6th Place At Prerelease [6-1-1]

[SpencerForHire]

I know there isn't much to share here.  My game notes were very limited but I'll share what I can with people for those of us going tommorrow.


Alright so first the list:

UR "Something Smells Fishy"
Blue:
1x [card]Brine Elemental[/card]
1x [card]Coral Trickster[/card]
1x [card]Drifter il-Dal[/card]
1x [card]Fathom Seer[/card]
1x [card]Fledgling Mawcor[/card]
2x [card]Looter il-Kor[/card]
1x [card]Vesuvan Shapeshifter[/card]

1x [card]Ancestral Visions[/card]
1x [card]Bewilder[/card]
1x [card]Snapback[/card]
1x [card]Wipe Away[/card]

Red:
1x [card]AEtherflame Wall[/card]
1x [card]Basalt Gargoyle[/card]
1x [card]Blazing Blade Askari[/card]
1x [card]Bogardan Rager[/card]
1x [card]Coal Stoker[/card]
1x [card]Goblin Skycutter[/card]

2x [card]Lightning Axe[/card]
1x [card]Sulfurous Blast[/card]

Artifact:
1x [card]Chronatog Totem[/card]
1x [card]Chromatic Star[/card]

Land:
1x [card]Gemstone Caverns[/card] (I had to.)
8x [card]Island[/card]
8x [card]Mountain[/card]

Since I don't remember too much I'll just give matchup analysis and then some hot plays.

Matchups:
BWg Control - This matchups is pretty much in your favor.  Although their stuff is generally bigger, you tend to win games simply on principle that by the time they get started you have already taken the game by the balls and have them at about 12 life.  Your removal is just as good and doesn't cost nearly as much (not to mention is all instant speed)
Highlight- My opponent loses his untap step to Brine Elemental and drops to 5 from 15.  On the following turn he attempts to swing with Gator Totem and I Lightning Axe gator.  Two time walks in one game seems good.

RG Aggro - I didn't see alot of this matchup but the simple principle that your stuff is almost strickly superior to theirs helps alot.  You run all the red just like them and your blue is better than their green.  They can only net land and not alot of it.

Slivers - Although it is a house if it gets going, slivers is too slow to put a hold on this deck.  You can keep them on your heels just by removing threats and swinging smart.  They have no real source of card advantage since all their good abilities assume they at least match you in field advantage.

UR Control - Different from the deck I ran (UR Aggro-Control {aka Fish as I called it })  UR Control is actually a rough (and your most likely matchup) once you get a few wins in.  Jaya Ballard is a house and from what can be seen she is quite commonly pulled (although I didn't get one).  As long as you keep her away from play you are fine but if she hits you have little chance of winning.  Otherwise your plan is strictly faster.  Both my games against the only gent who beat me all day were vs UR Control.  He got Jaya out both games and the only removal I saw for her was by duping her with Doppleganger.

These are the typically common setups I saw.  There is also a bit of UG and black is a popular splash color.  However nothing is really good unless you pull the not draws out of every pack. 

Another thing to do is watch out for Wurmcalling, my opponent got this baby active with 8 land one game and I never lived to regret it.. a 4/4, a 5/5 then a few turns later an 8/8 were staring me down.  2/1's with shadow have nothing on that.

Afterthoughts:
If I could have done it again Bogardan Rager would have come out for the one Cancel I had in the sideboard which found it's way into the deck at about the 4th round every SB-able game.  Also although Caverns is good you only want to run it if you are going to elect to draw (which is actually quite a good choice.)  However in it's current form you don't want to always be on the play for maximum speed.

Edit:
[00:10] EuphoricSorrow5k: ill put this in
[00:10] EuphoricSorrow5k: but there 160 people
[00:10] EuphoricSorrow5k: and ancestral visions is ridic
[00:11] EuphoricSorrow5k: i feel dirty when i played it... EVERY match
[00:11] EuphoricSorrow5k: good dirty
[00:11] Anusien: hahah

[KrzyMoose]

[00:10] EuphoricSorrow5k: and ancestral visions is ridic

See, I told you.

