From now on, I promise that any alliteration in this article will just be a result of dumb luck rather than any premeditated action on my part. All puns will likely be entirely intentional. For this, I do not apologize.

Sneak Preview weekend is now virtually upon us, and to those of you getting a Friday afternoon fix of Vs. System online, it should come as no surprise that it’s the only thing on my mind this week. Neither Friday afternoons nor Sneak Preview events should be too much hard work if you ask me, and so it is incumbent on me to pass on a few sage thoughts on how to get the most out of your Sneak Preview (or if you are lucky and willing to travel, Sneak Previews*). Happily enough, the “work” of putting together this article comes early in the week, so it will not be too subject to the Friday afternoon effect whereby my brain seeps through my ears like that of so many readers of my last article.**

Quite a lot goes on at Sneak Previews, and for my money, they are one of the funner tournaments around. At the Pro Circuit, things are definitely a lot of fun, but there is always that underlying tension that comes when you are ultimately playing for $40,000. Even at PCQs, where the prize is a lot smaller, it is still significant enough that they tend to draw in a fairly competitive bunch. With a Sneak Preview, there are certainly prizes on the line, but there are ultimately two goals. One is to see and play with as many new cards as possible and to revel in their very newness (which ideally will be accompanied by shininess—it never hurts to open good foils). The other is to have a really good time.

A lot of players who shun other tournaments tend to pop up to get a first look along with everyone else. In that respect, a Sneak Preview often turns out to be a little like a big school reunion, though typically with a lower aging jock/cheerleader count than one might see ten years after graduation. It isn’t just the extra (and different) people there that make the events fun, though; everyone has something to celebrate (the release of the new set), so typically moods will be good and even the judges will be keeping things orderly in a slightly more relaxed fashion than at higher-level events.

If you are looking to make it to a Sneak Preview this weekend—and I thoroughly recommend that you do­—you might want to bear the following little bits and pieces in mind. Think of them as my little gift to you, to be delivered around the time you head off to crack some packs over the next few days. You might have some of them already, but don’t worry—while it may be better to give than to receive, both are pretty good. You can always pass a few bits on.

Part 1 – Getting There

Life can be pretty tough. Simple mundane things like getting from A to B seem to complicate themselves in an effort to gain a little attention far more than is really appropriate. There is a time for light and shade in your life, for bad times to make the good times all the sweeter, but it should not be on the way to an event. Get plenty of sleep. Wake up a little earlier. Pretend you’re six and it’s your birthday. Let adrenaline and enthusiasm get you to the event in plenty of time, and pack some good food as backup for when the adrenaline wears away on the trip home. Find out the number of the venue, and if you get lost, give them a call. With that extra time you’ve got left by getting up early, you won’t have to sweat about not being able to find your way. And anything that cuts down on the amount of sweat at your local gamery is definitely a good thing in my experience. A shower before you set off is probably a good plan, too.

If you get there early, you’ll also have the opportunity to get on to Part 2 even sooner.

Part 2 – Trading

I’ve given this part a number, but don’t let that fool you; there are plenty of good times for trading at a Sneak Preview. In fact, the only times it’s not cool to get a little trading in is while people are trying to play or with cards that people are still using for the event itself.

With access to a great many new cards, the lure of trading is always there, and in my experience, it is worth it every now and then to give in to such urges. I’m pretty sure that not doing so ultimately leads to spontaneous combustion, and that takes an awful lot of cleaning up. So trade a little. Work out what you would like to have and what you wouldn’t mind giving up in order to get them. There are any number of reputable sources of information out there about the values of various cards, so you should be able to find a few reasonable trades and make the most of all the extra players about.

Where the fun comes is with the new cards. A lot of people choose not to trade their new cards right when a set first becomes available, and I honestly can’t lambaste anyone too hard for taking this path. It’s a safe way of making sure that you don’t unwittingly get on the bad side of a good deal. Me, I’m a bit of a gambler, though. I’m of the opinion that as long as each person is happy at the end of the deal and has something they value more than what they began with, then even a supposedly lopsided trade is just fine. I know a lot of players who pick out a team from the new set to try and then trade off their other team-stamped cards in order to start building new decks as soon as possible. This is a great plan if you are on a tighter budget.

Another good trick is to find out what everyone else wants and then look to “trade up,” making a chain of deals that ultimately help out everyone including yourself. Don’t worry too much if one person doesn’t want to trade away a particular card—that is a person’s prerogative. Just have fun building up a collection without having to crack quite so many packs.

