Pre-Release Shinanigans

Okay, I just want to say first of all. I had the coolest thing happen that could possibly happen at a pre-release, (besides getting 1'st place that is) I used a god hand. Yes, that's right. A 6 turn annihilation of perfect cards that gave me a 5 minute win with my life total at 20 and his at 0. Gotcha!

So for my decklist

Creatures: (15)
1x Blistercoil Weird              = R/U
1x Skinbrand Goblin            = 1R
1x Zhur-Taa Druid               = RG
1x Disciple of the Old Ways = 1G
1x Slaughterhorn                  = 2G
1x Battering Krasis              = 2G
2x Wind Drake                    = 2U
1x Beetleform Mage             = 1GU
1x Scorchwalker                  = 3R
1x Runewing                         = 3U
1x Zhur-Taa Swine               = 3RG
1x Species Gorger                = 3GU
1x Scab-Clan Giant              = 4RG
1x Malek, Izzet Paragon    

Instants: (7)
1x Mending Touch               = G
1x Weapon Surge                = R
1x Gruul Charm                   = RG
1x Predator's Rapport         = 2G
1x Annihilating Fire              = 1RR
1x Counterflux                    = UUR
1x Essence Backlash          = 2UR

Sorcery: (3)
1x Phytoburst                      = 1G
1x Hidden Strings                = 1U
1x Clan Defiance                 = X,RG

Artifact (1)
1x Izzet Keyrune                  = 3

Land: (16)
1x Izzet Guildgate
1x Gruul Guildgate
4x Island
4x Mountain
5x Forest

Okay, so basic strategy here was this. I had a bunch of pump spells and counters, plus a couple decent chances at getting some free hits for damage with the Hidden Strings, which worked well, and also worked well for getting the mana you need when you first cast it early on. The reason for so many Instants and Sorceries was to try to pump my one drop each turn, or later on, to cast them with Malek, which only happened twice the entire night. A lot of the creatures I intended strictly for bloodrushing actually played some pretty vital roles as creatures on the field instead of being bloodrushed.

So anyways, the rundown on the matches. There were 6 rounds.

Round I - (0-2)
Played a guy who was running an Orzhov/Rakdos combo.
I mana screwed game one and couldn't get any islands out and just got mowed.
Game two went my way and had him down to 4 life, had 6 lands out and was holding Essence Backlash, Phytoburst and Malek in my hand. I thought to wait to play the Malek in case he tried bombing me with a large creature. I didn't. Aaaaand he dropped Obzedat, Ghost Council next turn and proceeded to give it to me right in the shorts.

Round II - (2-0)
Played a clustered mess of a Golgari/Simic deck. I he had me on the ropes for a bit, but I ended up walking away with two fairly easy wins.

Round III - (2-1)
I played a very tough matchup against a guy running Orzhov/Golgari, he beat me round 1 and I countered back with my best hand of the night.
 Turn 1 dropped a Gruul Guildgate, turn 2 dropped a Forest and a Disciple of the Old Ways, he has 2 mana, no creatures. Turn 3, drop an Izzet Guildgate and a Phytoplasm hitting him for 7. He now has 3 lands. No creatures. Next turn, I drop a Battering Krasis and swing for 2. He now has 11 life and 4 lands, still no creatures. Turn 5 I drop an Island. Swing for 5, he is down to 6 life. He finally drops a creature, a 3/3 something, I counter it with Essence backlash, dealing 3 damage to him. He is down to 3. Turn 6, swing for 5, game over.
Game 3 was fun as well. He dropped a creature early on and I managed to get my Zhur-Taa Druid out, as did he. Then I dropped my Slaughterhorn onto the field and on turn 5 with his creatures tapped I Phytoplasm'd my Slaughterhorn, declared him as an attacker and swung a Disciple of the Old Ways, then bloodrushed Scorchwalker onto the Slaughterhorn, swinging 15 at him in one turn, he was now down to 2, next turn swung for 5, and 2 hit. That was game.

Round IV - (1-2)
Got my butt handed to me from a guy who had an extremely organized Simic and Selesnya deck. He had an answer for everything I tried.

Round V - (1-2)
Lost again to a Selesnya/Boros combo. Got completely mana flooded for 5 turns, and then every other card was a land card. Then just got thrashed with token craziness.

Round VI - (1-2)
Handily got beat game 1 by a guy I had played for fun earlier in the night. Game 2 went my way by a landslide, and game 3 went on for forever, it was down to him 5 life and me 1 and time ran on the round.

So 2-4 on the night. But got some great cards and had a ton of fun.

Pre-Release Countdown . . .

  Okay gents and ladies,
We are 2 hours away from doors opening, and 2.5 hours from the fun beginning. Do I get butterflies before these events? You bet I do. Especially with the secrecy of what my second guild might be.
   Grrrrrrr, I am SO torn!! If I go Gruul, I have a 50% chance of scoring Golgari or Rakdos. Of course, I have the same chance of scoring Selesnya or Izzet, neither of which will pair well in my opinion.
    But of course, if I choose Golgari, then I have chances at Gruul, Orzhov, Simic and Dimir. Of which Gruul and probably Orzhov would pair the best. Maybe Simic . . . either way. This is gut wrenching for me.
     So will be updating this post or just posting new posts throughout the night and might even get up a decklist if I have time between rounds, depending on how bad I kick butt or get mine kicked.
    See ya at the games . . .

