Prerelease
Prerelease tournaments (or prereleases) are events held one week before the release of an expansion set. Starting with Shards of Alara, Wizards of the Coast allowed local stores run the tournaments, which vastly broadened their attendance.
Format
The tournament format is sealed deck. Players build decks with cards from the upcoming release set. Players build a deck with a minimum of 40 cards from booster packs received. The unused cards are considered their sideboard for the tournament.
Prerelease cards
Prerelease cards have been given out at Prereleases since Tempest.
Achievement cards
Starting with Commander (2011) [1], certain sets featured achievement cards which were created after the succesfull introduction of achievements in Duels of the Planeswalkers. The achievement card sets certain tasks that are to be completed during the tournament. Examples of tasks are to play a certain card, to have a certain combination of cards on the battlefield or to make use of a newly intoduced mechanic. After the player has played all his matches, he shows his completed score card (on the back of the achievement card) to the tournament organizer to receive additional prizes. Sets with achievement cards include: Avacyn Restored [2], Return to Ravnica [3], Gatecrash and Magic 2014.
Prerelease gimmicks
Starting with Mirrodin Besieged prereleases featured gimmicks or 'experiences'. These sometimes included prerelease packs, which are are boosters that are especially composed and packaged for prerelease events. These fun-enhancing 'experiences' are created by experience designers like Dave Guskin and Gavin Verhey. [4]
Mirrodin Besieged
Mirrodin Besieged had faction packs and urged players to "Pick a Side". Cards with the Mirran watermarks appeared only in Mirran boosters, and cards with Phyrexian watermarks appeared only in Phyrexian boosters. There was also one basic land in each booster. Foil cards would show up at about the same frequency as they did in regular boosters and didn't follow the rules about what booster they could show up in (both Mirran and Phyrexian foils could show up in either booster). [5]
Dark Ascension
At each Dark Ascension Prerelease, some number of people were designated as a vampire, werewolf, zombie, or spirit at the start of the event. Any time a monster defeated a human in a Prerelease match, the monster (designated by some flashy stickers) would convert the human to his or her cause. At the end of each Prerelease, the remaining humans and the largest tribe or tribles of monsters would be declared winners, but the rewards were up to the organizers. [6]
Avacyn Restored
For the Avacyn Restored Prerelease, stores were able to register for a limited number of Helvault Prerelease Kits along with the standard kits that come with every prerelease. When players at the special Helvault Events got achievements, they could each physically break a seal on their store's own (cardboard) Helvault. Once all the seals were broken, the store would open their Helvault and all the players would share the spoils within. [7] [8]
Return to Ravnica
For the Return to Ravnica Prerelease, you could choose from five Guild Prerelease Packs. The options were Azorius, Izzet, Rakdos, Golgari, and Selesnya. Each Guild Prerelease Pack contained five Return to Ravnica booster packs, a guild-specific booster pack, a special alternate-art prerelease card unique to each guild, an achievement card, a Spindown life counter, a guild symbol sticker, and a letter from the guild's leader. [9]
Gatecrash
Gatecrash had the same package as Return to Ravnica, but for the Orzhov, Dimir, Gruul, Boros, and Simic guilds. [10] [11]
Dragon's Maze
Dragon's Maze Guild Prerelease Packs each contained a Guild booster from Return to Ravnica and one from Gatecrash.
A cardboard version of the Implicit Maze was used as a gimmick to mark players's progress in the tournament. Players could work collectively to advance their chosen guild through the Implicit Maze each round. There were prizes for each guild that got all the way through the maze, and special prizes for the first guild that did it. And when the maze was completed, all participating players would receive a premium (foil) basic land promo card. [12]
Theros
Theros featured the first quest of the Hero's Path: Choose a Path. [13] The Hero Prerelease Pack contains a spindown life counter, a Hero Card unique to a players' chosen path, one of five quiz activity cards, five Theros boosters, a special seeded booster featuring cards appropriate for that player's chosen path and one of the five playable Prerelease promo cards. While building decks and playing matches players can work together to find the answers to the questions about Theros on their activity cards. This social scavenger hunt offers players an opportunity to engross themselves in the lore of the new block and interact with their fellow heroes. Once a player has filled out the card, he or she can check the answer key to see if they completed it correctly. Once completed, they are finished with Quest #1 and ready to continue on the Hero's Path.
