A Weekend In Review

After a weekend full of pre-release, I wanted to take a moment to talk about the cards I was wrong and right about in our limited set review. I was able to participate and do very poorly in four pre-release events so I was able to see a fair share of cards being played. Some cards were great and some cards I was just glad that I wasn't playing.


I'm wrong a lot of the time and these cards just prove that

I'm gonna erase the "defender" part of this card and see if I can finally win.

This is the card that I was by far the wrongest about. I liked the idea of a 2/2 for 1 since that can chump block and kill just about anything played turns 1 - 4. I did not like the idea of having to pay 6 for a 4/2 flyer though. I ran this card because the pool I was working with at the time was very mediocre and I just needed more creatures. Any time this card hit the field it did something for me. It often prevented them from attacking altogether because they didn't want to lose any of their creatures, and if they did decide to attack I would gladly trade this for something of theirs that was probably spookier (at least at the time.) Then to add to everything if I drew this late game or it just sat on the board until late game and I got to transform this, I probably won. I was now swinging for 4 in the air or killing one of their flyers. I'm so sorry I doubted you Mr. Gorgyle, you were a great choice to add to my horrible WU flyer deck.

Dan:

I thought he looked good, and I was right. Though I never played him... so I'm still just kinda guessin'. Also note for future things, he also counts as both an artifact and creature for delirium, which is nice in a one drop.

PSSSHHH, 3/1? more like 3/i won.

Similar to that of the gargoyle, I rated this pretty low but I ended up playing this anytime I played white. It was very similar in that I used this often times to just kill whatever they threw at me early game, but different from the Thraben Stone Man because if they didn't play anything for a couple of turns I could get some early damage through. Even mid game this was an okay drop because it could still chump for some serious damage to their non-flyers. I'm sorry Sonic the Hedgefox for ever doubting how fast you could truly be.

Dan:

I played a Theros draft once with like 8 of the 3/1 for 2 cats, and it was wonderful. Ever since that, I always play 3/1 for 2s, even if it's probably not a good idea in my deck.

AKA the Hooch Haunter

This is another card I rated pretty low that ended up doing a lot for me. Even when I wasn't running a lot of spirits, I still managed to hit the ETB more often than not, and that 3 life made a bigger difference than I would have thought. Plus he was just another flyer I could use to swing over their heads and that was nice for some pretty consistent damage that they couldn't do a whole lot about. I'm sorry Drunk Ghost for doubting how much alcohol could really help.

Dan:

Fliers r gud, so I rated this pretty well. His upside is nice, but totally unnecessary to run this duder, so let him pour you a glass to celebrate your incoming win.

In the end, all that was left was a hat.

This card I never personally played, but anytime it was played in a game I was in, it was huge. I didn't like the 5 cost and I didn't like the sorcery speed but this card really set me back on more than one occasion. They would get rid of my scariest permanent (which was usually a creature) and set me back a turn since I now had to re-draw that permanent. This would always happen late game when I would be top decking or have maybe just one card in hand and having a new card at my draw step could have made a huge difference. I'm sorry random drowning citizen for thinking that you drowning meant you were no longer useful.

Dan:

I too thought this was a little slow. Well, I was right, it is pretty fuckin' slow, but it's still good. There are times when all this does is make you die one turn later, but other times it's a huge blowout, like putting a Markov Dreadknight with a ton of counters on it on top of their library.

The exact scenario in the art happened during one of our 2HG games and it was so good.

I expected this card to do something just because of how much flying there actually was, but I did not expect this to do near as much as it ended up doing. This card was able to hit all the big flyers like Avacyn, Markov Dreadknight, and Ormendahl, Profane Prince. Making them sacrifice things that were indestructible was one of the strongest plays and biggest set backs for them. They thought they were safe and in an instant that confidence was gone. For that I would like to say I'm sorry ropes, you were stronger than I ever could be and you kept myself and Dan safe.

Dan:

I mainboarded this in 2HG, as your green head always should. I don't know what felt better - killing Avacyn the second she hit the field, or when I killed a Flameblade Angle and a Markov Dreadknight for two mana. Both felt sexual.

This book is just full of cards to draw.

Dan used this in 2HG in his Blue's Clues/Mystery Machine deck and this card was wonderful. With the amount of clues he was making he was able to search for whatever card he wanted in his deck almost every turn. Having clue makers and things that responded with the sacrifice of clues also allowed us to gain life and produce creatures every turn. In limited the added upside was that rather than have to pay 2 mana for each clue and draw a card, he was able to sac 3 clues for free and only get one card so that he didn't deck himself. So thank you Moonswalker for sharing all of your most secret thoughts with us.

