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Magic: The Gathering |OT3| Enchantment Under the Siege
- Thread starter The Technomancer
- Start date
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"God's Beard!"
Member
Nah man, do what's best for you. If you're playing a game for gamer credit instead of maximizing the enjoyment of your day, you've got it all wrong. Living stress-free is really the goal, you know?
Keru_Shiri
Member
Just got back from my prerelease. So-so card pool, was able to fill it with U/W fliers, but with little creature kill or combat tricks, it was difficult. 2-2, but just about every game was a lot of fun, win or lose. Some highlights...
1. Dromoka was worth the green splash. Thanks to some refuges, I was able to cast it reliable, even living the dream and morphing it out of Lightform.
2. Shu Yun was my promo and made me wish I had more quality spells. When he was firing he was nutz! Managed to get a 5/5 double striking, flying, lifelink Seeker one game. I did learn about "Tiny Commander" so I think I may have found my first general.
3. An 8 yr. old pulled the alt-art Ugin, and I was totally happy for him.
1. Dromoka was worth the green splash. Thanks to some refuges, I was able to cast it reliable, even living the dream and morphing it out of Lightform.
2. Shu Yun was my promo and made me wish I had more quality spells. When he was firing he was nutz! Managed to get a 5/5 double striking, flying, lifelink Seeker one game. I did learn about "Tiny Commander" so I think I may have found my first general.
3. An 8 yr. old pulled the alt-art Ugin, and I was totally happy for him.
Joe Molotov
Member
My pack of Ugin's Fate had Ugin's Construct in it, haha. Nice troll, Wizards.
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
I pulled an Alt. Art Ugin. Pretty stoked. Went 3-1 with a Bant deck that pretty much rolled everything (except when mana screwed). Probably the best sealed deck I've made yet.
Even though I lucked out with an Ugin, there was a guy who had an alt. art Ugin, after opening up an Ugin in sealed. What the fucking hell is that.
My favorite beat down was... start off with 1/1 flyer for 1. Turn 2 was another 1/1 flyer for 1 + tap land (I had 4). Turn 3 was Bolster 3 (Green) for 3 (this is a fucking bomb), into turn 4 White Citadel using Khans (2 +1/+1 tokens at beginning of combat). This happened more than once and it was just disgusting. I had suspension field and singing bell strike as removal, the tap target creature draw a card for 2 was super nasty. Really fun. I also had a cloudform, which is super sick. Basically I had mainly flyers, with random green bombs, and white dudes which had bolster effects/summon spirit tokens. I'll write up the list later. I don't know any of the card names yet.
Even though I lucked out with an Ugin, there was a guy who had an alt. art Ugin, after opening up an Ugin in sealed. What the fucking hell is that.
My favorite beat down was... start off with 1/1 flyer for 1. Turn 2 was another 1/1 flyer for 1 + tap land (I had 4). Turn 3 was Bolster 3 (Green) for 3 (this is a fucking bomb), into turn 4 White Citadel using Khans (2 +1/+1 tokens at beginning of combat). This happened more than once and it was just disgusting. I had suspension field and singing bell strike as removal, the tap target creature draw a card for 2 was super nasty. Really fun. I also had a cloudform, which is super sick. Basically I had mainly flyers, with random green bombs, and white dudes which had bolster effects/summon spirit tokens. I'll write up the list later. I don't know any of the card names yet.
blindrocket
Member
I decided not to go to prerelease because I really only wanted to pull an Ugin. Not good odds obviously. I'm glad to read a few of you did however!
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";147930887]Receipts for Angry Grimace's ghost(from my LGS's facebook).[/QUOTE]
Grimace isn't permabanned is he?
Went Jeskai for my event, just lost my 3rd round on mana flood. Pretty pissy about it because I have a lot of draw and Manifest and they were mana too. (running 17)
Grimace isn't permabanned is he?
Went Jeskai for my event, just lost my 3rd round on mana flood. Pretty pissy about it because I have a lot of draw and Manifest and they were mana too. (running 17)
ThLunarian
Member
Hmm... I'm having some doubts about Bloodbraid Elf being unbanned now. Supposedly this is the second time in a row that people were buying out the card on speculation just before the new announcement.
This might make it harder to move the 18 copies I just bought
This might make it harder to move the 18 copies I just bought
CorruptShadow
Member
So I'm going to GP San Jose in a couple of weeks, and I haven't been to a GP since they started this whole prize wall thing. Anybody been to one? How exactly does it work?
For example: say they have something you want that is 100 tickets but you only have 90, can you buy tickets from them? Or do you have to enter another event to get tickets? Officially that is.....I'm sure you could always trade some off another player.
