Tams first Aether Revolt Draft

Hey everyone! 

Boy, it feels like it's been a life time since I've written one of these things, but I'm super excited to be back at it.

I'm coming to Aether Revolt having not done much in Kaladesh, save for a sealed league and approaching this draft, I'd had no real exposure to the cards except for watching Loading Ready Run's Pre Pre Release, so to say I felt lost, was an understatement. That said, I'm always up to jump into an unknown draft format so I gave it a whirl.

My pack one pick one was Winding Constrictor. 

I knew that there was a bunch of stuff that put counters on things, as well as energy floating around, so this looked really strong. I live by the, don't marry your first pick, so I had no issue first picking a two coloured card. 

As I made my way through the first pack I picked up a Scrounging Bandar and a Defiant Salvager, giving me hope that I could make the counters on creatures train roll.

  

By the end of the draft, I had drafted 12 cards that produced counters, in one form or another, and I was thinking I'd hit the jack pot. 

My removal suite was very light, with only one unconditional destroy spell, one fight card, one spell that would take care of 2/2's and a couple of removalish creatures, but my thinking was that I would be Voltroning up my smaller creatures and being aggressive. 

The rest of the cards were ramp, card draw and bigger butt creatures to hold down the sky and ground if I went to the late game. 

Round one was against a blue green deck. In game one we battled back and forth, grinding each other down, painfully slowly, until my opponent came out on top, thanks to a well played counter spell. Game two was pretty much more of the same, again going to turns but finally squeaking out the win, putting down one more creature than I could block.

Round two saw me play Step, something neither of us really like to have happen. I started off strong, dropping a handful of creatures, but his removal found itself in his hand and he removed three creatures in rapid succession. There was just no coming back from that. In game two I didn't fare much better, never able to keep enough threat on the board to make any headway.

Round three showed me the biggest mistake I'd made with this deck, I relied too much on my ability to trigger revolt by attacking into my opponent. Most players will be wise to what seems like an unprofitable attack and won't block. More times than not, I wound up playing creatures for no value and never did get the Constrictor to go off.

I think this would have been a much more successful deck if I'd had other ways to trigger the revolt, such as bounce, or more cards that allowed me to sac my own creatures.

All in all though, it was a really fun night, and a great way to get my first taste of Aether Revolt.

Aether Revolt PreRelease - Part 2

Welcome back!

I know by this point, the PreRelease was a while ago, and we're all looking forward to the first draft of the new set, but I still want to share my Sunday experience, as it will both bolster, and provide contrast to, some of my conclusions from yesterday.

The Pool.

As you can see, the wealth of artifacts in Aether Revolt is even more apparent in this pool. The poblem is that not all of them are good. Still, it makes it even easier to see which of your colours shine and which don't. Blue and red were immediately dismissed, and white wasn't far behind, though I thought long and hard about splashing Deadeye Harpooner. In the end, I didn't feel I had enough fixing, nor ways to trigger revolt to really make it worth the splash.

Thankfully, my rares supported my two deepest colours! And I also had a few good artifacts to round out the main deck, shown below. 

I had some pretty good removal in black, and some really good green or colourless threats, so all that I really needed to do was draw what I needed. We'll see how that went. On to the rounds!

Round 1

It seemed that Esper Control was meant to test me both days. Unlike Saturday's match, where I drew

nothing but land, my Sunday deck rose to the challenge. I did lose the first game, and I momentarily thought that perhaps I'd been foolish not to run my own consulate turret, as my opponent managed to kill Each of my two and three drops in turn, but that's where it pays to read the cards carefully, because the card reads "damage to player". He did manage to win the first game before we noticed anything wrong, and by tapping down my flier with Pacification Array so he could kill me in the air.

Game two was much more one sided. The Untethered Express made an early appearance, and as he spent most of his mana keeping it tapped down, he quickly fell behind on board, especially with me drawing removal. I still think he conceded too quickly, but we both saw which way the wind was blowing.

Game three was much the same. We traded damage for a while, but in the end the Untethered Express ran him over. The one mistake I made was when I saw him leaving mana up to tap something. I was smart enough to try to move to attackers with only my Sky Skiff crewed, but I forgot to use it to crew the express, when he tapped it down. As a result, he drew one more card than he would have. I still won.

