Assuming there will be a veritable flood of Odyssey Prerelease articles flooding the websites in the next few days... I figured I would go with the flow. This was only my third official Prerelease, and I had the unique opportunity to attend with the esteemed editor of this site, my friend of nearly five years now, Bi... er... the Ferrett.

"Come to the land of Cleves!" he said.

"I will grant you a rare and valuable behind-the-scenes view of the Magic world!" he said.

"My fame stretches from the hoary wastes of the Alaskan wilderness, to the idle suburbs of the Cuyahoga Valley!" he said.

"You will be swept along in my wake, and witness first hand the true majesty of Magic: The Gathering!" he said. (Funny, I don't remember any of this - The Ferrett)

Let me tell you... this sounded really cool.

I mean, I could have simply driven to the Detroit Prerelease only forty five minutes away. No long trip along the mind numbing stretches of I-80 across northern Ohio. Just a quick jaunt, play some Magic, get a cool foil rare and some new cards, and home in time for a late supper.

But Cleveland sounded really cool.

So I went. Took Friday off, drove down early, saw Ferrett's new house (shouldn't that be cage?), ate some good Chinese food, and drove to a local store for their weekly draft. Invasion is such a great set that even though I have more cards than I'll ever need, I don't mind buying more for a good draft.

I should have known the weekend wasn't going to be quite as the Ferrett had implied when only one other guy showed up that night. While Tim was a great guy, and joined us at the Prerelease the next day (great to meet you, Tim, hope to have a chance to play with you again, and put that"Stroke" to good use!), a three-person draft really isn't worth a three and a half hour drive, y'know.

Still, to be fair, the lack of draftees (or I guess it should be drafters, but that sounds like guys sitting around drawing up house plans) might be blamed on my presence. It seems I have the ability to bring Friday Night Magic gatherings to a crashing halt, just by trying to attend. It's happened at my local store a number of times..."Well, gee... last Friday, when you didn't come, we had a dozen people!" All the while I'm watching tumbleweeds blow through the gaming store every time I stop by. It seems the curse travels with me.

So we played three player multi-player draft... Each winning a game. I actually won by making Ferrett deck himself during a creature standoff. That was a first. We called it quits pretty early, because, according to Ferrett, you had to be at the Prerelease by 8:30 in the morning to register. This struck me as odd, as I can't imagine any sane tournament manager trying to get 120 plus gaming geeks to arrive that early, let alone have them registered by then... but I listened to Ferrett.

Ferrett is a professional.

Ferrett knows what he's talking about.

(Read those last two lines with dripping irony.)

So... barely after 7:00 am, we are heading out, picking up Tim at the Parmatown Mall, and trying to find Cuyahoga Falls, using directions from Yahoo that turn out to be missing the last three lines... Leaving us less than a mile from the tournament sight, without a clue where to go, and Ferrett beginning to froth at the mouth over us being late.

It wasn't pretty... but a cell phone call and a little trial and error... and we got there around 8:45 in the morning.

Needless to say - but I'll say it anyway - registration hadn't even begun.

It also occurred to me just why Ferrett had been so insistent about"inviting" me to come with him to the Akron Prerelease.

He needed someone to drive! I find out just that morning that Mrs. Ferrett is taking the car to Pennsylvania... And Bill would have had no way to make the Prerelease, if I hadn't come down. Tim's car was out of commission as well.

The big poster in Ferrett's home office that said"Use Your Friends Wisely" should have been a tip-off, but I'm a naive and honorable fellow and often have to be clubbed over the head before I notice the obvious deviousness of those nearest me.

Anyway...

We registered, we got our cards, we made some decks, we played. My assessment is that Ferrett's deck was best, with mine second, and Tim's third. I played three off-line games against each of them, beating Tim three straight times, and losing to Ferrett three times in close games.

Going into the fifth round, Tim and I were 3-1, and Ferrett was 2-2 and wanting to drop and draft. Nobody listened to him... and he should be glad. I ended up losing my next two games, and he won both of his. 4-2 only got a single pack of Odyssey, but hey... It's top 8.

The turnout was great; the organizers did a good job, with two flights of at least sixty-four, if not more players. Drafts abounded, but I didn't get into them. My R/G/u (just two cards) did pretty well, but I saw how the Big Boys play when I got spanked by one Joe Whitman and his B/U efficiency deck. That"Finkel" card is really devastating in Sealed. I Extracted it in the second game, but it didn't help.

Oh... and Overrun is pretty powerful... again.

All in all, my comment on Odyssey is,"It's fun... but it's no Invasion."

My comment on traveling with Ferrett is,"Just ask me to drive, next time... and let me get the directions... buddy!"

Neil Carver