Tag Archives: Magic the Gathering

On the Tabletop

Masters 25 Dilemma

1 Comment

Introduction

It must be time for another release of Magic’s “Masters” set. Chris and I have started our prerelease ritual of texting one another box prices and our intentions to maybe perhaps think about possibly buying one. I started the conversation yesterday with the news that a local store is taking preorders at a decent price that they will honor until the week before release. I did some research and saw, again, that the box only includes 24 packs. That got me waffling a bit and perhaps thinking that my money was better spent elsewhere. After all, I still have to buy my Rivals of Ixalan sealed product.

We went back and forth, initially agreeing that it was a silly idea for either of us to buy a box. I suggested going in half and splitting one, though honestly neither of us was terribly receptive to that idea. Conversation turned to my van “Check Engine” light, which is a big deal in my life right now. I’m driving around with a rejected inspection sticker and looking over my shoulder like I was driving the getaway car in Baby Driver.

Wait, are we allowed to reference Kevin Spacey projects any more?

Then, as I was in my class, Chris texts me with a link to a place selling them for an even better price, but he was under the impression that it was only in bulk and that you’d have to buy a case of them. While that was true for the price he quoted, there was a slightly higher price for non bulk orders. He and I both agreed that we wouldn’t find a better price than that and stamped “SOLD” across the post in big, red letters. Even so, I’m still having second thoughts. Look, I get that this is one of most first world of all first world problems. But, I imagine that some of you out there might be having the same issue and it always helps to talk things out. Hopefully, by the end, I’ll arrive at some sort of conclusion.

The Good

Guess who’s back? Back again?

Jace, the Mind Sculptor – This is the best argument that can be made for the set, especially now that Wizards has decided to let loose the hounds of hell and give Jace another shot of showing just how repressive he can be in Modern. Similar to Black Lotus, I have been obsessed with this card ever since learning of its existence. I mean, come on. It’s blue and it’s Jace.

Early on in my entry back into the game, its name was only whispered in darkened corners and never openly discussed. As I became more familiar with the game and more people argued for the unbanning, I started to wonder why (more than it’s blue and it’s Jace) the card appealed to me so much. Other than the previously mentioned reasons, it’s also 3 of the best blue cards ever printed on one card for only 4 mana. That’s true, but it doesn’t quite capture the essence of why.

Then, a streamer responded to someone in his chat who mentioned the potential that maybe the card could be unbanned from Modern. I told you the conversation has been gaining momentum. He said that he agreed with the banning, which got people going before he even had a chance to explain. That’s what reminded we that we were in Twitch chat and not Socrates discussion circle. On the internet, nobody can hear you, well anything, because they are too busy shouting over you.

His point was that the card was too good. Of course it is. Otherwise, they wouldn’t ban it. But, it was too good in the way that other cards aren’t. See, people lost to Jace, but they would have no idea that they lost to Jace. They would blame this card or that card, all the while neglecting to realize that Jace set all of that into motion 10 turns ago. A light went on in my head and all was made clear. Jace is the ultimate blue card. They’ve tried before and since to distill the essence of what it means to be blue, but this card nailed it. Sneaky good, beats you before you realize it, and then strings you along for a good while after. Just an amazing card design.

Drafting!

I’ve mostly only experienced drafting the Master sets from the outside. I watched streams of the GPs for the Modern Masters set last year, astounded that people were giving the player crap for taking a foil ‘Goyf with his pick. I have drafted a few of the sets, mostly Modern Masters 2015 in xMage since I didn’t know about the sets and especially not their draftability. Since learning of them, the cost of the packs has kept me away. Who wants to pay 30 dollars for cards and then give half of them away?

During one of our conversations when I realized that both Chris and I might end up buying a box of the set, I said, “Plus I could put 6 packs aside for a future draft.” Having had my interest again kindled by the draft that Chris and I did a couple of weeks ago, I’m more than willing to donate a few packs to get a chance to see what we can do with this set and these cards. Since he is a Modern player and I am obsessed with Vintage and Legacy even though I’ve only ever played the formats on xMage, I wonder how that might affect our draft strategy. Stay tuned

Unboxing Video!

After Chris sent me the link of the better price of the boxes, I texted him back, “Maybe this will finally inspire me to do what I’ve always meant to do and just post an unboxing video.” He replied, “Yep, that would most likely get hits.” I agreed, especially if I can get it done on release weekend. As with many things, there are no promises on this front, but we have been good about updating articles and recording podcasts and uploading videos are part of Phase 2 and 3 of our eventual internet takeover.

The Bad

Not Many Spoilers

We are still relatively early in spoiler season for the set. Other than Jace, we have Azusa, which is a relic of a Modern meta long past and Phyrexian Obliterator, which is fun to draft in cube, but not as much fun as, say, Massacre Wurm or Big Daddy Gris. So, in other words, other than Jace, there is literally nothing else that has me excited about this set yet. Jace is the only thing. It keeps dancing in front of me like some ridiculous dream that will most likely never be realized and yet, I can’t say no.

Sure, there will be other spoilers and some of those cards might actually get me to say, “Wow!” Honestly, though, none of them will be Jace. He’s my man crush Monday. He’s my tweet about this dude I love Tuesday. He’s my Hump Day dream. He’s my…okay, you get the point. Am I just buying this 200 dollar boondoggle simply because of the (I don’t want to do math, so here comes a made up statistic) one out of a thousand chance that I am blessed with one of the boxes that contains Jace? Maybe….

The Ugly

Drafting?

Because these sets are designed to be drafted, Wizards can’t make every card a bomb rare or mythic. For every Jace, there are (another made up stat because it’s Friday) about 3 dozen Waxmane Bakus. While they are cool when you are trying to put together a sweet spirit deck in your draft pool, they are miserable to continue to pull from packs that cost twice as much as any other Magic the Gathering pack.

The Verdict

As I said before, in the pantheon of first world problems, this is one of the first worldest. Nevertheless, it is not one that I’ve gone through before. Since these sets generally come at a time when I’m either on break or having just gotten off break, I’ve never actually had the money before to spend. Now that I have the money to spend, I have to figure out if I’m really going to spend it.

If I was truly thinking with my head and going over the Pros and Cons list that I just made, I think that I’d come to the conclusion that is isn’t worth the extra money. However, when it comes to games and gaming, I rarely think with my head. Most of the time, I go with what my gut or heart tells me and that’s telling me to stop being such a weiner and just preorder the box.

There’s a tiny chance that I can pull a Jace or some other really cool card from the box, which will make for great video. Sure, there’s also the chance that I might end up with a whole bunch of garbage, but that can happen with any box of cards and has never stopped me before, even when I was spending 200 on old boxes of Phyrexia and such. Chris and I have been really into drafting lately and I want to see what this set would look like in one of our two man drafts. So, let’s listen to the old heart and stop being such a weiner.

