Category Archives: MtG

Testing testing

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

Friday night was meant to be our second Casual Magic the Gathering session for Fenland Gamers.

However no one showed up. Not even the people that had asked we put these sessions on. Which meant I spent over an hour sitting in The Luxe at a table with MtG play mats on, shuffling decks, and looking like Billy no mates.

To say I was not happy was an understatement.

But Saturday I was back at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole for the MtG Open House.

Thankfully I got to try my two new decks. You’ll find the first deck list below, with the second to follow in another post.

The nice thing about this testing was that playing against Michael and Kar-Fai I was going up against decks that I will be facing in the final season of Standard Showdown.

Michaels burn deck is very fast. Too fast for the Simic Ascendancy deck. But my Orzhov deck just edged it. But they were close games.

Kat-Fai also tried out two deck ideas. One of them I think will be the one he goes with for the Standard Showdown. Once again the Simic Ascendancy deck did the worst out of the two.

I knew before hand that the Simic deck would need more work. I’ll discuss those thoughts below. But I was very happy how well the Orzhov deck seemed to do.

I got to see another deck that will be in the Standard Showdown. It’s one of the dinosaur aggro decks with one or two new additions. These decks are lightning fast also.

So here is the first draft of the Simic Ascendancy deck I’ve put together.

Creatures:29

3 Hydroid Krasis
3 Incubation Druid
4 Merfolk Skydiver
3 Pollenbright Druid
2 Evolution Sage
3 Guildpact Informant
3 Frilled Mystic
2 Zegana, Utopian Speaker
2 Biogenic Ooze
2 God-Eternal Rhonas
2 Roalesk, Apex Hybrid

Spells:9

2 Bond of Flourishing
3 Simic Ascendancy
1 Vivien, Champion of the Wilds
2 Wilderness Reclamation
1 Vivien Reid

Lands:22

3 Breeding Pool
12 Forest
3 Hinterland Harbor
4 Island

Sideboard:15

1 Incubation Druid
1 Pollenbright Druid
1 Evolution Sage
1 Guildpact Informant
1 Thrashing Brontodon
4 Essence Capture
1 Finale of Devastation
1 Simic Ascendancy
2 Vivien’s Arkbow
2 Planewide Celebration

Ok here are the stats. I usually put this before the deck list. But thought I’d try and shake things up and try it here.


The sideboard definitely needs a lot of work. My current thinking is that this should be mainly counter spells.

I do like the new Vivien, Champion of the Wilds. That on going ability of giving creatures flash is nice. So a second of her would be good.

Adjusting the Forest/Island ratio I think needs to be done, so that it takes into account sideboarding counter spells in.

The deck needs to be faster. Of if I can’t get it faster, work on a way to stay alive long enough to implement the plan.

War of the Spark Standard Deck Thinking

Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s time for more thinking aloud about new deck ideas for Standard.

I’ve got a couple of deck ideas that have been kicking around my noggin recently.

The first is a black/white or Orzhov deck using lots of cheap 1 CMC creatures.

That was the original thinking. There are a lot of 1 CMC creatures between these two colours. Some have deathtouch, or can be given deathtouch and come in as 1/2 instead of a 1/1.

So my thinking for the initial version of this deck was to go with creatures that had lifelink, and have other cards that gave me a benefit for gaining life.

But because these small creatures will die easily I wanted to get a benefit from that as well.


Having a couple of chances to proliferate is also handy because that will allow me to pump up those creatures like Ajani’s Pridemate even more, and push up any Planeswalkers I have out.

God-Eternal Oketra is the “big hitter” for the deck. But sideboarding one or two of the black 6/6 flyers might be an option also.


I’ve not decided what removal spells to use. But at most that will account for 10 cards of the deck at most. Plus sideboard cards naturally. I’m thinking the sideboard will be mainly spells like duress or removal.

My main drawback at the moment is I don’t have any of the check or shock lands for this deck.

The second deck is returning to Simic to create a Simic Ascendancy deck.

An early if not the first version of my Simic deck had Simic Ascendancy in it, as did John’s merfolk deck. John tried to get it to work more than I did. If my memory isn’t failing me, I don’t think it made the cut into my second version of the deck. Eventually John also gave up on the card. The issue was it was too slow.

However with the re-introduction of the proliferate mechanic, I think it might just be viable.

