This is going to be a long post I’m afraid. It’s been written over the course of today, hence why it is posted much later than usual for me. So you have been warned.

My day started cracking open a box of boosters, and the 2 Planeswalker decks.

The reports/reviews I’d seen before today were not brilliant for these 2 decks. But they are the only source for the 2 Planeswalkers cards they have, plus 2 or 3 cards included in the deck. From the stuff I’d seen apparently the Chandra deck is the stronger of the 2 if played against each other. With the arrival of Challenger decks I’m trying to think what the point of these decks are. If a new/returning player wants a deck they can use at FNM then they need the Challenger decks. Mainly because the Challenger decks are competitive and will allow the player to win one or two games. It’s not fun for a new player to keep losing game after game, especially with a new deck they have just bought. For that casual kitchen table game at home or round a friends I’d still use the Challenger decks. As I’ve already pointed out the 2 Planeswalker decks are not evenly matched (just like the last ever duel decks I’ve heard, I’ve not played mine, just harvested them for cards). So one person isn’t going to have a good experience. WotC should kill off these Planeswalker decks or improve them and make them balanced against each other, or competitive at FNM. Choose one WotC I’m happy with either. Just stop producing a mediocre product that looks even worse when compared with the new Challenger decks.

Anyway here are the contents of each of the Planeswalker decks and the pulls I got from the 2 boosters I got in each box.


As you may have guessed with the 2 buy-a-box promos, there are 2 booster boxes in my possession, and as I write this only one unopened one.

I’m going to do a separate post with my highlights from my pulls for the booster box. But from just the lands, sagas, foils, Planeswalkers, the odd artifact, and legendary creatures that I pulled and scanned in. Using the pricing based on CardKingdom prices within the Decked app, I’m in profit at the moment. Most of that is in about 7 cards!

The second box I’ve decided to open slowly over the next few days, a couple of packs at a time. I was going to use it for another league for our gaming group. But then I thought “nah, I’m not getting any support for the other Magic events I tried organising. Why bother?”

What did I pull in my Prerelease kit? Well I wasn’t as lucky as my student who was attending his first Prerelease who got a foil Karn promo in his kit. So I was chuffed that he got such a good (and expensive) card. But these were my 2 promo cards that I got.

Here is the deck I built from my pulls to play with:
Counts : 40 main

Creatures:13

1 Champion of the Flame
2 Corrosive Ooze
1 Ghitu Chronicler
1 Keldon Warcaller
1 Llanowar Scout
1 Orcish Vandal
1 Voltaic Servant
1 Llanowar Envoy
1 Baloth Gorger
1 Territorial Allosaurus
1 Pardic Wanderer
1 Primordial Wurm

Spells:11

1 Shivan Fire
1 Short Sword
1 Sorcerer’s Wand
1 Warlord’s Fury
1 Broken Bond
1 Pierce the Sky
1 Shield of the Realm
1 Song of Freyalise
1 Grow from the Ashes
1 Wizard’s Lightning
1 Wild Onslaught

Lands:16

9 Forest
7 Mountain

I kinda had to go red/green. I had hardly any creatures in the other colours. Certainly not enough to keep me alive long enough to even remotely stand a chance of winning.

How did I do with the deck at Prerelease?

Well it was a packed Prerelease event today with 25 keen participants taking part. So a few more than the Rivals of Ixalan one I attended. With a win/loss record of 1-3 (0-2,0-2,1-2,2-1) I came 20th.

Not a great record this time. But I did the best I could in the time given to build the 40 card deck from the cards I pulled, Naturally with no clock ticking, and time to read everything I could put possibly a better deck together. More importantly I had fun playing Magic.