The Magic pre-release of Dissension has come and gone. For Steve, Steve, and myself, I can say the day went much better than predicted. My draw of cards was what I had hoped; a pretty good mixture of black and red, with a fair deal of fliers, and a pretty sweet angel a few of my opponents asked if they could trade for. Deck assembly went pretty well, though my neighbor to the right was one of those guys that wanted everyone to know his displeasure or excitement of his pull. The guy just couldn’t keep quiet.
Patrick, my first opponent, came to the event from a double shift at an envelope factory. He said he had been up the past 24 hours, and he looked like it. He just seemed slightly out of it during our matches. He was a very nice guy, and I was glad he too was at the event for a good time and to see the new cards. He beat me pretty handily the first match. Match two ground to a halt, with me slowly pinging away his life. The match took forever, but eventually I was able to come in for the win. Round three had to be played quickly, and I just didn’t have a very good mana draw. Patrick rolled over me to become the victor.
I believe my second opponent was Matt. He creamed me the first to matches, had enough time to check on his friends, come back and beat me again before the next round was to take place. He was very serious the first match, then after having a victory under his belt, opened up. He was my favorite opponent for the day. A fun time was had, and he too was only at the event to check out the new cards, and have some fun. It seemed to be a common thread running though the people I played, and it seemed to be very different than some of the guys I played at the other pre-releases.
Some of the guys you could tell took it very seriously. They’d flick their cards, hold their hand in a stack, flipping through it one card at a time, and would not, ever, smile. No laughing, no having a good time, no fun could be had. They were there to beat you, and that was it. Maybe it was because we were in the second flight of the day we had the real competitors playing already.
Anyway, round three was against a mom, Alex her name, who said she had only been playing a few weeks. It showed the first match. She’d have one of her creatures fly during her turn, not attack with it, and be done. My turn, I would attack with my flier because she was tapped out. I took down one of her fliers later on by giving it +2/-1, and a passer by said I was being mean. We asked about what she had done wrong that game, what she could do differently, how she could improve. I told her, honestly, and she beat me the second game. I hardly put up a defense. Third game was all mine as I flew over her with Hellbent for the victory.
The fourth game I conceded to my opponent before we started to call my insurance agent who wasn’t there. I told him I’d play him as soon as I made my phone call; he said he had to smoke, so that would be fine. We each went our own way, and met up on the orange flight table. He won game one as I was mana screwed, I creamed him game two, and he had to take off to be in the Two Headed Dragon tourney before we could finish game three, I think I would have beaten him had we played again.
All-in-all, I think I could’ve been .500 for the day, and I’m looking forward to Dissension’s release date, and the next pre-release event coming in the next couple months. Hopefully Sully will be able to avoid the man’s hold down and join in a morning of geekiness at its best.
