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

Everyone is writing about Worldwake right now and we probably have at least another week or two of reading about the impact of the set in Standard, Extended, Sealed, Draft, Legacy, EDH, Type 4, Mental Magic… the list goes on.

This article is more focused on deckbuilding in the new sealed format. Any type of Magic player has the opportunity to run in this format over the next couple weeks whether it be release events this weekend, release events online two weeks from now, or maybe most importantly (at least for me) the Last Chance Qualifier for Pro Tour San Diego on February 18th in sunny Southern California.

I ran in two flights on Saturday and went 3-0-1, 3-1 with a sole loss to a pretty oustanding black deck featuring Sorin Markov and Butcher of Malakir among other fun things. My decks had some pretty slick cards as well; but I’m not 100% sure if I built my decks correctly, and that’s what this piece is going to try and figure out. I welcome and encourage any type of suggestion or criticism in the comments section. Like I said I’m looking to grind into the Pro Tour in two weeks so any help is appreciated.

Here’s a look at my first pool (a * denotes Foil):

BLACK – 14

Bloodhusk Ritualist
Dead Reckoning x2
Giant Scoprion
Guul Draz Vampire
Nemesis Trap
Mindless Null
Pulse Tracker
Ruthless Cullblade
Ruthless Cullblade *
Scrib Nibblers
Surrakar Marauder
Tomb Hex
Vampire Lacerator

BLUE – 13

Calcite Snapper
Dispel
Living Tsunami
Mysteries of the Deep
Paralyzing Grasp
Rite of Replication
Spell Pierce
Tideforce Elemental
Treasure Hunt
Umara Raptor
vapor Snare
Whiplash Trap
Welkin Tern

GREEN – 11

Arbor Elf
Cobra Trap
Explore
Feral Contest
Greenweaver Druid
Nissa’s Chosen
Nature’s Claim
River Boa
Relic Crush
Vastwood Zendikon
Vines of Vastwood

RED – 15

Bladetusk Boar
Deathforge Shaman
Goblin Roughrider
Goblin Shortcutter x2
Grotag Thrasher
Hellfire Mongrel
Plated Geopede
Quest for the Pure Flame
Ricochet Trap
Rotting Terrain x2
Searing Blaze
Stone Idol Trap
Torch Slinger

WHITE -17

Apex Hawks x2
Arrow Volley Trap
Battle Hurda
Caravan Hurda
Devout Lightcaster
Guardian Zendikon
Kabira Evangel
Lightkeeper of Emeria
Loam Lion
Join the Ranks
Kor Skyfisher
Journey to Nowhere
Narrow Escape
Nimbus Wings
Noble Vestige
Rest for the Weary

ARTIFACT – 8

Explorer’s Scope *
Hedron Rover
Khalni Gem
Lodestone Golem
Spidersilk Net
Stonework Puma
Trailblazer’s Boots
Walking Atlas

LAND – 6

Halimar Depths
Jwar Isle Refuge
Lavaclaw Reaches
Sejiri Steppe
Teetering Peaks
Turntimber Grove

I got to build across from my good friend Andy Roman in Flight 1 which is a great advantage in a Pre Release since you can talk about building and card choices and what not; since you really haven’t had any time to truly evaluate the cards before this point. Right away I knew that Black and Green were out (there were no black cards in my first pack at all), and that I would definitely be playing Blue or Red. The only decision I had to make was whether or not to run one of those with White. White was really lacking creatures even though it had some good ones with Evasion. All Five creatures I would run with White had either first strike or flying. There wasn’t a good chance of me playing Kabira Evangel or Devout Lightcaster since I had such little allies nor enough White to warrant a WWW casting cost. The only thing white gave me that I loved was Journey to Nowhere.

After a second glance at everything I decided that I was definitely playing Blue as my best cards were clearly Living Tsunami and Rite of Replication. 11 of my 13 Blue cards were striaght up good, and I ended up playing that many. I then do what I normally do when building a sealed deck, which is put my Blue cards in the middle by curve and the Red and White cards above and below to see how the decks would look. It became pretty clear when I had nine solid Red creatures as well as Searing Blaze and Stone Idol Trap which I felt was a pretty strong bomb even though Andy sorta disagreed. Turns out it was, especially when I got to say “I’ll Rite of Replication my Stone Idol token.” Leaving me with a permanent 6/12 trampler on the board (since the instant says “exile it at the beginning of your next end step” instead of the instant indicating the token has that text.

