Category Archives: MtG

Spies, Pirates and Dinosaurs

FEG@WL, Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

It’s Ixalan Release weekend! You may have detected I’ve been getting more into MtG lately. So Ixalan despite me still calling myself a casual player (which I am) is the first release to come out during this increased interest. 

Yesterday I popped into my FLGS The Hobbit Hole on my way home to pick up my pre-order of a booster box. Which I only did so I got the Buy A Box promo booster pack! God WotC are evil geniuses. 

I ended up walking out with the following product:

  • Ixalan Booster box
  • Ixalan bundle box
  • Ixalan prerelease box
  • Huatli Planeswalker deck
  • Gishath, Sun’s Avatar Legendary Creature

The “freebies” I got were:

  • The Buy A Box promo pack
  • Foil promo alt art Burning Sun’s Avatar
  • Ixalan MtG League deck box

I haven’t planned to attended any release weekend events this weekend. But like my FLGS your LGS will be running lots of events giving you the chance to buy packs and play with the new cards you just got.

Naturally there will be posts over the weekend where I share my pulls with you. You have been warned.

Last night Jeff, Jonathan and myself met up at the Fenland Gamers weekly Friday Meet Up at The White Lion to play some games!

The game that hit the table last night was Covert. This was the second time the game had hit the table since I got it. Which is a shame. It’s a nice game. But when you have a game collection it’s competing against so many others. It’s not only the games in my collection, it’s competing against those in members collections too. And not to mention the cult of the new. So it’s hard sometimes for an enjoyable game to get back to the table.

But I’m glad that I did make that decision to take Covert along to be played. Once we had refreshed our memories on how to play the game (10 months had passed since our initial play) and muddled through teaching Jeff, we got on with the job of being Spies working our craft across Europe.

With Jonathan triggering the end of the game by completing the required six missions, and getting the win, we all agreed it was an enjoyable game. 

Who knows when it will manage to fight its way back to the table through the cardboard and plastic crowds. But at that moment as we were packing away I made that hard to keep promise of “I must get this back to the table soon”.

Another great evening of gaming and friendship. 

Nissa and Chandra – Kaladesh Planeswalker Decks

magic, MtG

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.

Planeswalker Apprentice or is it Padawan?

Destiny, game night, magic, MtG, star wars

Last night I was round Edmund’s teaching him how to play MtG and Star Wars:Destiny.

After recreating the Rey and Kylo starter sets using a deck list for each I pulled off the internet, Edmund and I played eRey/eFinn vs eKylo/First Order Trooper.

Yes you read that correctly eFinn. I know in the starter set he is just a single die. But there are enough points for him to be played as an elite version.

Did this make the combo too powerful? Potentially, in our two games that character combo with it’s extra dice advantage won the roll off to decide which battlefield is chosen. Edmund and I took turns playing the character combos. I started off with eRey/eFinn, and won the game. But for a first game, unfamiliar with cards, rules etc, Edmund had picked up the game quickly, and played well. When Edmund played the eRey/eFinn combo he won. That was a closer game, both down to our last four cards in hand. Edmund only had Rey left with four damage on, while I only had the First Order Trooper left with five damage on. I wasn’t going to win that match up. I thought that this did make it a more even game for a new player to go up against an experienced player.

Mind you I might tweek the eKylo/First Order Trooper deck by adding in a second Trooper to balance it out a bit more. There is certainly the points to allow it.

It was weird to be playing with just the starter cards again. There were cards I just wouldn’t or hardly use. To get Mind Probe out I’d be using Sith Holocron, and running more abilities in the deck. I’d even be using training to get more Trooper dice out. On the Hero side, Backup Muscle would be a must have. Yeah an interesting experience.

Sadly after our two games there was not really enough time to move Edmund on from being a Padawan to a Planeswalker Apprentice. But hopefully after giving Edmund his first hit of Destiny we have a new convert.

Some Ixalan Cards I Hope To Pull

magic, MtG

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.

Custom Playmats and a first game of Commander 

Destiny, Game day, magic, MtG, star wars

If all goes to plan I will have a new play mat for Star Wars:Destiny that will be pretty amazing.

I love this image from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Those X-Wings skimming the water as they race to the rescue of Maz, Han, Chewie, Rey and Finn (plus everyone else at Maz’s place) is just iconic to me.

