Lorwyn Eclipsed Prerelease 1-2

A slightly auspicious start to our Two-Headed Giant experience, as I got a paper cut while I was opening my box! Fortunately for me, Rebecca had a narwhal band-aid for me, so no blood hit the floor. 

I built a RW deck using blight counters and heavy on removal-I had a ton of spells to remove or incapacitate creatures. 

We also opened 3 copies of Maralen, Fae Ascendant so why not try an elves and faeries deck with lots of flash creatures? Rebecca took that one. 

Round 1 vs. Brian and Brian

They were running UW merfolk & RG elementals. And I'm pleased to say that our decks did things in the early game...but Brian (no, the other one) cast 3 Run Away Together  on consecutive turns. That's right; every turn we cast creatures, they got bounced. 

That took our creatures out of the action long enough for them to build tempo & use the Champion of the Path to take us out. I drew one removal spell that game, and I was reluctant for Rebecca to run out a flash blocker. Lesson definitely learned: flash creatures can sub as removal. 

Round 2 vs. Steven & Eli

They had a cheap UW fliers deck with a BR goblins that worked together well to overwhelm us. We had some removal, and the Lasting Tarfire I cast did some WORK but we couldn’t get enough creatures onto the board to hold off the creatures coming at us. Lasting Tarfire did all our damage, while at one point, they swung for NINE in the air. 

Round 3 Jacob & Harold

Jacob had a BG elves deck, and Harold a UWR Elementals deck.

Unfortunately for them, after a Keep Out on Jacob’s Shimmerwilds Growth, he had to spend time getting his colors fixed, slowing him down considerably. Harold had some Summit Sentinels, but apparently drew dead when he blocked with them, while Rebecca sent fliers over to swiftly end the game.

Despite the record, we both came away from the prerelease with very positive impressions of the set! I am looking forward to playing this set and seeing what decks it has to offer. 

Thanks as always to Red Castle Games for a well run event. 

Edge of Eternities Pre-Release (1-2)

Thank you to Red Castle Games for hosting a wonderful event!

Rebecca decided to go for a G/W +1 counters build, and I was playing a B/R build with a lot of removal. Here's the breakdown. 

Rd 1 vs Justin and Donovan.

Unfortunately, our opponents were manascrewed. Justin had a Forest and a Swarmyard in play, Donovan was able to cast Susurian Voidborn and an Interceptor Merchan, but Rebecca and I played things out on curve and with haste. This wrapped the game up swiftly-she had an army of 1/1s and I had a Nova Hellkite.

Rd 2 vs Ben and Michael

We had a solid early start but they responded with a Pinnacle Starcage and it wiped our board. This stalled us long enough for an Elegy Acolyte to arrive and make robots. We were able to deal with the Acolyte in a comical set of plays using Banishing Light, which they responded to by using a Banishing of their own to bring it back, then Rebecca using a Shattered Wings to bring our Banishing back, which they eventually responded to with a second Banishing Light! I mean, what are ya gonna do?

Eventually they were overwhelming us, even casting a Famished Worldsire for 18 power and we had a lot of lands but not much else to do. Sadly I never drew a removal spell and we just couldn't quite keep up.

Rd 3 vs Malik and Kirk

A drag out battle this time, we took out a lot of creatures, fighting through a Tezzeret emblem. 

I failed to do some math, and at a critical point we decided to use Mutinous Massacre over Zero Point Ballad. While we were able to attack for 11 and take out their board, they had more than enough mana to recover from it.  That left us unable to do much-even with an active Susurian Dirgecraft. Eventually a warped Weftstalker Ardent was able to do us 4 damage, getting us to one life, and now Zero Point Ballad couldn’t wipe the board again.

I stared at the board state for about two minutes to make sure we weren't overlooking anything, but they had us. Great game though!

So...what does this all mean?

First thing's first: I am happy to say that I had a lot more fun than I anticipated, given the set review. The Warp ability did more groundwork than I thought to keep the early game flowing. 

We both felt like we had options and plays to make; Rebecca was flooded in two games and I was mana starved in one as well--this kind of RNG didn't impact our feelings. Sometimes Magic is like that--when we could make plays those plays felt relevant!

Which is a great place to find myself, after being truly concerned this would be a repeat of Aetherdrift's more blah experience. 

Tarkir-Dragonstorm Pre-Release 1-2

Starting off with a thank you to Red Castle Games; a great event as always. 

