How is the new set, Battle for Zendikar? As always, some people complain and moan, not seeing much in it for Standard or Modern. No matter the set, doomsayers leave their dens and proclaim Magic is going downhill and what not. I am always left wondering if their feeling of dread and despair is really about the set or if there are, in fact, projecting their own existential fears and helplessness on what is just a new set of collectible cards, with its upsides and downsides.
Today, I want to take you into the amazing day that was my prerelease experience. This tale of bravery and determination will be uplifting I hope and alleviate for a moment the usual boredom that must constitute your life. Also, you will have my pool of cards so you can exercise yourself at deckbuilding. Enjoy!
The Quest: The Beginning
The beginning of this ominous day was like any other weekend day. Got up relatively early, feeling little hands pulling on my feet, wanting me to get out of bed and enjoy another amazing day, full of wonder and discovery. If I had half the energy of my 2 year old toddler I would constantly be in motion, exploring and running around like an Energiser bunny.
The sun was shining, my darling wifey in the kitchen, pottering around. I slowly crawled through my kitchen, being pulled by a little hand, going towards Isaac’s favourite cupboard, usually out of reach without the magical lifting power of a daddy. Got my son on the counter, let him seek whatever he may fancy in the cereal cupboard while I sluggishly started grinding my Colombian coffee, always keeping an eye on the little explorer.
My Italian coffee maker started boiling, some bitter coffee aroma spewing from the top. Like Michael Jackson I would finally come back from death, awake at last even if still slightly zombified. So what now? Right, I had a Magic tournament to win at my local game store.
Did I have everything ready? My sleeves were already in my small backpack, at least 80 of them so I could sleeve two decks if my pool was such that two different strategies were viable. I had my box of 6 sided dice, with some obviously missing, proof of my generosity towards fellow players or of my occasional detachment from the material world, being too absorbed by some potential lines of play that I may have missed during a match. Some pens, as one can easily go MIA, a lifepad, a bottle of water, some fresh fruits like apples or clementines, and my faithful nuts, peanuts and almonds. If my friend Franky was going to be there, he would probably comment, as usual, that he would fancy some of my nuts, and in my magnanimity I would oblige, blatantly ignoring his salacious remarks with feigned ignorance.
My small Magic bag was ready, I even had a playmat, the first one I could find, the green one from the 2015 WMCQ with Conclave Naturalist. I lost my win and in with Merfolk at 7-1 in Toronto, losing to the eventual winner Hunter Platt playing [card]Scapeshift[/card], being wrecked, strangely, by [card]Augur of Bolas[/card], this traitor of a merfolk. I missed my chance to represent my country, the best one on Earth, oh CANADA (!), but then I played against the best of my fellow countrymen and faired really well, so I was kind of fine with it. I still lost, being very close to getting there, but I was consoling myself thinking I had upped my game a lot in the last months, getting back from retirement into competitive play. Still, I could not help but be reminded of a quote from the extremely funny British show “Peep Show” from a character named Johnson: “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.” Grinding is hard, but it is so much fun.
I ate a quick breakfast, toasts and camembert, walked twice on a random train toy while trying to get everything done before leaving, kissed my wife on the forehead, patted my son’s already dishevelled hair and finished in one sip the rest of my coffee, getting the last bit of caffeine mixed with plenty of grit. What was I doing? It did not matter; I had to leave, in a hurry, to cycle to my favourite local game shop to get in time to crack the packs!
As I was cycling, following all the shortcuts and crossing to all the most efficient places, I realized I did not trim my beard or shave what was starting to be a neckbeard. It was not a big deal; it could make me look like a badass, the guy that does not even care about social conventions. The t-shirt from Pro Tour Amsterdam 2010 was the finishing touch. Yeah, nice, I told myself, I do look like a real badass.
Got there just in time, paid for the tournament with my left-over credit, and looked around to see who I should hang around with. Quite a few of my friends were there, all slightly excited, like kids during Christmas Eve, feeling a certain intensity coming with the anticipation of the challenging matches to come. I can be a friendly dude and can hold a conversation with pretty much anybody. I do, however, have a preference for laid-back and/or very talented players. The former allows me to relax and enjoy life, the second feeds my inquisitive mind and helps me become a better player. I may go as far as hanging out with people that I do not have that many affinities with if I think they are a highly proficient player. They may not be well-balanced or socially competent people, but if they excel in tournaments, they could have understood something I did not, so I have everything to gain from their frequentation.
