I have been really enjoying this set so far. I got bored with GRN really quickly but RNA games have been exciting with a lot of games being fewer big ground creatures facing off against more small to mid-sized flyers. GRN kind of felt like low-powered guilds durdling along while RNA has been high-powered guilds smashing into each other.

I only played two Prereleases so too early to say for sure but...it actually kinda bored me. Maybe when it switches to Draft I'll have more fun.

I played in a prerelease today. Went Simic. Had no real game plan and got creamed.

Went to a prerelease today. Chose azorious and got perhaps the worst limited pool I have ever been handed, being insanely starved for playables at the three-cost-and-under bracket

Simic was way overrepresented and most games I saw (those I participated in and those I watched) reduced to who could land the most stupid creature. Removal (other than deathtouch creatures, which are quite numerous if a little higher cost than they're best at) seemed really anemic (Since most of the damage-based removal couldn't handle simic creatures or the best Orzhov or Azorius critters), so there was a LOT of draw-go action as players dug for a way to get through the wall on the other side of the board.

There was at least one win via Simic Ascendancy hitting 20 counters. In a tournament with 10 people, every round one or more matches went to turns. At least once that I saw, it was game 2 that went to turns.

I felt like the removal was pretty solid although yes, they are clearly good vs the small flyers OR good vs big Gruul/Simic.

I played Orzhov with a splash of red and did 3-1. Almost every game felt tense as we raced. I would hold onto Revival // Revenge each game wanting to use it for board and card advantage but I almost always cast it as Revenge because I needed the swing.

I went 4-1 with Orzhov, not casting Kaya's Wrath a single game (and drawing it only once).
I think I feel like the guilds in GRN were cooler, these ones are kind of flat mechanically. Their gameplay isn't as dynamic.

I felt like there may have been a few too many decent fliers? Or even below average ones that did good because of numbers.

Argh. Worst prerelease to date.

So I open my gruul kit. It has a red promo rare, playable though clearly made for constructed play more than limited ...

The other five packs had six rares (one foil):
One multicoloured Rakdos
One multicoloured simic
One multicoloured orzhov
One multicoloured azorius
One mono white
One mono blue

So basically I had to chose between trying to play my gruul (I came out intending to play gruul) or basically pitch that entire boosters worth of support cards to play 5-booster sealed azorzhov.

I like at least one of three things to go my way - value, power, or synergy. Cards that are at least worth something, cards that are intrinsically powerful enough to help me win, or cards that actually go together - in this environment the seeded guild pack kinda necessities support in that guild. I got none of the above.

The match one I get mana screwed - first draw is one land, mulligan, second is five land. Play it through. Get to watch my opponent with the azorious kitbox land two white rares and dovin baan and I hadn’t even seen his promo yet. So he had at least four on-guild rares and mythics to my one. Game two I keep a 2-land hand with some early playable defensive cards and than I could start mounting an attack once I hit my third land. But my opponent was dropping six drops before I saw another land.

I didn’t even bother waiting til round 2. Would have been over a half hour wait with a snowstorm coming to likely lose again and be out of even the possibility of prizing so I just dropped and drove away to beat the snow.

The last time I had a prerelease kit that bad was Theros block. Actually i don’t even think that was was as bad as this.

Lot of Orzhov at my gamestore. Every round ended up going to time.
All that said, it's a format that didn't really have any bombs and relies heavily on making use of utility creatures.
Removal was very present at the prerelease, so it was all about seeing which creature did the most work.

It was more entertaining to watch than the previous event.

My impression so far is that skewer the critics is broken. Broken enough to get banned? We shall see.

Bolt has returned from time to time. A conditional one does not seem bannable.

I did the Prerelease on Magic Arena. Thought I had a terrible pool - all my cool strong looking stuff was in colours with just about nothing else in them. I had NO bombs outside a Gate Colossus, with no other creatures that went over 3 power (exception; two Steeple Creepers). I figured I had to do something weird to win. First game tried to do a 5-colour list trying too hard to exploit Glass of the Guildpact and Tome of the Guildpact, since I had lots of gates, and gate-finding spells, and lockets. Try to use the best of each of the stuff I had. It failed spectacularly. Then I re-evaluated my stuff, and tried to make it an Orzhov deck. I realized that Afterlife combos amazingly with Glass of the Guildpact, since the spirits created are both white and black, plus I had two Basilica Bell-Haunts and a Grasping Thrull in addition to a good removal suite. Consecrate // Consume's sac-half was a godsend, routinely scoring me big life gains while hitting their biggest creatures. My final match against a strong Simic deck packed with bombs took down a Mesmerizing Benthid this way, which felt great.

Overall, I found that most opponents tried to play fast decks, but incidental lifegain and aggressive trading tended to work things out, while the removal was good enough to take down bombs. Orzhov decks could keep a pretty consistent thing going, and Afterlife is great (used it twice to off-set Final Payment costs). Not a lot of reach creatures, so a beefy flyer, or a swarm of Afterlife spirits got the job done.

I had a kind of weird pool. I went Simic and got a Biomancer's Familiar as my promo but only 3 or 4 evolve creatures in the whole pool. (1x Skatewing Spy, 2x Sauroform Hybrid, and if there even was a 4th card I don't think I ran it)/
I did have a gravel-hide Goblin to make use of the biomancer's ability though. Theoretically.

My other rares:
Glass of the Guildpact
Judith,
godless shrine
gutterbones
End-raze Forerunners
Precognitive Perception

2x Light up the stage (and burn the chumps like a candle) with Skewer the critics and a Rhythm of the Wild had me dip into red and build a deck.
It was pretty tempo heavy deck with the game plan being to win off of my mediocre flyers or my Sauroform Hybrids and Forerunners.
Said mediocre flyers:
1x Windstorm Drake, 2x Chillbringer, 2x Faerie Duelist
Tempo bits:
2x Frilled Mystic, A bunch of bounce.

I really should have ran Sphinx of the Guildpact. I just assumed that 7 cmc was too much. I really should have went all in on control.

... only now, reading your post, do I realize my round 1 opponent badly misplayed Gutterbones (We both missed the conditional so it returned regardless of whether I'd lost life, and was thus irritating as heck with a sac outlet.)

Glass of the Guildpact won me several games and **** up my opponents' math because they would forget the Spirits are multicolored.