Rebecca and I picked Abzan (GWB) and Mardu (BRW) as our respective decks and both of us planned well, I thought, making sure we were higher-end of the land count, at 17. I admit there was a little disappointment in my packs, as the rare for my Mardu pack was Marang River Regent, and the rares in two other packs were Mistrise Village and Cori Mountain Monastery. 

But Rebecca had a solid suite of removal, and I had a Stormscale Scion to build around so here we go!

Rd 1 vs Vin & Riley

They were playing Jeskai and Sultai, and while we had a fairly good start, including a Scavenger Regent, Vin had removal spell after removal spell. Eventually we started topdecking lands, and Riley was able to surmount a sizable board presence that we couldn’t get over.

I think I made a critical error, waiting on my own spells to use the Stormscale Scion, and it was only after the match that we realized that I could’ve done it after any of our combat steps when they used removal spells.

Next time!

Round 2 vs Fry and John

They were playing Mardu and Jeskai decks but Fry found himself mana starved, and we pushed on that while John made tokens. While they got us down to 19, we had a massive turn where Rebecca cast a Worthy Cost, then a Kin-Tree Severance, that I followed up with the Stormscale Scion. With three 7/7 dragons, the pressure was just too much and they conceded shortly after.

Round 3 Liz & John

Our opponents were playing Jeskai and Sultai decks that were VERY strong. Rebecca had a great start, playing out her hand on curve, including a Delta Bloodflies, Trade Route Envoy, and Riling Dawnbreaker.  

However, they played and Elspeth Storm Slayer (which we used a LOT of resources to get off the table-but it had to be done), Fangkeeper's Familiar, a Flamehold Grappler followed up by a Riverwheel Sweep, locking down our two best creatures and leading to a Magmatic Hellkite, Kotis, the Fangkeeper, and Dalkovan Encampment. We just couldn’t find the answers to those questions. It was too much to keep up with.

That said; we made them work for it! We just couldn't find removal of our own to keep up with their resources. 

All in all though we felt we had opportunities in each game to do things and felt like our decks played fairly well! We both are looking forward to playing more sealed and seeing what the set can do for us, so I feel like this is one is a win. 

1-1-1 (Aetherdrift pre-release)

As always, thanks to Red Castle Games for putting on a great event!

This was a 2-Headed Giant event, and my partner, Rebecca, built a U/W Vehicles deck while I had a R/G Exhaust-ish deck going. 

Our packs were a little unusual: We both felt like we got a lot more duplicates than we have in previous pre-releases. For example: I had four copies of Stampeding Scurryfoot and three Pedal to the Metal. Rebecca had at least two copies Collision Course and Midnight Mangler. 

It just felt like our options were more limited than usual, due to an abundance of duplicates. Still: I think she had a solid deck built and I had one that I thought went well on curve, with a lot of things to do on turns 1-3. However, the challenges to building decks in this format were unique and I think had us stumbling just a little. 

Round 1 vs Remi and Jeremy

Jeremy had a G/R Exhaust deck with Afterburner Expert and this was just backbreaking. Remi's UW deck was a good support build. helping keep tempo in their favor but we had to kill the Expert 4 times, because it just kept coming back. 

I probably made a mistake by letting my Chandra go too soon. Our opponents hyperfixated on it committed all their resources towards destroying, so I thought; Hey fine we'll get something to do to hit them on the crackback. But we just drew dead: Rebecca helped keep the game going by cycling a Valor's Flagship for four but it didn't yield much,and 1/1 bodies are not going to cut it. I had two Mountains in hand and Rebecca an island with a random white card (I think) when the big play came.

And the big play was when they hit max speed & got a Samut out via the Redshift. They took the game with just under two minutes left in the round.

Before Round 2, I added a second Crash & Burn. I had been reluctant to run a 4 mana removal spell but it's pretty solid in this format. 

Round 2, Vs Gabe & Lucy:

Our lands were not showing up; I was stuck at three mana, Rebecca at four, for most of the game. We managed to stall the game out vs their GB/UW decks-our opponents were able to mount pretty solid offenses but they weren't quite robust enough to get the win. We managed to stave off a Debris Beetle twice, and I made a pretty smart play when I forced Gabe to save his Engine Rat from removal, which meant he couldn't activate its ability to drain us for four life. Rebecca kept us in the game with a Voyage Home. 

