Dominaria PreRelease Report

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

We are returned from this weekend's Dominaria PreRelease event at OMG! Games, here in Barrie, Ontario.  It was great connecting with the regulars and meeting some new people.  It was also great ripping open packs of Magic: the Gathering cards and hearing some vocalisations of some excited players getting a great card.  

Our pool was rather unfortunate, or perhaps better to say, a bit challenging.  Off the top, from the prerelease packs, we scored perhaps about 9 bucks in rares, and the rest of the pool was pretty shallow, with the exception of white, and, for the first time we are able to recall, we made an entirely mono-coloured decklist for PreRelease.  Here are the ROUGH numbers in each colour -

WHITE - 22 cards
BLUE - 12
BLACK - 13
GREEN - 12
MULTICOLOUR -1
ARTIFACTS - 8
NON-BASIC LANDS - 5

Here is a brief video of the start of the event -

Here are the rares I pulled . . .

And here is the rest of the mess we pushed together to game with - entirely in WHITE -

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Shadows Over Innistrad Sealed

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Countdown is on now to the Shadows Over Innistrad PreRelease this WEEKEND !!!  To find a gamery shoppe near you hosting a prerelease event, pop on over to the Wizards Locator page.

To get a bird's eye overview of all the fun 'n' excitement of what to expect at a Magic: the Gathering PreRelease, we suggest watching WotC staffer Michael Yichao in this finely produced video -

To get a sense of the flavour in this set, here is a short vid from MTG EU Danny B. - 

 

To get to the nitty gritty on playing with the new key word abilities and set features, you may be very well served with watching the following very nice instructional videos -

Double-Faced Cards
Investigate
Delirium
Madness
Investigate

The Shadows over Innistrad Prerelease Pack gives players their first opportunity to play with Shadows over Innistrad cards at your Prerelease events. Inside each Prerelease box, players will find

• six Shadows over Innistrad Booster packs,
• a spindown life counter, and
• a randomized, date-stamped, premium promo card, drawn from any rare or mythic rare in the set.

You can also get some get practice in using the very awesome Shadows Over Innistrad sealed deck generator over at our buddy Cam's site -

 http://mtgen.net/soi/

Good Luck and God Speed. 

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OGW PreRelease Tips

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

Oath of the Gatewatch PreRelease is finally here !  Tonight at midnight, local gaming stores will be hosting prerelease events.  Here in Barrie, Ontario, most of the Friday Night Magic crowd at OMG! Games will be staying to take in the first of several events over the weekend, and then be returning again in another few hours to do it all again.  

Before you head off to your local gamery shoppe, we have for you here on MTG Realm a few tips from Wizards of the Coast which may help you in creating your sealed decklist from the Oath of the Gatewatch PreRelease pack.

Oath of the Gatewatch PreReelase

As the battle for Zendikar rages, new dangers have come to the fore. Two mighty Eldrazi titans have carved a path of destruction through the once-proud city of Sea Gate. Four Planeswalkers survey the devastation, and a new resolve takes root in their minds. Never again they vow.

Some Strategy and Tips from Wizards of the Coast for the Oath of the Gatewatch PreRelease Event. 

Building a Sealed Deck

Most successful sealed decks are two colors and have exactly 40 cards, including 17 lands. You should try to include 15-17 creatures and 5-7 non-creature spells.

Tips for choosing your creatures and other spells

• Include some creatures at every cost from 2 to 6. This will make it more likely that you'll have a creature to cast every turn.

• Try not to play more than three of four creatures of a given cost.

• Don't play more than one or two creatures that cost 1 mana.

• Don't play more than one or two creatures that cost 7 or more mana.

• Try to include as many creatures as possible with evasion abilities like flying, trample, and menace.

• Look for non-creatures spells that destroy your opponents' creatures, make your own creatures larger, deal damage to creatures or players, or some combination of these.

• If you choose to play cards with colorless mana (c) in their costs, try to include about two or three lands that can produce colorless mana and two or three non-land cards that can produce colorless mana. Remember that Eldrazi Scions can produce colorless mana too.

• If you choose to play creatures with cohort or rally abilities, be sure to check your card pool for other Ally creatures in order to maximize their effectiveness.