For example: say they have something you want that is 100 tickets but you only have 90, can you buy tickets from them? Or do you have to enter another event to get tickets? Officially that is.....I'm sure you could always trade some off another player.
Day 2 of Prerelease. Did 2 more events.
For the first I went Abzan and got the nuts. I more than enough fixing to splash red for Shaman of the Great Hunt and Humble Defector. When i first saw Temur Sabretooth, I knew it would be one of my favorite cards in the set, but now I think it's #1. Had 2 Sandsteppe Outcasts, 2 hooded Assassins, 1 Jeskai Blockade and 1 Mardu Hordechief. Between those and the Humble Defector, I'd get so much card advantage that it was tough for anyone to keep up. The only game I lost was to a turn 1 Warden of the First Tree that just curved out perfectly.
For the second event, i went Temur, but ended up playing Bant. I had Warden of the First Tree and Yasov, which both put in good work, but it was just a good stuff deck, with no real synergy. The biggest issue with it was that virtually all of the removal in my pool was in white (which is why I decided on Bant), but it was all super conditional stuff like Sandblast and Smite the Monstrous. I didn't get any solid, non-conditional removal, which cost me a few games.
Tomorrow I'll do Madu and Sultai, then I will sleep.
For the first I went Abzan and got the nuts. I more than enough fixing to splash red for Shaman of the Great Hunt and Humble Defector. When i first saw Temur Sabretooth, I knew it would be one of my favorite cards in the set, but now I think it's #1. Had 2 Sandsteppe Outcasts, 2 hooded Assassins, 1 Jeskai Blockade and 1 Mardu Hordechief. Between those and the Humble Defector, I'd get so much card advantage that it was tough for anyone to keep up. The only game I lost was to a turn 1 Warden of the First Tree that just curved out perfectly.
For the second event, i went Temur, but ended up playing Bant. I had Warden of the First Tree and Yasov, which both put in good work, but it was just a good stuff deck, with no real synergy. The biggest issue with it was that virtually all of the removal in my pool was in white (which is why I decided on Bant), but it was all super conditional stuff like Sandblast and Smite the Monstrous. I didn't get any solid, non-conditional removal, which cost me a few games.
Tomorrow I'll do Madu and Sultai, then I will sleep.
SigmasonicX
Member
Sad to hear that there was a younger Turtle McDurdle in Fate Reforged, but it was cut out.
Anyway, this prerelease went really well for me. I guess there were more people than usual, because there were actually six rounds instead of the usual five. I lost the first round, but I won the other five, winning the last four 2-0. Here was my deck:
Anyway, this prerelease went really well for me. I guess there were more people than usual, because there were actually six rounds instead of the usual five. I lost the first round, but I won the other five, winning the last four 2-0. Here was my deck:
"God's Beard!"
Member
I got 2 Tasigurs and 4 Dagatars and all five dragons in my box but only one Weaponsmith and no Cloudforms :-(
Hell, I got more fetchlands in my basic land slots than I got uncommons for my affinity deck lol
Hell, I got more fetchlands in my basic land slots than I got uncommons for my affinity deck lol
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";147990572]I got 2 Tasigurs and 4 Dagatars and all five dragons in my box but only one Weaponsmith and no Cloudforms :-(
Hell, I got more fetchlands in my basic land slots than I got uncommons for my affinity deck lol[/QUOTE]
In the box only or including your prerelease pulls?? Thats an obnoxious amount of Dagatar for one box lol.
Hell, I got more fetchlands in my basic land slots than I got uncommons for my affinity deck lol[/QUOTE]
In the box only or including your prerelease pulls?? Thats an obnoxious amount of Dagatar for one box lol.
"God's Beard!"
Member
In 8 rounds of Sealed, including myself, only one person in all of my matches didn't have a Dagatar.
divisionbyzorro
Member
So I went to a new store last night and played my first paper Magic in months. I don't know the stores in my area at all, so I chose off of the Wizards Store Locator based exclusively on location. The store itself was nice enough, and the people were super friendly, but when I got there a few minutes early for the 7PM pre-release, the 2PM pre-release had just started round 4. I was kind of in shock, so I asked the TO what was going on. Apparently his solution to games going to time in this format was to just increase the round length to 60 minutes. So we didn't even start our pre-release until 7:30, and the TO gave a ridiculous amount of time for deckbuilding. I knew pretty much right away that I wasn't going to play every round; my wife had to get up early this morning which leaves me with our daughter, so I knew round 4 was going to be a scoop before we even started.
Aside from bad organization, it was a fun place to play. The store was super chill and the people seemed really nice.
