Well, my promo was Saheeli Rai, and that was probably a bad thing. I ended up too focused on getting her into the deck and made it Jeskai. After the initial poor performance, I witched it up to Orzhov, where I ended up 2-2 after failing to find a good answer for a Demon of Dark Schemes. Pro tip: Fairgrounds Warden is great, but maybe not the best choice to deal with a giant etb effect creature.
Went 5-1 with G/W. My only loss was to R/W where I had my opponent to 1 life in game 3 and I drew 3 consecutive lands when I needed pump, removal, flyer (only had 2), or trample to finish him off. I didn't draw any big green creatures that game so it was a battle of the 2 and 3 drops with a lot of trading 2/2s for 3/2s and such. My deck generated huge amounts of energy the whole tourney, especially with blink/bounce effects.
I went 1-2. At first I played an extra land instead of Renegade Tactics #2, primarily to support the Skysovereign. I probably should have not played the Skysovereign and put in Durable Handicraft instead but it was too hard to leave my cool mythic out. Between it getting stuck in my hand, destroyed immediately, and not being able to crew it the Flagship didn't really do much.
Didn't open anything of note besides 2 fastlands, ended up playing a rareless U/G energy beatdown decks. I went 3-1 and all my wins where just blowouts, stumbling in this format is fatal. Top eight was six aggressive decks and 2 bomby control decks. First impressions: this is a fun, synergy based format that will kill you if you try to durdle.
My playgroup wasn't able to get to a PR, so we grabbed our 2 kits and did our own thing last night.
I went 3-1, counting our faux championship, with a RW aggro thingy. Eddytrail Hawk is really good, which is probably not a surprise.
But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to share the statistical improbabilities of what we opened last night.
2 of us opened a Rashmi, Eternities Crafter (1 promo)
1 of us got 2 planeswalkers: Chandra & Nissa (foil, promo)
1 of us got a Masterpiece (Simulacrum)
All in all, we opened 48 packs with 8 promos and managed 12 mythics, 2 foil PWs, multiple duplicates, and a Masterpiece.
The foil Chandra came in a pack with a Skysovereign for the super fun double-mythic pack.
Statistically speaking, last night was bonkers for our little group.
Heh, I know that the crappy pulls in our 35-player prerelease HAD to balance somewhere
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Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
Went 4-0 with these flyers and removal in WB. Did not open too much money cards compared too others (multiple pool with double gearhulks, three chandra got opened in 24 players, one got double noxious gearhulk and crucible of worlds...!)
First match was against WG. He had two green gearhulk, but they always came too late. I had turn-two copter twice...
Second match was against WB. His deck didn't not come out well and he didn't draw his bombs. Again, copter was such a card quality engine.
Third match was against RW. One game he got stuck on 4 lands while holding 3 5-drops. The other he got flooded.
Fourth match was against WB. He had two noxious gearhulk, two ways to bounce it and a refurbish. The game he won he played two gearhulks and refurbished one. The others were close, but I prevailed thank to having tons of flyers.
I went 4-2 day one, could have done better had I build the deck right.
Went 5-1 on sunday, happy with that but did not winn. But I beat nuts deck all day. My first opponent had a masterwork steel Overseer, that got out of hand fast.
not gonna post decklists since I already have my cards put away but I'll give my thoughts on the 2 I played
Went 2-2 with a GB deck i felt was pretty lackluster. My first pool had 2 of the GB and 1 of the UG fastlands. My only really bomby card was Demon of dark schemes or whatever the flying massacre wurm is. That, the 2 GB lands and GB being my deepest colours led ,me to the deck
2-2 is nothing great but I pulled the UG legend in a prize pack
My second pool was really good but went 1-2 due to some unfortunate matches
I had a Chandra and really strong green so I went Gr.
Can't go into a lot of details right now, but I can say for certain:
1. Woodweaver's Puzzleknot is insanely efficient in Limited. The lifegain and energy gain is just so good to "blank" an attack while building resources.
