Return To Ravnica Pre-release Part 2

In my previous post, I outlined the RTR expansion and what it brings to the table. Now, let’s take a look at what I did there!

I chose the Selesnya Conclave!

At the pre-release, each player will receive a Guild Box. Inside each of the 5 Guild Boxes are the following 6 items:

1. A guild acceptance letter

2. An achievement card

3. A guild sticker

4. A guild coloured spindown life counter

5. 5 RTR booster packs

6. A guild booster. Instead of 15 random cards, this special pack contains 15 guild aligned cards along with an alternate art foil pre-release promo. I thought it’d have a special packing but they were cheap and used a transparent packing instead.

It was supposed to be a draft game but because almost everyone drew nice cards from the 5 boosters, it was decided that instead of drafting, we would keep our cards but play with draft rules instead.

Deck on the right and sideboard on the left

I was very unlucky. Practically every card in my first three packs were either Rakdos cards, or unaligned black and red cards. I opened a Chromatic Lantern on the fourth pack and I thought: “Screw the guild, let’s just play all five colours.”. The fifth pack was my saving grace as I got more unaligned green and white cards. I lamented at my choices and I decided that I had enough cards to pull of a Selesnya deck with a blue splash.

I looked at the other Selesnya players and I wanted to gut myself for having such bad luck. There was a guy who played a defensive Selesnya deck with a red splash; it gave him both early and late game pressure. Another guy played a hyper aggressive Selesnya with a black splash. There were only a few people who played a pure guild deck without splashing on any of the other colours.

My deck was looking so bad. I pulled 2 Azorius Guildgates, a Hallowed Fountain, an Azorius Keyrune, and only one Selesnya Guildgate. I had little to no cards with Populate but at least I had a decent spell and creature count.

I played only one of four rounds as I had to go somewhere else when the first round ended. Nevertheless, it was a good experience and I learnt a lot.

If anyone is interested, here’s my deck list:
Lands (23)
Grove of the Guardian (1)
Selesnya Guildgate (1)
Azorius Guildgate (2)
Hallowed Fountain (1)
Plains (8)
Forest (9)
Island (1)

Spells (10)
Rootborn Defenses (1)
Eyes in the Skies (1)
Trostani’s Judgement (2)
Druid’s Deliverance (1)
Common Bond (2)
Dramatic Rescue (1)
Growing Ranks (1)
Azorius Keyrune (1)