So my first sizeable-tournament win just eluded me. Finished the day 4-0-1, taking 2nd in a field of 34. Bad luck in the final round pairing; after I drew the fourth round leaving the field with one 4-0 player and 2 3-0-1 players, one of us was going to get paired off against the 4-0 and would control our own destiny; I was the one paired down and despite winning couldn't control my destiny.

Opened what I thought was a pretty fantastic aggro BR pool. I know RU is usually the spells-matter archetype but I played that archetype with BR... and two of the better decks I faced were doing the same thing in WR. Prowess creatures, Magmaroth, Wildfire Eternal... and lots more instants and sorceries than I'm typically comfortable playing in limited.

Rares I cracked and played:
Ammit Eternal promo
Wildfire Eternal
Hour of Devastation
Liliana, Death's Majesty
Harsh Mentor

(didn't play the completely unsupported Oketra's Last Mercy or the prohibitively costy God-Pharaoh's Gift)

My real all-stars were my removal options though: 4 red creature damage spells (Magma Spray, Electrify, Open Fire, Puncturing Blow), and my MVP creatures of the day, Magmaroth and Banewhip Punisher.

Banewhip Punisher is just amazing. All day, killing pesky 2/1 and 3/1 threats and surviving, or killing anything big and targetable via self sacrifice. Then when my Gravedigger or Liliana brings it back for another go... good times.

Really? I opened God-Pharaoh's Gift in two of the four events I played in, and it was a major player in both decks. In the first, a red/green aggro build, it gave some serious legs in the late game, making it easy to push the opponent over once they'd managed to stabilize. In the second, a more controlling white/blue deck,it made it possible to trade off creatures early and bring them back as finishers late, especially with Temmet making unblockable 5/5s run around. The first time I was hesitant to play it for that exact reason (thinking it was rather costly), but a friend talked me into trying it. I was so impressed by the work it put in that I happily slammed it into the second.

If my deck had sputtered it would have been a consideration on sideboard... but as it was I was playing low-land low-ish-curve (Liliana was my only >4) noncreature-heavy. I figured this build wasn't right for it, but if I tweaked to a slower and more creature-laden build it would have been a better candidate.

I did see one on an opponent's field against me, though I was so far ahead by that point even a fresh blocker every turn didn't save my opponent.

I don't think I even played a seventh land in most of my games.

Wow, must've been a fantastic deck. Played against a Wildfire Eternal, which looked really annoying, but my opponent totally misplayed it and I was easily able to determine if they had a worthwhile spell in hand or not. The only time it "hurt" me was when he cast Chandra's Defeat off of it, but had no other spells to cast that turn anyways and had 6 lands out. I'm just glad I didn't face it again by someone more skilled, as it would have potentially caused unending grief.

I don't think Wildfire Eternal is very good. Yes, if you are holding a bunch of removal/draw spells it's some free mana. Like it's insane with the "Last" cycle that exert your lands (like Kefnet's Last Word). Probably pretty good with Aftermaths in the graveyard? I guess it gives Sorceries pseudo-flash (which is kind of cool because it happens after declare blockers but before damage... I think there are a few spells that are relevant... Driven // Despair (I guess just the 2nd half) Overcome Inferno Jet

But mostly it's just a 4 mana slither blade that blocks better.

In general I found this sealed format to be pretty similar to AKH, but with few insane bombs at Rare (some good mythics though!). It's pretty aggressive for a sealed format. I played 3 "flights" of 3 rounds each, and about 1/2 my games were decided by pure beatdowns either way. I had 1 match of 9 go to time (and that was with my Aggro deck!)

It can't do graveyard aftermath. Just a sorcery or instant in hand.

I found the threat of its use to be more beneficial than its actual use. Sure, sometimes I got free Puncturing Blow or Electrify... and sometimes my opponent threw a high toughness blocker in its way because they would rather take the 4 afflict than risk me casting a spell-of-my-choice-free.