2. The two uncommon modules are very good. I'd pick the counter-giver before the energy producer, but having both is so efficient.
3. Energy does a lot. I was uncertain of the setup/payoff being worthwhile, but am no longer in doubt.
4. Vehicles are good and just as satisfying to use as I had hoped. Specifically the evasive ones (didn't pull any others).
1. Woodweaver's Puzzleknot is insanely efficient in Limited. The lifegain and energy gain is just so good to "blank" an attack while building resources.
woodweaver's puzzleknot gives you 6 life for 5 mana. We've established long ago that this is a waste of card. It's also an artifact. If that matters to you, you're better off playing an artifact creature, a vehicule or equipment. So, we must assume that it rocks because it gives you 6 energy for 5 mana? Personally, I've not seen any good deck based on energy pay-off that would happily spend a card and mana to only get energy. I've watched many games during the pre-release and none wanted that.
The problem is that just stating 'energy is the roxor' just doesn't cut it in this forum. If you got something enlightening to say about why a quasi pure energy card is so great, please give us details. For now, I didn't see it.
I've seen plenty of fast decks and good deck still revolve around evasion, removal, good curve, and the occasional bomb.
woodweaver's puzzleknot gives you 6 life for 5 mana. We've established long ago that this is a waste of card. It's also an artifact. If that matters to you, you're better off playing an artifact creature, a vehicule or equipment. So, we must assume that it rocks because it gives you 6 energy for 5 mana? Personally, I've not seen any good deck based on energy pay-off that would happily spend a card and mana to only get energy. I've watched many games during the pre-release and none wanted that.
The problem is that just stating 'energy is the roxor' just doesn't cut it in this forum. If you got something enlightening to say about why a quasi pure energy card is so great, please give us details. For now, I didn't see it.
I've seen plenty of fast decks and good deck still revolve around evasion, removal, good curve, and the occasional bomb.
Super easy, actually. Don't look at it like "5 mana, 6 energy" or "5 mana, 6 life". It's 2 mana that triggers anything that cares about energy being added, AND triggers an artifact entering the battlefield, AND is an artifact that site around for many of the artifact synergies. Oh, wait, it also gains you three life. Then, at your leisure, you can sac it to gain more energy and life, triggering any shenanigans where artifacts leaving play matters, as well as energy being added.
Green is very energy-hungry. The decks I played this weekend were also green-based, so of course it was a key card for me. Making Longtusk Cub a 3/3 before it attacks was very key to my success both nights. The incidental lifegain was also sufficient enough to make the decision of playing it any particular time not too bad an idea. Then I had it sitting around till I needed more energy, or maybe a bit more life to pad my life total so I can make more aggressive attacks.
I've played Limited for a long time. If this was /just/ "5 mana, gain 6 energy and 6 life", I would never play it. The fact is that, in my experience, this card has enough synergies and applications in this set that I'm going to be quite happy running it, along with the blue puzzleknot.
Of course, that is my opinion from my experience at two prereleases. Others have their experience, and their opinions, which I respect. But I'd urge you to try this card in a deck that wants energy consistently, see how it works for you. If ou still think it's useless, then that's fine. Just don't assume it's /just/ lifegain and lump it in with something like Chaplain's Blessing.
woodweaver's puzzleknot gives you 6 life for 5 mana. We've established long ago that this is a waste of card. It's also an artifact. If that matters to you, you're better off playing an artifact creature, a vehicule or equipment. So, we must assume that it rocks because it gives you 6 energy for 5 mana? Personally, I've not seen any good deck based on energy pay-off that would happily spend a card and mana to only get energy. I've watched many games during the pre-release and none wanted that.
The problem is that just stating 'energy is the roxor' just doesn't cut it in this forum. If you got something enlightening to say about why a quasi pure energy card is so great, please give us details. For now, I didn't see it.
I've seen plenty of fast decks and good deck still revolve around evasion, removal, good curve, and the occasional bomb.
