Yesterday was a fun-filled Magic2010 Coreset Prerelease for us here in Magic: the Gathering Iloilo community. Although the participants were lessened to 18 players, it was still an enjoyment for us to open those M10 packs and the excitement of getting the chased rares. Too bad for me as none of my starting six booster packs have the rares that I wanted. The good thing though is that the deck has a lot of limited bombs.

After sorting out the colors, my initial list was a hasty one. It was a two-color Red White deck with early beaters and has two late game bombs, Captain of the Watch and Bogardan Hellkite. It was good at first but I noticed a few blunders like mana flooding and bad card choices. I consulted my teammate Oliver for solutions and he said that I didn’t make us of the fixers and other goodies on my green pile. We made a few fixes and final result below.

Maindeck
Lands
7 Forest
3 Mountain
7 Plains

Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Bogardan Hellkite
2 Borderland Ranger
2 Emerald Oryx
1 Siege Mastodon
1 Blinding Mage
1 Goblin Artillery
1 Stormfront Pegasus
1 Captain of the Watch
1 Palace Guard
1 Giant Spider
1 Undead Slayer
1 White Knight
1 Serra Angel

Spells
1 Act of Treason
1 Divine Verdict
1 Oakenform
1 Rampant Growth
1 Pyroclasm
2 Excommunicate

The red was the splash color and the green was for fixing and mana acceleration. The biggest mistake was that I already registered the Red White list before doing the fix so I had to change it to this list every game 2 of the match. Wtf…

Here’s a summary of my match-ups:

Round 1 – Sieger (U/W) Won 2-0 *the deck was still Red White at this time
Highlights: Top decked a Captain of the Watch to match his aggro and life gain from Soul Warden got me out of range from his Phantom Warrior and griffin.

Round 2 – Carl (G/W) Won 2-1
Highlights: He got mana screwed in Game 1, I got color screwed in Game 2 and he went all Plains in Game 3. He catches up with the game though but I got better draws. I was able to Divine Verdict of his Armored Ascension and Holy Strength enhanced Pegasus. Good thing I curved out the three colors in that game.

Round 3 – JP (G/W/B) Lost 0-2
Highlights: I got crappy draws and mana flooding in Game 1 and mana screw in Game 2. My stupid decisions in the last game cost me the match. Why would anyone keep a one-land seven hand on the draw?

Round 4 – Melo (G/W/B) Won 2-1
Highlights: His Baneslayer Angel is insane, killed me with that in Game 1. Turn 5 Angel, what the hell.

Game 2 was a close one. I answered his Angel with Divine Verdict but he was able to get it back with Gravedigger. It led to a scenario where he had the Angel back in play and I got 3 creatures, a Bogardan Hellkite in hand, and an open mana to play it. It took me time to decide whether to play the hellkite or not because he was still out of range of the hellkite damage and might be able to get back with the lifegain from the angel. Eventually, I played it at the end of the turn so I could have enough mana for any top deck card I got. The good thing is I topdecked the best card to solve the situation, Act of Treason. Play it, target the Baneslayer Angel, and swing for the win!

I boarded in a Tempest of Light because of the Pacifism I saw in the last game. The deciding game was quite similar with the last one. I was able to get ahead of him on mana with a turn 2 Rampant Growth and turn 3 Ranger. He was able to get out Baneslayer Angel but I was able to answer it again with Divine Verdict. He got out a rarity-lesser Serra Angel to match mine who was doing the beatdown earlier. That opening able me to Act of Treason his angel and swing for the win, plus the ping damage of Goblin Artillery.

I won three packs but didn’t get chased rares again (Mind Spring, Mind Shatter, and Lightwielder Paladin).

Overall, M10 is an interesting set to play with in Limited although I hate some of the cards especially the generic and lame ability creatures that occupy the uncommon slots.

How’s your M10 Prerelease?