Had some fun at pre-release. My pool was pretty decent despite the SOI rares being off-color dual lands, Coax from the Blind Eternities being one of the EMN rares and Collective Brutality not being playable because I pretty much had nothing going on in black. Promo was a Spirit of the Hunt and I pulled another one from one of my packs. Last EMN rare / mythic was Emrakul, the Promised End. Went into W/G because those were my strongest colors.
Round 1 vs. W/G |
1 - 0
Had a great early start flipping Lone Rider into It That Rides as One with a Silverstrike. After that it very quickly turned into a massive board stall where neither of us could attack. I drew and cast Emrakul and made him attack into my board, wiping his side and winning me the game. The second game was just starting to develop into another board stall when we had to stop due to time.
Round 2 vs. Bant |
2 - 0
Won the first game very quickly by flipping Lone Rider on turn 3 with Aim High. Second game my opponent got stuck with blue cards in hand with only a single island on the field, which allowed me to build up my board and overwhelm him.
Round 3 vs. B/G |
0 - 2
I could not keep up with the Delirium / graveyard value he was putting out. I had nothing to answer the advantage he got from casting Season's Past with a full graveyard in game one. In the second game I again just fell behind with the graveyard value he was getting. It was great to see this deck in action though, as from what I saw the majority of the other players (including me) were playing either W/U, W/G, or Bant.
Round 4 vs. B/R |
1 - 1
First game I got mana-screwed really hard after taking a mulligan to five. He took down my only real threat early on and it was pretty much lost from there. The second game was won - again - thanks to an early Lone Rider flip. The third game went on fairly long as we were both building our boards up. Eventually he broke through and things were starting to look pretty bad for me with him getting me in lethal range. I had Emrakul in hand from the start and was one mana / one type in the graveyard short from casting her. We got the five-turns-left warning. I block my two Desperate Sentries dead to stay alive and get better blockers. I draw play a creature on my turn. He again attacks and I block everything dead except one of his and one of mine. My turn. I draw and play Terrarion. On his turn he kills both our creatures with Ruthless Disposal. End of the five turns. I would have had him dead next turn by saccing the Terrarion and casting Emrakul, but sadly it was not to be and I had to settle for a tie.
Round 5 vs. W/G |
1 - 2
Game one we both started building the board, but he won through his Dawn Gryff which I did not draw an answer for in time. Second game I won once again thanks to an early flipped Lone Rider. Third game I got blown out by turn four Faith Unbroken on a Human hitting my only threat, turn five Heron's Grace Champion. I had no real way to come back from that.
End result |
2 - 2 - 1
Got a single prize pack, which got me a second Coax from the Blind Eternities. That doesn't matter much though, because I had some fun playing Magic and I got to cast Emrakul. ^w^ Lone Rider // It That Rides as One definitely did the most work for me and I flipped it in every game I played it in. Other honorable mentions go to Ulvenwald Captive, Spirit of the Hunt, Desperate Sentry, and Ironclad Slayer + Choking Restraints value.
Fun fact; Someone at our pre-release played B/R, splashing Bant for Tamiyo.
If you want to go really advanced, later on the article suggests creating a completely different deck that you can sideboard in if your initial deck isn't a good match up. Remember, you can do that in Sealed.
A friend successfully did this at the pre-release. Lost his first two games playing W/U, then switched to W/R and won two and tied one.
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