Topic: Pre-release stories

I ended up doing two pre-releases this past weekend, one at Boldo's while the other was at Millenium.

I woke up and played with the dogs only to tire them out earlier than expected so I headed over to Boldo's early only to see the place start getting packed.  In the end there were 50 people there along with my two friends Sal and Alex.  I was one of the first 8 or so names so I was able to choose my guild.  Typically I do not care which guild to be apart of, this was no different.  Since I was called I had to pick so I ended up opting for Orzhov over Simic (for the color dice) or Dimir (for the hype I hear about it).

I opened all 6 packs with nothing terribly great.  I did not open up any of the hyped cards nor any of the shock lands to my dismay.  A few packs had rares in Orzhov so in the end I opted to play Orzhov, unlike the Ravnica pre-release where I ended up playing all colors but my guild.  I splashed blue in with my white and black since there were some decent removal cards in blue.  Green and Red had few playable cards I felt despite loving the new mechanic Bloodrush!  In the end I was an amalgamation of Dimir and Orzhov since I love playing at least three colors.

Constructing the deck was rough.  I had so much removal (kill, bounce, counterspell) that I could have build a deck without any creatures.  I felt like at least trying to win so I cut a few artifacts, a few removal, and added in 8 creatures, two of which had defender.  I had a couple fliers but no real bombs or threats except for the Orzhov promo.

Round 1 I played against a Dimir deck with a splash of white.  The deck was sort of a mill deck and a bit on the stall side.  He also used Extort to some degree but focused on milling and creature damage.  He won the first game while I figured out what to do with my deck.  The second and third games though were similar to one another and radically different from the first game.  I got out my creatures first, 5 of the 8 had extort, then proceeded to play the removal spells while extorting them as much as possible.   won, 1-0

Round 2 was rather a comical game.  First game after mulliganing down to 5, I opened with three lands (two opposing gates) and all three colors along with 2 of my cheap removal spells.  I ended up drawing three more removal spells.  He had all creatures and lands that never did deal me any damage with all my removal.  I put out a couple creatures which was all I would need since he couldn't stop drawing lands.     Game two was much of the same except that I couldn't draw a creature for the entire game.     Game three was the same as the first.  I drew all my removal, using them at the proper time, then played down my creatures and won.  All in all the round took no more than ten minutes.  won, 2-0

Sadly that's the end of my Boldo's pre-release.  I had to leave then as I had a prior obligation.

At millenium there were 150 people.  I ended up going 2-2 with a similar deck in color but far less removal and more creatures.  I could have been 3-1 but by 10:00 i was mentally done with magic.  I realized my fast play caused me to loose two of the three games in the final round.  My opponent was friendly though and I didn't care for the prizes anyways since I don't open packs.  The differences in prizes between the two of us was only 5 packs.  I was awarded 3 packs for a 2-2 record.

What are your stories, tell me in the comments below oh wait this isn't youtube.  Do tell me in the box though.

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Re: Pre-release stories

I showed up at Boldo's and was told there were no more spots open unless I wanted to buy this one guys' spot for $90. I looked in the back for the rest of you but didn't see you so I went home and went 0-1 in a round of Life, the board game, for which I was awarded zero prize packs.

Re: Pre-release stories

I was at Boldo's with Paul and Sal, and stayed the whole time.  I opened Gruul, my first pick, and completely committed to the guild and its agressive creature-driven offense.  I kicked ass in 4 out of 6 rounds, but the other two were seasoned players who both had great orzhov decks chock full of extort creatures.  Once my deck ran out of steam, there was little I could do against a wall of tiny extorters.  In the end, I just barely lost game and went home with three prize packs instead of six packs and an intro deck.  But still, I finished 8 out of 50, so I'm very happy.

The surprise MVP card of the day in my deck was burst of strength, the green instant that untaps a creature and gives it a 1/1 counter.  Anyone who's played a bit of magic knows to be afraid of giant growths in a green deck, but it seems most players aren't used to worrying about a giant growth that surprises you by throwing a tapped blocker in your way.  I had two in my deck, and got a LOT of mileage out of them. 

Prerelease was really fun, but I had forgotten how much less efficient and streamlined your deck can be compared to draft, where you focus on just two or three colors and only pick things you need.  The point of which is that I cannot WAIT to draft this set.

Re: Pre-release stories

The only one I could have made was the second Sunday one at Millenium.  Well, with all the computer issues I was having at work, I was getting a bit frustrated.  Combine that with someone walking in 2 minutes before I was going to lock the door made it so that I would have to hurry to Millenium and not have dinner. 

All combined, I decided that I was too frustrated to enjoy myself so I decided to just go home and spend time with my wife smile

Maybe Dragon's maze will be the charm that I can actually make a pre-release.