    Okay, so showed up at 11:35, the place was packed as usual, and there were about 54 contestants I believe. They began by introducing everything and explaining how the implicit maze worked and what the prizes were, blah blah. Those of us who had been researching this for the past 2 months now already knew all that, but okay.
   Then they began calling off names and asking what guild you wanted to represent. About 20% played Gruul, which I decided on. (I wanted that button) I paired with Izzet, the only one I didn't prepare for. The guy across from me pulled Selesnya with Gruul as his main.
    For my Rare in my Izzet guild pack I pulled Counterflux, which all in all isn't a bad card. Not really what I would have liked though. For my Rare in my Gruul guild pack I pulled Call of the Conclave, which is a pretty dynamite card. In my Dragon's Maze packs, the rares were Sire of Insanity, Melek, Izzet Paragon, Blood Baron of Vizkopa and Volroz, the Scar Striped. All in all, excellent rare pulls. Looking back now, I probably should have built a Gruul/Golgari deck, but I did have a lot in the form of Izzet, Simic and Gruul that I played with.
    That is all for this post, I will get on to my decklist and other pulls in my next post. Along with how the night went. I went 2-4 on the night. Both of my wins were 2-0 wins, and all my losses except 1 were 1-2 matches. I only got skunked the first matchup of the night, and that was because of making a very stupid mistake.

Cheers!

If I picked Gruul continued . . . (the Naya Mix)

    Okay, returning to the Gruul matchups, I have yet to include the last one, Selesnya. Which is the one I want to match up with the least. Which means it's probably the one I am going to end up with. Just because that's my luck.
    So without further ado, let's dive into the world of what's available for a Selesnya/Gruul matchup. Our color pool is R/G/W for this one which makes it a Naya build.

Let's start off with the creatures we might encounter . . .

Other than being a 4/6 for 5, I don't see a lot of
supreme advantages to playing this . . .

A 5/3 for 5 R/W Card with a nice ability, creates tokens
which does benefit the Selesnya Populate mechanic and
being an Uncommon might actually get seen.

Being a Rare, not likely to be seen, but still
if I pulled it, I would maybe throw it in there.

Now this Birdie is worth playing around with, give this
bad boy an early start and it can turn into some nasty quick,
being an uncommon, I would hope to pull this playing Selesnya
Tokens, yes please!

And now we have arrived at why I am unhappy with
Selesnya this round. This does nothing. I would be
mad if this was one of my rare pulls.

Now this guy is useful. I would be okay
with him being one of my rare pulls. He does
something useful and is indestructible.

What do you know, a creature that IS useful,
but oh yeah. It's a mythic, not likely we will see this
during the pre-release . . .

And that brings us to the end of the Dragon's Maze Selesnya creature cards. Do you see anything in there that's worth looking forward to . . . I sure don't. Super. Bad. Matchup.

   But enough with my complaining, let's move on to the support cards and see what we have there.

A possible redemption for the Selesnya guild
You get this bad boy out there and populate and start going
to town. Might be a game changer.

Both of these are now available to us, and
actually useful with populate. Especially if you
are running supertokens. 

I guess you could use the Release side of this to mainly screw
an opponent who just obliterated your lineup . . . and being
a Rare, chances are not likely

Now this would be handy, and chances are higher of seeing it
being an uncommon

Of course, the super sweet Legion's Initiative
Too bad it's a mythic, this is one hard hitting sucker

We get to see the Profit side of this now,
not bad to give everybody a 1/1 boost

The Protect side of this can be used, but to me,
it seems a tad bit interesting

Now this is what Emmara Tandris activated
ability should have been. Ready works good in this setting.

For 7 CMC, this is a bombshell. Like it.

2/2, Trample and Lifelink for 3 CMC! 

And now we can inspect the mono White cards that will be available for misuse by us!

A 2/2 for 2 is never a bad thing

This seems like a good card for what it is
1. A good defense
2. The ability to get rid of a blocker

Interesting, a little heavier power than
most of the other 6 drops, adds vigilance
Meh

Looks like a good card for down the road,
I would drop it if I was playing Naya

That's a big bird, with a big CMC
for such a small amount of things it can do

Now there's a decent Selesnya card
and once again, in the pre-release, you should
be playing gates

And that's all for the Mono-White DGM Creature cards, one last thing to check out here, and that is the Mono-White support spells

One of my favorite Mono-White from this
set, double trouble on the Detain

Would be great if you had all mono-colored
creatures on the field.
Also is good for you if you have a Dirty
trick up your sleeve and can return your
sacrificed creature the same turn . . .

Now when is this card ever going to be bad?
It's like Fog with life gain

The bomb dropper for Selesnya, this card is common
so you should expect to pull at least 1, and if you can use
it in this format, I say do it up!

