MTG - What's it like at PRERELEASE? Get ready for Dragon's of Tarkir for Magic: The Gathering 

"The prerelease event is NOT the Pro Tour." THANK YOU AND AMEN. That attitude doesn't prevail in my cutthroat local meta.

Signed up to my LGS prerelease for Dragon's of Tarkir after your recent video's on the event. It will be my first ever magic event, so excited and wanted to say thank you. As a new(er) player I really appreciate how informative your video's are. Your love for the game has lead me to take the plunge into getting into paper magic!

Pre realese is like Christmas for magic players

Just had my first pre-release yesterday, I end up in third place, it was quite fun. And thank you for all these cool videos! Kudos!

dat tie.

With that card pool, there weren't many good green cards, but the white and black were very powerful. Also, you had a decent red influence. I think the best deck built from this pool is a primary White-Black deck with a splash of both Green and Red. It wouldn't be an easy build for beginners, as two splashes is a bit complex, but I think for a more advanced player this WBrg deck would be a powerful combination.

Talking over showing the cards you've opened really works well. I am glad to see you still using this method. Great video Prof.

Do people really complain about the seeded pack "forcing" you into those colours? So many things wrong with that. Again, nice video. Very well said on people needing to chill out. During Fate Reforged PR a guy got legitimately mad because I was beating his Jeskai deck with my Sultai deck.

White and Black are easily the strongest colors, decent mana curve, access to removal, and High Sentinals of Arashin is a nice outlast enabler. Definite synergy here among the outlast creatures. If not Abzan, the next strongest clan is clearly Mardu, as you could certainty build an Aggro deck with Mardu Ascendancy and the nice low CMC cards in White and Black.

I want to say Ty I went to my first prelesse with your help I didn't bomb.

This pool just screams ABZAN!!!^^ The red cards are mostly unplayable (with 3 or 4 exceptions) and the blue cards are also rather "meh" So that leaves us with WBG. The Abzan rares alone are just nuts^^ Ok, so here is what I would play: Creatures(16): 1x Disowned Ancestor 1x Mardu Hateblade 1x Ainok Bond-Kin 1x Highland Game 1x Mardu Skullcleaver 1x Mardu Hordechief 1x Tuskguard Captain 2x Mer-Ek Nightblade 1x High Sentinels of Arashin 1x Siege Rhino 1x Pine Walker 1x Sagu Archer 1x Sultai Scavenger 2x Abzan Guide Instants(4): 1x Awaken the Bear 1x Utter End 1x Dragonscale Boon 1x Throttle Scorceries (2): 1x Dead Drop 1x Rush of Battle Enchantments(1): 1x Suspension Field Lands (17): 1x Sandsteppe Citadel 1x Nomad Outpost 1x Opulent Palace 1x Jungle Hollow 1x Scourred Barrens With Outlast and the Sentinels of Arashin you should be able to give most of your creature Firststrike AND Deathtouch through the Ainok Bond-Kin and the Mer-Ek Nightblade. There are enough fliers and the reach archer to protect the air above us or to strike above their defenses and weh also have a neat set of removal and combat tricks. Last but not least we have the Lifelink from the two Guides and the Rush of Battle (we do play some Warriors)

Absolutely love this dude, can't get enough. This Channel has been the greatest source of my motivation and confidence to start playing MTG. Had my 1st Pre-Release (Dragon of Tarkir - played Dromoka) and pulled an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and even won a few Games/Prizes. Never would have done or considered doing this w/o this Channel. Thanks so much!

love prereleases! most folks are in a fun mood, the matches are more casual -- can't wait to hit people with some dragons!

I love that you're using the deriums playmat in this video!

This channel is just FANTASTIC. Thanks Tolarian.

New to MTG and attending to MH3 pre release! Thanks for being so welcoming and encouraging!

Abzan splash red. Mardu Ascendancy, War-name Aspirant and Highspire Mantis are really good in limited. You also have the Rugged Highlands and Nomad Outpost to help with the splash. Also, having access to Barrage of Boulders will make any opponents running any weenie strategies cry. Bring Low and Leaping Master are also really solid as early creature and removal. The rest of your Abzan cards are too solid to pass up. 5-color good stuff is also a possible strategy here since you have good fixing for it (I went 4-1 with it at FRF pre-release, it is a legitimate strategy)

I'm very new to playing MTG.your videos help a lot. thank you please keep making them.

Bro the combination of your voice and background music is mad soothing. SUB!

Professor, your videos are very useful! Your sealed deck construction 101 video helped me a great deal. I attended my first pre-release event last night for DTK, and I went 3-1! So happy with the results. Thank you! =)

My LGS links to this exact video on their prerelease signup page. Neat.

