Limited Play - Dark Ascension

[Encaen]

Limited Play - Dark Ascension

Looking in-depth at a Dark Ascension Pre-Release event.

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[deth2munkies]

You should have played white/black splash blue off the grotto/wilds. Also never play ghost quarter in Sealed, it's just bad, you can side it in if they have a good land, but the lands aren't that great for limited anyway (except the Vault of the Archangel, and even then you have to have a board presence).

You cannot play sealed without removal or you just lose, and getting access to 3 removal spells from white and Lingering Souls (the best non-rare in the set) with the flashback is ridiculous.

I ran this and ended up 4/0 dropping 1 game to a T4 Bloodline Keeper into T5 Increasing Ambition for Huntmaster.

Spoiler

7 Swamp
10 Plains
1x Thraben Doomsayer
1x Walking Corpse
1x Moan of the Unhallowed
1x Wakedancer
1x Falkenrath Noble
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Moment of Heroism
2x Dead Weight
1x Sightless Ghoul (worst card in the deck)
1x Elguad Inquisitor
1x Lingering Souls (best card in the deck)
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Bonds of Faith
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Selfless Cathar
1x Avacyn's Collar
1x Villiage Bell-Ringer
1x Undying Evil (underrated)
1x Smite the Monsterous
1x Cloistered Youth
1x Thraben Sentry
1x Loyal Cathar

Also, what monster were you? I was human and faced 3 Vampires and a Zombie, earning the title of Van Helsing

 

[DuelLadyS]

My deck from the pre-release tourney:

Spoiler

7 swamp
6 island
6 plains
2 avacyn's collar
2 Skirsdag Flayer
1 masck of avacyn
1 claustrophobia
1 spectral flight
1 sensory deprivation
1 stormkirk partol
1 frightful delusion
1 selfless cathar
1 markov patrician
1 isolated chapel
1 loyal cathar
1 doomed traveler
1 tragic slip
1 shimmering grotto
1 dream twist
1 seance
1 elgaud inquistor
1 executioner's hood
1 saving grasp
1 ray of revelation
1 midnight guard
1 break of day
1 deadly allure
1 champion of the parish

Went WAY out of my comfort zone making a tri-color deck when I normally play mono, but ended the tourney at 2-2, which was enough for me. Also got some more boosters in a random giveaway. It was a good day.

This was my first draft, and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to be made to play with what's available as opposed to what's familiar, and to see what combinations everyone else came up with. I hope to be able to do it again.

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

Limited Play - Dark Ascension

Looking in-depth at a Dark Ascension Pre-Release event.

Read Full Article

That pool is a bit odd. You have a few playable cards in most colours but none of them really jumping out as being the best. White is certainly the deepest followed by Red with plenty of ,late game removal there, then Blue. With a Grotto/wilds/amulet you could go 3 colour pretty easily. I'd go W/R aggro with a blue or green splash. Blue splash for artful dodge/divination/Griptide is the better choice but is likely not actually needed as the colours are solid without it.

The deck would look something like

Spoiler: Encean's deck

Creatures - 15
Stromkirk Noble
Slayer of the Wicked
Tormented Pariah
Crossway Vampire
Loyal Cathar
Pyreheart Wolf
Markov Blademaster
Hollowhenge Spirit
Niblis of the mist
Silverclaw Griffin
Forge Devil
Russet Wolves
Thraben Purebloods
Torch Fiend
Sanctuary cat x1

Spells - 8
Bonds of Faith
Harvest Pyre
Faithless Looting
Lingering Souls
Sudden Disapearance
Wrack with Madness x1
Skillful lunge
Blood Feud

Land - 17
Shimmering Grotto
Evolving Wilds
1 swamp
8 Mountain
6 Plains

The only card I'm not really sure about is the sanctuary cat that could become a rally the peasents. The sudden disapearance let's you hit at least once with your blademaster along with the pyreheart wolf making blocking it even more difficult.

