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Comments
The Spark Trooper was just overkill though.
So far I've faced every guild but Simic (my first match the other guy literally switched his entire deck from Orzhov to Gruul), so that'll be interesting.
Went 0-2-drop in the end. Despite Zegana and the sharks my deck just wasn't very good. Wish I'd picked Orzhov after all; the lack of removal in Simic was really frustrating.
Also, protip for anyone who plays Simic tomorrow: Fathom Mage is pretty bad in Sealed.
Ah, well.
Sorry yours didn't go so well, Nyktos.
For anyone who cares and is curious, here's my midnight Prerelease report from earlier today
2x Rapid Hybridization
1x Shadow Alley Denizen
1x Syndic of Tithes
1x Hands of Binding
2x Metropolis Sprite
1x Basilica Screecher
1x Paranoid Delusions
1x Orzhov Keyrune
1x Deathcult Rogue
1x Bane Alley Broker
1x Kingpin's Pet
1x Mortus Strider
3x Keymaster Rogue
1x Alms Beast
1x Call of the Nightwing
1x Shadow Slice
1x Consuming Aberration
1x Luminate Primordial
1x Mind Grind
1x Dimir Guildgate
1x Godless Shrine
6x Island
5x Swamp
4x Plains
I don't have the patience or attention span right now to describe the exact details of any of the games, so I'll say:
Match 1: 1-2 against Simic. The one-two-three punch of him being a better player, having better cards for the matchup/in general, and me having a funky manabase somehow didn't cause me to get completely blown out, but Voidwalk wasn't nearly as helpful as it should have been, even against Simic with all its +1/+1 counters. I mean, I won that game, but it should have gone faster. More Mortus Striders and fliers would have been helpful here. I also took out Daring Skyjeks that didn't help at all.
Match 2: 1-2 against Orzhov. The first two games were very close, I think, and we went to turns on the last game. He beat me on Turn 5. If I was a good player, I could have forced the tie -- if I hadn't put my hand down in the middle of previous actions and left an Island open for that Rapid Hybridization, I could have done it. In the end, I think this one generally came down to me not having enough fliers or raw power to keep up once he started dropping Gifts of Orzhova.
Match 3: 2-0 against Gruul. I was a little surprised to see Gruul at 0-2 like this, but once I started playing, it seemed as if he probably didn't get any bombs, or really anything remotely threatening, so he never got going. He got a Gruul Keyrune both games, as well as Homing Lightnings, which kept me off balance for a little while, but both times I was able to stabilize and kill him with unblockable Dimir jerks and Ciphers.
Match 4: 2-0 against Orzhov. Both of these games went really quickly because I got big-ass threats out really early both times (Alms Beast first game, Keymaster Rogue + Shadow Slice second game), and he couldn't respond similarly.
I'm glad that I was able to nab at least one win against each opponent, and I also pulled three shocklands between 7 packs (though I got the Watery Grave in my prize pack, so I wasn't able to use it in the games, which is a shame). Thoughts:
-Keymaster Rogue did a lot of work here. Deathcult Rogues, not quite so much against most of my opponents, but they were still good.
-Never actually got a chance to play Consuming Aberration, nor did I really have a lot to support him with. I heard about one dude getting 7 of them at 23/23 one game, though, so it's certainly good in the right deck.
-Should have probably replaced Paranoid Delusions with a Daring Skyjek or a Gutter Skulk, but I never saw it anyway.
-I feel like I could have saved myself some trouble if I read Bane Alley Broker more closely before starting up. It's a cool card. Combined with Orzhov Keyrune, I had a solid defensive wall going on.
-Extort does, indeed, seem marginal, but I feel like it probably made a difference against my match 2 opponent.
-Heard comments to the effect that Battalion takes too long to get going. This was certainly a faster Limited environment than I was expecting, truth be told, and I'm pleasantly surprised that Esper is as aggressive as it was for me.
-Never got to see Gruul go off, which is saddening.
Since I've more than broken even with my pack pulls, I would definitely like to go to another one and let my inner aggro player have some fun.
"Also, protip for anyone who plays Simic tomorrow: Fathom Mage is pretty bad in Sealed."
Not really. (4-1'd with Simic just now; Esper prerelease above was at midnight earlier today, and I can't edit the top of this post from my phone and forgot to post this earlier. Details on THIS prerelease later)
Well maybe you had a good experience but most other people I tallked to seemed to agree on Fathom Mage (including Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa).
It's just too slow to have a real impact.
A 3/3 on turn six isn't awful but it's not exactly where you want to be. The fact that you're drawing some cards makes it better but I'd rather have a real Divination.
Doing it again I'd probably still play it because I didn't really have anything better but it was just very disappointing.
