Gatecrash Prerelease part one

What a weekend. Three pre-releases in two days. Was this cowboy ready to crash some gates?
Anticipation was high for this set. Not that I was tired of RtR, but new cards iz new cards!
I planned to meet Russell over at Legends for Saturday and he would come to Mythic on Sunday.
Smoke your kippers, kids and strap in!

Rolled into Vallco (the mall that would not die) for the noon pre at 11am. They said "first come, first served" to pick your guild. I wanted to try Boros because it looked fast and fast was good. Having died many times to Rakdos in the previous set, I wanted at least a fighting chance. They were still taking sign-ups well past noon and we finally started at 12:45pm. Ugh. 150+ players, so they split us up and had tables and chairs in the lower part of the mall.

Opened up two Legionnaires, a Boros Charm and Keyrune, Spark Trooper, Fortress Cyclops, some removal and the Reckoner. So I tried a straight red white deck. Round one was versus another Boros deck, but he had the Helix Angel, which quickly defeated my team since I had no air defense. Game was a bit longer and I got him down to 8 life, but when he played his Champion and made it fly with the Gift of Orzhov, I was signing the loser slip. Gee, that was fast.

Russ checked out my pool and suggested to add green. I had three 5/4 Swines, a Pit Fight and two Disciples of the Old Ways. And you know how I love the Old Ways (tm). But it was now the next round - no time to switch it up! My next opponent was a Simic mage. Game one he played one evolve dude after another until I was sorely outclassed. But I fought back game 2 & 3, winning easily while he stumbled on dudes. Whew!

Round 3 I put in the green from before and played another Boros player. It was the most popular guild by far. Game one I met Aurelia ("how do you do?") and lost in a blaze of double combats. Game two I released the swines (swoons?) and pit-fought for the win. In the rubber game, all green mana played hide and seek with my deck with all the swine in hand. Sigh.

I dropped but Russell was still in it for packs, so he asked his 4th round opponent to split and got 3 three. The goal, as with any pre-release, is to get enough prize packs to be able to draft the following week. 21 more packs to go!

A subpar performance, but not to let it get me down, we agreed to pick up Lindsey, Russ' girlfriend, and get some food and a movie. After numerous suggestions, we decided to just head down to Oakridge and see what looked good. After checking out BJ's, PF Chang's and the Cheesecake Factory, we were sad they all had huge wait times.

Until we heard, "Kurt, party of 3"...

"Why yes, I'm Kurt"...

"Follow me, sir!"
(Don't try this at home, kids.)
We macked out on Avocado Rolls and Moroccan Chicken. So good!

Rearing to go Sunday morning for more Magic, I made my way downtown to meet Ian for coffee before the pre started. We examined my Saturday pool and planned our attacks. He was going Dimir to try and mill people out. "I just want to cast 'Mind Grind' at least once!"

A smaller, but friendly crowd at Mythic that morning. The Boros guild seemed to be just as popular. Plenty of space and we started on time! What a difference a place can make.

I went Orzhov, since extorting is my 4th favorite thing* to do while flopping cards. And have you seen the promo? Opened a Breeding Pool, Legion Loyalist, Mystic Genesis, Rubblehulk and Biomass as my other rares. None to really splash. Oh well. I was happy with my 7 extort cards (counting 1000 Lashes as one too).

Russell pool, on the other hand, was ridiculous. Me Gruul, me SMASH! Clan Defiance indeed.

My first opponent was Nicolas and he was Dimir. All the games went long and he always had a huge Aberration out, but my slow, pinging death went the distance. Luckily, my regeneration Thrull could hold back the monster! I like the life-gain on extort more than the damage dealing since it keeps you in the game. Had 4 extorts out and playing the 1CC Thrull is a huge swing.

Round two was vs. Alex and he was big, green Gruul. We both played dudes and kept swinging. He asked if I was trying to out aggro him with a Orzhov deck. I smited his big Mime Slime and then played Righteous Charge on my 4 dudes for lethal. Game two was won with my 1000 Lashes on his 6/6 Mime Slime - ah, I can hear the whip cracking now...

Feeling invincible (and a whole lot better than yesterday), I looked to my next opponent and saw Paul the Judge at the table smiling.

"You seem confident", I remarked.

"Just wait...", he smirked.

This Gruul beating was different than the last. Removal? Check. Rumblehulk? Check. 9/9 Trample Goliath? Checkmate. Game two he played a Scorcher, madcapped it and then blood-rushed the Rampager on it. Pass the Tylenol.

I wished him continued success and went and got some grub at Woods. Pizza and beer for what ails ya! Round four was against Ian, the miller. Although he said his deck didn't have enough mill cards to go that route. He splashed green and game one, I was greeted by the Sylvan Primordial. I smited it. Then I extorted him down while he was mana flooded. Next game, he played this:

For 7 - I milled 18 cards!!! How I came back from that was a miracle, but I kept extorting for the win. Sorry, Ian!

Last round was versus Zach, the long-haired rocker with patches all over his Levi jacket. Did this kid know Magic? How does a turn 4 kill sound? Oof. The red Denizen, then Madcap, then Spark Trooper. He was high-fiving his friends the rest of the night. Rock and roll, baby! Game 2 he madcapped his Helix Angel. Got skills!

At 3-2, I got 18th place. Much to my chagin, Ian got 17th. How is that possible?!? We each got 2 packs and signed up for the next one. Russell won it out with his Gruulicious deck. I don't think he lost a single game. Nice 10 packs, my bruddah! Next blog will be the 6pm pre - stay tuned!
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(* 1st - drinking a cool lager, 2nd - munching some tasty eats, 3rd - Turbo Go... that's right!)