Tournament Report: M11 Sealed

So last night I played a FNM draft in Hong Kong and afterward was invite to Hot Pot by Chick Hoi and his friends.

You probably don’t know Chick; he doesn’t turn up in tournament reports or appear in GPs or write for the MtG sites, but he’s (as of writing this) the fifth-rates Limited player in the world. So when he gave me some hints about playing limited, I made sure to listen.

We had a chat about draft (which he loves) and sealed (which he hates – ‘too random’). In Rise draft, Chick said he prioritised flyers over everything other than bombs, as matches were usually won in the skies, not on the ground. As for limited, Chick recommended a central colour with two splashes to ensure you could play your strongest cards. The third thing Chick mentioned was he’d learnt to mulligan aggressively and never keep a sketchy land (a mistake I’d made against him that night).

With his advice in mind, I went to the Magic store in Causeway Bay to rip open packs in the M11 Pre-Release.

Now, with Magic once again being printed in Traditional Chinese, the packs being opened were in Chinese, not English. This is a problem for me, as I have absolutely no comprehension of written or spoken Chinese.

The store offered to provide me English packs, but as I was going to have to learn how to draft in Chinese anyway, I figured I better start to learn the artwork, and insisted on Chinese cards. Thankfully, the store printed out an English spoiler list, so I could try and find the artwork and figure out my pool.

Here’s what I opened.

White

1 Ajani’s Mantra
1 Ajani’s Pridemate
1 Assault Griffin
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Blinding Mage
1 Celestial Purge
2 Cloud Crusader
1 Elite Vanguard
1 Excommunicate
1 Goldenglow Moth
1 Holy Strength
1 Inspired Charge
1 Mighty Leap
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 Squadron Hawk
1 War Priest of Thune

Blue

1 Alluring Siren
2 Augury Owl
1 Flashfreeze
1 Forsee
1 Harbor Serpent
1 Ice Cage
2 Jace’s Erasure
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Mana Leak
1 Maritime Guard
1 Merfolk Sovereign
1 Merfolk Spy
1 Mind Control
1 Preordain
1 Unsummon

Black

1 Assassinate
1 Barony Vampire
2 Doom Blade
2 Gravedigger
1 Liliana’s Specter
1 Mind Rot
1 Necrotic Plague
1 Nether Horror
1 Rise From The Grave
1 Rotting Legion
2 Sign in Blood

Red

1 Act of Treason
1 Arc Runner
1 Bloodcrazed Goblin
1 Canyon Minotaur
1 Demolish
1 Fling
1 Goblin Balloon Brigade
1 Goblin Piker
2 Goblin Tunneler
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Shiv’s Embrace
1 Vulshok Berserker

Green

1 Awakener Druid
1 Back to Nature
1 Cultivate
2 Dryad’s Favor
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Fog
2 Garruk’s Packleader
1 Giant Growth
1 Hunter’s Feast
1 Naturalize
1 Plummet
1 Grizzly Runeclaw Bear
1 Spined Wurm
1 Yavimaya Wurm

Colourless

1 Dragon’s Claw
1 Gargoyle Sentinel
1 Juggernaut
1 Kraken’s Eye
1 Stone Golem

Land

1 Drowned Catacomb

It was clear that Red was terrible, and Green was too shallow to play, despite having Fauna Shaman and a couple of Packleaders. White was a clear standout, with a host of first-striking flyers, and black was pretty amazing, with a huge recurrence engine and removal suite. That left Blue, which had enough card draw and scry cards to make splashing it worthwhile. Here’s the deck I put together.

1 Assault Griffin
1 Baneslayer Angel
1 Blinding Mage
2 Cloud Crusader
1 War Priest of Thune
2 Augury Owl
1 Forsee
1 Mind Control
1 Preordain
1 Assassinate
1 Barony Vampire
2 Doom Blade
2 Gravedigger
1 Liliana’s Specter
1 Rise From The Grave
2 Sign in Blood
1 Juggernaut
1 Stone Golem

1 Drowned Catacomb
8 Swamp
4 Plains
4 Island

As far as I’m concerned, even with only one big bomb, that deck is the Stone. Cold. Nuts.

Here’s how it went down.

Match 1: WB

He wins the toss and Game 1 is a mess. He gets down early Barony Vampires and I watch as he quickly pounds down my life total. I’m dead before I can even do much. My first game, and it’s a loss. Gah!

I choose to play the next game, figuring my deck has more than enough draw to dig me out of being behind on cards. I’ve taken out my Doom Blades for a Celestial Purge and an Ice Cage. I quickly get down a War Priest of Thune and a Barony Vampire, when my opponent plays Nantuko Shade. And boy, that thing is a beast. I manage to get down some Augury Owls and dig for my Celestial Purge. He smashes in with the Shade, pumps it for 4, and I purge its ass. From then on it is academic – I find Baneslayer, recover my life total, and finish on 26 life.

