More updates and photos later....
my prerelease coverage/report...
And so it started.... I did'nt want to go at first.
It was at EXPO, so in Singapore terms, its like its at the other end of the island.
Granted Singapore is a very small island.
ah well....
my room is a mess.
Any ways...
I wanted to go for first flight, but I overslept.
Then my sis said she was'nt going out or something, so i can stay out late without incurring the "wrath of parents".
But... man .. an afternoon burnt, a night destroyed. Nah I'll pass.
BTW it takes almost an hour an a half by MRT (train) to get to EXPO from where I live. Plus the fact that I am not familar with the area, that means I probably have to wake at 5 am in the morning to get there all fine and dandy.
...
There is also the issue that my ex church holds its services there. Meeting old church mates freezes my blood. haha. *cringe*
So then I went for the 3rd flight instead.
Again I overslpt... this time till about 7am. The flight starts at 830am, at least thats what they say on the flyer.
My dad woke me up and i bath in like 5-10 mins and ran to the train station like a madman.
I guess it was probably for the best on hindsight. Going there early will almost certainly increase the chances of meeting the church goers.
Anyways...
There are many corridors like this one and I just ran and ran.
Oh it was'nt that hard to find. You can almost smell .. no see =P MTG players. No really i just recognised some of them and I just followed.
But Good God I left my money at home.
So I need to draw. And thank God I met the guy who was selling the italian drains for 60 SGD.. but ermmm sorry MTG_Trader.. I did'nt get his number ... =P
But he told me where the nearest ATM was and i made a dash for it.
Finally I got there.
As you can see it was'nt that crowded yet. As it turned out, it actually starts at 9am??
Yet I was hoping that it would'nt be so early. Thank God.
So it was like 845am, and i figured i should eat to have energy to fight.
Yeah i was in the mood to fight. As I said before, if you dun wanna, no one's gonna make you ;) and you are gonna lose. Bad. With bones spat out. =P
So I ate noodles.
They were alright I guess ... A little hot. The auntie a bit blur.
Anyways... or there were some pretty gals too. But probably from church. So .Yah. lol. Whatever.
Anyways I took a seat and took some photos... the traders were there already and I picked up my 8 Oros ;) yeah foil.
Oh I happened to take a pic of the guy who pointed me to the ATM ;) What are the odds...
Any ways the play started soon enough...
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and i will be back later to update: time now is 134pm 070127
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More pictures of the scene...
The judges....
My ticket...
Oh this ticket won me a pack =P cause it ended with a '9' lol first time I won something like that in all my prereleases!
Anyways lets go on to the play.. most of it I typed on the day itself.. hence it is a little rushed and incoherent... but its the most I can remember I guess.
my record was
2 wins
1 draw
1 loss
I won my first nad last round and lost my 2nd and drew my third.
I met zero black players, only my last round did I see a swamp and a lemur.
I lost all my die rolls.
I was a victim of my own stupidity.
Round 2 was lost when I made 2 mistakes.
1) I alphaed thinking that I had regen....
but the putty sliver required a tap.
So I lost my slivers.
Or so i thought.
My opponent pointed out that there was an error in the previous turn, my slivers had VIGILENCE!!!
I should have been able to conduct my evill plan of sending wave after wave of viligence and regenerating and boosted slivers. After that I was only able to pressure with the Spectral force, but his Malach had progreen and had 4 toughness. He won the damage race
Ah well.
The match after that I was still distracted and never got ahead i think.
MVP cards that showed, calciderm, though less potent without the storm
My first round I won 2 - 0
my first play I thik was a boa with keen sense.
I made the mistake of using up my g mana and the boa was lost.
I did manage to recover though.
I think the ground got mucked up while a flier dispatch a few points at a time. I think it was astormfront rider... that card upped my tempo against my opponent. I also had a castle raptor. I used calciderm to force some damage through..I think I returned the calciderm using the stormfront. I think ancestral vision was cast. Stormfront riders added to the flying menaces and wrapped it up.
2nd match I had first striking hasty and viligenced silvers. He played a socerous queen planshift and that together with a Telekenetic sliver kept my boys at bay.. untill I launched my slivers and played the same game. Cool. Slivers are really quite double edged. The Tree spirit finished him him off.
my third round, first match I lost to recurring Shivan wurm... ? [edit it was a whumpus!! a whumpus???] the guy had 2 evolution charm and that card was his MVP for that match.
my 2nd match I think the key was when i alphaed or something, but he miscalculated an alpha.... I survived and cleared his board. I had two flyers he could only block one... the green card that gives +X/+X came out [edit: it was Strength in Numbers!!]and finished the job. I believed it showed in my first round too!.
Thrd match I was whittled down to 9 to his 19, but then I stabilised and began taking the board... but we timed out so it was a draw. My opponent agreed that i would have won. But he also said it was his funnest match... I tend to trash talk alot, but non-offensive like ;P ah well.
Apparently he was still in the army and he came with his brother, he was'nt keen on coming but his bro was. Message? Relationships matter WOTC!
