PTQ Card Pool Extremely difficult one (at least for me ^^)

paperclip · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

Here it is:

1x Arbiter of Knollridge
1x Austere Command
1x Thoughtweft Trio
1x Entangling Trap (foil)
1x Knight of Meadowgrain
2x Summon the School
3x Cenn's Heir
1x Kinsbaile Balloonist
1x Kithkin Healer
1x Oaken Brawler
2x Oblivion Ring
1x Soaring Hope
1x Wellgabber Apothecary

1x Aquitect's Will
1x Pestermite
3x Ringskipper
2x Sentinels of Glen Elendra
1x Silvergill Douser
1x Zephyr Net

1x Final Revels
3x Black Poplar Shaman
1x Dreamspoiler Witches
1x Footbottom Feast
1x Hornet Harasser
1x Moonglove Winnower
1x Mournwhelk
1x Peppersmoke
1x Quill-Slinger Boggart
1x Scarred Vinebreeder

1x Heat Shimmer
1x Boggart Shenanigans
1x Changeling Berserker
1x Thundercloud Shaman
2x Axegrinder Giant
2x Blades of Velis Vel
1x Hurly-Burly
1x Inner-Flame Acolyte
1x Smokebraider
1x Stinkdrinker Daredevil

1x Briarhorn
1x Changeling Titan
1x Jagged-Scar Archers
1x Treefolk Harbinger
1x Battelwand Oak
1x Bog-Strider Ash
1x Cloudcrown Oak
1x Elvish Branchbender
2x Elvish Eulogist
1x Gilt-Leaf Ambush
1x Lignify
2x Warren-Scourge Elf
1x Woodland Changeling

1x Sygg, River Guide

1x Springleaf Drum
1x Wanderer's Twig

2x Vivid Grove
1x Vivid Marsh
2x Shimmering Grotto

Tell me your builds and I'll post mine later, it's probably not the best though =X

Avata · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 372

Is this list complete? An entire sealed pool and you only got 9 blue cards?

Well, Looking at the card pool, I won't go through and type out a card by card list, but I think my final build would be Green/Red using the vivid groves and grottos to splash the pair of oblivion rings.

The white at first looks absurd - 2 summon the school, 2 oblivion ring, Austere Command, and Thoughtweft Trio - but the merfolk aren't there to support the schools, and the kithkin aren't there to support the trio, since you really don't want to be playing cenn's heir in sealed. (Note that if you did go base white, some may make the final deck simply to up your kithkin count).

On the other hand, a r/g build would access to excellent champions, a treefolk harbinger to fetch them (then fetch the other, when the first one dies!) large beats in the form of axegrinder giants, and a strong curve, including the amazing smokebraider, which will occasionally just win games.

The other option, of course, is to give in and play the juicy rares white has to offer (the wrong choice, given that outside the rares, your best cards - oblivion ring and kinsable balloonist - are splashable). From there, I would add green as that seems to be your strongest curve/creature base, then add all the vivid lands and grottos and go for a "best of" splash, taking the goods from each color (offsetting the fact that most of your white sucks), which is a surprisingly viable option in a lot of lorwyn pools.

paperclip · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Posts: 2

10, Sygg is blue as well. I forgot 3 cards or person who registered pulled them out but all cards I thought over hard are here it's reconstructed from memory.

Avata · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 372

Edited my above post to include my build suggestions.

MaksymG · Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Posts: 174

well the very first thing that pops up after looking over the card pool and doing some evaluation is that you will almost certainly be playing white, 2 x oblivion ring, 2 x summon the school, kithkin healer, kinsbaile balloonist and to top it all off a very much appreciated austere command. You seem to have several changelings as well as a semi decent kithkin base so thoughtweft trio make this a color that will almost definatly be going in. Past that blue doesnt have enough depth and the only card that really stands out in black is the final revels. When you get to red you have some decent choices including changeling beserker, heat shimmer, 2 x blade of velis vel but very importantly stinkdrinker daredevil along side TWO axegrinder giants AND a thundercloud shaman. Hurly burly and inner flame accolyte seem to be cards that will make the main deck as well so red has some depth to it. Green has a a small treefolk sumtheme but nothing too exciting, the cards to note are briarhorn, changeling titan and to a lesser extent lignify. I do not care to come up with an exact build but it seems to me that with all the mana fixing, (grotos, drum, twig, and maye the groves) you would probably want to splash the green cards and run with a solid white red base that has quite a few tricks and very decent removal alongside an impressive creature base.

Another option to note is the presence of 3 black poplar shamans and while these are not alltogether exciting if you adjust the build to include the green treefolk subtheme you could attempt to run them with hornet harasser, finals revels, footbottom feast! and perhaps some others.

As for whether or not you made top 8? I personally believe that the pool is secondary and that a good player with an average pool with do better than an average player with a good pool and so not knowing your skill level I will not attempt to make that prediction.

