Chris' Dragon's Maze Pre-Release

Because, f*** it, I like writing these things even though I didn't do well.

Chose Golgari as my guild, which I do believe is still a solid choice, but got paired with Dimir which wasn't half as decent as I'd hoped for. Mostly since I had too many non-graveyard oriented bombs and not enough scavenge to really justify it.

My main changed a lot during the day (one of the changes I was very glad I made was taking out the Rot Farm Skeleton. I was completely swamped with playables to begin with, but finally managed to cut it to 23. I still feel like there's tons of room for plausible changes in the deck I did play though.

What my main ended up looking like was:

Creatures:
1 Murmuring Phantasm
1 Brushstrider
1 Trestle Troll
1 Hired Torturer
1 Axebane Guardian
1 Undercity Informer
1 Deadbridge Goliath
1 Sluiceway Scorpion
1 Saruli Gatekeepers
1 Opal Lake Gatekeepers
1 Balustrade Spy
1 Thrashing Mossdog
1 AEtherling
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Terrus Wurm

Instants/Sorceries:
1 Ultimate Price
1 Profit // Loss
1 Far // Away
1 AEtherize
1 Grisly Spectacle
1 Stolen Identity

Artifacts:
1 Selesnya Cluestone
1 Rakdos Cluestone

Land:
6 Island
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Rakdos Guildgate
1 Golgari Guildgate
1 Gruul Guildgate
1 Dimir Guildgate
1 Watery Grave

Yes, I did get all 6 nonbasics on-colour. :3

So yeah, the general plan was to gum up the board and drop AEtherling, or to reduce the board and play Sire of Insanity. This goal worked just about perfectly whenever I drew the right cards, however I lacked a large amount of early interaction and pressure in general, making some games very hard to win. In retrospect, I believe I should have definitely tried to play more evasion in the main.

In addition to the maindeck, here are the playables I had leftover:

Spoiler:

In retrospect, a Jund shell may have been the smarter option, but I really wanted to play AEtherling, for obvious reasons. Would have given me a few more solid choices though, for a bit of a better gameplan.

So, the day began and during deckbuilding we get informed that instead of the 11:45 start, we have to wait until 12:30 because of someone's car issue, I believe one of the organisers'. So, because our TO is so awesome, he decided that the best way to make up for the delay was to give everyone a buy-a-box promo Supreme Verdict. So this was already a pretty cool start.

First round opponent was playing RUG, both of us with similar ideas of just going over the other player with huge creatures. He got me in game 1 with Rubblebelt Raiders into a Maze Glider. I had no way to block a flier, and no way to kill the Raiders, so I lost that game very quickly. Game 2, I managed to clear his board with a Far // Away on turn 4 thanks to Axebane Guardian, and then turn 5 landed a Sire of Insanity on his empty board. The game ended shortly after, although we were both topdecking like pros for a while. Game 3 we both stalled the board and I managed to get pretty much the best Baluestrade Spy mill ever, hitting virtually all of his bombs, and then cleaned up with an AEtherling which obviously he couldn't answer.

Second round I played against the eventual winner of the event, he was playing RWB. Game 1, he just steamrolled my slow hand. I stabilised on 4 life and then he showed me the Boros Charm. I was sad. At this point, I was still playing Rot Farm Skeleton and drawing it too damn much, so sided it out for Saruli Gatekeepers, which lasted the rest of the day. I never actually saw the Gatekeepers, and his Haazda Squad kept my very few blockers at bay. I had a rather unfortunate draw of land after land after land, and couldn't deal with his aggressive plays.

Third round was against someone playing Junk, splashing Red for Weapon's Surge and Deviant Glee's activated ability. Game 1 he had an early Kingpin's Pet, that I couldn't deal with for a while that got a ton of damage in. The game ended in a slow burn from his Hired Torturer, and I drew the cards to break the stall far too late. Game 2, I managed to land a Sire of Insanity on a pretty small board, but he managed to rip exactly the right cards, and although I managed to smash him for 9 with the Sire of Insanity alone, it wasn't enough to seal the game by any means, since I drew very poorly in comparison.

Fourth round, against another Junk player. This round was just straight-up shite. He got a turn 2 Lotleth Troll, turn 3 Unflinching Courage, turn 5 I scooped. Game 2 was a little different. This time it was Rakdos Drake into Unflinching Courage and I was at 8 before I had an answers. 8-32 is hard to come back from and I stood no chance thanks to his Voice of Resurgence making him all the more difficult to block.

Final round, my opponent's playing a very straight-up Rakdos deck, he may have played a third colour but I don't remember seeing one. Game one he had a very powerful draw, and an unleashed Exava was far too much for my durdles to deal with. First strike on her is brutal, and giving Spawn of Rix Maadi haste is just ugly. Game 2, I had answers, and some powerful threats, after mulling to 5, that is. I ended up keeping Swamp, Forest, Forest, Brushstrider, Trestle Troll. So a very respectable 5-card hand. Ended up just drawing good cards like I was meant to, and going much much bigger than his 3/3s, 4/4s and 6/4s. Game 3, he had an aggressive start and took me to 9 pretty quickly. After trading a bunch of guys and removal spells, I managed to resolve a Sire of Insanity and just bashed a few times for game.

Had a ton of fun, but was disappointed with my 2-3 record. I got to pick up Aetherling and my favourite card from DGM in Sire of Insanity, so I'd call it a good day anyway.

Overall, I managed to get a buy-a-box Supreme Verdict, an Aetherling, a Sire of Insanity and a 5th Watery Grave, and had a ton of fun. Wish I could go to the other pre-release tomorrow, but it's too far away.

Today was also the first time I cast Aetherling and lost. I actually lost 2 of the 3 games that I cast him in, so that's the main feelbad for the day.

Good luck to everyone else at their prereleases.