Sorry, no report from me right now (or possibly at all, the memory is awful, you know). But I just spotted this on mtg.com:
ScottWills?: Well there are certainly no prizes for guessing the subject of today's column! Ravnica has finally hit and I hope you all had good fun at the pre-releases this past weekend. I was able to get to the London pre-release and got a 32 player sealed deck and three drafts under my belt, which was a nice taster for the new set.
Can't say I did. But there were more than 21 drafts over the course of the day! :) --AC
I did actually, standing over a draft have a look at it. Since I usually don't read his column I didn't think it appropriate to interupt him to introduce myself tho. --NR
After not too bad a drive down in my new car (we only took a wrong turning once, which is quite impressive for Central London - we were grateful for PeterTaylor's London AtoZ?!), I played in order a flight, a draft and a Two-Headed Giant tournament. In my flight I had excellent removal in both black and red, but few creatures in either. I added white for a solid curve of creatures up the manacurve including the MTG: Thundersong Trumpeter, which showed up all day making a total nuisance of himself. I had good rares including a MTG: Hunted Dragon who won me one game and lost me one game, and also MTG: Helldozer and MTG: Moonlight Bargain, neither of which I ended up playing for coloured-mana-requirement reasons. I ended up with a deck of powerful cards but split evenly between R, W and B, and mana difficulties accounted for all the games I lost. It did contain some fun combinations like MTG: Hunted Dragon plus MTG: Cleansing Beam, or MTG: Master Warcraft plus MTG: Gaze of the Gorgon (which I pulled off once as a MTG: Plague Wind). With the flights only paying out prizes for 3 or more wins out of 4, when I was 1-1 I decided to drop and draft. I would have liked to give my deck a bit more of a chance, but if I wanted to draft before the team events I had to drop at that point, so I did.
Most matches went fairly similarly: let a few early attacks through, counter anything too dangerous, stabilise around 5 life behind some combination of Drifts, Drakes, Sphinxes and Infiltrators, and keep steadily milling via Duskmantle, Informant or Entrancer, accelerated by MTG: Tidewater Minion, then finish the game with a big MTG: Psychic Drain for 8 or so. It was rather effective. There was one game that I won attacking in the air with three Drakes, but the rest I just milled away. I lost one game to an MTG: Ursapine, so in game 2 I countered it and in game 3 I used MTG: Induce Paranoia on the MTG: Chord of Calling for 5 that would have fetched it. I faced up against GreenOpal in the final, so we agreed a prize split of 4 boosters each, and then played it out for the DCI ratings. Game 1 he absolutely flattened me with hasty Boros attackers and a MTG: Rally the Righteous. But game 2 and 3 I won, principally off my faithful MTG: Lurking Informant making him draw nothing but land when I got 2 activations per turn helped by the MTG: Tidewater Minion. Overall, I like the way Dimir play, but I'm not sure it was too fun for my opponents. But I was quite glad that I'd been able to pull off a consistent milling deck without any of the rares like MTG: Glimpse the Unthinkable, MTG: Circu, Dimir Lobotomist or [Szadek].
Demonstrating there were no hard feelings, GreenOpal and I teamed up for a brotherly alliance as the "Knights of the Shack" for the Two-Headed Giant tournament. It was hard to choose the decks, but we ended up following the pattern that pretty much every team we saw did: one aggressive Boros/Selesnya? deck in RWG and one controlly Dimir deck in UB with a Golgari BG splash. There was some nice synergy between my two MTG: Bramble Elementals, two MTG: Fists of Ironwood and a MTG: Galvanic Arc and his three MTG: Drake Familiars and MTG: Flight of Fancy.