Awesome job.  What was the prize support like?

[SpencerForHire]

1st Place: 2 Boxes
2nd Place-8th Place: 1 Box
9th-16th Place: 1/4 A Box

The reason Ancestral is so good is because the game will last long enough for it to matter.  I would not wanna see it late game when I was hoping for an answer though.

[LordHomerCat]

Doppleganger + Brine Elemental = No more untaps.  Seems pretty good sir.

[SpencerForHire]

Actually my favorite Vesuvan trick was copying Jaya..  I really hate her after today...  That Vesuvan trick you suggest, not only am I not sure if it works or no, it is overkill.  Trust me when Brine Elemental shows his head it's over.

[LordHomerCat]

I played at the prerelease in Cbus today, and also had the Doppleganger.  Sadly, I never got to use it with my Brine Elemental, but I did use it with that guy who flips to draw 2 cards (the gush monster).  Drawing two cards a turn for 1U is pretty unfair.  The doppleganger just does really savage things with the blue morphs in this set =]

Edit: From A. Forsythe's article:

"But the shenanigans begin when you couple the Shapeshifter with another morph creature with a “turns-face-up” trigger, such as Skinthinner or Echo Tracer from Legions (or the handful of such creatures in Time Spiral). Suddenly you can generate powerful effects over and over again during your upkeep for only  by flipping the Shapeshifter face down each turn and turning it face up as a copy of the creature with the triggered ability.

There's even a new rule dedicated to such high jinks:

504.8. If a face-down permanent would have an “As [this permanent] is turned face up…” ability after it's turned face up, that ability is applied while that permanent is being turned face up, not afterward."

[SpencerForHire]

Good to know.  Thanks...

With quite the bit of morph I probably could have gotten even more rigged.

[L_O_L]

Heh, congratulations on the good job.

I went 4-1-1 yesterday (53 people attended, so there were 6 Swiss rounds) and ended up in 5th place.  I had a G/W control deck with a splash of Red for removal.  Two Weatherseed Totems, Pentarch Paladin and Craw Giant (!) were undoubtedly the highlights of my deck.

[UR]

Ofcourse Ancestral Visions is ridiculous in a format where you can't possibly hope to kill somebody before 8 or so.

Anyway, good job man.

[Evenpence]

I drafted a similiar deck.  The highlights of my deck (UR Fast Beats) were:

Draining Whelk (this guy is retarded, especially with the 3UU bouncing guy I got)
1U flying 4/4 suspend guy
1U flying 2/2 suspend bounce guy

Magus of the Scroll
Lightning Axe
2R 2/2 guys that can get flying if you pump R into them

The 2B kill target creature with toughness 3 or less, flashback 5R thing - it was the only card I was splashing for.

2 Urza's Factories
1 Teramophic Expanse

I seriously won 90% of my games off Draining Whelk.

[UR]

What do you guys think is the best color in a triple TS draft?

I'm inclined to say red because it is so ful of removal and cheap creatures. I played two drafts yesterday doing 1 - 1 in the first and 3 - 0 in the second (considering I was playing in a field full of Dutch pro's it is a much better result than I would have hoped for) and I felt really comfortable drafting red. I splashed blue in the first draft and black in the second and black just offered so much synergy, especially with the flashback removal card. The creatures in black are only so-so but it doesn't matter if your opponent has an empty board.

[SpencerForHire]

Red is most definately the strongest.  As a rule of thumb you could notice a visual difference in how difficult the match was depending on what colors your opponent was running.  (I know this is always true but it was blatant here).  If they were not running red they really didn't have the chance.

[chrissss]

I was really disappointed about Time Spiral.

I got 6th also, and do you Know which card made me lose???

