skaro told me about the pre-release of
Avacyn Restored at Slackers. Sounded cool, especially since there was to be a Helvault with "things" in it to be opened once a certain number of conditions were met. Hadn't been to a pre-release in a long time (loooooooong time), so I was like, okay.
Rounded up some EDH decks in case I scrubbed out early, and dug out my old sealed sleeves (which, were I still playing regularly, would likely be retired for something newer). While waiting around for supplemental seating to arrive, they made a big deal about attendance - evidently they got a big enough turn out to start hosting bigger events and stuff at Slackers, which is cool if I ever decide to go to a Grand Prix or something (which I doubt).
Chairs finally arrived, and I finally got to sit down. Packs were distributed, and I finally got to build my deck.
I looked at white and black first; I knew there were lots of cool angels and demons in the set, and I wanted to play with cool angels and demons! Unfortunately, despite a few pretty angels, my white was pretty weak. Black was better, not as much removal as I'd like, but a couple good demons and sneaky-type removal. Blue had some fliers, and thought about trying to build a mill deck, but I decided that that was just a little too cute. I don't really like green, but would have gone with it if it hadn't seemed weak (how wrong I was; see below!). Had a little removal in red, and couple interesting cards. I got a couple non-basic lands and played em both, actually splashing a plains to fuel one of em (and ended up activating the stupid thing once, but at least it never screwed up my mana). I also opened a couple interesting artifacts, including a real version of the promo card (Moonsilver Spear, equipment that makes angels!). And it was foil, too!
I toyed with the idea of going blue/white, but decided that it would require too much finesse; hadn't played in a real tournament in years, and I was still groggy from lack of sleep and figured that brute force would be better for the environment and my state of mind. So I went black/red:
CrittersDriver of the Dead (3/2 zombie brings little guys back when he dies)
Heirs of Stromkirk (2/2 vampire with "red fear" that gets bigger)
Hunted Ghoul (1/2 zombie can't block humans)
Mad Prophet (2/2, haste, tap to discard and draw)
Soulcage Fiend (3/2 demon when he dies everybody lose 3 life)
Blood Artist (0/1 vampire, mini-drain life when something dies)
Somberwald Vigilante (1/1)
Kruin Striker (2/1 gets bigger til eot when other critters come out)
Maalfeld Twins (4/4 zombie splits into 2 2/2s when it dies)
Removal in Critter FormHarvester of Souls (5/5 demon, deathtouch, something dies draw)
2x Searchlight Geist (2/1 flier can get deathtouch)
Gang of Devils (3/3 devil mini-fireball when he dies)
Undead Executioner (2/2 zombie, weakness when he dies)
Critter MakersMoonsilver Spear (equipment, first strike, make a 4/4 angel when attacks)
Demonic Rising (ench, make a 5/5 demon if I have exactly one critter eot)
Thatcher Revolt (sorc, make 3x 1/1 peasants with haste and sac em eot)
RemovalGrave Exchange (sorc, bad guy sacs critter, I gravedig)
Necrobite (instant, give critter deathtouch and regen it)
Thunderous Wrath (instant, 5 dmg to critter or player, Miracle! R [Miracle is a new mechanic that lets you cast the spell for a reduced cost if it's the first card you draw in a turn and if you cast it right then])
2x Human Frailty (instant, kill a human)
OtherEssence Harvest (sorc, drain life for a critter's power)
Vessel of Endless Rest (tap for any mana)
Land1x Slayers' Stronghold (RWtap for +2/+0 vigilance and haste)
1x Seraph Sanctuary (gain 1 life when it comes in, and when angel comes in)
1x Plains
8x Swamp
6x Mountains
Well, that's what I built. And no, I wasn't very impressed with it, either (heh). If I counted right, that's 17 land in a 41 card deck - and I never got mana-flooded (did get screwed a couple times, tho, dang it!). I was listening to a couple kids talking and building decks next to me, and the one kid was telling his buddy to go with 42 card deck (no problem with that, really), and to go 28 spells and 14 land! Bwah?! Maybe I'm a grognard (no maybe about it, really), but I could
never play a deck with that few land (well, not a normal deck, anyway, considering that Peasant Elves uses like 12 land or less, but you know what I mean). I mean, even if my deck did have a reasonable mana curve and no crazy 6 casting cost stuff, well, I'd
still have to go heavy on land. Hmm, okay guys, whatever you think (and for all I know, their decks performed smoothly and wonderfully - I didn't play against either one of em).
