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Played three sealeds in a row (12 hours of magic today woohoo) and went 2-1 in all of them.
Sealed #1: White
Ended up in WG and splashed blue for the Flash/flying 2/3 Lord (which I have in foil now, hooray!). Also had the white 4/4 flyer for 5. A good curve, some card manipulation / draw (the green 2/2 that lets you scry 2 and reveal a creature to put it in your hand), solid finishers like Gaea's Revenge and some quality removal with 2 Arresting Bonds and 2 Wild Instincts. I only lost to someone running an extremely aggressive Red deck with that 1/1 goblin with renown + menace and the Piledriver. 2 of the 3 games he had turn 1 goblin, turn 2 piledriver. If he had those like turn 3 or whatever I wouldn't have cared. When you get them turn 1 and 2 its just ridiculous.
No money cards really, and just kept the packs - not opening them.
Sealed #2: Green
Opened a pre-release promo Elf Lord, Lilianna, Evolutionary Leap and Days Undoing. Had a crazy good black/green deck. Card manipulation with that 4 mana 2/2 elf to scry 2 and get a creature. 2 of the kill target creature with 3 or less power. A lot of value elves, Evolutionary Leap, and Lilianna. Lilianna plus Evolutionary Leap was amazing. Flipping her, playing out my hand and having my opponent discard. When a creature of mine was going to die or was useless (1/1 elf warrior token!) just sacced it to Leap, and got another creature and sometimes used Lilianna to pop it back on the battlefield. Fun games.
Sealed #3: Blue
No Sigiled Starfish. Tons of bounce spells. Terrible pool. Ended up simic with a black splash for Kill Power 3 or less and 2 Read the bones due to good fixing and meh playables. Drakes and thopters for days. I bounced so many big monsters and barely made it 2-1. No money pulls here.
Going to do the 10am 4-rounder tomorrow and pick Red I think.
I traded away some of my random foils/rares/uncommons from today. I don't think any of them are going to rise in value really. I still have a foil elf lord, lilianna, and days undoing. Not sure if anything of those are worth holding onto in hopes of going up. I think I should hold onto those until after the standard tournament at least. I traded away Starfield of Nyx, Evolutionary Leap, Gaea's Revenge, and foil Relic Renewer (2/2 white with renknown + fetch equipment). Hopefully I made the right call in thinking none of those are jumping in value.
Any thoughts on cards that might spike in value for this set? Or cards that you think will be duds and should sell sooner than later for value? Flip planeswalkers seem really bad, and I can trade Lilianna for $20 worth of cards for instance. The elf lord isn't as good as the 3 mana one so not sure if it'll see play. Days Undoing is Affinity or bust I think.
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Do your guys' stores limit prereleases to three rounds? I limited my midnight to 4 rounds from five, but all others have been 4 naturally.
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On July 12 2015 13:30 Risen wrote:
Do your guys' stores limit prereleases to three rounds? I limited my midnight to 4 rounds from five, but all others have been 4 naturally.
They used to limit the midnight one to 3 rounds so you didn't stay up insanely late, but they stopped doing that apparently because this one was 5 rounds. The Gatecrash one I went to was 7 and went until almost 8 am.
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Anyone else experience a lot of Planeswalkers being pulled today? Or just a small sample size on my part.
We had like <20 prerelease packs opened today and there were.. 6 planeswalkers in them. Then two more were opened in prize packs in the <20 packs given out.
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Yeah, a LOT of walkers were opened at my store today. During all 3 events I was at, with 8 people at my table at least 1 would open a planeswalker (even me once during the 2nd event).
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On July 12 2015 13:30 Risen wrote:
Do your guys' stores limit prereleases to three rounds? I limited my midnight to 4 rounds from five, but all others have been 4 naturally.
Ours is 3 for unknown reasons, except for today's which is a 4 rounder.
