Since there really hasn't been any formal discussion about sealed deck construction or play, I decided to take careful notes on the 2-day Dark Ascension pre-release at Mega Gaming and Comics in Gainesville, Fl. This entry is a bit long, but worth the read if you enjoy the finer details of limited play. Now, let's talk about my second day at the pre-release.
Day 1 was a little disappointing, because I had an amazing B/R removal deck with huge bomb creatures (big creatures with even bigger abilities like
Charmbreaker Devils). There were 60 people that attended and I had to play against 2 FNM regulars that basically won the whole tournament. I lost to both of them and those losses dropped my Top 16 potential by 3 spots. Day 2 had about 40 entrants, most of which were skilled players from the previous day. If that wasn't enough to lower my spirits, my 6 packs would. I opened a
Grafdigger's Cage, which is running people about $10, but is useless in limited. The rest of my packs looked terrible.
Since I had such an amazing deck the previous day in B/R, I started looking at those colors first. I had only 6 black creatures, one was a normal print of the promo
Ravenous Demon, also unplayable without 10 humans while 2 of the other creatures were
Brain Weevils. I had 5 creatures in red, 2 of them terrible. I did have 4 creatures in blue, all of them FANTASTIC, but not enough to play the color. Needless to say, those three colors were completely scrapped. The only removal I got in R/B were not splashable, either. I wasn't feeling too enthusiastic after looking through those colors.
I checked out green and white stacks of cards, not feeling too excited. But
HERE is what I came up with. I had a couple bomb creatures with
Moldgraf Monstrosity and
Festerhide Boar, and plenty of mana fixing with an
Avacyn's Pilgrim,
Evolving Wilds, and
Scorned Villager. Looking at the deck, I had mana fixing and acceleration (great), I had almost no evasion (bad), and only situation removal spells (terrible). I was not very excited about this deck, but I sleeved up, grabbed lunch, and prepared for Round 1 of 5.
Round 1 was against a guy named Bradley. I hadn't seen him around before, so I felt good going into Game 1. He was playing an unusual combination of blue and green. game 1, I played my Avacyn's Pilgrim and a couple other humans and equipped a
Butcher's Cleaver to gain life and keep him on the defensive. He then dropped
Shriekgeist that applied some pressure. I had very few fliers, but I wasn't intimidated and already had a big lead. Next turn, he played
Increasing Savagery on his 1/1 flier and I looked at my life total of 16 and realized I was on a 3 turn clock (which didn't feel good). I didn't remember the card existed and it almost blew me out of the game. I took the 6 damage to the faced and he passed the turn. I had a
Reuke in hand and swung through putting him at 12. I rebuked his flyer and won Game 1. Game 2 played out the same, but I managed to get both Rebuke and
Crushing Vines to kill his 8/7
Moon Heron and 11/11 flyer to seal the Round 1 win. I was very lucky to move on. 1-0.
Round 2 was against a guy named Nick and he was playing R/U. I managed to drop a
Elgaud Inquisitor and attach a Butcher's Cleaver on him to blow out my opponent in Game 1. Game 2 was a lot closer; however I dropped down my Moldgraf Monstrosity to seal a Round 2 win. Now at 2-0, I was feeling good and I was sure 3-1-1 would secure a spot in Top 8.
Round 3 began against a regular FNM player named Mathew. He was playing W/R/B wedge with
Bloodgift Demon,
Avacynian Priest,
Mikaeus the Unhallowed, and THREE
Tragic Slip. This removal card has to be my favorite card from Dark Ascension, followed closely by Evolving Wilds. Game 1 was a wild game where each of us played our bombs, but I quickly ran out of tempo because my opponent secured 4 unanswered turns of Bloodgift Demon triggers. In Game 2, I played a bunch of creatures and he killed them with burn spells and his 3 'bannana peels'. Luckily, I dropped the Moldgraf Monster and he went to work, taking down Game 2 easily. Game 3 was very close, trading removal for creatures left and right. He killed my Festerhide Boar and then killed off my Monstrosity, which triggered the return of my boar and Elgaud Inquisitor. I managed to swing through for enough damage before he could kill me. I ended the game at 6 life and almost died to spirits. I did it! 3-0 was enough to make Top 8.
I was wrong.., standings proved that even if the Top 4 (all undefeated) drew into Top 8, there was some voodoo magic to make them miss the Top 8. So my Round 4 opponent, Donald, decided it was best not to draw. I couldn't draw any lands in Game 1 and he played an
Undead Alchemist to finish me off. In Game 2, I played morbid creatures that killed him off. In Game 3, he played the Alchemist again and killed me. I finally sat at a 3-1 record and getting a little nervous while looking at the standings. Round 5's pairings and standings were setup and there were 8 players with a 3-1 record. All 8 would play against each other for 4 slots in the Top 8 (since 4 slots were taken by the 4 players undefeated).
Round 5 was against another FNM regular, Christopher. He had all evasive U/W creatures. Game 1, he played a few creatures but couldn't handle my turn 5 Moldgraf. Game 2, he played
Soul Seizer, and a few other flyers and the board became cluttered til he broke the stalemate with a
Dearly Departed. I watched the clock tick down under 10 minutes and went to Game 3. I was pretty sure with a draw, I was in, but with a loss, I was out. We started Game 3 with 6 miniutes left and I saw this glorious hand of Forest, Forest, Plains, young Wolf, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Festerhide Boar, and
Village Bell-Ringer. I eventually swung in with
Young Wolf, then its Undying trigger brought it back and I cast a morbid Festerhide Boar on turn 3. Turn 4, he took 5 going to 10 and I played Avacynian Priest. Time ran out and turns started with him at turn 0. He played a third creature to wall me out, but I used my Priest and Pilgrim to tap down one of his creatures, then used Bell-Ringer to untap them, tapped down another one of my opponent's blockers and killed off my opponent. 4-1, I made it!
Top 8 was almost all FNM regulars, and I was paired up with Daniel, a pauper player. He had another W/R/B wedge deck with 14 removal spells. the remaining ten cards were fliers and other synergistic creatures. In Game 1, he killed off every creature I played and continued to ping me with 2 Spirit tokens each turn for 10 turns! For Game 2, I sided in
Urgent Exorcisim and
Bramblecrush. I hit one of his only red sources with Brambelcrush on turn 4 and it slowed him down considerably. Without the red source, I was able to overwhelm him for an easy victory. Game 3 was another nail biter. I cast Moldgraf Monstrosity and he killed it and I was unale to kill him with the morbid creatures that returned after the Monstrosity's untimely death. Overall, 4-1 in the swiss and 0-1 in the Top 8.
I received 5 packs for my efforts and opened nothing but bad cards. There aren't many money rares in Dark Ascension, but I still felt awesome for making Top 8 with a subpar deck, and even gave a top tier deck a run for its money.
My final thoughts; Moldgraf Monstrosity is a powerhouse. I didn't expect to win while forced in two colors. Banana peel is the coolest card from DKA, even for standard play.
Interested in more Magic content? Check out the Draft Table series on the
MTG Casual Network Archive!
-Stephen Poindexter
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