Born of the Gods Prerelease

The second set of Magic the Gathering’s Theros block is Born of the Gods.  On February 1st and 2nd, players got to participate in a prerelease event where they were able to play with the newest cards before they are released on February 7th.  Born of the Gods is a smaller with only 165 cards.  The set introduces a new planeswalker: the blue/green Kiora, the Crashing Wave.  As a continuation of the Theros’ gods, the set also introduces the ten demigods of Theros.  The demigods are dual-colored and uses their controller’s devotion to both of the demiogods’ colors.  Born of the Gods will feature five of them with allied-color combinations while Journey Into Nyx (the final set of the block) will feature the remaining five.

We want to thank everyone that came out to the store for the prerelease event.  A special thanks to the players who came to our Sunday event (Go Seahawks).  Hopefully, next year Wizards of the Coast won’t schedule the prerelease during Super Bowl weekend.

Theros Prerelease Events

With the Magic 2014 Core Set release still fresh, we are diving head first into the newest Magic the Gathering block, Theros.  According to Wizards of the Coast, the plane of Theros is ruled by a pantheon of all-powerful gods.  Krakens, minotaurs, and other monsters threaten the safety of walled cities.  Heroes rise to battle, bolstered by their devotion to the gods.  Theros is a very dangerous land outside of the walled cities Meletis, Akris and Setessa (which are inspired by Athens, Sparta and the legends of the Amazons).  Nyx is the night sky, and home of the gods, it moves around each night.  The five main gods are: Heliod (white), Erebos (black), Nylea (green), Thassa (blue) and Purphoros (red).  The gods can take multiple forms and walk among mortals.  The planeswalker, Elspeth Tirel, will fight a Hydra and attracts the attention of Heliod.  Elspeth doesn’t want to be a hero and does not believe she will be called on to be a leader in a world of gods.  Minotaurs are the rampaging savages of Theros.  The Merfolk of Theros are called ‘Tritons’. Thassa (goddesss of the sea) favors appearing as a Triton when she’s among mortals.

Waiting to get inside Anime Kat to register for Theros.

With every new release, there is a prerelease.  Anime Kat had a more limited than usual number of available player slots for this prerelease.  We did sell out and had to turn away hopeful players from our final event.  Players were able to get their hands on the newest cards before the official release date.  Congrats to all who came to Anime Kat to kick off the new Theros block.

Magic 2014 Core Set Prerelease

The newest Magic the Gathering core set is here!  This annual release forms the base set of cards for tournament play and for set rotations.  Typically, the majority of the cards are reprints from previous core sets while only a few are new introductions.  Core sets characteristically contain more cards than expansion sets.  Core sets also differ from each years’ new set by not, usually, introducing new game play mechanics.  Core sets are designed for newer players to begin simply and experience players have a way to flesh out their decks.  Unlike the rest of the year’s releases (called a block)  there is no real storyline to the core sets.

The prerelease for the core set is a change to see what impact the new cards will have on the game for the next year.  As always, Anime Kat is here to make sure you have a fun time trying out the new cards.  We want to thank everyone who were able to make it out for the event.  Good luck with this year’s core set; just watch out for the Slivers!

 

 

 

Dragon’s Maze Prerelease

Waiting to play the Dragon’s Maze Prerelease at Anime Kat.

The Dragon’s Maze prerelease has come and gone.  By every measure, the three prerelease events were a huge success.  The Dragon’s Maze Prereleases were some of the largest events we have ever had at Anime Kat.

There were some new parts to the events compared to previous releases.  First, each player got a guild kit.  In the kit, each player got: one Return to Ravnica Guild Booster Pack, Four Dragon’s Maze Booster Packs, and One Gatecrash Guild Booster Pack.  The second new part was the Implicit Maze.  Players worked collectively to advance their chosen guild through the Implicit Maze each round.  The first guild to the end of the maze won a special prize.

The first event we had was a Sealed event on Saturday.  We had a total of 16 players and played 4 rounds.  As a reminder: in a sealed event, each player get a number of unopened packs of cards.  Players then open the packs and have a set amount of time to build decks using only those packs of cards.

Sunday is always the bigger of the two days, and the Two-Headed Giant game at noon is always our largest event.  In a Two-Headed Giant at a prerelease, players participate just like a Sealed event but face off in teams of two.  For this prerelease we had 30 players with a total of 15 teams.  Because of the very limited supply of each guild choice (we only had 3 of each for the Two-Headed Giant), many players lined up at Anime Kat before we opened at 11 to make sure they received the guild they wanted.

The final event we had for the prerelease was another Sealed event.  To finish our almost 11 hours of prerelease events on Sunday, we had 19 players for the final event.  The players fought for a total of 5 rounds during our last Sealed event.

We would like to thank all of the players that came out to Anime Kat to make this a very successful series of events.  Without you players, there are no events!

Playing the Dragon’s Maze Prerelease at Anime Kat