The 3 Decks You can Open at Prerelease
Here we are again, prerelease weekend, the best time of the year! Prerelease is casual magic at its finest, everyone is on an even playing field with only the cards in the packs at their disposal. I have had pools with 6 Aftermath rare split cards all in different colors and packs that have provided me with 4 rare lands. On the flip side (eh? Eh? Ok, B- joke) I have had a 6 rare monster of a deck with a nice foil mythic to top it off. Prereleases give weaker players a chance to destroy the stronger players based on the randomness of opening packs. While my local store does have a couple “aspiring” tournament players that take it super serious, everyone gets a good laugh when the crazy old guy with the 4 color deck draws all his basics in the first 4 turns and does some crazy thing to beat them. I want to give you guys some examples of the decks you can open and how to make them work to get the most of out your sealed decks so you can have the best chance to have some fun at the prerelease.
Deck One: All the bomb rares in the world!
This is the dream! Life is so easy here in “bomb rare world.” Everything has lined up perfectly and the pack gods have rewarded you. Don’t do anything fancy and just play all of your rares and mythics and let the prize packs come to you. You will be laughing and smiling the whole way to the top. Now granted some people might be a bit unhappy with your blind luck, but hey, luck is a big part of magic. Some one had to open those cards so why not you!? You know what, go splurge on that nice Cryptic Command you have had your eye on, you will be up anyway after you win that booster box of new packs.
Deck Two: I got a couple rares and a dream!
We are no longer living our dream but are instead trying to make the dream happen. We opened a couple unbeatable rares, some good uncommons, some rare lands that add purple and orange and an 8 mana enchantment that lets our opponent put 0/-1 goats into play. This is where it is time to just zip up for protection and strap ourselves in for a bumpy ride. We are at the mercy of our deck functioning like a deck and not on our cards just being better than everyone else’s. Probably smart to lay out all the playable cards and see if we can build a reasonable curve. Maybe we can just get lucky in a couple spots with our uncommons and commons and surprise some people with some cheap wins. Cedric Phillips learned to trust me when it comes to watching me build some awful aggro decks filled with 1/3s and some anthem effects. If I can make Anointer Priest and beatdown threat, you can make that 2/2 for 2R run over your opponent.
Deck Three: Well, at least I have 3 copies of this here Desert
The dream is now a nightmare, we have opened the fabled 6 rare land sealed pool. What are we going to do?! At least our mana will be “on fleek” as the kids say this day, right? Oh, our lands still only produce Purple and Orange mana? Time to go plan M. Lay out our red cards and see how aggressive we can make the deck. If life gives you lemons, and by “lemons” I mean awful sealed decks, than make aggro-ade out of them and kill your opponent before they can stabilize. Unfortunately, as awesome as that 2R 2/2 with haste is going to be, if you let your opponent set up a board you are probably never winning and should probably pack it in and get ready for a day of drafting. Just because you had a bad sealed deck doesn’t mean the prerelease day is a bust! Go Draft! Drafting is great! Limited is great! 2/2s with haste for 2R are not really that great.
That is it for me this week! I hope to not be stuck at the office this weekend and instead battling some local wizards in the prerelease. I hope you all open up sealed pools with all the best rares and mythics and may your enemies get those lands that produce Purple and Orange mana! Mostly importantly, have fun at the prerelease! There will be other times to be serious!
-Stu Somers
@ssomers55 on twitter
