I'll be honest; I suffer from a rather Fatal Attraction. It concerns me and Islands. The symptoms include an unnatural preoccupation with counterspells, the strangely persistent conviction that bounce counts as removal, and a tragic over-evaluation of small flyers. This is all well and good in two-person Constructed, where said preferences can in fact be made to work, but leads to truly horrifying results in both Multiplayer and Limited. I have, over the course of several years, learned this rather hard and painful lesson. However, this knowledge seems to abruptly slip my mind in three situations:

1) As I'm deckbuilding for an evening of Casual play,
2) When faced with my first pack in any sort of Booster Draft, or
3) Staring at my just-opened Sealed Deck.

This explains why, as I was preparing for my first exposure to Legions, the Pre-Prerelease night of the 25th, I was not only checking to make sure I had my 40 pink card protectors (exactly forty, so I'm never tempted to put that 41st card in), my purple dice, my Ertai lifecounter, my basic land, my notepad, my pencils and my yellow bath duck, but I was mostly tuned in to a quiet, almost pleading voice softly whimpering in some long lost, rational corner of my mind:

"Please, Elske, please! Stay away from the little guys this time. For the love of all that is holy, go with BIG stuff. Don't be lured by the "tricks" and "synergy" you always claim to be seeing. Go with cards that actually KILL things... Sealed is not a form of subtle Magic... Listen to me... Please..."

And believe it or not, I listened. And more importantly, so did Fate.

The cards I cracked the following morning left no room for subtle. Elske, Quirky Deckbuilder would never be inspired by it. Elske, Islandlover would not get out of bed for it. No, instead, something else happened: From deep, deep inside me, another Elske was called. An Elske that hadn't seen the light of day in so long a time, she herself had forgotten she existed - but once I felt her, I knew her name: Elske, Lady of Beasts and Mistress of Dragons, Sculptress of Lightning and Bringer of Woe. And almost immediately, I realized there was only one correct response. I giggled.

Cracking Gold
I should have realized the day was going to be special when I managed to avoid being late (as I often tend to be) and my friend Marlous (who is always on time) did not. This filled me with pleasure for a pair of reasons: One, the next time I overslept would be relatively guilt-free, and two, it wouldn't have felt like a real Prerelease if there hadn't been some chaos involved in getting there. Fortunately, much calling of phones, consulting of maps and a willing parent later, she still managed to get to the tournament in Zoetermeer before it started, and all was well. Once arrived, I enjoyed the additional bonus of running into three other friends and familiar faces: Jop, Maarten and Vincent.

It was Marlous' first sanctioned tournament, so we had to shuffle up and get her a DCI number. (Has anyone noticed there is in fact no place to indicate gender on those registration forms? I guess that's how I ended up as a "Mr.," too.) Once completed, we dabbled in a little multiplayer, until the "pairings" went up. I was surprised to learn that we were being seated for the deckbuilding part of the event; what happened to ogling the new cards with your friends? I know players are not supposed to share information - but at Prereleases? I think a little showing off is part of the fun.

And man, did I have something fun to show off. My Onslaught commons looked fine, though unspectacular, and not particularly concentrated in any one color at first glance.

Then came my rares. Though I am not exactly famed for my bomb-cracking abilities, Oversold Cemetery was the first to peek back at me. At the risk of sounding like the geek I am, that was some serious "w00-00t!" right there. Grand Melee looked to bring things back to earth, when I spotted Krosan Colossus. "Is that serious brawn, or what?" I thought. Not exactly game-breaking (if only he trampled!), but still cool, right?

And then it happened. Imperial Hellkite, Krosan Cloudscraper, Kilnmouth Dragon. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. This was ridiculous. This was unbelievable. Not even so much the quality of the cards - the Krosans really read something like, "Target player sacrifices insignificant bear of his or her choice during your attack phase." - but their simple hugeness. Thirty-three power shared between four rare creatures! In one Sealed deck! And the Oversold Cemetery to bring them back for multiple showings.