On the Tabletop

Feeling a Draft (2-3-18 RIX, RIX, IXN)

Leave a comment

Introduction

I mentioned in a previous article that the 2 Guys Gaming got together this past weekend. We played some of the old X-Men arcade title on Chris’s new Christmas present, the Pandora’s Boxx. We played about a dozen matches of Dragonball FighterZ. In fact, that’s what the last article was about. We also talked about playing some Magic the Gathering. Well, neither of us has a deck that has been updated (or even tuned) for a couple of months, so we’d have to figure something else out.

Inspired by this impending get together and with 20 dollars burning a hole in my pocket, I went to Wal*Mart to grab four packs of the latest MTG set. I figured I could combine them with two packs from my Ixalan fat pack (I’ll never get used to calling it a bundle) so that Chris and I could do a 2 player draft draft. What the heck. It had to go better than my disastrous xMage cube draft that I tried.

I also took the opportunity to open the rest of the packs from the fat pack. I have to admit that it was a weird feeling. For no particular reason, I had been hoarding them plus the packs from my booster box since I bought them months ago. I didn’t get anything worth value. Certainly nothing along the lines of the shiny Chandra that I opened from that set and promptly sold on eBay for 75 dollars. I got a new Vraska and a Wakening Suns Avatar in the last pack. So, a couple of fun cards that maybe I’ll do something with eventually.

The Draft

I thought the format we were using was Winchester, but apparently it isn’t. It is a variation of that, too. I can’t remember where I found it, so I will just briefly describe it here. We shuffle all of the packs together, put them in a pile between us, and one person starts by dealing out 3 cards face up and one card face down. The person who didn’t deal picks one card, the person who did deal picks two, and the last goes to the person who didn’t deal. Continue until all cards are drafted. Build a 40 card deck and battle.

The reason that I went with this format was that I couldn’t figure out the math of the Winchester format. It felt like players would end up with different numbers of cards and that didn’t seem to make sense to me. I have not actually tested this theory, so maybe there is balance in the format that I’m not seeing. This format ensures that both players end up with the same size pool from which to build their deck. It does take some of the intrigue away from drafting, but if I’m being perfectly honest, I don’t pay all that much attention to what Chris drafts and what his plan is, so it’s all a surprise to me when it comes to playing the games.

I would hate draft that card, but I’m honestly not sure if it’s something you need. But, I’ll draft it anyway because strategery is one of my strengths!

It didn’t feel like there were many bomb rares or mythics in the pool. We did open a Huatli, which is just as bad on paper as I thought it would be when I did my Rivals of Ixalan preview article. While we were drafting, nothing else jumped out at me. I ended up going off board because there were very few blue cards and none of them were really worth drafting and went with Abzan. It was actually more WB with a splash of green for Hunt the Weak and Hardy Veteran. Chris put together a Naya deck with a heavy dinosaur theme. He ended up with Huatli, poor guy.

The Deck

I said earlier that I didn’t see any bomb rares or mythics. As I was typing my deck into Tapped Out for the screenshot, it immediately recognized what I wasn’t able to see until I drew the card during the second game. Bishop of Rebirth is a draft bomb rare and don’t you forget it. Overall, the deck was good. A little creature heavy for my play style, but once it got cranking with that Bishop, there’s no stopping it. Add in removal for days and it should add up to a win.

The Games

So, yeah, about that win. I lost game two to some bad luck. I drew 2 of my three forests before drawing a single plains so that I could play the various white cards that were rotting in my hand. I ran Chris over in game 2 initially with my dorks before he recovered and stabilized. We played at a stale mate for a while until I could get my Bishop of Rebirth on the field and just remove all of his stuff while bringing mine back.

The last game was one of those epic affairs for which we will hopefully eventually become famous. We again went back and forth with me gaining the upper hand and what I thought was a two turn win when I drew my flying creature. He top decked a “pacifism” and I had to play some mind games with him to keep him from killing me for a few turns. I finally got rid of his big ugly and tried to stay alive long enough to get my Bishop out there. After the game, which he eventually won, I saw that the Bishop was two turns away. Oh well, he won this round fair and square.

Until Next Time…

I’m researching some other 2 player draft formats. One thing that we could do is just do a 6 pack sealed match, but I actually prefer the strategy of drafting, even if it doesn’t contain all of the intrigue due to the fact that cards are “known”. There are some other formats that do introduce that the unknown into the draft. Who knows? Maybe we will try one of those formats next time. Then again, we have something that we enjoy, it works for us, and why fix what ain’t broke.

On the Tabletop

To Be Or Not To Be (A MTG Modern Player)

Leave a comment

Way back in September, for the 42nd and 1/3rd time, I lost interest in MTG. Yes. Again. I know, I know, you guys most likely laugh at me and Noob when we proclaim that the game has gotten boring for us only to come back and say that a new set has relit the fire. I’d like to think that’s part of the charm of our website, we are not afraid to share our honest feelings about a game with you guys. We are gamers after all and who hasn’t become bored with a game only to rediscover it at a later point?

I had just bought 10 packs of Ixalan on a whim and joylessly opened them. I kept thinking about what cards in the set I *actually* could use in my various decks and couldn’t name one. Why did I just drop $40 on these packs? I couldn’t answer either question. There was no answer, I was basically on autopilot when I walked into the LGS and threw down my hard earned money. At that point, I realized that there was no point in buying cards anymore. All of my decks were formidable the way they were currently constructed. As I gazed on my boxes of singles stacked up in my closet, I decided that I would pursue a side gig selling on eBay. This worked to a certain extent. I felt like my cards had a purpose again and that purpose was to recoup some of the money I had poured into the hobby.

To my surprise, this actually worked, I easily made a good amount of money back, and quickly to boot. Starting a business only served to increase the sense of apathy towards the MTG. I didn’t see it as a game, but as product. I basically bombed out my entire collection with no regrets. I saved two decks, my green ramp and my storm, (both of which I’ve shared the decklist with you guys), and sold everything else. Why keep those decks? Well, if on the off-chance that someone wanted to play a game or two I wanted to have a couple of the decks that were actually fun to play. More on that later. I didn’t need the rest of my Modern decks because, to a certain extent, my gaming group dissolved. One of the members had a baby so that obviously takes priority over cards and his free time/free money dried up. Two of the other guys had a bit of a falling out so they stopped, and then one of the members, who takes the game very seriously, tried to insinuate that I was cheating during a game we played via Skype. To me, that was a complete turn-off from the game. Cheat? At MTG? During a friendly game no less? Or any game for that matter?! It’s just a game. At that point, the last guy I had to compete with was Shawn, and his free time was at a premium since he teaches and has 3 boys to take care of with his wife, so our nerd nights were few and far in between. The last one we had, we didn’t do any gaming. Instead, we watched Logan and Deadpool and ate calzones, which was just as fun as any other nerd night we had. My decks started to collect dust and I stopped thinking of the game entirely, besides a few texts here or there with Shawn. For me, the game was dead in the water and that was okay to me. It had been a good run and I had made a couple of good friends, as well as had some really fun times.