The seating at last, the usual reminder of the tournament rules, the Vancouver Mulligan, while at the same time, the packs are distributed. Cannot open them yet, have to wait for the signal. At last, after more of the usual blah blah, the shop representative gives the long-awaited signal, acting like those pretty girls waving chequered flags at the beginning of a drag race, without the sexy bits. Let’s crack the packs opened, let’s sort the cards without wasting a second. Every moment counts for the next half an hour. I have to see as many configurations as possible for the deck I am building. Let’s put the rare apart, let’s divide each color in different piles like unplayable, playable and strong. Also, a secret hope, did I win the Zendikar Expedition lottery? It would be worth more than first place.
The Pool
If you fancy some limited Magic exercise, you could try to build the deck you would have played and think of the reasons why. If you disagree with my build, do not hesitate to share your list and explain your reasoning. I have some Limited PPTQs to prepare and any minimally rational input would be greatly appreciated. I think I was pretty lucky with this pool and I went 3-0-1, drawing the last round to get eight packs.
So here is my pool. Enjoy! You can click on that link to try to build it yourself:
http://sealedmagic.se/sealedsim.html?poolid=993
[deck]
[Colorless]
1 Breaker of Armies
1 Deathless Behemoth
1 Eldrazi Devastator
1 Kozilek’s Channeler
1 Ruin Processor
[/Colorless]
[Multicolor]
1 Bring to Light
1 Brutal Expulsion
1 Drana’s Emissary
1 Skyrider Elf
1 Ulamog’s Nullifier
[/Multicolor]
[Lands]
1 Ally Encampment
1 Blighted Gorge
1 Blighted Cataract
1 Cinder Glade
1 Fertile Thicket
1 Mortuary Mire
2 Skyline Cascade
[/Lands]
[Green]
1Blisterpod
3 Eyeless Watcher
3 Giant Mantis
1 Plated Crusher
1 Reclaiming Vines
1 Scythe Leopard
1 Swell of Growth
[/Green]
[Red]
1 Akoum Firebird
1 Akoum Stonewaker
1 Goblin War Paint
1 Kozilek’s Sentinel
1 Lavastep Raider
1 Outnumber
1 Retreat to Valakut
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Serpentine Spike
1 Sure Strike
1 Touch of the Void
2 Valakut Invoker
1 Vestige of Emrakul
1 Zada, Hedron Grinder
[/Red]
[Blue]
Anticipate
2 Benthic Infiltrator
2 Brilliant Spectrum
1 Dampening Pulse
3 Mist Intruder
1 Rush of Ice
1 Salvage Drone
1 Spell Shrivel
1 Wave-Wing Elemental
[/Blue]
[Black]
1 Altar’s Reap
1 Complete Disregard
1 Culling Drone
1 Geyserfield Stalker
1 Grip of Desolation
1 Kalastria Healer
1 Kalastria Nightwatch
1 Mind Raker
2 Mire’s Malice
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Retreat to Hagra
1 Silent Skimmer
1 Transgress the Mind
[/Black]
[White]
1 Cliffside Lookout
3 Courier Griffin
1 Encircling Fissure
1 Felidar Cub
1 Inspired Charge
1 Kor Castigator
2 Makindi Patrol
1 Retreat to Emeria
1 Smite the Monstrous
[/White]
[/deck]
So, what do you think? Take the time to analyse it if you need to improve your Limited deck building in that format.
Deck Pool Analysis
I always start looking at the rares and mythic first, to see if there are some colors I would prefer playing. Here I have 8 rares, which is great, one was a promo [card]Zada, Hedron Grinder[/card], which demands a lot of combat tricks to be better than an average [card]Hill Giant[/card], and a foil [card]Bring to Light[/card], which could be worth a lot of money and was playable but not exceptional unless I could get tons of mana fixers which I did not.
Ally Encampment was solid fixing for a full-on ally theme, but with only 9 average allies mostly in black and white I did not think I had a critical mass. The ally deck would be easier to play when drafting. Also, I was excited at the idea of casting giant Eldrazis, not wanting to play lame creatures that were on the short side. [card]Cinder Glade[/card] was good fixing, even if it is always a shame to lose a rare slot to a land that does not have much impact on the board. I could find comfort in the idea that it was worth something. [card]Brutal Expulsion[/card] could give me time and burn a small critter, but it was not a game changing card that was pushing me into its colors.
Ob Nixilis Reignited, on the other hand, was one of the strongest cards of the pool. A drawing engine that could destroy anything when it came into play! Hopefully I would have enough good common and uncommon in black to be able to play it.
