Power 9 Pro – Magic The Gathering Accessories – Tournament Discussion – Deck Analysis

So what happened is that I wrote up my review yesterday for my local playgroup and thought, “Hey, James might like this”  But my style is a little different and I’m not as deep into the analysis as his excellent white review is.   We talked and instead of integrating my thoughts into his review, I’d just publish mine.

In short, my opinion on the set as a whole is a little lukewarm.  I’m the guy who likes to buy x4 of everything, and this time I think I’ll sit it out as I see a lot of “jump through the flaming hoop” cards that Johnny’s like, and some EDH goodness.  Most of the cards I want I either picked up (Jace) or I don’t see them going up in price too much.  In the long run, when the set rotates out, the cards will depress.  I’m of the feeling that it will be easy to trade extra fetches (just an example) for almost anything I want out of this set.

I also evaluate for draft by default.  In that respect I think draft is about to become a bit more organic, as all the speedster cards get replaced by fatter guys, defensive guys, and better flyers.

Anyways, I haven’t done a set evaluation in a while, so sorry if it’s a little scattered.  I  do evaluation on a couple different levels so I’ll break it down by category.

Chase – A chase card is usually a premier, high value rare. Chase doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a must own, sometimes the card is just too expensive or it’s very specific to the environment that’s its being played in.  But you should know what they are, and why they demand that value.

Ex. Jace, The Mind Sculptor, Thoughtsieze, Baneslayer Angel, Tarmogoyf

Staple – A staple card are generally “must own” x4 copy.  These can be any rarity, and you’ll see these over and over again in the course of the format.  The difference from these and “evergreen” cards is that you’ll see them drop in value as they rotate out, or they’re roleplayers for a certain type of deck or format.  Sometimes, because of mana cost or ability they might be good, they won’t be relevant to every deck.

Ex.  Rampant Growth, Duress, Bloodbraid Elf, Honor of the Pure, Blightning, Tri-lands, Duals, Fetch Lands.

Staple – Evergreen – I think I’m the only person I know who uses this term – – The best example I can give  off the top of my head of a “staple” vs. an “evergreen” is Elvish Archdruid vs. Great Sable Stag.  Archdruid is a great card, but he fits a role in a particular deck type.  GSS is almost always a good deal – he’ll be a staple, a roleplayer, sure, but he’ll definitely go into any almost any  green deck, as opposed to having you have to build around him.

Evergreens provide resources to multiple deck types in casual play, multiplayer, EDH and competitive.

Ex. , Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, Acidic Slime, Tri-lands, Duals, Fetch Lands.

Role player – These cards are decent, but only in certain archtypes.  I generally advise newer players to stay away from these cards unless you’re a Johnny and get the sense that you want to break it in half.

Ex.  Megrim, Traumatize

Bomb (Draft only) In a Draft, bombs are usually first picks out a pack, they’ll have a huge effect on the game if they resolve, and will almost always win you the game unless your opponent has an answer.

Ex. Fireball, Hellkite Charger, Marsh Casualities

To keep the review as easy to read as possible I’ve just linked the spoiler here.  I’m not going to clutter up the review with all the stats unless it’s appropriate.  http://mtgsalvation.com/worldwake-spoiler.html

***White***

Admonition Angel – Draft Bomb, Role Player

The four big flying fatties seeing play in standard are Sphinx of Jhar Isle, Baneslayer, Malakir Bloodwitch, to some extent Broodmate Dragon.  Sphinx and Broodmate are decent because their mostly immune to removal, and Baneslayer is too good not to play.  Malakir is immune to most removal, gains you life, and can block Baneslayer.  Any new entry into the “flying finishers” gets compared to them.  While Angel is bigger, it’s slower and very vulnerable.  In draft though, very little can deal with it.

Apex Hawk

You expect a 2/2 flyer for 3 casting cost.  And a 3/3 flyer for 5 is par as well.   Decent draft pick

Archon of Redemption – Role player

Same issue as Angel above but he’s got under average stats for his cost.  He’s begging you to build a deck around him.  I’d actually play Serra Angel over this.  Gaining life is overrated, AND you have to jump through some hoops to really get value.

Battle Hurda

Pretty boring., kind of lower pick draft card.  There’s enough x/4’s  that he won’t matter as much.

Fledging Griffin

Solid draft pick, very fair.

Guardian Zendikon

Well now we have some defense in draft. Too bad he doesn’t fly.

Hada Freeblade – Role player

If Allies becomes a standard deck, this guy will be in it.

Iona’s Judgement.

It’s removal.

Join The Ranks – Role player

See Hada Freeblade

Kitesail Apprentice

Pretty bad.  Duelist is better and didn’t get played all that much- Compare this to Skyfisher!

Kor Firewalker – Staple – Evergreen

Huge card that really really hurts mono-red.  And it’s a soldier. The gain life ability just puts it over the top.

Lightkeeper of Emeria

I actually prefer this card in draft to the archon above. It doesn’t really ask you to play other cards to make it better,  It’s got decent stats even as a 2/4 with no kick, since it comes out early to play defense, and if you draw it late, the life gain will help out.

Loam Lion – Staple

This is weird, because it might see play in extended zoo but white green isn’t the best deck in standard right now.  Amazing statistics for its cost, just like Kird Ape.

Marsh Threader

Cliff Threader’s good, so I would guess this is.

Marshal’s Anthem  – Role Player

I like this card.  Resurrection was never bad, and neither was Glorious Anthem. I think it’s a little under the radar but it’s good in control, and it’s pretty huge in EDH.  It’s probably too expensive for tournament constructed in multiples which is why it’s so low in cost.   I’d probably pick it for draft though.

Perimeter Captain

Third in the list of “red black aggro just doesn’t want to see this card in draft”

Refraction Trap – Role player

This is a huge card in draft, and may see play in standard.  Note that it protects planeswalkers, which harm’s way doesn’t do.

Rest for the Weary

Like Sunspring expedition, it’s a Decent Sideboard card for the aggro matchup in draft.

Ruin Ghost – Role Player

There’s an infinite combo with this and some other cards on the forums,  He’s got bad stats, but yeah, sometimes you want lands to come in multiple times.

Stone Forge Mystic – Role Player

Yep, someone’s gonna make a kor deck with him.  Bad stats otherwise.

Talus Paladin – Role player

This is a big swing in Allies and may push that deck over the top.

Terra Eternal

Makes your man lands INDESTRUCTIBLE!  And that’s it.  Now you youngsters will have that special feeling you only get when you open an animate wall as your rare.

Veteran’s reflexes Bleh.

***Blue***

Aether Tradewinds

Solid Utility Common.  Like Narrow Escape, it wants you to play permanents with comes into play abilities (Halimar depths! ), and it slows down your opponent.  Worst case scenario, in the early game you can put an opponent’s land back in their hand.  Boomerang has been a tournament staple, maybe this card has a place.

Calcite Snapper

Another common that owns the speed deck in draft, and it can bash for four if you like.  And shroud.  Tournament level, possibly, because of that last ability.

Dispel

Wizards just hates hard counters, this is another bad counterspell I’m just going to ignore.

Enclave Elite

Slightly worse than Apex Hawk in draft, but no slouch.  Blue usually doesn’t get fatties with no drawback.

Goliath Sphinx

<Hork>

Halimar Excavator

Woo Ally mill deck.  We continue the theme of decent defensive stats again, that 1/3 ass for 2 is no joke.

Horizon Drake

Sure!  3 power flying for 3 is great.  The ability might even be relevant.

Jace the Mind Sculptor – Chase Rare.

It’s good. The pros have already been sleeving and playing it.  Brainstorm is no joke.  And that ultimate is a 40 cal straight to the noggin.  You don’t walk away from that.

Jwari Shapeshifter – Role player

Basically, you’re either playing allies and want this card, or you don’t care.  It’s really good for that deck of course.

Mysteries of the Deep

Instant Speed Card draw is pretty clutch.  It’s expensive, but Blue Mages hate to tap out.  Not sure if this will see play over Mind Spring in standard but it seems okay.

Permafrost trap

I’m sure this is decent, but I’m not first picking it in draft.

Quest for Ula’s Temple

I actually have a deck for this.  The other 8 million magic players out there?  Out of luck.

Sejiri Merfolk – Staple?

Seems pretty strong for the cost.  Great draft pick for those colors

Selective Memory  – Role player

We’ve seen cards like this before, someone always figures out a way to break them.  I still don’t feel good opening this in a pack.

Spell Contortion.

Fairly costed, if it was costed any other way it would be a must play staple.  This is sort of fair.  I think people are still locked in on Flashfreeze as THE counterspell, will take a white or blue deck actually winning more for them to start considering other stuff.  I like it though.

Surrakar Banisher

This is no veldakin dismisser, but its got a decent body.

Thada Adel, Acquistor

Definitely in EDH.  If it were 2/2 for two it might see play in legacy.  It’s playable, but how many artifacts are in play in standard?  May be really good in Rise?

Tideforce Elemental

I think this is part of the combo with Ruin Ghost.   First pick in draft too.

Treasure Hunt – Staple – Evergreen

This is a huge card for blue.  The math has been done and the long and short of it is that you get 1.75 cards for 2 mana.  If you can manipulate the library (halimar depths and jace) then you always get more bang than divination.   Also, you always, always draw a spell.

Twitch

This is a reprint.  Can’t really complain too much.

Vapor Snare

Pretty bomby.  Mind Control is always good.

Voyager Drake

Great stats, great ability, great first pick.

Wind Zendikon

Another huge card for blue.  2/2 flyer for 1 with a minor draw back (you slow yourself down a bit to get aggro).   It’s a great card without a deck right now.

***Black***

Abyssal Persecutor  – Chase

I’m on the fence on this guy.  I like him, but not enough to shell out a twenty for him, then build a possibly weaker deck around him.  His price is leveraged around the fact that he is a solid mythic in a mostly bad set.  The black deck in standard is Vampires, and this is based on it’s synergy, and he doesn’t contribute to that at all.

Agadeem Occultist

Another weird rare. He’s pretty good in Allies, but not in constructed, since you have no idea what’s going to be in a graveyard.  Bad stats for his cost too.

Anowon, the Ruin Sage.

He just HAD to be 4/3.  Malakir Bloodwitch is so much better than this, and that’s a low cost rare.  He could have been 4/4 and relevant.  I don’t see what’s wrong with abyss in standard, I really don’t.  He’s legendary, too.  People might try and play him, and he’s just going to feel clunky.

Bloodhusk Ritualist.

The question posed earlier was “Is this better than Mind Sludge?”  Short answer: No.

Mind Sludge just ends games.  Ritualist is probably best in an edh or casual deck, but ultimately you’re paying for a 2/2 for 3, which isn’t that great.  Decent in Draft though, another solid 2 or 3 for 1.

Bojuka Brigand (why I do I feel like we’re back in Betrayers of Kamigawa land?)

The ability to block is fairly irrelevant anyway – I think black allies will rally around growers like him and the sellsword to get past all the fat blockers.  And coming out a couple turns faster is worth it.  Sick card.

Brink of Disaster

It’s removal, and it kills land, which is pretty relevant.  Not a Befoul though.

Butcher of Malakir – Bomb

A little highly costed for standard, but it does wreck some of those shroud strategies.

For draft, I suspect ZZW will be a bit slower, so this can make an impact.

Caustic Crawler

Meh.  I’d rather play shatterskull giant (which just got a lot better by the way) 4 is a much more relevant power now though.

Corrupted Zendikon.

3/3 for 2 casting cost in black is aggressive.  I can dig it.

Dead Reckoning

Huge draft masher two for one.  Might be good in standard where you want to get value back when you get hit by blightnings  – Grim Discovery saw play for that same reason.

Death’s Shadow – Role player.

Meh. Though you can search for it with Ranger of Eos

Jagwasp Swarm

Playable draft pick.  Like I said I think flyers and evasion is better now.

Kalastria Highborn.

Some people will love this card.  The question is whether it’s better to play than Hexmage in the vampires slot.   For the moment, I don’t think so.   If you have a deck for this guy, that’s great.  He’s slightly better in casual though, which I think is why his price is up.  He’ll go down over the long run I bet.   He’s no Rotlung Reanimator.

Mire’s Toll

There was a card in standard called blackmail which was 3 cards for B, and it was pretty bad. You want to play discard early, not late.

Nemesis Trap – Staple

This is Broken Visage as an uncommon. This a great card, fun to wreck people with, and will could see play in standard to 187 those baneslayers.

Pulse Tracker

I sort of like this card as 1 drop vampire, and a rogue, and he does an extra damage.  He quickly becomes irrelevant when someone drops a blocker, but he can still do duty as a vampire for you.

Quag Vampires

Same deal as Apex Hawk and the Merfolk.  Not as good as either but swampwalk is relevant.  If you’re playing swamps you can at least hate it so you don’t get killed by it.

