GP Liverpool Practice - Team Storm Count Prep - Sealed Deck Reviews

The Motherload of posts incoming....

Hey ya'll it's been a while since I've covered some heavy MTG spikey stuff (that's competitive play talking) and I'm gonna talk to you and I on this blog post regarding some of the cycles in the format and what to watch out for etc....So I'm gonna give the cards a school grade (A+ to F) based on how great they are...

*loads up Mythic Spoiler and runs off to grab a coke*..... It's 1:47am christ! 

Ok.... *breathes*... Here we go....

Dragons! (A+, A, A-)

 

These guys are the real deal, should be splashed and are only unplayable if literally nothing fits both of the colours in their casting cost. If I open a Dragon I'm heavily leaning into one of it's colours for a good deck! Atarka, Dromoka, Ojutai are the best of the bunch, Silumgar is okay if a little weak on the attack and Kolaghan is the weakest for me, but still fantastic! Dromoka at 5 mana is an insane Serra Angel... and Serra Angel is insane! 

Enemy Coloured Instants 

• Harsh Sustenance is a bit of a trap, looks utterly insane but sometimes this card is going to be short of what's needed, I like it in the warriors/mardu aggro, but it's not a reliable removal spell.. Grade: C
• Cunning Strike is expensive, a little too expensive to reliably kill morphs, but 2 damage to a creature is 2 damage to a creature! The draw side of this card is awesome and the 2 damage to a player is nifty bit of reach but not the focal point of the card. I'm a bit weary of running many of these spells. Grade: C-
• Grim Contest, now this card is interesting! 'Butt Fight' as it's been renamed is cheap but requires a little bit of building around. Like Harsh Sustenance this card is great if you have the big butt in play and all is going well for you, but if you've no creatures on board and you draw this in late game then you're in trouble. I'm not huge on it but Abzan decks like it! Grade: C-
• War Flare, given that you're going to play this with a high creature count, preferrably some token production and in either Mardu or Jeskai strategies which enjoy mass pump at most stages of the game then I'd say this card is legitimate. I'm a fan of it, but the card benefits most when the creatures are small and plentiful... Grade: C+
• Ethereal Ambush, can you say value? it's spelled "Ethereal Ambush" getting 2 creatures at 2/2 is literally using 1 card to get you 2 other cards (Pat Chapin says a 1/1 token is 1/3rd of a card in terms of value, I say a 2/2 is a card, especially a manifestation!) This is the card of card which is going to help me lean towards Sultai & Temur strategy... Grade: B-

Clan-Dependant Creatures

• Wandering Champion is perhaps one of the best 1W creatures in recent limited. a 3/1 with upside is awesome. Jeskai wants early damage, it fits the archetype, fits the Mardu strategy too so I'm loving it. Heck, even Abzan wouldn't grumble at this one... Grade: B
• Marang River Patrol while great on offense is somewhat less versatile than other creatures with the can't block factor. I do like the fact you can buy it back often but it's not a card which gives me a strong reason to play blue. Grade: C-
• Battle Brawler, the first ever 1B 2/2 I've ever seen with no downside, he's also a Warrior which makes a difference, there has got to be about 6+ warrior specific spells in the format! He's also getting +1/+0 and First Strike if I have a Red/White permanent.. Wow! This guy is a solid 2 drop... Grade: B
• Hungering Yeti has a steep mana cost at 5 but with the Flash he's going to surprise folk, he's alright late game off the top and if you curve into him then that's going to be awesome, nothing insane but a nice solid 4/4 for your Jeskai/Temur decks... Grade: C+
• Abzan Kin-Guard is just a decent card, not incredible, definitely not bad, but decent. Grade: C

Uncommon Dragon Cycle

• Wardscale Dragon doesn't have the greatest of the Dragon abilities but it will hit Sandblast/Kill Shot rendering them useless. It's a 6 mana 4/4 flyer, you're gonna want heavy white or good mana fixings... This guy gets a above mediocre grade. Grade: C+
• Mindscour Dragon, I'm really not sold on the milling ability, infact if your opponent has either Black,Green or Blue mana then this guy could work in their favour for Delve. He's still a 4/4 Flyer though so he can't ever be that bad.... Grade: C/C-
• Noxious Dragon has one of the best abilities, if not the best. Like the other dragons you'll need decent black or decent fixing to play him reliably, he's not really splashable as it were but he is one of them cards which (with others) drags me into Black. Grade: B-
• Shockmaw Dragon, he's got more upside than Mindscour Dragon, but perhaps not as great as Wardscale who dodges common removal (and pump thinking about it!) Grade: C+
• Destructor Dragon, great name, great card, he's gonna be hitting lands or potentially planeswalkers, sieges! I reckon he's top of the list on the dragon front... Grade: B/B+