Fun, there’s that word again. Because that’s the key; I wasn’t having fun playing the game anymore. I hadn’t in a long time. I didn’t know how to put it into words until I was chatting with Shawn yesterday. He used a phrase that summed it up perfectly. ‘?Keeping up with the Jones’s’?. That’s been the problem for the last couple of years. Everything I was doing, everything I was buying was to remain competitive in the group. Since they all had Tier 1 Modern decks (Jund, Burn, Death’s Shadow, Elda-Tron,..Etc.), I couldn’t just show up with some wacky tribal deck because I would lose every game. Let’s be honest, no one wants to lose every game, everyone wants to remain competitive to some extent and win as much as possible, the game wouldn’t be fun if you lost all the time. But it’s also not fun when you are worried about building Tier 1 decks that you don’t even really enjoy playing just to rack up a ‘?W’? or two. I hated playing Tron, yes, it won quickly, but it just wasn’t fun. Same for Burn. Shawn and I always played really great, evenly matched games. We always had time to hatch our strategies and really enjoy the game without worrying about mistakes. This is because we didn’t play Tier 1 Modern decks. We were strictly kitchen table only..essentially anything goes, we didn’t care about banned/restricted cards. We just played the game. Thinking about it now, I miss those games. I would play with my buddy Phil (re: from the very first article I wrote for this site), and those games were fun too. Somewhere along the way, I had lost the fun. Opening packs. Not fun. Playing Modern games. Not fun. Going to Modern nights. Not fun. It just was something that I was doing just to do it.

I think Ghalta, Primal Hunger from Rivals of Ixalan did it. It got me at least thinking about the game again, and not in a negative way. I had mentioned it to Shawn about a month ago after one of the guys in the old group texted me a pic of it after it was spoiled, but then I forgot about it until Shawn texted me about it a couple of weeks ago. I instantly found myself wanting to add it to my green ramp. The same green ramp that had spent the last few months sitting on a book shelf in my game room. I felt reinvigorated in a way, not as in ‘?I want to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on booster boxes’?, but in a ‘?I wouldn’t mind playing a game or two’? way. After chatting with Shawn and talking about just playing kitchen table, (he had mentioned that his boys enjoy Two Headed Giant), I spent some time with the few cards I have left and put together a 3 color Jund energy deck. Hardly the most competitive deck right? Maybe, maybe not, but I think it’s going to be fun to play and finally, after a couple of years, I’ve learned that’s what matters.

P.S Everyone is different and has a different philosophy of the game. I know that some of our loyal readers do enjoy Modern and as that’s the case, I will still be posting budget friendly Modern deck lists for you guys to check out.

On the Tabletop

Noob’s Impressions of Rivals of Ixalan

Leave a comment

Introduction

Well, it’s that time again.’ Chris texted a couple of weeks ago saying that his interest in Magic the Gathering was growing once again. I texted back, somewhat jokingly, “Just in time for the new set.”‘ The second set in the Ixalan block, Rivals, is very close to being released.’ In fact, the prerelease might even be this weekend.’ Or next weekend.’ Or it was last weekend.’ 2 Generations Gaming, always on the cutting edge!

Regardless of when the prerelease happens (It was last weekend.’ The set releases tomorrow.), it happens during a month when I’m not getting paid.’ One of these years, I’m going to get smart and just squirrel away 30 bucks for the January set prerelease.’ Ah, but I digress.’ As Chris is showing more interest in the game, there are rumblings of the original 2 Guys getting together to game, and I actually played a disastrous game on xMage the other day, now seems like as good a time as any to take a look at these cards and see if I’m going to spend hard earned money on them.

Spoiler Alert: I will.
Note: Not actually my picture, but only because I’m too lazy to go upstairs and stage my own collection.

Those of you who read my latest Hearthstone article know that I set my preview of that set up slightly differently from my usual “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” format.’ I highlighted certain things that I found interesting about the set.’ Since that seems to work pretty well for a preview, I will continue with that format here.

The Mechanics (Or, What Does “Raid” Mean Again?)

One of the best things about a new Magic set is seeing what new mechanics they are adding to the game and what old ones they are recycling from previous sets.’ One of the more recent examples has been scry.’ Scry was a part of the game, but it recently fundamentally changed and became an evergreen for blue mostly.’ Then, it changed the actual rules of the game by being included in the new mulligan rule.’ For a player like me who is into the wonkier elements of the game, that was a really cool evolution to watch.

There are still dinosaurs, pirates, merfolk, and vampires from the first set in the block.’ The recycled mechanics that I can see from glancing at the spoilers are enrage, explore, and raid.’ Of those, I’m most interested in raid.’ That one debuted in the Tarkir block and you might think it odd that I’d chose a more aggro mechanic over the other decidedly control oriented ones.’ I can’t explain it. The heart wants what the heart wants.

Besides, look what they gave my beloved Blue.’ Not sure how you’d make it work, but I live for this weird stuff.

The new mechanic for the set is Ascend.’ According to my’research‘and some 3rd grade reading comprehension, when you control 10 or more permanents, you get the city’s blessing for the rest of the game.’ This ascension gives some cards that you might play a bonus effect.’ I’ve mentioned in a couple of my recent articles that I’m glad that Wizards of the Coast is willing to treat Magic the Gathering as a game.’ I get it that we humans like to make our games into serious competitions that we then discuss in very serious and important terms for hours on end.

However, and Chris and I (and perhaps some of you out there) struggle with this quite a bit, these are just games.’ We all grew up playing them.’ Very few of us made any kind of living from them.’ Now, it seems like every kid with a webcam and a microphone thinks that they are a “pro gamer”.’ There are leagues forming.’ It sounds ridiculous and it might be ridiculous, but I imagine people said the same thing about professional baseball, football, basketball, and hockey back when those players were associating and leagues were forming.

The point that I’m finally getting to is that even companies like Wizards of the Coast have gotten into the act by promoting their tournaments on Twitch.’ So, it’s nice that they haven’t sold out completely to their competitive players.’ It looked for while, mainly around the Tarkir block, that they might do just that.’ But, they caught the power creep, backed off, and even started to cater more to the casual crowd.’ I’m not saying that Ascend won’t be competitive.’ In fact, they might have designed it exclusively with competition in mind.’ All I’m saying is that this filthy casual loves the design and I can’t wait to play around with it.

This card, in particular, looks to have definite competitive flair.