After we went to time, Lucy drew her sixth land and was able to activate her Gearseeker Serpent and they went in for a massive attack that took us down to one life-but it was their last turn. We couldn't defeat them but they ran out of time to beat us. 

Whew!

Round 3 vs Eddie & Cody

Our opponents were stymied most of their game: Eddie (G/B) didn’t seem to have much to do—they frequently were drawing lands and Cody had a slight misunderstanding of how Marauding Mako interacted with Riverchurn Monument. When he understood that milling cards didn't trigger the Mako, I think it threw him for a bit. 

We kept a steady supply of pressure via an Elephant generated by the Scurryfoot and Glitch Ghost Survivor.  Rebecca kept the tempo in our favor with a steady supply of cards via Vnwxt, Verbose Host which kept her hand full & let her respond to their plays with Bounce Off and Spectral Interference. I drew timely Crash & Burns to take out the big creatures they could get out and we pulled the game off at the last minute. 

After all that, I talked to Rebecca about the event and here's where we came down on things.

Aetherdrift looked better in person than it did online. And as an insular experience, it was fine. While presenting some challenges to deckbuilding-how many vehicles can you have in a deck and still have a viable game, for example-those challenges didn't feel particularly compelling. 

It seems to play well with itself, she remarked, but she did not want to deal with the interactions it would have with the larger Magic universe. The bookkeeping alone was a problem for her, and we were both surprised that the pre-release boxes didn't have Exhaust tokens of some sort. They did have Speed cards to help with that mechanic, and those were very beneficial, so ignoring Exhaust feels like an oversight.

In the end: Did we love it? No. But we liked it more than we thought we would! Getting to Max Speed was more engaging than we thought it would be and actually made an impact on games. We even thought that more ways to interact with your opponent's speed might've been worth putting in the set-though that would mean that there would be more cards don't care about being at Max Speed which...they didn't do. We felt that RNG and inexperience had more to do with how the games went than just getting blown out--excepting Afterburner Expert. That card was annoying as fuck.

That said: our opinions of Aetherdrift are lukewarm. I found games to be a bit sluggish-all of our games went to time, but not in ways that I thought were compelling. Board states just locked up, and I didn't think we got to make many strategic decisions, rather ones that were pressured by how much time was on the clock

We didn't have a bad time but it didn't feel as much fun as the experiences we've had with Bloomborrow or Duskmourn. 

Bloomburrow Pre-Release (1-2)

Once again, I was at the Two-Headed Giant pre-release at Red Castle Games, my partner was the awesome Rebecca and...here's how it went!

First match vs Eugene & Kevin (loss)

This one was a tough one—Rebecca drew 4 lands in a row, after mulliganing down to five cards. While I had an interesting start of two Mistbreath Elders, I couldn’t follow up with anything important. The tempo set us back, unfortunately. They had a Mable, a Heartfire Hero, and then followed it up with a slow building rat deck.

Round two; I’m sorry, I didn’t get your names! (won)

There was a nice back and forth; one opponent had a rat/otter deck the other had GW rabbits and while we kept them at bay, we were on the back foot for most of the game. I could deal with Burrowguard Mentor the first time, but it came back via a Dewdrop Cure. With Valley Floodcaller they really kept the pressure on. The UB deck they had was stacked, and at one point I counted four rares on the table just from them! 

At the last moment I was able to.cast a Dragonhawk, exiling 3 cards, give it haste with Raccoon Rallier and exile 3 more; this meant that no matter what, I was dealing 24 damage to my opponents (12 each) and that was exactly enough. That ending is very silly. But a win is a win!

Round 3; I also did not get their names, sorry. (loss)

It went pretty evenly, though Bandit's Talent did a LOT of work both forcing cards from our hand and doing damage. The critical play was a Scales of Shale to protect Driftgloom Coyote from my Agate Assault, preventing returning Kingfisher to us. I foolishly walked into attacking after that, instead of just letting Rebecca's fliers get damage in. They gained five life to the five damage and Bandit's Talent did another 4 damage to us on upkeep to seal it.

Sigh. I totally blew that one—but we had a good time! We both felt the games were good, and that we had opportunities, even in the games where RNG didn't help us.

