Pre-Release Tournament Report

[Gizmo]

I came 2nd in a 60-man field. I played GBu with a lot of graft and +1/+1 interactions and the only deck I lost to all day was virtually identical to mine but had rares in that I didn't have - the Experiment Kraj and Omnibian, both of which dominated our Graft vs Graft matchup. I looked at the stuff in R/B which looked ok (Irkspitters etc) and decided that too many things would have +1/+1 counters and they'd be almost useless - and that's about how it went, there certainly wasn't much UW or RB on the top tables. That said, the only guy to go 6-0 was playing a 4-colour deck that based off green and went out for R/B removal and white creatures, along with a few silly flying rares.

My Deck:
Creatures (17)
Elves Of Deep Shadow
Transluminant
Aquastrand Spider
Simic Guildmage
Roofstalker Wight
Trophy Hunter
Golgari Brownscale
Shambling Shell
Patagia Viper
Sporeback Troll
Assault Zeppelid
Demon's Jester x2
Mortipede (MVP, especially when used with Sporeback Troll)
Golgari Rotwurm
Helium Squirter
Root Kin Ally

Spells (7)
Riot Spikes
Clinging Darkness
Simic Signet
Thrive
Sundering Vitae
Vigor Mortis
Brainspoil

Land (16)
Simic Growth Chamber
Island x2
Forest x6
Swamp x7

It's not a particularly amazing deck, no cards in there scream GAME WIN at you. What it does have is amazing synergy and solid card interactions all round. It was very interesting to play for that reason, and my opponents threw away a lot of cards simply because I had so many options available that they couldnt predict what I would do if they attacked.

Sideboarded Cards
Shielding Plax x2
Scatter The Seeds

These three cards came in vs the RB decks with their point removal up the wazoo, taking out Sundering Vitae, Riot Spikes, and Thrive. They were very good SB choices and perhaps should have been maindecked - I'd undervalued Scatter The Seeds and would certainly maindeck that in future.

What was good?
+1/+1 tokens - they rocked the world. Not only did I play three graft cards, I also had Shambling Shell, Vigor Mortis, Trophy Hunter and Thrive, with Simic Guildmage to manipulate them around. What you fnd with Graft is it's very much like Slivers in that when you get the Helium Squirter all creatures get flying, or all creatures get regen from the Shoreback. The combat tricks I had available at any one time could be rather silly and it made Dredging the Shell each turn a reasonable strategy. Particularly strong interaction was Shoreback and Mortipede - the +1/+1 counter made Mortipede harder to kill, and could regenerate anyway and wiped out more of your opponent's creatures.

What was bad?
"Deal 1 point..." or "-X/-1" - It seemed like suddenly everything has an oink of at least two and my Riot Spikes and Clinging Darkness were UTTERLY USELESS. And I mean UTTERLY useless - I don't think I usefully cast them once during 6 rounds, and whenever my opponent had something like that or an Irkspitter I just ignored it and ploughed on through with my 3/3s and 4/2s. Even dealing 2 damage is undervalued as people can choose to bring things in with a +1/+1 counter on and render toughness-based removal useless.

What was the biggest disagreement?
Nettling Curse - I don't rate this card at all, and yet people were playing them and ranting on about how good they are. I just don't buy it, firt of all it doesnt kill anything, doesnt stop anything with an activated ability... so straight away you're looking at Pacifism and not Arrest. The if you put it on a big creature I'm probably happy to take 3 damage in order to swing at you for 5, and if you put it on a small creature then W00T you just nullified a small creature, it's not game-winning. It comes down to this - when you're losing putting a Nettling Curse on something is useless because he'll take the damage and keep on coming, and when you're winning all Nettling Curse is help you win more. Cards that are bad when you're losing are bad, period - particularly in limited.


PS... Hellbent is pretty crap as abilities go, it's a fraction as good as Threshold was anyway. But when those Jester's Demons went Hellbent my opponent certainly knew about it. For commons they're very strong as you'd play a 2/2 flyer for B3 anyway I suspect.