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On July 12 2015 21:41 EscPlan9 wrote:
Yeah, a LOT of walkers were opened at my store today. During all 3 events I was at, with 8 people at my table at least 1 would open a planeswalker (even me once during the 2nd event).
Yup. A crap ton of them.
I wonder if they're somehow more common than usual?
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Wondering if it was intentional or if it's just a mistake then.
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Small write up of my prerelease experience, I did 2/3 available tournaments, both were 16 man which is pretty small for what used to be around here, we used to have 30ish but only 1 shop and now we have 3 shops running them.
To sum up, I studied the cards closely, and quickly decided white was the best color with 2 insanely ridiculous commons and a bomb-removal-control-creature uncommon, they may no have the best rares but they are still good. Celestial Flare, Suppression Bonds, and Sentinel of the Eternal Watch were all cards I was hoping to pull. The sentinel is removal on a stick, as he removes their best creature from combat for their turn and your turn each turn on their combat. Oh and he's also a 4/6 with vigilance.
Sealed Event 1: White
Ended up going W/B, nothing else was playable, except for some double G bombs that I could not splash for.
In color Rares: Knight of the White Orchid (P), Caves of Koilos, Graveblade Marauder, Priest of the Blood Rite, Relic Seeker
This deck ended up being very aggressive, and I went with 16 lands due to it. I had 2 of the 2/2 vigilance renowns (plus the seeker), 2 3/2 Renown ground guys, and 2 of the 1/3 renown flyers. My removal was lacking, and easily the worst part of this deck, only 1 Reave Soul, 1 Celestial Flare, and 1 Suppression Bonds (ouch!). I did not get the 4/6 uncommon tap down for free bomb either. I went 2-0 very quickly against midrange-control leaning decks, base black and base white. I was just too fast, and by the time they started developing their boards I had gone 4-6 wide usually. I also ran 2x +2/+1 Kytheon's Tactics, to overwhelm once they stabilized. This is how I won 2 of my games in these 2 matches, and they were both easy sweeps. Match 3 I played essentially a mirror match, but he had 5 Topan Freeblade's (wtf!) and 3 Celestial Flares. It was a race.. all in all this match was over in about 10 minutes over 3 games. He had sideboarded some enchantment removal and played it killing my suppression bonds and swinging in for the win in game 3 after I had stabilized. Game 4 was against another white deck (this was a theme in the later rounds) but he was again more midrange and I was just faster. I ended up finishing 3rd because the guy I lost to, ended up losing in the last round to another white deck (yep 1st-6th all had white base, or as second color. It's just good.) that had a ton of removal and was able to reach his late game with his green splash ramping him into it just in time.
Sealed Event 2: White - The Nuts
This was basically just the perfect pool of cards. No archangel or Kytheon, but I got all 3 cards I wanted to see in spades. I ended up in W/G, easily.
3x Celestial Flare, 3x Suppression Bonds, 2x Sentintel of the Eternal Watch, 1x Patron of the Valiant, 1x Gaea's Revenge, Herald of the Pantheon (3 mana s. Bonds!), 1x Leaf Gilder, 1x Nissa's Pilgrimage, 1x Nissa's Revelation, 1x Skysnare Spider, and Kytheons Irregulars. Tons of white control, tons of green bombs. I also had a great white curve of creatures. I also pulled a Languish and Eyeblight Massacre, alongside 2x Reave Souls. Against decks that were white aggro based I could sideboard into black and have 10 targeted removal and 2 sweepers. I wouldn't have any good finishers, but they would have no creatures so it did not matter.
Match 1 (0-0): W/G Control vs. R/U Thopters -
Game 1: This game was over on turn 5, He resolved a turn 3 thopter generator into Thopter Spy Network (drawing him a card and getting him a token every turn... ugh, no sweepers here and celestial flare is now bad). Turn 5 he resolves Talent of the Telepath and Hits Nissa's Revelation, he ended up drawing 6 and gaining 9. I scooped there.
