Zendikar Prerelease Report (Timbermaw Larva Beats!)

September 27, 2009

Yesterday, I went to my local comic book store for the Zendikar Prerelease. I joined the sealed deck main event. I opened my six packs and here is what I saw.

Zendikar Sealed Card Pool

Green (18)

White (15)

Blue (12)

Black (11)

Red (17)

Artifacts (4)

Lands (7)

How would you have built my deck?

Deck Building Analysis

I quickly realized the green was going to be my main color. It had solid creatures across the whole mana curve. It had a great finisher in Baloth Woodcrasher. It had mana fixing with Harrow. And it had Predatory Urge, which could easily dominate the battlefield if placed on a fatty.

One note about Timbermaw Larva. I thought it would be a solid creature, but it was better than I thought. Early in the game, it swings as a 3/3 or 4/4, which is not bad for four mana. But it’s also a great topdeck late in the game. Your opponent has to deal with it quickly or they’ll be attacked by a 5/5 or bigger.

Red was my other color because it had more removal than the other colors. Plus, the burn spell, Spire Barrage, can go to the dome for a good amount of damage when paired with Harrow. Red had solid big creatures for Predatory Urge. Shatterskull Giant is aggressively costed and Geyser Glider often swings in the air for four.

For some reason, I thought of going white instead of red but then I came to my senses and remembered the fundamental rule for limited: removal is good.

Here’s what I played in round one, game one.

RGw Larva Beats

Creatures (13)

Spells (10)

Lands (17)

Round 1 vs Blue/Black

G1: I played Predatory Urge on a fatty and mowed down his team. With all this card advantage, I easily won.

G2: I played some fatties and they overwhelmed his smaller guys.

Matches: 1-0
Games: 2-0

During the break, I playtested my deck with another player. He seemed pretty good so I ask him for his evaluation of Relic Crush. He said it was definitely a maindeck card in the format because of all the equipment and quests running around.

I took his advice and cut Expedition Map for Relic Crush. Expedition Map didn’t seem very good anyways. I had enough mana fixing.

Round 2 vs Green/White

G1: He had a lot of tricks to save his creatures from my removal. But he didn’t have any removal and my creatures were bigger than his.

G2: He had two early Sunspring Expeditions so he went up to 36 life. I started to come back with the forestwalk of Zendikar Farguide. He got flooded (11 lands to 9 spells over the game) and I easily won with fatties.

There is a lesson to be learned this game. Make sure to shuffle a lot because that will reduce mana screw and mana flood. I noticed that he barely shuffled after game one, which caused his flood.

Match 3 vs Blue/Red

I knew this was going to be a tough game. I played Timothy, my opponent, in the finals of the Alara Reborn launch party. He destroyed me in that match with a very good Jund deck that featured Flameblast Dragon. He was definitely better than the average prerelease player.

G1: I got the Baloth Woodcrasher and Predatory Urge combo. He had Paralyzing Grasp but I countered with Relic Crush. He tried Roil Elemental but I had removal. The combo soon dominated the battlefield and I went up 1-0.

I boarded in Murasa Pyromancer for Slaughter Cry to give me an extra out for Roil Elemental.

G2: I had a fast start and quickly got him down to two life. However, he came back with Merfolk Seastalkers and Sky Ruin Drake to stop my offense. Then, Lorthos the Tidemaker came down. I didn’t draw any of my direct damage and Lorthos quickly killed me.

G3: I got another fast start with my fatties while he was flooding. However, he was able to benefit from all his mana when he drew Merfolk Seastalkers. Sky Ruin Drake came down too and my offense was halted. I drew removal for his tapper and his 2/5 flyer was not enough to stop my four creatures from attacking for the win.

The tournament was five rounds of swiss with a cut to the top eight. There were four of us with 3-0 records and we were able to double draw into the top eight. Then, the top eight players split the prize pool with each of us getting seven packs of Zendikar.

I was ok with the split because I was really tired. I had pulled an all nighter to finish work three days ago and then the day before the prerelease I had to work most of the day. So, I definitely needed to catch up on sleep.

In hindsight, I think I built my deck fairly well. The only changes I would make would be following:

-1 Joraga Bard
-1 Turntimber Grove

+1 Grazing Gladehart
+1 Forest

Posted by Dee | Filed Under Zendikar Sealed

2 Responses to “Zendikar Prerelease Report (Timbermaw Larva Beats!)”

Mike on January 1st, 2010 3:41 am

Nice write-up!
Mark on January 26th, 2010 10:05 pm

Yeah agree nice write-up. I’m going to my first Magic tournament ever this weekend; it’s the Worldwake pre-release. Nervous, but I think I’ll be okay . My hardest part will be the deck-building. Feel free to send me any newb tips ok