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[duxstar]

Going to my first prerelease (and my first time playing limited) tomorrrow, planning to pick Ojutai. Any tips?

Choose 2 colors, don't try splashing for anything, use a 40 card deck and have about 17 lands and 23 non lands (preferably 13 - 17 of them creatures). In sealed there's going to be alot of big creatures/bombs so try to make sure you have Removal of some kind (Pacifism in white, Epic Confrontation in green, reduce in Stature in Blue).

Have a good idea of what you want out of your sideboard. If your green your probably weak to flyers, blue your probably weak on the ground.

Have cards that can break board stalls but not too many of them. 1 or 2 cards that can help you get through those final few points of damage are great in sealed cause it tends to go slower.

The most important thing is to read the cards, make sure you know what every card on the table can do, in sealed/prerelease just knowing how the cards work is a huge advantage

 

[Firemind]

I'd say play 18 lands if you have bomby dragons. Also, if I open Darkhan you're gonna bet your ass I'm going to play three or more colours.

 

[ElyrionX]

Wait. I have to build a sideboard in sealed? How big is this supposed be?

 

[divisionbyzorro]

Wait. I have to build a sideboard in sealed? How big is this supposed be?

Your sideboard is everything you opened but don't put in to your maindeck. You can swap cards in and out between games.

At "real" events you have to desideboard; most prereleases let you modify your deck between matches.

 

["God's Beard!"]

This is gross. I don't get why you would actually want a top-heavy prize structure at a fucking prerelease pack wars newbie event. It sounds like a miserable time filled with rules-lawyering and really unhappy people who don't just get super kickass pools.

Nah, actually the opposite. I let people take back pretty much everything, and it's more like a party. The owner shifts around the layout of the store and has PS4s set up and has random giveaways and stuff.

The only bad part was some dude got two promo packs and the owner let him play with 7 packs in his pool and I almost lost to him in the top 8.

 

[Angry Grimace]

I'd say play 18 lands if you have bomby dragons. Also, if I open Darkhan you're gonna bet your ass I'm going to play three or more colours.

I kind of think 17 is just fine in this format. I never had mana problems with 16 with RB and a green splash for dragons.

 

[trumangc]

I went to my first prerelease. I've been playing Magic for several years, but the nearest game store is a 30 minute drive so all of my previous experience has been with MTGO and my friends. I was a little disappointed by how many stereotypes were confirmed; the store was really cramped and a lot of the players seemed to carry a noticeable stench. Most of the clientele who I interacted with were some mix of awkward and unpleasant. I ended up leaving after two rounds because I felt like staying in there for several more hours wasn't worth the loss of sleep. I had fun, but I feel like all of it was due to me going with two of my friends and Magic being a game I enjoy. I'd like to play more face to face Magic, but I'm loathe to keep looking for a good store.

 

[Angry Grimace]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";156867667]Nah, actually the opposite. I let people take back pretty much everything, and it's more like a party. The owner shifts around the layout of the store and has PS4s set up and has random giveaways and stuff.

The only bad part was some dude got two promo packs and the owner let him play with 7 packs in his pool and I almost lost to him in the top 8.[/QUOTE]

The idea of a box as a prize for a prerelease prize is just gross anyways. I guess everyone else can get fucked.

 

["God's Beard!"]

The idea of a box as a prize for a prerelease prize is just gross anyways. I guess everyone else can get fucked.

Payout was to top 16 and random door prizes as well

 

[kirblar]

Plenty of places do more casual prereleases where everyone gets paid out. Multiple options is a good thing.

 

[ultron87]

2-1 to split final round.

Butcher's Glee and the make two zombies exploit are my MVPs.

My pool had two Palace Familiars and a Youthful Scholar and it was all I ever wanted.

 

[Jhriad]

So far I went 2-2 in my first ever prerelease and 2-1-1 in the first one this morning. Last night was UB with Sidisi and exploit out the ass without a lot of good sacrifice options. First one this morning was BR without any decent rates but I had Heelcutter and tons of removal and went great so long as my mana wasn't screwy. BR dash is fantastic with everyone playing slow ass decks.

 

[Firemind]

I think Rakdos will be my favourite draft archetype. ALL THE DASHING. Plus sweet removal and lava axes.

 

[LaserBuddha]

Does bolster suck as a theme in sealed or did I just suck last night? (Dromoka)

 

[Firemind]

Yes, Dromoka is the worst.

