Things I Learned About Dragon’s Maze Sealed

So over the weekend I decided to play in a “Release Top 8 Sealed” on my wife’s suggestion because it started early in the morning.  At about five minutes to 8:00 am I jumped in the queue and was off to the races.  Being a relatively small turnout (like 90ish players I think), I figured it would be like 6 rounds, not remembering what the cutoff was. But these tournaments are actually set at 7 rounds. SEVEN minimum. Yikes.
Lesson: Know the tournament structure.

I opened a fairly mediocre card pool and shrugged at my chances. Check it out and see if there is a way you would build it differently.

The tournament was long and arduous, with almost every round going to time for some reason. After round five I was 5-0 and feeling great about my top 8 prospects, then I lost round 6. I’m fairly sure I didn’t make any mistakes in that round, but I beat myself up over it… until I won round 7! Redemption! Also, a lock for top 8.
Lesson: Don’t let the bad losses get you down, rebound!

There is nothing sweeter than making top 8 of an event where you get to draft for top 8.  The fact that you got your original sealed pool and did well with it, then get a free draft in? Pure gravy.
Lesson: Top 8 Drafts are the icing on the cake.

Sadly, my draft did not go very well. I opened Teysa, and being an idiot, took her with the intention of focusing W/B. Unfortunately everyone else had similar ideas. The first guy I played in the quarters was Esper and the guy I played in the semifinals was w/b/g/r (mostly w/b I think). Also, I never cast Teysa for whatever reason.
Lesson: Don’t take Teysa, IT’S A TRAP!!!

And of course, the spoils!

And the QPs!

Next time i’ll review my decks again and give you guys an update on my progress towards MOCS Season 6! Thanks for reading!

Weapons of Choice for MOCS Season 6

MOCS Season Six is underway! Here is my current Qualifier Point total:

So we’re at six points and hopefully going up! This season I am going to aim for 35 points to ultimately bypass the season preliminaries and go directly to the MOCS End of Season Tournament.  Today I’ll take a look at each deck that I’m running in the various constructed formats.

Standard Constructed

In Standard I’m running this Black/White/Green Aristocrat deck.  While this deck has nowhere near the raw power of a deck like Jund or Junk Reanimator, it is a blast to play.  Voice of Resurgence would be the best card in Standard if Pillar of Flame were not in the format.  For this reason, against red decks get a Cartel Arisocrat or Varolz, the Scar-Striped down before the Voice if possible. Just having one of those sacrifice outlets makes the deck much better.

We all know how good Lingering Souls is and it is especially potent with the token you get from Voice of Resurgence dying.  Advent of the Wurm is also great.  The only change I’m considering is moving Abrupt Decay to the main and Sin Collector to the board. So far I have 3-1’d two Daily events with this deck and lost an 8-man tournament.

Return to Ravnica Block Constructed

RTR Block Constructed has been a tough one after Dragon’s Maze became legal. After playing RDW until DGM came out, I switched to Rob Castellon’s deck from Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze so that I could play with Voice of Resurgence. After finding it to be okay but kinda mediocre, I tried Selesnya Aggro but it wasn’t quite right. So now I’ll give Golgari a spin as it seems to have the right combination of power and consistency that I’m looking for.

I haven’t yet played this one in a tournament, but will be soon.

Pauper Constructed

Pauper is so crazy. Elevating the price of some commons to 3-5 tickets each… just crazy. I already had all of the cards to build the MonoGreen Stompy deck, so I’ve been taking it for a spin since Season 4. It has allowed me to 3-1 several dailies, but I think that recently people have really begun to figure out how to counter it. I may brew up my own Pauper deck in the near future, just for fun.

I will probably only play in the random Pauper dailies that fit my schedule perfectly, but won’t rely on the format for QPs.

Momir Basic Constructed

Momir Basic is essentially ridiculous. You get to play with all kinds of random creatures throughout Magic’s history and it’s probably the most fun you’ll ever have in a Daily. Watch out at the 7-mana slot, though, Phage the Untouchable is waiting to lose the game for you. It has happened to me four times. FOUR. And I think I’ve only played 5-6 Momir events total.  Bad luck, huh?

My deck consists of 20 swamps, 20 mountains, 10 forests, and 5 each of plains and islands. This is due to the majority of upkeep costs, abilities, etc, being black or red in color. Most importantly that of Kuro, Pitlord, which is a game-ender if you get him.

I do not have a Modern, Legacy, or Classic deck.  I never really got into Masters Edition to obtain the older cards, and they are hella expensive now, so I just pass on those formats. Maybe someday I will pick them up when the older cards get cheaper. C’mon reprints!

Oh, on another note, I have the ability to stream! Check me out at Twitch.tv/moxdoogle ! I won’t be streaming on a regular schedule and I’m sure I’ll be losing more often than winning, but whenever I start a stream a Tweet will go out on my Twitter.  Until next time, have fun out there!