Shards of Alara Prerelease - Sep 27, 2008

I played the Shards of Alara Prerelease at Mike Ongkeco's newly opened card shop at University Mall beside De La Salle University at Taft Avenue. Apparently, sometimes, thinking positive works, as I was praying and hoping to get a chase rare in my sealed deck card pool... and when I opened my tournament pack and booster packs, I got surprised that I got one of these:



There was then no question that I would be playing RG. :)

Not wanting to overthink deck construction, I just then decided to choose between the Jund (RGB) and Naya (RGW) shards. I ended up choosing Naya, and built the following deck:

// Lands
1 [ALA] Naya Panorama
1 [ALA] Bant Panorama
1 [ALA] Seaside Citadel
6 [ALA] Mountain
5 [ALA] Forest
3 [ALA] Plains

// Creatures
1 [ALA] Wild Nacatl
1 [ALA] Druid of the Anima
1 [ALA] Rip-Clan Crasher
1 [ALA] Guardians of Akrasa
1 [ALA] Gustrider Exuberant
1 [ALA] Naya Battlemage
1 [ALA] Court Archers
2 [ALA] Vithian Stinger
1 [ALA] Ranger of Eos
1 [ALA] Bloodpyre Elemental
1 [ALA] Scourge Devil
1 [ALA] Rakeclaw Gargantuan
1 [ALA] Ridge Rannet
1 [ALA] Feral Hydra

// Spells
1 [ALA] Lush Growth
1 [ALA] Magma Spray
1 [ALA] Resounding Roar
1 [ALA] Sigil Blessing
1 [ALA] Excommunicate
1 [ALA] Resounding Thunder
1 [ALA] Naya Charm
1 [ALA] Sarkhan Vol

I must say -- I got really lucky with my card pool. I got 3 mythic rares (Prince of Thralls, Rafiq of the Many, Sarkhan Vol), and used 1 of them in my deck; I was able to use a couple of other rares (Feral Hydra, Ranger of Eos); and I had enough removal (Magma Spray, Naya Charm, Excommunicate) and mana fixing (Naya & Bant Panorama, Seaside Citadel, Druid of the Anima, Lush Growth) to cast any card in my deck.

I ended up at 2-1-1 though.

I drew on the first round thanks to a crucial misplay on the Exalted mechanic, and my opponent's 2 Metallurgeons (unnecessarily prolonging our games). I won rounds 2 & 3 thanks to my planeswalker. And I lost the final round thanks to the card advantage made by my opponent's Drumhunter.

Aside from Sarkhan, my other MVP's were:


This card is always a 2/2, and most of the time a 3/3.


To fetch Wild Nacatl (wish I had 2 of them to fetch though).


As a win condition (tap all creatures, swing ftw!)

All in all, I had a great time in this prerelease. And it didn't help that I live just 30 minutes away from the venue. :) I sure as hell am going back to UM for more of these tourneys. FNM anyone? ;-)