 

[Matriox]

Going to my first prerelease (and my first time playing limited) tomorrrow, planning to pick Ojutai. Any tips?

Fwiw I've seen silumgar win 2 prereleases so far, most top 8 is ojutai or Silumgar.

 

[y2dvd]

Picked Ojutai but ended up going Abzan. Thought I had a crappy pool but ended up going 4-0 lol.

14 Creatures
1 Lightwalker
2x Misthoof Kirin - The cheap Megamorph cost made this super flexible in which way I wanted to cast this.
1x Silumgar Assassin
1x Pitiless Horde - Huge dmg early and late game that Dash won me some games.
1x Vulturous Aven - Didn't have throw away creatures to Exploit this with but a 2/4 flier ain't bad.
1x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1x Abzan Beastmaster
2x Stampeding Elk Herd - Formidable is easy to trigger in green. Giving all of my fatties trample quickly closed games.
1x Salt Road Quartermasters - Performed really well. Blocks all morphs profitably turn 3.
1x Salt Road Ambushers - I casted this face up most of the time.
1x Ainok Artillerist - Pretty much a Gore Swine in green
1x Aerie Bowmasters - The Megamorph is so expensive. I rarely got to it and just hard casted it instead.

8 Spells
3x Center Soul - Maybe ran too many of this lol.
1x Artful Maneuver
1x Tread Upon
1x Coat with Venom
1x Reach of Shadows
1x Dromoka's Command - So versatile. I've used every mode at least once.

18 Lands
1x Scoured Barrens
4x Plains
8x Forest
5x Swamps

Game 1 vs R/B Aggro 2-1
He wasn't able to be as aggressive and it just took turn 3 for me to stablize

Game 2 vs Abzan Mirror 2-0
I thought ran away with the first match, until he played Ugin and minus 6 to clear the entire board. Next turn I play a creature out and pass turn. He bolts it next turn. I was going to cast Center Soul but oh yeah, Ugin is colorless. -_- He plays a creature and pass turn. I top deck Pitiful Horde, dash, cast Center Soul for pro whatever that creature card was, and swing in exactly for 5 ftw.

Game 3 vs R/G 2-1
Nothing notable.

Game 4 vs U/B 2-0
I thought I was running away with match 2 again and had him to 5 life when he casted that dragon that wipes the board except himself. SIgh OK. Next turn I cast Ainok Artillerist and past. He attacks with the demon and cast 2 morph creatures. I've been struggling for a 5th land and needed to top deck it to win. Boom, top decked a land. I had to attack into 4 defensive here. I attack, he blocks with both. I cast Tread Upon, Artful Maneuver, and Coat with Venom to trample through for 5 exact dmg ftw. Felt like an infect pump deck lol. Feels good mang.

I also played that die game and scored 19 pts to get all the side cards. No money cards really in my prize packs but it was a great event haha.

First impression: Green's creatures are super efficient and I'll be looking to draft it most of the time.

 

[Angry Grimace]

Choose 2 colors, don't try splashing for anything, use a 40 card deck and have about 17 lands and 23 non lands (preferably 13 - 17 of them creatures). In sealed there's going to be alot of big creatures/bombs so try to make sure you have Removal of some kind (Pacifism in white, Epic Confrontation in green, reduce in Stature in Blue).

Have a good idea of what you want out of your sideboard. If your green your probably weak to flyers, blue your probably weak on the ground.

Have cards that can break board stalls but not too many of them. 1 or 2 cards that can help you get through those final few points of damage are great in sealed cause it tends to go slower.

The most important thing is to read the cards, make sure you know what every card on the table can do, in sealed/prerelease just knowing how the cards work is a huge advantage

If you have a bomb multicolor dragon that's just one color off one of your colors you're in I think splashing for it is fine.

 

[charlequin]

Yes.

And Alara II looks to be happening. Wouldn't be seen for at least 2 years though. One Two Three

This is interesting both because it's out of order (our three returns so far came out in the same order as the original sets) and because it didn't really seem to be on the radar before. Alara seems to be one of the better examples of a set where people like the concept and setting a lot but don't have a lot of positive feelings for the mechanics.

"Would you like to see "insert X here*" is a tell. He's used it for design feedback on stuff before (Notably, "Would you be upset if new Eldrazi Legends didn't have Annhiliator")

The other big ones I can remember like this were about a wedge set and about printing old storyline characters in supplemental sets.