Here's what we built:

Deck 1 (RG)
Playful Shove
Wildfire Howl
Agate Assault

Pawpatch Formation
Conduct Electricity

Flamecache Grecko
Mistbreth Elder (2, one later cut for the Wildfire Howl)
Byway Barterer
Brambleguard Captain
Wandertale Mentor
Rust-Shield Ramppager
Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest
Tender Wildguide (2)
Brambleguard Veteran
Raccoon Rallier
Quaketusk Boar
Treeguard Duo
Treetop Sentries
Sunspine Lynx
Alania's Pathmaker
Junkeblade Bruiser
Roughshod Duo
Bark-Knuckle Boxer

Deck 2 (UB)
Patchwork Banner
Sword of Fire & Ice

Savor (2)
Early Winter
Feed the Cycle

Kitnap

Starlit Soothsayer
Tidecaller Mentor
Knightfisher
Agate-Blade Assassin
Daggerfin Duo
Persistent Marshstalker
Vren, the Relentless
Glidedive Duo
Mind Drill Assailant
Bonebind Orator
Starscape Cleric
Thought Shucker
Moonrise Cleric
Nightwhorl Hermit
Seedpod Squire
Waterspout Warden
Moonstone Harbinger

Hidden Grotto
Uncharted Haven (2)

MKM Pre-Release (2-1)

Special thanks to Red Castle Games for hosting a great event, making things a lot of fun! Extra thanks to my teammate Rebecca for being a good human to play with, and making some great plays that absolutely won us games. 

I've put our respective decklists at the end, but we were able to put together a solid GB deck with some real haymakers for her, and a more complex UR deck for me that could power through some shortcomings. UR artifacts & clues did me some good!

Round 1 Vs Milo & Vin

Got out to a fast start with a Frantic Scapegoat and Snarling Gorehoud, but some key Reasonable Doubts kept Rebecca’s stuff of the table. They put a  Topiary Panther out and we held off on dealing with it because I had thopters, and Rebeca was bound to topdeck something else. Instead, she drew three lands in a row and by the time we were able to stabilize our side of the board, we were down to six life, just like them. The final blow was countering a Cornered Crook once they had solved The Case of the Gateway Express. We almost got there...

Round 2 Vs Daniel & Joe

After the turn four No Witnesses board sweep I thought we were in trouble: Rebecca lost one creature, but I lost three. Fortunately, I was able to make two Clue tokens off that, which kept me in cards. Then Rebecca followed up with a Vein Ripper, and I used my clues to generate more creatures. This was critical, because they were using Warleader's Call to ping us for two, every time Daniel cast a creature. Plus, they were able to use Makeshift Binding to keep our early pressure off.  Fortunately, the Vein Ripper did what it was supposed to do: completely wreck a game. Killing creatures came with the punishment of a four point life swing each time, and 6 damage in the air per turn did them in after that. 

Round 3 Vs Alex and Nick

The game started fairly evenly, until Rebecca used Analyze the Pollen on turn 3 to get the Vein Ripper, and we put massive pressure on them after that. I kept the smaller beats going with the low key help of Gleaming Geardrake and a well timed Felonious Rage, but make no mistake about it; once the Vein Ripper arrived, they were on a clock and they just couldn't quite get there. 

In the end, we came in fourth overall and our only loss was to the team that won the entire event. That feels pretty good!

The GB deck:

Kraul WHipcracker

Nix Weaver

Urgent Necropsy

G

Topiary Panther

Rubbelbelt Mavrick

Pompous Gadabout

Analyze the Pollen

Tunnel Tipster

Axebane Ferox 

Sample Collector

Vitu-Ghazi Inspector

Nervous Gardener

B

Hunted Bonebrute

Repeat Offender

Unscrupulous Agent

Nightdfrinker Moroii

Extract a Confession

Snarling Gorehound

Toxin Analysis

Undercity Eliminator

Murder 2

Vein Ripper

The UR deck

Multi

Gadget Technician

Gleaming Geardrake

R

Case of the Burning Masks

Garbage Orangutan

Person of Interest

Suspicious Detonation

Frantic Scapegoat

Torch the Witness

Bolrac-Clan Basher

Crime Novelist

Innocent Bystander

Vengeful Tracker

Harried Dronesmith

Shock 2

Corners Crook

Reckless Detective

Felonious Rage

U

Deduce

Hotshot Investigators

Burden of Proof

Steamcore Scholar 

Dramatic Accusation

Cold Case Cracker

Escape Tunnel 2

LotR Pre-Release

I know I just got finished saying that the LotR set didn't hold much interest for me, but a buddy was going to a pre-release and hey, hanging out with friends is cool! 

Here's how things went.