Now, something I haven't done with any of the other guilds up to present in my match up reviews, is draw up a conclusion as to what playing with this match up might look like. So let's go back and look at the releases from Gatecrash for Gruul and Selesnya and take a look at some of the hands we might hope to build.

Okay, so your chances of pulling this in your
Gruul guild pack are not super likely, but if you
do happen to, how nice would that be?

I'm just saying, if I pull this in my Gruul guild pack, wowza. But it's 8 mana, and for a pre-release game, it's going to be a stretch playing this as almost half the land you play would need to be on the field to drop this guy, at best, he's a turn 6 or 7 if you manage to draw some Zhur-Taa Druids in your DGM packs. That being said, I would still throw him in the mix . . .

Not really the card you want to pull as your Rare slot, but there are advantages if you did play it. There is
a lot of Flying in this set, so good defense there, or if you manage to have a bunch of mana laying
around and feel like nailing some life total, that's not bad either.

So I'm not sure that you can draw a Planeswalker as your Rare slot in a guild pack,
but if you did, this would be a great one to pull.

Always a favorite for the 2 CMC bloodrush.

I have used this card in Standard and I really like it,
it seems very versatile and CAN hit hard

Also good defense against Flying, and seems once again
like it's very versatile in a pre-release setting

I'm not really sure when this is a viable option, I mean turn 5 you drop
a Burning-Tree Emissary and then drop this?

I'm not really sure why I never saw this before,
but if you are playing aggro this thing could get big real fast
and the counters stick around . . .

Captain Big Britches

Could be fun . . . what happens if you reveal 3 cards with the same name?

I like this guy, he makes fun things happen!

Useful for the late game body or for the high
level bloodrush, win/win.

Don't know why it didn't show up, but the card that replaces itself
is always welcome in my book. Double time.

So that's all the "All-Gruul" cards I can find right now, in a few, I will go pull up Selesnya and get those posted on here. And then discuss some possible fun combos. I will be doing this pretty much until friday night with all my guild possibilities. That way I know what to look for. 

Again, not likely that you would pull this for your Rare slot,
but hey, if you did, nice!

I mean, if you drew this in your Rare slot, it would
just be excellent. 

Okay, not a bad deal, maybe not the best you could
pull in your Rare slot, but definitely usable

Again, with the limited Rare slot options in Selesnya
this one does what it needs to.

Probably one of the best ones you could hope to grab in
the Rare slot, just excellent and very usable.

So not bad, but I have several and would rather not
pull this one for that very reason

Okay, so being slightly more organized with Selesnya here. These are the Rares and Mythics that might occupy the Rare slot in your guild pack. Out of all of them, myself personally would want to pull Trostani, Selesnya's Voice, or Loxodon Smiter. They seem to be the most versatile and useful for a pre-release setting.

Once again, not bad if you pull a bunch of other
token creators.

I guess this could help against some matchups,
and the 2/1 body for 1 CMC is never bad.

Never really been a fan of life gain without taking
some of my opponent's life with me, but I
guess it could be useful.

Yet another late game card, but as far as that
goes, an 8/8 for 7 is a solid body.

This one is one I would hope to pull, it's got
some severe removal, some damage punching through
or a decent token push.

This one is probably my favorite for uncommons
But some things are just too expensive
The 2/2 for 2 is still okay though

That's all for the Uncommons you have to look at, if your guild pack is anything like a normal booster, you will get 3 Uncommons.

My picks from the Uncommons to hope to receive would be Dryad Militant, Selesnya Charm and Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage

I'm not going to bother listing the commons, because of the fact that in every guild pack I opened for either the pre-release for GTC or RTR there was mono-colored commons in there as well. True, they are in your guild colors, but that makes for a lot of card research that I am just not that into right now, and there are just too many possibilities for the 10 commons you will get in each guild pack. 

So let's start looking at possible match-ups here. From my previous page I had listed all the cards you are likely to pull for a Gruul pre-release from the 4 DGM packs, and I suppose we could even break it down in a probability matrix if we wanted to, but I'm not that bored right now, so maybe later.

So there is basically a 35% chance at pulling any of the Uncommons that we want. So we can roughly figure that out of the 12 uncommons from DGM, we are going to be in the realm of having 4/6 of them fall into our Selected guilds.

  That's not terrible building odds. So assuming that we want 3 creatures and 3 instant/sorcery/enchanments from the Uncommon world. Here's what I would hope to see from DGM.

Okay, so this is a staple I am thinking for playing Gruul and any other color
matchup. You obviously picked Gruul for a reason, right?
#1 reason - Heavy hitter with Armed, 2 CMC to
give a guy a 1/1 with doublestrike!!

Well, dirty IS a nice card, but I might stick this one on a sideboard
It does perform a very versatile function though.

This one is a winner in my opinion, just makes everything
that much more potent.

From Selesnya, I would not mind seeing this one either.

And this one I would like to open as well, and play

it seems like a good mid-range enchanment for the match-up

        Those are the Gruul and Selesnya (Instants/Sorceries/Enchantments) Uncommons from DGM that I would look forward to finding

           Now let's move on to the Uncommon Creatures that I would look forward to in this matchup . . .