Magic 2010 Prerelease Tournament Report- Part 2

While I did remember a little information I’m still trying to get the process down of taking notes on the sheet where I keep track of both players’ life totals so I can talk more specifically about what happened each game and have a better overall tournament report. That did not happen this time because it was my first limited event in a long while and I had to concentrate on my plays a lot more than I do in constructed. I did take notes after a couple of the game that were more interesting than the others so I do have a few things to talk about!

I think what happened to most people at the prerelease was that they cracked their packs saw a Lightning Bolt or two and decided they had to play some burn variant. While Lightning Bolt is good (especially in limited) I found that the matchups against decks that were running it were by far the easiest. They had the Lightning Bolts but nothing else from red to really back it up efficiently. People must have also cracked Elite Vanguard and felt that meant they were going to go white / red because the majority of my matches either had red or white in them. This is also probably because red is one of the strongest colors for limited play.

First Matchup vs Red/ White

Game One: He got mana flooded and I made a Centaur with Oakenform and beat him to death.


Game Two: He got my into single digits before I made my Baneslayer Angel and proceeded to bash his brains in again.. This was what happened during the majority of the games I managed to win

1-0

Second Matchup vs Red / Green

Game One: Oakenformed a couple Centaurs and beat him down before he could really get anything going.



Game Two: Same as game one except he managed to grab his Garuuk and used him to accelerate and eventually he popped his ultimate



Game Three: Was forced to enchant my Llanowar Elves with two Oakenforms and went swinging into his full board. He triple blocked because he had a Garruk out then I proceeded to do nothing at all until he had enough creatures to overrun with Garruk for the win.

1-1

Third Matchup vs Red / White

Game One: He made two Elite Vanguards with Holy Strengths for each and killed me very fast



Game Two: He got going pretty quick with another Elite Vanguard toting Holy Strength but I managed to hang on long enough to play my Baneslayer Angel and turn the tides



Game Three: This was quite possibly the most fun I had all day (also the the most luck I had all day) I had Baneslayer Angel in my opener with a couple lands including a Terremorphic Expanse. He was proceeding to beat me down and burn me with multiple weenies and a couple Lightning Bolts to stop my fliers in their tracks. On fifth turn I was forced to Nature’s Spiral my Terremorphic Expanse to get the fifth land and two white I needed to get my Baneslayer online. This was something that helped me a lot throughout my matchups to get the different colorations I needed and kept me from getting mana screwed in a lot of critical situations. I finally cast my Baneslayer and pass turn. He sighs and draw go’s, missing his land drop for the turn.

I top a land and smile to myself because I know if something happens to my angel I just got rid of one of my only recursion spells to get that Terramporphic back from my yard. I lay it down and play the last card in my hand: Oakenform, attaching it to the angel (sweet! 8 / 8 Flying- Lifelink!!) and swing for 8 to his face putting us about even as far as life totals were concerned. I pass turn and he pulls the top card off of his deck looking extremely relieved when lays down his sixth land and taps the lot of em’. I can only look on with a sinking feeling when he flips a Planar Cleansing, the only one I’ve seen all day, and wipes the board. This was my death sentence because at that point I had no hand and his deck was much, much faster than mine. I untap my lands and knock the top of my deck for luck before drawing the top card.. my one and only Disentomb! The best possible card in my deck to top! Now glad I had used my Spiral on that Terramorphic, I flip the spell targeting my angel, grab it from my yard and put it back in play via my 5 untapped lands. The rest went quickly because he had nothing else to answer the 5 / 5. Yet another example of how it’s better to be lucky than good.. :P

2-1

Fourth Matchup vs Red / White

• Game One: I stick my Griffin Sentinel and attach Oakenform early and start beating until he gets Blinding Mage online and keeps me at bay for a few turns. I finally get enough threats on the field (Child of Night and Centaur) to get past his tappers and swing for the win.

