[Community Discussion]: The official Fate Reforged prerelease/release discussion
Limited forum
Posted on Jan. 15, 2015, 8:20 p.m. by Epochalyptik
This will be the official one-thread-covers-all discussion for Fate Reforged prerelease and release events. Feel free to share what clan you'll choose, what mechanics might be viable, what cards are the best for Limited, and how your events went!
Fate Reforged prerelease/release events:
Prerelease Events: January 17-18, 2015
Release Date: January 23, 2015
Fate Reforged cards:
MTGSalvation spoiler list
MythicSpoiler spoiler list
MagicSpoiler spoiler list
The Prerelease
Prerelease eventsFate Reforged prerelease primer
Fate Reforged prerelease information for Tournament Organizers
Prerelease events will be held on the weekend of January 17 and Jaunary 18. They will be Sealed Deck events, which means players will receive six booster packs and must construct decks of at least 40 cards using the cards from their booster packs and any number of basic lands.
Prerelease pack contents:
- 4x FRF booster packs
- 1x KTK booster pack
- 1x seeded clan booster pack
- Event materials
At the event, you will pick a clan. You'll be given a small box with that clan's insignia; this "prerelease pack" contains your boosters and other event materials. In it, you'll find one "seeded booster" (a plastic-wrapped booster of semi-random cards related to the clan you chose) and the rest of your Sealed Deck boosters. The seeded booster will also contain your promo card, which will be clan-related and may be used in your deck.
CommanderOfBolas says... #2
I have to say, this is the toughest set for building a sealed deck that I have ever played. I built a b/g deck splashing white for Abzan Ascendency (which is amazing, if you didn't know) and went 3-1, getting 5th place, but there were so many options available and deciding what to play/cut was really tough with all the great lines available.
January 17, 2015 6:56 p.m.
I planned to play Temur at least once over the weekend, but I was seduced by the dark powers of the Sultai.
The midnight prerelease went quite well for me. I got 6 on-color multilands including a Polluted Delta, so my fixing was great. Other good rares were Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Crux of Fate, and Warden of the First Tree, which all worked great in my deck. 2 Death Frenzy, 2 Abomination of Gudul, 2 Reach of Shadows, a Dead Drop, and a Sultai Charm did the bulk of the work from the commons/uncommons. Filled it out with some early deathtouchers, card drawing, 2 Rakshasa's Disdain, and some miscellaneous spells and creatures to make a pretty sweet control deck. Felt pretty good about it and went 3-1.
Picked Sultai again this afternoon hoping for a repeat performance, but it didn't go quite so well. I got a nice amount of good cards, like Dromoka, the Eternal and Savage Knuckleblade, but without the fixing to try 5-color I couldn't figure out a good way to make it come together into a coherent deck. I eventually ended up with a sketchy Sultai manifest deck. With the right draw it felt almost broken, and I took some games that way. But without that it just fell flat on its face and I went 1-3. In hindsight I think I should've tried a Temur or deck with the pool I had, but I had fun with it anyway.
January 17, 2015 9:51 p.m.
Friend got mardu, his seeded rare was Flamewake Phoenix . another got temur and got Flamewake Phoenix , I went jeskai and got the UW legendary dragon, a friend went jeskai and got soulfire mentor, another went abzan and got Dromoka, the Eternal .
January 17, 2015 10:25 p.m.
Jeskai took the top spot my LGS, as predicted.
I went Jeskai and went 4-2. 15th of 51 people overall.
There was a print-run error at my LGS.
All Abzan in one case of pre-release packs had the Abzan Rare, but Jeskai for the rest of their support cards in the seeded pack. (Mystic Monastery, Jeskai Banner, etc...)
January 17, 2015 10:46 p.m.
Dalektable says... #6
I played Jeskai splashing for the UB and GW dragons. Man, the hexproof dragon won me so many damn games. My deck was pretty insane, great curve and amazing threats all the while backed up with as much removal as a man could ask for. No chase Fate Reforged cards, however I did crack a Wingmate Roc in my Khans of Tarkir! pack which also won me many games. In the end, I only lost one game the entire night and took first winning myself the playmat, and six would-be pretty abysmal packs except I got a Polluted Delta in one in place of my land slot which was pretty sweet. Considering I got to attend the prerelease for free by winning FNM the previous night, I am pretty happy man. Good weekend of magic for me.
