Monday, September 27, 2010

Scars of Mirrodin Prerelease

This weekend was the Scars of Mirrodin Prerelease. I played in the Saturday main event at Get Your Game Onto a 4-3 record. While I didn't do particularly well but I did learn some important things about the format in preparation for the PTQ and GP season. Hopefully reading this article will keep the scarring to a minimum in the future!



The set was completely spoiled prior to the prerelease over at the mothership, Wizards.com, as well as mtgsalvation.com. As a result it was possible to know all the tricks in the format, a good practice for PTQ's and GP's, but for a Prerelease I neglected to do much more than scan over the spoiler for Constructed playables while considering how to break Standard for States on the 9th.

However, it is worthwhile to mention that there is no Giant Growth in this format. Or comparable effects like Predator's Strike or Vines of the Vastwood. The only green pump spell gives +x/+x for XG, Untamed Might. I remembered this fact and it served me pretty well throughout the day.

But let's get to the fun. My pool:

Scars Sealed Pool | The Rusty Machete































The formatting is awkward, but I did it with a decklist convertor so all the cards would be linked for ease of examination. Also I'm missing some cards, and they're all green or white. I probably just left it on the table once I was leaving for round 1. I'm pretty certain they were a pile I had pushed to the side as unplayable. The green included such hits as Withstand Death and Wing Puncture and a dearth of playable creatures. I'm pretty sure the missing rare was a Molten Psyche.

The main thing I got out of an intial look is I only had 2 bombs, Carnifex Demon and Volition Reins. In addition, I had 2 Horizon Spellbombs and Mox Opal which would enable splashes, which I would need to compensate for the lack of ridiculous mythics/rares. Furthurmore blue was much stronger than red. Even though red had double Turn to Slag, blue featured strong fliers, Volition Reins, and Riddlesmith. I was locked into playing black for the Demon and double Grasp of Darkness.

Here is my finished build:




























I included The Grafted Exoskeleton as it is a 2 turn clock alongside Sky-Eel, which was going to have to be a consistent win con one way or another. I boarded it out a lot due to vulnerability to Shatter effects, even though it did give Myr late game combat relevance. My 2 Palladium Myr were included to give me a chance of out-manaing my opponents as well as being lightning rods for removal.

I ignored my infect creatures as I didn't envision being able to win consistently with 2/2's with no evasion. I had no way to pump my guys outside of Exoskeleton and I would have to cut the Myr package, which was more synergistic with the late game control plan.

Round 1: B. James

Game 1: He played a Ichorclaw Myr, a mana Myr, a Mox Opal, and another 1/1. I cast Demon and wrathed him.

Sideboard: none.

Game 2: His start this game was much stronger with Goblin Graveleer and Darksteel Axe. I had the Revoke Existence to exile his Axe though, keeping the beats to a minimum. He played a 2/3 with Infect and a 3/1 with Infect. I traded with the 3/1 after I had taken 2 poison as I didn't want to die to Untamed Might. He died to Volition Reins on his Hoard-Smelter Dragon.

Round 2: Reeeeechard Franklin

Before this round I'd shown Rich how to add Venser to his already insane deck. He heeded my advice. I was therefore paired against him. Justice.

Game 1: He played Geth.I suited up Sky-Eel with Exoskeleton and hit for 5 poison. He had the Shatter. I died.

Sideboard: +1 Memoricide -1 Grafted Exoskeleton
I knew he had 2 Revoke Existence and 2 Shatter, making the equipment a huge liability.
Memoricide reads: 3B, discard a card: exile a card from your opponent's deck you have very few outs to. Mulliganing when you cast this spell is better than autolosing to a bomb. It is very possible I should've boarded into red for Turn to Slag since it is much better against Geth than Grasp of Darkness. But the Demon seemed unanswerable for him so I stuck to the black.

Game 2: I played Palladium Myr, it was exiled. He played Geth. I cast Reins on it. I then cast Memoricide naming Revoke Existence since he didn't have blue mana in play for Venser. He died to Geth.

Game 3: I was on the play and kept Spellbomb, Palladium Myr, 5 lands. I drew a Galvanizer which was Fleshrendered after my Palladium was Shattered. I died to that Fleshrender and another 3/3 after drawing Trigon of Thought and infinite lands.