I was wining, with 2 shadow creatures bashing my opponent, and my opponent was on a 4 turn clock.

He top decked, and I saw he drew something good ( his face was too happy), he tapped for , AND GUES WHAT HE PLAYED!!!!!

AVATAR OF FUCKING WOE......

how annoying is this???? the set is just ruined in my opinion because of this. the sets senergy is lacking, random cards dont create a nice set.

6th place here was 1 friggin booster... 1.....

1st place was only 5 though.

( I love my foil gaeas blessing though)

[Evenpence]

I don't know what the best color is per-se in a TTT draft.

White sucks.  Don't even bother drafting it.

My order is currently:

Blue
Red
Green
Black
White

But that can change.  I have Green above black because the creatures are insane in green, and in a standstill, green will win virtually every time.  Red/x is probably very favorable, while Blue/x isn't.  For instance, blue/green I don't expect to do that well at all.

Combining a removal color (red/black) with a fatty or flyer color (blue/green) is probably the best way to go, however, monowhite (if you're lucky to ever draft it) could be fine, splashing for removal, of course.

I like red best because it has the best low cc creatures and has tons of removal.  Blue, however, has flyers and tons of manipulation in addition to just insane suspend creatures (the suspend creatures in blue are just retarded).

[Nazdakka]

3-1. I didn't go to my usual prerelease venue, and the new place runs 32-person flights, which I don't really like... I find it much more fun being in a really big tournament.

I got a pretty good WB/r deck - I had some relatively strong White, lots of decent blue and good black (Stronghold Overseer... nutes) Red was just a couple of removal spells. That 3 mana red suspend removal spell caused some problems, I cast it as an instant once (it soooo looks like it should be one) and neither of us caught the mistake until too late. 3-0 looked good, but the last guy didn't want to split and produced a ridiculous game 3 in which he played turn 5 unmorph Liege of the Pit, follewed by turn 6 Stronghold Overseer with a reanimate spell in hand in case I managed to kill one... I lost that game.

We opened a foil Lightning Angel and a Magus of the Scroll in 2HG though, which took us to another 3-1, so it was a pretty successful day.

[jpmeyer]

3-0-1

I really like U/W.  The flankers and fliers and shadows are good offensive mans.  Looter il-Kor was totally worth the first pick.  You have good tampo through Snapback, Temporary Isolation, and Wipe Away.

[Roxas]

I went 3-2 in my Sealed flight; both matches I lost were solely because of Phthisis being cast on one of my 5/5 creatures. I then joined a draft and managed to draft a pretty insane deck (Magus of the Scroll, Wheel of Fate, Mawcor Fledgling, Sudden Shock x2, Rift Bolt x2, Eron the Relentless, Greater Gargadon, Ophidian Eye, and other solid cards), and won it. The best play was the final one in the final match - casting Draining Whelk in response to my opponent's Bogardan Hellkite.

[KrauserKrauser]

3-0-1

I really like U/W.  The flankers and fliers and shadows are good offensive mans.  Looter il-Kor was totally worth the first pick.  You have good tampo through Snapback, Temporary Isolation, and Wipe Away.

I concur with this.  My first TTT draft was a solid U/W deck with 2 Griffon Guides, Maze of Ith guy and Draining Whelk.  I didn't lose a game with that deck mainly on the back of Griffon Guide and bounce spells.

[Klep]

3-1 in my flight.

I cracked a foil Squall Line, an Avatar of Woe, and Jaya in my tournament pack.

In the match I lost, we both had a game where we won because the other was mana flushed.  My main problem was in games 2 and 3 (which he won), he had both Stuffy Doll and the Negator totem.  Him having both of those made it impossible for me to profitably engage in combat.  To get through Stuffy Doll without a -x/-x effect, you basically have to overwhelm the opponent so that you can race the damage you take from it, but I couldn't do that because alpha striking every turn would leave me open to getting hit with a 5/5.  That's the secret to the Negator totem.  It isn't awesome because it turns into a Negator.  It's awesome because it threatens to turn into a Negator.  He never had to activate it, but it completely changed the game dynamics.