Just wanted to say, I really like that fancy tie.

Great video. Very informative. If I were building from this pool I would build a Mardu deck and splash green for the Rhino and the Abzan Guides. There are 4 green-producing lands in Mardu colors, so it's basically a free splash. The list I would run would probably look like this: Spells: 1 Utter End 1 Siege Rhino 2 Abzan Guide 1 Mardu Ascendancy 1 Highspire Mantis 1 Arrow Storm 1 Leaping Master 1 War-Name Aspirant 1 Suspension Field 1 Ainok Bond-Kin 1 Mardu Hordechief 1 Timely Hordemate 1 High Sentinels of Arashin 1 Rush of Battle 1 Disowned Ancestor 2 Krumar Bond-Kin 1 Throttle 1 Raiders' Spoils 1 Sultai Scavenger 1 Swarm of Bloodflies Lands: 1 Rugged Highlands 1 Scoured Barrens 1 Jungle Hollow 1 Opulent Palace 1 Sandsteppe Citadel 1 Nomad Outpost 4 Mountain 3 Swamp 5 Plains Yes, I went through all of the cards in the video and built my own deck in a text document. I'm that into this game. I should have my own channel, but I have no idea where to start. Also, I just want to say that I really enjoy your videos. Thanks for doing what you do.

Hey, thank you for this video, I really love how you tell us what we get and what to do. Thanks!

Thanks for this awesome vid! I went to my first Pre-release - Eldritch Moon - and had a blast and did alright! One thing I will do next time for sure is bring a bunch of land cards pre-sleeved as 25 minutes to build your deck went by a lot faster than I thought plus with 30+ folks there grabbing land cards + sleeving them took a good 5 mins. Also with 4 Rounds 3 games each which run about an hour - was there for about 5 hours total- I won't forget to bring a snack/protein bar next time :)

I honestly can't deccide if I want to play Dromoka, Atarka or Kolaghan- I want to Jund 'em out, but Dromoka's spindown is the shiniest!

Hmm altho the seeded booster can be quite an influence, when I went to my first pre-release my seeded booster had nothing I could use. Thanks for posting all the information tho :) Thanks to you I didnt come unprepared :p

Great video about the Basics of Prerelease.

Looking forward VERY MUCH to new budget deck ideas for DTK! Yours always kick ass :)

First pre release. Im so excited. thank you man. Probably wouldn't have gone if it weren't for you

Thanks prof! Going to my first pre release for Ravnica Allegiance in two weeks. So excited!

I know what you mean I pulled the siege Rhino and the draft recently did and it helped you win more than once. Thanks a lot for all the videos on sealed play and pre releases I'm going to be attending my first pre release for origins. I went and bought three of the older prerelease boxes just to kind of get a feel for them. I got Dragon's maze just because I thought it was interesting the way that they used to do them journey to NYX and fate reforged interesting how they changed between all of them I think I'm going to use the dragon maze peerless box as a deck box for my first pre release lol keep up the good work

You in Abzan for sure! Looks like a good Abzan deck as well.

I would put more focus on the water part, as the tournaments in some places can be very large (food may also be a good thing ;) ). One example is the tournament I'm going to, having around 160 people playing the last few times. That is 8 rounds of magic, which means you'll be playing magic for at least 8 hours (more likely to be closer to 10). Stay hydrated people! And remember, have fun (hopefully not in the Dwarf Fortress way :P )!

Pulled Atarka from the seeded pack, foil shaman of forgotten ways, avatar of absolute, Sidisi, ghastly conscription, and an ojutai. Came in 4th place, won 6 packs and opened a narset! My first tournament ever, most fun i've had in a while!

Good to see you finally mentioned the fact that at prerelease, the playing grounds are slightly more even, as there aren't any $400 constructed decks floating around; what everybody gets is 6 packs to build from.

I would say for this sealed pool, that you have the makings of strong sealed Abzan with strong cards in all 3 colors. Utter End and Siege Rhino for multicolored, Ainok Bond-Kin, Tuskguard Captain and 2 Mer-Ek Nightblades for those +1/+1 counter synergies and bonuses. 2 Dragonscale Boon make for strong combat tricks or counter generation for non-outlast creatures. Mardu Hordechief would be great addition in white to provide an extra body if you trigger raid. There are some strong late powerhouse commons and uncommons...if you were to splash a fourth I'd only look into adding red for the Highspire Mantis and War-Name Aspirant (since her raid could end up giving her First Strike, Trample and Deathtouch if you have the outlast synergies)...and maybe if you use Nomad Outpost and Rugged Highlands will it work best. The Key bombs though are Siege Rhino, High Sentinels of Arashin, Utter End and the outlast synergies.

