Mirrodin Besieged Prerelease Tournament report

This is a delayed report from my Mirrodin Besieged prerelease.  I played in Cebu at JY Square Mall.

For the first time in a while, registration was full at 60 players.  I saw as many as 3 girls playing.  Lots of new faces and familiar faces (especially the eventual winners).

For the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease, players were asked to choose a faction before the tournament started.  I chose the Phyrexian faction because of the availability of creature kill spells and the overall strength of the Infect mechanic.  I wanted to play the Mirran faction because they seemed to be the underdogs (and I must say that it's a mistake to consider them as such).

For the new expansion, the Phyrexians have Living Weapon.  Living Weapon is an ability placed on several equipments that puts a 0/0 Germ token into play and the equipment immediately attaches to the token.  The Mirrans have Battle Cry - a cumulative +1/+0 for other attacking creatures.

To summarize my deck, I opened a foil Geth, Lord of the Vault from my first Scars of Mirrodin pack.  I don't remember the other rares from Scars.  In Mirrodin Besieged, I also opened a Massacre Wurm which told me then and there that I was really going to play black.

Other key cards included in the deck were Palladium Myr, Grasp of Darkness, Spread the Sickness, 2 Viridian Emissary (the new Sakura Tribe-Elder), and 2 Viridian Corrupter (or was it just one - I don't remember).

First round:

After shuffling my opponent's deck, I had a feeling that I'd cruise this round as I asked whether he was playing a 40-card deck.  He answered casually that he was playing 54 cards.  I had a nice curve coming out as I was able to play Septic Rats, Rot Wolf and the suddenly wonderful Phyrexian Vatmother to finish him after just two attacks.  My opponent's eyes widened as he couldn't believe that I just finished him that quickly.

The second match pretty much ended the same way.  I was feeling confident that I had a great deck.

I took my opponent's deck and made suggestions on what to cut off from the original 54-card build.  He was playing mono-white (and Mirran, by the way).  He did have lots of good white cards.  Yes, I was able to finish him that quickly because we had a lot of time to talk about his deck.

Second round:

I was paired with Mike Tiña and he was playing Mirran.  Bad round for me as he played an artifact in the first 2 turns and dropped an Etched Champion on the third turn.  More like game over as the Etched Champion became super god on the board.  I was able to remove one of the artifacts (using a colored spell) but couldn't get a 2nd removal spell.  Meanwhile, the Etched Champion got his metalcraft back online and I couldn't get my Sylvok Replica nor any other artifact in.

The second match pretty much remained the same.  He got two Leonin Skyhunters out after 3 turns and the bashing was on.

Underestimate the Mirrans?  I shouldn't.  I congratulated Mike and commented that he had a very fast deck.

Third round:

This was sort of my best round.  In the first game where I was placed in a difficult board disadvantage because he had more creatures out, I was able to wipe them all off the board with a Massacre Wurm.  I had a Moriok Replica blocking an Infect creature and sacrificed it to draw two cards.  The second card that I got was the Massacre Wurm.  The opponent kept on casting more creatures and I had a big smile on my face.  When his turn was done, he had 5 creatures and all with 2 or less toughness.  I had only two creatures left (a Plague Myr and a non-Infect creature).  The Plague Myr provided the 6th mana I needed to cast Massacre Wurm, wiped out his board and dealt a loss of 10 life.  My other non-Infect creature attacked and I was smiling after dealing 12 total points of damage or life loss.

The second game had me casting Geth, Lord of the Vault for the first time in the tournament.   I was able to get a Skinrender in one turn - killing off an attacker.  A Viridian Corrupter was reanimated in another turn, allowing me to kill an attacking artifact creature.  I didn't have a problem attacking with these creatures the turn after they were reanimated.  If they got killed, I would just take them back with Geth.

Fourth round:

The fourth round was where I realized the value of Palladium Myr.  Fourth turn Massacre Wurm was basically game over for my opponent.

MVP for the prerelease would have to be Massacre Wurm.  It's just too good.  I'll give out an honorable mention to my 2 Viridian Emissary and Palladium Myr.  Plague Myr helped also.

All in all, I find the faction decision to be a new experience.  I wonder how it will go for the third set in the block.

