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[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";180021050]Nah, Whip was way better. I love graveyard strategies. I do enjoy the high level of consistency in this 5-color deck, though. I have some history with prismatic decks [/QUOTE]
I can't trust you after last years Elvish Mystic debacle.

 

[y2dvd]

18 lands the way to with this set?

 

[kirblar]

18 lands the way to with this set?

Yeah, Landfall/ramp both want landz up the wazoo.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Landfall is a stupid mechanic. Yeah I said it.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I can't trust you after last years Elvish Mystic debacle.

You mean the card that was in the winning pro tour deck?

 

[The Technomancer]

I got a foil Sire of Stagnation, which SCG has for $25. Kinda just want to flip it on eBay and get my prerelease fee back, but anyone think it's going to go up?

 

[hermit7]

Registered for my first prerelease tomorrow.

Anything that I should expect? I am not exactly new to the game, but haven't ever felt like going out to a shop to play. it was mostly with my friends casually.

Since I have moved into a new state I have wanted to play but know no one that does.

 

[kirblar]

I got a foil Sire of Stagnation, which SCG has for $25. Kinda just want to flip it on eBay and get my prerelease fee back, but anyone think it's going to go up?

Nah, is EDH bait. Will go down before it goes up long term.

(I traded foil Ulamog to a buddy after RoE came out. Oops.)

 

[The Technomancer]

Nah, is EDH bait. Will go down before it goes up long term.

(I traded foil Ulamog to a buddy after RoE came out. Oops.)

eBay it is, I'm fine with that

EDIT: My event had 50 people and one expedition, so one per 1.5 cases basically

 

[Gotchaye]

I gave this a shot today. It was pretty fun. Friendly shop, although I think if I'd gone in with basically no idea how to play it would have been a disaster. My third opponent had actually come in from Houston to play there (Pat's in Austin). Everybody was nice and casual about the whole thing. I ended up winning 4 games but only 1 of my 3 matches.

I felt like I got pretty unlucky with my cards. I got forced into white with Felidar Sovereign, Lantern Scout, and Hero of Goma Fada. I paired it with black with a bunch of those 1/2 drain rally guys and a Drana's Emissary. But while I had a bunch of allies I had nothing that triggered on life gain. Had some good mana fixing but nothing big to ramp into (well, Desolation Twin, but I didn't include it and I don't think I ever could have played it) and no reason to play three colors. When I won it was because I vomited everything out onto the board and went over the top with rally drains or those black 0/4 flyers.

I ended up getting about $5 back on a R/B dual land and Painful Truths (that one was in a prize pack). I just gave the rest of my cards to some kids who were setting up for the next go-round.

I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again, but the whole thing is just begging for a reasonable digital replacement. Shuffling sucksss

 

[Hackworth]

I'm still annoyed about my prerelease getting canceled, but at least I'm learning super secret tech.

 

[The Technomancer]

After the pre-release I'm less...down on the set and more kind of bored by it? Like, it wasn't a bad limited format at all but aside from Allies being annoying it felt like the most generic set of games I've played...probably since RTR, which was another block that didn't fare so well in Sealed.

 

[The Technomancer]

I'm still annoyed about my prerelease getting canceled, but at least I'm learning super secret tech.

My super secret tech was probably

I splashed U for both this and Clutch of Currents, and both times I was able to get it off for Converge 3 it was basically a blowout

 

[Bandini]

Barely squeaked in to 3-1 and 5 packs at my prerelease going 0-2 first match and 2-1 every other match with a RW Ally aggro deck. Outnumber won me a lot of games. Ended up with 3 tango lands and a couple other decent rares so I'm happy.

Fiancee opened Gideon and Drana, lol. She went 3-1 as well, it was her first sealed event. She's all pumped now after being pretty nervous beforehand. Fun times.

 

[y2dvd]

Out of the 150 players so far my lgs had gotten throughout the day, only 3 expedition lands we're open. Super rare.

The guy in front of me keeps showing off all these bomb cards he opened. Gideon, the legendary vampire, etc. It was getting pretty annoying because it sounded like he was bragging at that point.

Beat my first opponent. He shows me his pull aftetwards. Ulamog, Ruin's Path, 2 battle lands, and a foil Gideon. OK mtg gods.

I pulled a Sunken Hallow I guess? -_-

 

[charlequin]

Landfall is a stupid mechanic. Yeah I said it.

ooooh the big man! saying the stuff nobodylike ten of us a month ago would say

(well, Desolation Twin, but I didn't include it and I don't think I ever could have played it)

I'm actually curious about this. In ROE this would have been a gimme include.

