How was your prerelease?
Limited forum
Posted on July 8, 2017, 11:58 a.m. by brokendwarf
Y'all open anything you needed? Did you get shafted like I did with garbo rares and maybe 1 playable one?
i got 2 Nimble Obstructionist and Shatterstorm invocation, a $40 card. Made a grixis deck and went 2-2, had some really good moments but sputtered down the stretch. Hazoret's Undying Fury saved my ass too.
July 8, 2017 4:25 p.m.
Ashadow255 says... #4
My one was not so lucky.
All I pulled was Torment of Hailfire
as a Promo, Two Djeru, With Eyes Open, Fraying Sanity, Scattered Groves, Leave / Chance and Prepare / Fight. The worst box I have ever gotten from a prerelease in terms of Limited play.
As for the games, I didn't have much luck there either. I was playing Blue Red and I lost 2 games and won 1. :/
July 8, 2017 5:38 p.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #5
Repeated from another thread I'm on.
Pre release went meh. I was 2-2 in grixis. 6 players pulled and played bolas including myself... Seriously.
Of my 4 games 3 were against black white zombies. The other deck was black red.
Observations:
Black is hard not to play with its removal suite at common. Same thing for red. I didn't see anyone not playing at least one of those colors.
As predicted the format loves combat and hates blocking. So. Much. Menace.
The aggressiveness of the creatures in the set are balanced somewhat by the crazy amount of removal.
All-stars:
Unquenchable Thirst . By chance I never lost a game i got to play this. There is so much recursion with embalm, eternalize and zombies/the gods. "Removal" that doesn't put things in the yard is great.
khenra scrapper. There was never a time I felt bad casting this and I hated seeing it dropped on the other side of the table. With all the removal it was rare my opponents COULD block this and rarely chose to do so because it was almost always a two for one when exerted.
Underachiever:
Aerial Guide . If I was ahead this was an OK play. If I was behind it never seemed to do enough. Most times I cast it was as an emergency blocker but it's stats weren't good enough most of the time.
July 8, 2017 6:06 p.m.
jparker-sartori21 says... #6
I was basically the only person with good pulls at my lgs. I got Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh, Rhonas the Indomitable, and foil Hazoret the Fervent. My prerelease foil was Mirage Mirror. I went 2-1-1 with grixis bolas. My biggest overachiever was Striped Riverwinder. It is a great bomb and as a bonus it can be cycled. I drew two, played them many times, and only saw it die once to a replicate of itself. No one drew an invocation at my lgs.
July 8, 2017 6:35 p.m.
Homura_Akemi says... #7
There were a lot of people at my LGS who pulled Bolas, including me, two of my friends, and a woman I played against who got him as her promo. I also got Samut, the Tested and built a RG aggro deck that went 2-2 (lost to Naya and Rakdos, won against mirror and Orzhov/ non-green splashing for Bolas). Samut won me a game and I really enjoyed the deck.
July 8, 2017 7:15 p.m.
My pool was SWEET! My promo was The Locust God, and I pulled Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh as well as some good utility rares like Pull from Tomorrow and Hour of Devastation . Not everything was great (Gideon's Intervention and Hostile Desert), but I was able to win three and tie one with a straight Grixus deck that had only 4 black cards, including Bolas.
First impressions: Like what LittleBlueHero said, black and red have a ton of removal. Abrade, Puncturing Blow, and Banewhip Punisher where all great in my deck, and I would have gladly played Open Fire, Torment of Venom, or Struggle/Survive had I pulled them
Also, while my deck was slow, most decks are faster, or can become fast post-board. Bad pools, afflict, and the return of exert all contribute to this. In draft, I could see expensive cards like Bolas being borderline unplayable, especially if they don't give you much when they hit the board.
Hope you all had as much fun as I had!
July 8, 2017 11:27 p.m.
SteelSentry says... #9
Promo was The Locust God, played an aggressive Grixis deck. Afflict put in a lot of work, and I had really great removal. One of the packs I won had Forbid invocation. I suppose I have to build Locust commander deck
July 9, 2017 2:10 a.m.
insertcleverid says... #10
Day 1 I pulled a The Scarab God as my promo. I had a split pool with 2 ways to splash the god, a super-aggro w/b zombie deck with 20 creatures but no removal or a medium b/r deck with tons of removal but a wonky curve. I took the conservative route, assumed the format would favor midrange w/ good removal and bombs, and went with the B/R deck. Whenever I cast the god I won quickly, but I kept too many questionable hands, got mana-screwed or flooded in crucial games and wend 2-3.