Oh, I wanted to play with them so bad. So bad. For sheer coolness value. I almost didn't dare look at my other cards. What if they didn't support Red / Green (splash Black)? I don't think I would have survived it. Fortunately, my life was safe. Closer inspection revealed red/green to be a perfectly acceptable deck choice, if not the best outright. Unfortunately, said inspection also turned up an almost complete lack of removal. But my spirits were not to be dampened. This was undisputedly Big Beasty Day, and I was going to have a blast, no matter what. Here's what I opened:

Blue
Cephalid Pathmage
Covert Operative
Disruptive Pitmage
Echo Tracer
Ghosthelm Courier
Glintwing Invoker
Imagecrafter
Meddle
2 Merchant of Secrets
Mistform Mask
Mistform Wall
Sage Aven
Slipstream Eel
Willbender

White
Akroma's Devoted
Aven Soulgazer
Battlefield Medic
Deftblade Elite
Daru Lancer
Foothill Guide
Gravel Slinger
Improvised Armor
Renewed Faith
2 Wall of Hope
Whipgrass Entangler

Green
Barkhide Mauler
2 Berserk Murlodont
Birchlore Rangers
Branchsnap Lorian
Elvish Scrapper
Elvish Warrior
Krosan Colossus
Krosan Cloudscraper
Krosan Tusker
Krosan Vorine
Glowering Rogon
Nantuko Vigilante
2 Needleshot Gourna
Symbiotic Elf
Wall of Mulch
Taunting Elf
2 Timberwatch Elf
Wirewood Channeler

Red
Break Open
2 Crested Craghorn
Dwarven Blastminer
Fever Charm
Crown of Fury
Goblin Clearcutter
Goblin Dynamo
Goblin Lookout
Grand Melee
Imperial Hellkite
Kilnmouth Dragon
Lay Waste
Macetail Hystrodon
Nosy Goblin
Shaleskin Bruiser
2 Shaleskin Plower
Skirk Prospector
Wave of Indifference

Black
Blood Celebrant
Boneknitter
Chain of Smog
2 Dripping Dead
Earthblighter
2 Infernal Caretaker
Profane Prayers
Severed Legion
Sootfeather Flock
Spined Basher
Syphon Mind
Syphon Soul

Land
Secluded Steppe
Forgotten Cave

I almost immediately dismissed Blue and White; it looked dismal. Or maybe I just wanted it to look dismal. Either way, I cast them aside almost immediately. I paid a lot more attention to black. I liked the pair of Infernal Caretakers a lot, and the Sootfeather Flock caught my eye as well. Then I realized I had almost no other particularly playable Zombies, and decided I'd just splash the Oversold Cemetery. In the end, my deck turned out so top-heavy and removal-light, I chose to add the Spined Basher and Crown of Suspicion, too. My eventual decklist:

1CC
Skirk Prospector
Wave of Indifference

2CC
Wall of Mulch
Elvish Warrior
Crown of Fury
Crown of Suspicion
Oversold Cemetery

3CC
Spined Basher
Branchsnap Lorian

4CC
Goblin Clearcutter
Krosan Vorine

5CC
Barkhide Mauler
2 Berserk Murlodont
2 Crested Craghorn

6CC+
Imperial Hellkite
Kilnmouth Dragon
Krosan Tusker
Krosan Colossus
Krosan Cloudscraper

Land
1x Forgotten Cave
4x Swamp
6x Mountain
8x Forest

Too top-heavy? Seems likely. My only choice? I think so. Awesomely entertaining to play? Absolutely. I was concerned about the lack of removal, but I felt no guilt about it: What was in my card pool, I put in, end of story. Anyway, aren't all the beatdown folk always saying, "There are always wrong answers, but never wrong questions?" or something like that? And I knew I had some Pretty Big Questions, so that would have to do.

Marlous, meanwhile, had concocted a Black/White Cleric/Zombie deck with Rotlung Reanimator and Starlit Sanctum on her side, the only one of us not to run green. I checked in with my other friends, and everyone seemed reasonable pleased with what they had put together. First round pairings went up and we were off!

