Reflections on My Spider-Man Pre-Release Event

October 13, 2025 / Jerome / Leave a comment

There is a lot to catch up on since my last post. So let’s dive without further ado.

Edge of Eternities was the first pre-release that I missed in a very long time. Another weekend-long commitment just made it impossible to catch any of the events (it was still a good weekend!). In the meantime, Christian could not make it because of work commitments and other social events. It was down to Noah to defend the family honour. He did so at a Two-headed Giant event where he and his friend went 3-0.

Edge of Eternities was also the last pre-release that we might have been able to attend together as Noah headed off to university out of town at the end of August. I am proud of him for choosing this path forward but I will admit to being sad, knowing that pre-releases that all three of us could attend will now be fewer and farther apart.

The Spider-Man pre-release was upon us quickly after that. Noah skipped his while Christian again missed out due to work commitments. It was up to me this time so I signed up for a Sunday morning event at my LGS. It is still strange to be there without the boys and weirder to attend an unusually quiet pre-release (Sunday morning effect or uninspiring set? Not sure).

I cracked my packs and laid out my cards as I normally do: By colour and separated into creatures and other spells. I also keep my Rares and Mythics separate to see what might be worth building around.

While I pulled no Mythics in my pool, I found that I had enough arachnids to build a spider-loving Gruul deck. I did not think it was a particularly powerful deck but it seemed to have good synergy. Spider-Punk certainly promised to be fun.

In my first game, I got off a good start by winning my first match. I lost the second. In the third, things started evenly but a mana flood sealed my fate as I could no longer keep up with the growing board across from me. Nonetheless, a fun start to the day.

My second game started with a loss. I managed to win the second after my opponent milled down to four cards but it was still too close for comfort. The third was sealed in my favour by the simple fact that my opponent drew nothing but white mana while holding only black spells. That is not a fun way to lose!

My third game reminded me that not all decks need to be built around spiders despite the name of the set. My opponent built a fun deck full of villains and nary a spider. And I found out the hard way that when you pair The Clone Saga with Mysterio, Master of Illusion, you can crank out a lot of 3/3 tokens! And why not throw in a Vulture, Scheming Scavenger to all of them flying? Two quick games and it was a wrap.

When I got home, Christian asked how I did. “1 and 2,” I told him.
“Ah, your usual then!” he responded with a smirk!

Final Fantasy Pre-Release: A New Era in Magic

June 15, 2025 / Jerome / Leave a comment

The Final Fantasy pre-release marked the beginning of a new era in our family. It was the first one where I went alone as Christian was working and Noah decided that he had/has no interest in this set and that it does not exist. “It’s a summer without new Magic sets,” he declared some time back.

I knew from the hype leading to the launch that this would be a huge set. The fact that it was the best-selling set ever even before it officially launched certainly suggested as such. But it really hit home as I listened to players around me talking about playing the video game through all of its different versions. I was definitely in the minority as someone who has never played this game.

And then came the moment to start building!

I cracked my packs and laid out my cards. Three cards immediately stood out for me: Jecht, Reluctant Guardian which flips into a 7/7 creature saga, Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant, my only mythic and another creature saga, and Firion, Wild Rose Warrior. My White was not particularly strong but had some decent removal and had Moogle’s Valor, a card that looked like fun.

I quickly ruled out Blue as it had nothing that called out to me. Green was not much better despite having a few cards, including some saga creatures but none that flipped. I was not convinced that these would be strong enough as they were not long for the board.

I’ve not had much luck in the past with three colours so looked to build a two-colour deck but I had only two spells in that colour and neither was particularly good. Red was strong, particularly with a Suplex as one of the better removal spells in the set. I caved and went three colours to get some white removal and smooth out my curve a little bit. To be honest, I was not exactly feeling my deck. It felt like I was trying to do a lot with it and I wondered how it would all come together.

One card that I had hoped to find was Minwu, White Mage. It was not necessarily for the pre-release but for my Clerics decks. More on that card in an upcoming post.

