I'll start. Second prerelease ever and had a lot of fun with a "BG Delirium/Reanimate/Self Mill" deck:


Vessel of Nascencyx2
Dead Weight
Shamble Back
Explosive Apparatus

Hinterland Logger
Liliana's Indignation
Asylum Visitor
Moldgraf Scavengerx3
Ghoulcaller's Accomplice
Vessel of Malignityx2
Macabre Waltzx2

Crow of Dark Tidings
Inexorable Blob
Gloomwidow

Soul Swallowerx2
Gisa's Bidding
Kessig Dire Swine

Swampx8
Forestx9

---

Basic strategy was to mill to delirium and power up one of my three delerium bombs (Inexorable Blob, Soul Swallowerx2) as quickly as possible. Vessel of Nascency and other self mill cards combined with Macabre Waltz enabled me to get to these bombs pretty quickly if they ended up in the graveyard and I pretty much at least had all three of them pass through my hand by the end of the game. Final score was 3 wins out of 5 rounds.

I did find a Geier Reach Bandit/Vildin-Pack Alpha in my release pack and originally started around building a RG Werewolf deck around it but determined there wasn't enough werewolves in the pack to justify it. It looks like a fun trigger though. Did anyone get a chance to use it or see it used? I didn't play against any werewolf decks at all.

I always build two decks during sealed events (except the one time I went to a 2HG Sealed event, in which case I built only one deck). Here are the two I built for the SOI prerelease I went to.

Deck 1 ("main" main deck)

2 Aim High (opened 3)
1 Altered Ego
1 Briarbridge Patrol
2 Catalog
2 Confront the Unknown
1 Crawling Sensation (foil)
2 Drownyard Explorers
1 Engulf the Shore (foil)
1 Furtive Homunculus
1 Inexorable Blob
1 Invasive Surgery (it was the only counterspell I opened, so I figured it'd be better to run it than to not run it)
2 Loam Dryad
1 Moldgraf Scavenger
1 Rabid Bite
1 Silent Observer
1 Skeleton Key
1 Trail of Evidence
2 Vessel of Paramnesia
1 Choked Estuary
7 Island
8 Forest

Deck 2 ("sideboard" main deck)

1 Angelic Purge (opened 2)
1 Burn from Within
1 Chaplain's Blessing
1 Convicted Killer/Branded Howler
1 Dance with Devils
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Devils' Playground
1 Devilthorn Fox
1 Explosive Apparatus
1 Inquisitor's Ox
1 Inspiring Captain
1 Not Forgotten
1 Pyre Hound
2 Reduce to Ashes
1 Silverstrike
1 Skin Invasion
2 Structural Distortion
1 Thraben Inspector
1 Town Gossipmonger/Incited Rabble
1 Unruly Mob
1 Vessel of Ephemera
1 Vessel of Volatility
1 Game Trail (promo)
7 Mountain
8 Plains

Out of four rounds, only one saw me not have to switch in the second deck. That particular round, I got to copy my opponent's Werewolf of Ancient Hunger after I had locked it down with a Sleep Paralysis that I had sided in (taking out Invasive Surgery cause I hadn't seen any sorceries in game 1). The last round, my opponent got visibly upset once he saw I had sided in a removal-heavy deck.

I had gitrog frog with reckless scholar, that was stupid. Not as stupid as demonland.

I had gitrog frog with reckless scholar, that was stupid. Not as stupid as demonland.

Went 3-1 kind of. Deck:

1 x Moorland Drifter
1 x Deathcap Cultivator
1 x Harvest Hand
1 x Silverfur Partisan
2 x Dauntless Cathar
1 x Militant Inquisitor
1 x Wild-Field Scarecrow
2 x Byway Courier
1 x Altered Ego
1 x Inspiring Captain
1 x Intrepid Provisioner
1 x Reaper of Flight Moonsilver
1 x Kessig Dire Swine

2 x Rabid Bite
2 x Puncturing Light
1 x Expose Evil
1 x Humble the Brute

1 x Vessel of Ephemera

1 x Explosive Apparatus

8 x Plains
6 x Forest
2 x Island
1 x Warped Landscape


2-1 vs GW Humans - we actually only play 2 games. New player, only been playing for a month, and so he plays slow and we go to time before game 3 starts. The store awards prizes based on match wins, so we high roll for the match and I get a 6 and he gets a 5.

2-1 vs UG Spells - grindy games, but he can't beat my inspiring captain and then my giant altered ego inspiring captain

0-2 vs Naya Wolves - guy has double tireless tracker, a ton of werewolves and value white humans, and then red removal. He curves out and, well, what can you do?

2-0 vs RB Vampires - I steal game 2 because he makes me discard a card, giving me delirium and my 6/6 swine trample. Game 1 was somewhat fair, but I think he flooded. We played a game 3 and I played vessel and ended up overwhelming the board, etc. He had some bad draws that game.

