Lost Caverns of Ixalan pre-release-2-1!

For this pre-release, I got to go with my friend Rebecca to do the Two-Headed Giant format at Red Castle Games! 

RCG really rocked the house, running a great tournament and we had a lot of fun. Here's my vague-ish notes.

We were able to put together a mono-Black deck for Rebecca, with a low curve and a lot of removal, and with the rest of the cards a Red/Green deck for me to pilot was available.

Round 1

Vs Via/Levy (sorry, I didn't get your first names!)

We had a strong start, with enough pressure to put them in the single digits, but Rebecca got stalled on lands, which hamstrung on out ability to keep the pressure up. She didn't see her fourth Swamp until the game was nearly over! While she was able to make some plays and use Souls of the Lost and Echo of Dusk, with some early removal in Dead Weight and Bitter Triumph (a great card for 2HG), we couldn't quite get our opponents defeated. They put on a nice comeback with some measured play and lifegain from Armored Kincaller. 

Eventually our opponents got out two Panicked Altisaur and that put us on a clock we couldn’t get back from.

Round 2
Vs Alex & Steven

They had a slow start, but this time my partner had mana. That meant that she could keep casting more than just removal. It started with a Broodrage Mycoid, then a Vito's Inquisitor with a Hunter's Blowgun. Then Queen's Bay Paladin came out to help put the hurt on. 

While I had a Panicked Altisaur of my own, it was Eaten by Piranhas. But I was still able to get enough dinosaurs out to keep our momentum going and with some smart removal from Rebecca with the clutch play of taking out the opponent’s Altisaur using a Fungal Fortitude on my Armored Kincaller. Plus, we gained another 3 life (Which gained us 12 life over the game), which kept us out of reach of their building army.

Round 3
Vs Daniel & Jason

This time we really took it to ‘em. It seemed like Daniel got stuck with a hand that didn't have a lot of action, so most of the removal took out Jason's creatures.  With a Palani's Hatcher, I was able to represent a lot of pressure, aided by the Vampires from my partner. Plus, we really held out on use of Tithing Blade to get two creatures instead of just one.  Eventually, I cast my own Altisaur we were able to attack for 15, then do an extra 4 damage after combat.

My thoughts after the event:

First, the set is more dynamic than I thought it was in my review. There is a lot going on at any given moment. I think this is a good thing but I also know it made for longer, grindy games. Keeping track of it all became an exercise by itself.

Second: my experience with Craft was pretty meh. I was able to use Kaslem's Stonetree to make a 5/5-but it was promptly neutered by Petrify. That's a 8 mana investment for a 5/5 with no abilities to get nothing. Similarly, when Rebecca had the mana to craft Tithing Blade, the game was effectively over. The front side was good, but the mechanic might as well not exist. 

Third: Discover probably needs to be in Constructed decks. I spun the wheel on Discover caves three times over the course of the day and each time felt extremely underwhelmed. I wasn't expecting much but I have learned my lesson about utilizing it in a Sealed format. 

That aside, the games we played were fun and interactive-even the one where Rebecca was froze out of much of it. A 2-1 record is nothing to sneeze at!