Thoughts on the SOM Prerelease!
General forum
Posted on Sept. 25, 2010, 2:40 p.m. by Tioras
So, with the Pre-release having started, I thought i'd share a few things I saw.
Firstly, the vast majority of decks were G/B infect. I saw a few G/W Metalcraft, one or two proliferates, but for the most part, everyone was running jund colors or G/B. Those were the colors that had the easiest cards to cobble together and still be thematic. With White/Blue, you had to get really lucky to get multiples of cards for proliferate, or metalcraft, especially if you wanted the cheap metalcraft cards.
GRb Prerelease was the deck I built. I went 4-2 in three rounds of swiss before I couldn't keep going due to fatigue. my two losses were to a virtual mirror match.
Secondly, Koth of the Hammer is amazing. He makes beaters, fixes mana, pings you to death, and untaps a pinger for that extra damage. His abilities control the board, can be aggro, or ramp you up. Is there anything he doesn't do? Bake pies, I guess.
Lastly, Darksteel is not nearly so problematic as I had thought it to be. Infect takes care of the creatures quite easily.
What did you guys play and see?
OMGGGGG. I was so hung over today I don't even know how I made it downtown to my shop ahahahaha! It was amazing. There was a kegger last night and now I am dyyying now! I was just happy I ended up building a deck today :P.
I made red/green artifact destroy with the Hoard-Smelter Dragon as my bomb. It totally crushed artifacts but hard to handle those creatures.
What I saw was a loooot of infect happening. 1st place was a B/W infect deck. It relied on that stag a lot that exiles and infect flyers.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of flying so it's useful to use in a deck. If you need defense that 0/6 wall that gains reach for G is great.
September 25, 2010 9:55 p.m.
I built a G/B infect deck that used Hand of the Praetors , Asceticism , and SKITTLES!! (Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon . He won me SO many games.
September 25, 2010 10:50 p.m.
My deck/cards kind of sucked, I either went 4 color with everything except red, using my best removal and creatures.
The most I got of any one color was 11 blue cards... I got 6 white, and <11 of the other 3. And those small pools of colored cards weren't that good.
Otherwise, against rush decks, I used U/G with a myr army and other artifacts being most of my creatures. Lost 2 matches, won 2 matches.
The two times where I was beat down the most was when someone played a mettled steel turn 3 the 1st game then turn 6 the 2nd (he had one copy). 3/3 myrs and 5/3 saccing guys are hard to deal with, especially when the player has tons of W/R removal if I planned to block or anything.
The other time I got destroyed was when a player got his Koth early both games, and also got his other 2 good rares, able to imprint his contagion clasp for a factory the first game, and the creature that pings a creature or player for 2 red and 1 colorless. Can be very brutal if you don't beat it.
So I'd say either bombs or rushes won the day.
September 26, 2010 12:09 a.m.
Meh forgot bombs in general, Koth won the day. Hate that card in limited, way too powerful. Magic and Wizards of the Coast has thrown individual card balance out the window, for the most part.
September 26, 2010 12:16 a.m.
@ levegre I'm not sure I agree, at least from my limited experience. At my event, out of 38 people, we pulled 4x Koth, 1x Elspeth, and 2x Venser. Venser ended up in the winning deck, and there was an Elspeth in the final 4. Koth didn't really go anywhere.
card that annoyed me the most was actually Quicksilver Gargantuan . There's a notable lack of removal in this set, which means a 7/7 Spikeshot Elder is pretty much game over unless you're holding an Arrest .
Other neat combos I saw: Liquimetal Coating + Hoard-Smelter Dragon , and Bladed Pinions +Goblin Gaveleer
Darksteel Axe was a huge pain in the ass in infect decks; but for the most part, infect didn't do very well -- lots of white weenie decks instead. I was definitely tired of seeing Glint Hawk , card:Accorder's Shield, and Glint Hawk Idol on turns 1 and 2 repeatedly.
mmy deck was something like: rw-metalcraftish
brain dump and impressions:
Perilous Myr is great -- now any color can play with Ember Hauler s.
MVPs: Rusted Relic , Razor Hippogriff , and card:Ghalma's Warden. least impressive: Auriok Edgewright , Ogre Geargrabber , Dissipation Field .
Scariest in constructed: Painful Quandary , hands down; discard decks will be great just using m11 and this one card; the fact that they get Psychic Miasma is just icing.
coolest win: Razor Hippogriff + Grafted Exoskeleton + Assault Strobe -- from 20 life to game over in one swing.
September 26, 2010 6:33 a.m.
Black/blue infect was the style I went for for my sealed event yesterday.
The shop hit 38 capacity and actually had to turn folk away because there wasn't enough room.
My deck ran with a Darkslick Shores and possibly the scariest card of the set (in sealed) for me is Contagion Engine . I don't care what anyone thinks. you get any form of infect damage on the way up to this beast, and you've put your opponents onto a clock.
The rares I didn't use were engulfing-slagworm, Platinum Emperion Blackcleave Cliffs , Myr Reservoir , and a shiny Tower of Calamities which a lot of folk were surprised I didn't use at all.
Now onto the bombs... (Cards that won me games). 2x Grasp of Darkness - This card is just crazy good when your attacking or defending with infect creatures.
Riddlesmith for playing myrs with and chasing up for the kill cards.
Volition Reins For getting any card your opponent plays that they think will win them games. This card alone won me a game against Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon in combination with the next card I thought a bomb.
Tumble Magnet - This card deals with creature threats. Period.
Contagious Nim - Solid 2/2 with infect for 2B.
Skinrender - Another feckin' awesome kill card. You just can't argue with it.
Lost the first 2 rounds because I had originally built a green/red deck to work with. But after seeing how infect was doing in the room, I switched the game round with these cards, and never lost a round. let alone a game.
