TABLETOP TALES PRESENTS
MY GATECRASH PRE-RELEASE!
To check out my other decks, hit the link below:
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 fourth 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 Gatecrash pre-release on January 27th, 2013,
at The Comic Cellar.
It cost me $30 ($25 if I had signed up earlier) to sign up and, for that fee, each player recieved
6 boosters packs, including a special booster pack for a chosen guild--
including Orzhov (White-Black), Dimir (Black-Blue), Gruul(Green-Red), Boros (Red-White), and Simic (Green-Blue) (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 no less than 40 card deck. They were 5 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 late into the afternoon.
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.
Gatecrash is the second part of the Return to Ravnica set, continuing a trilogy of set
releases to end with the spring release, Dragon's Maze. This expansion set pushes the plots developing in the massive city plane of Ravnica forward with evidence of the Guild Compact breaking down as all the guilds seem to be conspiring with rumors of Niv Mizzet, head of the Izzet Guild, up to something big involving some sort of maze. 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 Gatecrash include special lands (gates and shocklands), land enchantments, multi-color
spells, and new mechanic for each guild:
Extort (Orzhov, Black-White) - Found on creatures and enchantments.
(Whenever you cast a spell, you may pay 
. If you do, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain that much life.)
Cipher (Dimir, Blue-Black) - Found on sorceries and instants.
(Then you may exile this spell card encoded on a creature you
control. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to a player, its
controller may cast a copy of the encoded card without paying its mana
cost.)
Bloodrush (Gruul, Red-Green) - Found on creatures with X being a variable cost, Y/Z variable bonus to power/toughness, and Q being a possible added effect. (X, Discard this creature: Target attacking creature gets +Y/+Z and Q until end of turn.)
Battalion (Boros, White-Red) - Found on creatures with X being a variable effect like creature getting a power/toughness and ability bonuses until end of turn & other effects. (Whenever this creature and at least two other creatures attack, X.)
Evolve (Simic, Blue-Green) - Found on creatures.
(Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if
that creature has greater power or toughness than this creature, put a
+1/+1 counter on this creature.)
My
ending record, unfortunately, has taken a dip; with two wins and three losses. I'm not sure if it was bad luck, the fact that I lost a night of sleep, or my pool of cards. I
didn't place near the top, but I still had a great time. If there is anything I could have done better it would be have about four more creatures since, on reflection, I didn't have enough frequent creature drops. I definitely rocked and rolled 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...
MY GATECRASH PRE-RELEASE DECK:
RED-GREEN-BLUE EVASIVE AGGRO!
I think I was inspired by the fact that I was torn between going with Gruul or Simic with which guild to rock in the Gatcrash pre-release or the fact that I had some pretty sweet blue spells that would help me evade blockers and hit my opponents full force with my big stompers. Its funny that I mostly played two-colors in the last pre-release, with some three-color exploration of bant, but in this pre-release I really pushed it thanks to having a pretty decent mana base (two guildates and two keyrunes) that allowed me to play what I wanted to play and, while I had some trouble with it, I loved playing RUG Aggro!
The only question I have now is... what the heck am I gonna play in Dragon's Maze? In that set, every guild is an available option with an interesting twist-- secret guild alliances so that I'm thinking you wind up playing three colors. Now, I gotta wonder, do I choose Selesnya or Gruul?
Anywho, I don't have much to say, but I'm glad to have played what I played and wouldn't have changed much (but perhaps my pool of cards). Keep reading and check out what spin I had to spin to play this three color deck..
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