Kaladesh Prerelease!

I know nobody reads these but I like going back and reading them, also just a fun exercise.

Midnight Prerelease Friday Night/Sat. morning

So....I had work the next day at 10:30. I'm usually up late anyway and unless I did this one there was no way for me to get in 2 prereleases over the course of the weekend due to work/family type stuff, so I sucked it up. Wasn't a massive fan of the time but it was ok.

Here's the pool:

Rares:
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Aetherworks Marvel
Insidious Will (foil)
Midnight Oil
Panharmonicon
Skyship Stalker
Fateful Showdown
Syndicate Trafficker
Key to the City (promo)

So it was bound to happen sooner or later. Each pool since the Oath of the Gatewatch prerelease for me has been pretty nuts (except for maybe one?), so a suckier pool is just variance. Panharmonicon and Aetherworks Marvel really caught my eye and I wanted to attempt some stuff with them since no other colors or rares jumped out at me. Ultimately I figured a UW flicker/value build would not only be fun/janky, but might actually get there sometimes.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/28-09-16-uw-value/

Match 1 - vs GW stuff
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So we were sitting across from each other so we knew what we each had going into this. He was sporting the white Gearhulk (Cataclysmic) and a bunch of big green dudes, but his curve was very top heavy and low end with no midgame. The games themselves weren't insanely memorable as far as I can tell. He never really drew his Gearhulk and I only remembered partway through game 1 to play around it and not unload my hand for fear of gettting blown out. I beat him down with fliers and dudes.

Record: 1-0

Match 2 - vs UW INSANITY
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And I say insanity because this guy opened a pool that looked like the kind of thing I've been opening. Dovin Baan (who will now be referred to as Donovan), the 8/6 and 10/7 vehicles, the 6/6 Skywhale that taps everything (Aethersquall Ancient), and a whole bunch of removal. G1 I was crushed because I mulled to 6 and was never able to develop a proper board.

Game 2 was one of the most epic games I've played in a LONG time. I missed two land drops early but he was very slow to develop his own board. I dropped Vampire Whitehawk (Aerial Responder) prepared to gain some advantage and then he drops Donovan, basically permanently blanking the Whitehawk. Eventually drew Wind drake to prevent Donovan from ulting and then Panharmonicon, which I was afraid would have just been too slow....but then the value began. Blinked my Visionary Augmenter to make him a 4/3 and create two Servos, and go wide to kill Donovan. I had a Fairgrounds Warden on the board that had something exiled (I forget what) and he had just dropped his 10/7 (Demolition Stomper) which was more or less unblockable by everything on my board. Let my 4/3 chump a turn and was about to die, but then I drew another blink spell. He plays his 6/6 flier and crews his vehicle ready to smash...and then I blink my Warden. The Panharmonicon lets me exile TWO creatures so I take both the massive vehicle and the 6/6 flying bomb, then go on to win the game.

Game 3 was incredibly close. Panharmonicon dropped early and got a lot of value early on, but he was able to get all of his removal on top of the only guys in my deck capable of blocking the 10/7. A million Servos can't do anything against that unfortunately, and I never drew my Cloudblazer, counterspell, or second Warden after the first was removed. Lost on Turn 3 after time was called (should have heard this dude bitch though during G3 while I was getting crazy value. Also a friend of his showed up to cheer him on to beat me which I kind of feel is bad form though I do get it).

Record: 1-1

Match 3 vs UG good stuff
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We agreed to split and play 1 game for a bonus pack. Dude drops Rashmi after I dropped Panharmonicon. Without my deck having real removal I didn't want to waste my first Warden exiling only one creature but Rashmi will completely take over a game, so I hit her with it. He then dropped a Riparian Tiger and one of his two(!!) Nature's Way and got Rashmi back. The game was basically over by that point. Thought I'd be able to outvalue him and attempt to win quick by dropping Cloudblazer to gain 4 life and draw 4 cards, but he was holding a 4 mana counterspell. Dude also had two of the 5/6 serpents with affinity, and the stupid Skywhale again. Don't feel too bad losing.

Final Record: 1-1-1

Stuff I learned:
Format is REALLY bomby. Kinda like Fate Reforged in that if you manage to stick a bomb you more than likely immediately win the game. There's some fun to be had with synergy/vehicles but it may or may not be a trap (especially in sealed). I think the reason why the second guy did so well with the giant vehicles he had was because I had none of the common removal that is able to deal with them, and it's pretty rampant usually.

Prize pack pulls:
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Dovin Baan(!!)
Insidious Will ---> Which I then traded for a Cultivator's Caravan. Not a total bust value-wise I guess.

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I also did a 2-Headed Giant prerelease with a friend. Not going to go into huge detail here, but I opened what is probably the absolute WORST pool I have ever opened for live play. Or maybe worst value pool---it's kind of hard to tell how my pool would have done on its own since we mix the cards together but it wouldn't have been well I can say that.

Rares:
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Confiscation Coup
Inspiring Vantage
Electrostatic Pummeler
Ghirapur Orrery
Midnight Oil
Dynavolt Tower
Inventor's Fair (promo)

Ugh. We played literally ZERO of my rares and got carried by my friend's pool, which contained Donovan again and Nissa. Not to mention 2x Oviya Pahiri and a Cultivator of Blades. He went basically mono-G with a U splash and I went Jeskai vehicles/Dwarves/control. Actually ended up working out decently. Drew match 1 when we fell 3 damage short of killing our opponents who then managed to stabilize just barely after gaining life/finally drawing their mana. We had Donovan at 10 counters and didn't ult him because it didn't seem useful at the time to do so which was likely a mistake, though by the time we could the game had already slowed to a crawl and we may not have been able to win anyway. Match 2 we won against a couple inexperienced dudes 'cause we had two Planeswalkers on the board. Bombs are bombs. We split for Match 3 and a good thing I convinced my friend to do so because even though we were winning at the start, they started dropping their bombs. Noxious Gearhulk. Demon of Dark Schemes. A Cultivator of Blades of their own. A Multiform Wonder that they managed to recur a couple times, and a Scrapheap Scrounger. Not to mention at one point they had over 15 Energy to fuel their Multiform Wonder AND Demon.

Prize pack pulls:
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Inspiring Vantage
Fumigate
Bomat Courier

Overall: Didn't open much value. Hated the stupid boxes this time because they kept getting stuck/were annoying to open. Had a decent time though was exhausted for both prereleases. Trying to squeeze them in (doing one midnight, the other an hour away from home to accommodate my friend) isn't something I'm likely to do again and unfortunately it means I'll probably be playing even less (especially a few months from now, when I'll have a newborn and what little free time I have now will completely disappear). I'll have to see what the draft format feels like because I don't think I was a huge fan of how sealed worked out.

Comments/questions always welcome. Thanks for reading if you did!

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