Round 3: J. Alvarez

Game 1: He played some Ichorclaw Myrs and mana Myrs. Then played another 1/1 when I had Demon. He did not know Demon was a global effect, instead thinking it targeted. I informed him otherwise and he lost his team.

Game 2: He played a Carapce Forger and Strata Scythe and Accorder's Shield. When he attempted to get his shields up, I cast Grasp of Darkness. He cast Withstand Death in response. It resolved. His dude died. The Strata Scythe allowed an Ichorclaw Myr to hit me for 7. I then blew up the Scythe with Sylvok Replica and won with Eels.

After this round I removed Exoskeleton from my maindeck and replaced it with Disperse

Round 4: sorry, didn't get your name

Game 1: He played Wall of Tanglecord and Slice in Twain on a guy of mine. I took his Wurmcoil Engine with Volition Reins and the game ended shortly.

Game 2: I was greedy and played Volition Reins even though I had Stoic Rebuttal in hand and could've waited for the 4th blue mana. Instead the Reins is destroyed by Slice in Twain and Wurmcoil gets me.

Game 3: I exile Wurmcoil Engine with Revoke Existence and beat him down with 3/3 fliers.

Round 5: Alex Jaeckel

Game 1: He plays Etched Champion and has Metalcraft active with multiple myr and Replicas. I cast Demon, wrath both of us, and kill him with it.

Game 2: The board position comes down to me at 11, him at 4. I have Moriok Replica and Palladium Myr. He has Blistergrub, Etched Champion, a mana Myr, and Darksteel Axe. My hand is Shatter. I cast Shatter, intending to kill the Champion, and realize I can't. So I kill the Myr to prevent a chumpblock. He is on all blanks in hand. I attack with just the Myr and trade for the Champion. I then sacrifice the Replica and draw into Darkslick Drake, which I play. He hits me for 4 with the Swampwalker, and Volition Reins my flier. I Reins his swampwalkers. He hits me for 4 again. I draw a Sylvok Replica but can't activate it as I don't have metalcraft for my Opal and don't have a Forest. I misplayed very badly this game as the Moriok Replica was worth more in play, or in a trade for the grub, than two cards off the top.

Game 3: I lose to the curve of Prototype Golem, Geth, Platinum Emperion.
But wait, I should've won.
I Volition Rein'd the Geth, and traded for his Golem and a token with two Sky-Eels, not blocking with Geth to play around his active Trigon of Corruption and Instill Infection he played in a previous game. I then used Geth to regrow his Golem, preventing his next attack from doing anything. However I did not mill him for 5, which is a part of the resolution of the ability as I did not read the card carefully. As a result his topdeck was a Sylvok Replica which blew up the Reins and cost me the game.

Round 6: T. Davis

Game 1: He gets me with Barrage Ogre beatdown as all my guys are 2/2's and 1/1's which either die to the ability or are rendered useless in combat by Arrest.

Game 2: He floods out terribly while I hit him five times with Sylvok Replica. Eventually I draw a Sky-Eel and finish him.

Game 3: I am unable to get rid of Rusted Relic equipped with Livewire Lash as it prevents me from blocking and using Grasp of Darkness since my blocker would just be shocked by the Lash. I should've definitely boarded into red for this matchup but neglected to think things through.

Round 7: sorry didn't get your name

Game 1: He plays Lifesmith, a Necropede, and Steel Hellkite. The Hellkite is removed via Shatter, and Viridian Revel is removed by Sylvok Replica. Sky-Eel gets him.

Game 2: I have Demon on 4 off Palladium Myr. It hits him once while he plays Flameborn Hellion and attempts to race. I play Volition Reins and end the race. Untapping is pretty good on haste creatures.

Props:
Game On, for hosting an excellent event.
My opponents, for being excellent sports and nice people.
Rich, for learning Venser's ultimate stacks.If you control 2 emblems, you get to exile 2 permanents per spell cast.
Volition Reins, for winning games that are otherwise completely lost.
Mox Opal, for letting me freeroll the event.

Slops:
Geth, for being very unfair.
Me. Losing when I controlled Geth and didn't mill was a huge punt.
Infect, for being way worse in sealed.

Lessons Learned.

Posted by Kmaster at 4:57 PM
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