Match 1 vs Zachary

Game 1: I was able to grind out the ground game, as he didn’t get his tempo cards.

Game 2: He used War of the Last Alliance to get Faramir, Prince of Ithilien. I couldn’t remove it, and that was that.

Game 3: Whil he didn’t draw his tempo cards, he did get Faramir again. This helped stall the ground game, and I misplayed my Nimble Hobbit's abilities and forgot to pay mana to tap a blocker. This meant we went to time, and that was that.


Match 2 vs Lance.

Lance played like he was hungover. Don’t go to prereleases hungover folks. Trust me.

Game 1: He was able to play two Fog on the Barrow-Downs, shutting down my threats, and that was that.

Game 2: This time I had the pressure needed to win.

Game 3: I drew lands. He drew spells. You might imagine how it went.

Match 3 vs Max

Game 1: His deck rolled through me, with two Erebor Flamesmiths on the table and more than enough reasons to cast Sam's Desperate Rescue in multiples. .

Game 2: I had to mulligan to five, and unfortunately my first play came on turn 4 with a Bag End Porter. 

Boy that sucked. Not just the losing, but the fact that I just felt like the games were...dull slogs. I didn't get to make interesting choices, the Ringbearing mechanic didn't increase my interactivity and instead put a tremendous pressure on me to have removal-something notoriously slim in Limited formats. I found myself getting pinged by tiny creatures with the Ring, allowing a huge upside of looting, and even extra damage, for my opponents.

This is the first pre-release I can think of in forever where the games just were not fun. On top of that, a small group went to the pub to play more games with our decks and the 'grindy unfun slog' just continued for me. I won a few games, but I didn't enjoy the experience. 

Part of the issue might've been my deck; I thought the curve was pretty good, and for the most part I didn't have to mulligan often or have trouble finding my colors. But I just didn't have anything useful to DO, more often than not. It was really easy for my opponents to run away with games. 

However, Black had only one creature, Red didn't offer any removal and Blue... well I don't exactly get Blue in Limited. 

Anyway, here's the deck:

Old Man Willow
Arwen, Mortal Queen
Shelob, Child of Ungoliant

Shire Terrace
Great Hall of the Citadel
7 Forest
6 Plains
1 Swamp

2 Westfold Rider
2 Hobbit's Sting
Gandalf the White
Eowyn, Lady of Rohanb
Nimble Hobbit
Bill the Pony
For on the Barrow-Downs
Dunedain Blade
Escape from Orthanc

Many Partings
Shower of Arrows
Galadhrinm Guide
Chance-Met Elves
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Ent's Fury
Delighted Halfling
Bag End Porter
Entish Restoration
Pippin's Bravery
Enraged Huorn
Mirrormere Guardian

MotM Pre-Release 2-1

I participated in the MotM pre-release at Red Castle Games last Saturday. Here's the deck:

7 Forest 

8 Plains

Invasion of Moag 

Halo Hopper
Flywheel Racer

Storm the Seedcore
Arachnoid Adaptation
Yedora, Grave Gardener
Renata, Called to the Hunt
Wildwood Escort
Gnottvold Hermit
Timberland Ancient
Atraxa's Fall
Overgrown Pest
Chomping Kavu

Progenitor Exarch
Angelic Intervention
Attentive Skywarden
Elspeeth's Smite
Zhalfirin Lancer
Cut Short
Realmbreaker's Grasp
Alabaster Host Sanctifier
Knight-Errant of Eos
Seraph of New Capenna
Invasion of Dominaria
Tarkir Duneshasper

Rd 1 vs Sin
Game 1: my turn one Duneshaper meant I could put some pressure on early, and transform it later to keep that pressure on. His deck didn't produce anything until turn 3 but by then I had the edge.

Game 2: Realmbreaker's Grasp locked down his biggest creature while Knight-Errant of Eos got the job done.

Rd 2 vs Matley
Game 1: He just overran me. 

Game 2: A very grindy match with both of us able to play Progenitor Exarchs for a couple creatures. I was able to outlast him, basically. 

Game 3: Another grindy match that went to time, but I had Seraph and Skywarden, and they were able to get in while the ground game was locked down.

Rd 3 vs Dezzy
Game 1: A Timberland Ancient with a Kitesail equipped to it ended the game in short order in her favor.

Game 2: As with my last round, this was another super grindy match that I was able to win with a well timed Storm the Seedcore. 