Ammit Eternal, Banewhip Punisher and Sand Strangler (link broken) were the best creatures in my deck aside from the god. Open Fire and Puncturing Blow (link broken) are great removal.
Day 2 I pulled Torment of Hailfire which I dismissed as unplayable in sealed but others felt I had the card all wrong. I sided it in but never cast it. Love to hear more opinions.
I also pulled Gideon of the Trials and Overwhelming Splendor. I'm a fan of unfair things so I went white with black for removal and Apocalypse Demon which, as my only finisher, seemed playable because I had Steward of Solidarity and some embalm creatures.
This led to one of the best wins of my life. I was at 3 life with only Apocalypse Demon on board and my opponent had 10 life & 3 creatures. I had 8 cards in my graveyard and went deep in the tanks when my opponent passed his turn to me. Before untapping I sac'd Cradle of the Accursed for a zombie, putting a 9th card in my graveyard. I sac'd the zombie token, untapped my daemon and declared attacks, swinging with my 9/9. My opponent said "Uh... No blocks. I go to 1?"
I said "before damage I cast Sandblast on my demon." Match win.
I played against a guy with The Scarab God and that card seems completely unbeatable.
The only time I played Overwhelming Splendor my opponent cast Sandwurm Convergence the next turn and guess what? Sandwurm Convergence is still better when all your finishers fly.
I have a thought about splashing and deserts. In sealed the bombs are real good and it's not difficult to splash...unless you want to run deserts. They make your mana so bad, but the synergies are so good...don't try to do both.
July 10, 2017 11:27 a.m.
SteelSentry says... #11
@insertcleverid I am actually a fan of Torment of Hailfire, even a Torment for 3 got the last card out of my opponent's hand and a couple chump blockers out of the way.
Also, that was a misplay with cradle, you can't get a zombie on your opponent's turn
July 10, 2017 4:38 p.m.
insertcleverid says... #12
@steelsentry #%&! you are correct. That feels pretty bad. I could and should have gotten the zombie on my earlier turn.
July 12, 2017 9:01 a.m.
LittleBlueHero says... #13
insertcleverid Don't feel too bad. I was on the wrong end of what could have been cheating, but I chalked it up to my not paying attention.
Second game round 2 I am up 1 game to 0. I have Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh on the board and one other creature (can't remember what). My opponent has nothing in play. My opponent is at 10 life I am at 8.
I chose to activate Bolas first ability and try and get something else on the board and solidify my position. He turns up Without Weakness... I give my crap creature indestructible and swing bringing him closer to strike range of Bolas. Thought being even if he plays a creature it wouldn't have haste (black white) and wouldn't deal 8 damage.
On his turn he top decks and casts God-Pharaoh's Gift. Declares combat bringing back his Adorned Pouncer and swings for lethal with his 4/4 haste double striker.
It was the miracle play of all miracle plays... i wasn't even mad I was excited by the crazy turn of events its why I love the game.
HOWEVER, he shouldn't have had adorned pouncer in his yard because he already activated eternalize on it earlier. Wether it was an honest mistake or he purposely grabbed it from exile I don't know, but I was kicking myself a few minutes after our match (that I ended up losing) as it put me at 2-2 with no prize.
In situations like this I always blame myself first. I know a lot of people, myself included, get so caught up in things and make honest play errors.
Prior to the prerelease I beat a buddy of mine at amonkhet draft night by casting Galestrike on his untapped creature. Neither he or I had any idea what happened until we had shaken hands and my other buddy was like "you guys realize you screwed the pooch right?" Happens to all of us :)
rolfMTG says... #2
Lol these were my pulls
promo Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign
Ammit Eternal (super good)
Ramunap Excavator, Kefnet's Last Word and Hour of Eternity (all junk)
Soul-Scar Mage (also, not great)
Gideon's Intervention (which was fine)
aanndd.. Slaughter Pact invocation. Yup, a $30 card.
I ended up with a decent BW zombie deck and went 3-2. My prize packs were reasonable, Hour of Promise and Rhonas's Last Stand(which I plan on using in Standard, so it's fine)
July 8, 2017 2:47 p.m.