By Sarah Kirkland
Fans of Magic: the Gathering know the anticipation that comes with the release of a new set. Later this month, the 90th expansion, Innistrad: Crimson Vow, debuts. Crimson Vow takes place in one of Magic players’ favorite settings, Innistrad, with a lavish vampire wedding the major narrative event.
The expansion releases officially on Nov. 19, but we know you can’t wait until Nov. 19 to play the tabletop version. That’s why spell-slinging diehards like you love a prerelease to satisfy your craving for tilting cardboard.
What to expect from Crimson Vow
Some new mechanics are dropping as part of this expansion.
Training allows you to put a +1 / +1 counter on any creature with that listed on its card, whenever the creature attacks a creature with greater power.
Cleave is a handy new mechanic for certain listed instant and sorcery cards. Pay the cleave cost and, in most cases, you can expect that spell you’re casting to become much more versatile.
Blood tokens can be accrued through play. At any time, you can spend one mana, tap the token and sacrifice it to draw a card. If you enjoyed the sacrifice mechanic in one of its previous heydays in Standard (oh, Cauldron Familiar, we’ll never forget you), it might be primed for a comeback.
We’ll also see the return of double-faced cards, which in this case have one side labeled as Daybound and one side listed as Nightbound. Any game of Magic will start out as neither day nor night. Certain cards have triggers that indicate it as being day or night. Once it’s day or night, the game will be exactly one of those designations, day or night, going back and forth until the game ends. How does it change from day to night? Well, if it’s day as a turn starts and the player on the last turn didn’t cast a spell, it becomes night. Cast two or more spells on your turn, and it becomes day again, with any cards flipping accordingly to their Nightbound side.
The schedule
Our Crimson Vow prerelease weekend kicks off on Friday, Nov. 12 with a sealed event at 3 p.m. Another will follow at 7 p.m., during our normal FNM. Friday’s last event will occur at midnight. We’ll provide food for all participants at the midnight event, and we’ll play out the top eight.
On Saturday, a Two-Headed Giant tournament will begin at noon. A regular sealed event starts at 6 p.m.
On Sunday, we’ve extended our hours so we can have two more sealed events at noon and 6 p.m.
Prize support
Each round of prize support will be based on attendance per event. The prize support given out will be given to the top cut of each event after swiss rounds are completed. With the exception of the midnight event, where we will be offering players the option to play out the top 8.
Stuff to know
Pricing is $25 per event, but if you know anything about past prelease weekends at Mulligan’s, you know there are going to be some bundles and discounts available to you. Let’s take a look …
Mulligan’s Special Bundle for $65. This option gets you a seat in three events of your choice.
Want to play in all seven events? The Weekend Special Bundle is $135.
To sign up for the Crimson Vow prerelease event weekend, you’ll need a Wizards account. If you don’t have one, our staff can help you sign up.
One important note… due to production issues, we won’t be pre-selling booster boxes. All Crimson Vow packs and boxes will be handled on a first come, first served basis.
Magic Prerelease in Johnson City
Get your fix of Innistrad: Crimson Vow as part of our prerelease weekend. Book your spot today by emailing us at mulligansgamingpub@gmail.com or call us at (423) 406-1580. We hope to see you at our store, located at 308 East Main Street in downtown Johnson City, TN.
