Today I went to my first tournament event; the Innistrad pre-release.
The format:
You get given 6 booster packs and a promo card (this is while stocks last and you can’t use it at this event); from the 6 booster packs you must make a deck. The minimum deck size is 40 cards, and the advised maximum is a standard 75 cards. You are also allowed a sideboard of 15 cards. You then play 6 rounds of “best of 3” matches; your score is determined from your points.
Being my first MTG event, I didn’t know what to expect so inevitably I was very excited! What I didn’t account for was being late.
My sat-nav thought it would a good idea to take me through the outskirts of London, and as you might expect the traffic was slow. I managed to get to the event within 5minutes of the door closing on guests being allowed to participate. This was a huge relief as I had paid in advance! However it did mean that I only had 15minutes to build my deck; take into account the time it takes to open and read every card, which only really gives you 7minutes at most, of weighing up where the strength lies in the cards you have.
I went for a safe red/green deck. Having said that, I didn’t have too many good cards that worked well with each other; in the end I went with Werewolves. There are plenty of “pump-up” spells and equipment to power up the werewolves before they transform, to keep them happily in play. A creature stealing spell – with this you can take the biggest “blocker” out of the way and use it to attack its owner, in conjunction with the full whack of my werewolves.
On another note, my sideboard simply consisted of the cards with the colours I had used previously but were now left over.
Deck List:
Red Creatures:
Ashmouth Hound
Scourge of Geier Reach
Tormented Pariah - (Transformed: Rampaging Werewolf)
Green Creatures:
Woodland Sleuth x2
Orchard Spirit
Somberwald Spider
Darkthickect Wolf
Hamlet Captain
Kindercatch
Gatstaf Shepherd – (Transformed: Gatstaf Howler)
Ulvenwald Mystics – (Transformed: Ulven Primordials)
Grizzled Outcasts - (Transformed: Krallenhorde Wantons)
Other Red:
Geistflame
Traitorous Blood
Furor of the Bitten x2
Other Green:
Full Moon’s Rise
Spidery Grasp
Ranger’s Guile x3
Artefacts:
Cobbled Wings
Wooden Stake
Runechanter’s Pike
Sideboard list:
Red Creatures:
Rakish Heir
Bloodcrazed Neonate
Green Creatures:
Darkthicket Wolf
Artefact Creatures:
One-Eyed Scarecrow
Creepy Doll
Other Red:
Ancient Grudge
Harvest Pyre
Burning Vengeance
Infernal Plunge
Other Green:
Parallel Lives
Wreath of Geists
Other Artefacts:
Graveyard Shovel
Demonmail Hauberk
During the first round, I went in with very little hope as I hadn’t had time to read my cards in depth, atleast not to an extent where I knew if I had made the best deck I could. However, my opponent said he expected to lose badly, so I felt better knowing that I wasn’t the only person thinking this wasn’t going to go as well as previously imagined. Without further adieu we got down to business. In the first game we were on a even life count from the beginning of the attacks, but I controlled my werewolf to transform and strike him down.
The second game had a similar situation to before, but my opponent was trying to hex my creatures to which my “Ranger’s Guile” worked a treat.
Hex-proofing any plan he had; and when it came to combat, I was pumping up with them to clear my path for the next attack.
I won this game with hard hitting creatures and by hex-proofing my cards. I instantly felt more confident.
Score: 2/0 to me.
Second round. My opponent was playing with a deck set in which he would continuously try to hex my cards, to which I just simply carried on playing my “Ranger’s Guile”, this inevitably stopped him, and in a big way. Though he did work me down to a life count of 5 when I had done nothing to him, I was impressed with myself that I had managed to pull myself back into form.
In the second game he couldn’t draw any creatures which meant that I just walked through and took him out.
Score: 2/0 to me.
The third round didn’t go as well. During the first game I should have declared a mulligan as I had no creatures, only land and spells that would help my creatures (had I had any); therefore he walked straight over me. I did try to play “Scourge of Geier Reach” but it was taken out almost immediately.
