Limited Play – Avacyn Restored

With the launch of Avacyn Restored looming, last weekend was full of Pre-Release events with Sci-Fi Genre, our local game store here in Durham, NC, running three separate events over the weekend, two of which featured the Helvault. With seven members of The Escapist staff in tow, we showed up to the Sunday event eager to delve into the new set and ready to play. Kross, s0osleepie, Myan, Sir Isaac, Slycne, Trujkin, and, of course, myself battled it out with a whopping 74 total players at the Sealed Deck event with more than half of our crew taking home prizes. Having acquired some much-needed experience in Sealed with the Dark Ascension pre-release, I fared much better this time around, going undefeated and intentionally drawing Round Four to split the prize difference with my opponent. I played mostly White splashing Green for ramp and Black for removal, the final decklist and card pool you can check out here. Suffice to say, I was pretty pleased with how my deck played out. While I was concerned about my mana curve, with the ramp elements of the deck I didn’t have much trouble casting even the largest of creatures. Only once over the course of the day did I lose with cards stuck in my hand without the mana to cast them. Before I break down the rounds, I’ll run through some card choices.

Construction

First things first, in my second pack I opened Avacyn, Angel of Hope, which I immediately took to be a red herring like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed which I played during the Dark Ascension pre-release, in that it was a great bomb that I’d probably never be able to cast. I was leaning towards White, but wasn’t quite sold given that I would need to get to eight mana somehow to cast her. Then I opened Angel of Glory’s Rise and Goldnight Redeemer and was pretty convinced I had to play white, if only for the evasive bombs. A Somberwald Sage in my last pack moved me into Green as an enabler for my small army of Angels. At this point I was pretty set on White/Green ramp but I had only minimal removal in Defang and Righteous Blow plus some deterrence in Nightshade Peddler. I figured that this was not going to be consistent enough to win me games, as the deck was shaping up to be very slow, and would need to survive for a minimum of five turns before I could really do anything at all, and that’s only if I drew my Somberwald Sage. I started looking for removal, and noted Death Wind and Undead Executioner in Black. Since I only had three mana fixers, I had to commit to Black fairly heavily with three Swamps, but the inclusion won me multiple games and I am quite content with how it worked out. I opted to include my entire arsenal of equipment to boost up my early creatures in order to help them in their defensive role while I waited for my Angels to take to the skies. The only card I really ever wished was something else was Angel’s Tomb. Given that I was playing for the long game, 3 damage here and there just didn’t make enough real difference and I could have really used that Joint Assault in its place. Of course, I didn’t have this realization until after the third round when it was a little late to do much about it.

Round One

Round one I sat across from what may have been the youngest Magic player I’ve ever met. I felt terrible when he mulliganed for the first game. Then mulliganed again and again, on down to one card. He didn’t raise too much of a fuss about it, cheerfully wondering aloud how he had still not drawn any land. After a quick match, I made some suggestions for fixing up his deck and wished him luck for the rest of the day.

Round Two

Round two was much more exciting with my opponent on a Red Green aggro plan. Game one he lead with a Fervent Cathar and followed that up with plenty of Soulbond creatures. I put out Angelic Armaments and followed up with Undead Executioner. Once equipped, and noting the text of the equipment, my opponent commented on the White Black Zombie Angel monstrosity I had just created. I was endlessly amused. Once he cleared out my Executioner, he put out a Pathbreaker Wurm which I followed up with an Angel of Glory’s Rise. I traded my Angel for his Wurm and played Defy Death bringing the Angel back with two +1/+1 counters which, now equipped with Bladed Bracers, threatened him with lethal damage in two turns. He cast another Pathbreaker Wurm and I swung for half his life total. After some audible prayers, he looked at the top card of his library and revealed it to be Revenge of the Hunted. He Miracle’d it on his paired Nightshade Peddler, meaning that he only had to assign one damage to a blocking creature for it to be lethal. He swung with his 7/7 Deathtouch Peddler and his Wurm for 12 damage, just enough to end the game. Game two was also down to the wire. I got an early Nearheath Pilgrim Soulbonded with a Midvast Protector and we traded damage for a few turns. He destroyed my Angelic Armaments with some boarded-in artifact hate, and I was looking to be on the ropes. He furthered his lock by enchanting a creature with Lightning Prowess, following that with a Nightshade Peddler and pairing the two. His creature now reads “Tap: Destroy target creature.” I re-read the text on Defang and breathed a sigh of relief, as it prevents all damage, not just combat damage, thereby nullifying that threat, and getting huge value out of my removal. I followed up with my own Pathbreaker Wurm and started swinging big, and he was never able to recover, but I was still sweating. Our last game was not quite so close. My turn three Somberwald Sage turned into a turn five Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I paired her with my Nearheath Pilgrim, making her 8/8 Flying, Vigilance, Lifelink, Indestructible. After swinging with her once, my opponent drew one last card and conceded.

