This past weekend I was busy playing paper Magic at the Morningtide Prerelease, both Saturday and Sunday. I remember the last time I played a real life tournament outside of the Pro Tours and Grands Prix that I’m used to… it was the Lorwyn Prerelease. I’m not attracted by local “weekend” tournaments because they’re usually very small, ranging from 8 to 16 players. But Prereleases attract many players, and therefore have a feeling of a bigger tournament with more rounds.
Despite the fun and the good times with my friends, I had a mission to accomplish. I wasn’t sure if I would be attending Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur, for A number of reasons. It’s a long and expensive trip, I won’t be recieving the $500 dollars appearance fee anymore, and I was only recently informed that the PTQ season for Kuala Lumpur in Portugal was over. Plus, I’m in the middle of the process of moving to China for a while, and those dates could conflict with the schedule of PT: Kuala Lumpur.
But the truth is that I don’t see myself moving completely away from Magic, even if it gets to the point that I’m no longer qualified for the Pro Tours, or if I just decide to skip them. I’m too committed to simply walk away. I love hanging out with my Magic friends, and I draft with them weekly. Lately, I received some unexpected news: my good old friend Frederico Bastos had won a PTQ in Spain and was going to Malaysia. The rest of the Portuguese players had planned to go ahead and stay some extra days, and among them there are also some good friends. So recently, I decided I wanted to go to Malaysia to travel with my friends. Magic had become exhausting for me last season when I had to travel alone. Having found that I could book exactly the same flights as my friends through my Miles Membership Card also helped my decision, and besides, I’m also curious to see how will I fare at Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur with my reinvigorated Limited focus through doing the Drafting With Tiago series.
My mission at the Prerelease was to try to win Morningtide packs for our weekly drafts. On Saturday I attended a Prerelease held in a high school five miles away from Lisbon. We’re a small country, so for me that counts as outside Lisbon. People ask me if I’m planning to play PTQs for Hollywood. Even though I haven’t played a game of Constructed since Worlds, and I’m not planning on doing so until the eve of the first PTQ, I would feel very guilty if I didn’t bother driving 5 or 10 miles to the PTQ site.
I received this card pool, which I’ll present you piece by piece while adding comments, as I feel that’s a better way to keep your attention, rather than presenting the whole card pool at once when it’s half composed of new cards.
White
Lorwyn
1 Battle Mastery
1 Judge of Currents
1 Soaring Hope
1 Goldmeadow Dodger
1 Plover Knights
1 Avian Changeling
1 Kithkin Healer
It seems pretty weak, just two solid fliers. Kithkin Healer can be a playable but very unspectacular, and Judge of Currents is rarely good outside the U/W Merfolks draft deck.
2 Burrenton Bombardier
1 Changeling Sentinel
1 Graceful Reprieve
1 Order of the Golden Cricket
1 Shinewend
1 Stonehewer Giant
Here we can find more fliers. Burrenton Bombardier is one of the top White commons for Limited, and we have two. Order of the Golden Cricket is also another aggro flier. Besides that, we have two solid ground creatures (since their stats are fine for their costs). Both have vigilance, and one is even a changeling. Unfortunately, there’s just a Rune Stalactite for the Giant to fetch
Overall
White gives us those five good fliers, which is a lot of evasion for Sealed Deck. Bombardier can also serve as a trick, so it’s not only eight creature cards we have here.Unfortunately, the rest of cards aren’t so spectacular. Considering that, and given the small number of playables, I don’t think White will make the final decklist unless we’re looking for something aggressive and we can use those fliers.
Blue
Lorwyn
1 Inkfathom Divers
1 Merrow Harbinger
1 Paperfin Rascal
1 Silvergill Adept
1 Depptread Merrow
1 Wings of Velis-Vel
All playable cards, and all Merfolk. Problem is, despite being playable, we’re missing the power that Blue usually has… for example, we see no Mulldrifter, Douser, Aquitects, or Faeries with flash. And despite being all Merfolk, many with Islandwalk, there’s not something to power them up. Overall, there’s just no reason for us play Merfolk.
1 Dewdrop Spy
2 Distant Melody
1 Fencer Clique
1 Floodchaser
2 Stonybrook Banneret
1 Stream of Unconsciousness
The two Morningtide Merfolk add more of the same. Two more Merfolk, more Islandwalk but no more power. Speeding up the others isn’t powerful enough. The two Faeries are good, and Floodchaser is a big body I like in Sealed. The spells seem merely average, because even though Distant Melody can draw you plenty of cards, it’s not something you’ll want to play in the early to mid game. It also depends on how Tribal your final deck may be.
Overall
Plenty of playables, two good fliers, and many Merfolk with more Islandwalk than you can wish for. Both the Merfolk and the rest of the Blue lack some power.
