Hi, all-

You should feel glad that I didn't post anything about OBC - my insights on that format where very limited and quite a bit off base. At the end of the season and quite a few failures, my one perhaps-valid opinion was that a modification of Jay Schneider's Tomb Raider deck would have been an excellent metagame call, since aggro black has the same disruption tools available as MBC does, and a better early game... Not to mention those Cabal Therapies are gold in a well-defined environment, assuming you have creatures to spare. Anyways, I couldn't make it to any of the late qualifiers after failing miserably in G/U mirror matches on my first attempt.

What I'm going to talk about today is the Onslaught Prerelease, where I was fortunate enough to go 6-0-1 and end up in 3rd place out of a field of 250 or so. My one draw was unintentional and occurred after a bonehead play on my part, which I will describe later so we can all try to avoid that sort of thing in the future.

Other folks that attended this prerelease in Portland were StarCity's own Dave Meddish, National Team Member Eric Franz, and a lot of strong local players. Eric went 7-0 with a U/R deck featuring Sparksmith and Rorix Bladewing (isn't that the coolest creature name you've ever heard?). Late in the day, I was actually hoping I'd get matched up with Eric, even though it would likely have resulted in my only loss. Unfortunately it wasn't to be, and we narrowly missed each other at the top tables. His last match was against the guy who knocked me out of Regionals top 8 back in the Spring - Aaron Curtis. Aaron ended up losing in the battle of 6-0 players, though I don't know the particulars.

Anyways, The whole day up to that point I was thinking"this deck just isn't that good, outside of the broken rare" and I was constantly expecting to lose, drop, and go have some"real fun" by drafting. But even when the bomb didn't show, the deck seemed to perform just well enough to win games.

Why is that? Well, the reasons can maybe show us some points about sealed deck construction, some ideas of which can be spread to include constructed.

Here we go:

Prerelease: The Deck
As I said, when I first opened and built the deck, I was not impressed with it besides the obvious broken rare: Visara the Dreadful. However, as the rounds progressed, I was surprised by the resiliency and consistency of the deck. The two-color build maximized the smoothness of the mana draws, and the large number of early-game options allowed it to at least maintain parity until the higher-CC threats could be made. A moderate amount of solid removal, some of which doubled as lifegain, helped make sure the games lasted that long.

I will break this down into creatures and spells, then by cost:

Creatures
1CC: Festering Goblin, Foothill Guide
2CC: Disciple of Grace, Glory Seeker, Battlefield Medic X2, Shepherd of Rot.
3CC: Spined Basher, Nantuko Husk, Gustcloak Harrier (plus 3 other creatures with Morph)
4CC: Screeching Buzzard, Crude Rampart
5CC: Daunting Defender, Thrashing Mudspawn, Fallen Cleric
6CC: Aphetto Vulture, Visara the Dreadful (!!!!)
7CC: Crowd Favorites

So there were eighteen creatures, thirteen of which can be put into play by turn 3. This is extremely important for being able to become the aggressor (hopefully) or defend oneself (if necessary) in the early game. Many of the lesser creatures have useful abilities, as will be described in the match reports. Visara is certainly broken, but even if she didn't come out, the deck still found a way to win. Of course, when she did appear, the game was simply over. My seventh-round opponent scooped, at eighteen life, once Visara had been active for a turn.

Spells:
2CC: Crown of Suspicion, Smother
4CC: Improvised Armor, Profane Prayers x2

Five non-creature spells, four of which are removal. At first I didn't think this was a sufficient amount, especially with the Prayers being cleric-dependant. Later, it became clear that this was a respectable amount of removal - more than was had by many other decks. Coupled with the low mana curve (helped by morph) of the creature base, things turned out very well.

One more thing: (Improvised Armor + any decent creature) is an incredible recipe for a beatstick, given the small amount of removal in Onslaught. If I played it on a creature more expensive than three (nullifying Smother), then there was really only one non-rare spell in the environment (Cruel Revival) that could remove the thing. When played on a four-or-more-cost zombie like Fallen Cleric or the Aphetto Vulture, not even the Revival could stop it. I won quite a few games this way.

Lands and mana consistency:
I had one of each black and white cycling land, so those immediately went into the deck. Then I added nine swamps and six plains for a 10-7 color source build. With quite a few of my early plays (and almost all of my two-drops) being white, I had to mulligan fairly aggressively and make sure I had one of each color in my opening hand. If this wasn't the case, the draw had to at least show multiple black cards to play by turn 3, with possibly some cycling to draw into the plains. Barren Moor, the Armor, and Disciple of Grace proved to be very important here, since their cycling costs didn't require white mana.

(Hey, I'm pretty sure I like the Urza's Saga picture better for Disciple of Grace. How about you? Yeah, I thought so.)

Mana consistency was also helped by morph, since two of the white creatures could be played without plains, in Morphed form. Still, I was probably very lucky over the day - the deck should have had one or two more white sources in it to ensure those early plays. It was a risk I felt had to take, having those extra swamps to make sure that Visara could be played as soon as she was drawn - or as soon as the sixth land was played, if she appeared early.

