So today is Labor Day and I'm pretty hung over. When you drink beer from 5pm to 1am it does a number on you. God bless those fat cat union gangsters for getting Americans a Monday off. I am going home to have dinner with dinner with my family but figured that a Sealed OTJ qualifier would be a good way to spend the day. It seems I was not the only one with this idea as 91 other people joined.
I was pretty happy with the pool I opened. I went with a W/R/u build playing my powerful W/R cards splashing Blue for evasion and removal. I liked my Green cards (Squall Line & Weatherseed Totem) but the color had very few cards and nothing splashable. Black had a few more cards but less quality, ruling it out. Blue also lacked depth but had cards perfect for a splash. The removal and bombs in R/W lead those to be my main colors. The deck:
(click for full-sized image)Biggest problem is the mana, deck needs RRRWWWU to cast everything. The Prismatic Lens and Terramorphic Expanse should help though. It can also cast 19/23 spells with access to just one of each color of mana so shouldn't be too much of a problem. Looking at it now I might want to cut an Island for another Mountain, but I'll see.
Round one started rocky with these hands:
Nice hands. Then I noticed that not only was my opponent not in the game but he had a 105 card deck, mise.
After my "bye" round two started. My opponent had a decent start but I managed to kill most of his board. He then played approximately infinite 3/3 flyers. First a Serra Avenger, next Stormcloud Djinn, then a Vesuvan Shapeshifter copying the Djinn, then casting Resurrection on the Serra Avenger. Also a pair of 2/2 flyers. After I kill all those I'm on three life and he is on eight. I end up two mana short of being able to Whetwheel him (had 8 cards in deck and I could mill 7 on my turn). Games two and three were both blowouts so I was off to a solid 2-0 start for this seven round affair.
Round three saw me paired up versus a good U/G deck. Game one he beat me down with a Weatherseed Totem and I died turn before I would have drawn Ovinize, bad beats. Game two I'm behind on the board but manage to cast a turn 5 Desolation Giant off my lens, turn before my Ephemeron comes into play, gg. Game three I threw away, he murdered me on tempo I was on seven my last turn. I cast Tarox, leaving it back as a blocker. On his turn he snaps it back, casts Might of Old Krosa on his Riftwing Cloudskate and swings with his team ftw. So how did I blow this game? Take a look at this screen shot and you should see why.
(click for full-sized image)Yeah I had 6 mana and Desolation Giant in hand, could have wiped his board, then with Tarox swung for 7 the turn after. Instead I lost the match. Awkward.
Well 2-1 going into round four, top 8 is possible but will be hard to make. Game one I manage to draw all of my plains, all but one of my mountains, 3 of my deck's four blue cards, and zero of my 5 blue sources. Died with an Ovinze and Ephemeron in hand (and a Shaper Parasite in the yard that could have saved itself from a Rift Bolt if I had an Island). Game two I buried him in card advantage from Candles and drew my bombs to back that up. Game three we trade removal for creatures and my sideboarded in Slipstream Serpent is nice and fat ftw. I said "ggs" (the first thing ether of us had said that game) and he PMs me:
"3:03 TankDaddy: ur a loser, u wont make top 8, have fun
wasting the rest of your labor day moron 3:03 Sorry, recipient has ignored your
message. 3:03 TankDaddy: go take a shower now, and ask mommy for some
greasy food "
Funny thing is he didn't drop at 2-2, and went on to play all 7 rounds having no shot at Top 8. Odd.
Round five I win game one. Game two I keep a hand of six land and Candles of Leng. Opponent was a B/R deck heavy on removal light on speed and creatures. I dealt with his two Castle Raptors, things were looking good. And then he played Kaervek the Merciless. I was out of removal and he was able to remove my creatures I was trying to race with. Almost got there with the six land hand. Game three I suspend the Ephemeron turn two. I pulled off what I think was a pretty solid bluff by not playing the two mountains I had in hand just playing Plains and Islands (I was very flooded this game). So while I looked mana screwed I was just holding back Whitemane Lion mana, which ended up saving the Ephemeron and winning me the game.
Now sitting at 4-1, making the blown game sting even more 8. Round six I am stuck on three lands until turn 7. I get him to three but Mindstab hbut just need two more wins for topas reduced me to topdecking. Even with Candles of Leng going I can't find anything and
loose. Oh and 0 for 8 on red sources in 21 cards. Game two again can't get red sources, Mindstab again wrecks me. I topdeck Ephemeron with Lumithread Feild out it will be 4/5 and I figure his B/R/u deck won't have an answer to it. He plays an island and then Nicol Bolas. Now I don't think I've ever see him cast in limited but there he was. I topdeck Crookclaw Transmuter and play it after he declares attackers. I can't really race him because I'm on 14 life so two swings and I'm dead. I think about it for a minute and decide to double block as I can't deal with the 7/7 otherwise. I had another first this game, seeing Cradle to the Grave used as a combat trick turning my double block into a lonely 4/5 standing in front of a dragon.
So I end up going 4-2 drop. Best I could have managed was 10 or 11th place with my breakers so no reason to stay in. I felt I had a good deck, had some mana issues in one match I lost and I was at fault for loosing the other one.
Control. A few of us on the WOTC forums had been quite loud in demanding another Prismatic PE, and honestly I'm happy Wizards gave it to us. Much like last weekend's Classic event this will be for a lame-duck format. Next week we see the release of Master's Edition sure to give many new options to Prismatic players, and two weeks later Flash is banned in the format. This is the deck I ran last time, which was not ideal but I don't own every card so it was the best I could put together (click on image for full-size). It is a very Red and burn heavy Prismatic aggro deck. I figured Flash would be the strongest deck at the event but I lacked the cards to build it. It is very much a Zoo deck, 1/3 land, 1/3 creatures, 1/3 burn or other enhancements. I played 4x Aven Mindcensor main deck to combat Flash. The fifteen cards on the right hand side of the image is the sideboard with Swords and Baloths for creature decks and Cranial Extraction, Stifle, and Swords for Flash decks. Didn't feel I needed help versus control and was pretty disappointed to loose to one control deck.
I have not had much time to playtest Prismatic but I plan to change that over the next few days. Not going to talk too much about that though needless to say Xth added alot of nice cards for aggro. I think after the banning of Flash the Prismatic format will revert to aggro being the only viable deck. It gains alot of cards and options from MED while control also gains some I think it still gets the short-end of the stick. Of course I think many of these smaller, online formats just become inbred. If aggro does become the only viable tournament deck a mid-range deck loaded with 4/4s and lifegain should be able to keep it in check. Tolaria West and Trinket Mage however both improve a great deal in the aggro matchup with the addition of MED. Ivory Tower and Zuran Orb are both fine additions to an anti-aggro suite. Tolaria West is an incredibly powerful card at the moment with Pacts, man-lands, ect and I wouldn't be shocked to see it banned at some point. I don't think it should be but that is another topic. Anyone interested in testing Prismatic shoot me a PM in game.
