Worldslaying the M12 prerelease

So, yeah, Worldslayer is awful.  But since casual cards often make for the best stories i figured i'd throw this one out there.

I was playing against the guy who always says "if i just drew this card..." and the like.  He was playing Worldslayer... maindeck... so not really a surprise that he's that guy, right?  I was playing UB with a red splash (for Incinerate and Fireball, because d'uh) and a Grave Titan.  It was a fairly control-ish deck (although i did win one game with a bunch of bears and an Aether Adept), stalling for six lands (or seven for FoF Sphinx, who's actual name escapes me).

Villain was playing some kind of RB aggro deck with nothing super exciting.  He had a ton of mediocre one-drops, so he had me down to a single life by the time i stablised.  He had a Tormented Soul on-board when i hit seven mana to cast the Sphinx.  I hit some lands, a card i can't remember and, crucially, Wring Flesh.  For some reason unbeknownst to me, he gave me a swamp and the Wring Flesh... which is exactly what i needed.  Okay!

So i proceed to attack with my Sphinx, praying that he wouldn't draw a Shock or an Incinerate.  He didn't, and i bashed him down to Fireball range.  With a genuine sigh of relief, that was game one.

Game two, the Worldslayer came into play.  He was behind on the board, what with me having a Grave Titan in play.  So he equips the Tormented Soul, takes 4 damage from my zombies (after Assasinating my Titan with Royal Assasin) and, sure enough, slays the world on his turn.  I held back an Island and a Fireball which i had been unable to cast.  I then drew three lands in a row, followed by a Salamander Rogue (best creature type ever, by the way) and started beating at his then-14 life.  He eventually drew a guy to stall me, and cast a new Twisted Soul, with enough mana to equip the Sword of Stupid and Dumb.  We were both at 7 life by now and he was vaguely ahead on the board: two guys, one of which was unblockable, to my one.

I was still holding the fireball at this point, and drew my Manalithe to put me in-range of Fireball-ing him to death.  I was just praying he wouldn't equip the Worldslayer and reset the game again (although I did still have an Elixir of Immortality to draw at some point).  Forunately, he didn't, and i untapped and killed him with said Fireball.  The moral of the story is, even when Worldslayer might be good, it's still fucking awful.

P.S. it should be mythic.

MBS Prerelease: Arresting the Wurm

It's been a few months since i wrote aboug magic, and 3:30AM seems like the perfect time to start again.

This past weekend was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. I've never been too fond of sealed as a format, but prerelease is kinda like a 'must-go' and, of course, i wanted shiny new things!

So, wanting to do well, i made my first mistake by picking Phyrexian. On paper, as most people have pointed out, the baddies definitely seemed to have a higher average when it comes to card power and quality. What they don't have, crucially, is Burn the Impure. Fuck that card, seriously.

My pool felt 'okay.' Nothing to write home about, but definitely capable of a positive win/loss ratio... or so i thought. I opened an Inmoth Nexus (which is sweet) and a Massacre Wurm (which is fine), as well as four garbage rares (Decimator Web seems painfully slow, but i figured i'd give it a try). My SOM packs weren't even worth mentioning - i played two cards from SOM, total.

Still, Massacre Wurm seemed like it would 'ninja' me some wins, despite being a non-infect card in my infect deck. Sadly, i lost both games where i cast it. The first time, it killed a single creature when it ETB'd, then immediately got arrested. The second time it was far too late to turn a game i'd basically already lost. Well, that's how it goes sometimes...

If going 1-4 was the worst part of a prerelease, it would've been pretty fine i guess. While Inkmoth and Wurm aren't as cool as, say... a foil Koth and a Tezzeret, they're still pretty good. My 'sympathy' booster even had a Red Sun's Zenith, which is... okay, i guess. No, the worst part was a pretty stupid miscalculation.

£40 for a FTV: Relics is pretty sweet, and i'm like a magpie when it comes to shiny things so i couldn't resist buying one. I kinda forgot that i don't really have £40... oops! So the coolest thing i picked up this weekend is currently sitting on ebay while i pray someone buys it to tide me over till payday. If noone does, i guess i'll be missing the release, where i'd finally get to draft something other than triple-Scars.

Still, on the bright side, if it does sell i've made at least £10 profit! Mox Diamond... :(