The games were a lot of fun but took a long time. The most memorable situation occurred in the final game we played: our MTG: Hunted Phantasm was serving us in good stead and they couldn't do much with the Goblins, and so they played MTG: Followed Footsteps on it! We let them get one Phantasm of their own (giving us 5 goblins) before we bounced the Footsteps with a MTG: Drake Familiar. They replayed it on our MTG: Keening Banshee which we couldn't allow to stay, so my MTG: Trophy Hunter shot it down. At this point I had 5 1/1 Goblins, 5 1/1 Saprolings, two 2/1 first strikers, and a 5/6 MTG: Trophy Hunter; they had 5 1/1 Goblins, 5 1/1 Saprolings, two 2/2 creatures, and some other guys. Nicely balanced, except that they had a MTG: Veteran Armorer pumping all their creatures! Nonetheless, we attacked with everything. They blocked the tokens one for one since their tokens were 1/2; the 2/1 first strikers with their 2/3s; and the 5/6 with 6 power of random stuff. This is when I cast MTG: Flash Conscription on the MTG: Veteran Armorer, and suddenly all the combat maths went the other way. All our attackers lived, about 12 of their creatures died, and we beat them soundly a couple of turns later, to come in finally at a 3-1 record and 4 more boosters each.
Overall, the set is intriguing and I think I like it; and I had a great but very tiring day. Prereleases are always thus.
558 players showed up at Nottingham Arena (aka Nottingham Ice Rink with the ice removed) for GP Nottingham. I saw quite a number of people I recognised from their pro cards and from English Nationals.
Round 1 - Michael (Switzerland) Final Standing: 162nd He had an insane card pool including: 2x MTG: Galvanic Arc, 3x MTG: Last Gasp, 2x MTG: Viashino Fangtail and 2x MTG: Firemane Angel! Game one I got out turn 2 Thundersong Trumpeter, turn 3 Skyknight Legionnaire followed by Veteran Armorer, Oathsworn Giant and Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi. He got out a Firemane Angel which I kept from blocking with the trumpeter whilst I beat him down.
Game 2 I got out Boros Guildmage then Skyknight Legionnaire. I stalled the ground with a Phytohydra. He played out an angel. I dropped a Conclave Equanaut. He then played his second angel. His next turn he attacked with both angels and something on the ground. Phytohydra got some counters. Conclave Equanaut gained first strike courtesy of my Boros Guildmage and traded for an angel. The other one bit the dust thanks to my topdecked Lightning Helix. He was still gaining 2 life a turn with them in the graveyard, but I dropped an Oathsworn Giant and kept swinging with Phytohydra and Skyknight Legionnaire. He was forced to chump the Phytohydra a couple of times. He played out 2 Viashino Fangtails. One immediately chumped the 8/10 Phytohydra, the other pinged me a couple of times down to 14. Next turn I swung with an 11/13 Phytohydra which met with MTG: Boros Fury Shield! Meh. Down to 3. He pinged me down to 2 with his fangtail but thankfully couldn't stop me swinging for the win the next turn.
2-0 on games, 1-0 on matches.
Round 2 - Marcus (Germany) Final Standing: 127th Game one I got out Screeching Griffin and Skyknight Legionnaire and hit him for 16 in the air. He managed o kill my flyers and then run me over with MTG: Siege Wurm and MTG: Golgari Rotwurm (Sidenote - this card is amazing).
Game two saw me mulligan one of the seven no land starting hands I saw all day into a 6-card 2 land hand. He got out quickly and had 2 Last Gasps for the critters I managed to play. Golgari Rotwurm + MTG: Selesnya Evangel hit he hard and I never recovered.
2-2 on games, 1-1 on matches.
Round 3 - Chris (England) Final Standing: 47th Game one I dropped a Sunhome Enforcer and stuck a Moldervine Cloak on it. I hit him for 7 a couple of turns and put my life total very safely above 30. He got out a MTG: Coalhauler Swine, but his life was so low it couldn't block. He managed to drop a Firemane Angel but only to chump for a turn before he died.
Game two I don't really remember. He killed me pretty quickly and I only dealt him 2 damage so it must have been pretty bad!
Game three I really sucked. I made 3 stupid mistakes. Had I made any two of them I'd have won the match. 1: turn 3 I played a land and had Veteran Armorer and Boros Signet in hand. I played the Armorer. Later we were racing and I had Oathsworn Giant in play, he had a Hunted Lammasu. I knew I needed a blocker for the Lammasu. I forgot about the Vigilance granted by the giant so I held my Skyknight Legionnaire in hand instead of playing and swinging with it. I went down to 4. He was at 7. He played Thundersong Trumpeter. He now had a tapped Lammasu, sick Trumpeter and his own Skyknight. I had armorer, oathsworn giant, Nullmage Shepherd, Equanaut. I had another skyknight and equanaut in hand. I pulled Flash Conscription. He had 2 red mana untapped. I played the conscription on his skyknight. He sacced it to fiery conclusion to kill my oathsworn giant. Had I targetted the trumpeter and used it to tap his legionnaire, I'd have won. Had I played my skyknight and attacked with everything, I'd have won. As it was I knocked him down to 1 life. He untapped, used his trumpeter to stop my equanaut blocking then killed me with the lammasu.
