Like most of the rest of you who will be reading this, I took part in the Odyssey on September 22 and had a blast. After a couple of not-so-enjoyable prerelease tournaments at the local (read: forty miles from my house) site, I decided to join a couple of my friends who were headed to Las Vegas for the prerelease and some other gaming as a mini-vacation. I got to the airport early and went through the long, slow line to have all of my goods x-rayed and myself scanned for metal objects. One observation that I would like to make is that most carry-on luggage and such items have easily accessible zippered pockets on them that could easily hold all of your spare little metal objects that set off the metal detectors. By using these pockets prior to getting to the front of the line, and by letting the x-ray machine see how much change you have, you can easily speed up your passage through this very necessary bottleneck. If only the four people in front of me had this epiphany, my passage would have been easier. It didn't matter too much, as I had planned for that extra time. Some gambling, a short night's sleep in the hotel, and a cab ride to the site, and I was ready to engage in some fun.

The organizers did a very good job of setting up and running the event. They rented one of the LV Elks Lodges for the event and there was more than enough room for everyone to play. They ran flights of thirty-two plus players through four rounds, with those people with four wins getting half a box and those with three wins getting four packs. A total of four flights were started throughout the day, with two starting fairly early, the third starting around noon, and the final flight starting around 3 p.m. They were going to have a fifth flight, but there was too little interest. There were also numerous side booster drafts during the day. The pricing structure was favorable to being in multiple events, with each subsequent event of the same type (sealed or booster) costing less, down to a breakeven point ($15 for sealed and $10 for booster). As for the overall running of the tournaments, there was only one repairing of people after they sat down in one round of one flight. They also ran the fourth flight as a charity event for the Red Cross Disaster Relief fund, with over $1000 being raised and double prizes being given. They had someone bringing in lunch (hot dogs and hamburgers with chili and stuff) and dinner (a taco bar) for a reasonable price. But one of the big things in their favor was the lodge has a bar that opened at noon.

I really liked the multiple flights idea, as this allows you to get out of one flight if you failed to have any luck in the cards that you received or you set up your initial deck incorrectly by about five cards (12.5% or your deck or 22% of your non-land cards) because you really hadn't understood all of the interactions of the cards. The latter happened to me in the first flight, meaning that I was almost a sure loser in the first game of each match and would have to battle uphill in the second and third games to get a win. I dropped to get into the third flight. There, I faced an opponent who was in the same colors that I was, and it seemed that every creature that he cast either had a higher toughness or power (or both) than the one I had just cast for the same cost. When they announced that they were starting another flight with the proceeds going to charity, it sure was easy to drop after one match and slide over to that flight. There, I took my hard-won knowledge of card interactions and my newfound ability to get a better card pool to a winning record and eight packs.

The deck that I built from the pool of cards that I received was a very beatdown deck, with the following:

Creatures/Pseudo-Creatures:

1cc: Testament of Faith, Chatter of the Squirrel
2cc: Mystic Visionary, Soulcatcher, Werebear, Werebear
3cc: Lieutenant Kirtar, Thaumatog, Nantuko Elder
4cc: Mystic Zealot, Aven Fisher, Springing Tiger
5cc: Aven Flock, Balshan Griffin, Rabid Elephant
6cc: Limestone Golem
7cc: Roar of the Wyrm, Iridescent Angel

Instants/Sorceries:
1cc: Kirtar's Desire
2cc: Aether Burst
3cc: Embolden, Think Tank
1Xcc: Syncopate

Land:
1 Timberland Ruins
1 Abandoned Outpost
5 Plains
5 Forests
5 Islands

First Round against Mike Regano:

Game 1: Mike won the die roll and elected to play first. He played a Chatter of the Squirrel, followed by my Chatter of the Squirrel. Electing to hold the Squirrel back, he turned it into a Tim with a Psionic Gift and pinged my squirrel. On my second turn, I made another squirrel and passed. On turn three, he created another squirrel and pinged my second squirrel, while I demonstrated my Testament of Faith. His squirrels decided that they lacked the faith that my enchantment had and stayed home, deciding to ping me instead. He added a Hallowed Healer the next turn and pinged me again. Having enough of the squirrel, I lit off an Aether Burst under it and sent it packing. My Testament held of his attack for a couple more turns until I cast the Howl of the Wyrm and added some pressure to his position. He dealt with one wyrm token, but had no real answer to the other except throwing bodies in the way. The game was sealed when I cast the Angel.

Game 2: I did no sideboarding and he changed out something but the second game went much the same as the first although he did get me down to fourteen with squirrels, both by attacking and with that nutty Psionic Gift. (You must admit that a squirrel with his brow furrowed in deep concentration to cause someone damage is a bit of a funny picture.)

Second Round against Matt Shahrevay:

Game 1: Matt won the die roll and elected to play, while I checked my luggage to take a trip to Paris after a one-land hand. I kept another one land hand and play commenced. I cast the first creature with a Mystic Visionary who popped him for a couple turns while he got out a Leaf Dancer to do a tango on my dome. He followed up the Dancer with a Cursed Monstrosity, which caused him to discard a land from hand when I Aether Burst it. I added a Rabid Elephant to my side of the board and knocked him down to six before it was destroyed, but then I added an Iridescent Angel to my side. The Leaf Dancer had knocked me down to six, while he was at two and looking at the Angel, when he drew a Firebolt, attacked and removed me, and the Firebolt, from the game.