Quest for the Nihil Stone  – Role Player

Except this one is actually really good!  Five life is pretty huge, and there’s some great discard out there.  This is totally under the radar right now (1 dollar on SCG), and I suspect it will jump up once someone breaks it.

Ruthess Cullblade

Ok draft pick.  He’s a vampire, decent stats, and an okay ability.  But in Standard he’s competing with Hexmage again.

Scrib Nibblers

What’s to say?  He’s got a mill ability, and can maybe gain you life.  Sucks in combat for his cost though.

Shoreline Salvager.

Good Stats for his cost in draft, and the ability is no slouch.

Smother – Staple

Another proven reprint that just rotated out of extended.  Now it’s back and extended players will be happy.  No slouch in standard either.

Tomb Hex

I like. Solid removal in draft.

Urge to kill

WOW does black get a lot of stuff that kills stuff. And yeah, it’s good for vampires.  Vampire players do a little dance.  Again.  Yawn.

***Red***

Akoum Battlesinger

I can imagine this scene, where wizards is sending a memo around to all the colors that they should slow down a bit, and of course Red got the memo, didn’t bother reading past the first sentence, and decided to wing it.   Red’s just gonna keep aggroing it out, like that loud drunk guy at the party that’s making everyone uncomfortable.

Ummm. yeah, not the best card unless you’re committed to mashing with allies.

Bazaar Trader

Wut?  It can’t even give away an Illusions of Grandeur.

Wizards fell down, least they could do is give us the other half the combo piece…

Donating the demon is the best I can come up with.

Bull Rush

RAAARRRRREEDDGHKAGHTG!!!

Chain Reaction

This is pretty good for red.  Not Earthquake good, though. Much more of a Multiplayer Wrath.  Phone this rare right into your EDH deck.

Claws of Valkut

RAAAAAAA…..It’s lightning Talons, basically.  But not always as good.

Comet Storm – Bomb, Staple – Evergreen

Solid red Bomb.  Instant is huge.   For standard it’s weighed against cascade, but it’s  fantastic card for casual and draft.

Cosi’s Ravager

Not particularly great.   It’s not as good as hellhound, though I guess with land tricks it can do a few extra points. Maybe there’s a combo deck in him.

Crusher Zendikon

Unlike the Black and Blue Zendikon, this guy doesn’t have good stats for his cost. Draft playable, since that 4 power is more important.

Cunning Sparkmage

Solid draft pick

Death Forge Shaman

I thought he was good, then I realized the damage is only to target PLAYER.  Well he’s a body.  If you have 8 mana he’s pretty nasty.

Dragonmaster Outcast – Chase

He makes dragons.  He’s fetchable with Ranger of Eos.  He takes a turn longer to smash face than with  scute mob, but he makes flyers.  Multiples of flyers.  He makes DRAGONS.

Goblin Roughrider

Sure.

Grotag Goblin Thrasher

Good stats for the cost, and this is about as close as you’re going to get to evasion in red for that casting cost in draft.

Kazul, Tyrant of the Cliffs – Bomb

Everything that Anawon the ruin sage isn’t, except he’s not a vampire.

Mordant Dragon – Bomb

Same issue as Admonition Angel for his cost in standard.  In draft he’s a slightly worse flameblast dragon.

Quest for the Goblin Lord –Role player

Now that’s cute, cheap, and easy to pull off.  Siege Gang Commander anyone?

Ricochet Trap

Wizards keeps making deflect/swerve variants and they keep sucking in draft and ride the margins in standard.

Roiling Terrain

This is interesting but expensive.  The card this compares to is molten rain, but it’s not as good.  Against some decks it’ll just whiff on the damage.  But then lands are better now…

Rumbling Aftershocks

Meh.  Kind of hard to build around it in your last pack.

Searing Blaze – Staple

It’s kinda like lash out, but worse.  But red loves two for ones, and red has lots of ways to make land fall happen.

Skitter of Lizards!

ARARARRARARAGAGGHHH!   Solid beats. Early game it’s a goblin chariot, late game it’s a tuktuk, whatever you like.

Slavering Nulls

Decent stats, it’s a zombie goblin, and it has a discard effect.  I miss that red/black deck… could it be back now?

Stone Idol Trap

Kills an attacker, swings in for 6 (probably)  But is it a staple, really?  I really can’t say.  Seems good, but what do you take out?

Tuktuk Scrapper

Crappy body (like most of the allies) but the artifact ability is pretty nasty.

***Green***

Arbor Elf  - Staple

It’s llanowar elf, with the possibility that you might whiff if you don’t have an actual forest in play (you have savage lands/oran rief etc out) But it’s still probably good.

Avenger of Zendikar – Bomb

Pretty cute, and fun in casual to.   Someone’s going enjoy killing with plants, I’m sure.

Bestial Menace – Staple

Flores already called it in Eldrazi green. Any deck that makes tokens.  Think Cloudgoat ranger.  Except you hit for nine.  It’s fairly bomby in draft.  If you were to get that by p/t paying “fair” it would cost you 7.

Canopy Cover

Funny,  I was just talking about how elves needed a silhana ledgewalker…  dunno if it will see play, but seems like a good draft pick. Think Whispersilk cloak

Explore – Staple

Better than rampant growth.  Great flip over in cascade decks especially.

Feral Contest

Another awkward green attempt at stall-breaking.

Gnarlid Pack

Bear, or Hill Giant, or better, it’s all good.  Solid draft beater.

“Back in my day, we played Kickered Grizzly Bears, and we called it Kavu Titan, and we lit in on fire so it had  haste.  I remember those days… ”

Grappler Spider.

Eh.

Graypelt Hunter

So it’s Nimana Sellsword with Trample?   Sold!

Groundswell – Staple

Might of Old Krosa, I missed you.

Harabaz Druid

Could be interesting.  Again, I’m not all that interested in Allies.dec

Joraga warcaller – Staple

It’s a great finisher in Elves, and you’ve got the mana and ways to put on counters.  If you’re playing elves, you should pick this up.

Leatherback Baloth – Role Player

Same issue as always – Straight green always runs into problems. It has no tricks, no card advantage, and no reach (the ability to finish the game with a random top deck or through a stall).  And elves is usually better  because of it’s synergy. But people are gonna pick it up and play it, and Wizards will promote it, and will rotate out, and no one will care.

Nature’s Claim

Nothing wrong with this, it’s a solid card, but not even naturalize is seeing play right now.

Omnath, Locus of Mana – Chase

Debatable on its power level, I think it’s a great general and someone’s likely to break it.  It’s a tempo choice – you invest in the attack at the cost of progression on the board – but Omnath is an insane late game top deck.

Quest for Renewal

Seems strong, especially in casual Multiplayer

Slingbow Trap – Role Player

It’s targeted green removal, and will have targets in draft.  I think windstorm is the sideboard card for this in standard.

Snapping Creeper

Good stats, will probably have vigilance.  Just another guy that slows down the board.

Strength of the Tajuru – Bomb

Nice finisher there – see the comet storm chart for stats.  Oh yeah, and combos with Warcaller.

Summit Apes

Huge beater in draft.  Might be too fragile for constructed… Someone’s gonna try it though.  Might be really good.

Terastadon

Blow up your own lands and get 18 power for 8 mana.  Or just play crush of wurms.
Blow up their lands and they get stuff.  I dunno.  EDH, but kinda dull.

Vastwood Animist

Another good ally card with bad stats

Vastwood Zendikon

Craw Wurm was usually good, except this attacks a turn early. Pretty saucy.

Wolfbriar Elemental –Staple – Evergreen

Pretty solid beater.  Decent stats on his own and late game drops some extra threats. Might not be standard worthy but he’s still really good overall.

***Multicolor***

Novablast Wurm – Bomb

It’s almost like Wizards designed EDH just so we could have a place to play big fatties like this.  I dunno, we’ve got acceleration, and this blows up stuff.  While it’s still pretty slow for standard, this is a great effect to have.

Wrexial, the Risen Deep – Bomb

Made for EDH again.  He’s got a great toughness, is immune to terror, and has evasion.  His ability isn’t that relevant to standard, but casual, OMG he’s got targets.

***Artifacts***

Amulet of Vigor

I really can’t comment on Amulet of Vigor without bias.  At this point I’m a bit sick of yet another “jump through the deck design hoop”  rare.   I don’t have the mental fortitude to start looking for all the CIPT permanents in standard and extended and casual that this might go with.  It’s just exhausting.  Let the Johnny’s have their cake, I’ll just do what I usually do – wait til someone figures out how to break it then lamely shell out for an overpriced rare.  …or I could just play nature’s claim on it and let you play with a slow deck.

Basilisk Collar – Bomb

There’s a Kor deck. This card isn’t good enough for it, since you never want to attack with Armament Master.  But re-usable deathtouch is sick in draft.

Everflowing Chalice – Staple – Evergreen

Turn 2 chalice for 1, turn turn 3 chalice for 2, turn 4 do fun things with 6-7 mana.  Like Play novablast wurm   Solid card for most formats.

Hammer of Ruin

Not exactly a bonesplitter, nor is the ability that relevant.

Hedron Rover

Better than Hedron Scrabbler, I suppose.

Kitesail

Better than Hammer of Ruin, in cost and utility. Flying matters.

Lodestone Golem

I really like this guy.  Might be a role player in an esper deck, or something likes to eat lands.  Anyone notice he’s got Juggy stats?

Pilgrims Eye – Staple – Evergreen

Stats and flying are kind of fair, but irrevelant.  We play the Borderland ranger and we’re fine. For EDH as well, anything that thins you out early is generally good.

Razor Boomerang

Wait, it is Betrayers of Kamigawa.  I should have called it at the evil red griefing Legendary Ogre for 5.  Well, Hankyu very much.

Seer’s Sundial.

I dislike that the default casting cost for artifacts that draw you cards seem to be four.  Still, I could see this (possibly) playing support in a red or green casual deck with no other way to draw cards.

Walking Atlas – role player

There was an elf a while back that had this ability, and it saw play. You could do some silly things with this and Geopede, maybe.

***Lands***

Bojuka Bog – Staple – Evergreen.

I don’t necessarily like what this card means for the reanimator deck archetype, especially in casual.  Of course it’s a land, so you have a choice of holding back vs. playing it, but in my case I would do the thing I usually do with functional lands like Maze, I just play one less business spell and treat this as a spell. It’s uncounterable.  It’s like, reanimation in standard isn’t that great, we’ve got crypt, leyline, and relic in extended, was this really necessary?   Seems like an odd call.

Celestial Colonnade – staple

It’s a dual land, it becomes a flyer.  Is it any good?  Well, as good as any manland would be.  They’re all great for casual, and they dodge  removal in standard.. could be good.  And if they were, it just makes land destruction and sea’s claim decks that much better.

Creeping Tar Pits – staple

I can get behind this card as well. Unblockable is pretty key.

Dread statuary

Sure in draft.  Seems slow and vulnerable in standard. 3/3 would have been better.

Eye of Ugin

Of Ghostflame fame.   We get a hint of the next set (Steamflogger Boss?)   The funny thing to me is, that if Eldrazi spells are actually playable/competitive, then a land that gives a discount of two to all of them is pretty crazy, like workshop crazy. But it’s legendary!

The ability is pretty silly, but I guess some casual deck might like it.  Another random Johnny rare.

Halimar Depths – Staple – Evergreen.

Great card, especially with Treasure Hunt.

Khalni Garden

Some people don’t like this card.  It does give you a guy, which is relevant.  Polymorph decks will find some fun with this.

Lavaclaw Reaches – Staple

Sure.

Quicksand – Staple.

Sure to be popular in control to stem the aggro rush, and always good in draft.

Raging Ravine – Staple – Evergreen

I REALLY like this guy.  He starts off as a 4/4 and continues to get bigger.  What’s not to like?

Sejiri Steppe

Here’s the question – if you’re playing this as a spell slot in order to ignore the question of whether you should play this as a spell or ramp, , it’s not necessarily as good as Brave the elements (The latter is a reactive instant, after all)

And if you’re playing it as a land, it’s kind of like Soaring Seacliff.  So yeah maybe I answered the question.

Smoldering Spires

Well, red actually likes it when you can’t block.

Stirring Brush – Staple

Good stats, but my Raging Ravine is better. You could be playing w/g though.

Tectonic Edge  – Staple – Evergreen

I’ll take Wasteland where I get can get it, I guess.

Hello and welcome to another Power9Pro set review. It’s that Magical Christmas-morning-like time that happens quarterly for us Magic dorks of the world: Pre-release time. The set has just been completely spoiled, and if you’re anything like us, you’ve been chomping at the bit for the last two or three weeks, at least, Jonesing to play with these new babies.

My fellow teammate and Power9Pro founder James DiPadua is going to be the counterpoint to my points here, hopefully calling me out when I’m way off base (or misreading a card!), and pointing out anything I miss. As is our custom, I’m looking at these cards specifically from the standpoint of Limited except when otherwise noted. My second love is EDH, so you’ll see some comments with that format in mind as well, while James will cover the more constructed-tournament-oriented evaluation of these cards. We’re breaking the cards into color groups this time around, so without further ado, let’s dig in to White.