3-4 on games, 1-2 on matches. With a record of 6-2 needed for day 2, it's looking bad at this point - I needed to win the next 5 straight matches.
Round 4 - Daniel (England) Final Standing: 450th Game one I double mulliganed. He killed me within 4 minutes.
Game two was pretty even. The ground stalled with me at 6 and him at 12. I used flash conscription to swing for the win.
Game three he got screwed. I got out 2 2-power flyers and Sunhome Enforcer but he was never really in it.
5-5 on games, 2-2 on matches
Round 5 - Michael (USA) Final Standing: 355th Only Dimir deck I saw all day. Most people were playing RW or GB. Game one he went down to six cards. I dropped screeching griffin, then moldervine cloak on the griffin. Things went swiftly from then.
Game two he recurred MTG: Stinkweed Imp a couple of times. That card can be so annoying. I don't remember much else about this game. He made me discard lots using MTG+Strands+of+Undeath and MTG: Mark of Eviction on my guys. He stalled my flyers with a MTG: Tattered Drake. He beat me down rather than milling me to death.
Game three I started slowly. I played a Skyknight Legionnaire, which died to MTG: Keening Banshee. He got out MTG: Vedalkan Entrancer and started milling me. I dropped Screeching Griffin and swung it around his banshee and Stinkweed Imp. My phytohydra stalled his ground. He dropped MTG: Szadek, Lord of Secrets. I played Thundersong Trumpeter, gave it haste with the guildmage and held Szadek off for a turn. Next turn he I was at 3 with 14 cards left. I had to stop the banshee swinging for 2, so I let Szadek through. I then topdecked Lightning Helix, swung with everything and then Helix to then dome for the win.
7-6 on games, 3-2 on matches.
Round 6 - Reinhold (Germany) Final Standing: 235th Game one I mulliganed once, him twice. Screeching Griffin + Moldervine Cloak didn't give him much chance to catch up.
Game two I mulliganed once. Sunhome Enforcer put my life up to 33 before he removed it. I beat him down to 6, but he was hitting me with Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi whilst I was pulling land and he slowly took my life back down to zero.
Game 3 I got out Armorer + Skyknight + Griffin and beat him in the air.
9-7 on games, 4-2 on matches.
Round 7 - Tom (England) Final Standing: 75th
Game one I double mulliganed on the play into a 1 land hand that I had to keep. I managed to draw 2 land but never really played that game.
Game two he played a turn 1 MTG: Elvish Skysweeper and MTG: Selesnya Evangel that I couldn't remove. I drew Skyknight Legionnaire, Screeching Banshee and 2 Conclave Equanauts that were all completely useless.
9-9 on games, 4-3 on matches. Now out of the running for day 2.
Round 8 - Simon (England) Final Standing: 244th Game one I got out fast with Skyknight Legionnaire and Moldervine Cloak. I didn't see much of his deck.
Game two I got out a double Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi and smashed face.
11-9 on games, 5-3 on matches.
I finished in 155th place which I was really happy with given I expected to scrub out. I had a really good time. Most of my opponents were really nice which makes all the difference.
