Shadowmoor: The sealed launch party

I had hoped to go to the event with my friends today, but unfortunately everyone was doing other things. But I suppose that's okay, I probably would have been the ride, and not everyone can take 7 hours of sealed MTG. When I opened my packs, I wasn't really all that impressed with anything I got, didn't really feel any colors. Turns out I was wrong, I got pretty good packs. I figured I would end up facing down the common cycle of avatar enchantments, so I packed hate for those. Turns out I didn't need it, as I only faced one of the enchantments all day... still, the cards were useful. I ended up going green/white, with quite a few persist creatures along with cards to take -1/-1 counters off them when they come back. That would typically let me stall until I overwhelmed the opponent with Windbrisk Raptor, or my sheer numbers. Oh well, here is the run down.

The Deck
g/w sealed
Creatures
2 Nurturer Initiate
1 Rhys the Redeemed
1 Devoted Druid
3 Safehold Elite
1 Chainbreaker
1 Scuttlemutt
2 Kitchen Finks (yaa)
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Rosheen Meanderer
1 Raven's Run Dragoon
1 Woeleecher
1 Thornwatch Scarecrow
1 Windbrisk Raptor

Enchantments
1 Steel of the Godhead

Spells
1 Niveous Wisps
1 Strip Bare
1 Inquisitor's Snare
2 Aethertow

Lands
9 Plains
8 Forest

It occurs to me at this point that I didn't keep as good a track of this event as I have others, so unfortunately I really don't have the specifics outside of ending life totals and the sort. If I had to pick an MVP it would be Windbrisk Raptor, a 5/7 flier that gives your attackers life link is pretty much the nut. The combination of Kitchen Finks and Woeleecher also lead to a huge life gain bit. In the end, there wasn't a single match that didn't end with me at some point having 30+ life. One match even ended with me close to 80. Rhys didn't stick around long in any game. Mostly I dropped him as fodder for player's removal. With creature destruction and burn being so limited in this set, having someone burn out my Rhys and not have any solutions vs. my persist combos/ raptor was generally a good play. I did however get an active rhys in the semi finals, generating 32 tokens in the end, and swinging to push my life total into the 80s thanks to the raptor. Not that it mattered at that point, as we had 2 cards left in our decks xD

All in all it was enjoyable, and I walked away with 7 packs, 2 promo vexing shushers, and a deckbox. It was a good time.

Round 1 Vs Patrick
2-1
1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 Vs Kevin
2-0
2-0 (4-1)

Round 3 Vs Andrew
2-0
3-0 (6-1)

Round 4 Vs Todd
2-1
4-0 (8-2)

SemiFinals Round 5 Vs Todd
2-0
5-0 (10-2)

Finals Round 6 Vs Anthony
2-1
6-0 (12-3)