Yesterday was the Journey into Nyx Prerelease here in my local MtG store and so here is a short detail and recap of the event. We initially started a reservation list for players to fill up and unfortunately there were lesser players that signed up as compared to the last prerelease on Born of the Gods. Maybe it is because of the summer vacation season or that we did not able to promote the game well for the new and interested players to join. Anyhow, twenty two players in attendance is still a good number.

Robinsons Place Iloilo was the chosen venue thanks to the efforts of Rino so we did not have to endure the summer heat while we open our booster packs. Registration started 12 noon and deck building 1pm. I have read on PV’s article that Black was the suggested color for the Prerelease sealed deck and promptly followed that advice as I was called out to get my PR pack.

My opened seeded pack garnered me a Master of the Feast and a few spot removals, whereas my rares from the Theros and Born of the Gods boosters were off-colors and did not supported my planned second color. Good thing there are commons and uncommons to help out the deck and I sorted which of the four colors to use. Red provided enough cards for my planned aggro deck and here is the deck I built:

Lands
9 Swamp
7 Mountain
1 Temple of Triumph

Creatures
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Borderland Minotaur
1 Cyclops of One-Eyed Pass
1 Doomwake Giant
2 Gnarled Scarhide
1 Pharika’s Chosen
1 Kragma Butcher
1 Master of the Feast
1 Minotaur Skullcleaver
1 Dreadbringer Lampads
1 Felhide Minotaur
2 Mogis’s Warhound
1 Sigiled Skink

Spells
1 Boon of Erebos
1 Cast into Darkness
1 Extinguish all Hope
1 Feast of Dreams
1 Fearsome Temper
1 Nightmarish End
1 Rage of Purphoros
1 Starfall

The deck can curve out pretty well starting with Gnarled Scarhide, and can do some cheap Bestow with Mogis’s Warhound and killing off early blockers with low cast spot removals. Seventeen lands is still the land count of choice even when most of my creatures are averagely-costed at three-mana.

I went 2-2 with the deck, winning to Oliver’s Blue Green tempo and Emerson’s Black White mid while losing to Godo’s Black Red and to JayR’s three-color concoction of powerful creatures and spells in the block. My disappointing losses though were on mana flood and screw, plus that I get to draw Mountains for my Black cards. Oh well, at times we just can’t really avoid those scenarios.

Overall, the prerelease event was a success and though TO Rei did not meet the quota of 35 players, he still has enough products for us to have a Theros block Draft by next week. Also, big congrats to Fiona for finishing 4-0 and first place with her Black White Athreos deck.

That is about it for this report. I’ll be back next post for more JOU Standard brews.

Thanks for reading.