~60 people, needed to go 4-1-1 to make top 8, I went 4-2 coming 15th. 1 loss I misremembered MTG: Exalted Angel, and didn't bother reading it as I was sure it was a 3/4. We only managed to fit in 1 game (control-on-control makes for long games, lots of fetch lands makes for lots of shuffling), so that mistake cost me the match . The other loss I kept a 2 land hand game 1 and never saw a third. Game 2 I kept a 4 land hand and never drew another spell. An well, I'm sure I've won more than my fair share of matches due to opponents getting screwed in the past. I was only playing for fun and won more than I lost, so I was pretty happy. 'twas a good day all-in-all. Extended is much fun. --qqzm
Good to hear. I'd like to try Extended sometime - oh, for another, say, 5 days a week to do all I want to... Did the Squid, Elephant or Sludge come in handy? --CH
qqzm will post a fuller report later in the week. Short version: went 6-2 on day 1, made day 2. Went 3-3 day 2 to finish on 9-5 in 44th place, winning $250. [Official Coverage]
Well, that's better than a slap in the face with a mouldy kipper. --CH
Ok, so as it turns out I'm too lazy to write a full report, so I'll make do with just my 3 decklists:
Votary of the Conclave x2 Withstand Guardian's Magemark Courier Hawk To Arms!
Poisonbelly Ogre Last Gasp Clinging Darkness Undercity Shade Darkblast
Silhana Starfletcher Farseek Beastmaster's Magemark Transluminant Golgari Brownscale Sundering Vitae
Blind Hunter Watchwolf x2!!! Agent of Masks
Boros Recruit Mourning Thrull Wild Cantor
Terrarion
Day 2: Draft Deck 2 (1-2 Record)
10 Island 4 Swamp 1 Orzhov Basilica 1 Duskmantle, House of Shadow
Train of Thought Vacuumelt Vedalken Entrancer Induce Paranoia x3 Drift of Phantasms Runeboggle Remand Belltower Sphinx Tattered Drake Tidewater Minion Stasis Cell Telling Time
Clinging Darkness Last Gasp Stinkweed Imp Restless Bones Disembowel
Pillory of the Sleepless Dimir Infiltrator
Lurking Informant x2
Dimir Signet
Regionals 2006
Colchester 20th May 2006 (aka The World's Shortest Tournament Report)
qqzm's Report: The top 75 composite rated players in the country qualify for Nationals based on rating without having to bother with this regional qualifier rubbish. I was in 78th position last week, so went to Colchester with the hope of winning the first 2 rounds (enough to gain 16 constructed = 8 composite points assuming 1600-rated opponents) and then drop...
Round 1: Alex (Heartbeat) I won the die roll, and chose to play (obv). Turn 1 Lions, turn 2 Jitte, turn 3 equip, turn 4 paladin, turn 5 burn puts it away the turn before his earliest possible turn to combo off.
Sideboarding -4 Paladin en-Vec, +4 Hidetsugu's Second Rite (Heartbeat plays no painlands!)
He goes first this time. I play turn 1 Savannah Lions. He plays Divining Top. Turn 2 I swing (his life total: 18) and play a boros garrison. Turn 3 I swing again (16) and pass. He Kodama's Reaches for a swamp into hand and a forest into play, plays the forest then passes with 2 mana untapped. I Hit him with flames at his eot 3 (12). Turn 4 I untap, swing (10), lay a land and hit him with Hidetsugu's Second Rite (go sideboard tech). He looks a bit confused, then picks up the card to read it before realising he's doomed. He had the pieces he needed to combo off on his turn 5 :).
2-0 on games, 1-0 on matches, halfway to my target!
Round 2: Vas (from Cambridge, bah!) Glare of Subdual I won the die roll again and chose to play (shocker). We both knew pretty much exactly what the other was playing. This makes it all the stranger that Vas decided to keep a 7-card hand whose only mana sources were 1 forest and 1 MTG: Llanowar Elves on the draw. I played turn 1 Lions, turn 2 Volcanic Hammer the Elves and that was pretty much that.
Game 2 was slightly more interesting. I got in some early beats with Isamaru and Hand of Honour and had him down to 12 when he stabilised the board with MTG: Kodama of the North Tree. I continued to build up 2/2s with MTG: Kami of Ancient Law and MTG: Eight-and-a-Half-Tails joining the party whilst he churned out saproling tokens with a MTG: Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree. I get up to 8 power on the table with MTG: Bathe in Light in hand, hoping to topdeck a Flames of the Blood Hand or a Char, Bathe my team for green and then swing for 8 and burn him out. Before I can find one he drops a Paladin en-Vec which can block a guy to leave me 2 short. Now I need to topdeck another critter and a burn for 4 spell before he builds up a critical mass of saprolings, or finds a MTG: Selesnya Guildmage. I get a second MTG: Kami of Ancient Law the next turn, then a Flames shows a couple of turns later, the top card of his deck was MTG: Shining Shoal...
