ARB Pre-Release

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I could not get out to the Saturday Alara Reborn Pre-Release but did manage to make it out to the Sunday one. I was happy to find that we did have more than enough players (to make it a DCI sanctioned event) and several players who were playing in the tourney the previous day but simply could not get enough of the new card goodness.


Here is the Match summary ( 2 - 2 ) . . .

Match One (Stewart) : Game 1 - Win, Game 2 - Win.

Match Two (Brian) : Game 1 - Win, Game 2 - Loss, Game 3 - Win.

Match Three (Mike) : Game 1 - Win, Game 2 - Loss, Game 3 - Loss.

Match Four (Pat) : Game 1 - Loss, Game 2 - Win, Game 3 - Loss.

Winning decks in this tournament were typically a Jund build - unfortunately, I had put together and Bant deck. I am totally ineffective in the sealed environment but must admit that I may have played only less than a dozen times or so. Having said that, I must also admit that I am seeing some marginal improvement. I thoroughly enjoy building decks and play-testing these in the constructed standard environment but realise that variety is good.

You can check out this video summary of the Alara Reborn Pre-Release and see the notes below.



This is the build I went with . . .

BANT BUILD (G/W/U) - 40 Cards

17 LANDS : 5 x Forrest, 6 x Plains, 5 x Island, Seaside Citadel

1 Drops : Valiant Guard, Court Homonculus, Might of Alara

2 Drops : Knotvine Palladin, Steward of Valeron, Esper Stormblade, Cylian Elf, Call to Heel, Aven Squire

3 Drops : 2 x Rhox Warmonk, Lorescale Coatle, Winged Coatl, Guardian of Akarasa, Parasitic Strix, Obelisk of Bant

4 Drops : 2 x Bant Sojourners

5 Drops : Waveskimmer Aven

6 Drops : Sigiled Behemoth

7 Drops : Rockcaster Platoon, Yoked Ploughbeast

8 Drops : Kederekt Leviathan


Hindsight is a beeotch - After the event, I went home, grabbed a beverage and looked at the card pool again. This is what I should have played . . .

ALTERNATE JUND BUILD (B/R/G) - 40 Cards

17 Lands : 6 x Swamps, 6 x Mountains, 5 x Forests

1 Drops : Hissing Iguanar, Shadowfeed

2 Drops : Jund Hackblade, 2 x Goblin Outlander, Maniacal Rage, Dragon fodder

3 Drops : Nyxathid, Knotvine Mystic, Matca Rioters, Savage Hunger, Branching Bolt, Wandering Goblins, Dark Temper, Llightning Talons, Resounding Thunder, Pestilent Kathari

4 Drops : Scavenger Drake, Sewn Eye Drake, Singe-Mind Ogre

5 Drops : Voracious Dragon

6 Drops : Morbid Bloom, Valley Rannet


Hey - I might even make it out to the proper Alara Reborn Release event (because I am salivating for that Knight of New Alara) and be much wiser for the above silliness. I did bring home a pack I won which provided me a Filigree Angel so I guess the day was not a complete loss.

. . . by-the-way - Does anyone else think that the art on both pre-release cards is worse than the regular cards ?

Shadowmoor Sealed

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On Saturday, I attended the Shadowmoor release party at my local gaming store (OMG! Games in Barrie). Even though I went 2-4, I reminded myself that I won half the games, instead of thinking negatively . . . that I lost half the games.

The tournament format was 'sealed deck' in which players received one sealed deck of 75 random cards consisting of 45 game cards and 30 basic lands. Also provided was two Shadowmoor Booster packs which include 15 random cards.


My first thoughts as I looked at my mess 'o' cards was just how easy it was to pull together a deck of 40 cards with the new hybrid cards. (Hybrid is a type of mana which can be paid with either or a combination of two different mana colours. It's symbol looks a bit like a half pie such as this - ).

I also rather enjoyed the new mechanics of conspire , wither, and persist. Fortunately, I did not get caught off guard with the new untap or 'Q' mechanic . . . I remember Devin Low from WoTC running a poll in which roughly 3 out of 4 players indicated that they anticipated walking into the untap trap.

One new Shadowmoor card I do want to mention which saved my MTG butt on more than one occasion during the Release Event's sealed deck tournament is Incremental Blight. This is the polar opposite of Lorwyn's Incremental Growth.


The players were reasonably familiar with the new mechanics and there were surprisingly few calls for the Judge. The Judge (Mr. Robert Johnson of OMG! Games) - did a bang-up fantabulous job of resolving any minor issues players did have . . . and no - - Rob did not pay me to say this.

I initially played a black-red-green deck but after losing the second game, switched horses mid-stream and modified it to fit in some control cards which came out blue-black-red.

Anywho - I am fairly enthusiastic about studying the cards I did get and working them into either some of my existing Lorwyn-block decks (I have two Merfolk decks, a Kithkin deck and a Boggart deck) or just simply building a new black-red-green beat-down aggro deck from the new cards.

Some cards I did immediately include into an existing Merfolk-milling deck I have is Oona, Queen of the Fae (of course), Memory Sluice, Drowner Initiate, and Hollowsage.




















These cards will find a good home beside Jace and bunch of very tap-happy milling Merfolk.

See you at FNM, until then, Happy & Safe Gaming !