The Planeswalkers

After the mechanics, the next thing that I like to watch out for are the planeswalkers.’ They aren’t often the best cards in a set, but they are fun cards and they are a different card design from pretty much anything I’ve ever seen in any game.’ The loyalty mechanic adds new and interesting strategies and even, in some cases, fundamentally change the way the game is played.’ Plus, it’s just cool to open one of these guys.’ The planeswalkers in this actual set are new ones.’ It appears as if they are listening to players who were sick of seeing the old guard of Jace and company.

The first comment on Mythic Spoiler for this card starts, “This card is bad.”‘ It very well might be.’ In fact, I agree with every point that the comment makes.’ However, anyone who does any sort of searching on the web page knows that doesn’t matter one bit to me.’ Is it fun?’ Again, probably not, but would I still try to build a deck around it if I happened to pull one from a pack?’ For a third time, no.’ Pretty picture, though.

Okay, now this is more like it.’ The card does what RB wants to do.’ It discards, steals creatures, sometimes kills them, and deals direct damage.’ I don’t usually play RB because, ew, Red, but if I did, this would be a card that I could get very excited about.’ The card is good and fun for at least one player.’ Now for the payoff.’ Would I attempt to build a deck around the card if I pulled it from a pack?’ Absolutely.’ And the first attempt would be absolutely horrible.

Notable Cards

Now for the obligatory mention that this will not be a list of the best cards.’ I’ve already made it abundantly clear in this article that I care nothing about competitive play.’ I will just pick one card from each color that jumps out and speaks to me.

White

This one immediately jumped out at me as I was reading through the white cards, but I did go through the rest of them to see if anything else might be cooler to me.’ I did take a close look at Sphinx’s Decree because I love playing the fun police, but that card also punishes my playstyle, so ultimately, it wouldn’t be fun for anyone.’ This one, on the other hand, exiles cards and buffs another vamp.’ It is very easy to remove, but that little bit of extra oomph from the plus stats has my brain dancing.

White Honorable Mention

Just because the keyword vomit makes me think of the card that I made for Chris.

Blue

This is a blue card with a heavy dose of red. Similar to the card I highlighted earlier with Raid, this one draws cards, which is what Blue does.’ But, it also gives plus stats and basically requires you to attack every turn.’ Those are both what red does.’ Very cool card designs in this set overall.

Blue Honorable Mention

I told you I live for this weird stuff.’ If this thing had flash, it would absolutely be my favorite card. It also might be broken as hell.

Black

Okay, I’m not immune to big, dumb, shiny creatures as this pick shows.’ It’s a potential bomb mythic in draft and sealed, which I generally tend to avoid for these picks because I want to go a bit off the beaten path.’ But, this guy is just insane.’ Look at that ability!’ Each turn, you just ping one of your opponents creatures and they are basically racing you to 6 mana at that point.’ Just brutal.

Black Honorable Mention

Well, a big dumb idiot and a little dumb idiot.’ It just so happens that in black in this set, Wizards has made their idiots interesting.’ Flash?’ Deathtouch?’ Immediate board effect?’ I love all of those words individually and together, they have me thinking UB.’ See, I haven’t lost my way.

Red

What in the name of Robo Rosewater is this card?’ I mean, it isn’t quite at Defcon 1 levels of the random magic card tweeting bot, but it defintely has that je ne sais quoi flavor that makes me wonder if someone took the day off at the office and just grabbed this one from the old Twitter feed.’ Some kind of WR life gain deck?’ Who knows, but I love it.

Red Honorable Mention

What has gotten into them over there in the WotC offices?’ Blue cards that do Red things?’ Red Cards that do Blue and Green things?’ I mean, I guess this one is more in line with something like Cathartic Reunion or that other card that is escaping me at the moment that makes you discard to draw.’ I’m sure there are a couple.’ But, that mana ramp is cool and on more than just this one card.

Green

Another card that borders ever so closely to the old Robo Rosewater territory.’ In a ramp deck, late game, there are just dinosaurs hitting the board, fighting other creatures, clearing the board, setting up for a possible lethal on the next turn.’ Again, maybe a bulk uncommon, but I could have so much fun with this thing.

This is the first card from the set I think that I texted Chris about when I saw that it was being offered as some promo.’ He had texted me about it earlier and that must have stuck with me and triggered something when I saw the card.’ It would be fun in a ramp stompy deck and I would laugh uncontrollably if someone were able to bounce it out after their hatchling died.

Multicolor

Another big, dumb idiot.’ Virtually worthless in any format other than maybe EDH, but it would just be one of those WTF cards that has you doing a bunch of crazy stuff on your turn every time you were able to cast it.’ Off to xMage to build this terrible EDH deck!

Colorless

A silly restriction?’ A ridiculous (and maybe ultimately stupid and pointless) payoff?’ A mention of Jace in the flavor text?’ Where do I sign up?

The Verdict

I have to say that I wasn’t anticipating getting back into main Magic any time soon.’ I’ve been very satisfied with the off shoot Magic games and other games that I’ve been playing with the boys.’ When Chris mentioned that he was feeling the itch again, it got me thinking.’ I also had a free spot on my “daily” article routine that was right around the prerelease/release of the set, so I figured that it wouldn’t hurt anything to take a closer look at the set.

I’m glad that I did.’ It feels like it has just the right amount of jank to get me interested and deck building again.’ Once I pick up my box and bundle combo of the set, then I can have a huge pack opening party with the boys.’ I know that they love to open cards as much as I do, so it will be fun to get their thoughts on the cards, too, as we go along.’ Well, I guess I’m right back into the cardboard crack.

Digital Playground, On the Tabletop, Snap *censored* Pop Culture

2 Generations Gaming 2017 in Review

1 Comment

Introduction

It’s the first day of 2018. This is the time every year that is traditionally set aside for reflection on the previous 365 (or 366) days. There are countdowns, marathons, and years in review. This article falls into the last category. While it has been difficult to maintain a consistent video or podcast schedule, I’ve done okay at updating the web page with at least one article a month. I’ve also kept busy with plenty of other geeky fun. Let’s reminisce on the best, the worst, and the ugliest.

The Good

APBA Baseball: I only recently rediscovered this game in one of my closets and I’m going to write an article this week about the couple of games I played last week. I know that others might prefer Strat-O-Matic or another simulator, but this is the only one I’ve played and it does what I want it to do. Overall, this has been a great addition to my gaming life again and I can’t wait to dive deeper into the baseball simulation greatness.

Mobile Gaming: Old school favorites like Candy Crush and Angry Birds. New favorites like Sim City Build It, Fallout Shelter, Magic the Gathering Puzzle Quest, and Pokemon Go. All of these games have been played with great regularity over the past year on my phone. In fact, most of my video game time has been spent on my phone. That’s saying something for a person who used to denigrate all mobile games as shovelware.