Anyway, back to my deck. I was excited about my demon and angel makers, and liked the looks of some of the removal, even though I wanted more of it (I was a little concerned about my 2x Human Frailty, but turned out that there were tons of humans running around so I never lacked a target, even though I would have liked to kill some angels in one particular match, RMS...). I could have splashed some actual white spells, but the good ones that I wanted to use had WW in the cc, and you all know about my mana problems. Looking at my B and R stuff now, I should probably have included my 2x Mental Agony (bad guy discards 2 and loses 2 life, but 3B sorc...), but the rest of it is just win more or generic critters. I did get a Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded (RR planeswalker), but he looks like he'd be cool in a constructed deck, not limited (but I could be wrong).
So, that's what I was gonna run with. And, being in a crowd of people that I don't know (the 3 ppl there that I did know were busy at the time) makes me nervous and shy, so I went outside to smoke (tried to limit my cigarette consumption, but didn't do a very good job of it - quitting smoking is hard, and I'd neglected to bring my e-cig, and it was a Magic tournament, and insert any other excuse you think I would make up). The whole time I'm thinking that I should have gone UW - decent number of fliers, but no removal, so I'd have to be sneaky and clever. One of the guys at my table actually sleeved up 2 separate decks; dunno if he switched back and forth during the tournament, though. And I thought that maybe instead of standing outside smoking, maybe I ought to go back in and actually build the UW thing.
And now I think about it, I'm wondering if I shouldn't have looked a little more closely at green...
Round 1 - Ben, Mono-Green
A mono-colored deck at a sealed tournament? Weird, but okay, whatever. My notes say "soulbond, much fat." Describes it pretty well, I'd say. Soulbond is a new mechanic that will give 2 critters extra stuff when they are "bound" (you bond when either of the critters in question come into play, so long as the other one is already there). For instance, play a critter, and then play a soulbond critter that gives +1/+1 to both, and they both get the bonus. Wow, I suck at explaining things, but trust me it's easy to get if you see it in action, and it's a pretty interesting mechanic, too.
First game I kept his soulbond shenanigans in check and won. Second game he whipped out the fat and pounded me; I didn't put up much of a fight at all. I got to 7 mana, and things looked good; I was in trouble, but had in my hand the tools to start stabilizing my position, get back in the game, and like win and stuff. But then he played something that blew up a land and a mana artifact. Crap! I never drew another land that game, and the few paltry things I tried were met with a smirk as he pumped his dudes up to ridiculous proportions (I think he had one dude attack me for 11 or something at one point). Game three was back to my deck actually killing some stuff.
1-0
Round 2 - Jacob, Mono-Green
WTF? Is green really that good in this set? I figured that it couldn't be if my poopy deck managed to beat one just minutes before. My notes for this game read "same deal." And that's accurate, too, but this deck was a little better than the previous one, or the player was a little better than the previous, or both, or something.
Game one I was unable to contain his soulbond nonsense. He played a 1/1 chick that says that my critters with powers less than her's can't block (Ben played that against me in his deck as well; I got very tired of seeing that card). I think I managed to kill her, but his other stuff was more than enough to finish me. Second game I won somehow, but I can't recall the exact sequence of events. I think I managed to bust up his soulbound pairs and sneak enough of my dudes through. My notes do indicate that he hit me for 9 on one attack, but I gained some life after that (prolly by trading critters while blocking with Blood Artist in play - that card actually entered the deck as an afterthought, and I almost cut it to go down to 40, but it actually kept me in a few games here and there; but now that I think about it, I'm not sure that he ever really kept me around long enough to actually
win or anything...). Game three he pwnt me. I got him down to 19, but he gained some life and ended at 20. How humiliating.
