God damn I love pre-releases. There's something so nice about coming to a completely un-tested format. It's like opening a brand new computer game at the exact same time as your friends and having a race to figure out how to play it first. In fact, it's just like playing a whole new game. When I rocked up to Serenity games on Saturday I could feel everyone was thinking the same thing. The infrequent players who might have travelled from as far as Portadown just to play Magic were excited to play new cards whilst those who regularly atteneded the shop were eager to get to grips with something other than the slightly wearisome bomb heavy M11 limited.
I got into the shop at just the right time too. Whilst registration was due to close at 12, there's only so much space the shop can hold and with me walking in, it had hit max capacity. Niall Graham, the legendary shop manager had to drop out of the event just to fit me in. I have to say I really appreciated this.
Having only glimpsed at a few of the spoilers, I was looking forward to a few surprises, hopefully landing a few bombs along the way. Thankfully, my boosters were far from disappointing.
First booster: Elspeth Tirel
Second booster: Sunblast Angel
Me: Well I think I'm playing white then!
As for the second colour, a Hoard-Smelter Dragon made the decision for me. With a Myr Battlesphere and a Ratchet Bomb to add to the mix, this five rare packing deck was a monstrosity beyond words. A trained monkey could have taken this deck to top 8. Thankfully I like to think of myself just a tad better than a damn dirty ape.
Anyway, without further ado, here's the deck list:
9x Plains
8x Mountain
1x Iron Myr
1x Auriok Edgewright
2x Vulshok Replica
2x Blade-Tribe Berserkers
1x Glimmerpoint Stag
1x Razor Hippogriff
1x Darksteel Sentinel
1x Sunblast Angel
1x Hoardsmelter Dragon
1x Myr Battlesphere
3x Revoke Existence
1x Dispense Justice
2x Turn to Slag
1x Arrest
1x Elspeth Tirel
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Ratchet Bomb
1x Trigon of Rage
Whilst it may appear a bit slow, sealed is generally supposed to be a little show. Especially with this format. I had enough seven removal cards that dealt with either creatures or artifacts (some did both) whilst both the Ratchet Bomb and the Sunblast Angel punished opponents for over extending. On my sideboard I had another Trigon of Rage in the unlikely event my opponent was artifact or enchantment light enough to make a third Revoke Existence seem like overkill. Also I had a few mediocre equipment pieces and two Sunspear Shikaris if I was getting overrun by a weenie rush deck. Thankfully I never had to resort to this option because of said Ratchet Bomb and the trade forcing Vulshok Replica.
Match 1: Daniel
Youngling Daniel said he hadn't played in two years and to be frank, it showed. Whilst his deck wasn't too bad, he the wrong block on multiple occasions, regardless of what my mana situation or what else was on the table. I overrun him quickly in game one with my early drop creatures outclassing his. When he let a Double striking Auriok Edgewright through with my Trigon of Rage open in game 2, he declared "Oh snap!" as I did him exactly lethal.
Match 2: Greg McCausland
It goes without saying Greg is a better player than me. Except that is whenever he's drank his way through a bottle of Black Bush the night prior. Whilst he beat me in a tight game one, game two he drew dead with mana myrs popping up late game. In the early game this meant wasting a Contagion Clasp on one, whilst utilizing Glimmerpoint Stag's come into play ability to pop another. Towards the end of the game, I was wasting five mana removal spells on Myrs just because I could. In game three whilst I thought I was going to be put in a pretty nasty position due to Moltentail Masticore, blasting my critters to shreds and getting some swings in. However Greg would be kicking himself for tapping out on his sixth turn and failing to play around the Sunblast Angel which he knew I had. With no regeneration mana open, the Masticore would be saying hello to the KO pile. Since there are very few answers to a 5 toughness creature in the format, the Angel pretty much ended the game by itself.
