Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[Thestatusquo]

I think in general it will probably be a mistake to not play any enchantments. It will happen sometimes, but very rarely.

I also think its probably incorrect to start 3 pieces of enchantment removal.

[hasdgfas]

4) Bestow cards weren't as good as I thought they were going to be. Monstrous was better than I thought it would be. The weapons cards were fine, but not amazing. I went in thinking that the bestow cards would almost always be card advantage, and I really just don't think that is the case. I think some of them are fine and some of them are quite good, but I certainly wouldn't want to play a card just because it has bestow. Monstrous on the other hand, because of the lack of quality removal, are waaaaay better than I thought they would be. being able to spend your turn making one of your dudes an 8/9 is just really really good in this format.

Which ones specifically did you play/see to give you that idea? Because I felt very differently about most of the bestow creatures I saw. Because bestow doesn't necessarily make a bad card good, it's just that a lot of the bestow cards are quite good on their own. All of the Emissary cards, for instance, I felt were quite good, and the B/U/R Nymphs impressed me a lot.

[Thestatusquo]

I went white, so obviously that one. It's just that I think board presence is so important in this format that most times I would just rather play it as a creature on curve then wait for "value" which isn't even that high to begin with.

Functionally, they played just like normal creatures for me for the most part, except they are vulnerable to a lot more removal.

I don't think they're bad, I just don't think that bestow creatures are must plays, which I thought they would be because of the card advantage potential.

[petroleumjelly]

Played in three sealed events; it is a very strange-feeling format.

Didn't do terribly well in my first (2-0-2), stomped with the second (4-0), and failed in the third (2-2). I really like the Heroic mechanic if you can get it off. In the event I went 4-0 in, I ended up having

three

Triton Fortune Hunters and

three

Feral Invocations. There were other cards, of course, but the card-drawing theme pretty much let me steamroll decks with card advantage (drawing a card, improving my board, often killing an opponent's creature all at once). I had practically no removal in my 4-0 deck besides combat tricks (again: Heroic), but it worked extremely well and very smoothly. Still, the lack of removal in the format is

very

disturbing. I like having a grip of removal spells. ._.

Monstrosity is, as TSQ suggests,

very

good. The common Asp in particular is a powerhouse -- first it stabilizes the board, and then it dominates the board.

Scry is strong. (Go figure).

Mogis' Marauder might be my favorite uncommon in the set (in the eye of a limited player).

[chamber]

I found scry pretty underwhelming? scry 1 is just a lot worse than scry 2.

[Natirasha]

I only had two bestow cards in my deck--Boon Satyr and Nylea's Emmisary--so my perception is probably skewed, but it was really really good whenever I cast them. I can imagine so of the nymph cycle kinda sucking, especially the white one(although Knightly Valor was a pretty good card).

The scry 1s were all sort of disappointing except Witch's Eye, which I think is more due to being reusable and a mana sink.

[Thestatusquo]

I think some people are misinterpreting what I said. I wasn't saying bestow cards are bad. I was saying that the bestow mechanic isn't actually all that great, functionally. Obviously you still play bestow cards that do good things, but I think that waiting to play things for their bestow cost is wrong more often than it is right, and that means that functionally those cards play a little bit weaker than if they didn't have bestow, because they're just creatures that are weak to removal that other creatures are not.

Like, if you gave me a choice between the white promo card with bestow and without bestow, I would take it without, because I almost never wanted to bestow it, and as a creature its way harder to deal with the non-enchantment creature given the removal in this set. I'd still obviously play it either way.

[hasdgfas]

I think some people are misinterpreting what I said. I wasn't saying bestow cards are bad. I was saying that the bestow mechanic isn't actually all that great, functionally. Obviously you still play bestow cards that do good things, but I think that waiting to play things for their bestow cost is wrong more often than it is right, and that means that functionally those cards play a little bit weaker than if they didn't have bestow, because they're just creatures that are weak to removal that other creatures are not.

Like, if you gave me a choice between the white promo card with bestow and without bestow, I would take it without, because I almost never wanted to bestow it, and as a creature its way harder to deal with the non-enchantment creature given the removal in this set. I'd still obviously play it either way.

I agree with you for the most part. You shouldn't necessarily wait to Bestow them, but if you draw them late and want a boost to a creature to get through, they give you that flexibility.

[Thestatusquo]

Except that never happened to me? The only time I did it was with a heroic creature and the 2/2 green bear. But its very marginal. I think not being vulnerable to enchantment removal is more important.

