Khans of Tarkir Pre-release Report - September 21, 2014

Just home from my Khans of Tarkir pre-release and my initial impression is that this set is complex, vibrant, and incredibly fun.

Tams unfortunately couldn't go, but I played all 6 rounds, and I learned a lot about the set.

I chose Temur for my clan and ended up going with my clan colours. Unlike in Theros block, the seeded booster was entirely composed of your on-colour cards, which made it even more likely that you`d be playing your chosen colours.

Despite opening nine pieces of fixing I couldn`t use, it didn`t feel like it diluted my pool at all, and that`s probably because of the seeded pack. I`m reasonably sure that everything in it went into my first deck.

The initial deck seemed to be potent, and with 9, 8, 6 for my mana base, I didn`t think I`d have much trouble, but alas, it was not so. I was generally able to bounce and trade the first couple of things, but I got stuck on 4 mana, or without one of my colours three games in a row. After two match losses, I decided to change my deck. I think now that this was probably the wrong choice, and results oriented thinking, but it felt better to me to do something active to affect a better outcome.

The second deck was not quite as powerful, but far more consistent. I still ended up losing a game because I didn`t draw my first blue source until turn 11, but when I was able to draw land, I was able to play the game quite effectively. 
Embodiment of Spring helped to ramp me a little, and helped me find a mountain, but I wouldn`t call it fixing. Without both a blue and green source to begin with, it wasn`t very useful. Still, it`s a perfect turn 1 play. It can block until up to turn 4 pretty well, and if you want to burn it off on turn 2 to cast a 4 drop on turn 3, it`s a card well spent. 

With a fairly aggressive curve, and with the Alpine Grizzlys trading with four and five drops, I went toe to toe with some pretty heavy decks.

Alpine Grizzlys are also great to trigger the Temur mechanic, `Ferocious`, which checks if you`ve got a creature with power 4 or greater on the battlefield.





The other star of my deck was Clever Impersonator. I never got to copy a planeswalker with him, but on turn four he came down and effectively stopped anything on the other side of the field that I was worried about.

If I didn`t get him in hand until late, or had something better to do on turn 4, he could come down on any turn and copy the best thing running.

 

I won a game with Incremental Growth,
and casting Dig Through Time for two blue mana felt fantastic when I followed it up by playing two spells.

Morph is definitely more of a curve smoother in this set, although I did get my opponent pretty severely when he blocked my Snowhorn Rider with his bear (it may have been a morph creature), and I was able to unmorph it for an additional 3 to his face. There are a few really good morph tricks in this set, but more often then not I just saw it used as a way to make sure that you could cast something, regardless of the mana you have available.


After six rounds, my record was 2-4, and it feels like a cop out to blame my mana, but that`s the plight of the magic player. Overall I had fun and I`m definitely looking forward to drafting this set. A lot of the cards in this set seem really interesting to interact with. I imagine that we`re going to see a lot of four colour draft decks, at least on a splash, but I think the fixing is there to support it. Even the banners might be playable if you have valuable 1 or 2 drops, though I`d still rather not if I could help it.

Thanks for reading,


-Step.