EPTThis time around I had discovered Xmage (check it out if you haven't already guys, it's awesome) so with some friends I'd been doing some sealed deck practice to prepare for the main event.
Opening my packs I had basically nothing in red, and although some combination of B/W/U was looking tempting with Roil Spout, March from the Tomb, Drana's Emissary, and a couple Stasis Snares, the creature and Ally support wasn't fantastic, so I fell back on Sultai colours (B/U/G) and some positively monstrous Eldrazi to do my work.
Day 1 Decklist
Match 1: vs R/B. The guy showed me what was in his deck after the fact so I sort of understood where he was going (he had some positively HUGE bombs for mega-late game IIRC) and we even played a Game 3 just for fun where he beat me, but that didn't change the fact that I absolutely CRUSHED him. 2-0, and I didn't take a single point of damage in either game. Drew all of my necessary Complete Disregards and other removal, created Scions for sac goodness and chump blocking and just completely wrecked the guy.
Match 2: vs R/G Landfall. Same thing in this game only this time I was on the other end of the beat stick. Got a little flooded out after exhausting what removal I did draw and he eventually beat me down in Game 1. Game 2 I kept a 2-land hand hoping to match his aggression with the hand I was dealt but that proved to be a huge mistake as I never drew a 3rd land and he just ended me. Being fairly control- and lategame-oriented I sort of figured this is how this (or the Allies deck) matchup would go. I probably could have lowered my curve and sideboarded in a bunch of weak 2 drops but it seemed as though he would have overwhelmed me anyway.
Match 3: Mirror Match! We literally played the exact same openers for 3 turns in Game 1. Then things got interesting. He had a few more fliers than I was prepared to deal with but Drowner of Hope did a lot of work tapping down the few threats he had as I created more Eldrazi Scions until I could bust through with my other bombs like Oran-Rief Hydra. I felt a little bad because in my concentration I technically let an Undergrowth Champion resolve when I was holding up mana to Spell Shrivel it, and he let me do it anyway. I also messed up by not drawing cards at the end of his turn once but since he had already let me pseudo mulligan an earlier one, I was willing to eat my mistake there. Game 2 quickly dissolved any guilt of mine though. It was unlike anything I had seen. He curved perfectly with an Ingest enabler turn 1, and ramp turn two into a Smothering Abomination which hit the board before I even had anything but lands. That game ended extremely quickly. Game 3 I was determined to match the aggro here so I boarded in a bit of early game and flier protection in the form of Snapping Gnarlid and Mist Intruder. Also really helped to catch his Windrider Patrol with a Transgress the Mind. It's funny but even though we were playing the same colours it was Game 2 that made me realize how different our decks really were. He relied mainly on fliers and Ingest to be able to Process later in the game, while before sideboarding in, I was not running a single Ingest creature, despite being in the right colours for it. All of my exiling came from removal, and I got a lot of value from cards like Oracle of Dust for it. He pulled ahead but thanks to my extra flier and removal/bomb draw tapping his recurred Deathless Behemoth down I was able to slowly pull back, winning the game after time was called, on my final turn with my opponent left with 1 life.
Match 4: vs U/B. He agreed to split and play for the extra pack so this was a really fun and jovial game with the pressure off. Just an altogether awesome guy to play against. His deck was again similar to mine but without the massive Scion creation in favor of tempo/Awaken plays. I was so excited to finally get my promo Sire of Stagnation onto the board (as I hadn't drawn it in any of my previous games, but nope, exiled immediately with Scour from Existence. This game was super controlly back and forth with each of us dropping and removing smaller creatures and trying to resolve tricks under threat of counterspells. I few of my favourite sets of turns went like this:
Use Voracious Null to eat some Scions. It gets bounces and he Awakens a land. Replay Voracious Null. Next turn drop Mortuary Mire to put an earlier removed Drowner of Hope on top of my library, drawing it with Oracle of Dust, playing it again, and saccing more Scions to the Null. Game 1 was a huge grind but eventually I wiped his board with an out-of-the-blue Gruesome Slaughter, a HUGE value card in my deck once I had some board presence. Game 2 went even more quickly in my favour and he scooped.
I went in thinking my deck wasn't particularly all that good considering how many 6 drops I was running and how my early curve was all but missing, but I guess the many synergies in my deck really pulled through. (Enough so that a ridiuclous card like Brood Monitor sat in my sideboard!) That or the fact that I didn't face a SINGLE opponent playing white somehow. Three colours was definitely the way to go here with the fixing I had in Lifespring Druid and Pilgrim's Eye as it enabled me to play the best Devoid/colorless B/U/G I could muster, all with massive synergy. Titan's Presence as well as the aforementioned Drowner of Hope and Gruesome Slaughter gave me ridiculous value and plays that nobody expected.
Overall match record: 3-1
Overall Game record: 6-3
Pulls: (Nothing of any particular value)
Sire of Stagnation (promo)
Gruesome Slaughter
Drowner of Hope
2xMarch from the Tomb
Oran-Rief Hydra.
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
(From prize packs)
Woodland Wanderer
Gruesome Slaughter (another one, ugh)
Sanctum of Ugin
Scatter to the Winds
Tomorrow night the hunt for my first planeswalker (or hell, anything even remotely worth anything at all) continues. Perhaps an Expedition....?
Day 1 Decklist
Day 2 writeup to follow!
Comments, advice, discussion are always welcome here. I debated posting more of my sealed pool with the decklist so people can comment on whether I ran too few lands, my curve was bad/risky/etc, what I could have improved upon and/or what I did well but that's a lot of cards and a lot of work. I guess people can let me know if that's the sort of thing they'd actually be interested in?
+ Show Spoiler +
BONUS: So my friend with all of his ridiculous card pulling luck manages to snag a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar in his prize packs, as well as three of the new dual lands, one of them foil. He ALSO, for the SECOND time at one of these events won a door prize of a MM2015 pack. It had a friggin Dark Confidant. Don't me wrong I love this guy but his luck makes me rage.
After losing Match 2 in about 20 minutes, I went to watch him play his match. He was on Game 3 of a pseudo mirror match of G/W allies (opponent) vs. G/W/R allies. He had resolved Retreat to Emeria popping out 1/1 Allies each turn but his opponent had the board control, dropping 4/4 and 5/5 Ally enablers. Even though my friend's removal was solid he was running low, having used his last Smite the Monstrous earlier. He had some good stuff on the board but wasn't free to attack yet. Then his opponent top decks a Greenwarden of Murasa. What followed was probably the best value use of a single card I will ever see. She buffs and attacks with her board, he uses Turn Against to steal the Greenwarden, blocking a creature and killing both of them, AND recurring his Smite. (Somehow he still managed to lose to a couple Giant Mantis though.)
After losing Match 2 in about 20 minutes, I went to watch him play his match. He was on Game 3 of a pseudo mirror match of G/W allies (opponent) vs. G/W/R allies. He had resolved Retreat to Emeria popping out 1/1 Allies each turn but his opponent had the board control, dropping 4/4 and 5/5 Ally enablers. Even though my friend's removal was solid he was running low, having used his last Smite the Monstrous earlier. He had some good stuff on the board but wasn't free to attack yet. Then his opponent top decks a Greenwarden of Murasa. What followed was probably the best value use of a single card I will ever see. She buffs and attacks with her board, he uses Turn Against to steal the Greenwarden, blocking a creature and killing both of them, AND recurring his Smite. (Somehow he still managed to lose to a couple Giant Mantis though.)
