Here we are with the third in this series.

Luckily I have been able to do all these in one go and schedule them for release. Sadly for you that means I have probably used my best introductions up already, and after this post it just gets worse.

I should really be saying more about these cards. But in reality I’m not a judge of what is good and what is bad. For instance Burning Sun’s Avatar, and Regisaur Alpha look good cards to me. I like both their enter battlefield effects. Alpha gives you a 3/3 green dinosaur token with trample, and other dinosaurs you control get haste! Seems sweet to me.
And Rampaging Ferocidon looks made for Commander. Switching off life gain, and dealing damage when creatures enter the battlefield to it’s controller. I’d think this would be a real pain when it is out, and force others to get rid of it.Where as Fathom Fleet Captain doesn’t set my world on fire, and I could not see myself playing it.

But I’m sure experienced Magic and Commander players will correct me on my assessment of those cards.

See you in the fourth post in this series.

Back for more?! Wow!!

Welcome to part two of this series where I show you the rare, mythic and foil cards I pulled recently from some MtG Ixalan boosters that I opened.

Here’s the next nine cards…

MtG is addictive! Cracking open packs is addictive (Star Wars:Destiny has all this is spades too). Deck building is addictive. That desire to build a deck that executes your plan to perfection while crushing your opponent.

It starts with an idea. With Destiny it could be “I want to build a mini mill deck” or “I think Sabine/Rey would be a cool pairing”. For me it’s no different in MtG. I’ve never built a Commander deck before, but the itch has been eating away at me to do so. Especially ever since I saw Neheb, the Worthy in Amonkhet. Tribal (a term I only recently heard of, yes I’m still that wet behind the ears) Minotaur sounded really cool to me. Who doesn’t think minotaurs are cool?

Gishath, Sun’s Avatar is another Legendary that grabbed me as a great Commander to build a deck around. Dinosaur Tribal is probably cooler than minotaurs, just. And might even pip dragons.

So two potential deck ideas. But which to build first?

My main problem will be do I have enough minotaurs or dinosaurs to make the respective tribal decks? Or if I don’t, are there enough out there that budget allowing I can get to build the tribal deck?

Sadly at this point in time I don’t think there is. So do I kill two birds with one stone and build a deck that has both? A dinosaur/minotaur deck, with Gishath as the commander?

Having Gishath as the commander has the advantage of giving me access to white and this fun card…

I love janky stuff like this. That “wtf? Is that a legal card?” Is worth it. I might not win the game. But I’ve had fun.

Anyway I’m still pondering these options. It’s a hard decision to make.

I threatened this series of posts at the weekend, and I’m a man of my word. Well sometimes. Sometimes I forget what I have said. I’m nearly fifty (next year). My time on this planet is very limited. Things fail me from time to time, like my memory. Plus my mouth isn’t connected to my brain, so it’s also very likely that something comes out that my brain has no record of at all.

This series of posts over the next week will concentrate on showing what rares, mythics and foils I pulled at the weekend from all those Ixalan boosters I opened. Each post in this series will show nine cards. I don’t want to over load those not interested in MtG with too much in a single post. It might send them into a coma!

Without further ado, here are the first nine cards for you…

I’m not going to separate out the boosters by product. I could but I’m not. That’s too much work.

How many packs have I had to crack open?

• 36 packs in booster box
• 6 packs in prerelease box
• 10 packs in bundle 
• 2 packs in Planeswalker deck

I make that 54 boosters in total. So over a few posts I will be posting photos of the rares/mythics, foils that I pull.

Cracking packs is addictive. Once you start it’s very very hard to stop. 

Here are some stats from the massive cracking open of packs I did:

• 13 foils
• 6 legendary creatures
• 8 of the new double faced cards

The following does not include the foil basic lands I pulled.

• 12 swamps
• 8 mountains
• 7 forests
• 7 islands
• 8 plains

Tokens:

• 23 treasure
• 12 proxy cards
• 14 vampires
• 3 pirates
• 6 dinosaurs
• 2 plants
• 3 illusions
• 3 merfolk 

Plus the Planeswalker from the Planeswalker deck.

How did I do on my hit list for Ixalan?

• Vanquisher’s Banner
• Raiders’ Wake
• Demolish
• Dual Shock
• Firecannon Blast
• Star of Extinction
• Sunbird’s Invocation
• Crushing Canopy
• Gishath, Sun’s Avatar
• Huarli, Warrior Poet
• Tishana, Voice of Thunder
• Vraska, Relic Seeker
• Unclaimed Territory

I don’t think that’s a bad dent in my hit list. 

In the Player’s Guide there is “The Top Ten Coolest Ixalan Cards”, how many did I pull?

