The previous Magic pre-release, for
Fate Reforged, was the first event I had attended at this particular
game store, and I had a great time. For that tournament I had chosen
the fast, raiding faction, called the Mardu, and the deck I built
matched their style; I was constantly on the offensive, Dashing in
creatures from my hand and killing anything that got in their way. I
hit hard, and kept hitting. I really liked how my deck played, and by
the last round I had gained a reputation as 'the guy with all the
removal'. I lost a few rounds, but overall did pretty well.
This time around, the factions were
slightly different; what used to be the Mardu had been replaced by
the dragon brood of Kolaghan. It was still a fast, aggressive faction,
though, and given how much I had enjoyed the Mardu I decided to do
the same thing again. I had greatly debated this; I knew that if I
picked this faction I would end up comparing my experience at this
pre-release to the previous one, while if I picked a different
faction it would probably feel more fresh and new. While there were
other factions that looked interesting, I was still hard-pressed not
to try and relive my glory of the last tournament. So Kolaghan it was.
After deciding on my faction, it was
time to look at my pool of cards and build a deck. Just because you
pick a certain faction, it doesn't mean that your pool will be best
suited to that style of deck. My pool was actually fairly divided
between several styles; I could build the fast, aggressive deck with
a decent amount of removal that I had planned, or I could build a
deck full of flying creatures that would have a lot of evasion but
would have a harder time dealing with my opponent's threats. I even
had other options, and I could have tried combining these strategies,
but ultimately I stuck to the plan. The deck looked very similar to
what I had done at the last tournament, but I wasn't as happy with it
this time.
In round 1 I was paired against a
player who remembered me from the last pre-release. I beat him then,
but I lost here 2 games to 1, with both of us suffering from bad card
draws. I made some tweaks to my deck after our first game, which
helped, but not enough. I would have plenty of time to do more tweaks
in round 2; I had a bye. I debated changing up the deck entirely, but
decided against it. Round 3 went better, and was my favourite round
all evening; I won 2-1, but the games were very close. Our decks were
very similar, and it was only by luck and slight gains that either of
us could win. I won round 4 quickly 2-0 against a different style of
deck, filled with buffs and tricks from a different faction. Finally,
in round 5 I was paired up against the player in the lead. Here, like
in round 3, our decks were similar; we were both using the Kolaghan
faction, but he had two advantages over me: his pool of cards was
stronger, and he had a better idea of what he was doing. I made a few
strategic mistakes and faltered against him. I don't know if I could
have won if I had played better, but I suspect I would have struggled
regardless. The final round wasn't much fun for me, but my opponent
was nice and polite.
I would have preferred ending the
tournament on a high note, and while I did finish 7th out of 27
players, I didn't enjoy myself quite as much as I did at the last
pre-release. It was still worth attending, though, and I look forward
to the next one. I'll pick up some of the new cards when the set
releases on Friday and see what I get. Probably a bunch of dragons.
13/13
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