Monday 18 July 2011

M12 Release

I went to the M12 release event at my usual place, as the London pre-release I usually go to wasn't running, it was the first time I got to play with the new cards. 


In general, I think the set is quite fun. I didn't do very well on the day (a mixture of my opponents being very good, but mainly me playing badly). 

Sealed
Opening the sealed pool (the first event we did), my first pack had a Gideon in it, so I thought I would be in White. I also got some Dragons, and generally good cards among most colours (apart from Blue). 


I ended up making two decks - one Green/White (a backup deck) and one Black/Red. 


In the B/R deck, notable cards included Vengeful Pharaoh, Flameblast Dragon, Volcanic Dragon, Sengir Vampire, Chandra's Outrage, Incinerate (x2), Vampire Outcasts, Gorehorn Minotaurs, Duskhunter Bat, Drifting Shade, Tormented Soul. I did finish one game in the first round by pumping a Fiery Hellhound and then Flinging it at my opponent, who was locking down the board with the artifact that taps creatures, and the artifact that puts a 1/1 into play, so it was hard for me to get through. 


One of the games I was playing my opponent cast Mind Rot so I discarded a Vengeful Pharaoh. In this game, my opponent had a Inferno Titan for a bit, but I managed to keep my life total high and get them down to 2. I then had the choice of playing a 4/4 (to block) or Incinerate (to win), and played the 4/4 - if I didn't they could have won the next turn, and I was worried in case they had a counterspell for the Incinerate, and I could attack to win the next turn. They then attacked with the titan and a 2/1, I blocked the titan and went to 9. My opponent then played Sorin's Vengeance. Do'h (I only had one untapped mountain). The next game I probably should have Mulliganed, as I didn't get any Swamps for a while, got behind, and lost to a Inferno Titan and Sorin's Vengeance again. 


In the final round (we had 8 players so 3 rounds), I won the first game, but then lost the second two, at least one game I lost was down to me not Mulliganing and keeping a hand with Mountains and Black spells. Mulliganing aggressively is definatly something I need to work on to try and avoid situations like that. 


I did have a second deck that I would play if my B/R deck didn't do well, but I didn't play it in the end as I preferred the B/R deck as it had some decent removal. I probably should have tried it once. Notable cards included Primeval Titan, Gideon Jura, Arbalest Elite, Pacifism, Cudgel Troll, some flyers and decent blockers, and the (somewhat unfortunate) mix of Armored Warhorse and Garruk's Companion


Draft
In the draft, I opened a big awesome hydra, and then got some good Red cards and a few more Green cards, including a few Bloodthirst cards. In the second pack, I was passed some good Black cards, so picked up some more of that and some more Red cards. 


The deck I ended up with included 2 Doom Blade, 3 Shock, a Chandra's OutrageVampire Outcasts, Blood Ogre, 2  Gorehorn Minotaurs, Bloodrage Vampire. I also had Goblin Fireslinger and Goblin Arsonist


I thought I had an aggressive deck (my mana curve topped out at 5 with Crumbling Colossus), but the first match I played my opponents deck was more aggressive (2/2 bears for 1, small white creatures), and I made a bad Mulligan decision again at least once (Mountains and Black cards again), and couldn't do much about a Serra Angel


My second opponent had a W/B deck as well (but they splashed black), and pretty much the same thing happened (my deck wasn't fast enough, my opponents creatures were faster and more powerful). They did play the creature that has a Fact or Fiction effect when it came into play, in one pile I put a black card (they had no swamps) and a non-swamp, and in the other pile I put a swamp, other land and the hexproof boots, which I thought was the most optimal (for me anyway) split. 


My third opponent had a similar deck to mine (same colours), and I managed to win through two close games. 




In all, I had a fun day - I think the set is fun to play, even if I did play quite badly. Hopefully I will learn from it and improve my game in the future. My main aim is to Mulligan more aggressively and try to avoid colour screw. 

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