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Magic: the Gathering - Battle for Zendikar |OT| Lands matter (but nothing else does)
- Thread starter SigmasonicX
- Start date
- Status
Had a decent amount of fun at prerelease. Didn't pull anything I had any desire to own/sell, but felt my pool was solid for building. Went blue/red control, had a couple key misplays and ended up going 2-2 mainly due to underestimating how fast some archetypes in the format are. While this is probably the single most disappointing set I've ever seen released while actively playing the game from a constructed/kitchen table/edh perspective, I do think there are enough interactions going on in limited that, if all the archetypes hinted at are viable, it'll be a decent format.
Looking into getting into standard for the very first time and debating what to invest in. I could wait until the metagame settles down a bit in a month or so, but I'd like to start playing now and have basically no playables aside from some fetches I got a few weeks back at PAX.
Looking into getting into standard for the very first time and debating what to invest in. I could wait until the metagame settles down a bit in a month or so, but I'd like to start playing now and have basically no playables aside from some fetches I got a few weeks back at PAX.
A Serious Man
Member
I really did not see him showing up in modern and legacy as much as he has.
TalesFromHoth
Neo Member
I did 3 events this weekend and I have to say that sealed feels kind of clunky. Hard to really get the right cards to make your archtype unless you get very lucky. I did have fun though, and opened an expedition Overgrown Tomb. Draft looks to be really promising though, but I think I'm going to pass on the MTGO prerelease sealed event and just wait for drafts.
"God's Beard!"
Member
I'm playing 4 Crackling Doom main.
Yeah, I'm still playing around with the numbers. I've got a couple flex spots for both my lands and spells in the maindeck, and the sideboard could be anything.
Here's what my deck looks like right now, I'm comfortable with most of the choices. Not everything, though:
pretty colors said:
I'm really happy with how many of the new lands I was able to get yesterday. Makes acquiring the remainder of the deck a lot less intense.
To be honest, neither of the manlands has been especially impressive. I may wind up cutting both or just keeping the vent. I could even see going down to 25 lands and adding a couple more early plays like Anticipate or something. Finding things to play on two without ruining the mana has been an interesting challenge. Fathom Feeder is a bit of a stretch because if you're fetching a tango on one it's usually the UB one which forces you to get basic swamp on two which kills your 3-mana instants. UW on turn one is fine, but you only have 4 fetches for basic swamps. Anticipate isn't super high impact, but it's a consideration.
I'm actually interested in playing Clever Impersonator somewhere in the 75, it's worth testing.
I've had a pretty lucky week in Magic.
I pulled a foil Abrupt Decay on Wednesday, and a Jace the day after that.
Then I attended two BfZ prerelease events this weekend and got some really good stuff.
Two Zendikar Expedition Lands (Smoldering Marsh, and Godless Shrine), Gideon and Kiora, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger, Dragonmaster Outcast, Part the Waterveil, Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, to mention a couple.
I mean, those are some pretty ridiculous pulls...
I pulled a foil Abrupt Decay on Wednesday, and a Jace the day after that.
Then I attended two BfZ prerelease events this weekend and got some really good stuff.
Two Zendikar Expedition Lands (Smoldering Marsh, and Godless Shrine), Gideon and Kiora, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger, Dragonmaster Outcast, Part the Waterveil, Canopy Vista, Prairie Stream, Sunken Hollow, to mention a couple.
I mean, those are some pretty ridiculous pulls...
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
1-1 with Esper Controlling thing with Ingest. It surprisingly worked twice. That 2W Fog spell is BS.
SigmasonicX
Member
Going over my prerelease now in more detail. As I mentioned before, I went 3-3 and pulled a foil Gideon. And I'd still like to know how I should sell it.
