Dark Ascension Pre-release

Went 4-0. Deck list and pool for posterity. Don’t expect to ever play DKA sealed again, so I mostly want to discuss how some DKA cards will work for draft.

First, let’s talk about cards that were in the actual deck. Yeah, it was pretty good. And it should’ve been considering I got 10 rares to work with (1 foil, 3 double-sided). I ran 18 lands even though I had a low curve and 2 mana dorks to avoid mana and color screw as much as possible (which seems asinine when you consider I also ran 2 mediocre colorless lands). When you have bombs, you just want to cast them (yep, asinine).

• Mayor of Avabruck - Still the nuts. Obviously. Won me every game I drew it. Whenever you have an iffy opener, it’s always right to try to mulligan into this guy.
• Falkenrath Marauders - I got this card in my INN sealed pool. It’s not quite as good anymore because of Kessig Recluse and Crushing Vines, but still a bomb.
• Huntmaster of the Fells - Unfortunately only drew this guy once out of the full 12 games so I couldn’t get a real good feel for him. Basically won the game for me when I did play him. Not as good as the Mayor. If the front side had the 2 damage to the opponent part instead, this would see a lot more standard play. Most would consider this a bomb since in the best case you get about 4 cards out of this guy (the 4/4 trampler (1), the token (1), the creature burn (1), and what essentially amounts to a 2 point drain to the face (1)). But in reality, he basically does jack shit on a board with something like Mikaeus the Unhallowed. Conditional bomb, whereas the Mayor is always a bomb.
• Fires of Undeath - Burn is good. Flashback burn is better. Who would’ve thought, right? Anyways, this card probably won me more games than all my rares combined. In a deck with about 3 removal spells (2 being splashed) I’m a sack that I drew this virtually every game. Sure glad I drew this instead of the Huntmaster, anyways.
• Crushing Vines - Can probably only run this maindeck in sealed, but it was never a bad draw for me. Killed many dinky fliers and equipments and was insurance against other people’s bombs.
• Kessig Recluse - This card seems NUTS at common. Think Blightwidow, except people play all sorts of dopey fliers now. Stops all of blue and white’s dinky fliers cold and can stave off an opponents fatty. So much flexibility.
• Kruin Outlaw - Still seems like a card that never lives up to its potential. Probably its best use is as a lightning rod for removal; she must’ve eaten like 4 Fires of Undeath today even though she was basically useless on board.
• Scorned Villager - This card is nuts! Dropping 4 drops with this on turn 3 is just as good, if not better than 3’s on turn 2 with Pilgrim. Doesn’t even need to flip to be good. When it does when played on turn 2, it almost feels a little unfair.
• Haunted Fengraf - I think my deck was too good for this card. Seems fine if you’re worried about running out of gas if they remove/mill your bomb, but otherwise it doesn’t justify its harm to your mana base. Wish I hadn’t run it; glad I only drew it once.
• Tragic Slip - The main reason I ran 2 Swamps in addition to the Grotto. Never felt bad to draw, even without the black mana. Unlike the Tribute to Hunger I had and didn’t run main, this card is good the entire game, almost no matter the board state. Would screw my mana base for these again for sure.
• Briarpack Alpha - This thing seems too good in a werewolf deck. There were many times I went turn 3 Villagers of Estwald -> do nothing -> flip on his turn -> flash in Briarpack Alpha. If you’re in position to be aggressive, getting value from the pump is only a bonus. Otherwise, it’s a combat trick that they will have a really hard time dealing with. So flexible!
• Nearheath Stalker - This guy turned out way better than expected. Not sure if it will make the cut in draft, but the value you get from undying cannot be denied. Wished my deck was more conductive with Fling, as this guy seems like he’d be pretty sweet with it.
• Torch Fiend - This seems better than Silverchase Fox, even if the 1 toughness is a pretty huge drawback. This guy and Crushing Vines must’ve killed about 6 equipments total today; 3 times killing an otherwise out of control Butcher’s Cleaver.
• Hinterland Hermit - This guy seems bad, but seemed better than Rakish Heir in this deck (which is just stupid) so I ran him. It seems like such bad value to skip a turn to flip him and even if your opponent can’t cast anything he still seems bad. You can’t even count on him always trading with a 3 toughness guy! Might even be worse than Bloodcrazed Neonate because he has 0 upside? Never drew him and glad I never did.
• Moonmist - If there was ever a deck to have Moonmist, this would probably be the deck. I ran 6 werewolves, 3 being rare. Decided it was too cute and never regretting cutting it. I already had garbage combat tricks like Spidery Grasp cluttering my draws and not once did I wish I drew this instead; unflipped werewolves or not.
• Stensia Bloodhall - I was splashing black anyways, so why not ruin the mana base even more, right? I was expecting long, drawn out games where this land would give me some finishing power (same reason I ran an out of place Orchard Spirit). Only finished off one game with this, when I could’ve won with combat damage anyways.
• Young Wolf - Toyed with the idea of playing this. At best he’ll get in for 1 a few times until he becomes an above average chump blocker. At worst, you draw him late game and he’s pretty much a blank. Unlike the larger undying guys, you can’t count on him to trade for 1 guy, let alone 2. Could see him being OK if you could sac him to something, or had an super-aggressive or equipment-heavy draft deck.
• Wild Hunger - Was considering boarding this in for games with board stalls. That never happened. This card doesn’t seem that great. The dream would be running this with Markov Blademaster when he thought he was safe with an Armored Skaab or something. Doesn’t seems like something you’d want to main when drafting.
• Villagers of Estwald - Still the nuts. Nothing I saw from DKA changed that. Getting this off turn 2 with Pilgrim is one of the best feelings in the format; something that you could never do with Kruin Outlaw. Is this better than Kruin Outlaw? Almost always, yes.

