Official Spoiler Thread: Oath Of The Gatewatch
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Dec. 3, 2015, 5:58 p.m. by ChiefBell
Official Spoiler Thread.
Have at it.
Nightdragon779 says... #2
So now we can play modern past turn 4. Its about time
January 16, 2016 2:20 p.m.
pumpkinwavy says... #4
Nightdragon779 Yeah, you'll live another turn to see an ulamog instead of Splinter Twin. Honestly, I'd rather play against twin than tron or eldrazi black.
January 16, 2016 2:52 p.m.
If anyone got a little sad because twin's gone, here's a replacement deck.
[MODERN] U/R Fold into Aether Combo
It's basically legacy Show and Tell.
January 16, 2016 6:33 p.m.
So how'd everyone do at their prerelease?
I feel I ended up doing pretty well for my first event ever. My pack's highest bomb card was a Linvala, the Preserver and my promo was a Fall of the Titans of all things.
My main cards pointed me to a WB allies deck. Most of my 4 Swiss rounds (we didn't get to do 2HG) were 2 30 min games of blow for blow but I never had enough gas to seal the deal. Had a lot of fun though!
One week and I can pick up the cards I actually wanted! Lol.
January 17, 2016 10:46 a.m.
I'm heading to a prerelease in like an hour, I'll tell you how I do... Aiming for Chandra and the RW manland cuz they go into one of my decks
January 17, 2016 10:52 a.m.
I had a lot of fun.
Played Friday midnight pre-release, bought a pack for the 4:30 am pre-release but dropped to find cards for my new General Tazri's Allies EDH deck I'm putting together, then played 2HG with a mate today.
Won as many games as I lost, so I'm happy with that because I suck at sealed.
January 17, 2016 11:20 a.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #10
So I went to a prerelease yesterday and went 3-1 losing in the last round. My pool had no foils and no mythics, which was sad, and my promo was Mina and Denn, Wildborn, which was okay I guess. My pool had a pretty obvious RG aggro deck, and because of the lack of decent removal for most of my opponents, it was very difficult for them to deal with the 3 Brute Strength and 3 Stalking Drone I pulled. In round 4 my opponent blew me out with Chandra twice in a row. Thankfully, we had agreed beforehand to split the prizes no matter who won, so I got 9 packs for prizes. Across the 15 packs I opened (6 sealed pool, 9 prize), my most valuable card was Eldrazi Displacer, followed by General Tazri. Suffice to say, I got absolute crap out of my prize packs. You'd think that you'd get more than $20 in card value out of $60 in packs.....
On the bright side, it was a ton of fun and when my friends and I caught on that I was pulling junk, we decided to play some football with the remaining packs out in the parking lot. No, I am not kidding, and no, we did not get anything good out of those packs either.
January 17, 2016 11:25 a.m.
Stormcaller says... #11
My prerelease went pretty smooth.
The Rare and mythics i pulled were:
Eldrazi Obligator, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Wasteland Strangler,Shrine of the Forsaken Gods,Linvala, the Preserver aaaand Kozilek, the Great Distortion.As promo i got Sylvan Advocate. This card is so strong, almost never a dead draw.
I went 
<> and lost my first game in almost no time, but won the remaining three games always 2:0.
MVP of this prerelease Breaker of Armies, the boardwipe on a stick.
I was pretty underwhelmed by the new Linvala, mainly because i've always been ahead when i cast her.
Also my buddy who joined me on this prerelease opened a Wasteland.
January 17, 2016 11:49 a.m.
TheNextRedDude says... #12
For my prereleases I got two Nissa, Voice of Zendikars, every oath but Nissa's, Endbringer, two Eldrazi Obligators, Ayli, and Worldbreaker
January 17, 2016 1:07 p.m.
Dang, that's a pretty decent haul. Grats on the wins all.
January 17, 2016 1:14 p.m.
Hey guys. Check out my Izzet Prowess (OotGW) deck using Stormchaser Mage, Jori En, Ruin Diver, and Overwhelming Denial. Any help is greatly appreciated!
PS. What is your top Oath of the Gatewatch card? Mine is Jori En, Ruin Diver for her top quality card advantage and being in my favourite two colours.
January 17, 2016 3:23 p.m.
Out of the cards I played against during Prerelease, Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim, Wall of Resurgence, Visions of Brutality, and Zendikar Resurgent were huge.
Personally I liked Ayli and Resurgent the most. I think a lot of the W/B/G cards will be good for EDH and with a little help the new allies additions can be competitive.