Unusually, I changed colors throughout the draft. I started out red-blue-green, then quickly dropped red for white before the first match due to my need for more removal. After the first match, though I won 2-0, I decided to exchange blue for red, resulting in red-green-white, since there were red cards that I wanted to run and I wasn't running many blue cards anyway. I did have the green-blue manland, so it was a shame to drop that, though. I changed out cards over the course of the game, and when I laid them out now, I realized that in the end, I was only running two green cards, and not particularly impressive ones, so I probably should have dropped it.
I also pulled Undergrowth Champion out of my prize packs.
Unusually, I changed colors throughout the draft. I started out red-blue-green, then quickly dropped red for white before the first match due to my need for more removal. After the first match, though I won 2-0, I decided to exchange blue for red, resulting in red-green-white, since there were red cards that I wanted to run and I wasn't running many blue cards anyway. I did have the green-blue manland, so it was a shame to drop that, though. I changed out cards over the course of the game, and when I laid them out now, I realized that in the end, I was only running two green cards, and not particularly impressive ones, so I probably should have dropped it.
I had other good Limited cards like Oran-Rief Hydra, Lumbering Falls, Guardian of Tazeem, Ugin's Insight, Exert Influence,
I also pulled Undergrowth Champion out of my prize packs.
SigmasonicX
Member
I had other green cards at first, like Oran-Rief Hydra, but like I mentioned, I was swapping them out for other cards as I went on and I didn't notice I only had those two left until after.
Etrian Oddity
Member
I can't wait until October 2nd so we can get all this silly limited talk out of the way and go back to constructed standard 
IrrelevantAlex
Member
Went to a prerelease had fun with friends. First time playing other people at a cards shop and not using proxies/ a friends edh deck. Went 2-2 with a red/blue eldrazi deck.
rares I got were Shambling Vent, From Beyond, Sunken Hollow, Cinder Glade, Angelic Captain, and Defiant Bloodlord. Serpentine Spike as the promo card.
Breaker of Armies was the champion for me. Had 2 Kozilek Channelers and a Herald of Kozilek to ramp to it and Eldrazi Devastator.
Fun time when an opponent used the mana leak like card and I paid for it with the 3 lands and a scion he didn't account for.
rares I got were Shambling Vent, From Beyond, Sunken Hollow, Cinder Glade, Angelic Captain, and Defiant Bloodlord. Serpentine Spike as the promo card.
Breaker of Armies was the champion for me. Had 2 Kozilek Channelers and a Herald of Kozilek to ramp to it and Eldrazi Devastator.
Fun time when an opponent used the mana leak like card and I paid for it with the 3 lands and a scion he didn't account for.
Infinite Stars
Member
I can't decide if I'm going to stick with Mardu as my game plan for BFZ standard or go Naya. Naya has the better Mana base by far but Mardu gives me access to Mardu Charm+ Drana.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Fathom Feeder da bess
blindrocket
Member
he is super easy to flip.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Fuck Guardian of Tazeem. What a BS bomb.
A Serious Man
Member
Yeah, he just plays great. I had zero hype for him and now I get pulled into brewing blue decks just because I like playing him. Guess I should have know a 2-drop that's great in every phase of the game was going to be an all-star.
shrapnelmagnet
Member
I had really good intentions of hitting a pre-release today, lol. Didn't happen I started watching Interstellar at 130 AM because I'm a fucking idiot, haha. Good lord, that's a fairly long movie. Alas.
It seems like the pre-release packs were stacked a bit. I do want to try to hit up a few drafts of this set and depending on prices, I might actually build a shitty Standard deck for MTGO.
PS: Am I way off-base with being semi-annoyed at the "Manland" debate / situation going on right now with many people? Is this really a discussion? Manland is a convenient assonance. Ladyland is a late-to-the-table alliteration that I can get behind but, in reality, it has baggage. Lady is such a specific word... Anyway, I don't mind if everyone calls them Creature Lands, it's just super interesting. Has there always been this much debate RE: names of lands in other sets (I started playing in Theros).