Shame about how your deck worked out though. It did seem like a nice flavourful deck (especially if you were a zombie in the minigame )
>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<

My Saturday deck went 5-0 and took first place

Spoiler: My saturday deck

Creatures - 14
2 Doomed Traveler
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Shriekgeist
2 Stormbound Geist
1 Chapel Geist
1 Dungeon Geist
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Village Bellringer
1 Midnight Guard
1 Silverclaw Griffin
1 Drogskol Captain
1 Niblis of the Mist
1 Moon Heron

Other spells - 8
1 Think Twice
2 Tragic Slip
1 Claustrophobia
1 Moment of Heroism
1 Blazing Torch
1 Elbrus, the Binding Blade
1 Bone to Ash

Land - 17
1 Shimmering Grotto
2 Swamp
8 Island
7 Plains

MVP had to be dungeon geists. Claustrophobia on a 3/3 flying body for one more mana? Yes please!! The one time I played Elbrus was the final game of round 5 and he got me the win in style so I was pretty happy with that. I remained a human all day long, though was a bit of a serial killer as I took out four others haha.

Sunday didn't go aswell and went 3-2 taking 10th after losing in the final round, playing for third, with a green/white pauper beatdown.

 

[Encaen]

You should have played white/black splash blue off the grotto/wilds. Also never play ghost quarter in Sealed, it's just bad, you can side it in if they have a good land, but the lands aren't that great for limited anyway (except the Vault of the Archangel, and even then you have to have a board presence).

You cannot play sealed without removal or you just lose, and getting access to 3 removal spells from white and Lingering Souls (the best non-rare in the set) with the flashback is ridiculous.

I ran this and ended up 4/0 dropping 1 game to a T4 Bloodline Keeper into T5 Increasing Ambition for Huntmaster.

Spoiler

7 Swamp
10 Plains
1x Thraben Doomsayer
1x Walking Corpse
1x Moan of the Unhallowed
1x Wakedancer
1x Falkenrath Noble
1x Fiend Hunter
1x Moment of Heroism
2x Dead Weight
1x Sightless Ghoul (worst card in the deck)
1x Elguad Inquisitor
1x Lingering Souls (best card in the deck)
1x Curse of Death's Hold
1x Bonds of Faith
1x Increasing Ambition
1x Selfless Cathar
1x Avacyn's Collar
1x Villiage Bell-Ringer
1x Undying Evil (underrated)
1x Smite the Monsterous
1x Cloistered Youth
1x Thraben Sentry
1x Loyal Cathar

Also, what monster were you? I was human and faced 3 Vampires and a Zombie, earning the title of Van Helsing

Thanks and congratulations! As I mentioned, I almost switched to White for the removal, but ultimately decided I'd just stick it out with my two Zombie lords. Lesson learned!

As to Ghost Quarter, I actually got to use it once for mana fixing during a friendly game at the event which pleased me, but I can see your point that it's largely a dead card with so few targets around. I guess if I'd splashed for a third color it might have been a bit more useful.

Haha, Van Helsing! That's awesome. I was a Human until round 3 when I got converted to a Vampire, just in time to convert my own Vampire in round 4.

 

[s0osleepie]

I attended this same event with [user]Encaen[/user], [user]Kross[/user], [user]Myan[/user] and [user]Trujkin[/user]. Unfortunately, my card pool was weak and slightly all over the place. My best bet was a UB Zombie Mill deck and while it didn't perform too well against the rampart spirit onslaught I encountered (1-3), it made for very fun and very close games

Spoiler: My Sunday Deck

Creatures - 10
Undead Alchemist
Screeching Skaab
Stormbound Geist
Lantern Spirit
Manor Gargoyle
Diregraf Ghoul
Black Cat
Screeching Bat
Ravenous Demon
Gravecrawler

Equipments - 3
Trepanation Blade
Inquisitor's Flail
Chalice of Life

Spells - 12
Artful Dodge
Think Twice
Call to the Kindred
Chill of Foreboding
Silent Departure
Bone to Ash
Undying Evil
Moan of the Unhallowed
Reap of Seagraf
Gravepurge
2 x Dead Weight