January 17, 2016 3:41 p.m.
Nightdragon779 says... #16
In my prerelease, Essence Depleter was a giant bomb. Visions of Brutality also worked really well for me.
January 17, 2016 4:29 p.m.
TheCouchPotato says... #17
Me and my teammate took second at 2HG, my second prerelease and his first. The guys who took first were who we lost against in the second round, and we weren't surprised that they did (win the event). We started out with a strong tempo advantage, with some menace creatures that made blocking difficult for them. Their Retreat to Emeria got Isolation Zoned, and we systematically removed most of their big threats while getting their life total lower and lower. We attacked with everything, because even if they did crack back for a lot, they would lose next turn. On their turn, they play an awakened Ondu Rising. We read the card. We read the card again. They ended up gaining over 20 life, and we lost a few turns later to a Kozilek's Pathfinder with around 7 sources of colorless. Going back at 8 with another friend to try my luck again. Lots of fun.
January 17, 2016 4:40 p.m.
I don't do prerelease :>
Here's my top 5 favorite cards in OGW:
If this was a rare, it would be higher on the list.
It's practically Wall of Omens-level value.
3: Thought-Knot Seer/Reality Smasher
Seriously, both of these cards are insane. I've tried them, and they were never once a dead draw. 10/10.
While not quite as good as Meddling Mage, this is definitely playable and my favorite of the cycle.
'Brewing intensifies'
They finally reflected hedron alignment as a card. Love it. 15/15 would annihilate.
Honorable mentions go to Immolating Glare, a surprisingly good removal spell, and to Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, the planeswalker that everyone else keeps hyping up and that I keep saying is mediocre (seriously guys, she produces 0/1 plants! 0/1s!).
January 17, 2016 4:54 p.m.
Hedron Alignment should have been an uncommon. Out of all the unplayable rares they have printed over the years, this is one of the most inexcusable things to open as a rare in a sealed/draft tournament.
January 17, 2016 4:57 p.m.
It isn't rare worthy in sealed/draft, but the repeatable scry is nice.
January 17, 2016 5 p.m.
@kyuuri117 salty about a 2 mana scry EVERY TURN in those long games? Kappa sealed.
January 17, 2016 5:03 p.m.
What long games? Red/White is still the best color combination. Going negative with even a mediocre deck takes skill if you're in those colors.
Only saw one person attempt to play with the card all weekend, and they went 0-5 with their deck.
January 17, 2016 5:20 p.m. Edited.
So my prerelease went insanely well. I opened Chandra, softer of skulls, and the bomb- Baloth Null. I played straight Jund and destroyed EVERYONE because I had a good amount of value creatures and a bunch of removal. Baloth null won me 3 matches.... The card is ridiculous
Then I pulled a thought knot seer in prize packs so I was happy
I also pulled a Kiora but ew... I didn't play her
January 17, 2016 8:49 p.m.
Aww yeah, got first in my LGS's Two Headed Giant event. Me and my friend got fairly jank pulls, but ended up muddling through with Azorius Control and Golgari-Colorless Eldrazi.
January 17, 2016 9:31 p.m.
I went to 2x pre-releases. Yesterday and today.
4-2-0 yesterday (13th of 52). (Notably, every time I had to mulligan, I won the game... including a mull to 4)
MVP was Reality Smasher, but followed closely by Drana, Liberator of Malakir and Bane of Bala Ged. - Real reason for a good deck was a lot of removal.
4-1-0 today (4th of 33). (Notably, all matches decided in 2 games, and I only lost to the first place deck.)
MVP was... well, it's hard to say. Probably Blinding Drone, but followed closely by Reckless Bushwhacker, Endbringer, Matter Reshaper, and once again, Bane of Bala Ged. - Real reason for a good deck was great curve and synergy.
I was not overly pleased with Stormchaser Mage's performance, but I only had ~6-7 non-creatures in this deck. - probably best that I only saw it twice in all the game.
In all the games, my most entertaining was using Blinding Drone to tap a Felidar Sovereign for 8+ turns so it could not attack, buying me time to get through with flyers and eventually get out Endbringer (which lived up to it's name).
The new limited format is interesting, both slower and faster than BfZ at the same time. It seams easy to make a good aggressive curve with lots of interesting synergy, but there's lots of 1/3, 2/3 and 2/4 creatures making for interesting and semi-stalling board states.
