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By: PHahn, Peyton Hahn
May 02 2012 10:03am
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 Avacyn Restored Prerelease Report

 

My apologies on not being able to have links of all the cards. As of the time of writing this article, Avacyn Restored is not mtgotraders inventory, so therefore cannot be linked. For your convenience, I will put unlinked cards in bold so that the article is easier to read.

Going into prerelease weekend, I was, like many people, very excited about finally getting to play with Avacyn Restored.  After looking over the spoiler many times and reading several set reviews, I felt like I had a decent grasp on what to expect from the cards both in terms of limited and constructed play. 

Although I planned to attend only the Saturday Prerelease at my local store, Eastside Games N Cards, my friend Andy told me about a midnight draft, which I quickly decided to attend.  Having not played paper Magic in a few months, I figured it’d be a nice way to ease back into it while simultaneously getting a feel for the limited format before most of my opponents the next day.  Never miss a reasonable opportunity to gain an advantage, I suppose. 

The draft went incredibly well. I arrived a few hours early to do some trading and update my inventory (since I literally had no Dark Ascension cards and very little Innistrad), and really enjoyed seeing all my Magic friends I hadn’t seen in so long.  After opening Herald of War in my first pack and being passed two Defangs, I knew right away that I would be in white.  Finding my second color was not as easy, and I found myself taking strong cards in both blue and red, as well as hate-drafting a little black (which nobody was playing apparently).  After getting cut from white in the second pack, I opened Cathar’s Crusade in the third pack and ended up with a UWB fliers/beaters deck with some seriously dicey mana.  I ended up going 3-0 and getting first, mainly on the back of my bombs as well as Tormentor’s Trident.  Seriously, if you’re playing fliers, play this card.  

Now, on to the actual Prerelease. 

After arriving a little early to the store, it wasn’t long before I saw many familiar, tired faces from the draft.  I was actually quite exhausted myself, as I hadn’t gotten home until 4:30 the night before, and a noon Prerelease wasn’t exactly ideal.  After grabbing some Combos and a Mountain Dew, I was ready to open my packs.  I apologize upfront for not having a full list of my pool, so you won’t get to tell me how wrong I built my deck…I mean decks…we’ll get to that. 

My pool was actually pretty unexciting. No one color stood out, and my only bombs were Terminus and Griselbrand. ONLY Griselbrand?!  Yeah, we will get to that too.

Anyways, here’s the deck I sleeved up for Round One:

 

Sealed Deck 1
 
Creatures
1 Angelic Wall
1 cards

Other Spells
1 Griselbrand
1 Bone Splinters
1 Maalfield Twins
1 Batter in Blood
1 Appetite for Brains
1 Mental Agony
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Hanweir Lancer
1 Riot Ringleader
1 Havengul Vampire
2 Goldknight Redeemer
2 Goldknight Commander
1 Terminus
1 Defang
1 Mad Prophet
1 Righteous Blow
1 Angelic Armaments
1 Heirs of Stormkirk
1 cards
Lands
8 Swamp
5 Plains
5 Mountain
18 cards
 
Bone Splinters


 

I’m sure many of you will see that list and need a bucket in which to throw up, and that’s okay.  I’m pretty infamous amongst some of my Magic friends for making terrible limited decks at Prereleases.  This time, though, I did have some inside information on the format from the draft.  I noticed that there isn’t much relevant happening before turn 4 in most games; in fact I think I saw more ‘draw-go’ turns than I’ve seen in limited for quite some time.  Because of this, I felt I could play many more high-cost cards and stretch my mana.

Quick note: in this format I don’t think it’s completely obscene to choose to draw, especially if your mana is shaky. I chose to draw all day and it paid off, as my card advantage really made a difference in my (many) close games.

I honestly have no memory or notes about my first round.  Maybe it’s because I was tired or just excited to play, but I don’t remember a single card that was played (although I’m sure many Plains and Swamps were).  I do know that I won 2-0 and was insanely shocked, as I thought my deck was complete trash.  I was playing great Magic and making all the right choices, but I highly doubted this deck would get me very far.

