I went to the Final Fantasy prerelease last night. Intergalactic Plastic sold out (both yesterday and tomorrow); there were over thirty players there! I went searching for my old white-mage Halloween costume and found it just in time.
Before going, I took the time to look up good Common and Uncommon cards for mana fixing. I felt pretty dedicated to running five colors. I immediately noticed that Cloudbound Moogle, Ice Flan, Malboro, Hill Gigas, and Balamb T-Rexaur were the basic landcyclers. I also figured these would be good:
- Undercity Dire Rat
- Prompto Argentum
- Sandworm
- Vaan Street Thief
- Prishe's Wanderings
- Reach the Horizon
- Torgal, a Fine Hound
- Town Greeter
- Gladiolus Amicitia
- Ignis Scientia
- Zidane, Tantalus Thief
- Blitzball
- Magic Pot
- World Map
I got some of these and although I decided not to run them, it was helpful to have already looked them up so I recognized them pretty quickly when flipping through packs. (Unfortunately, I was unaware of the Final Fantasy: Through the Ages bonus sheet, so I didn't know about cards like Farseek being in there.) I will definitely do this again, especially before a sealed event.
Here are the cards I opened:
I put together a removal + good stuff deck, but I'm not sure that was the best choice. I had lots of equipment, so maybe doing that would have been better. I'm sure you can design a better deck! Here's what I put together:
All three of my opponents turned out to be mostly Commander players who wanted to do the prerelease specifically for the Final Fantasy cards! Very cool!
In the first round I was up against someone with an an Orzhov weenie deck with Ninja's Blades that I dedicated a lot to playing around. I got Fynn out on turn two, and managed to get my opponent up to 6 poison counters. I was missing Black mana sources until I drew Midgar on turn 7 or 8, but it was too late. In game two, I got turn four WUBRG, but their The Final Days put too many horrors on the field.
I lost on their next turn. Even Chaos couldn't save me. 0-1.
In the second round, I was matched with a Gruul Landfall deck complete with Chocobo Racetrack and Sabotender (and Tifa, though I didn't see her). In the first game I got a turn three Ahriman and Fynn the following turn, driving my opponent to six poison again before they removed Fynn. I also got WUBRG land on turn five. I idiotically missed a chance to win on poison and then the game dragged out as we continued to mana flood. I drew into more non-land and won. In the second game, I killed the Chocobo Racetrack with Fate of the Sun-Cryst (I think I did that in game one also) but two Sabotenders wound up killing me.
I died right as time was called. 0-1-1.
For the third round I played against an aggressive Naya deck. In the first game I had turn five WUBRG. And I handed out six poison counters with an early Fynn. Their Samurai's Katana was trouble, but then I got enough down to take over the board. My opponent cleaned it up with Ultima, but I still had the Balamb T-Rexaur in my hand and won with that. In game two, I got Garland out, stalled until I could play Chaos, but that was met with Ultima again. I had plenty of mana, however, and played my biggest bomb, Absolute Virtue. I felt great, but that immediately got locked down with Ring of the Lucii.
I was being chill, looting with Qiqirn Merchant. Then they played the memeful Jumbo Cactuar. Instant-speed removal during an attack could catch me off guard, so I used the Merchant's ultimate ability (I only paid 3) and drew into Locke Cole and a Suplex. I blocked the Cactuar, killed the Ring, and attacked two turns for the win. 1-1-1.
What a fun event! I loved it! I'm not really in love with sealed (except for sealed 2HG; I love that). Playing with Final Fantasy cards is great, though. I wish I had signed up for Sunday too. If you have any advice about WUBRG sealed, please send it to me.
Happy Magicking!
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