Born of the Gods Prerelease at Red Battle Games LLC

Before I begin, I feel I should properly introduce myself... I'm Eric Davey, a web and graphic designer and MTG addict (and owner of this website). I have gone by wateradept24 all over the internet (to the person who used MY username on MTGO, you should feel bad. I'm actually MondayMorningMTG on MTGO because someone took my username) ever since I can remember. wateradept is a Golden Sun reference and 24 has special meaning to me.

In all the time I've been playing Magic, I've now played at prereleases in 5 different stores (3 if you want to count the fact that one store has gone through a name and ownership change twice since Avacyn Restored).

On Saturday (the only prerelease day I played), I went to the new Red Battle Games in Danville, VA. I have to say, I think the way this event was run was probably the best I've ever participated in and I'd like to thank Reid and Chad, the store owners, for putting on such a great prerelease.

I preregistered for Saturday during FNM and chose Destined to Conquer (red). I'm not really sure why. I guess I thought the promo was the best for playing with and I seem to play Naya (White/Red/Green) really well (Xenagos was a possible god in the seeded pack, so that contributed to my decision). So we all got 50 minutes of deck building time which is typically what happens.

I was set on Naya. I really don't know why. I honestly probably could have done better with USA (White/Blue/Red) but I really didn't think it over. Let's check out my packs...

Theros Pack #1	Theros Pack #2	Theros Pack #3
Nessian Asp Bronze Sable Ephara's Warden Sip of Hemlock Cavern Lampad Sedge Scorpion Time to Feed Baleful Eidolon Traveling Philosopher Two-Headed Cerberus Ordeal of Thassa Warriors' Lesson Cutthroat Maneuver Prognostic Sphinx Plains 1/1 Red Soldier Token	Leafcrown Dryad Gods Willing Nessian Courser March of the Returned Cavern Lampad Boulderfall Wingsteed Rider Two-Headed Cerberus Vulpine Goliath Annul Akroan Hoplite Ordeal of Thassa Sentry of the Underworld Artisan of Forms Forest 2/2 Green Boar Token	Omenspeaker Gray Merchant of Asphodel Staunch-Hearted Warrior Scholar of Athreos Defend the Hearth Agent of Horizons Crackling Triton Spark Jolt Last Breath Peak Eruption Triton Fortune Teller Arena Athlete Stormbreath Dragon Silent Artisan (FOIL) Mountain No Token
Born of the Gods Pack #1	Born of the Gods Pack #2	Seeded Booster Pack
Satyr Wayfinder Retraction Helix Nyxborn Eidolon Bolt of Keranos Mortal's Ardor Nyxborn Shieldmate Fall of the Hammer Karametra's Favor Oreskos Sun Guide Gorgon's Head Siren of the Fanged Coast Pinnacle of Rage Fellhide Spiritbinder Fellhide Brawler (FOIL) Plains 2/2 Black Zombie Enchantment Token	Chorus of the Tides Mortal's Ardor Fearsome Temper Servant of Tymaret Satyr Wayfinder Grisley Transformation Snake of the Golden Grove Elite Skirmisher Oreskos Sun Guide Divination Shrike Harpy Archetype of Aggression Noble Quarry Fated Infatuation Forest No Token	Forgestoker Dragon (FOIL Promo) Revoke Existence Scouring Sands Oracle of Bones Shrike Harpy Everflame Eidolon Archetype of Imagination Epiphany Storm Nyxborn Eidolon Fall of the Hammer Retraction Helix Mortal's Resolve Kragma Butcher Elite Skirmisher Bolt of Keranos Snake of the Golden Grove

There were some good blue and black cards I just didn't touch because I had told myself going in my deck would be Naya, so the that's what I did because my mind was set without me realizing until after. I also left out a pretty good red card, Oracle of Bones from my deck, which was a mistake. Anyway, here is the deck list:

Naya Aggro (White/Red/Green)

13th Place, Red Battle Games Prerelease: Danville, VA 1 February 2014

Creatures x1 Nyxborn Shieldmate x1 Sedge Scorpion x1 Akroan Hoplite x1 Everflame Eidolon x1 Leafcrown Dryad x1 Oreskos Sun Guide x1 Archetype of Aggression x1 Two-Headed Cerberus x1 Wingsteed Rider x1 Elite Skirmisher x1 Felhide Spiritbinder x1 Stormbreath Dragon x1 Forgestoker Dragon Land x5 Plains x8 Mountain x4 Forest

Artifacts x1 Gorgon's Head Other Spells x1 Gods Willing x2 Mortal's Ardor x1 Spark Jolt x1 Warriors' Lesson x1 Defend the Hearth x1 Karametra's Favor x1 Mortal's Resolve x1 Scouring Sands x1 Bolt of Keranos x1 Fearsome Temper

Throughout my playing with this deck, I found mana issues which is why I should have gone for a two color deck most likely (would have been Red/Blue probably). I always had white and red and was missing green or I had all the white and green I needed, but I couldn't get a second Mountain. I definitely experienced problems with this, but I stuck with it during the entire event.

And now for what made this an overly awesome event:

Reid and Chad opened up a From the Vault 20 and sleeved each card. With 22 players, they took that many Born of the Gods packs from prize support, wrote the name of each card from FTV:20 on the back of a raffle ticket and then "Kit" on the back of two of the tickets. At the beginning of Round 2, we were each given a booster pack with the ticket taped down on the pack. Once we reported our scores for that round, we could bring them our raffle ticket and pick up our prize. I received one of the tickets with "Kit" so I was allowed to pick any Born of the Gods prerelease box I wanted. Since a friend of mine had chosen Destined to Dominate (Black) and had pulled a Heliod, Erebos, and a Mogis, I thought maybe Black would be one of the things to get (during RTR, there was some weird anomaly that happened where the Golgari boxes were exceptionally awesome, so I thought maybe there was a repeat of this). I didn't really get anything too awesome out of that box, but I did get a Gild and a Temple of Malice and I want playsets of the scry lands (I firmly believe that M15 will not have dual lands of any kind and that once October rolls around, scry lands will be the dual lands out there to play with). The pack with the raffle ticket was an Astral Cornucopia, and if you are a regular reader, you should know what I think of them.

But wait, the FTV:20 card and prerelease box giveaways are not all! At every other prerelease I've been to in recent times, everyone cares about getting Top 8 and getting booster packs for being in that place, and the Top 8 likes to split and in some cases, a couple people are so adamant and arrogant about being top seed that they think they should get the most of everything. The prizes were the most fair I've seen: For every round you win, you get a pack of Born of the Gods. We played 5 rounds and I walked away with 2 packs (I won two rounds 2-0 and went 1-2 in a couple rounds and then 0-2 in one round). I got a Brimaz, King of Oreskos and a Fate Unraveler so I'm pretty happy about it.

Following the prerelease, as this is the grand opening of the store (same store and same regulars, different owners, store name, and location), the owners ordered pizzas and many of the players hung around for Board Game night which started right after. All in all, this was a pretty good afternoon and evening.

For any of you in the area, FNM at Red Battle Games will be the cost of a booster pack (purchased in store or brought from home). Boosters will be the prize pool and winners will get to choose packs (from top place down) from the pool.