• Game Two: I get a couple threats online and he turns my Centaur Courser with Oakenform against me using Act of Treason for 6 to my face. This was really fortunate because the next turn I was preparing to get Baneslayer online and if he had Act of Treason-ed it instead It would have given him at least one more turn to recover. I swing for the win a couple turns later.

3-1

Yay! I’m guaranteed to get a pack at this point in the tournament and I’m feeling pretty good about how the deck is performing.

Fifth Matchup vs Blue / Black

This was the first time I had come up against either of these colors all day and they trounced me. This guy had an amazing pool to draw from. He had 2 Hypnotic Specters, the 3/3 Phantom Warrior, two Assassinates, and many other fliers.

Game One: He got both his hyppies online and screwed my hand over on his way to pecking me to death over the next few turns.

Game Two: Repeat

This deck didn’t even have a chance against his unless I happened to get Baneslayer online though even if I had I wouldn’t have been able to attack with it because of his Assassinates which popped up both games. I would have had to play defensively until I could figure out how to get rid of his specters. Overall this deck’s worst nightmare.

3-2

Sixth Matchup vs Red / White / Green

Game One: He curved out perfectly into his green aggro creatures like: Elite Vanguard and Bramble Creeper with Whispersilk Cloak attached to it. I got mana flooded…yay!

Game Two: I curved perfectly into a fifth turn Baneslayer Angel and did what this deck does best: Attack with Baneslayer Angel until death…

Game Three: He got out a few good white creatures including Lightwielder Paladin, Elite Vanguard and Honor of the Pure and beat me down.. Horribly..

3-3

Overall it was a very interesting day of magic to say the least. I wasn’t displeased with my performance as much as I was my card pool. I’m sorry that I didn’t take better notes on my games but I will try to do better in the future! I always like playing limited because it is more about your deck building skills and a little bit of luck rather than your wallet. Not that I’m saying all constructed tournaments are like that but limited just puts everybody on a little more equal footing as far as what cards they can afford to use. Prereleases are always the best tournaments anyway because everybody is buzzing about the new cards and the excitement level is very high!

Magic 2010 Prerelease Tournament Report- Part 1

Today was by far the weirdest/hardest prerelease tournament I've played in. This wasn't because the people I was playing against were extremely good (though they were pretty good!), it was more because of the series of unfortunate events that happened throughout the day. By the time I ended up arriving at the store I was running a lot later than I wanted to be. I asked if I could sign up for the prerelease only to be told that they were full on players...fail....So I hang out for a bit to chat up some of the local players and I eventually decide to just go home and hang out there until the draft later in the evening. I get a couple blocks down when my roommate calls me up telling me they have a couple seats open. SWEET! I madly pull an illegal u-turn and head back to the store hoping that the spots weren't going to be filled by the time I made it back.

I walk in just as they are passing out the boosters and I quickly sign up and plop into an open seat. I crack the first pack...decent commons, decent uncommons... and Mirror of Fate.. Mirror of Fate? Ok I tell myself that it's only one pack and tear happily into the next one. I'm thumbing towards the back hoping for some bomb that I can build around when I stumble across another...freaking...Mirror of Fate...There is no way I'm going to run this in limited! Maybe if I had a few days to figure out how to abuse it properly I would consider possibly running it in a constructed deck but not in freaking limited! So there's two packs pretty much wasted as far as bombs go.. I crack the third pack and, fearing the worst, I flip to the back to find, much to my relief, a Baneslayer Angel. Finally something I can build a decent deck around!

