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Editor:Fox Murdoch. Wednesday 09th November 2005.
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 Ravnica Release event.
Well now, good to see you again so soon! It looks like Ravnica is properly out this time, so there's no shortage of cards for us all to look at. Having gotten work every day last week, I rang around and told my gaming buds that friday night we were going to play Magic. I didn't care how or when or what format, just that we played. It was decided that, seeing Ravnica was coming out on that day, we'd get ourselves some boosters and tourney boxes and have ourselves a mock-prerelease. So first off, the entrants! Four Players invited. Only three showed upYou read right. Off the bat was me, Prowler, Daza and Thimu. It seemed like the proper number, we'd have 6 games in all and see who made the best deck. However problems occured when Thimu didn't show up and both numbers we had to contact him were bearing less fruit then a Utopia Tree. This is the same Thimu who accompanied me to Sage's Games Night ages ago and actually gets pictured in a previous article of mine. But that's Thimu, onto Daza. Daza is our grade-B player. Not for being lousy at the game, but for always dying first in multi-player games. Usually thanks to Thimu. Even when I dedicate myself to saving Daza, he usually pulls off something that makes me forget my dedication and kill him myself. However he did happen to 2-2 at the prerelease, which was better than my 1-1-2 result. Also known as Dead Peanut. Then that leaves Prowler. Amongst our group I'm the Magic nerd. And with extensive enough rules knowledge and having spent the most on Magic in one go ($255 for 4 tourneys and box of boosters, what we used for this actual article) there's no real competion to take the place away. Prowler would have to be our DnD geek, as he's bought more books than anyone else and also bought the great Mutants and Masterminds, as well as Dungeoneer and all these other "for a break" games to play. His play style usually resembles that of trickery with spells. In Kamigawa, he wanted a Splice deck. In Ravnica, he wants a Transmute deck. Also, he thinks he's a pirate, so, er. Protect your booty, and such like sayings. Last of all is me. Rather than an introduction you don't need, here's a list of all the articles I've written so far and a complete list of each time I've appeared on mtg.com. That really just adds to my group claiming that I'm the "Magic nerd" amongst us, I guess. So now we know our players...We may as well get to their decks. We gave ourselves 50 minutes to open and build our decks, and I honestly didn't think we'd need that long. I was glad we had given ourselves that long however, as we finished with 2 minutes left. Now, my deck.
Well now. Having a squink at that (that is, my deck), you can see I got one less Boros Recruit then last time, and no Helix at all. The result? I turn from red/white mixed with blue/black milling to pure milling with plenty of removal and great milling cards like Psychic Drain, Vedalken Entracer, Lurking Informant and Belltower Sphinx. I'm particularly proud of the fact that I didn't stray into very much of a colour strain either, thanks to getting no Signets at all. (That honour went to Daza this time, with 2 of all but the Golgari Signets) Instead, a simple 2 colour deck with a bit of green splashed for big beaters like Golgari Rotwurm. We'd see if I couldn't turn someone else into Wurm food for once. Round 1 vs Daza playing red/white messRolling a d3 Warhammer style (that is a d6, 1-2 count as 1, 3-4 count as 2 and 5-6 count as 3) we rolled for the first pairing up and it was myself Vs Daza. What was he playing? Red/white beat down. Oh yes, playing Daza was fun. Ever heard the excuse, "I'm tired"? Ever heard the line, "I'm not thinking straight right now?" The excuses were coming quickly against Daza, and seeing it was 2am at the time I feel there might be a slight hint of truth to his words. I can't believe the fun I had with this game, considering all the mistakes I made that Daza never picked up on. Dropping a Spawnbroker Daza calls Prowler into question about the way abilities and such work. "They don't effect that game until they actually resolve," he told him, "so if you pump your creatures from the time a spell is played til it resolves then it wont work." Seeing Daza said "Got it" and passed, we figured he mustn't have wanted his Sunhome Enforcer, which I had previously used a Dark Blast on so I could swap it with the very Spawnbroker I had played. When opening our cards and building our decks, there wasn't much of a squeek from anyone signalling "I got a great card!" And it would've been a great and scary time for his opponent when Razia, Boros Archangel hit the board. Prowler said "And there's no burning her," smiling at the turn of events, when I shrugged in initial agreement, as a Last Gasp came to my rescue. Not only did Razia feel a bit breathless, but Daza's Viashino Fangtail kept having it's Last Gasp on it's first turn, which happened with startling frequency over all three games. I was also lucky enough to play my Ooze, and while he didn't clean up any tokens the entire 4 games I played, he did keep it plenty interesting. A self pumper? Great. A self pumper who I can pump up so as to avoid making him kill himself? Even better. Though I pulled off the trick by casting Gaze of the Gorgon on him. However it then risked by Vedalken Entracer, who was the main gear of my decks workings. What do I do!? Luckily, against Daza, nothing. He attacked with him next turn and I gladly killed him off in combat, so no one ever lost anything costing 4 mana that had any combinations of legs, wings, arms or gripping oozes that could move itself. I can also recall being on 3 life at the time Daza tapped out and played Flame Fusillade. The amount of permanents he had? Three. My response? "I Disembowel any of your creatures that'll die." I get down to 1 life, but that's enough to mill, baby! And Spectral Searchlight? Do you know how much fun it is to say, "OK, end of turn you burn for one"? Very fun. Very very. Needless to say, amidst all the fun, and "Geez I'm tired" remarks, the game went 2-1 my way, so I couldn't have been happier. Round 2 vs Prowler, playing green/white beatdownAgainst Prowler I kept drawing my black beatsticks rather than my blue millers, but I wasn't complaining. My Necroplasm kept the board clear of Prowler's Courier Hawk, and even took itself out once without meaning it. However, quite abruptly, that's the end of this Release event article. I held at my house, but mine, Prowler's and Daza's mind didn't hold the information too well. Prowler and Daza didn't have enough in themselves to go head and head with themselves, and I learnt a valuable lesson: milling is so much fun and takes forever. So after the entire event, I look a great 2-0 going 4-1, and both opponents look horrid going 0-1 with a bad 1-2 and 0-2. It was a great night for all concerned, however late it started and however short of four we were. A problem? Not at all, we ran another such night one week later... Cheers for reading, Fox Murdoch. Oh, you're still here? Where's Daza's decklist, you ask? OK, seeing you asked so nicely, I'll give it to you. But there's a slight problem: this is the one from the actual prerelease. So go back in time one article, where I was Helixing people in the face (so cool) and throwing Boros Recruits at them and dropping from the tournament 5 minutes early so I could get my boosters 5 minutes earlier (and as such not showing up on the results table) Daza was trumping this deck all around the place to come in at 6th place, right underneath Prowler, who came 5th.
Yes, you read right. Blazing Archon. Nine damned mana, and three of which must be white. And who did he get it out against, just as they were tearing him apart and this looked "In the bag?" Yours truly. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