Unfortinatly I didn't make top 8. Got 9th place. But I'm now converted to saying that Infect is a dangerous concept that is gonna get out of hand come next week constructed.
Fun combo of the day...
Prototype Portal + Necrogen Censer - Slow painful death (upto 4 life loss each turn to your opponent), then when emptied of counters sacrifice to Kuldotha Rebirth
Rust Tick + Sunblast Angel - Tap before killing :)
skin-render + Mimic Vat - Kill Skin Render using it's own ability then capture it under Mimic Vat for mass fun :)
Myrs, and lots of them for random mana pumping action combined with True Conviction .
On the Mythic watch. I saw approx 2x Koth of the Hammer , 3x Elspeth Tirel , and 1 (lucky b-----d!) person managed to get 2x Mox Opal
And thats only from what I saw... so I'm happy how the event went. and it's a fun set to draft and more so fun to play sealed wise.
September 26, 2010 4:26 p.m.
@Landlot and @Levgre: Koth of the Hammer is very strong. I dont think he's a TMS, though. I have to say, I was very lucky to have him.
Mimic Vat is an insane card. the Skinrender combo is great, so is Putrefax (I got a scoop out of that combo). Sylvok Replica meant constant artifact hate. Heck, even just imprinting an artifact creature so I could have constant targets for my Throne of Geth was MORE than worth it.
We had well over 80 people playing at my shop, and most everyone had infect somewhere.
September 26, 2010 6:49 p.m.
End of the sealed event I managed to trade for a Koth of the Hammer . Felt kind of sorry for the kid as he wanted a Demon At Death's Gate so I gave him all 3 for it. Then told the kid to pick something else for the card as I felt I was robbing him.
I like to play fair when trading, but when other people try and dictate the value of a trade, that's when things start to get annoying...
So I ended up handing him 4x Warren Instigator and 3x card:Demon of Death's Gate for a Koth of the Hammer and a Blackcleave Cliffs .
He walked away happy with that trade.
I personally think after actually playtesting... The new Dual lands are crazy good. Basically it's the first three turns that is when you rely on those mana specific requirements for the card to be effective. It doesn't trigger off the Tunnel Ignus guy, and doesn't cause you any hurt either early game, and that makes these cards essential for weenie aggressive decks.
The only major thing wrong is that the set they are in... is just full of artifacts!
September 26, 2010 7:19 p.m.
Side note: When Cardcoin says card:Demon of Death's Gate, it's a link to a deck, not to the card.
I was origionally going to trade Koth of the Hammer straight up at the end of the tourney for a Venser, the Sojourner , but I got too tired and had to leave. In retrospect, I'm not sure if I still would have made the trade, much as I'm dying to get vensers.
September 26, 2010 8:04 p.m.
Oh, I see why he gets the deck and I get the card now. Hurr.
September 26, 2010 8:05 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #14
Persistent Exterminator 
Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter
When ~ leaves the battlefield, put a token that's a copy of it onto the battlefield.
~ can't be sacrificed.
3/3
What do you think? It's way too crazy, isn't it?
May 14, 2015 5:53 p.m.
scopesightzx says... #16
The persistent part makes sense, but I'm not really seeing where the Exterminator part comes from. Perhaps something like this would work better.
Persistent Exterminator 3UB
Artifact Creature - Shapeshifter
When ~ leaves the battlefield, choose one
: Destroy target nonblack, nonartifact creature
: Put a 3/3 Blue and Black Shapeshifter Artifact Creature token onto the battlefield. It has "When this creature leaves play, put a copy of it into play".
This way, the creature can either keep sticking around "persisting" or it can exterminate something.
May 14, 2015 6:06 p.m.
happyman379 says... #17
Last bit should probably be "Spells and abilites can't cause you to sacrifice ~"
May 14, 2015 6:06 p.m.
ABadMagicPlayer100 says... #18
Ablilywise, pretty good. Maybe make it a 2/2 or even a 1/1 for power level reasons. 3/3 is way too big. I could also see 3/1 working because it's easier to kill off from blocking.
May 14, 2015 6:13 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #19
I guess I can change the name. Persistant BLANK, any ideas?
If I made that change, you could still sacrifice it to sacrifice outlets, which is very bad.
3/1 sounds perfectly fine by me.
May 14, 2015 6:20 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #22
Hahahaha sorry, I like to be brief on cards that do not necessitate an explanation. Besides the sacrificing, also making an ability that makes it so that it can't be exiled either. Food Chain for example would break it.
May 14, 2015 9:07 p.m.
MagicalHacker says... #23
That's only one card. There are easier infinite combos in every format its legal in, so I think I actually kind of like that weirdness to this card.
May 14, 2015 10:06 p.m.
Make it legendary so you can't get infinite tokens ridiculously easily and I'd say it's not wholly unbalanced.
May 15, 2015 5:36 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #27
But there are plenty of effects besides it that would break this card, even not infinitely. Deadeye Navigator, for example, would give you a 3/3 for two mana. Lots of cards would make this REALLY good. Maybe when it's put into a graveyard.
May 15, 2015 7:33 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #28
How about instead another ability:
"When ~ enters, all other tokens with the same name as it lose all abilities, then exile those tokens."
May 15, 2015 10:44 a.m.
MagicalHacker says... #29
Updated design:
Persistent Slime
Creature - Ooze Germ
When ~ leaves the battlefield, if you control no other creatures named "~", put a token that's a copy of it onto the battlefield.
~ can't be sacrificed.
3/3
Justarsaus says... #2
i ran white black infect with double strike got lucky and pulled two True Conviction with alot of infect artifacts
September 25, 2010 9:07 p.m.