Ask for Advice

Above all, remember to ask questions and to get advice from others when building your deck.  At a Prerelease, you can ask other players for help, and you can adjust your deck throughout the day if you're not satisfied with it.

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Modern Masters 2015 Sealed

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Happy Monday MTG peeps,

With Modern Masters 2015 release weekend simultaneously taking place soon on 28th to 31st May in large Grand Prix tournaments in Las Vegas, Chiba, Japan and Utrecht as well as your favourite local gaming store (like ours - OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario), one should start preparing now for this.  Try out a sealed pool generator to train yerself up - info below.

The overwhelming format of choice for these events are Modern Masters 2015 Sealed in which you will receive 6 packs of Modern Masters, make a 40 card deck out of them and then battle.  There are a lot of other variants and we've even heard of a store that will add one more sealed pack that you can use in your build with each match one (we of course can't find where we've seen it now).  Anywhoos, here are some tips - VERY GENERALLY SPEAKING -

MANA : Depending upon your pool, have 22 to 23 spells with 17 to 18 lands.

MANA COLOUR : Typically two-coloured builds are the norm with one-colour and three-colour being sometimes rarely possible if your pool is good.  If you go 4 or 5 colours, you are crazy or more brave than us.

BOMB : Have at least one or two bombs which have the potential to win you the game.

CURVE : Try to keep 5+ Converted Mana Cost (CMC) to no more than 4 or 5 with the remainder gradually increasing to 2 CMC.  Avoid 1-drop creatures without an ability unless it is required for acceleration, combat tricks, or removal.

SNEAKING DAMAGE : If you have evasion on your creature (flying / unblockable) this would typically make the cut.  Similarly, if you have a cheap spell that does this, give it consideration.

REMOVAL : Unless you have a cinch of cool first striking deathtouch creature (or similar creature-based pseudo-removal) you should pack at a handful of removal spells.

We suggest you pop on over to the mothersite here and here to get proper tips on sealed play. For now, here is a sealed pool generator developed by our buddy Cam and the six packs we cracked - 

First Pack

Just the 'juice' from the next 5 packs

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GTC Midnight PreRelease

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Happy Saturday MTG peeps,

Late last night, or rather very early this morning we headed out to the Gatecrash midnight prerelease event being held at our local card shop, OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario.  When we arrived, just shortly after the regular Friday Night Magic event was wrapping up, the store had a good-sized crowd eager to start playing with the newest Magic: the Gathering set.

We went with Orzhov and will be heading back to take in another prerelease event on Sunday - we were just too dang tired to go to any of the ones today - plus we wanted to post this video for you -  

 
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For this PreRelease, just like with the last set, players get to choose a Guild Pack.  In the Guild Pack, you get a 'booster' specific to your chosen Gatecrash guild and five booster packs which you then build your 40-card deck.  Here's what we pulled : 

Orzhov Guild Pack : Treasury Thrull (R), Orzhov Guildgae, Alms Beast (R), Call of Orzhova, Thrull Parasite, Debtor's Pulpit, Assault Griffin, Prophetic Prism, Shadow Alley Denizen, Dutiful Thrull, Purge the Profane, Court Street Denizen, Devour Flesh, Beckon Apparition, Syndicate Enforcer, Zarichi Tiger.

Rares in Packs : Five Alarm Fire, Aurelia the Warleader, Consuming Aberration,  Merciless Eviction, Ooze Flux.

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The field was a fairly even split between the guilds with a slight favour to Orzhov and Simic.  We only stayed for two matches before dropping (from being just exhausted - we get up fairly early every day).  The matches we did have were against Orzhov with the 'Extort' mechanic and Simic with the 'Evolve' mechanic.  Fun times, great games.  Tomorrow we will certainly be staying for the full event and hope to have some thoughts as to how each of the five guilds performed in a sealed event.

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Innistrad PreRelease

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MTG Realm headed out the the midnight Innistrad PreRelease event at OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario, Canada to soak up this latest Magic the Gatering set. The evening was dark, stormy, and somewhat apropos given that classic horror theme to this new set.

The was abosolutely packed with just over 40 or so, with most of the players from the Friday Night Magic game staying for the midnight prerelease which got off the ground around 12:30 a.m. Given the close proximity to Georgian College, several students at the adjacent student residences dropped in to see what the party was all about, including crazy bunny girl which the store regulars would want to make an appropriate t-shirt.