I was hoping we’d see an official play mat with it on. But it hasn’t happened yet. So I’ve had to resort to “borrowing” the above image off the Internet and getting an unofficial version made with it.

If the results are good I might look into getting some Fenland Gamer ones made up.   Some general large ones for game sessions. But if demand or the public cry out loud enough one for our MtG players. Both would be pretty cool. I’d love one of the official Ultra-Pro MtG 6ft play mats for our group. But justifying just short of £100 for that is very very hard. Having club ones that individuals get to buy if they want is an easier decision.

This afternoon Charlie and I met up and played our first ever games of Commander using two of the prebuilt 2017 decks.

Charlie went with the Feline Ferocity deck, so cat tribal with Arahbo, Roar of the Wild as its commander. I chose cool dragons tribal with Draconic Domination and it’s commander the Ur-Dragon.

In our first game after a couple of turns Charlie had a couple of creatures out, and I just had to take the damage they were dealing, and then he dropped Quietus Spike on the board.

Luckily he didn’t have enough mana to equip it straight away. I needed a solution. I could play a dragon and block with it. It would die. But I’d have to keep doing that each turn until I found a better solution. Or I could hope to top deck the answer. Which is what I did on my card draw.

I drew Crux of Fate, chose Destroy all non-Dragon creatures. Wiped the Board clean of all cat creatures on Charlie’s side and removed any targets for that horrible spike. After that I was able to get dragons onto the board and hit Charlie at will. Charlie wasn’t able to draw into any more creatures.

Not being able to sacrifice a creature with Wasitora out meant I was able to get some cute cat dragon tokens out. Plus Charlie did once manage to draw and play a creature but then had to sacrifice it!

Game two saw an early Dragonspeaker Shaman hit the board. Which with my commanders eminence ability meant I was getting a 3 mana discount on casting dragons.

So I was casting big dragons a lot earlier than I should. Charlie still wasn’t drawing any answers and once again took a beating. But give Charlie his dues he was determined that the cats could work.

Game 3. Charlie was giving me rat tokens! I got three before I killed off the Hungry Lynx creating them.

Thing is with Dromoka in play on my side I was putting two +1/+1 tokens on them!

I was attacking at will, with once more the cards hating Charlie, no damage coming back at me. So the inevitable happened again and I won. I wasn’t used to this. I was winning at Magic!

For our fourth and final game we swapped decks. I joked “you know what’s going to happen, I’ll win with this deck”. I was able to play a turn one soul ring. I had some great mana ramp. I played an enchancement that doubled my mana produced by a land when I tapped it, plus gave my creatures +1/+1.

I had a couple of artefacts that I was able to equip on to I think it was Temur Sabretooth. Which with the Commander ability meant it had vigilance, first strike, trample, and was something like a 11/11 when it swung in.

Although Charlie was able to get rid of my enchantment slowing my mana ramp down a little, it was too little too late. He wasn’t drawing any answers and I was hitting him hard with my beefed up creature.

I managed to win with the cat tribe!

The cards were really harsh to Charlie this afternoon, whilst really kind to me. I enjoyed this 1 v 1 game of Commander. But I’m really keen now to try it with more players and see how the politics of the game kick in.

But a great afternoon with a great opponent. Thanks for the games Charlie.

Attending my first MtG prerelease event – Ixalan 

magic, MtG

Earlier today I went to my first ever MtG prerelease event at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. 

I’d liked to report that I had a great time playing MtG with all the new cards I got. But sadly that was not the case because I had to leave before I could play a game.

I’ve not had hot water since Tuesday. So when a family member is coming round to sort out my hot water, it’s proper I should be there. Unfortunately I won’t know until tomorrow morning if it has been fixed, because my water heater comes on over night.

Which means my experience of the prerelease was less than perfect. Naturally I got the prerelease kit. I even had time to build a 40 card deck (I went with a blue/green or simic, built around my Legendary creature, so most of my creatures were merfolk). I even sleeved my deck! But sadly that was all I got to do. 