Super easy, actually. Don't look at it like "5 mana, 6 energy" or "5 mana, 6 life". It's 2 mana that triggers anything that cares about energy being added, AND triggers an artifact entering the battlefield, AND is an artifact that site around for many of the artifact synergies. Oh, wait, it also gains you three life. Then, at your leisure, you can sac it to gain more energy and life, triggering any shenanigans where artifacts leaving play matters, as well as energy being added.
Green is very energy-hungry. The decks I played this weekend were also green-based, so of course it was a key card for me. Making Longtusk Cub a 3/3 before it attacks was very key to my success both nights. The incidental lifegain was also sufficient enough to make the decision of playing it any particular time not too bad an idea. Then I had it sitting around till I needed more energy, or maybe a bit more life to pad my life total so I can make more aggressive attacks.
I've played Limited for a long time. If this was /just/ "5 mana, gain 6 energy and 6 life", I would never play it. The fact is that, in my experience, this card has enough synergies and applications in this set that I'm going to be quite happy running it, along with the blue puzzleknot.
Of course, that is my opinion from my experience at two prereleases. Others have their experience, and their opinions, which I respect. But I'd urge you to try this card in a deck that wants energy consistently, see how it works for you. If ou still think it's useless, then that's fine. Just don't assume it's /just/ lifegain and lump it in with something like Chaplain's Blessing.
Agreed, my green based deck would have loved it. It was energy hungry indeed and in a couple of games, the life gain and the energy would have made a difference as they devolved into damage race mode. Just because you "watched many games" doesn't mean there aren't many other games where it may have influenced the outcome (case in point). That's the cool thing about Limited, the diamonds in the rough.
My Pre-Release was a lot of fun. I opened up a fairly crappy pool, but I was still able to have a lot of options to build my deck.
The format is a lot faster than I thought it would be. The power-level of creatures has definitely been ratcheted up a notch and the removal is really good. Playing for the long game does not seem like a winning proposition and there is little time for durdling. You have maybe one slot in your deck available for a "do-nothings" for synergy's sake (something like Animation Module, Durable Handicraft, or Underhanded Designs), but any more than that and you run the risk of being overrun before your synergy can have any real affect on the game.
Vehicles are also a lot better than I thought they would be. You can't afford to play more than like 3, and anything with a Crew of 4 or higher is hard to use effectively, but cards like Ovalchase Dragster and Renegade Freighter are much better than I had originally figured they would be. I think that Demolition Stomper and Aradara Express can be good, but you have to be in green to have enough consistent power on board.
Energy is also pretty good. You really want the creatures that use energy to grow; cards like Longtusk Cub, Voltaic Brawler, or one of the Thriving creatures (Thriving Grubs, Thriving Ibex, etc.), but there are just a ton of good uses for energy. I think you have to be careful with playing too many cards just because they produce energy, so I would be wary of cards like Woodreaver's Puzzleknot or Live Fast unless you have a good plan for living long enough to make them worthwhile.
I was a little disappointed in Fabricate. I like having the option and both options are good on the surface, but I felt that a lot of time I was using Fabricate to work around whatever removal my opponent was representing. You really want some proactive synergy with cards like Chief of the Foundry, Reckless Fireweaver, or Salivating Gremlins, but the real payoff cards like Animation Module, Master Trinketeer, or Angel of Invention are Rare or Mythic so it feels less like the choice really matters. The initial thinking that the default action would be to just make a Servo seems to be right; it's tempting versus red to want to pump your guys out of burn range but the red damage spells are just too good.
So overall, I was excited for this set and I'm really glad I went to the Pre-Release. I'm looking forward to drafting this set too; red, white and green seem like the places to be in my opinion (along with the idea of being proactive and aggressive). I look forward to putting that theory to the test soon.
