cephille's FDN Prerelease Sealed Report

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

This weekend I played 3 prerelease sealed events, plus the 12 packs from the prize packs, so this article covers 5 FDN sealed pools in total. Below I’ll focus only on the deck builds, the color combinations I played, and my thoughts on individual cards, without match-by-match records. If you’d like to discuss, you’re welcome to leave a comment on the Guildmages’ Forum Facebook page~

If you’re interested, check out these earlier articles to learn about limited in other sets:

• cephille’s DSK Prerelease Sealed Report
• cephille’s BLB Prerelease Sealed Report
• cephille’s MH3 Prerelease Sealed Report
• cephille’s OTJ Prerelease Sealed Report
• cephille’s MKM Prerelease Sealed Report

Deck Builds

Sealed Pool 1: White-Green 3-0 @遊戲平方

Post-Event Evaluation

Even setting aside bombs like Sire of Seven Deaths, Mossborn Hydra, and Sylvan Scavenging, this is a pool with a very good curve, with some small combos between the cards, and the removal is among the more important kinds for white-green.

Main Deck Introduction and Discussion

The two copies of the mana dork Llanowar Elvesare super important in green-based decks, which let me skip the two-drop slot almost entirely and build straight toward three mana and up. Here are some fun little combos:

1. Cat Collectorentering the battlefield triggers the ability of Dazzling Angel, gaining 1 life, and if that’s the first time you gained life this turn, you then make a 1/1 Cat token and gain 1 more life (which won’t make another Cat this time). Pairing it with Vanguard Seraphto surveil 1 for every 1 life gained is far too common.
2. Mossborn Hydra, which has a landfall ability, and Elfsworn Giantpair very well with land-fetching effects and with Evolving Wilds, giving you double the joy!

After playing this limited event, I feel these two green cards, Elfsworn Giantand Treetop Snarespinner, are a bit too strong for commons. One makes a 1/1 Elf Warrior token on every landfall; the other is already a supreme build as a four-mana 1/4 with deathtouch and reach, and can also serve as a mana sink to actively put counters on things and grow them (and not just on itself!?).

The green rare enchantment Sylvan Scavengingis a truly great bomb; making 3/3 Raccoon tokens and putting counters on things are both quite useful. Often, after putting a counter or two on a flier, I start making Raccoons for ground defense while the fliers keep attacking in the air and take the game. In one game against a very coherent black-green Elf deck, I also made 9 Raccoons with this enchantment and won with that formula.

As for removal, one white Make Your Moveand one green Broken Wingsmake, I think, a very comfortable pairing. To me, their text is almost equivalent to “destroy target bomb an opponent controls.” In this limited event I used them to take down bombs like Drakuseth, Maw of Flamesand Akroma's Memorial, and I was quite satisfied XD

Sideboard and Pool Optimization

The sideboard is above. Although I went through the motions of building red-blue, with the prerelease promo foil Kaito, Cunning Infiltrator, honestly, compared to white-green I would never want to take red-blue out. This red-blue is not a weak pool, but compared to the white-green main deck the power level is still quite a bit lower, which is obvious just from looking at the creatures’ sizes.

As for the remaining cards, the black material is genuinely too weak. I strongly recommend that readers who see a similar black build not pick it, and not touch it even if the curve looks OK. I didn’t play the 12/12 big Dinosaur Ghalta, Primal Hungerbecause it’s only a win-more card.

Shop Introduction:
遊戲平方 probably needs no introduction from me; I believe there is nobody who plays Magic in Taiwan who doesn’t know the owner, Kuo Tzu-Ching. The shop is in Taipei’s Zhongshan District, near Zhongshan MRT Station. It has a very complete stock of singles for every format, with a regular Legacy event on Friday nights as well as some player-organized Commander gatherings. If players are serious about improving at Magic and want more chances to discuss and learn, Boss Kuo himself welcomes everyone to chat with him whenever he isn’t busy with shop matters!

Sealed Pool 2: Red-Green Splashing Blue 3-0 @紙盒子桌遊休閒館

After playing at 平方 in the afternoon, I ran into a player I had met before at 紙盒子 in Yonghe. They said they were running a sealed event that night, so I went over to take a look.

