~Beyond the Border~ > Akyu's Arcade
Cardboard rehab: TCG/CCG thread
Tamer Anode/Cathode:
Did a sealed prerelease tournament for the new MtG set today, and I really like what's in it so far. Lots of interesting cards and plenty of fun ways to put them together, looking forward to seeing how this stuff interacts with the larger metagame once it's out in full.
pasu:
D-does anyone play Fire Emblem Cipher here?
commandercool:
I played in a Magic: Battle For Zendikar sealed yesterday and it was... Crazyballs. I don't really care about this set, I just want a few copies of each Blighted land and a few copies of Greenwarden Of Murasa, but my roommate likes it a lot and had to work, so he paid for me to play.
Right out of the box I opened the prerelease Ulamog. So that alone was basically his money back. First pack, pulled an expedition (Blood Crypt). Next couple packs pulled some junk rares and two multilands, then last pack I pulled a second expedition (Breeding Pool). I genuinely did not know that was possible. Out of 18 players those were the only expeditions pulled, and I got both.
I did okay in the event. Placed just above half, got two more packs containing a third multiland. I made a kind of dumb blue/green mana ramp deck to try to play with the Ulamog I opened, but it only worked once for the whole event in a game I was winning anyway. Should have played blue/black, but I don't care, my pulls were incredible so if I had done much better it would have just been mean. Too bad I don't get to sell the cards myself, but I know roommate is buying a PS4 with the money from them, so that means I don't have to buy it when Persona 5 comes out.
As for the actual set itself, I don't understand it at all. Much of the metagame seems to be "did you pull a couple of the allies that make allies actually matter?", but beyond that I can't figure out the archetypes. Ramp isn't really a thing, but maybe it's supposed to cap out at seven drops or something. Converge makes no sense to me in sealed, since there doesn't seem to be much support for it. This is a weird, weird set, but then again I didn't really understand Khans until someone explained it to me in context of the whole block like a year later.
Tamer Anode/Cathode:
--- Quote from: commandercool on September 27, 2015, 05:24:54 PM ---As for the actual set itself, I don't understand it at all. Much of the metagame seems to be "did you pull a couple of the allies that make allies actually matter?", but beyond that I can't figure out the archetypes. Ramp isn't really a thing, but maybe it's supposed to cap out at seven drops or something. Converge makes no sense to me in sealed, since there doesn't seem to be much support for it. This is a weird, weird set, but then again I didn't really understand Khans until someone explained it to me in context of the whole block like a year later.
--- End quote ---
Allies seem to be split into multiple archetypes, focusing mainly on black/white lifegain and red/white Rally effects. Landfall is in all colors, but it's strongest in red/green aggro decks where you have tools to put multiple lands on the field in one turn. I can see what looks like black/green growth archetype where sacrificing a creature gets several bonuses at once. Even the Eldrazi seem to be split into archetypes, with green Scion ramp, blue evasion, red aggro, and black forced discards.
This looks to be a fun format for sealed/draft because while Allies are designed to work with each other and Eldrazi are designed to work with each other, there isn't really much stopping you playing the two together, which is where you get some really wild and bizarre synergies.
Addendum: While a lot of the mechanics like Awaken and Rally seemed to be centered on two-color pairs, they're spread out enough that with enough dual color lands or something like Beastcaller Shaman/Lifespring Druid for mana fixing you can get some interesting three-color builds like BRG landfall, WBR allies, or WUB Awaken control.
Also, congrats on pulling two Expeditions AND promo Ulamog, that's hitting the jackpot right there.
yuyukos:
--- Quote from: commandercool on September 27, 2015, 05:24:54 PM ---I played in a Magic: Battle For Zendikar sealed yesterday and it was... Crazyballs. I don't really care about this set, I just want a few copies of each Blighted land and a few copies of Greenwarden Of Murasa, but my roommate likes it a lot and had to work, so he paid for me to play.
Right out of the box I opened the prerelease Ulamog. So that alone was basically his money back. First pack, pulled an expedition (Blood Crypt). Next couple packs pulled some junk rares and two multilands, then last pack I pulled a second expedition (Breeding Pool). I genuinely did not know that was possible. Out of 18 players those were the only expeditions pulled, and I got both.
I did okay in the event. Placed just above half, got two more packs containing a third multiland. I made a kind of dumb blue/green mana ramp deck to try to play with the Ulamog I opened, but it only worked once for the whole event in a game I was winning anyway. Should have played blue/black, but I don't care, my pulls were incredible so if I had done much better it would have just been mean. Too bad I don't get to sell the cards myself, but I know roommate is buying a PS4 with the money from them, so that means I don't have to buy it when Persona 5 comes out.
As for the actual set itself, I don't understand it at all. Much of the metagame seems to be "did you pull a couple of the allies that make allies actually matter?", but beyond that I can't figure out the archetypes. Ramp isn't really a thing, but maybe it's supposed to cap out at seven drops or something. Converge makes no sense to me in sealed, since there doesn't seem to be much support for it. This is a weird, weird set, but then again I didn't really understand Khans until someone explained it to me in context of the whole block like a year later.
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Good job (fuck youj, salty :(). My shop had 4 Expeditions in 180 kits.