((As always, if you’re not familiar with the current set the best way to read this post is with The Autocard Anywhere Extention or with a separate tab open to an index of the Shadows over Innistrad cards. I will add pictures of some cards, but using an outside reference can help with the other cards. – Andrew))

Wow, is this set fun.

Friday night I attended a midnight PreRelease for Shadows over Innistrad and it was the most fun I’ve had at a Magic event. Over 180 people played in the event at Pandemonium Games & Hobbies in Garden City, MI, and the judges and event staff ran an incredibly smooth event for one so large. After a quick players meeting where the Head Judge gave an overview of the set’s mechanics, we received our packs and deckbuilding began.

I was happily greeted by a Promo copy of Thing in the Ice, one of the cards I’ve been itching to brew with for Standard or Modern play. Opening my packs, I found that my Green selection was very strong. I opened Tireless Tracker, two Byway Couriers and two copies of Confront the Unknown, which led to me investigating my White and Blue pools for any synergy. In addition to the green investigators, my pool contained a Silverfur Partisan, who is great at replacing himself, A Duskwatch Recruiter and Hermit of the Natterknolls, two efficient creatures who are great once transformed, and a Gloomwidow, which passes the vanilla test with only flying colors. I also had two copies of Rabid Bite, a much more efficient removal/fight spell than green is used to getting.

My White and Black were incredibly shallow, my blue pool contained a few cards that would have matched up well with my green cards. Unfortunately, they didn’t suit the kind of game plan that my green pool was drawing me toward. Fleeting Memories and Drownyard Explorers would have worked with an investigate-heavy plan, but there was no real payoff for doing so. Those cards also incentiveised a slower, more delirium-based strategy, which my pool didn’t have the support for either. While I had a few good cards in blue to support a decent Blue/Green Tempo deck – two copies of both Press for Answers and Compelling Deterence as well as a Stitched Mangler, Stormrider Spirit, and Daring Sleuth – I didn’t feel like that was the direction I wanted to take my deck.

Luckily, red shone through as the best pair to the green cards I opened. A pair of Reduce to Ashes were some of the better removal spells I opened, and I opened a fair number of combat tricks – two copies of Rush of Adrenaline, one Uncaged Fury, and a Spiteful Motives – which would help my creatures push extra damage through and make my creatures survive combat. These cards also paired well with my Silverfur Partisan, which is helpful in pumping out extra wolf tokens. The creatures I opened weren’t great, but they got the job done. Gibbering Fiend, Convicted Killer, and Bloodmad Vampire were good on the offensive, and Gatstaf Arsonists was the closest I came to opening a true bomb. I added Ember-Eye Wolf because it is a 2-drop that synergized with Silverfur Partisan, and a Sanguinary mage and pair of Loam Dryads rounded out the deck and helped me against the numerous x/1’s in the set, leaving me with the following.

Creatures

Loam Dryad x2

Ember-Eye Wolf

Sanguinary Mage

Gibbering Fiend

Duskwatch Recruiter

Silverfur Partisan

Tireless Tracker

Bloodmad Vampire

Gloomwidow

Byway Courier x2

Hermit of the Natterknolls

Convicted Killer

Gatstaf Arsonists Non-Creatures

Rush of Adrenaline x2

Rabid Bite x2

Uncaged Fury

Spiteful Motives

Reduce to Ashes x2 Lands

Forest x9

Mountain x8

While my deck didn’t have much in the way of big bombs, I was happy with what I was able to assemble. My pool was full of small, relatively efficient creatures and ways to pump them up for extra damage. I would have loved to be the big Red/Green Stompy deck, but the deck I constructed wanted to get in some early damage and press the advantage before stealing victories through pump spells. It was a risky strategy, but it was the best I could do with the pool I was handed.

Round 1: Roger – Red/Green

Roger and I started our evening off at Table 4, which is always a good place to start. Regardless of how your final record is, you’ve played in the Top 8 of the tournament at some point! Roger was playing a slower version of a Red/Green deck than I was, which, as he showed me later, included two copies of Flameblade Angel. Unfortunately for him, he kept a land-heavy hand in game one and was only able to cast a few spells before I curved out and beat him down with werewolves.

Because it was 1 a.m. when we started playing, I forgot to take notes during most of this match, but I remembered to keep it up for the later matches. While I don’t remember game two very well, I know that he had me on the back foot early on after he curved an Insolent Neonate into a two-drop and a Howlpack Wolf. I played a creature and was able to draw into both copies of Rabid Bite early, then broke through a stalled board with a well-timed Reduce to Ashes on a larger creature and Rush of Adrenaline to hit him for exactly lethal. I couldn’t have done it sooner, either – he had just cast Traverse the Ulvenwald to grab a Flameblade Angel, which would have really changed combat math and led to a clogged board state that he was much more likely to pull through.

Record: 2-0 (1-0)

Round 2: Jeremy – Black/Red

Game one, I played out a Loam Dryad, Gibbering Fiend, and Tireless Tracker before Jeremy played Accursed Witch, one of the more interesting new cards in the set. I traded off my fiend in combat for it, not realizing that its backside (Infectious Curse) drained me for one each turn. A clear lesson in learning to read the card before assuming I knew what it did. Luckily, I was able to use removal/combat tricks while cracking clues for counters quickly enough that the old Witch fumes didn’t matter.

In game two, I mulliganed to 6 and kept a hand of 2 Mountains, a Forest, Uncaged Fury, Rush of Adrenaline, and Silverfur Partisan. It was an okay hand that was all-in on one strategy, which is just my kind of hand. Luckily, I was able to take out a creature, deal 8 damage, and make 2 wolves on turn 4, which led to me handily taking the game. While the combo isn’t quite Temur Battle Rage + Become Immense, Silverfur Partisan went from being a Grey Ogre to an army in a can that handily swung the game in my favor.

