My GW Human Deck after numerous modifications. Still working on the sideboard but here's some idea cards:
Sideboard:
2 Grand Abolisher
3 Nevermore
1 Kessig Cagebreaker
2 Acidic Slime
1 Leonin Arbiter
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
Overall thoughts about GW Humans:
these cards are must haves:
4 champions of the parish
4 avacyn's pilgrims
4 mayors of avabruck
3 oblivion rings
2 hamlet captains (atleast!)
3 mirran (atleast, he's just too good)
These cards are definitely game winners:
green sun's zenith (incredibly important because it lets you pick your creature drop but also because we can then use utility creatures on sideboard to strengthen our meta considerably)
1x Lead the stampede has always worked out well for me. Such a good recovery spell or a perfect top deck pull.
Gideon jura is incredibly important. he covers our biggest issues - board wipes and also allows alpha strikes. he's a must have imho.
Thrun is incredibly important. He is our answer to many potential problems and there are so few answers to him.
Thoughts on some other stuff:
Gurruk has won me countless games with this deck. He is incredibly incredibly versatile. He can eliminate 1 or 2 power threats or even a 3 power threat if the situation is desperate enough (and sometimes it is, let's not kid ourselves) and we lack an O-ring. (example being Dirskag high priest). Pumping out wolves is synergy with the mayors and is important because it provides a secondary level of threat which people don't often have an answer to (beats vat decks too). Not to mention when/if he flips he can tutor a thrun, a mirran, or whatever else we need. His ult is just game over as well.
Mikeaus + Gavony is incredible. 2 Mikeaus is the perfect number as well since the first can simply distribute himself to death then you can play the second (if you draw 2 which isn't common).
Other thoughts:
bonds of faith isn't good very often. I've just found that I'm NEVER going to be dropping that on a turn 2 so why not have an o-ring? It's just a weak card in this format with the number of humans everywhere and +2/+2 isn't particularly great. I'd simply rather have another creature so I find green sun's zenith better by far.
I tried travel preparations for awhile.. helps for speed but I'm not going full out aggro so I pulled it out. It just wasn't strong enough.
I disagree. 6 round tournament for a prerelease is insane. I do not like magic enough to play 8-9 hours. I got other stuff I want to do. Prerelease isnt real tournament, it has a 1x multiplier. Let me get out of the store. Only reason I stayed for the whole thing was because I was X-0. Super long tournaments arent good for stores and most players. 3-4 Rounds is ideal.
Agreed. Especially with how painfully slow most people play too.
Okay... well then think about it this way. What does WOTC gain by giving most of the prize to the top 8 of a 60 man event? They get 60 people to come out. 60 People to play with the cards and hopefully want to enjoy the cards because they have the chance to win alot of product. And for all of those who don't make first, second or third.... they're gonna wanna play again.... and they're gonna wanna buy more packs... and they're gonna wanna buy more awesome stuff. If at a prerelease everything was more even distributed then there wouldn't be any pressure to do well and if there's no pressure to do well then why are you coming out? to have fun? yes okay I can see that, but if you come out and leave with the same thing as everyone else don't you feel like the competitive part of it is a bit lost? what about all the people who play way more than you do and have good trade that got all the good cards from the evenly distributed packs because they could trade for the good rares. If you had been able to win more packs you could have traded them. Or even just kept the cards. But everyone basically left with the same stuff.
I'm not saying that the system is perfect for everything but it works. A pre-release tournament is just like any other tournament. You come out. You pay money for entry and product. You play to win, get experience and points, and enjoy yourself. Also the example you're giving is very wrong if you're giving out 50% of the prize to 1st.
If you have this Pack distribution (very common for decently sized tournaments with good pack distribuion)
(/clipped examples)
See what I'm getting at? The farther the pool goes down the more and more you reward unfairly.
Sorry but no. Even your examples are more distributed than the OP's tournament experience. I'm not saying everybody should get something but if you place above the 60th percentile you should atleast be getting ONE pack. The tournament I went to yesterday, nobody got prizes but the top 4. Which was fine because it was a tournament, not a pre release.
Your logic is just all a mess. Like I said - the winner of the box will not buy further Innistrad boosters. The losers may or may not, but if you throw them even 1 pack suddenly their interest and feeling from the event dramatically improves.
You can throw down a bit further than the top 10% of players without dilluting the pool very much. It's not rocket science.
It's not supposed to be like poker though. What does WOTC gain by having 1 player take away 50% of the prize? Is that player going to purchase more product from that set? No, a booster box is enough cards from a set and then you'll want to trade / buy singles. Are the players who get nothing going to be interested in drafting again? Probably not as much as if they'd simply gotten a pack or 2 and a 4.17$/pack ratio suddenly went to 3.43$ or 3$. Not to mention now you have a larger pool of cards from the set and you're getting more interested in playing it and you're going to start buying some more product.