January 17, 2015 10:51 p.m.
buildingadeck says... #7
FRF Naya Prerelease (Jan 17, 2015)
This is the deck I ran last night/this morning. I was wondering if y'all think I made a decent build; I'm trying to improve my ability to build decent decks for prerelease. I'm not a bad player, but I'm inexperienced with limited-style events.
January 18, 2015 12:02 a.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #8
Bought Temur packs both times.Midnight Prerelease -- ended up playing Jeskai with Ojutai, Soul of Winter, Valorous Stance, and 2 Wardscale Dragons, even though I got an Atarka, World Render promo -- didn't have enough good green cards, and had too much white removal to pass up playing it. Went 2-2.
Played again today and got a Flamewake Phoenix, and was able to run Temur, splashing black for Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury and Alesha, Who Smiles at Death's ability. Went pretty well, went 2-0-2 (undefeated, but two draws. Kind of odd). Pulled an alternate art Ugin, the Spirit Dragon from the Ugin's Fate pack!!! Any thoughts on what he's worth, or offers perhaps? He's not on TCGPlayer yet, but I'm seeing anywhere from $80 to $125 on eBay.
January 18, 2015 1:36 a.m.
buildingadeck says... #9
I would sell him around that value because I expect it to drop just as any planes walker does. Unless you want to keep it of course.
January 18, 2015 1:59 a.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #10
Does anyone know how common the alternate art foil ugins are? I would quite like to know my chances of getting one at the prerelease...
January 18, 2015 2:05 a.m.
slovakattack ~ mine isn't but i don't know if the Ugin's Fate packs even get foils. There's only like 4 cards in them.
awesomeguy37 ~ the rumor is that only stores with an A+ rating with wizards even have a shot at getting even one alt art Ugin all weekend. My LGS is an A++ so they had a shot at 2 and both have been pulled. Basically pretty damn rare. Like somewhere in the low thousands (like 1500-2500) I would think. There aren't, in reality, all that many game stores in the US
January 18, 2015 10:43 a.m.
QuodNoceretur says... #13
1/20 packs are supposed to have Ugin is what I've heard
January 18, 2015 11:18 a.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #14
No. I don't think they have foil cards in the Ugin's fate packs.
January 18, 2015 11:50 a.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #15
slovakattack - It's not foil, I haven't seen any foil cards in the Ugin's Fate packs.
January 18, 2015 11:51 a.m.
Zorroziggy says... #16
A guy at my prerelease got an alt art Ugin and traded it for a foil Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Think it was worth it?
January 18, 2015 12:46 p.m.
Zorroziggy ~ I had someone offer me the same deal but I turned it down. I don't think the alt art ugin is going down any time soon. Not necessarily because of demand but just because there are so few of them to begin with. I know those 2 things kind of go hand in hand but I feel the "up front available" aspect of it is very relevant
January 18, 2015 1:02 p.m.
The guy's a bloody idiot. You can get them for around $100 off eBay. It's barely worth more than a non-foil JaceTMS haha.
It's going to take a long, long time for a $100 card to get to $600.
January 18, 2015 1:10 p.m.
ChiefBell - that may not be entirely true. The FTV 20 Jace is foil and only sits at around $90 according to TCG. If that is the case it was a pretty even trade.
Now if it was the original Jace foil sitting at $548.59 i totally agree with you. lol
January 18, 2015 1:24 p.m.
Oh sure haha. Yeah totally. I'd value Ugin at between $100 to $200 now depending on your eBay skills / where you get him (really depending on your area and how many are floating around). I don't think he'll be reaching $600 for a long, long time.
January 18, 2015 1:30 p.m.
Newbie asks for Pre-Release-Sultai-Deck advise:
Dear MTG-Community,
this is my second ever sealed deck (my first was yesterday at the frist day of frf-prerelease). I went quite poorly at this second day of frf-prerelease (34 out of 40), still had some fun with it. The Base is a Sultai-Clan-Box. I'm very new to Limited and would love to hear some suggestions about this deck and the given pool concerning:- which direction offers this pool?- how should I play this deck?- where are anti-synergies?- how to thin this down to two-color-splah-one?- how to overcome the missing 4-drops?Did quite good against more aggressive plays and had real struggle against other/ more controlish decks.Probably i should have considered the whole pool (including other colors) in more detail, but the given mana-fixing was just too appealing.