Also, with tons of maindeckable instant speed enchantment removal in this set, its very easy to get blown out attacking with a dude with an enchantment on it.

[xRECKONERx]

I saw a lot of "suit up the little dude and smash in over and over" in the games I played. That's how I lost my final match, and I had fucking Elspeth out on the board too.

I went Esper at the prerelease, because I had the promo Shipbreaker Kraken + another Shipbreaker Kraken + Elspeth, and my black cards were decent (Sip of Hemlock, the 4 mana "give two dudes +1/+1 and lifelink" combat trick, Shipwreck Singer [that card is actually nuts], Read the Bones, the black Ordeal). I ended up taking 6th place with a 4-2 finish. One loss was to Fate, so I wasn't too mad. The last loss was against a guy who ran four colors and a bunch of dual casting cost cards and just got perfect mana every time... which, when you have unknown shores and two travelers amulets and the elk that fetches two basic lands, I guess you can do that.

It's definitely not quite as slow as I thought... but I did notice most games were basically "who can get to six mana and play the bigger bomb first".

[bv310]

Hell, I had an Amulet, an Elk, and a Unicorn-of-Paradise and I still wasn't greedy enough to go to 4 colours.

[nhammen]

I participated in my first pre-release ever today. I went 0-4 with cards that I thought were good. Maybe my selection was bad. I had a tough time deciding which two of White, Blue, and Black I should use and maybe I chose wrong. Well, I guess I should link to a list and see what you think. (and here is were you see just how bad I am at creating a Magic deck)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cards-i- ... gory=color

[chamber]

what was your final list?

[TheButtonmen]

Spoiler: Rough 30 second list

Creatures (14):
1x Vaporkin
1x Leonin Snare caster
1x Observant Alseid
2x Triton Fortune Hunter
1x Breaching Hippocamp
1x Coastline Chimera
1x Horizon Scholar
1x Celestial Archon
1x Heliod's Emissary
2x Setessan Griffin
1x Silent Artisan
1x Nimbus Naiad

Spells (6):
1x Voyage's End
1x Lost in a Labyrinth
1x Triton Tactics
1x Griptide
1x Divine Verdict
1x Battlewise Valor
1x Ray of Dissolution


Enchantments (2):
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
1x Aqueous Form]Rough 30 second deck list

I'd ideally like to cut a spell and add another creature though, probably the Ray or Lost in a Lab.

[Thestatusquo]

I'm pretty sure its wrong to not play black.

[nhammen]

Yeah. At first I wanted to run White/Blue, because Blue had some amazing evasion, but Black just had so much removal (plus Erebos's Emissary is a bomb), that I ran White/Black:
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/my-thero ... gory=color

Note, this is after removing a Sip of Hemlock and Ray of Dissolution because I didn't have enough creatures in my first match. So it turns out that I didn't need as much removal as I had. After my second match I thought about switching to Black/Blue, since I had never even considered that option, but I showed my blue cards to the player that beat me and he said that they weren't as good as the white I had.

Edit: Oh yeah, my last two matches were both against White/Black, so I really should have removed those Lampads, but I never thought of doing that until a few hours after leaving the store...

[Thestatusquo]

Thats pretty close to my list, I think, though I definitely would be playing more white and less black, probably to the point where I could play 10-7 in favor of plains.

Emisary is ok, I think its pretty clearly not a bomb.

Cards that I don't think are very good:
Thoughtseize
scourgemark
Ordeal of Erabos
Grey Merchant
Cavalry Pegasus

I'd replace them with:
Legonna-band elder
Ray of Dissolution
yoked ox (I know this seems like a weird choice, but what your deck is basically trying to do is take the game late and win with your bombs and superior removal. This card helps you get there)
Soldier of the pantheon (not amazing, and its ability isnt really going to be relevent. But its a 2/1 for one. That's playable on its own. You're playing a 2/1 for 2 that does less things than this guy does. All the text written on it is just a bonus.)
Ephara's warden

[InflatablePie]

went black, pulled a Thoughtseize + Hero's downfall, went 3-1 with Esper (white for Divine Verdict, Sentry of the Underworld, Gift of Immortality etc. and blue for 2x flying-bestow, griptide, horizon scholar, etc.). also, the artifact mana elk was amazingly useful.

only match I lost was to an insanely fast Boros deck. won game 1, lost game 2 on turn 3/4*, lost a close game 3. had him at 6, I was at ~4, he had four attackers and I had two blockers. d-verdict'd something with a red enchantment to drop him below devotion for his attacking Purphoros, went to one. lost to a topdecked creature. should have verdict'd the creature in question sooner but I got greedy. oh well.

got four packs, pulled nothing special (polish crusher, whip of erebos, nykthos, soldier of the pantheon). traded my spare anger of the gods for another soldier, pre-ordered two more for $7. also got some Firedrinker Satyrs for $1.50 per which I thought was pretty good, even if it ends up being bad it'll be hyped up and maybe I can trade them for some goodstuff. and now I have the choice between mono red or white for release day.