I understand the comparison to poker but for a pre-release event I don't think poker is a solid analogy. This is about advertising and drawing new players into a new set. Big prize tournaments are something I see as great but not in this setting..
I find token creatures and counters to be infinitely more troublesome. I mean really, running a garruk (loyalty counters) and popping wolf tokens (oh wait, 2 different kinds), meanwhile you got some spirit tokens as well.. jesus christ. Not to mention half my guys had +1/+1 tokens for various reasons (creatures in graveyard, creatures dying, creatures giving away tokens).
And you're complaining about flipping a card over?
It is really really really easy to stop at the upkeep phase of each turn (just think of it as an upkeep ability you'd have to check for tons of creatures) and look at each players' lands and count the spells they cast. If x > 2, flip. If x = 0, flip.
It's not difficult it just requires some paying attention.. but so do many mechanics in the game (for example if you self mill a dearly departed into your graveyard you better pay attention to the fact that you did so lol)..
I think it's a great mechanic and I like how it is tied to the ebb and flow of the game in a way that can continue into other blocks just fine.
All of this is so shady.. poorly managed and a money grab on top of it. What a bunch of bs.
Seems pretty straight forward that when the store decides that they expect x people and WOTC gives them x+2 boosters to work with, they should keep the tournament limited to x players and not try any shenanigan diluting. If you want to make more money and you don't want to have to turn people away, then you have to take the risk and order more and hope you don't go over. What's so difficult about that?
Furthermore, it seems like the prizes should be more standardized. How can you justify having 50 people show up and 1 guy goes home with a full box meaning that very few others get anything at all? For many people, simply winning a single booster or two suddenly makes the entire event that much more of a payout in terms of dollars/pack since they are running on a budget. Aside from the fact that its just somewhat wrong to give a single massive payout like that to one person who, in all probability, got a really insane 6 booster combo. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they are Pro and they played really well but come on.. 36 boosters and the other combined prizes for 49 others was about half that much? jeeze.
WOTC should just standardize the entire prize payout and have it automatically provide the payout scheme with any given number of players. I mean, they've standardized the price and the number of prize packs already and it is in their interest to have newer players (who likely place poorly) to receive at least a pack or two to get them excited about playing more.
Seems really dumb to not provide strict prize setups to the store and event managers.
Played sealed deck.. pulled Gurruk, Mayor Avabruck, Splinterfright, Dearly Departed, and a bunch of humans and werewolves with enough removal (1x Rebuke, 2x Smite the Monstrous, 1x Feeling of Dread, 1x slayer of the wicked, 1x bonds of faith) and responsive spells to cause a lot of problems. Galvanic Juggernaut went really well with 2xVillage Bell-Ringer and 2xSpidery Grasp.
Won my first 4 match-ups and had 2 really close ones against really strong decks and did a draw for the 5th round since we were both guaranteed spot in playoffs.. lost first round of playoffs against what I'd consider a much weaker deck. He pulled the cards he needed though and I simply did not. I got turn 4 or 5 manaflooded until the end of the game some where around turn 20 just land after land after land. Then the following game I had to mulligan (no land) then pulled an acceptable hand that, although missing forests, had enough white creatures that I figured it would pull through.. welp.. wrong. No forests for the next 10 turns. Ended up with 6 plains on the board and 6 green cards in hand. What a way to lose. Ah well, live and learn.
On the plus side, won 4 packs, got a snapcaster, garruk, angelic overseer, and ended up with 2 dual lands as well. Gonna trade off or sell the Snapcaster and possibly the Garruk tomorrow.
My GW Human Deck after numerous modifications. Still working on the sideboard but here's some idea cards:
Sideboard:
2 Grand Abolisher
3 Nevermore
1 Kessig Cagebreaker
2 Acidic Slime
1 Leonin Arbiter
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Tree of Redemption
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
Overall thoughts about GW Humans:
these cards are must haves:
4 champions of the parish
4 avacyn's pilgrims
4 mayors of avabruck
3 oblivion rings
2 hamlet captains (atleast!)
3 mirran (atleast, he's just too good)
These cards are definitely game winners:
green sun's zenith (incredibly important because it lets you pick your creature drop but also because we can then use utility creatures on sideboard to strengthen our meta considerably)
1x Lead the stampede has always worked out well for me. Such a good recovery spell or a perfect top deck pull.
