M14 Sealed #1 - Match Reports

When I left off, I had just submitted a sweet black-white brew with plenty of hard removal, Serra Angel and double Sengir Vampire.

To jog your memory:

The plan is to stay alive, kill threatening things and smash for 4 at a time in the air.

Into battle we go.

Round one, Villain has a green-black deck that plays creatures and removal.

Game one, we grind back and forth, with our black intimidators finding no way through and our removal taking care of any real threats. I grind him out on turn 13.

In comes the Dark Prophecy, which is good against removal and grindy opponents, then also Blightcaster, which grinds pretty well and now I have four enchantments I plan to cast.

Game two, he makes turn one hexproof guy, then on turn three Trollhides it. I drop a turn-five sengir, which stops the beats, then a turn six 4/6 zombie, which holds the ground while the vampire takes to the sky. I end the game with emergency backup Pacifism in hand.

Still had all these Pacifism.

Round two brings another green-black Villain.

I keep a hand with two plains and no swamps, but with 10 in the deck, i feel comfortable with a castable 2-drop and pacifism.

Keep.

Villain gets a mana sliver and follows up with the 3/3 hexproof guy that grows if I play a black spell on his turn. He enchants it with Dark Favor, but Vampire Serra does lots of work.

Take six, gain six, GOOD GAME.

Game two is much tougher, despite a near-perfect opener.

Villain has a fast start: Mana elf accelerates into a turn two Witchstalker and turn three 4/4, I resolve to take seven or eight in order to get a dude in play and not give Witchstalker a counter. but Villain then follows up with Fireshrieker and equip and attack for 10 on turn four.

Nice turn-three board. Note I have two swamps.

I have to doom blade at sorcery speed, then I trade at every opportunity I have, keeping the equipment off my back and running Villain out of cards, but losing quality creatures, like my Sengir and Nightmare. Eventually Villain runs out of creatures and I attack with my terrible squad plus Rod of Ruin. His last creature gets Pacifismed and I have squeak out a victory on turn 13 after nine turns of active Fireshrieker.

Phew!

In round three, I keep a hand with mana, two-drop, three-drop. Smooth sailing, right?

Villain drops a Child of Night, but I have Rod of Ruin in hand. Do I trade my 2/1 for his or let him gain at least six life before I can eat it for full value? I trade, then he drops an Undead Minotaur. I respond with Phyrexian Ghoul/Nantuko Husk/Vampire Aristocrat/Blood Bairn. He makes a 2/2 artifact sliver and I offer in trade for Blood Bairn, since I have a 1/3 flier to control his 2/3, plus Rod and Trading Post coming soon. Villain (gleefully, I assume) accepts the trade, then attacks into my blocker. Since it is a free attack, I block to make him have something, and he makes Chandra to finish off my flier and leave him with a creature and a planeswalker against my empty board.

Oh dear.

I draw Doom Blade and Serra but only have one plains, so I lose in short order to Chandra and Liliana's Reaver.

Chandra's +1 says "You can't even chump, sucker"

As we move to game two, I ponder my options. I like the looks of the green deck, with Bramblecrush and three pump spells to help battle the planeswalker.

This one goes back for six.

This one I keep, but I need a forest soon.

I eventually get the land I need and on turn five, an interesting arises:

Wolf or spider?

Wolf would probably trade for the Reaver, but Villain might sense something is up since I now have two colors of mana and four total yet still have no play. The spider will probably keep the Reaver at bay while I set up a good ambush with the wolf, so I choose spider. I make Sengir, still holding the Briarpack and hoping it or the Giant Growth might enable perhaps the first Sengir Vampire +1/+1 counter in history. 

Villain makes a flying shade and attacks. I trade with Deadly Recluse, thinking that will enable my wolf ambush better, and since now I have Trading Post, make a goat, Giant Growth available to me. That plan works like a champ, getting Liliana's Reaver at the cost of one life and a Giant Growth. Corpse Hauler plus Briarpack is a two-for-one, killing his 5/3 sliver and little goblin for free and now I'm feeling good. Quag Sickness takes out my Sengir Vamp, but I have the board and Bamblecrush in hand for potential Chandras. 