Swine and Altered Ego were my allstars. The format seems really fun, but hard too. At the end of the tournament we also find out the people running the event marked match 4 for me and my opponent as a draw, so I kinda don't know how to call this whole tournament. It was weird.

Were there any cards in your opponents' decks that over/underperformed your expectations?

Not Forgotten surprisingly seemed roughly ~1 card. Allowing a removal spell to be re-used.

I almost lost to a voltron werewolf. Gatstaf Ravagers with Spiteful Motives and Haunted Cloak (10/5 vigilance trample first strike haste). But I managed to flip it back and Throttle it on upkeep.

I almost didn't play Ever After, but it's very good in sealed if you have bombs, or even 3/3 fliers.

One guy played Thraben Inspector and Stern Constable and it wasn't horrible.

Sin Prodder was really good for me and not good for my opponent. Being able to control his draws felt great.

Tireless tracker was way better than I thought it would be, and I already thought it would be good. Am looking forward to testing it in constructed.

Inspiring Captain was very relevant in my deck, and definitely overperformed with my lower curve.

The 6/6 swine was also very good for me, but this is sealed so I'm uncertain how to assess it across limited as a whole.

I played 18 lands sometimes, and it usually felt right... but again, this was sealed. However I think some draft decks that play a lot of investigate cards might want to also play 18 lands.

I forget what it's called, but that enchantment that lets you discard cards to make lifelinking knights seems OP and definitely a build-around.

Was unimpressed with Nahiri, but not really surprised. She's a rummaging goblin, or sometimes a kill spell. Good for limited, but not busted the way I'd expect a planeswalker to be.

The UG guy played that blue dig spell that lets you dig 4 or 5 and pluck to instants/sorceries from your library, but that seems like an awful magic card for limited anyway.

How good are big guys in the format? How good are small guys in the format?

So, I felt like my pool was janky, but I'd like your opinions.













Really, getting 4 Stiched Mangler made me think that anything other than blue/x was wrong. Am I crazy for that?

Also, it seemed like I had a ton of doubles, even at uncommon.

Brazil didn't have prereleases because the product was blocked in customs

My 11th prerelease. My 11th prerelease without opening a planeswalker. Meanwhile, 2 of the other 4 kits at my table cracked Jace.


I usually let my playable-to-bomb rares have first chance at dictating my colors (until the depth proves otherwise), and when my rares were 3 colorless ones (Corrupted Grafstone, Drownyard Temple, and promo Westvale Abbey), 2 black (Ever After, Asylum Visitor), 2 green (Silverfur Partisan, Sage of Ancient Lore) and one red (Devils' Playground), my initial inclination was Black-Green.

Then my second pass was evaluating removal - black was solid in removal (3 Dead Weight and a Murderous Compulsion) but every other color was garbage. *No* red damage spells. No Rabid Bites. In white, only one removal spell (one Angelic Purge). My Blue was just downright shortsuited and weak. Bah. Clearly playing Black, with support color decided by best creature support, so back to my initial inclination of Black+Green.

Sage of Ancient Lore / Werewolf of Ancient Hunger was my all-star. In many games it was an 8/8+ trample vigilance beastie - once as big as 11/11 . That ends things quick.

Runner-up was Pack Guardian. Flashing in 6 power in two blockers squished out what the opponent thought was swing-for-lethal on multiple occasions, and one EOT casting gave me a lethal swing the opponent hadn't accounted for when he thought he left enough blockers back.

I ran three copies of Merciless Resolve, and between Drownyard Temple and Sanitarium Skeleton, I was often firing it sacrificing something I could easily get back.

Westvale Abbey was never a winner for me... it never won me a game in any overt way (though I suppose the 'clock' it was may have forced opponents to play more aggressively to avoid it going off on them)... when I did transform it it was in extra exhibition games, because in the actual sanctioned matches it was always just win-more (yeah, I'll keep my 20 power in creatures on-board over putting all my eggs in one bounceable / exileable basket).

I ran a lot of wolves but just didn't get any wolf synergy (Silverfur Partisan was my only tribal-relevant Wolf, and with only one beneficial-targetting instant or sorcery in my deck, I eventually sided Silverfur out). I ran some parts for Madness but they never came together (my Pale Rider of Trostad always landed either on an empty hand or pitched a spare land, a Drownyard Temple, or Sanitarium Skeleton; I never actually activated Call the Bloodline either time it landed out of lack of need/opportunity).


Finished the day 3-1-1 for 12th of a 60-player field. Not as good as my 4-1-1 for 4th/47 at Oath, but still decent. Nothing particularly relevant in prize packs.

Nope, that's what I liked about your pool. I guess I just go UR tempo, maybe splashing for 1x Tenacity since you have the dual.

I think it's going to be really difficult to tell this from sealed. In sealed the big guys were very good. In draft, I am thinking 1 drops are good.

lol what seriously?

It used to be pretty common years ago, but we were doing good for some time. I heard it happens all the time in other South American countries, so there's that.