4-0 on games, 2-0 on matches. Job done, I drop from the tournament as planned. Vas went on to win out the last 4 rounds qualify the hard way anyway along with Nick from Cambridge. Matt, Paul and Graham all failed to qualify this time around (Paul missing out by only tie-breakers).
After the tournament, Graham commented on a strange play his opponent made... It was game 1, round 2. Graham was playing Zoo versus a guy with Heartbeat. Graham had made a couple of early guys and sent some burn to the head and knocked the heartbeat player down to 10. His opponent then tapped a land for mana and took the burn at end of phase... Guess who he played round 1 :).
As it turned out, both of my opponents were rated around 1700 so I should have gained 20-22 rather than the 16 I was expecting, which should put me into around 61st place.
Being an event organised by ChrisHowlett on behalf of the WikiOldMagicPlayersPlayAgainConspiracy?.
Going into the draft, I'd decided to try my best to draft Rakdos, since I hadn't done so yet. A first pick MTG: Cackling Flames, second pick MTG: Rakdos Ickspitter seemed promising, but at that point the guild dried up while the other three colours kept coming round. I managed to snaffle a MTG: Simic Guildmage fairly early, so I thought I'd move into the old tried-and-tested Simic-Azorius archetype. In the end, however, the Simic cards just didn't turn up; the reason was readily explained during casual chat at the end of the draft - the player to my right had been drafting Simic, while the other two were Rakdos. The small table size and an unreasonable abundance of GWU in all of the first packs had meant I completely misread who was stopping my Rakdos!
Ed was playing a seriously Rakdos deck, packed with three Wrecking Balls and any number of Hellbent cards. After MTG: Condemning his 5/5 MTG: Dread Slag, the board stabilised with my Azorius Guildmage and Minister of Impediments tapping down his attackers (including a MTG: Jagged Poppet, which got enchanted with a MTG: Taste for Mayhem) each turn. Azorius Guildmage also countered a MTG: Seal of Doom, much to Ed's surprise. I started to sneak through a bit of damage, and soon had the life totals in my favour at 28-20. The death-knell came with MTG: War's Toll; Keeping enough mana back to tap his attackers meant I couldn't play new threats. When Wrecking Ball number 3 dealt with Guildmage number 2 (number one and the Minister having died to a one-sided MTG: Kindle the Carnage for 2), I ended up unable to restabilise and lost my last 23 life to a single attack, with Ed on 6. 0-1
Game three saw the tables somewhat reversed. My only creature all game was an MTG: Azorius Guildmage, which just couldn't hold the fort against MTG: Drekavac, MTG: Hellhole Rats, and certainly not MTG: Enemy of the Guildpact. It was all over exceedingly quickly, with me losing after only chipping 2 life off Ed. 1-2 on games, 0-1 on matches
I let at least one green MTG: Spinneret Sliver go by because I wanted more colour-fixing.
I was paired against a kid who was openly rare-drafting, so I was fairly confident. First game I tore him to shreds in 6 turns. Then I discovered the problem with playing slivers against the rare-drafter: he showed me the MTG: Hivestone that he was siding in. I responded by switching Dementia Sliver for the first-pick Disenchant, but he dropped the stone on his second turn and I never saw the removal. In the decider he got a beatdown start and I just didn't.
So 1-2 on games, 0-1 on matches, but it was quite pleasing to draft 16 slivers and pretty much get away with a four-colour deck.
I went to a prerelease in Gravesend (24/09/06). I didn't do very well. but I got some good cards for a deck I'm planning, including two MTG: Juniper Order Ranger. It was fun, anyway, and when we got back to Canterbury I annoyed everyone deeply with my Ulasht/Doubling? deck. They killed me, but we were playing muyltiplayer, and all five of my opponents ganged up on me. I think I take that as a compliment.
