Magic Pre-release experiance

[Disturbedone0777]

So this weekend I managed to get to one pre-release. It was a great day for magic, and I got to go to a new store that just started holding events. The turn out of 12 people was more then I expected honestly and the games that I got to play were great. I got to say that M11 was definately a fun way to play sealed for me.

I did open a few fun cards that helped make the game more enjoyable for me though. My rare pulls looked like this:

Ancient Hellkite
Leyline of Anticipation
Leyline of Sanctity
Magma Phoenix
Mitotic Slime (and it was foil)
Phylactery Lich
Sunpetal Grove

Honestly when I saw that I had the Lich I wanted to use him bad. But my black pool didn't really make black a practical color for me to play. I didn't have anything creature wise outside of him and a bog raiders. Not a good enough pile at all. I looked at Red but with ZERO burn spells truthfully also not a color I wanted to go into. My blue pool was decent but because of the Dual-Land I decided on a green/White build.

I didn't realize earlier when I was going through my cards what a great little set of cards I had to play G/W. And mixed with one of the greatest cards I think for limited Elixir of Immortality I was set. Do not diss on this card it won me almost every single one of my games for it's dumb ability to get my graveyard back.

Anyways my deck looked like this:
Gargoyle Sentinel x1
Elixer of Immortalityx1
Condemn x1
Goldenglow mothx1
Pacifism x2
Palace Guard x2
Serra Angel x1
White Knight x1
Brindle Boar x2
Cultivate x2
Duskdale Wurm x1
Fog x1
Garruk's Companionx1
Garruk's Packleaderx1
Hunter's Feastx1
Nature's Spiralx2
Primal Cocoonx1
Leyline of Sanctityx1
Mitotic Slimex1
Sunpetal Grovex1
Forest x8
Plains x 7

I didnt' realize one thing about this deck. With cultivate, Garruk's Packleader, and my Elixer of Imortality, this deck cycled through very very quickly. I was able to thin my deck out so much that I was dropping a creature nearly every turn and drawing more cards because of the Packleader. I wound up putting out the mitotic Slime and letting it die only to bring it back with Nature's spiral or to shuffle it back in with the Immortality. Pretty nice little combo.

I did pretty well in the first few rounds. First game I played a R/B deck run by a guy named James. It featured a few vampires including the new replacement for Noctornus and some lightning bolts. Fortunately for me the leyline was in both opening hands and I was able to stomp 2/0 because of his in-ability to hit me directly with his burn spells. He was relying on the creature that is a 1/3 flying that becomes a 4/3 if your opponent took non-combat damage that turn. Needless to say I never took that damage.

Second game I played was close. I was playing a R/G deck where the guy had both Chandra and Garruk on his side in both our games. The first game looked bleak until I was able to draw my Leyline yet again and then Gain enough life to come back. I was able to swing for my win with my 7/7 Worm for game one. game two was even closer. I was at one life before the game was done and was save by my elixer. Probably one of the closest and best matches of my life.

Third game I played the highest ranking player at the shop. Doug had a red/Green deck that packed the leyline preventing lifegain, as well as the new version of over-run. Needless to say he won both games very easily preventing my life gain, dropping one of his two Yvimaya Wurms, and then the over-run to wreck me. I was looking for the fog that I had, but never was able to draw it in time.

Fourth game I played my buddy Jon who came with me to the event. Jon was playing a deck featuring sun-Titan and Three of the hawks that once played allow you to search your deck for the remaining hawks. Our match up would have been better but I spent the entire first game drawing lands. 10 full turns of drawing nothing but land is quite frustrating. After a pile shuffle, I went on to lose game two for the exact same reason. For kicks we played a third game while waiting for the others to finish where my deck finnaly performed but he still was able to beat me.

I place 5th there, and all and all had a really great time. I managed to draw a bolt and another elixer in my prize pack so I was satisfied.

[Into the Aether]

COnsidering I already scrapped my deck I can't post the list but after opening my packs I could have lost every match and still been happy as could be. My rares were:
Baneslayer Angel
Silence
Primeval Titan
Jace Beleran
Mystifying Maze
Elvish Archdruid


So, needless to say I ran white and green but I splashed black for good measure. I lacked any white removal but had plenty of flying weanies. green was for finishers and mana fixing and black had removal with doom blade and asasinate. In retrospect I could have cut green but it still worked well and I never had mana issues (well I flooded twice when it mattered but never screw).