Land - 16
8 Swamps
8 Islands

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

I attended this same event with [user]Encaen[/user], [user]Kross[/user], [user]Myan[/user] and [user]Trujkin[/user]. Unfortunately, my card pool was really week and slightly all over the place. My best bet was a UB Zombie Mill deck and while it didn't perform too well against the rampart spirit onslaught I encountered (1-3), it made for very fun and very close games

Spoiler: My Sunday Deck

Creatures - 10
Undead Alchemist
Screeching Skaab
Stormbound Geist
Lantern Spirit
Manor Gargoyle
Diregraf Ghoul
Black Cat
Screeching Bat
Ravenous Demon
Gravecrawler

Equipments - 3
Trepanation Blade
Inquisitor's Flail
Chalice of Life

Spells - 12
Artful Dodge
Think Twice
Call to the Kindred
Chill of Foreboding
Silent Departure
Bone to Ash
Undying Evil
Moan of the Unhallowed
Reap of Seagraf
Gravepurge
2 x Dead Weight

Land - 16
8 Swamps
8 Islands

Please say you got an undead alchemist with trepanation blade out at the same time in at least one game. That would make my day in a sealed event and I wouldn't care if i went 0-5 if I did it at least once

 

[fanklok]

My deck wasn't bad, it only had 5 bomb rares.

Spoiler: the deck

1 Vault of the Archangel
1 Gavony Township
2 Evolving wilds

1 Sanctuary Cat
1 Blazing Torch
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Eilite Inquisitor
1 Loyal Cathar
1 Feeling of Dread
1 Stitcher's Apprentice
2 Forbidden Alchemy
1 Headless Skaab
1 Chapel Geist
1 Thraben Doomsayer
1 Niblis of the Mist
1 Butchers Cleaver
1 Midnight Guard
1 Labratory Maniac
2 Nephalia Seakite
1 Curse of Exhaustion
1 Havengul Runebinder
1 Slayer of the Wicked
1 Silverclaw Griffin

Spoiler: The backup wasn't bad either

1Faithless Looting
1 Reckless Waif
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Scorned Villager
1 Ashmouth Hound
1 Dawntreader Elk
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
2 Darkthicket Wolf
1 Shattered Perception
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Ulvenwald Mystics
2 Russet Wolves
1 Afflicted Deserter
3 Hollowhenge Beast
1 Hollowhenger Scavenger
1 Night Revelers
1 Grim Flowering

Not to mention the foil Delver.

 

[Encaen]

Went WAY out of my comfort zone making a tri-color deck when I normally play mono, but ended the tourney at 2-2, which was enough for me. Also got some more boosters in a random giveaway. It was a good day.

This was my first draft, and I really enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun to be made to play with what's available as opposed to what's familiar, and to see what combinations everyone else came up with. I hope to be able to do it again.

I'm definitely excited to play in more Limited events. We've actually got an office Team Draft coming up next Friday which I can't wait for. We're playing a bit unconventionally with normal Draft Rules, but we're in 2 teams of 5 playing Round Robin and the team with the best record overall wins it. It should be interesting!

Limited Play - Dark Ascension

Looking in-depth at a Dark Ascension Pre-Release event.

Read Full Article

That pool is a bit odd. You have a few playable cards in most colours but none of them really jumping out as being the best. White is certainly the deepest followed by Red with plenty of ,late game removal there, then Blue. With a Grotto/wilds/amulet you could go 3 colour pretty easily. I'd go W/R aggro with a blue or green splash. Blue splash for artful dodge/divination/Griptide is the better choice but is likely not actually needed as the colours are solid without it.

