Toga!

Friday at 11 PM Gnome Games threw a toga party preceding the midnight prerelease of the new Greek themed set of Magic cards: Theros.  It was fun.  Lots of folks actually showed up in togas (including me).  One was even there in a Chewbacca costume, wearing a toga.  There was root beer, popcorn, non-alcoholic jello shots.  But the main event was the seeded sealed deck tournament.  "Seeded" in that we each got a pack of a certain color theme.  It came with 5 normal Theros booster packs and a sixth card that was all cards of the given color or that played well with that color.  Each pack also came with a collectible pre-release card of the given color which we were allowed to use in our deck if we wished.

 I got blue.

 Here's my card pool.

 Blue
 1cc
 Triton Shorethief
 2cc
 Omenspeaker
 3cc
 Triton Hunter
 Wavecrash Triton
 5cc
 Mnemonic Wall
 6cc
 Shipbreaker Kraken (my bonus collectible card)
 removal/other
 Annul x2
 Aqueous Form
 Curse of the Swine
 Lost in a Labyrinth
 Thassa's Bounty
 Voyages End x2

 Blue/Red
 3cc
 Spellheart Chimera
 removal/other
 Steam Augury

 Red
 2cc
 Arena Athlete
 3cc
 Flamespeaker Adept
 Minotaur Skullcleaver
 4cc
 Borderland Minotaur
 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
 Purphoros's Emissary
 5cc
 Stoneshock Giant
 Wild Celebrants x2
 removal/other
 Anger of the Gods
 Boulderfall
 Dragon Mantle
 Order of Purphoros
 Rage of Purphoros
 Titan's Strength x3

 Red/Green
 Destructive Revelry

Blue/Green
 4cc
 Horizon Chimera x2

 Green
 1cc
 Sedge Scorpion
 2cc
 Leafcrown Dryad x2
 Voyaging Satyr x2
 4cc
 Karametra's Acolyte
 Staunch-Hearted Warrior
 5cc
 Nessian Asp
 Pheres Band Centaurs x2
 removal/other
 Artisan's Sorrow x2
 Commune with the Gods
 Shredding Winds
 Nylea's Presence x2
 Warrior's Lesson

 White
 1cc
 Yoked Ox x2
 2cc
 Phalanx Leader
 Setessan Battle Priest
 Travelling Philosopher
 3cc
 Lagona Band Elder
 Observant Alseid
 5cc
 Celestial Archon
 Setessan Griffin
 Silent Artisan
 removal/other
 Battlewise Valor
 Chosen by Heliod x3
 Glare of Heresy
 Vanquish the Foul

 Blue/Black
 2cc
 Shipwreck Singer

 Black
 2cc
 Returned Phalanx x2
 3cc
 Agent of the Fates
 Blood Toll Harpy
 Fellhide Minotaur
 4cc
 Disciple of Phenax
 removal/other
 Lash of the Whip
 Pharika's Cure x2
 Viper's Kiss

Oh man!  Look at that set of red removal!  And such good U/R gold cards, too!  Plus the Kraken and the Curse of the Swine.  Building a blue/red deck seemed like a good idea.  I liked the Phalanx Leader and Celestial Archon in White and the Agent of Fates in Black, but neither of those colors really had enough depth otherwise to play.

 Although once I put my deck together, I realized I was really using blue pretty sparsely.  You could probably make a case for playing some other color instead.  Maybe.  The Kraken, Curse and Augury were all really strong.  Maybe it's possible to play green and use the two Nylea's Presence as mana fixing to play all the best cards?  I couldn't figure out a build I liked better than my blue/red deck, but maybe someone smarter than me could.

 Here's what I played:

Land
 10 Mountains
 8 Islands
 2cc
 Arena Athlete
 Omenspeaker
 3cc
 Flamespeaker Adept
 Minotaur Skullcleaver
 Triton Fortune Hunter
 Spellheart Chimera
 4cc
 Borderland Minotaur
 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
 Purphoros's Emissary
 Thassa's Emissary
 5cc
 Stoneshock Giant
 Wild Celebrants x2
 6cc
 Shipbreaker Kraken
 Removal/Other
 Anger of the Gods
 Boulderfall
 Rage of Purphoros
 Titan's Strength x3
 Curse of the Swine
 Steam Augury

The only really insane card in there is the Kraken.  But there are so many that are just plain solid.  Better than average mana to power ratios in at least half the creatures. 3 of the removal (plus the Kraken) take out multiple targets.  5 cards with scry.  4 that let me draw (potentially) several cards.  I didn't feel like my deck was spectacular, but it was undoubtedly solid.

 Notable moments in my games.

