Survivors of Megapocalypse Release Tournament

Andrew Phillips
Galactic Quest-Lawrenceville
1-17-05

A release tournament was held on Saturday the 17th to celebrate the latest installment in the Duel Masters universe, Survivors of the Megapocalypse. A large number of people attended this sanctioned event; I believe that around twenty-two people showed up for the event. Everyone was eager to crack open their packs and look at the new cards for the first time. I like the concept of the Survivors gaining abilities off of each other, similar to Magic’s Slivers for those Mtger’s out there. As a set, I believe that there is a huge potential for constructed decks, but for limited, it is one of the more awful sets for draft or sealed. The casting cost of cards from this set is a bit on the expensive side, usually around 5 or 6. The higher casting costed creatures’ means, that in limited, you have to pay attention to your mana curve. What I mean is that you have to put as many 2 to 4 costed creatures so that you won’t fall behind in the creature race. Here is what I ended up playing after cracking open the five packs that we were given.

Fire
1 x Bladerush Skyterror Q
2 x Blazosaur Q
1 x Rikabu, the Dismantler
3 x Ruthless Skyterror
1 x Bombat, General of Speed

Nature
3 x Ambush Scorpion
1 x Moon Horn
1 x Obsidian Scarab
1 x Enchanted Soil
1 x Smash Horn Q
1 x Ballonshroom Q
1 x Crow Winger

Light
3 x Gallia Zohl, Iron Guardian Q
1 x Calgo, Vizier of Rainclouds
1 x Ballus, Dogfight Enforcer Q
1 x Le Quist, the Oracle

Darkness
2 x Wisp Howler, Shadow of Tears
2 x Gigazoul
1 x Jewel Spider
1 x Gigakail
1 x Skullsweeper Q

Other cards not used
2 x Steel Turret Cluster
1 x Spikestrike Iethys Q
2 x Miracle Quest
1 x Split Head Hydroturtle Q
2 x Lurking Eel
2 x Cyclone Panic
2 x Horned Mutant
1 x Scissor Scarab
2 x La Guile, Seeker of Skyfire
1 x Solidskin Fish
1 x Divine Riptide
1 x Cataclysmic Eruption
1 x Glory Snow
1 x Bloodwing Mantis

As you can see, I focused on a curve of 2, 3, and 5 mana creatures. I was really fortunate that I had so many Survivors to play off each other and this is what led to my eventual victory for the tournament. I believe that Water really got the shaft in this set. All their creatures are extremely high costed for their abilities and forget about their crappy power levels. I believe that the best civilization to play in this environment is Fire. It has all the speed attackers and some of the best costed creatures for a limited setting. I tried to include as many choice creatures that I could and had a really difficult time reaching the 30 card limit. For anyone out there who hasn’t played limited, try to keep your deck as close to the limit as you can. The reason for this is that you want to be able to draw your better creatures and spells as fast as you can and a 40 card deck is less likely to draw that game-winning card than a 30 card deck. I would go longer into mana curve and abilities versus cost, but cecilbill does a better job of that in her articles.

Round 1
I played Justin (Not Florio!) who was the head judge that I defeated last week. The first game he had an awesome curve with the second turn Le Quist, the Oracle and following with a turn three Rikabu and forth turn Rikabu! Add in the fact that Justin went first and you can see why I had 1 shield left on turn 4. Second game went much better with a perfect curve of 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 mana creatures on their respective turns. The third game was really close, it came down to me having the exact number of creatures as he had shields and I having no shields on my turn I had to draw a speed attacker to win and I top decked Rikabu for the W.

Round 2
I played a guy named James who was pretty sure that he could beat me in short order. He squeaked out a win and I proceeded to sweep the next two games.

Round 3
I played some little kid name Matt. I can’t remember anything particular about this match, other than I won. Moving on…

Round 4
I played Steven, who was also undefeated at this point. Our matches were great, but I won both games and moved to the finals where I faced…

Round 5
Stephen. Stephen was the only other undefeated person besides me. I had the perfect hand during the first game. I cast a second turn Blazosaur, third turn Smash Horn Q, fourth turn Ballonshroom Q, fifth turn Gallia Zohl, sixth turn Ballus, and topped it off with a seventh turn Bladerush Skyterror Q. In other words, I had the perfect Survivors limited hand. I won the second game due to the fact that Stephen could not pull out any creatures until turn four.

My impression of Survivors is that it is poor for drafting or even sealed when compared to other sets. As far as constructed, I believe that this set is a little sub-par except for the Survivors abilities. I am excited about the future releases with creatures that can tap to produce different effects and produce mana. Then we will have dual civilization creatures with cool abilities. I promise to have a better report for next time with detail play-by-play coverage. Anyway email me with anything and remember to beware taco flavored kisses!

Peace Out!
Andrew Phillips
magic707@hotmail.com