I had another mythic, [card]Akoum Firebird[/card], and it was also extremely strong. A 3/3 flying for 4 is already above the curve, but haste and the ability to come back from the dead with landfall for 6 mana was pushing it over the edge. Of course, a lot of spells could exile it in the format like [card]Complete Disregard[/card], [card]Touch of the Void[/card] and [card]Titan’s Presence[/card], but they would need to have them in hand. Also, if I needed to block with it, I could, as everyone knows, cast it during the second main phase.
At last, [card]Serpentine Spike[/card] was expensive, but it could stabilize the board and give me a three for one. I just needed to accelerate into it.
After the mythic rare and the rares, I like to look at the lands, to see what fixing there is. Cinder glade was the only fixing available, no [card]Evolving Wilds[/card] present. Nothing could fix my mana in green either, so I would have to forget about taking advantage of the Converge mechanic.
My gold cards did not send me in a particular direction either. I had [card]Bring to Light[/card] and [card]Skyrider Elf[/card], two strong cards, but not the supporting mana fixing.
I had some interesting high casting cost Eldrazis, and my friend David told me when I got there that the games in Sealed were long and grindy and that it was reasonable to play 7 and 8 drops so I considered playing them. [card]Deathless Behemoth[/card] seems very solid, a 6/6 vigilance for 6 that could potentially come back from the graveyard. [card]Ruin Processor[/card], at 7 mana, was a bit pricey, but the life gain meant that even on the back foot I could play it and often stabilize. [card]Kozilek’s Channeler[/card] could get me to my more expensive spell and a 4/4 for 5 is good enough in Sealed. I could play the two other 8 casting cost Eldrazis if I had enough acceleration in my deck.
Looking at the rest of the pool, I noticed that white, blue and green were weaker than black and red which was great news as I wanted to play my rares in these colors. Also, I had a lot of spot removals and some solid creatures. I especially liked [card]Rolling Thunder[/card] and [card]Mire’s Malice[/card]. In a format where people usually try to ramp, discard is very powerful as opponents will not be left with useless lands in their hands once they play 5 or 6 lands as it is often the case in other Limited formats. A discard spell that can also put a creature into play that could effectively be a 3 for 1, sign me in. Worst case, it is a 3/3 late game, which is not a dead card like discard can usually be.
So here what I went to battle with.
The Deck
[deck]
[Lands]
1 Blighted Gorge
1 Mortuary Mire
9 Mountain
7 Swamp
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Complete Disregard
1 Grip of Desolation
2 Mire’s Malice
1 Ob Nixilis Reignited
1 Outnumber
1 Rolling Thunder
1 Serpentine Spike
1 Touch of the Void
1 Transgress the Mind
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Akoum Firebird
1 Akoum Stonewaker
1 Culling Drone
1 Deathless Behemoth
1 Kozilek’s Channeler
1 Kozilek’s Sentinel
1 Mind Raker
1 Ruin Processor
1 Silent Skimmer
2 Valakut Invoker
1 Vestige of Emrakul
[/Creatures]
[/deck]
http://sealedmagic.se/sealedsim.html?poolid=993&deckid=1005
I played 18 lands and I decided to draw for all the games I could choose. It did not matter as my opponent chose to start. After winning against a young kid first round, I was feeling very confident about my deck. Surprisingly, a lot of my opponents were trying to aggro me out, and I had to slowly stabilize and then win with my higher casting cost cards. [card]Ruin Processor[/card] and [card]Serpentine Spike[/card] do a really good job at turning the tide and escaping what may seem like certain death. [card]Transgress the Mind[/card] was an all-star, giving me information and a game plan, while also feeding my processors. I liked the fact that being mana flooded was not such a big deal, as I could get to my high drops, take full advantage of my awaken spells, cast a devastating [card]Rolling Thunder[/card] or even start activating my [card]Valakut Invoker[/card]. I had 6 ways to exile cards and two processors, which meant that I could almost always use the latter at their full potential.
The Conclusion
When the dust settled, at the end of the tournament, I was undefeated. My good friend Martin was also, so we were both slightly ecstatic, giving each other occasional high fives, proud of our formidable deck-building skills and our high level of play. I could go home proud, having vanquished my foes and living to see another day.
I cycled back home, got a welcome by my wife and kid, grateful to be with such an accomplished player, tears of joy in their eyes. My young son came to the door to greet me, ran back to the living room and returned with a remote control, taking my hand and pulling me towards the TV in the living room, looking at me in a way that meant: “Great job dad! You are such a role-model. Time for my programs now, use your magic and get the TV to work.” I sat down, turned on the TV, ready to relax while watching Thomas the Tank Engine, knowing, in my heart, that today at least, I had been up to the task and accomplished my duty as a competitive player of Magic. I could rest for now, but soon enough, another tremendous challenge was awaiting, there was a limited PPTQ next weekend to win.