I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again, but the whole thing is just begging for a reasonable digital replacement. Shuffling sucksss

Have you heard the good news about HEX TCG?

 

[Shrennin]

I won 3 of my 4 matches, and I got 3 prize packs. In my initial pull I got Ulamog, and in one of the three prize packs I pulled an Ob Nixilis. I was forced to do a tri-color deck of Green, White, and Red when I normally am comfortable using only mono-color decks especially after having not played in years. My Ulamog won me a game, and it was nigh unbeatable once it was out. One guy out of 62 players pulled an expedition and one guy got a promo Ob. My promo was Smothering Abomination. Overall, I had fun and I was just there to play for fun. I really thought it was cool that we got a limited edition playmat from my LGS and the artist was there to sign it. It is my first playmat and it was cool since I could use it.

 

[Hackworth]

My super secret tech was probably

I splashed U for both this and Clutch of Currents, and both times I was able to get it off for Converge 3 it was basically a blowout

Sick. I mean, I was already hoping to build blue black for the evasion and kills, but I'll watch out for those.

 

[The Technomancer]

Landfall is fine. Landfall and Allies in the same set pushes for aggression. I sort of think they did the best they could at balancing the aggression of Zendikar with the rampiness of RoE?

Like, I'm not sure there was a way to win that problem once you locked yourself into solving it, because the solution is exactly what we see: neither strategy is particularly amazing, because if one was but not the other it would dominate, but if both were effective the drastic difference in tempo would really push things towards the swingy side of "did I hit my curve or not".

At my pre-release it didn't look like any one strategy was far and away the best, which I think is maybe the closest thing to a win you could hope for design wise. I just don't know if this was a good idea on a conceptual level

Sick. I mean, I was already hoping to build blue black for the evasion and kills, but I'll watch out for those.

IMO it comes down just on the maindeck side of the sideboard question. Basically its good enough that I always started it in the maindeck, but if it was clear that their deck wasn't running a similar curve of creatures where I could turn trades into kills I sided it out

 

[Gotchaye]

I'm actually curious about this. In ROE this would have been a gimme include.

Have you heard the good news about HEX TCG?

I think the most mana I could ever have made in a turn was 9, with a Kozilek's Channeler. I had 17 or 18 lands and 2 Pilgrim's Eyes. My first opponent had Ulamog and also never got to play him in three games. My last opponent just barely got some 8 mana stuff out with a Channeler and he lost the second game because he didn't have nearly enough to do early on.

I actually downloaded Hex yesterday after you guys were talking about it. Seems all right.

 

[bigkrev]

Went 3-0-1 with a fairly unexciting pool (I'll post my deck a little later), running U/G. Flying is absurdly powerful in this set.

The other thing I noticed were people being super greedy with their splashes. Played against one person who was splashing Rolling Thunder off of 3 Mountains (and 3 Evolving Wilds), guys splashing multiple cards with only a single mana source (usually with 2-3 Evolving Wilds), and that just isn't something you can do in a format with so much incidental mill. I won a game I played like dogshit in (casually attacking my 6/6 into his 7/7 when I have no cards in hand, forget to attack one turn when I had lethal and he looked like he was about to scoop his cards up) because I milled his island on Turn 3, and he had 2 cards he could never cast just rot in his hand all game.

Also, got to witness the awesome Scry on the play, keep it, play Evolving Wilds, and crack before you draw the card move!

 

[Angry Grimace]

I gave this a shot today. It was pretty fun. Friendly shop, although I think if I'd gone in with basically no idea how to play it would have been a disaster. My third opponent had actually come in from Houston to play there (Pat's in Austin). Everybody was nice and casual about the whole thing. I ended up winning 4 games but only 1 of my 3 matches.

I felt like I got pretty unlucky with my cards. I got forced into white with Felidar Sovereign, Lantern Scout, and Hero of Goma Fada. I paired it with black with a bunch of those 1/2 drain rally guys and a Drana's Emissary. But while I had a bunch of allies I had nothing that triggered on life gain. Had some good mana fixing but nothing big to ramp into (well, Desolation Twin, but I didn't include it and I don't think I ever could have played it) and no reason to play three colors. When I won it was because I vomited everything out onto the board and went over the top with rally drains or those black 0/4 flyers.

I ended up getting about $5 back on a R/B dual land and Painful Truths (that one was in a prize pack). I just gave the rest of my cards to some kids who were setting up for the next go-round.

