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Laura MillsI was originally scheduled to judge the Onslaught Prerelease this coming weekend, but I gave up my spot so that a friend of mine could get some more practice judging. This was probably one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. The Prerelease was like waking up from a long, cold winter in hibernation. The exhaustion and boredom of Magic had given away to the vibrant, floral-covered valleys of spring. Onslaught limited has given players back something that is key to enjoying Magic -- interaction. Gone are the days of stall, stall, stall, play broken card, I win. No more cast, cast, cast, turn five you're dead. One might argue that there are several broken cards in this set, but the difference in Onslaught is that there is balance. Answers to bombs like Dragon Roost and Centaur Glade are common (i.e., Naturalize, Demystify). "Breakthrough" cards like Wave of Indifference, Taunting Elf and Choking Tethers allow you to win games with subpar creatures. Each color is allotted creature mechanics that allow for several opportunities to force damage through from attacking creatures: Black has Fear; Blue has Flying; Green has fat; Red has burn; White has the Gustcloaks. Then there are the tricks. Onslaught has a good mix of spells and creatures that give you the opportunity to eliminate opposing threats on both offense and defense. Morphing adds to the array with similar useful tricks. I will admit that my first impression of Morphing was that it would be a very abusive mechanic, especially when put in the hands of better players. Having since played more than twenty rounds against all nature of these Morphing critters, I happily dismiss these notions. The creatures designed with the Morphing ability are balanced. Most of the transforming creatures have abilities that are used for combat tricks. Once revealed, though, the majority of the creatures are not overwhelming threats. Also, once you have played that first game against an opponent, you have a good idea of whether to ignore their Morph creatures, block, or kill them outright when it hits the table. Lastly, Onslaught has been designed such that you almost always have a chance to get in a good game against your opponent. If you aren't getting the land you need, cycling will help you draw into something. Morphing will help you at least put some semblance of defense down while you try to fight your way to that second color. In addition, the format is slow enough that you're going to be able to cast your six- and seven- casting cost creatures to take control of the game. Not a single spell in Onslaught is unplayable due to an unusually high casting cost. When you first look at the spoiler, it is easy to think that you'd never even consider playing Crowd Favorites at 4/4 for a whopping 7 mana. Previous sets have trained us to see better creatures for a similar casting cost. Throw away those preconceptions. In this environment, Crowd Favorites can quickly become a powerhouse. The relative power levels of creatures in Onslaught are costed appropriately. You don't fee! l bad putting in Crowd Favorites and Shieldmage Elder as your 23rd and 24th card (though they will usually hold a higher spot than this), unlike the previous marginal Centaur Veteran and Ember Shot. Onslaught Limited is truly a battle. You've got to fight hard to win every round, even against lesser opponents. Play skill, however, will still give you the victory in the end. Some people might grumble about this, but isn't it more fun for both sides to feel like they've had a chance to play a good game? Alright, onto the Prerelease tournament.... Saturday Prerelease, Pod 1 This is the first time I have ever gotten up early to play in anything other than the last pod of the Prerelease. Saturdays should be spent in bed until at least noon, if not later. For some reason, earlier this week I was plagued with the notion that I wanted to get in as much Onslaught playing as I could. Believe me, this was not from reading any spoiler. So I find myself half-awake at 7:45 in the morning standing in line with about 50 other early birds. The judge staff is ready for this event, and strict rules on Morphing are handed out to everyone. We open and register packs, and I spend a little time looking through the cards I just finished registering. Not bad, a lot of playable cards, probably two colors with a third splash. Then I get to switch with the guy who happens to seems disappointed to have to give away his cards. As I start looking through the cards, I don't blame him. The first card that catches my eye is Dragon Roost. Dragon Roost?!?! Ever since I read Jay's preview of Dragon Roost, I was eagerly hoping to get one of these cards at the Prerelease. Yes, Dragons are cool. One of the local Magic players also decided it would be fun to make miniature Dragon tokens from the Worldgorger Dragon card and hand them out to everyone who received Dragon Roosts at the Prerelease. Yes, you can imagine the responses when I laid out these special little tokens. Dragon Roost or not, this format is not won by a single card alone. My other cards also consisted of 2 Wirewood Savages, 10 Beasts and Riptide Replicator. There were a few elves for mana acceleration and two "Breakthrough" cards: Wave of Indifference and Taunting Elf. I only had two burn spells, but the deck on the whole was pretty amazing. I was incredibly happy when I completed building it, and not because it was so powerful. What