Lens of Clarity - Release... the PRE-RELEASE!

Lens of Clarity: Release the prerelease

with Adriel Colon

Of the prereleases I have attended I was most excited for the Khans block prerelease this weekend. I love gold cards because they can mix abilities from the color pie and the power/toughness combinations or sometimes “above the curve” so to speak. Moreover, each of the mechanics in the set I find easy to use on the field and grasp for newer players with the exception of the morph mechanic for anyone who has never seen that ability in use before.

My favorite thing about the Khans prerelease has to be the art. I am stunned by much of the new art in this set and with M15 having been the typical bland (but good) art style I am happy to get back to a themed set. When Wizards leverages their considerable resources to produce new flavorful art even for reprints like Despise and Shatter, to me, I get to rediscovering them again.

I missed the midnight prerelease on Friday but had a chance to go to a Saturday prerelease and an event on Sunday. I went with Abzan both times and I was not disappointed. Having never played Junk colors before, I was excited to in get a chance to in this set. Black has the best removal in Murderous Cut, Debilitating Injury and Throttle at non-rare. White has premium outlast cards with Ainok Bond-Kin, Abzan Falconer, and Abzan Battle Priest. Green is a tremendous support color for White and Black as Longshot Squad can provide reach and Dragonscale Boon gives instant speed +1/+1 counters. Abzan in the 2 pools I had acted like a great sliver deck when it was really humming in some ways. The Outlast cards tended to buff each other. My promos for each box were Siege Rhino and Anafenza, the Foremost. I will chat about the promo policy a little later. I ended up winning outright the Saturday prerelease and placed 4th in the Sunday event.

My impressions from the format are good and I enjoyed playing it almost as much as I enjoyed the new art. The first thought that came to me was that Wizards put the brakes on this set so that it has slowed down noticeably. I know sealed is generally considered to be a slower format yet still I found this to be behind the curve. Outlast’s existence lets you make a tough decision but often the +1/+1 counter is enough to keep attackers at bay for a while afterwards. A high average toughness lends to the slowdown of the format. Even the common refuge dual lands contribute to incremental life gain delaying the kill for a few opponents. Be ready for plenty of draw steps and time to build up a board.

I want to talk about a few highlights I had from the event. The interaction between Ainok Bond-Kin and Mer- Ek Nightblade is a huge game winner. First Strike and Deathtouch are brutal to attack into. Often the removal spells for this block is expensive which makes it tough for you to get around a set up board state. The lack of inexpensive board sweepers exacerbate this slow down as well. As an example I once had an opponent double debilitating injury an Ainok Bond-Kin to get him off the field 2-for-1’ing himself in the process.

Abzan Guide is one of my favorite cards to Morph. 4/4 lifelink out of nowhere is tough to plan for and can quickly eat Mardu, Sultai or Jeskai creatures up and gain the life. Against Abzan, I think this is the “groan test” morph. Abzan Charm was also tremendous in this event. Instant speed counters and exile removal were clutch against a lot of the un-answerable creatures like Zurgo, Helmsmasher and Wholly Loxodon that I saw.

I wanted to take a second here to talk about the adjusted promo policy. For those that don’t know, the promo in each clan box was randomized between several options from within the clan. I am a vocal proponent of this change. After Journey Into Nyx’s Dawnbringer Charioteers pushed all the white boxes out first I am happy to have the impact from powerful promo’s mitigated. There was a relatively even split between the clans at both prereleases I attended and on twitter that I saw. Though there were favorites; I was pleased to see players relatively unshackled from optimizing their picks and just selecting what they want. Also, the added bonus of a random promo is great for collections and card valuation. Some people who attended multiple events got the same promo but most would not. More trade diversity for these promos, and this meant that when players were building their decks neither player knew exactly what to expect from their opponents for the promo. Freer deck construction and card availability is always a great thing for the community and the game.

I am excited to use what I have learned from this weekend to put to good use on release day. These new cards from Khans are really going to make standard much more interesting and I for one welcome our new Khan overlords.

Cheers,

Adriel Colon

@Dr_Perceptron on Twitter

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