A few weeks ago I wrote an article to encourage people to attend the upcoming Grand Prix London and highlighted the Travel Preparations you should consider, if you haven’t already had the chance to read it you will find it here.

With the full extent of the cards in Kaladesh now officially previewed excitement for the new cards is ramping up and we expect the format to be a lot of fun. Right now Grand Prix London is already lining up to be a major event, at the time of writing with just over two weeks to go in excess of 1900 players have registered for the main event, making it likely we could see a capacity crowd of 2500 players.

Today I want to talk through some of the preparation you can undertake on your own and within your play group or local community to give yourself the confidence and knowledge to enjoy the Grand Prix and make the most of the opportunity to play magic, enjoy your games and hopefully achieve success.

Step 1: Understand the Mechanics

Each new set we see delivers new mechanics. Kaladesh introduces Energy, a new resource that fuels a range of activated and triggered abilities across the card set which will add a new dimension to the game. We also will experience Vehicles for the first time, a series of artifacts that can become creatures to attack and block as long as you have other creatures to crew them. There is a new keyword in Fabricate which gives you a choice between +1/+1 counters on the creature or creating an equal number of 1/1 artifact creatures called Servos.

Read up on these new rules, get an understanding of the mechanics and it will make it much easier to evaluate the cards in your pool.

Step 2: Know the Cards

Now you hopefully understand the mechanics and keywords when you read them take the time to work through and read the full set of cards which you can find in the Card Image Gallery on the mothership.

After you have read them once go away and come back sometime later, a few hours or the next day and reread them once more. Don’t just skim them but really reread them as this will ensure you will pick up on misconceptions you might have formed the first time and eliminate and misreads you made on your first pass through the set.

Getting to know the cards is the basis of being able to play the game at a good pace. Right now we don’t know the speed of the format and how quickly games will play out but it turns out to be a lower or grindier format, every moment of time you can shave in the game gives you more chance of getting a result and avoiding the dreaded unintentional draw.

Step 3: Attend the Prerelease

For me the best way to learn a format is to play it, the reason you are here and reading this is you enjoy playing Magic and likely want to improve or simply get to play more of the game. The first chance to get your hands on the cards will be this weekend at the numerous Prerelease events going on across the world and hopefully in your local community.

More importantly Prerelease events are Sealed Deck which is exactly the same format as day 1 of Grand Prix London. While you do get an additional random Promotional Card at Prerelease ton include in your card pool at pre-release it is as close to playing with six boosters of Kaladesh you will get before the product is officially released on 30th September.

The prerelease itself can be the perfect way to dive into the Kaladesh sealed format. You will get a chance to open, evaluate and build from a sealed pool, play a number of matches and get to grips with the cards first hand. If your matches finish early look over the remaining matches, see what cards other people are playing and the impact they are having and take the chance to discuss with other players their thoughts and ideas on the feel of the format and the cards that have most impressed or disappointed them.

If you aren’t sure where to play you can use the store locator on the Wizard’s website to find where and when events are being hosted in your area. Many stores hold multiple events across the weekend so you will hopefully be able to find one at a time you can attend.

When your events are finished keep your sealed pool isolated from other cards and then review your build when you have the opportunity. Look to see if there were other avenues you could have explored or synergies you could have exploited. Additionally if you received any Kaladesh boosters in prizes or participation rewards, keep them. Every six you get means another sealed pool you can open and practice with. You can even pool them with other players if they are also interested in practising the format.

Step 4: Practice makes Perfect

With only a week from release day until the Grand Prix opens you will not have many opportunities to play sealed deck events prior to the Grand Prix its self. However if you listen to the wisdom of established professional players and those skilled in mastering limited formats, the most important thing to practise is building sealed pools, master this skill and you will give yourself a far better chance of doing well.

Get together with your friends and pre-order some sealed product, a booster box is the most cost efficient way to buy and often it is cheaper when ordered in advance than when bought following release. Right now you can make your pre-orders here at Troll Traders. If a box is too much, then see if you can split the cost with a group of friends, as if they are coming to the GP this will be invaluable practise for them as well.

Whatever amount of product you have, split them into 6 booster sets. Take a set each and open and build from the sealed pool they provide. Take the chance to play a game or two with your deck against the other members of your group but don’t dedicate all your time to playing. After you have played a game get together and assess each deck look at other cards within the pool that could have been included in the deck. Discuss your reasons behind individual card choices and reflect on how the games played out and again which cards over or under performed. Then swap pools and see what you would build from that sealed pool, is there another style of deck available within the cards or a better colour combination.

The more you repeat the process the more exposure and practice you get at building a sealed deck the quicker and more efficient you will get at being able to identify the strong cards, which cards synergise well together and combinations that bring value while still being strong enough on their own. All of this gives you greater additional time when you are under the time constraints of deck registration at the Grand Prix to not only build the obvious deck but see if there is a secondary strategy or deck you can sideboard into for certain difficult matchups.

Step 5: Learn the Tricks

Once you have the basics of building a Kaladesh sealed deck down, and some practise with playing the format, the key to success is knowing what you could be playing against and what you need to consider playing around to maximised your chances.

Having read and learned most of the cards you should already be in a good place for this step. Go through the cards pay attention to what instant speed removal, pump spells and tricks are available in each colour. Learn what they do and what their casting costs are also at what rarity they are.

These are the cards you need to keep in mind to play around in your games and understanding what your opponent could be, or is, holding that will invalidate or simply ruin your well-crafted play. Knowing the rarity is a key part of this as your opponents are much more likely to have a common trick than a rare or mythic. Knowing the common and uncommon tricks is the basic level you want to have.

Additionally if you know the casting costs of these cards it is much easier to leave open the correct colours and amounts of mana to bluff with and try and make your opponent play around cards you don’t have.

Step 6: Masterpiece Madness

The addition of the Kaladesh Masterpieces add a new dimension to the limited format. The chances of opening one in your pool or playing against them is slim. From what we have been advised by Wizards you are looking at approximately one in twenty four sealed pools being blessed with one.

However it is going to happen to someone and that could be you. If you are lucky enough to open one make sure you know how best to take advantage of it and which cards in the set synergise well with them. Conversely know which cards answer them if your opponent is the lucky one.

Step 7: Ease the stress of Deck Registration

Sometime the sealed pool you open can seem daunting, perhaps there are too many option or other times no two colours seem deep enough, and you feel you have to add a third colour but are unsure which. As a result you spend far more time working on your build that you expect and still need to register the deck in the allowed time.

One time saving tip is to already have your land with you. Prevent the need to find the land station or scrounge for swamps when everyone around you is also playing back and all the swamps from the land packs handed out seem to have gone. If you have ten of each basic land you should generally always have enough for which ever colour combination you go with. I keep mine pre-sleeved alongside the sleeves I am going to be using for my sealed deck so I can sleeve and be ready to play as quickly as possible if I am running out of time.

Having extra land sleeved and ready to go also means if you need to sideboard into a new colour or change your mana base during your match you won’t be wasting time looking for an extra island or asking a judge to find you seven plains and giving away your cunning plan to your opponent.

I hope this article has been some help in getting you ready for the event itself and all there is left for me to do is wish you all good luck at the Grand Prix.

If you have any further tips to being prepared let us know in the comments below and please feel free to say hello if you see me or any of the Troll Trader staff and writing team at the event.