My 9 year old son and I showed up to the local game store yesterday for the 2 headed giant pre-release. The store told us the event was full, as they had run out of pre-release boxes due to high turnout for all weekend for the other pre-release events. Rather disheartening since we haven't had a chance to go to a pre-release since BfZ. Does this happen a lot at other stores? It kind of surprised me that they would run out of product.
My 9 year old son and I showed up to the local game store yesterday for the 2 headed giant pre-release. The store told us the event was full, as they had run out of pre-release boxes due to high turnout for all weekend for the other pre-release events. Rather disheartening since we haven't had a chance to go to a pre-release since BfZ. Does this happen a lot at other stores? It kind of surprised me that they would run out of product.
I know some stores that are pre-sold-out weeks in advance, and some that are still desperate to take walk-ups on the event day.
In the first one, I played a RW-Vehicle deck with Depala and Fumigate. I won all of my games in that one, although I had a lot of pretty close matchups. Vehicles start out really slow and you are at the mercy of your opponent during the first few rounds where you actually hope he or she keeps making mistakes and keeps getting landlocked until you come across something decent.
In the second one, I played an UW-Energy deck. I lost all but one match. It was a really slow deck, but since I already won all of my matches in the first pod, I was in no pressure to win any of my games in the second - I really just wanted to have fun with energy. I had the energy Module and tons of energy creatures (with that energy-scry creature to help me look for them), until I can chain towards a Demon of Dark Schemes (if I still happen to be alive).
In one of the games, I faced against Dovin and Chandra AND Aethersquall Ancient. In a set with so little mana fixing, it was remarkable to see people brave enough to go for three colors, but I guess if you get two planeswalkers in your card pool, you just GOTTA play them both. I had no hope of winning against a flying leviathan
The likelihood of getting two mythics in a single prerelease pack is extremely low, it's almost impossible. I suspect my opponent got some of the best cards that he got from an earlier pool and added them to his pool during the second pod. It's kinda frustrating, but I guess there's no way to police this sort of thing during prereleases? Sigh...
I didn't see many people playing green, so that may explain why I didn't see energy decks. I see the puzzleknot synergy with the cub is similar to the synergy I got from equipment with foundry screecher. The cub is part of the uncommon power club, there is a lot of power in uncommon cards.
I like how the games played out, there is a lot of decisions to be made: fabricate, energy spending, crewing all need some thinking. Plus removal is good, so you need to decide when to use it for best effect. So far I've seen people lean heavily toward making servo with fabricate. Sometimes wrongly; it seems people are hedging against removal too much. There are also a lot of interactions between cards, enter-the-battlefield and ways to retrigger ETB abilities.
In the first one, I played a RW-Vehicle deck with Depala and Fumigate. I won all of my games in that one, although I had a lot of pretty close matchups. Vehicles start out really slow and you are at the mercy of your opponent during the first few rounds where you actually hope he or she keeps making mistakes and keeps getting landlocked until you come across something decent.
In the second one, I played an UW-Energy deck. I lost all but one match. It was a really slow deck, but since I already won all of my matches in the first pod, I was in no pressure to win any of my games in the second - I really just wanted to have fun with energy. I had the energy Module and tons of energy creatures (with that energy-scry creature to help me look for them), until I can chain towards a Demon of Dark Schemes (if I still happen to be alive).
In one of the games, I faced against Dovin and Chandra AND Aethersquall Ancient. In a set with so little mana fixing, it was remarkable to see people brave enough to go for three colors, but I guess if you get two planeswalkers in your card pool, you just GOTTA play them both. I had no hope of winning against a flying leviathan
The likelihood of getting two mythics in a single prerelease pack is extremely low, it's almost impossible. I suspect my opponent got some of the best cards that he got from an earlier pool and added them to his pool during the second pod. It's kinda frustrating, but I guess there's no way to police this sort of thing during prereleases? Sigh...
As someone who has frequently opened multiple mythics in my pre-release sealed pools, I can say it does happen, it is still frustrating to play against when someone got an insane pool.