This deck is not as advanced as the Orzhov deck. But I think I can get something together by the time our casual mtg night starts tomorrow.

Want to learn MtG?

magic, MtG, news

After Prerelease usually comes Release weekend when your FLGS holds draft events using the new set.

But WotC have been fiddling with the events, and the order they happen. So not only will your FLGS be doing the above draft events, they will also now be holding an Open House.

Open House events are great for those that want to learn MtG, or try it to see if they like it, or returning players who haven’t played in a long while.

At the Open House you will be given a free welcome deck (it’s free so will not have any cards of value in it) and taught how to play.

You then get to play some games of MtG against other players, and after about 4 games you get given a free promo card.

For the Open House I believe it’s this lovely full art Liliana’s Triumph.


The Welcome decks are great for learning, however they are not something you would use at say FNM or whatever event replaces Standard Showdown.

For those two events you really want to get one of the new Challenger decks. They are a great basis to build a deck from, plus straight out of the box unchanged competitive (ie you will win a game or two with them).

The Planeswalker decks are great for casual play, but once again not strong enough for the more competitive events.

So if you like MtG after trying it. Depending on if you want to just be casual or competitive you know what the next best product is to buy.

Obviously you could jump right in and build your own deck. But that requires buying boosters or singles, learning how to build a deck, and is a steepish learning curve.

With it also being draft weekend as well as the open house, you could always hang around and take part in the draft event.

If you did you’d get this sweet promo…

I won’t explain draft here, but it’s a fun format that doesn’t require you to have a deck or lots of cards to build one from. If you do decide to take part in the draft event the store owner and other players will be more than willing to help you and give advice.

So next Saturday head on down to your FLGS to learn how to play MtG, get a free welcome deck, play some games and get a promo card.

Airlines and Sparks

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, magic, MtG

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a Fenland Gamers gaming session. I’ve been boring you all with MtG and D&D stuff.

Last Friday was once again one of the Fenland Gamers fortnightly Friday gaming sessions.

Our first game of the evening was a game I last played with Jonathan and his Dad way back in 2016 (the BG Stats app is great for this sort of information). That game was Airlines Europe.

Like so so many games in our collections it doesn’t get nearly as much table time or love as it truly deserves. The modern gamers dilemma, too many great games, not enough time. And the problem just gets compounded as new games come out.

To be fair to Jonathan and myself the growth of our collections has dropped down to a snails pace (although I’ve never truly understood that phrase, those slimy little devils can sure shift). I know Jonathan is currently on a self imposed purchase ban. Whilst for me apart from the odd game nothing is really grabbing me, getting me excited. But I’ve felt that way for a couple of years now.

However Jonathan and I both have games in our collections that we haven’t played yet (our piles of shame as they are known), and games we want to get back to the table. So it’s not as if we need to buy any more.

Back to Airlines Europe. It does have a mechanic I love. A mechanic that adds suspense, even tension, an element of push your luck and the unknown.

Airlines Europe has 3 scoring rounds. How these are triggered is the mechanic I love. One scoring round card is shuffled in with 10 I think of the shares cards and that is the bottom of the share deck. The other 2 scoring round cards are mixed into the rest of the deck using a couple of rules.

So you have a rough idea when the scoring rounds will trigger but not exactly when. As you approach the part of the shares deck that the scoring round card could be in, the tension builds. Do you have time to get the shares out for scoring to give you that majority? Do you have time to grab that share on the trade row?

It’s a simple trick. Pandemic uses it as well to great effect. Sub Terra uses it for the exit tile. Yes it adds a little over head to the set up to a game. But I think the pay off is worth it.

Our second and final game was the classic roll and write Qwixx. Somehow Jonathan won this.

Well I know at this point Jonathan will stop reading.

Yesterday was Prerelease for War of the Spark (as was Friday and Sunday). But yesterday was the day I attended one of the 6 events my FLGS The Hobbit Hole was/is running over the weekend.

Prerelease is such good fun. It’s about opening boosters, playing with new cards early. Although technically for authorised stores it was release weekend, because they could sell everything a week early this time.

The atmosphere is also a bit different. I’d say more social, less competitive, there is an air of excitement.

It’s also the only time I get to see and play against some people. They might only do prereleases or FNM is their thing normally. So it’s a great time to catch up as well.

