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Regular REL » Post: Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

April 27, 2013 04:14:10 AM

Nathan Stanley
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Great Lakes

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

My question is this: is it possible for a player to pull the following in a Dragon's maze pre-release limited pool?

1) Boros Reckoner (Gatecrash Rare)
2) Foundry Champion (Gatecrash Rare)
3) Firemane Avenger (Gatecrash Rare)
4) Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius (Return to Ravnica Mythic Rare)

Essentially, it was brought to my attention that a player in tonight's pre-release had all 4 of these cards in their deck. He chose Boros as his “primary” guild, and received Izzet as his secondary. He claimed to have received the Boros Reckoner and Niv-Mizzet in his Izzet guildpack, Foundry Champion and Firemane Avenger in his Boros guildpack.

Thanks in advance!

Nathan Stanley the Magnanimous

April 27, 2013 04:18:05 AM

Will Bumgardner
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry)), Scorekeeper

USA - Pacific West

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

Well, considering that you would only get one rare per pack AND you couldn't get a RTR rare in the same guild pack as a GTC rare, I'm going to say no.

Sent from my iPhone

April 27, 2013 04:21:23 AM

Callum Milne
Forum Moderator
Judge (Uncertified)

Canada - Western Provinces

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

While I don't know for certain what it's possible for the guild packs to contain, considering he's claiming to have received a Gatecrash rare in his Return to Ravnica guild pack–a rare would have been off-color for that guild pack, no less–in addition to double rares in not one but both both guild packs, I'd say chances are pretty darn good he's lying through his teeth and needs a good DQ.

April 27, 2013 05:07:13 AM

Nathan Stanley
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Great Lakes

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

Yeah, that's kind of what I figured. Thanks for the prompt responses.

April 27, 2013 02:54:59 PM

Toby Hazes
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Academy))

BeNeLux

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

It does seem there are a number of people who genuinly get 2 rares in their guild boosters:

http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=506786

April 27, 2013 05:14:31 PM

Mike Clark
Judge (Uncertified)

Canada - Eastern Provinces

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

That still wouldn't explain a rare from a set that isn't aligned from that guild in that particular guild pack.

April 27, 2013 05:22:52 PM

Johannes Wagner
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

German-speaking countries

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

And from another guild …

April 27, 2013 09:21:43 PM

Timothy Gagne
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Northeast

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

Just curious as to if there is an answer to this and if not, what was the end result of the situation for you? (don't need to detail anything post-decision)

April 27, 2013 11:06:38 PM

Dennis Xiao
Judge (Level 2 (International Judge Program))

Southeast Asia

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

During the prerelease, I had a player who opened up 2x Deadbridge Goliath (rare) in his pool.

Edited Dennis Xiao (April 27, 2013 11:07:04 PM)

April 28, 2013 02:09:45 AM

Michael White
Judge (Uncertified)

Canada - Eastern Provinces

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

Although it does seem that some of the pre-release packs aren't quite right, this one seems like a particularly big stretch.

In all of the reports of multiple rares that I've heard, I've never heard of getting any from a different guild, much less a different set and a different guild. I'd be calling shenanigans on that one (and by shenanigans, I mean something more serious)….

April 28, 2013 08:00:39 PM

Scott Marshall
Forum Moderator
Judge (Level 4 (Judge Foundry)), Hall of Fame

USA - Southwest

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

I won't comment on the original question, as I don't know. However, two comments that I do have:
1) it's a good practice to tell players “if you open packs with an unusual distribution, please tell a Judge right away.”
-and-
2) it still comes back to investigation; either you believe the player's story, or you decide to DQ. I'll note that it's an easier investigation if the player with the “special” pool did NOT inform a Judge right away.

April 29, 2013 06:33:47 AM

Niki Lin
Judge (Uncertified)

BeNeLux

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

I have had a player in my prerelease who had a faulty rare distribution in her Rakdos guildbooster (only commons), so I guess the guildboosters are somewhat prone to being wrongly configured…

April 29, 2013 08:07:12 PM

Abeed Bendall
Judge (Level 2 (Judge Foundry))

Canada - Western Provinces

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

It certainly sounds a bit odd to me - i was onhand this weekend for a total 4-5 pre-releases in my area and didnt hear of any cases of double rares or cross-set rares showing up in guild packs.

What seems more odd to me is that he essentially had 3 Boros rares to the 1 Izzet rare. The foundry Champion and firemane avenger are most definetly ‘boros’ but it strikes me as very odd having the Reckoner coming out of an Izzet guild pack. This has been the only case ive heard of even online of someone having a cross set rare in their RtR pack.

May 4, 2013 03:06:34 PM

Danny O
Judge (Uncertified)

USA - Pacific Northwest

Dragon's Maze Pre-release Pool

If I'm not mistaken, the guild packs only contain cards with your guilds watermark in the text box. So it would be impossible to pull a Boros card in the Izzet pack. Additionally two of them would have to be the foils of the pack. I may be wrong, but even if you could get any rare in the guild pack, the chances of this are close to astronomical.