I wouldn't be opposed to doing it again, but the whole thing is just begging for a reasonable digital replacement. Shuffling sucksss

They have pre-releases on MTGO lol

 

[Gotchaye]

They have pre-releases on MTGO lol

I said reasonable!

 

[ZeroX03]

I love Landfall and Awaken for limited. It stops cards becoming dead draws late game. Big pet peeve of mine. Saw a lot of games where a late game land would be just as useful as something else.

Ingest and Ally I can't really say, with sealed nobody pulled a cohesive enough deck with either mechanic. Most of the allies didn't stick around long enough to swarm the field.

 

[Etrian Oddity]

I gave this a shot today. It was pretty fun. Friendly shop, although I think if I'd gone in with basically no idea how to play it would have been a disaster. My third opponent had actually come in from Houston to play there (Pat's in Austin). Everybody was nice and casual about the whole thing. I ended up winning 4 games but only 1 of my 3 matches.

How was Pat's turnout and type of folks? I'm looking for a local game store to force me out of my cave.

 

[Bandini]

I love Landfall and Awaken for limited. It stops cards becoming dead draws late game. Big pet peeve of mine. Saw a lot of games where a late game land would be just as useful as something else.

Ingest and Ally I can't really say, with sealed nobody pulled a cohesive enough deck with either mechanic. Most of the allies didn't stick around long enough to swarm the field.

I got my nut draw with RW Allies one game, had out the one that gives haste, the trampler, then the double striker. After that I kept top decked 2 smaller Allies, game over man.

The best Ingest thing is probably the creature that flashes in and counters a spell when you return 2, turned the game around just about every time I saw it.

 

[f0rk]

The best Ingest thing is probably the creature that flashes in and counters a spell when you return 2, turned the game around just about every time I saw it.

You need the enablers though. I had 2 or the blue 2 drop and 2 of the black one, the difference between the games I curved with them and games I didn't was really big.

I went 4-2, lost to good curve out from R/W and a stupid U/B deck with 2 Ob Nixilis.

 

[ZeroX03]

I got my nut draw with RW Allies one game, had out the one that gives haste, the trampler, then the double striker. After that I kept top decked 2 smaller Allies, game over man.

The best Ingest thing is probably the creature that flashes in and counters a spell when you return 2, turned the game around just about every time I saw it.

Allies will be interesting in draft when you can build a more consistent deck around them, I don't think I saw anyone with more than 3 allies on the field.

And that flashing one is really good, I had that in my morning deck. Also Ulamog's Despoiler with the 9/9 for 6. Just couldn't keep consistent with early game Ingest.

 

[Gotchaye]

How was Pat's turnout and type of folks? I'm looking for a local game store to force me out of my cave.

Maybe 60 people at noon today that I saw, but I might be underestimating. They had 50 tables set up. Crowded early on but there was more space to spread out for the later matches, since I guess some people left. The people there were all pretty friendly; it was my first time playing paper magic and I had no problems. Most seemed to have been doing this for a while, and lots of them were making a day of it or had even done the midnight round last night too. I'd recommend the place.

Edit: Barely any parking, though. Bike if possible.

 

[Familienoberhauptvogel]

Just saying awaken control has the potential of including 8 boardwipes that don't affect their creatures.
Tragic arrogance also only cares for nonland permanent.

Completely forgot that since the lands are colourless Ugin doesn't care for them.

Problematic is that awaken costs start at 5 cmc

 

[Arksy]

After going to a second pre-release and doing a lot better, I'm still of the opinion that this is easily the worst set I've played so far. Keep in mind I've only been playing since KTK and I'm still relatively new to this game, but god damn this set is so boring and frustrating.

 

[SigmasonicX]

Had a lot of fun, this was probably the most intense prerelease I've had, with a lot of close games.

More details later, but I went 3-3 and opened a foil Gideon. Sell now or later? And how should I go about selling cards when it's just a once-in-a-while thing?

 

[A Serious Man]

I went 3-2, losing to U/B eldrazi and then to flooding out two games in a row. My pool was thin on Allies and Ingest creatures (and I had exactly zero processors) so I ended up just trying to curve out my playables and went G/W with a splash of black. Allies seemed pretty weak but that could be due to Sealed, landfall and Eldrazi processing shenanigans seemed much stronger. I ran into a heavy green Eldrazi ramp deck that pulled off some pretty crazy shit, I could see that being one of the main limited archetypes.