This Prerelease continued my run of bad results, and poor cards to build with. Well that’s the excuse I’m going with. My pulls had very few low cost creatures. I ended up with going white/blue with a couple of mountains thrown in so I could play Naheb.

I started off with 15 lands, but after getting mana screwed both games and losing in round 1. I went to 17 lands.

Round 2 I won. The deck was given a chance to hit it’s stride.

The next two rounds although losses, they were not walk overs. I was hitting land drops, once or twice mana flooded and not hitting creatures. But I was much happier with the games.

Here are the stats.

Casual Game

Simon: Draw 1-1

Prerelease Stats

Prerelease Participants: 21

Rounds: 4

Round 1: Simon Loss 2-0

Round 2: Jade Win 0-2

Round 3: unknown Loss 0-2

Round 4: unknown Loss 0-2

Record: 3-1

Final Position: 20th

Prizes: 2 participation packs

The nice thing is one of my ex-students won, going undefeated. And to top it off in his participation packs pulled a foil Liliana. So that is an amazing memory of a Prerelease for him.

But it was a great day, well attended. Maybe not as well as Guilds of Ravnica. But still for a FLGS in a middle of nowhere Fenland town, with MagicFest London doing it’s best to steal away it’s players.

War of the Spark Prerelease Weekend Coming Up

magic, MtG, news


This weekend is a big weekend in the MtG world. It’s Prerelease weekend for the new set War of the Spark, and it’s also MagicFest London.

To allow vendors and the organiser to sell booster boxes and other War of the Spark products at MagicFest London WotC have relaxed the rules in the UK. So UK Stores can sell everything Prerelease weekend, and not have to hold off a week.

While WotC are taking valuable sales away from your FLGS, you are able to attend one of the many Prerelease events your FLGS will be holding.

In fact with all the top MtG players and competitive ones migrating to London to prove themselves, this is probably one of those times when the odds are in the favour of the average player to do well at their FLGS. While the cats away and all that over used cliche.

Oh and another token gesture thrown at the UK FLGS they don’t have to wait until midnight to hold their first Prerelease event this Friday. So many if not all will be holding an earlier Prerelease event also.

Me I’m attending my usual slot on a Saturday. Hope to see you there.

Spoilers and Casual Magic Night

Fenland Gamers, game night, magic, MtG

Yesterday apart from spoiling that the Planeswalker Gideon is the big name that dies during the War of the Spark. Going by the cards spoilt and flavour text Bolas survives and gets sent to a Prison Realm.

A Prison Realm where Bolas apparently will be spending eternity contemplating his defeat. I would also assume planning his escape and revenge.

But along with the story spoilers, WotC also released the deck lists for the two Planeswalker decks for War of the Spark. We are being given a Jace Simic deck and a Gideon Orzhov deck.

I actually might get the Gideon deck. Not because I like Gideon (I don’t) but because I like the card Gideon’s Company. It’s activated ability is something I’d not use. But I could see it going into the recent Challenger deck United Assault.

That uses Healer’s Hawk, Legion’s Landing to gain life and fuel the pumping up of Ajani’s Pridemate. Those same cards could also do the same with Gideon’s Company.

That’s why I like the card.

Sadly WotC for whatever reason decided you won’t get a play set of the card, but just 3 copies. So if you wanted to play that extra copy, your options are buy another copy of the deck or see if you can get it as a single.

About Yesterday Evening

Yesterday evening we held our first Casual MtG evening. It wasn’t badly attended for a first attempt at getting these back as a thing the club does.

I spent the evening coaching a friends son as he learnt the game and played various decks. Whilst his dad played some of the new Challenger decks I taken along.

Our opponent got a bit disheartened after my work in progress build of my Simic deck trounced their slither deck. The deck still needs some work to be competitive against my FLGS meta (which has a version of the United Assault deck, burn and aggro decks). Followed by beatings from the Lightening Aggro Challenger deck (I thought my under study was going to experience being mana screwed, but the mana showed up in time) and a pauper elf deck.

Along the way I was showing my under study how to best play some cards, like waiting and playing cards at the start of the combat phase, or at the end of an opponent’s turn. Explaining combos, especially in the elf deck.

I had altered the Deadly Discovery deck. It now has a single Golgari Guildgate. The other 3 that were taken out have been replaced with 2 more Woodland Cemetery and an Overgrown Tomb. It speeds the deck up. In an ideal world I’d have the fourth Overgrown Tomb to replace that final Guildgate.