 

[orgg]

Sounds like fun.

Wish I could've attended one of 'em.

 

[Limited]

Thanks for the inside scoop. My prerelease starts in an hour!

 

[DarthFerret]

Yes, thanks for that.....My prerelease starts at 11:00 am. Will keep in mind all that you have taught me young guru!

 

[hrothmar]

So darthferret and limited, did this information help you at all? Or do you not agree?

 

[jorael]

Cool report Gizmo!

I haven't seen forecast being used all day. I had 2 Plumes of Peace and they were nice. I used their forecast a few times. Simic Guildmage was a bomb: it shafted opponents Graft creatures (and even killed them) and it was very nice with my pair of Sporeback trolls (gives you great tricks to outplay your opponent). Rares I played: Dream Leash (plumes of Peace forecast, anyone?) and Momir Vig, Simic Visionnaire: if you aren't being pressured too much by your opponent and you get time to abuse it, you are hard to stop.

I went 4-2 and had a lot of fun. There was a lot of interaction between players and a lot of tricks to use. Can't wait to start deckbuilding with the new cards. Friends and foes beware!

Current casual constructed ideas
-Coiling Oracle gives you nasty kind of card advantage (elf, elf snake, elf snake druid wtf?!). It's time to reassemble my U/G Snake decks.
-Bronze Bombshell + Endless Whispers + Dimir Housguard
-Hellhole Rats together with Parallectric Feedback and more of such cards
-Pitch spells (contagion, Pyrokinesis), Bottled Cloister, Mindstorm Crown + hellbent
-More tribal decks to revisit: snakes, rats, beasts, spirit, thrull, ogre, rogue, faery elemental

 

[orgg]

Faery Elemental?

That's a scary concept.

 

[Limited]

I have to admit, I was really disappointed. After I cracked open my packs, I really thought I would do a lot better than 2-4.
Because of the insane amount of removal in Black/Red, I had to play those. I didn't know which color to add.
Ribbons of Night and Roofstalker Wight said blue, but I was already light on creatures. If I had added White, I could have played the Sunhome Enforcer.
In the end, I went for BRG (as predicted) because of Elvish Skysweeper, Shambling Shell and Centaur Safeguard.

I'll list my cards, and italize my deck:

White
Caregiver
Nightguard Patrol
Screeching Griffin

Azorius Herald
2x Freewind Equenaut
Haazda Exonerator
2x Soulsworn Jury
2x Steeling Stance
Stoic Ephemera

Blue
Dizzy Spell
Induce Paranoia
Mark of Eviction
Peel from Reality
Tattered Drake
Vedalken Dismisser
Wizened Snitches

Ocular Halo
Plaxmanta
Vision Skeins

Black
Clinging Darkness
Last Gasp
Mausoleum Turnkey
Mortipede
Ribbons of Night
Roofstalker Wight
Thoughtpicker Witch
Undercity Shade

Delirium Skeins
Enemy of the Guildpact
Ratcatcher
2x Seal of Doom
Slaughterhouse Bouncer

Red
Cleansing Beam
Dogpile
Fiery Conclusion
Flash Conscription
Galvanic Arc
Hunted Dragon
Incite Hysteria
Seismic Spike
Sparkmage
Surge of Zeal
Torpid Moloch

Kill-Suit Cultist
Kindle the Carnage
Psychotic Fury
2x Sandstorm Eidolon
Utvara Scalper
Weight of Spires

Green
Elves of Deep Shadow
Elvish Skysweeper
Goliath Spider
Sundering Vitae

Aquastrand Spider
Fertile Imagination
Simic Iniate
Simic Ragworm

Multi
Boros Swiftblade
Chorus of the Conclave
Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi
Shambling Shell
Sunhome Enforcer
Selesnya Evangel

