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