TABLETOP TALES: RETURN TO RAVNICA PRE-RELEASE

TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS

MY RETURN TO RAVNICA PRE-RELEASE

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This article serves two purposes: To share the nerd entertainment around with anyone who might find it interesting and, in this case, to share my experiences with my third pre-release.

You can find Magic Cards in super stores (Ex. Walmart, Target) but the best place you can buy your cards, meet other players, and play in events is at your local comic book store or hobby shop. I buy most of my cards at The Comic Cellar. Here is a link to its Google Maps location at 3620 Austin Peay Highway #2 Memphis, TN 38128.

And here is a link to Comic Cellar's Website

I took part in the Return to Ravnica pre-release on September 30th, 2012, at The Comic Cellar. It cost me $25 bucks to signs up and, for that fee, each player recieved 6 boosters packs, including a special booster pack for a chosen guild-- including Selesnya (Green-White), Rakdos (Black-Red), Azorius (White-Blue), Izzet (Blue-Red), and Golgari (Black-Green) (symbols pictured above)-- a promo card for your guild (which you could use in the event) and with the materials each player was expected to build, with all the lands they needed, a 40 card deck.  They were 6 one-on-one matches, each a best of three rounds, and a ranking (the top 16 get increasingly more packs until you get to 1st place which gets a whole box of packs). Each player also received a "pity" pack at the end of the day. All together, the event was well worth the admission fee, and a blast that began at 10 AM and went to 5:30 PM.

We also got a life dice unique to our guild, a sticker of our guild symbol, a letter from our guild leader, and an achievement card (pictured above).

Return to Ravnica is the new fall set, starting a new trilogy of set releases to happen seasonally in the fall, winter, and spring. This set sees a return to the setting, the massive city plane controlled and fought over by ten guilds, Ravnica. The first card set that took place in Ravnica was introduced in 2005 and was a very popular setting. Ravnica has several minor themes, from the artistic and flavor themes of cities and technology, to a mechanic for each of the guilds.

Some of the cool mechanics and themes to look forward to with Return to Ravnica include special lands (gates and shocklands), multi-color spells, and new mechanic for each guild:

Detain (Azorius, White-Blue) - A mechanically usually targeting a non-land permanent when a creature or enchantment activates it by a mana/tap ability, entering the battlefield or attacking. (Until your next turn, that permanent can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.)

Overload (Izzet, Blue-Red)- On instants and sorceries, (You may cast this spell for its overload cost. If you do, change its text by replacing all instances of "target" with "each".)

Unleash (Rakdos, Red-Black)- On creatures, (You may have this creature enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It can't block as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.)

Scavenge (Golgari, Black-Green)- On creatures, (X, Exile this card from your graveyard: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to this card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)

Populate (Selesnya, Green-White)- On creatures, instants, sorceries, and enchantments, (Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of a creature token you control.)

My ending record is still even, with another three wins and three losses, and, for the first time, I placed amongst the players. Out of about 40 people, I placed in the top 16 (netting me a prize of two booster packs), and had a lot of fun. I got to play against the guys who ended up in the No. 1 and No. 2 slots.  and I didn't place near the top, but I had a great time. I definitely played to type, as I said I would in the article I wrote before the event (check it out here) and to discuss that let's look at my...

RETURN TO RAVNICA PRE-RELEASE DECK:

GREEN-WHITE AGGRO!

Unlike my first two pre-releases, I had some decent themes to play with, and was able to build one nifty and fast deck. The themes I played with were the Selesnya mechanic populate (though not as much as would've liked), token creatures, potent two and three drops creatures, and a very light bit of smattering of other useful mechanics to get me through.

Also, I went back to playing my bread and butter color combo, green and white, and this helped me succeed against a wider berth of opponents. I really know how to put together a green and white deck and, although I didn't have many stand-out cards, I was able to build something competitive with only three rares.

In the end, I more or less built the sort of deck I wanted, and am pleased with results. Keep reading to see what I pulled together and what I learned.
Contains 40 Cards

CREATURES

(13 Creatures: 5 Green, 1 White,  7 Green/White Creatures)

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? How was I able to easily get away with playing 15 mana? This card came to be the difference in my ability to get creatures down, its toughness made it flexible enough to block the plethora of 2/2 creatures in the set, and all in all, I can definitelly seeing this becoming a popular card in the format.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Now, I wish I could say I went pure Selesnya but, as I didn't get quite enough phenomenal options to make it completely feasible. Azorius Arrester is a pretty nice two drop that has the ability of giving some temporary control. This is useful in disrupting your enemies tempo early on and good in a pinch when they could swing some big bugger for the win.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Between Brushstrider and Concordia Pegasus, there was a lot of debate about which was better, and in the end I reckon Brushstrider served me best; the card doesn't seem that great and its awful outside of this format, but for two mana a 3/1 creature that can swing when he can and block for removal (remember what I said about all those 2 and 1 toughness creatures) and he becomes a steal.