Black
Lorwyn
1 Facevaulter
1 Boggart Birth Rite
1 Weed Strangle
1 Lys Alana Scarblade
1 Dreamspoiler Witches
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Warren PIlferers
1 Thorntooth Witch
Black’s playables bring us more power compared to the previous colors, as we have many top commons here: Pilferers, Dreamspoiler Witches, and (importantly) quality removal with Nameless Inversion and Weed Strangle. If we skip ahead, we’ll see there are Treefolk here, so Thorntooth Witch can be really good in this pool.
1 Festercreep
1 Frogtosser Banneret
2 Nightshade Schemers
1 Offalsnout
1 Prickly Boggart
1 Pulling Teeth
2 Squeaking-Pie Grubfellows
1 Weed-Pruner Poplar
Morningtide highlights in Black have to be the pair of Nightshade Schemers and Weed-Pruner Poplar. Festercreep will be played if we end up in Black, but from here cards become worse. The pair of Grubfellows have under-average stats for their cost, though their kinship might cause some uncertainty in the mind of the opponent. If we end up playing them, Frogtosser might come to the front line to speed them up.
Overall
Black seems to be deep enough to act as one of our main colors, largely thanks to the Lorwyn cards, and the pair of Nightshade Schemers from Morningtide. Even after we count those cards, we find many playables to round out our deck if needed.
Red
Lorwyn
1 Lash Out
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Lowland Oaf
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Stinkdrinker Daredevil
1 Ingot Chewer
1 Hurly-Burly
1 Flamekin Brawler
1 Blades of Velis Vel
1 Flamekin Bladewhirl
1 Heat Shimmer
Here we find our best card from this pool, Chandra Nalaar. Thundercloud Shaman could be a bomb too, but Giants aren’t that abundant, though he’s still very good with the few we have plus any potential changelings. Lash Out is another strong removal spell, but after that there’s a huge leap and the rest classify themselsves as average or below.
1 Boldwyr Heavyweights
1 Boldwyr Intimidator
1 Brighthearth Banneret
1 Hostile Realm
1 Kindled Fury
1 Mudbutton Clanger
1 Release the Ants
1 Stomping Slabs
1 Sunflare Shaman
1 Spitebellows
The same as Lorwyn Red. Some good cards, although the only clearly good card is Spitebellows. Then we have some passable cards, but the rest fall into the averege or below category. Many are marginally playable, but they’re cards I’m not happy to have in my deck. Banneret can be good depending on the rest of the creature types in the pool.
Green
Lorwyn
1 Briarhorn
1 Kithkin Daggerdare
1 Woodland Guidance
1 Fertile Ground
1 Battlewand Oak
1 Heal the Scars
1 Warren Scourge Elf
1 Rootgrapple
1 Lace with Moonglove
If it wasn’t for Briarhorn, I could almost say I would skip Lorwyn’s Green entirely.
1 Ambassador Oak
1 Lys Alana Bowmaster
1 Orchard Warden
2 Game-Trail Changeling
1 Everbark Shaman
1 Luminescent Rain
2 Reins of the Vinesteed
Things change here, as we find the usual solid big guys Green offers. Few abilities, but very nice stats for their costs.
Artifacts
1 Runed Stalactite
1 Herbal Poultice
Lands
Not much variety here… a colorless land that will make it into my deck, and a little mana fixing which is more helpful if I’m Blue, or Blue and White.
So, where to begin?
I have a flying squad in White, but very few playables in that color.
I have a weak Merfolk theme despite the numbers, with nothing to power them up.
I have many playables and good cards in Black… I guess that’s a starting point.
My best cards are in Red, but the numbers are low. I’ll see if I can squeeze them in.
Green has a wide selection of good creatures.
I started by scratching White and Blue as they weren’t good enough, and I ordered the Black playables by mana cost.
Two mana
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Festercreep
1 Frogtosser Banneret
Four mana
2 Squeaking-Pie Grubfellows
1 Dreamspoiler Witches
Five mana
1 Warren Pilferers
1 Weed Strangle
2 Nightshade Schemers
1 Weed-Pruner Poplar
Six mana
Thorntooth Witch
By doing so I acknowledge two things: by adding all the Black playables to the table I had twelve playables and I was counting with some stuff I wasn’t sure of, such as the pair of Grubfellows and Frogtosser. Blue and White couldn’t come with enough playables to make it close to 22, while Red and Green could, but by having many fillers in the deck. The second conclusion was the awful mana curve Black had as you can see. By cutting the Grubfellows and the Frogtosser you could say that Black’s average mana cost was five.
Green/Black seemed the strongest combination since it combined the best Creatures with the best removal, and it would have a reasonable sstrong Treefolk theme. Even tough Green had some cheap spells like Fertile Ground, Kithkin Daggerdare, Battlewand Oak and Lys Alana Huntmaster, what Green was really adding was the good creaturs whos average mana cost was once again five. By putting Green and Black together, the deck had fifteen spells costing four or more, all at Sorcey speed, and ten of them costed 5 mana or more, so this combination wasn’t viable.