Why are seeded boosters a bad thing? That's the whole point of choosing a clan. You wouldn't choose an abzan pack if you wanted to play Jeskai. Lol

Abzhan for sure focusing on black and green with the best of white added for the earlier curve. The sentinel is an absolute bomb, utter end gives us hard removal. Our seated packs best cards are in black and white but the green we opened shouldn't be under estimated. I feel like this is a pretty standard abzhan deck that goes for the late game win by enduring our opponents and shutting down more aggressive strategies.

Love that green scales tie.

Thanks Professor! Great video, your explanations have really helped me and my friends jump into MTG.

So as a relatively new player, I will say that I like the fact that there is a seeded booster that steers you in a set of colors. For this new player, having to decide which colors would be way too overwhelming along with having to build the deck in 30min - 60 min time frame.

That is a ridiculously strong abzan deck.

I went to my first prerelease at Dragons. I chose Dromoka and had a lot of fun, as well as getting some good pulls. And by that I mean I pulled Sarkhan Unbroken and Sunscorch Regent. I couldn't use Sarkhan unfortunately due to problems mana fixing, especially since I only had major support for the green mana in his cost.

Bringing Mana is also a good idea. At most of the stores in my area they do not seem to have all the colors. This is because most people do not bother returning lands.

For those of you that want to know how many packs we will receive during the dragon of tarkir prerelease, it will be : 4 dragons of tarkir, 1 fate reforged and seeded clan pack (WOTC announced it). Have fun at your prerelease :)

Played my first two prereleases today! Had a blast! I played Silumgar and Kolaghan.

I'm new to Magic and this will be my first prerelease. I'm wondering...What's the difference between Silumgar and Ojutai? I know black blue and white blue but what is the difference in the play styles between the two? Also which one would be the better pick? Everyone that can give me some insight please do!!! I need some help on deciding what I want to go into! Please and thank you!!

your thought on four color was spot n, id defiantly play abzan with red, your curve and fixing is perfect in those colors, and am i the only one who absolutely loves barrage of boulders 1 drop: Mardu hateblade Disowned ancestor 2drop: War-name aspiant Suspension field Ainok bond-kin MArdu skull-hunter 3-drop MArdu Ascendency Tuskguard Capatian 2x Abzan Guide 2x Barage of Boulders Mardu-horde Chief 4-drop Utter end Siege Rhino 2x Dragonscale boon Bring Low High Sentiels of Arashin 2x Mer-Ek Nightblade 5-drop: Swarm of Bloodflies Land Outpost sandsteppe opulent Rugged highlands scoured barrens Jungle hollow 4 plains 2 forest 2 mountain 4 swamp sideboard: Barage of boulders Highspire Mantis Leaping master Erase Timely Hordemate Molting snakeskin Throttle Raiders spoils Dead drop

One thing you forgot to mention, for the midnight event, is coffee. My first pre release (the Fates Reforged one) was a midnight and I was overly exhausted. I'm surprised I was still able to play a cointerspell, I was so tired.

I have a mardu deck. But over the time I found green and blue cards that look good. I add them to my deck, splashes of blue and buckets of green. They actually seem to really work. My opponents think, oh they're not going to have that cards in there. Boom I actually have a counterspell. Oh, they can't get past my artifacts. Boom. Naturalize. With the release of Fate reforged, I also added meteorite which is a quint artifact.

Can't wait for Dragons pre release. It's gonna be a blast. Great video

Dangitall. I have a gamestore that we finally found, which is half an hour away, but I can't make it to Prerelease! There's a group of my friends that are going, but I can't make it because of FIRST Robotics. I can't stay up late enough to do it. Ah, well. Battle for Zendikar and M16 are going to feel my presence! Thanks for the video! I'll remember your lessons, Master, when I attend my first.

From what you opened I'd still go Abzan. Your white and black are pretty nice and you've got some decent green creatures, and Siege Rhino and Guide are too good not to play if you're considering splashing green or red. Nothing in red or blue wow me enough to make me want to fit in those colors.

Green\White, splash B. I see power in the Grizzly with maybe throwing in the collosodon for late game power. A possibility of the Sagu Archers and Tusk guard captain. Strong white with the High Sentinels, for outlast creature triggers without tapping. Black has the mer-ek for trample synergy and other outlast creatures.

I strongly disagree with the complaints over the seeded pack. YOU picked the clan, hence YOU picked the colours. The seeded pack is a really good way of making sure that you have at least a couple of playables of that/those colours before going on a treasure hunt in your booster packs.

