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.