I agree. I played against it several times, and it never did much of anything. It's the sort of card where the dream tends to look better than the reality. Yeah, you could maybe get a free Final Reward and follow it up with a five-drop on turn five, but every time I played against it, I always just took the 1 and then watched my opponent shrug and say "go".

It's not a good card for a typical 16-18 creature limited deck. It's much better in the Prowess-Magmaroth deck that's running far more instants and sorceries than a typical sealed deck would.

It wasn't my all-star (Magmaroth, Banewhip Punisher, Ammit Eternal, Bone Picker, and Gravedigger clearly and directly won me more games), but it pulled its weight.

I was trounced as never before at the HOU prerelease. I've bombed before, but here I didn't win a single game.
I had a zombies-minus tribal build that I thought was on the lower end of descent. I probably should have put in some red.
Camels did some good work for me with deserts out.

My rares were:
Pride Sovereign (my one and only cat)
Razaketh (who got played once)
Driven // Despair
Heart-Piercer Manticore (bonus foil rare)
Prowling Serpopard (another foil)
Solemnity
Dread Wanderer
Fraying Sanity my prerelease foil

I played a game where my opponent's turn 2, 3 and 4 plays were Wretched Camel. It was amusing and also horrifying.

First and Best deck. This was just a little clunky with not enough 2 drops, but had Hour of Devastation and Sunset Pyramid to grind out a game if I got stalled. Dauntless Aven + Exert is nonsense.

Somehow lost match 3, just stumbled a bit vs. RG beatdown with 4/4 desert heelcutter. Also Chandra's defeat was a house.

Second deck... This one I misbuilt because I started drooling over 2x Aerial Guide and big green fattys... but the blue was bad so I cut it after m1g1.
Sadly, I lost my next 3 games as well. Never got to activate Pridemate.



For match 3 (no possibility of prize) I changed into 2x Abandoned Sarcophagus cycling nonsense. This deck (I'm sure you'll agree) was much worse.... maybe if it had a Drake Haven or Archfiend or something. Of course it won easily in 2 games... Magic.

OK last one... I also misbuilt by trying to play base UG.... although it was for Nissa, Steward of Elements and River Hoopoe... but the rest of the the Green was quite bad. I had lots of removal but it was in both White and Red... so I thought I would alternately splash based on opponent. There was a green anti-flyer option in the middle (base 20+3 spells)



I think I just needed a shot of espresso or 10 more minutes because as I was going to match one I realized I should just play Jeskai... but it was a little late for G1.
I lost Match 1 0-2 basically to Hooded Hydra and Glory Bringer. I had Nissa both game, but you know, she doesn't really do that much. Basically scryed 3 a few times and saved me 8 life. "Highlight" of this match was me using Kefnet's Last Word on Hydra, only to have him steal it back the very next turn. Also played Lay Claim on glory bringer but he just killed it and played Hydra.

I switched in to pure Jeskai control; this deck was way better (although with no wrath it could have had some issue with a good aggro deck if it couldn't steal a big enough threat



THIS deck won 4 in a row, stealing invocation The Scarab God in both games, and he had to put -1/-1 counters on it to buy time.

My prerelease pool began with a promo Hostile Desert, which was a bit disappointing. My pool also didn't have any bomb rares, but I did put together a pretty solid red/green exert deck. My first four games all ended with me casting Overcome. Turns out slightly-smaller-Overrun is still very very good (as if anyone suspected otherwise).

The prerelease was only three rounds, and I lost the last one to a jund deck that had a ton of removal. Still, my deck felt pretty good overall, and I got Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh in one of my prize packs, so I'm happy.

At least that does something. One of mine had a promo Scavenger Grounds. Which is nice looking, I guess.

After two runs of terrible promos (Aether Revolt had Whir of Invention, Indomitable Creativity, Spire of Industry and Oath of Ajani, followed by Amonkhet's Sheltered Thicket, Failure/Comply, Hazoret's Favor and Pyramid of the Pantheon), it was nice to finally get some decent ones this go around (Grind/Dust and God-Pharaoh's Gift, along with Hour of Revelation and Abandoned Sarcophagus that couldn't be supported).

I really hate this new promo system.