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Coldsnap Prerelease - July 8, 2006 - Portland, OR
As usual for a summer prerelease, the Coldsnap event didn't attract the crowds of a rainy-day event in the fall or winter. Still, when I got there at about 8:45 one flight of 64 had already begun and the second flight was filling up fast. I didn't even have time to play any Legacy or Vintage before getting my give Coldsnap boosters.
The cardpool I opened was interesting but not overwhelming. I did get an Allosaurus Rider but nothing else I remember so I was happy to pass those cards over. The pool I got was good but confusing. There were a lot of good cards and two bombs, but in totally different colors. I got an Adarkar Valkyrie and some other good white flyers but they all had WW in their casting cost. I saw a potential blue and white deck but that would have absolutely no removal. The other possible direction was RBG with one Snow-Covered Island to get Garza Zol, Plague Queen into play. She's a 5/5 flying hasted legendary Vampire that gets bigger if she kills a creature. Oh, and you draw a card if she does combat damage to a player. Between her and the black and red removal I decided to go with that build. So I wound up with:
1 Arctic Nishoba
1 Boreal Druid
1 Chill to the Bone
2 Deathmark
5 Forest
1 Freyalise's Radiance
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
2 Goblin Furrier (there's lots of Grizzly Bears in this set)
1 Grim Harvest
2 Gutless Ghoul
1 Into the North
2 Krovikan Scoundrel
1 Lightning Storm
5 Mountain
1 Ohran Yeti
1 Orcish Bloodpainter
1 Ronom Hulk
1 Sheltering Ancient
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Stalking Yeti
1 Surging Flame
5 Swamp
1 Thermopod
1 Zombie Musher
Seems like a pretty good list, I think, but it quickly became apparent how valuable the Ravnica-block color fixers are.
Round 1 - Keyden Hammer - WG
OK, I hate losing in the first round but I don't really feel that I need to be paired against an eight year old either. Yes, I got paired against an eight year old girl with her Dad playing next to her. She had to ask him what a couple of the cards did---clearly he helped her build her deck. She actually did pretty well. She understood how the cards worked but she didn't understand when to attack and when to stop attacking. Game one I had to mulligan but still won easily. The Stalking Yeti killed her only creature and she was stuck on one Plains with WW creatures in her hand. Game two was closer but she played the 1/8 wall with a cumulative upkeep of me gaining a life. She actually worked that pretty well and stopped paying the upkeep probably close to when I would have, but my creatures still did the trick.
Not really much of a test. I wasn't sure after this round if it was my deck or my opponent which led to the 1-0 start.
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0
Round 2 - Orie Waggoner - BR
And the color screw parade begins. I had all forests and mountains and five, yes five black cards in my hand when the game was over. And it was over quickly. I started the next game with a mulligan and then two swamps with some black cards on the play. Given this slow format I figured I could draw into at least one of my other colors. Nope. I finished game two with four swamps in play and a hand full of green cards. Ugh. Neither of these games were even close --- I only did two damage each game. And of course the decision to main deck Deathmark came back to haunt me quickly. I boarded those out for some more creatures.
Games: 2-2
Matches: 1-1
Round 3 - Jason Powell - RBg
Jason's a good guy and another Rainy Day Gamer. He had Lovisa Coldeyes plus eight warriors/berserkers/barbarians to boost and he also had Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper and Gutless Ghoul, which results in him gaining life and putting creatures with haste into play. I didn't have to deal with either in game one but I did get my third color screw in a row as I got stuck with a nearly mono-green deck. Game two I mulliganed (again---you'd think 17 land would be enough) and the game was actually fairly close until he got that combo into play.
Games: 2-4
Matches: 1-2
As we played I told Jason that if I lost I was going to remake my deck into UW. I never even drew Garza Zol much less played her so I figured she was too shy to come out to play today. Also, I had little to lose since the best I could hope for was 2-2 and one pack (woo hoo!). So that's what I did. I actually went UWg to use the Into the North's. I wound up with this deck list for version 2. It had better creatures but almost no removal at all.
