Fifth Dawn Pre-release – 22nd May, Newport                             Back to Homepage

 

This was written by Darren Shallis

 

Just thought I'd drop you a report on the Newport Fifth Dawn Pre-Release. 20 people turn up on FA Cup Final day (including two guys from Coventry!!). Open a so-so deck. Has some nice cards but no depth to it. End up playing White/Green/Red. Decklist is below:
No real removal in this deck [Looks pretty solid to me! – Ed.], which doesn't make me particularly confident.
 
Round 1 – Daniel Godfrey
 
His deck is the dogs... He has Loxodon Warhammer, Luminous Angel, Bosh, Skeleton Shard, etc.
 
He drops a turn 3 Warhammer in game 1, which ends rather quickly to his advantage. Game 2 I win with an early Slug which he cannot find an answer for. Game 3 is going his way when we run out of time.
 
Score 0-0-1
 
Round 2 – Christopher Godfrey
 
He tells me before we start that he is running 46 cards and 18 land. Nice to know he should have mana problems.
 
Game 1. He gets down an early Leonin Den-Guard that quickly becomes a 5/15 creature due to lots of Equipment that he is playing! This overruns me in short order.
 
Game 2. He gets mana screwed and my Serum Tank powers me to victory.
 
Game 3. He mulligans, then plays turn 1 Bonesplitter, turn 2 Den-Guard, turn 3 equip and attack, Turn 4 Troll Ascetic, Turn 5 Fangren Hunter!! I'm holding a great starting hand, including Blinding Beam, Grab the Reins, Triskelion, Pyrite Spellbomb and two Mountains. Through taking my time and a well-timed Grab the Reins I'm able to get rid of his amazing start and stabilize on 3 life. He draws nothing else and I beat him to death with an Ogre Leadfoot.
 
Score 1-0-1
 
Round 3 – Luke
 
He is relatively inexperienced and I comfortably beat him 2-0. Game 1 he plays a Cosmic Larva turn 4 – it was quite amusing to watch him eat his own land. Game 2 he does the same thing but has two Thought Couriers in play that find the land for him to sac. Once he's out of land I win quickly enough.
 
Score 2-0-1
 
Round 4 – Steve Evans
 
I know Steve has a good deck with lots of artifacts, including Crystal Shard, Clockwork Dragon and Cranial Plating.
 
Game 1. He slaughters me with Pewter Golem, Cranial Plating and Neurok Hoversail. His deck is much better than mine.
 
Game 2. Much the same. I have Triskelion in play and a Myr. He has lots of creatures including a 13/6 Myr Enforcer, Crystal Shard, and some blue guy equipped with Viridian Longbow. He is on 7 life. I'm holding zero cards. He is tapped out. I draw Grab the Reins, which I play with entwine!!
 
Game 3. I get a quick start. He is stuck on 3 mana, but has a Crystal Shard and a Silver Myr in play. I'm able to play a Vulshok Sorcerer which shoots his Silver Myr. He responds by returning it to his hand, never to come back to play. I'm able to overrun him, and Grab the Reins (no entwine) to get the winning damage through.
 
That's now two matches I've scraped that I probably should have lost.
 
At this point I'm second, on 10 points. The leader is on 12 points. A win and I'm the tourney winner!
 
Round 5 – Basam Tassett (hope that's spelled correctly)
 
Game 1 a turn 4 Molder Slug proves far too much for him to deal with and we quickly move onto game 2. He sideboards in 10 cards (adding another colour to his deck). This surprises me somewhat as he is 4-0 with the deck. Why change now? I get an early Skyhunter Prowler with Opaline Bracers (+3/+3) on it. Much closer, though, as he uses Myr Incubator to get seven 1/1 creatures. Makes it close, but I have Grab the Reins again. 2-0 to me.
 
Finish 4-0-1
 
I'm the winner!!
 

Win 12 boosters (+ T-shirt) for my efforts, which is fine by me.

 
 
Props:
Bill and Ioan for running a good tournament.
Grab the Reins. Won me two matches on its own.
Newport venue. Nice to have a lie-in 'til 9.45 on a card day.
All my opponents. All nice friendly people with games played in a friendly atmosphere.
 
Slops:
Rodders for going to watch the FA Cup Final in a pub instead of playing. It's only Man Utd vs Milwall!! (Only joking, mate.)