Prerelease Strategies and Predictions
Limited forum
Posted on Sept. 18, 2014, 8:01 p.m. by eatyourbabes
KoT Prerelease is only 2 days away! I am super excited and also very curious to see how this event is going to shape up. Personally I have never played limited before but from my understanding I feel that Temur, Abzan, and Mardu are going to be the top 3 clans for this event. Please tell me what ideas and speculations your have for the event and any general tips for the limited format and the KoT block. Like what are some awesome commons and uncommons to look for and how should I choose what clan to play?
eatyourbabes says... #3
Check out this Random Pool Generator for KoT
http://www.magicdrafting.com/khans-of-tarkir-sealed/?color=1
Practice your limited deck building here!
September 18, 2014 8:04 p.m.
OP_Magikarp says... #4
I am a HUGE fan of Temur and love pumping out big creatures in the decks I use. But after using a random pool generator for the prerelease, I have found that Mardu is an absolutely astounding clan for limited. So many cheap creatures you can pump out. You can pair it with creatures from Abzan for their outlast and pump some up while you lay down some quick one-drops. There's also decent burn/removal such as Debilitating Injury and Bring Low to hold others at bay. Whenever I used the pool generator I was able to put together an amazing deck with 15+ creatures every time and around 15 spells that are 1-3 drops. In case you're wondering, that means you can play cards from 38% of your deck on turn 3. Or 65% of your cards if you don't count lands. IN LIMITED. That's faster than Sonic on speed running down an escalator. I will, although it is against my norm, be running Mardu. You just can't argue with the mathematics of it.
September 18, 2014 8:11 p.m.
golffore297 says... #5
If you're looking for good Speculating material, go to the Wizards Youtube page and watch the Pre-prerelease matches. They're great players and it's a good preview as to what will be going on at the prereleases.
September 18, 2014 9:15 p.m.
Named_Tawyny says... #7
So tough to decide. I love playing green, but am not a fan of blue. Red white and black are fun as well. Abzan, Mardu, or Temur. Right now I'm leaning towards Temur, but in five minutes that might change. Probably Temur or Mardu. But Abzan!!!!
September 18, 2014 10:06 p.m.
ColdHeartedSith says... #8
RUG all day by far the boss. Red instants and sorcerys , RUG and R and G creatures. A splash of Khan.
September 18, 2014 11:44 p.m.
SoPringles says... #9
I've got the pre-release in 10 hours (and counting). I decided pretty early that I'd be playing Abzan and I'm just hoping to pull any combination of Feat of Resistance , Dragonscale Boon and Abzan Charm .
And I'll jam every Kill Shot I get, people never seem to have the patience to play around cards like that.
September 18, 2014 11:51 p.m.
BlueEyesRedMage says... #10
With the midnight prerelease in...oh look, 10 hours for me too (I'm in Australia)...I've been jamming sealed pool testing all day. Mardu is by far the most consistently powerful clan for sealed, as a weenie aggro deck is just easy to get a good selection of creatures. Mardu Hordechief is such a boss, and Mardu Heart-Piercer is a super powerful uncommon mardu staple.
Although, whilst the fixing is clearly insane in this set, the quality of your deck is pretty clearly comparable to the amount of refuges you have, or if you are lucky, the amount of tri-lands you have. These lands are so insanely important to building a solid deck.
I've opened a few pools with a great deck...but barely any fixing in my colours :( And in that situation, I'd recommend switching to a less powerful but more consistent clan in your pool.
Bombs to look out for: Butcher of the Horde , any of the Khans except Narset, Enlightened Master , Master of Pearls , Ashcloud Phoenix , Sagu Mauler
tldr: Look at your fixing up front, then decide from there where you can go. If you want Aggro, Mardu is the best bet. Abzan is also quite potent, with a lot of solid midrange creatures.
September 19, 2014 2:16 a.m.
Ultimaodin says... #11
Whatever you do, don't force a clan. I say this because just because you pick Temur and get the promo Khan, doesn't mean you should not play Sultai if that wedge is just stronger and deeper to play.
A big think to keep in mind is also the amount of fixing you have access to. There is a lot available but your pool won't necessarily support it.
Anyway, as for 'best colour', through testing with a mate we both cam to agree that the Sultai were the best clan to play since you get the tempo and fliers of blue, the kill spells of black and the big big fatties of green. Not to mention you get access to a lot of Temur's 2 colour guys, and Abzan's 2 colour guys. Also, Delve is really good - especially the kill spell with delve. (it also immediately adds one back into the graveyard after casting for further delve) Also since you get access to Embodiment of Spring like temur you have much easier chance of fixing your mana and getting to the late game.
