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Main » Articles » Tales of My M12 Prerelease

Tales of My M12 Prerelease

Nassim Ketita
Posted on July 18, 2011
 Reddit

Originally brilliantly titled “Tales of the M12 Prerelease, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Fireball.”

I wanted to switch gears a bit for this week’s article and talk about some core set Sealed. By the time you read this, many of you will have already played your local M12 release tournament, but I hope this will help you for future M12 Limited events, such as the impending M12 release on MTGO.

I didn’t play my local prerelease because I wanted to protect an admittedly inflated rating, but I fully intended to bird the event to provide some commentary and analysis on the format. I managed to take a peek at some of the decks that made Top 8 to see what was trending well. Four of the six decks I surveyed had a Fireball, which shouldn’t surprise anyone, as it’s a no-brainer to splash in any deck. Indeed, of those four decks, only two of them had Red as a main color. Whenever I start playing a new Sealed format, I almost always try to answer the following questions:

  • How likely is it that I want to play first or draw first?

  • How many lands should I be playing?

  • Is it better to go for power or consistency?

Having the answers to these questions gives you an edge in evaluating cards. For example, take a card like Jayemdae Tome. How good is this card in Sealed? Unless you know the other cards in the format, you cannot answer this question. In Revised Sealed, the card is amazing. In Zendikar Sealed, it would be unplayable.

So how does M12 Sealed stack up to these metrics? My initial impression is that, like in most Sealed formats, you’re going to want to draw first. Zendikar Sealed was the extreme example where decks were hyperaggressive and you almost always wanted to play first, and while M12 seems very aggressive, I don’t think you want to give up the extra card. As always, it will depend on your individual deck. As for the number of lands, seventeen was the norm in the decks I saw, which is standard. Usually, seventeen is the way to go, unless you have a powerful deck that needs to hit its land-drops, in which case I recommend eighteen. Onslaught and Zendikar are examples of high-land Limited formats, because you need to hit your land-drops to play your Morphs or trigger your Landfall, respectively.

Power versus consistency is a difficult question to answer, and there are no hard-and-fast rules. It really depends on how fast the format is and how much variance you are willing to accept. The slower the format, the more time a powerful deck will have to draw its bombs and/or the correct color of mana to play them.

Let’s take a look at a couple of different decks from the prerelease:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Bloodrage Vampire

1 Child of Night

1 Fiery Hellhound

1 Goblin Bangchuckers

1 Gravedigger

1 Reassembling Skeleton

1 Rune-Scarred Demon

1 Sengir Vampire

1 Volcanic Dragon

1 Warpath Ghoul

1 Zombie Goliath

[/Creatures]

[Planeswalkers]

1 Chandra, the Firebrand

1 Sorin Markov

[/Planeswalkers]

[Spells]

1 Chandra's Outrage

1 Doom Blade

1 Incinerate

1 Shock

1 Deathmark

1 Diabolic Tutor

1 Distress

1 Brink of Disaster

1 Druidic Satchel

1 Manalith

[/Spells]

[Lands]

8 Mountain

9 Swamp

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

This deck is designed to grind out a long game, with removal spells and great late-game hitters like Sorin Markov and Rune-Scarred Demon. Cheap creatures like Child of Night and Reassembling Skeleton serve to prolong the game. This is an example of a draw-first, power deck.

Compare with:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

1 Acidic Slime

1 Assault Griffin

1 Cudgel Troll

1 Gideon's Avenger

1 Griffin Rider

1 Griffin Sentinel

1 Primeval Titan

1 Stonehorn Dignitary

2 Benalish Veteran

2 Stampeding Rhino

3 Stormfront Pegasus

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

1 Naturalize

1 Titanic Growth

1 Day of Judgment

1 Fireball

1 Honor of the Pure

1 Spirit Mantle

2 Trollhide

1 Swiftfoot Boots

[/Spells]

[Lands]

2 Mountain

7 Forest

7 Plains

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

This deck is all about the beatdown. Honor of the Pure combined with a plethora of cheap White creatures, many of which have evasion, can end the game before the opponent can get his bombs online. This is an example of a play-first, consistency deck.

I’ve chosen these two decks to illustrate how your game plan changes based on the style of deck you have. Of course, you’re not always going to have pools that are as clear-cut as these when deciding how to build your deck, so sometimes you have to build a deck that is capable of playing different roles.

I’ll leave you guys with bonus coverage of a match from the Top 8. Hope you enjoy it.