1 Arctic Nishoba
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Boreal Druid
1 Boreal Griffin
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Drelnoch
5 Forest
1 Frozen Solid
3 Into the North
2 Island
1 Jotun Owl Keeper
1 Kjeldoran Javelineer
1 Krovikan Whispers
1 Phyrexian Ironfoot
5 Plains
1 Rimehorn Aurochs (I was reduced to playing Aurochs, for pity's sake!)
2 Ronom Hulk
1 Ronom Serpent
1 Sheltering Ancient
1 Simian Brawler
1 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Squall Drifter
1 Surging Aether
1 White Shield Crusader
1 Woolly Razorback
Round 4 - Sam Skinner - WBg
Sam also had the Valkyrie, and he had a nice combo to go with it: Disciple of Tevesh Szat. Game one was fairly even until he got that little dance number into play and then he was able to kill a creature of mine a turn. I would have killed him pretty early if he hadn't recovered Sun's Bounty oh, I don't know, about 1,000 times. Or at least it seemed like it. Once that Tevesh Szat combo hit I scooped.
Game two was pretty quick - I got the Nishoba and a Ronom Hulk out quickly thanks to Into the North and the Druid and they went the distance. Game three was closer and I made a couple of misplays with the Javelineer that cost me a couple of creatures. I was getting tired and I was running on no coffee. But eventually I pulled my head out of my you know where and pushed my big critters through for the win. A hard won one pack!
Games: 4-5
Matches: 2-2
I also did a draft afterward, which was fun but very weird because it was tough to know how highly to value the snow-related spells and creatures. I went BU and got tons of removal, but then got paired up against Alex Shvartsman (or something like that), a very good limited player who had almost the same deck. Game one took forever but he finally won after recovering Grim Harvest oh, I don't know, about 1,000 times. I'm pretty sure it should have been removed from the game at one point but I only realized that after the match was over. Game two was more Tevesh Szat and Zombie Musher battles (we both had multiples of those cards) but he was able to race faster than I was.
Coldsnap is going to be fun to draft. I made the mistake of not getting my snow-covered land early enough. I figured I'd pick it up in pack three but there wasn't much left when I went for it. I had a number of snow creatures which weren't as effective as they could have been if I'd gotten a couple more snow-covered lands. Alex's deck was full of them and it made the difference. Another important lesson which I learned in the sealed deck: stick to two colors. The days of Ravnica-type color and mana fixing are over with Coldsnap.
The cardpool I opened was interesting but not overwhelming. I did get an Allosaurus Rider but nothing else I remember so I was happy to pass those cards over. The pool I got was good but confusing. There were a lot of good cards and two bombs, but in totally different colors. I got an Adarkar Valkyrie and some other good white flyers but they all had WW in their casting cost. I saw a potential blue and white deck but that would have absolutely no removal. The other possible direction was RBG with one Snow-Covered Island to get Garza Zol, Plague Queen into play. She's a 5/5 flying hasted legendary Vampire that gets bigger if she kills a creature. Oh, and you draw a card if she does combat damage to a player. Between her and the black and red removal I decided to go with that build. So I wound up with:
1 Arctic Nishoba
1 Boreal Druid
1 Chill to the Bone
2 Deathmark
5 Forest
1 Freyalise's Radiance
1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen
2 Goblin Furrier (there's lots of Grizzly Bears in this set)
1 Grim Harvest
2 Gutless Ghoul
1 Into the North
2 Krovikan Scoundrel
1 Lightning Storm
5 Mountain
1 Ohran Yeti
1 Orcish Bloodpainter
1 Ronom Hulk
1 Sheltering Ancient
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Stalking Yeti
1 Surging Flame
5 Swamp
1 Thermopod
1 Zombie Musher
Seems like a pretty good list, I think, but it quickly became apparent how valuable the Ravnica-block color fixers are.
Round 1 - Keyden Hammer - WG
OK, I hate losing in the first round but I don't really feel that I need to be paired against an eight year old either. Yes, I got paired against an eight year old girl with her Dad playing next to her. She had to ask him what a couple of the cards did---clearly he helped her build her deck. She actually did pretty well. She understood how the cards worked but she didn't understand when to attack and when to stop attacking. Game one I had to mulligan but still won easily. The Stalking Yeti killed her only creature and she was stuck on one Plains with WW creatures in her hand. Game two was closer but she played the 1/8 wall with a cumulative upkeep of me gaining a life. She actually worked that pretty well and stopped paying the upkeep probably close to when I would have, but my creatures still did the trick.
