The Historical Blind Spot
I, Graham Bennett, aka HamHocks42, have not ever attended an in-person prerelease in a local game store prior to Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Over the past few years, I've been livestreaming MTG almost exclusively while also putting out YouTube content and even commentating on MTG Arena tournaments while lacking a fundamental experience that, if social media is to be believed, is shared by every player of the game besides me.
I've been playing Magic since 2003 when Scourge was the new hotness on store shelves. I was brought into the game by some high school friends and my experience back in those days was exclusively on kitchen tables, sidewalks, and living room floors. I took a long break after graduating high school in 2004 and got back into the game just as MTG Arena dropped and hype for War of the Spark was reaching a fever pitch in 2019.
Believe it or not, the first in-person Magic: the Gathering event I attended was MagicCon: Philadelphia in 2023 – years after establishing myself as a Magic personality on Twitch and regular commentator on The Pizza Box tournament series. So, it was with a few nerves and a fair amount of imposter syndrome, that I walked into The Upkeep Games in Ann Arbor, MI to throw down on my first ever prerelease.
Checking my Ego
After signing up for the event and waiting in the tournament space for it to begin, it was very clear that nobody in that room had any idea who I was. It felt like the “they have no idea” meme playing out in real life.
Of course, I hadn't earned any level of respect that wouldn't be due anybody else who walked through that door, so I kept my mouth shut and decided to not try networking or promoting my content. Today was a day to experience the new set and enjoy time with like-minded nerds, which is the kind of vibe I was looking for when I got into streaming in the first place. And, honestly, it did not disappoint.
Lessons Learned
There is some prerelease etiquette that I wanted to share with you here, some of which I observed successfully, and some I most definitely did not.
- Bring plenty of sleeves for your deck, and you can even bring pre-sleeved basic lands.
With cards often being double-sided these days, playing sleeveless is becoming more and more challenging. Also, I've become accustomed to squash shuffling my decks which is practically impossible if they aren't sleeved. Also, by bringing my own basic lands, I could ensure white-borders would be present in my deck. I'm sure they didn't have those in the land station.
- Bring a playmat.
To LGS regulars reading t =his, I know this sounds obvious, but in packing up to go to the store, I completely blanked on this one. Having control over your own play surface is really handy in making sure your cards and sleeves are well maintained. Given how many playmats I had at home, I decided not to purchase a new one at the store (though that would have been a fine option) and instead, simply play without for the day. Fortunately, the tables were well maintained and I didn't wrist-check a sticky spot once, so crisis averted, but you may not be so lucky at other venues.
- Have the MTG Companion app downloaded on your phone.
I've used MTG Companion for online events in the past, so I was familiar with it, but that had been years ago and I didn't have it installed. Shortly before the event, the organizers provided an event code that locked the participants in and allowed us to submit results. The process was very smooth and I can only imagine how helpful such a system is for running larger events.
- Bathe.
This is very self-explanatory and, fortunately, wasn't an issue for me or anyone there. But seriously, make sure you do that.
- Have tokens on hand.
The booster packs in your prerelease kits do come with some tokens in them, but sets nowadays create a wide variety of tokens. I'd recommend having a few InfiniTokens on hand or simply some scraps of paper you can write on to represent the tokens your deck will be able to produce.
- Don't be afraid to be yourself.
There was a level of social anxiety when I first sat down. Not knowing how a new group of people will treat you can always be challenging and that's coming from someone who's demographically fortunate. What I discovered, though, is that there's very little ice that needs to get broken. Every person in that room was there to experience the game and these new cards. We had something in common from the jump and a shared pool of references to draw from. It felt like hanging out with old friends even though we had just met.
Impressions of Sealed for OTJ
I understand some of you don't care about the interpersonal elements and sappy reflections and you've been reading this like Milhouse watching Poochie's debut. So don't worry, here are my thoughts on my pool as well as what to watch out for in this limited environment.
Limited heuristics are in full effect here, though the set mechanics do offer some interesting prioritization. Crime payoffs proved excellent consistently with a standout for me being At Knifepoint. I drew it nearly every game and the mercenaries it generated were surprisingly relevant.
There's also a very fun dynamic with the dual lands because they commit crimes, meaning you'll often want to save them to get a free crime off your land drop rather than throwing them on turn one just to get the tap land turn out of the way.
In my pool, I prioritized including my bombs which included Rakdos, the Muscle, Stoic Sphinx, and Magda, the Hoardmaster. I never drew the Stoic Sphinx, but the other two cards mentioned contributed to very strong wins by creating flying threats that were not easy to answer.
I benched what looked like a lot of strong white removal in order to run a Grixis package that could support these creatures to a 2-1 overall record. My opponents were all lovely people who were very sporting and there to have a good time.
The one card I need to shout out as a bomb in this set that took me down with a clean 2-0 in the second round was Bounding Felidar.
This card may not look like much, but the counters and lifegain meant I wasn't going to win any kind of race against it. The cost of tapping a potential blocker for it is offset by the lifegain so cleanly that it just overtook me effortlessly in a game where Rakdos had hit the field and was unchecked for multiple turns. It didn't hurt that my opponent also managed to pull a Contagion Engine that synergized nicely.
That brings me to my next point – the bonus sheets in this set seem to play very nicely with the base set. I had Molten Duplication, for example, and I was able to leverage Slickshot Lockpicker to flash it back, and make copies of Nimble Brigand as a way to draw a lot of extra cards. These lines felt intuitive and planned even though I know the Big Score bonus sheet hadn't been originally conceived as a draftable set.
In Conclusion
I couldn't have asked for a better first prerelease experience, and I already can't wait to attend more in the future. The LGS was very welcoming and it turns out the type of community that gathers to play this game is exactly the kind of community I want to be immersed in at every level – local, national, international, or digital. If you're on the fence about trying an event in your area, I'd recommend giving it a shot. 10/10 would recommend.