It was a fun evening. Let’s see how attendance goes in 2 weeks time.

War of the Spark Spoilers I Like Part 2

magic, MtG

There are a lot of sweet looking cards coming in War of the Spark. I’ve already done one post boring you with cards I like the look of. Here are some of the other spoilers that caught my eye.

Plus I promise this will be my final post on the spoilers. Which for some will be a massive relief.

First up let’s look at a Planeswalker that shuts down burn decks until they take care of the Planeswalker. The Wanderer has been the subject of much fanboy speculation about their identity. I’m sure there will be a grand reveal at some point. Five colours in Standard? I’m sure some will try so they can play Nicol Bolas. I’m just not sure it’s that feasible. But Commander its much more achievable.


More Commander cards.

God-Pharoah’s Statue makes my Death and Taxes deck. Jace is the anti my mill deck. Although the idea of milling myself is intriguing. I think this is possibly the first Jace card I like. Kaya’s Ghostform I like for my Scarab God deck. Although I can see it used in Standard too. I might try it in my Golgari deck.

Dambreak is not only a candidate for the Horrors from the Deep deck, but also Atraxa. As is the Flux Capacitor, sorry Channeler. No Escape is definitely a counter spell for my Simic deck to counter that Jace Planeswalker I like above.

Tibalt is the anti life gain deck. That mono white Challenger deck, and the one Michael at my FLGS plays. This shuts them down. Gleaming Overseer is going straight to my Scarab God deck. Leyline Prowler gives Golgari ramp and life gain. I like this a lot.

Mono red Goblins has a new Krenko joining it. Is it good enough to be the Commander? Not quite but as one of the 99, oh yes. Nissa. I’m a Nissa fan. I like the static ramp ability. So that’s nice especially in my big green stompy deck. Weaponise lands, and then if you ultimate her protection against mass land destruction. Worth a slot I think.

These final two I’ve chosen are such sweet sweet Commander cards.


And that’s it from me on the spoilers. There are daily ones coming out, and I’m seeing even more cards I like. For me as a set from what I’ve seen so far there are plenty of cards to strengthen my Commander decks. Plus cards I think are standard playable in decks I currently play. What the set will be like for draft or sealed who knows? We’ll find that out once people are cracking packs and building decks.

Commander and Challenger Decks

Game day, magic, MtG

I was able to attend another Commander Monday at my FLGS.

This time I took my 3 decks in one box mono red box. Which is a mono red aggro deck with Etali as the commander, a mass land hate deck (that shares some common cards with the aggro deck) and a goblin deck with Krenko as the commander (which also has common cards with the other two decks). These three in one decks were joined by the Atraxa and Horrors from the Deep decks.

Etali and Krenko were victorious in the games played. Whilst Atraxa and the Horrors liked participating.

Krenko was helped when another player played Blood Moon. All of sudden in that game my goblins couldn’t be blocked! Yep I had Goblin King our giving all my goblins mountain walk. Each combat phase I was getting a 1/1 goblin token. That was a 2/2 with the buff, and finally with an artifacts out becoming 4/4. Krenko allowed me to get a few more buffed up tokens out to be able to swing in for lethal.

Etali and multiple combat phases got me the win. Blue has extra turns, red has extra combat. And this version of the deck has that as a main tactic. And it worked this time.

I did get to see a ninja deck with Yuriko as the commander. It was pretty cool, and in the two games nearly won both times. It was lethal. I should have looked through the deck. But the use of cheap unblockable creatures that you ninjutsu out was genius. Something I will be implementing as a tactic in my own deck once I get round to building it.

Last Friday saw the release of the 2019 Challenger decks. Which are a great product for noobs and returning players to get. Out of the box you get a ready to play MtG Standard deck that will do ok (be competitive) at a FNM. By that I mean you will win some games and lose some games, unlike previous products or the Planeswalker decks which have been uncompetitive decks for FNM (although fine for kitchen table games with friends).

For existing players Challenger decks are, depending on the decks, usually a cost effective way to get some cards for their own decks. For me and it may also be true for others I use them as a way to try different deck ideas/archetypes that I don’t normally play.

Take for example the Golgari deck Deadly Discovery in this new batch of Challenger decks. I’ve built a Golgari deck that I played at Standard Showdown. It was an aggro/mid range deck. Whilst John the owner of my FLGS also played a Golgari deck. One that used the undergrowth mechanic.