Let's talk about each individual round:

Round 1 vs. Mark, with WRB
Game 1: A bunch of small dorks stare each other down - but one of mine is Shepherd of Rot, and there are four Zombies in play for most of the game. Over four turns I do sixteen points of lifedrain to us both with the zombie, and then fly over with the Vulture. He scoops at one the next turn.

Damn, that shepherd zombie is good. Of course, he would come back to haunt me in a later round...

Game 2: He has trouble with his three-color mana base, and I Armor up a Nantuko Husk and start swinging. The vulture makes another appearance, as well as Profane Prayers to the dome.

This illustrates a key point of sealed - if you're fortunate enough to be able to run two-colors with any semblance of decent cards, do it! I won at least two rounds on Saturday just because my opponents had three-color decks. Splashes are cool if the card you're splashing is an absolute gamebreaker, but in Onslaught splashable gamebreakers are almost unheard of. Mobilization is all I can really think of. Choking Tethers and Wave of Indifference also qualify, each out of a common slot, but only if the rest of your deck can support them.

Games: 2-0 Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Nathan with GR
Game 1: He gets in one hit with a beast and then Kaboom!'s me for four, but I lock up the ground and fly for the win with birds.

Game 2: Early elf beats get shut down by my groundclogging clerics and an Armored Buzzard goes to the dome for the last fifteen points, over three turns.

The whole day, I was living in fear of a G/R deck that was actually running well. Neither of the ones I played could get through on the ground enough to beat me. I don't know that's because of the abnormally high-CC green creatures in the set or the clunkiness of the red removal, but I was glad about it.

4-0 2-0

Round 3 vs. Jay with GR
Jay had the opposite problem as my round 1 opponent-- he flooded on land, even after casting explosive vegetation. (Hey, that card looks good, by the way - I played Skyshroud Claim back when Masques Block was legal, and this gets you other basics as well. Into play tapped, sure, and no Rofellos to abuse them with...

(Okay, maybe it's not so good nowadays. Still, it's green card advantage.)

Game 1: He's got the lifegain elf out and not much else. Eventually he just gets overloaded.

Game 2: Not much different.

6-0 3-0

Round 4 Vs Peter B with U/B
Peter plays at the same store as me (Rainy Day Games on T-Valley Highway) so I was looking forward to the match with him.

Game 1: He starts out great with Wretched Anurid, but I have the best answer available in Disciple of Grace. Knowing that's not good, he sacs his Anurid to a Nantuko Husk a few turns later, but the new Armor on the Disciple gives him problems, hitting for a total of nine over three turns, while I clog the ground with other clerics. Visara then makes a rare appearance and he scoops.

Game 2: Peter Mulligans, and settles on one island for three turns. I don't take many notes besides that and his plummeting lifetotal.

Aside: Well, sheesh - this is quite the deck I've built, here; it beats up on people who are manascrewed and manaflooded! I guess I could claim some"skill" in building a deck that actually gives me the right lands - but maybe that would be pushing it. Still, seventeen land and a 10-7 build with dominant and secondary colors is a great way to go. I'm sure these folks new that, and either they had bad luck anyway, or didn't have the cards to build to those ratios.

8-0 4-0

After this match a stop by to watch Eric Franz playing Gabe Wilson, a former Pro and one of the best locals here. Eric is with a Sparksmith, and Gabe is making the great play of turning his Mistform Wall into a"goblin" after each activation, making Eric take an extra point of damage. This is funny and cool but it doesn't change the fact that the goblin puts Eric completely in control of the game.

Round 5 vs. Bill, with W/B
This is quite a match.

Game 1: I mulligan, stall on land at two, and he stalls at three while applying moderate beats. I come roaring back with Husks, Armors, and clerics and drop him to two, but once he reaches five mana he just keeps dropping big creatures (3/3s or more, that is). It's a really long game, but he gets through and hands me my first game loss of the day.

Game 2: Once again he keeps it up with the 5-cc and larger creatures. This is the first game where Visara wasn't overkill - she actually showed up and saved my ass. He had no removal for her, despite my concerns about Cruel Revival, and she decimated his board while my small creatures swarmed through the gaps.

Game 3: This was a very tight ground-stall game that went back and forth with flying Bird Soldiers. His creatures were generally larger than mine, and his mana draws were good enough that he got to them. We're running a bit low on time, and two Shepherds of Rot are in play, one on each side. I start using mine to reduce us both, but he generally doesn't activate his. Then I topdeck Profane Prayers with him at six, and four Zombies and three Clerics in Play.

I win, right? Wrong.

I got tunnel vision and completely forgot about his Shepherd, aside from its contribution to the number of Zombies. So, I activate my shepherd, resolve it, and try to burn him out with the Prayers; of course, in response he activates his Shepherd and kills us both for the draw, since my zombie had dropped me to three.

Yeesh. Well, I never claim perfect play, and there's an example. There were tons of other ways I could have won that game without tapping my dang zombie (an all-out attack, plus the Prayers, would likely have done it)... But no, I deal four to myself and end up letting him kill me with a copy of the same card I was using.