Top 10 Mirrodin Besieged cards

Mirrodin Besieged is out!  I'm loving it all the way after a great prerelease playing the Phyrexian faction.  I thought that Phyrexians would win it all the way but I was wrong.  Anyway, the Mirrodin Besieged prerelease is another story for another entry.  For now, I'm on top of things listing my choices for Top 10 Mirrodin Besieged cards.

Honorable mention: Creeping Corrosion

The theme for my top 10 list seems to be "Destroy a lot of permanents."  Creeping Corrosion just couldn't make it into the top 10 but it's a great utility card to rid of all those pesky artifacts.  For now, with decks usually being color-oriented, it doesn't warrant such a need to be higher in the list.

10. Rally the Forces

Rally the Forces is one of two red cards and I find it amusing that they are both common.  It seems that red is being pushed to be aggressive and creature based, a far cry from the red blasting from before.  What makes Rally the Forces a little bit better from its predecessors is that it adds first strike.  That is enough to gain an upper hand in a setting where there's a deadlock.

9. Inkmoth Nexus

The only land in the list makes it 1 out of 2 for Mirrodin Besieged lands (not counting the basic lands).  The Infect ability that the creature it becomes has makes it a great card helping to tighten the clock on the opponent.

8. Victory's Herald

This is quite a finisher for white (and even red, if paired with the color for faction purposes).  Everybody just loves it when they get all creatures to fly.  What makes this card rated lower than it should be is the expensive casting cost.

7. Massacre Wurm

This is one bad ass black card.  During the prerelease, I got to pull off killing an overextending opponent's 5 creatures after casting Massacre Wurm.  That got me to deal 10 life loss.  I turned around the game from thereon.  So, my listing seems to be a bit biased but Massacre Wurm is a great salute to its predecessor.  Good casting cost at good power/toughness.  And, if the opponent gets to stop the wurm from attacking, the life loss ability is still right there doing damage.

6. Concussive Bolt

The second of the red cards is a doozy.  It's quite the finisher and not just because of the damage it deals.  The metalcraft ability should be easy to achieve and is the main reason why Concussive Bolt is smacked right around the middle of my list.  Red can easily create a deck that revolves around artifacts and lots of creatures.  Get it all together then BAM! Game over.  Opponent has no chance of blocking the attackers.

5. Black Sun's Zenith

The Zeniths are Mirrodin Besieged's version of the Beacons from Fifth Dawn.  The Zeniths, so far, are fair but two of them are in this list.  Black Sun's Zenith is a killer and if it shouldn't kill all, at least it has impaired the rest that remains.

4. Green Sun's Zenith

And right next to the Black Sun's Zenith is the green version.  Green is just chock full of big and powerful creatures.  And why stop there?  Those big Eldrazi legends from Rise of the Eldrazi are just ripe to be searched.  Ditto the fatties from the other colors.  And green is just the right color, with its ability to generate lots of mana.

3. Phyrexian Rebirth

White seems to get all the fun with massive creature removal.  And to top it all off, you can put a creature into the battlefield, all in one smooth swoop.  It's quite nice that the designers and developers decided to leak the Phyrexian faction into white otherwise it would just be too good in black.  The Phyrexian faction are forced to play white.

2. Thrun, the Last Troll

How ironic that there's no blue card in my list.  And in number 2 is one card that just screams, "I HATE BLUE!"  Thrun is not just against blue cards.  For every card out there that says "Destroy all creatures", Thrun will just reply with a simple regenerate.  Making him a legendary creature hurts but a single Thrun should bring in a lot of damage.

1. Blightsteel Colossus

This card just seems to scream "I WIN" and you would just believe it.  There is no other card that can do it in one attack (and even give you an extra poison counter just for keeps).  Darksteel Colossus whimpers at the sight of the new colossus.  Would I be seeing it in a deck soon?  People are talking about using Shape Anew to get this card out faster.  There are several other options like Kuldotha Forgemaster (and even Mass Polymorph).  By itself, the card is a winner and rightfully so.

I find it amusing that Mirrodin Besieged, being the second set of the Scars of Mirrodin block, does not have glaringly good artifacts save for the number 1 card in my list.  Power is well distributed among the colors and as usual, blue is circumcised.

I can't wait for the next expansion and you heard it from here first, it's going to be New Phyrexia.  Why do I say so?  Because it would be just too boring if the good guys (and I presume that it's the Mirrans who are the good guys) win.  More conflict would mean more stories.