Edit: Lee tells me I need a banner. Also, Lee is a girl. Zing.
I don't have an exact copy of my deck(s) anymore, but my Sealed pushed very strongly for red, with maybe a splash of one more color. I had an Elemental Appeal and an Obsidian Fireheart, along with a Spire Barrage. That and the Scalding Tarns made me want to run the blue, and since the blue had some ok card draw (no Treasure Hunts, but two Mysteries of the Deep) I decided to stick with that. Oh, I also opened a Death's Shadow, so I was very pleased about that. I was less pleased about the Terra Eternal.
Read on to see how I did.
I went 2-0 for each of my first two rounds, but then in the third round I went up against some guy who managed to open Omnath, Locus of Mana, an Avenger of Zendikar, and a Terra Stomper to complete the set. You know what's fun? The fact that Omnath's pump can't be responded to. So he beat me 2-0. It was in this round that I noticed that my red was very aggressive, but was too light on removal. But since the only cards not red in the deck were 2 Bull Rushes, I figured I did as best as I could.
It was the last round that was most annoying, and it was completely my fault. I won match 1 (barely), and he won match 2. Then match 3, he was down to 3 life, me to 4. He has a tapped 2/2 flier and a Surrakar Marauder, I have a Grotag Thrasher and a 1/1 flying artifact. Then, on my attack I immediately realize my mistake as I alpha strike into his Disfigure. I deal him 2, he hits me back for 4, I lose. I had no reason to send that 1/1 in and would have won if I hadn't. Later, I checked the prize distribution, and I was the top player below the cutoff. Siiiigggh.
I didn't really notice too many exciting and unexpected changes with the addition of Worldwake. Sure, we got some new good cards (the new Lash Out is very nice), but none of the deck archaetypes changed really at all. I guess the Join the Ranks boosted the Ally deck's power quite a bit, but not much other than that. Also, I never went up against a manland. I feel like a lot of people had decks with cards that would otherwise be sided in but were kept to deal with Zendikons and Manlands, but they really didn't come up that often, so I expect people later on to stop paying attention to these except as creatures.
My friends Micah and Naomi were also there. Naomi didn't lose a single game in the entire Sealed, even in her last match against the Omnath guy I lost to, so she won. I have no idea what her deck was though, I think maybe R/G? Micah later gave me his cards (his explanation being that he wouldn't feel bad about borrowing my cards anymore) which included a foily Celestial Colonnade. I also managed to trade for 2 Amulet of Vigors, so all-in-all a success. And I finally bought myself a Jhoira of the Ghitu to finish off my EDH.
I drafted later in the day. I first picked a Trusty Machete over the Turntimber Ranger, then started going R/B. But later on I got heavy green signals, so I switched. All-in-all it was a very mediocre deck, with a Summoner's Trap picked in advance of any bombs that I hoped to get. I eventually got a Mordant Dragon, so that worked out (and I got that 7th card down when I played it). Overall I build a very mediocre deck, but I did raredraft the Bazaar Trader so I declared victory on that. I was 1-1 in the first round when we had to leave (I severely underestimated the speed of the draft), so I never got to see how well I would have done, but I can't imagine I would have been above the middle.
A good day overall, I recommend people go to these more often. But I was annoyed, because they changed the structure of the free stuff so that you couldn't get the playmat until you played at least 3 Sealeds. Dumb.
