Category Archives: MtG

Ixalan Rare, Mythics, and Foils I Pulled #6

magic, MtG

Two more after this one folks. I know it’s dragging on. It’s getting boring. But I’m determined to see this through to the bitter end. I do like that Spell Swindle card though. I love that it counters a spell, plus you get lots of treasure artifact tokens too. That’s just rubbing salt into the wound if you ask me.

I can also see Priest of the Wakening Sun seeing some action to. Life gain, plus being able to sacrifice (at a cost) to find a dinosaur from your deck. Yep I’ll take that. I also like the look of Kinjalli’s Sunwing, basically stopping opponents blocking with newly cast creatures. Switches of that flash ability. Love it.

Hobbit Hole Ixalan League Night #1

magic, Magic League, MtG

Last night was the start of the MtG Ixalan League at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole (link on the right hand side of the page).

For an entry fee of £10, you get three Ixalan booster packs, a league deck box (cardboard), a tracking sheet, and the opportunity to play MtG on a regular basis.

Before I go on and talk about my experience of the nights playing MtG in this league. I should point out I have signed up to one previously, however didn’t really get any games because it clashed with game night. And that I have been running an Amonhket one for The Fenland Gamers over the last couple of months or so (it’s taken longer than four weeks due to various factors).

I think that the League format is a great way to get new and old players playing together on a more even playing field. It removes the card pool advantage a long time player has. There is also the affordability of it. You don’t have to buy lots and lots of boosters to play. It limits that to an initial three, then one a week after that, plus you may buy an additional pack for every three loses in a row you have. The fact you get a rather nice looking cardboard deck box as well for that tenner makes it that you are getting a little bit more value for your money. Remember my FLGS sells three boosters for a tenner. Plus you are getting that deck box.

Then you need to factor in that for participation (after playing 10 games) you get a promo Unclaimed Territory land card. Plus if I’m remembering right we are also going to get an additional foil card from the shops foil card folder of our choice!

That takes the vfm (value for money) by the end of the league to way over the initial tenner. I’m not counting in the extra boosters you can buy during the league to strengthen your deck. They are what they are, boosters bought at £3.50 a time.

Now we are talking about boosters how did I do with my three for the league?

Well I pulled the foil Vanquisher’s Banner below. I’m really chuffed with that. I had target bought the regular version at the weekend. But to now have the foil, super cool.


Spoiler alert but I did lose three games last night. So that will explain to the observant and those that care why there are four cards in the following photo of the rares that I pulled. I got the chance to buy an extra booster to help improve my deck (possibly, maybe).

I played John the owner of The Hobbit Hole for my first two games. Our first game was over quickly, I was not drawing well, and John just destroyed me. Our second game I lasted longer, but the end result was the same. Maybe my decision to go with a green/blue (simic) dinosuar merfolk deck was a mistake?

My third game against Mark, a player returning to Magic was just as bad as the first two. But this third loss did mean I could get another booster to try and make my deck stronger. Yay!

I tweaked my deck, added in a couple of mountains, so now the deck was going to become blue/green/red (temur). Took out a couple more lands ( I was sure I had too many lands in my deck). They were replaced by a couple of red removal cards, and a red dinosaur.

Mark and I then had a rematch. This time the deck was working better, and I got the win.

My final match was against Kath. This was a bit of a slow game, with a lot of build up, getting our forces into place. Then we started trading blows. This sort of game was ideal for me. I was able to get my dinosaurs and merfolk into place. I had been frustrating Kath with some of my blue control cards early on that stopped her using her creatures to attack.

But our game came down to one play. I was on 11 health, Kath was on 7. She swung in with everything on her battlefield. 12 points of damage coming in. A killing blow. Unless…

I played Fiery Cannonade. A card that had been sitting in my hand for most of the game, waiting for the right moment. It’s time had come. One of the cards Kath was attacking with was not a pirate. It was an unblockable merfolk (can’t remember which one), a 3/2. It was gone. Only 9 damage delivered. I was still alive just. The big play had failed, leaving me able to swing in with my dinosaurs (yeah they all had more than 2 health) and deliver my killing blow.
So for the evening my record was 2 wins, 3 losses.

Next week I get to buy another pack, and hopefully pull some great cards to make this an awesome deck.

A great evening of playing Magic at my FLGS.

Getting some staples for Commander

Commander, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I decided that to help me build my first commander deck it was cheaper to use a precon commander deck to get some of the “basics”.

I didn’t want to cannibalise my Commander 2017 or Anthology decks. They are my let’s play magic with a group of friends go tos.

So I grabbed a 2015 precon to act as that sacrificial deck. This will be my first 2015 precon. But seeing as I haven’t any of the others (well all of them), and I won’t be in a position to get them all. It won’t become part of that “let’s play magic” thing I just mentioned for 2017 and Anthology, I don’t feel guilty using it as card fodder.

This deck gives me Sol Ring and Command Tower for starters. Plus 74 other cards (excluding basic lands).


Just to target buy these two cards would be around £6.

I loved the following card Karmic Justice when I saw it. It’s like a warning, leave me alone or something bad will happen to you. Plus with me going with Gishath, Sun’s Avatar as my commander I can play it. But Karmic Justice is a £5 card on Magic Madhouse and eBay but £1.75 from Chaos Cards. So depending on availability of the cards on the sites I would have been looking at between £8 and £11 for three cards! Obviously target buying was looking to be potentially more expensive than just getting the precon. Plus would I have even looked at or known to look at Karmic Justice without getting the precon?

For me just on a value for money exercise I think taking this approach to building my first commander deck, and getting my hands on some of the deck staples, plus expand my card pool to build from, and learning about cards to put into my deck then this was a good buy for the money.

So Karmic Justice protects, kind of, cards like Thought Vessel below.

I like not having to worry about hand size. It means you can keep answers to problems in hand ready to play at the right moment. Like the following bit of jank.

Can I find a place in the deck for this bit of jank below? But this digresses from the point of the post because neither card is in this precon deck.

I’m still looking through the cards, and trying to think if they fit in with the deck I want to build. But then again I just know the commander at the moment, with no real plan.

Maybe in my next post on this first deck I should look at this commander and try and work out a plan for the deck?

 

Ixalan Rare, Mythics, and Foils I Pulled #4

magic, MtG


Just about about half way I think in this long boring series of photos of MtG rare, mythic and foil cards from the latest set Ixalan.

I will say that I’m loving the art on the merfolk and dinosaur cards. However the vampire and pirate cards I am on a whole finding have my least favourite art of the set. I don’t know if it’s because they tend to be darker, or I’m just not liking the style. Just something isn’t clicking with me.

Oh you don’t want this middle aged man’s thoughts on the card art, go make your own mind up by looking at these cards for starters…

Ixalan Rare, Mythics, and Foils I Pulled #3

magic, MtG

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.

Who Should Be My First Commander?

magic, MtG

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.

Ixalan Rare,Mythics, and Foils I pulled #1

magic, MtG


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…

Booster Pack Pulls

magic, MtG

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.

Ixalan Buy-A-Box Booster Contents

magic, MtG

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.