Azorius First-Wing
Coiling Oracle
Jagged Poppet
Lyzolda, the Blood Witch
Plaxcaster Frogling
Plumes of Peace
Sky Hussar
Vigean Hydropon
Wreaking Ball

Hybrid
Boros Recruit
Centaur Safeguard
Lurking Informant

Minister of Impediments
Riot Spikes

Artifact
Plague Boiler

Azorius Signet

Land
Boros Garrison
Selesnya Sanctuary

Azorius Chancery
Breeding Pool
Rakdos Carnarium

And played 12 basic lands: 6 Swamp, 3 Mountain and 3 Forest

What was good?
Solid removal and a decent amount of cheap creatures.
Ratcatcher. 4/4 Fear for six mana is great.. I'm just annoyed I didn't open a single rat..
Delirium Skeins. Even with a clear board, if I could empty both our hands I would, just because topdecking Hellbent cards is freaking awesome!

What was bad?
Hunted Dragon. I figured it was some kind of finisher, but there was only one game in which I could actually play it.. most of the time there would be a silly little bird loitering about, preventing the possible 6 damage. And giving your opponent three 2/2 creatures with first strike is just not a good idea, if not many of your own creatures have more than two toughness.
Psychotic Fury. I figured, because its a cantrip, I wouldn't hurt to play it. I used it once to deal an additional three damage, and twice it prevented me from maintaining Hellbent because there were no targets!
Overall, my deck lacked flyers..

Cool plays
My opponent has no cards in hand and a 3/3 Slaughterhouse Bouncer and a 2/2 flying something. I have a Thoughtpicker Witch and a Shambling Shell.
I attack with the Shell. He blocks with the Bouncer. I pay (2) and sacrifice both my creatures to the Witch (after damage on the stack, of course).
Damage resolves and the Bouncer dies, forcing him to take down the only creature in play, his 2/2 flyer.

My opponent plays a Crypt Champion, a 2/2 double strike which lets each player return a creature of cc three or less from their graveyard to play. In response to this come-into-play trigger, I sacrifice Lysolda to herself to deal it two damage and draw a card. And then the trigger resolves and she comes back .

Used a Plague Boiler to kill a Civic Wayfinder.

Casual Deck Ideas
Ogre/Rat deck
Kindle the Carnage/Ragged Veins
Bg Beast deck
Vision Skeins/Cerebral Vortex/Walking Archive
Azorius First-Wing/Concerted Effort/Infectious Rage
Jagged Poppet/Bestial Fury?
Bronze Bombshell/Endless Whispers/Dimir Housguard
Dovescape/Boseiju, Who Shelters All/Blood Funnel
Rakdos the Defiler/Yore-Tiller Nephilim
Sprouting Phytohydra/Sunstrike Legionare/Viridian Longbow

*HONK*

 

[Spiderman]

Man, wish I could have gone too...

 

[hrothmar]

Me too, this all sounds like terrific fun.

How about those split cards, anyone of you get shafted by one of those ?

 

[Limited]

I never seen anyone play a Split card all day.. but I figure some were pretty playable.

 

[Gizmo]

I got a couple, didn't play them.

 

[DarthFerret]

Ok, I went on Sunday, to the Houston Pre-Release. Since then, my mother-in-law had surgery, and we got my finacee's surgery scheduled so most of the details in my mind are gone, but I will do the best I can here..

I get to the place at 9:00 am after hearing a rumor that they stopped the tourney early yesterday because of conflicting room reservations so they were gonna open early on Sunday. Well, that did not happen. So I go to a local IHOP and order coffee and a stuffed french toast. The waiter is an idiot, brings me decaf, I tell him (after recovering my face from the evil contortions caused by the evil stuff) that I wanted regular coffee, not decaf. Ok, well as I am telling him this, my food arrives. Lucky me, I also have a glass of water. I eat, and 8 minutes later my waiter comes back with the bill (and not the coffee!). I see that the coffee is not on the bill. Ah well, pay and leave (25 cent tip here!). I get back about 9:45 to the card shop. The same one person is still waiting there. I sit and smoke. Another car pulls up, and 2 guys and a girl get out. We start talking shop. Next thing I know, it is 10:30 and the owners show up with the judges, and open shop and start registration a little early. We register, I get the promo, and go out to smoke and wait for deckbuild. Some guys are out there with a hacky sac, and it comes flying towards me. Instinct kicks in and I hack it back. Well, now we join the circle and hack for 45 minutes or so. Maybe my sweaty odor will now distract my opponents and I can win a bit! (feel free to laugh or groan now) We go in and the following is a sketchy account of how things went.

