It’s the run in to the Christmas holidays. I picked up my Christmas cake yesterday from Doreen (she makes amazing cakes, you have seen them on here in the past, like that minion mummy Halloween cake a couple of years back). I risked sharing it with work colleagues at our bring and share lunch, but luck was on my side and no one had any. So I have the whole thing to myself, well I’m sharing it with Nan and mum, but the majority of it will end up with me.
Before our lunch yesterday Dale and I did some “team building” or as it may have appeared to anyone looking in, playing Magic the Gathering. We started off with playing a couple of games using the Mind vs Might duel decks. I like duel decks, for us casual players they are great. However sadly Wotc don’t seem to like them, and have decided that with the new one coming out next April, that it will be the last of that product range. They are instead bringing out Challenger decks (a name some have linked with the tragic shuttle disaster) aimed more at players needing a “competitive” deck for playing at Friday Night Magic. I’m guessing that the Wotc logic goes if you are a casual player that just wants to grab a couple of decks to play a game of Magic with a friend with you can grab the Planeswalker decks and use them. I suppose you could grab the Challenger decks, but two of those will set you back $60 ($30 each). Not exactly a casual priced solution. My recommendation that is actually cheaper, and fun, is get two battledecks from CardKingdom, or build the $5 pauper decks that Strickly Better MTG built to play with (something I plan on doing).
After those initial couple of games, we moved on to playing some games with a couple of CardKingdom battledecks (Uproar and Dino Might). Dale was trying the abuse the etb effect deck of Uproar, while I was stomping everywhere with the dinosaurs. My win ratio for the mornings “team building” was 4-2.
There is a clock ticking for one or two kickstarters that were aiming to deliver before the years end. As you can see the Kickstarter exclusive expansion for Flash Point: Fire Rescue arrived yesterday. However my hand made early copy of Mint Delivery may or may not be on its way. There has been very little communication from the creator about what is happening on that front. The Tao Long creators have been trying to move heaven and earth to get the game out to backers by the end of the year. However that seems a very remote possibility. With the reality that it will more likely be within the first couple of weeks of January. If they turn up in the next couple of days I’ll be amazed.
The death and taxes deck I’m building is in full build mode, with an order of needed cards winging its way from the US from CardKingdom. I have to say their 2-3 day international shipping cost is a bargain when compared with a lot of US board game companies. Companies like Plaidhat, Dice Hate Me really do take the piss on that front. I’m getting 2-3 day tracked delivery for half the price those companies charge for standard 2-3 week delivery.
Right I’m off looking for the Amazon delivery van. I have some card sleeves, a deck box, and a couple of MtG art books to look out for.