Welcome back! After not being here last week due to some health problems, I’m back this week to give you the bottom line when it comes to checking out tournaments this weekend! For those of you who are attending this as your first major event, check out this article that I wrote a while back about attending tournaments and some basic things you should think about when you do that. However, with this being a Prerelease, there are a few other things that you should keep in mind!

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Tip #1 – Know What You’re Getting Into

To be honest, this is not a hard and fast rule. Many players go to a pre-release “blind” (not having read any of the spoiler coverage) because they enjoy the thrill of just jumping right into the set and needing to find their way as they go. It seems the majority of the people, however, prefer to go to the tournament at least somewhat informed on what they are about to play. My advice to you is that if you would like the information, go over to Wizards Visual Spoiler and pick your way through the cards. When you are looking, make sure to pay attention to the rarity of the card. This mistake, while not seeming like a big deal, is the number one problem people have when evaluating a spoiler. Try to figure out which commons you are going to want to play, as that is going to be the majority of your deck. Then look for which Uncommons you should try to grab when you see them, as you will most likely have to really muscle in on your other players in order to get them. Finally, take a peek at the Rares. Not too much looking is needed at those, for each one you can pretty much just say classify them as: If I open this, I will play it no matter what; If I open this and it works in my deck I will play it; or if I open this, I will not play this. It’s pretty much that simple.

Tip #2 – Look For The Patterns

This advice is similar to the first tip, but this is sort of the next level of analysis so I thought I would separate it. This is more than just looking at each card as a single card, and instead starting to look at the connections the cards have to each other. Once you’ve gone through and done the individual assessment, you should go through and look for things like how many common and uncommon cards of each color are “playable”, or which types of archetypes you are going to be looking to play in each of the colors. Look for pairings in the colors to see which support each other (for example, in M10, Red and Green were an amazing pairing, with Red giving you access to very solid burn, and Green giving you a very good creature base to work with). Keep an eye out for combinations, and think about how your decks are going to shape up and play out.

Tip #3 – Don’t Get Intimidated

Prereleases are a feeding ground for card sharks looking to swoop in and try to pick up card that they are looking for, usually at the expense of newer player’s ignorance. Prereleases are an exciting time for trading with all of the new cards floating around and players scrabbling to setup their Standard decks on the cheap. However, as much pressure as it is when someone comes up to you and says “Do you have any trade stuff?” you are under no obligation to trade, even if you do. If you do decide to trade, make sure you use something to check prices that you trust, such as a computer or the store owner. Also, if you only want to trade some cards and save the others for another day, you are completely in your right to tell the person you are trading with that if they try to trade for them. All of this seems like common logic, but often it can feel like a lot of pressure at the time, and need to remember that none of this is an obligation.

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That’s it for this time guys, it’s short and sweet, I encourage everyone who hasn’t already to go back and read my previous tournament article with tips about what to bring, some suggestions on how to play, and generally just find some ways to enjoy yourself. For everyone who is going to play this weekend, best of luck to everyone!

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