In my pre-release I got pretty much the same seeded booster, but all of my other boosters came with Mardu rares, all of them including Zurgo, so I tried Abzan/mardu but that didn't work for the first two games, so at game three I tried playing just Mardu, but there just weren't enough cheap creatures or removal, so finally I decided playing 5 color junk and it work wonderfully, I had opened all the fixing needed of course.

OK looking at what you pulled I would go orzhov with splash for green. I didn't see much in any of the other colors to justify playing them. But that utter end along with the rhino look to be your aces for this deck. As for this pre release I have been abzan since khans started. I think I'll stay abzan/dromoka this time as well. Really want to know what's in the seeded packs though before I lock it in. But white green has been strong this set compared to the others.

This pool provides a very good Abzan deck. The focus is a bit more on BW but th green is still strong. Not a lot of removal sadly. My 23 would be: 2xAbzan guide Utter End Siege Rhino Tuskguard Captain Highland Game 2xDragonscale Boon Hateblade High Sentinels Suspension Field Bond-kin Hordechief Salt Road Patrol Timely Hordemate 2xMer-Ek Nightblade Disowned Ancestor Mardu Skullhunter Throttle sultai scavenger dead drop swarm of bloodflies Then add the tri-lands, jungle hollow,scoured barrens and some basics

I'm not sure what I'll go at this prerelease, but for this Abzan just has all the nut rares in its colors.

If I had that pool, I would play five- color. You had lots of mana fixing and as well as Jeskai + Mardu Ascendancies as well as Siege Rhino. That is a boss deck all by itself.

Dragons will be my first pre release event. If I can manage to not screw anything up and remember to untap before I draw I will consider the event a success.

I like the seeded boosters - because sometimes I want to ensure I can play the faction or colors I want to play at pre-release!

My first prerelease, yay! I've gone for Atarka, and I've got 3 buddies with Ojutai, Kolaghan, and Dromoka :)

I remember during Khans PR I chose Temur, and ended up making a Mardu sealed deck because I pulled a Sorin and a Butcher of the Horde.

I would build BW Warriors with a splash of green for the rhino and two abzan guides. using only sandsteppe citadel, opulent palace and the jungle hollow to splash for green. Scoured barrens is free, so play it. Removal: Utter End, Suspension Field, Throttle and dead drop. The only other delve card is a Sultai scavenger. Utilities: Raider's spoils and Rush of Battle. Non warriors: Bondkin, High Sentinels one Jeskai Student and Mer-Ek. Gameplan: attack whenever possible, invite them to the race, lategame: wait for the attack, trade if it doesn't kill you, then screw with their race math by turning the guide face up or playing siege rhino.

Sweet pull on that Rhino :D

I would suggest taking a basic land pack to a prerelease especially if your lgs has a bit of a crowd. I carry at least ten of each in an old tournament pack box in my car along with sleeves. Ah tourney packs, those were the days.

one nice thing i always bring with me when i go draft or pre release it's 17 of each land so i don't have to go on the hunt for basics before the tournament starts.

Looking at the pool, WB splashing for G seems like best route as the other colors are pretty weak. As for the seeded booster, it can weigh heavily on what colors you play though not always; Had an example in Fate reforged where I got a Temur box, and played Mardu because my Green and blue were so weak compared to all the premium removal I had from mardu. Of course getting a shaman of the Great hunt in the seeded helped not make completely try to force temur to work as I had lands that were on color that tapped for U or G for activate great hunt or tasigur without having to use forest or islands for those abilities.

I don't have the time or money to play magic competitively or as often as I would like, so I always enjoy prerelease's because well pretty much all that's said in this video. It's A time when I can just have fun and enjoy playing with all the new cards and feel as though I'm not missing something, because everybody is on a even playing field. As for the sealed pool, if not for siege rhino, I would probably go Mardu, base WB, with some slight warrior tribal, you have what you need for a aggressive warriors deck and one that could use Mardu ascendency to it's fullest extent. I'd probably do base mardu, with A green splash for siege rhino and maybe the abzan guide and even awaken the bear. I could even see a sweet five color deck that splashes blue for the rakshasa and the abominations of gudul. Great pool.

I want to open 4+ copies of Shambling Goblin... It's such a good Card..

That tie is very sharp

wish i got that box at KTK Pre. Would go heavy W/B and splash the green using the duel lands and wedge land. the Rhino and abzan guides are great but maybe only one guide main board. Sentinels, hateblade, bond-kin, hordechief and suspension field from white. Ancestor, skullhunter, undying Krumar, and krumar bond-kin from black and Utter end. nothing from red or blue and fill the gaps with some green as needed.

