![[Ulrich and Helva's Cards Home Page]](http://www.ulrichandhelvas.com/images/UHNewLogo.jpg)
Time Spiral Prerelease - Portland, OR - September 23, 2006
I saw the notice about the Timeshifted cards a couple of days before the prerelease on a spoiler site. I was dubious about it because the list brought back so many cards which break the color pie wide open, like Disenchant and Psionic Blast, but at the same time I thought it would be cool to see so many old favorites again.
When the guy across from me opened a Psionic Blast I knew the rumors were true.
I didn't get anything quite that good but I had playable cards in every color. I had some good blue and white but the best cards required double blue or white and I liked the removal I had in red and black. I chose to go with those two colors even though my mana curve was a bit high and I didn't have any acceleration.
I went with this build:
Creatures (19)
--------------
1 Basalt Gargoyle
1 Bogardan Hellkite (I actually cast him several times and never lost when he hit the table.)
2 Drudge Reavers
1 Flamecore Elemental
1 Fury Sliver
1 Goblin Skycutter
1 Jhoria's Timebug (to power out the Pardic Dragon, although I never got that combo)
2 Mana Skimmer (black fliers which tap down your opponent are good)
1 Nether Traitor
1 Pardic Dragon (the Dragonmaster is back!)
1 Pit Keeper (usually just a 2/1 for 1B, not as good as I thought he'd be)
1 Sangrophage
1 Subterranean Shambler (awesome in limited and could be a good board card against Glare decks)
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin (to power out those Echo creatures)
1 Urborg Syphon-Mage (this will be great in black Madness decks)
2 Vampiric Sliver
Spells (3)
---------
2 Lightning Axe (the discard cost wasn't much of a drawback, between Sangrophage which is useless late and cards which I sometimes can't cast)
1 Orcish Cannonade
Artifacts (1)
------------
1 Hivestone (Never made a difference but sure scared my opponents. I probably should have just main decked the Assembly-Worker.)
Land (17)
---------
1 Molten Slagheap
8 Mountain
8 Swamp
Sideboard (used)
-----------------
1 Assembly-Worker (brought in for the Fury Sliver against faster decks)
Round 1 - Christopher Rubio - RB (somehow, with no removal)
Chris was slow. Not dumb at all, just Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslow. If this were a more serious tournament I would have called a judge on him for stalling. It took him like ten minutes to look through his deck and shuffle up before the first game. I beat him pretty quickly with an early Sangrophage Mana Skimmers and a Vampiric Sliver. Then he took another five or ten to sideboard. I reminded him that he only had five minutes to sideboard and he wrapped it up. Then I beat him down with Nether Traitor (I think he did eight damage by himself) and then some four casting cost creatures.
Rounds: 1-0
Games: 2-0
Round 2 - Frank Diaz - RBU
There was a ton of red/black running around. There is a lot of good black removal in this set and the red Echo creatures are quite good in sealed so expect to fight over red and black in Time Spiral drafts.
I got another quick start in game one and Frank never did any damage to me. He laid down a Molten Slagheap on turn one and tried to tap it to put a counter on it. Sorry, no can do. I'm pretty sure he just made a mistake rather than trying to cheat. Then he put down another Slagheap. Then land. Then more mountains and swamps. Then an Urza's Factory, which he actually used to generate a 2/2 for 7. Unfortunately for Frank that was the only creature he cast. Meanwhile I had the Flamecore Elemental on turn four and he went to town, doing 15 damage in three turns until Frank generated the 2/2 for one chump block.
In game two it became apparent what had happened when he led with an Island. He played creatures pretty quickly this time and the game was very close. Then I top decked Bogardan Hellkite with him at four.
Rounds: 2-0
Games: 4-0
Round 3 - William (Shawn) Walter - RGW
I kept a two swamp hand with a mix of red and black cards, but I had the Nether Traitor and I figured I'd draw into a Mountain. Fortunately I drew one on the first turn. I played creatures, he played creatures, eventually I beat down. Sorry, but for some reason a lot of these games tended to blend together with all the red critters running about.
Game two turned into a huge, classic Sealed-style creature stalemate. He had some white flyers but I had the Basalt Gargoyle and tons of sources of red. In fact, went went through a lot of "draw go" turns where one of us drew a land, played it, and said go. I had 14 of 17 land in play at the end of the game and at one point I had ten counters on the Slagheap.
Shawn had beaten me down to ten with his white shadow guy when I top decked the Hellkite. I attacked with my Gargoyle, figuring he'd probably let it through but hoping he'd block with one of his flyers (he had a Plated Pegasus and a Serra Avenger). He blocked with the Pegasus. Then on his turn he attacked with Avenger. I Flashed the Hellkite into play, killed the Avenger, and sealed the game.
Rounds: 3-0
Games: 6-0
Round 4 - Tyson Gilbert - RW
Tyson is the guy who sat across from me and opened the Psionic Blast. He also opened (and played!) Orgg. But he beat me with good old fashioned mana screw on my part in both games. I played a Thick-Skinned Goblin and Tyson took great glee in killing with Tivadar (thank goodness they didn't bring his Crusade back). I continued to not play land (my only source of black was the Slagheap) and he continued to play creatures. I fought him off as long as I could but he ended the game at 24 life and I never attacked.
Game two was a replay. I got to four land by turn six or seven but was only able to cast one creature a turn while Tyson already had three in play. He just swarmed me with little guys.
Rounds: 3-1
Games: 6-2
Round 5 - Eric Faulk - RB
Eric and I decided before the match started to take the intentional draw so we'd both get six packs. The other choice was to play it out which would have left the winner with 12 packs but the loser with none. I didn't want to start the day 3-0 and walk away with nothing.