Game 2: I took out the Soulcatcher and added in a Sphere of Law in my sideboarding, while he added in a couple of cards. I chose to draw for the second game, and it was a good thing because I need the extra time to pack my bags again. I Parised down to six and got a slow hand. Unfortunately for me, he got an extremely fast draw and knocked me down to zip in three attacks (20, 11, 6, dead), with me just throwing out bodies to try and stem the flow.

The second game was so fast, we had time for a third one for - fun and of course, my deck decided to allow me to stay home when it didn't count and it came out with too many threats for him to deal with.

Third Round against Aaron Baraff:

Game 1: Aaron won the die roll and elected to play while I wished I could get frequent flyer miles on these trips to France. I rolled out first with my Mystic Visionary, which was eventually met by an Aven Fisher. Aaron added another Fisher, an Escape Artist, and a Chainflinger to his side of the board, while I added a Springing Tiger, Lieutenant Kirtar, and a Soulcatcher to my side. His Chainflinger made short work of the Soulcatcher, and he walked into the fact that the good Lieutenant can block and sacrifice to remove an attacking creature when he is cast with 1W still up. He soon reached threshold for his Chainflinger, and with the Escape Artist he whittled away at my life totals until I was sub-zero.

Game 2: Out went the Soulcatcher and in went the Sphere of Law again. I chose to draw and was able to keep my opening hand. He laid the first creature, a Mad Dog, while I responded with a Mystic Visionary. We traded hits for one round before he added a Patchwork Gnome to the picture. I added the Sphere of Law to my side of the table and then a Limestone Golem. The Gnome stayed home to protect against the Golem after the Dogs had run into it and died. When I added a Rabid Elephant to the mix, he needed to cast another creature (a Pardic Firecat), which emptied his hand, allowing me to attack and kill the Gnomes. He then drew an Aven Fisher, which traded hits with the Limestone Golem until I got out my Fisher and proceeded to pound him down. As an act of last defiance, he cast a Flameburst, which, with the Firecat in the graveyard, did me one point of damage past the Sphere. One star in this match was my Think Tank. It allowed me to avoid drawing worthless cards a number of times, while letting the good ones go through. I really believe that Think Tank is a wonderful spell in the environment and might find a place in Constructed as an element in a control and/or graveyard recursion deck.

Game 3: Aaron decided to play first and both of us kept our hands. I was able to put pressure on him early with a Mystic Visionary and a couple of squirrels until I was able to cast the Thaumatog and a Rabid Elephant. I had out my Testament of Faith and kept mana back to kill whatever came across. Aaron cast a Puppeteer that helped to stall the beats on my side. Time was called with Aaron at fifteen life, while I had yet to be touched. On the first extra turn, I attacked with everything, except the elephant who had been tapped, dealing five damage and killing off a couple of creatures each. He was not able to cast anything on his turn, and so on turn 3 I again entered my attack phase. Aaron again had his tapper take the elephant out of the attack and I sacrificed six lands to the Atog to take him down to exactly zero. I feel that he should have tapped the Atog, as I could not do enough damage on that turn with the elephant and others to kill him and he would have had one more turn. It is possible that he didn't realize that I could sac all my lands to take him down that turn, as I had only sacrificed enchantments the previous turn to kill his creature and save my Atog. He would have had one more draw and might have topdecked the necessary card to stop me from winning. In either case, he was a very gracious loser and congratulated me for my win and wished me luck in the next round.

Round 4 against Chris Higashi:

Game 1: Chris won the die roll and elected to play first (gee, four out of four). Unfortunately for him, he had to Paris and went down to six cards, while my hand was very good to me. I didn't take too great of notes for this game, but my damage sheet shows him dropping to a couple of squirrels joined with the Nantuko Elder and the Balshan Griffin.

Game 2: He sideboarded a couple of cards in against me and elected to play. I was able to get a couple of squirrels on the board, while he added in a Mystic Visionary and a Graceful Antelope. The Nantuko Elder showed up (again) on my side about the time he dropped the Delaying Shield on the board. Let me tell you, that that was a real pain. He managed to turn one of my lands into a plains and kept me off of blue mana for a bit. I prevented damage from the Antelope a couple of times with Embolden, and prevented him from turning any more of my lands to Plains. He held off attacking with the Antelope to hold back the Elder, but later admitted that he should have attacked to cause me some more damage and to turn some of his lands into Plains to help power the Delaying Shield. He used the Shield to prevent around twelve points of damage as it was, while not using all of his mana each turn, so I would have to agree with him. We reached a standoff on the ground when the Iridescent Angel decided to show up. She is such a beating. He had to use his white mana to meet my expanding list of threats on the board and couldn't keep all of the Angel's damage from hitting him, so he soon succumbed.

All of my opponents were very nice to play against and I hope feel the same about myself. I would recommend the flight method that was used in Las Vegas for other sites running Prerelease tournaments as it removes the onus of getting a subpar set of cards in your initial packs.

As usual, if you have any comments on the above, please do not hesitate to email me at the address below. I will try to respond in a timely manner to any constructive comments or questions.

Arthur Pruyn
The Baron of Scrubs
playfair@abac.com