Just a disclaimer (from James): These reviews are obviously done without any play exposure. Also, at least so far as my reviews, I’m working through them color by color without first seeing what the ‘other colors’ have. Some of my comments need to be taken with that perspective. What we as a collective at Power 9 Pro will do is have a full review afer a week or so of acquainting ourselves better with the cards. So, these reviews are really meant as a “first impression and guide” for Prereleases and any Type2 events you have over the next few weeks.

Admonition Angel
3WWW
Creature – Angel
6/6
Flying
Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may exile target nonland permanent other than Admonition Angel.
When Admonition Angel leaves the battlefield, return all cards exiled with it to the battlefield under their owners’ control.
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Set Number: #1/145

Okay, let’s start with a 6/6 Flying for 6 mana. This is already a huge bomb in limited, capable of winning the game on the back of evasion + huge stats. So we’re already dealing with a winner. Now consider the recurring landfall removal… this becomes huge. This spell will often be held until turn 7 so that you can drop the angel and immediately landfall to nuke something. However, unlike Roil Elemental, another 6-drop landfall guy, this creature has a 6 point backside, so it may hit the battlefield on turn 6 a lot more of the time than its predecessor, if you can consider the elemental such. Admonition Angel can also play some tricks with other creatures that YOU, the controller of Admonition Angel, control. If you have a Sphinx of Lost Truths on board, don’t forget that you can crack that fetchland in response to removal pointed at your Admonition Angel, triggering landfall, removing the sphinx, and getting you a free Ideas Unbound of sorts. This won’t happen often, but might be relevant somewhere, sometime. I give this a big thumbs up for the formats I’m concerned with, though I suspect James will say of this creature, as with many (any) new ones, “Baneslayer Angel casts a large shadow”… James?

JAMES

The mana cost is right; it’s not over-costed since it has flying and an exile ability…but it just doesn’t seem right to me. I really don’t like spending 6 mana on something that can be exiled itself…and after it is exiled (say ala Path to Exile) any of the cards I was able to remove with it come right back into, er, the battlefield.
Yeah…sorta lame. Neat from a flavor standpoint but certainly not Type 2

.

Apex Hawks
Cost: 2W
Type: Creature – Bird
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Multikicker {1}{W} (You may pay an additional {1}{W} any number of times as you cast this spell.)
Flying
Apex Hawks enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked.
Rarity: Common

I find this interesting at common, as the “skies” player should have no problem virtually counting on getting one or more of these. They’re already a flying Gray Ogre, which would already be a premium. But the multikicker makes it more relevant late game. For a mere 7, you get a 4/4 flier: not amazing on its own, but this is the gravy dept. we’re talking about here. This is the bonus free boost to a flying 2/2 for 3 that you’d happily play already.

JAMES

Interesting but expensive if you want it to be anything bigger than a 2/2 with evasion. Kick it once and it’s already the same cost as a Baneslayer Angel. Meh.

Archon of Redemption
3WW
Creature – Archon
3/4
Flying
Whenver Archon Of Redemption or another creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, you may gain life equal to that creature’s power.
Illus. Steve Belledin
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #3/145

Archon of Redemption fits the “hiding in Baneslayer’s shadow” bill even more than the angel above, since they share casting costs. However, this is still a fine bomby rare in limited. In the right kind of skies deck, this is both a hard-to-kill flier, and a stall card all in one. You’ll be able to sit back and gain life while you whittle away at your opponents in the air. Very strong here for limited.

JAMES

I certainly agree with Joe’s assessment that it’s going to be good in limited, especially since in mirror matches it can standup to-and kill-your oponent’s Sheppard of the Lost.
So far as constructed, I don’t see a deck that would pay the exact same converted mana cost as the Baneslayer and not play the Baneslayer. Maybe people who aren’t willing to/been-able-to drop the $200 needed to get a playset of BSA?

Battle Hurda
4W
Creature – Giant
3/3
First Strike
Rarity: Common

Hard to evaluate. He’s a turn slow and only blocks well to make up for it. Does he clog the board enough starting on turn 5? He does end up trumping other ostensibly cheaper Hill Giant type 4-drops. I’m not picking this high, but I look forward to seeing whether it turns out to be better than my first impression.

JAMES
This is the Shepard of the Lost’s retarded Giant Cousin…that’s not so Giant. Good at common in the sense that if you need a little something extra, fine. But for constructed play, there’s no place for a rather boring Hill Giant.

Fledgling Griffin
1W
Creature – Griffin
2/2
Landfall – Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, Fledgling Griffin gains flying until end of turn.
Rarity: Common

Should be just fine, another mainstay of a UW flying aggro strategy. This will be a grizzly bear every once in a while, but will usually be, for all intents and purposes, flying to boot. This is the kind of creature that defines limited archetypes. Very solid.

JAME

Mike Flores has been discussing how to break down cards into their effectiveness on a “what you get for the casting cost.” On Twitter today, he asked me to find a case where someone would pay 2cc for a vanilla 2/2. I’m not sure if we can count this as a vanilla 2/2 since it can get the flying. I just wonder if this could be a candidate. But I’d hate to say something like that just because I’m looking for an example to show Flores.
Yeah…this is interesting but it’s uses outside of limited are fairly dubious. Maybe I’m just totally corrupted by really good 2 drops like Tarmogyof, Knight of the White Orchid, Ethersworn Canonist and Kor Skyfisher (to name only a few), that I can’t claim this will see play…

Guardian Zendikon
2W
Enchantment – Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land is a 2/6 white Wall creature with defender. It’s still a land.
When enchanted land is put into a graveyard, return that card to its owner’s hand.
Rarity: Common

This cycle will really test the common wisdom that auras are inherently weak due to exposing you to two-for-one (241) card disadvantage. If these become heavily played (their effects are all somewhat appealing, and the 241 is mitigated by the land-return policy), then keep your eyes peeled for LD spells, especially instant speed ones. Personally, the effect from these needs to be devastating to justify inclusion. I still think it’s enough of a tempo loss to enchant my land, then lose my creature and get my land back, to risk messing with these guys. A 2/6 defender isn’t arousing me much. As an aside, keep in mind lands with Enters the Battlefield (EtB) effects and/ or sacrificial effects. Dark Depths? Maybe if the right Aura is printed? Probably not, I’m just saying… think outside the box.

JAMES

What is nice about this card/cycle is that it acts as creature while allowing the caster to access the mana. I don’t think this is the one that will be seen in play but it is an half-okay fit for a control player. I don’t think this is “the one.”

Hada Freeblade
W
Creature – Human Soldier Ally
0/1
Whenever Hada Freeblade or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Hada Freeblade.
Rarity: Uncommon
Set Number: #7/145

A 1-drop Ally. Definitely solid to any Ally archetype. Thank you, Dr. Obvious. I’m unsure what else to add here. Allies has always been about critical mass. I think this probably takes the place of a few Makindi Shieldmates and/or the like. Allies will likely remain a playable strategy, especially in times when you force it hard and early and end up one of, if not the, only player in that archetype.

JAMES

Kazandu Blademaster really needed an on-color ally one drop and this could be it but the pool of allies is pretty thin that I don’t see a creature like this making the Ally an archetype in Type2. Allies are pretty strong in drafts if you can pull them off and one thing I’ve noticed is that while Kazandu Blademaster is sweet it’s so conditional on getting more playable Allies. In the end we have to ask ourselves if we’re willing to pay 1cc for a 1/2. Probably not…so my verdict is “keep on looking.”

Iona’s Judgment
4W
Sorcery
Exile target creature or enchantment.
Illus. Mike Bierek
Rarity: Common
Set Number: #8/145

Very solid removal in a color usually lacking it. This will hit any creature, and doesn’t trigger graveyard effects. This will be a high pick despite its high cost, because randomly nuking Quests and such at the last moment will be clutch. Very strong here, IMO.

JAMES

For constructed I don’t see why a person wouldn’t just play Oblivion Ring for one less (yeah, yeah, drawback…but kinda only against Maelstrom Puls and the Jund player would rather use Maelstrom on something…well, better). Are enchantments such a big freaking deal? Not unless your playing against Fruity Loops (or whatever it’s called…the Pyromancers Asscension deck). If enchantments/planeswalkers aren’t your weakpoint, then I suggest Journey to Nowhere or the instant-speed Path to Exile. The bar is pretty high so far as removal in white for constructed play and this just isn’t it…not for 5cc! Play the BSA; that’s removal and lifegain all in one.

Join the Ranks
3W
Instant
Put two 1/1 white Soldier Ally creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Rarity: Common
Set Number: #9/145

Instant speed double-ally trigger. Just keep this card in mind as you play your first limited match against an allies player! In dedicated allies, this goes from “very solid” to “absolutely devastating”. This should usually be the equivalent of a Windborne Charge or a kicked Bold Defense in terms of “I win” potential. Outside its home archetype, this is still very good, posing as white-like removal, letting you surprise block to your advantage.

JAMES

I like the fact that it creates Ally tokens. When I frist read this card a week or so back I didn’t catch the Ally part. Pretty sweet for limited. Again, I’m not sure that an Ally deck is going to be a powerful enough archetype by itself. Jund is still putting up some massively good numbers and this little ally-token maker doesn’t make enough of them to offset the card advantage inherent from Bloodbraid Elf, Maelstrom Pulse, Sprouting Thrinax and Broodmate Dragon.

Kitesail Apprentice
W
Creature – Kor Soldier
1/1
As long as Kitesail Apprentice is equipped, it gets +1/+1 and has flying.
Illus. Austin Hsu
Rarity: Common
Set Number: #10/145

This is tricky to evaluate. With enough equipment, I might consider running this, as it instantly gets evasive and bigger. With an Explorers Scope or a Trusty Machete, for instance, I’m tempted by this guy. Otherwise, I’m hoping I don’t need to fill the early drop hole this bad…

JAMES

I’ve tried building a mono-white soliders deck with a lean toward Kor and a couple of pieces of equipment but was never able to figure out something that was very competitive. I’m not trying to imply that this will be the card that tips the scales but it’s certainly worth toying with if you’ve been playing a wheenie Kor deck (and getting smashed). There are some very decent equipment cards such as Adventuring Gear, Behemoth Sledge and maybe even Bone saw (hey, it’s SUPER cheap–and on a card like Kitsail it’s a rough beating).
–returning back to reality: I’ve always felt that Kor weren’t very good for even limited considering that it’s a new creature type for Zendikar so if i have a Trusty Machete or an Explorers Scope (or both) I could consider taking some Kor knowing that they’ll be lightly drafted. It’s worth testing…but don’t come crying to me if you get your ass whooped. I said that it can be super weak and worth trying out.

Kor Firewalker
WW
Creature – Kor Soldier
2/2
Protection from red
Whenever a player casts a red spell, you may gain 1 life.
Rarity: Uncommon

Wow, this looks like a constructed metagame hoser to me. Seems like a Dragons Claw stapled to a weird, slow poke Silver Knight. Since either of these are already played against certain red decks as sideboard options, we can safely conclude that this card has a similar fate. As for limited, there’s nothing wrong with a Grizzly Bear, and the extra rules text is gravy when it’s relevant. I like it.

JAMES

Pro-red has been really good over the last few years and i expect to see this making the cut. mono-White builds have been sadly underpowered and here we have a creature that can block Bloodbraids, Thrinaxes and Goblin Guides (oh, my!). It is ‘only’ a 2/2 for 2 (aheh, mike…) but I can see this being a great SB selection for that player looking to make a go @ mono-white weenies.

Lightkeeper of Emeria
3W
Creature – Angel
2/4
Multikicker {W}
Flying
When Lightkeeper of Emeria enters the battlefield you gain 2 life for each time it was kicked.
Rarity: Uncommon

Whoa mamma! Nice uncommon here. This is the kind of card that Multi-kick was made for, making what’s already quite relevant and good enough (a 2/4 flier for 4 is solid-to-fantastic in limited, traditionally) relevant when you draw it later and later into the game. In your opener, this is quite good provided you can make drops. Nothing wrong with playing this guy turn 4. But when you top deck this on turn 18, suddenly you’re gaining like 10 or more life. Seems like a bargain for an uncommon. Skies looks like a healthy archetype so far, and it was no slouch in ZZZ either.

JAMES

Interesting but I don’t see this being THAT great. It’s only 2 life and I have to pay a bunch for it. It comes down to this: would I like to kick this a couple of times (or even once if I’m sitting at 5 open lands) and gain 2 life each time OR leave mana open for other options (such as Path, Harms Way, etc)? I think I’d like to have mana available for other things.

THAT means I’m only looking at a 2/4 for 4…barf.