Part 3 – The Playing

It might have gotten a little lost in the last thousand or so words, but Sneak Previews are secretly tournaments in addition to being a big place for flocks*** of gamers to congregate.

What is less of a secret is that for some, winning is a lot more fun than losing. I must admit that on occasion I am one of these people. Luckily, there are various things you can do with deck construction and play that can help here. Firstly, here is something that sounds rather obvious but that I guarantee will be forgotten by more than one over-eager six-year-old celebrating his or her birthday this weekend.

Read the cards.

Read all of them. All of the text. Don’t forget the numbers, either. They are important.

At Pro Circuit Amsterdam, I recall chatting with a disconsolate Alex Tennet, who had just lost a match because he simply hadn’t realized what one of his opponent’s cards did. It got played, Alex assumed that he knew what was going on, and he was ultimately proven wrong. Don’t be that Alex Tennet; be the one who has won an absurd amount of money playing Vs. System and is periodically spotted sporting an English accent despite tending to spend a lot of time in the USA.

When building, look to characters with fair stats and unfair abilities. Either one is good; both are even better. Try to stick with two or three teams and team-up where possible. But at the same time, don’t be afraid to splash a powerful character, especially at the higher drops, if it helps your curve.

The curve (having a spread of characters across the drop points from 2 to 7 that tails off at the top end) is more important than any individual plot twist or character you might have. The most frustrating games lost in Sealed Pack are those where you miss a drop. Let someone else do that. Play enough characters, even if it does mean leaving some splashy cards on the bench for the event. While we are thinking about leaving cards out of the deck, also bear in mind that the smaller the size of your deck, the better the chance that your next draw will be that incredible card that made your inner child put on its pirate costume and start running around bothering the neighbor’s cat. Don’t make your life difficult—stick with thirty cards.

If by some unfortunate coincidence you find yourself without a good curve, keep that in mind when playing. Have you left yourself weak in terms of 6-drops? Then bear that in mind when you are thinking about mulliganing that hand with one of the only ones you do have. Little things like this will improve your playing and mean that you can get on to the fun of making every game a real battle.

Try to get together a plan for that battle, too. I always like to think about the “last turn” in Sealed Pack. This is the turn where the game will end one way or another. Normally, this will be turn 6 or 7, though on occasion it might be 8. Having a plot twist that can force through some unexpected endurance loss or save you from your opponent on this critical turn will swing games. Do you have something to break up formations or take out reinforcement at the critical moment? Is there a powerful defensive trick that could keep you in things when all seems lost? Then play it! Be prepared. With a little bit of a plan, every game will be that little bit easier and, as such, more fun.

Part 4 – The People

If you were so inclined, you could play your games while barely saying a word and sit in meditation between rounds, waiting for your next opponent calmly. While there is a certain Zen quality to that that’s a little appealing, it is not what I would recommend for a Sneak Preview. Talk to people! Get other people’s opinions on your deck. Give others your opinion. Tell the tournament organizers what a good job they’re doing (trust me, they love it). While playing, get to know your opponent a little. It is the nature of the game for there to be a winner and a loser in every match, but if you’ve both had fun along the way, then that edge can easily be blunted. At the end of every match, go ahead and let your opponent know if there was anything you think you might have done differently, and ask any advice that he or she might have on how you should have played or built your deck. This can be a great learning experience, and in my experience, most everyone is happy to have a friendly opponent like this and will help out with advice where they can. Ultimately, everyone at a Sneak Preview is a gamer, so you will always have something in common with your opponent. Find out if there is anything more!

Last but not least, don’t worry if you open “bad” cards. Really, at a Sneak Preview, there aren’t any bad cards. There are some good cards and some good players, but the main thing that there is a lot of is good times.

Go get some.

Tim “On a 4-point Plan” Willoughby

timwilloughby@hotmail.com

* I myself am both very lucky and very willing to travel. In England, we have a bank holiday on that weekend, and I have three Sneak Previews within realistic travel distance, all on different days!

** For those of you who had trouble with the “Order” article, you might have noticed that it just seemed to be a whole bunch of words in order. Like an un-shuffled deck, it is of little use to anyone. Have a look through there, though, and you might find a way of changing the order to something altogether less baffling. The clue is in the title.