After a bunch of Gatewatch stories and 3 sets on Ravnica, we're going to a completely new place, where the only previously known characters are Will and Rowan from Battlebond, and Garruk, who has been missing from Standard sets since I believe M15, which was released in 2014. This is a world of unsettling fairy tales and Camelot-inspired knighthood.
Mechanically, it is a set that heavily leans toward monocolored decks, and that is fairly unusual in itself. There is very little color fixing outside of a few green cards, a couple artifacts, and one uncommon tri-land that can only make colored mana for knights and equipment.
I caught the Sunday morning prerelease, which is probably the least attended. There were probably 15 or so people signed up.
Here's my deck:
My promo was Clackbridge Troll, which is very strong, and I also had a good amount of black removal. My best color in general was white, with three rares. So I built a white deck splashing black. There were more than 10 minutes remaining to build, and I took a good hard look at Outlaws' Merriment. Is it a stronger bomb than Clackbridge Troll? Did I have enough red cards to replace the black cards? I decided that I did, and I was able to help my manabase by replacing double-splash cards (Clackbridge Troll, Bake into a Pie) with single splash cards. My red also had more knights than my black to wear Shining Armor. So the black went into my sideboard below, and I started the red cards.
Dwarven Mine (and Witch's Cottage, by the same token) was an interesting math problem. If I was only playing 5 Mountains, should one of them be Dwarven Mine? I decided the chance of it entering untapped for its bonus was small enough that I'd rather just have mountains. I'm pretty sure the math backs it up.
I'm also not sure if I had the overall mana ratio quite right. 12 white sources and 5 red was probably close, since I had 2 cards that required quad white mana and a few other cards that benefitted from extra plains, and I rarely wanted to cast a red spell before turn 3.
As it turned out, my only sideboard plan was to replace a Plains with Scalding Cauldron when I was on the draw, and occasionally replace something else with it on the play if it was good for the matchup.
How did it go?
Round 1 vs. White-Red
I think he was mainly in white also, but his deck was quite a bit different. Game 1 he won easily when I couldn't find my Mountain and had several good red cards in hand. Game 2 went very long but I pulled out the win. And we went to turns starting around turn 3 of game 3, so the match ended in a draw. Draw, 1-1-1.
Round 2 vs. Two Decks
He started with a blue-green deck, and I my Castle Ardenvale and a few fliers, and I managed to chump block his really big Beanstalk Giant enough times to win. Second game he switched to his Mardu knights deck. He had some good cards, but the manabase was really bad. He was trying to play Arcanist's Owl and Elite Headhunter in the same deck, and that's just not tenable. Win, 2-0.
Round 3 vs. Red-Green Aggro
This deck was full of top-heavy adventure creatures with combat trick spells. I was on my back foot in the first game, and I tried to race in the second game but couldn't do it. Loss, 0-2.
Round 4 vs. Mardu Knights
Here was another deck trying to play 3 colors. It wasn't bad, and the games were very close. In particular, he had an Archon of Absolution that was horrible for my mostly-white deck. In one game I spent Joust and a red creature to 2-for-1 myself to get rid of it, and in the other game I drew my Mountain for my 5th land to cast Searing Barrage the last possible turn before it would have killed me. Somehow I pulled out both games. Win, 2-0.
And he had a good enough record to get the prize if he reported a win (I didn't), so we had agreed beforehand to split the prize if I won the match. He took 4 packs and I took 3.
So my true match record was 2-1-1 and my record in games completed was 5-3. Not bad!
Also, I never got to cast Outlaws' Merriment! I had it in my hand twice with no red mana, and the rest of the time I just never drew it. I think that card would have been super powerful on curve.
Some thoughts on cards and the format in general:
- These games can become a slog if the board gets full of little creatures. Fliers and other evasion were very important in my wins.
- I didn't think twice about main-decking True Love's Kiss in this format. There are a ton of artifacts and enchantments running around, including a fair number of artifact creatures. I would probably main-deck it in draft also.
- The draft format looks like it will have some very fast decks (anything based around knights or red) and some very slow decks (anything based around food). Creatures tend to be top-heavy and I had a hard time finding good blockers for anything over 2 power (although getting two copies of Giant Killer mostly made up for that).
- Because the creatures are so top-heavy and many have 1 toughness, I was able to turn Rally for the Throne into a 2-for-1 combat trick a couple times.
- I ran into a couple Ardenvale Paladins, and they were good roadblocks at 3/6. I wish I had one in my pool.
- Shepherd of the Flock's adventure was a good trick to use with Giant Killer. Also, no one expects two Giant Killers in the same deck. Sometimes there wasn't a good target for it, but it always at least did good work as a tapper.
Here are my spoils (plus 3 unopened packs):
The foil Outlaws' Merriment was a nice bonus because it meant I got an extra rare in my pool. The Shepherd of the Flock is one of the new "booster fun" showcase cards with alternate frame and alternate art. They show up rarely in regular packs, and regularly in the new Collector Boosters that are currently selling at around $30 each (for 15 cards). Overall, my cards opened are worth somewhere in the $10-15 range, although that changes (and mostly drops) quickly after a set releases.
I look forward to drafting for monocolor (or almost monocolor) decks for the first time ever. I think this last happened in Theros block maybe, which was before I was playing again.
Thanks for reading!
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