My first round was against a player who was coming back to Magic because of Final Fantasy. He had stopped playing some years back but the new set drew him back. He played what looked like a Selesnya deck that promised some big creatures.

A few cards came through for me as I won the first game: Mysidian Elder and more importantly, the 0/1 black Wizard token who would ping him for one every time I cast a noncreature spell, Red Mage’s Rapier with the Job select mechanic that would immediately attach the Equipment to a Hero token, and Moogle’s Valor.

The second game went pretty much the same way. It turns out that my opponent was playing three colours but his mana did not cooperate for this first round. I ran into him later and his deck did work better after our games.

For me, it was a first round win – Something that has not happened in a while!

My second round was against an Izzet deck. There was good synergy between the cards of his deck but my deck continued to surprise me. I was able to play Jecht, Reluctant Guardian, but he realized the threat and quickly dealt with it. It did cost him one of his few removal spells, I found out later. The game went long after that but I managed to prevail.

We kicked off the second game and it again went long. The decks were clearly evenly matched and I got to play Clive, Ifrit’s Dominant. Again, my opponent astutely recognized the threat and Clive was quickly removed. Sadly, once more I was not able to transform one of my creature sagas.

This time, it was my opponent who prevailed just as time as called. We had to settle for a draw but I was not unhappy as my deck was fun to play and was continuing to play better than I had expected.

For the third round, I was paired up against someone who had been deckbuilding not far from me. When I saw him sit down across from me, I knew the odds were not going to be in my favour. He had pulled not one but two Vivi Ornitiers, one of the most potent cards in the deck.

In our first round, he mulliganed down to 5 cards. I started feeling a little better about my chances. I held my removal for his Vivi and was able to control the game and chip away slowly again using my 0/1 Wizard tokens. The game went long but I prevailed.

In the second round, it was my turn to mulligan down to five cards. Lands suddenly were scarce and I did not feel like playing with one land hands. This game felt very much like the mirror of the first one. Me starting with five and him consistently inflicting damage in a slow methodical way that I could not answer. At time, we were at one win a piece. A second draw to complete the round.

As usual, our LGS handed out two packs for each match, letting players decide amongst themselves to split the or play for them. We agreed to split them in all three rounds. From them, I pulled the following Rares and Mythics: Lightning, Army of One, a Cecil, Dark Knight, The Darkness Crystal, Triple Triad and Zell Dincht. Some interesting stuff!

I am thinking that I will build a Commander deck around Lightning, Army of One. The Stagger ability could definitely lead to some interesting negotiations at the table.

All in all, I’m pleased with my 1-0-2 record but I do still wish that the boys had been here. Magic is all about the gathering as so many say and I missed our chats during deck building and between games. It is a new era here at Family Magic.

Tarkir: Dragonstorm Pre-release recap

April 8, 2025 / Jerome / Leave a comment

You may recall that Aetherdrift did not impress the boys and I. It was another of those sets where some familiar characters were forced into a tropy setting, one that really did not resonate with us. Fortunately, the following set held more promise. And it has finally arrived: Tarkir: Dragonstorm pre-release season is upon us (if only for a week).

Why the excitement? It is the return to a somewhat familiar plane. When the boys and I first got into Magic during Battle for Zendikar, both boys also purchased packs from some previous sets. And two sets in particular were quite popular. And where were these set? Surprise, surprise, they were the Tarkir sets. When Wizards announced the return to Tarkir, there was much rejoicing in this house. As for me, I like that this is a solid set that, like Foundations or Bloomburrow, plays like a traditional Magic set.

Unfortunately, Noah once again had to miss out on Pre-Release, this time because of his participation in the school musical (Footloose this year!). So, Christian and I headed off Saturday morning, chatting about which clan we would choose. Christian was set on Mardu while I settled on Abzan.