*I was on the draw.
T1 Land, Hoplite (1/2, Heroic = +1 counter & till-eot damage prevention)
T1 Land, go
T2 Land, Ordeal of Purphoros (bolt-on-a-stick). 2/3 Hoplite. Swing, trigger, 3/4 Hoplite [17-20]
T2 Land, go
T3 Land, Minotaur Firstblade-or-something (2/2, EOT +2/0 and haste). Swing, ordeal trigger (4/5 hoplite), bolt to face [14-20], take 8 [6-20]
T3 Land... ... ... scoop.

[kdowns]

I participated in my first pre-release ever today. I went 0-4 with cards that I thought were good. Maybe my selection was bad. I had a tough time deciding which two of White, Blue, and Black I should use and maybe I chose wrong. Well, I guess I should link to a list and see what you think. (and here is were you see just how bad I am at creating a Magic deck)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cards-i- ... gory=color

What store did you end up going to? Asgard or 3rd coast?

[kdowns]

I participated in my first pre-release ever today. I went 0-4 with cards that I thought were good. Maybe my selection was bad. I had a tough time deciding which two of White, Blue, and Black I should use and maybe I chose wrong. Well, I guess I should link to a list and see what you think. (and here is were you see just how bad I am at creating a Magic deck)

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/cards-i- ... gory=color

What store did you end up going to? Asgard or 3rd coast?

[Thestatusquo]

(11:43:45 PM) Shea: Yeah
(11:43:51 PM) Shea: Maybe 9-8 is right
(11:44:02 PM) Shea: I literally put 2 minutes of thought into this
(11:44:22 PM) blargerer: wait
(11:44:32 PM) blargerer: did he only run 1 slip of hemlock
(11:44:36 PM) blargerer: didn't his pool have 3?
(11:44:41 PM) blargerer: sip*
(11:44:54 PM) blargerer: welp
(11:44:58 PM) blargerer: it did and he did
(11:45:05 PM) blargerer: that was like the mai nreason to be black
(11:45:52 PM) Shea: ...
(11:45:54 PM) Shea: oh man
(11:45:58 PM) Shea: I didnt even notice that
(11:46:02 PM) Shea: I just assumed he ran all three

[nhammen]

I ran two and took one out after the first match, because I didn't have enough creatures and had hands that did nothing. Probably should have taken something else out. Or just chalked those two matches up to bad luck and kept trying with what I had. Since I took two things out that you would have used.

@kdowns: Montag's

[chamber]

I ran two and took one out after the first match, because I didn't have enough creatures and had hands that did nothing. Probably should have taken something else out. Or just chalked those two matches up to bad luck and kept trying with what I had. Since I took two things out that you would have used.

@kdowns: Montag's

There is a very reasonable chance that you didn't have enough guys, but you should have taken out your do nothing black auras, or even the bb deal 2's, before the 1 enchantment removal and 2 hard removals.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

(12:40:34 AM) Danny DiPietro: got back from Theros PR 2HG sealed
(12:42:42 AM) Danny DiPietro: me and my brother were the only 4-0 team but unfortunately 17 people meant there were 5 rounds which meant we lost in the fifth and dropped from 1st place (2 boxes of Theros) to 2nd (1 box of Theros)
(12:44:14 AM) thesheamuffin: Why didnt you split?
(12:45:11 AM) Danny DiPietro: they weren't undefeated
(12:45:30 AM) Danny DiPietro: they were 3-1, so we couldn't offer a draw/chop with them because a draw would've sent them to 4th
(12:46:41 AM) thesheamuffin: Sounds shitty
(12:47:14 AM) thesheamuffin: anything good in the box?
(12:48:05 AM) Danny DiPietro: my brother pulled the Thoughtseize and the UB Planeswalker, I pulled the devotion land, the RB mythic, and a foil Ember Swallower which I now have a playset of
(12:48:23 AM) Danny DiPietro: and I pulled the worst of the Gods (white)

[InflatablePie]

white god actually seems like it'll be okay

I'd say Nylea or maybe Erebos is worse