Match 3: Chris Dodds
Chris didn't have a perfect pool, but he couldn't complain too much. His Green Black deck focused on piling on the poison counters and fast. With bombs such as Contagion Engine and Nim Deathmantle, he did quite a good job of that in game one. I'd offered him an ID prior to game one which he declined, feeling that it was much too early to risk not getting the needed four wins and a draw to top 8. In a heated second game, I returned a Vulshok Beserker to my hand using Razor Hippogriff's come into play ability, this was despite the fact that Doddsy had the black spell bomb with the mana open. He had forgotten to use it, I had forgotten he had it, thankfully this mistake on both sides paid off in my favour and I was able to recast it to finish him off after some swings with the Hippogriff and a Hoard Smelter Dragon. This was particularly close as he had me on eight poison counters and had shrunk the dragon down to a 2/2 with -1/-1 counters. He felt that he was going to win the game uhad I activated the dragon's ability targetting the contagion engine rather than spend my mana on recast the Vulshok that I shouldn't have had. However, I pointed out that he would not have been able to double proliferate the following turn if I had used the ability, meaning that he would still have to get rid of the Hippogriff that was coming right for him. Between the end of this game and the start of the third, then man with the expression filled face re-offered me the ID. I declined and went on to win Game 3, taking a gamble with a 5 land opening hand on the draw. Even holding the Sunblast Angel in my hand at the end of the game. I have to say though Chris impressed me somewhere in this match by proliferating the counters on my Ratchet Bomb to ensure it was out of range from destroying any of his permanents.
Match 4: Steve Tombs
Steve is a pretty casual player and as a result doesn't get enough play time in to ensure he's free from making bad mistakes. Despite this, I've been beaten by him before, he seems to have a similar ability to myself opening the best sealed pools possible. If he was sitting on three wins after three matches, I knew there was something up. When I heard he had Sunblast Angel and Elspeth Tirel, I told him I would ID with him if we were going 1-1 by the end of two games. This is something that might have even be a little bit risk for me as I suffered a loss in the first game, generally due to mana screw. He walked into a 3 for 1 with my Ratchet Bomb going off in game two and what I like to call "Predator Golem" (Darksteel Sentinel - Come on, look at the artwork.. it's a giant Steel Predator, it even has dreads), I was forcing Steve to scream "Get to the choppa!" in a bloody mess before I Myr Battlesphered him out of the game.
Game 3 was as I predicted. It came down to whoever drew Elspeth first won. Thankfully for Steve we had ID-d as I overrun him quickly with soldier tokens.
Match 4: Some Portugese guy
This guy had come down from Portadown and whilst he's not the worst player ever, he failed to realize that Carnifex Demon is a limited bomb and wasn't playing him in a deck that could have. His deck seemed to be one full of Green Fat and some other jank but it just couldn't compete with my own, in both games I was left with a mountain of cards still in my hand unplahttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6367786yed. Nice.
Match 6: Conor McVarnock
With four wins and an ID, I was automatically through for top 8. Here I could have lost and still got through but I ID out of courtesy and we play through the match anyway. I went 2-1, getting beaten by a poison counter beatdown, winning one game off the back of Elspeth and the third being a pretty close one that saw us both use our Myr Battlespheres, me killing him with the direct damage that the ability on the attack provides.
Top 8
With no problems making top 8, my abilities as a player begin to get tested. I draft a relatively mediocre U/W deck that's bomb free unless you can count Legendary Cat Cleric Kemba, Kha Regent. I don't because well.. she's crap unless you get an equipment n her and since Darksteel Axe just doesn't come around that often, you're left putting thing like the poor man's lightning greaves or Barbed Battlegear (which is good but quite expensive and shrinks the toughness. Glinthawk Warden, Razor Hippogriff and Ghalma's Warden were my MVPs.
