Oathwatch prerelease

Pre-release time! Woo!

Rare Pool

      

Pretty sweet to have three strong rares in the color. A bit unfortunate to have it be the weakest color in Battle but maybe times have changed. Sadly the Tyrant, an A-class bomb, is completely unsupported in red. Black is also weak (despite have two classy red/black golds). I winnow it down to white/blue/green. I eventually settle on trying to build an aggro "CABS" (cards that effect the board state).

Deck

    

   

   

 

 

      

So the deck construction is 5 two drops, 4 three drops, 4 four drops and some high end. 6 spells mostly removal and a combat trick or two. This is the test of whether or not support can walk the walk. Living the dream is pretty straight forward 2-3-4 as follows:

  

So on turn four, you have a 3/3 and a 4/3 that you can turn sideways and smash. Pretty brutal against a goldfish, but what happens in reality?

Game Recap

Forgot my notebook, so I'll fly by the seat of my pants for a bit. Basically my first game was against a nice fellow that tried running three colors and a significant commitment to colorless mana. So he cast very little and I ran him over. Sadly the other two rounds did not go as well, both losing 1-2 with some unfortunate mana flood and/or screw. But that's magic.

But I think the dream is real. Keeping creatures alive early to land subsequent Support works pretty well and pressures opponents lacking strong removal and/or strong defenses.

Awards

MVP

Obviously a 2/3 for 2 is going to be pretty good, but this thing is pretty close to a quadrant all-star with being a 5/6 for 2 mana later in the game. Dangerous card, good card. Definitely worth snatching early.

Biggest Surprise

Unassuming but very good smoother. Gets a land when you want to smooth a draw, otherwise grabs your best creature. Since it tosses the rest to the bottom, it's a great filter too. 10/10, would play again.