So I went to an M11 Prerelease yesterday, officiated by Dr. Jeebus. My sealed pool was silly. I had 4 bomb rares in the form of:

Garruk
Ajani Goldmane
Birds of Paradise
Vengeful Archon

Needless to say, I went G/W. I also splashed Red for a Fireball and a Fling. I had good creature support, and some nice beats in the form of Serra Angel, Yavimaya Wurm, and the 7/7 trample guy whose name I forget. Unfortunately, Fling and Giant Growth were pretty much the extent of combat tricks. No Blinding Mages, no Condemns, and Fog and Safe Passage just weren't good enough to put in the main deck.

Unfortunately, my friend pulled Baneslayer, and I had to play him first round. He was blue/white with all sorts of scrying and bounce, not to mention Silence, and I got terrible draws that didn't mull into anything better. He also had Clone and that giant Leviathan that turns everything into Islands and then Islandwalks. Somehow, he only took second place in the overall tournament. My brother will say it's because he ran Tome Scour main deck. He's probably right.

After losing Round 1, I played 2 terrible opponents who I beat easily. After beating my Round 3 opponent in under ten minutes, we played for fun with some constructed decks. I don't play Standard, so I played my multiplayer decks against his Standard decks. He beat me with Vampires and Elves, proving that any idiot can copy an aggro deck off the internet and win matches without any understanding as to how the game actually works. Multiple times he played a land before untapping.

Round 4, I played another one of my friends. We went to time in Match 3, and ended up tying. One more turn, and he would have won.

Round 5, I played another guy who had a 2-1-1 record. I think his deck was pretty good, but I couldn't really tell. He got landscrewed both games and my deck finally accelerated the way it was supposed to. First game, I had out Vengeful Archon by Turn 5 with Birds and Llanowar Elves while he was stuck at 3 lands. Game 2, I got out Garruk on Turn 5 and then dropped guys faster than he could deal with them.

I ended up in 4th place, which I was fairly happy with. My friend that I faced in Round 4 took 5th.

My other rares from my sealed pool were: Phlactery Lich and Leyline of the Void

My rares from my prize packs were: Leyline of the Void, Leyline of Anticipation, Jinxed Idol, and Nantuko Shade.

I don't have any Leylines of the Void, and I've been wanting them. I was hoping for a Reverberate and maybe a Red Leyline, but overall I'm pretty happy with what I pulled.

Really? My general understanding was that Fog effects are a 22nd card if you need one. I understand that it's better than Fog by a long shot, but still. I don't remember seeing anyone ever play it in M10. Certainly not everybody's favorite ranked player. Makes me feel dumb. I had TWO of them.

The thing about Fog is that it doesn't change the board. Basically, it buys you one extra turn. If you've got shitty board position, Fog is just delaying your inevitable loss. Safe Passage is lot more versatie.

UsaSatsui wrote:

In addition, if a good player suspects you may have a Fog, they'll play around it.

It's like a story that Richard Garfield told once in the Duelist, from the early days of Magic. Garfield is at 4 life, and he's playing a reanimator deck against his friend. His friend swings at him with some classic fatty, possibly Shivan, for lethal damage. The friend asks Garfield if he has Fog. Garfield says no. Friend then empties his hand, casting double Giant Growth and double Berserk. Then Garfield plays Fog. Shivan dies, Garfield reanimates on his turn, and proceeds to use the momentum shift to win.

Lessons learned:

1. A player is not compelled to be truthful about what's in their hand unless a spell or effect forces them to.
2. Never assume your opponent isn't holding tricks.
3. Never do more damage than you need to.

I want to say that it was either Serra, Sengir, or Shivan. It definitely had base power of either 4 or 5. May not have flown.

UsaSatsui wrote:

Found the actual story: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af134 ...it was Grizzly Bears, of all things.

I stand corrected. That's cool that the old magazine articles are online.

JonSnow wrote:

Quote: The thing about Fog is that it doesn't change the board. Basically, it buys you one extra turn. If you've got shitty board position, Fog is just delaying your inevitable loss. Safe Passage is lot more versatile. but sometime people play cards on given turn, like boosters or something else, and now they're wasted, cuz of fog. Fog is good.. and sometimes one turn is all that matter, since some decks have counters or thing that happen over time. You do lose a draw though, if you end up just using it to buy a turn.

Well, in Standard, there was a Turbo Fog deck. It wins by milling people out, and uses Fog x4 and Angel Song x4 as stall tactics. It's not top tier. I don't think it's viable now that Howling Mine is going to be out of Standard.

In Limited, Fog is a 22nd or 23rd card. A Limited deck should be 17-18 lands and then 22-23 spells, most of which are creatures and removal, with some planeswalkers, equipment, exceptional auras, and tricks thrown in. Unless you're playing Mono Green, you should have a better card to play than Fog. Blue, White, Red, and Black all have better answers. And if you're playing Mono Green, you're probably going to lose. Badly. Green generally lacks the evasion and removal necessary to win. Sure it can cast big creatures fast, but other colors can cast removal just as fast.

Giant Growth is strictly a better card than Fog in Limited. It's a trick on offense, it's a trick on defense, or it's an extra 3 damage to your opponent's face. Let's say your opponent casts Giant Growth to kill one of your blockers and you Fog. Big deal. They've still got all their creatures.

I will say this: in multiplayer, I'm a big fan of Constant Mists. Reusable Fog is a good way to make friends.

Hey, the fact that there are new cards in core sets is mindblowing to me. Back in my day, the core set was nothing but reprints. WHITE BORDER reprints.

My bad. In Limited. Giant Growth is strictly better in Limited.

In sealed, sometimes you have to go three colors. And if you open Fireball, always play it. Even if red's not a viable color for you, throw in a Fireball and two Mountains.

I like the Titans. I like the Leylines, but my favorite one's a reprint.

I would have liked the dual land set expanded to 10.

The new vampire lord sucks.

The new skeleton is pretty cool.

I like Hoarding Dragon a lot.

The Cloak is a reprint from M10, but yeah, it's a bomb in Limited. Which regen guy? Cudgel Troll? He's a reprint too...