I saw was synergy. Cards in the deck worked together not as two-card combos, but a mix of cards each assisting the other permanents on the table -- beasts making other beasts better. Elves making beasts better. Artifacts making Elves better. A splash of constructed had made it to the world of limited. Round 1 -- Chuck playing B/W I was surprised at how many B/W decks I ended up facing. I expected much more Red. The nice thing about Onslaught, though, is that your pool will really decide which colors will work together the best. All the colors have plenty going for them, with no one color being that much dominant over the others. The one exception might be Blue, since I have yet to open enough Blue to make it worthwhile to play. This doesn't automatically mean that Blue should be ignored -- it has some rather powerful cards in its own right. You just need to get the right card pool. I will go so far as to say that Blue may be a worthwhile color to draft. Game 1, Chuck quickly shows me why you don't necessarily need to have power cards to win. He plays a Gluttonous Zombie and immediately enchants it the next turn with Improvised Armor. Since I have no way to get rid of or block a 5/8 Feared Zombie, I have four turns to do sixteen points of damage to him. I just played Dragon Roost, but I need one more land to activate it. I draw that land, create a Dragon and attack the next turn to put him at 11. He attacks me down to three. End of his turn, I create another Dragon and attack with everything so a Wirewood Savage and the two Dragons will get through. If he has Sunfire Balm, Smother, Swat, Feeding Frenzy, Chain of Silence or Renewed Faith, I lose. Fortunately he doesn't. Game 2 isn't fair. Dragon Roost turn 5, he'd dead a few turns later. 1-0 Round 2 -- Bruce playing G/W Bruce isn't happy to see me. Understandable, since he's the one that registered my deck. Game 1, I didn't really think that Wellwisher was all that great a card when I first saw it. Then I had the opportunity to meet one with very few ways to get rid of it. I spent most of my time attacking with a Ravenous Baloth and Thoughtbound Primoc just to keep the Wellwisher from gaining Bruce more than 3 life a turn. I drew into a Wave of Indifference and a Shock, but decided to hold the Shock and wait until I built my forces up enough to swing at once for the win. Meanwhile, Bruce is hoping for a Wirewood Lodge to make my life even more miserable. He doesn't find it before I build up enough forces to attack for the win. Game 2, Onslaught has the ability to save you from most mana problems, except mana flood. Baloth comes into play again and attacks with Primoc several times for the game. 2-0 Round 3 -- Jessica playing B/W This is cool. Two women 2-0 sitting at table 1. I told her if there were any feature matches at a Prerelease, this would be one of them. "Sad, isn't it?", she replies. Yes, it really is. This game is fun -- where are the rest of you women hiding? Game 1, Jessica's deck is all about bringing the black/white weenie rush. I am down to thirteen before I can stabilize. A single 4/4 stops the weenies, and a Primoc spent several turns taking her down to zero while she can't find an answer. Game 2, her weenie rush is too much for me. I get a little land flooded, but with me at 13 life and her at 20, she sees no harm in letting a Shepherd of Rot do most of the dirty work to put me to zero. Game 3, I again see the early creature rush. I recover with some fat, but decide to leave them back as blockers until I can fully stabilize since I have Dragon Roost in hand. Fortunately, I get the Baloth/Riptide Replicator combo working first to stave off the damage from 2 Severed Legions. When I feel comfortable, I start making Dragons to finish the job. 3-0 This match had special significance to me. After the match was over, Jessica came back gushing and saying that she had no idea I was such a good player (someone apparently told her that I went to Nationals earlier this year), and that she thanked me for being able to have such a fun match. That totally made my day. There is never any reason not to be friendly to your opponents, regardless of their skill level. There is something right about having your opponent walk away feeling good even after losing a match. This is why Magic is enjoyable, why people want to keep playing the game. Yes, we really do want people to keep playing this game. Round 4 -- Taylor playing G/B Game 1, my "Breakthrough" spells dominate. I get out Ravenous Baloth, Leery Fogbeast and Wirewood Savage. Taunting Elf puts Taylor down to 6. Next turn, Wave of Indifference finishes the job. Yes, my deck is really good. Game 2, we get a little more of a match going. I get pushed down to 8 from Taylor's 4/4 Beasts, but Dragon Roost starts serving up defense so I can attack a couple of turns later for the win. 4-0 Round 5 -- Chris playing B/W Some matches you just don't remember. Sometimes you remember matches because of mistakes you made or tight wins you pull out. Other times, it might be due to just enjoying the person you sat down to play against. When your opponent doesn't say much of anything during the match and you win easily, you don't remember much. This was one of those matches. Game 1, my notes indicate two 3-power beasts do all the grunt work with little resistance. Game 2, a Primoc flies over for some early damage, and Wave of Indifference breaks through for the win. Round 6 -- Alan playing B/W Another B/W? I was beginning to wonder if B/W was really that