Post-Event Evaluation

I mixed in two blue-green bombs, Koma, World-Eaterand Tatyova, Benthic Druid, which was completely me being greedy. A seven-mana 8/12 sea serpent basically never gets cast, but… I have a dream! Using Axgard Cavalryto give haste to a Koma, World-Eaterhard-cast for seven just feels so good to think about!

Main Deck Introduction and Discussion

After playing one game, I swapped the main deck’s Wildwood Scourgefor Involuntary Employmentto be a bit more aggressive and to make Treasure; otherwise the blue really can’t come together…

But once I played it, I found that the red-green curve is really beautiful, and there are some very aggressive openings early on, for example:

• Courageous Goblinon turn two, then after attacking on turn three, play Goblin Boardersto make it a 4/3, and from then on every Courageous Goblinis a 3/2 menacing beater.
• Axgard Cavalryis really key in this red-green; swinging in with a Ashroot Animiston turn four hurts a lot! Giving haste with Swiftfoot Bootsalso works, but the downside is that it uses up one mana; giving haste with a creature is more aggressive!
• Paired with creatures that have trample, like Beast-Kin Ranger, Bulk Uplets you reliably slam damage into the opponent’s face. You don’t have to use the flashback; making the opponent wary of it is good enough.
• The value of Swiftfoot Bootslies in giving hexproof to your high-value creatures. Once it is successfully attached, it is rock solid, and you no longer have to worry about pump spells or counters. In one game I won by having Scavenging Oozewear the boots and solo the opponent! (Although the slime probably has no feet… oh well XDD)

As for Sire of Seven Deaths, honestly I basically just slammed it down to speed up my opponent’s surrender; the red-green base alone can play with great momentum!

Sideboard and Pool Optimization

The sideboard is above. Mixing in black would actually work too, but I think it isn’t as explosive as blue-green. Just playing red-green is also an option, but since I opened it, it would be a shame not to play it. Honestly I also wanted to let Doubling Seasonout for some air, but there really was no room for win-more cards.

Shop Introduction:
紙盒子 is in Yonghe District, New Taipei City, about a 15 to 20 minute walk from Dingxi MRT Station. The shop started as a board game store and started promoting Magic: The Gathering with Bloomburrow (BLB). The atmosphere in the shop is quite nice, maybe because it used to be purely a board game store; while we were playing the prerelease, some parents even brought their kids in to play board games. I also saw parents bring their kids to buy a Foundations Beginner Box to play at home, or show interest in joining this weekend’s new player tutorial. I hope more and more new players will come play this game with us! The atmosphere for playing cards at 紙盒子 is also much more relaxed, quite different from playing sealed at a card shop!

Sealed Pool 3: Blue-Green 3-0 @卡士多遊戲屋

The four-mana cards that are shiny are two copies of Bigfin Bouncerand one Dwynen, Gilt-Leaf Daen.

Post-Event Evaluation

Although I went 3-0, you can really feel how thin the two-drop curve is; luckily I didn’t face a fast aggro deck with a dense curve. If I have no mana dork on the opening turn, or the mana dork gets removed, the deck could get stuck on three or four lands, unable to ramp smoothly, and lose.

Main Deck Introduction and Discussion

This blue-green build is quite different from the traditional limited approach built around curve and removal. It basically relies heavily on a turn-one mana dork, jumping to three and then smoothly to five mana to stabilize and push back. Most games were won by the landfall trio Tatyova, Benthic Druid, Elfsworn Giant, and Mossborn Hydra; in one game Mossborn Hydraeven grew to 32/32…

However, this build doesn’t blend very well with blue’s draw-two and flash themes. Brineborn Cutthroatis basically just a 2/1, and is even worse than Elementalist Adept, which at least has prowess. A few games were close wins, and giving the whole team trample with Garruk's Uprisingwas a very important way to break through; that’s also why I was willing to try Preposterous Proportions.

Sideboard and Pool Optimization

The sideboard is above. In the red-white build in picture one, the shiny one-mana card is the second copy of Fleeting Flight; and in the sideboard in picture two, the shiny black cards are the two-mana Zul Ashur, Lich Lordand the three-mana Gutless Plunderer.