Eternal/Hearthstone: Yes, these are both games that could have technically been included in the mobile section. However, they’ve had more impact on me than the other games included in that list. I started playing Eternal during one of my rage quits from Hearthstone earlier in the year. I had seen Brian Kibler playing the game on stream and figured I’d give it a chance. I’m glad that I did. While I don’t play it as much as when I first started, it still has a place in my weekly rotation. I have had an up and down relationship with Hearthstone. However, as I said to Chris a couple of days ago, I seem to have found my comfort zone in the game. I have little to no interest in competitive play of any sort. I generally just log in every couple of days to do quests, earn gold, and every now and then win a pack that I won’t open.

Comics: 2017 was the year that saw me get back into comics. Marvel’s Secret Empire event led to a discovery of the well executed DC Rebirth titles. Following them for a few months led right into Metal and sticking with Secret Empire to the end let me experience the start of Legacy. Almost all of these events were well executed, but it wasn’t all good for comics this year. More on that later.

Magic the Gathering: You wouldn’t think that I’d rank this so highly in the good category. Given that Chris and I discussed a few times how little we had played the game this year. I wasn’t even watching streams. It just looked like the game had run its course for us. Then, a couple of things happened. Well, on my end, one major thing happened. During one of our summer trips, I played Magic with all three boys. First, we played a couple of two headed giant games with decks that I had built over the years. Then, I picked up the Nicol Bolas box set and finally the Explorers of Ixalan. We haven’t played the Explorers yet, but there is time. Any game that gets me closer to my kids is a great game.

The Best: I know that it came late in the year, but any time a Star Wars movie is released and it is half decent, that will be the best thing about my year. When it is one of the best of the franchise, it will be the best thing of the decade. When I get to experience it with my kids and father in law, it just might be one of the highlights of my life. I won’t say much more because I have an article planned to go into more detail, but I absolutely loved this movie and it was a perfect way to start my holiday break.

The Bad

No New Console: This is the first year in a few that we haven’t gotten a new console. I was going back and forth for a few weeks on whether or not to buy an XBox One Minecraft edition. I’ve had my eye on it for a while. Then, there seems to have been a mix up with my last December check and unless I sub in January, I won’t get paid at all, so economics won out. Liam did buy himself a Gamecube and we found the Dreamcast (but it needs to be repaired), so there are some “new” games being played right now, but no new hardware makes me feel a bit sad. We won’t be down for long, though. We are looking at a Switch and I’m almost positive that I’ll get an XBox in February.

The Worst: Only two for this one? Yep, and only two for the next one, too. By now, you should know my very positive outlook on things and this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Also, the fact that I just talked so much about how comics were a good thing this year might also make this choice for “the worst” seem weird at best and probably perplexing. But, I have a valid explanation. I loved the stories and art of the comics, but hated the cover prices. I was spending far too much money on them and I couldn’t justify doing so anymore. At least with games, I get massive replay value from them and they allow me to spend more time with my kids. Comics did neither of those. It was 3-7 dollars spent on 10-15 minutes of enjoyment. That’s just awful.

The Ugly

Our Podcast Lineup: I was just talking to a friend (and one of the first fans of the page) about the 2 Guys Gaming podcast. He said something about how he thought it was damn good and that it could have been something. Not one to take compliments very gracefully, I changed the subject quickly. However, the podcasts are fun for me to do and I really want to get back to doing them. There have been a few that I listen to that have taken long breaks and come back stronger. One, in particular, stopped and started a few times, but it is again one of my favorites. So, our planning is ugly, but hopefully by this time next year, it will be good.

Nerd on Nerd Violence: This is something that I’ve often spoken against. However, as nerd culture has become popular culture, the nerd on nerd violence has increased to an unacceptable level. It used to be that when you were picked on by somebody, you always had your nerd buddies to get your back. If there was an actual fight, you’d all get your butts kicked, but they were there to take your mind off of being the brunt of some sort of physical or psychological abuse. Now, some of the worst abuse of nerds is coming from other nerds. It isn’t just good-natured joke fights about whether Star Trek or Star Wars is better. It’s full on attacks of each other and the things we hold dear. I’m going to talk about this more in my Star Wars article and it might just be that all violence is increasing, but this makes me incredibly sad.

The Verdict

2017 wasn’t all fun and games. It wasn’t all poorly executed puns, either. It was a good bordering on great year that gives us an excellent foundation to make 2018 even better. Happy New Year, All! Make it the best one ever!

On the Tabletop

Impressions of Ixalan

Leave a comment

Introduction

I was in Wal*Mart with Aiden a couple of weeks ago. That’s how most middle age dad stories start. Gone are the days of, “Oh, man, I was so drunk…” or “And that’s when the goat walked by!” I’m not saying that it is better or worse, just different. Oh, and much better. Getting drunk just leads to poor decisions and hangovers and goats stink.

So, Aiden and I were in Wal*Mart for some reason or another. Who the hell knows at this point? They put a Wal*Mart in town locally that then donned a cape to become a Super Wal*Mart (which are technically just regular Wal*Marts at this point and the regular Wal*Marts are K*Marts or Ames or some nonsense, I don’t exactly know) a few years ago. Ever since, because it is so convenient, I find myself at that store at least once a day on average. That’s not to say that I go there every day, but the days that I do go there, I go multiple times, so it probably totals at least 365.25 times in a year.

Okay, time to get serious about this. For whatever reason, a couple of weeks ago, I was walking through Wal*Mart with Aiden and I stumbled on the Explorers of Ixalan box set. With almost no hesitation, I bought it. We have played the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set (as mentioned in a few articles on the page) a few times and enjoyed it, so I thought it would be good to pick this one up, too. Due to the craziness of the holidays and end of semester, we haven’t been able to play it, but I have looked through it and will give my impressions of what I know about it so far.

The Good

I texted Chris to tell him that I bought the game. He responded with, “Never heard of it.” I explained it a bit to him and said, “I really like what they’re doing with casual Magic.” It has taken them a while, but it feels like they are finally embracing the casual player in more ways than just, “Hey, look, we have a semi-casual event every week called Friday Night Magic that plays exactly like the professional events, but worse because you haven’t committed your every waking moment to building meta decks.” Players like me who have absolutely no interest in Standard or Modern and only limited (ha, ha) interest in draft and sealed were left out in the cold.

Cold? Another Shining reference? Nah, the cold never bothered me anyway.

That started to change with some of the prerelease events. I think they might have listened to some of the players who started to wonder out loud what the audience for prereleases were. I took my kids a couple of times because I thought they would be less stress and more fun than a typical event (even FNM), but the competition was still fierce and the barrier for entry was still high. We haven’t been back since, but I’ve watched the events change and they’re making them a bit more varied and noob friendly from what I gather. Perhaps I’ll attend the next one to see if that’s true.