In the second round I played against an opponent that had opened his pool a few seats down from me.  While I was feeling depressed about my terrible pool, he and his friends were going wild over his insane UW soulbound deck he had built with his.  It was a very good deck, with Silverblade Paladin and a couple Latch Seekers.  Game 1 was very close, and I luckily had my hand disruption to dispatch his Angel of Jubilation before he could play it, and had removal for his Paladin and other early drops.  Still, he was beating me down quickly with a Latch Seeker.  After managing to survive for a while, I was able to play my Goldknight Redeemers and gain back enough life to even the game before my fliers ran him over.  Game 2 was more of the same, as he had a pretty good start and got me down to 5 life before I started playing my larger drops and eventually Griselbrand to finish off the match.  Great guy to play against, although I could tell he was really disappointed to lose in Round 2 with such a strong deck.

It was during this match that I started to Ponder switching out Griselbrand and black entirely.  Although he had won me the match, I had drawn Griselbrand in every single game and only been able to cast him once.  Still, I figured that I may as well stick with it since I was winning.

Between Rounds 2 and 3 I also noticed my friend Austin was looking very distraught.  Austin is one of my closest Magic friends, and he is heading to boot camp for the Marines next week. Austin, if you’re reading this, good luck man, we’re all proud of you.  Anyways, after the first two rounds, Austin was 0-2 and had been mana screwed something awful in all of his games. He was playing a deck with a little over 50 cards because he didn’t feel like he could cut down his playables, and it was making his experience a miserable one. Since I knew the round would go to turns, I decided to sit down with him and help him cut his deck to 40. When looking through his deck, he really did have a nice UW deck with plenty of solid cards, which made cutting to 40 more difficult than I thought. Eventually, we cut him down to 40 cards with 17 lands.  We’ll check in on Austin at the end of the article.

I sat down for Round 3 ranked first overall, and one of only four remaining unbeaten players. The guy who sat across from me was a bit older than me but seemed like a pretty nice guy. I wished him luck, and we were off.  Game 1 he just overran me with his large soulbound creatures like Trusted Forcemage, Geist Trappers, and Druid’s Familiar while I got color-screwed with a handful of black removal.  It was bound to happen eventually, I guess. Game 2 he was off to a fast start again, playing a Turn 2 Treacherous Pit-Dweller.  Staring down my first match loss, I needed a miracle.  Luckily, my opponent attacked into my soulbound Hanweir Lancer and Riot Ringleader.  With the help of his creature, I was able to make quick work of him from there. In Game 3, my mana came back to bite me once again as I got color screwed while he ran me over.  It was time for change, as I had drawn Griselbrand in all 3 games and never cast him, even when I got to 8 mana (didn’t have 4 black).

In between Rounds 3 and 4, I switched out my black for green. I figured this would ease out my curve with a better midrange game while still allowing me to have great late game with white.  Also, I realized I was only playing black for Griselbrand, and the rest of my black was situational or just not very good.  To make things worse, the mana requirements on the legendary demon make running three colors insanely awkward. 

Here’s what I sleeved up:

Sealed Deck 2
 
Creatures
1 Gloomwidow
1 Angelic Wall
2 cards

Other Spells
1 Geist Trappers
1 Abundant Growth
1 Blessings of Nature
2 Trusted Forcemage
2 Pillar of Flame
2 Hanweir Lancer
1 Riot Ringleader
1 Havengul Vampire
2 Goldknight Redeemer
2 Goldknight Commander
1 Terminus
1 Defang
1 Mad Prophet
1 Righteous Blow
1 Angelic Armaments
1 Heirs of Stormkirk
0 cards
Lands
6 Forest
6 Plains
7 Mountain
19 cards
 
Gloomwidow


Round 4 arrived, and my opponent told me he was playing RW aggro. This made me nervous, as I hadn’t had enough time to test my new deck at all.  “Guess we’re getting thrown in the fire,” I told myself.  Both games went pretty similarly, with him beating me down early and using Banners Raised to get some extra damage while I played some decent midrange and removal before playing Terminus and then finishing him with Goldknight Redeemer.  Terminus is a serious, serious bomb if you can play it right (which means not always using the miracle on it).  In the tournament I casted Terminus probably four times, and only one of those was off of miracle…but we’ll get to that.