Round 2

The Express did it's work once again, and this time, I had Aether Poisoner out early enough that I

could make a Servo to crew the train, and leave the Poisoner back, making the damage completely one sided. Game one was an early blow out.
In game two, it was more of a race, but the train gaining counters as well as the Aetherstream Leopard sucking up random bits of energy made for very strong attacks, with trample.

Round 3 - the rematch!

John-as-always is a smelly, dirty, cheaty-face (love you John), and you should never believe him if he tells you he has a bad deck.
That having been said, our match was very enjoyable. During game one, I

felt like I was on the opposite end of my last match, where I just completely got run over. He started with Narnam renegade into Narnam Cobra, which meant I couldn't attack early if I wanted creatures around to power my vehicles, and then he had a pair of Caught in the Brights which were enough to stop me from stabilising until he ran me over with a revolting Lifecraft Cavalry.

In game two, my mythic lizard (not an innuendo) finally made its first appearance. I had thought about keeping it in hand, so that John wouldn't know I had it, but that would have given him at least one more draw step. I will say this, he never concedes in paper magic. He made me swing in to kill him.

Game three was the game. John started out strong, and drew first blood. Then the train came out and

suddenly he started taking hits to the face. That didn't last long, though, because he managed to disable my train. I was still gaining ground, back up to twenty and all the way up to 25 where I sat, bricking my draws while he flooded the board with servos. Eventually, his cavalry came out and beat me down. Right up until that moment, I had a feeling he thought he was going to lose. In reality, it was just one excellent game of Magic.

Round 4

Nursing my wounds, I sat down against my next opponent, a player I respect and enjoy playing against. I was surprised, then, when he played a turn one Consulate Dreadnought. He then played a two drop into Glint sleeve artisan, Glint sleeve artisan, swing. Being hit for seven on turn four feels powerful, but I knew I had things in my deck which would just kill the Dreadnought, so I didn't want to throw away my board unless I had to. I took the first hit, then started using my small removal to kill things, hoping to strand the Dreadnought without a pilot. Alas, he kept making servos, and eventually he ran me over.



I don't remember the details of the rest of the round, except that I won the next game and lost the third. He told me after the match that he side-boarded the Dreadnought out in game two, thinking I had sided in artifact removal. He was right, but not to the point where I made my deck worse. I simply realized that Natural Obsolescence should have been in my main deck all along. It stayed there for the remainder of the tournament.

Round 5

2-2 record. I was playing for prizes again, and I sat down opposite our resident red/white player. He doesn't force it if the pool doesn't support it, but more often than not when I see him, he's playing red/white.
I knew my deck was favoured to win any long game. Apparently he didn't realise that, as he let me

get six creatures onto the board, and then I dropped my Aetherwind Basker. I had the option of swinging the next turn with a 21/21 trampler. At that point he spent a long time deciding whether or not to concede rather than show me his hand. In the end he let me swing in once and blow up his board, giving himself another draw step, but he conceded immediately after. I think he made the right choice to draw the card.
In game two, he got stuck on two land. He told me that he had an explosive hand, and if he'd drawn a land, he thought he had a pretty good shot, but we'll never know.

A final record of 3-2 put me in 7th place out of 22. Good enough to win a few packs, and again, the point was to play some magic, which I definitely did.

I can't wait to draft this set. Be sure to tune in Saturday, as I'll be writing up a report of my first draft right after I get home from FNM. I hope your PreReleases went well, and as soon as it's available, I hope to see you all in the draft queues on MTGO.

Thanks for reading,


- Step.

Aether Revolt PreRelease - Part 1

Hey everybody, long time, no see.

This past weekend was the Aether Revolt PreRelease, and while Tams was hard at work making changes for our upcoming move, I decided to goof off and play Magic both days. Today, I'm going to break down my Saturday pool, talk about how I constructed my deck, and how my matches went.

Saturday.