Game 3 he chooses to play and I’ve got a slow hand. We trade creatures for a while, but he gets down a White Knight and starts getting through. I’m on 5 and find a Juggernaut. Then the following exchange takes place.
Him: “Juggernaut? That can’t block, you know.”
Me: “Really, I thought it could.”
Him: “Nope. Wanna take it back?”
Me: “Uh, yeah.”
So, multiple things wrong with that exchange. Firstly, Juggernaut can block on the turn it comes into play – it’s just unlikely to block after that. Secondly, he shouldn’t have let me take back the play, even though it was a nice thing to do. Thirdly, considering I had the damn spoiler in English next to me, I should of checked the damn card for myself and trusted my instincts.

Oh well.

I played Augury Owl instead, found a Cloud Crusader, chumped, played the Crusader, played Forsee, found the Baneslayer, and took it home from there. Afterwards someone else explained that Juggernaut can block. Nice to know.

Match 2: WUB

I knew this guy had the nuts as I’d been sitting next to him last game. Frost Titan, Day of Judgment, Mystifying Maze, Azure Drakes, Forsee. At least it meant I’d not walk into a Day of Judgment. And with my recursion engine, I was sure a Wrath would hurt him more than me.

I won the roll and lead off with Blinding Mage and Augury Owl. Game 1 was pretty boring, as I had a good curve and that rounded off into Baneslayer Angel.

Game 2 was a different story all together.

I started similarly, with Blinding Mage into Barony Vampire. We started trading creatures, but once I got too far ahead he reset the board with Day of Judgment. I led with a test Assult Griffin, to see if he had removal, and followed it up with a Baneslayer Angel. I guess he knew what was coming, because the next thing you know he’s cast Call to Mind, recovered Day of Judgment, and wrathed again. I top-deck a Gravedigger, grab back Baneslayer, and replay it. I start bashing in, but he’s Mystifying my Baneslayer every turn. However I’m drawing two consistently from Sign in Bloods and Forsee, while he’s hitting lands, and the end is inevitable. He goes for a Ice Cage on my Baneslayer, I respond with War Priest of Thune next turn, and it’s all over. Phew!

Match 3: UB

This guy watched my last game and knows I have Baneslayer and is prepared.

Game 1 he mulls to six. I stare at my hand – one land and a bunch of five mana cards. I mull to six. Then five. Then four. I look at my hand – a Swamp, a Sign In Blood, a Liliana’s Specter, and Baneslayer.

Keep.

T1: Swamp.
T2: Draw swamp, Sign in Blood drawing Plains and Island
T3: Draw Forsee, play Island, Liliana’s Specter
T4: Forsee drawing Plains and Rise From the Grave
T5: Baneslayer.

Even I have to call ‘lucksack’ on that sequence. Strangely enough, he loses.

Game 2 I side in Celestial Purge and Merfolk Spy for a Cloud Crusader and a Doom Blade.

I get out Spy on Turn 1 and start checking out his hand. He wisely shuffles his hand each turn, so I only really see the Corrupt he’s holding back.

He gets out a very early Conundrum Sphinx and Nuntuko Shade. I manage to Purge the Shade, and thanks to Scry even draw a card off the Sphinx before Doom Blading it. After that despite not seeing the Slayer, I get to Mind Control his flyer and Rise his Sphinx and it’s all over.

Match 4: UBG

I have somewhere to be, so I ask for a split. My opponent disagrees, explaining he drew in the last round. If he and his buddy win, they’ll both be on 10 points with 3-0-1. I have to win this to stay on top.

I win the roll and go Game 1 I get down a quick Blinding Mage and Barony Vampire, while he plays Brittle Effigy. He knows I have Baneslayer Angel, but I’m not sure if he’s aware of the recursion engine. An engine which starts to go to town on him – we trade and trade, but my Gravediggers keep up the good work. Eventually he succumbs to the number of flyers I have, despite his 5/5 Protean Hydra.

I side in the Merfolk Spy and Celestial Purge and take out a Doom Blade and Cloud Crusader again. Game 2 he demonstrates his own recursion engine. I keep a land with two lands and a Pre-Ordain, finding the land but sending my Baneslayer to the bottom of my deck. As I stick down an early Juggernaut and Stone Golem, he plays an Acidic Slime, unsummons it, then returns it to kill my artifact creatures. Meanwhile, my Merfolk is hitting him every turn, slowly whittling away his life total. We’re keeping up with meaningful cards, him with a Crystal Ball and myself with Sign in Bloods and Forsee. The attrition war is terrible, and I know the Baneslayer is on the bottom of deck, and the only thing getting through is my Merfolk Spy. We start going to extreme measures. I play Rise From The Grave on a Gravedigger, grabbing a second Gravedigger, grabbing the Merfolk Spy. He digs for a Brittle Effigy and Exiles it.

I get him down to 1 with my fliers, when he lands another Azure Drake. I have two fliers. He has two. I rip… a Doom Blade. Kill one, attack in, and he concedes.

So, despite not seeing Baneslayer in either game of my final match, the deck proved how solid good removal, recurssion and flyers are in limited. I won six packs and a t-shirt for my efforts, and a discount off tomorrow’s Pre-Release event – so I’d better get a good night’s sleep.