I got to play in a Spider-Man prerelease last night at Intergalactic Plastic. I hadn't paid close attention to spoiler season, but the Hero and Villain themes looked pretty fun as I was opening packs. (I should take a photo of all the packs as they came, but I forgot.)
I struggled to figure out what to do until I opened Doc Ock's Tentacles. I learned to draft during Onslaught Block and especially liked the mana-value-matters Scourge, so I went with that. In addition to the tentacles, I had Superior Foes of Spider-Man, Angry Rabble, Sun-Spider to fetch the equipment, and five creatures that would arrive with the tentacles. I also got Tombstone, so I ran a bunch of villains. Here's my deck at the end:
By chance I sat across from my first opponent, who I know well, while opening and deck building. They had cards for two awesome decks, each likely better than mine: a web-slinging hero deck and a villains deck. They pulled out the hero deck first. We were both stuck on three lands and they didn't get any of their two Spider-Man, Brooklyn Visionaries. Nevertheless, their web-slinging got a bunch of efficient creatures down, especially Spider-Ham and his anthem-effect. I was down 20 to 5, but with Superior Foes, got my engine going once I hit four land and I won the value race to win.
In game two, my opponent switched to his villains deck. (Seriously, how fun is that?) I got a Guy in the Chair, but it got killed right away. Then he played Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist and the countdown to an eight-card graveyard started. In the meantime, I got Sun-Spider to search up the Tentacles and got to work. With the Superior Foes, I generated all kinds of value and won again. 1-0. Note: Superior Foes was amazing in both games to the point where I misplayed a bunch with the exiled cards and still pulled it off. We played two bonus games and traded wins there.
In round two I was paired against a speedy Rakdos deck. I got Sun-Spider to search up the tentacles, but then got stuck on those four land. Meanwhile, my opponent was hitting with Scarlet Spider, Kaine and other efficient creatures. I went to six and then three life when I finally caught up and got Spider-Rex down with two other creatures. Then they cast Alien Symbiosis on their Taxi Driver. With two three-power menace creatures against my two blockers, I was dead.
In the second game, I had some early plays with a turn two Spider Manifestation and turn three Spider-Woman, who started flying in for damage. On turn 6, I got out Spider-Rex, but it was killed by Venom's Hunger. I was stuck without black mana and with four black cards in my hand. A Scorpion's Sting then finished off Spider-Woman and the board stalled out with me up 15 to 8. I drew into a Swamp to break the stall and won out.
In game three, my opponent got a turn two Merciless Enforcers, a great little card. Thankfully, I got early Tentacles and a mana dork to drop Venom, Evil Unleashed on turn four. An 8/9 deathtoucher is pretty sweet and I won three turns later. 2-0.
In the third round I faced a mostly-black (I think) Dimir deck. I hadn't seen Merciless Enforcers before the prior game, but then it showed up right away in game 1 here. My Superior Foes didn't stick on the board as my opponent saw the danger immediately. I cleaned up the other threats on the board, but the Enforcers got three +1/+1 counters and marched their way to victory.
In game two I thought I was going to hold on a bit better, but those same Enforcers got a +1/+1 counter and took me down to six. I managed to take it out as well as another Doc Ock, Sinister Scientist. Unfortunately, this was followed up by three big creatures: Superior Spider-Man, who cloned the Doc Ock; Venom, Evil Unleashed; and finally Spider-Man Noir. 2-1.
This was a fun event, made more fun by the Spider-Man theme and the atmosphere. Nevertheless, I enjoy drafts more and I'm looking forward to getting in on one of those next week.
Happy Spider-Magicking!
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