Drafting with Born of the Gods

First of all, I should say I had a blast drafting with Theros.  I figured out it was best to make a Heroic flavored deck, and that worked out really well for me.  So I figured Born of the Gods should be as fun to draft.

Not exactly this time.  Not that it was un-fun.  But I wasn't very lucky with my card pool.  This time I have grown as a player quite a bit, and was able to manage.

At the Tangled Web, there were 40 entrants into the release day draft.  Our draft consisted of one Theros booster, and two Born of the Gods boosters.  We opened the Theros booster pack first.

The rare in my Theros pack was Prophet of Kruphix.

This is a card that I owned one of already, but never played, not being a Green-Blue "Simic" player.  But I new this card was killer, and so I said to myself, "I guess I am going to make a green-blue deck."  I played blue the week prior in the sealed deck pre-release tournament, so I was sort of familiar with the new blue cards...I felt this would work in my advantage.  (I was right about that.)

My other rares were Whelming Wave and Tromokratis.  Not bad.  Two blue cards.  I drafted two Floodtide Serpents.  And almost every card I got the rest of the night was blue or green.  I drafted some chumps, including a couple of copies of Kiora's Follower.  Too bad I couldn't have a Kiora, The Crashing Wave.  I only hate-drafted 5 cards.  (drafted cards I couldn't use because I had to or because of value...not so much this time.  I did hate-draft Heroe's Podium...A rare but bad card for limited.)

I basically tried the strategy of bombing the board with Whelming Wave at the right time.  That was my plan.  If Floodtide Serpent or Tromokratis were out, basically that ensured victory.  The new twist wast the Prophet of Kruphix.  She allowed me to flash in my creatures, and was over-all a game changer.  Too bad she is so weak as a fighter.  (2/3)

The people in my 8-person pod in general didn't draw any gods or planeswalkers.  There was a lot of moaning and groaning about how bad our packs were!

I built a solid, good deck.  It just wasn't quite good enough.  The red and black decks were crazy, and white wasn't bad either.  I also played against one fringe player who built five colors in order to play the two gods he got, and the Chromanticore he got also.  (Lucky dog.)  At the end of the tournament I was ranked right in the middle at 20.  Not bad for my fifth time ever drafting!

Check my next post for how I feel about Born of the God's in general!

Born of the Gods Pre-Release Excitement

Just two more days until we get our first taste of Born of the Gods in a sealed deck tournament.

I signed up for Blue as my color of choice...My logic being it is usually the blue cards that I have a hard time getting.  My color is black, so I figure I will get all of those I need anyways.

Sealed deck is challenging.  Luckily they have put all of the cards online ahead of time.  This sealed deck will be half Theros and half BOG, so, it might not be that hard after all.  I can't wait to draft BOG.  It was fun to draft Theros.

What cards will I get?  Definitely Arbiter of the Deal, Ephara, or Phenax.  I really want Phenax.  He seems like the most powerful of the new gods, in my Esper style.  Ephara doesn't seem so bad either.  As for the Arbiter, It is a late game play.  I hope I don't get that one so much.

Can you imagine this card with a bunch of Pack Rats?  You could mill big!  

Other cards I hope to see?  Bile Blight!  Meletis Astronomer!  Brimaz, King of Oreskos!  And Hero of Iroas!

Playing multiples of this guy should be great!  Bestow stuff for cheaper!

I'm thinking the white cards may be good in the Fencing Ace deck*, while the other cards just interest me a lot.

What about the black cards?  Herald of Torment seems like a winner, as a bestow demon.  I refuse to believe Champion of Stray Souls was meant to be played in Standard.  It is expensive, and its abilities can be accomplished other ways with less mana.  Maybe they are pushing tribal Skeletons or something.  But he isn't legendary, so...

This guy can be bestowed, so you are ramping up that black devotion!

The other card I am really looking forward to is Chromanticore.  A ridiculous card.  But I have a pet project of a Mazes End deck, and Chromanticore should fit in there nicely.

Of other cards, Hero of Leinna Tower seems to be one of the most promising green cards.  Searing Blood is going to cause some problems.

This whole set seems to want to squash out small token strategies.  Stuff like Searing Blood and Bile Blight seem to be aimed squarely at the Selesnya token style.

Oh yeah.  Minotaurs are going to be beast in Booster Draft and Standard.  And Ragemonger and Mogis are ridiculous.

In other words, I think I pre-ordered the best color.  I could have went with white.  But blue here seems to address some of what the rest of the set is doing.  And the Inspired mechanic that triggers when stuff untaps is going to cause some craziness.

I intend to keep everyone informed on what happened at my Pre-Release (Seeded) Sealed Deck tournament.





*OK.  A little bit of rant.

You.  Poet.  Write this down.

It seems like Heroic is the favorite mechanic of the Wizards.  They are always touting the benefits of hitting something that has heroic and causing craziness.  And white seems to carry this mechanic the best.  It is great when it works, 30% of the time or less.  Most of the other time, your creature gets removed and its auras go to the graveyard as junk.
I want to believe in the Heroic mechanic.  It is very satisfying to hit a Fabled Hero with Madcap Skills and Ethereal Armor on turn 4 and smack your opponent for a ton.  (At least 10).  But people like Fabled Hero are too easily burned, canceled, or otherwise snuffed out.  I want to believe in Savage Summoning, but this pushes the color wheel to four colors.  Not where

Magic the Gathering, Core Set 2014....And THEROS

I've done two sealed deck tournaments with the new set, the first at a pre-release, the next on release day (booster draft at The Tangled Web.

Let's just say I'm not too good at drafting!

I haven't got any of the much wanted cards in a pack yet.  These are the new Chandra, new Garruk, the new Angel, and the new Hydras.  In fact, the rares I have got are throwbacks, with the exception of Strionic Resonator.

The core set is cool though.  I like the new Sliver cards.  And I have the promo Megantic Sliver.  The best sliver, in my opinion is the Predatory Sliver.  Basically a baby Megantic Sliver.

Uhh...  What's a Sliver???

Slivers stick together.  They share abilities.  The idea is that they are a hive mind, like the Borg on Star Trek.  The Wizards decided to put these in place of some other friends that we have come to love.  (Krenko, Odric, Yeva, Talrand, and Nefarox, the Knights, etc).

I don't dislike the slivers, though.  And I could see myself making a deck out of them.

Also, the Duels of the Planeswalkers game incorporates M14.  That's cool.  It gave me a little edge.

So....

Already I don't like it as good as M13.  Who am I kidding.  Maybe it'll grow on me.  What I really can't wait for is THEROS!

I think I'm going to go crazy with the Theros block.  Ravnica has been fun.  Theros.  A Greek Mythology based set.  Ima be crazy!  Do you know that I, the SpartanNerd, have two PERFECT GOD OW WAR GAMES.  I loved GOW and GOW II.  Being a cheapskate, I never got a PS3, much less whatever has come out since then.  AND I have watched 300 fifty-eleven times.  It is no coincidence that I am the SPARTANNERD.  I put the Spartan in SpartanNerd......

But I digress.....

I already plan on getting that Hydra deck that they are going to be releasing (announced at San Diego Comic Con.)  That just sounds like fun!

And I went crazy for the GATECRASH.  I have a fat pack box full of that set alone.  Alphabetized, of course, cause that's how I roll.  I'll probably have a full three boxes of THEROS block cards.  Look for me to be a champion!