Gatecrash Pre-Release, or "Always the bridesmaid, Never the Bride!

Another Magic set pre-release has come and gone with a bang!  Lilac House proudly sponsored 3 pre-release tournaments this weekend, opening its doors to welcome a plethora of players of all skill levels.

Martin Biando, a refugee from Comix Zone who got there too late to play and brought a group of friends to Lilac House after finding us on the interent, won our Saturday tournament, defeating your's truley in the final round with, who would have guessed it, BOROS?

TOP Mark Carfagno Jr (left) vs. Doc Casey (right)

 

With the Boros guild the predicted shoe-in for prizes, the black horse of the weekend, was 8-year-old Henery Memmer who won our Sunday afternoon event, the largest of the three.  Henery rode Boros to victory with a 5-0 match record, losing only a handful of games all day.  The match of the day was his epic face off with our Return to Ravinca pre-release winner, 12-year-old Zach Cooper in round 4. 

Henery Memmer (left) & Zach Coper (right)

 

I had a chance to talk to Henery about his deck, one he built himself with no assistance from any adults, just before he went into the 5^th and final round. 

TOM:  Henery, when you built your deck, what were you thinking?

HENERY:  At first I thought it was bad, but then after I played my first 2 rounds and I won, everyone was like “Henery, your deck is really good.”  And then I played my third round.”

TOM: How did you decide what cards you wanted in it (your deck)?

HENERY:  Well, I started off with Boros and I opened my Boros pack first, of course, and all those cards in the pack were good and so I opened my other packs and I got a bunch of other good cards so I decided to play Boros.  And I almost played some black but I realized I could go straight Boros.

TOM:  Well, good, it obviously paid off for you.

HENERY:  Uh huh! 

Henery faced me in round 2.  His deck was a powerhouse of Boros cards.  He utilized Blind Obedience to slow his opponents down while building up hordes with Assemble the Legion.  His ace in the hole, however, was Holy Mantle.  The protection from creature’s enchantment assured him victory in most every game he played.  
 

Courtney Bourque vs. Mark Carfagno

 

After his 2-1 victory over me, Henery’s anxiety level shot up and he vomited blueberry bagel.  Poor kid.  He possibly had a stomach bug, too, no one knows and Henery sure wasn’t telling.  He apparently has nerves of steel, because this little boy recovered from the puking incident, carrying a bucket around with him the rest of the day taking names and mowing everybody’s lawn. 

After defeating Jeremy Lopez in round 5 to seal the deal, Henery had this to say: 

TOM:  So, Henery has won the tournament.  How do you feel?

HENERY:  Good that I won the tournament and I never like won a tournament in the first place before. 

TOM:  Do you like the fact that you beat a bunch of adults?

HENERY:  Yup.  Cos usually adults would be better players.

TOM:  How did you feel when you won?

HENERY:  Felt really really good because I never won first place in a (sealed) before.

TOM:  Tell us how you came up with your mancurve.

HENERY:  I came up with my manacurve cos I had a lot of low drops and Boros is supposed to be low drops and little guys and I had a bunch of those so I just put them in the deck.

TOM: How many land did you use?

HENERY:  17

TOM:  Why did you use 17? 

HENERY:  I had a bunch of 5 drops.

TOM: What card won you the most games, when you played it you knew you had the game?

HENERY:  Assemble the Legion and Blind Obedience. 

Boros assault!

 

Thanks to Henery’s performance, I ended up in second place at this tournament.  In fact, I took second at each tournament this weekend at Lilac House.  I also ran Boros in all three flights.  Boros was actually 2d in all three and first in 2 of the tournaments, Rich’s victory last night in the final tournament with Dimir being the one aberrant result from the norm.  No disrespect to Rich’s play or deck, but I made 4 critical errors in the game, which Rich pointed out to me afterward.  I played sloppily with out reading and understanding my cards fully after a long day of gaming and what was essentially my 9^th match of the day.  Boros lost to fatigue and a talented player that took full tactical advantage of his opponent’s ignorance like any good general should do! 

Until the next time I scream “I CAN’T BELIEVE I LOST TO AN 8-YEAR-OLD!”

 

PEACE!