During the second game I did mulligan, and ended up with a worse hand than before, naturally I didn’t want to risk another. In hindsight I should have because I sat there like a lemon and died.
Score: 2/0 to opponent.
Fourth round I went up against someone who played a vampire deck... with a flying ability. It was a given really that I had nothing to deal with this flying ability; so he just flew over-head in both games. At the end of this game I switched a “Woodland Sleuth” for a “One-Eyed Scarecrow”.
During the second game he ruined me a lot faster as he played his “Bloodline Keeper”
and thus producing more 1/1 flyers each turn, this left me without defence and even if I could have got my “Cobbled Wings” into play,
I was hoping to get my “One-Eyed Scarecrow” out so his flying would decrease to -1/-0. This would slow him down but then “Bloodline Keeper” transformed into “Lord of Lineage” giving his vampires +2/+2, which kicked my hard.
Score: 2/0 to opponent.
Before the round started I gave my deck a good shuffle to separate the cards out a bit more, this proved to be a good idea as during this round I was given good draws, which led to an early lead and ultimate victory.
In both games I drew my favourite combo – “Darkthicket Wolf” 
– you can get him out in your second turn, and by the third he has increased to a 4/4, but if you wait another turn to do that and use this turn “Furor of the Bitten”
he is now a 4/4 on the third turn. It does mean he has to attack every turn, but by the next go you can pump him up to a 6/6 nice and early, destroying and defence in your way, or dealing damage that has a big impact.
My victory was a lucky one when it came to it, as my opponent had some white flyers but they didn’t come into play – this was lucky for me. He also had “Liliana of the Veil”. 
Also, in the first game I had a mountain in my hand for a couple of turns to make him think I had an instant, which helped keep him from attacking when he actually could of. This is something I very rarely do, but I felt that he wasn’t someone to go into something unless he was 90% certain he could.
Score: 2/0 to me.
Last round; I wanted for us to both win a game in the round so we could have the last game where we would both be at war.
In the first game, I lacked both mana and small creatures, and he was making me discard cards from my library, “Ghoulcaller’s Bell”
and “Trepanation Blade”,
this meant I could never draw the card I wanted. As a result my defence lacked and I died. I had one game to bring me back.
During the second game I got my favourite combo out very quickly, so I worked him down almost instantly. Just as I thought, I had him; he wasn’t getting any mana out and he only laid some small flyers and “Typhoid Rats”.
I was two attacks away from winning but with that 1/1 death-touch in play, I couldn’t launch my hard-hitting creatures without sacrificing them... this would lose me the game.
I had “Traitorous Blood” in my hand which I was going to use to stop a flyer, so when I attacked with it he would have to use his other cards to block with, keeping me safe for the rest of the match, but not I had to use it on his “Rats” if I wanted my big creatures to survive.
As a result of this, it cost me the game; but I wasn’t upset by this as it was a good game.
Score: 2/0 to opponent.
At the end of it I won 3 rounds, and lost 3. I came 23rd out of 50.
As a final note, there were some cards in my deck that I’d like to mention and show off about having; “Creepy Doll” for example.
I wanted to put it in my deck but I thought for a mana count of 5 it would be a little too late in the game, and my deck already had the big creatures to deal with everything without this addition.
“Parallel Lives” 
– now it was in my sideboard, but only because it was green, as nothing in my deck made tokens. (I would look into putting this card into a token making elf deck).
“Strumgeist”
– this is a good card if you hold onto cards.
“Endless Ranks on the Dead”
– I wanted to make a black deck for this event, but none of the cards I got worked well with another colour to justify doing so. I also only had two Zombies so this card would not have helped in the way it was intended.
“Angel of Flight Alabaster”
– again I was looking to white for the flying creatures, but I just didn’t have enough flying creatures to make it worth it, and again nothing that worked well together. I did consider adding white to my deck, but I didn’t want a third colour as it simply wasn’t strong enough, and would have slowed me down.
At the end of it all, we all got a booster pack, and I received “Rooftop Storm”.
Nice!
Finally, here’s a photo of someone using skittles as +1/+1 counters.
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