Prereleases - A Primer

Prereleases are one of my favorite events. Everyone comes in on the same footing, all playing with new cards for the first time and all with the same chances of pulling powerful cards from their packs.

In this article I'm going to cover some of the key information around Prereleases, what you should expect from an event like this, some other useful information and frequently asked questions about them.

What is a "Prerelease?"

A Prerelease is exactly what is says on the tin: An event that lets you play with cards from a new set before they are officially released. In the past this also meant you could get cards before everyone else too but now stores are often allowed to sell booster packs, boxes, and even Commander decks on the Prerelease weekend.

What happens at a Prerelease?

Prereleases are normally aimed towards newer players so their structure tends to be very easy to take part in to make sure players without much in-person event experience can still enjoy them. The first thing that will happen is making sure you are signed up for the event.

This tends to be in two parts. You'll pay for your event (which will normally cost slightly more than six play boosters) and then you will need to use the Companion app to join the event using a code provided to you by the event coordinator. The Companion app can be downloaded for free from Wizards' website and allows you to see your pairings at events, track your life total and more.

If you're more used to playing Magic Arena than paper magic, don't worry! Your Companion login will be the same as your Magic Arena account so it should be super easy to get into.

I'd recommend downloading the Companion app before going to the event in case your local game store doesn't have public wi-fi or a good signal.

After everyone is signed up and the event begins you will receive your Prerelease pack. Inside there is a spindown counter (like a D20 but the numbers are in order) for tracking life, six play boosters for the set, and a Prerelease promo; a foil rare or mythic from the set with a special stamp.

This is now when you make your deck to play with. Prereleases are done using the rules for the sealed format. In short, you need to use the packs you've been given (and your Prerelease promo in this case) to create a 40+ card deck to play with.

You can change your deck as much as you want in between rounds using your pool of cards but you can't use anything from outside of your Prerelease pack. You will have around 50-60 minutes to build your deck after which you'll play a number of best-of-three rounds (normally three rounds).

While building your deck you will want a good balance of lands, creatures and spells. I won't go into too much detail about different archetypes here, but I will drop a few top tips for building your deck:

• You should have around 17 lands, 17 creatures, and six spells.
• You will want to make sure you have a good amount of spells that destroy or exile your opponent's creatures to make sure you can get rid of any problematic creatures or permanents they may have.
• Fliers are very good. Sometimes, your opponents won't be able to get rid of your three mana 2/2 flier and you'll win off of the back of it.

And that's it, as I mentioned above, they're designed for newer players so they're pretty simple. As in all things, it's important to remember that your opponents may be newer players and that everyone is playing with these new cards for the first time. If anyone makes mistakes, that's fine.

It's fairly common to allow small takebacks at Prereleases, especially when playing with brand-new mechanics from a set. The most important thing is that people are learning from them and that everyone has a good time.

Where can I do a Prerelease?

Most local game stores will offer Prereleases, but there are a couple of ways you can find your local one:

• You can use the Wizards of the Coast Store Finder to help you find your closest game store as well as using the Event Finder tab on the same site to find any local events whether that is a Prerelease, a competitive tournament, or even the weekly Friday Night Magic.
• You can also join more specific online communities for your local area. There are a lot of Discord servers for specific formats or for local areas as well as more Facebook groups than I can count that will help you out with finding a local store or playgroup.
• You can also just use Google to help you find your local store and then go in and ask the staff about their events and their Prereleases. I've always found that speaking to the staff at your local store is the absolute best way to find out more information about events they offer.

What do I need to do before going to a Prerelease?

Nothing.

That's right, you absolutely don't need to do anything before going to a Prerelease, but there are some things that can do to prepare that will help you to have a more enjoyable experience:

1. Looking at the cards from the new set - You can use a wide range of resources for this like Mythic Spoiler if you want to track cards throughout the whole spoiler season or if you just want to have a quick look before the Prerelease you can check out the official Wizards of the Coast card library for that set (take a look at the Foundations card library here).
2. Read up on synergies in set reviews - Reading set reviews from experienced Magic players can be a really good way to help get an early idea of what is going to be good in the set and to learn more about how experienced players evaluate new cards, EDHREC and Commander's Herald both do set reviews for every new set that comes out.
3. Engage with Limited content online - There are tons of great draft and sealed players online that have content you can use to help you learn a new set when it releases. Personally, I'm a big fan of Voxy's draft streams but I will also always listen to the Prerelease episodes of Limited Resources to get the low-down from the extremely experienced Limited players that host it.
4. Organize your bag the day before - This might seem like a really simple thing but it does make all the difference. It allows you to spend the morning relaxing instead of running around trying to find everything you need for the day's gaming. This is especially important if you're going to an early morning Prerelease.

What should I take with me?

Another question I often see people asking about Prereleases is "What do I need to take with me", the answer to this is actually just the Companion app to sign up for the event.

Everything else you need will be provided in the Prerelease pack on the day. However, there’s some things I'd recommend bringing to help make your event go just that bit smoother:

• Sleeves - These will not only protect your brand-new cards but also make shuffling your deck much easier and smoother. I'll almost always bring slightly more than the 40 I need for my deck just in case I pull a valuable card that I'm not playing or if any of my sleeves break while playing; no one wants to have to buy a whole new pack of sleeves for one or two breaks. I recommend Dragon Shield Mattes purely because they feel really nice to shuffle, they're fairly economical and they come with enough for that Commander deck you've been thinking about building.
• Dice and something to represent counters - +1/+1 counters are an evergreen mechanic and will always be in new sets, so having access to some dice to represent these makes life really easy. It can sometimes also be nice to bring something like small coins or colored glass beads to represent other types of counters that may be in a set. These will make representing a correct board state much easier and will prevent most issues around the confusion of what's what while playing the long, drawn-out games that Sealed often has.
• Basic lands - This is one that people often disagree with since the location of the event will always provide these but personally, I like to take my own purely for quality of life purposes. It allows me to save having to push my way past people sitting at the table I'm at or having to stand around waiting while the land station is busy, it allows me to really focus on my deck. Like I said above, it's really not necessary but can be nice to have
• Deck box - While the Prerelease pack itself acts as a serviceable deck box, it's also nice to have something a little more solid with some storage space for the basic lands, dice, and counters you also might be bringing.

Hopefully, this has been a useful article for those of you hoping to go to your first Prerelease and has helped your understanding of the Prerelease structure, what you can expect to see as well as what you can do to make sure your Prerelease is as enjoyable as possible!

Paul Palmer

Hey there, I'm Paul. I've been writing about magic for a really long time. I love to write about obscure commanders (one of my really early articles back in 2015 was about Skeleton Ship) and how you can make decks around them work, no matter how unplayable they are. I love Gruul, I love Mountains and I love casting Lightning Bolt.