MTG DS Tournament Report: 1st

[Keoni]

Before I begin, I would like to thank Mike and everyone at Da Planet, the players that showed up, and everyone that made this tournament possible. The potluck was good idea, and ended up being extremely fun. For those of you who were unable to attend, I strongly encourage you to attend not only to play in the tournament but for the potluck as well. It was a good experience, it's been a while since i've been to a potluck.

This was my first Shards of Alara sealed, and this is one of the most ridiculous sealed pools I have EVER opened. My two boosters were almost exactly the same. Unfortunately, I didn't take notes so I couldn't write about each match. Although everyone I played after round 1 was part of the "super draft Sunday team", which is pretty much a group of people who draft at Da Planet every Sunday. If you want to draft on Sunday, come down to Da Planet at 11 AM, but text or call me to make sure we're drafting. My # is [phone]. Tomorrow is going to be Shards of Alara draft. We also do other crazy formats like grab bag.

So, without further ado... The list:

Broken Sealed Deck (40)

Lands (16)
4 Plains
5 Island
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Bant Panorama
1 Naya Panorama
1 Esper Panorama

Creatures (13)
2 Tidehollow Strix
2 Deft Duelist
2 Tower Gargoyl
2 Fatestitcher
2 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Cloudheath Drake
1 Knight-Captain of Eos
1 Sharding Sphinx

Other Spells (11)
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Agony Warp
1 Resounding Wave
1 Cancel
3 Oblivion Ring
1 Esper Charm
1 Grixis Charm
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Elspeth, Knight Errant

Other Notable Cards:
1 Akrasan Squire
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Dispeller's Capsule
1 Angelsong
1 Sigil Blessing
1 Windwright Mage
1 Broodmate Dragon
1 Skeletonize

This was my first Shards of Alara sealed deck EVER. This was my first time actually seeing and/or playing with a lot of the cards in my deck. I didn't even know that 2/1 Deathtouch Bird existed. Just opening and flipping through my cards, I crapped my pants. When I opened my tournament pack, the 3 rares staring at me were Elspeth, Sharding Sphinx, and Broodmate Dragon. A booster pack kindly gave me the Eos Knight for the fog combo. As I laid out the playables for each color, it wasn't hard to figure out what colors to go. I had a lot of blue and white cards and a bunch of esper cards. I had a total of around 5 playables in red and black (not counting esper) combined. My green playables were all below average.

Building my deck, I was originally going to splash for Skeletonize and Broodmate Dragon (As I'm used to playing 5 colors in Shards limited). I quickly realized that my deck was extremely powerful and I needed it to be consistent, not more powerful. Thus, I only ended up splashing red for Grixis Charm as it is a very versatile card.

Before the rounds started, a bunch of people were looking at my pool and told me that I better win the tournament or they would beat me up. I had a feeling they would beat me up either way >.< They tell me Knight-Captain of Eos and Eslpeth are pretty lame together.

Unfortunately, I didn't take match notes. However my pool was ridiculous, and yes I was a lucksack for opening such a pool. However, I still hate sealed. Thanks everyone for showing up.

Thanks again to Mike, Da Planet, the players, and everyone who made this tournament possible.

Thanks for reading,
-Keoni

P.S. How good are Guardians of Akrasa?

[Jacob Mori]

well i play counterspells if i have the blue to back it up... usually hard to splash it in so i avoid it unless im playing blue... counterspells are great in any format... its whether or not your deck can support them...

[The Dane Train]

i <3 counterspells in limited. even expensive ones.

[Keoni]

Also, with counterspells, the ability to stop their removal from touching your creature or their pump from swinging the game in their favor is ridiculous. I've seen people base their actions on a pump or removal spell, and when I cancel it completely wrecks them.

I definitely would not cut cancel or Deft Duelist. There have been games where I've dropped two Deft Duelists and my opponent sits there for a while before sighing and passing the turn. I would probably cut the Cloudheath Drake because It's at the top of the curve or the Grixis Charm so I didn't need to splash for red anymore. I don't want to hiccup on colors with that deck.

[Drake Gammill]

"counterspells really aren't that great in limited "

I disagree with this statement to the fullest degree. I have always said that even some bad counterspells are good in limited because no one expects them (Mana tithe and delay anyone?) Cancel is fine in this format, its slow and full of bombs.

[Matty the Squid]

I've been on the fence with Cancel for this format. Like, it feels kinda like the sort of format where counterspells can be good (like you said, lotsa bombs), but three mana counters do have a history of ho-humedness (Invasion block being one of the few exceptions I can think of). Thankfully I haven't been put to the test yet, since I rarely play blue, but Cancel's something I've been meaning to try.

I agree on the Guardians. They play a very important roll in an evasion deck, namely the ground defense to hold the fort while your fliers swing in. This has been done by such cards as Horned Turtle in the past, but this time he also happens to make your evader huge if there's only one. It's a tough cut, but I may have considered axing a Deft Duelist to fit him in, if you really wanted to keep Cancel. Maybe even Cloudheath Drake. I know that sounds insane, but you have so many awesome late game fliers + Gargoylediggers to bring them back, that one less 3/3 flier may have gone unnoticed.

Here's a real kicker, though: I would probably have also tried to squeeze in the Angelsong. I'm slowly falling in love with running infinite cyclers in ALAs sealed. What's better than Elspeth in a 40 card deck? Elspeth in a 39 card deck. It also helps smooth out draws to fight the inevitable mana problems in this format.

[Keoni]

Really? I've always had success with them, especially with so many bombs.

[Ty]

cancel

counterspells really aren't that great in limited

[Keoni]

Yeah I like it as well, but I didn't know what to cut.

[Sean Pottenger]

i'm a fan of the card

[Drake Gammill]

Guardians of Akrasa is a good solid card. It plays both offense and defense all for 3 mana. Play it anytime you can.