Another Pre-release has come and gone, and boy did I have fun. I've been skeptical since I first heard about the change in block structure. The fact that Khans was going away and being replaced by this new set struck me as interesting, but with great potential for trouble. As of right now, I'm still on the fence, but at least I had a fun time with the new cards and mechanics.
I chose Atarka for my dragon clan, and that was mostly on a whim. I had to choose my clan pack before most of the set had been spoiled, and I figured since I'd started in Temur back in Khans, I might as well finish where I started. From what I saw during play, it didn't matter which clan you chose. All the clans are competitive, provided you could craft a deck.I managed to make a good use of my sealed pool. With great luck, a consistent deck, and all the skill I could muster, I managed to go undefeated at my pre-release. Let's get down to it and see just how I did it.
I didn't open a single dragon in my pool, and as well as that, the only multicoloured spell in my pool was my promo card, Atarka's Command. With only one pack of Fate Reforged, we also only had one shot for a gain land. Mine was unfortunately not one I could use. I did get one Evolving wilds in my pool, and that was enough to enable me to splash white for a couple of playables.
My deck ended up looking like this.
The real strength of my deck was in consistency. I had seven Megamorphs and three three drops, which meant that i always had a turn three play. In addition to that, the morphs I had were able to be unmorphed for much less than the expected seven mana, and most of them came with a serious up side.
The real hidden power of the Atarka Efreet however, was the fact that it almost single handedly turned on Formidable. It wasn't a terribly important part of my deck, but having it smoothed out my attacks in several ways.
When the Glade Watcher came out on turn two and could start attacking by turn four, thanks to Formidable, I had the beat down well in hand. Between that and paying two mana for the Qal Sisma Behemoth (a 5/5 for 2R) to attack, I was glad that the rest of my deck had a low mana cost.
The Dragon-Scarred Bear was the other good use I had for Formidable. While I was using the rest of my team to swing, leaving it back as a blocker was well worth the two mana to regenerate, and with three power, it was difficult for my opponent to swing into anyway.
I didn't have much need for Mana ramping, but I did run a Whisperer of the Wilds, as well as the new Hardened Berserker. More than once it let me play out a morph and leave up activation mana for one of my other creatures. The real problem I had was remembering the difference between Formidable and Ferocious. It sounds simple, but in the middle of a game, the fact that you have Formidable but not Ferocious may just elude you.
I ran Seventeen lands, including one Evolving Wilds, and only two Plains which was fine, since I didn't need white Mana until late in the game, and with seven morphs, any three lands meant that I was able to begin beating down faster than my opponents.
On the other side of the table, I didn't see near as many dragons as I expected. There were a few decks with more than one, but nothing I wasn't able to deal with. In the end, being just a hair faster than the other guy proved enough for me to bring my opponent from 20 life to 0, often with me still sitting around 20 myself. My final record was 5-0, and I only lost one game the whole day. I still don't really know how I did it, but I was happy to take home the big prize.
If I had had the opportunity to go to another prerelease, I would have, and I'm certainly looking forward for Dragons of Tarkir coming to MTGO. In the mean time, I hope you enjoyed your prereleases, and I'll be seeing you this Friday with a release Draft report.
Thanks for reading,
-Step.
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