I was on the fence about playing in the pre-release this time.  My nerd closet is busting out, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed with my stuff.  But after previewing the goodness of the Egypt themed Amonkhet, I couldn’t hardly wait to play.  So here is a review of my experience!

At midnight on April 22, the Tangled Web in Spartanburg SC had more players in it than I’ve ever seen there.  Maybe.  (Perhaps Theros had more?)    They totally hit capacity.  Pulled out every table and chair.  One guy voluntarily sat in the floor to build.  (He just wanted to.)

As usual, everyone was given a box.  Here is my box right after opening.

This is one of the prettiest pre-release boxes I’ve seen.  And it has a neat construction as well.  Here’s what you get.  A nifty “Cartouche” box.  Six boosters.  A “The Trial of the Five Gods” card.  A stamped oil rare or mythic.  (mine is Throne of the God-Pharoh.),  And a deck builders guide.

To save data, I am only showing you my rares, and a picture of my picks.  (The SpartanNerd Blog, like my nerd closet, is maxed out with stuff.)

I crafted an incredible deck with the six packs of Amonkhet.  It has lots of flyers and just enough removal.   The god card is also very good, being indestructible, big and flying, and gaining you card advantage.

I have some small zombies that count as great early game removal.  And one of them, a rare,  has his own recurrence.  I have cards that return creatures from graveyard to hand, with Gravedigger being a classic. This is great for cycling or keeping annoying creatures out.  I pulled a big mythic angel but thought it not worth splashing for.  Throne of the God-Pharoah plus the curse is like insurmountable drain in this format. Bone Picker.  A black delver style card is also very good too.  

You’ll notice I only have one Throne…It is a legendary artifact.  So I opted to only keep the one…probably the best move.  No one played artifact removal against me all night!

I won the dice roll every time, but like drawing more than playing first.  (I have a history of doing this in sealed.  It’s a good policy in the slower format.)

I took an early win.  2-1.  My loss was because of the poor choice to keep a hand without early creatures.  I think it unwise to count on playing control without any board state.  I didn’t see any -1/-1 counter abilities against my creatures for removal.  This guy played three colors.  Unwisely.   He had some big manticores.  But i was able to remove them.  

Round 2 against J.D.   a person I’ve rarely beaten.  He played green red.   I lost game 1,  A grind-y match,  where i drew a land when i only had one life, and needed removal.   Game 2 though…he played a red card that is 4/2, with a requirement that he discard a card, and got to tank an embalm creature.  Sick!   So he won that too.  I had the god in hand.  But couldn’t see the way of turning him on.  I felt good about my hand too.  But it just wasn’t good enough against what he had.  Sadness!

Game 3.  Creature stall for a long time.  My opponent cloned kefnet.   He almost decked himself as I held him off forever.  Then with two life remaining, he cycle-shocked me.   He took away game 2.   And i dropped

It was great fun!   I left for home at 4:15 AM.

WILL I PLAY TOMORROW?  (I did.  My deck was white-blue, featuring the white god Oketra.  Either I or my deck performed better.  But it was a slow deck that took awhile to get everything working.)