Patrick Cossel writes for his own page The Forge Herald and has been a huge supporter of my effort here. I asked him to post this article here because I really enjoyed it. Especially because he admits his wife is better than him. A simple and subtle reminder that Magic is for everyone. Original Article can be found here.
Aether Revolt pre-release has come and gone and, as I always do, I was able to take part in the 2HG event at our store.
The store I play at, The Sports Alley in Sheridan, Wyoming, hosts two events each pre-release – a sealed event at midnight and a 2HG event the next day. I have always make it a point to play in the 2HG event.
My partner for the last two events has been my wife. She tends to be a far better sealed player than I am and plus, it’s just fun to play Magic with her.
Her sealed pool was far better than mine as she pulled a Tezzeret the Seeker. Further, she pulled some excellent control cards with blue. It made perfect sense for her to build around Tez.
Here is what she built.
Blue/Black Tezzeret
Creatures
Fourth Bridge Prowler x 1
Lawless Broker x 1
Gifted Aetherborn x 1
Wind-Kin Raiders x 1
Weldfast Wingsmith x 1
Planeswalkers
Tezzeret the Seeker x 1
Instants/Sorceries
Battle at the Bridge x 1
Daring Demolition x 1
Take into Custody x 1
Ice Over x 3
Revolutionary Rebuff x 1
Ceremonious Rejection x 1
Negate x 2
Artifacts
Watchful Automaton x 2
Treasure Keeper x 1
Servo Schematic x 1
Prakhata Pillar-Bug x 1
Prizefighter Construct x 1
Augmenting Automaton x 2
Lands
Island x 10
Swamp x 6
Without a doubt, everything she did was working towards getting Tezzeret on the board. Once he was there, she used his plus one ability to create artifacts while using spells like Iced Over to protect.
My job was to kill creatures and get blockers on the board. Once I had that going, she would ultimate Tezzeret. After that, it was hard for our opponents to rally.
Here is what I played
R/G Energy
Creatures
Outland Boar x 1
Embraal Gear-Smasher x 1
Reckless Fireweaver x 1
Freejam Regent x 1
Architect of the Untamed x 1
Peema Aether-Seer x 1
Aether Herder x 1
Thriving Rhino x 1
Instands/Sorceries
Highspire Infusion x 1
Take Down x 2
Furious Reprisal x 1
Chandra’s Revolution x 1
Chandra’s Pyrohelix x 1
Built to Smash x 1
Furious Reprisal x 1
Shock x 1
Artifacts
Fireforger’s Puzzleknot x 1
Daredevil Dragster x 1
Filigree Crawler x 1
Hope of Ghirapur x 1
Renegade Freighter x 1
Panharmonicon x 1
Lands
Spire of Industry x 1
Mountain x 9
Forest x 6
As you can see, my hope was to use Panharmonicon to build up my Energy counters with creatures that have ETB effects resulting in Energy. I ended up casting Panharmonicon all three games, which was good. I wasn’t, however, able to always capitalize on it. When it worked, it was great.
We played three rounds total. Our record going into the final round was 2-0. The last round we agreed to draw with the other undefeated team and split the prizes.
Overall, I think my wife’s deck was better than mine. It was pretty obvious that she was in the driver seat and I was doing my best to be a supporting player. I did my part as well as I could as I used my burn spells to keep creatures off the board and away from Tez.
Two-headed giant is, in my opinion, the best way to play pre-releases. Plus, I had the added advantage of playing with my wife. Score for me!
Did you pre-release this weekend? How many events did you play in? What was your favorite?
Patrick Cossel is the Publisher of The Forge Herald. He is a writer, gamer, father, husband, and Level 1 Magic Judge. Professionally, he is the Operations Manager for a family-owned newspaper company. He can be reached at [email protected]
