Magic: The Gathering (Spoiler-free)

Remember to have fun. Commander is meant to be a casual, fun format. If people are taking it too seriously, they're doing it wrong.

Meh, not non-threatening and huggable enough.

One-on-one commander decks confuse me. I've played commander one-on-one when their haven't been enough people for a multiplayer game, but making a deck specifically for that seems weird. There's two people at the store I frequent with Commander decks built for one-on-one, one of which calls himself "the King of Commander" and will only play one-on-one. Makes me feel he's just trying to play a format where he's the only one with the proper deck for it.

Basandra, Battle Seraph is good for that. Just stock up on damage redirectors and play a fun game of "Come at me bro". She doesn't work so well in multiplayer because then they can just attack someone else.

edited 13th Jan '15 1:17:36 PM by Elfive

Wouldn't forcing people to attack others still be good for you?

Oh, yeah, but you have a lot less control over the situation.

No true so-called King of Commander would ever insist on only playing 1v1.

Does he play a lot of Red? While the higher life totals don't do red any favors, red's biggest problem in commander is that it is primarily a multiplayer format and it's desire for aggression makes you a target and with so many players it can't dish out damage fast enough to make up for that.

Commander is most fun when you can get at least 4 people playing. I also like it because it as a slower format it really lets Green shine.

Being the self-proclaimed King of 1v1 Commander is like appointing yourself Vice-President In Charge of Cheating at Pillow Fights.

I love it. I'm quoting you on that on my Tumblr.

[checks forum for a Gloat emote; not a sausage, as usual]

So it turns out my store isn't getting any kits for tomorrow's pre-release. And it's the only store in my whole area that does Magic.

Well that really fucks up the plans I made with my friends. Now I'm trying to run around and find a store in the city about ~2 hours away that is doing the pre-release and so far it looks like none of them will also do 2HG.

Man, that sucks! How come the store only now found out? Good luck with finding a new event on such short notice.

Nah, I think the store knew, I just only found out because I went there for FNM. I'm a bit surprised nothing was put up on their Facebook page about them not having things for the pre-release, but then I had already thought the sheer lack of any info might've meant they weren't doing the pre-release.

edit: Actually, the owner did say he doesn't yet know what he'll be getting, so that might mean he's been in the dark about this as well.

edited 16th Jan '15 4:20:42 AM by Saiga

My usual game shop won't be holding a pre-release. We at least got a few weeks notice, so I could plan where else to go. I was going to ask around my playgroup yesterday about who was going where and maybe try to go along with some of them, but I couldn't make it to the usual Thursday meet-up because I was recovering from something that happened at work that day. It's a long story, but for now I'll say it's a recurring medical problem for me that I had a particularly fierce episode of.

I think I've settled on the shop I will be going for it, though. It's the one I went to before my main shop started running them. They rent out the nearby mall's "Community Room" for their prereleases. There's one guy in my playgroup who doesn't really like the owner of the place, and the tournament itself will start in the morning, but on the other hand, the mall's Community Room is a lot more spacious than the basement of my usual shop (which we also have had to share with Yu Gi Oh tournaments the past few prereleases), and I can just go to the mall's food court if I get hungry.

edited 16th Jan '15 5:08:32 PM by Lightblade

Turns out there is another game shop in my city, and it's in the same area as the one I was going to go to. It's doing 2HG at the same time! Score.

I'm surprisingly pumped for tomorrow's pre-release.

I think it's one part Ugin shinanigans and one part that it's bye-bye to Tarkir classic after this.

Prerelease was fun, but holy hell people are jumping on the Jeskai packs fast. Must be that sweet sweet [[strike 20 euro]] Soulfire Grand Master.

I find it funny that a lot of people call Ugin's plus ability Lightning Bolt when it's clearly Ghostfire.

Being first at the event, I could help out with unboxing all of the stuff and play a bit commander on the side. My table opened the Pre-Release kits during the end of turn phases occupied by an unholy combination of Prophet of Kruphix, ETB clones and bounces.

The guy who opened the first Jeskai box got the Grandmaster as promo. That would have been mine if not for that damn Prophet. The first Sultai box contained the Elemental, Mardu had the Hordechief. That one belonged to my brother and he also opened Kolaghan, the new phoenix and a Dig Through Time. One opened the second box of the clan's pile just like me, and both our promos were the new Khans. So either the boxes are sorted or I'm cursed to boost the luck of everyone around me. Neither would surprise me.

I picked Jeskai and went 1-2 because well, we were only eight people in the single tournament. Round one was damn close, both being down to 1 life in game three. I was not able to get Rush of Battle on my Flamerush Rider token so I was one life short to survive the next turn. I also screwed round two because copying Narset doesn't allow you to exile another four cards. Also, she's not exactly that great when most of your non-creature spells are sorceries.

For a Jeskai aggro strategy, my pool severely lacked early game threat and just removal in general. I ran Soul Summon.

Also, my brother's and mine Ugin's Fate booster contained the same cards. But the altered art Ugin looks absolutely gorgeous.

So, did anyone actually pick Mardu? At my Pre-Release we had 10+ Mardu boxes left, while 3 for the other clans at most. We started with 15 for each clan. In General we had enough boxes left for another Pre-Release. But the Two-Headed Giant tournament went on for another round, there was already a Draft set up and really no one wanted those Mardu boxes.

I got my brother to buy two of them so we could play some more limited. He opened a Fetchland and two mythics. So I guess now I'm getting my cat to open mine.

So my friend and I went 2-for-2 at our 2HG pre-release, I'm happy with that. I picked Temur and made a Green/Red deck, he picked Jeskai and might a White/Blue deck. Pulled two Atarka and two Sandsteppe Mastodon and decided to make mine a ferocious ramp deck, with Whisperer of the Wilds and the 3 drop 4/2 and 4/1 creatures in Green and Red respectively. It worked quite well, Atarka is simply brutal.

I didn't notice anyone pick Mardu at my pre-release. Everyone swarmed over Jeskai as well, I was a bit worried my friend would miss out on his Jeskai.

edited 17th Jan '15 4:25:05 PM by Saiga

Here's my prerelease deck and pool.

My rares were:

• Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest (Promo)
• Ojutai, Soul of Winter
• Sage of the Inward Eye
• Archfiend of Depravity
• Brutal Hordechief
• Warden of the First Tree

Like I said before, since my usual shop wasn't holding one, I went back to the place I went to before they started running them. Fitting, considering the theme of this set. Anyway, this tournament went for 7 rounds of Swiss, with a cut to the top 8. At the end of a long day that saw me leave home at 7:30 AM and not get back until 8:15 PM, I ended up with 3 wins, 3 losses, and 1 draw.

Between the double strike of Shu Yun's ability, Temur Battle Rage, and Sage of the Inward Eye's lifelink-granting abilities, my matches saw some pretty huge life total swings. I also found Refocus to be surprisingly useful. It's card draw, a pseudo-vigilance, and a prowess trigger all in one.

I need to pick up a couple Brutal Hordechiefs when I get a chance. Just gonna wait for their price to drop a couple tics before I order.

I noticed the same thing. My shop ran out of Jeskai before even the first event of the day, which the shop owner, poor guy, said is something that's never even come close to happening before.

Fortunately, I managed to get a Jeskai box before they ran out (because Jeskai is my clan, dagnabbit, not because of some other selfish greedy reason!) which, funny enough, had a Soulfire Grand Master as it's promo card.

Go figure.

Wow, that effect is ridiculous!

It's nice. It reminds me a lot of Hellrider, though it trades Haste for the drain and his blocking ability.

I plan on using it in my warriors deck.