Well that was fun!

The last two weekends we saw two really fun ways to get your Limited experiences on with all things Kaladesh. Prerelease and releases are done, and we’ve had drafts, sealed, and lots of fun cracking open those packs as well! Open any Masterpieces? Crack any money?

But now I want to look back at my favorite moments, cards, and experiences. What worked? What disappointed?

Before I give you this next Top Ten Moments from the Weekend, here is one of my Sealed Decks:

Azorius Mid-Range ? Kaladesh Sealed| Abe Sargent

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Cloudblazer
• 1 Dukhara Peafowl
• 1 Experimental Aviator
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Metalwork Colossus
• 1 Nimble Innovator
• 1 Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1 Propeller Pioneer
• 1 Weldfast Wingsmith
• 1 Wispweaver Angel
• 2 Skyswirl Harrier
• 3 Wind Drake

• Spells (8)
• 1 Acrobatic Maneuver
• 1 Appetite for the Unnatural
• 1 Failed Inspection
• 1 Skywhaler's Shot
• 1 Wildest Dreams
• 1 Ballista Charger
• 2 Smuggler's Copter

• Lands (18)
• 2 Forest
• 7 Island
• 8 Plains
• 1 Botanical Sanctum

Buy This Deck

I splashed Green’s Wildest Dreams and Appetite for Destruction. Both were great cards for sealed and this environment. This deck surprisingly went undefeated and was just not really bothered until the final round when I ran into “that deck.”

You know how every Sealed pool seems to have someone with every powerful card possible crammed into one deck? Yup! Cataclysmic Gearhulk. Fumigate. Depala, Pilot Exemplar. Fleetwheel Cruiser. Combustible Gearhulk. 2 Brazen Scourge. Aerial Responder. It was nasty fast, and if you stabilized, it would sweep or finish with major haymakers. I finished 3rd or 4th, can’t remember.

But still, it was a surprisingly good result for this deck. As folks would point out, the large amount of flying was a problem a lot of opponent’s couldn’t solve. There are 10(ish) creatures with flying in this pool. That’s a lot of flying. (Add in the Peafowl, Copters, and Thopters off the Aviator, and the jump capable Wingsmith as well to truly get an idea of the epic flying-ness we were rocking)

Sometimes it’s best just to forget the themes of the set, and to build a good sealed pool. I find this best at pre-releases. Who knows how energy will play out, right? But 10 flying creatures and Smuggler's Copters are good win conditions. A Wispweaver Angel or Skyswirl Harrier is a good threat to win with some degree of speed, and even a humble Wind Drake is better than people realize or expect. Flying matters. Flying wins. This is one of the great lessons of Limited Magic. So forget weird energy configurations and such. Just play something that can win.

I had high hopes for this deck, with the Copters, flyers, and game winning Colossus at the end to keep things moving towards completion. Now I didn’t have high hopes for the next deck . . . 

Here’s my second Sealed Pool,

Gruul Aggro Beats ? Kaladesh Sealed| Abe Sargent

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Cowl Prowler
• 1 Cultivator of Blades
• 1 Longtusk Cub
• 1 Multiform Wonder
• 1 Oviya Pashiri, Sage Lifecrafter
• 1 Peema Outrider
• 1 Ruinous Gremlin
• 1 Spireside Infiltrator
• 1 Thriving Grubs
• 1 Wild Wanderer
• 2 Speedway Fanatic
• 2 Wayward Giant

• Spells (10)
• 1 Blossoming Defense
• 1 Chandra's Pyrohelix
• 1 Welding Sparks
• 2 Appetite for the Unnatural
• 1 Furious Reprisal
• 1 Hunt the Weak
• 1 Ballista Charger
• 1 Bomat Bazaar Barge
• 1 Cultivator's Caravan

• Lands (17)
• 8 Mountain
• 9 Forest

Buy This Deck

More decks and projects followed.

Then I rested for a week and came back for Release Weekend! For us, this was more about draft. I saw how good my aggro Sealed deck played. I figured the metagame was slow, so I went into my draft with the intention of drafting a fast aggressive deck if possible. It was. In fact, not only was this draft deck good, I was undefeated with it. I didn’t even drop a game.