Game 3: We were pretty evenly matched and because this was the last round, they didn't call time when they should have. I mistakenly used my Atrax's Fall (an outstanding removal card for this format) on her Blighted Burgeoning instead of waiting for a better target. This let her build a bigger board state and, with us seven minutes over time and me holding two Plains and a Forest, I conceded. 

Some takeaways from the event:

Battles are, as expected, only as good as their front side. I'm not saying they are irrelevant, but getting them to flip generally felt like 'win more' and not 'turn a corner'. 

It seemed like the matches were designed to go long, so one always had to keep an eye out for any small advantage. 

Good stuff. 

Finally: I have finally caught the plague. I'm out for the next week. Cheers!

Phyrexia: ONE Pre-release

A pre-release! I haven't been to one since at least 2019, and Red Castle Games was hosting one (with masking strongly encouraged-and most people wore one!) I felt like this might be a good time to get some of my mojo back. I went with a RW build that I list below, and here's how the matches went:

Rd 1 vs Peter

Game 1: I got some early removal with Hexgold Slash and Annex Sentry. Then my fliers came to clean up the rest.

Game 2: I got land screwed and couldn't do much.

Game 3: Was a grindy match, but I was able to outlast him in the end. Whew!

Rd 2 vs Thom

Game 1: His turn one Venerated Rotpriest did some WORK. But I was able to stabilize and then cast Solphim, Mayhem Dominus and he conceded quickly after that. 

Game 2: He cast White Sun’s Twilight for 7 = I die

Game 3: I was mana screwed and used my Annex Sentry early to bide me time. His next spell was Glissa Sunslayer, and I couldn't find an answer for that.

Rd 3 vs Steve

Game 1: I got mana flooded and couldn’t hang.

Game 2: I got a lot of early damage in with a Mandible Justicar, getting to 29 life-but once I lost my lifelink creature, he had an answer for my Basilica Shepherd. Then his fliers took over the game.

Sigh.

Here’s the deck:

2 Blazing Crescendo
2 Compleat Devotion
Charge of the MItes
2 Hexgold Slash

Hazardous Blast
Gleeful Demolition

The Eternal Wanderer

Infested Fleshcutter
Bladehold War-Whip

Kuldotha Cackler
Chimney Rabble
Axiom Engraver
Solphim Mayhem Dominus
Ichorplate Golem
Atraxa’s Sktterfang
Annex Sentry
2 Basilica Shepherd
Porcelain Zealot
Bladed Ambassador

If I had to do this over again, I’d cut the Infested Fleshcutter: I never had the time or mana to equip it and tokens that cannot block are not that useful, unless I can generate them every turn. As a matter of fact, I might’ve swapped white for green, and tried that instead because after the Fleshcutter, my options were...nothing, really.

But, I had a good time and played against very nice people! That works for me.

Guilds of Ravnica Pre-Release

I'll spare you some suspense: I went 1-4. That is a day of some bad beats. I had a pretty good time, though; my opponents were at least pleasant and occasionally engaging. I enjoyed the experience, even if my games were less than optimal. 

Round 1 vs Geoff, paying G/B with splash U
While he had all the mana he needed and I was short -peaking at five mana in both games- I was able to keep the pressure on. He didn't have enough deathtouch creatures to make my attacks unprofitable & the tap dude was great. I felt as though I had made some good decisions with my build at this point.

Round 2 vs Joey, playing U/B
These were rough games. Game one I got beat down from Dimir Spybug, buffed by the Surveil cards. In game two I came out of the gate fast and got him to two, was still at twenty life, aaaaaaand he used Disinformation Campaign and Enhanced Surveillance to see his entire library twice. I hadn't boarded in any enchantment removal, since I didn't see any in game one. What this means? Eventually he was able to grind me out, using his removal and draw over and over. A great game but a bad beat on the loss.

Round 3 vs Andy, R/U splash B
Although I went 1-2 here, I feel like the games were just not balanced well. Surveil once again made a huge difference. I made the mistake in game 2 of keeping a hand that didn't have a lot of action until turn 4, which game him a chance to build up faster than me. I've been under the impression that 2/3 fliers are turn 4 are solid but maybe not. Or, maybe running 3 Parhelion Patrol isn't helpful? I swapped one out for a Wild Ceratok after this in order to put a little more beef in the deck but I was disappointed to give up the consistency.

