The Prerelease Survival Guide, Saviors of Kamigawa Edition

blisterguy returns with another installment from his heralded series of prerelease survival guides designed to give both noobies and veterans alike some insights on how tomorrow will play out.

To be truly ready for a prerelease, there are many things you need to do. We’ll skip over any metaphysicals such as attenuating you mind to the never-ending cosmos and sleeping with a picture of Lindsay Lohan under your pillow, and head straight on to the essentials. [Besides, Lindsay is scary thin these days. Yet another hot Hollywood actress falls victims to Terry Hatcher syndrome. – Knut, mourning]


Eat a good breakfast.

This is important every day, but what am I, your mother? While you should have breakfast everyday, you won’t catch me caring if you skip it on any other morning. Prerelease day however, is a whole different kettle of fish. (Note to you: a kettle of fish does not a good breakfast make.) You may only plan on spending a few hours there, but these events end up stretching long into the night. Eventually Tournament Organizers leave their judges in charge and go home to sleep. The judges have families who grow up to continue running the tournament, and only several generations later will some level one judge’s great, great grandson tell you that it’s time to leave because they need to clean up for tomorrow’s event. A hearty breakfast will help you play on through all of this, where an empty stomach will cause play mistakes, a lack of concentration and in extreme cases, a reduction in weight. However, this is strongly discouraged among Magic players. Society has expectations, you know?


Remember to get dressed.

I don’t care if you do it yourself, or your mother does it. (Another note to you: as above, I am not your mother and under no circumstances will I dress you.) You need to get dressed before you leave for the tournament. Once you’ve arrived is too late. The last thing we need is people getting on to the forums and posting pictures of themselves at the prerelease wearing their jimmy-jams slash pajamas slash pee-jays and some fluffy bunny slippers. This is not the kind of thing we need at all. I repeat, there should not be a thread dedicated to people attending prerelease tournaments in fluffy bunny slippers. I hope you understand what I’m getting at here.


Come prepared.

Bring a pen and some paper. I have judged at enough prereleases to know that one hundred people without pens will shave three years off the life of your T.O. I know that we now have had to resort to handing out blunt pencils, no jokes, to people who haven’t come prepared. Don’t be the dork with a blunt pencil who puts his or her hand up when we ask “who’s the dork who forgot their pen?”


Know where you need to go.

You will not be playing with fancy new Saviors of Kamigawa cards this weekend if you don’t know how to get to the venue. Sort it out with your buddies. Get a group together and share a car or something. Don’t be the dork with a blunt pencil and fluffy bunny slippers who has passed out from lack of food on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. (Yet another note to you: if somehow there IS a thread for pictures of people in fluffy bunny slippers, bonus points go to anyone who manages to photograph someone coma’d out on the side of the road while wearing fluffy bunny slippers. Blunt pencil is optional.)


Know what you’re up against.

This is where I come in. While you could try to memorize the entire Saviors spoiler, a better plan is to read this article over your breakfast on the Saturday morning. Below I have picked out the more common tricks and traps that are likely to befall you this coming weekend. I tend to skip over most rares because, well, they’re rare, and I won’t spend much time talking about efficient creatures, because you can see their impact on the game coming from a mile away. What I will cover are those cards that are likely to ruin your combat step or break your board position in the blink of an eye. Unlike creatures, these cards will spend most of their time loitering in and around your opponent’s hand and library, only to spring forth to poop in your pocket, where you’ll forget about it until later when you thrust your hand into your pocket and ewww.


First up, a few counterspells. I count three cards that can stop your whatever from resolving in an orderly fashion, which seems like quite a few for such a small set. While all 165 cards do appear to be known for this set, at the time I’m writing this, not all of the rarities are confirmed. I have tried to indicate where a card’s rarity is unclear, but if you don’t know what “?” means, then perhaps you should look into acquiring a clue.


Ghost-Lit Warder

1U, Creature – Spirit

3U, T: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. Channel – 3U, Discard Ghost-Lit Warder: Counter target spell unless its controller pays 4.

1/1

Uncommon (?)


Oppressive Will

2U, Instant

Counter target spell unless it’s controller pays 1 for each card in your hand.

Common



Overwhelming Intellect

4UU, Instant

Counter target creature spell. Draw cards equal to that spell’s converted mana cost.