Loam Lion
W
Creature – Cat
1/1
Loam Lion gets +1/+2 as long as you control a Forest.
Rarity: Uncommon

Ah, the fabled “New Kird Ape” cycle. This one looks neat enough. I know a lot of old school Legacy types who will love to play a WG stompy with fetches into Savannah into this guy… but what’s crazy is that this kind of play is only about marginal for such a deck. This guy might have legs in standard too, given the presence of fetches there. I just think he’s pretty sad on turn 1 naked. In limited, it obviously hinges entirely on being on-color, but when he’s on color, he should be a very good foil to the typical ZZZ aggro deck, blocking crap like Vampire Lacerator all day. Also dodges Disfigure and un-kicked Burst Lightning. All ticks in the Pro column for Loam Lion.

JAMES

I’ve also experimented with G/W builds that weren’t quite strong enough and I’ll have to see about adding this in those builds. Having a ‘3′ sized butt is nice. This is also worth considering for the Zoo decks that just haven’t been able to keep up with Jund builds…2/3 for 1 really isn’t that bad.

Marsh Threader
1W
Creature – Kor Scout
2/1
Swampwalk
Rarity: Common

If you think this is unplayable, I’ll refer you to Cliff Threader. This is the kind of guy, a 2/1 for 2, that is deceptive… these guys DEFINE limited in almost all limited formats. True story.

JAMES

Pretty nice for limited, sure, but not so great outside of that. The 2 power just isn’t enough to kill that much in this meta…

Marshal’s Anthem
2WW
Enchantment
Multikicker {1}{W}
Creatures you control get +1+1.
When Marshal’s Anthem enters the battlefield, return up to X target creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is equal to the number of times Marshal’s Anthem was kicked.
Rarity: Rare

WHAAA? This is a crazy sick mashup of a card. It’s like Glorious Anthem slipped a Flibanserin into the drink of Resurrection, and nine months later, we get Marshal’s Anthem. This card gives me a bit of a res-erection. As a late game bomb, this thing will swing the game for you. It’s mana-into-card advantage. I don’t know what else to say. Compare with the card’s ancestry. Play this thing. Pray you started in W/x when you crack this pack 3. Etc.

JAMES

Hmmmm…it’s not Honor of the Pure which at WW (plus 2 more) is the best comparision (especially because the kick requires TONS of W) but the attrition rate of white decks makes this SORTA appealing. Just sorta. I’ll say this is’nt nearly good enough for constructed. It’s just way too freaking expensive to get anything out of it. (8 mana for two creatures AND +1/+1?? pssshhh, just play [card]Emeria, the Sky Ruin[card] if you need creatures from the graveyard and keep your mana for dropping [card]Captain of the Watch[card] + 1 for Path to Exile)

Perimeter Captain
W
Creature – Human Soldier
0/4
Defender
Whenever a creature you control with defender blocks, you may gain 2 life.
“We stand between the jaws of chaos and the mantle of order”
Rarity: Uncommon
Set Number: #16/145

Again, they’re pushing lifegain in fun new ways. This guy actually fits the bill for the Skies archetype I’ve been obsessing about up until now: it comes down early, stalls the board, and when it finally dies, it usually bumps you up a couple life points, aiding the cause further. I think it’s a good fit for decks that want to stall and/or tie up the board on the ground.

JAMES

This is a good construction card. The weird defenders have been making a good impression on constructed for the last two…three blocks (from Plumveil to Wall of Reverence to Wall of Denial). This one is actually a little better since it has a big enough butt to matter AND buying more time against the aggro builds that U/W control struggles with. I’d definitly put this in my build. It’s also GREAT in limited, skies decks that leverage Kraken Hatchling to stall the ground but needed a little more to help with that…dang, I like this one.

Refraction Trap
3W
Instant – Trap
If an opponent cast a red instant or sorcery spell this turn, you may pay {W} rather than pay Refraction Trap’s mana cost.
Prevent the next 3 damage that a source of your choice would deal to you and/or permanents you control. Refraction Trap deals that much damage to target creature or player.
Rarity: Uncommon

Hmm… obvious constructed (and limited) sideboard options here. I’m not sure I play this main though in limited… however, Shieldmates Blessing got some well deserved play, and in the right deck was quite strong. Then again, that was essentially this card with the trap cost moved to the casting cost. So I dunno… I’m in the air here, but I think this stays in the board for me, and it picked not-too-high.

JAMES

Jesus. Move over Harms Way there’s a new sherif in town. If a player casts a red instant or sorcery? yeah, that NEVER happens…

Rest for the Weary
1W
Instant
You gain 4 life.
Landfall – If you had a land enter the battlefield under your control this turn, you gain 8 life instead.
Rarity: Common

Long time readers (and I know they are legion) will recall that I’m no fan of lifegain in and of itself. I don’t mind incidental or abusive-recursive lifegain, but a spell like this is a waste of a slot in my opinion, even at the ever lower mana costs and ever higher payoffs that are being pushed these days. That said, in the right context, these kinds of spells are great. If you’re just trying to buy time against weenie rush strategies, and your late game is solid, then this is just fine.

JAMES

freaking lame.

Ruin Ghost
1W
Creature – Spirit
1/1
{W}, {T}: Exile target land you control, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
Flavor Text: “Haunting us, these different meanings and spectral beings. We’re fighting sleep with broken, rusted weaponry.”
Rarity: Uncommon
Set Number: #19/145

I like the landfall-as-an-instant mechanic here, which is the entire point of this spell. Should be good enough, and should be picked fairly high. Lots of skies decks will want this. Don’t forget that you can do seemingly innocuous crap like leave only white up, but then shennanigan an island out of and into play, and then use that U mana to counter, and other miscellany like that. This is a new skill testing tricky card that enables LOTS of shennanigans. I think it might be higher picked than some might think. He is a 1/1 though, and you have to have something relevant to do with him. Every draft will have someone who is pumped to have opened this, let’s put it that way.

JAMES

I don’t like spirits that can’t fly so I HATE this card. lol. jk. I think the ability is too slow. It’s just way, way too slow…and do you konw what it’s like to be way, way too slow? Well, I don’t know and you don’t want to.

Stoneforge Mystic
1W
Creature – Kor Artificer
1/2
When Stoneforge Mystic enters the battlefield, you may search your library for an Equipment card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.
{1}{W}, {T}: You may put an Equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield.
Illus. Mike Bierek
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #20/145

Alright, our first EDH must-have! I think every EDH deck that has access to white will likely want this. It’s basically a second copy of Steelshapers Gift or another more narrow copy of Enlightened Tutor. Let’s face it, lots of decks just want to get Umezawas Jitte. These are all redundant copies. Everything aside from the EtB effect is windowdressing. The same kind of scenario plays out in limited. Did you nab a machete? Then he gets the nod.

JAMES

Hmmm, interesting. I also think this might be too slow. Most of the equipments that a Kor creature will want to fetch are cheap enough to cast. Plus, it excludes cards like Sigil of Distinction which is a pretty darn cool equipment…maybe getting Quitus Spike or Umezawas Jitte would be good? I don’t know…I don’t think this is worth playing.

Talus Paladin
3W
Creature – Human Knight Ally
2/3
Whenever Talus Paladin or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Allies you control gain lifelink until end of turn and you may put a +1/+1 counter on Talus Paladin.
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #21/145

Lifelink is huge, despite what I said about lifegain. Lifelink can be thought of as one step across the “is it recursive?” line for lifegain. Anyway, this will make some ally strategies bomb-tastic. However, you’ll have to open it yourself, as most people will take it if they’re on color and not in allies, because a 3/4 for 3W is good enough to hate the card away from anyone who happens to be in allies. I like him.

JAMES

Interesting. This makes me think that mono-W (or splash for something…but not sure WHAT) Allies might not be a complete waste of cardboard. The fact that they get the +1’s is what makes this appealing. It’s too bad it has to stick around long enough to attack…but I guess the Ally deck is going to have to be defensive to start with…maybe with Honor of the Pure? This is wroth toying around with in the lab…at least for five mintues.

Terra Eternal
2W
Enchantment
All lands are indestructible.
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #22/145

There’s probably a cool combo with this, but I can’t think of it… maybe Legacy 43Land.dec will like this? This will be a recurring comment for me, lol. I know there’s at least one blue card for which the same thought occurred. Anyway, this is lots better when you have a man-land of some kind. Luckily there’s just such a cycle in this set…however, since both are rare, it’ll be… um… rare to see both in limited.

JAMES

I dunno…Legacy is beyond my meta knowledge. I see a LOT of strip mines played in vintage but I dont’ see the vintage players jumping out of their seats for something like this. Meh.

Veteran’s Reflexes
W
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Untap that creature.
Rarity: Common

An awesome combat trick in a color whose removal usually comes in this form. This should be seen as a removal spell. Occasionally you’ll do that magical last point of damage to an unsuspecting opponent. I like it. This should enable many an ambush block.

JAMES

lol. COULD act as a piece of removal but it’s not the best removal in the world…at all. If it gave your creature first strike too, I’d be all about it…but it’s really just border line…

That does it for white. Please chime in down in the comments section to let us know where you agreed and, more likely, where you disagreed with our evaluations. Thanks, and we’ll see you again in the other posts.

Saturday was my first PTQ in a year (school, work, and a girlfriend will do that), and 5 of my friends and I left early in the morning to make the 3.5 hour drive down to Calgary. The event was hosted in the banquet room of a local arena, and we had 129 players, a record for Alberta. The format was Zendikar Sealed deck, and everything went relatively smoothly. We were in the banquet room of a local arena, which while not an amazing venue, still worked well. After swapping our sealed pools, I got to look at the following pool.

This pool looked quite playable, and so I looked through a number of potential builds. The white had some solid removal in Journey To Nowhere, Arrow Volley Trap and Pitfall Trap. However, the only mana fixing that would help me was the Greypelt Refuge, which only made white attractive if I was playing green.

The blue was solid. However, I wanted something more for a main colour, and while there were some excellent playables in blue, there simply weren’t enough of them. Unfortunately the best blue card in the pool (Seastalkers) only shines when you can get multiple activations out of him. Not to say he’s not one of the best blue cards in the set (He is), but it didn’t make me want to play blue as a main colour.

When we get to black, we finally see something of substance. We have our first big bomb (Kalitas) and some removal and solid creatures. I’m a huge fan of Nimana Sell-Sword, and the pair of them makes them even more appealing. Top it all off with Surrakar Marauder and some Giant Scorpions and we’ve got our main colour.

Red also looks very promising, with one of the best bombs in the set (Hellkite Charger), and some nice removal and creatures. We also have a couple more Allies to pump our Sell-Swords if we play black, which is always useful. Again, the red had good potential for a main colour.

I was sorely tempted to play green, and it was extremely difficult to leave the green cards in the sideboard when I filled out my decklist. It had good creatures and a nice little bomb, but I wasn’t able to settle on a list I was happy with that included green.

The artifacts were quite nice to me, providing a Blazing Torch and a pair of Adventuring Gears. I didn’t play Stonework Puma, but I just don’t like a Grey Ogre variant that only has a relevant effect if another Ally is out. However, I wouldn’t fault anyone for playing it, as Allies can be quite good.

Here’s the list I ended up running.

This build aims to be aggressive enough to get the jump on the slower decks, yet have enough late game to win outright in a standstill. There are 5 Allies that were all terrific during the day, with Nimana Sell-Sword topping the list. There are 18 land to ensure that I both hit my bombs and got the most effect out of double Adventuring Gear. Other than that, the game plan of the deck is pretty simple” play guys, play bigger guys, play bombs, win. I submitted the decklist with 30 seconds to go, and was on my way to round 1.

Round 1 vs Jesse (UR Allies)
In the first game I mulligan and Jesse gets a Umara Reaptor and a Windrider Eel and a couple of allies, including Highland Berserker and Tuktuk Grunts. Unfortunately, I can’t deal with his fliers and we’re off to game 2.

I get a double Giant Scorpion and start bashing face with one that’s suited up with Adventuring Gear. Unfortunately Jesse resolves a Gomazoa and is able to Magma Rift one of my insects. He then resolves the Umara Raptor and a Stonework Puma which flies over me and knocks me eventually to 0, although he was at 2 when the final blow was struck.

0-1

Round 2 vs Connor (RB Aggro)
Connor and a few of his friends had traveled all the way from Victoria for the PTQ, so it made my 3.5 hour drive look ridiculous (although thery flew). He started off with an Akoum Refuge, and made a turn 2 Bloodghast. Luckily my Giant Scorpion blocked it all day long and prevented the little vampire from ever hitting my life total. Although his forces of Geyser Glider, Gatekeeper of Malakir and Torch Slinger was able to put me at 5, but Hellkite Charger changes the game state to an unbelievable degree. A single swing from the dragon is enough to win game 1.

