With Ontario re-opening after the Omicron wave, I asked the boys a few weeks back if they wanted to participate in an in-store pre-release for Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty. I should have known that this is pretty much a rhetorical question. Next was a question about where to play. The decision was to once again turn this into a bit of a trip and head up to North of Exile in Penetanguishene.

Yesterday morning, we headed up. When we left Toronto, it was -1° Celsius. By the time we arrived in Penetanguishene less than 2 hours later, it was -13° (The temperature drop happened across southern Ontario – Just pointing out how quickly it happened).

A quick stop for some lunch in Midland, Mexican this time around, before heading up to NoE. We even got to pass a protest convoy (don’t get me started!) on the way up. We were settled in and ready to crack the new set before 1pm. Turnout was modest and we made up 50% of the players!

As for my pre-release pool, my promo was Otawara, Soaring City. I sadly did not pull any Mythics from my packs but I did end up with a The Reality Chip, two Kotose, the Silder Spider, a Mechtitan Core, Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei, and a Tribute to Horobi for the rares. I’m most happy about Otawara, Goro-Goro and the Chip.

Black lacked depth and was an easy elimination. My first thought was to go Boros with Samurai but I was worried about the fact that much of their advantage is derived from attacking alone. So, I added some vehicles and some Reconfigure cars as well. I still did not feel confident that this deck was the right one so started on a Simic deck. I felt even less confident about that one and ended up shelving it in favour of the Samurai.

Round 1 fell apart simply because I did not pay attention to the cards in play. In the first game, I missed the Ward 2 on Patchwork Automaton not once but twice. There was no sympathy from my opponent (none other than Christian). My deck was light on removal and losing both proved to be costly. The second game went better but only because Christian got a slow start. In the third game, Christian got a good start and it was all he needed.

I played against Noah in the second round. That was a quick game with him steam rolling me 2-0 in no time. In what would prove to be a theme for the rest of my afternoon, I was done in by my mana in the second game. It’s hard to play red cards when all your mana is white.

Round 3 – I lost the first game. Once again, my mana failed me, leaving me with only red mana available and white card in hand. My opponent suffered the same fate in the second round but I inherited the curse once more in the third game, this time with white cards ready to go but red mana on the board.

While I collected the ugly 0-3, Christian went 2-1 (losing only to his brother), while Noah took the crown with a 3-0 record. Even more impressive was that he did it in a clean sweep with 6 wins and no losses.

While I wish I had done better and pulled at least a few cards that I was hoping for, it was another great pre-release if only for the time spent with the boys at a great LGS.