Born of the Gods
Born of the Gods featured the fourth quest of the "Hero's Path": Master your Destiny. The Hero Prerelease Pack contained a spindown life counter, a Hero Card unique to a players' mastered destiny, one of five quiz activity cards, three Born of the Gods boosters and two Theros boosters, a special seeded booster featuring cards appropriate for that player's mastered destiny, one of the five playable Prerelease promo cards and a Hero's Path welcome letter.
Journey into Nyx
Journey into Nyx featured the seventh quest of the "Hero's Path": Forge a Godslayer. The Hero Prerelease Pack contained a spindown life counter, a Hero Equipment Card unique to a players' forged Godslayer, one of five quiz activity cards, two Journey into Nyx boosters, one Born of the Gods booster and two Theros boosters, a special seeded booster featuring cards appropriate for that player's chosen Godslayer, one of the five playable Prerelease promo cards and a Hero's Path welcome letter. During the prerelease, players had the opportunity to win three mystical components, represented by reward stickers. Three component stickers combined in specific ways to create one of seven different enhancements. The activity card was handed in to the tournament organizer to receive the corresponding "enhancement sticker". That sticker was put on the player's Hero Equipment Card in the blank space as a new permanent ability. This resulted in a customized Godslayer.
Magic 2015
Every Magic 2015 prerelease pack comes with a oversized challenge card, Garruk the Slayer, which is a key component of Magic 2015 's experience design (designed by Ethan Fleischer and Gavin Verhey). The prerelease pack further contains 5 regular booster packs, 1 seeded booster pack, 1 premium promo card, 1 activity insert, 1 Spindown life counter and 3 Wolf tokens. One player plays his or her Prerelease deck as normal. This player always goes first. The other player plays as Garruk. Garruk starts at 20 loyalty, and can activate one loyalty ability each turn. Garruk can be attacked and if his loyalty reaches 0, he loses. But if Garruk's horde of Wolves drops the player to 0, then Garruk wins. The oversized Garruk Planeswalker card can't be returned to its owner's hand or otherwise removed. [14]
Khans of Tarkir
The Khans of Tarkir prerelease endorseds the player to affiliate with their clan. [15] Each clan prerelease pack came with a clan button and a clan sticker. The prerelease pack further contained 5 regular booster packs, 1 seeded booster pack, 1 premium promo card, 1 clan information card, 1 activity insert and 1 Spindown life counter. There were forty possible prerelease cards. One dated and stamped prerelease card random from a pool of eight for each Clan pack. One of which was the Khan. "Raise Your Banner": when a game was won, players could put their sticker on the clan banner in the store, to show off how many battle each clan had won.
Fate Reforged
At the Fate Reforged prerelease, players again choose their clan. While they complete three achievements, they follow in Sarkhan's footsteps to attempt to alter fate; they get to "Heal Ugin" and "Gain a glimpse of the future". The latter comes in the form of a special "Ugin's Fate" booster pack containing two alternate art cards that show how the world has changed in the new timeline, a token and a basic land card. There's a pool of 40 alternate art cards with a holo foil stamp (mainly from Khans of Tarkir, a few from Fate Reforged, one mythic), the main change in the art being that there are dragons now. In addition, the basic lands also have alternate art, showing off the Tarkir of the past.
Selected organizers
References
- ↑ Wizards of the Coast. (2011.) Commander achivement card
- ↑ Monty Ashley (April 24, 2012). "The Achievement Card". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (September 28, 2012). "Return to Ravnica Achievement Cards". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Dave Guskin (March 01, 2013). "Magical Powers of Ten". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (October 12, 2010). "Faction Packs". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Tim Willoughby (January 23, 2012). "Dark Ascension Prerelease Primer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (March 21, 2012). "Open the Helvault!". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Zac Hill (April 06, 2012). "Branding Play". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Return to Ravnica Product Information
- ↑ Gatecrash Product Information
- ↑ Sam Stoddard (January 25, 2013). "First Impressions". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Monty Ashley (April 18, 2014). "The Dragon's Maze Prerelease". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Dave Guskin (July 24, 2013). "The Path of the Hero". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Template:NewRef
- ↑ Template:Cite web