My six packs, including the seeded one, pretty much locked me into Abzan. My promo, Revival of the Ancestors, was also an Abzan card (Christian ended up with a Jeskai promo). My blue was weak except for Taigam, Master Opportunist. My Red pulls left me equally uninspired and I stuck to my original plan.

Deck building felt good. I cut blue and red with no hesitation and set to building my Abzan deck. Along with my promo, I threw in Felothar, Dawn of the Abzan (could I play Abzan without its lord?) and Skirmish Rhino as a tribute to the old Siege Rhino. A few dragons and some good removal and I was ready.

My first match was a fairly evenly matched affair. Good fun!

In the first game, my opponent’s deck started a bit faster but I was able to catch up and we traded damage fairly evenly through the first turns, quickly ending up in single digits. Omens proved quite useful for me, helping with mana ramp and card draw. Removal played an important part in both our decks, keeping the creature count low. A string of three lands in a row late in the game changed the tone of the game, leaving me on the backfoot, unable to either remove his creatures or cast new ones of my own to replace those I was losing to his removal. In the end, that run of lands left me with an empty board and no answers to the damage coming in.

Game 2 started more strongly for me, especially after my opponent milled two of his removals, looking through his library for a threat. Again, the omens helped early in the game. While he started on the backfoot, he was able to catch up. Renew helped turn the tides for him, particularly his Qarsi Revenant, along with a few other Deathtouch creatures. We once again found ourselves in low single digits but it was his game in the end.

For my second match, I found myself relegated to the last table of our LGS where I met my next opponent.

I handily won the first game against a 4-colour deck. My opponent claimed to be playing five colours but I never saw a red land. If her strategy was indeed five colours, this first game would have been very frustrating. We talked as we shuffled up for the next game and it sounds like she just ended up with a pretty janky pool that really did not come together. I hate those kinds of days.

Game 2 was another decisive win but not for me. I went deep into the game without any White mana and a full hand of cards calling for White. With little else to cast, I had to discard cards for several turns, frustrated that I otherwise had a solid hand. On her side, my opponent pinged me for at least 1 from her second turn (and later 2 from each creature as counters entered the game). It was enough to whittle me down to the point that even when White showed up, it was too late. She was definitely pleased to pull a win out with her jank.

Fickle luck decided to smile on me again in the third game and everything lined up nicely for a quick win.

Mardu was a popular choice at our LGS and but it was only in my third match that I faced off against it.

The first game went long and was a very close affair. Removal and lifegain helped me weather the token storm. This was a fun game where my opponent kept attacking as “that is the Mardu way.” Qarsi Revenant (again!) certainly made it an interesting game. Using Renew to give another creature a flying counter, a deathtouch counter, and a lifelink counter when it dies is a pretty nasty little trick. Fortunately, between my own flyers and my removal, I was able to win the first game.

Game 2 started with my opponent taking a mulligan. From there, things did not improve for her. Two removal spells ended up in her graveyard shortly after while my own kept her in check. I was able to establish a solid board presence and was able to hit for damage consistently.

One card that really helped contain her threats was Arashin Sunshield, which can tap enemy creatures. I simply used it on her turn to control her biggest threat until I finally was able to permanently remove it. She never really recovered and I won the match 2-0.

It was nice to end 2-1 after the pretty horrid stretch I’ve had in recent pre-releases.

In general, I was pleasantly surprised by the Omen mechanic. I used them early in the games and was lucky enough to have them pop back into my hand a couple of times afterwards allowing me to then use the more expensive creature side. Definitely more flexible than I thought although they may not be as useful in larger decks where there is a smaller chance that they will reappear.

And one last thought. I wish the MTG Companion app would let you see your match history. It was something you could do back in the DCI number days. I would have liked to be able to see my standing before the event closed out.

Anyways, a good set and a fun pre-release…

Aetherdrift Pre-Release Gameplay: Lessons from My Matches

February 9, 2025 / Jerome / Leave a comment

Aetherdrift did not impress me during previews. There was something about this vehicle-heavy race-themed set that just did not connect with me. The story behind it and the new mechanics, Start Your Engines and Exhaust, did not impress me either. But, a pre-release is a pre-release and the best way to discover a new set. I hoped that my first impressions would be proven wrong.