 Round 1, game 2.
 Both games this round were intense.  Close.  Like I was at 5 or less life when I won.  In the second game we were both at 5 life.  I had a Monstrous Cyclops and a Fortune Hunter enchanted with Thassa's Emmissary in play against his two, smaller blockers.  In my hand was the Arena Athlete and Curse of Swine.  I played the Athlete, turned him into a pig and by his Heroic ability one of my opponenets blockers couldn't block.

 I probably would have won that game anyway.  I mean, he needed a couple turns worth of good top decks to swing that around.  But it was kind of a cool play, and ensured he never got the chance to make those lucky draws.


 Round 2, game 1.
  I got crushed.  My opponent enchanted his Blood Toll Harpy with an Ordeal of Erebos, then played a Disciple of Phenax, then another Disciple!  I mean, he shredded my hand.  We traded a few hits, I got him to under 10 health, so I figured it was safe for me to go down to 8.  Then he played Gray Merchant of Asphodel with Devotion = 8.

 Fortunately, I was able to play around his hand shredding in the next couple games.  Kept enough of his creatures dead to keep his devotion to black low. I won both games 2 & 3.


 Round 3, game 1.
 I was on the ropes at around 8 life.  My opponent had out a Celestial Archon (creature), Wingsteed Rider (with 2 counters, maybe?) and Akroan Crusader (and a soldier token!).  I had a few creatures in play, but all 3/3, 2/2 or 2/1, and he was at, like, 15 life.

 Then I drew Curse of the Swine.  Turned his flying beasts and his hero into pigs.  He didn't draw anything that helped, while I drew a few blockers to defend against any potential counterattacks, turned my Cyclops into a monstrous 6/6 trampler and sent it wading in through the herd.


 Round 3, game 2.
  This game stayed pretty static for several turns.  I mean, we both played out creatures, but nothing with evasion, nothing big enough to break through blockers effectively.  Mostly, they just traded or got burned away.  I thought I had the edge when I played the Kraken, but he followed it up with a Spear of Heliod.  Or the "Kraken Killer" as he called it.  "Only problem with the Spear is I have to let you hit me once, and I suspect that will hurt."

 So I just prayed to draw a Celebrant before he got fliers into play ... until I discovered the other problem with the Spear.  You need two open white mana to use it.  With 3 Plains in play, he tapped two of them to play his Celestial Archon.  I played my 10th land, turned the Kraken monstrous, tapping all four of his creatures, and swung for 10 with the Kraken and about 5 or 6 with other miscellaneous critters.

 He didn't draw anything good enough to come back from that on his next turn.


 Round 4, game 1.
 Turn 2, Hero.  Turn 3, swing for two, Triton Fortune Hunter.  Turn 4, Swing for four (oppo: 14 health), Borderland Minotaur.  Turn 5, Skullcleaver, swing for 12.  My opponent had an x/2 creature in play that he could have chumped with and gone to six health instead of two, but for some reason chose to not block.  Like hoping for land to play a sweeper of some sort?  I mean, he considered blocking and intentionally decided against it.  So I played the Titan's Strength in my hand for the last points of damage and won on turn 5.

 Round 5, game 1.
 My opponent offered to draw. Since we were both at 4-0, it would mean 8 packs of cards each. Otherwise, winner gets 10, loser 6.  I figured either way, it's just a two pack difference. And I came to play, right?  Winning cards is just a gravy.

 Gah.  Opening hand had no land.  Mulliganed to six, 3 Islands plus red cards.  I keep and my next 3 draws were islands.  In fact 4 of my first 5 cards were islands.  Maybe the Magic gods were telling me I should have drawn.  I lost game two as well.  Not in as dramatic a fashion, but simply because my opponent had a good deck and played it well.

 I like how the Bestow mechanic plays with Heroic.  I like Monstrous. Every time I turned a creature monstrous, it was game changing.

 Steam Augury is amazing.  I remember when Fact or Fiction was a current card and tourney reports started using the phrase, "EOT FOF I win."  It nabs you 1 or 2 really good cards and 1 or 2 land... and with mechanics like Monstrous & Bestow, land is frequently the good card you want.  Add a Spellheart Chimera to it and throwing instants/sorceries into the graveyard is just a bonus.

 Boulderfall is expensive.  I wouldn't play more than one.  However, in most of my matches I hit 8 mana and when I did, 5 damage split among multiple creatures cleared things away nicely.  Seems to indicate that Theros limited play might be slow.  On the other hand, there was the one game I won on turn 5.  Maybe play is mostly going to be slow, but that will open a window to draft something that takes advantage of being able to kill opponents before they can ever activate any monstrous abilities.  I hope I get chances to draft and find out.