Baneslayer Angel has been the subject of much debate mostly because of the insane amount of things you get for such a reasonable mana cost. For a converted mana cost of five you get a 5/5 creature with flying, first strike, lifelink, along with pro demons and dragons! Plus the art is breathtaking! The card that it most easily compares to is Akroma which has a similar power/cost ratio. Before I even post a decklist let me warn you that I had some crappy cards to work with..If I hadn't gotten Baneslayer out in a lot of games I wouldn't have won very many matches..if any.. With not too many noteworthy cards in blue or red the only option I had was to make a White/Green/Black deck because I wasn't extremely strong in any two of those colors. A few decent cards I managed to rip were: Elite Vanguard, Whispersilk Cloak, Nature's Spiral, Sign in Blood and Child of Night. I just looked through my deck again and I realized that the only rare/mythic in my deck was Baneslayer..It was kind of a sad day.

I almost forgot! The store where I was playing in is very small and had like 50 people in it. This doesn't sound like much but when it's 108 degrees outside and the A/C isn't very efficient it gets pretty hot. It was like a sauna in there! I'm surprised my cards didn't start to curl from the humidity and heat! Ok, enough about the crazy mishaps from the day! Here was the deck used during the tournament:

GWB Aggro

Creatures:

1x Llanowar Elves
1x Acidic Slime
2x Centaur Courser
2x Child of Night
1x Elite Vanguard
1x Griffin Sentinal
1x Stormfront Pegasus
1x Baneslayer Angel
2x Palace Guard

Other Spells:

2x Nature's Spiral
3x Oakenform
1x Pacifism
1x Angel's Mercy
1x Disentomb
1x Doom Blade
2x Sign in Blood
1x Whispersilk Cloak

Land:

2x Terramorphic Expanse
5x Plains
5x Swamp
4x Forest

I know the mana base looks a little weird but it worked out pretty well and the Terramorphic Expanses helped out when I needed doubles for the Sign in Bloods and the Baneslayer Angel. I will cover the matchups I had and how I fared in them in part 2 of this post but right now I am waaaayyy too tired and brain dead to try and type out another post. That is all!

Please comment, email (homebrew.magic@gmail.com) or tweet (@homebrew_magic) any constructive criticism you have pertaining to this or any of my posts. Your input is both needed and appreciated. Keep on Brewing!

New Magic 2010 Cards!

I was going to try and get my next “Just For Beginners” post out today but it is turning out to be quite a project. I might be taking out content and making it into multiple posts but I haven’t decided yet. So instead I’m just going to write down some of my thoughts about some of the recent spoiled cards and how I think they will fit into the current meta.

White is going to be a good color for the core set. I already commented Silence which is an extremely cheap and effective control card. I can actually see this card seeing some extended play time. There are going to be some good cards for pure White Weenie decks coming in the core set as well. Probably the most notable of them is Captain of the Watch which has been recently spoiled by MTG Salvation.

Captain of the Watch
Creature - Human Soldier
Vigilance
Other Soldier creatures you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance.
When Captain of the Watch enters the battlefield, put 3 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens onto the battlefield.
3/3


As you can see its basically a Cloudgoat Ranger on roids! For 6 mana you get a 3/3 with vigilance that gives your other soldiers a boost and vigilance. Oh yeah it also gives you 3 more soldiers that gain the buff and become 2/2’s with vigilance as well. But it dies to path right?! :P This along with other cards being printed and ones that are already in standard are going to make for some exciting mono-white decks.

Along with the rest of the good white cards being printed or reprinted for the new core set is Soul Warden. This is a fun card to plan in a deck where a ton of creatures are coming into play like White Weenie. Using it with a card like say, Captain of the Watch you are not only getting 9 vigilance power for 6 mana you are also gaining 4 life! It can get kinda crazy and it makes racing your deck extremely difficult for someone who doesn’t have the same life-gaining abilities.

Fabricate has not been confirmed yet and after the Golden Lotus incident I am reluctant to put my trust completely in spoiler lists. A guy can hope though right?!


It, along with the fact that they are reprinting almost every core set card that I use in my Artifatties deck (link is to a slightly older list than what I’m using now) is being reprinted, nearly doubles my excitement over the new set. If I can tutor for my combo pieces without the aid of Tezzeret or Sphinx Summoner it will make the deck much more efficient and reliable. Fingers are crossed!!