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Commander: UBG Tasigur, the lab enabler UR Planeswalker Control UBRW Breya's personal box of combos BRW Vampire beats, by Dre 1 Karn, where all lands are command towers UBR Inalla's Venser lock UBRGW Atog Atog contraption tribal WUB Xur's second chance UGW Derivi, bird tribal R Brother's Yamazaki BRG Prosh, the scourge of multiplayer GW Capt. Sisay's Deck Dumping Service UB All Your Spells do Belong to Me UG Tapioca Pearl BG Meren's grinder
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Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
Highlights were Verdurous Gearhulk (of course), Bristling Hydra (that hexproof activation is the bomb), Arborback Stomper, Wispweaver Angel and especially Eddytrail Hawk as he lets your green beats fly in. I was able to blink Gearhulk twice in one game, good times. No Masterpieces were pulled as far as I know.
1 Sage of Shaila's Claim
1 Scrapheap Scrounger
1 Servant of the Conduit
3 Thriving Grubs
2 Brazen Scourge
1 Chief of the Foundry
2 Thriving Rhino
1 Ovalchase Dragster
1 Renegade Freighter
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Built to Smash
1 Inventor's Goggles
2 Renegade Tactics
1 Spark of Creativity
1 Chandra's Pyrohelix
1 Fireforger's Puzzleknot
2 Giant Spectacle
6 Forest
I went 1-2. At first I played an extra land instead of Renegade Tactics #2, primarily to support the Skysovereign. I probably should have not played the Skysovereign and put in Durable Handicraft instead but it was too hard to leave my cool mythic out. Between it getting stuck in my hand, destroyed immediately, and not being able to crew it the Flagship didn't really do much.
Heh, I know that the crappy pulls in our 35-player prerelease HAD to balance somewhere
Let this great clan rest in peace (2001-2011)
1 Eddytrail Hawk
2 Trusty Companion
1 Filigree Familiar
2 Fairgrounds Warden
2 Foundry Screecher
1 Snare Thopter
1 Skyswirl Harrier
1 Angel of Invention
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Renegade Freighter
1 Inventor's Goggles
2 Built to Last
1 Torch Gauntlet
1 Rush of Vitality
1 Impeccable Timing
1 Acrobatic Maneuver
1 Revoke Privileges
2 Tidy Conclusion
1 Concealed Courtyard
8 Plains
8 Swamp
MVP: the obvious: copter and angel.
First match was against WG. He had two green gearhulk, but they always came too late. I had turn-two copter twice...
Second match was against WB. His deck didn't not come out well and he didn't draw his bombs. Again, copter was such a card quality engine.
Third match was against RW. One game he got stuck on 4 lands while holding 3 5-drops. The other he got flooded.
Fourth match was against WB. He had two noxious gearhulk, two ways to bounce it and a refurbish. The game he won he played two gearhulks and refurbished one. The others were close, but I prevailed thank to having tons of flyers.
Went 5-1 on sunday, happy with that but did not winn. But I beat nuts deck all day. My first opponent had a masterwork steel Overseer, that got out of hand fast.
My last opponent had a deck with 1 pre-release foil Rashmi, Eternities Crafter one foil Rashmi, Eternities Crafter one regular Rashmi, Eternities Crafter, alongside Padeem, Consul of Innovation and a masterwork Scroll Rack. That game felt so good to play.
The one oponent I lost to drew into Syndicate Trafficker while I was flooding as lot.
All in all a glorius day.
Whoa
Went 2-2 with a GB deck i felt was pretty lackluster. My first pool had 2 of the GB and 1 of the UG fastlands. My only really bomby card was Demon of dark schemes or whatever the flying massacre wurm is. That, the 2 GB lands and GB being my deepest colours led ,me to the deck
2-2 is nothing great but I pulled the UG legend in a prize pack
My second pool was really good but went 1-2 due to some unfortunate matches
I had a Chandra and really strong green so I went Gr.