R/G Release Weekend Fun Time Smash ? Kaladesh Draft | Abe Sargent

• Creatures (17)
• 1 Brazen Scourge
• 1 Cultivator of Blades
• 1 Filigree Familiar
• 1 Ghirapur Guide
• 1 Inventor's Apprentice
• 1 Longtusk Cub
• 1 Riparian Tiger
• 1 Ruinous Gremlin
• 1 Scrapheap Scrounger
• 1 Spontaneous Artist
• 1 Voltaic Brawler
• 1 Wayward Giant
• 1 Wild Wanderer
• 2 Thriving Grubs
• 2 Weldfast Monitor

• Spells (7)
• 1 Built to Smash
• 1 Chandra's Pyrohelix
• 1 Welding Sparks
• 1 Furious Reprisal
• 1 Hunt the Weak
• 1 Bozat Bazaar Barge
• 1 Smuggler's Copter

• Lands (17)
• 8 Forest
• 9 Mountain

Buy This Deck

41 cards. I opened Smuggler's Copter and was passed the Cub and took it pick two And I already had two amazing 2-drops, so the aggro was on. I grabbed a Tiger and Filigree Familiar soon, and then slid into Red at pick 6 as the Green dried up. And the rest is the deck above.

Drafting this aggro deck was weird. I would get great cards late, like Spontaneous Artist, Scrapheap Scrounger, and such. But I would have packs early on where I was essentially rare drafting because there was nothing aggressive in my colors out there. There are some unfair early combos and synergies here. Inventor's Apprentice into Scrounger is nasty. Into Smuggler's Copter? Insane. I knew how good Cultivator of Blades was as your 5-drop and top creature from the prerelease. You put the counter on it, and then swing and all of your other stuff gets +3/+3. My main side board were Demolishes, and a pair of Giant Spectacle. Those were for breaking through ground games that had a bunch of cheap high toughness blockers.

And this deck was sick. It’s hard to misplay an aggressive deck. Is it turn one? Play your best 1-drop. Is it turn two? And you almost always want to swing. Swing away. There only major decisions are when to kill something and when to use that combat trick. This deck was so fast I killed a guy who drafted and had Fumigate in hand before he could play it.

Undefeated and it feels so good. Undefeated and you knew you would.

10. Chandra, Torch of Defiance Sucked

We had an epic amount of Chandra’s opened. At one table, we had 5 opened, and something like 7 on the day at the first, biggest, prerelease. Two or three were promos. And yet none of them did anything major. In Sealed, you might think she’s this major heavy bomb, but it’s hard to build around her or protect her with a sealed card pool where you can’t craft the cards you get. I was surprised by just how poorly her decks sometimes performed. I never follow my bombs unless I have some seriously good support.

9. Dramatic Reversal was a Missed Opportunity

I actually opened a Dramatic Reversal in my first Sealed deck and didn’t play it. I should have. That was a mistake. Tapping creatures for a vehicle, and then untapping them to swing with the team will create a “Win out of nowhere” situation. It will also give you an “Untap the team and block and kill a bunch of stuff” vibe as well. Plus you can combine it with stuff like tap creatures and artifact. I saw it be used to get more activations from the Modules, like Animation Module, Minister of Inquiries and Aether Theorist. It was used often and regularly to shut people down.

8. Filigree Familiar

I have run it in a few places, and it has always been a good card. A lot of folks were really, really happy about this little puppy. Many Spike writers and players have been touting it as an unsung hero of the future Kaladesh Standard. It played very well is my blink and aggressive decks. The life boost is fine, the card drawing post-death is better. This is no joke.

7.Spontaneous Artist

I took this card as it was a good copy of Talruum Minotaur, which is a card I’ve always gotten good play value from. Haste accelerates wins from a fast deck. Whenever I played it, I would haste the Artist to smash for 3. But I also used it for other things. Know what’s sick? Me dropping a 5th turn Voltaic Brawlers, using one of the energy I made to give it haste, and then swinging and using the other energy to pump it and smash for four more, then breaks through everything and drops someone to -3 life and wins. When you have a handful of energy makers here and there, everything has haste while you run the Artist. It’s a very good common.

6. Metalwork Colossus

Holy crap was this card a serious factor. In my first deck, there was a time I discarded it early to my Copter, and then sacrificed some artifact tokens later to bring it back and play it for 6 mana when I had out Ballista Charger. This thing was a beast for me, with it working with both Padeem and other cards in my deck. But that’s not all, because it got played against me, and I saw it ruining days all over. As a rare, it must have been more common than usual, but this thing was all over the winning tables.