Eventide Prerelease
Report from Chris Howlett
Back in London, as normal, I played in Flight 1! Largely due to them running a bit late - ChrisPaterson? was the first registered player, and I was the second (yay for preregistration and queue jumping). I could tell at a glance that I had some power in my card pool, even if some of it was irritating (MTG: Thistledown Liege and MTG+Steel+of+the+Godhead, but no other Blue-White hybrid cards). The deck I built saw me to a 3-1 record. Irritatingly, I lost the first round on the final turn of extra time due to misplay on my part - I'd missed the +1/+1 of a half-correctly-coloured opposing creature under a Liege, and thought I was on 2 when I was actually on 1. I had two blockers for three attackers and a MTG: Snakeform in hand, so passed turn and promptly lost. As it happens, had I cast the Snakeform the turn before, it would have drawn me an MTG: Odious Trow for the extra block.
Here are the card pool and deck - I reckon you could build something entirely different from my chosen build, and I'd be interested to know if anyone would.
Deck (by colour): MTG: Forest x7 MTG: Plains x2 MTG: Swamp x8 (In retrospect, the land balance might have been a touch out, but it never gave me any trouble)
As an aside, the following layout of the sealed pool worked for me:
G/U W/B U/R
W W/U U U/B B
G/W G R/G R R/B
R/W B/G
I then played in two drafts, by the end of which I'd actually played all 5 colours - a rare thing for me at a prerelease, as I do have a tendency to stick in white-blue. Both decks took me through the first round, but lost in the second (although the second deck did nearly pull out a win from a 4-card mulligan).
This was my first prerelease in 6 years, because a couple of friends have started playing and I went with them. WotC seem to have ditched drafting at prereleases: the only option was "seeded" (like sealed but with one booster biased towards the colour of your choice). I chose U.
I saw two good UG rares, plenty of playables, and not enough removal in other colours to prefer them. Only when I sat down to write this report did I realise that all 8 of my rares (including the U promo and a foil MTG: Mistcutter Hydra) were castable with UG. I left MTG: Astral Cornucopia and UUU MTG: Fated Infatuation in the sideboard for an initial build of:
The Shredding Winds maindeck was in anticipation of people playing promo cards. I reckoned that I had a decent balance of removal, draw, evasion, and bombs.
Match 1: I played badly in the first game (e.g. didn't notice that Hydra has haste), but won. Sided in MTG: Gainsay for MTG: Triton Tactics because opponent's three-colour deck ran U. Lost games 2 and 3. 0-1 Match 2: Since prereleases allow changing decks, I permanently sided out MTG: Triton Tactics for MTG: Deepwater Hypnotist before the match. Opponent was WR. I lost the first game, but in the second game (after getting the closest thing to a judge to confirm that MTG: Prophet of Kruphix allows bestowing at instant speed), managed to win in extra time. 0-1-1. Match 3: up against one of my friends, who arrived late and had to take G as the only colour left. His G was, however, poor, so his deck was UB. Won 2-1, still forgetting that Hydra has haste. 1-1-1 overall. Match 4: another RW deck. Between combat tricks (including repeating the MTG: Prophet of Kruphix + bestow) and removal I beat him 2-0. 2-1-1, and looking hopeful. Match 5: my opponent didn't show, so 3-1-1. Played a friendly against another player whose opponent didn't show. We went 1-1 (I recall a *long* time spent explaining that MTG: Griptide on the creature he'd enchanted with MTG: Ordeal of Purphoros meant that he didn't get to sac the Ordeal), and didn't start the third game because time was running short. Match 6: RWG, with lots of Heroic and enchantments, plus enough deathtouch to hold off ground attackers. He didn't have many ways to deal with fliers, and I won 2-1. The second game ended when I failed to bluff him into not attacking with a fatty on the basis of two cards in hand: my situation was so dire that I thought my best option was to attack with my flier and leave him with one turn on the clock, representing that the island and forest I held in hand could save me if he attacked with both of his creatures. He *almost* bought it, but after thinking hard couldn't think what I might have that would save me. The third game he might have managed to turn around had he not grown impatient at taking 1 unblockable damage a turn and bounced my MTG: Flitterstep Eidolon , allowing me to bestow his unblockability on a 7/7 Hydra.
Overall I finished 6th out of 40 and won 4 boosters. I never triggered the Arbiter's Inspiration ability, because the one time he didn't draw immediate removal I needed him to double-block a much-buffed attacker, but every single time I played the Prophet I won that game. I think that's a card to build a deck around.
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