Born of the Gods Pre-Release Follow Up

Sorry for the belated news...I was WAY TO TIRED to blog after that tournament!

Well, I didn't make Top 8...

Also, I didn't get any of the cards that I said I wanted...In fact, didn't see anyone with those cards either.  I saw one Mogis all night.  I never saw a Phenax, a Hero of Iroas, or a Brimaz.  Also, I don't think the Planeswalker Kiora made an appearance.

No one played Bile Blight against me.  I saw Searing Blood against me a couple of times, though.

In short, most of the excitement didn't seem to happen at the Tangled Web.  It is all a game of chance, and I guess it wasn't this tournament's turn!

So what did go down?

I pre-ordered Blue, as told in my previous post.  I believe I was right in that decision...Even though I play black.

So...

Here is a picture of all my proud new acquisitions!

What?  An improvement in photo skill!  More on that in a later post!

First of all, These are my proud new cards, either because I have a use for them or they became the most useful new cards during the tournament.  I am only including the Born of the Gods cards...not the Theros cards I got.

Let's get the Elephant out of the room first.  I did NOT play Xenagos.  I wound up with a four color deck...a weak strategy to start with...I didn't get that many good creatures.  Since my box was seeded blue, I tried to focus it in that direction.  But at the end of the day, a little green and a little red did make it into my 40 cards...But Xenagos didn't make it.  He costs so much mana, and his ability didn't really go with what I was doing.

The most successful cards for me were Whelming Wave, and also Floodtide Serpent.  Evanescent Intellect was the card that I targeted Floodtide Serpent with in order to allow him to attack.

I actually considered NOT playing this guy.  He got me some early wins.

My deck was largely Black and Blue, with a small red splash and a small green splash.  Two of my boosters had Temple cards as their rares....This cut down on some of what I could do.  The red was there for Crackling Triton, in order to enable his ability.  The green was there for Kiora's follower, who didn't make a single appearance all night.  I tried to build my deck around card advantage....It was a blue deck after all.  But that didn't really work out so well.

My record as the night panned out became 3 wins, 3 losses.  I believe I was outclassed by the other players, and outclassed by my skills at deck building.  I also feel a little screwed because I had such a poor pool of rares...Xenagos stood above the others, but didn't match the direction I took.

I could have....Could have...Could have.    But I didn't.  And what is done is done.

The success of the night was the new cards, getting my hands on them, playing with them or trying to anyways, and trading also when it was all over.

I traded one of my Herald of War's for Eater of Hope, who is going into my Black devotion deck right away.  And it looks like Xenagos now has a home in that Fencing Ace deck...He can ramp the power of the creatures up REAL HIGH, and in a deck like that, that's what you want.

What am I looking forward to in the big box that I ordered, (Hopefully will get Friday!)  Well, after reading about some decks, it looks like I might make another crack at Azorious, adding Whelming Wave.  If I get a Chromanticore, he is going in my Maze's end deck.  And I will continue to baby the Fencing Ace deck.  So I wlll have to let the world know how that turns out!

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