I went 3-0-1 with the following deck, choosing to Intentionally Draw in the final round so my opponent and I would each get six packs instead of eight and four.

1 Welkin Tern 1 Plated Geopede 2 Goblin Shortcutter 1 Tideforce Elemental 1 Umara Raptor 1 Calcite Snapper 1 Hellfire Mongrel 1 Goblin Roughrider 1 Torch Slinger 1 Hedron Rover 1 Living Tsunami 1 Bladetusk Boar 1 Deathforge Shaman 1 Grotag Thrasher 1 Mysteries of the Deep 1 Paralyzing Grasp 1 Rite of Replication 1 Treasure Hunt 1 Vapor Snare 1 Whiplash Trap 1 Searing Blaze 1 Stone Idol Trap 1 Halimar Depths 1 Teetering Peaks 8 Island 7 Mountain

Normally I run 18 land but I only curve to 5 (considering I’ll never cast Stone Idol Trap for 6), I had nearly no landfall and I have Living Tsunami, so I went with 17.

Some limited analysis of the new cards.

Treasure Hunt – I am pretty underwhelmed by this card, especially on turn 2. If you cast it on turn 2 on the draw you’re automatically discarding if you had no one drop. A couple of times I hit 3-4 cards off of it and most of the time I ended up discarding a land or two. One time it was huge though when I had 5 lands in hand and 2 spells I ran it just to discard and I drew 3 more lands and could dump 5 lands to my graveyard. That seems pretty rare.

Mysteries of the Deep – this card was great, even if I was wasting a turn playing it to draw 3.

Searing Blaze – Might as well just say sorcery in this format, but it’s a pretty good sorcery.

Stone Idol Trap – a total bomb. won me several games including a gunsling vs. Darwin Castle.

Hedron Rover – Was really good, a 4/4 attacker for 4 was really solid all day.

Halimar Depths – was always really, really good for me. Bouncing it every turn with tsunami was even better.

Grotag Thrasher – not great stats but he can really open up a clogged board for him and some friends.

Deathforge Shaman – Another game winner. This cycle of guys who multikick for their color are all really strong, this guy is good; the black version is great.

Vapor Snare – Unfortunately I never cast this card but it seems quite outstanding with a limited drawback, especially in a deck with a lower curve like the one I ran. Does not combo well with Tsunami.

Here’s my second card pool (again, foils have a *):

BLACK – 17

Agadeem Occultist *
Bojuka Brigand x2
Dead Reckoning
Death’s Shadow
Grim Discovery
Guul Draz Spectre
Guul Draz Vampire
Heartstabber Mosquito
Kalitas, Blood Chief of Ghet
Mire’s Toll
Nimana Sell Sword
Scrib Nibblers x2
Soul Stair Expedition
Vampire Hexmage
Vampire’s Bite

BLUE – 13

Aether Tradewinds
Enclave Elite x2
Halimar Excavator
Hedron Crab
Merfolk Seastalkers
Shoal Serpent
Sky Ruin Drake x2
Sphinx of Jwar Isle
Tideforce Elemental
Trapfinder’s Trick
Treasure Hunt
Twitch

GREEN – 17

Arbor Elf
Beast Hunt
Beastial Menace
Cobra Trap
Explore
Grazing Gladehart
Grappler Spider
Graypelt Hunter
Nissa’s Chosen
Oren-Rief Survivalist
Relic Crush
Scythe Tiger
Savage Sliouette
Slingbow Trap
Snapping Creeper
Turntimber Basilisk
Vines of Vastwood

RED – 12

Akoum Battleslinger
Bazaar Trader =(
Burst Lightning
Deathforge Shaman
Magma Rift
Quest for the Goblin Lore
Searing Blaze
Skitter of Lizards
Slavering Nulls
Tuktuk Grunts