I started watching Interstellar at 130 AM because I'm a fucking idiot, haha. Good lord, that's a fairly long movie. Alas.It seems like the pre-release packs were stacked a bit. I do want to try to hit up a few drafts of this set and depending on prices, I might actually build a shitty Standard deck for MTGO.
PS: Am I way off-base with being semi-annoyed at the "Manland" debate / situation going on right now with many people? Is this really a discussion? Manland is a convenient assonance. Ladyland is a late-to-the-table alliteration that I can get behind but, in reality, it has baggage. Lady is such a specific word... Anyway, I don't mind if everyone calls them Creature Lands, it's just super interesting. Has there always been this much debate RE: names of lands in other sets (I started playing in Theros).
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
So ridiculously good for limited, can't believe I went only 2-2 with it, Sovereign and the angel.
Well I threw one of these rounds and the other I was just out tempoed. So I can believe it I'm just sad.
It adds a whole new metagame of which lands to hold and which to play.
Infinite Stars
Member
I had no issues beating it in my 2HG Pre-release, though that's due to my partner running 3 of the Blue Bounce spell with Awaken and 2 Plummets. He just bounced it every time they played it until we were able to ignore it.
Went 2-2 today with a BW allies deck that had a bunch of removal in the form of stasis field and quarantine zone. Also had 2 of the black 3 mana exile power 3 or less.
Going white was a good choice but all my creatures were really low to the ground so I didn't have many high powered creatures.
Best play was the third match in which I played desolation twin got my two 10/10 and then cast quarantine field for x=3 and was able to wipe their board.
For my first prerelease I was pretty happy might start doing more drafts.
Going white was a good choice but all my creatures were really low to the ground so I didn't have many high powered creatures.
Best play was the third match in which I played desolation twin got my two 10/10 and then cast quarantine field for x=3 and was able to wipe their board.
For my first prerelease I was pretty happy might start doing more drafts.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Dinosaurs rule
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Maybe it's because my father is a paleontologist but Dinosaurs really don't excite me.
charlequin
Banned
...why are you responding to a post from page 1
man that feels like the opposite of how that should go
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Is this a serious question? Because Dinosaurs rule.
KitSnicket
Neo Member
This prerelease was my first tournament ever. I was a little nervous going in, but it was a very positive experience. No earthshaking cards, but notables were Fathom Feeder, Catacomb Sifter, and Guardian of Tazeem.
I ended up playing agressive red/devoid (colorless that cost red to cast) and blue. I had some devoid/colorless synergies and blue was mainly defense except for Tazeem. My reflections from my games are as follows.
The colorless eldrazi synergies are interesting. Nettledrone alone was really annoying for one opponent.
Clutching Coils was great to either deal with flyers or neutralize a turn 7 eldrazi.
A cycle of slabhammer and looming spires gave +2/+2 and +1/+1 first strike every turn. Any of the other enter the battlefield effect lands could be used the same way, plus triggering any other landfall effects.
I haven't played Magic in a decade and even then I had never played in a tournament. I got stomped my first match, but I one my next two. My favorite moment was in my third game. I had three creatures he had two but we were basically in a standoff. He draws his seventh mana and plays Bane of Bala Ged, which would have decided it except I had held onto Turn Against with allowed me to take Bane on my turn and win.
Overall I think I agree with many of the reviews. The set seems a little slow and clunky. Most matches seemed to involve fumbling around for 5 turns, then a giant eldrazi would come and settle things one way or another. It was still a fun time, and I am looking forward to the next event.
I ended up playing agressive red/devoid (colorless that cost red to cast) and blue. I had some devoid/colorless synergies and blue was mainly defense except for Tazeem. My reflections from my games are as follows.
The colorless eldrazi synergies are interesting. Nettledrone alone was really annoying for one opponent.
Clutching Coils was great to either deal with flyers or neutralize a turn 7 eldrazi.
A cycle of slabhammer and looming spires gave +2/+2 and +1/+1 first strike every turn. Any of the other enter the battlefield effect lands could be used the same way, plus triggering any other landfall effects.