The cost of attending the prerelease event was £22 for prebooking or £25 on the day. I’ve looked at the economics and value for money previously. But that was for a couple of prerelease kits I’d bought online. Which were slightly cheaper. If you prebooked then you break even, the value of the contents of the prerelease kit equals the cost of the event plus whatever value you put on the promo card you get, you might consider it slightly ahead of the game. If you paid on the day on the other hand then you are £3 down. Is that promo card worth £3?

When you factor in extra booster packs for playing games or participating, then the value for money starts to become really obvious. 

Here are the pulls from my six prerelease kit packs and the participation pack.



  • 1 foil
  • 1 Planeswalker 
  • 1 Legendary creature

Not a bad haul. But it’s the Legendary I’m really happy about, it’s one of the ones I want from this set.

Hopefully the next one will see the planets align better for me.

Ixalan Prerelease Weekend Incoming

magic, MtG

We are less than a week away from the prerelease weekend for the next MtG set Ixalan. 

(Image above taken from the Internet)

My local FLGS The Hobbit Hole is running several prerelease events over that weekend. The first is a midnight one on Friday night. I like Magic but not that much.   So I’ll be popping along for when the store opens at 10am on Saturday and seeing how tired John the store owner is. But you should be checking with your FLGS/LGS to find out what their plans are. 

This prerelease WotC are also trying to get players signed up for their latest digital version of MtG, Arena and its closed beta. However  signing up doesn’t guarantee you will be selected, but attending the prerelease will increase your chances apparently. I believe the encouragement will be via prerelease players being given a special treasure token (whilst stocks last, stores do not have an unlimited supply).

I think that’s it Magic wise for this blog until next weekend I’d imagine. Which might be a relief for some of you. Ok I might put up a reminder Thursday. But be warned it’s the Empire at War set for Star Wars:Destiny hitting stores in the UK this week. So I will be boring you with that during the week. 

Magic Saturday

magic, MtG

Yesterday was an epic day of playing Magic the Gathering (MtG).

It started off with attending the Ixalan Open House at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole. Sadly the Welcome Decks used for this by MtG were the Amonkhet ones. The only link to Ixalan was the full art foil Walk the Plank card you got for playing four games of Magic with the Welcome Decks. Which was a shame really. But I can see why that’s the case. It would undermine the prerelease abit, plus instead it would swamp the event with current FNM players wanting the early access to Ixalan cards. The focus of the Open House is to teach MtG to new players wanting to learn the game, bring back players that drifted away, not scare them off. 

Was it wise to hold the Open House the week before a prerelease? I could argue for or against this. I maybe wouldn’t have slapped Ixalan on the event. Mainly because I was expecting Ixalan cards in the Welcome Decks. So I was a little disappointed that the decks were Amonkhet based. But I’ve already discussed  why it is as it is. 

(Above image nicked off the Internet)

However the full art foil Walk the Plank card from Ixalan was cool. I felt I knew the card already though because of the Magic Arena game play videos I saw a week or so ago. 

How did I do playing my four games at the Open House? Attrocious is the most positive spin I can put on my games. In the end I was setting my target as getting my opponent to single digit life. I’m going to have to look back at the previous Open House event I went to. But I don’t think I’ve won a game with one of these Welcome Decks yet. 

This time I went with the Liliana Vess Welcome Deck, so black. Which means 30 cards were black, and the second colour WotC added to this blue. So 30 blue cards also, to make a 60 card deck. I believe this blue/black combo is also known as Dimir.

Despite my lack of wins I still had a fun time.

A Fat Pack Opening

At home I opened an Eldritch Moon Fat Pack. 

This comes with the following contents:

  • 9 Eldritch Moon boosters
  • A life counter die
  • 2 cardboard deck boxes 
  • Players guide with card encyclopaedia of cards for the set
  • 70 basic lands cards
  • The card box
  • 10 double faced card checklists


I’m not sure this Fat Pack is good value for money. With 9 boosters costing between £27 – £31.50 if bought separately. £2 for the spindown life die. Plus the two cardboard deck boxes, the card box, lands and checklists. Is this enough value added to justify getting this? I don’t think so. 

What did I pull from the 9 packs?

  • 3 Legendary creatures
  • 1 Planeswalker 

So not bad.

Fenland Games MtG League Day 3

The afternoon was spent playing in our MtG league.

Things started off just like the morning with me losing my first game. I had been hoping that I had got losing out of my system in the morning, obviously not.