Game 2: I sideboard in 2 Caustic Caterpillars and 2 Aerial Volleys. He is playing a lot of tempo, I played into a counterspell knowing he was holding it up, thinking I would land my 2nd creature, he double counters me and scry's 2, and he smirks. I know I am in a bad spot, he casts Talent of the Telepath again, but this time I have Nissa's Revelation in my hand, and he flips one of my aerial volleys which is uncastable on the board state. I get to untap and drop my 8/5 haste and dome him. Next turn he drops a Aspiring Aeronaut and passes holding up a soft counter. I cast Aerial Volley and the game essentially ends as I hit him for another 8.
Game 3: Not much to say here, I start with all my sideboard cards in hand and played around his counterspell until he finally relented and played a creature (he would of had to discard). I was able to get my ramp spell through, and on turn 6 smash another Gaea's Revenge and smash for 8. He attempts to hold off with thopters, but my aerial volleys essentially win me the game as both were in hand.
Match 2 (1-0) - W/G Control vs. W/G Midrange:
Game 1 & 2: He gets mana screwed game 1 after mull to 5, and I get the same in game 2, we go into game 3.
Game 3: He curves out perfectly, but I am on the play. Turn 2 enchanmtent lord, into 3 suppression bonds in a row, then dropped Kytheon's Irregular's and a 4/6 autotapper. He did not get to swing or block with 1 creature. Unfortunately for him he curved into a 2-3-4-5 drop which spelled his doom.
Match 3 (2-0) - W/G Control vs. R/W Double Strike Pump - This was my close friend's deck, he basically had around 14 creatures that were mostly 3 drop or less, save for 2 of the 5 mana angels that pump renowns and 1 of the ETB +1/+1 all creatures until EOT .. this also included 3 of the 3 drop 1/3 renown birds. He had 2 of the board +2/+1 pump, the +1/+0 artifact and other stuff. I watched him swing for 20 with just 3 creatures the match b4 as I was done early. I knew that I probably would have good success as he went went wide early and vertical late. I could stabilize relatively early against this type of deck.
Game 1: He is on the play, plays a Topan Freeblade on turn 2, I play a relic seeker. On turn 3 he swings in, I block as I am for the late game plan, wanting to force his hand. He Flares me, keeping his guy alive. On turn 3 I ramp into 4 mana and put another forest into my hand. He drops his Ampryn Tactician and smacks me for 3, getting renown, he now has 6 power on the board. I Suppression Bonds his creature and pass. I eat another 3 and he drops 2 more creatures including a doublestriker. I play my 4/6 auto tapper and pass, I tap his doublestriker he attacks again but I don't want to chance flare so I don't block eating another 5 and allowing him to get a Consul's Liuteanant Renowned, he then plays a 1/3 flier and I believe his hand was empty at this point. On my turn I play the Centaur Herald and 4/4 Flyer and pass. He is now unable to swing in and doesn't draw anything reasonable to play. I cast Nissa's Revelation and draw 6 and gain 6 life off the spider, game essentially ends.
Game 2: He's on the play again and sideboards in quite massively. My hand: Forest, Plains, Centaurs Herald, 2x Flare, 2x Bonds. Turn 2 I played the herald, and I was able to hit my mana ramp spell again and another plains. I ramp up to 4 on turn 3, and with 5 mana on turn 5 I bonds one of his creatures (it now costs 3), played a Topan's Freeblade and passed. He is a little slower this game drawing his pump instead, and I one for 1 him every turn until drawing 2 of my 4/6's autotappers in a row, needless to say, this game was unwinnable for him and I won just cracking him without any blockers or any attackers from him.
Match 4: (3-0) W/G Control vs. W/B Control - His deck was really slow.
Game 1: I ran him over with my removal and curved into Nissa's Revelation for 8/5 and he scooped.
Game 2: I drew all my green cards and could not find a green source, opening hand was 3 lands with 2 flares a relic seeper and topan's freeblade. I drew 6 cards in a row I could not cast and I ended up losing to an unchecked Erebos's Titan.