Match 1: Daniel
Well Daniel San had somehow been scooped into top 8 by players that might have had grievances about beating a pre-adolescent. Thankfully I'm a cold heartless bastard and only took a slight pang of guilt as I beat him into the ground for a second time. He did win the first game as I failed to play around a Sunblast Angel, which I then destroyed only to be put in dire stress by the 4/4 mythic angel which gave all his guys shroud. Game 2 and 3, I played as if he had Sunblast Angel in his hand at all times - stalling out, building board position and trying to draw cards wherever possible off Trigon of Thought.
Match 2: Greg
Second rematch of the day. First game I beat Greg down pretty quickly because he's mana screwed for a particular colour (I think he lacks the swamps to make it a fair game), meanwhile I'm beating with a metalcraft affected 2/4 and everything is getting hastened up by said poor man's Lightning Greaves. Game 2 is an epicly long one, where I make a bit of a mistake. Instead of recurring a Necropede with the Hippogriff, I chose to bring back the white spellbomb, intent on drawing some other gas. If I had chosen the Necropede I could have dealt with the 2/1 unblockable blue guy a lot sooner. If Greg had let the attack go through continuously then I think the poison would have got to him. Either way, I did have a dispense justice that I kept holding back, thinking that any time Greg would attack with his 2 Sky-Eel Schools which I would have had no answer to deal with, other than block and trade with one using the Hippogriff and get crushed by the other. Greg however is a very patient player and puts me into the range of the drain life spell. It was quite a close one however. At one point, Greg Volition Reignsed the Hippogriff only for me to play Glimmerpoint Stag to put it back into my control and recurr the white spell bomb again. I also have to Remove from Existence his Contagion Engine before he wrecks my board. At another point, Greg is put into a position where he has to draw two removal spells to get rid of Scrapdiver Serpent.
Amusingly, halfway through this game I rang work to let them know I would be an hour and a half late as I was "helping my mum with something important". Well helping my mum I wasn't, but I felt it was much more important to play magic than to collect glasses in a pub.
In the third game, I get pounded into the dirt with style. Greg has a better board position going into turn six and seals my fate with the Contagion Engine. To work.
Pre-release 2
So, I went to work between the hours of 9.30 PM and 2 Am, then I went out drinking to a friend's gaff, guzzling beer, vodka and jaagermeister until 7 am. Not to mention I took more than a few drags on a certain kind of cigarette. Again my deck was bonkers. This time I played R/B and had Carnifex Demon, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, Nim's Deathmantle, Myr Propogator and the R/B dual land. On top of this I had 3x Shatters, Darksteel Axe and 2x Plague Stingers. This deck "ripped it hardcore like pornoflick bitches". Unfortuantely, whilst my memories of Saturday's pre-release are quite murky, I remember even less of Sunday's due to the four hours sleep I had the night prior and the liver abuse I dished out on Saturday night.
Match 1: DJ Carson
I'm pretty sure I wrecked DJ in the first game by 3-for-1-ing him with Carnifex Demon's infest ability. Game 2, he was in a much better position than I was but his poison counter count was pretty high and swung with a Plague Stinger. In response to the attack, DJ popped the blue spell bomb to give a 4/2 Golem flight. Unfortunately I had top decked a shatter and I apologized for being such a jammy son of a gun and salvaging victory from the jaws of defeat.
Match 2: Matt Tweedy
I'm pretty sure it was Matt I play in this match. I think I win the first game by dishing out poison counters ridiculously fast - Plague Stinger turn 2, followed by Painsmith and Darksteel Axe on turn 3. Better lucky than good. Game 2 ends up being one of those games where half the field seems to disappear due to removal and trades. Matt ends up in what seems like a particularly strong position with a creature equipped to Argentum Armour. Unfortunately whilst he is able to attack with it once, I flash in Darksteel Sentinel as a blocker and Matt has decided to target my R/B dual land rather than a seemingly irrelevant Contagion Clasp. On the turn following, I swing back and put him from 7 to 4 then play Bleak Coven Vampires in the post combat mainphase, the Contagion Clasp, not seeming so irrelevant now ensures that Metalcraft is online and the life suck finishes him.
