This was my Ojutai sealed deck for the Dragons of Tarkir Prerelease. It was pretty successful overall, and won me two rounds 2-0 and ended in a draw for the third.
I decided to run lots of megamorphs, which ended up working perfectly with the general battle trickiness of the deck. The early game mostly revolved around getting your first megamorphers on the table.
Territorial Roc
provided some good early defense against other players' morphs (of which there were a TON-everyone was playing lots of megamorphers).
The fun really began once we could start getting real creatures on the board.
Ojutai Exemplars
was easily the best draw of the night, and they pretty much dominated any time someone was able to get them out, provided they survived a turn.
Stratus Dancer
and
Hidden Dragonslayer
were star players as well, and helped keep the board clean of unwanted foes.
Misthoof Kirin
, Elusive Spellfist, and
Monastery Loremaster
all proved themselves worthy as well. The closer was definitely Cunning Breezedancer, though by the time I was able to play him my opponents usually had some solid removal, of which there is a lot in this set. I typically waited until they were tapped out with a tiny hand or until I had 8 mana out so I could play an emergency counter if they tried to kill it on the next turn. In the end, though, his mega-prowess could easily ramp up to 8 or 10 damage with a rebound spell or two. I'd ditch
Belltoll Dragon
next time. I ended up only being able to morph him up once the whole night.
In terms of spells,
Pacifism
was definitely the star player, and formed an essential part of any deck playing white. Negate was enormously handy to have, and
Center Soul
saved my creatures numerous times from all the incredibly powerful removal some of the other colors were playing.
Great Teacher's Decree
made for some fun big swings, but I would have liked one more
Ojutai's Breath
to help me break through more often.
The mana curve ended up being just about perfect (don't forget, most of the creatures were 3 drops as morphs), and it wasn't too slow given how many other broods were running heavy on morphs as well. I found the deck's matchup against a Dromoka deck to be pretty much a slam dunk, and it performed well against an Atarka ramp deck as well. The toughest opponent was a Silumgar control deck, which managed to wipe the board with a Deathbringer Regent, thanks to me foolishly not leaving enough mana for a counter. But overall, I was happy with how it performed. It even surprised me a few times with how much synergy just fell into place. I'd definitely recommend playing Ojutai if control & cunning use of battle tricks is your thing.
My Ratings
These are my thoughts and comments on how I did with this limited deck. They're just so I can reflect and learn to be a better deckbuilder.
Synergy: B. I managed to get a number of spells with Rebound into the deck to combo with the "Prowess" creatures, and
Monastery Loremaster
to get one back for additional use.
Flavor: A-. This worked out being a pretty solid Ojutai clan deck that fit perfectly into the clan mechanics. I docked myself a point for the anti-Ojutai flavor text on Negate
Fun: A. This was one of the most fun limited decks I've ever played. The number of morph creatures with interesting flip triggers made for exciting combat and tricky interactions. And
Ojutai Exemplars
is just crazy fun once it sticks.
Deckbuilding: B. I think I did pretty good on the deckbuilding front for my first limited foray. In the end, I don't think I needed two copies each of Cunning Breezedancer AND
Belltoll Dragon
, and might have done better if I'd ditched the latter. I also might have done better cutting one Negate, given that
Stratus Dancer
does the same thing.
Overall: B+. Given that this was my first limited experience, I was very satisfied with my two wins & a draw for the night. I think I could've done a slightly better on the deckbuilding front, and I played into a few bad situations. But in general, I was very happy with this prerelease deck.
