Hey everyone, Josh here with wizardden.com. What a week it has
been! The excitement of the prerelease is still in the air, week one of
standard is in the books, and here in Boise we had our first BFZ
limited PPTQ which I am happy to say I took down. I look forward to
traveling back to the RPTQ and am hopeful that I'll be able to finally
achieve my goal of reaching the Pro Tour.
Today I would like to
briefly touch on some of the lessons I learned at the PPTQ as well as
some of the cards and archetypes that can lead to great success in BFZ
draft. I'd also like to talk a little about the first SCG Open that
happened in Indianapolis over the weekend. It is my hope that this
content will drive your BFZ experiences in both limited and constructed
to be...
We'll
start with the PPTQ. I showed up at the first shop I ever played at,
All About Games, at 9AM, the event started at 10 but after having moved
out of the direct Boise area I really wanted to try to add a little
extra time to be able to see my Boise friends and RogueT3ch teammates. I
felt light and bubbly like I always do at a limited event until I got
passed my pool. My great friend and someone I consider my limited mentor
Tim Z ended up shipping his pool to me during deck swap and after
glancing over the pool I started to re-evaluate my relationship with
Tim. My rares consisted of 2x
Beastcaller Savant, 2x
Sanctum of Ugin,
Zada, Hedron Grinder, and
Defiant Bloodlord. My thoughts were as
follows: "Tim is a wizard. He controls the packs and what is inside of
them. Why would he do this to me unless he has my downfall in his
sights??" I shrugged it off and gave him grief after building a R/G
Landfall deck that splashed for
Skyrider Elf. After both of us had a
fair laugh at my expense I went outside to swear at the sun for my
misfortune.
Round 1 I played a fellow who I had seen his name but
never met, Gene Chandler I believe. we had a great match of magic with
both of us playing a R/G Landfall deck. Not a lot of heavy hitting
happened but the games all came down to the wire and I walked away
feeling very lucky to have started my day 1-0.
1-0
Round 2 I
found myself playing good friend and former teammate from the old Team
Pro Soul days, Matt Englebart. Matt has played on the Pro Tour a few
times and is always very precise in his games of magic. His deck didn't
disappoint either, all six of his rares made his deck in some way or
another and cards like
Endless One as well as
Serpentine Spike were
giving me the shakes the whole match. Somehow (I'm still trying to work
out all the details myself) my double
Beastcaller Savant as my only rare
in the deck pulled off the win in two games and I was feeling much
better about my odds of at least getting to draft.
2-0
Round
3 another friend Charlie Hodges and I squared off. I took my first loss
of the five round event to a deck that both Charlie and I agreed wasn't
great but sure had some staying power. Game one I had him at two 2-3
times, however, incremental life-gain via
Ondu Rising and
Courier Griffin was enough to turn the tides and allow him to pull of game one.
Game two was underwhelming but more or less the same, Charlie gained
life and went very wide and I just couldn't keep up.
2-1
Round
4 I played against Shannon who's last name slips my mind. She was on a
U/B control deck that I had no business winning against. Game one she
decimated me with removal and efficient creatures and game two a string
of 1/1's and lands led to a quick concession on my behalf.
2-2
With
a fairly low turn out at PPTQ's in our area I knew 3-2 could still make
top 8. I wasn't overly excited to see I was paired against Kyle Monson
who has been playing for years and is a very talented player. He was
very underwhelmed by his deck as well and our games went my way. I was
quite nervous about getting the win and didn't note much about his deck
as this round had to be all business for my tournament to continue. I
felt lucky to have won here which boosted my confidence going in to the
draft.
3-2 7th Seed for Top 8 draft.
With draft time coming
up I realized I hadn't drafted this set, I hadn't even thought about
drafting this set as the last article I had written was prerelease
primer for wizardden.com all about the Battle for Zendikar sealed
format. I asked my only loss during prerelease weekend Alex Starr if he
had drafted and what the format was like. I didn't get a lot of answers
but I at least felt better talking about the format then going in
completely blind.
Pack one I found myself with a very weak pack and
took
Sunken Hollow as a "well at least I get a rare if everything goes
south from here." I then found myself drafting blue flier after blue
flier and coupling it with some great fliers in black and getting some
removal as well. The real highlight of my deck was the singleton
Halimar Tidecaller and double
Clutch of Currents. I was able to use these to
tempo my opponents out and keep flying over until my opponent hit 0. All
of my matches went as planned. I had to fight through Evan Nelson who
went in as the two seed round one. He was on a U/R devoid deck that was
able to take me to a game three where I was able to come out way ahead
with my tempo spells, winning with two removal spells and another flier
in hand.
