Zendikar Pre-Release Review

[Oh Malley]

This past Saturday (Sept 26th) was the special pre-release date for the newest expansion for M:TG. I finally decided to get back into the game after not playing for 5 years and I figured now would be a good time to do so. I drove to a card shark over in Kernersville since there was no place in W-S, but it wasn't that far nonetheless. TopDeck Games is definitely a nice shop for sure. Anyways, there were about 30-35 people there, 26 of which were there for the event. Others were the store staff and other various customers who came to watch. It was my first Magic tournament, and it was a sealed format.

 

For those of you who don't play Magic, the Sealed format is where you are given a set number of booster packs, open them up, and then build a 40 card deck (as opposed to the standard 60) using only those cards you pulled from the booster packs. So these types of events take a lot of luck and skill in terms of deckbuilding and play. I pulled some really nice red rares, namely Hellkite Charger, Pyromancer Ascension, and Valakut. However, I didn't have enough low mana creatures and spells to really invest in red. However, my other three rares were Luminarch Ascension (white), Conquerer's Pledge (white), and Roil Elemental (blue). Plus I had plenty of low cost (and effective) white creatures plus some good blue spells for stalling.

 

The tournament was composed of 5 rounds, where players were awarded points based on victories and defeats. Then the players were ranked based on the points they accumulated and then the top 8 got prizes. I finished 11th overall out of the 26th, but I was happy for my first turnout. I had 3 wins and 2 losses. And 1 loss was mainly due to mana flood (drawing nothing but lands), but I will say my opponents deck was very effective and fast. My other loss was a close duel that went to a third game which could've gone either way.

 

My victories though were mainly dependent on pulling Luminarch Ascension in my first draw and playing it early and just stalling them for the next four turns so I could start pumping 4/4 Angel tokens for only 1W. This was great because no one I played had any destroy enchantment cards. Also, it seemed that Wrath of God was a favorite pulled by many of the other players, which only hurt them, since I could easily pump out more creature tokens faster than they could replenish their ranks. Roil Elemental was key to sealing the deal in other matches where it was massive army versus massive army.

 

White was a heavy favorite overall between the decks, mainly because of all the cheap but effective creatures. There were several blue/white and green/white tended to be the most popular decks from what I could tell. I had a good time and I felt that Zendikar is an amazing set with its new mechanics (traps and landfall mainly). I'm really thinking about returning for the big release event this coming Friday and maybe pick up a few extra packs along the way.

[melatonin]

White was pretty good, but IMO black was better. I ran blue/black.

[Oh Malley]

I think a blue/black deck got top spot, but I didn't see very much black at all. I didn't get that many black cards to even bother considering it. I was debating putting green instead of blue, but I didn't have enough power overall to put it in. White had to be in there for sure just because of the sheer amount of cards I drew.

[ATP Arch Angel]

So, anything noteworthy about the set other than Angels vs. Vampires and land coming into play?

 

 

~Arch Angel~

[melatonin]

So, anything noteworthy about the set other than Angels vs. Vampires and land coming into play?

 

 

~Arch Angel~

 

Power 9 are randomly insert into packs. Extremely rare, though.

[Oh Malley]

They've got Ally creatures, 5 main races (Elf, Merfolk, Goblin, Kor, Vampire), the landfall mechanics, a lot of kicker spells, and just some interesting cards overall.

[FTE Kaz-Ka]

Sweet, I can FINALLY make a Twilight deck that shines and sparkles.

[melatonin]

http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=196404

 

Kaz, I got one of those. Interested?

[YouWinGameOver]

I am interested!!!!!! I have a zombie/counterspell deck that 2 of those would fit perfect in.

[FTE Kaz-Ka]

http://forum.tcgplayer.com/showthread.php?t=196404

 

Kaz, I got one of those. Interested?

 

Yea Im interested but what do u want for it?

[Oh Malley]

Looks like we may see some M:TG related threads pop up in the Buy/Sell/Trade part of the forum.

[melatonin]

I like Blue stuff, artifacts, or cash.

 

I also have one of these.