Not really much of a test. I wasn't sure after this round if it was my deck or my opponent which led to the 1-0 start.
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0
Round 2 - Orie Waggoner - BR
And the color screw parade begins. I had all forests and mountains and five, yes five black cards in my hand when the game was over. And it was over quickly. I started the next game with a mulligan and then two swamps with some black cards on the play. Given this slow format I figured I could draw into at least one of my other colors. Nope. I finished game two with four swamps in play and a hand full of green cards. Ugh. Neither of these games were even close --- I only did two damage each game. And of course the decision to main deck Deathmark came back to haunt me quickly. I boarded those out for some more creatures.
Games: 2-2
Matches: 1-1
Round 3 - Jason Powell - RBg
Jason's a good guy and another Rainy Day Gamer. He had Lovisa Coldeyes plus eight warriors/berserkers/barbarians to boost and he also had Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper and Gutless Ghoul, which results in him gaining life and putting creatures with haste into play. I didn't have to deal with either in game one but I did get my third color screw in a row as I got stuck with a nearly mono-green deck. Game two I mulliganed (again---you'd think 17 land would be enough) and the game was actually fairly close until he got that combo into play.
Games: 2-4
Matches: 1-2
As we played I told Jason that if I lost I was going to remake my deck into UW. I never even drew Garza Zol much less played her so I figured she was too shy to come out to play today. Also, I had little to lose since the best I could hope for was 2-2 and one pack (woo hoo!). So that's what I did. I actually went UWg to use the Into the North's. I wound up with this deck list for version 2. It had better creatures but almost no removal at all.
1 Arctic Nishoba
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
1 Boreal Druid
1 Boreal Griffin
1 Boreal Shelf
1 Drelnoch
5 Forest
1 Frozen Solid
3 Into the North
2 Island
1 Jotun Owl Keeper
1 Kjeldoran Javelineer
1 Krovikan Whispers
1 Phyrexian Ironfoot
5 Plains
1 Rimehorn Aurochs (I was reduced to playing Aurochs, for pity's sake!)
2 Ronom Hulk
1 Ronom Serpent
1 Sheltering Ancient
1 Simian Brawler
1 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
1 Squall Drifter
1 Surging Aether
1 White Shield Crusader
1 Woolly Razorback
Round 4 - Sam Skinner - WBg
Sam also had the Valkyrie, and he had a nice combo to go with it: Disciple of Tevesh Szat. Game one was fairly even until he got that little dance number into play and then he was able to kill a creature of mine a turn. I would have killed him pretty early if he hadn't recovered Sun's Bounty oh, I don't know, about 1,000 times. Or at least it seemed like it. Once that Tevesh Szat combo hit I scooped.
Game two was pretty quick - I got the Nishoba and a Ronom Hulk out quickly thanks to Into the North and the Druid and they went the distance. Game three was closer and I made a couple of misplays with the Javelineer that cost me a couple of creatures. I was getting tired and I was running on no coffee. But eventually I pulled my head out of my you know where and pushed my big critters through for the win. A hard won one pack!
Games: 4-5
Matches: 2-2
I also did a draft afterward, which was fun but very weird because it was tough to know how highly to value the snow-related spells and creatures. I went BU and got tons of removal, but then got paired up against Alex Shvartsman (or something like that), a very good limited player who had almost the same deck. Game one took forever but he finally won after recovering Grim Harvest oh, I don't know, about 1,000 times. I'm pretty sure it should have been removed from the game at one point but I only realized that after the match was over. Game two was more Tevesh Szat and Zombie Musher battles (we both had multiples of those cards) but he was able to race faster than I was.
Coldsnap is going to be fun to draft. I made the mistake of not getting my snow-covered land early enough. I figured I'd pick it up in pack three but there wasn't much left when I went for it. I had a number of snow creatures which weren't as effective as they could have been if I'd gotten a couple more snow-covered lands. Alex's deck was full of them and it made the difference. Another important lesson which I learned in the sealed deck: stick to two colors. The days of Ravnica-type color and mana fixing are over with Coldsnap.
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