Unusually, Noah could not make the pre-release as he was at a robotics competition all day. So, Christian and I were the only ones to head off (in fact, Noah left the house earlier).

Cracking my six packs revealed a pool that left me wondering what kind of deck I would build. A first glance revealed few clear bombs, aside from The Speed Demon. All my colours were low on creatures, especially, red and blue. Green was strong on creatures but none were absolute or even near bombs. With the heavy reliance on Vehicles and Mounts, a good pool of creatures was key in my mind. I did pull two Verges so not all was lost as I’m a firm believer that good mana is at the heart of all decks. Not that you’d believe that when I decided to go with a 16 land deck.

I ended up with an Orzhov deck (seems to be my colour pair these days) built around The Speed Demon, two Streaking Oilgorgers and flyers like Swiftwing Assailant. There was plenty of removal to hopefully keep me in the game while I built my board.

My first match of the day was against a Simic deck piloted by an actual content creator (Regular_Zach on Twitch if you’re interested). In our first game, I got to see how Exhaust could work. It proved to be a stronger mechanic than I expected, especially as it kept bringing back the pesky Afterburner Expert.

I also found my deck slow to get started (I had a feeling when I built it) and quickly went down in two games. In the second game, I got to hit Max Speed but it was too late to help me deal with a fierce opponent.

My second game was against an old neighbourhood friend of mine. I discovered in our first game that The Last Ride can be a pretty potent threat. But to be, it does need a bit of strategy and willingness to take some risks. Unfortunately, my friend misplayed it causing it to die when it became crewed. It was only upon rereading the card the next turn that we realized that rather than hitting me for 13, it should have died. We agreed to play on and that I would take the win. The match was a long drawn out but fun affair that left us with little time for our next game.

Back to The Last Ride for a moment. For a single , you get a 13/13 legendary artifact vehicle. The downside is that it will die if you crew it when your life is greater than 12. But you can still play it before that and use it for card draw while reducing your life to below 13. The lower your life, the bigger the threat. It really becomes a potent foe when your life is low. If you play with your life as a resource, it can be quite the threat but beware as it also dies easily to removal.

Unfortunately, I lost the second game in extra time and we settled for the draw.

My third game was simply ugly. In both matches, I was quickly overrun by a Boros deck built around cheap mana creatures and Start Your Engines. At Max Speed, those little creatures suddenly became bigger threats. In my first game, I could only manage two lands and that hampered my progress and quickly sealed my fate. In the second, I had the lands but my deck’s slow speed simply could not deal with the aggro tempo.

While I ended at 0-1-2 and near the bottom of the standings, Christian found his groove and went an impressive 3-0, losing none of his games! And he managed that with a Boros deck (a combination that he does not play very often).

As for Noah and his robotics competition, his team was eliminated in the first tournament round after clawing back with three straight wins after two losses in the preliminaries.

Next up for us will be the Tarkir: Dragonstorm pre-release. I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

Note: The feature image is again generated by AI.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan Pre-Release

November 12, 2023 / Jerome / Leave a comment

The last pre-release of the year. It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since we last visited Ixalan for a pre-release.

My card pool was good but not extraordinary. It clearly pushed me into Gruul with plenty of dinosaurs but neither colour featured good removal. Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant, was my sole Mythic and clearly a sign that I was meant to play Dinosaur Tribal. I considered splashing some white to give me some relief in the removal department (Cosmium Blast, Spring-loaded Sawblades) but decided instead to stick to two colours and adjust later should games not go my way.

My first game was a closely fought affair. I quickly won the first one as my opponent struggled getting his mana out. The tables turned in the second game and he quickly build his board state. Sovereign Okinec Ahau is a powerful card (once you decipher its terribly worded ability). With my opponent throwing +1/+1 counters everywhere, things rapidly got out of control for me.