1. Woodweaver's Puzzleknot is insanely efficient in Limited. The lifegain and energy gain is just so good to "blank" an attack while building resources.
2. The two uncommon modules are very good. I'd pick the counter-giver before the energy producer, but having both is so efficient.
3. Energy does a lot. I was uncertain of the setup/payoff being worthwhile, but am no longer in doubt.
4. Vehicles are good and just as satisfying to use as I had hoped. Specifically the evasive ones (didn't pull any others).
That's pretty off-topic.
So who is right?
woodweaver's puzzleknot gives you 6 life for 5 mana. We've established long ago that this is a waste of card. It's also an artifact. If that matters to you, you're better off playing an artifact creature, a vehicule or equipment. So, we must assume that it rocks because it gives you 6 energy for 5 mana? Personally, I've not seen any good deck based on energy pay-off that would happily spend a card and mana to only get energy. I've watched many games during the pre-release and none wanted that.
The problem is that just stating 'energy is the roxor' just doesn't cut it in this forum. If you got something enlightening to say about why a quasi pure energy card is so great, please give us details. For now, I didn't see it.
I've seen plenty of fast decks and good deck still revolve around evasion, removal, good curve, and the occasional bomb.
Super easy, actually. Don't look at it like "5 mana, 6 energy" or "5 mana, 6 life". It's 2 mana that triggers anything that cares about energy being added, AND triggers an artifact entering the battlefield, AND is an artifact that site around for many of the artifact synergies. Oh, wait, it also gains you three life. Then, at your leisure, you can sac it to gain more energy and life, triggering any shenanigans where artifacts leaving play matters, as well as energy being added.
Green is very energy-hungry. The decks I played this weekend were also green-based, so of course it was a key card for me. Making Longtusk Cub a 3/3 before it attacks was very key to my success both nights. The incidental lifegain was also sufficient enough to make the decision of playing it any particular time not too bad an idea. Then I had it sitting around till I needed more energy, or maybe a bit more life to pad my life total so I can make more aggressive attacks.
I've played Limited for a long time. If this was /just/ "5 mana, gain 6 energy and 6 life", I would never play it. The fact is that, in my experience, this card has enough synergies and applications in this set that I'm going to be quite happy running it, along with the blue puzzleknot.
Of course, that is my opinion from my experience at two prereleases. Others have their experience, and their opinions, which I respect. But I'd urge you to try this card in a deck that wants energy consistently, see how it works for you. If ou still think it's useless, then that's fine. Just don't assume it's /just/ lifegain and lump it in with something like Chaplain's Blessing.
Agreed, my green based deck would have loved it. It was energy hungry indeed and in a couple of games, the life gain and the energy would have made a difference as they devolved into damage race mode. Just because you "watched many games" doesn't mean there aren't many other games where it may have influenced the outcome (case in point). That's the cool thing about Limited, the diamonds in the rough.
Why? Op is asking about PR impressions and experiences.
The format is a lot faster than I thought it would be. The power-level of creatures has definitely been ratcheted up a notch and the removal is really good. Playing for the long game does not seem like a winning proposition and there is little time for durdling. You have maybe one slot in your deck available for a "do-nothings" for synergy's sake (something like Animation Module, Durable Handicraft, or Underhanded Designs), but any more than that and you run the risk of being overrun before your synergy can have any real affect on the game.
Vehicles are also a lot better than I thought they would be. You can't afford to play more than like 3, and anything with a Crew of 4 or higher is hard to use effectively, but cards like Ovalchase Dragster and Renegade Freighter are much better than I had originally figured they would be. I think that Demolition Stomper and Aradara Express can be good, but you have to be in green to have enough consistent power on board.
Energy is also pretty good. You really want the creatures that use energy to grow; cards like Longtusk Cub, Voltaic Brawler, or one of the Thriving creatures (Thriving Grubs, Thriving Ibex, etc.), but there are just a ton of good uses for energy. I think you have to be careful with playing too many cards just because they produce energy, so I would be wary of cards like Woodreaver's Puzzleknot or Live Fast unless you have a good plan for living long enough to make them worthwhile.