Thanks a lot for your suggestions!
January 18, 2015 2:43 p.m.
pookypuppy6 says... #22
I had a good prerelease. Jeskai was SUPER popular in contrast to the Khans prerelease, I faced roughly 3 Jeskai decks and one Mardu deck that splashed blue. My pool had splashy bomby Abzan mythics (Anafenza, the Foremost and Warden of the First Tree) but I kept to my guns with a Jeskai deck sporting a Flamerush Rider and a Supplant Form. Came 27th out of 80-something people with a 4-2 record!
Even better, a booster pack in my Intro Pack drew me an ORANGE MAGIC CARD. Specifically, it's a Goblin Heelcutter that has obviously had a bit of a trauma in the colouring stage during printing. It is ORANGE. Walking the path of the Jeskai has ENLIGHTENED ME TO THE SIXTH COLOUR OF MAGIC!!!
January 18, 2015 3:24 p.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #23
I ran Jeskai which was not as popular as I would have thought and went 3-2, which is ok...
I got a Crux of Fate so Im happy...
January 18, 2015 3:56 p.m.
Last night, I went to a pre-release, I went 2-1-1, and my friend went 3-1. I was running Jeskai control, splashing green because I pulled some nasty Temur rares including Shaman of the Great Hunt and Yasova Dragonclaw. I played a lot of board control and waited for them to give up their hand size trying to do things. That's when i would sweep in with one of my bombs and wreck them. Unfortunately, in the 4th round I got crushed by an Abzan lifegain deck, who ended up with 70 life or something. My friend was running Mardu-super aggro. As I previously mentioned, he went 3-1. His deck featured Brutal Hordechief and just a ton of tiny creatures. He zerged people down by turn 6 usually. Both of the strategies were viable, and I learned a valuable lesson... Abzan lifegain is ridiculous in sealed.
January 18, 2015 4:16 p.m.
Jeskai was way too popular considering that the main reason to pick it was strong blue commons and uncommons. I mean, it was sold out after the midnight prerelease at the store I went to. Even if you got one of the Jeskai mythics, they pretty much just serve as removal magnets. I ran mardu but pulled a Monastery Mentor. All in all he didn't do much(even though about half of my spells were noncreature) except attract removal, which I suppose was good enough since it left my flyers on the field and occasionally created a token or two.Jeskai was sold out after the midnight prerelease at the store I went to.
January 18, 2015 4:25 p.m.
Recently returned from the pre-release at the LGS.
While I had a medioker Abzan with red splash, it ended up outpreforming my expectations and was very fun to play.
However... I pretty much ended up facing every single Sultai player in the room and it felt like every single one of them had one or two Archfiend of Depravity and I went 2-3 overall, placing me 23 of 31.
Still, had a blast playing and the Fate of Ugin-minigame was a neat add-on to the pre-release experience.
January 18, 2015 4:36 p.m.
Mardu destroyed at our prerelease. Top 3 all ran Mardu. Goblin Heelcutter is just too good.
January 18, 2015 4:41 p.m.
slovakattack says... #28
Just came back from my Prerelease. Blew out the first 2 matches, then got dunked my Mardu for the last 2, as I was kinda stall-ey...
Still, I pulled an Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and Wingmate Roc in my packs, so It's reeeaaally difficult to be unhappy with that outcome...
January 18, 2015 5:29 p.m.
deathtouch_roadrunner says... #29
I enjoyed my prereleases, but ended up kind of frustrated - my shop for some reason cut round times to 45 minutes in all of them, and since I was playing Sultai it caused me to lose and draw matches I would have otherwise won or drawn.
I think if they don't have normal 50 minute rounds I might go elsewhere next prerelease because it really screws over the more controlling colors, particularly at an event where there are newer and more casual players learning and playing slowly, to shorten round times. This time I guess it was extra irksome because I was so close to winning.
January 18, 2015 8:10 p.m.