The deck would look something like

Spoiler: Encean's deck

Creatures - 15
Stromkirk Noble
Slayer of the Wicked
Tormented Pariah
Crossway Vampire
Loyal Cathar
Pyreheart Wolf
Markov Blademaster
Hollowhenge Spirit
Niblis of the mist
Silverclaw Griffin
Forge Devil
Russet Wolves
Thraben Purebloods
Torch Fiend
Sanctuary cat x1

Spells - 8
Bonds of Faith
Harvest Pyre
Faithless Looting
Lingering Souls
Sudden Disapearance
Wrack with Madness x1
Skillful lunge
Blood Feud

Land - 17
Shimmering Grotto
Evolving Wilds
1 swamp
8 Mountain
6 Plains

The only card I'm not really sure about is the sanctuary cat that could become a rally the peasents. The sudden disapearance let's you hit at least once with your blademaster along with the pyreheart wolf making blocking it even more difficult.

Shame about how your deck worked out though. It did seem like a nice flavourful deck (especially if you were a zombie in the minigame )
>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<

My Saturday deck went 5-0 and took first place

Spoiler: My saturday deck

Creatures - 14
2 Doomed Traveler
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Shriekgeist
2 Stormbound Geist
1 Chapel Geist
1 Dungeon Geist
1 Elgaud Inquisitor
1 Village Bellringer
1 Midnight Guard
1 Silverclaw Griffin
1 Drogskol Captain
1 Niblis of the Mist
1 Moon Heron

Other spells - 8
1 Think Twice
2 Tragic Slip
1 Claustrophobia
1 Moment of Heroism
1 Blazing Torch
1 Elbrus, the Binding Blade
1 Bone to Ash

Land - 17
1 Shimmering Grotto
2 Swamp
8 Island
7 Plains

MVP had to be dungeon geists. Claustrophobia on a 3/3 flying body for one more mana? Yes please!! The one time I played Elbrus was the final game of round 5 and he got me the win in style so I was pretty happy with that. I remained a human all day long, though was a bit of a serial killer as I took out four others haha.

Sunday didn't go aswell and went 3-2 taking 10th after losing in the final round, playing for third, with a green/white pauper beatdown.

5-0 is remarkable, congrats! I think my takeaway from this event and the discussion here is basically that you can play without bombs as long as you have removal, but not vice versa.

I think I'm going to be practicing a lot of Drafting with my pre-order boosters when they arrive to get a better grasp on the format before next Friday.

 

[TheGuy(wantstobe)]

5-0 is remarkable, congrats! I think my takeaway from this event and the discussion here is basically that you can play without bombs as long as you have removal, but not vice versa.

I think I'm going to be practicing a lot of Drafting with my pre-order boosters when they arrive to get a better grasp on the format before next Friday.

Well you can play without much removal but your deck needs to be ridiculously aggressive to make up for it which is usually hard to do in draft and almost impossible in sealed. My Sunday G/W deck had a splash of red for burning oil and a single prey upon as my removal suite but made up for it by being able to drop fatties onto the field on turn 3 with remarkable consistency thanks to 2 avacyn pilgrim and 2 scorned villager to provide massive ramp.

I haven't gotten around to drafting with DKA yet but archetypes that get significant support from it for draft are BR aggro and UW flyers and UB zombies. The self mill archetype is probably weaker with 1 less pack of Innistrad to draft so you have less of a chance to hit a spider spawning and the better enablers from that set.

If you want to practice draft I recommend www.magicdraftsim.com

 

[Mahorfeus]

I ended up having to draft a White/Green deck full of low cost creatures with Undying and Spirit token effects for Two-Headed Giant. Cards like Avacyn's Pilgrim and Scorned Villager ensured that I always had enough mana to pull them out. Plenty of +1/+1 counter cards in the deck as well, in addition to Warden of the Wall for defense against flying. My late game chump move in my matches ended up being to use Creeping Renaissance to get all my creatures back and then spam them all.

Unfortunately, my teammate ended up going 0-2... it was my first tourney, so it was understandable, but still. Thinking back, we didn't build decks based much on synergy, so we probably screwed ourselves in that department.

We didn't even get to fit our Falkenrath Aristocrat into any of the decks.

 

[deth2munkies]

5-0 is remarkable, congrats! I think my takeaway from this event and the discussion here is basically that you can play without bombs as long as you have removal, but not vice versa.

I think I'm going to be practicing a lot of Drafting with my pre-order boosters when they arrive to get a better grasp on the format before next Friday.

