Time Spiral Prerelease

[Mr AbominableSnowman]

With the timespiral prelease soon, thought people could discuss what possible strategies there might be.

Looking at a few of the time spiral spoilers, i reckon time spiral is more aggressive than the recent coldsnap,

in addition, differences from coldsnap includes the size; coldsnap was a tiny block, doubles and triples were much more easily to come by, time spiral is gonna be large, so dont expect as many doubles.

however, i've actually never played a sealed /pre-release tournament before...

in general, what are the tactics in deck building in sealed? Is it very much like drafting, where powerful creatures are generally good despite the cost? Or is it more constructed based; where much faster beatdown decks can exist and counter magic has a better chance?

[Dunjohn]

Nope, it's much closer to limited. The main difference is that decks tend to be splashier; you'll be given (almost) equal quantities of each colour, so three-colour decks are common.

As a result, a well-placed land destruction spell can be lethal, but don't make that a key strategy. Just keep it in mind if you have space. As with Draft, creatures and creature control should be the priorities. Countermagic has next to no presence because you'll be lucky if you even get one card, and in my experience blue isn't the easiest colour to play in Sealed.

[Mr AbominableSnowman]

cool, thanks,

what else should i/one be watching out for when i'm playing? very generally speaking, like, i guess i shouldn't be 'massively' worried about counter magic if i see blue, and i should be slightly wary of land destruction (i haven't seen a time spiral ld spoiler yet though) if i see red and am playing 3 colours.

But should i/one try to deal with uber fast decks (dont think ts has much cards to support this though) by immediately slotting relevant cards into my maindeck, or will things be much slower a la limited play?
and the rule of any removal is good still reigns?

[Toshiro Umezete]

Sealed is a slow enviroment in general where card advantage is king. Tough and resealiant creatures are the best way to win in sealed and countermagic and aggro are not likely to be very succusful. From what I've seen from timespiral the set is extremly diverse (301 cards and 120 subset purple cards) so it is nothing like Coldsnap. Going second is an often underappriciated move in this enviroment as the extra card is almost alway the better deal than the tempo advantage. Removal is always good and I fully expect a large quanity of decks that at least splash red or black for removal. Depending on the prevalence of suspend this enviroment may actually be even slower than normal.

And that is all I got.

[Burton Earny]

there is a spiler on www.gamingetc.com for timespiral if anyone cares

[ShadowZ]

there is a spiler on www.gamingetc.com for timespiral if anyone cares
that one is pretty bad compaired to mtgs' (www.mtgsalvation.com)

[Mr AbominableSnowman]

ah, had the pre-release today, didn't do too well, but hey at least i got the boosters :D

Got a lot of junk rares, but the leaving boosters i opened up Ancestral Vision!

And i got a 'call of the herd', and errr... swamp mosquito?

Well, the slivers seem to run rampant; in which i think one or two might make it into the extended formats...

Good Common Cards: I didn't get to open that many 'good' cards, which kind of sucked, and i didn't get many slivers so i cant comment on them, but commons that i found worked well are:

Wormwood Dryad: Most people will have either forest or a swamp, it deals damage very nicely

Mana Skimmer: One of my friends swore by it; dunno if it's great, but it can severely mana screw someone up; espeically when they have more colours.

Amrou Seekers: White Fear

and ill just mention one uncommon, Clockwork Hydra; mean and nasty, it just kills small things dead; especially when there are a quite a few 1 toughness creatures; especially amongst some of the thallids and shadow creatures.

[SS2 Mystic Johan]

I had a fun time at the prerelease but only finished 2 and 2. I pulled some decent commmons/uncommons- the split second -4-4 was nasty, and the mana skimmers were nice, but i pulled 0 bombs and it showed.

I have lots of great things to say about the set, so many fun cards, love the time shifted stuff, my only complaint is that there were too many slivers. I loved the idea of bringing them back, but it just seemed like every deck had at least 4 or 5.

My 2 cents. Anyway, I tried real hard to trade for a Teferi with no luck, but i'll keep workin' at it.

[rctan9]

Yeah Slivers pwned me in my last game. I walked in the last Swiss round at 2-1 hoping I would prize, but the Slivers got me. I was running Thallids with like 1 bomb, and that showed as well.

In the end my friend prized and we split the prize as we had promised each other before we entered, so it was a pretty good compensation for me lol. I really wanted to pull an Akroma. I swear at my constructing table 4/6 people got either an Avatar of Woe or Akroma. The best I got was a Magus of the Scroll and foil Soul Collecter.

oh well, can't win em all =/

[Hazen]

The best I got was a Magus of the Scroll
you pulled one of the most powerful, most valuble cards in the set and you sound dissapointed... :(

[rctan9]

lol, I guess I really, REALLY wanted that Akroma. That's why.

[Hazen]

just wait, you might be able to trade that magus for akroma if red decks turn out to be really powerful (which it appears they will be).

[Tium]

I pulled a really good pack, I got two Clockwork Hydras, 3 Dark Withering, Premature Burial, 2 Rift bolts and a Firey temper. I went down once, when a guy managed to play Akroma during all 3 games :(

and Johan: I got 2 Teferis as prises.

[Mr AbominableSnowman]

dark witherings are yuck though... to an extent; it's so freakin expensive; especially with subpar discard options...

[Toshiro Umezete]

dark witherings are yuck though... to an extent; it's so freakin expensive; especially with subpar discard options...

Black has two good discard outlets at common level and all 5 colors have the common spellshapers. Plus red has Lighting Axe. It is not that hard to discard a card.

[Mr AbominableSnowman]

yeah true, after a few days i looked back over the card pool i got, and realised that i was clueless about making a deck during the pre-release... and even so in limited, 6 mana isn't all that bad to use... i doubt it'd be used much in a standard constructed deck though... although maybe with compulsive research and the ilk...