I cracked open my packs and was super bummed at my rares. My Sultai promo was Tasigur, which wasn't super exciting but fine. My other rares were Dragon-Style Twins, Alesha, Shu Yun, Mastery of the Unseen, and Scroll of the Masters. My rares wanted me to play Jeskai, but my commons and uncommons simply wouldn't support it. I laid out a seemingly playable Jeskai deck, but it had terrible mana and every sample hand I drew was unkeepable so I shipped it back and played this Sultai list:
The curve was really high, so I was leaning on Typhoid Rats and Sultai Emissary to carry me into the mid-late game, and they did that regularly. Sultai Emissary was an all-star; I knew the card was good, but was repeatedly impressed with just how good it was all night.
Round 1 (1-2): Played Abzan. In game one, I steamrolled him while he was missing his black mana. In game two, we fought a close battle in which I simply couldn't fight through a Temur Sabertooth (that card is unreal). In game three, I flooded beyond belief and lost after a drawing seven lands in a row (literally).
Round 2 (2-1): Played Mardu. In game one, I was setting up for a blowout Death Frenzy, but it got stripped out the turn prior thanks to Diplomacy of the Wastes. I kept my cool and still managed to pull out victory. In game two I kept a slow hand and got run over by Goblin Heelcutter. In game three my hand was gas; I drew the right cards on curve and my opponent did basically nothing to me all game.
Round 3 (2-1): Played Jeskai. In game one, a pair of Cunning Strikes took out key blockers, and a Break Through the Line made me lose a game after it looked like I had stabilized. Game two my opponent didn't respect my morph, and getting to eat a Jeskai Windscout with an Abomination, followed by smashing and looting into mana for Cruise put the game away. Game three was an incredibly tense back-and-forth; he played a Torrent Elemental on turn 5, hoping to put the game away, but I topdecked a Reach of Shadows to keep the game competitive. I ended up winning after he manifested his Break Through the Line with a Master of the Unseen as opposed to drawing it. Since the prizes for 2-2 were the same as 1-3, and putting my opponent to 2-1 made him live for better prizes, I conceded the match after winning and drove home.
After the match was over, one of the college guys said he knew I needed to leave, and asked me if I wanted to trade him my promo Tasigur. I said probably, but I was really tired and asked how much it was worth. He said regular foils were $13-15, which blew my mind because that didn't seem like an expensive card to me. He tossed his binder in front of me, so I decided to humor him. There wasn't anything I really wanted, so I just pointed to the Flooded Strand and said "how much is this?" He pulled out his phone, and a few seconds later said they were about the same and would do the trade. I was a little surprised, but I was tired and wanted to go home so I did the trade and left.
MVPs from the day:
Aside from bad organization, it was a fun place to play. The store was super chill and the people seemed really nice.
I cracked open my packs and was super bummed at my rares. My Sultai promo was Tasigur, which wasn't super exciting but fine. My other rares were Dragon-Style Twins, Alesha, Shu Yun, Mastery of the Unseen, and Scroll of the Masters. My rares wanted me to play Jeskai, but my commons and uncommons simply wouldn't support it. I laid out a seemingly playable Jeskai deck, but it had terrible mana and every sample hand I drew was unkeepable so I shipped it back and played this Sultai list:
Code:
2x Typhoid Rats
2x Sultai Emissary
Whisperer of the Wilds
Sultai Charm
Whisk Away
Hooded Assassin
Abomination of Gudul
Lotus Path Djinn
Return to the Earth
Reach of Shadows
Death Frenzy
Feral Krushok
Aven Surveyor
Enhanced Awareness
Ethereal Ambush
Hooting Mandrills
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Sultai Scavenger
2x Treasure Cruise
Dismal Backwater
Thornwood Falls
Opulent Palace
Basic LandsThe curve was really high, so I was leaning on Typhoid Rats and Sultai Emissary to carry me into the mid-late game, and they did that regularly. Sultai Emissary was an all-star; I knew the card was good, but was repeatedly impressed with just how good it was all night.
Round 1 (1-2): Played Abzan. In game one, I steamrolled him while he was missing his black mana. In game two, we fought a close battle in which I simply couldn't fight through a Temur Sabertooth (that card is unreal). In game three, I flooded beyond belief and lost after a drawing seven lands in a row (literally).
Round 2 (2-1): Played Mardu. In game one, I was setting up for a blowout Death Frenzy, but it got stripped out the turn prior thanks to Diplomacy of the Wastes. I kept my cool and still managed to pull out victory. In game two I kept a slow hand and got run over by Goblin Heelcutter. In game three my hand was gas; I drew the right cards on curve and my opponent did basically nothing to me all game.