In the second game, Connro gets stuck on 3 lands, and is using Goblin Guide and an unkicked Torch Slinger to try and beat me down. However, I have a Highland Berserker and Adventuring Gear which get in for some great beats, and my draws eventually outclass him so much that I can finish him off with a Needlebite Trap.

1-1

Round 3 vs Nick (GW)
I watched Nick play in the feature match of last round against teammate Sean, so I know he’s packing multiple Steppe Lynx and Cobra Trap, as well as mutiple landfall boosters. Nick gets a turn 1 Trusty Machete, and a turn 2 River Boa, which makes for a discouraging board position. Or, it would have if I didn’t have a turn 3 Gatekeeper of Malakir. Nick gets stuckon 3 land, and I just overrun him.

In games 2 and 3, River Boa and Trusty Machete both make repeat appearances, to which I have no answer. This gets even more awkward when a Quest for the Gemblades gives him a 6/5 regenerator. I can’t deal with it, and my hopes of top 8 are dashed. However, if I win from here on out I can still make prizes. I think my deck is good enough, so I do not drop.

1-2

Round 4 vs Ryan (RB control-ish)
In game 1 I go the full allies route, with double Sell-sword and berserker paving the way. His creature’s die to my removal, and a timely Goblin Shortcutter clears the way for my allies to take him to 0. My life sheet for Ryan goes 20, 16, 7, 0. Just shows how great multiple allies are.

In game 2 Ryan goes all out, and starts with Plated Geopede and backs it up with Quest for the Gravelord and Shatterskull Giant. I have no answers, and don’t deal a single point of damage.

Game 3 has Ryan lamenting the inclusion of Grappling Hook and Chandra Ablaze in his deck, due to their prohibitevely high costs (a 4 mana equip and discarding a red card respectively). I have a Sell-Sword and a pair of Giant Scorpions, which work great. I eventually cast Grim Discovery to get back Tuktuk Grunts and swing for the win.

2-2

Round 5 vs Christophe (RB)
It seems like everyone and their best friend is playing Red-Black today, and Christophe starts the game off with a Vampire Hexmage. He misses about 5 Quest for the Gravelord triggers, and my allied eventually overrun him.

In game 2, he resolves a Vampire Nighthawk, but I have the timely Inferno Trap. I when it looks like he might win (I’m at 10), I draw Hellite Charger and just win in an obsene fashion, bringing him from 19 to 0 in a few swings. Seriously, that card is so awesome.

3-2

Round 6 vs Blair (UB control)
Blair has a very nice deck, packing both Sphinx of Lost Truths and Sphinx of Jwar Isle. However, neither see play, as he struggles to play threast and remove my guys while I just keep augmenting my forces. He doesn’t have enough Hideous Ends (he had 2), and my allies just take him to the cleaners. In game 2 I resolve my Kalitas, which slaughters any chance my opponent had of defending himself.

4-2

Round 7 vs James (BWR Control)
James lets it slip that he has an Ob Nixilis. the Fallen, He casts double Kor Hookmaster and taps down my blockers, and I go all the way down to 0 without having dropped him below 20.

Game 2 is slightly better off for me, with my Bog Tatters taking put the largest chunks of his life total[/card], and we head off to game three with half an hour left in the round.

It gets to the point where I’m at 1, and he’s at 10. I have a Bog Tatters equipped with an Adventuring gear. I’m sitting on 4 Swamps and a Mountain, and see my great Hellikite Charger staring at me from my hand. I’m thrilled when I pass my turn, hoping to rip the mountain that will win me the game. However, James says he has effects on my upkeep, and casts Disfigure on my swampwalker. Of course. The card on the top of my library? Of course it was the mountain that would’ve won me the game.

4-3

While the best card of the day was undoubtedly Hellkite Charger, and unexpected gem was the double Nimana Sell-Sword They arte just so good with other allies that it’s unbelievable. They also don’t die to Hideous End!

I think that the key to Zendikar Sealed is to be agressive, and play your bombs. I can’t stress that enough, because they won me at least half my games. I also think that black is the most played colour in the format, so main-decking Bog Tatters isn’t a bad idea.

My only colour preference coming into this event was that I really didn’t want to play blue, and that sentiment hasn’t changed (Although give me the cards Blair had in Round 6 and we’ll talk). Obviously if you have enough cards to support it, go for it, but I’ve found that the most consistent push is given by green, red and black, and I’m always happy to be in one or two of those colours.

While the final results have yet to be displayed on the DCI webpage, I believe my final place to be around 29th out of more than 120 competitors. Considering that my last PTQ a year ago had me going 1-3 drop, I’ll happily take this result. The next PTQ is in 3 weeks in my home town of Edmonton, and feel free to stop by and say hi. I’ll be wearing a bright orange Power 9 Pro shirt, so I’ll be easy to spot.

Props to Jason Ness and West Can Events for hosting the PTQ, they do an admirable job at this sort of thing.

Any thoughts on this particular deck or the Zendikar sealed format in general can always go in the comments section, or through my email (zak-AT-power9pro.com) or via my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Cheers,

Zak

So Zendikar is finally available for purchase, and players have been casting traps, triggering landfall and summoning allies for this last weekend at the Zendikar launch party, where participants were awarded a promotional Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle just for attending. I went off to my Launch party only having done one draft before, and keeping in mind that black, green, and red seemed to be the colours to pick, but to watch for blue in case it was underdrafted as pointed out by James in the comment section of my previous article.

We went into 3 pods of 6, and I was happy to be plopped between to very experienced drafters, so I knew that my signaling would pay off. My first pack showed me a Bloodchief Ascension, which I happily took. I think that the Ascension is solid in limited, and I think that it will definitely have a home in a couple of Standard decks. I took a second pick Pitfall Trap in a pack that was rather lacking, and I took another black card for my third pick. In pick 4 I was sorely tempted to switch to black-green because I knew that green had the overall stronger colours, and with a lack of playable white cards I opted for a fourth pick Territorial Baloth. However, that pack proved to be something of an anomaly, when I got fed almost all black cards with a smattering of white for the rest of the draft. I knew I would need to play a very aggressive deck again, which seems to be key in this format. Here’s the final list I decided on.

One thing I immediately noticed was the fact that I had no Vampire Nighthawks, Hideous Ends nor any Journey to Nowheres or Shepherd of the Losts. There I was without any of the best commons or uncommons for my colours, not that I had seen any. However, I realized that with my playset of Surrakar Marauders and other early, evasive creatures, that I just might be able to get in a couple aggressive wins.

Round 1: vs Chris (W/B)

It was Chris’s first tournament, but he had played Magic for a fair bit before coming, so there were no rules disputes like there are when playing against newer players, which was nice. Nothing against newer players, it’s just that this is a complex game whose rules take some time and effort to fully understand, and Chris knew the rules to a tee. When he cast a turn one Steppe Lynx, I was unsure of how to proceed. I had a Disfigure in my hand, but I waited to see if he was hurting on land. He wasn’t, and I cast the black spell in response to the Landfall trigger to ensure it didn’t get out of hand. He then followed it up with a variety of Kor, while I played 3 Surrakar Marauders back to back, and I hit my land drops every turn to swing for 6 unblockable, and he couldn’t muster a black creature.

In game 2 I boarded in a Bog Tatters, because I had seen swamps from him, and a lack of removal. I saw the swampwalker in my opening hand, and after playing little evasive guys in the early game, he was my best out against an unkicked Conquerors Pledge, while Giant Scorpion and a 5/5 Zombie token held the fort. Sure enough, he didn’t draw removal for my guy and lost.

1 – 0

Round 2: vs Umir (RGBu Allies)

Umir had been in my draft pod, and he had joked afterward about how terrible his deck was. He had 4 refuges, and splashed black off them to support double Hideous End, which was relatively ineffective against most of my guys. His only blue card was a Sea Gate Loremaster, and I didn’t expect a whole lot. He cast a turn 2 2/1 FS ALLY which was promptly Disfigured, and I cast Surrakar Marauder, which went unanswered. Soon joined by a Bloodchief Ascension, Umir couldn’t let any of his cards go to the graveyard, and he promptly died. In the second game I just overwhelmed him with my Surrakars, and was undefeated going into round 3.

2 – 0

Round 3: vs Atilla

Atilla is a relatively new player who’s become quite good in the months that he’s been playing. He had a really good blue-green deck that took advantage of Windrider Eel and Living Tsunami to bring tons of power in the air. However, I was able to get a quick win in game 1 thanks to a turn 1 Lacerator, turn 2 Surrakar and turn 3 kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir, which dispatched his Umara Raptor. He quickly got below 10 life, and Guul Daz Vampire just got there thanks to the evasion provided by intimidate. In game 2 I hit a bit of a mana flood, and we shuffled up for game 3. Here, Atilla made 3 critical misplays. The first was not responding to my Pitfall Trap with his Caller of Gales, the second was not responding to my final Bloodchief Ascension trigger, and playing an instant after it resolved, and the final misplay was not attacking with a Living Tsunami because he forgot about my guys having intimidate. I don’t think I deserved to win, but being able to capitalize on misplays is a necessary skill in the tournament scene.

3 – 0

Round 4: vs Matt

We decided to intentionally draw the final round to give us both 7 packs in prizes. When we actually played it out, I was able to win easily in 2 games, because my deck was just faster (although his mana screw in game 1 helped) and the ceremony match was quickly decided.

3 – 0 – 1

So the deck I drafted told me a fair bit about the tempo and style of Zendikar limited matches. The first thing is that intimidate is simply awesome, and Surrakar Marauder should not be underestimated. Even Guul Daaz Vampire is a great inclusion if you’ve got a fast enough deck, and you’ll often just consider them unblockable.

A few days ago the team and I had a discussion about limited, and when to play Kor Skyfisher was a topic of discussion. I’m an advocate of playing it on turn two, because it doesn’t die to Burst Lightning (unkicked) or Disfigure. I also find that Zendikar limited is slow enough that bouncing a land is a weatherable loss, and if you bounce something like a 1 drop equipment or quest is always an option. It’s a great choice for when your opponent drops a Paralyzing Grasp or something like that. The interaction with Landfall is also noteworthy, as well as bouncing any ally that would be advantageous. All in all, I think that the skyfisher should be picked around 3-4th in draft, much higher than what I’ve seen it going.

I also believe that Bold Defense is worth a second look. It will often resolve kicked, and the first strike ability is almost always relevant. At it’s worst, it will help your guys punch through for a few additional points of damage, much like Warriors Honor, and at best it can be a one sided Day of Judgment. I think that it’s a solid card that should not be going later than 7th or 8th.

The key to being successful in Zendikar limited is (in my opinion) to be very agressive. Many decks will be quite slow, and an agressive deck will likely be able to keep the opponent off balance. Conversely, it’s not a bad thing if a slower deck packs a Kraken Hatchling, because it does an excellent job of slowing your opponent down. Nobody wants to waste removal on a 0/4, and while I wouldn’t pick it early, you should definitely consider it. Obviously River Boa is even more awesome in that situation, but you already knew that it was good.

Next week I’ll probably discuss my first standard deck in the new environment, free from faeries and five colour control and all the other cards from Lorwyn Block. Until then, send any questions or suggestions to zak-AT-power9pro.com, or via my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Cheers,

Zak

Well, we’re at the halfway point between the Zendikar prerelease and the Launch Party. Halfway between Rampaging Baloths and Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Halfway between a standard format defined by Faeries and 5 colour control and a standard format defined by vampires, soldiers, and Naya Zoo (Or so though Ben Lundquist in our most recent workshop).

So with this halfway point in mind, I though I’d split my article for today in half. I want to talk a little bit about the prerelease and Zendikar sealed, and then a bit about the upcoming launch party and the Zendikar draft format. In homage to Evan Erwin, Let’s Go!

Sealed at the Zendikar prerelease was, if I may quote a friend who was next to me as we built our decks, “like Christmas.” The smell of brand new cards (or not in the case of a signed Scrubland that was opened) and the sound of cracking packs was a great start to the day.

The shop I play at, Wizards Comics & Collectibles in Edmonton normally has a limit of 16 players for tournaments, because that’s really all they have space for. When I got to the shop with 20 minutes to spare, I entered and found out that I was the 30th person to enter. I still don’t know how we managed to fit everyone in there, and we were informed that we were playing 5 rounds, when usually we only have 3 or 4. The only problem was where would 1/3 of the people play? All the tables had been set up and the chairs were all filled, so there were 8 people without seats.

Luckily, John, the store owner came to the rescue. He called on myself and 4 other players that he knew and trusted (I’ve been going to Wizards for Magic for 2.5 years now), and asked that we set all our stuff up behind the counter. Not only was I going to play more rounds than I expected, but I was going to do it standing up. Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

Obviously I was hoping to crack a priceless treasure, but I was still happy to see an Arid Mesa among my rares, as well as bombs Gigantiform and Beastmaster Ascension. Yeah, I thought I could do something with this.

