Fate Reforged Release Report - January 24, 2015

While we're all waiting for Fate Reforged to come out online, I figured a release night report would be in order.

Cracking that first pack of Fate Reforged could have been better. I first picked a Wildcall, simply because it was the rare and the rest of the pack wasn't great, but after being passed two Sandsteppe Outcasts, a Mardu Woe-Reaper, and a Harsh Sustenance, I put myself into the position to try a warrior deck.

Pack two pick one was a Chief of the Edge, and I then got passed a Seeker of the Way, but after that, the warriors started to dry up. I did start picking up outlast creatures though, and my deck just sort of fell together.

Having the double Disowned Ancestors was a little awkward as my black was little more than a splash, but luck was with me, and I generally had it down and outlasted by the time I needed to block. Also, having one each of the Abzan Battle Priest, Abzan Falconer, and  Tuskguard Captain (Who are

all outlast lords) along with creatures which put +1/+1 counters on themselves or others (such as

Sandsteppe Outcasts and Armament Corps) made the outlast mechanics faster.

Round one I was up against another Abzan deck, but it was mostly durdle, so I managed to get my creatures down and outlasted to the point where I could swing in over his head for the win. In one game I actually managed to go Disowned Ancestor, Outlast, Sandsteppe Outcast, Abzan Battle Priest, Swing.

Round two I was up against a standard Jeskai Prowess deck, which took a while to get online, but managed to get me down to 4 in the first game. If I hadn't had my Rush of Battle in hand, I would have lost to an Arrow Storm to the face. In the second game I managed to cast Become Immense on my Seeker of the Way (in response to removal) for a 9 damage swing with lifegain.

Round three was the only round that went to three games. I was up against a straight up control deck. The first game I didn't even see a creature, though my opponent managed to kill one of my creatures every single turn. Game two was much different, as a Rakshasa Deathdealer came down on turn two and I really didn't get anything down until turn four. By that time a Sage-Eye Avengers had come down on his side and I was pretty much dead.

After game two I had a much better idea of what he was running, and I decided to board in my Smite the Monsterous, as well as a second Kin Tree Warden to block his Deathdealer on the ground. I even considered boarding in the Winds of Qal Sisma, but decided against it as his deck seemed fairly creature light. To make matters worse for me, I had to mulligan to five, and ended up keeping four land and a Kin Tree Warden, which was far from optimal.

Luckily, I managed to pull out enough creatures to keep him off balance, and I pulled through for the win.

Final record, 3-0. I was fairly sure going into round one that I had a solid deck, and I was gratified, if not surprised, that I came out on top.

Next week we'll have the online Prerelease for Fate Reforged, and hopefully we'll have just as much luck with our picks.

Until then, thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time,


-Step.