However, I draw two land while Villain makes Pitchburn Devils. I am willing to trade since I can sit back behind my goat moat, but his Wring Flesh empties my board and he keeps the Devils. Chandra makes an appearance and i crush her (with brambles? how?) but I get no answer for Devils or Children of Night with Lightening Talons, so I struggle to hang on with Trading Post but give up the ghost in short order.

At least I killed Chandra

I head into round four at 2-1. Three wins is eight packs, while two wins is just three, so let's go make daddy some tix.

Easy keep.

My turn three Master of Diversity Diversion meets a cancel, but I beat in with my turn-two Corpse Hauler. I draw both big vampires, so things are looking up if I can get some a swamp and another land. 

Villain makes a flying deathtouch Cockatrice, while instead of land I draw a vanilla 2/3. He gets a second 2/2 flier, deprives my zombie minotaur of its senses and meanwhile I draw another not land.

Land please! Also, I don;t know why I''m on top of this replay.

When I block, her Wrings the Griffin's Flesh and keeps getting in there. I draw a swamp and feel obliged to pacify the deathtoucher and play the knight. One more land and the vampires start to come out to play and he only has one card left in hand to my three.

Villain Marks his Bird as a Vampire and gets in for four, gaining four. I draw Lifebane Zombie, which has no targets, but is still better here than Rod. My little 2/1 keeps getting in for two, taking him to 11 versus my 8. He gets another Cockatrice, gets in for four more taking me to four, but I draw the swamp I need and make a vampire. Sengir #1 trades with his 4/4 and I take two making it 2-13, but Villain doesn't know about Sengir #2 yet. I swing him down to seven then play my second five-drop. He concedes!

For game two, I turn to my blue, since he had so many fliers. I also bring in Dark Prophecy and Blightcaster, since it seemed like every since creature Villain had was a 2/2.

Nice curve, but 100% vanilla. Keep anyway.

I curve out real nice, get the beats going quickly, and draw Sengir, so I'm feeling good. Villain makes Cockatrice, then follows up with Fireshrieker. Ummmm. I do believe I will need hard removal to beat this:

Ugh

We each play out our hands, but the table is stalled by the first-striking deathtoucher. I get the Dark Prophecy down and start chumping to draw cards. Eventually I find Liturgy of Blood to get the deathtoucher, but he just makes his 4/6 double strike and I can't even chump at one with Dark Prophecy in play, so I mark of the vampire to gain 4 to go to 5 and have one chumper. 

Do you see the problem here?

Villain sees the on-board kill, shifts his equipment over and gets there. On to game three. I go back to white, since my best chance of dealing with double-striking deathtouchers is to kill the equipment. Villain has also shown me Mark of the Vampire and Sensory Deprivation, so I bring in two Solemn Offering. Out go the minotaur zombies.

I keep, but this is sketchy.

Game three is a taught affair, with me stumbling on mana for a while due to my poor keep.

I main phase a Doom Blade on Villain's Trained Condor, then discard my Nightmare Horse after he makes another Cockatrice. 

Main phase Doom Blade hurts

Villian follows up with Fireshrieker for the full combo, but I get the plains to Solemn Offering immediately. Villain Rots my Mind, which is not the worst considering my mana trouble, plus I have my own Mind Rot waiting for him to hold only two cards. I start to build my board with Blood Bairn but Charging Griffin was countered. We trade little guys and I pacify his deathtoucher. Then Villain plays Dismiss into Dream.

Go look it up, I'll wait. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=370796

However, this leaves Villain open to Rot for his last two cards, so into the bin go Frost Breath and Time Ebb, each of which is hard removal under Dismiss into Dream! Immediate concession.

So I ran decently, went 3-1, and earned eight virtual packs of M14. Selling five of those (have to keep a draft set, right?) makes 15 tix, plus I liquidated the foily Ring of Three Wishes and the Lifebane Zombie for 8 more tix. I entered the event with 24 tix and now have 23, plus a couple speculative rares that could increase in price and a draft set. Look for an M14 draft coming soon.