Unfortunately for me, no two of my colours were deep enough to warrant a nice, streamlined 2 colour deck. While I had the aforementioned green bombs, only 3 of my other green cards were playable, so it took me a while before I decided on my colour combinations. I probably could have gone with 2 colours, but I would have had to play a number of sub-par cards in order to round out my 23. Thus, I remembered what Alara Block taught me about playing 3 colours and set to work playing the best of green, red and black. Luckily I also had a number of equipment that didn’t care about my mana base, including one my new favourite cards for limited, and the younger brother of Vulshok Morningstar: Trusty Machete.

Here’s the list I ended up playing.

Now, the first thing I realized was that I had to play a super-aggressive deck. I got this idea from the double Zetkar Shrine Expedition and double Ruinous Minotaur. I believed that I had enough removal to ensure that my opponent’s board would be more or less empty, allowing my 7/1s and 5/2s to attack relatively unhindered. Now one thing I understand is that these cards should not by any means be played in any deck that can support you. Without a large source of constant, high-level pressure, these cards can be more of a hindrance than a help.

Now, in the context of the sealed environment at the prerelease, I’d like to give my initial impressions of some of these cards. Obviously removal like Hideous End is really good, but there are some cards whose abilities may not be as obvious.

One disadvantage of Hideous End is its inability to deal with Vampire Nighthawk, one of the biggest and most potent cards in the format. Thus, anything that can kill the 2/3 vampire is always worth a consideration. Thus the inclusion of Oran-Reif recluse and Burst Lightning becomes even more relevant.

Speaking of the new Shock variant, I think that it warrants an extremely close look. I would say that I kicked it 80% of the time, and many times it was used to blast my opponent for the last few points of damage. It’s a super versatile card that could easily be a first pick, and should definitely not go later than 4th.

Now one of the cards I was extremely disappointed in was Beastmaster Ascension. I’ve seen many claims that this is a limited bomb, but although I resolved it multiple times, I never got it online once. The sheer number of quest counters is almost impossible to achieve without killing your opponent. If you get off 7 successful attacks, and were able to tap 4 for an enchantment, you should have won outright. Should the seventh quest counter ever be added to the enchantment, the extra +5/+5 will be nearly negligible.

River Boa was a great addition to the deck, because it provides an ample shield against opposing fatties, and the islandwalk is a really nice ability to have. The Boa’s cheap cost also makes it a really great target for all sorts of equipment while having regeneration mana open.

The final two cards I want to talk about that really shone in my sealed deck were Adventuring Gear and Plated Geopede. Yes, they’re both great, and yes, I was able to go turn 1 Gear, turn two Geopede, turn 3 equip and play Arid Mesa. I think that they both are really great with landfall, and just enable Harrow to be simply game breaking.

I was able to go 3-2, losing to a WB deck featuring Feledar Soverign and WUG Allies featuring Turntimber Ranger, Kabira Evangel and Sea Gate Loremaster, as well as 8 other Allies. It seemed like an amazing pool, and my opponent admitted as such after our games. My other games were just me running over anything that wasn’t as fast as I was. The constant slew of removal and fast creatures just was too much. However, the allies were just as fast but helped his board position more, and the lifegain from the black white deck nullified many of my offensive threats.

In short, the key to Zendikar sealed is to have a mix of mid-cost and early creatures that can impact the board as much as possible, with a few late game bombs to seal the deal.

Drafting Zendikar

I have not done an actual Zendikar draft yet, as our prerelease didn’t have any, but I will do at least 1 tomorrow and 1 more on the weekend, so I want to give you my first impressions as to what stands out and some potential strategies for the Launch Party.

Personally, I think that the blue cards in Zendikar are lacking, especially for limited. Thus, I don’t intend to draft it, but if you do, Whiplash Trap seems like a really great card. The ability to bounce 2 creatures is huge, especially when you can clear the way for an attack.

Black in Zendikar is extremely strong, and Mark Rosewater tweeted earlier in the year about 3-0-ing a Wizard’s employees draft with mono-black, and I can easily see how it was done. With super efficient cards like Quest for the Gravelord and Vampire Nighthawk, It seems probable that a fast black deck would be almost unbeatable. Black (as usual) has some of the best removal in the set, such as Hideous End and DIsfigure, in addition to the new Infest variant: XXX. Just like in M10 draft, mono black decks can take advantage of Crypt Ripper as an upgrade to Looming Shade as a great outlet for excess mana. However, because of this, I think that black will be overdrafted and you might want to consider leaving the vampires alone for a bit.

The red in Zendikar is pretty solid, with all-stars Burst Lightning and Unstable Footing able to deal out their fair share of burn damage, and Geyser Glider and Bladetusk Board provide some low-rarity evasion in red, something not often seen. There is great depth to red in this set, and I think that it’s not a bad colour to try and force through. Even cards like Slaughter Cry and Shatterskull Giant are terrific role players in a red deck. I also think that Plated Geopede is something that you should try and pick up multiples of, especially if you’ve got a couple Adventuring Gear or Harrows lying around.

White is an interesting colour in Zendikar, in that it has some commons that are totally bonkers, and others that are the epitome of “meh”. Cards like Shepherd of the Lost and Journey to Nowhere are obviously good and first-pickable, but there are a fair few common slots given to just mediokre spells, like a couple of guys with high toughness/low power, or cards that gain you life or prevent a single point of damage. In short, I don’t think going white is worthwhile unless you open up a bomb rare, or have multiples of the good commons/uncommons that would warrant it. However, the slim pickings are likely to be picked up by other drafters and you won’t have the luxury of all the best white cards.

Last we come to green, the colour that is probably a must if you really and truly wish to abuse landfall shenanigans. Obviously Harrow is amazing, but so are Khalni Heart Expedition and Frontier Guide. There are also some awesome pseudo-removal spells in there like Orang-Reif Recluse, which is just the think for taking out a Shepherd of the Lost or Vampire Nighthawk. I also believe that Mold Shambler is an excellent pick, because at it’s worst, it’s a Hill Giant which is absolutely fine in limited. At its best, It can kill an enemy quest or (as I saw at the prerelease) aggravate an opponent you has hiccoughed on their mana.

In short, when drafting Zendikar I think that black, red and green are the best colours with the deepest card quality. Send good signals in pack one and you should be rewarded with some choice uncommons in the later packs. Remember, this is not Alara block where you can decide halfway through pack 2 to go 5 colour and come out all right. If you can manage a solid mono-coloured deck (Mono red and black would be my ideals), go for it, but do not take poorer cards instead of adopting a second colour. There’s more fixing in Zendikar than M10, so your mana base is much easier, with about the same colour restrictions.

I’ll be at the Zendikar Launch Party this Sunday at Wizards Comics in Edmonton if you want to say hi. I’ll be wearing the bright orange Power 9 Pro t-shirt, so don’t be afraid to stop by. As always, article suggestions or questions can be put in the comments field, sent to zak(AT)power9pro.com, or via my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Cheers,

Zak

FNM Magic Report 7.24.2009

Still in Wellington, and out of work on time, so I make the 6:30 draft.   I get in a 7 man pod and we open packs.

First pack is a Clone and a motley assortment of 1/1 dorks.  There’s a diabolic tutor and I take it.  In retrospect it may have been worth taking the clone since it was splashable, but I was 100 percent certain I did not want to be in blue, so aiming for black and a bomb searcher was the next best thing.

Pick 2 is Tendrils of Corruption, which is good.  Now I just need to see the appropriate creatures.

Pick 3 reveals a Guardian Seraph…. Wait what?  I know it’s sort of underwhelming at first, but four cc flying 3/3’s have always been good all the way back to Phantom Monster and  Roc of Kher Ridges and Seraph has an incredible ability and is lightning bolt proof.  I take it as a signal and go that way.

Then I get passed a Rhino, and three oakenforms… at the end of pack 1 I’m pretty decent green and can go either white or black.

Pack 2 I open Harm’s way, and I’m in white.

1 llanowar elves
2 soul warden
2 blinding mage
1 deadly recluse
1 runeclaw bear
1 palace guard
1 griffin sentinel
1 cudgel troll
1 guardian seraph
1 stampeding rhino
1 craw wurm
1 harm’s way
1 righteousness
1 pacifism
3 oakenform
1 excommunicate
1 safe passage
2 armored ascension

10 plains (to support those ascensions, I’m not making the same mistake with lands like I did last time!)
7 forests

Relevant board:

2 fog

2 regenerate

2 wall of faith

Despite my first round of green crazy stuff I didn’t see much on the 2^nd and 3^rd pack, and when we lay out our decks I see why – my partners on left and right are green!  – I guess they didn’t value oakenforms, or else they valued creatures higher- perhaps rightly – despite the fact that I have great board control and double armored ascension I’m still only 13 creatures  which is a problem.   We’ll see how much in a bit.

===Match 1 vs. Simon playing mono-red===

Simon hasn’t played magic in a few months and says he’s just getting back into the swing of things.   A mono red isn’t a bad call in that case.

Game 1

I lead out with the early bear, and he immediately has a ball lightning to take me down.  I get down a soul warden followed by Armored Ascension with 3 plains.  5/5 bear, then 6/6 bear followed by Seraph seal the deal for him.

Game 2

I keep a hand with Rhino, two Ascensions, excommunicate, and 3 lands.  I  don’t have an early play, he drops a pyromancer and I excommunicate it for time.  I get Rhino, and double armored ascension.  16/16 flying trample rhino he can’t deal with.

We play a couple matches for fun:

Game 3

He drops a piker and hellhound and I have no blockers.   My life goes  18, 10.  I drop turn 4 Seraph and my choice is trade with the hellhound or block piker and go to 4.  I take 4 from the hellhound and he lava axes me.

Game 4

I drop early Soul Warden, excommunicate a Goblin Artillery and quickly build up a big army of blockers and he builds an army of attackers.  I eventually drop a Griffin Sentinel to break the stalemate.  He never points artillery at my soul warden but he does at my face – I’m probably going to win this fight… I get a blinding mage out which holds down a minotaur of his and pacify minotaur #2.   Again he could have taken out my warden or mage and it might have been a different game.  Instead I draw out the game long enough to drop a rhino, tap his blockers and harm’s way the artillery damage back at his other blockers.

===Match 2 vs. Jason playing B/G.===

Game 1

I lead out with a Recluse and get an Oakenform.  He gets a Wall of Bone with mana to regenerate.  I drop bears, but can’t play any white as I draw and play 4 forest .  Jason drops a bog wraith and equips it with Whispersilk Cloak, then a troll.  Cloak pretty much owns me over time.  I don’t have a flyer or Ascension to race.

Game 2

We both mull to six – I lead out with Soul Warden, Blinding Mage, and Griffin .  He gets an Oryx and tries to race me but I have an Oakenform for the Griffin. He draws troll and cloak but it’s too late for him as the soul warden has given me a nice life buffer, and the 4/5 flying vigilance is too big to stop.

Game 3

Jason starts with Visionary and I have Blinding Mage and Soul Warden.   He doom blades the Warden and drops Troll.  I cast pacifism on the Troll.  He Cloaks the troll (3 times in 3 games!)  I oakenform the Mage and race. He casts weakness on the Mage.   I oakenform the battlemage again and swing in- I just want to race him, but he casts Entangling Vines!

I get a Rhino, and Armor it up and swing him down to 7.  If I draw a plains, an excommunicate, an oakenform, or a fog I have him on my next turn, but it doesn’t happen.  I lose the match.

===Match 3 Darcy playing R/G===

Game 1

I get down Soul Warden, Battlemage and Griffin.  He bolts my Soul Warden (?!) so I Armored Ascension my Griffin and beat him down.   He tried to Seismic strike my battlemage but I figure I’ll keep it with safe passage – good call as he drops an ornithopter.  I suspect a trick and tap it and finish him with griffin.  Good thing I tapped, he had a Might of Oaks!

Game 2

I get down Soul Warden, (20-19) Oakenform it turn 3, (20-15) Troll on turn 4, (20-11) and Oakenform troll turn 5 (20-0)

======

Looking back – did I value oakenform too highly?  I didn’t see many creatures other than the swordsmith but I feel like I made all the right picks. I pack 3 I just didn’t see any green at all and white creatures were slim, but I saw three total armored ascensions which is just bonkers (I took a creature over the 3^rd ascension because I realized I was low).    I don’t know, Oakenform showed it’s value by turning all my games into very short ones.  I did pass that 2^nd pack pick 2 Cloak – should I have hated it over the very useful pacifism?

If anything I think I valued Righteousness too highly (though I never got the chance to play it) – I probably should have mained fog – might have bought me time in the racing games since I had no defense, but I considered it “removal”.