1-1
Now, this whole time they were running a gimmick with the Helvault. Get achievements during your games (stuff like make an opponent sac a critter, attack with 5 critters, attack with a demon or angel token, and other stuff), and keep track of em. When you get 10, pull a sticker off the Helvault, and when they're all gone the thing opens up and everybody gets "prizes" (prolly not fair of me to put "prizes" in quotes, cause it was free stuff). Well, after my match against Jacob, I was watching skaro or Evergirl play, and somebody mentioned that there was only one sticker on the Helvault. I was like, oh, I got a couple more cheevos (think that's what the cool kids call em), wonder if I got 10 yet. I looked and sure enough, I had 11. I was like, ah cool, I got 11. skaro was like, rock on, be the guy, open that thang. I was like, I wanna be that guy! So I went up to Josh (same one from the Underworld Dreams tournament report from a few years ago; it's still on the board somewhere) who was running the tournament (he's a Judge now, not sure of level, and I guess he runs Magic at Slackers; and he consults with skaro if he doesn't know how to rule on something, heh, see below). Anyway, Josh is like, cool, let's wait til the round's over so everybody can see it opened, but you can pull that last sticker. I'm like, cool, works for me. So they made a big production of taking a picture of everybody with Helvault, and tried to gather everybody around, and Josh opens the thing (cause th'ain't no way I'm gonna try to push through the odorous hordes of geeks to get to the front). And skaro hollers at Josh, hey, dude here is supposed to open it. So they make me go up there and open it, and I'm embarrassed and shit, but whatever.
Anyway, loot was passed out (I ended up with spindown 20 sider, 3 angel/demon tokens, and 2 oversized Bruna, Light of Alabaster [failed to trade the second one, but she's awful purty so I don't mind too much
]).
Round 3 - Brent, GW
Great, more green. I'm beginning to wonder if everybody else knows something that I don't (no, cause skaro is playing RW, Evergirl had BW, and RMS had UW). Brent, I assume, is good at Magic. Had that air about him (not cocky, just confident, deliberate, and nuanced - ooh, don't think I've ever typed the word "nuanced" before, and I'm not sure I'm even using it correctly, but Rock Star Point for me!). Anyway, his deck used the usual soulbond/fat stuff from green (including that chick I mentioned above, can't remember name - Champion of Lambholt - and Yew Spirit, both cards I'm getting sick of seeing; oh, and that damn deathtouch soulbond dude), but he also has some white combat tricks. Good deck and good player.
Game one I get him down to 6 and I'm thinking I've got the game well in hand. And then he casts something that gains him 7 life. Dang. I get him back to 7 before he kills me. Game 2 was, I believe, the longest game I had all day (time called right after he beat me; oh, spoiler alert...). I'm doing well, but then he gets out a lifelink angel and soulbonds it with a paladin that give double strike. Gah! I fight valiantly, but am unable to find a solution to the tag teaming nastiness of angel and paladin. Well, actually, I think I managed to finally kill the pally with a Human Frailty, but by then it was too late.
1-2
Round 4 - RMS, UW
Finally, I don't have to play against green! (I think I threatened him with bodily harm if it turned out he was playing a green deck; luckily for both of us, he wasn't.) RMS built the deck I would have built, but he actually had good angels to build it with. This was the most funnest match I had all day; RMS is a friend, and I play against him all the time, and so I was able to relax and spout off some silly insults and one-liners; I actually got a couple laughs from the guy playing next to me.