The rest of the clans are pretty balanced as well and not far behind. Temur is best almost as a tempo shell with big finishers. The only issue is there aren't many evasive guys par what's in blue. The Aven is amazing though.
Mardu I found to be the weakest surprisingly. It can punish other people who build there decks a little too high on the curve but they have a habit of hitting a road block. Mardu depends heavily on your pool as to its quality.
Abzan can be ridiculously powerful and has access to the best commons, the draw back is a bounce spell or kill spell can really leave you blown out if you focus too much on the outlast mechanic.
Jeskai are strange. The require the most amount of skill to use effectively, but with said skill you can decimate. The pool you get though will either have them amazing or terrible. The best way to look at this clan is pure tempo. Cast some cheap guys then lock everything down and out while you steal the game.
Honestly all the clans can be good, Jeskai being the hardest but with skill and a decent to good pool it can be the best. The big difference is Mardu doesn't really require skill to perform well. You play guys and turn them sideways.
September 19, 2014 3:39 a.m.
I was not playing during Alara, so a 3-color 40-card deck is intimidating to me. Should I go 16 critters, 1 banner, 5 non-creature-spells, and 18 land? 17 critters, 1 banner, 4 n/c spells and 18 land? I've seen the 18-land number bandied about, but I'm unsure of the general shape of the rest of the deck...
September 19, 2014 12:17 p.m.
If you have enough mana fixing and/or can keep one of your 3 colors to a splash, then you should be able to get away with the usual 17 land... I wouldn't suggest trying to force that though.
You don't want to loose access to powerful cards because you are trying to keep something to a splash... better to just lose your one worst spell and play the 18th land.
The rest of the deck will depend on your clans and the particular strength of your cards.
Jeskai will obviously want more spells (so long as you have decent prowess abilities), probably 8-10 non-creatures.
Sultai will also want a slightly higher count of non-creatures (mainly for early game), as it wants a few things to go straight to your graveyard, enabling powerful T4-6 Delve. - Probably looking at 6-7 instants and/or sorceries if they are useful enough to be put in.
The other 3 clans will likely run 3-5 non-creature spells, mainly removal.
Of course, that is just my opinion based on what I have seen of the clans. It will also depend on what you open, and your luck.
September 19, 2014 1:03 p.m.
SoPringles says... #14
Just an update for those about to go into a Pre-Release.
We just finished up flight 1. Abzan is not bad, although it relies heavily on efficient removal to blow through board stalls and the +1/+1 counter tricks, because most of the time the outlast mechanic is too slow.
I didn't go too bad with pulling the enablers needed to make the deck but the only removal I pulled was Duneblast (seeded pack) and a couple -2/-2 enchantments which is relevant because, morph.I didn't have removal in any other colours so I splashed for Butcher of the Horde and called it a day.
My game plan was pretty much make super awkward board positions with Firststirke+Deathtouch+Reach guys until I managed to get the mana for Duneblast and just win from there. As ridiculous as Duneblast is the majority of games that I won were the ones where I played an early Butcher of the Horde which will win just about every race.
Also a final warning, there were reports of off coloured promos in some seeded packs. A guy I was sitting next to pulled an Icy Blast from his Mardu pack.
September 19, 2014 4:23 p.m.
CampbellStev says... #15
Just came back from the prerelease at my LGS that ended about 3 hours ago and it was a blast.
I don't know if it was just because they were the prerelease kits but the majority of players at my LGS got either the Ascendancy or the Khan in their Seeded pack. I barely saw anything else besides that when people were opening their packs.
Also, I'd say at least 40% of the players there (we had around 40 players at the store in total) got at least one fetchland in their kit with one guy even getting 3!
In terms of actual gameplay, I decided to go Abzan and I found that it piloted very well. The top 3 players were playing Abzan, Abzan, and Jeskai respectively. I found that you are given enough mana fixing within your seeded pack for the 3 colour route and that I could consistently play Anafenza, the Foremost on turn 3 if she was in my hand. Also delve is absolutely amazing. Here is my pool as well as how my matches went Here
eatyourbabes says... #2
Currently I'm debating between pre-ordering either Mardu or Abzan
September 18, 2014 8:03 p.m.