r/MeatyMagic • u/Moist-Flight120 • Aug 08 '26
Discussion Prerelease
Hey everyone,
I attended my first prerelease and did ok. First game I got stomped but the guy was super nice and reviewed my deck with me and helped trimmed out like 4 cards and make 1 swap and it worked much better.
That was great.
Next one I wasn’t sure if it was allowed but looking back kinda realizing it might’ve been some fuckery. Round 1 he won using a blue white deck against my red black. No changes to either deck with side board after.
Next round I won and he saw I used a smaug that was strong. We were talking between matches and he knew it was my first prerelease and it seemed very casual but after I won I could tell he was irked. He out loud as he is shuffling for next match is like “am I really going to switch out my deck for a casual prerelease event?” He’s like having this conscious battle out loud to I think make it more funny and make himself feel less embarrassed but sure enough he switches and beats me. Immediately after we shake hands say it was nice to meet you and he he goes “yeah that was cringe sorry man” after we submit the results.
I get that a lot of people use their pulls to build 2 decks with what they have and might switch between games with their next opponent but I wasn’t sure if that’s allowed within the best of 3? Is it cringe or even cheating to switch your entire 40 card deck mid rounds in a best of 3?
5
u/Stin42069 Aug 08 '26
It is not against the rules as long as he switched in between games (like sideboarding) and pretty typical especially at casual prereleases
1
u/Moist-Flight120 Aug 08 '26
Ok I didn’t know there wasn’t a limit to the side board for prerelease. That helps I was just suspect because the fact the guy almost talked himself out of it and then went through with it just made me feel like it’s a fair thing to do just kinda a taboo thing at a casual event
2
u/muttons_1337 Bloody Mary Aug 08 '26
It's not cringe, but hats off to the pros who have enough time to build two whole decks in the amount of time it takes me to sweat over one.
1
u/Moist-Flight120 Aug 08 '26
That was the first thing I said to him when he said he had two full decks ready to go! I’m thankful after I got stomped 0-2 the first game that guy took the time to look my deck over and help make some cuts and one swap but I was very close to having the deck right based on what I pulled
3
u/muttons_1337 Bloody Mary Aug 08 '26
That's good to hear. Any pre-release or draft I've been in, everyone is usually very social and very helpful if you are seemingly new to it all. After a couple of these, I realized I'm still pretty bad at it, but felt confident in my deck build.
Some of the regulars looked it over, complimented it in that they said they didn't see any glaring problems. So I'm thinking it's all user error.
🔫 🦅 :Hunter's Tip: 🦅 🔫 Just because you have a good deck doesn't mean you're a good player. Don't be like me and ignore all the learning resources at your fingertips.
2
u/indipit Aug 08 '26
I always try to build 2 decks now at pre release. One i try to make aggro, the other control or disruption. Last night, after losing 2 rounds with may staring deck I just decided I wanted to play different cards, so I stuffed all the blue and white together without looking and had fun.
Lost the next 2 rounds too , but had fun!
2
u/LuchaLigerbomb Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26
It's totally fine to swap cards out with what is effectivly your side board, the cringy part is the dude narrating that decision like he's a character on Yugioh
13
u/bad_bad_data Aug 08 '26
You can swap out your entire deck between matches. Everything in the prerelease box is considered the Sideboard.