The third game went to turns. On what was to be my last turn, I had my opponent down to 5 and could only inflict 4 points of damage. I ran through all the permutations I could think of but always came up short by 1. On his last turn, he ran into a similar situation, leaving me with 2 life. We settled for the draw. Definitely a good match to start with!

In the second match, errors dominated my game play. I mulliganed my first hand as it had two red lands and everything else was green. My next hand had one land but a good mix of other cards. I kept it and then proceeded to not see another land for 4 turns. Fortunately, I had Ixalli’s Lorekeeper and the Poison Dart Frog to keep me alive but it was only a matter of time.

In our second game, I had a good board state but struggled to inflict damage. My opponent was able to chump block enough to stymy enough damage to draw the game out. He then started to come back and inflict damage of his own. And then I made a fatal mistake, forgetting about an activated ability that reduced toughness on one of my key creatures on the board. There was no recovery at that point.

In the third game, I found myself playing the near-mirror (Gruul Dinosaurs). I won the first very quickly thanks to my opponent not being to get lands out quickly enough. I was ahead enough that I always had an answer to what he played. In the second game, he had the lands but kept drawing the smaller creatures while I was able to ramp quickly thanks to Lorekeeper and Poison Dart Frog.

I left relatively pleased to finish with a 1-1-1 record but it could have easily been 2-1 had I not thrown away the second match with simple mistakes.

My game store promo card was Path of Ancestry. I’ll definitely find a home for it in one of my Commander decks.

Impressions of the set: I love the Ixalan tribal theme (loved it six years ago and still do today). Dinosaurs, Vampires, Pirates and now Gnomes. What’s not to like? Oh yeah, the fact that so many cards are very wordy. There is so much packed into each card. The power creep is real as is the proliferation of counters (now including Finality counters, Bore counters, etc).

I was really happy to see Explore return. I loved it last time and enjoyed it just as much this time around. A straightforward mechanic that just works well and that I intend to revisit on Arena! Jadelight Ranger and Wildgrowth Walker, here I come!

Last but not least, the boys both went 2-1. I guess they will continue to remind me that they are better players!

Wilds of Eldraine Pre-Release

September 9, 2023 / Jerome / Leave a comment

Our Wilds of Eldraine Pre-Release was a most unusual one. The boys and I normally go down together to play and often find at least two of us paired up for a game at least once per event. Scheduling conflicts meant that we could not go together this time around. I headed off alone Friday night for Face to Face while the boys met up with some friends and went Saturday morning.

My pool was better than I have seen in recent events. I drew four Mythics: Virtue of Knowledge (my promo), Virtue of Courage, Rowan, Swion of War and Land Tax. Just there, I was pretty happy, especially with that last card. But looking at the rest of my pool, I ended up with a Rakdos deck focused around rats that used none of them. I toyed with the idea of using Virtue of Knowledge but I just did not have enough cards with abilities to make it worthwhile to splash a card costing 4 and a .

I lost my first round in two games. A mental mistake on my part cost me the first. Archon of the Wild Rose gives all creatures flying, not just to itself. Small distinction that I failed to catch and left myself wide open to an aerial assault that sealed my fate. In the second game, no mental mistakes but simply overwhelmed by the power of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.

Agatha's Soul Cauldron — Agatha’s Soul Cauldron

In the second round, I easily won the first round with my rats overwhelming my opponent struggling to keep creatures on the board thanks to my removal spells. I was not so lucky in the second game as momentum shifted to the other side of the table, leaving me on the backfoot. Our third game went to time and we settled for the draw.

My rats finally showed what they could do in the third round (or maybe the stars aligned a bit better). I won the round, giving me a 1-1-1 record for the pre-release. That’s the same result as I had for the LOTR Pre-Release.

The game store promo card was a Reine des frelons (Hornet Queen). While not a powerful card, I do have it in my Kamahl and Jeska Commander deck. Maybe I’ll sub in this French version. It always infuriates the boys when I play French cards.

