Fastest Draw In The West

Wow, prerelease was really fun for me. Partially because of a small environment, partially because the legendaries are dumb. But before I get to that, pulls of the night.

Before anything else, I bought the Nefarox Starter Deck (Included Nefarox and a Xathrid Gorgon). Inside the two included packs, I got a Hellion Crucible and a Sphinx of Uthuun (also, one of those packs included a rancor and a foil rancor, which i traded for a Soul of the Harvest, a Harvester of Souls, and a Moonveil Dragon.)

Now to the Sealed Event. I initially spec’d U/B, expecting the black cards to support Talrand, but I realized that too many cards were heavy in black, so I went to krenko and a bunch of red sorceries. 

My Deck was as follows:

1 Talrand, Sky Summoner (A really nice card, but would have been better had I been running more instants and sorceries. Provided a nice flying boost though.)

1 Archaeomancer (Worked EXTREMELY well with talrand, would have been better with an invocation or two.)

1 Courtly Provocateur (Honestly, this card saved my butt so many times 10/10, would pick again)

1 Essence Scatter

1 Negate

1 Unsummon

1 Faerie Invaders (Only used once, didnt use the flash, threw it to Wild Guess twice)

1 Index

1 Kraken Hatchling

1 Mind Sculpt (Only used to trigger talrand or throw to Wild Guess)

1 Krenko, Mob Boss (Really, REALLY fun card. Initially didnt include him, until I realized he worked well even by himself. I got to 30+ goblins two or three times.)

1 Goblin Arsonist

1 Rummaging Goblin (GOOD CARD)

2 Dragon Hatchlings (nice, not great)

1 Furnace Whelp

1 Flames of the Firebrand (as good irl as in the game)

1 Smelt (nice in the limited environ against the rings and a few other things)

1 Trumpet Blast

1 Turn to Slag (expensive but worthwhile creature kill outside of black. I only killed an equipment once, still never regretted casting it.)

1 Chronomatron (REALLY GOOD CARD. Playing this card turn one, game one, round one caused my opponent to sideboard one in game two) 

2 Wild Guess (Nice to pitch useless cards, extra lands)

1 Primal Clay (Never drew, never used.)

Unused Rares: Serra Avenger, Elvish Archdruid (not enough elves), Predatory Rampage, Ground Seal.

Round 1: VS W/B

He had mild exalted themes, but never ran with it. Dont exactly recall game one, but he fell to talrand in game two.

Round 2: VS W/G

The guy’s best card was boundless realms, and used it twice, to little avail. Krenko overran him in games one and three, but I got landflooded game two, even after pitching to wild guess twice. 

Round 3: VS W/B 

He was running an exalted deck (he had Sublime Archangel), but his deck never got off the ground. He got landscrewed in game two, only drawing three lands the whole game. 

The tourney ended early because we had nine people, and after three rounds I was the only undefeated. Final Result: 3/0, or 6/1.

Rares from Prize Packs: Planar Cleansing, Touch of the Eternal, Firewing Pheonix, Boundless Realms, Cathedral of War, plus the Promo Xathrid Gorgon. 

Overall: The deck performed far better than I initially expected, but I felt the mana base could have been tweaked a bit better. I was saved by talrand and krenko expecting different things; I was able to half support each and still use either effectively. My pulls other than those two were nothing to phone home about, but I did do well enough.

WANT LIST: Slumbering Dragon, Thundermaw Hellkite, and Vampire Nocturnuses.