In this case I would guess they didn't have Alara penciled in on their original return chart (which I'm guessing was something like Mirrodin -> Ravnica -> Zendikar -> Innistrad -> Dominaria) but now that they've got more space with the two-block paradigm they started considering it when Khans got as positive a reaction as it did.

So jealous of you guys with your stores and whatnot.

My store is Channelfireball, it's like paying $30 to get packed in an oven with 400 smelly people. Not a fan.

 

[f0rk]

Don't really understand why you need to have a top 8 at a pre release

I went 5-0, my promo was Ojutai and I opened elder Silumgar + a U/B land. Those were the only two rares I played but I had a very good U/W tempo deck still. Won a lot of games with Great Teacher's Decree. I enjoyed playing with and against 2 colour decks that aren't reliant on shaky mana bases and playing all of the bombs

 

[kirblar]

I went x-0 at a ~200 person prerelease for Odyssey block and got a box.

Aboshan, Repentant Vampire, and Thought Devourer were p. good.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Won the prerelease last night; there was 5 rounds and then a cut to Top 8, I went 5-0 and then won out. Picked the Ojutai box, but my pulls were strong in black so I went U/B

1x Silumgar, the Drifting Death
2x Qarsi Sadist
1x Pitiless Horde
1x Elusive Spellfist
1x Hand of Silumgar
1x Minister of Pain
1x Ojutai Interceptor
1x Rakshasa Gravecaller
1x Kolaghan Skirmisher
1x Blood-Chin Rager
1x Risen Executioner
1x Silumgar Butcher
1x Updraft Elemental

1x Taigam's Strike
1x Butcher's Glee
1x Duress
1x Sight Beyond Sight (Thunder...Thunder...Thunder...Thundercats HOOOO!)
1x Illusory Gains
1x Douse in Gloom
1x Negate
1x Spidersilk Net
1x Contradict

10x Swamp
7x Island

Illusory Gains was a pretty annoying/hilarious card in limited. Pitiless Horde was very nice. Taigam's Strike won me a few games. Spidersilk Net turned out to be a good call. Risen Executioner didn't really do much, I think I used his graveyard ability twice. And Silumgar 1.0, nuff said.

And try as I might, 17 points was the best I could do on the dice game. But at least I got some sweet Evolving Wilds.

 

["God's Beard!"]

My store is Channelfireball, it's like paying $30 to get packed in an oven with 400 smelly people. Not a fan.

You're up here in norcal?

 

[Llyrwenne]

Pre-release was fun. Picked Dromoka for the first one and ended up G/W with a splash of U for Dragonlord Ojutai. Lots of fun and did fairly well, losing mostly due to stupid mistakes on my part and playing very casually (missing a trigger / rewinding a play was accepted from both sides). Also enjoyed the pleasure of casting this flavor win;

Second pre-release was horrible. Picked Atarka and got a very decent pool with on-color Rares, but the first match I didn't even get to really play due to an extrordinarily unlucky 7 land hand > 6 land hand > 4 land hand + a single creature + draw into only lands for 8 turns, and two of the other three rounds were vs. people that were only at the pre-release to win packs. No friendly communication whatsoever, just continually stoically staring at their cards, occasionally pointing out certain (known) rules for no other reason than to let you know that they 'know the rules' and disregarding the casual / social element of pre-release by being super-strict with rules / missed triggers / phase transitions / whatever. I mean, it's perfectly fine to go for the win, but lighten up a bit man, it ain't a pro tour down here. At least try and have some level of social interaction with the people you're playing with; playing Magic isn't just about the cards you know...

 

[charlequin]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";156896767]You're up here in norcal?[/QUOTE]

I was sure I'd mentioned how much I hate CFB in here before! I'm an East Coast exile trapped here in California with all this good weather and delicious produce.

 

[Firemind]

You'll run out of fresh water soon!

Are you going to GP Vegas? Who's going anyway? I want to know what's good in MM2. :lol

 

["God's Beard!"]

I was sure I'd mentioned how much I hate CFB in here before! I'm an East Coast exile trapped here in California with all this good weather and delicious produce.

Come into the city and play sometime, then. CFB sucks. They get too many people and none of the pros that work there enter the regular stuff anyway so there's no benefit. Plus the sun with those giant windows plus 200 people crammed so tight your playmats overlap is complete ass.

 

[duxstar]

If you have a bomb multicolor dragon that's just one color off one of your colors you're in I think splashing for it is fine.

