M15 Pre-release July 12, 2014

Core sets are a lot like a greatest hits playlist. There's the old classics (Gravedigger, Cancel, Heat Ray, Liliana Vess...), and there's also a few new cards sprinkled in as well. I had had my fill of Theros (and wasn't too successful I'm sorry to say), so I was more than ready for M15. $25 to play and about 35 players at Mythic downtown that morning.

Looking over the promo cards for each color, I was thinking black was the most powerful.

A 5/3 flying demon that could draw an extra card sounded great. The next best to me was the red dragon. Even though expensive at 7 mana, when it hits the table, it would do some serious damage. White had the annoying "get 20 life" angel. I could feel the frustration of anyone playing against this, especially when you had your opponent down to under 10 life. Green and blue just seemed bad.

So I opened my black box and a large Garruk card was staring back at me. Also, wolf tokens, packs and a black spindown. There was a mini-game to play with the Garruk and tokens, but I was here to build a sealed deck. Let's see what rares I got.

Um, wait... that's 9 rares out of 6 packs? Well, the promo demon was extra and the foil Shield was too. But that accounts for 8 of them. WTF? Not sure what was in each pack, but this is what I had. The Star City Games price guide says that's $10.50 in value. Big Whoop! Here's the rest of the pool...

Blue:
Quickling (flash & flying? sign me up)
Armpit Pathmage
Research Asst. (looter 'r good)
Peel from Reality
2x Welkin Tern (hi Jordan!)
Frost Lynx (kittah tapper)
Encrusty
2x Glacial Crasher (should be in green?)
Negate
Statute of Denial
Invisibility (this looks as if it could be good)

Green:
Nissa's Expedition (expensive land fixer)
Restock
Paragon of Eternal Wilds
2x Venon Slivers (new scorp 2 drop)
Roaring Primadox
Naturalize
Titanic Growth
Ranger's Guile
2x Hunter's Ambush (sweet fog, bro)
3x Plummets
Elvish Mysty
Living Totem
Siege Wurm (good as it ever was)
2x Charging Rhino (take its Visa away)

White:
Paragon of New Dawns
Geist of the Moors (or less)
Seraph of the 'Asses
Trips Spirits (rolling peeps all weekend)
Pillar of Light
2x Tireless Missionaries (try something new!)
Sanctified Charge
Solemn Offering
Ephemeral Shields (prime battle trick)
2x Midnight Guards
Razor Griffin
Kinsbaile Skirmisher (who let the Kithkins out?)
Sungrace Pegasus
Raise the Alarm
Oreo Swiftclaw
Soulmender (it's really this big!)
Selfless Cathar

Red:
Circle of Flame
Cone of Flame (MoFo Cone of Flame!)
Paragon of Fierce Def
Brood Keeper (Kaleessi?)
Shrapnel Blast
Aflac Bloodseeker (Aflac!)
2x Lightning Strikes (might be good...)
Wall of Fire
Torch Fiend
Clear a Path (for this trash)
Rummy Gobby (looter 'r good)
Crowd's Favor (what do they know?)
Miner's Bane
Krenko's Enforcer (licky boom-boom down)
Inferno Fist

Black:
Wall of Limbs (could be handy)
Nightfire Giant
Festergloom
Flesh to Dust
Typhoid Mary's Rats
Sign in Blood
2x Shadowcloak Vamps
Child of Night (sing it!)
2x Black Cats
3x Carrion Crows (ca-caw!)
2x Witch's Familiar

Artis/Lands:
Meteorite (never wrong)
Hot Soup (you know it's a party when the soup arrives)
Darksteel Citadel
Radiant Fountain
2x Tyrant's Machines
2x Ornithopters

I'm a sucker for removal (call me crazy), so red/black jumped right out and slapped my momma. The three red rares all looked promising and you gotta love that promo demon. Two Lightning Strikes, Cone, Sign in Blood, the Gobbos looter and the three crows had game. Blue and green seemed shallow and I wasn't feeling the white. Here's my deck:

7cc: Siege Dragon
5cc: Burning Anger, Cone, Indulgent Tormentor, Nightfire Giant, Flesh to Dust, Shadow Vamp
4cc: Red Paragon
3cc: Rummy Gob, K's Enforcer, 3x Crows, Festergloom
2cc: Gob Kaboom, 2x Lit Strike, Aflac Blooddude, Inferno Fist, Sign in Blood, Child of Night
1cc: Crowd's Favor, Typhoid Rats
SB: Torch Fiend (for artifacts), Meteorite (just to try it) and Wall of Fire (vs. aggro)
A bit heavy on 5 drops, but they were all worth it. Slots 1, 2 and 3 seemed good, but not aggro.

My first round opponent was... a BYE! Running hot! Here's Ryan and Khaatim's match highlights instead.

Game one Khaatim got out the black promo demon with Burning Anger attached to it and Ryan drew like 7 lands in a row. Game two Khaatim got the demon out again, but Ryan answered with a Covenant of Blood. Then a Cruel Sadist came out as well as a Shadow Vamp. Ryan was hanging in there, but his Zof Shade got its flesh turned to dust and it was over. Round goes to Khaatim.

I asked George what cards he liked in the new set. Cone of Flame (of course) and the Generator Servant, because it speeds out the 5-drops.

My second round started vs. Thada, a relatively new Magic player. She was there with her boyfriend. She played a turn two Spirit Bond and made many 1/1 flyers. Then finished me with a Soul of Ravnica. Ouch. For game two, I came back with an unanswered Goblin Enforcer with an Inferno Fist on it. The 4 damage a turn was too much. In the rubber game, I got out a Child of Night with Fist and started gaining life. I should have played more aggressively, since she was able to stabilize the board. But I got out the big dragon and won just before time. Whew! Well played, Thada!

Round three, I faced Walter playing red white. Ut oh, that's an aggro deck! Remember what I said about the white promo angel? I was right... I mulliganed to 6 cards and he played two Triplicate Spirits for six 1/1 flyers. By the time I got my dragon out, I was down to 4 life. But he had the angel and I was outclassed in the air. Game two, I held the demon in my starting hand, so I just needed to get to 5 mana. He got out six spirits out again. Then when I played the demon, he used a Blastfire Bolt on it. Next turn, he played out a Siege Dragon of his own and it was over. Oof.

2-1 was my record and I needed 3 wins for prizes. Next up was Graham playing blue white. He started off fast with a Welkin Tern and Raise The Alarm for dudes. I tried to burn the bird, but he played Ephemeral Shields. I found more removal by way of Burning Anger on my Nightfire Giant. 5 damage a turn is tough! Game two, it was my turn to be aggro with drops 1-4 of little dudes and the demon on turn 5. It was over quick without much resistance. Good games, Graham!

Target prizes acquired! I had to get back home and dropped. I was happy to test out the new cards - M15 seems like a fun set. I asked Khaatim what he thought and he said that promo angel was nuts since opponents had to kill you twice with it. He said black and white had good spot removal and the format seemed slow with enough time to cast the bigger cards. We'll see how things shake out!