Coldsnap pre-release

[Mindstab_Thrull]

So, I went to the Coldsnap prerelease yesterday. Looks like I'm beginning to take some of my own advice for a change, having been a concession (! An interesting story I'll share later.. the match ended up getting recorded as 1-1) away from coming back with packs (3-1 or better gets packs). I didn't pay much attention to my mana curve until after the first round, but the deck seemed to be performing quite well for me. So I played Red/Blue/black and was quite pleased with how it turned out:

=Hot & Cold=
Surging Flame
3x Skred
Frozen Solid
2x Rune Snag
2x Chill to the Bone
Rite of Flame
Mishra's Bauble
=Small Fries=
2x Rimewind Taskmage
2x Survivor of the Unseen
2x Frost Raptor
=Here's the Beef=
Thermopod
Greater Stone Spirit
Ohran Yeti
Rimescale Dragon
2x Ronom Serpent
Deepfire Elemental
=Top it off=
2x Frost Marsh
Boreal Shelf
2x Snow-Covered Mountain
Snow-Covered Forest
2x Swamp
6x Island
4x Mountain

(The last 12 basic land numbers are rough because that's from memory, having taken the deck apart before I left.)

Unplayed in those colours:

Blue:
2x Rimewind Cryomancer **
Arcum Dagsson

Black:
3x Krovikan Scoundrel
2x Herald of Leshrac
2x Chilling Shade
Tresserhorn Skynight
Disciple of Tevesh Szat
Rime Transfusion
Surging Dementia
Grim Harvester
Gristle Grinner

Red:
2x Goblin Furrier
Goblin Rimerunner
Cryoclasm **
Icefall **

** = Commonly sideboarded. Sided out usually: 2x Survivor (rarely saw play), Rite of Flame, a regular Mountain.

Mana Curve: 0cc-1, 1cc-4, 2cc-5, 3cc-5, 4cc-3, 5cc-1, 6cc-4, 7cc-1

This deck actually fared quite well for me, even considering its mana curve, due to the fact that it's a prerelease and you often have the opportunity to get 5+ mana spells off without worrying much about disruption. Since my deck was designed more as a control style (I always look at my control elements first, as they're what allow the threats to get through), whenever I had the choice I would choose to draw instead of play. Quite often, my turn 1 play was drop a snow land, followed by their turn 2 2/1 whatever (which are plenty, it seems), followed by my turn 2 Mountain, Skred - or Surging Flame, once. I'd usually find myself running the Raptors overhead, and with seven large creatures in the deck, at least two of which can play removal games on their own.. it was often enough to win. A full 14 snow permanents also meant that my Taskmages usually came online fairly quickly.

The biggest issue I had to deal with was my second-round opponent, who managed to crack open two Valkyries. Apparently, there was another player - in the same flight, I think - who not only did that but add Soulscour to the mix too. Everything else I could handle; I just couldn't get enough to take care of a PAIR of Valkyries on the board.

So.. Did I do well building this deck, did the cards do it for me, or do you think I was just lucky?

[LordHomerCat]

I wouldn't really ever play Rite of Flame, as it is basically a Desperate Ritual but worse, and I never had a deck that I wanted to play that card in CHK block.  Otherwise you had a lot of very large men, and as there really wasn't much more in the colors, it seems like almost the only UR deck you could reasonable make.  I had someone cast Icefall against me at the prerelease as well (he had 3 in his deck, and stone rained me maybe 8 times in the match), and was very unimpressed.  He won the first game because I only drew 4 total lands, but the other two games, even when I only got to 4 or 5 lands max, I was casting monsters while he was wasting his mana and cards on stone rains.  I don't think I'd play that card unless playing against a reeeeeaaaaalllly slow deck.

I suppose I'll post my deck here, I played a 32man flight, 5 rounds, prizes to top8.  I went 4-0-1, drawing in the last round and splitting the 1/2 prizes.  Deck:

Karplusan Wolverine
Boreal Druid
2 Goblin Furrier
Boreal Centaur
Bull Aurochs
Frostweb Spider
Orcish Bloodpainter
Simian Brawler
2 Ohran Yeti
Stalking Yeti
Thermopod
Rimehorn Aurochs
Aurochs Herd
Ronom Serpent
Greater Stone Spirit
Panglacial Wurm

2 Resize
Into The North
Sound the Call
Surging Aether

Snow Covered Forest
7 Forest
Snow Covered Mountain
6 Mountain
2 Snow Covered Island

Incolor SB Cards:
Lightning Serpent (should have been MD over Sound the Call)
Flashfreeze (This is really strong)
Cyroclasm

Other RG cards:
Earthen Goo
2 Rite of Flame
2 Icefall
Surging Might



I was pretty happy with the deck, Sound the Call was a generic Gray Ogre and Goblin Furrier was often pretty bad as well, but I was out of playables and didn't want to run any more blue than I had to (3 colors with 1 fixer is bad).  I pretty much just made a lot of monsters and continually forced my opponents to guess right on blocks and combat tricks and such, and since its a prerelease, I can't recall any times that they guessed right.  I never drew Ronom Serpent (he got sided out for Flash Freeze a lot) or Thermopod.  Greater Stone Spirit was a house, basically making all my other creatures unblockable, and of course Stalking Yeti was very good.  Resize is a Terrific trick, especially with a lot of Aurochs.  Ohran Yeti was also very strong, as he made blocks very tough on him and other snow creatures (like Boreal Centaur).

