| White | Blue | Black |
|---|---|---|
Gaze of Justice Saltblast Dawn Charm Momentary Blink Celestial Dawn (foil) Consecrate Land Griffin Guide Spirit Link Amrou Scout Aven Riftwatcher Chronosavant Forisyian Interceptor Ghost Tactician x2 Mangara of Corondor Poultice Sliver Sinew Sliver x2 Voidstone Gargoyl Watcher Sliver Zealot il-Vec | Wistful Thinking Dismal Failure Snapback Frozen AEther Ophidian Eye Reality Acid x2 Brine Elemental Crookclaw Transmuter Dreamscape Artist Gossamer Phantasm Primal Plasma Riftwing Cloudskate Screeching Sliver Slipstream Serpent Sychronous Sliver Veiling Oddity | Damnation Cradle to the Grave Dash Hopes Enslave Blightspeaker Bog Serpent Brain Gorgers Cyclopean Giant Deadly Grub Nightshade Assassin Shadow Guildmage Skulking Knight Spitting Sliver Tresspasser il-Vec Urborg Syphon-Mage |
| Red | Green | Other |
| Grapeshot Plunder Volcanic Awakening Ancient Gruge Fury Charm Undying Rage Blood Knight Flowstone Channeler Goblin Skycutter Hammerheim Deadeye Keldon Marauders Simian Spirit Guide Skirk Shaman Stingscouger Torchling Dead//Gone | Evolution Charm Strength in Numbers Thrill of the Hunt Seal of Primordium Citanul Woodreaders Essence Warden Giant Dustwasp Greenseeker Herd Gnarr Primal Forcemage Psychotrope Thallid Reflex Sliver Savage Thallid Scarwood Treefolk Sophic Centaur Timbermare | Chronatog Brass Gnat x2 Calciform Pools Gemstoen Caverns |
| Saltblast Dawn Charm Momentary Blink Griffin Guide Spirit Link Aven Riftwatcher | Chronosavant Mangara of Corondor Poultice Sliver Sinew Sliver x2 Watcher Sliver Snapback Frozen AEther | RealityAcidX2 Brine Elemental Dream Stalker Riftwing Cloudskate Screeching Sliver | Slipstream Serpent Synchronous Sliver Veiling Oddity Calciform Pools Island x8 Plains x8 |
Please excuse my tables, I was in a rush.
I was pretty happy with my white, but rather disappointed that my black sucked so bad that I couldn't play damnation. From the three remaining colors, picking a second was a tossup. I went with blue based on it's sliver support and wealth of options (in the form of morphs, unsummons, etc.) Green has some nice mana fixing and card advantage, but precious little fat. Red has some fun tricks and bombs, but I wasn't sensing much synergy. I may have splashed red, but as I mentioned, getting the mana right across three colors is hard for me (esp. when none of those colors is green.)
If I had to build the deck all over again, I'd only change a handful of cards, but these swaps were powerful enough that I found myself doing them in every match. First out are the Reality Acids. I tried to support them with Dream Stalker and Riftwing Cloudskate - which did work to some extent, but they're still too slow, and there are better choices in my pool. With the suspend mechanic so hot in limited, Voidstone Gargoyle should've definitely main-decked. Flying is always aces in limited, and with all of the bounce in PC, he's just that much better. On the flying tip, I also overlooked Crookclaw Transmuter. I kept him out because there's a lot of ping in the format, but I should know by now that 3 in the air for 4 is a gimmie. The abilities are gravy after that. Next out is an island. I had 3 cards > 4cc that didn't also have an alternate cost (suspend, morph, etc.) 17 was just a little too much. There are a lot of okay choices to put in it's place. Whatever I add would probably end up sideboarded, but I'd be comfortable with Primal Plasma, Dismal Failure, or putting a Reality Acid back in.
Except for the Reality Acids, I liked the deck. I posted a 3-2 record, which I was happy with. I played better in later matches as I got more familiar with my deck and learned which sideboard options to swap. This was extra-gratifying, as people tended to drop out after they could no longer make top 8, so the later matches were arguably against better opponents. My final match actually went over time, and I still won. Some people were a little peeved that they had to wait for us, when neither of us could make top 8 anyway.
To wrap things up, I'll just mention a few more cards that played better or worse than I expected. I got to drop Gemstone Caverns turn 1 in one game only, and it was the stone-cold nuts. I didn't beat anyone else that hard in the whole tourney. Later, of course, I had it in my hand when I desperately needed WW for Mangara; so the card is what it is. I thought Ukitabi Drake would play better than I saw. Maybe I was just imagining perfect draws with it or something, but 2 damage once ain't much, and that echo is a bitch, especially since it uses GG. Sinew Sliver is a reason to play slivers all by itself (sorry, I wasn't around for its original incarnation.) Poultice Sliver on the other hand, spent all of its time sucking someone's left nut. I'm not sure whose it was or where Poultice found it, but it was definitely too busy to coordinate any kind of 2T action, ever. Dream Stalker allowed better plays than I expected, and Frozen AEther also did surprisingly well, curbing some hasty suspended creatures quite nicely. AEther worked well enough that one opponent boarded in Molder just to take care of it.
So there ya have it. A rough shot at my PC release experience. I hope you enjoyed.