I replaced the Green with the Red and obtained the following deck:
Two mana
1 Nameless Inversion
1 Festercreep
1 Frogtosser Banneret
1 Lash Out
1 Sunflare Shaman
1 Brighthearth Banneret
1 Release the Ants
Three mana
1 Stindrinker Dardevil
1 Spitebellows (played as evoke)
Four mana
2 Squeaking-Pie Grubfellows
1 Dreamspoiler Witches
1 Lowland Oaf
Five mana
1 Warren Pilferers
1 Weed Strangle
2 Nightshade Schemers
1 Weed-Pruner Poplar
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Chandra Nalaar
Six mana
1 Thorntooth Witch
Seven mana
1 Boldwyr Intimidator
This looks like a deck, as it’s 22 cards and we don’t mind running 18 lands to support our high cost cards, with the 18th land being Mutavault.
Strengths:
– Two color deck.
– All the removal cards.
– All the power cards.
Weaknesses:
– Very unbalanced deck. Some very good cards, some not so good.
– No synergy at all. Only one Giant to support Thundercloud Shaman, only one Treefolk and Nameless Inversion to trigger Thorntooth Witch.
– The Bannerets aren’t very effective. The Frogtosser is just a dead card soon after, and it can only speed the two Grubfellows and Pilferers. The Brighthearth Banneret can only realistically speed Boldwyrn Intimidator and Lowland Oaf, as the other elementals cost three.
– In conclusion, the deck has many weak or potentially dead cards.
I realized I wasn’t happy with Grubfellows and Frogtosser so I decided to try a Green/Red based deck looking for splashes.
I settled on this deck:
Two mana:
1 Sunflare Shaman
1 Release the Ants
1 Lash Out
1 Fertile Ground
1 Kithkin Daggerdare
1 Nameless Inversion
Three mana:
1 Spitebellows (evoked)
1 Stindrinker Daredevil
1 Battlewand Oak
1 Lys Alana Bowmaster
Four mana:
1 Woodland Guidance
1 Lowland Oaf
1 Ambassador Oak
1 Briarhorn
Five mana:
1 Chandra Nalaar
1 Thundercloud Shaman
1 Warren Pilferers
2 Game-Trail Changeling
1 Everbark Shaman
Six mana:
1 Orchard Warden
1 Thorntooth Witch
8 Forest
7 Mountain
1 Swamp
1 Vivid Creek
1 Mutavault
Since I already had the manabase, you can easily guess this was the deck I submitted. Time was running out. I remember that I still tried to toy with Blue and White again, but it wasn’t very convincing, and I was satisfied with this last build.
– The mana curve looks like a real deck.
– The creature base is very decent.
– It allows me to play with the bomb of the cardpool.
– Fertile Ground is a better accelerator than the Bannerets, Stindrinker Dardevil accelaretes Thundercloud Shaman and the two Game-Trail Changelings, and his 1/3 body is much better than a 1/1.
– There were seven cards to trigger Thorntooth Witch and some interaction between the Treefolks with Battlewand Oak, Orchard Warden, and Everbark Shaman.
– There were three other giants besides Thundercloud Shaman.
However, it loses Weed Strangle, the two Nightshade Schemers, and Weed-Pruner Poplar. Overall, I’m happier with this build than the ones I tried that featured all the Black cards.
The last card to be added, one that might be controversial, was Woodland Guidance. With only two fixers – Vivid Creek and Fertile Ground – I didn’t want to splash more than the three Black cards above, for which I even add a single basic Swamp. Boldwyr Intimidator seemed unnecessary in this deck, given the quality of the big Green creatures, and Brighthearth Banneret more often than not would be a Battlegrowth for two mana.
Woodland Guidance isn’t that bad in a slower Limited format like Sealed, as it’s not so tribal intensive like Draft since players could not draft their cards. Guidance could refuel me with a removal spell, or a good card like Chandra, Briarhorn, or Warren PIlferers. It was fine every time I drew it.
Even though I was happy with this build, I don’t know if it was the optimal one, as I did not have enough time to sort all the possibilities, just like everyone else at a Prerelease. I guess in a couple of weeks it will be much easier to look back with a better perception of the cards.
As for the tournament, there were 59 players which meant six swiss rounds. I managed a 5-1 score. My loss wasn’t really fair, as game 1 I mulliganed on the play and kept a six-card hand and only played one spell, and game 3 I mulliganed to five cards. But on the other hand, in one round my opponent’s deck was so good – straight Blue/Black – and in both games he had the win on the table if he had thought for a moment, but somehow he managed to lose 2-0. And in another round my opponent could’ve won the match if he had played differently, but it wasn’t that obvious. Overall, I was very satisfied. My 5-1 score could’ve easily be a 3-3.
Of course, I wasn’t satisfied with my 6th place finish with the worst tie-breakers, since I only won two Morningtide boosters for my troubles. Clearly the mission was not accomplished, as my friends and the PTQ winners for Kuala Lumpur were expecting at least eight packs so that we could draft. Fortunately for us, there was still the Sunday Prerelease. Maybe I’ll dissect that card pool just like I did with this one, if the readers found this interesting enough. Let me hear your thoughts on that, as well as suggestions for different builds.
Thank you for reading!
Tiago