Game one my deck did what I had hoped it would do when I built it. I think I got my demon maker out, and I know that I managed to kill most everything RMS played. Course, he didn't really put up much of a fight... Game 2 was an entirely different story. I think I mulliganned and then got mana screwed, but I can't state that as fact (it happened several times during the day). Regardless, I was unable to keep up with RMS's lifegain, and he pwnt me. Game three was similar, but I seem to recall putting up a little more of a fight. I actually think the game was competitive for a bit, at least until he got his dang lifegain angel out (soulbound with something I found offensive), and my Blood Artist/dying things combo couldn't keep up. At least I had him below 20 when he killed me.
1-3
Well, this isn't going well. I thought about dropping, calling it a day and going home. But I paid good money to enter this tournament, and I was having fun getting my ass kicked, so I would press on! Figured there was no chance I'd make top 8, even if I swept both my next two opponents, but you never know. And there might be more door prizes!
Round 5 - Nick, WR
Nick seemed a very decent fellow, and he had some cool anime bikini chick card sleeves, so he can't be a bad person, right?
Game one didn't go my way early, but luckily, Nick didn't have anything super powerful out with which to kick my ass. He had more critters, but they were the little yappy dog type critters; wouldn't have been a problem, except that I had nothing to answer them with. I did play Gang of Devils (which had performed well all day, I might add) in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but then he put a Defang on it (ench, prevent all dmg the critter deals). Crud, well at least they can still block. So I go about blocking one of his dudes with my defanged devils, and he continues to plink away with his weenies. At one point, he tries to get tricky; I blocked a guy with the devils, and he casts something on his dude to give it +3/+0 (or something like that) to kill my devils. I'm like, rock on, I got Grave Exchange in hand and the mana to cast it and Imma kill a bunch o' dudes! And then he points out that Defang prevents ALL dmg the critter would deal. Crud. I had read the card as preventing
combat dmg. With this new information, I at first assumed that I had been wrong and that the devils wouldn't do their thing when they died. I hesitated, though. I was like, I don't know, I think they might, just maybe, do their thing. He's like, no, Defang would prevent the damage. I'm like, yeah, you may be right, but... He's like, we can call a judge, if you want.
At this point, I'm thinking, eh, screw it, he's prolly right. Good play and all that, I don't know the timing rules all that well, so my devils most likely won't do their thing, and I'll annoy Judge Josh (he is the law, you won't fuck around no more - Rock Star Point if you get that) so I'll just let it go. But in the back of my mind I'm thinking that no, when the devils die, the enchantment will fall off and then they'll hit the graveyard. Or maybe the enchantment will fall off after they hit the graveyard. Or maybe the devils and Defang hit the yard at the same time; what happens then? Since I strive for accuracy (and since the devils could kill three of Nick's yappy dogs if it worked how I wanted), I was like, okay man, you're prolly right, but let's just make sure; it's a big deal for my board position. He was really cool about it, and I went to find Josh. Josh came over, listened to our recount of the action, looked at the cards, and frowned. He's like, uh, I'm not sure. Hang on, lemme ask somebody. So he walks over to where skaro is playing (skaro
really needs to take the stupid test and just become a judge - you hear that man? Do it!! When you have judges asking your opinions on rulings, that means you know your shit! Do it! Do it now!!). Nick and I look at each other, and we're like, huh, guess that was a good question after all. So we wait, and wait, and we're like, dang, guess it was a really good question! Finally, Judge Josh comes back and he says that he isn't positive about how it'll work, but he's going to make a ruling, and he apologizes in advance in case he's wrong; but he's 90% sure he's got it right, he says. He says that the Defang drops off the devils when they hit the 'yard, and that the devils will deal their damage since the Defang is gone. I do a mental fistpump and "w00t!" and Nick is cool with the ruling. My devils wreck his board position and he's unable to recover.
Game 2 I think I finally got my angel maker to make some angels. Nick plinks away at me with focused determination, but when he can't keep up once I get my shiny spear out and start bludgeoning him with angels. He did manage to get me down to 7, though, and remember remarking, "huh, I think I need to pay a little more attention to this..."