My last round my deck cam out to play. gemhide, vigilence, first strike.... all my slivers came out and he was overruned.
I like matches like this. It makes me feel like my deck was flexing its muscles. I also hate matches like this... as i feel bad about winning in such a devastating manner. I would'nt like to be at the receiving end. ah well..
I told him the slivers were a side theme, he did'nt believe.
But second round it showed i still had slivers, but with out the gemhide to power them out, my opponent picked them off easily.
3rd match was won on the back of strength in numbers pushed through a spectral force!
So thats it!
MVP in no order:
Spectral force (dude was like some old guard, coming out almost every game)
Strength In Numbers (finisher!)
Ancestral Visions (also came out often)
Boa (made my deck look like constructed! i only had 1!!)
revered dead (together with the boa and putty sliver, they made my deck look constructed)
Slivers (gemhide only showed once lol)
celestial for winning in round three second game
Calciderm, good for forcing plays
I think stormfront riders are quite strong but situational, my opponent told me that he lost to one as well. Hmmm.
Overall i liked my deck alot. It was coherent, had no major mana problems, I can build mana with the storage land, there was card draw, and the slivers form a dangerous line given time, yet with enough busty flyers and fatties to apply pressure.
The cards in detail:
nice side board:
Molder
2 Seal of Promordium
other stuff i got:
Mindlash Sliver
Deadly Grub
Waning Wurm - can only attack once!
CRADLE TO GRAVE
Brain GOrgers
Dark withering
Pit Keeper
Skittering Monstrocity
Viscid Lemurs
Faceless devourer
Strangling Soot
So I did have some nice removel =P
....
Loads of other random stuff:
The Forian totem - wanted to play this... But I figured it will only dilute my deck...
The black removal was good so was the red, but the critters in those colours were only soso
my blue cards bombed on me. I believe I had only 4 planar chaos blue cards lol
Still I had loads of slivers and I had the first strike black sliver and the vigilence sliver. And there was Ancestral Visions
My eventual deck was this:
Land:
1 SaltCrusted Steppe
6 plains
7 forests
1 Island
1 Swamp
16 Lands total
Artifacts:
chromatic star
Blue:
Synchronous Sliver - Vigilance
Ancestral Visions
Black:
Spitting Sliver
Gold:
Harmonic Sliver - I had a field day blowing up artifacts, totems, mirari, pentads something
Opaline Sliver
Necrotic Sliver - I had one occasion to cast it but I was already winning and decided to play it safe
White:
2 Poultice Sliver - one of the main reasons I chose to have a sliver slant
Celestial Crusader - white filler, but its flying and pump proved useful, both game breaking
Sunlance - used once
Revered dead - MYP
Calciderm - made a difference when it showed, great for pressure
Sinew Sliver
Stormfront Riders - really messed up my opponent's maths, oh and it is nice with the calciderm ;)
Castle Raptors - allowed me to win games which I would have lost
Green:
Spectral Force - MVP - Even in the match I lost this critter kept bashing against a pro green malach
Strength In Numbers - MVP!! Won a few games single handedly
Mire Boa - together with revered dead, the tag team! Got keen sensed a few times
Keen Sense - nicely costed dropped it on the boa and the Force
Thallid Shell-Dweller, nice defence and great generator... also confused my opponents - its a sliver thallid deck!!!
Gemhide Sliver - the one game it came out, my deck steamrolled my opponent sliver style.
Search for tomorrow - together with Ancestral Visions, it made my deck look like contructed.
Giant Dustwasp - alittle weaker than it looks, the suspend is nice, but 4 counters is alot, in some games I just hard casted it.
Reflex Sliver - better than it looks, your slivers pressure like crazy
Rationale:
As you can see my W and G has almost zero removal, aside from sunlance. All my removal were in B/R .. but my critters were subpar in those colours.
But I the stock in green and white were nice and I seem to have a buttload of slivers.
41 card deck.
Why?
16 land + 25 cards I was willing as I had search for tomorrow, Ancestral, Keen Sense, and chromatic star to provide some draw . The SFT and star helps to fix the mana.
Nice rares I got:
Extirpate - yep i got it! lol but no Damnation
Volcano Hellion - almost made me go red.. but too shallow in critters
Magus of the bazaar
Null Propulsion
Walk of the Aeons
Richard Hoaen was my pro card hmmm.
Overall I won two packs, got another pack cos I lost 2nd round(we decided loser gets the booster given to each table... no I really wanted to win =P), and the last pack cos my index ended with 9 WhooHOO I finally won one of them lucky draw things lol!!!
Oh and for once someone passes good stuff to be in a deck swap!
Ancestral, Extirpate, Null propulsion!
The four packs were'nt so good though, I pulled
Aeon Chronicler, Molten Firebird, Mesa Enchantress,ground Breaker, Dichotomancy, Benalish Commander, Magus of The Bazaar.
In all I pulled more planeshifted Rares, but less "money".
Ah well .. it was fun, and thanks if you are still reading here =P