Anwyhoos - let's get to the short video we shot . . . .


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Our pulls - (bold = rare, otherwise an uncommon)

Pack 1 : Nevermore, Gustaff Sheppard, Abbstoir Ghoul, Make a Wish, Sharpened Pitchfork

Pack 2 : Snapcaster Mage, Cellar Door, Curiosity, Falkenrath Noble

Pack 3 : Evil Twin (foil), Ludevic's Test Subject, Elite Inquisitor, Intangible Virture, Murder of Crows, Dissipate

Pack 4 : Angel of Flight Alabaster, Geistercatcher's Rig, Disciple of Griselbrand, Demonmail Hauberk

Pack 5 : Heartless Summoning, Moan of the Unhallowed, Skaab Goliath (foil), Skaab Goliath, Village Canabals

Pack 6 : Isolated Chapel, Civilized Scholar, Hallowhenge Scavenger, Scourge of Geier Reach, Bitterheart Witch


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We loved the rare slot with the highly sought after Snapcaster Mage, but we estatic when we opened not one, not two but three rares in pack three. Three rares in a booster pack would be highly irregular except this is Innistrad where one slot is reserved for a double-sided card which means that a possibility exists where one could get a rare, a foil rare and a rare double-sided card. Very cool indeed.

We loved all the new cards, the awesome flavour and good games we had. Our sealed batch included some deep pools in black and blue with very shallow pools in the remaining colours. We built like a n00b in black and white and really did not stand a chance. We went 2 : 0 and dropped after the second match at around 3:30 in the morning to go back home and drool over the awesome Innistrad loot. Our trade binders are now filled with about $60 worth of singles and our minds engaged with new deck ideas and game plans.

Tell us how your prerelease event went - what you pulled, what you played or an amazing game you had or witnessed.
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Innistrad Picks

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

As you know, Magic the Gathering fans everywhere in the world will be making tracks to their local gaming stores this weekend to take part in Innistrad prerelease events. We, ourselves are planning to attend our fav store, OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario and suggest that if you reside just north of Toronto, plan to attend one of the several events planned here all starting off just after midnight this Friday 23rd.

To prepare for the event, MTG Realm sat down with some other casual players to discuss what we should try to include in a sealed / limited pool and which new cards we would likely want to secure in a draft. With five players all with limited experience and several hours latter we hacked out a rough list of our top Innistrad picks for sealed deck and drafts.
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First List - Innistrad Commons

As most of the cards in your sealed pool will be commons this may be the rarity that contributes most to your build and should be afforded a top ten list. Innistrad booster packs contain a total of 16 Cards, 1 Rare or Mythic Rare (Mythic rares are approximately 1 in every 8 rares), 3 Uncommons, 10 Commons, 1 basic land, 1 Token or Tips card. The goal here is a build with evasion and removal in mind. Let's have a look at what our small group thought . . .


1. Thraben Sentry
2. Brimstone Volley
3. Villagers of Estwald
4. Avacynian Priest
5. Rebuke
6. Tormented Pariah
7. Bloodcrazed Neonate
8. Delver of Secrets
9. Bonds of Faith
10. Curse of the Bloody Tome
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Second List - Top 10 picks

This was a tough list for the group as your draft choice is tempered by quite a few competing factors. Some factors of course is passing a card you know is worth quite a bit on the singles market, and which card, given the correct build will likely deliver you a win. Here is what we finally decided on . . .


1. Unbreathing Horde
2. Snapcaster Mage
3. Mindshrieker
4. Mentor of the Meek
5. Tree of Redemption
6. Splinterfright
7. Stromkirk Noble
8. Champion of the Parish
9. Skirsdag High Priest
10. Angel of Flight Alabaster

We would like to hear back from you what your top draft picks would be or which cards (or even colour) you would want to build a sealed prerelease deck with - use the comment thingy below.

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Also of note today -
Here is the very handy Innistrad card Checklist . . .
Please stay tuned for tomorrow's post as we go over the Innistrad Intro Pack decklists.

Innistrad Check Lists
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Finally -

Are you fed up with Werewolves digging up your garden and cr@pping all over your front yard ?? Your first call should be to an Avacyn Inquisitor. Your second call should be to Chuck Testa for all your Innistrad taxidermy needs !