Dan:

This + Graf Mole + Ulvenwald Mysteries + all my clue poopers (cloopers) felt a lot like cheating. Late game I was gaining 9, getting 3 1/1s, and searching my deck for a card every turn. It was disgusting.


I am right sometimes as infrequent as that is

When the guy you sacrifice looks like an asshole, it feels better sacrificing him.

I gave this card a pretty good rating, but it still surprised me at how much functionality it had. I was able to swing in with this for 3 or 4 turns before they could even block since it had menace. When it finally came time to use him as a blocker I would make sure I had enough mana to cast whatever madness card was in hand and then chump with him and take out another creature with Fiery Temper and then get to draw a card. Thank you asshole vampire for just being yourself.

This card did exactly what I thought it would and that was what I wanted. I would draw three then untap two lands and use those untapped lands to cast whatever madness card I had in hand when it was time to discard a card. I thought this might be a little expensive but even on turn five this card allowed me to play another 2 drop after casting this so cost was never an issue. Thank you Senor Leather Coat for caring so much about books.

Literally 2HG MVP.

I knew this card would be a solid blocker since it could block up to eight things including flyers but my concern was how many times would you be able to block with this without it dying? The answer is a lot. This card lived through just about everything and would just prevent my opponent from attacking altogether since they didn't want their 1/1 spirit tokens to die to the spider every turn. I was never really in a board state where this needed to block more than 2 or 3 creatures so he was never at huge risk of dying unless they had combat tricks, which meant something was dying regardless. Thank you Spiderman for being able to see eight things and have eight limbs to stop that many things as well.

Dan:

10/10, would play spider literally always. This card was spectacular, and could hold back a ton of damage.

This is why I keep my zombies in the attic.

I always forgot the second part of this spell which was the life gain part. I knew I would either get 3 zombies or X zombies but always forgot about the life I would gain. In 2HG with Dan having a looter I was able to draw a card then cast this for it's madness with X being 5. Now 5 life is no big deal but having 5 zombies was part of what won us the game (the big part was Dan's 20 1/1 humans but I like the think the zombies helped a little too). Even when I could activate madness and was only able to cast this for 5 I was still getting 3 life and 3 zombies for 5 mana which was always enough to do something with. Thank you dead people for not letting some wood and nails stop you from doing whatever you want to do.

Never stop boopin' you crazy bastard

OH LOOK WHO MADE THIS LIST. YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT I WAS RIGHT ABOUT THIS CARD. It didn't matter if I was playing it or my opponent was playing it, it was always huge and a game changer for either. Anytime I had this card I won and anytime it was played against me I probably lost. I tapped down their 1 flyer then swung in with my 4 flyers and on their turn tapped down either that same flyer or something even scarier. Topplegeist still remains best card in set. Thank you, you diligent candle poker, for booping your way through all of Innistrad.

Dan:

Though we never used him, we did get our butts pounded by him in 2HG. Tapping down two guys every turn was rough, and we got rekt pretty hard.


Dan's biggest surprise:

Sniffing out every possible lifegain opportunity.

So I thought the Mole would be good, but I had no idea just how stupid he would be. A 2/4 for three? Yeah, sign me up, that's awesome early on. But the lifegain was crazy! The U/G Blue's Clues deck is amazingly strong; you draw a fuckload of cards, you get little bonuses for having clues, and then the mole gains you like several thousand life points. It's bonkers. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to draft this set because I'm just going to fucking force U/G Mystery Machine and lose if someone else decides to pick those colors. Fuck, it is easily one of the most fun limited decks I've ever got to play. Five stars, will create and eat several hundred clues again.



One more thing I was correct about was delirium. It was so easy to get delirium online that there were times I just assumed I had delirium because I was so used to always having it online. The amount of times I was able to put a land or artifact or enchantment into the graveyard to give me that 4th card type was all the time. It was all the time. Now that most limited formats are going to be draft, you should have an easier time getting delirium because you get to pick and choose each card that you will or won't be playing.

Last thought: There were definitely more cards than these that I was both right and wrong about but these were some of the ones that stood out the most. The most important thing to remember is that if you're using what I say as deck building advice, don't.




Still think I'm wrong about some cards? Have better and more hilarious commentary than I ever could? Looking for a 5th for your ranked ARAM team in Leagues? Comment/Message us and let us know!