Well you can play without much removal but your deck needs to be ridiculously aggressive to make up for it which is usually hard to do in draft and almost impossible in sealed. My Sunday G/W deck had a splash of red for burning oil and a single prey upon as my removal suite but made up for it by being able to drop fatties onto the field on turn 3 with remarkable consistency thanks to 2 avacyn pilgrim and 2 scorned villager to provide massive ramp.

I haven't gotten around to drafting with DKA yet but archetypes that get significant support from it for draft are BR aggro and UW flyers and UB zombies. The self mill archetype is probably weaker with 1 less pack of Innistrad to draft so you have less of a chance to hit a spider spawning and the better enablers from that set.

If you want to practice draft I recommend www.magicdraftsim.com

B/W is pretty much the only combination you want to be in if you're drafting 3 DKA (which they do at prereleases/releases). If you're actually drafting the format (1 DKA, 2 INN), the same decks from INN (U/G Mill yourself, G/W humans/aggro, B/R aggro) are all still good plus the G or W + B sacrifice humans deck, B/W tokens/aggro, and a blue-based offensive mill deck is now viable if you get an increasing confusion, a few of those 1/1 fliers, some ground blockers, and lots of dream twists/curses. G/R is a speculative deck that requires a lot of specific cards to be good, but can win very easily.

I can't get into too much detail because I've only done 1 draft of the real format and 1 3xDKA.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

Why didn't you end up running Relentless skabs? Those things are the nuts (granted it's not obvious though)

I did 2 preleases. 3-1'd the first and 2-2'd the second (my second deck was better but I got worse draws). First deck was a really awesome red/blue deck with really good blue. I killed 2 people with Increasing confusion, which surprised me. At least in sealed, that card is the absolute nuts, especially if you can help yourself with the initial casting then kill them with the flashback. Coming in I didn't think it was much of a spashable card but if you get it, you should be running it, since it wins any board stall.

Second deck was a much more synergistic blue/white deck splashing red. I suppose I didn't have as flashy of rares, but the new flyers are really good.

Overall, undying is an extremely strong mechanic in limited. You're either getting a 2 for 1 or just straight up making attacks horrible for them. Can't wait to draft this format

 

[karp250]

The biggest problem I see with you deck is that you were playing with 12 creatures. Yes back from the brink does help with this but with only 3 pieces of removal -- most of which being expensive -- so unless you curved out perfectly with your creatures you were going to run into some issues for sure. Personally I would have given up on black even though I know the Makaeus is hard to leave in your side board the colour just wasn't deep enough. In one of my pre-release events I had a deck with 3x gather the towns folk and 2x lingering souls -- they did a 6 DKA sealed -- and having asses on the group helped way more then having those late game bombs. Better luck next time.

 

[Juan Regular]

Went to my first tournament as well on saturday. Had a a bit of a weird pool and the two decks I made of it during the lenght of the event didn´t really go anywhere. Had my only win with a WB deck with two lingering souls and an increasing devotion in them, plus vault of the archangel for the combo. No removals and no real big creatures though. Ended up not big enough for the decks I played against and the flashback for devotion simply costs too much.
I also played my first match ever against Simon Görtzen, a PT winner. As if I hadn´t been nervous enough...

Still, it was a ton of fun and I can´t wait to play another tournament.

 

[vxicepickxv]

My first deck was Saturday at about 1AM. It was a pretty mediocre(2-3) RG deck. I saw strength with Immerwolf and Daybreak Ranger. I used as much red burn as I could, but it wasn't enough.

My Sunday night pre-release went much better. (3-1-1) with a pretty nasty WB deck. Gravecrawler is going to be awesome in standard, seeing as how he won me most of my games. With a large contingent of zombies to back him up. Fiend of the Shadows did quite a bit of damage. Most of my white was removal. I ended up placing second overall. Flying is big. First strike is big. Voiceless Spirits help win games.

With the box I have on preorder I should pull a 4th gravecrawler. (First one on Saturday, second on Sunday, 3rd out of one of the prize packs).