Anyway, second prerelease report because I have little else to do and I think it was . . . a weird event, all told:
1x Rapid Hybridization
1x Realmwright
1x Experiment One
2x Frilled Oculus
1x Spell Rupture
2x Hydroform
1x Shambleshark
2x Drakewing Krasis
1x Elusive Krasis
1x Clinging Anemones
2x Way of the Thief
1x Fathom Mage
2x Adaptive Snapjaw
1x Urban Evolution
1x Sapphire Drake
1x Prime Speaker Zegana
1x Nimbus Swimmer
1x Simic Guildgate
9x Island
7x Forest
My first match, I was BUG since I also had some decent stuff in black, or so I thought (Lazav, for instance), and even though my deck was definitely suboptimal in hindsight, but I still steamrolled a fellow Simic player. The first game, he was up for a while before I out-fattied him. Second game, he didn't have a change.
Second match, I lost 0-2 to Boros, still playing BUG. Didn't have enough mana most of the first game and got wrecked, got flooded second game and got wrecked. But even if I had drawn better, he still had combat tricks out the wazoo, so it would have at least been a tough match.
Third and fourth matches, I played against Dimir and switched over to just Simic. The third match was definitely the closest I had, and the second and third games were shaped heavily by misplays on both of our parts (I lost the second after letting a Gateway Shade through and forgetting that I only had 7 life; in game 3 he didn't know that Frilled Oculus could pump and didn't think to ask or read the card until after it killed his Metropolis Sprite). Fourth match was kinda long, and he stalled me for a bit, but I basically dominated both games, managing to play Zegana for 7/7 in the first, and 5/5 in the second.
Fifth match was against one of the three other people I came with, playing Boros. He didn't get any Plains first game and couldn't stop me from Evolving a lot and smashing face. Second game I got a lucky Experiment One turn 1, followed by Oculus, and basically just outraced him.
So I think I was very, very lucky here, both due to matchups and my pack pulls, since I never faced Orzhov (which seems very strong), and only went up against one fortunate Boros player. Don't know how Gruul fares here in general, but I saw very few Gruul players at both events, so I'm assuming it's not that strong? Boros and Simic both seem like they can be really good, but you have to have very good packs to put together a decent Simic deck. Won 8 packs this way and tied for 3rd, though, so I'm fine with that.
Turns out the price for the prerelease is even higher than I thought. Bummer, I kinda wanted to go, I regret not having played Ravnica back in the day.
I'll see if this guy will get a draft going.
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1156
Each prerelease is even crazier than the last, I love it.
^ That's really cool.
Also, I think that (according to deckstats) this is the cheapest deck I've ever come up with (even after factoring in the right cards from Gatecrash), and I don't think it's a terrible deck either. Sky ninjas!
In other news, Seething Song is banned in Modern now (along with Bloodbraid Elf, but that one was much easier to imagine).
BBE makes sense even though Deathrite Shaman is blatantly the actual problem with Jund. Seething Song is ridiculous, Storm is so easy to hate out...
aaaaaaaaand my modern pyromancer ascension deck suddenly needs redoing
fucking bannings
where's the fun in not sucking the fun out of things?
Anyway, I'm confused by cipher's wording. Does the encoded spell count as a copy or as a cast spell? I'm thinking copy but the reminder text goes "cast a copy of the encoded spell" and I wanna be 100% sure before I start adding these things to my Riku deck.
Good. Goooooood.
I suspect the Song ban may have had something to do with Goblin Electromancer's existence.
Without a doubt, since Storm wasn't even all that good before RTR.
Just somehow managed to 2-2 at a draft with a gawd-oful Gruul deck.
See, I thought I'd be going well (opened a Hellkite Tyrant and got three Madcap Skills), but I completely forgot to/couldn't solidify my early game, and the two Boros decks I played against first rolled right over me, which is why I was hoping I could stay out of Gruul. At least I got said Hellkite Tyrant and a Borborygmos, though. :V
EDIT: Fuck, I forgot to return the basic lands I used.
Eh, everyone accidentally steals land from a card shop somewhere along the line. Not a huge deal.
That's part of the reason I now always bring my own land to Limited events though.
Do any of you guys know a good draft-sim program/community? I've been messing around at Tapped Out, but I think I've had either one or no drafts where someone didn't get bored and flake out. Plus, I'd like to have some games with whatever decks I put together.
You used to always be able to find people find people organizing drafts on Cockatrice. (The draft itself is done on Tappedout or CCGDecks but then they play it out on Trice.)
There are less of them now but they still pop up from time to time.
Do they usually organize them on those sites, or Cockatrice? I suppose I could try to get people in who'll stick around for some games. I haven't been using the draft-sim on Tapped Out for very long, admittedly.
On Cockatrice itself, I mean. They're started as eight-person games which I assume are just used as a central chat. I haven't actually done one.
IJB/AM: Gatecrash draft is infinitely more fun than RTR.
There's no Pack Rat, if nothing else.