Kaladesh Sealed 9/30

I went 2-1 last Friday at Red Castle's sealed event. I felt pretty good about my deck and was one game away from being 3-0. That's pretty sweet!

I also got a headache during the tournament. I don't know what it is about serious competitive events but I need to be able to physically move more or my body starts to revolt.

Here's the deck I played

Filigree Familiar
Cataclysmic Gearhulk
Saheeli's Artistry
Thriving Ibex
Aviary Mechanic
Inventor's Goggles
Bomat Bazaar Barge
Glint-Sleeve Artisan
Skywhaler's Shot
Iron League Steed
Weldfast Wingsmitih
Nimble Innovator
Malfunction
Cogworker's Puzzleknot
Veldaken Blademaster
2 Revoke Privileges
Herald of the Fair
Tezzeret's Ambition
Propeller Pioneer
Fragmentize
Bastion Mastodon
Fairgrounds Warden
Eddytrail Hawk
Smuggler's Copter

In the first matchup, I played an exhausted gentleman who told me he'd been up since 5 AM. His pace of play was understandably deliberate but not slow, and our first game was a slugfest that took thirty minutes. At three life, I was able to come back into the game topdecking Saheeli's Artistry and using it to copy my Familiar twice. With the extra life cushion, I was able to freely attack for 11 two turns in a row, and that sealed the game. Our second game, my opponent was severely mana screwed and I won briskly, which was good because we had about five minutes to play.

In the second matchup, I made a critical game three error when I used my Skywhaler's Shot on Dhund Operative (which was attacking) instead of Ghirapur Guide and just blocking the Operative in a trade.

Because a few turns later, my opponent was able to make his creatures unblockable to my 1/x creatures and swing for lethal, after pumping one of his creatures with Engineered Might.

If I had used the Shot on the Guide, I would've taken away that ability and one of his best creatures to crew a vehicle. I underestimated that ability and it cost me.

The last matchup was another slugfest, with my opponent getting an Aetherflux Reservoir, which I thought was going to win him the game for certain. Fortunately, I am getting better at not panicking during these moments and despite the Reservoir, my opponent didn't have a lot else happening on the board. So I kept attacking while he kept casting cards like Woodweaver's Puzzleknot, keeping steady pressure on his life total while not overextending.

When he had a bunch of stuff on the board and looked like he could stabilize, I was able to put down a Cataclysmic Gearhulk and my opponent made some bad decisions about which permanents to keep. As a result, I was able to finish that match with a win.

So far, things are looking interesting!

I'd like to do more sealed events, as a way of improving my Magic game, so I hope to have some more posts like this in the future.

Kaladesh Overview Review

Now that the full set is available to view, I can weigh in on what I think about Kaladesh.

The Big Stuff:

Energy seems neat but it's a workaround of the mana system and that means it's breakable in potentially unpleasant ways. Whenever WotC does things that ignore the mana system, the potential for problems shoots through the roof. Just something to keep an eye on; if the energy deck isn't there now, when Aether Revolt arrives, it certainly will be.

Vehicles are a good twist on artifacts and I think the flavor of the implementation is very cool.

Fabricate is boring. Yeah, yeah, it offers "options" but I don't think it represents choices. I think that the correct thing to do is always going to be obvious and that doesn't really interest me. Is it bad? No, but is it something I want to try and make a deck for? No: I already have a million ways to use and manipulate +1/+1 counters.

The Gearhulks are all pretty badass, except the Green one. Yes, an 8/8 trampler for five mana is good but there's nothing protecting it from Smelt. It's not terrible, not at all-but the other 4 are strictly better.

In White, the card I actually find most interesting is Authority of the Consuls. A Kismet for the most releveant card type that comes out on turn one is going to be a massive boost to control decks, I think.

For Blue, I see both the Energy theme at a high level (it seems to have the most along with Artifacts, with G, R, W and B in order after that) and once again, it's "affinity" for artifacts showing up. I'm not sure why people fret about the state of Blue in Magic; the color is almost always represented at high level events and this continued partnership with artifacts will almost certainly keep it there. The only difference? Cards feel appropriately costed for their effects.