It’s a pity there were no dual lands in Temur (red-blue-green) colors. When building I tried going three colors, but gave up when the mana was unstable. Red-green splashing blue also isn’t a build that lets the strengths shine, so after thinking it over I just played blue-green.

The red-white sideboard could basically work too, but the early curve is a bit rough; the upside is that the removal is decent, and with an extra sweeper, Day of Judgment, you can catch the opponent off guard, and there are enough fliers to hold back quality creatures, wipe the board, and trade into a wave of attacks.

Shop Introduction:
卡士多 is in Datong District, Taipei, near Minquan W. Rd. MRT Station, and it’s also the card shop where I know the most friends in Taipei. Quite a few of my teammates at Guildmages’ Forum are also players who came up through 卡士多! Standard events are very popular in the shop; besides the Wednesday Standard practice event and the monthly Standard tournament, players often arrange matches among themselves in the shop. There is also a regular monthly Commander event with sea monsters banned. Interested players are welcome to come play at the shop!

Sealed Pool 4 (Not Played)

Main Deck Introduction and Discussion

The removal and creatures in red-green are both quite solid. Since I didn’t want to splash blue, I put in the three-mana Scrawling Crawlerto draw some cards. My expectation was that my offense would be a bit stronger, so I should be able to get a bigger advantage from both players drawing cards, and the opponent loses life when drawing, which makes it a small clock too.

The sideboard is above. Not playing the blue-green landfall merfolk Tatyova, Benthic Druidis a bit of a pity, but I think this pool doesn’t need greed; just focus on red-green.

Sealed Pool 5 (Not Played)

Main Deck Introduction and Discussion

Picture one is blue-green and picture two is black-white; the shiny four-mana card is the black Crypt Feaster.

The power level of both builds is a bit subtle: the blue-green creatures are solid but there are few tricks; the black-white removal is strong but the creatures are on the weak side. Both of them, without any coordination, use the seven-mana Meteor Golemas a terminal piece of removal.

If the blue-green mythic rare Zimone, Paradox Sculptormakes it onto the battlefield without being removed, it should let your creature mass surpass your opponent’s. As for creature pairings, I hope you can at least put a counter on Brineborn Cutthroatand Erudite Wizardfirst, then use their abilities to quickly multiply counters and snowball.

Black-white has a small lifegain, life-loss, and Vampire theme, but it isn’t very obvious; basically it relies on killing things to get through the early game, then protects the fliers and starts the counterattack.

The sideboard is above. Not using the two red Dragons might look like a pity at first glance, but on a closer look you’ll find that red’s removal and tricks are very poor; there’s only a curve that looks playable and two Dragons that are finishers. Once you think it through, you won’t be fooled.

Conclusion

I played these three FDN prerelease events at three different shops and experienced different gaming atmospheres. The Friday afternoon sessions at 遊戲平方 often have many overseas players, and back during BLB I also met a visiting player from Hong Kong who made a special trip to play before leaving Taiwan, which is quite international. 紙盒子, as mentioned above, offers a very relaxed play experience, and seeing kids willing to come try Magic is also something to look forward to! As for 卡士多, it’s where I exchange ideas with friends, and it’s the environment I’m most familiar with!

For me, the prerelease is basically a combo event:

1. Experience a new set and verify my predictions from writing limited ratings
2. Meet new friends and catch up with old ones
3. Crack packs!
4. Take prize packs home to play sealed (even if I didn’t do well this time, I can still buy up to 12 packs with the power of money)
5. Gather material to write this sealed report
6. And lots and lots more

So I’m no longer going to write about whether playing prereleases is worthwhile; that’s a matter of opinion. But for me, it’s just that much fun! So naturally I’ll keep putting myself into it! I hope everyone can keep finding their own enjoyment in this game. Fun game, let’s play together!

Reference

I’m continuing to advertise the limited articles we’ve written on Guildmages’ Forum; the links are in the Reference section. You’re welcome to visit our website and Facebook page to read the articles and leave comments to discuss!

Guildmages’ Forum FDN limited article links:

1. FDN — White
2. FDN — Blue
3. FDN — Black
4. FDN — Red
5. FDN — Green
6. FDN — Multicolor
7. FDN — Colorless & Lands & SPG