2-3
Round 6 - Leonard, GW
Dang, more green. Leonard seemed like a decent enough dude, but he had an air of rules lawyer about him. He would announce his "second main phase," and that kind of thing, things that for some reason I find annoying. I'm not sure why that kind of stuff annoys me. Maybe it's because I've been playing Magic for a long damn time (well,
had been playing for a long time), and I don't see the need to actually announce silly stuff like that. I mean, we all know you can do stuff after you attack, and we all know that you attack during your main phase, and we all know that your main phase doesn't end until you end it by discarding. I think I've just "intuitized" that stuff; I know how it works, but I can't tell you why. But why is it irritating to me? Honestly, it's probably because I'm jealous of skaro and RMS and my other buddies that started playing around the same time I did. I mean, they can quote you the rules of the game chapter and verse, whereas I just go by my gut and figure that if something works, it works because it works. See the Defanged Devils thing above. I know that in the back of my mind, I knew it worked how I thought it did, but I wasn't confident enough to actually tell the guy why it worked that way. And I wasn't confident enough to really
believe that it worked how I thought it did. And I think, because of the fact that I can't quote the rules, anybody who starts off with the rules lawyer nonsense is going to try to use the "letter of the law" to try to trick me. And that's bullshit, imo. I mean, come on man, let's play the game and leave the BS behind.
Now, having said that, I must point out that even though skaro is quite capable of doing this kind of rules lawyering chicanery, he doesn't. He takes advantage of the rules, belee dat, but he isn't trying to actually
trick you. Or at least it doesn't seem as if he is. He's more like, "hey, look at this cool thing I can do!" Not, "bwahaha, I'm so smart I figured out how to do this and there's nothing - NOTHING!! - you can do to stop me! Fool! Feel the power of my rules manipulation!" Maybe it's the fact the skaro can explain his actions in a reasonable, non-condescending way, a way that makes me think, oh yeah, I knew that, clever. Maybe it's because he doesn't arrogantly gloat when he does something rules-lawyery. Or maybe it's because he's been one of my best friends for as long as I remember.
Okay, enough skaro love. And dude, you know that I would have totally beaten you today had we played.
Anyway, Round 6 (cripes, but I'm a longwinded mella fella!). Leonard had the standard green package (soulbond stuff, fat critters), but I don't think he was packing many angels; I don't remember seeing any, anyway (thank the maker). Game one, my life total list is pretty short, but iirc, he got some dudes out but I managed to contain them, and then he ran out of steam about the time I got my demon maker out. Game two, I think we fought over some regenerating werewolf he had. Can't remember if I managed to kill it or not, but he got me down to 10 before it ended. His life goes 20, 17, 13, 9, dead.
3-3
Well, coulda been better, coulda been worse. I think that, out of 44 competitors, I finished 19th. RMS finished 22nd (booyah!), Evergirl finished somewhere in the 30s, and skaro finished at 17th (skaro, RMS, and myself were all 3-3). At least I was in the top half!
If I had to build the deck over again, I think I might explore UW a little more (still can't get that out of my head!). But, keeping it BR, I think I would try to find places for the 2x Mental Agony; and I'm sure many of you are wondering why I didn't play them in the first place. And honestly, so am I. My deck didn't seem to have much early game, so why not abandon the early game altogether and go for mid and late game stuff? Not sure of anything else I would change, except to maybe find room for Tibalt and Dangerous Wager (instant, discard hand, draw 2). I know that the mana curve in my deck is pretty messed up; when I laid it all out, I was like, wow, that's ugly, and then I scooped it up and proceeded to sleeve it... So maybe I should have tried to smooth the curve a bit? However, had I done that, I'm not sure I'd have had a deck! At least, whatever I did end up with would have been totally different than what I played (and at 3-3, that might have been a good thing....).