I was a little disappointed in Fabricate. I like having the option and both options are good on the surface, but I felt that a lot of time I was using Fabricate to work around whatever removal my opponent was representing. You really want some proactive synergy with cards like Chief of the Foundry, Reckless Fireweaver, or Salivating Gremlins, but the real payoff cards like Animation Module, Master Trinketeer, or Angel of Invention are Rare or Mythic so it feels less like the choice really matters. The initial thinking that the default action would be to just make a Servo seems to be right; it's tempting versus red to want to pump your guys out of burn range but the red damage spells are just too good.
So overall, I was excited for this set and I'm really glad I went to the Pre-Release. I'm looking forward to drafting this set too; red, white and green seem like the places to be in my opinion (along with the idea of being proactive and aggressive). I look forward to putting that theory to the test soon.
Jalira, Master Polymorphist | Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder | Bosh, Iron Golem | Ezuri, Renegade Leader
Brago, King Eternal | Oona, Queen of the Fae | Wort, Boggart Auntie | Wort, the Raidmother
Captain Sisay | Rhys, the Redeemed | Trostani, Selesnya's Voice | Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight | Obzedat, Ghost Council | Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind | Vorel of the Hull Clade
Uril, the Miststalker | Prossh, Skyraider of Kher | Nicol Bolas | Progenitus
Ghave, Guru of Spores | Zedruu the Greathearted | Damia, Sage of Stone | Riku of Two Reflections
I know some stores that are pre-sold-out weeks in advance, and some that are still desperate to take walk-ups on the event day.
In the first one, I played a RW-Vehicle deck with Depala and Fumigate. I won all of my games in that one, although I had a lot of pretty close matchups. Vehicles start out really slow and you are at the mercy of your opponent during the first few rounds where you actually hope he or she keeps making mistakes and keeps getting landlocked until you come across something decent.
In the second one, I played an UW-Energy deck. I lost all but one match. It was a really slow deck, but since I already won all of my matches in the first pod, I was in no pressure to win any of my games in the second - I really just wanted to have fun with energy. I had the energy Module and tons of energy creatures (with that energy-scry creature to help me look for them), until I can chain towards a Demon of Dark Schemes (if I still happen to be alive).
In one of the games, I faced against Dovin and Chandra AND Aethersquall Ancient. In a set with so little mana fixing, it was remarkable to see people brave enough to go for three colors, but I guess if you get two planeswalkers in your card pool, you just GOTTA play them both. I had no hope of winning against a flying leviathan
The likelihood of getting two mythics in a single prerelease pack is extremely low, it's almost impossible. I suspect my opponent got some of the best cards that he got from an earlier pool and added them to his pool during the second pod. It's kinda frustrating, but I guess there's no way to police this sort of thing during prereleases? Sigh...
I like how the games played out, there is a lot of decisions to be made: fabricate, energy spending, crewing all need some thinking. Plus removal is good, so you need to decide when to use it for best effect. So far I've seen people lean heavily toward making servo with fabricate. Sometimes wrongly; it seems people are hedging against removal too much. There are also a lot of interactions between cards, enter-the-battlefield and ways to retrigger ETB abilities.
As someone who has frequently opened multiple mythics in my pre-release sealed pools, I can say it does happen, it is still frustrating to play against when someone got an insane pool.
UBG Tasigur, the lab enabler UR Planeswalker Control
UBRW Breya's personal box of combos BRW Vampire beats, by Dre
1 Karn, where all lands are command towers UBR Inalla's Venser lock
UBRGW Atog Atog contraption tribal WUB Xur's second chance
UGW Derivi, bird tribal R Brother's Yamazaki
BRG Prosh, the scourge of multiplayer GW Capt. Sisay's Deck Dumping Service
UB All Your Spells do Belong to Me UG Tapioca Pearl
BG Meren's grinder