 Deck contains. 4.

Reasons? And here is the foundation of my deck; a full set of Centaur Healers that not only delay my opponent by giving me more life, but are potent threats that can deal serious damage and block most creatures my opponents could drop. On turn three, this drop demands attention and few creatures can handle it, making your enemy turn to removal.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? A swell two drop that could buff up my creatures enough to withstand removal? HECK YES! One of the major reasons I was able to easily overwhelm all three of my Rakdos/Golgari opponents (yes, two of the guys I beat were Rakdos and third played GBR Jung) was that there removal mostly relied on their ability to burn my creautres. The best defense for this was to buff up my creatures so that their instants were useless and my creatures could remove theirs in a pinch. With Return to Ravnica, you gotta use the best creatures and spells for your deck and don't worry about guilds.

Deck contains. 1.
Reasons? A fantastic card, possibly my favorite of the set and the one I was happiest to get in my draft, Loxodon Smiter is pretty easy to play and impossible to counter. He is gonna hit the battlefield with a beefy prescence on turn three and there is nothing they can do about it; we can only hope to see a reprint of Loxodon Warhammer in the third part of the set to give this guy a boost.

Deck contains. 1.
Reasons? I was told that this card was too expensive but my decks mana flowed pretty easy and this threat was able to become a viable win condition with the help of a useful land, Rogue's Passage.

 Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? I love this guy too. He was almost always a 3/3 or higher and he demands attention. I only wish I had more populate & tokens to make this deck something truly terrifying.

NON-CREATURE SPELLS

(12 Non-Creature Spells: 2 Artifacts, 3 Green Instants, 2 Green-White Sorceries  5 White Instants)

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? My white-removal and control suite sucked; I needed some Arrests and other such nonsense but instead I get this passable card. I don't like that it relies on your opponent to do something for you to use it, but I got a good use of it and wish I had a couple more, actually.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? I wish I had ended up three two or three of this cards to completely validate populate, but I won't complain about at least getting one of these babies. I expect to build a deck with a full suite of these monsters for my new deck.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Guaranteeing a +2/+0 for most of my creatures and relying on a lack of solid artifact removal suite made this card quite useful. It combo'd excellently in early game and when combo'd for a winning swing with Rogue's Passage.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? I like this card and I kinda want four for my stalling tokens deck. The populate is icing on the cake, but basically wasting an opponent's turn or potential game winning gambit can completely flip the game in your favor.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Terribly underrated; for 4 you get at least 2 1/1 flyers or a 1/1 flyer and a 3/3 green centuar or 8/8 green-white elemental with vigilance. I wish I had a couple of these to validate my populate, but what ya gonna do. Flying creatures were the bane of my existence today when dealing with Azorius.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? An old classic that served two purposes; it saved several of my creatures, allowed me to swing for lethal when combo'd with rogue's passage, and helped with creature on creature removal. This helped me keep creature advantage against Rakdos and Golgari.

Deck contains. 2.

Reasons? This saves creatures so that I can keep creature advantage and, in a pinch, gets more tokens to put down. I love it!

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? And this artifact serves two purposes that I don't think can be underrated; it taps for your guild's mana and, even more importantly, it helps put down a 3/3 wolf early to swing at your foes. A lot of my opponents in the first couple of games didn't expect that.

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? Now, this card is certainly decent in limited, but I think it will be a great sideboard in standard. Green/White's better version of Naturalize that has the added bonus of granting you an extra token; who doesn't want to free their 8/8 token from arrest and put down another 8/8 token?

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? This was one of most reliable pieces of removal I could have and saved me a couple times.

LANDS

(15 Lands: 6 Forest, 5 Plains, 4 Others)

CONTAINS: 6

Deck contains. 1.

Reasons? And here is a tricky but pretty amazing card that makes Populate all worth it. Potentially, for the price of the land and five mana, as well as tapping two creatures, you can put down an 8/8 green-white token with vigilance. Combining this with populate and Rogue's Passage was the ultimate win condition for my deck. Most opponents scoop after you get two guardians down.

CONTAINS: 5

 Deck contains. 1.
Reasons? This is what I'm talking about! I love make creatures unblockable and Rogue's Passage, which essentially costs five, is well worth its wait in limited. This helped get my big creatures into the endzone to land those killing blows almost every time.

CONTAINS: 2

And that's it. Leave some recommendations and comments, as I take my adventure to build my first token deck. Suggestions?