AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

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Omega Lairon
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AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby Omega Lairon » 14 Jan 2017, 20:56

Maaaaaan... feels like just last week they were rolling out all the sweet new Kaladesh cards, and now there's another new set to contend with. Good gravy. Still, at least this is a *pleasant* surprise for a change.

On the the subject of "pleasant" - having thoroughly enjoyed the previous set, I had high hopes for Aether Revolt, and man did it ever deliver. The pool I opened gave me some good options to play with - the white "token spam" deck looked like a decent choice. But ultimately it proved impossible to ignore the very spicy R/G "energy shenanigans" deck on offer. Maybe it was a sign that I shouldn't have forsaken it from the KLD pre-re? In any case, I had an excellent time playing the colours and aggressive style of play I'm most comfortable with, so in hindsight, it was absolutely the right call.

RESULTS
2*-2-0
(* 1 win, 1 bye round)

Pretty average as far as my sealed event results go, but hey, if I went into these things to get all hung up on win/loss records, I'd end up having a miserable experience. But yeah, going by pure fun/excitement, I definitely won big time.

THE DECK
I ended up being able to play very much to my strengths - i.e: big dumb green monsters, fast red stuff, a butt-load of +1 counters, and incidental support to keep my ass-kickers doing whatever they want. Major players included Lifecraft Cavalry, Thriving Rhino, Maulfist Revolutionary, Ridgescale Tusker, and Aetherwind Basker.

THE PULLS
Click to Expand
OFFICIAL POOL:

PROMO: Aetherwind Basker
RARES: Greenwheel Liberator, Sram Senior Edificer, Sram's Expertise, Baral's Expertise, Saheeli's Artistry, Scrapheap Scrounger
SHINIES: Dubious Challenge (naturally : p )
INVENTIONS: Nope

PRIZES: (due to new WOTC procedures, I only got 2 prize packs today, but with the option to grab 2 more once the set officially comes out, which is... honestly really stupid, but whatever.)

RARES:Metallic Mime, Greenwheel Liberator
SHINIES: None
INVENTIONS: Nah
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby Phi » 15 Jan 2017, 02:06

I went 2-2 with a UW fliers deck and my promo was Metallic Mimic (which was fine in my deck, but not exciting), but I have to say that this was probably the least exciting prerelease I played, for a few reasons:

1. My pool could only support UW, and was full of do-nothing, non-creature artifacts.
2. I have never not played white in a prerelease, and am kind of getting sick of it. My pool always gravitate towards white.
3. Similarly to the previous prerelease, every single one of my opponents was playing green.
4. I lost twice, to two BG decks that functioned the same, and both beat me with Monstrous Onslaught.
6. My bomb was Exquisite archangel, which I drew once in the entire day, and it was immediately destroyed.
5. I won 2 packs, opened them, and got almost the same cards as I had in my pool (minus two junk rares, an uncommon and 2 commons). I even opened almost white cards.

However, I did get to case Cloudblazer 3 times in a row during a game, which was the highlight of that day.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby fantôme » 15 Jan 2017, 03:34

2-3 with GWb Revolt, (why are my sealed pools always Green/White?). Deck was very heavily synergistic, 8 Revolt cards and 7 ways to directly trigger it - lots of Acrobatic Maneuver shenanigans, turn 2 Greenwheel Liberator with revolt trigger a couple of times, splash for Hidden Stockpile very much worth it (that thing is a veritable machine). But no real bombs, and literally the only removal I opened was a Fumigate and a Prey Upon (and a Shock), so I tended to just die when a bomb came down across the table. Deck was very fun though.

Opened a Disallow from my prize pack, so walked away very happy.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby demiteddybear » 15 Jan 2017, 04:05

I had a very interesting time at prerelease. I went 0-3-0, yes I drew every single one of my games. All of them went to turns because I had made one of the durdliest decks I had ever created; which also made it a very fun prerelease for me because that's the type of deck I like.

I had a fantastic green pool with winding constrictor, the ridgescale tusker, thriving rhino and longtusk cub. I also got tezzeret and tezzeret's touch, so I went BUG and put in artifacts, removal and counter spells, plus my MVP, quicksmith spy.

Tezzeret was fun but not great, I can see him doing much better in a more focused artifact deck, in limited he suffers. The new ensoul artifact was still great. Quicksmith spy is amazing and the 3 toughness is a big point.

I felt good with my deck, even though I went to turns in all of my games, I was never in a position of feeling threatened, and would just have to wait until I had a big enough collection of big creatures
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby theycallmejokke » 15 Jan 2017, 06:27

My promo was Oath of Ajani, five of those was opened as promos at my prerelease which was a bit weird, however I then completely lucksacked out and went on to open both an Ajani Unyielding, and a Dovin Baan.
Only saw my planeswalkers in my very last match though, where my oppenet simply scooped when ever one of them hit the table no matter the game state which was a bit odd.
I ended the day 3 and 1, AER seems fun I look forward to trying it out more in the coming days.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby unpronounceable » 15 Jan 2017, 07:45

demiteddybear wrote:I had a very interesting time at prerelease. I went 0-3-0, yes I drew every single one of my games.

