So I went to a Commando prerelease with KJ. Meh... $30, for 1 deck (100 cards)... We went with another friend a got there 1/2 hour early (10:30am), when they opend the doors, they told that they may not have enough product for us, since we didn't prereg....... prereg? their site said nothing about it. I guess that's the new way to do prereleases, reserve your place and product, since stores only get/order so much...... ugh the days of huge events are a thing of the past.
They took our money (plus tax, so 32 something) and gave us product and that was the extent of their organizing the event. Players had to go round up their own games. All play was casual. I played one game with 5 players with each different deck, so the game took forever. Although the other players were very nice and casual. Left there about 2:30pm.
The Join forces mechanic happened a total of one time... it was the draw cards and was cast so early, X equaled 4......
I played the Mastery something deck, and you can choose one of 3 commanders, I went with the one that gets a counter each time I cast a creature spell and then creature spells and reduced by X to cast for me. I got that commander out 3 times and never cast 1 creature, since there are few low casting cost creatures in the deck, but lost of instants and sorceries that produce creatures..... but that was no help.
All in all I was underwhelmed by the whole experience.
BTW- every deck had a Sol Ring in it.