You should also bring you DCI Number!

With this pool you have a good amount of white and black play tables and can go white black warriors cause you have a decent amount of warriors. The abzan guide is so good so splask green for the 3 color sbzan cards not to many pure green playables except for.sidebord

Wow this video was helpful and I'm sure it help with my prerealease I'm an starter but looking forward to experiences

That pool would have a pretty good Jeskai Tempo deck for sealed

atarka all the way baby! i love green and red as colors but haven't had much opportunity to play them as i only really play draft and pre-release.

at our prerelease sleeves are mandatory so consider that they might be at yours aswell!

Dear Professor I would like to thank you for all your guidance, i finished 5th out of 50 in the pre release and won 4 booster packs, not bad for my first month playing after 14 years away. i felt like a 14 years old kid opening his first pack all over again. .

On this prerelease, there is not gonna be any Khans of Tarkir cards, only Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir. Maybe doing a video with cards of these sets would be more useful for new players?

The sealed pack makes sense though. I mean you don't sign up as Abzan and then try to force Temur. The sealed pack is there to help you go with the playstyle you wanted to go with.

I personally look for low mana but good abilities. Then I look for a few powerful card. If I don't have enough, I like looking at colorless cards that help make finding the right color no longer a problem.

OK, I changed my mind. Atarka is better than Oujati and dromoka Gruul ftw!! And for the Deckbuilding in your video: -(Nonbasic) Lands: All the threecoloured ones plus scoured barrens and jungle hollow -creatures: for 1 mana. Hateblade, for 2 m .ainok bound kin, for 3 m. Tuskguard captain, mardu hordechief,2x mer-ek nightblade, for 4 m. Rhino, high sentinels of arashin,2x unyielding krumar, salt road patrol for 5 m. 2x Sagu archer, pine walker, swarm of bloodflies, for 6 m. 2x Abzan guide, scavenger -Spells Removal: Utter End, suspension field, Pump: 2x dragonscale boon, awaken the bear, other cards: raiders spoils

I'm excited

Totally a great primer for new players. Here's what I would have done Abzan LANDS 1x Jungle Hollow 1x scoured barrens 1x Sandsteppe citadel 5x Forest 5x Swamps 5X plains Creatures/Spells 1x Utter end 1x siege rhino 2X abzan guide 1x highland game 1x smoke teller 1x awaken the bear 1x sagu archer 1x dragonscale boon 1x mardu hateblade 1x suspension field 1x high sentinels 2x Jeskai student 1x rush of battle 1x erase 1x ainok bond-kin 1x mardu skullhunter 2x unyeilding kumar 1x raider spoils 1x kheru dreadmaw

Man i miss these days...

that pool is insane

Played my first prerelease ever at starcity headquarters in Roanoke va and I was 3-0 and drew with my last opponent giving me six bonus packs! It was like the best day ever! Also got the exclusive dragons playmat signed by the artist! I was playing green white btw

That siege rhino is sweet.

I would use a combination of the Green and Blue cards. They just seem to have a good combo to it when you think about it.

I would say then picks in in the video is abzan with maybe a splash of red. I'll be joining the kolaghan brood for prerelease.

white black definitely and probably green splash because that siege rhino is too good

Ojutai I believe will do well. Excellent combination of removal and evasion in Dragons

I don't necessarily agree that the seeded sealed pack is that heavy of an influence on what deck you're going to make. You're still talking about 5 other packs of cards vs the sealed deck. If you're a disciplined limited player, you should be able to easily move on from those colors if necessary. I'd say I've gone about 60/40 in playing my predetermined colors (or at least part of them) at prerelease. Obviously the colors are still favored, but not by as big of a margin as you would expect. With that said, in a block like Khans, it is nice grabbing at least one tri-colored land. And the seed pack also makes it more likely you'll get at least one decent rare with the promo card.

I just got back from the midnight prerelease. I am exhausted, but I had fun. I got Momoka.

From this pool I might try to build a mardu deck the utter end had a big play into that and the mardu ascendency

Those dastardly blue players destroyed me. I was green white. My deck was a midrange and ended up happening was blue would counter anything I had I importance along with the removal of white. Although if I had played other colors I think the green white midrange would be very formidable.

today i went to my first pre-release . i selected Dromoka! i wasnt lucky and i didnt get any legendary but the deck worked really good . and went 4/1 :)in the ent of the even i managed to trade and get a dromoka and a dromoka command :) and the experience i get from the even and playing was worth ! i sure will attend to the next pre-release :)