But the card I find the most interesting is Paradoxical Outcome. The ability to save your relevant permanents and draw a card for the escape seems like a really, really cool thing to me.

Black is a bit narrower this time: I was struggling to find compelling stuff there. I'm happy to see Aetherborn Marauder's effect again but even cards like Gonti, Lord of Luxury aren't getting the gears turning. I suppose Midnight Oil could be cool: I really dig the name but the effect seems so damn weak. Plus, the drawback of the card exists even when it runs out of counters! Two drawbacks, actually: the ping for discard and the permanent setting of your hand to zero. At certain points in the game, this is going to be excellent though: file this under "potential gem".

Red should be particularly interesting in this set, right? It's Chandra's homeworld: let's see some love! But, while I think the introduction of the Gremlin creature type is neat, I'm just not feelin' it this time. It's cool that Red is getting an in with artifacts using Vehicles in a similar way that White does with Equipment, so hopefully that will be an added dimension for the color long term.

I'm not sure how Fateful Showdown is being regarded but I feel the card has potential. A madness enabler, card draw, the ability to get rid of cards that aren't helping you, possible interactions with graveyard mechanics: that's a pretty long list of upsides.

That Green has a lot to do with Energy surprises me, but it shouldn't: resource building is a staple for the color. Dubious Challenge is almost certainly going to go into my Cube. (Which is where I keep terrible cards, for the uninitiated). After that, I'm just not seeing much to run with. Nature's Way looks cool, since it allows a potential 2 for 1.

Multicolored stuff has Rashmi and let's face it, that's kinda amazing.

The Artifacts are where WotC put some of the big, flashy stuff and it shows: Aetherworks Marvel, the Vehicles, Deadlock Trap is the kind of card that's long, long overdue, and I wish was an Uncommon instead,  and Filigree Familiar, which will possibly become the most expensive Uncommon in Magic history. It'll certainly rank amongst the most adorable. Skysovereign is crazy good-Noah told me he went 5-1 over pre-release weekend with that in his deck-and everyone already knows how good Smuggler's Copter is.

I clearly need Inventor's Fair for my Karn Commander deck, and Ghirapur Orrery is waiting to be busted.

That's all folks! I'm looking forward to seeing what cool ideas people come up with.

Kaladesh Survey impressions

Survey here.

Cultivator's Caravan: Is just excellent. I wasn't as excited about the art-it's not bad but that's OK. A good card is a good card.

Combustible Gearhulk: another very good card. I like how the red in the picture is subdued, and not the dominant color. The rating is just good though because the opponent's choice is almost always going to be obvious (milling for damage) and that could be big, could be nothing.

Saheeli's Artistry: The art first: again, I like how the blue seems subdued for a blue card. The effect is excellent as well, though I think the flavor text is a bit bland.

Toolcraft Exemplar: continuing the theme of solid art here, too. This is a fair card I think. It doesn't take much to make it good but it takes a lot to make it excellent.

Thriving Turtle: I think this is a good card. It can be a 1/4, or it can be an energy battery and blocker for one blue. That's solid. Everything else about the card was merely fair but it'll do.

Longtusk Cub: I'm going out on a limb to say it's an excellent card. Repeatable energy battery plus the ability to grow at instant speed? This reminds me a little bit of Jitte and that's a good thing. It's always going to be a threat and that makes for a very solid card.

Ruinous Gremlin: I really like the flavor text here, because it gives me a sense of Kaladesh. The card is a good effect too: solid early as a "rattlesnake" effect, useful late when they have you up against the wall with a Skysovereign. 

Aerial Responder: Little too much white in this picture for me. Contrast still matters! But the flavor text adds to the plane and calling this the White Vampire Nighthawk is not out of line. It's great.

