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The Secret of the (Secret) Promos

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I have had a serious complaint about Prereleases the last few years. While the whole "pick a Guild and play a promo from it!" was truly awesome for Return to Ravnica, it felt a little odd that the trend continued past that. After all, it doesn't make a ton of sense where there's no Guild to choose from.

On the other hand, I do understand letting people play the colors they want. People did it anyway, so you may as well give them the cards so they can actually compete.

But there was a problem. A major one. People weren't picking a color based on their preference, they were picking based on what the most powerful promo card was. After I played against Black five times in a row at the Magic 2015 prerelease, it was clear we had a serious issue.

Luckily, it seems to be one they've fixed.

Your promo this weekend? Maybe.
Your promo this weekend? Maybe.

For the Khans events this weekend, you will receive one of up to 40 promos and be allowed to play with it. The catch is, you have no idea what it could be. Is it a perfect solution? I'm not sure about that, but sure does seem like a really solid step forward. And that is awesome. You can find out more about it here.

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Corbin Hosler

Corbin Hosler is a journalist living in Norman, Oklahoma (also known as the hotbed of Magic). He started playing in Shadowmoor and chased the Pro Tour dream for a few years, culminating in a Star City Games Legacy Open finals appearance in 2011 before deciding to turn to trading and speculation full-time. He writes weekly at QuietSpeculation.com and biweekly for LegitMTG. He also cohosts Brainstorm Brewery, the only financial podcast on the net. He can best be reached @Chosler88 on Twitter.

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Posted in Feature, Free, Khans of Tarkir

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6 thoughts on “The Secret of the (Secret) Promos

  1. I really like this change as well…I picked white for M2015 because the archangel could literally reset a game for you…and it did on numerous occasions. It was even more brutal in 2HG. I have to admit to being one of the players who picked their color based solely on the promo (or in Theros which God came in which one) rather than the color combination I most enjoy playing.

  2. I don’t see why we couldn’t just go back to opening real packs and not playing with the promo. Was people trying to play with their promo even though they always announce that you can’t a big deal?

    1. The promo’s add a bit of strength to your pool. Building a deck out of a random 6 pack card pool was a fun challenge (at times), but it was also very upsetting when your pool was terrible. The promo’s help alleviate that problem (sure some people still open stupid pools…but looking over a terrible pool, realizing you spent $25-30 for it and knowing you won’t get anywhere really turns people away from release events)…I’ve felt (since RTR) that the seeded pools tend to give stronger decks overall (sure everyone has a stronger deck so it’s kind of a wash) but you actually feel like you might have a shot.

      1. I’d rather go back to six packs, but they made the change so the casual players could actually play what they wanted, and that’s the bulk of a prerelease attendance.

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