I thought the shorthand was usually Wins-Losses-Draws.

I went 2-0-1 with my Green Black counters deck, splashing white for my promo, Oath of Ajani, and Ajani himself. Other highlights in my deck were Durable Handicraft, Yahenni Undying Partisan, and Aetherborn Marauder.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby Randus2003 » 15 Jan 2017, 09:47

for the 1st time in over 2 decades of playing this game I finally played a paper per-release when a coworker recommended I check out her LGS a town over....and it was great, will likely be doing it on a regular bases....and now for the event:

I opened a solid green pool featuring 2 pokedexs (deck and prize pool mythics below) and wound up going 4-0.

Round 1 was against a younger player who was playing BW servos. (2-1)
Round 2 I played against 1 of the store employees who had a solid GW deck. (2-1)
Round 3 I played the guy I built my deck a crossed from and knowing he was playing UW and had a ton of removal and flyer, things didn't look good for me...thankfully drawing 3+ cards a turn made up the difference. (2-0)
Round 4 I played against a regular at the store who was running GR an boy could he beat down. (2-1)

and as promised hers the deck in all it's glory (and yes despite the fact I was in green I had to splash for artifact hate...and it's a good thing I did every opponent I played had at least 1 bomb vehicle):
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby Booster » 16 Jan 2017, 08:09

Had a pretty crazy prerelease weekend. Two days, five events, 25 matches, 26 and a half hours of Magic. I went 3-2 with G/B, 4-1 with R/B, 2/3 with G/W, 3/2 with R/W and 3/2 with R/B. I think that second R/B was actually my best deck, but I had one Match with that deck where I mulled to 5 both games. Still pretty happy with my results.
Specific highlights:
Opening an Oath of Ajani in all 3 of my Saturday prereleases
Running all EIGHT of my rares in the R/W deck. None of them were crazy bombs, but I did open a foil lightening runner. This was with no splash btw, 5 rares were red, 1 was white, and 2 were artifacts.
Opened a pack foil Yahenni in my last prerelease, and let me tell you, they are a real fun card.
Winning a match off of stealing my opponents pacification array with Gonti.

Loving Aether Revolt so far :)
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby GlorySeer » 16 Jan 2017, 15:25

Event One: Midnight Sealed
Click to Expand
The pool/deck:

This pool didn't have anything too exciting really. Sram, his expertise, Quicksmith Rebel, Indomitable Creativity, Wildest Dreams, Dynavolt Tower, and a promo Pia's Revolution. Green didn't really have anything of note. My blue and black both had some solid cards, but not really anything to pull me to them. What I did have was removal. Two Hungry Flames, a Chandra's Revolution, Caught in the Brights, Revoke Privileges, Shock, Fairgrounds Warden, Deadeye Harpooner (which didn't kill a single creature all night), and a Welding Sparks. So I went W/R creatures with removal as a way to make sure I got through. I played Sram+Expertise and Rebel, but left Creativity, Tower, and Pia's Revolution out. Creativity didn't feel good enough, I didn't think I had enough instants/sorceries or other energy generators for the tower, and the Revolution doesn't seem great without a good deal of artifacts.

The Event/Results:

I ended up going 4-1 throughout the night, earning second place. Turns out being able to kill most of the creatures my opponents played made it hard for them to win. I managed to cut through their defenses to finish them off. The loss was to a deck with a lot of smaller creatures. Not so much go wide as much as just poke you to death things. Which wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't drawn 11 of my 16 lands and at most Seven spells for two games in a row. It sucked, but it was what it was.

Overperformers:

Sram put in a lot of work for me over the event. Having two of my removal spells draw me a card was strong. Playing three vehicles also meant drawing a solid number of cards off from them. I played the Inventor's Goggles, which often drew me cards as well. I was always happy to see him. On a related note, Inventor's Goggles put in a surprising amount of work for me as well.

Admiral Aeronaut also put in a lot of work. Turns out making a 6/6 fly was very strong. With only two packs of Kaladesh, I never ran into Pyrohelix either. He hit for three in the air more than once even when he didn't make stuff fly.

Underperformers:

I heard a lot of hype over Sram's Expertise, but I was never impressed with it. It happened too often where the 1/1s were irrelevant to the board, and I had to hold it to wait for a spell to cast. Overall I wasn't impressed.

Deadeye Harpooner was a 2/2 for three all night. It did work as a creature. But I could have done better. For what it is, it just didn't offer enough value to really be worth it.
.
Prizes:

I ended up getting 13 packs. Cracked them all. I ended up pulling both planeswalkers, which was sweet. I also got Oath of Ajani and the black Expertise. So the prizes were much more exciting than my actual pool rares. Overall it was a good night.



