Another set means another pre-release. For the The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth pre-release, Noah decided to skip out as he was less than impressed with the cards. With Father’s Day and a weekend upgrade thrown into the mix, it meant that Christian and I headed down to Face to Face for the Friday evening event. We were joined by two of our regular side kicks, Carter and Cooper.

Recent pre-releases have not been kind to me. I headed into this one with an abysmal 0-9 record. I definitely was hoping for a turnaround. I cracked my packs with a bit of anxiety, I’ll admit it.

My card pool yielded no Mythics and nothing jumped out as a bomb to build around. Once I had sorted out my cards, I found that black was strong, particularly in removal. I also liked the Voracious Fell Beast with its built-in removal (and fabulous borderless art). Red was quite weak and was an easy exclude. White looked intriguing but I preferred what Blue and Green offered. In the end, I opted for Green for its bigger creatures and the food tokens that would hopefully keep me alive and serve as something to sacrifice. I went with my usual 16 lands, a somewhat greedy approach, that has been known to sometimes get me in trouble.

Round 1 did not start auspiciously. I drew a one-lander. Fortunately, my opponent had proposed a free mulligan before we drew so I took him up on it. And drew another 1 land hand. Mulligan and draw again. I drew 5 hands in a row with one land. My exasperated opponent kindly said, “Discard one and let’s play,” when I finally decided to keep. Not that it helped as I stalled at two lands and got stomped.

Game 2 went somewhat better but I still lost. 0-1 and the pre-release curse had reared its ugly head once more.

Round 2 was against a very slow player. He won Game 1 but just barely. He was down to 1 life and I at 2. But a great draw gave him just enough to get through my defenses and deal the lethal damage the turn before I would have been able to. A fun game.

We drew on the second game, having run out of time, as he again played very slowly (but I will give him he was very thorough and methodical).

Time for Round 3. My opponent started things off very strongly, using the ring temptation mechanic to do some early damage. But with one creature to work with, I was able to build up my board and start responding, also using the ring temptation mechanic. It was a close affair but I emerged victorious.

Game 2 followed the same pattern but my removal finally came to the fore and I was able to prevent him from dealing much damage as this time, I chipped away at his health as there were no creatures that survived a long time on his side and no potent removal. His luck did not change and I finally, after 14 rounds, posted one in the Win column.

The curse has been broken for now. Now to get back to a winning record for these events.

As for the packs won at the event, they netted a The Watcher in the Water as well as a Shadow of the Enemy. Nothing earth-shattering but I did pull a promo Delighted Halfling in my prerelease pack so not too bad either.

Finally, records for the evening: Me at 1-1-1 and Christian went 2-1.