I haven't played Magic in a decade and even then I had never played in a tournament. I got stomped my first match, but I one my next two. My favorite moment was in my third game. I had three creatures he had two but we were basically in a standoff. He draws his seventh mana and plays Bane of Bala Ged, which would have decided it except I had held onto Turn Against with allowed me to take Bane on my turn and win.
Overall I think I agree with many of the reviews. The set seems a little slow and clunky. Most matches seemed to involve fumbling around for 5 turns, then a giant eldrazi would come and settle things one way or another. It was still a fun time, and I am looking forward to the next event.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
overexposure I guess.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Honestly, the set felt perfectly fine in Sealed, better than Origins did for sure.
Guy across from me got a Flooded Strand on the first pack. The best rare I got across two prereleases was a Fathom Feeder. Card kicks ass though.
A guy 5-0'd and I asked how he did it and he was like "I just got lucky." We asked to see his pool: Drana, two Ob Nixilis, Lantern Scout and several of the life gain vampires.
Guy across from me got a Flooded Strand on the first pack. The best rare I got across two prereleases was a Fathom Feeder. Card kicks ass though.
A guy 5-0'd and I asked how he did it and he was like "I just got lucky." We asked to see his pool: Drana, two Ob Nixilis, Lantern Scout and several of the life gain vampires.
So yeah then, he got lucky haha
A Serious Man
Member
While waiting for BfZ to hit MTGO, I made a U/W Willbreaker deck. The MVP so far?
Since Willbreaker's chicanery triggers when you target, you never have to pay 1, you just get to pick a free creature every time you Dig or counter or whatever. Citadel Siege and Jace's +1 are also great for stealing stuff. It's allowed me to devote the majority of the deck to good control cards and not the usual crap I've seen in other Willbreaker lists. The deck isn't super consistent yet but god is it fun.
Since Willbreaker's chicanery triggers when you target, you never have to pay 1, you just get to pick a free creature every time you Dig or counter or whatever. Citadel Siege and Jace's +1 are also great for stealing stuff. It's allowed me to devote the majority of the deck to good control cards and not the usual crap I've seen in other Willbreaker lists. The deck isn't super consistent yet but god is it fun.
Went 4-0 again with this deck.
Jeebus, does RU have a crap ton of removals. I had a total of 8 removals, 6 of them being low cmc commons.
The games where I won, I dominated. Makindi Sliderunner backed with Gideon's Reproach meant my trample dmg was still getting through. Same goes for Vestige of Emrakul. Valakut Predator was absurd on offense and felt more like an uncommon card. The commons are also nuts in RU.
So I'm 8-0 for the weekend. I'm pretty happy as I usually do terrible in sealed. I got no luck opening money cards though. Oh well. Not sure how draft will go yet but it looks like this set will be fine.
Jeebus, does RU have a crap ton of removals. I had a total of 8 removals, 6 of them being low cmc commons.
The games where I won, I dominated. Makindi Sliderunner backed with Gideon's Reproach meant my trample dmg was still getting through. Same goes for Vestige of Emrakul. Valakut Predator was absurd on offense and felt more like an uncommon card. The commons are also nuts in RU.
So I'm 8-0 for the weekend. I'm pretty happy as I usually do terrible in sealed. I got no luck opening money cards though. Oh well. Not sure how draft will go yet but it looks like this set will be fine.
Went 2-2 drop in my 3rd prerelease. Deck was definitely unplayable and only managed to win against players who were clearly very new. Getting 3 rare lands and only one one bomb in Akoum Firebird wasn't the best of feelings. Making it worse was having to play 4 colors and one 2 drop just to have a 40 of non-horrible cards. Usually get a pool like this once every block which sucks but is just how it goes. I'm a degenerate so it won't stop me from going to 3 more prereleases next set if I'm able to attend lol.