WHITE – 13

Apex Hawks
Battle Hurda
Brave the Elements
Iona’s Judgment x2
Kor Hookmaster
Kor Outfitter
Kor Sanctifiers
Marshal’s Anthem
Shieldmate’s Blessing
Veteran Reflexes x2
Windborne Charge

ARTIFACT – 5

Adventuring Gear
Hedron Rover
Spidersilk Net
Trusty Machete
Walking Atlas

LAND – 6

Bojuka Bog
Dread Statuary
Graypelt Refuge
Halimar Depths
Khalni Garden
Piranha Marsh

I’m definitely interested in analyzing this pool because I most hastily built it. I kid you not, that the kid I was stuck sitting next to spelled so bad that I thought I was going to vomit all over my packs while waiting to open them. That and, interestingly enough, I opened both Sphinx of Jwar Isle and The Bloodchief of Ghet in my FNM draft the night before, played U/B and split in the finals of my pod. Now I have them both again not 24 hours later. Weird.

I had enough playables in Blue that because of the Sphinx I should run that color. Depending on how much you devalue the Bloodchief, you could consider going green here, but there just aren’t enough playables. I just put a list together and I struggled to get to 20 and I don’t want to run two Enclave Elite. Black just had way too much power with Heartstabber Mosquito, Guul Draz Spectre, plus it gave me a really strong ally subtheme due to the synergy with Agadeem Occultist, Halimar Excavator and Hedron Crab.

A quick aside about milling in limited: normally I think milling with just a crab that’s going to maybe hit for a few isn’t that great, but with the excavators you’re not milling 3-6 cards anymore. With six allies and the crab I had the potential to mill 20 or so cards per game, meaning that I’m no longer just changing my opponent’s next draw, I’m actively stripping their deck. That coupled with the Occultist’s ability to steal creatures and Guul Draz Specter stripping their hand, I was actively attacking their deck; so I went for it.

1 Hedron Crab 1 Halimar Excavator 2 Bojuka Brigand 1 Vampire Hexmage 1 Agadeem Occultist 1 Enclave Elite 1 Tideforce Elemental 1 Guul Draz Spectre 1 Heartstabber Mosquito 1 Nimana Sell-Sword 1 Merfolk Seastalkers 2 Sky Ruin Drake 1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle 1 Kalitas, The Blood Chief 1 Trusty Machete 1 Dead Reckoning 1 Grim Discovery 1 Aether Tradewinds 1 Treasure Hunt 1 Vampires Bite 1 Halimar Depths 1 Dread Statuary 9 Swamp 7 Island

I end up with a pretty decent curve but very light on creature removal. My goal was to hopefully mill enough good cards to let my bombs do the talking. That went pretty well as I went 3-1 losing only to an absolutely ridiculous deck aforementioned.

Some takes on the cards here:

Agadeem Occultist: Sadly I never got to use his ability because he was a lightning rod for removal due to all my milling/allies, but if I ever tapped him it was going to be GG.

Tideforce Elemental: I love tappers, even bad ones (sup Vectis Dominator). This is going to be one of my favorite cards in limited in the near future. He was always oustanding be it on offense or defense.

Dead Reckoning: This card was extremely impressive. At one point an opponent of mine Heartstabbered my Kalitas and his friend said “that’s how they do it on the pro tour!” It was pretty embarassing when I Dead Reckoning’d his Machete equipped Flyer next turn and my board was soon Kalitas, Sphinx and vampire tokens.

Aether Tradewinds: Not very exciting but it gets things done.

Halimar Excavator: I’ll take a 1/3 for 2 in Blue, especially if I can swing more allies. I liked him all day.

Bojuka Brigand: These guys were great when I kept hitting allies but when a 3/3 comes down and they can’t even chump it kind of sucks.

Dread Statuary: I loved this guy, especially with grim discovery. He got into the red zone, he defended intimidators, and he killed guys the rest of my team couldnt. I’d run him anytime I have him.

Enclave Elite: Pretty dumpy, I sided the second one in against Blue for the Hedron Crab a bit. My friend Andy really liked multikicker but I didn’t use it much and found it pretty underwhelming when used to add +1/+1 tokens against me, and only really good with the guys who multikick for one color to make you discard or burn or gain life.