Round 3 (2-1): Played Jeskai. In game one, a pair of Cunning Strikes took out key blockers, and a Break Through the Line made me lose a game after it looked like I had stabilized. Game two my opponent didn't respect my morph, and getting to eat a Jeskai Windscout with an Abomination, followed by smashing and looting into mana for Cruise put the game away. Game three was an incredibly tense back-and-forth; he played a Torrent Elemental on turn 5, hoping to put the game away, but I topdecked a Reach of Shadows to keep the game competitive. I ended up winning after he manifested his Break Through the Line with a Master of the Unseen as opposed to drawing it. Since the prizes for 2-2 were the same as 1-3, and putting my opponent to 2-1 made him live for better prizes, I conceded the match after winning and drove home.
After the match was over, one of the college guys said he knew I needed to leave, and asked me if I wanted to trade him my promo Tasigur. I said probably, but I was really tired and asked how much it was worth. He said regular foils were $13-15, which blew my mind because that didn't seem like an expensive card to me. He tossed his binder in front of me, so I decided to humor him. There wasn't anything I really wanted, so I just pointed to the Flooded Strand and said "how much is this?" He pulled out his phone, and a few seconds later said they were about the same and would do the trade. I was a little surprised, but I was tired and wanted to go home so I did the trade and left.
I'm really out of the loop on paper prices guys. I didn't mean to shark that guy so bad, I'm serious. I feel kinda bad.
MVPs from the day:
- Temur Sabertooth: I was really hoping to open on of these and play with it, but alas it was not to be. I had the displeasure of playing against it, and my suspicions were confirmed. This card is nuts. There are very few rares I would take over it, and I think there are almost zero FRF packs where this guy should go later than second.
- Goblin Heelcutter: He got a lot of hype, and he lived up to it. He's a Threaten with Buyback 0 - how crazy is that?
- Sultai Emissary: Sweet, sweet, sweet value. This guy overperformed every time. I think if I wasn't so heavy on Delve I wouldn't have been able to get every ounce of value from him, but he did work in making sure I could stabilize the early game and cast my expensive delve cards to take over in the mid game.
Whew! Pre-release weekend over. Participated in three events. This is my haul.
Saturday Pre-release: Came second. Used a Mardu Deck, was pretty damn awesome. So much good stuff in Mardu.
Saturday Night Pre-release: Came 8/16 or something equally horrid. Tried Temur, pulled a quick lacklustre deck. Went 2-2 wins/losses.
Sunday Two-headed Giant: Came first! Woohoo!! My first ever #1 in a sanctioned magic event. Played with my long time friend and we built a pretty damn solid deck plan. I went Mardu because it's bloody amazing. He went Sultai control.
I still can't believe I came 2nd and 1st. I'm new-ish so I still think I'm rubbish at this game, and I have a lot to learn, but I'm so glad I'm improving. All in all I won 14 booster packs for fate reforged, along with the three seeded packs I got from the three events. I think it was well worth it. So many good cards, have 5 more sac lands and about 30 rares.
Saturday Pre-release: Came second. Used a Mardu Deck, was pretty damn awesome. So much good stuff in Mardu.
Saturday Night Pre-release: Came 8/16 or something equally horrid. Tried Temur, pulled a quick lacklustre deck. Went 2-2 wins/losses.
Sunday Two-headed Giant: Came first! Woohoo!! My first ever #1 in a sanctioned magic event. Played with my long time friend and we built a pretty damn solid deck plan. I went Mardu because it's bloody amazing. He went Sultai control.
I still can't believe I came 2nd and 1st. I'm new-ish so I still think I'm rubbish at this game, and I have a lot to learn, but I'm so glad I'm improving. All in all I won 14 booster packs for fate reforged, along with the three seeded packs I got from the three events. I think it was well worth it. So many good cards, have 5 more sac lands and about 30 rares.
Got 1st place at the noon prerelease and get to pick up a box on Friday! Pretty stoked as it's my first outright win, I had been in the finals before at a midnight prerelease once before but we were both so tired at that point we just split the prizes.
I chose abzan since I'm familiar with it having drafted it very often in Khans and I got a lot of great cards from the bonus pack... then I pulled a Sorin in my Khans booster =)
The decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/frf-prerelease-sealed-1st-place/
Best card was probably Tasigur, he did work all day. Sorin caused a few scoops and I was lucky enough to get some good interactions with Bond-Kin / Falconer / Tuskguard Captain / Battle Priest. Fun tournament.
That 1/1 spirit saved my ass a couple times at my event.