Now let’s move on to cards in my pool I didn’t get to play:

• Dungeon Geists - When I opened this thing first pack, I was so excited. This thing is just the nuts and I saw many other people winning with it today. Sure, maybe it’s not a true bomb because it doesn’t just win games, but it does a pretty damn good job otherwise. I’m really hoping UW spirits is a deck in draft.
• Increasing Devotion - Opened this in my second pack. Though I was going to live the UW dream. This card is not good enough to force it.
• Stromkirk Captain - Then I thought I would live the BR vampires dream. Sadly, only opened like 3 other vampires. These lords seem like they are going to be out of control in draft, even the relatively unimpressive zombie one.
• Relentless Skaabs - Undying just seems out of control. I’m lucky that whenever my opponents played a large undying guy, I drew Falkenrath Marauders to out-race them. Was really expecting an exiling removal spell when undying was first spoiled. Without one, the only real option is to race of have you own undying guys.
• Lingering Souls - Doesn’t seem amazing in sealed, but should tear shit up in draft. As if you didn’t know that already.
• Elgaud Inquisitor - He’s no Mausoleum Guard, but he doesn’t have to be.

Now cards I saw other people play with:

• Mikaeus the Unhallowed - How do you even beat this guy? Just pray you have Smite the Monstrous or Slayer of the Wicked? Perhaps he’ll play into some morbid triggers? Or Helvault? LOL. It also seems impossible to race; well it IS impossible if you’re a humans deck. Such a beast.
• Sorin, Lord of Innistrad - Yeah some kid opened a foil one. And didn’t play with sleeves. Painful. I’d rather see my opponent play this than either Mikaeus, though. Seems like Liliana in limited, very hard to beat on curve, but otherwise it’s just a good card that can’t really take over the late game.
• Increasing Confusion - This card is fucking NUTS. Obviously not as good as Devil’s Play, but this is competing for the best mid to late game finisher in the format. Like an ass, I forgot this thing mills twice as much on the flashback. I could’ve put him to 1 with an alpha the turn before then killed him when he milled my Fires of Undeath. Almost went on tilt.
• Forge Devil - I love this guy. Kills so many things, then either chumps or sacs for value. Felt so bad having my Pilgrim or Outcast getting done in by this guy. This or Geistflame? Of course, it all matters on what the rest of your deck is like, but I’d pick Geistflame over this every time (not that the situation will ever come up).
• Drogskol Captain - I want UW tokens to work so much. Once this guy hits with some of the DKA or even INN spirits in play, pretty much only a Blasphemous Act or Rolling Temblor out of nowhere will beat you.
• Burning Oil - I love RW in draft. I know it sucks, but the idea of using Skirsdag Cultist with the value sac targets of white always tickles my fancy. Sadly, this will not help RW since people will just jack/splash it regardless of the flashback. At least it’s not nearly as good as Brimstone Volley or Geistflame, so there’s some hope it will find it’s way to you before the wheel.

Some things I took away from the pre-release:

• I saw a lot of people playing RG. Does this mean RG will be a decent draft archetype? I still say it won’t. People will still jack your removal (a RR burn spell sure would be nice Wizards!) and unless you get some rare red werewolves, you’re still better off forcing GW with those solid green creatures you’re drafting.
• Is UW spirits for real? In otherwords, is Drogskol Captain worth first picking?  There are 23 straight up spirit creatures, but only 6 commons and 10 uncommons. There are also 9 things that generate spirit tokens, but only 2 are commons; 4 are rare or mythic! But! Drogskol Captain on its own is still a solid card (like most of the uncommon lords) and UW was already a good color combination to be in. So yeah, I might be making the choice (mistake?) of first picking the guy since the upside seems so good. While spirits tribal may never make it big, some amalgamation of UW humans and fliers should be a solid deck.
• Are the other lords first pickable? Who cares about those colors… But really, I already denounced RG. So, no there. UB self-mill is already a solid, well-established archetype that probably won’t be helped all that much by the zombie lord. So, no there too. Then the RB vampire lord is similar to the UW one in that it’s a solid card on it’s own, but I feel the color combination isn’t nearly as solid otherwise (not to mention vamps generally don’t have built in evasion on top of the lord buff). So, probably no there too.
• Did red just get screwed again? Yes.