Ravnica Prerelease
Sep. 25th, 2005 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hwangoI haven't been an active player of Magic for a few years now. It took a couple of years before I got to try my Onslaught at all, I think. I didn't buy anything in the Mirrodin block. I made a brief foray into Kamigawa when that game store in Worcester was going out of business and I could get some slightly discounted, but I haven't actually played with it yet (except for my Zubera deck), despite the fact that I've been playing with some friends again from time to time.
Still, even a slight return to magic means I was poking at the WotC site, and the preview information about Ravnica looked really cool. I thought it would be fun to attend the local prerelease tournament, since it really was local - only about 15 minutes away.
I didn't know what to expect from a Magic prerelease tournament, but I did think it would be smaller. Ha. There were probably about 600 people or more there.
Ravnica's theme is a city world with Guilds represented by different 2-color combinations. It's a very cool setup, and makes for lots of crossover between colors in the cards, similar to Apocalypse. The initial set only has 4 of the Guilds, so I figured most people would make a deck that was one of those combinations - you might pull black cards, blue cards, and black and blue cards and thus play black and blue, but there aren't any black and red cards yet, so you're less likely to end up playing black and red. I hoped to pull cards to be able to play green/black, since it's my favorite combintion to play, but the green I pulled was pretty crappy. I ended up going black/blue with just a touch of green for those 3 really good green/black cards I pulled. I got some awesome red/white, but not enough to actually play it. Oh, well.
I lost to my first opponent of the day. I don't feel too bad about it, though, since someone said to him "You're Ryan (whatever)?!," like he was famous or something. I also got a miserable draw on our second game. I beat the next two people I played against, though. My fourth match I won a game and he won a game, and after a tough battle in our third game he was poised to destroy me. However, prizes were awarded to people who won at least 3 of their 4 games, and he'd won only 1 so far. Even if he beat me, it would mean no prize for either of us. I pointed out that if he conceded I would get 4 packs as a prize, and I'd split it with him. He thought it over for a bit and eventually agreed, so at least I walked out of there with 2 extra packs.
The set is pretty cool, and I'm glad that I went. I doubt I'll buy much more (if any), though, since I don't play that often, and I'm going to be feeling the sting of spending thousands of dollars on a car for quite a while. Time to really cut back on the frivolous stuff.
I spoke with the guest artist to see if he had any advice for someone interested in breaking into the field. He was full of dire warnings and predictions of doom. I will work hard, not make enough money, grow to hate working on art, and my personal life with crumble. He's going through a divorce right now because of his art career. Cheery. Hopefully only the first two will apply in my case...just the first one would be even better, but I'm trying to be realistic. = )
Still, even a slight return to magic means I was poking at the WotC site, and the preview information about Ravnica looked really cool. I thought it would be fun to attend the local prerelease tournament, since it really was local - only about 15 minutes away.
I didn't know what to expect from a Magic prerelease tournament, but I did think it would be smaller. Ha. There were probably about 600 people or more there.
Ravnica's theme is a city world with Guilds represented by different 2-color combinations. It's a very cool setup, and makes for lots of crossover between colors in the cards, similar to Apocalypse. The initial set only has 4 of the Guilds, so I figured most people would make a deck that was one of those combinations - you might pull black cards, blue cards, and black and blue cards and thus play black and blue, but there aren't any black and red cards yet, so you're less likely to end up playing black and red. I hoped to pull cards to be able to play green/black, since it's my favorite combintion to play, but the green I pulled was pretty crappy. I ended up going black/blue with just a touch of green for those 3 really good green/black cards I pulled. I got some awesome red/white, but not enough to actually play it. Oh, well.
I lost to my first opponent of the day. I don't feel too bad about it, though, since someone said to him "You're Ryan (whatever)?!," like he was famous or something. I also got a miserable draw on our second game. I beat the next two people I played against, though. My fourth match I won a game and he won a game, and after a tough battle in our third game he was poised to destroy me. However, prizes were awarded to people who won at least 3 of their 4 games, and he'd won only 1 so far. Even if he beat me, it would mean no prize for either of us. I pointed out that if he conceded I would get 4 packs as a prize, and I'd split it with him. He thought it over for a bit and eventually agreed, so at least I walked out of there with 2 extra packs.
The set is pretty cool, and I'm glad that I went. I doubt I'll buy much more (if any), though, since I don't play that often, and I'm going to be feeling the sting of spending thousands of dollars on a car for quite a while. Time to really cut back on the frivolous stuff.
I spoke with the guest artist to see if he had any advice for someone interested in breaking into the field. He was full of dire warnings and predictions of doom. I will work hard, not make enough money, grow to hate working on art, and my personal life with crumble. He's going through a divorce right now because of his art career. Cheery. Hopefully only the first two will apply in my case...just the first one would be even better, but I'm trying to be realistic. = )