Aside from that, they have also started to run some new events that introduce players into the game. They give away a free deck, teach players the fundamentals of the game, and have a much more friendly atmosphere for newer players. I won’t go out as far as I have in the past to say that they were losing revenue, but both Chris and I (casual players, me much more so than him) were speaking like we’d never play another hand of Magic again. I doubt that we’re the barometer for that sort of thing, but I did start to wonder out loud if the game was suffering a little bit from ignoring that part of the player base.

What better way to hook ’em than with free? Even Heisenberg knows that.

Well, if recent history is to be believed, they aren’t ignoring us anymore. The Archenemy game put together 4 decent decks to play against an uber powerful deck in the same way that the WoW TCG had it’s raid decks. The price point was great for getting as many cards as you did and the game mode itself is fun enough for multiple plays. Looking at Explorers of Ixalan, it appears as if they were testing the waters with the Archenemy box and that they expanded it with this set.

In addition to the traditional card game, this one has a territory acquisition aspect in the form of cards. I haven’t looked closely at the cards, but they look to give bonuses like card draw or stats and keywords for your cards. So, in addition to fending off three other players (since it is a free for all not a 2 headed giant game), you also have to plan your strategy for how to approach the tiles in the game. Choose carefully and be the first to find the lost city!

The Bad

Personally, I think that this is a great addition and makes this game unique among Magic the Gathering. I hope that they plan on continuing to do this type of thing, but I’ve been wrong before. I really liked the Arena of the Planeswalkers game, too, even if the set up was a bit convoluted. They only made a couple of them and then stopped. I think it might have just been because the game played too differently from Magic, so Magic fans didn’t like it too much and it was a bit too complicated for non fans to get into the game.

So, while I worry that this might be a one off, I don’t foresee it falling into the same category as the board game. If that game “suffered” from not being close enough to Magic, this one doesn’t have that problem. It’s exactly a Magic game with this other piece grafted on top of it. Still, the possibility exists that this doesn’t sell and that Wizards will kill this arm of Magic before you know it.

I have no idea what the company’s thoughts are on games that don’t provide a return. I’m sure that Hasbro will be willing to let this division be a loss leader for a while similar to how Disney let Marvel comics division do the same. However, the mouse has come knocking and there’s a chance that this might end up just being a one off and I’ll have none of this to look forward to ever again.

The Verdict

This looks like a fun way to play Magic the Gathering. I will get the boys together next week over vacation to play it and then give my actual thoughts about the game. I don’t think it will happen next week as we are trying to get the podcast up and running again. If nothing else, it will be an annual tradition to talk about Star Wars. So, look for my review of Explorers of Ixalan in two weeks.

On the Tabletop

Recapturing the Magic

Leave a comment

Introduction

I did an article a few weeks ago about the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set after playing it with Aiden and Quinn. While we still haven’t had a chance to play all four of us, we did simulate the experience recently. I played as both Bolas and one of the Gatewatch decks. What I found is that the encounter is tuned for 3 players to face the dragon. Not a huge surprise, but fun to see how precise Wizards has gotten in tuning the game. There are still powerful cards and decks in all formats, but they have come a long way since the overpowered Tarkir block and Standard is the most open that I’ve seen in the 3 or 4 years that I’ve been watching. In either case, once we get a chance to play the game as it is intended with all four of us, I will give another impression. This article is about the latest expansion, Ixalan.

The Good

Chris and I have been texting a bit back and forth about the recent sets. Nothing really jumped out at us from Kaladesh or Amonkhet, even if he was excited about the theme of Amonkhet. I think I might have mentioned it in my last article, but it didn’t even look like Ixalan would get me back into the game. Then, a few things happened. One, I stopped collecting comic books again. I enjoyed the stories and the community that I was starting to build, but I just couldn’t justify the cover prices anymore, especially at the rate I was buying the books. That freed up some money for other nerd pursuits. Then, I ran the idea of the set by Liam and he said, “Cool!”

Pirates and dinosaurs?! What more do you need?!

So, I took that saved comic book money and I blew it on a booster box and Fat Pack (now called a “bundle”, I think) for Ixalan because that’s how I roll. Primarily, I’ve been a collector and that usually gives me the most bang for my buck. I get a majority of the cards from the set for my binder and usually enough to add some cards to the couple of decks that I still have.

Granted, I still have to open the product. Some of that is neglect on my part. It took me forever to open my Amonkhet packs. I might even have half of a box that wasn’t opened. I know for a fact that we have Dicemasters left to open from the box that I purchased for the draft that we did a few months ago. Most of it, though, is that Liam was so excited for the cards that I wanted to open them when he had a chance to help us. He’s been in play, which has been intense over the last two weeks because it was showtime, but now that’s all over. In addition, I’d like to capture some content for a YouTube channel that has been criminally ignored for the better part of 2 years.

Actual footage from our YouTube channel. Actually, this would get more views.

So, this whole review is a bit disingenuous. When has that ever stopped us? I can definitely say that it is a good thing that I’m back into the game of Magic, even if I haven’t actually played against Chris in several months. He, too, has seen his interest in the game grow through his online business selling cards, so it might only be a matter of time before we get together for one of our infamous nerd nights and bust out the Magic cards.

The Bad

Knowing very little about the set, I can’t really give much in the ways of honest impressions, as I said earlier. However, I will say that no matter my chosen nerd hobby of the moment, I tend to go overboard. I was spending almost 200 dollars a month in comics for most of the year. I bought a box of Dicemasters and Heroclix to prepare for a podcast episode that was supposed to be made several months ago (and finally hopefully will this weekend). I always buy a booster box and fat pack of every Magic set (including going back in history to the first Mirrodin set when I started getting back into gaming all those years ago) and I’m now trying to resist purchasing an XBox One, even though it would make for good gaming partners with Kevin, maybe Chris, and the boys.

Tom gets me.

So, it is bad that I’m back into Magic. It isn’t as bad as if I decided to start buying comics again. I think I might have even said as much to Chris during one of our conversations. Something along the lines of Magic might have been expensive, but at least it was only 200 dollars every couple of months instead of every month and the cards have more utility than the comic books. The comic books are easier to display, but who the hell do I have coming to my house to look at my comic book collection? At least with the cards, I can play the game against my kids even if Chris and I are too busy to hang out.

The Ugly

You know, I put together this format early in my blogging career…wait, can you call it a career if you’ve never made a dime from it? Nevertheless, this format worked well for my Steelers page because there’s almost always at least one good thing, one bad thing, and one really terrible thing that you can take from a sporting event, if it is properly framed. However, being critical of creative projects is a much trickier proposition and I don’t always have something terrible to say about them. I understand that people often put their hearts and souls into the creative pursuits and therefore try to find the good in them. Usually I can stretch to find a bad, but “The Ugly” is usually just me explaining myself or making an awkward joke.

