I’ve not posted for a day or two. Which some will agree is a blessing. Whilst others will be pining for my poorly written words. I won’t claim they are words of wisdom or deep insight.

Anyway Friday evening saw me meeting up with Gavin to take delivery of my copy of the latest game from Stonemaier Games, Tapestry. The game isn’t officially out until the start of November. But thanks to the pre-order window at the start of September keen fans of Stonemaier Games could get their mitts on the game early direct from the company. Sadly a slow boat (or something that delayed the arrival of the shipment) meant that the UK/EU pre-orders were being sent out a couple of weeks after the US.

Each copy of Tapestry in the first printing is uniquely numbered. There is no control over which number you get, it’s completely random. But it’s a nice touch to make the first print a little special. Otherwise there will be no difference between the first printing and subsequent ones.

Well that’s a lie. One of the space exploration tiles in this first printing has a missing icon on it. Which will be corrected in later printings. Stonemaier Games aren’t fixing this. I don’t blame them, a single tile, that rarely will come out. Not worth the expense. Plus if it bothers me that much (which it doesn’t) I can buy a third party sticker off itsy for about £2.30 plus postage to fix it.

We played a 2 player game, that took about an hour of actual game play. Which wasn’t bad considering it was a first play. Sadly Gavin won our game. There are angels weeping over that victory.

I’m going to give my thoughts about the game after I’ve played it with a higher player count. But suffice to say I’m looking forward to a 3 (possibly 4) player game later today.

It’s also the Throne of Eldraine pre-release weekend.

And yesterday I attended the 11am pre-release at my FLGS.

I went 3 colours (green, black and blue) for my 40 card deck. I didn’t have any problem getting my lands to play stuff. It helped I could fix any shortfall with Rosethorn Acolyte (a green 3CMC 2/3 elf druid) that can tap for any colour mana, Spinning Wheel (a 3CMC artifact) that also tapped for any colour mana, and the adventure on Beanstalk Giant (a green 6CMC Giant, or 3CMC adventure sorcery) allowed me to search for a basic land and put it on the battle field.

I started off in the first round really well, winning the first game. But despite my best efforts I lost the next 2 games.

Round 2 saw me lose both games. Although they were not walk overs, both games were a back and forward. With the edge going to my opponent.

But that was the story of the first two rounds really. Close games. Just not able to get to my solutions in time. And I did have the solutions.

Round 3 was a lot easier. I was against a young lad who wasn’t vastly experienced. Was there a little bit of guilt crushing his dreams? Nah. A win is a win. Got to take them when you can.

The final round was a a real back and forward. I lost the first game, narrowly. If I had been able to do one more point of damage I would have stolen the win. Having been on the back foot for the majority of the game. The second game I won. But both games were not short games. We started our third and final game with 5 minutes left on the clock for the round. Naturally it went to time, and at the end of the 5 turns, no winner. So I think rightly ended as a draw.

Throne of Eldraine Pre-Release Stats

Participants: 22

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Nathanael Loss 1-2

Round 2: Simon Loss 0-2

Round 3: Unknown Win 2-0

Round 4: Jonathan Draw 1-1

Record: 1-2-1 (WLD)

Final Position: 15th

Prizes: 2 participation packs

Throne of Eldraine is a beautiful set. The art of gorgeous, nay stunning. The theme just oozes from every card. You can’t help but be delighted when you hold the cards in your hand. Really like the adventure mechanic.

From my experience of the pre-release as a sealed format from the decks I played against, it’s not a fast format. Our decks were slowish, getting pieces into position, waiting for that chunk in the other players defences. It will be interesting to see if this is true for draft or other sealed events.

But as always, had a great time.