M:tG - Dissension Prerelease, Des Moines, April 22nd

I still really enjoy playing Magic, at least the limited formats, and I particularly like prereleases, with their combination of newness, casualness, and a sprinkling of the competitiveness that really is one of Magic's unique contributions to the gaming community. That said, I make it to very few of them, as life just keeps getting in the way the last few years. I had a semi-free day this Saturday, though, so I decided to motor West to the capitol and turn some cards sideways.

It all really started, I suppose, with meeting Az for dinner on Friday night while he was on his way out to judge at the event. I was late getting out of the double-overtime, penalty-shootout ending soccer game I was coaching, and I sped across Western Johnson County to meet the spiky Chicagoan at Critical Hit. Lacking appropriate imagination, and, of course, time (Az had to be at the midnight prerelease event), we just ran over to Perkins. I had a fat, fat meal, and Az ate a salad, as some sort of preparation for the impending inherent unhealthiness of a weekend of gaming. We had a nice talk about gaming, old friends, music, and the like. He filled me in on some of the new mechanics, and really convinced me I should go.

I got up a little late on Saturday and waddled out the door. I picked up a giant coffee and some new cheap sunglasses, and hit the road. After an uneventful hour and a half or so of driving, I somehow managed to mess it all up at the penultimate turn, missing my exit off of 235. I took the next exit and drove around downtown for 15 minutes until I suddenly found myself right in front of the place. One nice thing about downtown DM is that it's totally dead on weekends and there's free street parking all over the place. Of course, the flipside of this is that there aren't a lot of convenient food options around, which sux.

It was around new, but, as I said, there was no immediate chance for fuel, so I just went to check out the tourney site. I chatted with Dr. Dan and Dave W. who were running things at the time, and I think I managed to convince Kyle M. that he had mumps. I signed up for the next sealed deck flight, and sat down to chat with Scott Lewis and Brian Lord, the other two Iowa Citians (not conting ponytail Eric, I just don't know about that guy) in attendance. Scott and I reminisced, of course, about the classic Iguana's-run Mirage prerelease in the big tent at city park, which we both top 8'd, before we even knew each other. I got second in that event, btw, to a young guy from Madison who td'ed a land to torch me out.

Finally, our flight was called. I registered a pile of cards that looked to me like a bit of a sealed deck nightmare, with good rares and removal in red/white/black, but the majority of good creatures in blue/green. After all the deck registering and passing around, I, of course, ended up getting the stuff back.

I went blue/green with one white card, a plains, and two signets. My white card was Plumes of Peace, a uw1 enchantment that you can forecast for uw to tap a dude during your upkeep. It seemed usefull, but, then again, when I read it first I was in a bit of a hurry and missed the end, the part about only using it during your upkeep. It was still good. I was short on removal, but had a solid creature base. I expected that I had an outside chance at prizes, but would probably be joining a draft early.

Round 1: I played a Grinnell student, big guy with long blonde hair. Not sure of his name. He was playing the same colors as me, but with more white.

I won the roll and chose to play first. I mulled a six land hand, he mulled too. I succumbed to a moment of madness and kept a one land hand. I ended up having to discard a couple times, but he didn't put any pressure on me, so I had time to, eventually, get stuff down. He didn't play anything until turn five, I think, and even then it wasn't a dude. He made an enchantment that sat on a land and made it so that you could tap the land and two other mana to make a 2/2 flyer. Instead of getting an army built up, he decided to use this guy to chump block one of my bigger flyers each turn. The game drew on, because both of us were new to the cards and neither of us was drawing any breakthrough stuff. He got a card drawing engine down, and I considered conceding, but I had a couple flyers, so I put him to five and passed the turn. I figured I could kill him in two turns, if I played right, or maybe deck him with my Enigma Eidolon, if it came down to it. However, he came up with a hard lock, with a guy that bounced a dude to the top of my deck, plus an enchantment that would bounce his guy each turn. I alpha'd into him, hoping to draw into an answer that would let me squeak through the last couple points, I didn't, died, and then was informed by the judge that time had already been called, the round was over, there'd be no second game. It was irritating as, if I'd known, of course I wouldn't have attacked and it would have been a draw. As it was, I resolved to pay more attention.