Worst. Critic. Ever.

Maybe I will try a little harder to find things that I don’t like for these reviews. Maybe I will better research a product before posting a review of it. After all, Googling “Ixalan spoilers” isn’t exactly the epitome of responsible journalism. Maybe I will tweak the format to more appropriately match my overall optimistic and sunny demeanor. After all, it is based on a 50 year old movie and probably not speaking to the demographic that we should be courting.

The Verdict

Pirates and dinosaurs were enough to get me interested in Magic again. I can’t speak personally on the overall quality of the set, but having watched a few Twitch streams recently, I do think that the Standard meta is healthy and that Wizards has recovered nicely from the stale experience that the overpowered Tarkir block brought. It’s a bit bad for my budget that I’m into Magic again, but not nearly as bad as comic books were. Overall, I’m excited about the game again and that’s a positive.

On the Tabletop

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Bolas?

Leave a comment

Introduction

Chris and I have been talking for a few months as if our time in Magic the Gathering is over. Regular readers of the page know that this is not unusual. Our interest in the game ebbs and flows as it does with most of you, I’m sure. However, this time felt different.

First, the Marvel Secret Empire event pulled me back into comics. I got to the point where I was spending almost $200 a month on them. That is not exactly conducive to having extra money for cards, too. Why do nerd hobbies have to be so damn expensive?

Back in my day, you could get a comic book, a loaf of bread, and a show at the nickelodeon (the TV network) for less than 4 dollars. Also, get the hell off my lawn.

Second, none of the recent sets have excited me. Usually when I’m going through a lull, I can point to a set that might have potential to get me interested. I still bought cards to collect, but going back to Innistrad and the return of the Eldrazi (even in their Annihilator-less form) left me flat. Amonkhet had some cool lore and Chris and I even did a Winchester draft with the set, but I never bought any product from the second set. That’s the first time that has happened since I got back into the game. It just looked like comics were going to be my hobby.

Then, some things happened and the tide turned. I’ve been writing for a couple of months now that I didn’t think 200 bucks per month was sustainable. Well, I finally discussed it with my wife and her opinion matched me and Chris. 3 out of 3 meant that I needed to reevaluate. Then, the kids asked me to play Magic a few weeks ago and we did. It’s the first time that they’ve all been old enough to understand and play by the rules. I’ve been looking for a reason to buy the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set and they finally gave me that reason.

I mean, other than the obvious reason of being able to play as a big ole dragon, of course.

Also, I have been listening to podcasts (as I do every day during my commute) and Planet Money has featured a couple of episodes on arbitrage. Coincidentally, Chris has decided to try his hand at exploiting inefficiencies in the MtG market after a conversation about how the release of a new set often sees old cards that were worth almost nothing gain value due to their inclusion in new decks. He keeps me updated on a semi-daily basis and he has inspired me to attempt the same.

Finally, I’ve take a look at Ixalan. My verdict? Pirates and dinosaurs are cool. Frankly, though, I came to that verdict after some discussion with the boys. I took my comic money, bought a box and a fat pack (bundle now, but it feels awkward to call it a bundle bundle) bundle and we’re going to open it as a family. There will be plenty of time to dissect Ixalan. This article is about our experience with the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set.

The Good

It is multiplayer Magic. When we played a few weeks ago, we played 2-headed giant with me and Quinn against the his two older brothers. It allowed everyone to play at the same time, whereas our “tournaments” often see one match end early, people get bored, and they eventually give up on ever finishing the tournament. Since we were all in the same match at the same time, nobody got the chance to get bored and walk away.

Nicol Bolas can be played as a four player game, but there were only three of us the night we played because Liam had play practice that night. Still, the three of us had fun even as Aiden complained about how OP the Nicol Bolas deck is. I was playing as the deck and I have to agree with him. Granted, you are playing against multiple players as the deck, but I feel like they might have overdone it a bit with some of the cards in the supplementary deck.

This is one of the milder cards. You cast them for free and some of them affect the remainder of the game.

But, this is the good section of the article. There is plenty of good to the set. The decks are each built around a planeswalker. In addition to that planeswalker, the decks contain some fun and interesting cards from the history of the game. Some of the cards are actually very good and with the right pilot and circumstances, the decks might even hold their own against the dragon. More testing is necessary to see if the decks should be tweaked a bit or if they will work right out of the box.

The Bad

As mentioned, we’ve only gotten a chance to play once. Aiden said that he’s played it with his friends at school during recess time, but that was the absolute first time that I’ve ever played it. As a result, my opinion might not be fully formed and there might be some bad that I’m overlooking.

Because, there isn’t much bad that I can say about the set. The decks seem to be fun. It is a different way to play Magic the Gathering with a larger group of players. Sure, Nicol Bolas is a powerful deck and made more powerful by his schemes, but that fits right into the lore of the character. He’s supposed to be one of the big bads and it wouldn’t feel right if any group of players could just get together and steamroll.

Hey, Buddy, show some respect. We’re not just “any group of players”!

This is so weird. I previewed the “bad” and “ugly” in my good section. I’m technically telling how good the game is in the bad section. This is pandemonium. What’s going to happen in the ugly section?

The Ugly

The only bad that I can say about the game is that the scheme deck for the dragon is overpowered, just as I said in “the good” previous section. It might be that the game really isn’t designed for less than 4 players, even though they have rules for less. The boys put up a decent fight, but my deck just steamrolled them with the free removal, card draw, mana, and everything else good about the game of Magic the Gathering. The one game that we played was just ugly for poor Aiden and Quinn. Bolas destroyed nearly all hope they had of ever gaining an edge, forget about even winning the game.

Aiden did say that he hadn’t seen the scheme deck before. I wonder if at school the kids don’t use the deck because it offers such a distinct advantage to a deck that maybe doesn’t need the help. In addition to trying to think of ways to improve the Gatewatch planeswalker decks, I might try to play a game without the scheme deck to see if it makes a difference and makes the game more even.

The Verdict

Even with the ugliness of the overpowered schemes, it seemed like the boys had fun with it. Just like 2 headed giant, all four of us can play at the same time. That makes it more likely that we will finish a game instead of losing players to complacency and boredom. Playing this has inspired me to get back into the game more. I have also inquired about Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh again and will be ready when Aiden goes through his phase again and wants to play those games. Right now, he and his brothers are all about some online Pokemon RPG that they are playing with friends. But, I’ll be looking forward to our games again, hopefully in the near future.

On the Tabletop

Revisiting Amonkhet

Leave a comment

(Editor’s Note: When we last left Noob of All Trades in Amonkhet, he was losing multiple limited events in new and interesting ways. Has that trend continued? Tune in now to find out!)

