For the last two weeks, since the release of Tempest Remastered on MTGO, I’ve heard nothing about the format. Crickets. The queues have been firing, albeit at a glacial speed, and none of my friends have tried it out. Perhaps it’s because Tempest Remastered is not a “real” draft format, or because people are saving their money for Modern Masters 2, or maybe because the packs have pretty bad EV, but no one seems to be playing it. However, given that I’m a fan of older cards, novel draft formats, and opening Wasteland, I figured I would hop in a queue and report back.
I jumped in a queue at 8:12 PM. Four people were in it. I waited around for a few minutes and no one joined, so I went to the kitchen to get myself a drink. When I came back, I had missed my first pick and saw a Serpent Warrior in my pool. While this is a pretty unexciting first pick, it’s at least a borderline playable card. My pack two, I took a Vampire Hounds from a relatively unexciting pack. After watching a Caleb Durward draft where Vampire Hounds was excellent, I figured I would give the dogs a try and try to pick up some Death’s Duels to pair with it. My options for the next pick looked like this:
Pick three Dark Banishing seemed like a pretty good signal that black was open and an easy pick with nothing else exciting in the pack.
I ended up branching into blue after seeing a Merfolk Looter pick four. That card is pretty bonkers, especially in older formats where the games tend to be a bit grindier and more board stalls ensue. In the next pack I took a Wind Drake over a Killer Whale for curve considerations.
After picking up some borderline playables and a late Scrivener, I opened up the above cards in pack two. I think the pick is between Kezzerdrix and Rootwater Hunter, though Merfolk Looter and Screeching Harpy are at least considerations. I decided on taking Rootwater Hunter because I love Tims and the way they make combat harder for your opponent, kill all X/1’s, and then slowly ping your opponent to death while the ground is stalled.
A couple picks later and I grabbed some solid blue fliers, Wayward Soul and Fighting Drake:
Here is my first pick from pack three:
My eyes immediately focused on Capsize. Capsize with buyback is at best totally unbeatable and at worst, infuriating for your opponent. I did double check the price on Survival of the Fittest before slamming it but at .10 Tix, it wasn’t a consideration at all.
A couple picks later I had one of the more difficult decisions in the draft:
I wasn’t sure whether I should take another four drop flier, the evasive shadow guy, or the Gravedigger. In the end I took the Gravedigger for its synergy with Merfolk Looter and Vampire Hounds.
In the end, I decided on playing this and 17 lands:
The deck is a UB tempo/control deck with some pretty cool synergies. Merfolk Looter and Vampire Hounds allow you to drop creatures in your graveyard which you can pick up again with the double Death’s Duel and Gravedigger or put into play with Reanimate. In one game, I was able to Duel back a Gravedigger and a Scrivener and seriously out card my opponent for the rest of the game. The deck has a reasonable curve and evasive beaters in the two shadow creatures and the several fliers. While the deck is a bit short on removal, it does have two counter spells (though Spell Blast is admittedly not fantastic), a Diabolic Edict, a Dark Banishing, and a Capsize. If I was building the deck again, I would certainly take out the Lab Rats, as the card is mana intensive and not very good, especially in comparison to something like Capsize. Also, while I don’t love the sliver package, I do like the synergy Hibernation Sliver has with Vampire Hounds.
Let’s talk about the games:
Round One, Game One—
A snap keep on the play.
My opponent didn’t play very much while I had an embarrassment of riches.
And we’re off to game two.
Round One, Game Two—
A fine, albeit somewhat risky keep on the draw…
…which I am immediately rewarded for.
I can’t say I’m a fan of Lotus Petal in most limited formats.
My opponent wisely scoops to Capsize with buyback. I even had the Scrivener in case he had a way to kill his own creature.
Round Two, Game One—
Another reasonable keep.
I managed to win a very grindy game through multiple Master Decoys. However, I burned through a lot of time on the clock.
Round Two, Game Two—
I didn’t take many screen shots because I was trying to play quickly and beat the clock. I ended up playing too hastily, and messed up Capsize with buyback, eventually losing to Rootwater Hunter pings.
Round Two, Game Three—
I was short on mana, time, and life. My opponent could beat me on multiple fronts so I scooped up my cards.
Round Three, Game One—
I have never played in a 6-2-2-2 queue and assumed it was single elimination. To my surprise, I found I was playing in a swiss queue and had one more round of battle left.
The mirror! It looks like my opponent got pretty flooded and was unable to deal with my evasive creatures.
This one was also a slaughter. I was able to loot through my deck and shoot down all of his lab rats. Here my opponent played a Commander Greven il-Vec and put himself dead on board to my team.
Ultimately, I finished 2-1, though had I been a bit more familiar with the format, I think there’s a good chance I could have won round two. While I don’t think Tempest Remastered is the next Rise of the Eldrazi, in terms of depth and replayability, I enjoyed the format. Tempest Remastered is a smart reimagining of Tempest block as a playable draft format which emphasizes the fundamentals of good limited play. Bombs certainly exist—I’m looking at you Rolling Thunder—but the format rewards cohesive deckbuilding; playing with a solid curve, having ways to generate card advantage, and taking removal and evasive creatures early. I would recommend the format to anyone sick of Dragons of Tarkir limited, people who enjoy older cards, and to those who have never had the joy of casting a buyback spell. It just feels good.
At age 15, while standing in a record store with his high school bandmates, Shawn Massak made the uncool decision to spend the last of his money on a 7th edition starter deck (the one with foil Thorn Elemental). Since that fateful day 11 years ago, Shawn has decorated rooms of his apartment with MTG posters, cosplayed as Jace, the Mindsculptor, and competes with LSV for the record of most islands played (lifetime). When he’s not playing Magic, Shawn works as a job coach for people with disabilities and plays guitar in an indie-pop band.