Subject: Pittsburgh, Urza's Saga prerelease, tourny report Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1998 14:59:09 EDT From: RMF1112@aol.com To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com On September 26, 1998, two hundred and 45 people gathered for the Urza's saga prerelease, and this number would be narrowed down to one, me. :) (Brandon Rickard) we played eight rounds without a top eight, which meant the one with the best record at the end of those eight rounds won a set and a box of urza's saga. this was because they didn't want to be there until 1:00am. i went undefeated without one game loss. The game designers decided six of each land was enough, making a two color deck was nearly impossible because you couldn't trade or get any more lands. Urza's saga proves to be an average set from the people I talked to, but we all agreed that there are definitely some very broken cards. For example (in the limited environment of Urza's saga, these cards proved to be gamebreakers); Elite Archers, Pegasus Charger, Sanctum Custodian, Serra's embrace, Disenchant, and Waylay for white. For blue, Show and tell, Arcane Laboratory, Barrin (Master Wizard), Cloak of mists, drifting Djinn, energy field, exhaustion, hermatic study and horseshoe crab (or morphing), rewind, Somnophore, Stroke of genius, Sunder, and Time spiral. For black; corrupt, dark hatchling, diabolic servitude, expunge, despondency, order of Yawgmowth, pestilence, Sanguine Guard, Vile requiem and, Western/Eastern Paladin. For red; arc lightning, bedlam, crater hellion, electryte, falter, fault line, goblin offensive, heat ray, jagged lightning, lightning dragon, shivan hellkite, sneak attack, steam blast, torch song and, wildfire. For Green (green got the biggest boost in the set with huge creatures and new abilities); blanchwood armor, child of gaea, cradle guard, elvish herder, gaea's embrace, greater good, midsummer rebel, titania's chosen, treetop rangers, venomous fangs and, war dance. Almost all artifacts shouldn't have been made, because they're just too damn powerful!!! Finally, are the lands. The only lands that are really powerful in the limited environment are the cycle lands, except for gaea's cradle. My Deck WWhite: 1 disenchant; powerful in this environment with r.o.p. in main deck, 1pegasus charger; flying first strike, not too shabby, 1 elite archers; the ability to do 3 damage will kill most creatures, 1 disiciple of law; protection from red and cycling, can hold it's own, 1 serra's embrace; the ability to pump up a creature and not have him tap to attack, 1 voice of grace; pro black and flying, hard to get rid of, 1 voice of law; pro red and flying, hard to get rid of, 1 angelic page; the ability to make a creature bigger can stop killing a creature, 1 song stitcher; valuable, but not always used, Red: 1 arc lightning; major card advantage, 1 viashino outrider; the true meaning of speed, echo isn't much of a drawback 1 steam blast; my most valuable card, can clean board, and not kill my creatures, Green: 1 Argothian swine; average 3/3 trample 2 blanchwood treefolk; beat down to the fullest 1 pouncing jaguar; mediocre 1 treetop ranger; might as well have flying, hard to block 2 cave tigers; seen better 1 wild dogs; descent first turn creature 1 titania's boon; surprise factor of all of your creatures growing can change the game Artifacts: 1 karn, silver golem; "he's a brick...house..." 1 grafted skullcup; can we say 'card advantage?' Lands: 6 forests 6 plains 4 mountains 1 smoldering crater Sideboard: 1 no rest for the wicked 1 ill gotten gains 1 pestilence 1 expunge 1 carrion beetle 1 dark ritual 1 despondency 2 blood vassal 2 unworthy dead 1 befoul 1 phyrexian ghoul 2 exhume 1 R.o.p. artifact 1 R.o.p. red 1 serra's liturgy 1 monk realist 1 presence of the master 1 worn powerstone 1 catalog 1 tolarian winds 1 rescind 2 cloak of mists 1 veiled serpent 1 stern procter 1 curfew 2 sandbar merfolk 1 coral merfolk 1 spire owl 1 slippery karst 1 drifting medows 1 blasted landscape 1 remote isle 6 islands 2 mountains 6 swamps Questions or comments, contact: RMF1112@AOL.com or Ryan_MF@yahoo.com