Quarterfinals: Jeff Olsen vs. Danielle Thompson

Game 1

Jeff is a grizzled old-timer, playing on the Pro Tour way back in PT: Yugoslavia 1984. Since then, he’s built a reputation as a deck-brewer and occasional PTQ Top 8 competitor. Danielle is a new player who can usually be seen battling in FNM with her beloved Knights deck. Danielle wins the die roll and chooses to draw first. Jeff starts with turn-one Gideon's Lawkeeper, while Danielle leads off with turn-one Ponder. Both players have no follow-up, so the tapper gets in for 1 and Jeff runs out a Benalish Veteran a turn later. Still no turn-three play for Danielle, but she has an Incinerate for the Veteran when Jeff tries to attack. He replaces it with a Child of Night and ships the turn back. Danielle plays her first creature of the game, and the Lawkeeper gets bounced with AEther Adept. Jeff makes her regret it with a Spirit Mantle on the lifelinker and plays a second Benalish Veteran. Adept gets in for 2 to enable a bloodthirsty Blood Ogre. Jeff Spirit Mantles his other man and attacks for 7 unblockable, then follows up with Griffin Sentinel. Danielle draws two with Divination but doesn’t find an answer and scoops.

Game 2

Jeff is again on the play, and both players keep. First creature of the game is an Armored Warhorse from Jeff, making Danielle’s turn-two Goblin Piker look silly. Jeff attacks for 2 and plays a freshly drawn Gideon's Lawkeeper. Piker gets in for 2 and a powered-up Blood Ogre comes down. Spirit Mantle on Warhorse continues the assault for Jeff. The Blood Ogre gets tapped, but the Goblin Pikers successfully attack to enable even more Bloodthirst action, this time a Gorehorn Minotaurs, but Jeff has a Brink of Disaster to ensure it doesn’t get out of hand. Danielle elects not to throw away her Minotaur for 5 damage, and allows it to play defense while the Piker continues to apply the beatdown. She then Ponders into a Skywinder Drake. Jeff draws an Auramancer, so he taps the Minotaur on his turn to rebuy his enchantment. Danielle draws a Chandra's Outrage to finally deal with the mantled menace. Jeff untaps and replays the Worldwake reprint on the bloody Blood Ogre, but still has no creatures to speak of. All he can do is tap Danielle’s flyer and trade with the Piker, but she has a rather good follow-up in Azure Mage. Jeff doesn’t waste any time and plays a Wring Flesh before she has the mana to activate it. However, she has a Divination, which draws her into an Incinerate to deal with the meddlesome tapper. Jeff finally draws a creature, a Serra Angel, but Danielle has a Fireball to remove it. Skywinder Drake takes it down over the next couple of turns.

Game 3

Jeff decides to sideboard out two Plains, an Armored Warhorse, and a Brink of Disaster for two Swamps and two Distresses. Both players keep, and Jeff has a turn-one Gideon's Lawkeeper. Manic Vandal does a Gray Ogre impersonation for Danielle on turn three, and the tapper has to start earning his keep. Aven Fleetwing joins the party, but Jeff has a Griffin Sentinel to clog up the board. Danielle Incinerates it and attacks with both her men. Jeff tries for a Wring Flesh to allow his Lawkeeper to eat the Vandal, but Danielle counters it with Negate. Jeff elects not to block and takes the full 5 damage. Jeff follows up with Serra Angel and Child of Night over the next two turns, and all Danielle can do is play a neutered Flameblast Dragon. Angelic Destiny on Child of Night is a big game, and results in a large life-swing in favor of Jeff. AEther Adept does in fact deal with it, and that’s exactly what Danielle does, but she is still staring down a Serra Angel. After tanking for a while, she plays a Frost Breath on the Lawkeeper and the Angel to allow her to attack for 4. Jeff plays an Adaptive Automaton naming Vampires and swings with his powered-up Child of Night. Danielle has one chance to attack with her Dragon and takes some time to decide on how to best use it. Unfortunately, she is at 3, and her opponent is still over 20 due to the oversized Child of Night. Flameblast Dragon attacks and uses its ability to eat an Angel, but Knights Aficionado is dead on board unless she has some sort of trick. Jeff tries for a Spirit Mantle on his Child of Night but Danielle reveals that she indeed has a trick and plays Redirect to send it to her Manic Vandal. Both players decide to play some draw-go for a few turns until Danielle draws a Divination, which nabs her a Chandra's Outrage. She uses it on the tapper that had been holding the Dragon at bay. Jeff adds a Warpath Ghoul to his team, but is now feeling like the bad guy in a Bruce Lee movie. Jeff makes a desperation alpha strike, but loses his whole team without getting any damage through. Gravedigger brings back a Serra Angel to buy him some time. However, Danielle has other plans and plays a Frost Titan to seal the deal.

"Danielle Thompson"

"Jeff Olsen"

TAGS articles, sealed, prerelease, limited, magic 2012, m12, nassim ketita

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