So what colors are people picking for pre-release and why?

Black, because thoughtseize! :)

Really though, black has a good promo and it has some of the only common direct removal in the set. I hope to get decent black/blue or red.

I'm going to go blue. There seems to be very limited removal for the format, and bounce effects will be great with all of the mana that is going to be invested in some of these big creatures.

I was thinking either White/Black/Red is where the money cards are... now that's assuming you're able to pull one of the big ones in the "seeded pack" (which I don't know if you even can). That being said, I'm likely going red, although I can't really say I've been able to hammer down a reason why. Although apparently a lot of folks are aiming Green/Blue...

On a side note, does anyone know why Elspeth jumped from $16-18 back up to $30 overnight?

Elspeth has been featured in a couple (or more) articles on the big websites. Kind of fueling their own fire a little.

WotC has said that the only mythic that you can open in the seeded pack is the god of that color, but I think that any of the other rares in that color are possibilities.

I can see why people are aiming for green as a preferred color, as the limited amount of removal means that all of the monstrous creatures in green should be huge threat. That's why I'm playing blue though, too, so that I can bounce those big threats. I'm hoping for decent packs for blue/black, but I'll play whatever bombs I may get.

I think that you have a better shot at a money rare by doing well and getting extra packs from placing well as opposed to opening something specific in your seeded pack. At least at my store if you have a winning record and stick around to the end of the tournament you usually get at least a couple packs since so many people drop out after a couple rounds. They help pump up the prize pool and then take off when they starting doing poorly.

psrex wrote:WotC has said that the only mythic that you can open in the seeded pack is the god of that color, but I think that any of the other rares in that color are possibilities.

I can see why people are aiming for green as a preferred color, as the limited amount of removal means that all of the monstrous creatures in green should be huge threat. That's why I'm playing blue though, too, so that I can bounce those big threats. I'm hoping for decent packs for blue/black, but I'll play whatever bombs I may get.

I think that you have a better shot at a money rare by doing well and getting extra packs from placing well as opposed to opening something specific in your seeded pack. At least at my store if you have a winning record and stick around to the end of the tournament you usually get at least a couple packs since so many people drop out after a couple rounds. They help pump up the prize pool and then take off when they starting doing poorly.

You'd obviously have a better shot at the more valuable cards if you were to win more packs (hooray probability!).

That being said, I'm thinking, despite everything said by MaRo and everyone else, it MIGHT be possible to go a bit aggro with red/(insert second color here). I've found that the degree to which you can apply heavy early pressure in a limited format almost ALWAYS bodes well for you. So much for those 8-drop bombs if I'll kill you by T-6 or T-7... then again, I might be totally nuts at this point...

IDK, I think there are too many cards that stone wall agro in limited. Lots of high toughness.

So what did everybody play? I ended up going blue-red, and even though I didn't have any super outstanding cards it was enough for an eighth place finish (out of 115) which I was super excited about (first event ever, pre-release, fnm, or otherwise).

What seemed to be the best where you guys played? The only two I lost to were both sponsored players, one running red-green and the other green-white, and it seemed like those were the three big colors where I was.

At the 2HG pre-release I ran red-blue again and my partner ran white-green, we didn't do so hot until I switched to straight blue and then we did a bit better.

Didn't see any thoughtseize get played. At the 2HG prerelease the guys sitting across from me had a pretty amazing open, they pulled an Elspeth, a foil planeswalker (the blue-black one, forget the name), a black god and the green god. I would have sworn they were cheating but I watched them open all 10 packs.

I picked red as my color but ended up pulling the white god instead. :rolleyes:

I ran red/blue with just a splash of white to shore up my curve. I ended up pulling another Ember Swallower (besides the promo one) and those were the MVPs of my deck. I also got some nice synergy from Favored Hoplite and Ordeal of Purphoros.

I ended up losing to a fairly aggressive red/black deck that continually forced me to sacrifice my own creatures, but went 3-1 for the day. I pulled Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Xenagos, the Reveler, and some other nice stuff in my prize packs. Overall a good day!