Round 1 - Joris. Black/White Clerics
Joris was a very pleasant opponent and we continued to speak to each other throughout the tournament, which is always nice. Game 1 was by far the most exciting. I drew a pretty good hand; land of all three colors, Wall of Mulch, a pair of largish beasties and a Krosan Cloudscraper. I played out a single morph, but Joris had twins. We traded blows back and forth, but eventually he had out the unpleasant combo of Akroma's Devoted and Vile Deacon while I brought out a Beast or two to hold it off.

Serious unfairness started to ensue. He turned out to have multiple Skinthinners, and ways of getting at them in various play zones. I had figured out he had two, and had been keeping meticulous track of where they were and how much mana he needed to use them - I was so proud of myself. Finally, I decided it was safe to play out a key creature when he proudly unmorphed a third one!

Eventually, I found Imperial Hellkite and played it out un-morphed. I was still holding my Cloudscraper, afraid to lose it to a Smother or a Swat while I was unable to un-morph it. I realized that was a mistake later in the day; the Cloudscraper is not that great when it's out and it's certainly useless in your hand, and Oversold Cemetery gave me a chance to get it back anyway. He summoned a Whipcorder on his turn, and though I got in one hit with the Hellkitten, the stalemate continued. Finally I found my other dragon (his turn to drop his jaw; he hadn't seen my Krosan friends yet) and got to hit him again, once, which brought him down to one, when her Imperial sister got Cruel Revivalled (and Joris had found himself another Skinthinner).

Then things started to get ugly. He started bringing out more and more little Cleric guys, his Deacon kept growing, and I was drawing things like Elvish Warrior. A Crested Craghorn took out something at one point, but his army was still amassing at an alarming rate. I even brought out the Cloudscraper as a 13/13, as well as my Goblin Clearcutter (3/3), but with my Dragon under the spell of the Whipcorder, I simply had no way of breaking through, and soon he'd just swarm me. I drew Branchsnap Lorian, and played it, morphed. And my deck gave me Crested Craghorn. He had two creatures with a four toughness, and a fair number with toughness three. I only needed to get in one point of damage.

This was it. My only chance to win. Risky, but I had to try, I thought. As soon as I announced my attack, he tapped my Dragon. Of course. I turned all my other men sideways. I Provoked his Akroma's Devoted with my Craghorn; he had to block. I was betting he would block my Clearcutter with the other x/4, and the morphed Branchsnap Lorian with one of the x/3s, and then I could unmorph it, trample over for one damage, and win. But if he didn't - if he decided to block on the safe side, if I couldn't trample over for that one damage - I was dead next turn.

I had cards in hand. For all he knew, I had a trick. The odds were good that he would block as expected, but what if? Could I survive another turn, or was his army too big? Did I have to risk it or could I afford to wait? I decided I couldn't. I went for it.

He blocked as expected. I was awfully nervous as I flipped over the Lorian. "Whoa," he said. "Trample... I hadn't expected that." He was disappointed; I was elated. I'd noticed his hands shaking during the match - to me a sign of someone who knows he can win, but isn't sure yet if he'll get it. That's when my hands shake, anyway. I took it as a sign of a concentrated opponent, which I appreciated.

The next game went his way. Joris played out morphs in quantities I couldn't handle, and blew up what I threw in his way, too, just for kicks. Going into the third game, there was little time left on the clock and after he came out fast, I think my spirit sort of broke - disappointed after that intense first game - and I let it happen. Just to kick me while I was down, he played out a Jareth, Leonine Titan with lethal damage on the table. Oh well, such is Magic. I don't know if I could have turned it around if I had kept up a positive attitude, but I know I could have tried harder.

Bruce was at my doorstep, and all I did was let him in.

Round 2 - Marco. Red/Black, splash Blue.
Marco was friendly enough, but clearly not pleased to be playing at our current table number. He said it was just one of those days, have been screwed once and flooded once in the previous round. I wish I could say his luck improved and I beat him solely on play skill - but such did not occur. My notes show a very quick Game 1, where he was colorscrewed and Imperial Hellkite and Krosan Tusker made work of him in very short order. He did get out a pair of Keeneyed Avens early in the game, but I dealt with those like a pro, topdecking two consecutive Crested Craghorns. Game 2 he put up a little more resistance, but his mana still left much to be desired, and I soon realized the power of a Craghorn enchanted with Crown of Fury; whatever he played just died. Eventually a number of anonymous beasts did him in.