Round 2: I played an older guy named Kurt who also had the same colors as me, but with more white.

Game one he got a slow start, discarded a couple times, and I rolled him.

Game two he got a slow start, discarded, managed to get some stuff down, drew about seven extra cards, but couldn't keep up with my flying fat, and eventually went down.

Round 3: I played a guy whose name I don't remember, but who apparently is one of Ponytail Eric's friends. Eric further endeared himself to me by starting the match off saying to his friend "don't trust him, he's an Iowa City player." This sort of thing falls, for me, into the realm of things people meant to be clever and funny but actually are kind of irritating, making it the second such comment from the same source that day.

Game one - This guy seemed to have pretty much the same cards as me, except, of course, that I was playing the awesome Drift of Phantasms. Well, actually, it's not awesome, but it does let you transmute for Moldervine cloack which, actually, is. I cloaked up a team member and finished him off.

Game two - This went sort of like game one. I got a faster start and got him down on life. This game had the best turn of the day. My team got big enough to kill him, and I alpha'd. He responded by playing a spell that let his flyer block any number of characters, and then played Gaze of the Gorgon, killing all my guys and regenerating his. He stabilized the board and played the enchantment that lets him tap a dude to tap one of mine (Glare of Subdual?). He had one more dude than me, including a couple of non-tapping flying weenies, so he had the board stabilized and was doing me a couple damage a turn. I drew and played a 3/3 that can be untapped for a blue mana. Turns went round again, he attacked me and I declined to block, figuring some trick. On his turn, he tapped my whole team, subsequently turning his whole squad sideways. I tapped a blue, thinking he must have some response. When he realized my guy could untap he groaned and extended the hand.

Round four: I got paired with Scott this round, and figured I was out, as he is a very good player and had a bit more exciting of a deck than me. He was black/red/white with a healthy dose of removal.

Game one: I think he made a little mistake early, and I rolled over him with a combination of flyers and creature superiority vs. his poor mana draw.

Game two: He smashed me with a flying pumpable dragon dude and a bunch of removal.

Game three: He had a cool fat legend guy, and an irritating protection from monocolored guy, and then the fat flying guy. I was able to sneak damage through with Plumes of Peace, and got him down to where he had to chump block, and eventually I just got to run him over. Kind of anticlimactically bad in the draw department for him, I believe.

At this point, they decided to shorten the tournament to five rounds because so many people had dropped. That meant I got a prize if I tied or won.

Round 5: I played a guy named Jason. I don't know where he was from. He was black/red/white also.

Game one: He won the toss and started with some little gold dudes. I got bigger dudes and beat him down.

Game two: Like game one, but with a little more action on his part, bringing people back from the graveyard and such.

So, I finished 4-1, good for 18 packs of the new set. Hopefully, I'll convert them into 6 draft sets and have some more fun.

Overall, I had a fun time. It was nice to see Dave and Dan. I'm a little disappointed Barratt didn't make it down before I left. I hope I see him again before we move. I liked the forecast mechanic a lot, as it gives spells an interesting multifunctionality. I also liked graft a lot. I had three of them, including the flying and regenerating guys, and they were great. I didn't play any hellbent cards, and it only came up in one game, but I think it will have an impact on constructed. I'd have a hard time picking an mvp. Coiling Oracle was very good every time. Elvish Skysweeper did a surprising amount of work. Simic Ragworm won me a game. Trygon predator killed a couple important artifacts. Really, I probably did the most damage over the course of the day with Assault Zeppelid, which is also very nicely named.

By the time we got done, there were no more drafts being done. I chatted with Brian W. while I waited for my prize, and then got an early start home. Really, I was pretty happy to be on my way, so that I knew I'd be fairly sharp for Chris and Edie's game day on Sunday.

So, you've got that to look forward to, dear reader!

GG, GL