[jpmeyer]

Agreed.  One of my opponents had a Negator totem and it really slowed down my attack ability.

[UR]

Lol, my opponent had a Negator Totem and zapped it with his own Phstisisis (or whatever it is called) because the only other creature in play was his own 6/6 guy. After that, I won easily... 

[Apollyon]

I <3 32-person flights. Everyone gets product for just showing up. Going 4-0 gets you 12 packs. While winning a box or so is nice, I dislike big payouts at prereleases.

Remember: the goal of a prerelease is to play with new cards. It's better to play 2 flights than to play in one big flight for that purpose.

I, for one, was in a flight and went 2-0 drop to play in a 2HG flight.

My deck was retarded. Flanking Sliver, Stinging Sliver, Two-Headed Sliver, 2x Might Sliver, Shadow Sliver, Gemhide Sliver, Double-Strike Sliver, Magus of the Disk, Resurrection, Cockatrice, 2 Griffin Guides, and 2 Seekers.

[Liek]

The main events at MI prereleases tend to be difficult, good job on winning prize.

I slept through the main event, arrived at 2:30, played in the last flight (which didn't start until 5,) opened a terrible pool with only one playable rare and one playable purple card (everybody else I knew had about 6 rares/purples in thier deck.) Despite lacking any powerful cards, I went 4-1, losing to the guy that won, finishing 2nd.

Were it a PTQ, I would have 0-2 dropped very quickly, my deck was that terrible. However, prerelease fights are easier than PTQs.

[SpencerForHire]

The guy that won was some Pro Tour player, he was quite cocky the entire way through.  I can have a name when the event is input into the system I suppose.

[UR]

The guy that won was some Pro Tour player, he was quite cocky the entire way through.  I can have a name when the event is input into the system I suppose.

A lot of players have that attitude when they think they are better than you. I played against some pro's this weekend and this one guy (who is on the Dutch team for Worlds) was pretty cocky until I beat him twice in two single elimination drafts (first round both times). I was pretty quiet after that.

[technogeek5000]

Red is most definately the strongest.  As a rule of thumb you could notice a visual difference in how difficult the match was depending on what colors your opponent was running.  (I know this is always true but it was blatant here).  If they were not running red they really didn't have the chance.

I went 3 - 1 at The CT prerelease and this was not the case,

I had UB evasion:

Black creatures:
1 stronghold overseer
1 Trespasser il-vec
2 cyclopean giant
1 mana skimmer
1 corpulent corpse

Blue creatures:
2 brine elemental
1 Giant oyster
1 spiketail drakeling
1 fledgling mawcor
1 coral trickster
1 visecrid deepwalker

Multi:
1 Dralnu, lich lord

Other:
1 temporal eddy
1 think twice
1 bewilder
1 assassinate
2 call to the netherworld
1 traitor's clutch
1 haunting hymn

9 islands
8 swamps

ok so maybe i could have taken out 1 island and not have gotten as much mana late game as i did. My highlights were.

Stronghold overseer: The deck could seriously be named overseer plus backup. I got this baby out 6 games and it won me everysingle one.

dralnu: insane with temporal eddys, assasinate, and premature burial.

2 brine elemental: i was chuckling after i saw my first... but then there was two.

My games were

???? i forget the first, this is the one i lost, had to mulligan to 5 on first game and second couldnt find my mana to lay overseer

UB evasion, this one wasnt as good, his only highlight was 2x curse of the cabal

RG beats: i noobed her, plain out pwned, schooled, smacked up, player owned her. back to back overseer made this possible

slivers: overseer 1 game stopped his attack, second game was canceling my first brine. third was 2x overseer one after another after a full swing on his part.

I think my deck was good, does anyone think the same.