Smuggler's Copter: so good. The art is a little weird and it obviously can't carry much for smuggling but I have a feeling that this card is going to show up in decks the entire time it's in Standard.

Sequestered Stash: While I like the art and the implications of the name, the ability really isn't all that. Marginal card. If it didn't require a sacrifice it would move up considerably...and it would also make dredge completely broken in Modern. Still, a marginal card is marginal.

Brazen Scourge: Washed out pink art! It's like an attack of Pepto Bismol. But 3/3's for haste are good. I don't know if this will help the R/B aggro deck that WotC thinks is there in draft, beyond the draft format but who knows? I would very much like to see R/B at the top tables for awhile: it's the only color combo I can think of that has never really had a day in the sun.

Highspire Artisan: I don't like the artwork and I don't like this card. Washed out green tones everywhere, and the option to get a 0/3 and a 1/1 or a 1/4 just holds zero interest for me. Sideboard card in limited, if that.

Contraband Kingpin: I think this card is excellent. Slides well into a U/B artifact deck and does precisely what you hope it will to give you: time. The artwork is very cool, too and I'm excited to see a new creature type with this kind of style.

Demolition Stomper: boy that artwork is drab and brown against a dull green backgrowd. For a plane that is supposed to have slick, lively vehicles, this sticks out in an ugly way. The card itself is marginal, since 10/7's that can't be chumped...hm.

I may have misevaluated this card. A 10/7 will probably take out anything that's put it its way and opponents can't just hope that their 1/1 tokens will give them time. I should test this one.

Rush of Vitality: This is a weird card to see in Black, so I rated it good. Indestructible isn't something I think fits the color often but since they're using Indestructible to replace Regenerate I think it'll happen more often. Thematically, it doesn't work but mechanically it's probably better so I can't argue with that decision. Indestructible is also better than Regenerate for the most part and the artwork feels a lot more colorful and dynamic than what I often see on Black cards.

And that's it! Overall, I'm still pretty interested in this set and want to see how it interacts with the rest of the game. I'm hopeful that it'll be a very solid set, even if it doesn't introduce anything incredibly game changing.

Masterpieces

Yesterday, WotC announced the Masterpiece Series, branching off the success of the Zendikar Expeditions.

The TL:DR for those of you who just want to read my dulcet words is-Wizards will be adding in ultra-rare reprinted cards to packs that are thematically cohesive to the block. You cannot play them in Standard unless they are part of that Standard block (like the Gearhulks), they will come with new boarders and expansion symbols to distinguish them from other cards in the block, and you can see them all here.

And they're going to be doing this in every set.

While the argument against simply reprinting necessary cards in new sets seems very, very weak (I don't recall Thoughtsieze warping things-there was, as is almost always the case in Magic, a confluence of cards to create an issue both times) and will always seem weak to me, since those cards made it into the pool somehow and Standard was OK:

and

The "Masterpieces will tie thematically into the block" position is incredibly vague, as it gives WotC leeway to print whatever they feel ties into the block somehow-or flat out neglect it because "reasons" (Jitte can't be on Kaladesh because flavor but we're totally OK with Chromatic Lantern, Champion's Helm, Painter's Servant, three Swords from Mirrodin, and the least necessary artifact reprint ever, Sol Ring? C'mon).

{Aside: Just go back to Kamegawa, WotC. Fix that block and reprint some stuff that needs it. Jeeze.}

But

Setting those two weak arguments aside, it does provide an avenue for WotC to give players reprints (what we want) while pushing Standard packs (what they want). And the selection of Masterpieces are pretty dang good, Sol Ring aside. Picks for everyone in nearly every format, cool art, distinctive borders and a solid sense of Magic's history.

There's also the possibility of prices for singles going down, as a result of people opening more packs for cool Masterpieces. And I don't know about you, but cheaper singles means I buy more cards.

As compromises go, it's a good place to start and an impressive lead to this series so we'll see how things continue to get executed.

For now, it really feels like a win-win and with the reprints in Take the Crown take into consideration? Good job, Wizards. Very good job.