Like everyone else, I was super stoked to get my hands on my first of many packs of Battle for Zendikar this weekend just passed, and unlike many times in the past, I was more interested in getting to my rares and mythics than check out my pool first.

Usually, I abide by my own personal rules of;

1. Don’t get overexcited.

2. Stay calm and collected.

3. Sort cards accordingly in terms of colour and CMC.

4. See what janky deck I can build with this pool.

However, this set had me throw that to the side and head straight to the back of the pack to see what was waiting for me. Personally I feel I was rather lucky and managed to open an Undergrowth Champion, Canopy Vista and Planar Outburst which automatically caused me start thinking of some W/G  list. As you’ve probably noticed, I didn’t mention my promo card and that’s not because I don’t think it’s an okay card, it’s just not something I considered worthy of noting in terms of pulls. I opened up Noyal Dar, Roil Shaper which is okay and may have been playable in Sealed but I just did not have the pool to support it.

When I got into actually looking over all the commons and uncommons I had cast aside, it was clear to me that I had no choice but to go W/G. I opened up 3 copies of Sheer Drop and a copy of Stasis Snare in terms of removal, which I thought was extremely lucky. In green I opened a lot of cards like Blisterpod, Eyeless Watcher, Snapping Gnarlid and Oran-Rief Invoker. In terms of other spells that really came through for me; Swell of Growth, Earthen Arms and Sylvan Scrying were all great.

I decided to play a deck that played really aggressively with a high creature density and what removal and pump spells I could squeeze in. I chose the aggro route to try and win the game before my opponent would have the chance to cast all the terrifying Eldrazi cards they had no doubt opened that would be difficult to deal with otherwise. At first glance I wasn’t sure of how this deck would perform but I can tell you from my experience, it was an absolute monster.

Overall, I won my event going 5-0 and I did not drop a single game with the deck. I played against so many different types of decks at the event from Izzet Aggro to full on Esper Control and it demolished every one of them. The combination of Landfall triggers and the occasional ally popping up, along with the removal package I put in worked so much better than I had anticipated. The MVP of the deck for me had to be Undergrowth Champion. The power level of this card became apparent to me this weekend and I can assure you this card will see play in constructed formats. I personally now want to build a deck to incorporate this card in it and I would not be surprised to see a lot of others try and do the same.

Battle for Zendikar as a set has been built really well. There was a lot of surprising synergies that were not obvious to me before the games were under way and I like the way the cards interact with each other. If I get the chance to get hold of some pre-release kits then I will try and get a group together for another sealed event as I had an absolute blast and would love to do it all again.

My decklist for the day was as follows;

Creatures: 16

2x Snapping Gnarlid

2x Oran-Rief Revoker

1x Kor Bladewhirl

1x Undergrowth Champion

2x Makindi Patrol

2x Blisterpod

1x Eyeless Watcher

2x Ondu Greathorn

1x Bloodhunter Wurm

1x Eldrazi Devastator

1x Bane of Bala Ged

Instants and Sorceries: 7

1x Swell of Growth

1x Earthen Arms

3x Sheer Drop

1x Planar Outburst

1x Stasis Snare

Lands: 17

1x Evolving Wilds

1x Canopy Vista

8x Forest

7x Plains