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M12 PreRelease Prep

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Happy Friday MTG peeps,

To use BDM's witty analogy, this is the weekend to get your mits on freshly baked M12 cards. Magic 2012 core set pre-release events are starting Friday after midnight and running through until Sunday afternoon just about every large city around the globe. In today's article we hope to impart some basic tips on sealed deck building which we hope will make your events enjoyable.

We will be heading out to attend the Magic 2012 Pre-release weekend at OMG Games in Barrie, Ontario on Sunday. The folks there are running events all weekend long from July 9th - 10th
Saturday 12:30 AM (after Friday Night Magic) / Saturday 10:00 AM / Saturday 3:00 PM / Sunday 11:00 AM
The event costs only $40 for your first tournament (flight) and $35 for each after. You will get six packs of M12 to which to build your forty card deck. As for prizes, you will of course score the pre-release foil promo Bloodlord of Vaasgoth and if you place, you can walk away with product :
4-0 record receives 14 packs of M12
3-1 record receives 6 packs of M12


~Now - for M12 prerelease tips :

We encourage you to review the Magic 2012 Frequently Asked Questions document posted on the mothership HERE. We also suggest that you familiarise yourself with the M12 cards itself or if you have already, review them again to look for solid choices for inclusion into a sealed deck. Wizards has now posted the entire set on the Gatherer database HERE.

Next - Wow - you just opened up six packs - where to go from there ? Some players will sort by colour and then mana cost to determine how deep each colour may go towards your final build. Other players we've seen divide the card pool into two piles - playable and unplayable. Whichever way you go ensure that your final goal is a total of 40 cards which includes approximately 17 lands.

We will often just jump the gun and reciew the six rares and eighteen uncommons we've just pulled (not including any random foils we may have received). From here as well as the rest of the pool we just look for bombs. The bomb cards are stand-alones which could easily enable a win. In this set, we will be looking for any of the Planeswalkers, the Titans, Aegis Angel, Mind Control, Overrun, Archon of Justice, etc. Try to avoid Phantasmal Dragon unless you can protect it.

Having set these aside, we now start pulling out any and all removal spells whether they are sorceries, instants, artifacts or creatures. Cards such as Doomblade, Plummet, Royal Assassin, and Acidic Slime could be considered. From here, we try to work in any creatures with evasion and decent power / toughness, solid chump blockers, aggressive attackers, as well as creatures with solid abilities. We suggest that you play two colours unless you are very certain you have a winning build with just one. Splashing a third colour could also pay dividends if you can now include a bomby card in another colour.

Don't forget to sideboard in cards between games and if you are not happy with your build, one may even re-construct another deck in between matches if time allows. If you are heading out to battle this weekend, have a blast - we will get a post up latter recounting our (hopefully) epic games and awesome plays.

Lastly, if you pull a new Planeswalker (Chandra, Jace, Garruk) or a Titan, and want to trade, ensure you know the local values - there may predatory traders out there so you may wish to confirm with the organiser or trusted friend what may be a good deal
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NPH PreRelease Prep

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Happy Thursday MTG peeps,

This weekend promises to filled to the brim with a truck-load of fun as we truck down to the local game store for the New Phyrexia PreRlease. Most all players have been afforded an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the latest Magic the Gathering set thanks to the early spoiling of the entire set (which we are still rather miffed about).

Anywhoos - what to expect ? Most locations will be running a sealed deck format consisting of three Scars of Mirrodin boosters, and three New Phyrexia boosters with which to build a minimum 40-card deck with. Some locations will start events shortly after the stroke of midnight on Friday and if you are lucky, stores such as the one local to us (OMG! Games in Barrie, Ontario, Canada) will be holding 'super FNM's where countless promotions and awesome prizes may be up for grabs to Friday Night Magic players. More onto what to expect at events this weekend, here's a short video . . .


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Some quick tips for newer players when putting together a build to play at a sealed tournament such as the New Phyrexia pre-release :

• Try to maintain colours to only two - sometimes splashing a third may be alright. Playing a rainbow build is not advieable.
• With a 40 card deck, try to maintain a balance of around 23 spells and 17 lands unless you find manadorks or other fixers.
• Avoid too many high-costing bombtastic spells as your early game may suffer or even loose you the match.
• Creature spells with evasion (flying or unblockable) are great.
• Pack several burn or removal spells.