Event Two: 6PMSealed

Click to Expand
The pool/deck:

Whooo boy, after a dull pool during the first event, this one had a hell of a pool. Promo Aethersphere Harvester, Sram (cause we're apparently BFFs and he always wants to hang out), Call for Unity, Paradoxical Outcome, Baral's Expertise, Eliminate the Competition, Quicksmith Rebel (also apparently part of the BFF club), and a pack foil Ajani. I was so very happy about that. I ended up building a sweet W/G deck. I was a bit sad about not having much removal compared to the night before. Three if you include Deadeye Harpooner (which actually killed one thing this time). Overall I was really happy with it.

The Event/Results:

So as it turns out, both Ajani and the Harvester are both great bombs. I resolved Ajani I want to say ten times throughout the night. I even got to ultimate him to put 40 power on the board in one game (including onto a harvester), and was able to do it in another except the opponent scooped. I ended up going on a 6-0 streak. My opponents couldn't do a ton against such reckless hate.

As a note, it was frustrating to play six rounds. We only had 24 people or so. So it should have been five. Some people insisted on doing six due to being annoyed by the night before's tiebreakers, so we played six without the input as the playerbase as a whole. On top of being worried about losing during the last round and being bumped down since my opponent match win was low, I had just wanted to go home. Seven hours of Magic when I was expecting five at most was really draining.

Overperformers:

Sram once again put in a ton of work, as did the goggles. Sram drew me two to three cards per game he landed. The goggles helped me win combat more than once. While everyone knew it'd be great, using Maulfist Revolutionary to give Ajani another counter and suddenly putting him up to nine loyalty felt so good to do. I didn't realize it could target permanents rather than players until I reread it.

Harvester ended every game my opponent couldn't answer it as well. And Ajani, while obviously being good, always performed better than I expected. Going up to six when he comes down and either getting rid of lands or drawing cards always helped. I whiffed three times, but was still happy to get rid of the lands I saw. Never got three off him.

Underperformers:

Deadeye Harpooner gets honorable mentions again. Just was a 2/2 for three way too often. I also was disappointed by Monsterous Onslaught. It wasn't bad per se. But too often is was a five mana sorcery that did three damage. It never killed more than one creature, and never did more than three damage. But to be fair, I only saw it a couple of times during the night.

Prizes:

So when you open powerful cards, you do well sometimes. Going 6-0 meant I got first. With it came 22 packs. I sold four for a bit of cash. I opened three and pulled Aethertide Whale, Aid from the Cowl, and a third Quicksmith Rebel. And then someone offered a masterpiece Sphere of Resistance for the last 15. I took it in a heartbeat. He opened some nice cards including a foil Indomitable Creativity and the mythic angel. But I ended up on the better end of the deal. I threw in my creativity from the first event since he wanted four for standard and I wasn't going to use it.



Conclusion:

I had a lot of fun. Winning may have helped. But a lot of my opponents also just were fun to play with. Streaming some games made me nervous, as table one always streamed. But it never affected my play. The format itself seems fun. It seems about as aggressive as Kaladesh to me. White seemed powerful. Caught in the Brights at common helped a lot. Beyond that, I'm not really sure what I can say that isn't obvious. Like removal is good. Bombs are good.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby Twinklefeet » 18 Jan 2017, 03:20

This was not only the first prerelease I attended, but also the first paper magic thing I'd gone to outside of my small group of friends so I was a little nervous. However I had a whole lot of fun, and ended up going 2-3 which, as a novice, I consider pretty good. I only had one unpleasant opponent, who was more than a little condescending, but everyone else was very friendly and clearly having a good time. Definitely enough to make me want to do it again in the future.

I ended up with a silly number of Dwarves, opening Sram, Depala and two Solemn Recruits, along with a Champion's Helm. Sram in particular was an all-star, generally getting me at least a couple of draws per game, and he became a complete monster if he managed to get that hat on, and the Solemn Recruits could quickly get very threatening with their revolt ability. I managed to get Sram as a 5/5 on turn 4 one game which felt amazing. I had a few vehicles in there including an aethersphere harvester. Caught in the Brights and Chandra's Revolution both helped a lot. It was fun.
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Re: AER Pre-release - How'd you do?

Postby eostby » 18 Jan 2017, 21:03

I......I've had better prereleases. The people were great, which was nice, but the Magic itself was rather meh. I went 1-2 with GW Energy Shenanigans, featuring Gonti's Aether Heart, Lifecrafter's Bestiary, and Architect of the Untamed. The major problem I had was that my GW cards had almost no protection against flying creatures (one flyer and one spider that I played, another flyer in the board, and that was all of them), and the two decks I lost to had multiple flyers each. The other issue with my pool came from my promo: Dark Intimations. A 5 mana, 3 color sorcery in a format where fixing basically doesn't exist is just a blank card, and for it to be my promo to boot was extremely disappointing.

Also, my streak of not opening a Masterpiece/Expedition continues, but apparently I'm not the only person at my LGS who hasn't (it just feels like it, given that many of them have opened 3 or 4).
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