My initial thoughts on Worldwake was that it was going to be mainly inconsequential, and I think mainly that was right. I hadn’t considered the fact that it would be super fun, and I walk away from these events with the realization that it is. I’m sure winning certainly helped that feeling, but I enjoyed playing almost every card I laid on the table on Saturday.

I really feel like I want to be blue at the LCQ in San Diego. It is really easy to clog up the ground with white and blue but I think blue has a little bit more trickery with cards like Into the Roil and Whiplash Trap to get you through it. It’s already tough getting through Kraken Hatching, and Calcite Snapper one-ups it. I’m also in love with Tideforce Elemental. But really, I would follow your bombs because there are so many of them in this new set.

I will say this about draft: I think the draft format is going to be defined by allies. There are so many allies now it frightens me to the point that I don’t know if I want to draft much if I’m going to be fighting over allies for three packs; but we shall see.

I’ll leave you with my recommendation of the top three Worldwake cards I’m picking up right now, aside from the obvious mythic rares: Chain Reaction, Lavaclaw Reaches and Celestial Colonnade.

Later,

Mike Gemme
BobbySapphire on MTGO
mike@power9pro.com

Wellington is located on the Northern Island of New Zealand and is the country’s capital.  It’s nestled in a bay and actually reminds me of a very young San Francisco – a cute but manageable little metro area with hills like Los Gatos and little period houses all scattered through them.  I’m assigned to work here for the month, but last night I got word that I had the next two days off and I had no plans. First thing I did was check and see if there were pre-releases – and there were TWO in the city.

I managed to find the card shop quickly – everything I need seems to be within a ten-minute walk of my hotel – but I was way early – they didn’t really have any singles though – they seemed to focus more on Pokemon and action figures.  I said I’d be back, asked them for references to any other card stores and they said there was one down the street – after about half an hour I found it but they were mostly comics and only had some core set boosters – bleh.

After doing a little shopping I rolled back around to the store and after a little wait I got around to opening my six boosters.  I don’t want to go into my whole card selection – it was pretty crazy but without fixing you pretty much have to do two colors – lightning bolt, shivan dragon, and serra angel were calling to me but I had to play the overall most consistent removal and beats.

Black Green Sealed deck.

1 Elvish Visionary 1 Deadly Recluse 1 Runeclaw Bears 1 Wall of bone 2 Dread Warlock 1 Awakener druid 1 Great Sable Stag 1 Warpath Ghoul 1 Mist Leopard 1 Cudgel Troll 1 Howling Banshee MVP 1 Stampeding Rhino 1 Nightmare 1 Disentomb 1 Doom blade 1 Rampant growth 1 Regenerate 2 Sign in Blood 1 Assassinate 1 Rod of Ruin 1 Rise from the grave P P 1 Terramorphic Expanse 10 Swamp 6 Forest

Weakness
Deathmark
looming shade
zombie goliath
enormous baloth
Emerald Oryx

Game 1 vs. Bernie with Mono-black

Bernie had a ridiculously strong black pool but he probably could have splashed a little – he was playing some weaker card but if any deck benefits from all the swamps it’s black – he opened THREE tendrils of corruption, TWO Liliana Vess (one foil) and a demon’s horn – so there went my removal and fear guys.  These games were hilarious.

Match 1.

Turn 3 with nothing on either side, I tap out to play an aggressive Awakener druid, and wake up my only forest to start the smashing next turn. His turn he assassinates the forest.  Ouch.

He gets a warpath ghoul and I rampant growth and sign in blood really fast out of the land screw, and get down a turn 5 stampeding rhino. But he’s bashed me with that ghoul.

His turn he tendrils Rhino.  dammit.

I rise from the grave.  RARRR 4/4 trample black Zombie Rhino!

His turn he tendrils it.  !@#$%.

I disentomb the rhino and recast it. he casts Soul Bleed (!?!?!) on it.  I would never play that card, it’s among my sealed pool and I’m not even including it on my sideboard – but I’m losing one life an upkeep on this rhino.  But rhino is gonna bash.

He drops Liliana Vess and makes me discard a land*   (*Pro tip: – now that I know he had a third tendrils, he should have tutored for that and killed the rhino for good.

