Post #6 New Phyrexia Prerelease

Today I went to the New Phyrexia Prerelease. It was a lot of fun, but I did run into some unfortunate problems. I'm completely unlucky when opening packs, so I have to rely on a trained eye and some classic technique to get me some wins. For those of you who don't know what happens at a prerelease, each person gets 6 packs (in this case, 3 of New Phyrexia and 3 of Scars of Mirrodin) and you use the cards you receive in those packs to create a 40 card (minimum) deck (with basic lands available outside of the packs). 

Here were my Sealed Pool Rares: 

Yeah, pretty unimpressive. The coolest thing in that picture is a Molten-Tail Masticore; however, I ended up not using him because my sealed pool didn't have enough solid creatures that I wanted to use. What a shame. The white looked promising, but the cards weren't strong enough and I felt my white pool didn't have enough removal, so sorry white golem splicer.. thing. In the pool, I had one equipment, so Kemba, Kha Regent was a bit useless. I did get to use the Spellskite, since he was a solid blocker against infect and helped my few bombs on the board evade removal. 

So what do you do when you have no bombs? Make sure your opponent doesn't get theirs! In one instance, my opponent played one of the chancellors that has toughness (6 toughness if I remember correctly) way beyond anything that any of my removal cards could have handled. I had to find a way to take care of it before the card got way out of hand and victory would be far beyond my reach. Here, I played Vapor Snag their creature after they tapped out their mana to cast it. Then on my turn, I played Mindculling forcing them to discard the only two cards in their hand (which included their bomb creature!), ensuring that I took care of the problem and got to draw two cards. A win/win for me. 

When you're at a prerelease, there's a few things that I've learned along the way. They can last anywhere from 4-6hrs where you don't have enough time to leave the store between rounds, bring food and drinks! Although really ironic, I feel it's one of the most important things. Also, if you get discouraged from a loss in the first round, don't worry, keep playing. A lot of locations distribute prizes if you go at least 2-2 (which is great for beginners!). Remember that the new cards are just to experiment with and no one expects you to be an expert with any of the mechanics (except when you block with a Platinum Angel... yikes!). Finally, remember to play fair and a lot of the people who attend prereleases don't know the values of the cards they pull in packs. Trade fair and be polite. I have a few stories about some 'unfriendly' traders today, but that will have to wait for another entry.

My final record was 3-1. I started with a Black/Red deck, then splashed a little bit of green. I decided that I didn't like the direction of the deck with it's low creature count, so I switched to a Black/Blue deck with a splash into red, which turned out to work very well. Here's the prize from my record:

Post #5: What is the Point??

I wanted to take this entry to kind of explain what the whole purpose of this magic group and the blog were. I created MTG Casual Net to network with people in Gainesville and Orlando who played Magic: the Gathering. I was hoping to find new play groups to meet and trade cards with. On my journey, I found so much more.

I found that a lot of people played Magic, so many people. But most of them were either embarrassed or shameful to admit it. I feel like a lot of the people who play magic, card games, or some sort of role playing game get a lot of negative attention from people outside of the Magic community. When I've told some people that I play magic, I've been called a nerd or a geek and I assume this happens to other people who play as well. I feel like once I open the door and let people know that I play, they attribute negative stereotypes against me, like I'm unsociable or a weird person (maybe I am!)

On the flip side, I've met a lot of great people through magic or showing them a little of 'my' world behind the cards. I feel that the Magic community (and other card games) has a lot of diversity and people from many different backgrounds that love playing the game. This diversity is largely unseen to the public eye and I'm hoping that this group helps to shed some light on this awesome community.

Just some words of wisdom before I leave this entry. Don't let Magic become an addiction, it's a hobby that everyone can enjoy. Once it becomes an addiction, it's no longer fun. Play nice, no one likes a jerk. If you can't afford a card, you weren't meant to have it. And if you can afford it, that doesn't mean you should buy it (which goes back to, don't be a jerk). Hope everyone going to the New Phyrexia Prerelease has a great time!