While John and myself were exploring our versions of Golgari, over on the pro tour circuit they were exploring another version/tactic. One that used the explore mechanic. And that’s why I got this deck, so that I too could try this version of the deck. It also has three dual lands (one shock land, and two check lands) in the build. They alone at the time of writing cover the cost of the deck. Plus once the deck or a version of it is no longer Standard legal those dual lands are real handy to have for Commander decks.

I did play the deck yesterday against the Lightning Aggro deck. And it was fun to play. These two decks played two games against each other and shared the honours. The game it lost wasn’t helped by the poor shuffling I’d done! I did like how the explore mechanic pumped Wildgrowth Walker and gained life.

The other Challenger deck I got to play was the United Assault. A mono white aggro deck. I’ve played against a similar deck in our Standard Showdown meta. It’s a fast deck. And I’ve not played a mono white aggro. So it was interesting and fun to play this deck. It is blindingly fast. Easily dealing with a red burn deck. Using the life gain to pump Pridemate is cool. Although annoying when on the receiving end.

Like last years initial Challenger decks WotC failed to provide the required tokens and emblems for the decks. Would it hurt them to do so? It’d add no noticeable extra cost to the product. These are fractions of a penny to produce and add. It baffles me why they still fail to do this.

What needs remembering that come September when the next block comes out the decks will not be legal in Standard. However I think that most players will have started making these decks their own, and started replacing the Ixalan cards in the decks by then.

I like these decks. They are fun to play, and can easily be upgraded to make the decks more personal. They are a great starting point for new players and returning ones. Fun to play against each other for casual game nights round the kitchen table.

You can read the thinking behind the Challenger decks and the deck lists here.

War of the Spark Spoilers I like Part 1

magic, MtG

Yet another MtG post. I suppose it makes a change from the other posts.

As I pointed out yesterday there is a new set arriving at the start of May called War of the Spark.

For over a week now we have been getting daily spoilers via various approved MtG content creators (I’ll never be that for a number of reasons). Each day is meant to be spoilers revealing a bit more of the “epic” story the set will be telling.

For me that story side is less important, I’m more interested in the cards and mechanics the set will have. When I see these new cards my first reaction is “will this fit into one of my Commander decks?” It’s my main way to evaluate the cards. Although it may then change to “oh that will be good in my Simic or Golgari Standard deck”. It would have to be an amazing card to inspire me to want to build a new standard deck around it. Although sometimes a card (legendary creature) does inspire a Commander deck.

War of the Spark is bringing us 37 new Planeswalker cards. Depending on whether the Planeswalker is a Uncommon/Rare/Mythic depends on the number of abilities we get. The mythic looks just like a Planeswalker we usually get plus one other thing that I will come to in a minute that is common to them all. Uncommon Planeswalkers have just a negative ability. The rare ones have a plus and minus ability.

With this set Planeswalkers are also like enchantments. Yep you read that right. Each Planeswalker in this set has an on going ability/effect on top of their abilities.

The mechanics in this set are proliferate, amass and on a single Planeswalker affinity. Plus there is a new creature type Army. You want more details google them, or look at the cards below. They are explained on one or two of them.

I’m excited for the two main mechanics because they will give me new cards for my Commander decks. I haven’t started on upgrading the Atraxa pre-con (well apart from putting in a doubling season). So more proliferate cards is going to be really useful. It’s why a card like Evolution Sage excites me. It’s a landfall effect basically in all but name. Play a land and proliferate. That might give some insane combos.

I also really like the new Liliana for my Scarab God zombie deck. Can’t see myself ever using her for anything but her plus ability to chuck out zombie tokens. I also like the Eternal Skylord. The amass 2 is nice. A zombie army token is still a zombie on the board. But giving all my zombie tokens flying! That’s sick. That deck can have a lot of tokens out.

The thing about the proliferate mechanic is, I can see a new version of my Simic deck that uses it. Biogenic Ooze loves it. But so do a few other cards in the deck. Simic Ascendancy could make its way back in.

So these next three could see themselves in the Atraxa deck and also this new Simic deck.