5. Brazen Scourge

This is a thing. I found this environment to be slower overall. People were building up their energy, tokens, counters and such. You saw dopey blockers like Tasseled Dromedary, Aether Theorist, Highspire Artisan, and Consulate Skygate are all played in sealed. They are all commons that can be played to slow down the game. Meanwhile people are doing things like building up energy. It’s slow. So a fast creature like Brazen Scourge is no joke. In the past, vanilla 3/3s for 3 mana have always been played in Sealed. Trained Armodon. Nessian Courser, shoot, even Chimeric Idol was played. So a fast clock and beater like Brazen Scourge can smash out of nowhere and get in some serious pain. To my mind, an ideal play is turn two beater followed by this on turn three, with 5 or 6 damage on the table. That’s just rough in Limited environments. This thing is real, powerful and fast.

4. Combustible Gearhulk Whiffs

So I mentioned earlier that my Smuggler's Copter deck ran into this machine of a deck. But I won Game 2 against him, despite running into his Combustible Gearhulk in each game as soon as he had 6 mana (turn six two games, turn seven on the other). This guy’s deck was both fast and punch heavy, with a lot of speed. I had managed to barely stabilize at 8 life. It was turn six, and he had just gotten to a point where he wouldn’t be able to attack anymore. I barely had enough creatures to keep him at bay, and I used my Skywhaler's Shot already to kill a creature. He had a lot of burn, and if he took out one of my dorks, it was open season. The only way I was going to win this game was with the cards in my hand, 4 to his 1. One of mine was Wildest Dreams, and another Appetite. When he played the Gearhulk, I had the removal for it in my hand. But even killing it and heading to 10 life is not going to matter if he draws a bunch of cards. If we head back to 4/4, and he is still winning the board and just drew a bunch of gas, then this thing is over. Cards are my route to victory. Especially with the bomb heavy deck he has. I have one choice. Let him flip the cards, take the damage, and hope to not die from that or a burn spell in his hand.

And then he flips.

One Land

Two Lands

Three Lands

And I smile. Ten life and no Gearhulk later, I play another creature, use Wildest Dreams to recur my Shot, Appetite, and a dead creature, and win the game. I never took another damage.

It’s important in Limited to know your outs. How can I win from this bad matchup? This bad beat? Yes, it was unlikely that he’d get three lands, but he was just as likely to get lower casting costs like Speedway Fanatic, Plains, and Chandra's Pyrohelix for four and I’d have been just as fine. I knew my only route to victory was card advantage. He had such great bombs, I needed to out draw him. So I played to that.

3. Smuggler's Copter

Reliable card filtering, strong air game, and a powerful board presence on turn two. You drop it, and the combat math changes. Drop anything on the third turn, tap it, and swing with all sense of power. 3 flying damage on the third turn is tough. Vehicles are tough to fight. We learned that lesson the hard way. So I prefer instant removal like Appetite for Destruction or Skywhaler's Shot to kill when they come your way.

2. Longtusk Cub

This thing is nasty. I had one for my Gruul Beats sealed pool, with a few ones, a bunch of twos, and some threes as follow ups. I had this guy as my 2-drop around half of my games, and in every game I got him, I won. He’s just too good, too early. Swing and hit, and then pump him to a 3/3. I would drop a Speedway Fanatic beside him to swing for four on the 3rd turn, with 5 power already out afterward. That’s just a very fast place to swing from. There were multiple games where I would have a 6/6 or 7/7 Cub that basically won very quickly. It’s just a nasty powerful card, that drove games home. In fact, I would win so quickly (or lose so spectacularly) that I was often done with my rounds in 10-15 minutes.

1. Static Orb

Get ready. Before my first draft, we were kidding about Inventions. People were talking about what they would keep versus what they would trade. I mentioned that Static Orb sucked, it was not an easy card to build around, and would be the only Invention that if I opened I’d be willing to move. So what did I crack pack 2? Of course, Static Orb! Now there was a Voltaic Brawler in the pack I wanted. But nope, the StOrb it is! I had four players looking to trade, and I moved it for some stuff, like Chandra, Torch of Defiance. My aggressive deck was so on curve that I could have run the StOrb, but it’s too unreliable. So I skipped it. And the Brawlers wheeled.

And that’s it!

Magic is about stories and events. And we had them in droves! Disappointing Chandras. Combustible whiffs. And a lot more!

So what cards surprised you? Disappointed? And what stories do you have from the last two weekends?