Round
two was a grind and included what was probably the best game of magic I
had played all day. Dan Brubaker is a guy I always enjoy playing as it
is always all fun and smiles. Game one I was able to get ahead with my
fliers early despite being on the draw and produced far too much board
presence for Dan to keep up. Game two things didn't go so well, I found
myself at two life while Dan was sitting on a cool 20. He exerted a lot
of force and cards in the early game which allowed me to stabilize, I
made a great triple block on a
Vestige of Emrakul when he had Stasis
snare in hand which allowed me two 1.5 for 1 myself and get back ahead
on board. Several turns later the game had turned around and I had 2-0'd
my way into the finals.
I
sit down across from Jim Greaves who laughs and says "Rematch from the
Pre-Release finals." I guess it is I though after having squared off
against Jim in the finals of the midnight prerelease. Our games were
very close but the power of
Halimar Tidecaller showed. I was able to get
two lands in the air among my arsenal of fliers and was able to take
down the match 2-0 and lock myself in for the first RPTQ of 2016.
I
learned a lot about the draft format and a lot of my inclinations were
correct. Fliers are huge in this set. A lot of the efficient creatures
spend their time on the ground and it is very hard for those decks to
handle an arsenal of fliers. This makes cards like
Giant Mantis great as
well as
Eldrazi Skyspawner,
Windrider Patrol,
Malakir Familiar and
pretty much any flier other than
Kitesail Scout. I also learned that
removal is great but don't over prioritize it. You'll get your
Demon's Grasps late and should really only be prioritizing the good stuff
(
Complete Disregard,
Touch of the Void,
Grip of Desolation,
Stasis Snare,
Unnatural Aggression) 3-5 removal spells will make your deck
sound and paired with a few fliers and a great ground game you'll find
yourself in a great position.
I would like to briefly touch on
standard now that we have the results of the first major tournament.
Abzan is still in the heezy as they would say with more copies of Abzan
aggro making day 2 of the event than any other deck. Does this mean that
Abzan is still going to be the wrecking force it was last season? My
answer would have to be no. The format is still in it's infancy and it
is easy for players to revisit an old favorite when a set comes out. You
know the cards are good and you can find functional reprints of the
cards that are now devoid (get it, devoid) from the deck. This theory is
backed by the fact that only one Abzan variant (control) made the top 8
and was promptly eliminated.
The decks that a lot of people will
be gearing up for will be Michael Majors G/W megamorph as well as the
explosive Atarka Red that Brian Demars championed at the event. I've
listed the two decks below for reference.
Personally,
I am a fan of Major's deck. I didn't get a lot of time to brew up a new
standard but the one deck I put a lot of hope in was G/W Mastery of the
Unseen. Cards like
Dromoka's Command,
Den Protector,
Deathmist Raptor,
Hidden Dragonslayer, and the new diamond in the rough
Felidar Sovereign
were all things that peaked my interest after having played the original
for several weeks last season. I realized that a lot of the decks
losses came from simply not having enough time to win once you reached
100 life.
Felidar Sovereign would put a stop to that.
While it
wasn't the exact list that Major's took to the finals I brewed a similar list at the end of spoiler season. I think that there
are a few variations that can be made to give the deck game against the
entire field. I've tinkered with my original list and made a hybrid of
the deck I originally brewed and Major's powerhouse. I think that this
is where the list will turn in order to have a lot more game and to get a
lot more free wins.
G/W Megamorph
4x
Deathmist Raptor
4x
Den Protector
2x
Felidar Sovereign
3x
Hidden Dragonslayer
3x
Nissa, Vastwood Seer
4x
Warden of the First Tree
4x
Whisperwood Elemental
4x
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4x
Dromoka's Command
3x
Mastery of the Unseen
1x
Blighted Steppe
4x
Canopy Vista
2x
Flooded Strand
8x
Forest
4x
Plains
4x
Windswept Heath
2x
Wooded Foothills
Sideboard
3x
Arashin Cleric
3x
Evolutionary Leap
3x
Radiant Purge
3x
Stasis Snare
3x
Valorous Stance
I
hope that this information on both limited and standard will give you a
jump start on winning in your local area or on Magic Online when the
set drops on Friday. I'd love to hear any critique to the Megamorph deck
so feel free to drop me some comments on here or tappedout.net.
Thanks for the read and happy battles,
Josh Kreiter