I chose abzan since I'm familiar with it having drafted it very often in Khans and I got a lot of great cards from the bonus pack... then I pulled a Sorin in my Khans booster =)
The decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/frf-prerelease-sealed-1st-place/
Best card was probably Tasigur, he did work all day. Sorin caused a few scoops and I was lucky enough to get some good interactions with Bond-Kin / Falconer / Tuskguard Captain / Battle Priest. Fun tournament.
That 1/1 spirit saved my ass a couple times at my event.
Won the one yesterday with Temur. Got pretty lucky since the girl I played in the last round opened an insane pool. All 8 rares were good and in color. Her only problem was the deck was a tad slow and had problems with fliers and unblockables except for End Hostilities and a couple pieces of spot removal. Had a few good rares but nothing insane. Won 22 packs which I sold back to the shop for $3 each.
phazedplasma
Member
I'm the asshole that got regular ugin and alt art ugin.
"God's Beard!"
Member
From some of you guy's posts, I'm glad that I have an LGS that runs all these massive 8 round prerelease and fnms. It always feels almost like playing an open and we never leave fnm till like 2am lol
The prize support is always great too. Every week is at least a win a box.
Also, your deck was fine even if you couldn't play your best rare Mastery of the Unseen.
The prize support is always great too. Every week is at least a win a box.
Tasigur is nuts, you didn't shark that guy. He's one of the top rares in the set.
Also, your deck was fine even if you couldn't play your best rare Mastery of the Unseen.
They must be handing the alt art out like candy. No wonder regular ugin is starting at $20.
2-3 per prerelease flight was what people were hearing.
"God's Beard!"
Member
By the way, here's the deck I won with:
Bant Aggro
Creatures(15):
Spells(7):
Land(18):
Sideboard(2):
I had two really good rares in Dagatar and especially Mastery of the Unseen, which is probably the best possible rare for sealed in the set. I had one medium Rare in Dromoka, and one bad rare in Ojutai. The strength of the deck was in the solid mana curve and value creatures backed by tempo spells. I was pretty loathe to play the dragons, but I felt the need to have a stabilizing force against my opponents' bombs in the long game. They came up about 50/50. They won me games I couldn't have otherwise, but they also rotted in my hand just as often when I lost.
Top performers at common/uncommon:
Top Underperformers at common/uncommon:
The forest + Return to the Earth package was something I brought in against dragons.
Bant Aggro
Creatures(15):
- 1x Soul Summons
- 1x Wandering Champion
- 2x Sandsteppe Outcast
- 2x Monastery Flock
- 1x Cloudform
- 1x Abzan Falconer
- 1x Dagatar the Adamant
- 1x Abzan Skycaptain
- 1x Lotus-eye Mystics (never actually got to buyback a Cloudform :-()
- 2x Aven Surveyor
- 1x Dromoka, the Eternal
- 1x Ojutai, Soul of Winter
Spells(7):
- 1 Mastery of the Unseen
- 1 Valorous Stance
- 1 Crippling Chill
- 1 Hunt the Weak
- 1 Enhanced Awareness
- 1 Rite of Undoing
- 1 Will of the Naga
Land(18):
- 1 Thornwood Falls
- 1 Blossoming Sands
- 1 Mystic Monastery
- 2 Forest
- 7 Plains
- 6 Island
Sideboard(2):
- 1 Return to the Earth
- 1 Forest
I had two really good rares in Dagatar and especially Mastery of the Unseen, which is probably the best possible rare for sealed in the set. I had one medium Rare in Dromoka, and one bad rare in Ojutai. The strength of the deck was in the solid mana curve and value creatures backed by tempo spells. I was pretty loathe to play the dragons, but I felt the need to have a stabilizing force against my opponents' bombs in the long game. They came up about 50/50. They won me games I couldn't have otherwise, but they also rotted in my hand just as often when I lost.
Top performers at common/uncommon:
- Monastery Flock
- Sansteppe Outcast
- Aven Surveyor
Top Underperformers at common/uncommon:
- Cloudform
- Abzan Falconer
- Lotus-Eye Mystics
The forest + Return to the Earth package was something I brought in against dragons.
divisionbyzorro
Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";148020977]Tasigur is nuts, you didn't shark that guy. He's one of the top rares in the set.
Also, your deck was fine even if you couldn't play your best rare Mastery of the Unseen.[/QUOTE]
I mean, SCG has foil Tasigur at $10 and Strand is at $20. And Strand is an eternal playable and Tasigur will be forgotten. It's not like I traded $5 for $50 or something, but it was still very much in my favor.
I actually really liked my deck; I was just bummed that I didn't open anything nuts and didn't get to play with the semi-nuts stuff that I did open. I felt like I was able to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the room, even though I didn't have an "I win" bomb like a lot of others. And I got to draw a lot of cards, which is always great.