He's new at limited and far too many times I've seen someone try to splash a mediocre rare that ends up screwing their deck up more than helping it.

Sure if you get a dragon Lord that's one of your colors it's ok to splash but splashing Silumgar when your green /red will end up hurting you.

Also mana bases are the toughest thing for new players to Learn. Telling them to go 9/8 land split will end up making a more consistent / stronger deck. A bad deck with good mana will win more than a great deck with horrible mana.

 

[Toxi]

Does bolster suck as a theme in sealed or did I just suck last night? (Dromoka)

Bolster sucked for me. Everything with it is absurdly expensive outside a few exceptions. Outlast was absurdly good and had tons of amazing support, Bolster is just eh.

Still had fun going GW. Went 2-2. Sight of the Scalelords won me quite a few games; it's crazy how strong anthem effects and Vigilance are in limited.

EDIT: LSV gave the card a 0.0 in his set review, LOL. For what it's worth, it does work with Aerie Bowmasters and seemed to do plenty of work in actually winning games for me.

 

[charlequin]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";156897778]CFB sucks. They get too many people and none of the pros that work there enter the regular stuff anyway so there's no benefit.[/QUOTE]

I came within 2 life of beating Josh Utter-Leyton at the Gatecrash prere, actually.

 

[Etrian Oddity]

Made my Magic Online profile. If anyone wants to add me, it's Etrian_Oddity.

Totally new to this event ticket system and the trading bazaar, though.

 

[bigkrev]

I got 17 on both my rolls. Owner was sick of setting up the game after last night, and said if they ever do this again he isn't getting it.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

This card is disgusting and I have no idea why it's common. Had two in my pool and it basically wins games for you on its own; my round 5 opponent had three in his deck.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I came within 2 life of beating Josh Utter-Leyton at the Gatecrash prere, actually.

I beat him at GP San Jose

I just meant like the weeklies and 5ks or whatever. I've never seen the cfb guys play the times I went, but I've only gone a couple times so i could be wrong.

 

[Matriox]

Won the 3rd prerelease too box number 2. This time UB splash red for a mana rock dragon and Alesha, got me so much advantage bringing back those sign in blood birds.. Pretty silly stuff, Silumgar seems way better than ojutai that I tried at the 2nd prerelease, but obviously bomb limited is mostly luck.

 

[ultron87]

This card is disgusting and I have no idea why it's common. Had two in my pool and it basically wins games for you on its own; my round 5 opponent had three in his deck.

Card is so good. Kill your five drop with my 2/2 gain 5 life? Sweet. That and the other black trick make combat with black scary as hell.

 

[Jhriad]

3-1 in my the third prerelease, second as Kolaghan. Playing an Atarka deck match two and I managed to lose after taking my opponent to 1 life while being at 20. 3 creatures on the board and I couldn't get through for the last 1 before he swings for 14 and tramples through my low toughness defenders. Managed to pull out game three but I was paranoid as fuck after that.

5 games where I either didn't draw a mountain until turn 6 at the earliest (I had 8 in the deck) or I had to mulligan to 5 just to get something other than land in my hand. Last match up was lost because game one I had to mull to 5 just to see a single land and game three was drawing a land every turn with a starting hand that had 4. Fuck you, Land.

 

[Joe Molotov]

This card is disgusting and I have no idea why it's common. Had two in my pool and it basically wins games for you on its own; my round 5 opponent had three in his deck.

I like the art and flavor on that card too. "RAWR, fuck you dragon, I'm too crazy to die!"

 

[red13th]

This card is disgusting and I have no idea why it's common. Had two in my pool and it basically wins games for you on its own; my round 5 opponent had three in his deck.

that Jesper Ejsing art is so good.

 

[Yeef]

My local store bumped prices as well. (From 25->30) Did the wholesale price increase start with FRF or with KTK?

The wholesale price went up starting January 1. We ended up increasing our price to 30, but also increasing the prize pool.

Having now played 3 of the 5 clans (and watched other people play them), I feel like Kolaghan is the most consistent performer overall. Silumgar is a lot of fun if you can get your engines going. Having tons of exploit and getting into a loop with 2 Dutiful Attendants makes for lots of value. Dromoka seems like it's the most reliant on bombs from what I've played and seen. Overal, black feels like the standout color in this format so far.

