Pre-Release recap!

Round 1

I'm playing against a Black/Red deck that seems fine. Game one I keep a 5-land hand that has
 


I figure that's enough to go to war with, and I draw into a 2nd Makindi Sliderunner. He has a mild board presence and blocks my Landfall 3/2s with a pair of 2/2s. I then get to live the dream of a second landfall trigger, pushing them to 4/3 and 6/5, hammering through with trample and I win shortly thereafter. Landfall on curve = sauce.

Game 2 wasn't quite as thrilling. I keep a 2 lander but with one of my land-fetch spells. I miss early drops and he gets some swings in but I land a few bigger creatures as he floods out and I win pretty handily. 2 lands + land-getter totally works, duh.

2-0

Round 2

Not the greatest start but just as I get rolling with one of my fatties my green/blue opponent busts out



followed by a



By the sacred titties of Inara, that is a beast of a card! Read it instead as a "5 to summon 3/3 that bounces a card" Especially since I used an Eldrazi Scion to summon one, I am just boned.

Game 2 was easily the best game of my tournament. He sticks this really annoying 4/5 flier along with some other air support.



I stabilize with a Stonefury to remove and get some shields. I get whittled down to three when my hero emerges from my deck.



I topdeck a mountain or two to clear the fliers and strike him down from 14 in three turns (with a combat trick to finish). Aside from the key magic skill of drawing your best card in your deck, I also felt like I judged when I was the aggressor and when I was the defender just right (which was good since I had one turn to spare)

Sadly, game three was not as fun. I come out to another slow start and he assembles a killer evasion team.

  

That's a lot to deal with (he had a token mountain so his Skyrider was 3/3 for three mana, which strikes me as unfair). I get some removal and then I actually power up my invoker.


I use that to clear the board but it's not enough for that STUPID 1/4 'cannot be blocked' and he works me down from 2 to 1 to 0. Still, another fun game.

(1-2)

Round Three

Sadly this is an epic tale not worth telling. I have to mull twice (triggering the new scry rule) and don't really recover. He was running this absurd three color deck that just cried out to punished by landing a curve-out that my deck steadfastly refused to do.
 

(0-2)

Awards

MVP

Not really a surprise: nearly a quadrant theory all-star with reusable removal/game-ender. What's not to like?

Biggest Surprise

Honestly I didn't expect to like this one nearly as much as I did but the soft mana-fixing plus being able to guarantee a second Landfall trigger in a row is actually pretty sweet.

Letdown Specialist

Not too surprising, as it is asking a lot of you. I think it just needed a better deck that was reliably faster.

I'm very excited to draft Zendikar! The