i'll have to settle for mtgo since there's no mtg community in israel
Which saddens me, because I'd absolutely die for a Hebrew print run. They only ever made one card in hebrew, and that was Glory for the Judgment prereleases or something. Completely random, but eh.
Any tips from the midnight prereleasers? There's always some stuff in the set that's scarier to play against than you'd think from just reading the spoilers online (fuck you extort). It'd be cool to know that stuff ahead of time.
Bestow is simply amazing value in Limited. Very hard to deal with. Also, x/4's can block 90% of the commons and uncommons in the format, while Lightning Strike hits about 67% (or was it 70-something%? I forget the exact percentages) of them. The 2-mana exile target creature with power two or less is absolutely worth maindecking at least one of. Removal is always good in some number, but considering the lack of quality removal and the abundance of cards that don't care about it as much, don't overvalue it too much. Creatures win the games, after all, not spot removal. Heroic is a fickle mistress. B/W is strong. U/W is good as well. In a meta with unskilled players and/or weak pools, even a mediocre R/W pool can steal games very easily. Mind, we're talking Sealed as opposed to Draft. Also, white promo is probably the best, as I figured. Bestow is so good, and so is a 5-drop 4/4 flier with first-strike... it just so happens that it's the best promo for it's CMC, IMO. Also, Gray Merchant of Apshodel is very, very good. So is Scrying. Damn is it ever so good.
So as for my prerelease experience... it was mediocre. I ended the day 4-2, but because my store likes to do top half, I only had 4 packs for 5th place. Value wise, I broke even, maybe a little more, but so not worth the effort. I really don't like Sealed, I've come to realize. Draft is more my thing.
Way too tired for an in-depth tournament report, so I'll come back and flesh it out later;
My deck was U/W fliers. Hardly the best deck, but notable cards included Prognostic Sphinx, Daxos of Meletis, Spear of Heliod, pack-pulled blue promo kraken, and my promo Celestial Archon. Also pulled Boon Satyr and the black Bestow rare (which I traded away). Nothing over $4, and Daxos was especially disappointing considering I already preordered a playset. Performance-wise however, he was fantastic and kept me in my final game of the day so I could win it. I'll put my decklist here later once I've slept some.
Round 1 vs R/GIt was pretty uneventful, and I was the first person done smashing my opponent 2-0. He was clearly an inexperienced player, but there just wasn't much he could have done better anyway; my deck performed just as it was meant to.
Round 2 vs U/BSlightly tougher matchup, but ultimately he used his removal on the wrong things and it cost him the round. 2-0 for me.
Round 3 vs B/GI lost game 1 to land flooding, won game 2 on turn 5, and then lost third game yet again to land flood. Almost won the third game, but he had a timely heroic trigger to gain 1 life putting him just out of range of an alpha strike supported by God's Willing. He frustrated me a lot because game 1 he spent way, way too much time making decisions. Had it been anything but a prerelease, I'd have called a judge on him for slow play several times it got so bad. He ended up winning on the third turn of turns. It was ridiculous. At risk of sounding like a terrible person, I will say karma got him as after round 4 he was outside throwing up for a few minutes. Apparently he 'smoked something bad.' I really didn't like this guy.
Round 4 vs R/WThis guy was the guy I go to every event with, and one of my best friends. He was actually paired down against me because of an odd number of players being undefeated, which is just my damn luck. He stomped me 2-0, though the first game I put up a fight. Second game was - as always this tourney - land flood issues. He's the luckiest guy I've ever met though, in everything and anything. I swear it's his good karma for having been born physically handicapped. I can't feel too bad, as he went undefeated and got 1st place by drawing with his last round opponent.
Round 5 vs R/WThis was a completely different game compared to Round 4, with her playing a much slower R/W deck that just couldn't handle the pure momentum of my deck. Won 2-0 here.
Round 6 vs W/BThis guy was - other than my good friend - the only regular I played, and he was a tough match. Game 1 was a quick win for me, Game 2 saw me lose to land flood (though I did put up a solid fight, and almost had it at one point). Game 2, however, was a true test of skill. We both gained and lost the upper-hand, but a timely God's Willing on Daxos let him swing in, gain me the 4 life needed to keep me alive and cast a blocker to trade with one of his attackers. Ended up winning on the back of a stalemated board and a Prognostic Sphinx swinging every turn. I won just as the round would have gone to time and started turns.
In my prize packs, I ended up pulling a Medomai, a Temple of Mystery, an Erebos, and a Sylvan Caryatid; each one of those rares was worth more than my highest value rare in my sealed pool, so I wasn't too terribly unhappy.
Rare-wise today, I ended up pulling about $51 in rares. Which, while above the $25 entry fee by more than double... almost wasn't worth it from the sleep lost and the anything-but-fun Sealed format. Oh well, at least I managed to trade for things I need for Standard.
EDIT: Yes, I think of double my entry fee as break even, especially considering how it's padded by a lot of $4 and $1 rares. I look to the SCG prices and half it to figure how I did value-wise.
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Topic: Magic: The Gathering (Read 17326 times)