 

[rofltehcat]

I'm planning to go to a Friday Night Magic boosterdraft tomorrow. I hope they are using the new edition for it. That way I won't be the only one who doesn't know all the cards.
Any tips on that? I haven't touched a magic card in like 5 years or so. I played around with http://www.magicdraftsim.com/ a bit but anything I can do beyond that?

 

[vxicepickxv]

I'm planning to go to a Friday Night Magic boosterdraft tomorrow. I hope they are using the new edition for it. That way I won't be the only one who doesn't know all the cards.
Any tips on that? I haven't touched a magic card in like 5 years or so. I played around with http://www.magicdraftsim.com/ a bit but anything I can do beyond that?

You could try to study some generic type of drafting, especially when there's a bit of humor in it.

http://loadingreadyrun.com/videos/view/930/First-Pick-Cracking-Some-Packs

 

[Encaen]

Why didn't you end up running Relentless skabs? Those things are the nuts (granted it's not obvious though)

I did 2 preleases. 3-1'd the first and 2-2'd the second (my second deck was better but I got worse draws). First deck was a really awesome red/blue deck with really good blue. I killed 2 people with Increasing confusion, which surprised me. At least in sealed, that card is the absolute nuts, especially if you can help yourself with the initial casting then kill them with the flashback. Coming in I didn't think it was much of a spashable card but if you get it, you should be running it, since it wins any board stall.

Second deck was a much more synergistic blue/white deck splashing red. I suppose I didn't have as flashy of rares, but the new flyers are really good.

Overall, undying is an extremely strong mechanic in limited. You're either getting a 2 for 1 or just straight up making attacks horrible for them. Can't wait to draft this format

I actually started out with Relentless Skaabs, but ultimately decided to run Soul Seizer in its place for flying defenses and the potential to steal a bomb. It happened once, but didn't work out too well for me. I do really like the Undying mechanic, but I figured I didn't want to be exiling too many of my creatures from the Graveyard lest I render Ghoulcaller's Chant obsolete and I was already rocking the Headless Skaab who locks down the ground pretty handily. In retrospect, by the time I was casting Headless, I usually could have afforded Relentless, so that may have been the better choice.

The biggest problem I see with you deck is that you were playing with 12 creatures. Yes back from the brink does help with this but with only 3 pieces of removal -- most of which being expensive -- so unless you curved out perfectly with your creatures you were going to run into some issues for sure. Personally I would have given up on black even though I know the Makaeus is hard to leave in your side board the colour just wasn't deep enough. In one of my pre-release events I had a deck with 3x gather the towns folk and 2x lingering souls -- they did a 6 DKA sealed -- and having asses on the group helped way more then having those late game bombs. Better luck next time.

Yeah, I was pretty much blinded by Mikaeus from the first pack. I'm a sucker for a good red herring, I suppose. I'm still working out the subtleties of Limited, but I'm hoping to get in a lot of practice drafting going forward. I wish Sealed events were more prevalent around here, though, as that seems a whole different beast and is a lot easier to practice with a smaller group.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

I actually started out with Relentless Skaabs, but ultimately decided to run Soul Seizer in its place for flying defenses and the potential to steal a bomb. It happened once, but didn't work out too well for me. I do really like the Undying mechanic, but I figured I didn't want to be exiling too many of my creatures from the Graveyard lest I render Ghoulcaller's Chant obsolete and I was already rocking the Headless Skaab who locks down the ground pretty handily. In retrospect, by the time I was casting Headless, I usually could have afforded Relentless, so that may have been the better choice.

That's fair. If you were looking for something more defensive, Headless Skaab is usually better than his Relentless friends, who are generally better on the offensive.

I had the same kind of experience with Soul Seizer, and never really got the chance to steal anything at all. It's really good against some decks, but in other situations it's just a 5 mana 1/3 flyer. It's also unfortunately completely shut down by Warden of the Wall, which any deck can run. It might be better in draft than in sealed though, so my opinion is still out on the card.