Massacre Girl has everyone getting their nickers in a twist with excitement since being revealed. And I can see why. I like the cards a lot also. My Golgari Standard deck would be a nice home for it. Tomik I’d find a home for in my death and taxes Commander deck. Merfolk Skydiver I think is a great card for my Simic deck and also the Atraxa.

Grateful Apparition you will guess with proliferate on it becomes a card of interest for Atraxa. But I can see it also being a card in that white aggro deck. Banehound what a great one drop for my Golgari deck. Even for a Orzhov aggro deck I’ve been mulling over. Deathsprout removal and ramp for Golgari in one card. I’ll definitely be trying this out.

Ok the new Vivien isn’t as good as the the one currently in Standard. But her static ability of giving creatures flash is nice. Also the plus one is ok. But I could see all three cards going into my big green stompy deck. But Vivian’s Arkbow is definitely one for my Simic deck as well.

Ok that’s it for this post, keep an eye out for part 2. And yes that’s a threat.

Why do you hate them so?

magic, MtG, rant

Start of May sees the next set of MtG released called War of the Spark. Which means the last weekend of April is Prerelease weekend.

That last weekend of April is a busy weekend. We already know it’s Prerelease but in London MtG players are fighting for over priced accommodation with participants in the London Marathon, so they can attend the London MagicFest (more on that in a mo).

Plus two other collectible card games (Pokemon being one) also have releases/events planned that weekend for stores also.

So what is usually a busy weekend for your FLGS on the MtG front, may just not be as busy as usual. Having a Prerelease clash with the MagicFest means the competitive players with dreams of becoming pro will be in London. Plus those that like to go to the big events. So attendance at the Prerelease could be down for the stores.

But WotC heard the complaints of the LGS and the UK stores can now sell the whole product range a week early to compensate them in some way. So Prerelease weekend players can pick up not only booster boxes, but bundles, deck builder kits, (if they are doing one) and Planeswalker decks and whatever else. But the more cynical out there might think this was not done to benefit the LGS in the UK, but to allow Channel Fireball and the other retailers at the London MagicFest to sell everything to those attending the event. Everyone at the MagicFest is basically lost business for the LGS. You can be sure those attending will be buying their War of the Spark product at the MagicFest instead of their LGS.

The LGS hate from WotC doesn’t stop there. In a shake up of the rewards program I can’t see it being anything but negative. But I’m open to be convinced otherwise.

At the moment Standard Showdown on Saturday at my FLGS sees 6 or 7 Showdown packs up for grabs. We get 8-10 players each week. Hey it’s a small store in the middle of nowhere, so that’s pretty good. But it means currently you stand a good chance of getting s Showdown pack. Under the new scheme, Standard Showdown is dead. The promos for FNM are dead. The FLGS will get a weekly allocation of these new promo packs to use as the prize support. Based on current attendances and the new stats that WotC are using, we the players lose out. The reality is the prize support has been drastically cut back. It means the “not standard Showdown” event that my FLGS would run on a Saturday would have less prizes, and a smaller chance to get a prize. I’d assume also that it’s the same for FNM.

What I think this means is that less prize support, and a decreased chance to get a prize will drive down attendance. Who wants to see the same top players week in, week out taking the spoils? Currently at least you stand a chance of getting something extra as a prize. Under the new system that’s gone.

If I was a conspiracy theory fan I’d be suspicious that WotC are trying to drive everyone to Arena. They are definitely trying to make paper MtG more like Arena. They have already tried best of one as a store format with some lucky LGS lab rats. The recent Mythic Invitational was basically a best of one format. No side boards players took two Standard decks and played those. Even WotC have admitted just about it wasn’t a great success as a format. The upcoming London MagicFest will see a new mulligan being tested called the London Mulligan. There is only one reason they want to try this, it’s probably easier to implement in Arena, and more Arena like. They are errata-ing physical cards so they can implement them easier in Arena.

There are other things WotC have done in the past few months that could be interrupted as attacks on the LGS, especially in the US. Such as selling direct via Amazon, no MSRP, special premium edition booster boxes only available direct from WotC/Hasbro and Channel Fireball at MagicFests.

I don’t know how I’m going to finish this rant. It started off with little intention going in the direction it did. It seems to me that the LGS is under attack from a company that should be supporting it more. The changes are presented as being positive and helping to grow the player base. But on closer examination they seem more like a company cutting back and trying to transition into a new future where they don’t have to worry about secondary markets, card quality, poor selling sets, etc.