Round Three

Round three was just as exciting as the last, with my opponent playing a really mean Red Black concoction, featuring two copies of Homicidal Seclusion. Game one I drew all of my equipment and none of my creatures. He quickly ran over my defenseless board and ate me alive. I was a little taken aback by the absolute beating I took that game, but I wasn’t going to let myself get psyched out that easily. I shuffled up and presented, ready to win this time. And win I did. An early Somberwald Sage lead to a mid-game Avacyn with two other creatures on the board. He tapped out to cast Killing Wave for 6, with me at 16 life, I had to sacrifice my board except for Avacyn herself, who put me down to 10. I swung again and, threatening lethal damage next turn, he drew for the turn and conceded. Game three was an epic struggle for survival on both sides of the table. He cast a Demonic Taskmaster with some other creatures on the board, and I immediately Defang’d his Taskmaster, but had to hold back my troops to force him to sacrifice his other creatures to the Demon. He was finally down to just the Taskmaster, after casting a Homicidal Seclusion, and then another, making his fortunately harmless Demon a 10/5 Flying Lifelink that couldn’t deal any damage. He cast a Bonfire of the Damned for two, missing his chance at a miracle casting which would have cleared my board, but still taking out more than half of my creatures. I knew I had to start dealing damage if I wanted to win, so I took the risk and attacked. He blocked my Wurm, finally getting rid of the Taskmaster that had kept him from casting any other creatures. At this point I was on the edge of my seat. If he cast a creature, I was done for, since any solitary creature on his side was getting +6/+2 and Lifelink, which could easily race my 6 damage per turn. I didn’t have enough mana to cast Avacyn if I drew it, since he killed my Somerwald Sage with his Bonfire. I was terrified to see what he had in his hand. He drew and smiled. He dropped a land and cast Essence Harvest for 0. That was it. He scooped, we shook, and I breathed another heavy sigh of relief.

Round Four

My round four opponent was apparently new to Magic, having only been playing for a few months. I commended him for going 3-0 during his first Sealed Deck tournament, and we agreed to Draw the last round in order to split the difference in prize packs. We played two games for fun anyways, and ended up going 1 and 1. In hindsight I wish we’d played a third game, if only to sate my curiosity as to who would have come out on top, but his Moonsilver Spear really wrecked me in the second game, and I was eager to open more booster packs.

Q&A

Q: I control Blood Artist, Rakish Heir, and Falkenrath Aristocrat. My opponent controls three 1/1 Human creature tokens. They cast Day of Judgment, in response I sacrifice my Rakish Heir to make Falkenrath Aristocrat indestructible until end of turn. After Day of Judgment has resolved, how many times does Blood Artist’s ability trigger in all?

A: First, Blood Artist’s ability will trigger when you sacrifice Rakish Heir to Falkenrath Aristocrat. That’s one. Then, when Day of Judgment resolves, his ability will trigger for each creature that dies, including himself, as per his wording. Three Human creature tokens and the Blood Artist himself makes four more triggers. Remember that the Aristocrat is Indestructible this turn. All told, there have been five triggers, so your opponent has lost five life, and you’ve gained five life. The tricky part here is knowing when Blood Artist ‘sees’ other creatures dying, and in the case of a board wipe, like Day of Judgment, all creatures will see all other creatures die, triggering their on-death abilities.

603.6d Normally, objects that exist immediately after an event are checked to see if the event matched any trigger conditions. Continuous effects that exist at that time are used to determine what the trigger conditions are and what the objects involved in the event look like. However, some triggered abilities must be treated specially. Leaves-the-battlefield abilities, abilities that trigger when a permanent phases out, abilities that trigger when an object that all players can see is put into a hand or library, abilities that trigger specifically when an object becomes unattached, abilities that trigger when a player loses control of an object, and abilities that trigger when a player planeswalks away from a plane will trigger based on their existence, and the appearance of objects, prior to the event rather than afterward. The game has to “look back in time” to determine if these abilities trigger.
Example: Two creatures are on the battlefield along with an artifact that has the ability “Whenever a creature dies, you gain 1 life.” Someone plays a spell that destroys all artifacts, creatures, and enchantments. The artifact’s ability triggers twice, even though the artifact goes to its owner’s graveyard at the same time as the creatures.

Oracle 5/1/2012: If Blood Artist and one or more other creatures die at the same time, its ability will trigger for each of those creatures.

Question of the Week

Your opponent controls Wolfir Silverheart paired with Trusted Forcemage and a Borderland Ranger. You control Ulvenwald Tracker who is paired with Nightshade Peddler as well as a Borderland Ranger. They attack with the Wolfir Silverheart and Trusted Forcemage. Before blockers are declared, you use Ulvenwald Tracker’s ability to make Nightshade Peddler and Wolfir Silverheart fight. Both creatures die. You then declare Borderland Ranger blocking the Trusted Forcemage. Before combat damage is dealt, they cast Cloudshift targeting the Trusted Forcemage and pairing it with their own Borderland Ranger when it re-enters the Battlefield. What happens when combat damage resolves?