Also, your deck was fine even if you couldn't play your best rare Mastery of the Unseen.[/QUOTE]
I mean, SCG has foil Tasigur at $10 and Strand is at $20. And Strand is an eternal playable and Tasigur will be forgotten. It's not like I traded $5 for $50 or something, but it was still very much in my favor.
I actually really liked my deck; I was just bummed that I didn't open anything nuts and didn't get to play with the semi-nuts stuff that I did open. I felt like I was able to stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the room, even though I didn't have an "I win" bomb like a lot of others. And I got to draw a lot of cards, which is always great.
"God's Beard!"
Member
Huh. Flooded Strand really is still 20 bucks. Wow.
Mastery of the unseen is a 2-mana card that ensures you never, ever flood out, and you always play more creatures(and at instant speed) than your opponent in the long game. It races every bomb and makes Ugin look like a joke. Also, 4.5 packs of FRF means the average toughness of your opponents' creatures is lower, and you get to trade 4 mana for creatures more often. It fits at a place on curve where you probably don't have good plays otherwise, is nearly impossible to remove by maindecked cards and dominates the ground for basically nothing. And this is all assuming you never actually manifest a creature, at which point the card is unbelievable.
Dromoka is an insane bomb that would be a solid A if I was playing green as a main color. But on a 4-green-source splash, he's only medium. Context matters, especially in limited.
Mastery of the unseen is a 2-mana card that ensures you never, ever flood out, and you always play more creatures(and at instant speed) than your opponent in the long game. It races every bomb and makes Ugin look like a joke. Also, 4.5 packs of FRF means the average toughness of your opponents' creatures is lower, and you get to trade 4 mana for creatures more often. It fits at a place on curve where you probably don't have good plays otherwise, is nearly impossible to remove by maindecked cards and dominates the ground for basically nothing. And this is all assuming you never actually manifest a creature, at which point the card is unbelievable.
Dromoka is an insane bomb that would be a solid A if I was playing green as a main color. But on a 4-green-source splash, he's only medium. Context matters, especially in limited.
ThLunarian
Member
PSA: if you're playing 2HG, do NOT run Channel Harm. The opponents can just assign all the damage to your partner and it does nothing.
As for Mastery of the Unseen, it dominates any kind of board stall situation with lifegain as an incremental bonus, but it does nothing to help you if you're behind on the board, especially if you're facing down evasion. I had it in my pool and it only helped about half the times I drew it.
As for Mastery of the Unseen, it dominates any kind of board stall situation with lifegain as an incremental bonus, but it does nothing to help you if you're behind on the board, especially if you're facing down evasion. I had it in my pool and it only helped about half the times I drew it.
"God's Beard!"
Member
Mastery of the Unseen is a control card. It doesn't win from the get go like Pack Rat, but it's just as dominant once it gets going. You get to hold up tricks more often, it invalidates your opponents' attacks every time you unmorph a creature, and just ruins their math. Just having it in your deck means you can more aggressively trade off your creatures to preserve your health until you get a good slot to resolve it.
Out of all the bombs I saw, Mastery of the Unseen was as close to a win button as anything I could think of. On three different rounds I played it drew me two extra cards a turn. Even assuming I could resolve Ojutai and Dromoka every game, Mastery of the Unseen was always stronger. It's just immune to everything. Trading doesn't beat it, sweepers don't beat it, racing doesn't beat it. It's only bad if you're severely mana screwed and also losing terribly on board, situations where any other bomb is going to suck anyway. Except Pack Rat. Fuck Pack Rat, though.
"God's Beard!"
Member
To be fair, Mastery of the unseen has a bunch of upsides over Centaur Glade. The investment is lower, and you can climb back out of racing/burn range by flipping creatures and create inevitability. And since you're always passing with mana up, your opponent doesn't know which option you're taking.
That said, I am slightly biased. I knew from practice pools that I wanted to be a UW tempo style deck going in, and that's what I got. Decks like that that are good at creating a tempo advantage take higher than normal value from Mastery of the Unseen.
ThLunarian
Member
[QUOTE="God's Beard!";148030148]To be fair, Mastery of the unseen has a bunch of upsides over Centaur Glade. The investment is lower, and you can climb back out of racing/burn range by flipping creatures and create inevitability. And since you're always passing with mana up, your opponent doesn't know which option you're taking.
That said, I am slightly biased. I knew from practice pools that I wanted to be a UW tempo style deck going in, and that's what I got. Decks like that that are good at creating a tempo advantage take higher than normal value from Mastery of the Unseen.[/QUOTE]
I remember being kind of annoyed that I kept manifesting 4-cost creatures, so I would have to choose between flipping up a creature that was only marginally better than the 2/2 it already was, or creating another one.
