Partial liveblogging from the magic 2012 prere at the Game Haven in Dayton/Riverside, OH. I opened absolute nuts:
Red: 3 shock, one fireball, fling. Black: doomblade, 3 gravedigger, grave titan, royal assassin. Decided to go RWB, despite some solid blue and green. (Two rampant growths, but too much hotness in RB to justify 5 color.)
Round one I played against Alyssa running UW control. She got Jace's erasure all 3 games, combined with Mind Unbound to deck me game 2. Otherwise I was happy to have targets for gravedigger. Turn 5 Serra angel in games 1 and 2 helped and grave titan won game 3. In that last game, she tried to mind control the grave titan. I responded with fling; she came back with negate. Luckily sacing is part of the cost; I brought the titan back later with gravedigger to win. We finished all three games with me at 20. Matches: 1-0; games 2-1.
Round two I was paired against K.P., running RW. Apparently we were both control somehow; we went nearly to time in 2 games. Arbalest elite was ridiculous in game 1, 3-for-oneing or something ridiculous. K.P. had to divine favor his roc egg at one point and I was forced to play around Circle of Flame. I did win, with lots of life thanks to alabaster mage. Game two was a bit more one-sided. Gideon's lawkeeper + royal assassin netted me a bunch of creatures and I won without being touched. Again I had to play around circle of flame, but grave titan doesn't mind. Matches: 2-0; games 4-1.
Round three I faced red-blue Zack who had to deal with some tough hands. Game 1 he drew 13 lands. My Stormfront pegasus swang for 16 before serra angel saw the board. I lost game 2, again at 20, when Jace milled me twice for 10 each. The third game he scooped when I got the titan out; his deck had only given him islands. Matches 3-0; games 6-2.
This is where the mediocre part starts. Next up was Scott, running a green-white deck with lots of confidence. Scott played with a friendly, but professional demeanor, and outplayed me game one to win. Also, skinshifter is good... and fast. Game two was a long, drawn out affair, where triple gravediggers helped hold off a solid field. I played serra; he pacified. He played serra; I took damage. I played well, extending the game ~20 minutes longer than he may have expected, but lost in the end. Oh well. Matches 3-1; games 6-4.
I was determined to take this card pool to 4-1. No way would I lose again. I sat down against a red-black deck piloted by Bryan for the fifth and final round. His deck was fast. Game one I couldn't keep up with a bunch of little vampires and zombies. Royal assassin kept him from attacking for many turns, but I didn't draw a plains and my hand filled up white. Game two was much more exciting. He took an early lead, but I hit 5 mana and got serra angel out supported by 2 gravediggers in hand. He used consume spirit a few times to hand my guys and kept poking with a goblinish tim (only targetting players... what is this card called?) while swinging aggressively until I hit 3 life. I then had to shock that dang goblin. Then the titan hit the board and I cleaved him down to 6 and decimated his board. "I've got three cards I can draw to win," he said, untapping. He topped incinerate. Game. Matches 3-2; games 6-6.
Very fun! It's also always good to see Aaron and play with him :) Too bad we were never matched up!