Uncommon



Woah, hay, look at that last one! I don’t suggest playing any especially hefty livestock into Blue, Blue and four other if they happen to have a full grip. Unless they somehow have a good reason for holding perfectly good cards in their hand instead of playing them. Oh no wait! That’s what this set’s theme is! How tricksey of Wizardses of the Coasts! The following cards should give you a fair idea of what I’m talking about here.


Kitsune Bonesetter

2W, Creature – Fox Cleric

T: Prevent the next 3 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn. Play this ability only if you have more cards in hand than each opponent.

0/1

Common


Secretkeeper

3U, Creature – Spirit

As long as you have more cards in hand than each opponent, Secretkeeper gets +2/+2 and has flying.

2/2

Common (?)


Deathmask Nezumi

2B, Creature – Rat Shaman

As long as you have seven or more cards in your hand, Deathmask Nezumi gets +2/+1 and has fear.

2/2

Common


Okina Nightwatch

4G, Creature – Human Monk

As long as you have more cards in hand than each opponent, Okina Nightwatch get +3/+3.

4/3

Common


Akki Underling

1R, Creature – Goblin Warrior

As long as you have seven or more cards in your hand, Akki Underling get +2/+1 and has first strike.

2/1

Common


So with that, there really isn’t a choice to make if you win the die roll. It may not be so cut and dry once the Sealed format features only one booster of Saviors, but this weekend you’ll have three shiny new packs to play with, so I’d say you’ll be drawing if given the opportunity. If the rebel in you is tempted to build some hyper-aggressive deck and opt to play all weekend, which let’s face it, will you’ll be able to do whether you win the roll or not, I suggest you run your eyes over this little fella first.


Minamo Scrollkeeper

1U, Creature – Human Wizard

Defender (This creature can’t attack) Your maximum hand size is increased by one.

2/3

Common


He’s perfect for stopping bears from causing offence and letting those pesky Blue players fly over for the win. (Still yet another note to you: letting your opponent fly over for the win is seldom considered a Good Strategy.) So yeah, don’t choose to play.


Anyway, as shown above there are cards that like you to have many cards in hand. As you may have guessed, the “good” news doesn’t stop there. Even if you opponent untaps with for example, three or four cards in hand, there are several ways they can end up with seven or more before their attack step rolls around. Obviously, there are several permanents in this set that will do that, but again, the important point here is that a sudden swell in hand size could come right out of left field. That is of course if by “left field” I mean “their hand or library”.


Seek the Horizon

3G, Sorcery

Search your library for up to three basic land cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Common (?)


Ideas Unbound

UU, Sorcery – Arcane,

Draw three cards. Discard three cards at end of turn.

Rare {?}


Sorceries you can see coming. Instants, not nearly as much. I mean, sure you can see it while it’s on the stack, so for a while there things aren’t a complete disaster, but eventually that stack is gonna resolve and that ain’t gonna change those blocks that you made just now. In fact, in the context of Saviors, instant speed card drawing slash hand size manipulation can pretty much be categorized as a Nifty Combat Trick


Murmurs from Beyond

2U, Instant – Arcane,

Reveal the top three cards of your library. An opponent chooses one. Put that card into your graveyard and the rest into your hand.

Common (?)


Death Denied

XBB, Instant – Arcane,

Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to your hand.

Uncommon (?)


Death Denied could be particularly nasty if played for say, four or even more. Other than the fact they just boosted their hand size by a healthy margin, they also got back several creature cards that you had probably put a fair amount of time and effort into killing earlier. How unlucky for you! Now while those instants could be considered combat tricks, the following cards are definitely of the more classic style of combat maneuver that we’re accustomed to.


Charge Across the Araba

4W, Instant – Arcane

Sweep – Return any number of plains you control to their owner’s hand. Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn for each plains returned this way.

Uncommon


Plow through Reito

1W, Instant – Arcane

Sweep – Return any number of plains you control to their owner’s hand. Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each plains returned this way.

Common


These first two bridge the gap nicely from the last lot, don’t you think? The Plow is cute like a Care Bear and is at least Arcane. The Charge is cute like an overgrown Polar Bear, ravenous for a bite of the trout in your trousers. “Oh look, you blocked by guys. My guys get +3/+3 and are considerably bigger than yours. Good times! Oh, I sure could get used to this Magical the Gatherening game! ^_^ “


Shinen of Stars’ Light

2W, Creature – Spirit

First strike Channel – 1W, Discard Shinen of Stars’ Light: Target creature gains first strike until end of turn.

