Avacyn Restored Pre-Release Part 1 (Saturday)

So my local store held two pre-releases for Avacyn Restored, and this post is about Saturday's tournament which lasted 6 hours and 5 matches. I came in 7th out of 26 players, so I got two booster packs as part of the 50 pack pot.

So... what did I do? We had to make 40 card minimum decks and I wound up building two 45 card decks. Since everything we pulled from the packs was our sideboard, I made this work out very well. My first deck wasn't working so great, but my second one did, which is kind of how I won...

First Deck
White/Blue

Creature Spells
Midnight Duelist x1
Thraben Valiant x2
Angelic Wall x1
Moonlight Geist x1
Scrapskin Drake x1
Galvanic Alchemist x1
Fettergeist x1
Tandem Lookout x1
Goldnight Commander x1
Elgaud Shieldmate x1
Gryff Vanguard x1

Artifact Spells
Bladed Bracers x1
Vanguard's Shield x2
Vessel of Endless Rest x1
Angel's Tomb x1
Moonsilver Spear x1

Other Spells
Second Guess x2
Leap of Faith x2
Crippling Chill x2
Geist Snatch x1
Dreadwaters x1
Banishing Stroke x1
Infinite Reflection x1
Divine Deflection x1

Land
Plains x6
Island x10


Comments: Not the best mana ramp. Only one card was a 1 drop creature and I had just one of those, and I had to have a Plains for it anyway, which since I had more blue spells, I figured a higher amount of Islands would work better. Needless to say, I won just 1 game and lost 3 games with this deck. I lost the first match and the first game of the second match before switching to this one:

Second Deck
Red/Green

Creature Spells
Somberwald Vigilante x2
Diregraf Escort x1
Scalding Devil x1
Lightning Mauler x1
Kruin Striker x1
Nightshade Peddler x1
Timberland Guide x1
Hanweif Lancer x1
Heirs of Stromkirk x1
Mad Prophet x1
Zealous Conscripts x1
Wildwood Geist x3
Geist Trappers x1
Vorstclaw x1
Howlgeist x1

Artifact Spells
Tormentor's Trident

Other Spells
Snare the Skies x1
Battle Hymn x1
Terrifying Presence x1
Grounded x1
Triumph of Ferocity x1
Demolish x2
Vigilante Justice x1

Land
Mountain x9
Forest x9

Comments: This deck ran great. Of course, with every great deck you have a really bad hand every now and then. Like how I lost one game of a match I later won: Nothing but Forests (and a couple of green spells) and a lot of red spells. Doesn't quite work... And then one time when someone pulled out some red black deck. Man that hurt. The best cards out of this deck that I was able to play seemingly without fail in a game and helped me win were Lightning Mauler (1R + 1, Soulbond causing both creatures to have haste, 2/1), Nightshade Peddler (1G + 1, Soulbond causing deathtouch, 1/1), Hanweir Lancer (1R + 2, Soulbond causing first strike, 2/2), Heirs of Stromkirk (2R + 2, Intimidate and +1/+1 each time player gets damaged by creature, 2/2), Mad Prophet (1R + 3, Haste, 2/2), Zealous Conscripts (1R + 4, Haste and gain control of target permanent giving it haste until end of turn, 3/3, [Note: Some people had the 6/4 wurm creatures which I took and smacked then with it as it was their only creature]), Wildwood Geist (1G + 4, +2/+2 as long as it is my turn, 3/3), Vorstclaw (2G + 4, 7/7), Howlgeist (1G + 5, Undying and creatures with less power can't block it, 4/2), and Demolish (1R + 3, "Destroy target artifact or land") all helped.

The best combo there is Hanweir Lancer soulbound to Vorstclaw or Wildwood Geist. If I made this a full 60 card deck, I only have to take out a couple things, add a couple more Hanweir Lancers, and I could have a solid Red/Green deck. Demolish helped a lot during this tournament because you can only use what you get in your booster packs, and to make a 40 card deck, you have to have two colors. Some people played with two mana from their hand each one color, and once I hit four mana, I used Demolish on one, and then on their next land, which was the other color, I would Demolish that as soon as I could because then they would be farther from their high cost cards and would have less of an opportunity to get out cards using their second color.


What did others get?
One of my opponents got a Tibalt, Feind-Blooded and I think he had a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight. Another guy I didn't get to play got a foil Griselbrand, a Cavern of Souls, and a Sigarda, Host of Herons. Yet another person got a Tamiyo, Moon Sage Emblem. I think one or two others got an Avacyn, Angel of Hope. I did not see a Bruna, Light of Alabaster other than the large size ones from the Helvault we opened. Since we had less than 56, everyone got two spindown dice, two large cards, and four Angel/Demon tokens. The two large cards I got were Griselbrand and Bruna, Light of Alabaster.