Today, for the first time in about 18 months, I went to a Magic prerelease event. It was for the new core set, Magic 2015.
I was surprised to see that turnout was relatively low compared to the last event I attended: only 22 people turned up. I was the oldest in the room, and there were no familiar faces from the events I attended a couple of years back. I also seemed like the only person that was there on my own…
We had to choose a colour and were given a box with a booster of that colour (including a promo) as well as five more boosters and a few other goodies. Here is the box contents:
I chose white but amusingly ended up with more red and blue cards than white. I stubbornly committed to white anyway, and out together a 40 card white/black deck containing:
– 14 creatures (11 white, 3 black, 2 artifact)
– 10 spells (8 white enchantments, 2 black removal)
– 16 lands (9 white, 2 black)
I didn’t have a lot of confidence in the deck, but had a “what the hell” attitude and went with it.
My expectations were realized as I faced my first two opponents, both of which utterly defeated me 0-2. My deck seemed very weak, particularly against evasion, and my ‘bombs’ were hiding in the bottom. After 2 rounds, I was dead last of 22 players!
But then things started to look up, mostly because these three finally made an appearance:
My third opponent (a sweet girl who’d only been playing a few months) was destroyed by the mythic creature above, and I ended up handily beating her 2-0. It seems my luck had turned, since I then easily defeated opponents 4 and 5 2-0 as well. Every time I cast Soul of New Phyrexia I won the game. That ‘make permanents indestructible’ ability is crazy!
After five rounds I had 9 points total, but missed out on top 8 (and therefore a prize) by a mere point. Not a bad showing considering how badly i lost the first two rounds!
Magic 2015 seems like a fun set, and it was fun to see the cards interact. However I left with mixed feelings about the event itself. It was fun to make the deck and see how it turned out, but the truth is I don’t have as much fun at the prereleases as I used to back when I went with SFL. For me, magic is more fun when you’re playing with friends, and it may be a while before I attend another prerelease.
Nice comeback, mate. Or were you really using the “Swiss gambit” tactic? 🙂
P.S. The numbers in that deck breakdown don’t add up. I understand that two of the critters mighta been B and W, but you only detail 11 land.
Creature breakdown was 9/3/2, lands were 9/7.
The deck had 3 Black Cats in it, which is a 1/1 with the effect of having the opponent discard a card at random when it dies. It was amazing how many people didn’t want to kill them. In one game I pinged the opponent from 20 to 4 using just black cats he could have killed at any time.