If you have some tips to share with readers, please put 'em in the comment thingy below this post.

Also - some other advice for you -
As most of your sealed pool will be either commons and uncommons, do not dimiss these cards or begrudge their rarity in a pack. Based on our evaluation and discussions with our playgroup, we will be looking to include the following uncommons and commons in our final build :

New Phyrexia : Dismember, Fallen Ferromancer, Volt Charge, Beast Within, Whipflare, Triumph of the Hordes, Porcelain Legionnaire, Grim Affliction, Blind Zealot, Blinding Souleater

Scars of Mirrodin : Skinrender, Arc Trail, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Contagion Clasp, Darksteel Axe, Myrsmith, Slice in Twain, Galvanic Blast, Grasp of Darkness, Arrest
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Also - make plans early and find out where and when a Pre-Release in happening in your 'hood. Use the handy Wizards Event Locator.

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Lastly, since this New Phyrexia set is chocked full 'o' win, we suggest you consider getting a hold of card lots which provide you with an instant collection from which to build. One good place to start looking is MTG Mint Card.
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M11 Pre-Release

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At the last moment, we were able to slip out of a prior engagement and get out to the Magic 2011 Pre-Release tournament. We headed out to our local gaming store, OMG! Games and Collectibles to play the morning tournament. The Event format was four rounds of straight Swiss Sealed Deck where each participant received six packs of M11 to build a 40-card minimum deck. We dropped after the third round to head home to provide you this post and to be alone with our new awesome cards. Don't forget to check out our M11 Spoilers HERE (text) and HERE (visual).

Let's get to the video now ->

Here's what we pulled from our six packs . .

Rares:
Vengeful Archon, Honor of the Pure, Merfolk Sovereign, Mass Polymorph, Nantuko Shade, and Drowned Catacomb


Uncommons:
Armoured Ascension, Roc Egg, White Knight, Celestial Purge, Call to Mind, Flashfreeze, Reassembling Skeleton, Rise from the Grave, Howling Banshee, Earth Servant, Fire Servant, Shiv's Embrace, Ember Hauler, Cudgel Troll, Acidic Slime, Autumn's Veil, Prized Unicorn, Whispersilk Cloak


Build: White / Green
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23 Spells (16 creatures, 7 other spells), 17 Lands
2 x Wall of Vines, Infantry Veteran, Honor of the Pure, Celestial Purge, Armored Asecension, White Knight, Blinding Mage, Sylvan RAnger, Pacifism, Whispersilk Cloak, Roc Egg, Brindle Boar, Excommunicate, Wild Griffin, Safe Passage, Cudgel Troll, Cloud Crusader, 2 x Assault Griffin, Greater Basilisk, Acidic Slime, Vengeful Archon, Terramorphic Expanse, 10 Plains, 6 Forest


Results :

Match One - lost in three (very tight indeed - we were both down to 3 life)

Match Two - Steam rolled opponent in two games

Match Three - lost in two

dropped to be alone with my new cardboard.

Hope everyone who headed out to a Pre-Release event had a blast !
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Worldwake Pre-Release 1

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And we're back from the Toronto Regional Worldwake Pre-Release.

We had a BLAST ! Many thanks to SkyFox Games for inviting us to check out this great Magic the Gathering Tournament - Hundreds of Players cracking Worldwake packs, Guest Artist RK Post, Gunslinger John Wasson, friendly opponents and a helpful Judging staff.

Both very decent fellows !

Most every players we talked to love the new set. We did however hear the occasional complaint from some who had unluckily pull a load of chaff cards from their packs. We however could not complain - we pulled some very decent cards including a FOIL Omnath, Locus of Mana . . . OmNomNomNom ! Of course we had to play green - actually a neopolitan of Green, Blue and splashing White : Since sealed is not our forte, we lost more than we won but yeah - we had big time fun.

If you are a casual player like us, we suggest you head on out to a large regional pre-release to take in the sights 'n' sounds.

Here are some pics we snapped during the day.

Let's do some media overload - how about some videos to boot as well -



And perhaps just one more video - a bit more casual . . .

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Please stay tuned for some more posts about this PreRelase
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