Cheers

Avata · Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 372

dv8r · Joined: 15 Oct 2005 Posts: 129

well, the 3 missing cards could be quite important, I'd consider marginal cards like dawnfluke or woodland guidance in this deck as you are that short on playables.

The lack of ameobid changelings is a bit sad as you have a lot of tribal cards with no enablers. This deck is not a t8 deck, it's probably a 3-2 drop deck, you might steal games with briarhorn and command, but you don't really have a lot of the key commons like douser (with some number of merfolk) or aethersnipe or mull drifter (no coincidence these are all blue).

My build is GWb, but it's probably correct to play GWub splashing the double sentinals, in the 20 minutes I couldn't work out how to though.

I disagree with people saying that kithkin are bad. In this sealed format, curve is very important and you even have a kithkin bomb to curve into, and, more importantly, you have a LOT of kithkin to make your heir's quite good... Furthermore, you have late game tricks like Final Revels and Austere Command (not to mention balloonist) to force your tiny army through their big guys. In fact, because of those 2 cards, I almost ran summon the school as a 3W for 2x 1/1...

Because curve is so important for this deck, I'm not playing twig. If you splash blue, say by cutting arbiter of knoll ridge and jagged scar archers for 2x sentinal, then play it

Creatures + Tricks you play on curve
1cc
Treefolk Harbinger

2cc
Woodland Changling
3x Cenn's Heir
Knight of Meadowgrain

3cc
Gilt-Leaf Ambush
Battlewand Oak
Jagged Scar Archers (yes, it's fine as a 1GG 1/1)
Kithkin Healer

4cc
Cloudcrown Oak
Briarhorn
Bogstrider Ash
Kinsbaile Ballonist
Oaken Brawler
Thoughtweft Trio

5cc
Changling Titan

7cc
Arbiter of Knollridge (it's sealed, you need some fat)

Removal
Lignify
2x Oblivion Ring
Austere Command
Final Revels

Lands
8 Plains
6 Forest
2 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh/Swamp (playing 3 cip tapped lands might be too much)

Actually the more I look at it, the better this deck seems. It has good curve, great removal, and late game board sweepers/bombs, I could see this top 8'ing definately, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Wurly · Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

I think GWu is the best way to go. It has the highest power level without sacrificing too much consistency.

ChuckNorris · Joined: 13 Dec 2005 Posts: 108

jared · Joined: 14 Jul 2006 Posts: 47

my friend played a pool like that with 3 giants but 2 instead of just 1 changling. he clasm'd for 2 maximum. and the problem with that is that it kills your small guys. i'd def play GWb for revels.

Grimnos · Joined: 29 Mar 2006 Posts: 10

White has some very good cards. Unfortunately most of them are tribal and you've got very weak tribal support. As painful as it is to cut it I see no other choice. I do splash for o-rings tho.

Blue sucks. Cut.

Black has plenty of playables, but no fat and no bombs. I thought about splashing for Final Revels, but ultimately I preferred the o-rings and consistency. Cut.

Red and Green were a fairly easy conclusion for me, as they have all your meat, and a fair bit of tricks/removal.

1x Changeling Berserker
1x Thundercloud Shaman
2x Axegrinder Giant
1x Briarhorn
1x Changeling Titan
1x Cloudcrown Oak

That's a whopping SEVEN (7) creatures with p/t 3 or greater. Eight if you count the Battlewand, which will almost always be swinging in as a 3/5 or bigger if you're playing correctly, and NINE if you consider Jagged-Scar Archers, which can balloon up with an EoT Ambush. White was the only other color to have ANY 3 p/t creatures, with two. One of which would severely dampen your deck's power because it required tiny kithkin filler to champion, and the other coming in at a staggering seven mana with an ability that at best stalls games, and in some cases can backfire on you.

You also end up with a few nice synergies in RG. Quite a bit of treefolk for Battelwand Oak, which most people fail to realize is gah'damn nuts. A mini giant brigade complete with Stinkdrinker and Thundercloud. A Harbinger and two stellar changelings.

Anyways, here's what I would have went with:

2x Oblivion Ring

1x Changeling Berserker
1x Thundercloud Shaman
2x Axegrinder Giant
1x Blades of Velis Vel
1x Inner-Flame Acolyte
1x Smokebraider
1x Stinkdrinker Daredevil

1x Briarhorn
1x Changeling Titan
1x Jagged-Scar Archers
1x Treefolk Harbinger
1x Battelwand Oak
1x Bog-Strider Ash
1x Cloudcrown Oak
1x Elvish Branchbender
1x Gilt-Leaf Ambush
1x Lignify
1x Warren-Scourge Elf
1x Woodland Changeling

1x Springleaf Drum

2x Vivid Grove
2x Shimmering Grotto

floreskiller · Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 96