Friday evening saw another gaming session with two of my favourite people to game with, Jonathan and Diego.

We started off with a game of Via Nebula. I think from the number of times it has hit the table since I finally got to play it shows how much Jonathan and I like the game.

I think Jonathan has looked into getting a copy also. Well based on the fact he has looked at the cost of getting it, and made the statement that it must be out of print or “between printings”. That fact is how he was explaining it’s current high price. It’s a reasonable conclusion I think to arrive at, both for Jonathan and for me. I’d probably argue that the game is out of print, and unlikely to see a reprint.

It’s the cycle of things in the boardgame world. Very few games make it to become every greens (always in print and selling). A few more may make it too more than one printing. But the vast majority will only see that initial first printing. Never to see life again. In a very rare case a game years down the line may get a second or third edition, or a reskin/new theme. Plus for reasons such as a company losing a licence the game may never be reprinted even if they wanted to.

For the reasons above it’s why if I’m interested in a game I try and get a copy when it comes out. There is no guarantee that say a year later when you finally decide to get the game you will be able to. Or if you are, you will not be paying some inflated price. I believe (and I can’t remember the sources, might be The Dice Tower) that a game print run can be between 10,000 and 20,000 copies. It’s not a lot really considering.

Via Nebula is a very good game. By a hot game designer. So the odds of it seeing another printing may be higher than normal. But it’s not a guarantee. And I don’t remember there being a massive buzz for the game at the time.

So as you can guess I’m feeling smug I picked it up second hand last year for less than retail. I got lucky. Glad it finally got to the table, and now enjoying it.

In our game it looked like we had all scored the same. However in review Jonathan had forgotten to claim the card for ending the game. That gave him the 2 points to claim victory. Diego and I drew first loser.

Our second and final game of the evening was surprise, surprise Wingspan.

My bonus card needed me to have 8 or more cards in hand to score 7 points. So I needed a card draw engine for that. Which is what I went for. But along the way I got top spot on the two early end of round scoring, and shared a third.

But despite that if the barn owl had been a bit luckier on it’s hunting I may have won. Out of a possible 5 tries it succeeded on only 2 of them.

So once again for the evening I was beaten by Jonathan by 2 points. A clean sweep of victories for him for the evening. My only consolation was I was first loser this time.

But another fantastic evening gaming, with great hosts The Luxe Cinema. The staff there are amazing and so welcoming.

Saturday was once again Standard Showdown.

This week I was trying out the new version of the Simic deck that focuses on ramp and being aggressive.

I tested the deck with John, and against an Andy Hall deck. It was mixed results and inconclusive.

First round was against John. And that went the same way as our test game earlier. I stomped all over his Golgari deck. Which had been a surprise because our test game had been against his merfolk deck. And that was what I was expecting to be facing. Still that little surprise didn’t change the result.

Round two I was up against Andy Church. I know that the result was I lost 2-0 but it doesn’t reflect that these were two close games. Which would be the story for the rest of the afternoon.

My final game against Alex could have been a win. But I did a massive miss play in the final game that would have slowed him down and stopped that white elder dinosaur coming out for a couple of turns.

But if you are not finishing top 3, then coming last is the next best option. Why? Last place gets you a guaranteed Standard Showdown pack. Other wise outside of those places it’s all down to the luck of the die if you get one of the remaining packs (depending on number of entries of course).

So I wasn’t unhappy being last. It mean that guaranteed extra pack. And boy was the one I had worth having. See below for the highlights from it.

But a fun afternoon of MtG as always.

Casual Games

John: Win 2-0

Andy Hall: Loss 0-2

Standard Showdown Stats

Standard Showdown Participants: 9

Rounds: 4

Round 1: John Win 2-0

Round 2: Andrew Church Loss 2-0

Round 3: Nathan Hall (burn deck) Loss 2-0

Round 4: Alex Loss 2-1

Record: 1-3

Final Position: Last

Prizes: 1 participation pack, a Standard Showdown pack (Vraska Planeswalker, Hinterland Harbour, foil Forest).