So the first thing you might be wondering (or at least what I wrestled with) is why write about a draft you didn’t enjoy or win at? I believe that ultimately, if my goal is really to improve my game, I need to post-mortem all of my drafts. Ask myself what worked and what didn’t work. I think I have been sort of ignoring this in my better drafts. I mean it’s there if you read between the lines (drafted bombs, made a good deck, mulled when appropriate) but I’m not really calling out what specifically. When I went 1-2 a few weeks ago,  I just wanted to go home and not think about the game at all, but now I’ve had some time to mull it over and my conclusion is that it’s worth dissecting where I messed up and get it out of the way – both so that I can avoid the same mistakes in the future and for the benefit of all of you. There’s so much more to be said than “blue sucks” (and experiences since that draft have revealed other ideas) – In any case  I think the statement deserves to be examined.

Pack 1 pick 1 – I opened and picked Planar Cleansing. – There were some other decent white cards in the pack I could have taken though that would mess with signaling. I wasn’t holding out hope that I could make a great white deck just from that – white is a heavily drafted color and the three white in the CC isn’t great, but I have hopes for the money value on the card and it IS a wrath.

Pack 1 pick 2 – Stampeding Rhino. Wasn’t a lot in the pack to take – some white guys but Rhino stood out – now I’m thinking I can go W/G. I note a phantom warrior in the pack which is pretty bomb – but I’m not confident enough to go W/U.

Pack 1 pick 3 – Mind Control

Here’s where it all goes wrong. From this I figure two guys to my right haven’t taken it so they are not in blue, even if they were rare drafting, and Mind Control is a pretty ridiculous bomb. So I settle into taking the best of blue (which isn’t much!) trying to get more green to supplement the rhino – in the mean time I’m seeing lots of red but I avoid it, I’m getting nothing in green so I figure I’ll cut off my guys on pack 2 (which works).

In Pack 2 and 3 I open Air Elemental and some other green bomb, but I have to take the Glacial Fortress in pack 1, and Sunpetal Grove in pack 2 over them. I also get passed Open the Vaults, which I take (maybe this was a bad call) and Underworld Dreams, but I’ve already sort of given up on my deck so I just raredraft it.

Here’s the deck, roughly.

What I think is wrong with the deck.

· Not enough creatures. 13 is much too low, and there’s virtually no curve. It’s a bunch of 1’s and 2’s and two 5ccs. I started with Sage Owls to get the count up and it wasn’t worth it. I didn’t start with Divination and so I trade out the Owls for that and Giant Growth.

· No removal – I have an ice cage and the very situational Essence Scatter, but that’s it.

· 2 Evasion oriented cards – Levitation is worth it if I get a big Howl, but otherwise most of my creatures won’t break a stall anyway. Levitation actually worked against me in one game. Whispersilk cloak seemed like a great pick early but I didn’t have anything to equip it to in any of my games.

Match 1 vs. Jonas with W/G/R

Jonas seems like he knows what he’s doing as he just won the last draft– he laments over his deck and I lament over mine. But which deck is worse? Read on to find out!

Game 1

Jonas drops a turn 1 mold adder. I have a fist full of blue cards. I try to dig for ice cage with double Sage owls but instead I see some lands and both Howls (of course not enough mana to cast it!) Mold Adder gets massive and quickly rolls over my weenies.

Game 2.

Jonas mulls down to four, but has quick land drops and drops a Giant Spider. I have a Rhino to roll past the spider. He drops some blockers for the rhino but I have a Levitation. He drops Armored Ascension on the Spider making it a 5/7, but I Ice Cage it. I drop more dudes for the win but he Windstorms my entire army! I still have a Howl of the wolfpack for 3 wolf tokens and swing for lethal. He attempts to block, but I remind him about my levitation.

Game 3.

I drop a turn one sprite, he drops a bear. I get out coral merfolk and go for the trade but he has a regeneration for his bear. It’s followed by a Giant Spider, I get down a Craw Wurm, and he drops a spider and a Rhino. Attacking into him will lose me a Wurm to the spider and so I trade my Wurm for his Rhino. I have a howl for two wolves, but he eventually takes me out with the spiders. Sprite had no chance.

Match 2 against John playing UW

John is a young pup and doesn’t seem very confident. He shuffles up his deck and starts drawing but I point out I never cut his deck, so we reshuffle and I give him a free mull.

Game 1

I drop a sprite, a Merfolk, sprite, and get him down to 12 before he drops an illusionary servant and siege mastodon . I cage the servant (it dies), and he drops the 1/3 flying vigilance griffin and I all have are my sprites to block, but he doesn’t attack with it. I keep building up bears – I figure if he attacks me on the board and has any tricks I’ll take the worse end of it, but he holds back. The siege even could have traded well but he doesn’t risk it. Our armies get bigger and bigger. I have an overrun in my hand but (again) no more than 2 forests to cast it. I finally get a levitation rendering all his ground dudes irrelevant, cast a 3 wolf Howl, and Overrun him to break the stall. At this point I don’t care if he has a safe passage, our board is too clogged up. He doesn’t have the passage and dies.

After this I point out to him that his griffin could have been dinging me the whole time, but he insists I had lethal damage in blockers. Considering I have two flyers in my deck that are 1/1, I doubt this. I guess he didn’t realize his Griffin had flying.

Game 2

I side in Unicorn since I expect another stall. He has ornithopther (?!?!) turn 1, and I get a phantom warrior out – he follows with an illusionary servant and 2/2 flying first strike griffon. I mind control the servant (dead), drop a ranger, and follow up with whispersilk cloak . I get a howl for 2 (this is getting depressing – really. It’s a 7cc card and EVERY TIME I have 2 forests? That’s not even the mana ratio of the deck!) . I follow with levitation for great justice, get in a swing, and he mises Divine Offering the next turn, which buys him some time… but I have enough dudes to outrace him.

Match 3 against Leon with G/R

Leon seems pretty cool, I hung with him and his friends the other night and he seems to know his way around the cards.

Game 1.

I drop deadly recluse and he drops piker. I drop merfolk, and essence scatter his Oryx (the 2/3 forestwalk is bad news for me) – He drops craw wurm and cudgel troll. Recluse drops the wurm, but Troll eventually gets in there and I get nothing but lands.

Game 2.

He has turn 1 elf, turn two 3/3 centaur, turn 3 Cudgel troll. He bolts a blocker and he’s definitely got me on the ropes. I draw into a wolf pack and hold off the troll, and he draws Oryx while I’m at 2 life. I have Overrrun but it’s not enough to alpha strike him, and I couldn’t cast it earlier because I’m on two !@#$% forests. I figure I’ve only got Mind Control or cage to deal with Oryx. I top deck Mind Control and take the oryx. He top decks Pyroclasm which owns everything on the table except his centaur and cudgel troll, and that’s game for me.

Match record: 1-2

Game Record 3-4

What went right:

* Rare drafting. – This seems obvious, but it’s also up to luck. I really can’t take any credit for opening money rares, but It’s worth mentioning that it wasn’t a total loss
* Green bombs. – Since I wasn’t getting any green in turn 1 after that early Rhino, I made it my goal to cut green off from my right hand guys. This was rather pyhrric but I did get the overrun and double howl, which either won me games or kept me from losing it too soon.
* Didn’t make any play mistakes. – Aside from the picks of deck and building the deck itself, I feel like I did really well in the play session – I stayed in a few games quite longer than I originally thought I would be able to.

What went wrong:

* Rare drafting – Of course, passing great playables for dual lands will do that for you some times. I really could have used that air elemental.
* Mind Control – To be honest, going into this draft I had a hankering to draft blue just to see how it played. So when I saw mind control I just bit hook line and sinker and was passing ridiculously good stuff in black and red and just wasn’t rewarded back. It’s not that I don’t think it’s a good color – Actually the uncommon in blue are pretty good – it’s that the color isn’t “deep” – you can maybe have two blue drafters at a table compared to 3 or even 4 white or green players.
* Too few creatures overall – The problem with going blue/green is that you have no removal, which is really bad since there are so many silver bullets in the format. On top of which going main with blue, it’s creatures are neither very aggressive or defensive. Blue really works as a supplementary color that helps out other deep colors like White and Red, and I passed ridiculous red. Mind Control just made me blind to all signaling.
* Didn’t support my green bombs with the land they really needed to work. I played 8 forest since I had far more blue spells, and never had more than 3 on the board at any time (and that took divination or the ranger to pull off). I don’t know what the mana ratio would be to make this work – less blue may have hurt my deck.
* Started with the wrong cards – Sage Owls were awful. Divination was a killer role-player card that powered me into the lands I needed to cast my bombs. The first version of this deck had a singleton swamp and Rise From the Grave, but I quickly realized I had no way to get creatures into the graveyard so it was worthless. So I subbed a forest for the swamp. (see land problems above) Sprites were okay but they really didn’t go very far in many of my games.

FNM tournament report for 7.16.2009

I show up at 6:30 loaded for bear – we have 18 players so we separate into 2 pods – most of the players seem pretty casual – the binder carrying dudes from last week apparently are boycotting the store and they’re actually outside the store at a table in 8 degree Centigrade weather playing EDH.  Go figure.

It’s a rare draft, so I get to keep what I open.

First pack – HELLO there!

Siege-Gang Commander

!!Woot!!!  baby – this makes siege-gang number 3 this week!
Easy pick – though I pass a pyroclasm.
Pick two:

serra angel

Okay – I’m prepared for crazy now….
I stick to my draft plan and get a pretty sick curve deck – we didn’t see any bolts or pacifisms though, which was odd..

Game 1 vs. Loren playing G/B

Round 1
Loren powers out a Llanowar elf, The lifelink vampire, a warghoul, a spider, doom blades a blocker, and Overruns me turn 7.

Round 2
Loren mulls down to 6, and accidently drops a doom blade, but keeps the hand.
I power out bears and an angel, while Loren drops 6 forest in a row but no creatures.

1-1

Round 3
Loren drops an early Vampire Aristocrat which totally messes up my math.  I got an early Pegasus to race him but he can hit me with the Aristo all day as he has plenty of men to sac to it and save.  I eventually get a Blinding Mage which keeps him down, and the Pegasus goes all the way.

We play a game for fun which is pretty epic – it involves a Howl of the Wolfpack for 6(!?!!) vs. my bear army and that pesky pegasus which carries the day – I win by 2 points.

1-0

Game 2 vs. Mike playing W/B

Round 1
Mike drops a turn 1 plains, soul warden (quickly becoming one the most annoying commons to deal with).  I drop a pegasus (good thing!)  he drops a black knight and throws a harm’s way at my horsie.

I can’t really deal with the Knight, but I what I can do is drop a  truck load of Lions and Pikers race him.  I stay at seven and I get him down from 23 to five, and mise Siege Gang off the top.

Round 2
Mike leads with Black Knight, and I have a white bear.  He plays the 1/3 flying vigilance griffin.  I think a bit and cast Excommunicate on it – this lets me get  a free hit in while keeping him off his harms way – maybe not the best attack but I go for the tempo play figuring I can race him.
I get a minotaur out, but he drops a White Knight for the four power defense.  One of my Pikers beats up a Knight on the attack thanks to Safe Passage, and I get a Serra to break the stall but he’s got a blinding mage for it. – I get a second Serra but he taps it and Assassinates it (combo!) .  He then rises from the grave (Ultra combo!) my own Serra and beats me to death with it.

Round 3
I mull to six.  Mike drops turn 1 and 2 soul warden and a pegasus, followed by the double knights.  He gets double Blinding Mage to hold down my two Serras and I’m never in the game – He ends the game at 32 life.
The entire time I had Act of Treason in my hand and it was never playable.  I mained it because of big bombs like Serra, Shivan Dragon, and Platinum Angel but it was never relevant in a single game.

1-1

Game 3 vs. Richmond playing B/R
Richmond doesn’t seem super confident in his deck and his card choices and play reflect this.

Game 1.
I mull down to six, keeping a 1 land hand on the draw as I’ve got lion, piker, and blinding mage but it takes me until turn 5 to draw a second land.   By the time I get a mage he has inferno elemental, followed by Vampire Nocturnus.  My life goes down in massive chunks and I can’t keep the elemental down and possibly kill the vampire with 3 lands, so I concede at 5.

Game 2.  Did I mention I hate those penny sleeves yet.
I mull down to six again, trying to make sure my deck is sufficiently randomized – this time I get a 5 land hand and a serra on the draw. I sigh and keep.

Richmond drops an early 2/1 bat, and I answer with my Serra, having drawn the pump spell and a safe passage – this isn’t good if he has a doom blade I have no game.. he casts unholy strength on the bat making it 4/2.  I swing in and he blocks (not a good call for him, since I was basically waving a big sign saying I had a combat trick) and I safe passage.  He weaknesses my Serra (!) and casts Soul Bleed on it(!!) I really don’t have anything else so I keep swinging, but he drop a lava axe on my head.  Eventually I get a siege mastadon – and he draws and plays Black Knight for it.
I get Goblin Artillery off the top, and bash the black knight.  I’m at five but I have the other Safe Passage for another Lava Axe, so I swing in with enough damage and a Glorious charge for +3.  No complaints.

Game 3.
Mull down to six with these ridiculous sleeves.