I should claim low blood sugar or something as my excuse on that one (yeah, that's the ticket), but really there's no defending that kind of lapse in thinking. It probably cost me a chance to play Eric in one of the later rounds. (At which point we should start wondering if it's such a bad thing... Well, yes, it is.)

9-1-1 4-0-1

Round 6 vs. Gordon H with WRB
Gordon is an acquaintance from Eugene, back when I used to drive there to play there during college. He's a great player and has some amazing sealed cards: Both Mobilization and Dragon Roost.

He also has three colors, unfortunately, and it costs him the match.

Game 1: I'm slow this game, and he's fast. He's got a neat trick with the white"all creatures you control gain protection" thing, and by turn 7 I've used all the removal in my deck but I'm still facing some beatdown. Mobilization shows up after I stabilize the ground a little and ends it.

Game 2: After the Festering Goblin and the Sparksmith trade (I'm not sure why he made that move, but I guess he figured he was going to have to kill the goblin anyway, and there was no avoiding it taking the Smith out) I drop two morphed creatures while he plays some clerics. He tries Mobilization, but I have my sideboarded Demystify. While getting a bit flooded on land, he Pacifies one facedown creature that turns out to be the Thrashing Mudspawn - but the other is Fallen Cleric, which has protection from his creatures and beats him all the way down to zero.

Game 3: Game 2 was probably the best game of this match, since Gordon's deck only gives him two of his three colors of mana this time. He hits me hard with a Nantuko Husk, but his hand is piling up with useless red cards and the Armored Aphetto Vulture does him in. Maybe other opponents' decks would have given him the time to draw his needed color, but we'll never know.

11-2-1, 5-0-1. Wow. So much for dropping and doing some drafts.

Pairing note: this is where Eric and Aaron get matched up at 6-0. Unfortunately, I'm at table 3 and can't watch their match.

Round 7 vs. Tristan with U/G
That this kid is a bomb factory is well-known around the room: Turns out he has more than I thought - Quicksilver Dragon, Silvos, Rogue Elemental, and Kamahl, Fist of Krosa. To go with that, he wisely put in some elves for mana acceleration.

Game 1: His small creatures burst out of the gates, and after hitting him once with my Armored Nantuko Husk, I'm forced to hang back to block all the 1/2s and 2/2s. He then drops Graxiplon, which is a 3/4 that's unblockable as long as I have less than three creatures of one type (nearly a fourth bomb, if you ask me). I only had two clerics at this time, so that hit me twice, dropping me to six, and then he added a Snarling Undorak to his side.

Things were looking bad... But to the rescue came Crowd Favorites! This is the only time I played them all day, but they sure did some work. After the Battlefield Medic saved them from a big combat trick (all elves suddenly got +3/+3), they held off both the Grax and the other Beast while Gustcloak Harrier got through on him over seven straight turns. I then hit him with Profane Prayers as a complete anticlimax.

Game 2: Sure, my opponent is a bomb machine - but sitting in my opening hand is Visara. I drop some early defense and cycle like a madman in order to get to six lands. (I actually wrote"Cycle like a madman!" on my score sheet at this point).

Of course, the sixth land I draw is one that comes into play tapped, so Visara shows up at the party a turn later than she should, allowing Quicksilver Dragon to smack me for five. That's the only shot he gets in, since Visara blocked the incoming dragon and lived easily thanks to double-Medic backup and three clerics in play.

I know that blocking was a questionable play on my part, because there's always a chance he could have dealt another six with big combat tricks and killed her - but I knew his massive pump spell was too expensive to play for +6, and there weren't enough elves out for him to get there, even if he somehow had two Wirewood Prides in hand.

And I wanted to see two 5/5 flyers smack into each other.

Bam.

That was pretty much game. Visara killed some beast (the Undorak again, I think), and he scooped at eighteen. I guess he had no non-combat removal in his deck.

13-2-1, 6-0-1, 3rd place, 26 packs of Onslaught.

Maybe I won't need to buy a box of this stuff, now. (Sorry, StarCity! I'll still draft it, I promise.)

Well, what did I take away from this experience, besides those packs, and a few rating points, which hopefully will put me in the neighborhood of 1870? One thing is it looks like Onslaught is a fairly removal-light environment, and Improvised Armor makes creatures into Houses. Also, consistent builds beat builds that have more power a lot of the time. This kind of thinking can easily be applied to Constructed as well: Play a deck that allows you to have at least a decent game, all the time, and occasionally do broken things. If your deck can do broken things 40 percent of the time, and falls on it's face the other 60, anyone can see that's a bad idea.

This is pretty much what Adrian Sullivan was saying over on Brainburst the other day with his"Romantic versus Classical Gaming" article: There is a time to try for the broken plays and combos, and a time to play it safe. Most of the time, it's the second one. When you have no other choice, go for the broken stuff.

And sometimes, you get a sealed deck that can do both.

Good gaming, all,

joel