As for the boys, Christian went 1-2 while Noah went 1-1-1 on Saturday morning.

I’m definitely looking forward to Caverns of Ixalan in November. I loved the lore of the original Ixalan sets and hope that revisiting the plain (even if we’re going to the middle of it) will be as much fun this time around!

Running a pre-release at a cottage

August 10, 2023August 13, 2023 / Jerome / Leave a comment

I bought three Lord of the Rings pre-release kits for our cottage vacation. Magic for a rainy day was the plan. But it almost came not to be.

I packed the kits along with two Commander decks and the usual game supplies (playmat, dice, life counter). Christian similarly brought up two Commander decks while Noah only brought one, worried about some more expensive cards in his other decks.

First crisis (I’m being melodramatic – for effect): I realized early in the trip that we did not have sleeves for our new cards. Fortunately, we found a game store during one of our day trips and was able to remedy that oversight quickly.

On a rainy and windy Thursday morning in the second week of our vacation, we decided that this would be the day to hold our Cottage Pre-Release event. It rained in the morning and remained cloudy and cool into the afternoon. We settled around a coffee table that probably has seen its share of board and card games and cracked our kits (nothing earth-shattering in any of them) and set to building. And that’s when it hit the boys (not their father who was still trying to figure out whether he should go Black Green or Black Red). Second crisis:

“Do you know what we forgot?” asked Christian.
“No, what?” I answered, looking up from my pool of cards. “We have the sleeves.”
“But we don’t have lands.”
Some choice words may have escaped me at that point.

Fortunately, the kids are resourceful. We pulled lands from our Commander decks where we could. Unfortunately, there were not enough. So we complemented those with home made proxy lands. We first thought to use regular playing cards but they’re not the same size. Noah, apparently the self-appointed Judge, ruled these as inadequate. Instead, we settled on using some cards that did not go into our decks with home-made labels.

No style points here but they allowed us to go on our mini pre-release. Noah ended up going 2-0 with a White Green deck featuring Rosie Cotton of South Lane and lots of tokens. Christian and I ended up going 1-1 with him playing a Blue Red deck and I going with a Black Red deck.

Crises averted, rainy day dealt with and more Magic memories made.

Recent Pre-release curse somewhat broken

June 18, 2023June 18, 2023 / Jerome / Leave a comment

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.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One Prerelease

February 4, 2023February 4, 2023 / Jerome / Leave a comment

I was looking forward to the first prerelease of 2023, especially after previews suggested that Phyrexia: All Will be One would be a pretty powerful set. As usual, Christian and Noah were up for the prerelease. This time, we were joined by three of their friends.

After cracking my six packs and opening my promo, I looked over my pool. I had pulled an Atraxa, Grand Unifier, but I have a hard enough time building around three colours that I knew that building for four was a challenge for another time. My promo was a foil Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler. Definitely a better option to build around so I kept it handy. Another interesting pull was Jor Kadeen, First Goldwarden. Looking over the rest of my pool, I ruled out White and Red as neither offered sufficient depth. That left Jor Kadeen behind as well. Blue and Green stood out as the two strongest colours with Black as potential alternate to Blue or as a splashing colour.

I set out to build a BG deck focused around flyers, Oil counters, and Proliferate. It would have been nice to have more cards with Toxic to throw in to take more advantage of Proliferate. I looked to add a splash of Black but worried that a three-colour (Sultai) approach would prove as luckless as my previous attempts. In retrospect, it might have been the right strategy but I’m getting ahead of myself now.

First round and first hand, I immediately mulligan after pulling a one-land hand. I kept my second hand but stalled at two lands and watched my opponent grow out his board. While the third land finally did show, it was too late. The second hand went better and I started strongly before running into a few too many lands. And I learned that Toxic and Proliferate do indeed play well together.

With time in hand, we played a game for fun. And lo and behold, my deck suddenly came alive and worked as I had wanted it to. While it was too little too late, it did give me hope for the next rounds.

0-1.

