Happy prerelease day everyone! Woohoo! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I've been about New Phyrexia! In order to celebrate it, I've decided to go to 2 prerelease events! One started at midnight, and the other is starting at 10AM. I just finished the first one about 30 minutes ago and I was pretty sad that I had to leave early. My sister is bringing over her brand new puppy (Corgie, OMG.. I'll be posting photos of her at the end of this blog!) for me to babysit! I managed to play through 3 rounds, and ended up going 1-1-1.

ANGER ANGER RAGE!

By the way.. I hate losing. Everything about losing just really makes me mad. It seriously drives me insane. Oh, and drawing also REALLY MAKES ME MAD. If I'm not winning, I'm probably super angry! I'm not going to punch holes in walls or anything, but I've managed to channel said anger rage into a semi pleasant grimace. I know I talked about this briefly during my last blog, but I thought I would expand on it a little bit.. (And in case you didn't read it: Rule Number 8: Don't let crappy things get to you. It's important to keep a clear head, and not let that loss or two affect your next game. You can always win out!)

I want to do well so badly that I let that thought linger instead of worrying about the next best play.

It really is surprising how much keeping a good composure will affect your game! You end up making really stupid mistakes when all you can think about is how much your deck sucks, or how you're only going to top deck land. Recently, after every game loss, I've been writing down every play mistake I've been making, and even asking my opponent if they saw any miss plays. When you're so angry and upset about a loss, you tend to forget that, yeah - play mistakes happen, and I shouldn't make that mistake again. I think this has probably been one of the best lessons I've learned. Now I just need to figure out how to really put this into action.. Maybe more candy?

Okay.. back to Prerelease #1! Sorry for the slight rant on my anger issues.. >_>! I thought I would write up my card pool, and then attempt to explain some of my choices. And to be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of Sealed (I'll explain this later as well!). I really prefer Drafting for my Limited play! (And I apologize for the strange format!)

Land:

9x Swamp 6x Island

Creatures:

1x Sky-Eel School 1x Riddlesmith 1x Bleak Coven Vampires

1x Mortis Dogs 1x Necrogen Scudder 1x Blind Zealot

Instants, Enchantments, and Scorceries:

1x Tezzeret's Gambit 1x Disperse 1x Mutagenic Growth

1x Grim Affliction 1x Instill Infection 1x Parasitic Implant

Artifact Creatures:

1x Rust Tick 1x Snapsail Glider 1x Vault Skirge

1x Porcelain Legionnaire 1x Darksteel Juggernaut (FOIL OH YEAH!)

1x Hex Parasite 1x Silver Myr 1x Leaden Myr 1x Etched Champion

Artifacts and Artifact Equipments:

1x Gremlin Mine 1x Lux Canon 1x Sickleslicer 1x Strider Harness

Card Pool

Artifact: Darksteel Relic, Phyrexian Hulk, 2x Necrogen Censer, Auriok Replica, Golem Foundry, 2x Infiltration Lens, Saberclaw Golem, Trigon of Infestation, Echo Circlet, Corpse Cur, Slash Panther, Hovermyr, Insatiable Souleater, Ichorclaw Myr, Mycosynth Wellspring

White: Razor Hippogriff, Loxodon Convert, Master Splicer, Suture Priest, Shattered Angel, Shriek Raptor, Remember the Fallen, Fulgent Distraction, Loxodon Wayfarer

Blue: Vault Skyward, Psychic Barrier, Neurok Invisimancer, 2x Numbing Dose, Defensive Stance, Corrupted Resolve, Chained Throatseeker, Psychic Surgery

Black: Whispering Specter, Toxic Nim, Dross Hopper, Corrupted Harvester, Blackcleave Goblin,

Green: Maul Splicer, Viridian Harvest, Viridian Betrayers, Molder Beast, Cystbearer, Tel-Jilad Fallen, Carapace Forger, Greenhilt Trainee, Slice in Twain

Red: Spikeshot Elder, Volt Charge, Invader Parasite, Assault Strobe, Tormentor Exarch, Ogre Menial, Razor Swine, Scrapeyard Salvo, Goblin Gaveleer, Melt Terrain

Prerelease events are supposed to be fun, and I know I've been one to forget this sometimes, haha! During pack opening, one of the players across from me was talking about how this was her first big MtG event.. and how she really didn't know what she was doing (She also just played her first FNM that night too). So.. instead of worrying about deck building, I spent a good amount of time explaining to her what cards did, what Phyrexian mana means, etc! I know this might sound like an excuse, but after hearing her talk about how she feels that she's in over her head and stuff.. I couldn't help myself! I want to see more people (especially ladies!) willing to come out and compete! TBH, helping her learn more about the game really made the night enjoyable for me. She seemed a lot more relaxed afterwards, and she even won a couple games. 

Okay, back to sealed deck construction! After looking at my pool a bit more, I think I might have done a little bit better going with a Red|Green Metalcraft deck. When I was drafting Scars in the past, I generally went Red|White, Red|Green, or Green|White.. It's pretty much my comfort zone. In this case though, I was really in the mood to try something completely different (I also had to leave around 5AM, top 8 wasn't going to start till 6-6:30AM.. -_-!). So I said to myself, "I NEVER PLAY BLUE! LETS TRY THIS, YAY!"

I want to grow as a Magic player, so I thought this would be a good time to attempt something very different. Plus, I opened a Silver Myr and a Leaden Myr in my first pack. That's how fate works or something, right?

Rares and Mythics

I'm not the type of player that opens the best bomb in the set, but I generally open some decent rares. I opened my SOM packs first, then my NPH. I was really trying to savor the opening of completely new cards. They smell the best, for sure! I was rather pleased that I opened a Lux Cannon, but I wasn't really happy that I didn't see it a single game today. One of my SOM packs contained the Foil Darksteel Juggernaut and the Etched Champion. Etched Champion and Darksteel Juggernaut definetly did some work! Every game that I won today, I can pretty much say thank you to them. Oh yeah, and before I forget.. Hex Parasite was a pretty nice card to open as well. He definetly came in handy againts the Foil Elspeth Tirel I had to face in round one (That guy also opened a Steel Hellkite, some people have all the luck)!

Cards I really liked!

Blind Zealot (2-2 1 colorless, 2 black with Intimidate): First off, I want to give props to Jana Schirmer & Johannes Voss for the absoluetly amazing art on this card! I want this on a playmat NOW! This card definetly served me well. Oh.. You're not going to block it? I guess I'll just sack it and destroy one of your creatures. :D

Mortis Dogs (2-2 3 colorless, 1 black): THIS CARD IS A BEAST (or beasts I guess..)! Whenever I played him, I would get excited about anything I could equip to him. During one match, I had a Sickleslicer and Strider Harness on him. Swing for 7.. oh you're going to kill him..? Take 7! 

Grim Affliction (2 colorless, 1 black): This was probably one of my more favorite removal cards that I managed to open up. I only wished I had more stuff to proliferate.

Porcelain Legionnaire (2 colorless, 1 white Phyrexian mana): Being able to play him turn 2 was definetly really nice. I really didn't mind losing 2 life to have a 3-1 first striker.

I'll be writing up a part 2 to this blog a bit later tonight! My next draft starts in about an hour, wish me luck!

Oh.. and as promised.... Photos of my sister's puppy :