Round 4 vs Nicolas, W/G
I made two mistakes that cost me the round. In game one, instead of keeping my Conclave Guildmage back to block his Blade Instructor, I attacked and had no defenses. He made 3/3s and I couldn't stop the bleeding. In game three, I had the opportunity to cast a second Locket, break the first and draw two cards, which might've helped me get the Collar the Culprit I needed to get rid of Trostani Discordant.  Eventually I drew BOTH of my Collars but by then the damage was done and I didn't have enough mana to cast both of them in one turn, which would have been necessary to stay alive.

Rebound 5 vs Chris, W/R
I went 1-2 again and in the second game, it was because I kept a hand that didn't have enough action early, and Boros gonna Boros. In game three I kept a solid opening hand but hit a land puddle in my deck that the activation of TWO Seleysna Lockets could not dig me out of (my 5th and 6th draws were also lands). I got overrun after that.

Since when in 17 lands and two mana rocks too many, in a deck that is running 9 drops?

So it was a fairly frustrating day. Sometimes I could tell I'd made a mistake. Other times I just felt like I'd been put in an inevitable loss situation, especially against U/B centered decks.

I may have gotten fixated on W/G, since that was my guild: I had a lot of options and, I thought, consistency there is better than wild power fluxes.

Looking back at the pool, it might have been possible to go W/U/R-there wasn't a LOT of support for it, but there was some. There wasn't enough to go Blue/Red, the blue was especially shallow. But the mana support was there, and I also had opened a Niv-Mizzet, Parun and a Quasiduplicate, so maybe I just got sucked into something that wasn't there.

However, as a way to get back into the public scene, I feel good about the experience.

Born of the Gods pre-release

I used to do a little better at the pre-releases and I seem to be in a bit of a slump. I went 1-2 last weekend (same as at Gatecrash)and while I had a nice enough time, I just couldn't get the games to fall my way. Yet I don't really feel that concerned. While writing this post, I saw this video on the Knight's Tour, a chess problem that mathematicians have been working on for years. What's interesting about that video, for me, is how people took an already complex problem (how can we use the knight to touch every square on the board) to make an even more complicated problem (let's make a perfect square!)

For me this idea explains a great deal. I am interested in revamping my decks until they work and then my interest tends to fall away. Solving a problem means I don't have to work on it anymore. I think this is why I keep generating decks: they are new problems so solve. But Theros doesn't seem to give me a problem to solve. None of my losses felt as though they were due to player error or a misunderstanding of the environment, or a revelation about how the cards in BotG interacted with Theros. I either had creatures or I didn't, or worse, I just had creatures outclassed by theirs, and that feels more like a luck-based loss than a skilled one.

I started off with a B/W build that I thought had a very solid curve-lots of plays turns 1-3-but it didn't pay off for me in the first match. I was up against an aggressive RW build and couldn't find a fourth land in either game. It's all well and good to have a curve but at some point I still need mana to play the bigger creatures that come along. Never happened. The match was over before match slips had been delivered!

So I decided to use my extra time to look over my deck and change it up. Green had been my original choice over white, but the curve in white was better so that concept won me over. I swapped the white out for green and thought I had a much better gameplan (cast big creatures and hope for the best).

It worked out better in round 2; I went 2-1 against a U/R deck using scry and fliers to pave the way to victory. I was able to mount an offense as well as use Fate Unraveler for the slow burn to keep myself in it. My final play of game 3 involved Bestowing an Setessan Oathsworn with Nylea's Emissary and then attacking for 10.

Unfortunately, my third matchup was not going to be as kind. Playing opposite a BW deck that had Brimaz and played it in games 1 and 2, I was in for an uphill battle. I lost to Brimaz in game one; game two when he showed up on turn 3, I managed to stalemate the board and eventually use Fleetfeather Sandals on Fate Unraveler to fly over for the win.

But game three had me mulligan down to 5 cards. In a limited environment, this is almost akin to conceding. Despite that, I still made a pretty good stance, keeping my opponent off WW by milling at least 3 Plains via two Returned Centaurs but in the end I was just overwhelmed by lifelink and fliers and lifelinked flilers.

What's discouraging is that not only did I not have an answer, I was never going to have an answer. There was not a deck configuration that was going to help me in that game: I could either splash a third color for some removal, and look at losses due to mana screw, or I could do what I did. Mana is so important that I prioritized it over running one copy of Magma Jet, and I think rightly so.

Lesson from the games: Enchantment removal can be used as creature removal, but it is unwise to consider it actual removal.