Piker comes down, then armorsmith, and a Piker.
He drops a Bat and a Bog Wrath. I drop a Serra and he drops a dude.
I swing in my whole team and he blocks with his team with no mana untapped.  again, he should have just taken the hit as I’ve the Glorious Charge to kill most of his team.
He drops a couple more bears and I swing in again and he blocks agains and I safe passage my team, basically wrathing him.

I tell him after the game he had nothing to lose as I was attacking with my whole team – he had enough guys to race me and a defensive fog off safe passage is better than safe passage that wraths his men.  So why block me?

2-1

For my 3rd place win I didn’t get an FNM or even a pack.. but I did get the foil Ant Queen and I can’t complain about the rare drafting.

With the Magic 2010 Prereleases just around the corner, we’re going to have a much more interesting time playing limited with this core set than any other.  So, in order to give you a better shot at winning your tournamnt, I’m going to discuss which common cards you should look out for, in both draft and sealed events.  Let’s start with white.

White has a number of basic utility commons that server their role extremely well.  The first card is the age-old favourite, Pacifism, which I really hope gets some new art (I’m kinda sick of the creepy looking dud from Mirage).  Pacifism is an easy first-pick, and is well worth splashing as it is a solid removal spell.  Any card like this that can deal with annoying bombs (Read Shivan Dragon, Bogardan Hellkite, Baneslayer Angel, etc.), is a terrific card for limited.

Another removal spell that white gets is Divine Verdict, which is a functional reprint of Lorwyn’s Neck Snap.  Again, a sloid removal spell, it is worthy of a first pick in a draft, barring anything stunning at the uncommon or rare slots.  Removal is always good, although this does require you to leave 4 mana open if you want to take your opponent by surprise, which can get annoying if they don’t attack you with something worth killing for a while.

Another pseudo-removal spell that white gets is a functional reprint of Master Decoy.  Being able to tap down your opponent’s most powerful guy is quite a boon, and Blinding Mage does this with flying colours.   This mage also provides a way to free up room for some of white’s smaller attackers to get through, and that is always a good thing.  However, beware of your opponent’s removal spells coming straight for this guy, as he won’t live long once he starts ruining your opponent’s combat plans.

The three cards I’ve discussed have already been seen in some form before, but my 4th pick for white commons is a brand new card.  Veteran Armorsmith is a white Elvish Warrior, but it also gives a relevant boost to your soldiers, which are a sort-of underlying subtheme amongst white’s creatures.

Those are the only commmons that really stand out for me when I’m playing white, so let’s move on to blue.  Blue got hit pretty hard in Magic 2010, with cards like Jump, and Disorient.  However, there are still some cards that will help it out.  Believe it or not, Blue gets 3 counterspells at common, in the form of Cancel, Negate, and Essence Scatter (a reprint of Remove Soul).  Because of the small set size (compared to 10th Edition), it wouldn’t be all to uncommon to get a very nice quite of countermagic.  Paired with some  green fatties, you’re looking at a very nice control deck in a draft.

I wouldn’t pick a counterspell first pick, but I would start to pick them up en masse if I saw that they were flowing my way throughout picks 6 and on.  The few cards I might pick earlier are all under-whelming for blue.  Wind Drake and Snapping Drake both provide some sort of offense in the air, which is how you’re going to have to win if you end up playing blue.

Ice Cage is a variant on a blue Pacifism that seems strong, however a single Giant Growth will destroy the enchantment.  I would still play this card, but only as a half-removal spell, for it is easily circumvented by an ability or spell.

With the new rules changes which are effective as of the Magic: 2010 Prerelease, cards like Unsummon are not nearly as powerful, because you cannot save your blockers after damage has been placed on the stack.  Unsummon is still a powerful effect, but now it has to be played a little bit earlier.  Expect these to go much later than normal, perhaps pick 7-9, but with so few blue cards that are playable, they may be taken earlier.

Black is relatively strong in Magic 2010, primarily because of the large suite of removal spells it has at it’s disposal.  Although Terror has been ousted from the core set after its brief return in 10th edition, a new variant promises to be even better.  Doom Blade allows for the possibility of the target creature being Regenerated, but it can hit artifact creatures.  I believe that this was necessary after the high-volume of artifact creatures that were present in the Shards of Alara Block, so that now there is a black removal spell that can hit the likes of Sharding Sphinx and Master Transmuter.  Almost always first-pick this, and splash it if you open it in your sealed.

Assassinate returns for another year in Magic 2010, and it is still a solid removal spell.  Again, a first-second pick, it’s just really great removal for its cost.

Tendrils of Corruption was one of my favourite cards from back in Time Spiral, and it’s great to see that it’s back, with even more awesome art.  This is probably a ~5th pick, simply because it requires you to be pretty heavily in black.  However, because black is relatively deep in M10, this may get picked earlier.  If nothing else in the pack is promising, don’t be afraid to snap this one up early.

Black also has two common creatures I think are worth laying.  Vampire Aristocrat is a new Nantuko Husk, and Child of Night is a 2/1 with Lifelink.  Both of these cards are fine early drops for a black deck, and should be considered.  Although the Aristocrat is less powerful after the rules changes, it is still a force to be reckoned with.  Expect both of these to go around picks 6 or 7.

Red has basically the best common in the set.  Lightning Bolt can take a chunk out of your opponent’s life, as well as kill a great number of creatures that you may find on the other side of the battlefield.  First pick, undoubtedly.  Simply an amazing card that will always be relevant.

Many people have been dumping on Sparkmage Apprentice.  I personally think he is a fine card to go in a red deck.  He gets rid of cards like Prodigal Pyromancer and Child of Night, as well as providing a small body.  Although a poor candidate for a splash, he is a solid card that will go into most decks that play red.  He’ll probably go around pick 5-6.

Siesmic Strike is a nice piece of red removal that can be played at instant speed, which is always useful.  Like Tendrils of Corruption, it requires a bit of a commitment to red, which does make it’s playability suffer.  Depending on how heavy in red some drafters are, I can see this going between pick 4 and 8.

Red has a nice new beater in the form of Fiery Hellhound.  A 2/2 for 3 with Firebreathing is a solid card that will often get into the red zone for increased amounts of damage unless it is dealt with.  A solid, all-around card that really helps the aggressive side of any red deck.  Keep in mind that this also requires a heavier commitment to red, especially if it is run in multiples.

When we get into green we see some efficient creatures that will hopefully be able to outnumber your opponent’s removal spells.  Borderland Ranger and Centaur Courser are both excellent 3 drops that pull their weight.  Reprints of Civic Wayfinder and Nessian Courser respectively, these are creatures that will be able to outrun the opponent, and in the case of the Ranger, removal spells will be much worse, as you get to fetch a land upon its coming into play.  Any damage he can deal just makes him that much better than a Sylvan Scrying.

We also see that the Dehydration effect has been moved into Green with the addition of Entangling Vines.  This is useful, because Green doesn’t get very much removal, and this will help your efficient beaters to get in for more damage.  It should go around pick 3   in a draft, and is definitely splashable.

The key to a green deck is lots of big creatures, and joining the classic Craw Wurm is Stampeding Rhino, a 4/4 Trampler for 5, which will serve an excellent role as a dumb guy who can bash through blockers, as well as a way to draw removal spells from your opponent, as an undealt-with trampler could spell the end for your opponent.

The artifacts in Magic 2010 are all uncommon or rarer, so I guess all I have to say is that if you see a Darksteel Colossus, draft as many Llanowar Elves and Rampant Growths as you can, as well as lots of Fabricates, and you;ll be on your way.

Have fun at your Magic 2010 Prereleases, and I’ll be back in a week once we’ve all has a chance at playing with the new set!

As always, any questions, suggestions ro comments can be emailed to be at zak – at – power9pro.com, or through my twitter feed at www.twitter.com/zturchan.

Cheers,

Zak

Won the invite to the Gold Championship at the 2008 World Championship in Memphis, Tennessee on Sunday, December 14, 2008 at 10:00 AM.

There were only 15 of us playing so we played four rounds and cut to a top-four draft.

The only person I lost to ended up winning completely.  I conceded the last match to him after winning the first elim round of the top-4 so I could catch up with a friend from out of town.

All in all, I had a good time (obviously).  I’m finding that bant-naya are great together for heavy-agro rush (which is tough to deal with in this limited environment); the only other match up worth a damn is grix-esper (or grix-jund) [because of all the removal available].

I’m still debating going to Worlds.  It’d be an amazing time but the cost is pretty heavy.

It’d be nice to win the $10,000 gold bar though…

Here’s Wizards’ breakdown:

Option A:
Magic Gold estimated value $10,000 (at the date of purchase approximately November 1, 2008)

1 bar of 14 carat gold with the Worlds logo embossed onto it. Prize will be on site, winner must take custody of it on day of winning tournament.

No pics unfortnately. 

Link for everyone not in the know.  And all about Worlds.

This past Saturday I had the great pleasure to compete in the Pro Tour Qualifier: Kyoto at Superstars in San Jose. We had a pretty good turnout considering there was a PTQ: Kyoto a few weeks ago in Sacramento–I wasn’t able to go. I believe there were 188 players; I finished 16th which I was pretty surprised about considering I had a few early match losses that were pretty devastating.

A bit about my deck since that’s what’s interesting. Before getting into a decklist (I forgot to write it down before taking it apart, I’ll be better about that next time, sorry), a few quick notes/observations:

I hadn’t had any real Shards of Alara sealed exposure before this PTQ–I’d purchased a few tourney-packs and boosters to open up and “see what the pools would be like” because I’d heard that most people were building pretty slow, clunky decks. That definitely proved true but with a cause. With all the mana fixing available, people are very inclined to go for four and five colored decks. This is just crazy to me. Even in my limited exposure with sealed, the best decks seem to stick with two colors and a splash. (Has anyone won any big, highly competitive tournaments with a four or five color deck?–and I’m talking about Shards here.) As I mentioned, I’ve not been able to compete in any sealed Shard tournaments but I have drafted a few times and keep coming back to a blend of Bant-Naya as the best combination. I can see Jund + X also making a great combination. Cards like Drumhunter in combination with exalted-Bant affects make for nastiness once we’re able to plop down a 5-powered creature (which is easily accomplished on turn 5 with Drumhunter in play. I drafted a very sub-par Esper deck for my first draft but find that the good comons like the Tidehollow Strix are always nabbed up early.

On to the deck and then onto more specific notes about my play and card MVPs.

First the bombs: Battlegrace Angel, Sigil of Distinction, Wildnactal, 2x Knight of the Skyward Eye, Sight-Caste Sorcerer (I’ll explain why I like this guy so much in a second), list of MVPs is rounded out by the Drumhunter which in my opinion has to be one of the better cards to nab in any limited deck.

Deck-specific notes: Obviously the Battlegrace Angel and the Sigil of Distinction are straightup bombs–but I’m not convinced they’re not even close to the most powerful of the cards available in Shards (limited play). There are so many ways around both of those cards–and that’s where the design of the set is really well done. I have to hand it to Wizards that they did well makign sure the set had plenty of limited bombs to attract the masochistic side of all Magic players with the work-arounds with commons that balances the game and provides players with the comfort that their deck “can compete.”

I was talking with a few players and they don’t seem to value exalted creatures as highly as I do. The entire day, keeping my exalted creatures on the board not only allowed me to get in a few early pings while my opponents were busy playing obelixs and land-sacrificing but also mid-to-late game, allowed me to squeeze attackers through, avoiding blockers because the additional +1/+1 (or +2/+2 when I had two on the board) was too overpowering. All the great articles I’ve read in the past (by far more experienced players than myself) always indicate it’s only about the extra one or two we can squeeze through each turn. I’m pretty convinced that my deck was extremely efficient and were it not for a few mistakes, it was a much better deck than 16th (probably not top-8 though).

My biggest play mistake was swinging in a turn too early in Match 3. (My first two matches were total blow-outs, lasting 15 min max). My opponent, later discussing the game with me, admits that he was very quickly losing board control because of the Drumhunter and the two 5 powered creatures I had on the board. My mistake was attacking into him, leaving myself completely exposed to get attacked. I saw that he had a 5/5 on the board (the Feral Hydra) but had forgotten that it’s pump-able. I was at 6 life, he pumped the Feral Hydra and swung for 6. This game loss cost me the match because the next game was a total-mana screw.

The next match which I lost followed this one. I started with a game loss for showing up two minutes late. (Is this normal? I thought I got more like five minutes or something and ten minutes for a match loss). Either way, I was upset and not clear-headed and stayed in on a hand I should have mulligan’d due to color/land issues (right curve but wrong colors–doh!).

Next four matches, I blew my opponents out of the water. Just totally steam-rolled them. I think one of the matches went to three games.

I had a great time but kinda kick myself still now for messing up on the play mistake; live and learn. In the end, it was amazing getting to play and discuss Magic with all the great players. I even made a couple of new friends!