Then again, if you can afford the luxury of worrying about that, I guess you're in a good spot anyway
That said, I am slightly biased. I knew from practice pools that I wanted to be a UW tempo style deck going in, and that's what I got. Decks like that that are good at creating a tempo advantage take higher than normal value from Mastery of the Unseen.[/QUOTE]
I remember being kind of annoyed that I kept manifesting 4-cost creatures, so I would have to choose between flipping up a creature that was only marginally better than the 2/2 it already was, or creating another one.
Then again, if you can afford the luxury of worrying about that, I guess you're in a good spot anyway
Chose Sultai at my second event. My promo was Wildcall, pretty much the most uninteresting promo across all of the clans aside from perhaps Shamanic Revelation for Temur. Yeah, it's always efficient and that's great, but it's just so boring and didn't really feel like a Sultai card. Luckily, I pulled a Silumgar from a pack alongside a Soulflayer and Sage-Eye Avengers. I also pulled Empty the Pits, but decided it was way too mana-intensive at XXBBBB. For green I also pulled a Temur Sabertooth, which I was really really excited to be able to play with. Aside from that though, I just had nothing really good in green and few early drops overall in Sultai, yet I still stubbornly went ahead in Sultai colors.
I got my face smashed in during my first match and went 0-2 due to a complete lack of early-game creatures, and in response decided to just cut green from my deck entirely and get in white instead for 2x Soul Summons, 2x Pressure Point, 1x Mardu Woe-reaper and even an Aven Skirmisher. In addition to that, I swapped out two other spells for a Sultai Emissary ( which turned out to be great ) and a Wetland Sambar ( which won me one of my games while equipped with my 1x Molting Snakeskin ), something I should have done from the start.
The next match was the most fun and intense set of games I played across both of my pre-releases, despite ending in a 1-2 loss for me. I won the first game with 1 life left after a long boardstall thanks to Silumgar, then narrowly lost the second after a similar boardstall and not drawing my removal / bounce ( 1x Aven Surveyor, 2x Reach of Shadows, 1x Whisk Away, 1x Merciless Executioner ) in time. I lost the third to Mastery of the Unseen, a card that I gravely underestimated and turned out to be a huge monster bomb. There was always a lot of thought going into every turn and every combat phase due to Prowess and the amount of Manifest creatures on both sides, and it resulted in an all around great set of games.
The third match I won 2-0 vs. a Mardu player. I got in a good board-position early on and got Silumgar and the Sage-Eye Avengers on the board along with a Molting Snakeskin-equipped Wetland Sambar. My opponent got a Sorin on the board and was able to activate him twice, getting him to 35+ life before I killed it with the Sambar. Shortly after that, he played Ojutai, which I was able to bounce to the top of his library, allowing me to draw a Reach of Shadows for when he eventually replayed it. Sage-Eye Avengers bounced everything else back to his hand and Silumgar kept attacking or was held back as blocker when needed. In the second game, he was unable to build a decent board and I overwhelmed him pretty quickly.
I went 2-0 in the fourth match as well vs. another Mardu player. In the first game, things were going fairly well for me. His big threat was Dagathar, which I was immediately able to kill with a Reach of Shadows. Marang River Prowler and Sage-Eye Avengers then steadily won me the game. The second game was hilarious and kinda made me feel like a dick. He cast his first creature spell, which I Cancelled. He then played Dagathar, which I bounced, after which he played Dagathar again, after which I bounced it back again, after which he played it again, at which point I had drawn a reach of Shadows to kill it. The next creature he played was a Brutal Hordechief, which I also bounced immediately. He then played it again and was forced to block it dead in order to not lose. I was able to finish it the next turn without any issues, though he did Cancel my flying Soulflayer. ;-(
The final match was near impossible to win vs. a Jeskai deck that consistently pulled off Prowess guy > Prowess guy > Sandsteppe Outcast > Pressure Point > War Flare > attack with everything. Though I knew he had War Flare and knew exactly when he was going to use it in both matches based on how he played, I was just unable to get into a good enough position before it hit and had it completely wipe out my stuff in both matches to the point that I wasn't able to come back.
So I ultimately ended up at a 2-3 loss, though I feel that if I had not bothered with forcing green and had just gone with Esper from the start, I would've been in a very good position to have won that first match. Regardless, I had a great time and learned a lot of stuff through play, which is awesome.