As you can see, Aether Revolt is very artifact heavy. In my pool, artifacts basically looked like a sixth colour pile. My initial sort also didn't immediately eliminate any of my colours, although a closer look at both red and blue had them out of the running fairly quickly. The real deciding factor was my rares.
I opened (and ended up playing) three fairly good green ones. The real question was could I get away with playing black or red?

I even put together a black/red deck which looked like it had potential. There was a lot of decent removal, and my creature count was bolstered by my artifacts, but in the end, I decided that the green/white deck was stronger. See below.

For a full breakdown of why I ran what I ran, check out my video report on our YouTube channel. For now, let me break down the games.

Round 1

My opponent was playing an Esper artifact deck, and got serious value out of Hidden Stockpile. I think I probably would have been able to tempo him out early if I had drawn less than ten land in either of our games, but with him lining up his draws, and me stuck dropping forests and saying go, there wasn't much I could do to keep him from running me over.

Round 2

I was happy to play against someone I'd never met before. As a regular at our LGS, I recognize most of the people who you see at the regular events, but the great thing about PreReleases is that they bring out new players, or people who are just excited for the new set. My opponent was playing a green/white deck as well (a common theme, as I discovered), and I had much better luck with my draws, and after the first game slugfest (we traded damage back and forth right down to the wire), my opponent got stuck on two land in the second game, and couldn't defend himself. I should mention Dawnfeather Eagle.
 During game one, when our life totals were quickly and dramatically changing in a downward direction, I may not have won had it not been for the eagle. In addition to the fact that it represented an extra three damage immediately, not having to choose whether to attack with a creature or hold it back meant that suddenly I was a turn ahead in damage, and had shields up. It did outstanding work, and I anticipate it being a turn five blowout in draft until people figure out the need to take turn five off to block against a white deck.

Round 3

After a hard loss and an easy win, I was looking forward to seeing what my deck could do in some real games, and round three... Sort of got there. Game one had me Mulligan into a fine hand which didn't let me draw another land, ever. Not so great. Game two, though, was another beautiful slugfest. My opponent played red white with plenty of removal, but once I stuck something with four toughness, he had a hard time coping. Again, the Dawnfeather Eagle did good work, and basically finished the game.  I wish I could say that game three was as good, but he didn't have any better luck on two land than I did, and the damage was completely one sided.

Round 4

Ah, the match I'd been waiting for. At a record of 2-1, I finally got paired against my friend, sometimes ally, sometimes nemesis, John as Always from The Mana Leek. John was playing a fairly powerful, if unreliable kind deck(which you can check out here), and even though he played his promo Freejam Regent, his hand of ten out of sixteen lands didn't really prove very challenging. I was sad, but also content.


Round 5

By this point I was tense. My deck had performed well against little opposition, and had buried me against stronger threats. I didn't really feel like I deserved my 3-1 record, forgetting or course that crafting a solid curve and just having things to do is a legitimate strategy.
My round 5 opponent was playing blue/green, and had, among other things, an Aethertide Whale, which ran me over before I drew my third land in game one. Arg. Game two was a different story, and with the Whale safely under my Fairgrounds Warden, I was able to punch in with my Aerial Responder until she was dead, meanwhile climbing up to 37 life.

In game three, I took a few early hits until I managed to trade away creatures, clearing the board, and then drop my Greenwheel Liberator and my Outland boar, then removed what creatures she had left and dealt 8 to her face three turns in a row. It was a swingy game, but I came out on top.

Round 6

At a record of 4-1, I knew that I was in the running for the top 8. What I didn't know, was whether a final record of 4-2 would be good enough to prize. I sat down across from my opponent determined to win.

My opponent had the same plan. He was playing blue/black with a splash that I can't quite remember. Black was the colour which ended up mattering.

Game one saw us trading damage early, but I managed to top deck my removal three turns in a row and kept the board clear while he took two a turn until eventually conceding (one turn too early in my opinion).

Game two started much the same way until he stabilised and played a Herald of Anguish. I died quickly, not having drawn any of my fliers.
Now that I'd seen his win condition, I thought I had game three fairly well in hand. I got in for early damage, and even got my life up to 22 for most of the game, but eventually the demon came out. That was fine, all I needed was a kill spell. Any kill spell, even a fight spell... Which I didn't draw.
The games were good, we both played well, and the decks were solid. There's no shame in losing an honest match.

