RotE Prerelease....

[kerbythepurplecow]

Guess who got top 4....

Me

Here's the deck! I'm listing it by purpose.

Burn:
1 Staggershock
1 Forked Bolt
3 Flame Slash

Defenders:
1 Wall of Omens
1 Guard Gomazoa
1 Ogre Sentry
1 Battle Rampart
2 Vent Sentinel

Levelers (and assistants):
1 Halimar Wavewatch
1 Kabira Vindicator
1 Knight of Cliffhaven
1 Student of Warfare
1 Venerated Teacher
2 Champion's Drake

Tricks and Misc:
1 Narcolepsy
1 Hyena Umbra
1 Deathless Angel
1 Kor Line-Slinger
2 Prophetic Prisim

Land:
5 Island
6 Plain
6 Mountain

Deathless Angel won games. Vent Sentinel was amazing. He took games for me. I probably could've used more leveling creatures to support the drakes. They were good when it worked.

Here's the rest of the pool:

Blue:
2 Deprive
1 Unified Will
1 Lay Bare
1 Shared Discovery
1 Merfolk Observer
1 Crab Umbra
1 Domestication
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Eel Umbra (great trick!)

White:
1 Harmless Assault
1 Glory Seeker
1 Lone Missionary
1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest
1 Mankindi Griffin
1 Guard Duty (often boarded in against beef/eldrazi)
1 Demystify (boarded once against totems)

Red:
1 Explosive Revelation
1 Surreal Memoir
1 Goblin Tunneler
1 Lavafume Invoker
2 Fissure Vent (nearly useless in the format)
1 Magmaw
1 Lust for War

Colorless:
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Enatu Golem
1 Skittering Invasion
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre (wanted to play him so bad)
1 Warmonger's Chariot (couldn't find the room)
1 Hedron Matrix (same)

Black:
1 Consume the Meek
1 Guul Draz Assassin (FOIL)
1 Corpsehatch
1 Skeletal Wurm
1 Suffer the Past (typically amazing)
2 Gloomhunter
1 Curse of Wizardry
1 Zor Shade
1 Perish the Thought
1 Last Kiss
1 Bloodthrone Vampire
1 Bloodrite Invoker

Green:
1 Growth Spasm
2 Kozilek's Predator
1 Overgrown Battlement
1 Joraga Treespeaker
1 Stomper Cub
1 Leaf Arrow
2 Nema Siltlurker
1 Wildheart Invoker (foil)
2 Might of the Masses
1 Aura Gnarlid
1 Naturalize
1 Haze Frog
1 Spider Umbra

Couldn't generate the tokens to make some Eldrazi. Didn't have enough Eldrazi to make anyways. Black had some goods, but didn't seem strong enough to read. All of the removal in red made it a given. The strange defender theme worked well. I would've loved some more card drawing and another Narcolepsy or two. Vent Sentinel and Deathless Angel were the most winningest. Prophetic Prism was amazing. Probably could've built the deck a bit better and avoided a could of my game losses.

2-0
2-0
2-1
0-2
2-1
Draw into top 16
2-0
2-1
Profit!!

Only got the 1st 5 packs. No great pulls. The rest will be mine on Friday.

[anonymos]

I like this as a limited format. Drafting it is going to be odd trying to figure out if the wall or eldrazi strategy is right. The removal seems kind of awkward also for limited. I have a feeling there will be lots of people who end up light on it.

[jrr]

Removal seemed like one of the biggest things in my matches. I never had it, and most of my opponents had a bunch... it was... great... really...

[kerbythepurplecow]

Narcolepsy is common. Regress is common. As is Deprive. Blue is a solid strategy. Bounce is nasty vs levelers and eldrazi. Narcolepsy is amazing.

All of the walls I used were common with the exception of Guard Gomazoa (amazing!!!) and Wall of Omens. Vent Sentinels are common!!

Plenty of good levelers in common. Champion's Drake and Venerated Teacher are also common. I think a strong blue level control deck would be possible in draft.

[jrr]

Yeah... all those commons you mentioned... I didn't open one of them.

[kerbythepurplecow]

Well, I'm pretty sure they don't do C1s anymore

In the 4 prize boosters I opened there was
2 Mnemonic Walls
1 Halimar Wavewatch
1 Deprive
1 Ikiral Outrider
1Caravan Escort
1 Guard Duty

All common and part of the things discussed. That's only 4 boosters. 24 is going to see a lot more of the mentioned commons. Seems like there's a ton of ways one could pursue in draft.

[kerbythepurplecow]

Picked up my prize packs today. 18 more packs. I feel sorry for the guy that gets the other half of the box as it can't be as good.

Money:
Vegevine
All is Dust

Lesser Money:
Momentous Fall
Realms Uncharted

Foil Rare:
Disaster Radius

Things being considered for the Essentials:
Sphinx of Magosi
Recurring Insight

Everything else was low value stuff.

[jrr]

So I picked up my box tonight... here is the goods...

Mythic
Nirkana Revenant
Linvala, Keeper of Silence
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Lighthouse Chronologist

Rare
Recurring Insight
Realms Uncharted
Sphinx of Magosi
Consuming Vapors
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Lightmine Field x2
Kor Spirit Dancer (that makes 2 so far)
Foil Splinter Twin (it look cool at least...)
Lord of Shatterskull Pass
Training Grounds
Eldrazi Temple

Others
Foil Prophetic Prism (this is perty)

Nothing earth-shattering, but a solid box for sure. I got pretty much everything I really cared to get except for mythic eldrazi.

[kerbythepurplecow]

So what are you thinking money per box wise? A little light again this set?

[jrr]

Yeah, I'd say its a little light. If I had opened doubles of good rares or gotten the more expensive mythics it would have been better, but it is pretty much ok. My eldrazi pull was crap.