I know this post is later than promised, but I've just been having so much trouble writing about this pool. I'll get to the cards in a second, and I think you'll see why, but first I want to mention that these articles will be going up on Tuesdays, and they'll be one week behind, starting with the next one. I'm doing this partially to give myself time to reflect on the matches and write good content, and partially so that I don't give away strategy to anyone from the league who may be following this blog. So, now that we're all on the same page, here was the starting pool.
As you can see, the pool is fairly balanced, again. I was excited by my rates, but blue wasn't a particularly deep colour. Green seemed to be my deepest, and yet, it's hard not to want to run a deck with Tezzeret, Tezzeret's touch, and a Mechanized Production. I knew my fixing was excellent, between two maps and two prisms, if I wanted to run a solid three colours, I could.
I really wanted to play Mechanized Production, and if I was going to play blue, there was no way I wouldn't be playing black, so at least for the opening tournament, I had limited options.
The first deck I tried was Esper, buy it seemed low on threats. Next I tried Grixis, which I'd love to play, but again, it didn't quite get there.
Finally, I tried Sultai, and that was the deck I ran for the opening tournament, pictured below.
Production on a Prophetic Prism on turn four is a very good play, especially when your opponent doesn't happen to have artifact or enchantment removal.
Round 2 didn't go quite my way. I got cocky and attacked with a 5/5 prism, when I should have tapped it for the mana I needed to cast two spells in one turn. That, along with forgetting to play a land in game two, meant the end of my hopes to go undefeated.
Round 3 I also lost in 2, partially due to Gonti stealing both my Mechanized Production, and my Tezzeret. In game one, he'd crept all the way up to 32, and taken out my threats. Mechanized Production was pretty much my only win condition, and he played it against me. Game two I Mulliganed to five and drew nine lands in a row. It's hard to tell what would have happened otherwise, but I can say that Gonti is a strong card.
In Round four, my opponent had the opposite problem, as he got stuck on three land in game one, and two land in game two. He was in red white, so we still had something of a game, but he was struggling.
A record of 2-2, and no really meaty games. The wins and losses both came from our decks misbehaving. I was a little frustrated, and very much looking forward to week 1.
In my first extra pack, I opened quite a few playables, which cemented my place in black.
No!
I honestly don't remember the details of the matches, but my deck was flooding out consistently. My fifteen land deck was giving me eight, ten, twelve land a game consistently for the first two rounds. It was extremely frustrating.
It got so bad that I decided to try out my secret weapon, a second deck!
Unfortunately, I neglected to take a picture of it, but it was your basic green stompy with a Caught in the Brights and a Dawnfeather Eagle. This deck actually did better, which is odd because I think its slightly worse, but I also had the frustrating experience of being stuck on two land. Final record, 1-3
After flooding out with my 15 land deck, and stuck on two with my 17 land deck, I was about ready to throw in the towel, but instead, I took my losses and bought my pack.
Join me next week to find out what was in it!
- Step.
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