I did win my next game against Justin. The card tweak my student made to my deck (yeah I’m not proud I had a student who plays Magic look over my deck and my sideboard in the week, they swapped two cards out) worked well. They replaced Cartouche of Zeal with Cartouche of Ambition. The life link was really handy. Things just went my way in this game.

But Justin got his revenge immediately in our next game when things did work so well. No Cartouche being drawn this time. Plus Justin got to finish me off with his “signature” play using Fling and sacrificing a creature that had been beefed up considerably to an 8 attack!

I then won my next game. Which was my last win of the day. I played one of the strongest decks in the league next. I got off to a blinding start. I Magma Sprayed away my opponents Slither Blade their main way to kill you off. It gets beefed up, made unblockable etc, and the slow drip drip death happens. So I was able to stop that before it started. A big win. My Cartouche was out, using the same one my opponent uses. 


It ended with my opponent winning. But only just it was close they were almost milled. One card left. Sadly I wasn’t able to hold on for one more turn. 

My next game was against Josh who somehow I hadn’t played against before! That’s shocking. But 

My final game of the afternoon was against Jamie. If I’d drawn a second mountain land sweltering suns would have wiped the board clean removing all of his creatures and allowing me to get the win. Sadly that didn’t happen and I lost. 

I will say my bonus pack for losing has potential. For starters a second Cartouche, and non-basic lands. The first ones I’ve pulled in the packs I’ve cracked open for the league. Yes I will be consulting my deck doctor in the week.

I think in 11 games in total today only one of them did I not mulligan. A couple of times I was down to a starting hand of five cards! Yeah that sums my days play. 

But despite an atrocious win record for the afternoon I had a great afternoon playing. 

Giving in to temptation

I knew that once I got home any unpurchased boosters would not remain unopened. So a weak willed me opened 17 booster packs when he got home. 

Here is the highlights of my pack opening:

  • 1 invocation 
  • 1 foil full art basic land
  • 1 foil creature
  • 1 Legendary creature
  • 5 full art basic lands

I’m not sure how I feel about this. On one hand I’m a bit disappointed but on the other I pulled an invocation! 

I’ve had a great day playing MtG. Looking forward to continuing the experience next weekend with the prerelease weekend.

I think my big win of the day though wasn’t Magic related. It was getting my car through its MOT without needing anything extra doing to it to get it passed.

Nissa, Genesis Mage Planeswalker deck pulls

magic, MtG

You’d think that with all the MtG posts recently that this blog has turned into a MtG blog! Plus MtG has become my “lifestyle” game of choice. 

You already know what I think of the Planeswalker preconstructed decks for value, and what the contents are. I covered those in the recent post about the Nicol Bolas Planeswalker deck. 

I haven’t answered why I buy them. With the Nissa, Genesis Mage Planeswalker deck I’ve bought four in total. So it’s not a thing I do a lot of. I’m a casual player. No argument about it. So I don’t have a massive card base to construct decks with. So things like preconstructed decks are ideal for me, buy and play. I can scratch that  Magic itch without investing in lots and lots of cards. 

Anyway the Nissa, Genesis Mage Planeswalker deck recently arrived. In the two Hour of Devastion boosters I pulled a foil, and that nasty looking scorcery. 

I also gave into temptation and cracked open an Amonkhet booster and pulled a Liliana, Death’s Majesty Planeswalker. Sweet!

Don’t forget your FLGS and the Open House events they are holding this weekend.

Magic Open House Tomorrow

magic, MtG

Are you a new or returning player to Magic the Gathering? Want to learn/try Magic?

Want free stuff? 
Well get yourself along to your FLGS or LGS in some cases, this weekend. Like my FLGS The Hobbit Hole in Chatteris, many are running the Magic Open House.
The Magic Open House is aimed at new and returning players (i.e. Used to play, but haven’t played it in a long time). Where they can go along to their FLGS, choose one of the free Welcome decks, learn how to play Magic, play a few games with their new deck, get a free promo card (which is I believe a full art walk the plank card from the new Ixalan set – there will be a lot of regular Magic players that will want this and will be green with envy).

Once my car has been M.O.T.’d tomorrow morning I’m hoping to get along to The Hobbit Hole, play a few games and then shoot back to play in our Magic league.