M15 Sealed Daily: Mercy Ruled

Of course I was streaming as I got the best down of my life. It was so bad that afterwords, my mother called me asking if everything was OK.

My pool looked flashy, but it lacked the support cards that are all so important in limited. I drew Chandra, Pyromancer, Burning Anger, 2 Chords of Calling and a Hornet Queen. My last rare was some bullshit artifact or something. 

Immediately, of course, I want to do Red/Green and at firs glance it doesn't look too bad. Chandra isn't great, but her power is basically a frost lynx every turn and can take care of annoying x/1 creatures. Burning Anger is a card that I've seen Kenji use to great success ad I really wanted to try it out. Hornet Queen is a card that I've gotten blown out by before, and Chord isn't great, but it could help me get out one of my big boys with its convoke. 

Contrary to popular belief, Planeswalkers aren't auto-wins...

The rest of the deck "looked good" although in hindsight, if I'm main decking 2 Crowd's Favor, that's not a good sign. I had a Borderland Marauder, Generator Servant (to ramp into Hornet Queen obviously, which happened a total of 0 times),

The rest were 1 of Living Totem, Belligerent Sliver, Roughrider, Invasive Species, Enforcer, the usual suspects. I DID have 2 Netcaster Spiders who I drew a grand total of twice.

I usually top 5 pick you. wtf?

The biggest thing I think I learned from this draft is this:

Lesson: I need to value enchantments more.

Yes, I had Burning Rage, but that was the only enchantment I had in my deck. Every other spell was an instant and not good ones at that. I had no hammerhand, no vinewift, nothing else, and I seemed to get wrecked when my opponent played an enchantment on a flier and beefed up it's defense. 

I also did well in Theros/Theros/Born drafts and that was because I always played enchantments. I was consistently going 2-1 and fighting for 3-0, and I think it's no surprise that it's because I valued enchantments more there.

This card won me so many games...

So in the end, I went 1-3 and sold my card for 3 boosters, getting me a free draft, so all is not lost, and in this draft, I'll be valuing enchantments much higher.

M15 Draft: Phytotitan... More like Ghost Titan...

I did my first M15 draft after doing a few M15 sealed and I got absolutely blown out. After messing around on the Decked Drafter app for IOS (which I absolutely recommend) I put my hat into the ring and drafted my first event, an M15 swiss.

My deck was BG (NOT graveyard) and I was fairly excited to play it. I had 3 Runeclaw Bears, a Carrion Crow, 2 Ulcerates, 2 Crippling Blights, 2 Living Totems, a Seige Wurm and the card I was most excited to play, the unkillable Phytotitan.

And of course, in all my games played, I did not once see the damned Phytotitan. I didn't even draw it.

Not pictured: My saltiness

Also, I'm a huge Limited Resources fan, but where are all these white decks I heard so much about. I didn't see white one, but I sure as hell saw Red being played in all three matches.

I ended up going 1-2 in matches and 2-5 in games. I got Mana flooded once and stuck on 3 forests for 6 turns in another with all black cards in my hand. The other games though I got destroyed by one card in particular from the two players who beat me:

The bane of my existence

It wouldn't have been that bad if I had a netcaster spider or two, but once this card gets going, there's no way to stop it, especially since all the the decks I played had Red as their main color and the other as their secondary. Whenever Brood Keeper came out, I knew Hammerhand or inferno fist was close by.

The one guy I actually beat ended up going 0-3 and played Red/Black. I beat him with Seige Wurm once and then with Carrion Crow and Shadowcloak Vampire the other time. I also lost to him because he had a buffed Vampire of his own and I messed up the order of a removal leading to my loss.

Nevertheless, I have enough packs and tickets for 3 more drafts and am looking forward to winning my first ever draft in this format! OK, that's probably a stretch, but I'm going to do at least 3 more before Khans comes out.

By the way, I don't really like the new font they have on the cards.  know it's a petty pet peeve, but they don't look like "Magic" cards with the new font. I know I'll get over it, but I just really wanted to say that.

You know you're screwed when you main deck this...

BTT: Voltrons 'R Us

After consistently going 0-3 in phantom sealed, I decided to stop wasting my money in sealed and instead, waste my money on drafting. At least this way, I get to potentially draft big money cards. 

Of course, in my first draft I saw no money. 

I started my draft with a first pick Akroan Skyguard and 2 Setessan Oathsworn later, I began drafting a WG heroic deck. I grabbed a Fleecemane Lion which ended up being my undoing and Nylea, God of the Hunt which was borderline useless and is only going to net me about 2 tix. 

I ran my deck with 16 creatures, 17 lands and the rest mostly low drop spells to beef up my Akroan, Oathsworn and Wingsteed. And a good chunk of my creatures were bestow creatures. 

I steamrolled through my first match, winning 2-0 against another WG heroic deck. I was able to get Oathsworn out each time and beef him up along with Agent of Horizons.  After out match, the guy either rage quit or dc'd. 

The next match was against RB. I lost 0-2 but I stayed competitive in both matches, losing both thanks to the RB god who whittle my health down each turn. 

My last match was against Mono U and I just got out removal. The amount of bounces in his deck were unbelievable. I would beef up and do 8 damage one turn, and then he'd bounce my Oathsworn and I'd be screwed for two turns while he chips me down. I dropped the first match and the. As soon as he did it again match 2, I was so on tilt that I conceded. 

