You might have noticed a slight uptick in the number of tabletop card game stories in the last few weeks, or more specifically stories surrounding Magic: The Gathering. The reasons for this are twofold: one, tabletop card games certainly fit into the massively multiplayer portion of the MMORPG moniker, not to mention there is a certain amount of role playing whether your deck is filled with creatures, monsters, or Pocket Monsters; and two, we just like us some Magic. 

My personal relationship with MTG is long and, unfortunately, full of holes. I first picked up the game in the Odyssey block of 2001, with Torment and Judgment being the sets I first dug my teeth into the game with. I fell out for a couple of years, resurfacing in 2007 for the original Kamigawa, only to fall out again…until December of 2022. The game had changed wildly in that time: dozens of sets, thousands of cards, brand-new formats…it was entering a whole new world. 

I slowly made my way back to the game via the Commander format – where players bring decks of 99 cards, a single copy of each outside of basic lands, and set aside a designated "commander" with special rules for card 100 – and while that is very entertaining, the classic MTG feel of my youth hadn't been replicated quite yet. Thankfully that time would come last weekend via Phyrexia: All Will Be One, the new set of MTG cards releasing today, February 10. Between the Magic The Gathering: Arena early access and a live, in-person pre-release event, I'm now beginning to feel the same way I did about Magic as I did in high school…I guess third time's the charm. 

Entering The Arena

I'd dabbled in Magic's online client Arena a few times off and on in the past, but with the early access event I figured this was the time to really learn the ins and outs. Having access to every new card in Phyrexia: All Will Be One during the early access period certainly helped me get my bearings, and I was able to build some Standard Constructed decks and take them into battle. 

For those who haven't tried Arena, it does a serviceable job of recreating the full MTG experience in a digital, uh, arena. The pool of cards goes back literal decades, with each set categorized into which formats they were legal for. It took some digging to find this information, however, but once I did it was pretty clear. 

Deck-building was as simple as clicking the cards I wanted, and the game even helped out with things like mana bases, staying in my chosen colors, and more. Before long I had a deck I was happy with, and I challenged a few of my fellow early accessers to some matches.

I got my face caved in. Every time. 

The physical act of deck building was simple, but the art of the build remained (and still remains, if I'm being honest) out of my hands. It can be demoralizing watching my opponent call some powerful Planeswalker friends in to wipe the floor with me, but like every MMO or competitive online video game I've ever played, those beatdowns should quickly be turned into learning opportunities. I just wish I was able to show what I had learned before the early access period ended. 

ONE Sunday At My Local Game Store

A few days later, my local game and hobby shop was hosting official Wizards of the Coast-sanctioned prerelease events for the new set, and a few of my good pals were heading up to check things out. Not having much to do on the Sunday bye week before the Super Bowl (Go Birds, by the way), I joined them for my first ever MTG prerelease event…and I had NO IDEA what to do. 

Unlike Arena, where I had free reign of every card in the set, here I was given a sealed prerelease kit containing six "draft booster" packs (I'd explain, but that's a whole other article) of 15 cards each, a single extra foil card, and some other equipment like cardboard tokens and a 20-sided die to use during play. I then had one hour to build the best deck I could – minimum of 40 cards including basic lands – out of the cards I pulled from those packs, and get ready for a gauntlet of three best-of-three matches. Ho boy, here goes nothing., 

Here's where the best piece of advice I can give about a pre-release event comes into play: don't go alone. My companions were essential in helping me understand the format, the best way to build a deck, and which cards I should include in order to maximize my potential success. That's not to say there aren't friendly people at your local game store, in fact I would bet there are, but for your first ever prerelease it would be wise to bring a MTG-playing pal.

One extremely helpful method they taught me was, after choosing which colors I'd be playing with, to lay out the cards in those colors in order of how much mana they cost to use. From there I could make sure to stock up on quick spells that needed little mana to cast, while keeping a few heavy hitters in the background for later turns. 

I ended up building a red/white deck centered around two strategies: creatures with the Flying ability – meaning they can't be blocked by creatures that don't have Flying or Reach – and offensive artifact cards that took advantage of the new "For Mirrordin!" mechanic of creating a Rebel creature immediately. I had no idea what was coming, but I was excited to play!

Believe it or not, I actually carried this deck to victory in one of the five games I played that day. The second game against my first opponent swung my way thanks to a card called Free From Flesh, which allowed me to power up one of my fliers enough to take out my opponent's remaining life total. Matches 1 and 3, however, were lost once my opponent was able to unleash the hallmark of his deck: Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines. I couldn't really stand up to the centerpiece of the entire set, after all. 

My second match went far quicker than the first, simply because I was run off of the table by a blue/black buzzsaw of creatures, minor deck searching thanks to Experimental Augury, and flying creatures that could counter mine. I did nearly get them to the ten poison counters needed to win in game one, but game two was not even a question, and unfortunately prior commitments forced me to forfeit match three due to running out of time. 

So what did I learn? I learned that Sealed or Draft formats can be an incredible way to jump right into the mana pool, as it forces you to learn cards you might not have otherwise considered for your decks. I learned – more "reinforced" I guess, after learning it during Commander nights – that playing MTG with friends is a type of massively multiplayer experience that's hard to replicate elsewhere. Finally, I learned I'm a Magic: The Gathering fan; indeed, third time was the charm.