Prerelease Rules

Standard Rules for Magic: The Gathering Prerelease Events

Overview

Since this is a private event, these rules should be viewed more as guidelines than rigid instructions. With no prizes on the line the goal is to experience the new set and have some fun.

Format

  • Sealed Deck: Players build decks from a pool of cards received at the event.
  • Booster Packs: Each player receives 6 booster packs from the new set.
    • Cards from an external source are not allowed; only cards from the provided boosters and added basic lands.
  • Deck Construction: Minimum 40 cards, no maximum. Deck changes are permitted between games and rounds but if adjustements will take some time, folks are encouraged to use the breaks between rounds rather than delaying the start of the next game with an opponent.
  • Basic Lands: Players may add as many basic lands as needed from outside sources.

Tournament Structure

  • Rounds: With only 6 of us, we will be aiming to play a full round robin with 5 rounds .
  • Time: Each round is 50 minutes, best of 3 games.
  • Breaks: There's a scheduled 10 minute break between each round. If everyone is done their rounds early, the break may be started early but will still only last 10 minutes.

Schedule

  • Date: Sunday May 3rd, 2026
  • Start Time: 7:00 AM EST
  • Deckbuilding: 7:00 AM - 8:00 AM EST
  • Rounds: 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM EST (1 Round Per Hour)

Scoring

  • Withdrawing from Event: In the event that someone has to leave without completing all of the rounds, the rounds they participated in will not count for any players and will only be considered for tiebreakers and only if all tied players compelted their round against the player who withdrew. Since this is a full round-robin event, this should have the least impact on the overall standings.
  • Round Scoring: Each round won is worth 2 points, a round ending in a tie is worth 1 point, and 0 points for a loss in the best two out of three format.
  • Final Standings: Total points from rounds will be the primary criteria. Tierbreakers will first be resolved with uncounted score from players who have withdrawn if and only if all tied players completed their round against the withdrawn player. Remaining ties will be decided by the heads up record between all tied participants.
  • Incomplete Games During Rounds: If the 50 minutes has expired mid-game during a round, a judge should be notified and if the game is closely contested, each player may be granted 2 additional turns starting from the next turn of the player who went first. In the event that a game was not closely contested, or after the 3 additional turns the game is still not over, the player with the higher life total will be declared the winner.
  • Tie in Round: In the event that either only two games are played resulting in a tie, or a third game ends with identical life totals due to the end of a round, an offical record of a tie will be recorded for each player.

Disputes and Rules Arbitration

  • Judges:

    • Adam
    • Owain

  • In the event of a dispute arising over player actions or mechanics that cannot be quickly resolved between the two players in a game, everyone should feel welcome to approach one of the judges who are not one of the active players in the dispute.
  • The judges will make a final decision based on the official rules of Magic: The Gathering with the primary goal of unwinding illegal moves and repairing the boardstate to allow for the current round to continue in a fair manner for both players.
  • In the most extreme cases if the mistake is egregious and the boardstate cannot be reasonably corrected, a gameloss for the player in violation of the rules may be imposed if no other fair compromise can be reached between the players.
  • The judges decisions are final and binding but are expected to be made in a fair and consistent manner and in the interest of preserving the enjoyment of all participants.

Additional Information

  • Special accomadation has been provided for Dana to open booster packs, sleeve cards and build a deck Saturday May 2nd, 2026 in order to preserve her enjoyment of the event. While everyone is encouraged to participate in the morning timeslot for deckbuilding, anyone whose experience would be grealy improved by doing the deckbuilding ahead of time is welcome to reach out for accomadation.
  • Folks are encouraged, but not required to bring their own headset for use with Discord when playing with Owain and Ceci. A laptop, webcam and playmat will be preconfigured and connected to discord and Spelltable for the remote matchups.