I played in two flights. I went with UGW for both flights. The decks were pretty similar in nature, but some of my kill cards were not.

In the first flight, I got beat 1-2 in the first round, went 2-0 in the second, 0-2 in the third, and (yes I still finished it out) went 2-0 in the fourth, for an Overall Record of 2-2 (5-4 total win/loss). I was ranked 36th out of about 95 players. The most difficult decks I faced were RB and used a copy of the promo card (Avatar of Discord) to kill me in the first round (although in the one that I won, I used a carom to kill it), and in the third round it was the Timmy ability from Rakdos Ickspitter (he had 3 on the board once) that beat me down. I was most successful versus the decks similar to mine (UGW, UGB). Amazingly enough, I chose my Trygon Predator (2/3 Flyer that can destroy an artifact or enchantment whenever he damages an opponent.) as my MVP for this flight.

The second flight was much more interesting for me. I managed to pull several good combos for that deck. The most hated one by 3/4 of my opponents, was the first turn Simic Initiate (G : 0/0, Graft: 1) and second turn Watchwolf (an interesting critter. 3/3 for GW. Grafting a +1/+1 counter on him made him a natural turn two 4/4 creature.) then on turn three swinging and using Might of the Nephilim (1G instant: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn for each of its colors.) This was a great turn three, 8 damage combo. The other nasty combo that worked good was a Minister of Impediments (2 [W/B] : 1/1 creature, T:tap target creature) and Magewright's Stone (Artifact CC 2, 1T: Untap target creature that has an activated ability with T: in its cost.) Many of my opponents were a little unsettled when I could tap 2 of thier critters on thier upkeep. I also had 2 drop lands and 3 signets that worked in this deck, (although one of the signets was GB but still good for extra mana) and the only land screw I had was when I drew 4 Forests and no other lands for 6 turns.

In this flight, things seemed to be going really well, I went 2-0 in the first round to a poor young woman who I had to coach on some playing rules most of the game.

The second round I played against a guy with a deck similar to mine. After the first game of this round, I was thinking I had this in the bag. My Openeing hand was 3 Plains, 2 Forests, a Simic Initiate, and a Watchwolf. My first draw was a Might of the Nephilim. Yes! Turn 3, 8 damage, game over! The next game, I got the 4 Forest draw. Still high hopes here, as long as I dont get another screw. The last game of this round, well, lets say both decks played out to thier full potential, and we went down to the wire. When 5 minutes left was called by the judge, he still had 16 life, and I had 14. We finished the game in about 4 minutes (1 minute until the end) and he beat me down. I had 6 cards left in my library. Okay on to round 3 but it is ok, I am 1-1 and still pretty confident. I end up playing a RB deck this time in which he has put all his stock on the Hellbent ability. Lucky me! I win an easy 2-0 victory, since I had so much group card draw that he never got it to work! (The second turn 3/3 came out again during this match.)

Ok on to round 4. I have to win this one to get the extra packs. The excitement is burning me up. I play against an almost Identical Deck! I have the watch wolf, but he splashed some red removal in his and beat me way too easily in the first game. Ok, now I am really worried here. Well, on to game 2. He draws 7, I opt to play first, he groans and says he will try what he drew. I am not gonna let my opponent bluff me out! I mulligan and draw 6. I still play first and he gets 3 lands the entire game (lasted about 9-10 turns). Ok, pressure not as bad now. Still one more game to go, but looking better.

