Yes, I know we're behind the times here. However, I found this prerelease set for sale, and since I couldn't make it to the event when it happened, I decided to buy it when I saw it and show you what a prerelease is like.

Wizards of the Coast releases new sets of cards every few months, and game shops sponsor special prerelease draft events where people can get the cards early and play in a special tournament format to win more cards, all before they can be bought at retail. The box design varies from event to event, but usually it looks a bit like the one shown below.

Remove the cellophane, pull off the cardboard sleeve, and open the box to find six sealed packs, a spindown life tracker die, a divider card, a special foil card, and some instructions. Note that the spindown die looks at first glance like a d20 from a polyhedral dice set used by role-playing games, like the one I reviewed here, but its numbers are sequential so the die can easily ne shifted one side at a time to track damage taken by the players over the course of a game. The 20 side of official Spindown dice always has a set symbol from one of the releases.

This set is heavily tribal in its themes. Decks should be designed to leverage the synergy of vampires (black & white), merfolk (green and blue), pirates (red, black, and blue), and dinosaurs (red, white, and green).

Yes, you read that correctly. PIRATES AND DINOSAURS!!!

Needless to say, this set has shifted away from the typical fantasy themes that have tended to influence previous releases. It's a bit like Lord of the Rings meets Pirates of the Caribbean, plus real non-Twilight vampires as a bonus. Oh, and there are also merfolk, which are definitely cool.

My packs did not include enough cards for a proper Merfolk or Vampire deck, but I was able to put together two playable 40-card "sealed decks" from this one kit. One is pirates, and the other is dinosaurs. Had I been playing in a prerelease event, I would have chosen one or the other and played it in a tournament format to earn points, or more likely watch others defeat me to earn points for themselves. I have posted both decks on tappedout.net to share them with you.

Either of these could be the foundation for a 60-card Standard deck if I wanted to build them up after the event. For this, the luck of the draw limits my options. In a prerelease, you use what you open, and play it to the best of your abilities. Note that aside from a couple pirate cards, I have no duplicate non-land cards in these decks. These follow the usual rules for Standard, meaning that up to four copies of any given card are legal. However, pulling that many duplicates of common cards, muck less uncommons or rares, is nigh impossible. As a result, the decks are a bit random, and a combination of luck and skill are required to win. You need to know when to use the limited tools at your disposal to the greatest effect.

All told, I have to say that I really like both the Ixalan release and its new expansion, Rivals of Ixalan. The addition of pirates and dinosaurs as viable tribes is fun. The art on the cards is gorgeous, the background story behind the release is intriguing (at least from the little I have read) and the potential for fun is much higher than when the Amonkhet block's second set dropped.

It looks like April will see the last of the Duel Decks releases, so I have a couple current 2-player Duel Decks boxes to review before that one drops. I also have some old packs I intend to open, so watch for that, too. For my account, "March madness" will mean Magic, not basketball!