MB prerelease

[prock7]

hey all here's my prerelease report

played Phyrexian GB

match 1; against Michael, GB 0-2. infect mirror match, got beat in drag race twice, played 16 lands

match 2; against Rich, RW 1-2. really should have won 2-0, however in my first match i stalled. had him on 9 poison counters, couldn't pull trigger. aahhhh so many ifs in Magic & life. also added two lands up to 18. maybe shouldn't have done that. kept pullin lands.

match 3; against Rob, RW 1-1. best match of night, Rob really a good guy, a classic, leaves MTG, comes back after 10 years. in game one both of us mulliganed. still, as we found out, went ahead with only one land. so things took several turns to get going. this was a great game, took him deep in poison count but he in the end dropped down a Steel Hellkite. game over. as it turns out i also had one in my deck. so did a friend of Rob's. played 17 lands

match 4; against Dan, RW 0-2. nothing to say hear other then did manage to get out Steel Hellkite but Turn to Slag got rid of him.
played 16 lands

themes of the night
lots of burn. burn burn and more burn.
Concussive Bolt hurt several times.

also land issues, however that excuse doesn't serve me well. really just didn't have a good enough deck build. had several great bombs, not enough 1 & 2 drops & not enough Infect creatures. really could of used a Flensermite, Necropede, or Ichorclaw Myr just to name a few.

should i have stayed with 16 lands straight through? i don't know. just felt like i was either screwed or flooded in several games. kept adjusting. also i power shuffled before every game. lots of guys seemed not to do this. surprised, they just wanted to get going.

in terms of Mirran vs. Phyrexian, i liked the idea and it seemed to add a extra level of competitive fun. several guys were bitching about playing Mirran. i wonder after playing me if they still didn't like Mirran?
overall still had fun.

[Xavious]

A few hours ago I returned from the pre-release and burn was definitely the best strategy against Phyrexia. There were several different strategies in play for the Mirrans although I was the only one who went predominantly burn. For creatures there was Wardriver Goblin, Goblin Gaveleer, and signal pest. To help fill out my deck and benefit from the battlecry I threw in two each of the two different green trample creatures and for some mana fixing and card draw I had a horizon spellbomb.

1st Round 2-1
Mirran
This was your standard U/W Control. Arrest, tumble magnet, volition reins, etc. was present here.

2nd Round 0-2
Phyrexian
I was mana screwed badly in this one. Opening hand was full of land but I had to mulligan down to five cards and even then it was barely useful.

3rd Round 2-1
Phyrexian
This guy had a deck based around the living weapon ability. I can't remember the specific cards used but essentially he played the cheaper living weapon cards and then late game used the equipment to power up infect creatures.

4th Round 2-1
Mirran
This guy had W Metalcraft Control. The strong point of his deck was a Steel Hellkite, which made me very happy to have some artifact hate in the form of Oxidda Scrapmelter and Shatter.

5th Round 2-0
Phyrexian
This was the only deck my deck actually worked like I planned. I managed to get out my gaveleer, wardriver, signal pest, and tangle mantis fairly quickly. I assault strobed the mantis, used burned the impure on one of the two remaining infect creatures the guy had (the one which was going to block the mantis) and next turn I used concussive bolt to finish him off.


6th Round 0-2
Phyrexian
This round was just brutal. This guy managed to get two Hand of the Praetors and that just tore through whatever I could get on the field before I had enough mana to get rid of them. Second game I managed to stall him through repeated arc trail and burn the impure but once both hand of the praetors came into play I had zero chance.

Ultimately I finished in 3rd place tonight, having been beaten out by two phyrexian players.

One notable Mirran deck I haven't mentioned yet was a White Mill deck. The guy managed to pull three Shriekhorns, two Frantic Salvage, and three Salvage Scout. Given the low amount of cards in the deck and able to mill 2 cards per turn that can start on the first turn with the ability to retrieve the shriekhorns this deck worked surprisingly well.

Next week I plan on playing for Mirrodin again and once again I'm going for burn if the cards are right.