MTG Eventide Prerelease?

Question

hi,

im kinda new to this whole prerelease thing, so i was wondering if someone could answer a few questions that i have.

1) when u get through the front door, u get 1 shadowmoor pack and three eventide packs?

2) u make a 40 card deck out of these packs?

3) u play in a tourney of ur choice with the cards u get?

4) if you do a team 2 or team 3, then u get more packs to make decks?

5) as you win u get more packs?

6) it costs about $15-30 to play in the event?

and the most important:

7) u get to keep all the cards you get? including the extras?

thanks for helping out, and if you dont like magic or just dont know the answer, plz dont resond.

Answer 1

Well, it depends on what your venue is doing. Every venue does some things differently. Let me try and answer your questions by explaining the different formats that are played.

1. Sealed Deck

This is the most popular format. In Sealed Deck, you will receive 1 Shadowmoor Tournament Pack, which is roughly the equivalent of 3 Shadowmoor Booster Packs along with some lands, and either 2 or 3 Eventide Booster Packs. You will use these to construct a 40 card deck, where your lands are usually provided to you by the store. (You will typically use 16-17 lands in your deck.) This will cost somewhere around $30 to play in.

2. Two Headed Giant Sealed Deck

A lot of stores also have a Two Headed Giant (abbreviated 2HG) event. In 2HG, you and a teammate will recieve a Shadowmoor Tournament Pack and either 4 or 5 Eventide Booster Packs, and you will each construct a 40 card deck. The rules for 2HG can be found here:

http://www.wizards.com/dci/downloads/2HG...

2HG events generally cost around $40 to play in.

3. Booster Draft

Booster Drafts are a popular side event. These events will cost you around $15 to $20. In a booster draft, you will be with 7 other players seated around a table (these 8 person groups are called "pods"). Each player in the pod will receive 3 booster packs, typically 1 Shadowmoor and 2 Eventide, but your venue may hold Drafts with simply 3 Eventide packs. What makes this different than Sealed Deck is that you will choose the cards from each pack that you want to keep. It works like this: Each player opens up the first pack. In an orderly manner, each player will choose one card from the pack that they want to use in their deck, place that in a separate pile in front of them, and pass the other 14 cards to their right or left (determined before the draft starts). From the 14 cards now passed to you, you choose another to keep, and pass the rest on again. You do this until there are no more cards left in the pack, and then everyone opens up the second pack and repeats the process. You keep everything you pick, so if there is a rare you want, make sure to grab it. You will make a 40 card deck out of the cards you pick, and the rest becomes your sideboard for the event. Lands are once again provided to you by the store. These are very fun to play in, and the decks end up being a lot better than Sealed Decks because you have a lot more choice in what you put in them.

4. Casual Preconstructed Deck Play

Some venues have an event where you pay around $15, get a random Eventide preconstructed deck, and play for fun. When you play a certain number of games, you may be able to get a free pack or two as well.

Prizes

To find out what the prizes are, you will need to ask whoever is hosting the prerelease. Ask them what the events are and what you can win. In my area, we have all of the above events. For Sealed and 2HG Sealed, when you enter you get the product above to make your deck, plus the prerelease promo (each player gets one for 2HG). The prerelease promo for eventide is Overbeing of Myth. See link below:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtg...

My venue has stated that the amount of Eventide Booster Packs that we can win for Sealed and 2HG Sealed is based on attendance. For Draft, the winner gets 8 Packs and second place gets 4 Packs. For Casual Precon play, if you play 3 games you will get one Booster Pack.

These events will generally run all day, often with the Sealed starting in the morning, the Drafts and Casual Precon starting later on after players have dropped out of Sealed (there are going to be several draft pods throughout the day), and the 2HG Sealed later on or at the end of the day. Once again, ask whoever is in charge of running the prerelease and you will get all the information you need.

Yes, all the cards you get are yours to keep.

I hope I was able to help!

Answer 2

I have been attending Magic pre-releases for years and have been to pre-releases in several differerent states as well. While there are slight differences based on location, the general formats are the same. Prizes do vary.

The formats are flights (sealed), drafts, two headed giant (2HG), and Open Dueling (pre-constructed deck). All lands are provided.

A flight is a sealed deck tournament where you will receive one tournament pack (75 cards) of the main set, Shadowmoor (http://www.squidoo.com/shadowmoor) and 3 Booster Packs of the Sub-set, Eventide (http://www.squidoo.com/eventide). If it is a main set pre-release then you only get two packs to go with your tournament pack. Generally, there is one "Main" Flight where any number of players can sign up. This is a long tournament but has the largest prizes as it has an unlimited number of players. Other flights are generally limited to 32 players and run 5 rounds. These 32 player flights just kick off as soon as 32 players sign up and run pretty much all day long. From the pool of cards you get you have to make a minimum 40 card deck (including lands) and all the other cards are / can be used as your sideboard. The average cost is about 30 bucks and you will get to keep the tournament pack, the three booster packs, and a Foil Alternative Art Rare pre-release card which happens to be "Overbeing of Myth" for Eventide's release, plus any prizes that you might win, usually more packs.

Drafting is done like typical drafting, each player gets three unopened packs, Open one pack, take one card and pass the rest of the pack, each player takes one card and passes, and so on, open your next pack and repeat. This cost around 15.00 dollars and you get to keep all cards you draft, whether you Rare draft or draft to win. Each draft is usually 8 players and again run all day and start everytime 8 players sign up. Prizes are also given as packs. Again, you have to make a minimun 40 card deck and all other cards are your sideboard.

Two Headed Giant (2HG) is relatively new. There is generally only one two headed giant tournament which allows all interested pairs to sign up, you have to have a partner or find one at the pre-release. Each team will receive 1 Starter (tournament pack) of Shadowmoor, 4 Boosters of Eventide, 2 Foil Pre-Release Cards. Each player makes a minimum 40 card deck. You get to keep all cards but you and your teammate have to divide them amongst yourselves. The cost of this is generally 40 to 50 dollars or 20-25 per person. Prize packs have to be split as well.

Open Dualing is brand new, well within the last year. It cost 15 dollars generally and you will receive a an Eventide Theme Deck (pre-constructed deck), which you get to keep. You just play leisurly with your theme deck without modifying it between other matches. It is designed for newcomers. Many locations also give a pre-release card for this event but some require you to have a certain number of matches recorded, as in after you play 5 matches and get your 5 opponents to sign your slip you can get your pre-release card and/or an extra pack too.  

The most important thing, since you have never been to a pre-release:

1. Get there early.

2. Plan on staying late, an average flight runs for several hours.

3. Don't be afraid to ask questions and call a judge if you are in doubt about anything relating to the rules. They are there to help and that is what anyone else will do.

4. Have fun, pre-releases are designed to be fun, meet new players, and learn new strategies and card combos.

Please check out my Website http://www.mtgplayers.com for Magic the Gathering Players where you can get answers to any other MTG questions and where I will post this for others benefit.