Last game of the day, is it getting stuffy in here?

I pull my 7 cards, he chooses to play. Alright decent draw, one of each color land, one signet in hand. I can handle this easily? Wrong, he gets most of his early removal, and keeps me handily at bay, however, no offensive ability yet. Ok, we are in for the long game. I get my Minister of Impediments out, and then I get my stone. I got some good stall going now. We are evenly matched. Then I pull my game winner, at least that is what I called the card the whole 2nd flight. Paladin of Prahv. A 3/4 Human Knight for 4WW. He is spirit linked in the text. He even has Forecast (1W: Reveal Paladin of Prahv from your hand: Whenever target creature deals damage this turn, you gain that much life.) Joy of Joys! But, wait. I dont have the mana to cast him, and if I forecast him, I cannot play enough cards to keep up with my opponent. Half my creatures are locked down with Plumes of Peace (creature cannot attack or block) and the other half are not big enough to get through. Ok time to take a gamble. I forecast the Paladin on the next turn, then blow all my mana on a Cytospawn Shambler. (0/0 for 6G with Graft 6. Also G: target creature with a +1/+1 counter on it gains trample until end of turn.) Ok, I got the trample, I got the big one, and now it will help increase my life points right? Well, I guess I am not the only one that busted a pack with Overrule in it. Arggh. Counters my spell and gains life from it! Basically all downhill from here. End up losing by 5 life points.

Well Second flight did not do me much better. Still 2-2 (2/0 , 1/2 , 2/0 , 1/2 for a total of 6/4 record) same as before. Looking at my overall record for the day (11/8) really does not help me feel any better. I came, I saw, I conquered some, and only took home the packs that I had for deckbuild. Still, I got 2 promo cards (they actually had enough for both flights) and I had a blast there. Met some really good people. And have a real good feel for the 10 different guilds now!

I got 3 splits, and saw one guy use one. That was it. Never really did much damage to me.

 

[hrothmar]

I thought the splits were gonna be hella good, time to re-evaluate them?

 

[Spiderman]

Perhaps they're more suited to the Constructed format rather than the Limited format in pre-releases...

 

[Gizmo]

Well I got Hit/Run, neither side of which is amazing. If I'd run the red splash to the GB core I probably would have used it. I also got the rare GBU one that's basically an incredibly expensive Regrowth and a 'your stuff can't get countered' - neither of which is too hot in limited.

 

[DarthFerret]

I am not so sure of that. I will be posting a guild evaluation later this week or early next week. I have just enough cards to build at least 5 guild decks, maybe even all 10. Will let you know. Also I noticed that all the split cards cross guilds, therefore may not be very useful with what I am doing....

I have the GBU one also (Bound / Determined). The big downfall is that Bound costs 3BG. Pretty expensive. While Determined only costs GU and only prevents other spells from being countered. But does have a cantrip.

Actual split cards I have are as follows...

Bound and Determined

Bound 3BG : Instant, Sacrifice a creature. Return up to X cards from your graveyard to your hand, where X is the number of colors that creature was. Then remove this card from the game.

Determined GU : Instant, Other spells you control can't be countered by spells or abilities this turn. Draw a card.

Pure and Simple

Pure 1RG : Sorcery, Destroy target multicolored permanent.

Simple 1GW : Sorcery, Destroy all Auras and Equipment.

As you can see, they cross guilds really strangely and would have to be a really well constructed deck to make them work efficiently enough to put them in.

 

[orgg]

Simple could see a good bit of use.

 

[DarthFerret]

agreed. It was not the one used against me (not sure which one it was, but not one of the ones I have, and not hit and run). It seemed pretty balanced at the pre-release in Houston. 1/2 of the people picked BR the other half went with 3 colors mostly UGW or UGR.

 

[hrothmar]

I see your point; all the useful split-effects are in previous guild colours. As an exception to that rule Id consider supply//demand, which has 2 useable effects in UGW.