The Prerelease I'll Always Remember

     Last Sunday I played in the Mindstorm Hobbies M14 Prerelease Party held at Padi's Point in SM North.  While I wanted to open money rares I was also secretly hoping to go 4-0 and bring home a free t-shirt for doing so.  I had never achieved it, always ending up with a 3-1 record despite having great sealed (my favorite format!) decks.  Either I would mulligan to oblivion or be blown out of the water by an opponent who curved perfectly.

     I ripped the packs in anticipation and didn't get anything valuable other than a Jace, Memory Adept and Imposing Sovereign.  It looked like I had to earn back the 1,200 peso-entry fee by winning all my matches.  Even though there were support cards to try and play the blue planeswalker and thus deplete libraries left and right, it didn't appeal to me not when there were six slivers begging to be played in a Naya shell.  So I built that instead.  My deck was packed tight with eighteen 2 or 3-power creatures and five spells, mostly burn and pump spells to push damage through.

     Sweeping three opponents in a row gave me hope that I might finally achieve my goal of being unbeaten and donning the Prerelease shirt.  I received a bashing in the first game of the last round, however, and doubt crept in.  There was a minute that seemed like an eternity while I wondered if I would fail again.  Miraculously I found a reservoir of faith after that moment of despair and proceeded to steal the next two games to attain my objective.

     People around me stopped playing to gawk in shock and amusement as I shouted like a maniac in pure joy.  I had finally done it!  It felt awesome to cross off an item in my Magic bucket list.  Bazinga!