Gideon jura is incredibly important. he covers our biggest issues - board wipes and also allows alpha strikes. he's a must have imho.
Thrun is incredibly important. He is our answer to many potential problems and there are so few answers to him.
Thoughts on some other stuff:
Gurruk has won me countless games with this deck. He is incredibly incredibly versatile. He can eliminate 1 or 2 power threats or even a 3 power threat if the situation is desperate enough (and sometimes it is, let's not kid ourselves) and we lack an O-ring. (example being Dirskag high priest). Pumping out wolves is synergy with the mayors and is important because it provides a secondary level of threat which people don't often have an answer to (beats vat decks too). Not to mention when/if he flips he can tutor a thrun, a mirran, or whatever else we need. His ult is just game over as well.
Mikeaus + Gavony is incredible. 2 Mikeaus is the perfect number as well since the first can simply distribute himself to death then you can play the second (if you draw 2 which isn't common).
Other thoughts:
bonds of faith isn't good very often. I've just found that I'm NEVER going to be dropping that on a turn 2 so why not have an o-ring? It's just a weak card in this format with the number of humans everywhere and +2/+2 isn't particularly great. I'd simply rather have another creature so I find green sun's zenith better by far.
I tried travel preparations for awhile.. helps for speed but I'm not going full out aggro so I pulled it out. It just wasn't strong enough.
Agreed. Especially with how painfully slow most people play too.
Sorry but no. Even your examples are more distributed than the OP's tournament experience. I'm not saying everybody should get something but if you place above the 60th percentile you should atleast be getting ONE pack. The tournament I went to yesterday, nobody got prizes but the top 4. Which was fine because it was a tournament, not a pre release.
Your logic is just all a mess. Like I said - the winner of the box will not buy further Innistrad boosters. The losers may or may not, but if you throw them even 1 pack suddenly their interest and feeling from the event dramatically improves.
You can throw down a bit further than the top 10% of players without dilluting the pool very much. It's not rocket science.
I understand the comparison to poker but for a pre-release event I don't think poker is a solid analogy. This is about advertising and drawing new players into a new set. Big prize tournaments are something I see as great but not in this setting..
And you're complaining about flipping a card over?
It is really really really easy to stop at the upkeep phase of each turn (just think of it as an upkeep ability you'd have to check for tons of creatures) and look at each players' lands and count the spells they cast. If x > 2, flip. If x = 0, flip.
It's not difficult it just requires some paying attention.. but so do many mechanics in the game (for example if you self mill a dearly departed into your graveyard you better pay attention to the fact that you did so lol)..
I think it's a great mechanic and I like how it is tied to the ebb and flow of the game in a way that can continue into other blocks just fine.
Seems pretty straight forward that when the store decides that they expect x people and WOTC gives them x+2 boosters to work with, they should keep the tournament limited to x players and not try any shenanigan diluting. If you want to make more money and you don't want to have to turn people away, then you have to take the risk and order more and hope you don't go over. What's so difficult about that?
Furthermore, it seems like the prizes should be more standardized. How can you justify having 50 people show up and 1 guy goes home with a full box meaning that very few others get anything at all? For many people, simply winning a single booster or two suddenly makes the entire event that much more of a payout in terms of dollars/pack since they are running on a budget. Aside from the fact that its just somewhat wrong to give a single massive payout like that to one person who, in all probability, got a really insane 6 booster combo. I mean, yeah, I'm sure they are Pro and they played really well but come on.. 36 boosters and the other combined prizes for 49 others was about half that much? jeeze.
WOTC should just standardize the entire prize payout and have it automatically provide the payout scheme with any given number of players. I mean, they've standardized the price and the number of prize packs already and it is in their interest to have newer players (who likely place poorly) to receive at least a pack or two to get them excited about playing more.
Seems really dumb to not provide strict prize setups to the store and event managers.
Won my first 4 match-ups and had 2 really close ones against really strong decks and did a draw for the 5th round since we were both guaranteed spot in playoffs.. lost first round of playoffs against what I'd consider a much weaker deck. He pulled the cards he needed though and I simply did not. I got turn 4 or 5 manaflooded until the end of the game some where around turn 20 just land after land after land. Then the following game I had to mulligan (no land) then pulled an acceptable hand that, although missing forests, had enough white creatures that I figured it would pull through.. welp.. wrong. No forests for the next 10 turns. Ended up with 6 plains on the board and 6 green cards in hand. What a way to lose. Ah well, live and learn.
On the plus side, won 4 packs, got a snapcaster, garruk, angelic overseer, and ended up with 2 dual lands as well. Gonna trade off or sell the Snapcaster and possibly the Garruk tomorrow.