All in a I won 1 Theros booster and am getting about 3 tix from my cards, netting me ~-6 tix which is what I would have spent on a phantom sealed. So I don't consider this draft a failure. Especially since I recently bought a shitload of boosters at sub $3. 

Eye on BNG: Pillar of War

Pillar of War is one of those cards that whenever I see in a draft or a sealed, that I always try to shove into my deck. The reasoning being twofold.

The first thing is that this card is a colorless 3/3 3 drop. The only drawback is that it's a defender, however, it's better than almost every defender in Standard. Other than Returned Phalanx which is useless in anything other than a B/U deck, Pillar is the only defender with more than 2 power for less than 7 CMC. Not only can it defend, but it can also clear some board space for you with it's 3 power.

The real enticing thing about this card is it's power. Whilst enchanted, which especially BNG seems to focus on, it can cast away it's defender status and attack. In a best case scenario you can play PoW on turn 3 and then enchant it on turn 4 and attack with a buffed PoW. It immediately turns into a force to be reckoned with and as an uncommon, chances are that you'll see it in limited formats.

Tales From Sealed

I ran my first sealed event on MTGO. It was a sealed Theros, costing me 2 Theros booster, 2 Born boosters and 2 tix. It took about half an hour for queue to pop after signing up for it and it lasted about 2 hours to run through the 3 matches. 

So, I pull Kiora, The Crashing Wave and even though in hindsight, I probably could have put together a beast red/black deck, I opted for Green/Blue built around Kiora based on the fact that it was a Planeswalker.  

The matches themselves weren't important so I'll just say that I did exactly the same as I did in my last draft except I swept my last match. I went 1-2 in matches (winning a Theros booster), and 3-4 in games. Instead I want to focus on the two things I leaned.

1. You can't build a deck around a Planeswalker and just throw their colors together. 

I basically saw that I drew Kiora and threw every blue and black card into my deck. My deck had no strategy to it and the times I did get Kiora out there, she got taken out by two turns in. My deck was a midrange control, but not even really. It was just thrown together cards. My lesson? Look for card synergy. 

2. Take your time

I lost a game because I missed a spell removal because I was impatient and pressing "next" really fast. I'm going to be honest, I probably would have still lost the match, but it was disheartening that I messed up because of a stupid mistake. 

Overall, I'm happy I won a match  and got something out of it, and I sold Kiora for 15 tix, so I basically got my entry back, but I'm a little frustrated. I definitely need to study some MTG meta an I'm upset that I wasted an opportunity to build a decent deck instead of trying to force a blue/green.  I even pulled the red/black dual land!

Theros Draft

So I did my first Theros Swiss draft event on MTGO and I'm not going to lie, it went better than I thought it would.  

I snagged an Erebos, God of the Damned along with Archtype of Finality (all creature gain death touch) so immediately went to work on a black devotion deck. Then I saw Prognostic Sphinx and immediately tried to force blue into my deck because I read online that B/U is good. This was my mistake. 

In match 1 I went 1-1 against a red deck with a splash of green. I was actually shocked because I wasn't expecting to win a single game. The rubber match was a wipe though, he played Purphoros, God of the Forge and that was it. Had it not been for Purphoros, I feel like I could have beaten him. Even my first loss to him was because of a missed block. Live and learn though. 

Match 2 was a route. This gentleman played a green/blue deck, heavy on the green. Whereas the first game I lost because of mistakes I made, this guy was just a better player and outplayed me. I think he won it all too. He didn't even have any bombs, he just synergized perfectly and wrecked me. I lost 0-2 and now hate centaurs. 

Going into match 3, I was just happy that I got one game win. I was matched against the only other 0-2 player so I felt a little more at ease. Game 1 took a long time because he was using a B/W deck and had life gain abilities but late game I managed start hitting him for more life then he was gaining.  Game 2 I got mana flooded and still didn't have a playable card by turn 5 so I conceded with 8 health left. Game 3 was insane and I did my deck's best combo. 

My oponent and I were evenly matched but he had a ton of creatures on the board. I pulled out Psychic Intrusion and forced him to exile Hythonia the cruel. I then payed Hythonia's cost putting it on my side. The next turn I went monstrous, destroying everyone on the field except for my indestructible Erebos. I then played a cheap creature. Next turn he plays some cheap creature. I play Rescue from the Underworld, sac my cheap creature and bring back my the 2/2 flyer with lifelink whose name I forgot. This bring my black devotion to 5, and Erebos can attack. Then he conceded. 

It was quite possibly the best play I could have done.  It also gave me my only match win, so in matches I went 1-2 and in games I went 3-5.

So, I took all the cards I drafted, and since I play a W/G deck online anyway, I sold them along with the Erebos, netting me 5 tix with which I bought a Theros booster. I also won an additional Theros booster for having 1 match win, so I was pleased with that. 

Now I have the itch for events, but they're so fucking expensive. I have enough to do either another Swiss draft or a 4 booster sealed event, which I'm currently leaning more towards since I feel like that'll give me a better grasp on deck building. 

Oh and an interesting note, the gentleman who lost to me was the only person to go 0-3. I was so happy that it wasn't me. 

Archangel, Theros, and BotG

I finally bought an Archangel of Thune for my online deck along with a bunch of other cards to replace some M13 cards which can't be used anymore. I didn't really lose anything deck shattering except for Angels Mercy, that healed me by 7. 

I'll also be browsing TappedOut and check out some black decks. 

While I wait for my order, I'm going to throw together some mono decks as just test out card combos on the newcomer ranking.