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Author Topic: Prerelease Questions  (Read 11328 times)

falconblade123

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Prerelease Questions
« on: April 01, 2016, 12:04:55 am »
I fell out of the SOI spoiler loop for a while and just hopped back in, and there's a lot that I missed. Now, with the prerelease happening tomorrow at midnight, I've started thinking of a few deck possibilities. The only problem is I just got caught up with the spoilers today, and I'm still out of the loop a bit.

Could any experienced prerealesers or drafters help me out? I'm not the best with limited formats, so I'd like someone who's been following the spoilers and knows how to wreck the limited format to help me come up with an easy to pilot, yet powerful prerelease deck archetype for SOI.

Thanks guys! Peace out...
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Drunk Cynic

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #1 on: April 01, 2016, 12:34:42 am »
So you're asking for someone's cliff notes? To varied to be practically delivered.

Tribes will be a thing. Most decks will play at least two colors, though monoblack may be a thing. Expect at least one opponent to play a dramatically different deck sometime in the round.
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WWolfe

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2016, 12:39:23 am »
If you're going to a prerelease, you'll just need to make the most coherent deck you can out of the packs you get so the best advice is to do your homework on the cards and the different themes and NOT go into it with any completely prebuilt decks in your head because there's a 99.99999999999999999999999% chance you're not going to get all the cards for a certain deck.

Tribes will be a thing, so will madness. Past that just try to recognize the cards that have synergy and go from there.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2016, 01:58:37 am by WWolfe »
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robort

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2016, 01:57:10 am »
Everything is going to depend on what you get for cards. Just an example, you wouldn't be able
to run a warewolf theme including arlinn whilst only getting 2 other werewolf cards. Or run 10 madness cards whilst only getting 2 other cards that help you discard. That's why there is about an hour for you to analyize what you have and getting the best potential out of the cards you opened. Only tip I know is to not over think it.
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WWolfe

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2016, 02:07:36 am »
One other thing I thought of...

Removal is always worth including even if it means splashing a second (or sometimes even third) color. Once you're done building you should have time to goldfish a game or two to see how your deck plays.
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Jace27

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2016, 02:18:30 am »
Removal and evasion (flying unblockable...) are key.
For my opponents, a healthy diet of counterspells, artifacts, and crazy combos.

falconblade123

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2016, 03:46:56 am »
Thanks for the help. So it sounds like Tribal and Madness will be the most widely used. I've been studying spoilers and it seems that both of those archetypes are going to be pretty strong, and the cards that enable them should plentiful. If I get the right pool I'm hoping to run a RB Madness deck, possibly using Vampires.

You guys are right though, it all comes down to the card pool. I just wanted some suggestions as to what might be strongest in SOI limited.

Thanks!
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G. Moto

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #7 on: April 01, 2016, 06:55:39 am »
The thing about tribal strength is that every group has its own strengths and weak spots. Question is what are you looking for as far as "Strength" goes? The tribes you'll want to look out for are most likely going to be: Demons/Devils, Vampires, Zombies, Werewolves, Humans, Spirits and Angels. If you come across any of those card groups in mass then you may want to go with that kind of deck build. Run 2-3 colors just to be safe and even if the tribes do not splash well add cards who's effects have a positive effect on how you use the deck.   

AliasGreg

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #8 on: April 01, 2016, 01:59:53 pm »
Try to practice before you get there.
A key point in limited formats it's to know what the other play as soon as possible
and adapt your plays accordingly. For example if you know your opponents will Investigate in order not to play spells
and transform his creature, keep some mana open for an instant during his turn.

Also don't forget to modify your deck between the games.
For example, if your opponent plays a lot of flyers, you can include cards like Gloomwidow which is bad in the other case...

Watch your curve, don't forget to add some bigger dudes even if they seem bad. Build your deck with a plan: control? aggro?
Sometimes you get a spoiler, but it doesn't determine your colours, you can splash for it!
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Frimmel

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #9 on: April 01, 2016, 02:14:35 pm »
Removal and evasion (flying unblockable...) are key.

This. And remember that stuff that you'd never play in one of your other tourney decks can be huge in limited formats. Everyone only has six rares/mythics to work with (although there is something about double-faced cards showing up in common slots no matter their rarity.)

See: http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/shadows-over-innistrad-prerelease-primer

for some helpful hints and there are some other worthwhile links at the bottom. One of the other MTG sites has a set of review articles about the cards for each color in the context of limited. MTGGOldfish I think.

ep1cn00b

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #10 on: April 01, 2016, 04:23:31 pm »
I would have to agree with G. Moto. I have noticed in the past and especially here recently, how important the theme of your card effects are. I thought I had some good, solid decks but the Synergy was way off. Definitely want to make sure your abilities compliment each other because if they don't you may be caught dead in the water when it comes match time.

G. Moto

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #11 on: April 01, 2016, 05:20:38 pm »
   Indeed, U/R prowess means nothing if all the cards you have are high drops and force you to discard. Or if you WANT to play a bolster deck and all you get is zombies and life drain. Look at what you get, make your mana curve among all of your cards, see what effects are going to help your creatures and how the spells you have can counter or hinder your opponent. There are a lot of graveyard shenanigans and exile going on due to madness so it may be in your best interest to plan accordingly.

Drunk Cynic

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2016, 06:37:26 pm »
I have found success of building a basic deck core, and then sorting out several variants. Your available card pool is every card that came in the prerelease pack.
Perpetual Johnny. Interactions and originality are preferable to winning, though winning doesn't hurt.
If I throw statistics at you, they likely came from:
http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx

WWolfe

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2016, 06:39:10 pm »
Also, your sideboard is every other card you get at the prerelease that isn't in your main deck.
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G. Moto

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Re: Prerelease Questions
« Reply #14 on: April 01, 2016, 07:01:21 pm »
Also make sure you pack snacks, my pre-release event doesn't end till like 6am so I'm in it for the long haul :)