Good Times at Good Games - My Worldwake Pre-Release Experience, By David Li Wang Options

[tempest74]

Read Article here.

[Emerald]

Winning when you keep a sketchy hand does not make it the correct decision, neither does losing when you mulligan correctly make that an incorrect decision. You should have mulliganed your first hand.

Butcher of Malakir is too slow for draft but perfectly acceptable if not exciting in sealed. Chain reaction is a bomb and potentially better than day of judgment. Predatory urge is not as bad as you think it is.

[Jub Jub]

It's a fun read, I miss both the pre release and launch party due to personal reasons.

: ) Maybe next time maybe a little more on the thought process of building your sealed deck, maybe a list of the cards from your pool?

Also finish the 4 rounds. haha

[Blyder]

David
I don't suppose you have your sealed pool in it's entirety?

would be good for an exercise

[Dewman]

"Things changed when he dropped Ob Nixilis, gaining back some life and began taking my life down. "

Ob Nixilis doesn't gain life

[Malicious]

You shouldn't feel bad about 'having' to play UW, or any colour combination for that matter. While you may normally prefer to stick to a particular colour... limited is about being able to adapt to different strategies, as part of it is the luck of the draw. Sometimes you will get the nuts of a colour, but other times you may not. That being said, you should list your whole pool for your next limited article. While its good to read about your experience... one good thing you can get from these sorts of discussions is the various opinions on how to build a deck based on a particular pool. It's a good way for people to learn from others, which is beneficial for both yourself and your readers.

Besides... your deck is actually quite good for sealed. You may not have any bombs, but you have very solid creatures, although some of your spells are a bit poor, such as rest the weary, and to a lesser extent brave the elements and spreading seas (they're ok, but not very exciting). This is a good reason why you should list the rest of the cards, because there may have been other cards that you could've played over them, which you may have overlooked.

On to some more constructive stuff. Like Jack said, Butcher is actually a reasonable card in sealed (can potentially be a bomb). While it is a bit slow for draft, you will find that sealed is usually a much slower format, as the card quality isn't as refined as it is in draft. Also I think your first hand with the 3 plains wasn't a bad keep as it may look. It actually only needs 1 island to make it work, or at the very least the pilgrim's eye to fetch one. Not sure whether you were on the play or not, but I'll assume you were. If you manage to get an island on your next draw, you can spreading seas your first plains that you played, and then next turn you will be able to continue playing threats without any trouble, since you still have 2 plains for white sources. This is of course assuming you are able to draw it... which is probably around a 30% chance based on cards remaining and the number of islands you have in the deck. If you are on the draw, then the chances you'll draw the island by turn 2 is increased by a lot. I'm not saying its a justified keep, but I don't necessarily think it was that bad.

One last thing... even though you have no equipment, armament master is still a fine bear. I would've still played him over the rest the weary. I can't justify playing a non-permanent card just to gain life without being able to cantrip.

[ceeK]

Has anyone pointed out to you yet that your decklist is 38 cards and lacks the whiplash traps you talk about in round 1?

[Emerald]

As Jub said if you're going to write an article about a sealed event you should post your complete pool and finish all 4 rounds. It isn't very professional to write about a half assed event otherwise. This is an article not a blog.

[RedBluePlayer]

@ Emerald: Obviously it wasn't the right choice to keep the hand but since it was a pre-release, I thought it was no big deal if I lost. I mulliganed correctly for the next 2 games but it turned out bad and I was pretty unlucky and wasn't as fun as it could be. The point I'm getting at is that at pre-releases you have chances to do things you usually wouldn't do, to have some great fun and sometimes it's worth it. Even if it means taking unnecessary risks. Making the right decisions doesn't always lead to having fun at pre-releases but they do allow you to win.

@ Blyder: Sadly I mixed up my booster cards with the pool but I do remember alot of the Zendikar cards were basically the really crappy last pick ones eg. I got 3 Beast Hunts, 2 Trapfinder's Trick and some really dodgy red and black cards.

@ Dewman: The Ob Nixilis didn't gain life. It was the Grazing Gladeheart which is missing in the article for some reason despite me writing about it (I could have accidentally deleted it when editing). When he dropped a land after Ob Nixilis, he gained 2 life and I lost 3 life.

@ Malicious: Yeah it was a unique experience not playing red for the first time in sealed but adapting is a good learning experience. I think I did ok. I chose Rest the Weary over Armament Master because Armament Master's double white made it difficult to cast and also because I wanted to test out Rest the Weary. I often like testing cards to see how good they are in limited based on my own experience instead of just taking what some pro has said and not relying on first hand experience. Next time I'll try writing out the whole pool.

@ CeeK: Damnit. Sorry it was a copy and paste error and so the 2 Whiplash Traps were left out underneath the Vapor Snare.

[Jub Jub]

From what everyone else is saying it seems that your missing a lot of the important details from your pre release experience, I recommend in the future you make more game notes if you want to write something similar, such as cards you opponents play. Sometimes its just not enough doing it by memory, usually in the more professional articles, the pro player make lots of in game notes where things turn their game around, it also helps you play better competitively as well.

[Malicious]

The double white is irrelevant in a 2 colour deck with basically a 50/50 split between the colours. Rest the weary doesn't do anything. It might buy you maybe a turn as a pseudo-fog at the cost of a card, which could've been something more useful the majority of the time. It's not really that hard to get double white, and even if you don't play him on turn 2, hes still going to be fine. Creatures generate value, whereas life gain instants and sorceries are usually card disadvantage in limited. You might buy yourself a turn, but what are you trying to draw in order to turn around a game that you are already losing? If you had a wrath, mass bounce or something like that... then it's reasonable to use cards to buy time, but beyond that it's pretty useless.

I can understand wanting to try out cards, but I think it's better to do that through sideboarding in matchups where you can probably afford to do so and keep your main deck as something solid. Pros usually won't give advice that they haven't already tested and justified (unless I guess they're just trying to randomly throw ppl off).

[Dewman]

I think in the future, you should consider proof reading your 'articles'

[Darkur_Fox]

Nice article. I can enjoy the casual manner in which it's written (lol @ "This is an article not a blog") because it's at a PR event, but I'm talking from an article flavour point of view there. Info wise it sounds like your event was aborted early and so half an article worth but I enjoyed reading it all the same.

[RedBluePlayer]

Nice article. I can enjoy the casual manner in which it's written (lol @ "This is an article not a blog") because it's at a PR event, but I'm talking from an article flavour point of view there. Info wise it sounds like your event was aborted early and so half an article worth but I enjoyed reading it all the same.

Thanks! I appreciate your support. It's pretty casual and contrasts with some of the previous articles I've done. I like mixing things up a little.