@deathtouch_roadrunner You could always ask the store owner or the judge if having a little more time would be a problem or if you could have maybe 7 or 8 finishing turns instead of 5. When I was playing, I had a complicated rule question that involved cards in my hand, so I couldn't ask it in front of my opponent. The judge offered to answer the question away from the table, which took some time since he had to read the cards on the table as well. In exchange, he said we could go 5 minutes longer than the other players since some of our time was spent on rules discussions.
January 18, 2015 9:03 p.m.
TheGrayMerchant says... #31
Got back from my pre-release. Played Temur and went 1-3 :(
First game, played Abzan, won 2-1. Warden of the First Tree is hard to take down if you don't kill him right away.
Second game, played Sultai. This guy knew what he was doing and absolutely wrecked me.
Third game, played Jeskai. I lost 2-1. I had this guy down to 5 life a couple of times with Frost Walker, but he killed my threats and smashed my face with dragons.
Fourth game, played Mardu. Flamerush Rider and his other fast creatures killed me quickly.
Thoughts:Ugin is a beast. Being able to Lightning Bolt your opponents for free every turn is a huge help, and his second ability helps with removal, especially against things like Warden of the First Tree. I was able to ultimate him once. It was insane.
Jeskai Infiltrator did well in my deck, give him some evasion and he's like a blue rabblemaster.
Atarka, World Render is an absolute bomb. Being able to swing for 12 every turn is absolutely broken.
Dash is really good.
My prerelease deck: Temur Aggro/Midrange
January 19, 2015 12:22 a.m.
SimicPower says... #32
I went 3-1 at my prerelease.
I got Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
promo, Atarka, World Render next pack, and another Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury and Silumgar, the Drifting Death in the same pack. Retired champion.
January 19, 2015 2:44 a.m.
SimicPower says... #33
pookypuppy6: Can we see a picture of the orange card?
January 19, 2015 2:46 a.m.
pookypuppy6 says... #34
@SimicPower: I'll see what I can do, the only picture-taking device I have is my video camera. I'll take it, upload it to photobucket and report back with it.
January 19, 2015 6:54 a.m.
Pulled no cards beyond 5 bucks from 10 packs, which include my winnings. Went 3-1 in the actual prerelease. I played Temur monsters/manifest with 10 cards which manifested stuff. Deck performed awesomely, Temur is super strong in Limited IMO.
January 19, 2015 6:59 a.m.
pookypuppy6 says... #37
@SimicPower: So really inconclusive-looking because of crappy camera/lighting/everything. Nevertheess, here is my Orange Magic card that hopefuly the pics will show that somethign IS wrong with it.
January 19, 2015 7:14 a.m.
Souljacker says... #39
I was mildly disappointed in this prerelease, picked Jeskai for the strong White/Blue cards but only got white rares in those colors and not nearly enough creatures in all 3 colors to make a deck. So I made an Abzan deck instead with Sandsteppe Mastodon and Shamanic Revelation and some half decent creatures in green and black. The only siginificant rare I got was Utter End, besides that I had Citadel Siege which performed well, and a Dragonscale General and a Mastery of the Unseen who didn't do much.
I went 3-2 to win 2 boosters, and I pulled Ugin out of one of those to save my day :)
January 19, 2015 11:38 a.m.
BinaryCortex says... #40
After much internal waffling and debating, I chose Abzan. I am so glad I did. My promo was Warden of the First Tree but my MVP was Dromoka, the Eternal. When you combine [Dromoka, who poops counters] with Mer-Ek Nightblade and Abzan Falconer you get a nice squadron of flying deathtouchers. Here are the rares/mythics I pulled http://i.imgur.com/EqjXwSu.jpg, and here are the rares/mythics from my 4 prize packs http://i.imgur.com/cS6lmU1.jpg.
January 19, 2015 2:02 p.m.
BinaryCortex says... #41
January 19, 2015 2:04 p.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #42
Someone just bought my alternate art Ugin, the Spirit Dragon on TCGPlayer for $124.00 plus $0.99 shipping o.O
bretters says... #1
My pack was abzan but I went esper after getting noxious dragon, the WU dragon, AND the BU dragon. I also had warriors and other good stuff. The tourney was 4 rounds I won the first 3 and split packs in the final round!
January 17, 2015 4:36 p.m.