 

Round 3 - Ron. Red/Green.
Ron was running the "other" Red/Green deck, with mostly Elves as opposed to Beasts. The first game, I spent a Craghorn dealing with some of his utility creatures, and we built up mutual armies. He had the edge in tricks and removal, but my beasts were just bigger. At one point he forced a trade and surprised with me Caller of the Claw, thinking he would get two tokens (one for his dead creature and one for mine, which is not the case), which was a lucky break for me. At a different point in the game it could have been much scarier.

He also brought out a Frenetic Raptor, a 6/6 which says "Beasts can't block." Ron said he would not ordinarily have played with it, but he had lost to it a day earlier, and was giving it a shot. I'm not sure what I think yet. I don't think it did him any good; he got to hit me with the Raptor once or twice, but my Beasts just hit back. You're essentially reducing the number of decisions players have to make ("Might as well attack with all my beasts, right?") - and if you're the better player, you lose an edge and that's bad for you. Eventually I got a Dragon on the table and took Game 1.

Game 2 might have been the most fun I've ever had playing competitive Magic. He hit me pretty hard before my deck delivered up much in the way of defense, and my life total dwindled. I threw out a number of Beasties, most of them morphed, but they had a tendency to end up dead before they did much, thanks in part to his Words of War, which he used at leisure. I fell to six.

Then the Magic started happening... For me, anyway. I got out Imperial Hellkite. It had to play D for a while, (How cool am I? Does this compensate for "w00-oot" or what?) but eventually it started hitting and he couldn't stop it. He fell to ten. Then I drew Oversold Cemetery, with my largish Krosans already residents, having died early deaths as morphs.

The following turn, he drew Erratic Explosion. He was going to aim it at me at first, but then he decided he'd rather target the Dragon instead. He flipped over... Our good friend Ridgetop Raptor! He laughed. Seven damage, and the Dragon died. I used the Cemetery to return her next turn, and played her as a morph. I flipped her over, and retrieved her Kilnmouth kin from my library. He managed to kill the Imperial Hellkite, so next turn...

I returned her to my hand, and played a Kilnmouth Dragon with Amplify. In Sealed!

After that, it was over pretty fast.

It was amazing how much of a fight he put up. With my Oversold Cemetery /Ridiculous Men/Plenty of Mana engine going, he shouldn't have had much of a chance, but he must have killed over half a dozen creatures with a toughness over five. He shook his head after the last game, "Amazing. Annoying, but fun." And he smiled. I was enjoying it too. Maybe too much; I hope I wasn't over-happy. But it was just so much fun!

I do know that in the middle of all of it I made several mistakes, as in trying to use my Cemetery with only three creatures in my graveyard, or making blocks without realizing the consequences. Shame on me - but my opponent was very gracious, which I was thankful for.

Round 4 - Melvin. Red/Green
Melvin seemed to have the goods, but not the luck. He got mana flooded in game 1, but still showed me a Blistering Firecat and a Skirk Marauder, as well as a Skirk Alarmist. I didn't think much of it at first, but I made some mistakes playing around it, and it cost me a pair of early creatures. I think a Battering Craghorn took it out eventually. I'm also pretty sure my Crown of Suspicion killed off some little Goblin; I was pleased to have it. Eventually he was just laying land, and I ran him over with a horde of Beasts.

The second game, he showed me the other rares he had in store; a Seedborn Muse and a Clickslither, I think. This game was much closer. He had out a Flamewake Invoker and was just about to start using it twice a turn when I took it out with a Craghorn. My notepad shows his life total going down in even increments of six, and I'm reasonably confident I have my Imperial Hellkite to thank for that.

But then he cast a Goblin Dynamo, with enough mana to blow it up and kill me, as I was at six. I did not, at first, think there was anything I could do about this... But I thought harder. I noticed my Krosan Vorine. That was one power too small. But with Crown of Suspicion, it would work. So I did, and the Goblin died. And my Imperialist Dame swung in for six. And I had three wins, one loss under my belt!

