Avacyn Pre-release tips: Play to your weaknesses – Artifact and Black

Only a few more days until the pre-release. I’m guessing by now you’ve already decided what colors you’re going to use and which combos you want to make. And I bet you are 100% sure that you will PULL those cards out of the 6 booster packs you receive, right? I mean, it would be totally awesome if we all could pull a Tamiyo, a Vexing Devil, or some other equally nasty card. But you know what? It’s NOT going to happen that way. In all likeliness you will have a lot of commons, maybe some good uncommons, and the chances are that you might be sitting on one or two good rares, and some crap ones as well. So how will you build your deck?

Well, don’t build around those rares. Putting all of your eggs in one basket is not a good strategy. You should look at the common cards that you have the greatest chance of getting (and even getting multiples of). While everybody else is talking about their top rares and mythics, is it realistic to think you’ll get one? No. So my advice would be to take a look at each color and what their best commons/uncommons are, and then after making a deck with those cards you can complement it with a rare or two.

To start off with, I’m going to talk about the Artifacts and Black cards I think will be great to use in a sealed tournament.

A good blocker

I like this guy for 3 reasons. 1) The 2 mana cost. 2) the First Strike 3) 2 power. This guy will compliment any deck that you make, and will be able to block those pesky Humans which will be attacking en masse. In all likeliness you will find some people running White, White/Red, or White/Blue humans come game day.

Awesome sideboard card

This will most likely stay in your sideboard for each game, but with the sheer number of Humans in the Avacyn set, this card will definitely come in handy. If you plan on running black, or a combination with black, having a few of these would be great.

Enchant ANY creature, including your opponent’s

I’m guessing this card has slipped under the radar, but it has some amazing applications. You can target ANY creature in play (without hexproof of course) and when it dies it comes back on YOUR side. Not only a good way to save one of your creatures from dying, but it can also steal another creature from your enemy if you can kill it with a red damage spell or some type of deathtouch.

What would combo well with that card? How about this?

A farewelll to arms, legs,and just about every other body part

This will basically act as a Damnation, Day of Judgement, or any other mass kill spell. If you’re casting this on Turn 4 or 5, and the player has 5 creatures out, you can pay 4 mana and they either die or sacrifice them, which in that case would bring the creature back into play if you have that enchantment on it.

Another card I kind of like is Dark Impostor.

Sneaky little bastard!

3 mana for a 2/2 isn’t bad. His activated ability is heavy, but amazing. It’s too bad Dark Ritual isn’t in print or else using that ablity would be a snap. I could see this card taking out some Titan’s, and then using their activated attack abilities the next turn (if that is an activated ability). If abilities that activate when you attack are considered “activated abilities”, why couldn’t this card also exile a Knight of Bladehold and gain it’s 2 soldiers and battle cry (both are attack activated abilities). I’m waiting to see the ruling on this though.

Well, that’s all for this post. I hope to put out another article today or tomorrow, and to have all of the colors covered by Friday evening. If you have any other suggestions or ideas for this article, then by all means leave a comment. Good luck at the pre-release!