good, or if people were being dragged into certain colors by the B/W cleric synergies. Game 1, Alan can't block an Elven Riders. Who needs Dragon Roost? Game 2, I manage to get some early damage in from a Symbiotic Beast, but Alan counters with a Gustcloak Savior I can't block. I manage to get out a Riptide Replicator late, but his Crowd Favorites (remember this supposedly overcosted critter?) keeps them at bay. I am at five life when he decides to attack with the Gustcloak Savior and another large creature after tapping all but my Wirewood Savage at the end of my turn. I make a beast from the Replicator in response, but he taps it with his Crowd Favorites. He has four mana to tap my only remaining blocker, the Wirewood Savage. He doesn't. The Savage blocks the lethal damage. I have Wave of Indifference in hand, and need one more mana to tap all his creatures and come in with 4 beasts for the win. I draw the land. I let Alan know that if he would have tapped my Savage, he would have won. He agreed, but he was afraid of something he might have to tap during my turn. Proper judgment is important to winning games, especially in limited. Round 7 -- Johnny playing B/G/w I am the only person at 6-0 going into the final round. The head judge makes sure to note that I haven't lost a single game to the male species today. Great, that'll curse me. Game 1, Johnny and I both get out hard-to-deal-with creatures. His are a Severed Legion and a Gluttonous Zombie, mine is a Dragon Roost. Johnny manages to Pacify my first Dragon, and I get another one out. The game goes to the wire as I need to do 8 more damage before Johnny can do 9 to me. Instead of making another dragon, I decide to cast two Morphed creatures to put Johnny down to 6 from the Wretched Anurid. This is were I learn that MORPH CREATURES CAN'T BLOCK CREATURES WITH FEAR. Morph creatures are colorless, which doesn't fall under the category of artifact and/or black. I am at 4 life. It doesn't matter, though, if he can't stop the Dragon. A Vitality Charm wins the game even if he gets rid of the Wretched Anurid in response to me attempting to create a Dragon token. Game 2, I can't stop Johnny's fliers even though Baloth tries valiantly to keep me alive. A final mass attack leaves me lifeless. Game 3, Johnny plays his only Wirewood Savage early for the THIRD TIME. I think I've seen one of my two late the first game. To add insult to injury, Johnny first Naturalizes my Replicator and then uses Oblation on my Dragon Roost. I think I get a net total of one beast from the Replicator. A Nantuko Husk beats me over the head for a while, but I manage to muck up the ground until time is called and the match is a draw. We decide to keep playing for fun. I attack enough to get Johnny down to 8 while a Pacified Baloth keeps me breathing. I draw into Krosan Groundbreaker. The trample ability is enough to allow me to finish Johnny off the next turn. Johnny decides to force a hefty attack with a Venomspout Brakus and a Snarling Undorak. By this time, a friend I had driven to the Prerelease is distracting me and I've lost concentration. I stupidly block with the Groundbreaker and lose it to the Undorak pumping ability. I just don't want to even bother at this point, and fold up the cards. 6-0-1 I am first on tiebreakers, and get the coveted 10 packs of boosters for the effort. Now that I look back at this report and my earlier statements, it might seem that Onslaught really is ruled by power cards and games are over as quickly as they are started. The unfortunate part about writing a report post-mortem is that you can't really see that plenty of the games really were struggles, even with the powerful deck I was wielding. You might even go so far as to think that my enjoyment of Onslaught is tainted by being handed such a deck. The only thing that stands in the way of these conclusions is that I had the opportunity to play on Sunday again. This time registered an amazing deck I didn't get to keep. The cards I received were mediocre. No breakthrough cards, not even a Taunting Elf. No tricks other than Morph and burn. Five creatures that weren't elves, three good burn spells that weren't Erratic Explosions. Two Wellwishers didn't prove out to be the bombs I expected when I faced a turn two Goblin Sparksmith more times than I can count in a sea of B/R matches. I even incorrectly splashed Blue instead of Black to finish the deck. I still managed to post a 5-2 record through my own sheer force of will. Of the two matches I lost, I still pulled out a game win. If I had initially splashed black instead of blue, I am sure that I could have upped that record to at least 6-1. My Sunday deck still didn't sway my opinion of Onslaught. I love this set. Laura * I really, really dislike footnotes in articles because they tend to distract from the flow of the writing. However, I must commit a necessary evil in order to clarify my title since I just read the opening paragraph for Zvi's Monday column. I am not plagiarizing any of Zvi's insights or comments, this is merely the exact thought that crossed my mind after I had just finished playing my first round of the Prerelease this weekend. That opinion didn't change several days later, so I am just sticking with the thought. No portion of this web site may be used in any way without expressed written consent. All rights reserved. Magic the Gathering and it's respective properties are copyright Wizards of the Coast. Privacy Policy |
  
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