The prerelease was held last April 19 at Robinson’s Galleria. The last time I went 4-0 and won a shirt was Time Spiral prerelease. I have a good feeling about this one. Then I crack open the following sealed pool:
- 1 Curse of Chains
- 1 Enchanted Evening
- 1 Plumeveil
- 1 Somnomancer
- 1 Zealous Guardian
- 1 Dream Salvage
- 1 Fate Transfer
- 1 Memory Plunder
- 1 Torpor Dust
- 1 Wanderbrine Rootcutters
- 1 Wasp Lancer
- 1 Cultbrand Cinder
- 1 Emberstrike Duo
- 1 Manaforge Cinder
- 1 Sootstoke Kindler
- 3 Sootwalkers
- 1 Torrent of Souls
- 1 Giantbaiting
- 1 Manamorphose
- 1 Tattermunge Duo
- 1 Tattermunge Maniac
- 1 Barkshell Blessing
- 1 Mercy Killing
- 2 Shield of the Oversoul
I found the sealed pool quite disappointing, but what can you do? I thought about red/black to take advantage of Corrupt, but there were not enough playables and the creatures far too small. I counted the green playables and just went with a white splash. I submitted the following decklist:
As soon as round one was done I knew the sealed pool build was wrong as I had to mulligan five times in 3 games. The curve is far too high and not too many early creatures. I found myself boarding in at least +1 Plains, +1 Ballynock Cohort, +1 Safehold Sentry every time.
No detailed match reports this time. I faced B/R decks in all four rounds, losing only to the third round opponent who had like six one drops in his deck. Against my deck of very high mana costs, he played very well.
My deck relies only on Mossbridge Troll and Windbrisk Raptor to win the game. In fact I don’t recall winning without either one of those cards. Without a common “Bury” removal effect in red and or black, neither of those creatures ever died. In the very last game, I finally managed to connect with a 25/25 Troll while I had the Raptor in play. The game was almost over for me before that turn as I was at 5 life facing that RB witch. With one troll attack suddenly I was up to 30! My opponent had to stare at the attacking 25/25 troll for a few seconds…
Some thoughts on Shadowmoor sealed:
- Drove of Elves + Shield of the Oversoul = very hard to kill guy that gradually gets bigger
- The best removal seems to be white-aligned: Curse of Chains and Mercy Killing were pretty much my only control cards. And even though I didn’t have it, Prison Term seems pretty strong as well.
- I’m not sure about the BR deck in this format, as their creatures are really puny. If you have the Ashenmoor Liege and 2-3 Ashenmoor Gouger maybe, but those are rares and uncommons. Red only has one good common removal this time around (although it’s very good – Magma Burst good.)
- That silly Scarecrow that can’t get counters? He blocks Wither guys all day long.
- Seeing as how all my matches were GW vs RB, I have no idea how blue works in this set.
Next week: Sneak Peek!
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