T w e n t y S i d e d

Magic the Gathering’s newest set is a Universes Beyond release based around Avatar: The Last Airbender. Prior to the full retail release of a new set in Magic there’s events called “prereleases” that allow you to play with the new cards early. My wife, myself, Bay, and Izzy will be heading out to a local event tonight.

The way prerelease events work is that everyone gets 6 packs and as many basic lands as they want to build a 40 card deck. Then you play 3 matches of best of 3 against other attendees with your deck. Winning gets you extra packs to open and sometimes other goodies. You keep the cards from the packs you open to build your deck as well so participation is already worth its cost the majority of the time.

I coached everyone on the new keywords as well as returning and evergreen ones. Bay and my wife have been to a couple prereleases and drafts so they had a decent idea of what to expect. They are still inexperienced overall, though, so a refresher was worthwhile. Izzy is borderline brand new but has already picked up the game pretty fast. And if I’m honest it never hurts me to have several looks over every new mechanic so I don’t end up getting the rules on them wrong.

We all ended up getting our butts kicked but we had fun. We’ll be heading to our favorite shop again tomorrow for another go around. Hopefully there’s some more success this time but the fun is in getting a chance to play with the new cards of the set, not being the supreme nerd in the room. It was worth the trip and the money just to have some fun with cards that will likely spend the rest of their existence in a box on a shelf.

If you’ve never played Magic and are interested in giving it a try, I would recommend against your first experience as a prerelease if you’re going solo. Lots of people online say it’s a great way to dip your toes in and I can’t disagree more. Deck building can be difficult even for veterans and to play prerelease you have to deck build under a time limit. However, if you have a friend to join you to help guide your build and allowing you to focus on playing, it can be really fun. There are events specifically to learn the game at many LGSs (local game stores). If you want to see what Magic events are being hosted near you, go to this site and type in your location. https://locator.wizards.com

The set was a lot of fun, but I have lots of feelings regarding WotC watering down their IP to try to bring in new players. I’ll have a whole article about that and similar issues in video games coming soon.

Ethan Rodgers