Match 3: Simon Carmichael
Simon is always a pleasure to play, whether you win, lose or draw. After a good battle destroy him with Hoard-Smelter Dragon and using its ability multiple times targetting my own Darksteel Axe to give it +4 attack. If it weren't for my excessive mana though, Simon had me dead the following turn. I'm largely mana screwed for Game 2, whilst Simon hits a great draw and I'm forced to mulligan down to 5 in Game 3, sealing my fate.
Match 4: Dean Convery
I can't remember this one other than the fact I won. I think it was probably the Darksteel Axe that did it in one game, whilst Nim's Deathmantle that did it in another. Mmm good equipment.
Match 5: Steve Madden
We ID as we both have made top 8 and I can't remember what happens after that. I think we play two games and I win them both, with the back of Nim's Deathmantle, the other by generating umpteen Myr Propogator tokens.
Top 8
Another mediocre draft deck, I try to go for a blue heavy, red light artifact deck that has a few metal craft guys along with a load of bounce and big toughness guys.
Game 1: Drew Carmichael
I know Drew held a big grudge for me for a while because I was an ass in a draft game a few months ago and did a big takeback. I tell him I owe him a big takeback, pretty much suggesting he can have one big dirty cheat. He tells me not to worry about it as it hasn't bothered him and truth be told, he doesn't need it. Despite rare drafting, his R/G deck savages me. I almost win Game one with mediocre artifact creatures and holding off the 4/4 phoenix by bouncing it but Drew plays Cerebral Eruption and hopes for the luck shot. If I reveal a land or any card with cost less than 3, I have the game. Unfortunately I reveal Scrapdiver Serpent, a 7 mana creature whilst I'm on 7. I lose the game due to an incredible spell of bad luck, but don't mind, I kind of felt Simon's Brother deserved to win this one in spectacular fashion as my come uppance for being an ass. What I did mind was how stupid I was in the second game. I was put on 8 poison counters by an Untamed Might targetting his 2/2 infect artifact creature but managed to stabilize by building board position with artifact creatures and the Manic Vandal Ox. I even Bonds of Quicksilvered the Corpse Cur. Unfortunately, I walked into Tel-Jilad Fallen twice. Once by attacking into it with artifact creatures and secondly by tapping out, when I should have held the ox back, thinking I could tap it with the Tumble Magnet.
AWFUL AWFUL PLAY!!!!
Now don't get me wrong, had this been M11 draft and his creature have been a Black Knight and the Tumble Magnet been a Blinding Mage I would not have made the same mistake, I just didn't play the original Mirrodin to even take into account what Protection from Artifacts actually entailed. Terrible excuse for a random act of stupidity I know but I'd been playing pretty much perfectly up until this point all day, despite being hammered before I went to bed.
What annoyed me even more though was that Drew wouldn't give me a third game. For that I will hold a grudge for as I deem it to be cowardly and unsportsmanlike.
I forget to bring my pre-release pile of cards with me and head off to the pub to join Trent, Chris and Kerr bear who are mid session due to the Empire selling pints of Coors for £2 during the football match. With Sunday being Trent's last night, it's only fair that we give him a good send off. After the Empire we head to the Pavillion to watch Niall's band, "Sweet Taste" rock everyone's socks off. This is probably the best band in Belfast as all four band members are extremely talented, produce catchy but great tunes that don't faff about with some guitar fret fappage like some supposed technical mastery that you'd hear from some teenage metal group.
Even with my two highly notable mistakes, I really enjoyed the whole weekend.
Trent, I hope you realize how much you will be missed and I hope you don't mind that we got you absolutely steamboats by making you drink the most evil looking concoctions ever to be poured into shot glasses. Haha, USA! USA! USA! I think we all might owe Niall a pint for getting you to the airport the next day, or maybe we shouldn't as it could have been part of the plan to get Trent to get on the plane!
Now this should be my last FONMP section for a while, my regular fans will be screaming out for some stories of comedy, drinking and schmoozing.
- Big Nasty
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