Welcome back to Scene in the Store everybody. I hope all of you had a great week and had a chance to attend a prerelease last weekend, or at least got to see some of your buddies cards. We took a group of 7 for Saturdays sealed event and 3 of us went to the draft on Sunday at The Deck Box in Fletcher, NC. We had a blast with all the new cards, and the DFCs definitely had some of us changing up our play tempo. So if you didn't get to go to a prerelease, here's some low down on what to look forward to this weekend. First some things to keep an eye out for in the sealed and limited world of Innistrad this weekend, and then followed up by some of the cards that were definitely talked up at last weeks event as well as around the players here at The Game Room (which I think is what I've settled on as the name for the store...finally! More to come.)

Here we go...

The sealed limited world of Innistrad is an interesting one. The new set provides for some intense card battles and is fairly aggressive in its nature but, as a lot of us found out, it also rewards you for strategic patience and planning. With that in mind your going to have many turns where your opponent or yourself do not cast a spell so as to trigger the DFCs transformation. So what is going to be your answer to a quick kill when you see your opponent cast his creature and pass turn?

Enter....Prey Upon. This card was crucial to taking care of all those flippin' werewolves before they got out of control. Get a creature out that can hold his own and just Prey Upon their creatures before they can change. They also did a great job of stopping vampires like Stromkirk Noble, and especially Rakish Heir. And if you don't want to play with the werewolves yourself, no worries, there's some great synergy with the white spirits & humans. Now I know green is not typically a splash color but it gets a nod here due to cards like Prey Upon, Ranger's Guile, Wreath of Geists, and the always welcomed Naturalize. One of the funnest cards to play with though was the Ambush Viper. Drop that on your opponent in the first round and they'll have to worry about that Flash death to their big baddy.

Speaking of big baddies...Army of the Damned...if you pull it, play it, period.

Black seemed to be a strong undercurrent in most all of the top placing 40 card stacks last week, and I think it's safe to say for the rest of the set's life. Bump In The Night was not as crucial as some of us thought it would be in limited, but I'm sure it will provide some extra firepower for mono-black or B/x decks in some of the other formats. Yours truly is brewing up a Zombie Burning deck.
Trepanation Blade was a big buzz for it's potential in the future metagame but in this bubble was a nuisance at best. Some had luck with them, some didn't. My bet is it will be a hot card for EDH.
Mindshrieker is another one of those cards that's going to be pretty powerful in standard and a possible bomb in EDH, but in this limited format it's just doesn't get a chance to get that beastly. None the less, this card has been a hot topic of talk lately and I for one am going to be actively trading for these this weekend. I've yet to see a foil version but I'm sure it's snazzy looking.

With that as a segue, we jump into potential breakouts for your trade binder...
* Stony Silence is going to be a definite commodity in the near future. With some strong artifacts in M12 and the New Phyrexia block, Stony Silence will be an easy answer to a missing piece of whites puzzle as well as artifact hate decks everywhere.
* Curse of the Pierced Heart seems to be poised to be a strong part of many red deck builds. Run 4 of these and 4 Shrine of Burning Rage and watch your multiplayer-FFA table squirm in their seats.
* Squirm. Worm. Boneyard Wurm. Safe to say this is going to see some play in many casual formats. And with some of the nicest worm art I've ever seen, I'll be looking to pick up a couple playsets of these for the store. And if one of them dies, it just feeds the next one you put into play.
* As far as the non-basic lands go... Woodland Cemetery appears to be a safe bet with how powerful black and green seem to be in this new set. Kessig Wolf Run of course will be a great addition to any R/G deck, and with the reprint of Shimmering Grotto, now splashing that 3rd color won't take up valuable space in the mana pool.

Well boys and girls, I hope you have gotten a little insight into what to expect this weekend at your LGS for the big Innistrad release. I'm going to be looking to crack some decent packs but more importantly, target some trades that involve foils. Innistrad will be opened for awhile so there will be plenty of product to be had, but I'd like to see as many foils as possible in trades. We all know how sexy foils are.

Have fun out there and let's build our Scene in the Store.

-Shane-