So far as specific cards go, I'll say that the 2x Searchlight Geists, Vessel of Endless Rest, and Grave Exchange did yeomens' work, very solid. In fact, Grave Exchange almost makes it into the All Star game; I was always happy to see it, even if I didn't have the mana to cast it (cause I hoped I would eventually, y'know). Add Necrobite to that solid category; versatile and effective. My 2x Human Frailty's would be there, too, but there were too many times that I had to settle on killing a human (instead of an angel, dangit!). Blood Artist was kinda almost cool, but he never really seemed to hold up his end of the bargain; I think that's more my fault than his, though. When I got them in play, Demonic Rising and Moonsilver Spear were
monsters; I think I lost only one game when I had the demon maker in play (and, iirc, that was to Brent who pwnt me and then went on make top 8). Didn't see em often enough, though. (Oh wait, I think I did get the angel maker out against somebody, maybe RMS, but by that time it was far too late to make a difference). When I built the deck, I assumed that Thunderous Wrath would be all kinds of BOOM-shaka-laka, but it turned out to be a resounding dud; I'll go ahead and blame this on me and my lack of skill/knowledge/experience playing with miracles. Also while building, I assumed that Mad Prophet would be better than solid, but the two times I got him out, he wasn't as awesome as I'd hoped. The first time was against Brent (I think), and I misused him, and I also think that he died pretty quick. The second time, the prophet did manage to smooth a mana flood, but I think that I was already pretty far ahead in that game so he just made me win more. Good not great. Now, when building the deck, I had assumed that my absolute all star would be either the angel maker (which I got to work once), or Harvester of Souls; not Demonic Rising as I figured that the demon maker would be a little hard to use consistently, but it obviously deserved a place in the deck (and I often found myself casting critters when I had one in play, for what it's worth). Well, angel maker didn't show up but twice, and the deathtouch demon was equally scarce. I think I got him in play three times (maybe only twice) and seem to recall drawing a single, solitary card from his ability. So he's pretty much a dud, too. Demon maker was very solid; it requires a little massaging to get to a single critter, but a 5/5 flier for 5 that can replace itself is very good. I found that most of the time, once I got that first demon down, I could quit worrying about getting more demons out (can only have 2 max anyway...), and focus on winning. But still, demon maker is good, very good, great even, but not the top of the heap.
So, who's my all star? If you guessed Gang of Devils, you get a Rock Star Point! Deceptively unassuming at 3/3 for 5R, people seemed to really dislike these guys (but they don't
hate them; unassuming, remember?) and try to take them out. Used in conjunction with Grave Exchange (another candidate for all star, actually), the devils took out many a bad guy critter. Now, I may be biased due to the fact the devils were central to the Defanged Devil Incident (see Round 5 above), but they were solid to the point of impervious, the Cal Ripken Jr. of my deck (not flashy like my angel and demon makers, but really fricken good). The devils made people rethink their combat math, let me attack and block more aggressively, and pretty much made the game revolve around them when they hit play. They were game changers; they made me think how to maximize their potential, and made the bad guys worry about how to minimize the fallout. Fun card, and good in this format (imo).
Okay, this has been a long, long,
loooooong report, and I've typed a lot without saying much. But I can't quit without giving some props to some peeples:'
Thanks to skaro for telling me about the tournament and insisting that I attend. I was fun!
Thanks to skaro and Evergirl for the chairs. It would have sucked to have to stand all dang day (and Slackers really needs to invest in some chairs if they plan to get this kind of turnout all the time).
Thanks to RMS for splitting a pizza with me. It wasn't very good, but it was filling, and considering the price, a decent value. Oh, and next time we play, you're mine.
Thanks to Evergirl for letting me hang out with her a lot and irritate her with my mindless banter in a building full of people I don't know. And for watching my stuff when I wandered off.
Thanks to Judge Josh for running a good tournament. And for ruling in my favor in the Defanged Devils Incident.
Thanks to my opponents for not being assholes. Even the ones who kicked my butt! Prior experience makes me appreciate this.
And, that's all I got. Later.