In meantime he’s gotten a whispersilk cloak out on the ghoul and has me down pretty low – my turn I mow liliana down.  I can kill him next turn, but I’m at six.

His turn, he would have killed me – he had an unholy strength that he tried to cast on the ghoul, which would have taken me to 1, and I die to soul bleed (sad face here) – EXCEPT he had whispersilk cloak on the ghoul!   Stupid shroud tricks win!

Match 2

I keep a 1 land hand (terramorphic expanse) with a rampant growth on the draw.   This was a bad idea, but I was feeling good about the match up.

Turn 1 he plays swamp, Duress.

/Facepalm….

Turn 2 he plays Demon’s horn.

X2 /Facepalm….

I somehow get 3 lands in a row and drop Howling Banshee.

This eventually dies to something, but I drop Great Sable Stag which lifts it’s leg on his whole deck.

X is 1-0!

Game 2 vs. Gareth playing W/U

Gareth has some great cards but doesn’t seem like a great player – he’s not sure how protection works, and puts his first strike guy in the graveyard when he doesn’t need to.. He’s got a pal who is backseat driving over his shoulder but I don’t mind too much…

Match 1

Gareth drops an early White Knight, I get a Dread Warlock (pacifism)  – but I get a turn 5 Nightmare with the help of rampant growth.

He casts Sleep, and continues beating me with the Knight.  I have no blocker for it that will survive.  I get him low with a 7/7 nightmare but he drops platinum angel and I draw no doom blade for the angel nor a sizable blocker for the Knight.

Match 2

I get Bashing Troll, Bashing Rhino, and Banshee him for the win, while he drops nothing.  His buddy saves him a turn by reminding him to cast the new white Fog, but he isn’t in the game at all.

Match 3

He has an early White Knight again, but he blocks my Great Sable Stag pretty early.  Another pro tip from experience – he should have just held on to the knight and took the damage and keep trying to “race” me by dealing damage back – I couldn’t block it except with Stag, and if he dropped anything Stag couldn’t deal with we would be on equal terms.  By the time he stabilized, I had a Rod of Ruin out and it pinged him to death.

Game 3 vs. Mark with R/G

There’s a group of guys who show up early and have their own table – they’ve got big binders, they’re talking the talk and they definitely seem to know what they’re doing.  Aside from me, Mark and his two friends from that table are undefeated – he mines me for info asking since I’m 2-0 I’ve got a crazy deck – and really I don’t, I’ve got a half decent deck and two good match-ups.

Match 1.

Mark kicks the crap out of me – Bear, 3/3 for 3, lightning bolt my blocker – I drop a Wall of Bone but he drops a deathtouch equipment on the bear and kills me quick.

Match 2 – see above, except he lava axed me to death.

Turns out Mark top 8′d at new zealand nationals – which I guess isn’t saying much since they’ve got 90 people in the whole country who play   do I sound bitter? -_-  (he also wins the pre-release)

Game 4 vs.  Marius playing U/W/r (splash for fireball)

Match 1

Turn 1 soul Warden

Turn 2 plains, soul Warden, Elite vanguard.

- Basically he smashes me with little men and I try to stablize – I mess up slightly as I had awakener druid but he cast Ice Cage on the Forest – basically disabling the land ability.  However I messed up as I had a regenerate in my hand that would have gotten rid of the icecage but I didn’t catch the play until it was already over.  He ends the game with flyers and at 28 life.

- I go to the sideboard and get deathmark and weakness.

Match 2

Him: Turn 1 soul warden

Me: Turn 1 weakness!

I get Banshee out which rips him up – he lightning bolts it but I rise from the grave on the Banshee which removes his last 3 life.   Banshee wins: 2

Match 3

Him Turn 1 soul warden

Me: Turn 1 Weakness!

Him: Turn 2 Blinding Mage

me: turn 2 Deathmark!

I get down Dread Warlock, Looming shade, and a nightmare and he has no answers.

results:

3-1,  4th place out of 16 players.  My  Sealed had Great Sable Stag, Lightwielder Paladin, and Haunting Echoes, while the two packs I opened had a Siege-Gang Commander and a Sunpetal Grove, so I can’t complain.