As it turned out I made the right choice because the mana gods had definitely abandoned me. I got mana screwed again and it wasn't much of a challenge for Eric. Game two was more competitive but I was still short on mana.
Rounds: 3-1-1 (really 3-2)
Games: 6-4
When the guy across from me opened a Psionic Blast I knew the rumors were true.
I didn't get anything quite that good but I had playable cards in every color. I had some good blue and white but the best cards required double blue or white and I liked the removal I had in red and black. I chose to go with those two colors even though my mana curve was a bit high and I didn't have any acceleration.
I went with this build:
Creatures (19)
--------------
1 Basalt Gargoyle
1 Bogardan Hellkite (I actually cast him several times and never lost when he hit the table.)
2 Drudge Reavers
1 Flamecore Elemental
1 Fury Sliver
1 Goblin Skycutter
1 Jhoria's Timebug (to power out the Pardic Dragon, although I never got that combo)
2 Mana Skimmer (black fliers which tap down your opponent are good)
1 Nether Traitor
1 Pardic Dragon (the Dragonmaster is back!)
1 Pit Keeper (usually just a 2/1 for 1B, not as good as I thought he'd be)
1 Sangrophage
1 Subterranean Shambler (awesome in limited and could be a good board card against Glare decks)
1 Thick-Skinned Goblin (to power out those Echo creatures)
1 Urborg Syphon-Mage (this will be great in black Madness decks)
2 Vampiric Sliver
Spells (3)
---------
2 Lightning Axe (the discard cost wasn't much of a drawback, between Sangrophage which is useless late and cards which I sometimes can't cast)
1 Orcish Cannonade
Artifacts (1)
------------
1 Hivestone (Never made a difference but sure scared my opponents. I probably should have just main decked the Assembly-Worker.)
Land (17)
---------
1 Molten Slagheap
8 Mountain
8 Swamp
Sideboard (used)
-----------------
1 Assembly-Worker (brought in for the Fury Sliver against faster decks)
Round 1 - Christopher Rubio - RB (somehow, with no removal)
Chris was slow. Not dumb at all, just Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssslow. If this were a more serious tournament I would have called a judge on him for stalling. It took him like ten minutes to look through his deck and shuffle up before the first game. I beat him pretty quickly with an early Sangrophage Mana Skimmers and a Vampiric Sliver. Then he took another five or ten to sideboard. I reminded him that he only had five minutes to sideboard and he wrapped it up. Then I beat him down with Nether Traitor (I think he did eight damage by himself) and then some four casting cost creatures.
Rounds: 1-0
Games: 2-0
Round 2 - Frank Diaz - RBU
There was a ton of red/black running around. There is a lot of good black removal in this set and the red Echo creatures are quite good in sealed so expect to fight over red and black in Time Spiral drafts.
I got another quick start in game one and Frank never did any damage to me. He laid down a Molten Slagheap on turn one and tried to tap it to put a counter on it. Sorry, no can do. I'm pretty sure he just made a mistake rather than trying to cheat. Then he put down another Slagheap. Then land. Then more mountains and swamps. Then an Urza's Factory, which he actually used to generate a 2/2 for 7. Unfortunately for Frank that was the only creature he cast. Meanwhile I had the Flamecore Elemental on turn four and he went to town, doing 15 damage in three turns until Frank generated the 2/2 for one chump block.
In game two it became apparent what had happened when he led with an Island. He played creatures pretty quickly this time and the game was very close. Then I top decked Bogardan Hellkite with him at four.
Rounds: 2-0
Games: 4-0
Round 3 - William (Shawn) Walter - RGW
I kept a two swamp hand with a mix of red and black cards, but I had the Nether Traitor and I figured I'd draw into a Mountain. Fortunately I drew one on the first turn. I played creatures, he played creatures, eventually I beat down. Sorry, but for some reason a lot of these games tended to blend together with all the red critters running about.
Game two turned into a huge, classic Sealed-style creature stalemate. He had some white flyers but I had the Basalt Gargoyle and tons of sources of red. In fact, went went through a lot of "draw go" turns where one of us drew a land, played it, and said go. I had 14 of 17 land in play at the end of the game and at one point I had ten counters on the Slagheap.
Shawn had beaten me down to ten with his white shadow guy when I top decked the Hellkite. I attacked with my Gargoyle, figuring he'd probably let it through but hoping he'd block with one of his flyers (he had a Plated Pegasus and a Serra Avenger). He blocked with the Pegasus. Then on his turn he attacked with Avenger. I Flashed the Hellkite into play, killed the Avenger, and sealed the game.
Rounds: 3-0
Games: 6-0
Round 4 - Tyson Gilbert - RW
Tyson is the guy who sat across from me and opened the Psionic Blast. He also opened (and played!) Orgg. But he beat me with good old fashioned mana screw on my part in both games. I played a Thick-Skinned Goblin and Tyson took great glee in killing with Tivadar (thank goodness they didn't bring his Crusade back). I continued to not play land (my only source of black was the Slagheap) and he continued to play creatures. I fought him off as long as I could but he ended the game at 24 life and I never attacked.
Game two was a replay. I got to four land by turn six or seven but was only able to cast one creature a turn while Tyson already had three in play. He just swarmed me with little guys.
Rounds: 3-1
Games: 6-2
Round 5 - Eric Faulk - RB
Eric and I decided before the match started to take the intentional draw so we'd both get six packs. The other choice was to play it out which would have left the winner with 12 packs but the loser with none. I didn't want to start the day 3-0 and walk away with nothing.
As it turned out I made the right choice because the mana gods had definitely abandoned me. I got mana screwed again and it wasn't much of a challenge for Eric. Game two was more competitive but I was still short on mana.
Rounds: 3-1-1 (really 3-2)
Games: 6-4
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home