Wednesday, July 31, 2013
M14 Sealed #1 - release queue
This is my first experience with M14 sealed other than the prerelease. My impression from the prerelease was that the format was slower than limited formats as of late - more opportunities to draw first, less emphasis on 2 drops, more deckbuilding that requires surviving, going long, and playing hard hitters. I have no clue if that's accurate just yet.
Anyway, here's my pool:
The white cards are very good. 2 removal cards (pacifism) and lots of heavy hitting creatures, especially at 5 mana. The other colors are all kinda crappy. The only things pulling me into black are the 2 copies of Liturgy of Blood. Red also sucks, since I don't like Dragon Hatchling and the only removal card is Flames of the Firebrand. Green has some OK men, but nothing too impressive. Blue doesn't add much besides a lot of counters and a couple more flyers.
I narrowed it down to white and blue. You can also splash, but the only thing worth splashing for me was Flames of the Firebrand, and I decided it wasn't worth it. Here's the deck I settled on, with other cards I wanted to play in the top right.
Some notes about final card choices:
No slivers - I originally wanted the 2 rare slivers and the 2W token maker, but I decided that they wouldn't really be good on their own so they got cut.
Zephyr Charge - I'm not sure about this card but I want to try it. It's obviously great with Air Servant and tons of mana, and if I can freeroll a 2/2 from Ajani Chosen, even better. I'm just worried that since most of my good creatures already have flying, it will be a dead draw in most spots if I can't do anything cute with it.
Capashen Knight - Seems kind of weak, but I don't have much early defense, and I can see him being kinda neat in the late game if I'm flooding, which I am in 97% of my games.
Devout Invocation - I don't know what to think of this card. When I first started to play competitive Magic, especially limited, goofy 7 mana cards like this were never good. Nowadays, it seems like flashy expensive effects like this one are becoming more and more acceptable. I suppose this card only serves to break stalls. I've been told that stalls aren't uncommon in this format. I'm willing to try it out. It's not bad with Serra Angel, since you get to serve first and then just double down on 4/4s.
Spell Burst - I didn't think it would be good to start these since they're not always convenient to cast. If I find myself vs. an aggressive deck, I need to be on the play for these to be good, and even then it's hit or miss. I think they're best in matches that tend to go long, like removal heavy decks, as anti-removal to ensure that my 5 mana power players stick around.
Time Ebb - I'm not all that impressed with this card. I think it's best against hyper aggro decks or aura decks. I'll be happy to board it in but I think I'm doing better things in general with my main deck.
Coral Merfolk, Armored Cancrix - I love a generic creature, but I think these guys are too generic. I'd be happy to bring them in in matchups that called for them (like Coral Merfolk vs. an aggro 2 drop deck, or Cancrix vs. a deck with lots of ground pounders).
Show of Valor, Divine Favor - Creature enhancers like these are often better in tempo formats, and my impression of this format so far is that there's less emphasis on tempo. It remains to be seen if that's correct or not.
Darksteel Ingot - I wanted an 18th land in my deck since all I want to do is hit every drop and start slamming 5s with counter backup, but I decided ingot was better than land #18 since in a small percentage of games I'll be able to cast it on 3 and then play a whammy on 4.
Flames of the Firebrand - I decided against the red splash. If I were to do it, I'd play it off the Ingot, Shimmering Grotto, and one single Mountain. I don't really like the presence of the mountain in this deck since I want to reliably have WW for my whammies and lots of blue for counters and Air Servant / Zephyr Thinger activations.
The rest of the crap in the top left - The weird thing is, I don't think these are unplayable per se, just not necessarily strong enough to make it into this deck. I can definitely see a deck for each of these cards (except maybe the enchantment). Fortify and Suntail Hawk in a blast aggro deck, 1/1 life gain guy in some aggro matchups, islandwalk guy in removal-light blue mirrors.
Anyway, here's my pool:
The white cards are very good. 2 removal cards (pacifism) and lots of heavy hitting creatures, especially at 5 mana. The other colors are all kinda crappy. The only things pulling me into black are the 2 copies of Liturgy of Blood. Red also sucks, since I don't like Dragon Hatchling and the only removal card is Flames of the Firebrand. Green has some OK men, but nothing too impressive. Blue doesn't add much besides a lot of counters and a couple more flyers.
I narrowed it down to white and blue. You can also splash, but the only thing worth splashing for me was Flames of the Firebrand, and I decided it wasn't worth it. Here's the deck I settled on, with other cards I wanted to play in the top right.
Some notes about final card choices:
No slivers - I originally wanted the 2 rare slivers and the 2W token maker, but I decided that they wouldn't really be good on their own so they got cut.
Zephyr Charge - I'm not sure about this card but I want to try it. It's obviously great with Air Servant and tons of mana, and if I can freeroll a 2/2 from Ajani Chosen, even better. I'm just worried that since most of my good creatures already have flying, it will be a dead draw in most spots if I can't do anything cute with it.
Capashen Knight - Seems kind of weak, but I don't have much early defense, and I can see him being kinda neat in the late game if I'm flooding, which I am in 97% of my games.
Devout Invocation - I don't know what to think of this card. When I first started to play competitive Magic, especially limited, goofy 7 mana cards like this were never good. Nowadays, it seems like flashy expensive effects like this one are becoming more and more acceptable. I suppose this card only serves to break stalls. I've been told that stalls aren't uncommon in this format. I'm willing to try it out. It's not bad with Serra Angel, since you get to serve first and then just double down on 4/4s.
Spell Burst - I didn't think it would be good to start these since they're not always convenient to cast. If I find myself vs. an aggressive deck, I need to be on the play for these to be good, and even then it's hit or miss. I think they're best in matches that tend to go long, like removal heavy decks, as anti-removal to ensure that my 5 mana power players stick around.
Time Ebb - I'm not all that impressed with this card. I think it's best against hyper aggro decks or aura decks. I'll be happy to board it in but I think I'm doing better things in general with my main deck.
Coral Merfolk, Armored Cancrix - I love a generic creature, but I think these guys are too generic. I'd be happy to bring them in in matchups that called for them (like Coral Merfolk vs. an aggro 2 drop deck, or Cancrix vs. a deck with lots of ground pounders).
Show of Valor, Divine Favor - Creature enhancers like these are often better in tempo formats, and my impression of this format so far is that there's less emphasis on tempo. It remains to be seen if that's correct or not.
Darksteel Ingot - I wanted an 18th land in my deck since all I want to do is hit every drop and start slamming 5s with counter backup, but I decided ingot was better than land #18 since in a small percentage of games I'll be able to cast it on 3 and then play a whammy on 4.
Flames of the Firebrand - I decided against the red splash. If I were to do it, I'd play it off the Ingot, Shimmering Grotto, and one single Mountain. I don't really like the presence of the mountain in this deck since I want to reliably have WW for my whammies and lots of blue for counters and Air Servant / Zephyr Thinger activations.
The rest of the crap in the top left - The weird thing is, I don't think these are unplayable per se, just not necessarily strong enough to make it into this deck. I can definitely see a deck for each of these cards (except maybe the enchantment). Fortify and Suntail Hawk in a blast aggro deck, 1/1 life gain guy in some aggro matchups, islandwalk guy in removal-light blue mirrors.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
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