 

[ultron87]

I was super impressed with Ojutai's Summons. I really expected it to be too slow. I think I was caught up on comparing it to Talrands Invocation, which was clearly a fair card for Limited.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I've been getting back into fighting games more seriously again, and man did I not realize how much I missed the excitement and emotion you get from every game. I don't even know how much I wanna play magic tournaments right now outside of something with a real prize that isn't 50 bucks store credit. I'm super bad at fighting games, but man are they more validating than TCGs.

I need some sort of emotional investment when I compete, I don't know if it's good or bad. But I haven't even been entering FNMs for a couple weeks, I just sit around and play EDH with people unless they're testing a specific format. The PPTQ was the last sanctioned event I entered, unless you count my five ROE drafts online, which I did all within 24 hours of each other and then just stopped. I haven't even been showing up to modern/legacy weeklies like I used to. I've just been going back and forth to the book store and reading in bed instead of playing magic. And I've still got a chunk of credit at the shop from the last couple FNMs I won, so it's not like I'm worried about spending money.

Normally I jump all over new limited formats, but I haven't even been grinding out sealed pool generators or anything like I usually do. I don't even know what half the common cards in DTK are. Even though I hate sealed, I usually hit all the prereleases and I just skipped this one due to lack of interest.

To be honest I've lost almost all interest in the eternal formats too. I don't really feel like finishing my legacy deck and I'm probably gonna break down bogles for trades. If I'm gonna compete, it's probably just focusing on Standard pptqs for a while.

I don't even know what I'm rambling about, maybe I should go to bed.

 

[kirblar]

Yeah, I'm that way too. Funsie stuff doesn't interest me w/ MTG, I need to be facing people who are trying to kill me.

Free wins are nice too, but they aren't the main reason I play.

 

[ElyrionX]

Shop ran out of Ojutai wtf. Stuck with Silumgar. Halp

 

[kirblar]

Shop ran out of Ojutai wtf. Stuck with Silumgar. Halp

It seems to be a good one too.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Yeah, I'm that way too. Funsie stuff doesn't interest me w/ MTG, I need to be facing people who are trying to kill me.

Free wins are nice too, but they aren't the main reason I play.

I caught myself getting legitimately angry at the last standard pptq I went to when my opponent didn't know what their own card did. I tried to watch it a casual video of BBD and CVM playing but had to shut it off because CVM basically giving games away was too frustrating. I don't even want to talk about how I feel about drive-by deck critiques. Everything used to be super fun happy times when I played, constantly joking with my opponents, etc. But now I just kind of shut up and play.

I can only hold my interest at this point when it's the strongest possible level of play I can get, or has nothing to do with competition entirely.

 

[kirblar]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";156932368]I caught myself getting legitimately angry at the last standard pptq I went to when my opponent didn't know what their own card did. I tried to watch it a casual video of BBD and CVM playing but had to shut it off because CVM basically giving games away was too frustrating. I don't even want to talk about how I feel about drive-by deck critiques. Everything used to be super fun happy times when I played, constantly joking with my opponents, etc. But now I just kind of shut up and play.

I can only hold my interest at this point when it's the strongest possible level of play I can get, or has nothing to do with competition entirely.[/QUOTE]
I can't play Magic casually, so I play things like HOTS and SF4 instead, where I know I'm mediocre and I've made peace with that. I'm happy just to take a single game from Kadey.

 

[Toxi]

Both of my Fate Reforged packs today contained Scroll of the Masters.

 

["God's Beard!"]

I can't play Magic casually, so I play things like HOTS and SF4 instead, where I know I'm mediocre and I've made peace with that. I'm happy just to take a single game from Kadey.

The last couple months is probably the most consistently I've played SF4 in a long time, because I don't have a PS3 for Marvel and Xrd sucks with no stick. I think I've leveled up a lot and I'm having a lot more fun now that I'm playing Ken instead of Dudley.

 

[WanderingWind]

I can't play Magic casually, so I play things like HOTS and SF4 instead, where I know I'm mediocre and I've made peace with that. I'm happy just to take a single game from Kadey.

I feel the same way about fighting games. I will never put the time into learning them properly, so I'm cool with just playing the computer. Doesn't mean I still don't get mad at bullshit bosses like the DOA4 final boss, but going into a game knowing you suck at it is good helps the disappointment after the fact.

I can still play MtG casually though. But I do get frustrated when more inexperienced players don't even read the card. Like, playing a Lighting Strike and saying "Okay, you take 4."