While I think the Accursed Witch is an interesting card, I think it has a better place in a slower black deck or a janky Triskaidekaphobia-style build (whether or not you can call that deck a ‘better’ deck is a whole different can of worms). Having a 4-power creature is very well suited for drawing a game out long, as it can trade with later threats and tries to incentivize being removed instead one of your other creatures. While my boardstate was a bit too developed for the Infectious Curse to stop me, it did gain my opponent enough life to take an extra turn away from my clock. I think there’s definitely power in the card, but you have to have the deck that’s able to make it work.

Record: 2-0 (2-0)

Round 3: Andy – Grixis

If it hasn’t become apparent yet, every player I played at the PreRelease was playing Red. I think Red is the most powerful color in the format. It has access to powerful removal spells like Fiery Temper, Lightning Axe, and Reduce to Ashes, strong, efficient creatures at every mana cost, and solid rares like Sin Prodder, Flameblade Angel, and Devil’s Playground. While a draft environment can’t support every player playing red, I think red is the first place to look for evaluating a sealed pool.

While Andy was playing red, he was the only player I faced who was playing 3 colors. I kept a land-heavy opening hand and flooded out in game one. By the time I was able to land a few creatures on the battlefield, Andy had taken control of the game and filled the board with red beaters and blue fliers.

Unfortunately, it looked like Andy’s only source of mana fixing was a single copy of Warped Landscape. Game 2 he mulliganed to 5 and I was able to curve into Tireless Tracker and Silverfur Partisan. Tireless Tracker helped me keep the card advantage that his mulligans already provided me, and the counters from cracking clues made him too large for Andy to handle.

Game 3, my opponent’s manabase got the best of him again and forced him to mulligan to 6. I kept an all-Mountain hand, but a timely Forest let me curve a turn 2 Ember-Eye Wolf into a turn 3 Hermit of the Natterknolls. From there, Ember-Eye Wolf overperformed, letting me keep up mana to activate him during combat and sneaking in points of damage where I could. Eventually, I was able to pump him, cast Rush of Adrenaline and Uncaged Fury for a DIY Temur Battle Rage and take the game.

While it was Ember-Eye Wolf that won me the game, I’m still not incredibly high on the card. I think he can work in a deck like this depending on the draw, but I typically had a better course of action than activating him a few times. That being said, having Ember-Eye Wolf back as a blocker can let you use his ability to turn him into a removal spell comparable to Burn from Within. I only included Ember-Eye over another card due to it’s synergy with Silverfur Partisan, and at the end of the day I’m glad I did.

I also don’t think 3 colors are viable in this sealed format. It may be possible to add a light splash a third color in draft, but without prevalent dual lands or a card as simple and efficient as evolving wilds, having more than a splashed third color seems like it would hurt you more than help you. Warped Landscape seems like it could be too slow for the format.

Record: 2-1 (3-0)

Round 4: Chris – Red/Green

I offered a split to Chris at the beginning of our match, but he declined due to friends sticking around and wanting to play the game out. I thought that decision was fair enough – I won a Blessed vs. Cursed Deck as a door prize between rounds and felt I was already leaving as a winner.

Game one I took a pretty commanding lead with my Silverfur Partisan/DIY Temur Battle Rage combination. Afterwards, Chris proved himself to be the better RG Bomb player and dropped a turn-4 Arlinn Kord, popping out a token and flipping his planeswalker. I took a turn off to Reduce to Ashes his token and kill his Arlinn, giving him time to drop a Moldgraf Scavenger. Unfortunately for Chris, his graveyard only contained a Creature, Enchantment (Vessel of Nascency), and Planeswalker. While I wasn’t able to remove that fun guy, the 3 wolves on my side were enough to chip away at his life while he was unable to find an answer.

Game two was a much closer game. The two of us played fair Magic, building up to Chris controlling a Delirium-ed Moldgraf Scavenger and a Duskwatch Recruiter enchanted with Equestrian Skill. I controlled a Silverfur Partisan, Ember-Eye Wolf, and a Duskwatch Recruiter of my own. Eventually, he missed a creature on an activation of his Recruiter and attacked with it, allowing me to cast Rush of Adrenaline on my own, getting the extra wolf from Silverfur Partisan, and double-blocking to stop his engine. After we traded Recruiters, I was able to gain card advantage through Silverfur Partisan and run him out of threats with wolves and removal spells.

Record: 2-0 (4-0 (!!!))

Pandemonium has an inflated prize payout for their midnight PreRelease, so I walked out at 5 a.m. with 14 packs of Shadows over Innistrad and my best PreRelease record since Born of the Gods. I got very lucky during the night. I only stumbled on mana during one game of the night (not having enough red mana to cast 2 red spells in a turn), and I always had decent creatures in my hand and the removal I needed when I needed it. I think the deck I built was alright, but could have been much better with higher-quality cards in the packs I opened. This was a deck that could have easily drawn the wrong half or left me with a pump spell when what I needed was some burn, but I was lucky enough to go my four rounds without that being an issue. I feel I made a the correct call in choosing to go Red/Green over Blue/Green, and overall feel that choosing Red is the best choice in sealed with an average pool.

Unfortunately, I already packed the extra cards from my PreRelease pool in with my winnings and can’t post them to get feedback, but I will try to remember to keep the entire pool separate in the future. I know this is already longer than most papers I wrote during college (even longer if you assume that each picture is, in fact, worth 1000 words), but I hope you enjoyed this write-up. Feel free to leave me any feedback or any questions in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

– Andrew