1. Jace, Cunning Castaway
2. Gishath, Sun’s Avatar 
3. Raptor Hatchling
4. Vanquisher’s Banner
5. Walk the Plank
6. Dowsing Dagger/Lost Vale
7. Revel in Riches
8. Deadeye Quartermaster
9. Bishop of Rebirth
10. Kumena’s Speaker

As you can see I did rather well (ones I pulled in bold) with that list. With three I didn’t pull, but I’d got one from the prerelease weekend (in italics).

John the owner of my FLGS The Hobbit Hole did say on Friday when I was picking up everything that players at the store were going mad for “Hostage Taker”. His three copies were being snapped up in seconds. I managed to get one.

So I’m happy with that haul. I’m surprised that I didn’t pull one Planeswalker in this lot. But six legendary creatures or future commanders as I like to think of them, I’m happy with that. But two of them are doubles that I can trade/sell for others. 

I won’t be getting any more packs now for Ixalan until we start our next Magic League in November. We finish the current Amonkhet one next Saturday, with a Commander session on the 21st October as a casual fun break from the league.

Next set to think about…

Plus some stand alone products like duel decks that are coming out.

In my previous post I mentioned that got a Buy-A-Box booster when I purchased my booster box.

Here using WotC own words this is what you get in that booster:

• 2 foil basic lands illustrated by Rebecca Guay
• 4 rares or mythic rares from Standard-legal sets
• 2 foils of any rarity from Standard-legal sets
• 1 foil Burning Sun’s Avatar

That’s 9 cards in total. So instead of me listing the cards I got I’m going to bore you with photos of the cards instead.

I love the art on the Dragonskull Summit. It invokes the recent Kong movie for me. Remote, forgotten civilisations worshipping the god like monster that rules through share force of will and might. The apex predator that protects them from the other large threats living on their island. Yeah great art.

Well that’s the Buy-A-Box booster. It’s a pretty cool addition/bonus. 

While I was at the Ixalan prerelease on Saturday at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole I noticed he had the Chandra Planeswalker deck for Kaladesh. I don’t think I’ve admitted this on here, but Chandra is my favourite planeswalker, followed by Illiana and Nissa. When I got home I saw that the matching deck with it was Nissa.

So what do we get for our money (£10 each) in each Planeswalker deck? I’m glad you asked, you get the following:

• Foil Planeswalker card
• 60 card deck (includes the above card)
• 2 kaladesh booster decks
• Quick ref card
• Strategy guide
• Cardboard deck box

Using my now tried and tested costing of a booster pack, the boosters alone would be valued at between £7 – £8. Plus you get the preconstructed 60 card deck, with the foil planeswalker card, and cardboard deck box. I would say that you are getting more than your monies worth, but not by a great margin.
Here are the cards I pulled from the two boosters included in the Chandra deck.


Here are the pulls from the two boosters included in the NIssa deck.

Four booster packs and two foils. That’s not bad.

The art on the two cardboard deck boxes is super cool. I’ve yet to play with these two decks they did only arrive yesterday. But I do think planeswalker decks are good value, especially for casual and noob players like me.

This isn’t really going to mean much, I mean most people are interested in what the much more popular MtG podcasters, youtubers etc have to say on the subject. But I thought I would record what cards I hope to pull from Ixalan boosters over the coming weeks, and our league play (yes we are skipping Hour of Devastation and going for pirates, merfolk and dinosaurs).

I think Vanquisher’s Banner would potentially go well in a tribal commander deck I’m planning as my first built commander deck. I like Raiders’ Wake, it has that chip chip away at a life total, and forcing an opponent to discard a card. Demolish is straight up removal. I like that. All three are also the right colours for the planned deck which is red/black or Rakdos as it is known (don’t ask me how they come up with these names I have no idea, it makes no sense to me either).

Dual Shot looks a nice one cost removal, although is it as nice as Blazing Volley in Amonkhet? Firecannon Blast tied in with Raiders’ Wake could be a costly turn for an opponent. Star of Extinction is just for the lol’s!! That’s one hell of a board wipe.

I like the look of Sunbird’s Invocation. Card draw, play a card for free, ok burying the rest of the cards at the bottom of the deck is a drag. Is it worth playing? I like this removal card for green, Crushing Canopy. Flyers are always a pain in the butt, and being able to use this to get rid of one or an enchantment, nice dual use. I really love the art of Gisharth, Sun’s Avatar. The rest of the card is pretty cool too. 

These next three give life gain, token creatures, increase hand size, and that -10 on Vraska, Relic Seeker, so funny to pull that one off.

This next one is also potentially a great addition to a tribal deck. I can’t see why you would use it with any other kind really.

So there you have it those were the cards I hope I can get from Ixalan. Some pretty cool ones if I get them.