In the second round, an explosive start in the first game by my opponent had me turning my creatures into blockers to simply stay alive when I could. One card that made a difference for him was Skrelv, Defector Mite. Making another card unblockable by creatures of a colour of his choice proved to be a real threat. And then he told me he had three! The second game was much closer but when he landed Atraxa, I knew the writing was on the wall. Kudos to him for playing that card!

0-2.

Round three and at the bottom of the rankings! Once again, I was quickly defeated, this time by none other than Morgan, one of Noah’s friends. While it looked for a time that I might finally at least win a game, it was not meant to be.

0-3.

Despite this less than stellar record, I had fun at the event. I love that the boys and I continue to be able to do this regularly. I think that we can count on the fingers of one hand the number of prereleases one of us has missed since we started going to them back when Oath of Gatewatch came out!

The boys also struggled with this prelease. Whereas at least one ends with a winning record, both of them ended with a 1-2 record. Sadly, even their friends ended with losing records. Just not our day!

As for this story, it does not end quite here. Every round at our LGS comes with two packs that players can either simply split or play to win for. I’ve always split them with whoever in the spirit of a prerelease. So despite my 0-3 record, I still walked away with three additional packs to crack open. Three card into the first of these, I found this:

Nothing quite as exciting in the rest of the packs but I did pull an alternate art Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler and a Red Sun’s Twilight.

The boys and I also still have our traditional box to open so there is still a lot of Magic to be played this weekend.

Dominaria United Prerelease

September 4, 2022September 5, 2022 / Jerome / Leave a comment

Is it just me or does it feel like a long time has passed since the Streets of New Capenna Prerelease? While the Labour Day weekend marked the (somewhat official) end of summer, it was also time for a new Magic set to come out and kick off a hopefully exciting new season.

No Mythics in my pool but I found potential for a fun deck with Aron, Benalia’s Ruin, and Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim, and Sengir Connoisseur. I added a Captain’s Call to provide some of the necessary fodder to power my trio. I added blue to fill out the deck with Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator and a few defensive cards to protect my strategy.

I also pulled a Defiler but not the green Defiler of Vigor and rather the red Defiler of Instinct. No room for it in my deck unfortunately.

For their part, Christian pulled a Jaya, Fiery Negotiator while Noah did not pull any mythics but ended up with a foiled alternate Adarkar Wastes.

First round was against a younger but quite adept (aren’t they all now though – Young, I mean?) player. The first game went nearly 45 minutes. While my opponent was able to get some large threats on the board early, a mana flood allowed me to catch up and finally get enough damage through to take the win. The second game went much faster as my opponent ran into a painful mana flood. Definitely a frustrating situation for them.

The second round was definitely a fun affair with equally matched decks. I mulliganed down to 5 cards in the first game but it was not the blowout I thought it might be. I put on a solid fight, even thinking that I might have a shot at winning before being overwhelmed. Once again, that first game took a long time. Our second game then went to time. Unfortunately for me, my opponent took both wins.

I also got to see Weatherlight Compleated in action in both games. During previews, I had a hard time wrapping up my mind around how it would play but seeing it in action cleared it up. Definitely an interesting card but I’m not sure it will become a staple.

Lastly, the third match started with a win for each of us. Down to the third game, the mana drought gods decided to pay me a visit. On the other side, a few ramp cards meant that I was looking at 6 mana to my two at the end of turn 3. Anyone want to guess as to how it went from there?

Christian and I both ended with 1-2 records while Noah seemed pleased with his 1-1-1 earned with a control deck.

We made the trek back to North of Exile Games for this pre-release. It has become a tradition to visit Jason and the team at least once a year and hadn’t had a chance to do so yet this year. The store has moved from Penetanguishene to Midland since our last visit and the store had just received its new booth seating a few days before.

The drive up was difficult with a number of accidents hampering our progress. But we made it in time to play. Before heading home, we even stopped in at Xanca for some Mexican.

All in all, another fun prerelease!