With better 
ramp, I was never without mana to cast Bane of Bala Ged, and it was ALWAYS at least a 4-for-1 as they would have to double block after exiling 2x permanents.
January 17, 2016 11:15 p.m. Edited.
shepherdofire says... #26
What about a ramp into Reality Smasher deck with control. Maybe Become Immense to make it disgusting.for standard.
January 18, 2016 7:49 a.m. Edited.
EpicFreddi says... #27
I had the fun combo of Zendikar Resurgent and Fall of the Titans in my first pool and Nissa+Chandra in my second pool. Went 4-1 both times, 4th and 5th place. (I got paired down the 2nd pre, otherwise I would've been top3 instead of top5.)
January 18, 2016 7:56 a.m.
So this was my 3rd pre release EVER, and I won!! XD
My promo was the beautiful Linvala, the Preserver, and pulled: General Tazri (which in hindsight I should have added to my deck but whatevs), Undergrowth Champion, Void Winnower, Stone Haven Outfitter and some other off colour rare.
SO naturally I went Esper Lifegain Allies, as there were plenty of great cards in all of those 3 colours (but very little in anything else).
MVP went to Linvala, as I often ended up behind in board presence and life as I had to stall out the opponent until I could drain them for game. To this effect, Cliffhaven Vampire + Essence Depleter was the best combo of the deck, and Spawnbinder Mage was great for the stall. Also pulled great removal, with two copies of both Stasis Snare and Oblivion Strike, as well as one Roil Spout and Searing Light, the latter of which I took out after discovering most decks there had more big stuff than anything. Prophet of Distortion was best one drop, as he provided much needed draw power- often times I drew an additional 2 cards per turn, which landed me my bombs and combo pieces. Void Winnower was an amazing finisher.
Round 1: Loss-Win-Win. This was against my friend there, who is almost usually better than me.
Round 2: Same again, Loss-Win-Win. My loss here was due mostly to me missing out on essential scrys from my two Seer's Lanterns. Also, World Breaker exiling both of my Unknown Shores kinda killed me with my distinct lack of 
at the time.
Round 3: Loss-Win. We went to time in the second round, as both of us ended up stalling the other to death. Which, broke my heart, when, upon emerging from the tank, I found out everyone had ordered pizza and I didn't even realise o-o also this guy was who came second, with the exact same score as me. He was definitely better than me, so the fact that I duelled him worked in my favour (something to do with how all the people I had faced were in top 8, whilst fewer of his were)
Round 4: Win-Win. Completely effortless. The guy was running esper as well, but nothing he did seemed to be... relevant.
I pulled from my prize packs: Oath of Nissa, Oath of Gideon, two Eldrazi Displacer (but the foil one I traded for Matter Reshaper and Deceiver of Form), Hedron Alignment, Sea Gate Wreckage, Zendikar Resurgent , Munda's Vanguard and Thought-Knot Seer, Deepfathom Skulker and Gladeheart Cavalry.
January 18, 2016 8:11 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #29
First pre-release in almost 10 years. Still trying to adapt to sealed deck/limited
First promo was Zendikar Resurgent; a meh promo. Didn't get many strong cards so I went with B/U control shell. Went 1-3 before dropping.
2nd event I did much better; finished top 8 and scored 8 packs. One of my prizes carried Kozilek, the Great Distortion, so all in all I am happy.
Now I need to get my deck revamped with the new Eldrazi and get a shopping list of what I need to make it very strong
January 18, 2016 8:48 a.m.
AgentGreen says... #30
One thing I forgot to mention; it didn't win me the game, but it was quite something
Casting Gift of Tusks on Kozilek, the Great Distortion and picking him off
January 18, 2016 10:32 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #31
AgentGreen I think Zendikar Resurgent is a huge bomb. I played 3 non creature spells, rest creatures. I played 5 spells a turn with that card, it was insane. Loved it. (Slaming Ulamog T8, Drawing a card and playing Nissa in the same turn was an awesome feeling).
January 18, 2016 10:50 a.m.
I really wish Kozilek, the Great Distortion had hexproof. Yeah I know, I can just discard a card to counter it, but lets me real: I'm not going to discard Karn Liberated to protect him from Scour from Existence which is the latest craze in multiplayer Commander.
Hell I would be happy if he just had "protection from colorless". If anything though I bet our next Emrakul, the Aeons Torn will have that honor.
January 18, 2016 10:50 a.m.
EpicFreddi says... #33
kengiczar why would emrakul need protection from its own kind?