Game 3: Drew my mana dork, with the mana ramp sorcery and 2 plains, forest, and my 4/6 in my opening hand. On turn 4 I played my 4/6, and on turn 5 I played my Gaea's Vengeance and the game was over. Not exciting games but was a good way to finish the tournament.
All in all I would say I think white is the best, In the 2 prereleases I did white was in 11/12 in the top 6 in both tournaments I played in which was the cut off for strong prize support. I think White, Green, Red are the strongest in that order.. a lot of people played base red with white or base green with white to good effect as well. White just has 2 common removal spells when only 1 deck goes wide to really avoid Flare (you can always block letting the big guy through and casting flare before end of combat phase after damage is dealt). If you get the nuts, white/red aggro is pretty insane.. noone was really able to pull it off at our events tho. White/Green Midrange/Control won both events I was at.
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So I was just guilted into opening my prize packs from last night, and I got a 4th Goblin Piledriver. I feel like I should probably craft some sort of deck now, but with Rabblemaster rotating out, I'm not sure in what capacity.
Any advice?
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Rabblemaster has been falling out of favor in RDW builds anyway. There is still ton of synergy in Dragon Fodder, Hordeling Outburst, and Goblin Heelcutter alone.
So in this standard, you can do some Obelisk of Urd stuff or just play straight RDW with Piledriver as a sweet two drop. Next standard, there are plenty of Goblins not rotating, and I'm sure the new set will give us a few also.
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Why is urd only talked about in goblins--can't an elf deck with 4 collected company, 4 sylvan messenger, 2 urd, 30 elves, and 22 lands be a thing? (In standard of course)
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I don't even think you need Obelisk of Urd because you can just chain a few Shaman of the Pack and then swing in. I don't think it makes a difference if they're 1/1s or 3/3s. Maybe as tech against Drown out the board?
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On July 14 2015 10:30 WaveofShadow wrote:
So I was just guilted into opening my prize packs from last night, and I got a 4th Goblin Piledriver. I feel like I should probably craft some sort of deck now, but with Rabblemaster rotating out, I'm not sure in what capacity.
Any advice?
I'm paranoid that Languish is going to pop up everywhere and knock creature-heavy red decks out of a competitive spot.
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On July 15 2015 00:25 GreenScreen wrote:Show nested quote +On July 14 2015 10:30 WaveofShadow wrote:
So I was just guilted into opening my prize packs from last night, and I got a 4th Goblin Piledriver. I feel like I should probably craft some sort of deck now, but with Rabblemaster rotating out, I'm not sure in what capacity.
Any advice? I'm paranoid that Languish is going to pop up everywhere and knock creature-heavy red decks out of a competitive spot.
Doesn't Anger of the Gods and Drown in Sorrow do te same thing against that deck for 1 less mana? Afaik languish mainly hurts green heavy creature decks?
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He is worried about Languish because it is much more maindeckable than the 3cmc sweepers.
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On July 15 2015 13:35 Whole wrote:
He is worried about Languish because it is much more maindeckable than the 3cmc sweepers.
I've never understood the "I must never lose game one" mentality of some people.
As of now, a 3cc sorcery that does everything languish does is played in 50%-66% of the black or red matchups you play. Dash, burn, and proper sequencing gets around it. It will be true for the cheap wraths and it will be true for the expensive ones.
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On July 15 2015 13:56 Thieving Magpie wrote:Show nested quote +On July 15 2015 13:35 Whole wrote:
He is worried about Languish because it is much more maindeckable than the 3cmc sweepers. I've never understood the "I must never lose game one" mentality of some people. As of now, a 3cc sorcery that does everything languish does is played in 50%-66% of the black or red matchups you play. Dash, burn, and proper sequencing gets around it. It will be true for the cheap wraths and it will be true for the expensive ones.
Languish is nice in that it deals with a lot of the faster dragon decks with 4 toughness dragons a turn earlier than crux of fate.
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EPT