The Siege

• Citadel Siege is the nuts, tapping their best threat every turn is awesome and on aggro mode it's going to make your dudes so powerful they'll overwhelm even Rotting Mastodon's... Solid bomb. Grade: A
• Monastery Siege is also great, the draw 2, discard 1 is beautiful and game winning, at only 3 mana and single blue it's very splashable! This one gets a little criticism that if you're behind sometimes it's not going to matter so much, unlike Citadel siege which can protect Grade: B+/A-
• Palace Siege is also the nuts, this is right up there with Citadel Siege and there is a reason it's double black and 5CMC, it provides inevitability for a control deck or can just keep bringing back your Mardu/Abzan little or large hitters... This is one of the best cards in the set. Grade: A/A+
• Outpost Siege is probably best used with lots of dash and on dragons mode, not many people can deal with the amount of damage coming at them from this, Khans is great for Jeskai decks or if you're caught with nothing on board. So versatile! Grade: A/A-
• Frontier Siege is my least favourite, granted with a decent Temur or Abzan with some high mana finishers you'll be glad you've got it, but unlike the other 4 sieges it doesn't really do much on it's own. The amount of white flyers could really help the Dragons ability, but it's not as versatile so it's grade suffers.. Grade: C+

Runemark's

They're a trap, usually you can always get a 3 mana 2/2 creature instead of giving a creature +2/+2, however some of them work better than others... Remember though, 2 for 1's aren't cool and these expose you to them! 

• Abzan, Sultai, Temur Runemarks are janky to be fair... Grade: D-/E
• Mardu Runemark starts to get better, but not by much. First Strike is just better than the other Runemarked abilities Grade: C-
• Jeskai Runemark is actually ok, late game giving a creature flying could finish up the game, but still it's a risk. Grade: C/C-

Modal Creatures

• Sandsteppe Outcast is awesome, I like him best in the Mardu decks but anywhere he's going to be good. Getting the token turns this card from a 100% to 140% value, like Chapin says (and he isn't really wrong here) a 1/1 token is worth about 1/3 of a card in terms of card value and advantage, then a flyer adds some more value... You're getting a good deal here. Almost always go for the 1/1 flyer!  Grade: B
• Aven Surveyor is the best of the bunch, it's such a shame he's double blue, but I totally see why, a 3/3 flyer for 5 mana with no downside is cool, a flyer which potentially can bounce a creature becomes a lot more stronger, both Temur and Jeskai enjoy tempo swings and at turn 5 pushing them back a turn and getting a 2/2 flyer is sweet. Grade: B+
• Hooded Assassin doesn't get there as much as I want him to, I've played with him a lot now and it's rare the second ability does anything. When you attack into an Abzan guide with a 2/2 your opponent has a good idea that you've got tricks, he's a 2/3 for 3 mostly and that's mediocre, at least he blocks morphs/manifests... Grade: C
• Defiant Ogre is the worst of them, 6 mana for a 4/6 isn't spectactular and there aren't many artifacts in the set, let alone many to worry about.... Grade: D
• Ainok Guide is almost brilliant but putting the land to the top of your library is a bit 'meh' if he put it in your hand then he'd be brilliant. If you need more fixing in your deck sure, play him, if not ditch him and chuck another morph in! Grade: C-

Manifestation

All of these cards are solid, Soul Summons, Write into Being, Fierce Invocation & Formless Nurturing... For a while I wasn't sold on Fierce Invocation but now I'm thinking 5 mana for a 4/4 is fine and that it could flip up and start flying or flip up and become huge is actually awesome. Manifests are great because your opponent should be assuming it's something most of the time and the mind games are great! 

• Soul Summons: C
• Write into Being: B-
• Fierce Invocation: C+
• Formless Nurturing: C

Jeskai Forms

• Lightform is up there, fantastic card gets your value a 2/2 flying lifelink is sweet for 1WW, if your white is decent then this is going to make it and should be part of the argument for going white! Grade: B/B+
• Cloudform is also incredible if not better! Hexproof means you can protect whatever manifest you've made, I love it, it's a solid solid card, Jeskai and Temur will love your putting this in your deck... Grade: B+
• Rageform, ah red, why did you have to derp out with a 4 mana manifest... Sure if you get the right card it's sweet, but the creatures are easy to deal with and investing 4 mana for an ability less awesome than Lightform just plain annoys me... Grade: C

These are all the cycle cards minus the legendary creatures and mythics (which let's be fair we can all grade rather easily..... A, A+, A- all awesome, all playable!) 

Let's talk about my practice and prep so far....

5 MTGO Sealed Decks

3 Mock Sealed Deck 

2 Mock Sealed Deck with games

2 Pre-Release Sealed Deck (with seeded) 

1 Discussion in the team on power levels of FRF

Listened to Limited Resources set review podcast

It's looking okay, but in 3 days time I'm paid and then I'm hitting up MODO for at least 3 more Sealed deck, with a Manager's Meeting in Nottingham for my company I might see if I can borrow a laptop for that and do some grind! I've got sealed deck practice this thursday with StormCount and Bexhill are running Sealed Deck for FNM.... It's looking like we've got our prep sorted!