Last weekend was Prerelease time and so I rolled down to my LGS to play some Phyrexia: ALl Will Be One sealed!
I was a bit confused about the archetypes of this new set as, apart from the Boros pair, each of the other color combination seemed to have much in common with each other, but at the same time I was excited for the high number of Planeswalkers in the set and I was excited to discover what I was going to build with my Prerelease pack.
My prerelease promo ended up being a Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting and so I was excited right from the start! After finding also Kaito, I was fixated on playing a Dimir Proliferate deck but I decided to splash white to be able to play a bomb like White Sun’s Twilight.
You can click here to see the list I played.
We were 25 players and the tournament began after the announcement that there will be five matches.
Match 1 vs Selesnya Proliferate
Game 1
I’m able to start the game by setting up a slow race that brings him really close to being killed by Poison counters but he is able to stop me by filling the board with flying creatures and stopping my creatures with multiple Planar Disruption. Luckily I have the White Sun’s Twilight that I use to clean the board and win the game with the mites.
Game 2
He has a really strong and aggro start that I’m not able to stop efficiently in the first turns. I’m able to stop it when it is too late and, while I’m stalling the board looking for answers, he is able to proliferate a lot and knock me out with the poison counters.
Game 3
We are both too slow and neither of us is able to close the game before the time limit.
0 wins – 0 losses – 1 draw
Match 2 vs Sultai Proliferate
Game 1
We both stall the board right from the start and we are not able to damage each other as our creatures are perfectly able to block and survive the attack of the other. I’m digging for the White Sun’s Twilight and drawing a lot is what makes me lose as it turns out he was playing Jace, the Perfected Mind. He casts it and uses it to immediately mill me fifteen cards. I’m left with three cards in the deck and I saw Twilight go to the bin and so I concede.
Game 2
Another game of stalls but this time I’m the one getting the upper hand by casting Vraska and proliferating until I’m able to use her -9 to put him at nine Poison counters. I only need to proliferate one more time to win the game.
Game 3
Again the first two games took a ton of time and so we reached the time limit at the beginning of this third one. This time he tries to go aggressive, racing for the win but I play defensively and I’m able to stop him. I also drew this second match.
0 wins – 0 losses – 2 draws
Match 3 vs Azorius Artifacts
Game 1
It has a quite powerful aggro start, attacking me with powerful artifact cards like Eye of Malcator, where he is constantly able to turn it into a creature. I try to resist but his assaults are always more powerful and I’m not able to stop them, losing the game.
Game 2
The game starts a lot like the first one but this time I’m able to save myself thanks to the White Sun’s Twilight that wraths his board and gives me seven Mites that I use to win the game by putting him at ten poison counters with two attacks.
Game 3
Same as before: another aggro starts from his part and we also reach the extra turns. I’m able to cast the White Sun’s Twilight in the first extra turns, creating five mites and I’ve also Vraska on the field. I’m going for lethal but he is able on the fourth extra turn, to remove Vraska and enough mites and so, on the last extra turn, I bring him only to 9 Poison Counters. I have Kaito on the board but despite bouncing back to my hand a creature and drawing two cards with him I’m not able to find anything that would let me proliferate… I draw again.
0 wins – 0 losses – 3 draws
Match 4 vs Golgari Toxic
Game 1
I start the game by controlling his board and keeping it clean from his powerful creature with Toxic. I’m able to win the game by putting a single Poison counter on him and then continuously proliferate with Thrummingbird and Vraska.
Game 2
He starts with a strong race with his big creatures with Toxic and by proliferating a lot. Despite having both Kaito and Vraska on the board, I’m not fully able to control and stop him. He wins the race by proliferating me to ten Poison counters.
Game 3
This time I’m the one on the Proliferating race… but I’m going for sheer damage instead of Poison Counters thanks to Trawler Drake that I make bigger and bigger with Vraska’s Proliferate. He is finally able to remove it but I’m able to deal the final damage thanks to an unblockable Ichor Synthesizer.
1 win – 0 losses – 3 draws
Match 5 vs Azorius Artifact
Game 1
I have a strong start where I’m making my creatures more powerful by adding oil counters to them with Vraska. It becomes quite a stall game but he makes the error to over commit, empty his hand and drop all his creatures on the board. I then cast the White Sun’s Twilight and finish him with the Poison Counters of the mites.
Game 2
I set up a Toxic race early on with Pestilent Syphoner that I quickly supported with Kaito, using his +1 to prevent my opponent’s creature from attacking or blocking (bouncing and recasting the Syphoner in the later turns to stop even more creatures.
When his board starts to get too busy I use the White Twilight and clean it, winning the game the turn right after.
2 wins – 0 losses – 3 draws
With this result I was able to place 11th out of the 25 players. I had the same points as the fifth one but I was down there due to my poor rating… surely all those draws didn’t help me. I loved my deck! It was really powerful but it had the big flaw of being too slow. I had a really great night!
Raven の Nest 