2/1

Common


Shinen of Flight’s Wings

4U, Creature – Spirit,

Flying Channel – U, Discard Shinen of Flight’s Wings: Target creature gains flying until end of turn.

3/3

Common (?)


Ghost-lit Nourisher

2G, Creature – Spirit

2G, T: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Channel – 3G, discard Ghost-lit Nourisher: Target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.

2/1

Uncommon


Oooh yes look, Channel cards. Aren’t they clever? No more exciting than Cycling cards, really. Actually, I do like that you don’t get the free card when you discard these ones, it means it’s a decision not to be taken lightly, especially seeing as Cards in Hand is that much more of a Good Thing now. If Channel was the same as Cycling, I suspect this mechanic wouldn’t have been nearly as interesting as it is now.


Hail of Arrows

XW, Instant

Hail of Arrows deals X damage divided as you choose among any number of target attacking creatures.

Uncommon


Inner Calm, Outer Strength

2G, Instant – Arcane

Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of cards in your hand.

Common


Path of Anger’s Flame

2R, Instant – Arcane

Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Common


Spiritual Visit

W, Instant – Arcane

Put a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token into play. Splice onto Arcane W

Common


Some of that cool, and some of that quite hardcore. I have to admit, I’m rather looking forward to Splicing Spiritual Visit in the months to come. That’s just the kind of subtle yet also eventually powerful effect I like to play. Sadly though, I don’t think surprise 1/1s are gonna blow combat out of the water. Not like Path of Anger’s Flame will, anyway. The next few cards will make the prospect of combat somewhat more daunting than first thought.


Aether Shockwave

3W, Instant,

Choose one – Tap all Spirits; or tap all non-Spirit creatures.

Common (?)


Razorjaw Oni

3B, Creature – Demon Spirit 4/5,

Black creatures can’t block.

Uncommon (?)


Shinen of Fear’s Chill

4B, Creature – Spirit

Shinen of Fear’s Chill can’t block. Channel – 1B, Discard Shinen of Fear’s Chill: Target creature can’t block this turn.

3/2

Common (?)


Shinen of Life’s Roar

1G, Creature – Spirit

All creatures able to block Shinen of Life’s Roar do so. Channel – 2GG, discard Shinen of Life’s Roar: All creatures able to block target creature this turn do so.

1/2

Common


A touch of Lure here, and a smattering of Fear there. Same candy, similar wrapper. (Who would have thought, yet another note to you: don’t leave candy wrappers or other rubbish lying around the tournament venue. It will irritate the staff to no end, and they may retaliate my confiscating your fluffy bunny slippers or *gasp* perhaps even giving you an even blunter pencil!)


The next wee batch involves Haste. Just when you thought you’d left enough blockers, they go and throw don’t some impertinent rascal who just can’t wait until the start of your next turn before he or she wants to rumpus in the that rumpus room called the Attack Phase. Crikey! It’s enough to make a man lose all faith in said attack phase and want to cash in his Declare Attackers Step for a playset of Dampen Thoughts!


Oni of Wild Places

5R, Creature – Demon Spirit

Haste At the beginning of your upkeep, return a red creature you control to its owner’s hand.

6/5

Uncommon (?)


Shinen of Fury’s Fire

2R, Creature – Spirit Haste

Channel – R, Discard Shinen’s of Fury’s Fire: target creature gain haste until end of turn.

2/1

Common


Feral Lightning

3RRR, Sorcery

Put three 3/1 red Elemental creature tokens with haste into play. Remove them from the game at end of turn.

Rare


I know I don’t usually mention rare cards is these articles slash incoherent ramblings, but goodness me if nine damage on the quick isn’t a beating and a half! You’ll no doubt hear about people getting smashed about by that card all weekend long.


Now for the removal. I love removal, it kills things, it ruins perfectly good double-blocks, and it sometimes even counters opposing combat tricks. Yes, if removal were to run for class president, it sure would get my vote! We’ll start with the slow stuff, which kinda ties in with the stuff above in that one less blocker can be quite the inconvenience.


Exile into Darkness

4B, Sorcery,

Target player sacrifices a creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have more cards in hand than each opponent, you may return Exile into Darkness from your graveyard to your hand.

