Ok so I've finally posted all of the decks that I used at my pre-release events so here they are:
Deck #1
Grixis (3 wins /2 loss /0 Draws)
https://deckstats.net/decks/24826/767569-burning-affliction The Gixis deck is what I used at the midnight
release. At the pre-release sunday I actually had enough cards to build 2 decks. So since my other deck is technically my side board I was actually able to switch in between decks to see how they played out in between games.
Day 1
Grixis (loss) This was a
mirror match that did not play out in my favor. The opponent had loads of removal and
exile spells an even had
torment of hailfire. The majority of the game he was either exiling, destroying or even stealing my creatures with
kefnet's last word.
Naya (loss) This game was more comical in the sense that I had a funny person to play against. His deck revolved around a form of
camel tribal where deserts mattered. There were many puns as I was constantly making sure that his
Solitary camel was the ONLY creature on his side of the field (word play is fun
5 color (win) this was actually an interesting game where my opponent was the father of the person that I loss to the first round. He had a 5 color deck but the majority of both games he was running jeskai colors with his creatures and combat tricks. He was a little rusty but he had scarab god (glad he didn't play it) and
samut the tested (which he did play) and somehow I made it out alright. Flyers really do help.
Abzan affliction (win) this game was probably the tougher of the two for me to win. The opponent utilized his
Ammit eternal very well where I had to deal with the affliction and the life loss of his
throne of the god pharaoh (he had multiple creatures on the field including cat tokens due to his
pride sovereign). Thankfully I had enough kill spells to wipe out his recurring effect creatures even when he used
endless sands to save them. It was a hard win but I earned it.
Deck #2
Abzan (1 win/ 3 loss/ 0 draw)
https://deckstats.net/decks/24826/767594-surviving-the-desert Deck #3
Jeskai (1 win/ 3 loss/ 0 Draw)
https://deckstats.net/decks/24826/767580-kefnet-s-lineage- So these two decks I interchanged between games to bait out and test the opponent's decks. The strategy worked as far as learning about the other person's decks but My abzan deck ran slower than expected. I probably should have cycled more because at time i did get mana flooded a lot. The Jeskai deck ran great and had some saving plays. But when the opponent has mass removal, spot removal or strong aggro creatures it's hard to maintain a board state. The deck runs good, victory kinda depends on what its up against.
Day 2
Azorious (win) This was my first win of the day. My abzan deck actually played well against this opponent because despite being tapped down and banished it maintained a board against the opponent's smaller creatures. That ended when the opponent was playing flyers and
angel of condemnation. That's when I switched to my jeskai deck and it stole the next games with it's combat tricks and prowess triggers.
Jund (loss) This was a game that both of my decks loss to. Going up against highly aggressive monsters, -1/-1 counters and even double copies of
hour of glory were able to push me back. The abzan deck was too slow with me getting mana flooded and the jeskai deck had creatures that were too small to block the bigger creatures.
Bant trample (loss) This had a similar out come the last match where big creatures took the game. The main difference is that the
bant deck actually had flyers and exert triggers that worked well with creatures such as
aerial guide and
rampaging hippo. There was some good cycling in this deck where having big creatures played out to the opponent's advantage with their
sifter wurm.
Dimir embalm (loss) this was an interesting game where my opponent's tempo wasn't very strong until he brought out
the scarab god. This really changed the game because by embalming creatures such as
glyph keeper to create more zombies was a good way to utilize his god card's effects. Also his
sunset pyramid put in some work and even consign /// oblivion were good choices in his deck build. It was his first win that entire day so despite losing it still made me kinda glad to know that everyone had a chance to enjoy the day.
So after much anticipation this is how my pre-release weekend went. If you ladies and gents have any comments on my deck builds let me know. And before anyone asks, yes they are all 60 card decks (61 in one deck's case) and no it did not hurt my play ability against other people's 40 card decks. In fact most of my decks had the graveyard matters going on where I would embalm, eternalize, after math and even
desert triggers. I purposefully made my decks larger so that as I played I could discard and mill myself as I need to with limited worries of milling myself out. My decks kept their pace and being able to run through my decks with cycle, discard and scrying to see what i needed help my decks keep pace.