They were limiting each guild to 10 sign-ups, first come first served, and when I showed up, Golgari (black-green) was already all taken (people were hoping for promo Assassin's Trophy). I was torn between Golgari and Selesnya (white-green) as my top choices, so that made my decision easy. Selesnya was also the least full at the time, and I'm never above picking an underdog.
Just like Tarkir block in 2014 - 2015 (and Origins did something similar also), you get a "seeded" booster that has a promo and other cards for your guild. Here's what mine had:
Bounty of Might is a great card for Limited (especially Sealed) because it will just suddenly win games out of nowhere, but it has no money value. The rest of the pack was standard Selesnya fare.
When I opened my other 5 boosters, I was met by a four black and Golgari rares, plus support cards at uncommon and common (my last rare was Tajic, who is great, but there was no way I could play Boros). So I was without question going Golgari, but while building I played around with white in a three-color deck and had a hard time deciding what to cut. In the end, I was happy with my straight Golgari curve and cut out the white altogether. Here's what I ended up playing:
Doom Whisperer is just bonkers -- there's no way they should have printed a card that good. But I can't complain since I was the one benefiting from it. Even if it didn't have the ability to surveil at will it would be ridiculously strong. The plan of this deck (and Golgari in general) is to trade off low drops to stay alive while working toward my bomb rares. There's a little bit of conflict between the trading and the two big convoke creatures, but I also had enough good blockers like Hitchclaw Recluse that I could get up to 7 and 9 convoking mana. Midnight Reaper sometimes drew me a bunch of cards, but it is sometimes uncastable at low health. I didn't have the best removal, but Bounty of Might sometimes represents a 3-for-1 and other times represents a "Oh you decided not to block because you have 15 life? Now you're dead." Very fun and sweet deck with a lot of synergy and a little pure gasoline.
I had some Plains and various white and white-green cards ready to side in, and I also had a pair of Crushing Canopy in case I needed enchantment or flier removal. But I never made any changes to my deck all tournament.
Round 1 vs. Sultai (blue-black-green) Lazav Surveil.
I'm not sure what this guy was really doing, but he had mashed together his Dimir and Golgari cards. It wasn't bad but I won in two games, partially because he had trouble with his mana base. Win, 2-0.
Round 2 vs. Selesnya Convoke.
She had a bunch of the bigger convoke creatures and got ahead early both games. In the first game I made a bad aggressive attack that almost cost me, but pulled it out with Doom Whisperer and a surprise Bounty of Might. Second game she had me down to 3 life and attacked 4 creatures into my 3. I 3-for-1-ed her with Bounty of Might while dropping to 1 life, and started to make a comeback. But she got just enough creatures to force me to trade Doom Whisperer, and I drew a Midnight Reaper that I couldn't cast because I was so close to dying, and eventually she broke through (I cast the Reaper as a blocker just to see if she wouldn't attack into it, but she saw it). We finished just as time before turns was expiring and called it a draw. 1-1.
Round 3 vs. Selesnya 2x Emmara with black splash.
This guy is good, and he had an excellent convoke deck without really researching the set in advance. He tempoed me out of game 1 with creatures that I couldn't effectively block (4/4's and Roc Charger). Second game I was doing pretty well but he calmly blew out my lethal Doom Whisperer with a removal spell after I pumped it, then blew out the Severed Strands that might have saved me for a couple turns by giving his creature hexproof. Loss, 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Boros (white-red) with blue splash.
I don't think I ever found out what he was splashing because this looked like Boros aggro, except it wasn't very aggressive in either game we played. He had Aurelia, but I was able to take her down cleanly with Hitchclaw Recluse and Undercity Uprising since her base power is so low. Both games he ground me down and appeared to be ahead, and both games he lost to Bounty of Might attacks, once from 12 life and once from 17 (and he had no excuses on the second one because he did have blockers). Win, 2-0.
2-1-1 match record isn't good enough for prizes (you have to get 3 wins), but it was enough to make me happy. My game record of 5-3 was fine.
For value, Doom Whisperer is currently at about $18. That seems high for the long term, but it is a powerful Commander card even if it doesn't take off in Standard (starting at 40 life, the Surveil ability is sort of a combination of a tutor and a fast graveyard filler for black combo decks). Tajic is about $3 and the rest of my rares are near-bulk and likely to end up bulk in the long term. I was sad I didn't get any shock lands because those are the best guaranteed value in the set. So I almost made back the $25 cost of prerelease, but I don't think that's going to hold.
I look forward to drafting GRN. Seems a bit different from anything I've drafted before.
Thanks for reading!
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