Magic Prerelease and First Draft Survival Guide

A prerelease is the best party in Magic. A new set is days from release, the store is full, everyone is opening the same unfamiliar cards, and nobody knows the best deck yet. That last part is the gift. At a prerelease, a new player and a ten-year veteran start the evening knowing the same amount about the set.

What a prerelease is

Prereleases run at local game stores ahead of a set’s full release, so you can play its cards early. Wizards’ prerelease page says most run four to five hours, including deckbuilding, rounds, and breaks.

You do not need a collection. Your Prerelease Pack, or the store, supplies everything, and the store provides the basic lands. The format is sealed deck: Wizards’ format page describes building from six unopened packs, adding any basic lands you need, and playing at least 40 cards. Every card you open but do not play is your sideboard.

The next set, Star Trek, releases November 13, 2026. Wizards’ Star Trek collecting guide lists its prerelease events for November 6 to 12, and each Star Trek Prerelease Pack holds six Play Boosters, a foil rare or mythic rare, a deck box, and a spindown die. Check the store locator for events near you.

Building your sealed deck

The store sets a time limit for turning a pile of random cards into a deck. Work in this order.

1. Sort by color. Make a pile for each color, one for multicolor cards, and one for colorless cards and artifacts. Ignore your rares for the moment.
2. Find your removal. Cards that destroy, exile, or deal damage to creatures win sealed games. Note which colors have them.
3. Count playable creatures in each color. Creatures do most of the fighting in sealed.
4. Pick two colors. Choose the two with the most good creatures and removal together. A great rare in a third color is usually not worth weakening the deck to play.
5. Count to 40. A common starting point is 17 lands and 23 spells, with roughly 15 or more of those spells being creatures.
6. Check the curve. Lay your spells out by mana value. You want several plays at 2 and 3 mana, so you are not waiting around while your opponent builds a board.
7. Split your lands by how many colored symbols each color has. More symbols in one color means more of that basic land.

Then play. If the deck is not working, ask the organizer how swapping in sideboard cards works at their event. Ask a neighbor to look at your pool. Prerelease rooms are full of people happy to help, and Wizards’ own page tells new players to ask.

Your first draft

A draft adds one step before building: choosing your cards from packs as they pass around the table. Wizards’ Booster Draft page lays it out:

1. Up to eight players sit together and each opens a pack.
2. Each player takes one card, face down, and passes the rest to the left.
3. You pick from the pack you are handed, and keep passing, until the packs are gone.
4. Open the second pack and pass to the right. Then the third pack, passing left again.
5. You finish with about 45 cards and build a 40-card deck, adding basic lands.

For four players, Wizards’ Pick-Two Draft is faster: you take two cards from each pack instead of one, and end with about 42 cards. Recent sets sell a Draft Night box with everything a group of four needs; the Star Trek product page lists one.

How to pick cards

• Early picks: take the best card. Strong removal and efficient creatures beat clever cards that need help.
• Stay open in pack one. Do not lock into colors after three picks.
• Watch what keeps coming. If good red cards are still in the packs on your sixth or seventh pick, the players passing to you are probably not taking red. That is a signal to move in.
• Settle into two colors during pack two. After that, a playable card in your colors is worth more than a great card you will not play.
• Do not forget creatures and cheap spells. The most common first-draft deck has great cards and no way to survive the early turns.

Our card drafting explainer covers signals in more depth, and the one-page cube guide works for a set draft too, since the skills are the same.

During the games

Sealed and draft games are mostly about creatures in combat. Count both sides before you attack. Keep removal for the creature that would beat you, not the first one you see. And when you lose, look at which cards you wished you had. That is your best guide for the next draft.