Round 5 - Maarten. Green/Black
Yes, that would be my friend Maarten. We had identical records, so it was not entirely unexpected. He knew my deck and I knew his; mostly I was aware of a Swat and a Bane of the Living, along with multiple monsters. I am nigh-incapable of beating Maarten in casual play - but fortunately, my tournament record against him is much better. Why this is the case, I do not know.

There is one very famed incident between us, where the Monoblack he was testing tore my Mystic Snake deck to shreds ninety-five out of a hundred games. Then we met in round one at said Constructed event, and I beat him 2-0. Such is Magic.

Now, before I relate the tale of this epic battle, I must share with you the knowledge that Maarten had been seriously mocking my Wave of Indifference throughout the tournament. (I'm sure you can tell where this is going). He liked my creatures, agreed with most of my choices, but he essentially kept asking me what I was on when I put in Wave of Indifference. "To break stalemates, " I explained. "See? My Krosan twins are big, but don't have trample. I need Wave of Indifference." But he'd just sort of snort and roll his eyes.

We split the first two games. I have written down "Hellkitten" as explanation for the rapid decline of his life total in Game 1, and "big green things" as the reason for my unhealthy state of affairs in Game 2. This happened pretty quickly.

And then came Game 3. I built up a pretty impressive army of Beasts and morphs, but he decided to make Corpse Harvester search out Bane of the Living and (ab)use it for five, decimating my troops, sending a Krosan Cloudscraper to the graveyard, which was "not cool." Fortunately I had a Krosan Tusker in reserve and soon drew Oversold Cemetery. I returned my Cloudscraper but didn't cast it - and eventually, he forgot about it. At one point he had three creatures on the table, largish ones, and all I had was a Skirk Prospector and a morph. I attacked with the morph. He smelled trouble, and blocked with all his guys. Sacrificing my Prospector, I had exactly the nine mana necessary to unmorph the morph... Which was, indeed, the Cloudscraper. His guys died. I laughed maniacally.

Then I had this big 13/13, and he kept producing little Zombie things faster than I could get rid of them. He was, incidentally, at 13 life at this stage in the game. And then I drew... Wave of Indifference. And it was over. And I laughed more maniacal laughter.

He congratulated me, but he said I'd better win the next round and split some packs with him. Last Prerelease, he split packs with me, so I would have been more than happy to do that. Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Round 6 - I wish I remembered. Red/black
This is a player I know from my Friday Night Magic days. I should know his name. I've lost my notes for this round, but the match is clear in my mind. Except for the name. I met him in the finals of a (more-or-less) 5 Color tournament near my hometown, and he smashed me. I wasn't going to let him smash me again. But well, he did. His deck came out so fast - there was nothing I could do. Spined Basher and Shepherd of Rot, both in multiples, along with other assorted little Zombies, took me down before I could do much about it. When I did finally get to put out my first five-mana monstronsity, he had the removal and killed it.

Two quick games. I just rolled over and died. Twice. Maarten would be disappointed. Ahh, well.

Then he asked me if I'd like to play another game, but with a different deck. He said his cards would have supported several different color combinations, and he would like to try one out. I said sure. He showed me something blue/white with flyers and I stomped him to bits. Then he took out yet another deck and I stomped him again. I didn't really see enough of any of the decks to really make an evaluation of the respective power levels (the games were just so quick), but I'm highly skeptical to the idea that one card pool will support many near-equal decks. It seemed to me he made the right call with the black/red; if that's deep enough in creatures, it's bound to be the combination with the most removal, and in the end that's what counts.

Tournament Wrap-Up
This was probably my favorite tournament so far - not that I've been to many, but everything about this one was a blast. My friends were there (I'm not sure their records warrant recording for posterity, for the most part), my deck was fun, my opponents cordial, my matches exciting, and my record nothing to be ashamed of. And besides that, the venue was very pleasant. A number of people had taken it upon themselves to provide various forms of snack food for very reasonable prices, so no one went hungry. This is probably all the practice I will get for PTQ Yokohama (even though the pack distribution is slightly different), so I'm pleased to have written this report and have gone over the matches again in my mind.

In conclusion: You can never have too many dragons.

Elske van der Vaart
Freakette42@swirve.com