Like the zombies that have become so revalent in the wake of the set, I rise from teh dead of my 0-2 draft and 1-2 sealed against Chris to find success in Amonkhet limited. Writing my previous article inspired me to log back into MtGO and try my luck at another draft. I’m glad that I did. Having actually seen and played with and against the cards, I had a much better idea of what worked and what didn’t and why.

First, zombies are good. Standard and limited events on the PT have shown that. Because of that success, everyone knows and seems to draft accordingly. Secondly, exert is probably the second easiest strategy to put together behind zombies. -1/-1 counters can be good, but tough to make happen. Then again, I did play against a guy earlier in a sealed event who both got the nut -1/-1 pool and then the appropriate hand to make it all happen in game 1, so it is possible. I’m not entirely sure what the other color combinations might offer, so I’m no help there.

Apparently cycling is a thing? But, exercise and nerds just seems like a bad combination.

Still, armed with my little bit (you didn’t think I’d use the limited pun again, did you?) of knowledge, I put together a solid GW exert deck. There were no bombs that I saw, so it was just the type of draft where you have to find the value cards. Luckily, I found it in abundance in this draft. I don’t remember how it started. I think maybe GB or RB?

Pretty quickly, I pivoted and by pack 2, I was solidly in GW with a focus on exert. That allowed me to keep a lazy eye on any possible zombies. However, like I mentioned, there weren’t many to be found in the draft. So, I just went with Plan A and it worked. I blew my first opponent out of the water and beat the other in pretty convincing fashion, too.

I guess you could call the Sandworms or Angel bombs?

Buoyed by that success, I jumped into xMage for another draft. I didn’t want to follow up my good mojo with potential bad mojo and actually spend “money” (new player points) to do it, so xMage seemed like the logical choice. However, there was no bad mojo to be found that night. I was so happy about this draft that I texted Chris about it. “Damn, just drafted a sweet GR deck on xMage, but the game got corrupted. Think I finally have the hang of this format.”

It’s too bad that the game did get corrupted because this deck was seriously insane. I also texted to Chris that I had no idea what anyone else was drafting because there several packs where I had a tough decision to make and the card that I didn’t pick wheeled back around to me. In this draft, after pack 2, I could have easily pivoted and started grabbing black value and put together any combination of green, red, or black and most likely gone 3-0 with the deck. It truly was an embarrassment of riches.

I mean, just beautiful, isn’t it? *single tear of joy*

As I said, I really think I’m starting to get the hang of the format. I still agree that it is a great set for drafting or sealed. I will most likely use the rest of my new player points on two more drafts and I might even spring the cash for a sealed event. I’ve enjoyed it that much. If you’re not doing Amonkhet limited, you are missing out!

On the Tabletop

Amon”Khetting Off on the Right Foot”

Leave a comment

(Editor’s Note: Okay, I fully admit that it might be time to retire this terrible dad joke headline gag that I’ve been milking for the past few articles. This one really does go too far and I almost want to apologize for it.)

Chris already gave you his impression of Amonkhet, the new Magic the Gathering set, via his recap of the prerelease he attended. Yes, you read that right. We had 2 Guys Gaming! We almost had another episode of that podcast in the can, too, but I wasn’t able to go over there because I wasn’t feeling well. But, we will take any positives and who knows? The podcast may be back soon enough.

I was not able to make it to this prerelease because it was Liam’s big weekend as Eugene in the local high school production of Grease. But, no regrets and I got to live vicariously through Chris. He kept me updated about his exploits via text. you can read about ithere. Spoiler Alert! He split the pot, but would have won.

While I wasn’t able to make it to the prerelease I was still very excited about this set. As a filthy casual, I didn’t care much about cards, so I didn’t keep up at all on spoilers. However, the lore based on ancient Egyptian civilization intrigued me. I’m a sucker for ancient civilizations and their stories. Therefore, I wanted to experience the set one way or another.

Then again, there are stories of Zeus dating his daughter, or some nonsense like that, so maybe those stories need to stay in the past.

Unfortunately, another obstacle stood in my way. Spring semester has ended. Summer hasn’t started yet. So, I’m in between checks and can’t afford to join events either in real life or on Magic Online right now. Luckily, I am practiced in the arts of cheap ass gaming. I created a “new” account on MTGO, which gives new player points that can be used to join phantom drafts. I don’t get to keep the cards, but I do get to play with them.

I did one draft this way. Without having looked at spoilers much, I went into the draft mostly blind. Armed with the limited (get it?!) knowledge, I went with the little bit that I did know. Zombies are decent this block. I forced BW embalm even after P1P1 a Glorybringer. Yeah, I know. Hear me out.

First, I find it humorous that both Chris and I pulled the dragon in our limited events. He’s lucky to have an actual card in hand (well, deck, actually), while I only have memories of an 0-2 performance. Should have done more research, I guess.

Draft is a cruel mistress.

So, how did I end up BW after drafting one of the great limited bombs of this set first? Well, it’s a tale s old as time. As old as people have been drafting, at least. Red just dried the eff up. I don’t know if there were to red bombs in the draft and the other guy just bullied me off. When I say dried up, I am talking Sahara desert dry. Sure, there was the oasis of the occasional good red card, but by that time I had switched gears to the zombies.

Don’t get me wrong. The deck was decent. Sure, I went 0-2, but the games and matches were all close. Ever since I started taking Magic a bit more seriously, I can hold my own in most games. But, it just wasn’t the “draft a bomb and win” that I thought it might be after the dragon. It’s never that easy, is it?

More recently, I got to experience the prerelease life (sort of) by doing a sealed with Chris. I bought my usual box and bundle. So, instead of doing our Winchester draft as we had been doing recently, Chris suggested the sealed. Neither of us opened a Glorybringer this time, but I got to finally see actual cards in action.

He went Naya exert for his deck. I probably tried to do too much with BG counters/cycle, but it worked out for me game 1. I flooded big time in game 2 and then saw a major threat pacified in game 3. but, and let’s say it all together now. “All three games were close.”

You know what losing makes you, right?

I had considered rebuilding or swapping pools, but Chris asked to play some modern, so I obliged. Again, he beat me 2-1 with a Boros aggro against a “Fun Police” deck. Apparently, it just wasn’t my night. That’s okay, though. I’ll get him the next time. That’s how our matches seem to go. Back and forth like that.

Also, I had fun. The set is a good limited set. There are a wide variety of viable archetypes in draft and sealed. Heck, I think this is the first time that I was able to pivot from a bomb and put together a decent secondary plan. Maybe that’s a result of me improving as a player? Perhaps, but I do think that this is a great limited set. I do have new player points for 3 more drafts. We’ll see if I still think that after them.