As far as CS overall, I thought it was interesting.  Snow mana worked pretty well in Sealed, as I rarely found myself lacking any snow lands to activate my abilities, while I also was never flooded with them either.  I didnt get to draft, but will be on Monday and might report my findings then.  As to my friend's deck, he was RG with lots of monsters, and in the Finals played the deck I most want to draft: the Ripple Deck.  7 Surging Dementia, 5 of the 2/1 White guy.  Sadly, the player was pretty terrible (my friend is also quite good), and apparently couldn't beat a 3/3, so my friend quickly won.  Still, the possibility of Mind Twist on turn 2 of limited makes me want to play that deck very badly.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

So, I fucking PWNED my pod when I went. I only played draft though, no sealed.

Highlihts include:

5 sound the call
2 Stalking yeti
1 Lovisa coldeyes
1 Fury of the hoard
1 Karplusan Mnotaur
2 surging flame
7+ Minotaurs/warriors/berserkers
1 brooding saurian

The only thing I missed was that enchant ripple card that gives creatures +2/+2. Man, the deck was savage. Seriously, sound the call in multiples is just not fair.

I witnessed a friend of a friend draft 8!!!!!! of those 2/1 first strike ripple 4 dudes. On top of that he got like 4 of those enchant creatures that I mentioned above. In one game he had a turn 3 8 powered dude out. This set looks fun to draft...

[Mindstab_Thrull]

LHC: The only reason I dropped the Rite in was to have a better chance at dropping one of my beaters sooner, although the only time it ever saw play? I was at one life, knew I was dead on his turn, didn't have control.. and purposely manaburned for 11. Bleh. Should have taken that card, and possibly a land out altogether. Oh, and one thing I found (even though I had the spoiler, I didn't do a thorough analysis on it) was that there's enough common and uncommon Bears to go around. Sure they may really be Knights or whatnot, but 2-power for 2 is a Bear. And at least one guy had a deck running a dozen of em. When I got home I looked over my cards again, and found that I could have had about the same number had I gone a different route (white/green and black and/or red splash). I still managed to get past him though, even with Darien on his side.

CoT: Yeah, afterwards I read a couple of the articles from WotC regarding Coldsnap, and they said that one of the things they tried to do was make sure that it can stand on its own in draft, since IA and AL don't draft well. So I'm not surprised about your comment, although it seems you agree with them.

[Mind_under_Matter]

3-2, with damn good tie-breakers pushing me into the edge of prize support today.

I was carried solely on the back of Shape of the Wiitigo, 8 fliers, and more bluffing than any player should ever be put through.

[CF]

Prereleases here were small; 25-32 players. First one I squeezed into top8 on tiebreakers with 3-2 and split the finals. Second I went 4-1 and lost the QF to two consequtive topdecks of Skred for 5. Traded in the Coldsnap boosters I won for Dissension and for the first time in ages actually opened them. 1 Sky Swallower and 23 junk rares ;o) Serves me right for actually cracking packs... so stupid.

--
Chris

[Mindstab_Thrull]

It appears that the prerelease was pretty light here.. By the time I finished my four rounds, I think they were still trying to sign up for flight 4. And they usually are trying to fill #7 by then (32 to a flight); by the end of the day, you've often had 10 flights run, and side events too.

For the curious, here are my white and green cards. I always look at removal first, size and evasion together at second - but removal first, as it's what allows my threats through (and thus allows me to run less creatures).

==White==
2 Martyr of Sands
3 Ronom Unicorn
2 Kjeldoran Outrider
Jötun Grunt
Gelid Shackles
Squall Drifter
Boreal Griffin
Kjeldoran Gargoyle
==Green==
2 Into the North
3 Aurochs Herd
Boreal Druid
Boreal Centaur
Sound the Call
Surging Might
Freyalise's Radiance
==Gold==
Zur the Enchanter

So I had enough cards I could start playing the Bears game (especially if you combine this with the red and/or black that I had above) but my removal options boiled down to Gelid Shackles (with Ronom Unicorn being common, not exactly a useable option), Squall Drifter (even a Skred can kill it) and Freyalise's Radiance (Stasis for snow permanents, complete with upkeep - the lightness of the snow in this deck means it could be useful). Arguably Surging Might, Boreal Griffin, Kjeldoran Gargoyle, Boreal Centaur, Aurochs Herd, Jötun Grunt, and Ronom Unicorns can also count as removal of a sort, as size and first strike tend to take out a lot of creatures, and the Unicorns can take out opposing enchantments (although I only saw one two enchantments see play in four rounds: my own Frozen Solid, and one opponent's Gelid Shackles).

So, considering how control-heavy and creature-light I tend to play, could I have done better?