Conflux Pre-Release Report!!!

I'm back! And yes! Those are 15 Conflux boosters! Read ‘em and weep!!! I WIN!!!

Just got back from the Regional Pre-Release and I did pretty well! It was a lot of fun. If time and cash flow permits, I’m going to the next one.

In the Sealed Deck portion, that cost me $25. I opened up 3 packs of Shards and 3 packs of Conflux and made a decent R/G/W w/ a splash of 1 black spell and 1 black ability deck. My deck contained Martial Coup, Jund Charm, Naya Charm, Soul’s Fire, Mosstodon, Wild Nacatl, Topan Ascetic, Toxic Iguanar, Path to Exile, Shard Convergence, Volcanic Fallout, Knight-Captain of Eos, Quenchable Fire, etc.

Here are some key plays that I remembered:

Topan Ascetic can use creatures with Summoning Sickness to pump itself up. It worked really well with Knight-Captain of Eos, making my Topan Ascetic a 5/5. I often would have an extra white mana left untapped incase I needed a “Fog” effect for the next turn.

Shard Convergence is such a fun card to play. You get to put up to four lands into your hand from your deck. It helped me thin out my deck and play my bigger creatures.

Toxic Iguanar is sick in drafts! A 1/1 deathtouch creature on turn two is crazy in limited.

I swepted the board constantly with Jund Charm, Volcanic Fallout, and Martial Coup. Martial Coup won many many games. I often would Naya Charm my Martial Coup back to my hand. I must have been annoying to play against.

Quenchable Fire is such a fun card. Rarely do people play with blue and for four mana you get to do 6 damage! I played this card a total of 4 times dealing 24 damage for me!

I also learned that I could tap my Topan Ascetic on the same turn that it comes out, in case someone plays a Volcanic Fallout. You see the “End Phase” has two steps: “End of Turn” and “Cleanup.” The “Cleanup” step is where “until end of turn” or “this turn” stuff wears off and where non-lethal damage is removed from creatures. These two things happen simultaneously. Even though there was two points of damage on my Topan Ascetic, my Topan Ascetic was a 3/3. Since the two points of damage disappear at the same time as my Topan Ascetic turns back into a 2/2, IT LIVES! COOl!

Before the fourth and final match of the Sealed Deck tournament, I was 3-0 and my opponent was 2-1.

4-0 = 12 packs and a playmat
3-1 or 3-0-1 = 6 packs
2-2 = 1 pack

If he lost he would of only gotten one pack, while I would of recieved 12 packs and a playmat. If I lost, we both would of received 6 packs each. But if he conceded, I said I would give him 3 packs and the playmat, guaranteeing him at least 4 packs and a playmat. I don’t play with playmats, I was hoping that it was going to be the Nicol Bolas vs. the 4 Planeswalkers playmat but it wasn’t it was the Vectis Agents playmat.

After the first game, where I defeated him, he took my offer. He won the next game and I won the third. But it’s okay. I wanted to guarantee packs for the guys to see if they wanted to draft if the Super Bowl got boring. At the end of the Sealed Deck portion I went 4-0 and won 9 packs of Conflux!!! Woop woop!

I then joined a booster draft where it was pretty much me joining 7 people who were all friends. There was a lot of table talk during the draft so that got kind of annoying to me but whatever; I just focused on my draft. The draft cost me $17 and is three rounds of single elimination. I just wanted to make it to the finals because 1st gets 8 packs, 2nd gets 4 packs, and everyone else gets nothing. I would of hated to spend $17 and not win any packs.

I drafted a Jund deck with lots of weenies and removal. My deck contained Shard Convergence, Wretched Banquet, Drag Down, Bone Splinters, Executioner’s Capsule, Suicidal Charge, Vithian Stinger, Jungle Weaver, etc.

I ran over the first guy who was playing a domain deck. The next person I played was a girl and she also played a domain deck. I had so much removal in my deck that every time I removed one of her creatures I saw that she would be getting more and more upset. Eventually it got to the point that she started swearing and getting really frustrated. In the end, I beat her in 3 games. In the final match we decided to just split the prizes. The guy wanted to leave early because he and the rest of his 6 friends, 2 of whom I just beated, wanted to go watch a movie that was starting soon. Since he had a player ranking of 1900 and I had a player ranking of like 1650, I took the lost and he gave me a rare from Conflux. Not too bad, going 2-1 and winning 6 packs is what I call a successful draft. I think I would of beaten him. We had similar decks but I had more removal, oh well. I like people who give you offers like that. You've already proven yourself by getting into the top spots, plus, it's a casual event, so just go ahead and take prizes and run.

I then got 4 Fullminator Mages and 4 Tidehollow Scullers signed by RK Post. He was a really cool guy! He got into the business by sending prints to M:TG’s art director and now he’s got a contract with them.

I also got 2 Ajani Goldmane’s signed as well.

I also got Bob Maher to sign my Pro Player card of him. He was cool. We gun-slinged and he beat me with a Faerie deck. His decks were no joke! He had a Counterbalance Deck, a TEPS, a 5CC, a R/W Reveillark/Ajani Vengeant, a Zoo deck, and some other decks. He even had an EDH deck! It was cool though. I played using my version of the R/W Reveillark/Ajani Vengeant deck. We chatted and he saw that I was wearing my Cubs shirt and so we talked about baseball. He currently lives in Madison, WI and goes to Brewers and Packers games. He was a cool guy.

I also traded a bunch of cards away and got some nice cards. I bought a Stillmoon Cavalier for $9.60 and a Jace Beleren for $3.60.

My day in review:
Sealed Deck (2nd place out of 24): 4-0 and 9 packs of Conflux
Booster Draft (2nd place out of 8): 2-1 and 6 packs of Conflux
Got 8 cards signed by RK Post & 2 cards signed by Aleski Briclot
Lost to Bob Maher but got him to sign his Pro-Player card
Traded for lots of cards

On Sunday I didn’t go to the other Pre-Release. I decided to spend time visiting my Uncle and running some errands with Pajjar. Plus, a special someone asked Peter to go to a Super Bowl party so I didn't want to go to another long event by myself.

But Blong, 2nd, Vern, and I did get a chance to draft Conflux, Conflux, Conflux last night during the Super Bowl! I went 1-1. Vern won the tournament.

I still have three packs of Conflux sitting at home. I’m so glad that I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t just crack open packs anymore for fun. I’m glad I’m at the point where I can control myself and just draft with my packs. After I buy my Conflux Fat Pack and the guys reimbursement me my 9 packs, I’ll have 20 packs of Conflux, that will sit there until they are all drafted away. After drafting Conflux, Conflux, Conflux, I realized that it’s important to make sure that there’s at least one pack of Shards in there. It makes it more balanced because you have more access to a variety of cards. Half way through the 2nd pack of Conflux, everything starts to look the same. Hopefully, we get to draft some more Conflux this weekend. :) THANK YOU WIVES!

HELLO BABY XUYING!