New prerelease thingy.

[Rakor]

Can anyone explain what the deal is with new prerelease rules? I know wizards has changed some stuff but the only part of the discussion I got was that they are now one week in advance instead of two but I see tons of people talking about how prereleases are now dead and we are all doomed. I can't figure out why.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

There is a new edition of Magic coming out?

 

[Rakor]

There's always a new edition coming out but for the upcoming Shards of Alara set they are making some really big changes. Prereleases were changed to one week before release instead of two but apparently there is something else going on that I am oblivious too.

 

[el-remmen]

The two pieces of info I could find were:

1) Prerelease tournaments/events will now take place only 6 days before the official full release instead of 2 weeks, but will ostensibly be in more places around the world simultaneously.

As far as I am concerned that is neither here nor there.

2) (which is more disconcerting for current magic collectors) Lands will now be found in booster packs! Ostensibly, this is so that new players will have more of a chance to collect land and established players can pass them on to new players more easily (as they will collect more)

This seems like a lame attempt to dilute the value of boosters while keeping the same MSRP.

Thankfully for me, I only every purchase cards from 7th edition and earlier.

 

[Knight Otu]

I suspect it is, partly, this. Apparently, prereleases are now mostly held in places that could hold FNMs, and rumor has it that Wizards cuts prize support for large tournament organizers, likely resulting in larger (and reputedly more fun) prereleases becoming much rarer.

 

[Jok3R]

Also, the prereleases will be given to sanctioned stores, in edition to PES (the guys that run it now), breaking up the large tournaments, as Knight said.