Also, shout out to my boy Giant Spider for making a return. You da real MVP.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I don't go to every prerelease, but my roommate surprised me by signing me up without telling me. We each went 5-1 today, taking home 12 packs each. We both lost to the same guy who got first lol

I played a draft-esque RW Allies deck with a ton of redundancy and ran people over, with Planar Outburst as a desperation backup plan haha. That said, swinging with a team of double striking indestructible tramplers is pretty good.

Got 2 UB Tangos in my packs(one foil) and the UG manland as my best rares. My nephew had an insane pool with Ulamog, Kiora, a foil Tango and a foil Void Winnower. That's definitely one kid who's a fan.

Receipts for Grimace:

Also I was able to trade for a Bring to Light, most of the rest of the tangos(one foil) and a lot of the cards for my deck, pretty hyped. All in all a fun prerelease.

Now to draft with the packs we won!

 

[Etrian Oddity]

Maybe 60 people at noon today that I saw, but I might be underestimating. They had 50 tables set up. Crowded early on but there was more space to spread out for the later matches, since I guess some people left. The people there were all pretty friendly; it was my first time playing paper magic and I had no problems. Most seemed to have been doing this for a while, and lots of them were making a day of it or had even done the midnight round last night too. I'd recommend the place.

Edit: Barely any parking, though. Bike if possible.

I don't have a car so I bike/bus/Uber around anyway. Good to hear though.

Just ordered some components for my new BfZ Sultai deck. Gonna hold off on the pre-orders, though. I need Ruinous Path, Lumbering Falls and Kiora to drop a few bucks first.

 

[Ashodin]

Ruinous Path and Grip of Desolation did WORK.

Complete Disregard was also doing crazy work too. So much good black removal.

 

[manipulate]

Ruinous Path and Grip of Desolation did WORK.

Complete Disregard was also doing crazy work too. So much good black removal.

yeah, pretty much every time I played that card I removed the biggest creature + manland.

 

[Infinite Stars]

Went 2-2-1 In the 2HG Pre-release I went to. This was an interesting one, as I had never done 2HG before. I was Planning to do it with my Sister's boyfriend, but he couldn't get the time off so I played with one of her mutual friends that I had never met. We ended up getting Runious Path and The Black Draw Converge spell as our promos. Considering it was his first Pre-release and our first time playing together, it went way better then expected.

Round one we got stomped due to bad deck construction/bad draws(I had a deck with a great curve, I just kept a bad hand. As for deck comp, we realized that he was better able to ramp into our big stuff). Round two we fixed our deck and lost due to Lantern Scout's lifelink. Round 3 we beat a mother-son pair who ran 60 card decks, round 4 we went to time due to Lifelink, and round 5 we slugged it out.

Having played with the set, Allies actually seems semi legit, Devoid is fun. However, Invest/the Exile zone really needed to be the Eldrazi/colourless thing as I had 2 pools worth of cards with those engines and they still felt useless in hand a lot of times.

Also, Fliers are super fantastic in this set limited wise. My partner played 2 Skyrider Elfs and they were an MVP all-star. Even if you chip away 2 points per turn there's basically nothing that can block your creatures.

 

[piratepwnsninja]

Doing my first pre-release in years tomorrow. I've scanned through the thread, but what's the cliffs notes version of sealed strategy for this set? I'm generally pretty aggro as a player, running some combination of RGB. Anything viable in that? I've seen lots of people here doing RW Ally.

 

[Crowbear]

Did my first pre-release today after getting into Magic a couple of weeks into Origins and had a blast.

Started out putting together a UB ingest/process deck but realized that I had pulled almost no black removal (just the sorcery that gives -5/-5) so I ended up going Esper with a bunch of white removal spells. Ended up working out well. Smite the Monstrous, Gideon's Reproach, Sheer Drop, and especially Stasis Snare were all solid.

I only actually pulled 2 ingesters so the deck was definitely weaker than I would have liked, but if I managed to get my Benthic Infiltrator down early my 2 Ulamog's Nullifiers would pretty much win me the game.

Also had an Ob Nix in the deck that won me a couple of games, ended up going 2-1-1 after an 0-1-1 start which I'm pretty happy with, then opened up a second Ob Nix in one of my prize packs so I'm pretty sure that's a sign.

Also one of the people I played had opened up a Steam Vents and I was insanely jealous. I think we had 2-3 expeditions at the event? So it sounds like we got a lucky batch of packs since it was an ~80 person event.

 

[SigmasonicX]

One thing I want to remark on before my big post about my prerelease is that I was really surprised by how easily and consistently I got all three of my colors despite having no fixing or dual lands at all. It's interesting that a three-color format can be done not just with fixing but by making the format slow enough that it's normal for no one to cast any spells in the first two or even three turns.