Next week I will also be starting a new weekly post that I'm really excited about working on. I got the idea at work todaybut I don't want to share until I've had a chance to work on it a little bit. I hope you guys will enjoy it!

Please comment, email (homebrew.magic@gmail.com) or tweet (@homebrew_magic) any constructive criticism you have pertaining to this or any of my posts. Your input is both needed and appreciated. Happy Brewing!

(Pictures and links provided by Wizards of the Coast Inc and Quiet Speculation)

Spoke Too Soon..

Apparantly the post I wrote about the spoiled card "Golden Lotus" that was supposedly part of the Magic 2010 core set was just me speaking too soon. It was up on MTG Salvation and turned out to be a fake card according to their forums and the fact that it is no longer up on their site. Im actually relieved because it almost seemed too powerful in certain situations. It would have been interesting but I'm more excited about Lightning Bolt being spoiled on their site. Three for one!

Lighning Bolt Card Art

Rules.. Rules..

With the introduction to the rule changes that are going to be made with the addition of the Magic 2010 core set that will be released next month there have been a flurry of blog articles discussing them. Here is the best one I've read yet. I agree with most of what was said in this particular article at top8magic.com and just wanted to talk about my views and reactions concerning these changes.

Screw it! Never mind. The only one I really care to talk about is changing combat damage so that it doesn't use the stack. This is the only change that really scared/angered me. My chin hit the floor as I quickly re-read the paragraph concerning this change and I am just now starting to realize it is actually going to happen! Combat tricks are my favorite part of magic. Period. I love everything about the game but pulling off some crazy shenanigans at the last second to both confuse/frustrate my opponent is the most fulfilling part of playing the game. I can't even fathom the effect its going to have on the game overall. Cards that were especially good for combat tricks currently will be, most likely, severely weakened.

The rest of the changes that are being made are mostly flavor related or are geared towards making newer players feel more comfortable playing. Those I'm really pleased with because without new players Magic has no future. They did a good job of "recapturing the flavor" which seems to be Wizard's main goal with this new set. Sorry if this ended up sounding like a rant but I guess that's exactly what it is. Players will just have to learn to adapt to these changes and new ones that they make in the future. Part of why I love magic is because it's an ever changing and adapting entity.

P.S. Here are the cards that were spoiled in the article ( some are reprints with awesome new art!)

(Pictures and Links provided by Wizards of the Coast inc. and Top 8 Magic)

Golden Lotus

****EDIT**** Golden Lotus is now being considered a fake card and has been removed from mtg salvation and other preview sites. See my post about it here. Just figured I would put this here because of the hits I'm getting because of google searches about the card.

Golden Lotus

Legendary Land

Shroud

Golden Lotus enters the battlefield tapped.

When Golden Lotus enters the battlefield, sacrifice three lands, or sacrifice Golden Lotus.

Tap, Sacrifice Golden Lotus: Add nine mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool.

Golden Lotus is quite possibly the most intriguing card I've seen in a while. It can be paired with several cards to be insane. It can go off on at least turn five (if you don't use cards that fetch lands and put them into play) to do, well, pretty much anything you want it to. Banefire for at least 8-9 or maybe just hit for 9-10 with a turn five Hellkite Overlord. Oh, and Crucible of Worlds anybody? Powerful and elegant are the two words that best describe this card. Check out this and the other 39 spoiler cards for Magic 2010 currently on display at mtgsalvation.

Silence Fools!!

I found myself looking at the Magic 2010 Core Set preview cards and one of the cards just floored me...


Silence is pretty awesome anyway you slice it. It can literally lock the game down for one side of the board if they can figure out a way to keep playing it. I was thinking about making a mono white control deck with 4 of these and for Isochron Scepters for the next Extended season. Check out the article about 2010 here.That could be fun. More on this after I get back from vacation!!

(Picture and links provided by Wizards of the Coast inc.)