Match 1 I played a white black deck with weanies in the air and on the groundwith white knight, child of knight and black knight. However the big issue was is vengful archon. Game 1 I dropped baneslayer turn 5 and that was that. Game 2 and 3 he got out his archon and I couldn't kill it nor attack without killing myself.
0-1

Match 2 I played Browncoat with his red black removal deck which basically killed everything and anything. It worked well and the games where close but they ended up with my weanies being to many to kill. (Disentomb was rather helpful here)
1-1

Match 3 was against another black white deck though he lacked the archon and had not real bomb to finish the game. Baneslayer and the titan made short work of his knights (black and white) and that was it.
2-1

Match 4 I felt bad about because he was playing a similar build but had no black and very little removal. Both games I had baneslayer in the opening hand and it was short and messy.
3-1

After this we cut to the top 8. I was ranked 6th and began my match against yet another white black deck. This one had heavy removal with pacifism, doom blades, assasinates, and condems. He lack large creatures but had a terrifing nakatu shade which he got all three games to my dismay. Game one I got of to a quick start by blasting him with a 4/2 pegasus with unholy strength. He knew I was the "Baneslayer Guy" so he held onto that kill spell but because of that he fell into a hole and never climbed out. Game 2 and 3 however was the reverse in that his shade went to town on my little guys and whenever I killed it, he had that disentomb waiting. I lost 1-2 without the Titan or Banslayer making an appereance and in game 3 I drew 4 straight lands which didn't help.
SO in the end I placed 6th and walked away with 2 bonus packs including a sunpetal grove and that Knight lord. I wish they where in my sealed pool because of the uncommens but oh well like I said I was happy with just my rares.

[browncoat]

I was excited to go to the m11 pre-release as I have been to a number of release tournaments but had not made it out to a pre-release. As usual for me with sealed I got all my cards divided over all my colors so I could not run a decent two color deck.

My rares were:
traumatize
ancient hellkite
magma phoenix
dark tutelage
ajani goldmane
leyline of vitality

Apart from Ajani, a blinding mage, and a pacifism my white was wretched. My red was also pretty poor with the only non-rare cards of note being a lightning bolt, a fling and 2 act of treason. My blue was better with a pair of mana leaks, 2 unsummon, a foresee, an ice cage and an air servant. My green was mediocre, nothing terribly good but nothing that was really exciting. Black supplied me with some cheap creatures and some more removal so I ended up playing grixis aggro. The deck basically could deal with most threats but had no real way to win.

My list was:
1 reassembling skeleton
2 child of night
1 liliana's specter
1 barony vampire
1 assasinate
1 dark tutelage

1 lightning bolt
1 goblin balloon brigade
1 fling
2 act of treason
1 arc runner
1 merfolk spy
2 unsummon
1 alluring siren
1 ice cage
1 scroll thief
1 air servant
2 terramorphic expanse
5 mountain
6 island
6 swamp

I also had a deathmark that spent every game 2 and 3 in my deck as 50 percent of the people were running G/W and I played three people running these colors with the 4th running G/R. I also had a flashfreeze and the pair of mana leaks rotate in and out of the deck, sometimes they won me games by countering key spells other times they just cluttered my draws.

Match 1 was against a G/W deck that went undefeated before cutting to the top eight. I had mana issues both games and he held back thinking I was planning something, over-thinking my mana-screw. I had a very solid board position game 2 with a pair of child of night and a barony vampire but he dropped day of judgement ending my chance of victory. I knew my deck was not that great and I had been manascrewed so I chalked this match up to be my loss from which I would win the rest pf my matches to get into the top 8.

Match 2 was a suprise as I was faced off against my friend Dan (Into the Aether). The main reason it was a surprise as he got a ton of bombs including baneslayer angel, primeval titan, Jace beleren, and a mystifying maze. So of course to run all three he was running bant. Game 1 was not terribly good for me as I basically just held on and dragged out the game with removal trying to topdeck answers I did not have. Game 2 had my deck working at its finest and I rushed him for victory, I believe he was mana-screwed this game needing a second green mana to play any of his bombs. Game 3 was fairly exciting, I dealt with his baneslayer but lost due to elixir of immortality shuffling his graveyard back into his deck. He eventually topdecked baneslayer while I had already used all my removal earlier. Losing another match was not in the plan but I have gotten in the top 8 at releases with a 3-2 record so I was not too worried.

Match 3 had me paired up against another G/W deck. I was able to rush him quickly both games and made sure he was unable to keep anything on the field. He also had a few mana-screw problems which made my victories even easier. I was happy to be able to get a victory and I wanted to continue up to the top 8, I realize my deck probably could not get farther than that but

Match 4 had me faced with a G/R deck. The first match was fun and had me eventually lock him down with removal while drawing tons of cards off the tutelage. Game 2 he kept a 1 land hand which let me destroy him. By the time he got a second land I was too far ahead to be stopped.

After this match I figured that I had to win my next game to maybe top 8. I then found out there were only going to be 4 rounds not five like I and a number of regulars had thought. I ended up finishing in 15th. Overall I had a lot of fun. Dark tutelage is an amazing card, whenever I played it I won especially with the lack of enchantment hate played against B/U/R. Currently I think it is undervalued, though I could be wrong overvaluing it.

Edit:

(2010-07-12 17:41 PM)Into the Aether Wrote:  Match 2 I played Browncoat with his red black removal deck which basically killed everything and anything. It worked well and the games where close but they ended up with my weanies being to many to kill. (Disentomb was rather helpful here)
1-1

No you were still running bant at this point so disentomb never showed up. You also never swarmed me, just killed me with baneslayer and the stupid shroud wolf.

[Into the Aether]

Oh yar. That was before I swapped from bant to WGB. meh Memory is already failing