Curving out with allies is pretty hard to beat. Had a few games where I went Vigilance Ally into Haste Ally into Double Strike Ally into +2/+2 Ally. Thanks to From Beyond, I even had one game where I was able to play the +2/+2 Ally, into the Haste Ally, then play a land for a 1/1 Kor Ally 1 while I had Retreat to Emeria and the Double Strike Ally on board.
Even though allies and eldrazi nonsense are a lot of fun, i think the strongest deck (in sealed at least) is just WU tempo with lots of fliers and awaken spells.
Even though allies and eldrazi nonsense are a lot of fun, i think the strongest deck (in sealed at least) is just WU tempo with lots of fliers and awaken spells.
Went 4-1 with R/W, barely lost in a mirror match, came in 3rd at at 50 person pre release.
Cheap fast allies with flyers and removal are definitely the way to go. I got zero bombs and zero value in my cards and was furious when the guy across from me opened both gideon and ob, figured I was in for a 0-5 night. But speed really does make a huge difference with this set.
Cheap fast allies with flyers and removal are definitely the way to go. I got zero bombs and zero value in my cards and was furious when the guy across from me opened both gideon and ob, figured I was in for a 0-5 night. But speed really does make a huge difference with this set.
Gaming Truth
Member
I went 2-1, 1-2, and 3-0 this weekend. I was very surprised.
Pre 1: I opened my money card, but my rares were split 3-black, 4-white/red. The power cards were in red and white, but I didn't have enough cards to make a 40. I ended up filling the back end of the curve with Eldrazi. It ended up being an Ally deck much like described earlier and if I don't kill you, my Eldrazi come in. My only loss was a well fought match.
Pre 2: I also went red/white, but with a far worse pool. However, it cemented how strong the allies in red and white were (haste, lifeline, vigilance, double-strike, ...)
Pre 3: My rares were duals, but the pool said red/white again. I didn't want to do that, so I intenionally used my third and fourth best colors. One rare in it, but oddly, I went 3-0. Blue/black heavy swarm. The black creatures were very well costed and devoid. My blue supplied flying and unlock able. I even countered a spell with that Flash guy!
Edit: MVP: Swarm Surge. Scion tokens from the blue guys and the intentionally killed carrier thralls always meant I was getting a minimum of +14 attack each time I cast it to win.
I usually do more but I only had time for one pre-release flight this weekend. Went Bant Converge/Midrange with a lot of bounce/tempo spells in U & W and some good green dudes. Lost only one match (I get manascrewed G1, opponent gets manascrewed G2, I get manascrewed G3 - fun!). I got to Awaken Part the Waterveil a few times and it was fun. Not much to say besides that. Didn't open any real money in my sealed packs or prize packs :/
As for the set, it seems alright I guess. I didn't really have much a strong opinion on it overall. Awaken was sweet while Ingest & Process was almost impossible to get working for basically anybody I saw that weekend.
As for the set, it seems alright I guess. I didn't really have much a strong opinion on it overall. Awaken was sweet while Ingest & Process was almost impossible to get working for basically anybody I saw that weekend.
Angry Grimace
Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I wish the counterspell processor didn't require 2 cards. It's a bit excessive.
Familienoberhauptvogel
Banned
Unbelievable what you can draft in 4 man new player phantom drafts.
Yesterday I got completely blown out by a BW elves deck with eyeblight massacre today I drafted an almost mono red deck with 3 Fiery Impulses an Exquisite Firecraft and a ravaging blaze. Can't really ask for more.
Yesterday I got completely blown out by a BW elves deck with eyeblight massacre today I drafted an almost mono red deck with 3 Fiery Impulses an Exquisite Firecraft and a ravaging blaze. Can't really ask for more.
My prerelease went pretty well. 3-0 first 3 rounds and split the last round because it was 4am and got 7 packs. Nothing amazing from the pool or prize packs, but was really fun. Was playing B/W/R but had Oblivion Sower to ramp into Desolation Twin, which is fun shit. Rd 3 Sower exiled an Ulamog, much salt flowed after that.
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