Preparing for the Magic 2015 Prerelease

Posted on July 11, 2014

Welcome back to Very Limited, GatheringMagic.com’s exclusive Limited column. Magic 2015 prerelease events start tonight at midnight. In preparation for tonight’s events, we’ll be taking a look at the new set from a Limited perspective. We’ll discuss the power level of the prerelease promos for each color and attempt to identify the best common, uncommon, and rare of each color.

The Promos

As we have at most recent prerelease events, we’ll be choosing a color and receiving a promotional card of that color that we can play with. Not all of the promotional cards were created equal though. Let’s discuss the power level and application of each of these cards.

White – Resolute Archangel

Resolute Archangel is amazing if the game is close, especially if we’ve found ourselves in a racing situation. Unfortunately, 7 mana is a very large investment. Still, this is the type of card that will always make our main deck when playing Sealed. The card is probably at its best in a more controlling deck that’s willing to take some early damage while drawing cards and hitting land drops. We need to be careful not to let the opponent pull too far ahead though. If we just have a 4/4 flyer and 20 life, there will still be a lot of boards that beat us. Don’t chump-block; double-block for trades. Resolute Archangel can punish us for throwing cards away in the late game, and the effect encourages us to play frugally in terms of card advantage.

Blue – Mercurial Pretender

This is a very nice Limited card. Clones, even those that cost 5 mana, have always been very reasonable in Limited, even if they’re just copying our best creature. Being able to return Mercurial Pretender to our hand at will gives it a nice dimension. We can attack and block with this and not have to fear any tricks. In the very late stages of the game, we can return this to our hand to upgrade into our new strongest creature.

Black – Indulgent Tormentor

Indulgent Tormentor, black’s promo card, is easily the best of the bunch. 5/3 flyers for 5 mana are already completely absurd, but gaining free cards and damage every turn makes Indulgent Tormentor out of this world. I’ll be battling with black if able at the prerelease this weekend, and Indulgent Tormentor is the reason.

Red – Siege Dragon

Destroying all the opponent’s Walls for free is fun, but the real action starts when Siege Dragon starts attacking and laying fiery waste to the opponent’s side of the board. This card can easily take over a game by itself. This is probably the second-best of the promotional cards available.

Green – Phytotitan

If the game is grindy, Phytotitan seems to be among the best things we could possibly have. Phytotitan is also great at blocking when we’re behind—but not super-far behind. In general, it’s still going to encourage an opponent to crash with his or her team, so we’ll want a follow-up play if we don’t want to die to two big swings from the opponent.

Overarching Strategy

Basic Limited strategy holds truer in core sets than anywhere else. Be sure to check out my Limited tutorial for a deeper understanding of why the following concepts are true.

We should be playing forty cards to maximize our chances of drawing that sweet Indulgent Tormentor.

We should be playing seventeen or eighteen lands. There are probably situations in which we’d be able to play with sixteen lands, but if we’re packing any of these promotional cards, seventeen looks to be a much more realistic number.

We should be hunting for value. We should always look for opportunities to trade cards for a larger number of the opponent’s cards. Check out the tutorial column linked above for a discussion on how and when we can find opportunities for card advantage in Limited.

We want every card in our deck to have the ability to trade with something in our opponent’s deck. We don’t win games by two-for-one’ing ourselves.

We probably shouldn’t play any Walls that aren’t made out of mulch this weekend. At least one in five of our opponents will be packing a rare that just destroys every Wall we control. We can sideboard in our Walls against nonred aggressive opponents, but it’s probably wise to not give a huge portion of our opponents that much value for free.

Cream of the Crop

White

Best rare: Ajani Steadfast and Soul of Theros

Ajani Steadfast is a very powerful Planeswalker that’s especially good in decks with a lot of inexpensive creatures. It’s going to be very difficult for most players to contend with this, and the vigilance granted by the +1 ability makes it easy to defend.

Soul of Theros completely takes over a game. When we have more than one creature, the activated ability on Soul of Theros becomes well worth the mana, and once we have three creatures, it’s going to be difficult for out opponent to make it through our next combat step.

Best uncommon: Geist of the Moors

Geist of the Moors is a 3-power flyer for 3 mana. This is obviously incredible in any Limited format.

Best common: Oreskos Swiftclaw

Blue

Best rare: Aetherspouts

Wing Shards was among the better Limited cards I can remember, and Aetherspouts seems to be a much superior version. It won’t be unusual for us to three-for-one or four-for-one our opponent with this big spell.

Best uncommon: Illusory Angel or Jace's Ingenuity

There are a lot of cards that cost 2 or less in this set, and making a 4/4 flyer for 3 mana is a deal we shouldn’t refuse.

If our deck is forced to play more than one piece of countermagic, or we have a lot of removal, Jace's Ingenuity becomes an incredible way to pull ahead on cards.

Best common: Encrust

Removal spells are good.

Black

Best rare: Indulgent Tormentor

Black’s promotional card Indulgent Tormentor is a massive flyer for a cheap cost that slowly grinds its way to victory every turn with its triggered ability. This is almost certainly the best rare we can open for black, and if we choose, we’ll be guaranteed to have one in our deck.

Best uncommon: Stab Wound

Return to Ravnica Limited taught us the power of Stab Wound. It’s an uncommon now, so we probably won’t be seeing decks with four of them anymore, but the effect is still very strong.

Best common: Flesh to Dust

Again, we really want efficient removal spells for our opponent’s largest threats when we’re playing Sealed Deck.

Red

Best rare: Soul of Shandalar

All right, so it’s a 6-power first strike creature that lets us burninate the countryside with reckless abandon. We’re in!

Best uncommon: Cone of Flame

This is probably the best uncommon in the set. Killing three creatures with one card that only costs 5 mana is completely unfair.

Best common: Lightning Strike

This is probably the best common in the set. Lightning Strike kills the majority threats in this format, and its inexpensive mana cost and instant speed make it a great tool for acquiring card advantage.

Green

Best rare: Soul of Zendikar and Hornet Queen

Soul of Zendikar gives us a massive body and then starts pumping out creatures indefinitely as long as it’s sitting on the battlefield.

Hornet Queen combos nicely with the Overrun effect of the format and stops any sort of aggression in its tracks.

Best uncommon: Gather Courage

Gather Courage is an amazing trick. When we tap out for a green creature, our opponent will happily crash his or her 4/4 into our 3/3. The ability to save a freshly-cast creature by tapping said creature is extremely relevant. Give this one a try; I’m confident you’ll be very impressed.

Best common: Elvish Mystic

Green means fatties, and nothing helps us cast our fatties faster and more efficiently than Elvish Mystic.

Next week, we’ll return with a more in-depth look at Magic 2015 and start diving into the Draft format. Until then, enjoy your local prerelease, and don’t stop drafting Vintage Masters on Magic Online. Vintage Masters Draft may be my favorite format of all time, and it’s definitely worth playing for those who haven’t tried it yet.