Uncommon (?)


Kagemaro’s Clutch

3B, Enchant Creature

Enchanted creature gets –X/-X, where X is the number of cards in your hand.

Common


Kiku’s Shadow

BB, Sorcery,

Target creature deals damage to itself equal to its power.

Common (?)


Spiraling Embers

3R, Sorcery – Arcane,

Spiraling Embers deals damage to target creature or player equal to the number of cards in your hand.

Common (?)


Kiri-Onna

4U, Creature – Spirit

When Kiri-Onna comes into play, return target creature to its owner’s hand. Whenever you play a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may return Kiri-Onna to its owner’s hand.

2/2, Uncommon


Oh man, do I love that Man-‘o-War variant. My gut tells me it may end up being a bit too slow, but my heart says “go on, go on!” If the Kiri-Onna is too slow, let’s try the instants on for speed ROFL 🙄


Barrel Down Sokenzan

2R, Instant – Arcane

Sweep – Return any number of Mountains you control to their owner’s hand. Barrel Down Sokenzan deals damage to target creature equal twice the number of Mountains returned this way.

Common


Ghost-lit Raider

2R, Creature – Spirit

2R, T: Ghost-lit Raider deals 2 damage to target creature. Channel – 3R, discard Ghost-lit Raider: Ghost-lit Raider deals 4 damage to target creature.

2/1

Uncommon


I have to admit, that’s a bit less than I would have thought, but I guess Barrel Down Sokenzan more than makes up for that. This card again serves the double purpose of also filling your hand at instant speed while smashing something for perhaps four or more damage. I’m of the opinion that this will be one of the nastier surprises available to your opponents this weekend. Also, Fork is fun!


Twincast

UU, Instant

Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for this spell.

Rare


Although I wish they had called it “Spoon!” I mean, it’s at least Blue like The Tick, so I don’t see why not.


Now back to the nasty surprises. The last category is just that, things that make you go scee-yoop! Thankfully, they aren’t common like Lava Axe was in Urza’s Legacy and still is in 8th Edition… *shudders*


Gaze of Adamaro

2RR, Instant – Arcane,

Gaze of Adamaro deals damage equal to the number of cards in target player’s hand to that player.


Ebony Owl Netsuke

2, Artifact,

At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, if that player has seven or more cards in hand, Ebony Owl Netsuke deals 4 damage to him or her.

Uncommon (?)


Maga, Traitor to Mortals

XBBB, Legendary Creature – Human Wizard

Maga, Traitor to Mortals comes into play with X +1/+1 counters on it. When Maga comes into play, target player loses life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.

0/0

Rare


Hidetsugu’s Second Rite

3R, Instant, Rare

If target player has exactly 10 life, Hidetsugu’s Second Rite deals 10 damage to that player.


Despite being rare, the last two are still worth noting. Maga, Traitor to Mortals could conceivably resemble an eight-mana Lava Axe with a 5/5 included. Anything less is probably not as really that frightening. A 4/4 and four life is nothing to sneeze at, but a 3/3 and three life for six mana is not going to cut it. Hidetsugu’s Second Rite is certainly an interesting card, and perhaps a even little intimidating at first. Just remember that if you can damage yourself somehow or even gain life while it’s on the stack, Hidetsugu’s Second Rite will do nothing. If you know your opponent is packing the Second Rite and you find yourself on ten life, you may want to consider mana burning for one at some point, preferably before little Timmy Burn-U-lotz over there lays this one out, obviously.


Also be aware that if you want to burn someone out yourself, you may need to watch out for this wee fella.


Ghost-lit Redeemer

W, Creature – Spirit

W, T: You gain 2 life. Channel – 1W, Discard Ghost-lit Redeemer: You gain 4 life.

1/1

Uncommon


Hokay everyone, that’s it, I’m done here. Good luck this weekend, I sincerely hope you win lots of packs. Mostly because your failure to do so will reflect badly on me, now. Just remember, we do not want pictures of you and your buddies wearing fluffy bunny slippers at your prerelease. Not at all. Not even slightly. We certainly don’t want you to click that link to the forums down there at the bottom on this article and post those pictures there, no sir!


 


 


(blisterguy)


 


 


 


 


(blunt pencil. Eer, I mean beep)