On Saturday morning, just before noon I walked into Pandemonium Books and Games and expected to play in a prerelease. It didn’t happen. I had neglected to sign up beforehand, because I’m an idiot and simply assumed they would be running multiple flights throughout the day. They were not. Luckily, they still had plenty of spots for Two-Headed Giant later in the evening and regular sealed events the following day. I signed up for both and then went home to play EDH until it was time to go back to Pandemonium.
Erica and I, AKA Team Tunnel Ignus, opted for red and blue seeded packs since she wanted to sling some burn spells and I opted to live up to my “always blue” mantra.
These are the decks we created:
Always Blue and Sometimes White
| Creatures (16) 1 Sigiled Starfish 1 Harbinger of the Tide 3 Scrapskin Drake 1 Watercourser 2 Tower Geist 1 Separatist Voidmage 3 Whirler Rogue 1 Totem-Guide Hartebeast 2 Willbreaker 1 Alhammarret, High Arbiter Instants and Sorc. (2) 1 Turn to Frog 1 Disperse Other Spells (5) 2 Claustrophobia 2 Supression Bonds 1 Knightly Valor | Lands (17) 1 Evolving Wilds 9 Island 7 Plains |
Remix to Chandra's Ignition
| Creatures (14) 2 Abbot of Keral Keep 2 Fetid Imp 1 Thopter Engineer 5 Ghirapur Gearcrafter 1 Nantuko Husk 1 Blazing Hellhound 1 Rabid Bloodsucker 1 Priest of the Blood Rite Instants and Sorc. (8) 2 Fiery Impuse 1 Read the Bones 4 Lightning Javelin 1 Chandra’s Ignition Other Spells (1) 1 Shadows of the Past | Lands (17) 10 Mountain 7 Swamp |
I was really happy with how both of the decks came out, though given that we had 12 packs and two seeded boosters, I’d say we were about par for the course for power level. In terms of my deck, I liked the Whirler Rogue/Willbreaker interaction. If you have both out, simply tap two thopters to steal any one of an opponent’s creatures. I thought about playing some narrow cards like Send to Sleep in order to maximize my two Willbreakers, but was glad I decided against watering down my deck for the sake of a potentially sweet interaction. Perhaps my coolest play with Rogue/Willbreaker was to wait until my opponent tried to play Wild Instincts to fight and kill my Willbender and then stole the creature they targeted. Since they no longer owned the creature, it was an illegal target and the creatures didn’t fight. I also thought Alhammerret was sweet, especially given that it targets both opponents in 2HG, but sadly the only time I cast one it was immediately countered.
Erica’s deck was based around putting a million thopters in play. I’ve never had the liberty of playing five of a card in a limited deck, but Ghirapur Gearcrafter seems like the kind of card I would want to play five of. Aside from the reasonable removal and swarm of creatures, the deck also featured Chandra’s Ignition. Every game Erica cast Ignition, we won. Two games, she was able to sacrifice multiple creatures to Nantuko Husk, wipe the board, deal a ton of damage with Ignition (it’s doubled in 2HG) then swing with the giant Husk. The last game, just a lowly Ghirapur Gearcrafter was enough to swing the game in our favor when ignited. The best part of the card, aside from being a Plague Wind/Searing Wind combo, is the fact that it has the word “ignition” in the text. I say this as someone with a guilty pleasure for R.Kelly’s “Ignition Remix” and as someone willing to belt it out in a crowded basement filled with Magic players.
Team Tunnel Ignus finished at 3-0-1 which was good enough for half a box of Origins. It was a a good finish that was even better than sipping on coke and rum.
The following day though, was the polar opposite of the freaking weekend and having some fun. I decided to pick black as the seeded booster because, as established earlier, I’m an idiot and I can’t even follow my own “always blue” plan.
I built two decks. Both of them were terrible. Here they are:
Bad WB
| Creatures (17) 1 Fetid Imp 2 Nantuko Husk 2 Auramancer 2 Deadbridge Shaman 2 Chief of the Foundry 1 Knight of the Pilgrim’s Road 2 Blightcaster 1 Charging Griffin 2 Undead Servant 1 Revenant 1 Priest of the Blood Rite Instants and Sorc. (2) 1 Macabre Waltz 1 Read the Bones Other Spells (4) 1 Infernal Scarring 1 Weight of the Underworld 2 Suppression Bonds | Lands (17) 10 Swamp 7 Plains |
Bad BG
| Creatures (17) 1 Fetid Imp 1 Timberpack Wolf 2 Leaf Gilder 2 Nantuko Husk 2 Deadbridge Shaman 2 Chief of the Foundry 1 Orchard Spirit 1 Pharika’s Disciple 2 Revenant 1 Rhox Maulers 1 Priest of the Blood Rite 1 Skysnare Spider Instants and Sorc. (5) 2 Titanic Growth 1 Macabre Waltz 1 Read the Bones 1 Dark Dabbling Other Spells (1) 1 Weight of the Underworld | Lands (17) 9 Swamp 8 Forest |
The BW deck had a terrible curve with only one creature at two and a glut of mediocre stuff at three and four. The deck had some removal, two Suppression Bonds and a Weight of the Underworld, but the enchantment theme didn’t really come together otherwise. While the deck sported two Auramancers and two Blightcasters, we’re only playing four enchantments total which just isn’t enough to reliably get value out of these cards. Most of the time Auramancer is just a Grey Ogre and Blightcaster was, well, an even worse Hill Giant. I won one round with the deck because my opponent was new and ran their Archangel of the Tithes into my deathtouching Fetid Imp among some other questionable plays.
I ended up switching to BG after I was demolished in round two by a reasonable UB deck.
The BG deck had exactly one removal spell and a situational one at that in Weight of the Underworld. The reason it was perhaps better than the BW deck is that it had a better curve with some two drop creatures and a good high end creature in Skysnare Spider. I played against my brother in the third round, drew no forests in two games, and decided to drop from the tournament.
While I understand that sometimes you just have a mediocre pool, this was my worst performance ever at a prerelease and it stung a little bit. If you have any thoughts on either of these decks and which one you would jam, post in the comments. I’m interested to get some opinions.
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.