All said and done, I came in 16th of 62, with a record of 4-2, and more importantly, I had a blast!
Before I end it here, I should mention the decks I didn't have to face, but I sure heard about. There was one lucky player who opened two copies of Tezzeret as well as a masterpiece Pithing Needle, and then there was the guy who played all seven of the rares from his pool. I believe he was Naya with at least one planeswalker, though someone said he had both Ajani and Nissa. I believe this deck existed, but as it didn't win the tournament, I doubt it was as consistent as it was powerful. Anyway, PreReleases are great fun, and I suggest everyone try one, if you get the chance.


 Tune in tomorrow for part 2 of my post PreRelease report!


Thanks for reading,


  - Step.

Set Review - Oath of the Gatewatch - Creatures

Here we are, back again.

It's time for our very first set review! In this episode Tams and I review each and every creature in Oath of the Gatewatch, and come away with some conclusions about how the set will look.

Join us tomorrow for our Non-creature spells and lands review!

Thanks for watching,


-Step.

Card Advantage Presents: Pack Wars - Episode 4

So we finally bought our Origins fat pack, which means that this week's pack war comes with a bit of an unboxing video as well, and a little bit extra at the end. Check it out!

So the pack war probably would have been more interesting for me if I'd gotten a red source earlier in the game, but as it stands, it was pretty fun. Origins being a pretty flat powered set makes for "fair" pack wars, unless someone gets a prickleboar down or something.

Please join us next week when we'll be cracking an extra special pair of packs for our pack war, and don't forget to check our our Draft this Friday!

Thanks for watching,


-Step.

MDSS Team Sealed Report - August 10, 2015

Tams and I finally went to our first large tournament, along with our good friend John-as-always of The Mana Leek fame. The reason we needed to invite a third player? It was team sealed!

Mana Deprived puts on their "Super Series" every year, and part of that this year was a Team Sealed event. If you've never done a team event, I want to convince you to give it a try. It was one of the most rewarding magic experiences I've ever had.

To start with, you get twelve packs for a team sealed event, and you have to build three decks for your team to use. For a more in depth discussion on team sealed, check out the Limited Resources archive episode 245. For now, check out this video where I go over the sealed pool and breakdown of the three decks.

I was piloting the green black deck, and in the first round I had a very abrupt awakening. I was well on my way to a 2 game victory when I heard that, due to a mixture of deck tempo and mana issues, my teammates had lost. I still finished the game, but my victory was a bit hollow since I knew it count for anything.

In the fourth round, however, the tables were turned. I lost quickly and was able to advise my teammates during their games.

One thing I absolutely love about team limited is that you get to share full information with your teammates. Everything from deck construction to side boarding, right up to mulligan decisions you get a second, and even third opinion on. Of course, you have to trust your team. It helps to find people who share your mentality, which Tams, John, and I do.

Our final record was 4-2, which put us in 9th place and unfortunately just out of prizes, but it was still well worth the price of entry, and I'd do it again in a heart beat. If you ever have a chance to check one out, you should. Just find a couple of friends, and go. The worst that could happen is adventure!

Thanks for reading,

-Step.

Card Advantage Presents: Pack Wars - Episode 3

Hey everybody,

I know this is usually draft day, but with the problems I've been having with our processing computer, our ability to draft is temporarily hampered, and since we're going to a team sealed event with John-as-always of The Mana Leek this weekend, I decided to just slide the pack war into the Friday release slot.

We should have a post tournament report for when we're back from the event in Toronto, but for now, please enjoy this, our pack war for Modern Masters 2015.

It wasn't as fun as the original Modern Masters, but it was still interesting. I feel like domain cards would have been fairly good in this format, but so would all the artifacts. As it turns out, a set with a lot of synergies is not that great to pack war with, because the synergies are very hard to set up in a single pack.

Regardless, we hope you've enjoyed this, and we'll be back with another Origins pack war, as well as a draft, next week.

Thanks for watching,


-Step.