So going into Round 5, I was 3-1 in matches and 7-2 in games.  My opponent told me he had beaten my Round 3 opponent, making him the last unbeaten player.  I guess I should have been worried, but I saw getting paired up as a possible way to make first.  But then again, that’s because I’m horrible at understanding tie-breakers.  It quickly became clear that he was RWB aggro with a deck absolutely filled with removal.  Still, in the first game I was able to squeak it out by playing Angelic Armaments on some mid-range creatures.  Game two was a lot different, as I was getting the absolute poop beat out of me after I kept a loose hand containing 6 land and 1 creature on the draw (yes, I know that’s wrong).  With a board full of creatures and imminent death staring me down, I top-decked Terminus, and it truly felt like a miracle.  After evening the board, I played two Goldknight Redeemers to stabilize while my opponent drew only land, and I ended up 4-1. 

After finishing my round rather early, I went and saw how Austin’s round was going.  He was now 2-2 and hoping to finish with a winning record, which he did by winning the round and ending at 3-2.  He seemed happy with his result, and I could tell he was having a lot more fun, which made helping him out worth it 100%, even though some other players may not have appreciated it.  But, in my opinion, when you’re matched up with someone who’s 0-2, how often are you playing for prize? Not often, I would guess. 

With four 4-1 players at the top of the leaderboard, it was up to the computer.  After waiting anxiously for people to finish their five turns (every single round had gone to turns), the final standings were announced. The opponent I had just beaten had finished first, my third round opponent finished second, and I had finished third. I always get kind of annoyed when stuff like that happens, but that’s how it is.  Someday, it will work in my benefit, which has also happened before.  I received six packs and opened Temporal Mastery and Entreat the Angels and felt like justice had been served.  I had also opened a Temporal Mastery and Avacyn, Angel of Hope in my prize packs for the draft, so it had been a great day.  Nothing welcomes you back to paper magic like two over-priced mythic rares and cool white cards. 

To anyone playing in the release this coming weekend my advice is simple: play a more control style. I know that with the recent limited formats of Innistrad/Dark Ascension, Innistrad, and M12 it’s a strange thought, but this format is truly very slow.  This means playing three colors is fine also, although don’t be surprised if you get screwed by it a few times.  Also, choosing to draw is, at least in my opinion, completely understandable.  Oh, and Griselbrand is not an auto-play in sealed. I’d slam it in draft, since you can build around it, but in sealed it’s among the most awkward cards I’ve ever played with.

Having said all that, this was just one experience, so it’s very possible that the format is faster than it appeared in such a small sample size.  If this is true, don’t kill me over it. I’m just giving you the impressions I got from my prerelease experience.

I hope you all enjoyed hearing about my experience with this fun new format.  Leave some comments and tell me about your experience and opinions on the format, and feel free to brag about that foil Tamiyo, the Moon Sage you opened.  Good luck at your release this weekend, and please let me know what you think of the article!

 

Time is a marvelous plaything”---Temporal Mastery

 

Peyton, shaqdaman on MTGO

1 Comments

Thanks for the write up. I by grandpoobah at Thu, 05/03/2012 - 19:33
grandpoobah's picture

Thanks for the write up. I do want to mention though that soulbond decks can be brutally fast. Once we start drafting, you *must* account for soulbond decks. My prediction is that the draft format will boil down to RG Soulbond vs UW Blinky Bounce, with RG being the overall favorite thanks to Lightning Mauler. Returning stuff to their hand isn't as effective when it comes back with haste.