 

[Yeef]

Doing my first pre-release in years tomorrow. I've scanned through the thread, but what's the cliffs notes version of sealed strategy for this set? I'm generally pretty aggro as a player, running some combination of RGB. Anything viable in that? I've seen lots of people here doing RW Ally.

Draft Archetypes are:
WU - Awaken/Control; you want lots of awaken spells and lots of fliers
UB - Eldrazi processing; if you have the enablers to support it seems okay, but in sealed you usually won't.
BR - Eldrazi Aggro; lots of removal and aggressive colorless creatures
RG - Landfall/Ramp; pretty bog standard for RG
GW - Wide Allies; fill the board with creatures, most of which are allies
WB - Life Gain/Drain Allies; lots of life gain and abilities that trigger from life gain, also lots of allies.
UR - Eldrazi Control/Tempo; similar to UB, but a little more aggressive and less reliant on processors.
BG - Sacrifice/Ramp; make lots of scions and sacrifice them for value
RW - Aggro Allies; Typical RW aggro deck, but with lots of rally.
GU - Converge and/or Eldrazi Ramp; Lots of ramp, lots of fixing, you can use it to either ramp into Eldrazi or maximize your converge spells.

In sealed, depending on your pool, it's not too difficult to run 3 or 4 colors. Occasionally, you get the pool with little or no fixing, but in the 3 events I've run so far, a very small few had problems splashing for a 3rd color.

The format is also fairly slow in sealed. I'd say it's about a turn or so slower than Khans; not sure slow, but not fast like Origins.

 

[SigmasonicX]

From my sealed experience:
* Flying is huge. You need both flying creatures and ways to deal with flying creatures (though Plummet is still just sideboard material). Even cards like Angelic Gift are pretty good.
* BfZ sealed is a format where it's fine to have nothing to do in your first two turns besides playing lands. That also means you are fine keeping slightly worse starting hands than in other formats.

 

[jph139]

Got some really good pulls at my Prereleases - a Gideon, a Canopy Vista, and a foil Smoldering Marsh, which should more or less pay for the day overall - but did real shitty in the actual games. 2-2 in the first, 1-3 in the second; I actually had a decent Ally deck for the second one (with Munda, Gideon, Zada, Hero of Goma Fada, the double strike guy...), but my curve was too high and it just didn't get anywhere. Probably shouldn't have tried to force Black into the mix, too.

I did win a game with Zada granting my entire team of 3/3 Double Strikers +3/+0 with Sure Strike and dealing lethal in a single turn, so, if nothing else, I lived the crazy janky Ally dream.

 

[Ashodin]

Thinking about going after an EDH deck starring Allies;

This being the commander:

Basically get her out and do some nuts combat

 

["God's Beard!"]

Here's the deck I played at the prerelease:

We did a casual draft with our prize packs, and I made a comically durdly UGb Eldrazi deck with four of those 4-mana fog cantrips and a bunch of token makers. Casting Desolation Twin is really fun.

More importantly, we did it boys:

Also, maybe this feeds Kirblar's agenda since I was playing aggro with my sealed deck, but in 6 rounds I mulliganned 7 times. The only round I didn't mulligan a hand was the one I lost lol
Getting slightly aggressive with mulliganing for curve reasons won me a lot of games.

 

[ironmang]

Went 4-0-1 to split 1st with a buddy at my more competitive prizing LGS. We both got 20 packs but I ended up getting almost all of the value through Ob, Kiora, Shambling Vent, Undergrowth Champion, and Woodland Wanderer. Both agreed to split an expedition if one was pulled due to potential feel-bads but neither of us hit.

Went UWR again with a really solid deck full of defense and bombs. Emeria Shepherd, Endless One, Drowner of Hope, and Serpentine Spike made for a crazy top end. Even had a couple of the good processors like Blight Herder but didn't really have much ingest so they ended up just being reasonably costed fatties. My deck last night felt more complete but this one had all the power.

As far as expeditions pulled: only heard of 2 today however they were Misty and Tarn. That's out of 32 people.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Even had a couple of the good processors like Blight Herder but didn't really have much ingest so they ended up just being reasonably costed fatties.

This won't be the last time someone says this.

 

[WanderingWind]

And now it is time for the Great Rotation Sorting. Goodbye all of Theros. I will miss you not in the slightest.

 

["God's Beard!"]

And now it is time for the Great Rotation Sorting. Goodbye all of Theros. I will miss you not in the slightest.

A parent should never have to bury their children ;_;