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Hello, all! I hope that you were able to enjoy this past weekends Prereleases as much as I did. For the first time, I was able to attend a prerelease less than an hour from my home. It was also the first one where I did not have to worry about when I arrived because of StarCity's flight system. Whenever 32 players sign up, start a new four-round tourney. I loved it.
We had to register the decks first. Then there was a discussion of not doing a deck swap. In my mind the only time you do not deck swap in any sealed event is the stand-alone prerelease. The temptation to cheat is just too high for some people to avoid in my mind. Also, the deck I had to register sucked, so I needed a deck swap.
Needless to say, we did swap. Now before the prerelease I was thinking white/green; I mean, who wasn't? So when I looked over this deck list that was in my mind. Unfortunately, my green sucked - but my blue was amazing and my white was solid. Now, I am not going to give you a complete deck list, but just an idea of what I played.
The first gem was Iridescent Angel. No need to explain her. Next I had two Battle Screeches. Now, this card is good by itself - but two? Come on, that's money. I also had two Aven Fogbringers; these guys are tempo and they fly to boot, which isn't too shabby. Now these five cards are a solid flying base, right? Guess what? That's not even half of my flyers yet.
I had one Wonder. Now he is a 2/2 flyer for 3U, and we know when he is the graveyard, all your creatures gain flying - not too bad either way. Next we have my other three common flyers, an Aven Cloudchaser, Aven Fisher, and a Wormfang Drake. The Cloudchaser has a well-known come-into-play effect, the Aven Fisher has a goes-out-of-play effect, and the Drake is a 3/4 that "removes" your weakest creature when he comes into play.
My last two flyers I had little respect for until I played them here. The first one is Pulsating Illusion; he was the only discarding mechanic that I had. The last one should become a Constructed staple: Scalpelexis. A 1/5 flyer for 4U, with the combat ability to remove the top four cards from your opponent's library from the game if it hits them... And if any of them have the same name (i.e. forest, forest) repeat this process. Now, the mill effect is not too bad, but the repeating process is just sick. In one game he doubled up three turns in a row - that's twenty-four cards in three turns. Unlike other milling effects, the MVP status is that these cards are gone, removed from the game.
Now you can understand that this deck was just sick, with nine flyers and two flashback spells that produce two flyers each time they are cast. This was sick with a sick chaser in my mind. They we have my five non-flyers. None were too broken, but the fact that they were good with all my flyers was still nice. One each of the following: Valor, Phantom Nomad, Border Patrol, Mirror Wall - and another MVP, Wormfang Crab. So my creature count was low by traditional thinking, but I have always believed quality should always beat quantity. Today it did.
My other spells were a mix of combat tricks, bounce, and counters. My"trick" section was Kirtar's Desire, Gallantry (an underlooked card), Embolden, and Second Thoughts. All solid cards; one flashes back and two cantrips are nice. The two bounce spells were Aether Burst and Repel. Three counters were Grip of Amnesia (which never countered anything, since it emptied every graveyard it was cast against), Laquatus's Disdain (never cast), and the broken Spelljack.
Okay, that was my deck list. Yes, it was the sickest sealed deck I have had in years. Its record was 8-0 in games where I played two or more spells from hand, 0-1 when I played one spell from my hand. Now that's what I call a good deck. I came back from many a lopsided life score - examples include 5-20, 8-20, 7-18, and (my favorite) 3-24. The reason for these low life totals? Simple: You must use all your resources in every game, and life is your largest one. So many people forget that.
Now I did not take notes for a tourney report, so I will just tell you what I learned. In Limited with Judgment, green/white is nice - but without many bombs, flying just crushes it. The only reason I say this is because all four of my opponents played only plains and forests - which were autowins for me and the Flying Fortress!
I think Spelljack will be played in constructed. Its second ability of being able to play the spell for free is just too good. The casting cost of 3UUU is not too expensive - decks just won't sport four of them, but two or three will be right. Scalpelexis is a very tuff card to kill and will be played as a finisher. Remember this: He has a five toughness, meaning it takes two nonblack cards that are not black to kill it. He also only has to hit you a few times to wreck you day. How many lands do you play? Guess what? That's where most of his double hits will come. Scalpelexis is not a Legend, so you may see more than one heading for your dome.
Most of the incarnations will be played. I defeated Genesis in three different matches; he is good and we all know this, but the static ones are good too.
Onto one last card before I go: Nantuko Monastery, the next great manland. I love this card. Threshold is now an easy ability to generate now that all of its sets are out. The fact that this guy, like most manlands, can dodge most sorcery and creature 187 killings, is just the tip of why he is good. The other good fact is that he's uncounterable and almost un-steal-able. Then we have a 4/4 first-striking body! Sweet. I walked out with three of these guys, and the set is not in stores yet.
Well, that's about all for today. I had a good time at the prerelease, even if the weather did cause the turnout to be small. I hope all of you Virginia area players will start going to StarCity's Prereleases, because Pete did a good show.
Later,
Farr
