spawnbinder Mage
1 x Stoneforge Acolyte
1 x Sweep Away
1 x Tajuru Stalwart
1 x Tightening Coils
1 x Void Attendant
1 x Volcanic Upheaval

My Prerelease starting with a Foil Promo Chandra staring back at me and all my friends saying enjoy your 4-0,

So here the pool I submitted, which had a sideboard deck change into a control shell
Rakdos Dr. Jeckly Mr. Hyde . some draws looks like im heavy allies, some look heavy devoid, others just mix and match and look nothing

creatures
Sludge Crawler
Reckless Cohort
Zada's Commando
Slaughter Drone
Vile Aggregate
Reckless Bushwacker
Eldrazi Aggressor
Goblin Freerunner
2x Zulaport Chainmage
Warden of Geometries
Malakir Soothsayer
Ulamog's Despoiler
Non Creature
Fall of the Titans
Grasp of Darkness
Brute Strength
Tar Snare
Touch of the Void
2x Oblivion Strike
Mire's Malice
Boulder Salvo
Chandra, Flamecaller
lands
Mirrorpool
Waste
8 swamp
7mountain

SB
bone splinters against the containment membrane decks
Visions of Brutality sided in every match up except the mirror in the finals for Brute strength,

Round 2 I played a Grixis control who happened to open a chandra, I sided into my slower more powerful top end deck

Out went the Black and Brute strength and a 2 drop for
Benthic Infiltrator
Cultivator Drone
Cloud mantra
Jwar Isle Avnger
Guardian of Tazeem
Deepfathom Skulker
Kozilek's Pathfinder
Anticipate
Containment Membrane
Dampening Pulse
Rolling Waters

I had only 1 non basic land and a couple creatures to make waste, making splashing out of the question
Nothing in Green
White had 2xIsolation Zone and a Wall of Resurgence. but overall was very shallow

If you want to see some of the deck in action most of game 2 of the finals at the prelease.http://www.twitch.tv/vasgo01/v/35847087 (game 1 is there as well but the Audio messed up)

went 4-0 (8-1) Won the event.

-----------------------------

in 2HG i asked the region's best limited player to partner up, he's made top 8 of limited GP before. We opened a Crush of tentacles, and ended up building decks where we had it in out opener each game and it was basically a mul to 6, we both manuevered the board state to where we never had to rely on it . it was never cast in 4 games. our pool had hardly any bombs for creatures other than an Akoum Hellkite and Breaker of Armies however our removal was BOMB. and 6, we counted 6 rares were lands. We had a rolling thunder 4x Oblivion strike. he played Jeskai tempo splashing white for Wall of Resurgence, Roil Sprout and Sheer drop for the power and synergy with Crush of tentacles I again was on Rakdos but this time straight devoid except for the hellkite and a reckless bushwacker

We had a real awesome line to end the game in round 2, i'll share. He had a Turn against and I had a press into service we joked about how sweet it would be to do both in the same turn and that is what came up. Opponent 1 tapped out for Breaker of armies, and opponent 2 had two active Blinding drones. The line was convince the opp. to do the clear cut right answer and not play around turn against and use the 2nd drone to tap my hellkite, so I press into service the breaker, move to combat, he taps breaker with the drone, then taps hellkite and my partner at instant speed uptaps the breaker of armies and we swing for lethal.

we went 4-0


What i learned from the pre release

this format is a 2/3 format, cards like tar snare which were in my hand every game in 2HG was never a removal spell for anything, but instead a shrinking combat trick. Look at Tar snare as a combat trick. that said, usually a 2 power 1st strike is good for 1-2 attacks, but Zada's Commando get's swallowed up but the plethora of 2/3 running around, a 2/1 1st striker, usually great curve is just an average player in ally aggressive decks in this format.

1st impressions are Rakdos is where it's at. I won my prerelease with it, against the mirror in the finals, and there was 1 more Rakdos deck in the top 4.
Visions of Brutality was an all-star for me when i wanted to be aggressive. I should of mained it over Brute strength, the deck that want it serves it better than pacifism

We'll be either drafting or team drafting the new set with our collected winning's this evening after the afternoon prerelease as well if were not Magiced out. I'll share if I learn anything cool.

I've made a UR Surge deck that was more sweet than good. Jori En, Ruin Diver was better than I though, but I sadly never got to cast either Crush of Tentacles or Tyrant of Valakut. Took me to a 2-2 record, worth 2 packs, which got me a Thought-Knot Seer and an Expedition Mana Confluence. Can't complain.

I played 3 pre-releases, including a 2HG.
My rare pulls were extremely non-bomb-y but I got reasonable value on the man lands and oaths. Plus a Forbidden Orchard

My awsome rares:


For 2HG we did the (by now) standard of a UB instant deck (ours had 3 blinding drones and a bunch of instants) and RG beaters with Kozilek's Return (kind of an underperformer in 2HG), and Zendikar Resurgent I totally went off in match 2 with that, Deciever of Form and Baloth Null. We went 2-0-1 (chop) and ended up drawing the funzies match when I topdecked Rolling Thunder to kill _3_ lethal fliers.

My first sealed I had really good black removal (and as you can see) no bombs.

I had a few more decent blue spells. My white was hilarious. 11 creatures with 18 power total (plus the 3/3 off of Wall of Resurgence and 12 non-creature spells with zero removal. This deck was OK, it was just 7 removal spells and a bunch of dumb creatures. I did win match 3 vs. Naya aggro by making 4 and 5 zombies off of Drana's Chosen in games 1 and 3. I think that card is fine? It's great in a board stall, but a horrible card on an empty board. 1 went 2-1

Last sealed, right have 2HG I was a bit tired (you can read about my misplay in "Pro tips"). Again, not much in the way of bombs... OR WAS THERE. Once again, Black removal led my pool and I built a UB "control" deck:


Leaving me with 5 slots (1 land) and the following cards:
1 x Stoneforge Masterwork
1 x Sky Scourer
3 x Containment Membrane
1 x Bone Splinters
1 x Birthing Hulk
1 x Cliffhaven Vampire
1 x Visions of Brutality
1 x Witness the End


At first I wanted the 2/4 flier as it fit what the deck was trying to do, but the "4th" color seemed like a tricky splash for a 4 drop and it's not a great finisher. Likewise, the Green 7 drop was eliminated because I didn't want to play a forest. So I ended up throwing in the black storm crow and Stoneforge Masterwork, because literally every creature (including the scions) were Eldrazi. I alternated between Visions, Membrane, and Witness depending on opponent.

Match 1 was a joke. Opp played T3 Nissa T4 Eyeless Watcher. I boarded in to RW aggro. Game 2 opponent went T3 Netcaster Spider into T4 Nissa. Yeah.

Match 2 G1 I won on the back of a 3 for 4 with Flaying Tendrils leaving me with 2x 2/3s. G2 I won dealing 15 damage to myself on a Visions of Brutality enchanted 5/5 pathfinder. But I did 20 to him so, gg.

Match 3 was where stoneforge masterwork[c] did it's cranial plating impression. Putting this on a storm crow and following up with [c]Incubator Drone is a big game. This won me (dispite misplays) both games and another 4 packs. I highly recommend you play this care if you have a racially pure deck. Especially if you have fliers or token makers.