I got my face smashed in during my first match and went 0-2 due to a complete lack of early-game creatures, and in response decided to just cut green from my deck entirely and get in white instead for 2x Soul Summons, 2x Pressure Point, 1x Mardu Woe-reaper and even an Aven Skirmisher. In addition to that, I swapped out two other spells for a Sultai Emissary ( which turned out to be great ) and a Wetland Sambar ( which won me one of my games while equipped with my 1x Molting Snakeskin ), something I should have done from the start.
The next match was the most fun and intense set of games I played across both of my pre-releases, despite ending in a 1-2 loss for me. I won the first game with 1 life left after a long boardstall thanks to Silumgar, then narrowly lost the second after a similar boardstall and not drawing my removal / bounce ( 1x Aven Surveyor, 2x Reach of Shadows, 1x Whisk Away, 1x Merciless Executioner ) in time. I lost the third to Mastery of the Unseen, a card that I gravely underestimated and turned out to be a huge monster bomb. There was always a lot of thought going into every turn and every combat phase due to Prowess and the amount of Manifest creatures on both sides, and it resulted in an all around great set of games.
The third match I won 2-0 vs. a Mardu player. I got in a good board-position early on and got Silumgar and the Sage-Eye Avengers on the board along with a Molting Snakeskin-equipped Wetland Sambar. My opponent got a Sorin on the board and was able to activate him twice, getting him to 35+ life before I killed it with the Sambar. Shortly after that, he played Ojutai, which I was able to bounce to the top of his library, allowing me to draw a Reach of Shadows for when he eventually replayed it. Sage-Eye Avengers bounced everything else back to his hand and Silumgar kept attacking or was held back as blocker when needed. In the second game, he was unable to build a decent board and I overwhelmed him pretty quickly.
I went 2-0 in the fourth match as well vs. another Mardu player. In the first game, things were going fairly well for me. His big threat was Dagathar, which I was immediately able to kill with a Reach of Shadows. Marang River Prowler and Sage-Eye Avengers then steadily won me the game. The second game was hilarious and kinda made me feel like a dick. He cast his first creature spell, which I Cancelled. He then played Dagathar, which I bounced, after which he played Dagathar again, after which I bounced it back again, after which he played it again, at which point I had drawn a reach of Shadows to kill it. The next creature he played was a Brutal Hordechief, which I also bounced immediately. He then played it again and was forced to block it dead in order to not lose. I was able to finish it the next turn without any issues, though he did Cancel my flying Soulflayer. ;-(
The final match was near impossible to win vs. a Jeskai deck that consistently pulled off Prowess guy > Prowess guy > Sandsteppe Outcast > Pressure Point > War Flare > attack with everything. Though I knew he had War Flare and knew exactly when he was going to use it in both matches based on how he played, I was just unable to get into a good enough position before it hit and had it completely wipe out my stuff in both matches to the point that I wasn't able to come back.
So I ultimately ended up at a 2-3 loss, though I feel that if I had not bothered with forcing green and had just gone with Esper from the start, I would've been in a very good position to have won that first match. Regardless, I had a great time and learned a lot of stuff through play, which is awesome.
"God's Beard!"
Member
If I remember right it was 1/15 packs in DGM so you were pretty unlucky. I got two in my FRF box which implies a similar average.Are the Fetchlands in the Land slot more common than they were in Dragon's Maze? I got one in my first pool, and in my second pool (0-2 drop
I think a more apt comparison is Sacred Mesa and I'd take flying pegasuses over mass of energy forces any day of the week.
"God's Beard!"
Member
The Magic Show's complete set review is up. There goes my day!
Played Sultai today and went 3-3. I got a pretty crappy pool IMO - my rares were Archfiend of Depravity (promo), Hardened Scales, Flamewake Phoenix, Mob Rule, Shamanic Revelation, and Ojutai, Winter's Soul. My commons and uncommons were OK (though a bit lacking in removal), and did most of the work.
Highlight of the day was Ethereal Ambush manifesting Icefeather Aven and Pine Walker, then a second Ethereal Ambush manifesting Abzan Guide. It was sweet.
Also a different game I drew all of my finishers and played them on consecutive turns. It was pretty glorious (and the only time Ojutai actually did anything).
Highlight of the day was Ethereal Ambush manifesting Icefeather Aven and Pine Walker, then a second Ethereal Ambush manifesting Abzan Guide. It was sweet.
Also a different game I drew all of my finishers and played them on consecutive turns. It was pretty glorious (and the only time Ojutai actually did anything).
divisionbyzorro
Member
Damnit; I'm cursed by the MTGO Legacy Cube! Drafted the nuts White Weenie and got mana-screwed then mana-flooded to finish with yet another 2-1. MTGO is trolling me with this cube at this point.
blindrocket
Member
Last pricing I saw on eBay for Alt was like $90-$100
Yuck
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