January 18, 2016 10:51 a.m.
Here's a better question: Why would one of Kozilek or Ulamog's peons be able to destroy Emrakul?
Looking at it like that it makes sense. Emrakul is the biggest and baddest of the Eldrazi. it makes zero sense to me that all of us have access to Edlrazi magic that could destroy Kozilek or Ulamog. Stasis Snare is the type of card that does make sense, and WotC had the good sense to make sure it was double or everybody would spam them. Also I'm getting tired so I keep saying "sense". Don't ask me why I can't make any sense of it.
January 18, 2016 10:57 a.m.
@kengiczar Scour from Existence is an Eldrazi spell. Why would Emrakul need protection from a) its own magic b) other Eldrazi.
Although it would be supremely epic, Ulamog (Who is depicted in the aforementioned spell) is not going to suddenly pick a fight with his sister.
I get where you're coming from though- Scour really needs to have colourless mana symbols in its cost :L
January 18, 2016 11:42 a.m.
SorcerersBone says... #36
Didn't pull anything spectacular in either prerelease, but I've just got to point out some useful and surprisingly strong cards:
Eldrazi Displacer single-handedly won games for me and made me go 3-0-1. Tapping down big-bads like Ulamog, Kozilek, and Bane of Bala Ged, retriggering the Brood Monitor, allies, and support creatures on my field, blinking out any blockers in front of my creatures with trample, and protecting my own. That guy puts in WORK. I pulled 3 in both prereleases and traded for a 4th, and I'm well on my way to the Brood Monitor + Eldrazi Displacer + Zulaport Cutthroat combo deck. :3
Nissa's Judgment was super helpful in the 2nd prerelease. My card pool had a lot of access to spells that care about, gain, or give +1/+1 counters, so every time I cast it, I was guaranteed removal. The Standard deck I have (monogreen counters) sorely needed removal, so 2 more of these and I'm set!
Seer's Lantern helped me outrace my opponents in late-game top decks, would have been 6 turns before I got my Steppe Glider to push the last few points of damage in. I got it down to 3.
Kor Scythemaster lives up to his name. Instant speed buffs turned I'm into removal with legs.
What are some cards that helped you guys out of a jam?
January 18, 2016 7:54 p.m.
Nissa's Judgment was definitely a card that helped me a couple times. My biggest helps were Eldrazi Obligator, which single-handedly won me three games, and Bearer of Silence, which solidified my position enough to give me the win.
January 18, 2016 8:53 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #38
Stoneforge Masterwork + two Weapons Trainer allowed my Zada's Commando go toe to toe with Kozilek which was pretty fun.
Also, Brute Strength is a great buff that one me a couple matches
January 18, 2016 9:44 p.m.
Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor says... #40
Also also, Tajuru Pathwarden is definitely first pick-able in my opinion.
January 18, 2016 10:26 p.m.
Event deck looks meh. Not as good as the bfz one in terms of value.
January 19, 2016 1:44 p.m.
shepherdofire says... #42
Pulled a Thought-Knot Seer, a Reality Smasher, and a Matter Reshaper. Now im making them into a ug ramp control deck for standard.
January 19, 2016 2:34 p.m.
Harashiohorn says... #43
Pulled Kozilek's Return, Thought-Knot Seer and Promo Thought-Knot Seer... Good times... Good times...
January 19, 2016 3:17 p.m.
00xtremeninja says... #44
I would imagine Thought-Knot Seer is beautiful in foil
January 19, 2016 6:02 p.m.
Visions of Brutality was amazing, as was Witness the End and Bearer of Silence. I went B/Gc both times and did pretty well.
January 19, 2016 6:59 p.m.
Nightdragon779 says... #46
Harashiohorn Did you go to New World Manga in Livingston for prerelease because I remember someone there also got those exact cards.
January 19, 2016 7:29 p.m.
Pay attention to price shifts. Thought-Knot Seer is climbing quickly.
January 20, 2016 12:43 p.m.
elpokitolama says... #48
It's just a bubble. Only a very, very few decks will benefit from it and it's still being mass printed. In two months, it will be back at $5 in my opinion.
January 20, 2016 12:56 p.m.
GoldGhost012 says... #49
Might not even take that long. The set will start to be opened en masse in a couple days and the amount in circulation will skyrocket.
NarejED says... #1
And with the prerelease comes the ban update. RIP Splinter Twin, Amulet Bloom, and Cloud of Faeries (pauper).
January 16, 2016 12:07 p.m.