Magic the Gathering Arena is many will know is the new/latest digital version of MtG. This version is being given a “modern” Hearthstone look and feel.

This should tick all my boxes so why am I not getting all excited about it?

Well at the moment it’s only PC during its beta stage. Being a Mac and iOS person it means I can take part in the beta program. My main casual gaming platform is iOS. So until it’s out on that I’m not interested.

But there are some recent announcements that are coming out that mean even if Arena came out on iOS tomorrow I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole.

Firstly the redemption codes. They are currently testing them down under. In the Dominaria boosters there, they get a redemption code in each one. This code when redeemed in game gives you a booster pack or in game gold and a card. Apparently the split is 10% of the time you will get a booster pack, 90% that card gold combo. Plus I believe there will be a limit of 10 redemption codes per account. This news has put me off this feature straight off. If I buy a booster box I want to be able to use all 36 codes, not be screwed over. Plus that probability of getting a booster pack when redeemed sucks. I’d want a higher percentage of having a booster than the 10%. A fifty fifty split would be more something I’d be attracted to.

The price of boosters, drafting, etc in hard cash. Although this actually doesn’t get announced until tomorrow based on how WotC have behaved so far things are not looking good for this (see above for starters). If this is above $2 a booster, and approximately $6 for a 3 booster draft then WotC might as well forget about releasing Arena. Yes the gaming part of Hasbro was down financially in Q1 apparently. But that doesn’t mean WotC should be nickel and dimming the public. It means they should get their house in order first, stop attacking their player base because they express opinions they disagree with, improve the quality of products that they release (Iconic Masters, Masters 25, Explorers of Ixalan, the list goes on) and the card stock issue. Then maybe they might turn things round without picking the publics pockets.

I’m sure as we get closer to the release date to the general public release other developments will show that WotC are listening to the public and have ignored them. WotC need to listen, and change things big time else they can forget about attracting Hearthstone players to Arena, but also forget about moving over MtG players digitally and physically to Arena also.

Ok slowly opening the second booster box didn’t last long. All the boosters inside mysteriously burst open yesterday. I wish I knew how it happened.

I have surprised myself and actually got the first booster boxes contents scanned into the Decked app along with the foils and legendary creatures from the second.

With all this new injection of cards I have that ongoing problem of are the new cards good enough to go into the relevant deck? And if so which ones do they replace? That second question will be answered another day. At the moment I’m looking at the cards through the lens of would this card be good in one of my Commander decks. One or two cards have sparked ideas for brawl decks. Others have given me an idea for standard/modern decks (but not sure I’ll act on those for the time being).

I’m very happy with my pulls, I got 95% (a rough estimate) of the cards I was after either as singles or multiple copies. Plus one or two pleasant surprises that I wasn’t aware of mainly due to me not bothering much with the majority of spoilers.

Not sure if I’ll play Arcane Flight but I do like the art on the card. I’m not surprised it’s one of the ultra pro playmats for this set. I find the art whimsical with the expression on the cats face.

So what were the highlights of my pulls?

I’m glad I’m not playing Tron lands at the moment, Damping Sphere shuts them down. Which would slow my Angel deck down completely. I’m thinking this might find a home in my planned Death and Taxes Commander deck. Final Parting was a nice surprise and definitely is a nice tutor for a Commander deck, get the card you want and set up some graveyard shenanigans.

Gaea’s Blessing was on my list, with mill a thing with my students meta both in their modern decks and Commander this is a nice addition to fight against it. Gilded Lotus is it good enough for modern and standard? I think the 5 CMC is a bit expensive. But Brawl/Commander I’m liking the look of it. Grand Warlord Radha was a pleasant surprise, maybe not good enough to be the new commander of my Elf Tribal deck, but as a Brawl Commander?

Hallar, the Firefletcher was another surprise, definitely a Brawl Commander. Kicker isn’t a thing in my Elf Tribal deck so it wouldn’t break into that. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain was on my list so happy to get her. As was Karn, Scion of Urza.

I really want the promo for Llanowar Elves. But if I’m building a standard deck I think I’d be going green with that Llanowar Elves/ Steel Leaf Champion combo. I’m not sure the other elves are strong enough to go full elf tribal both in Brawl or standard. Lyra Dawnbringer was high on my list and straight into my list of angel includes for my in progress Angel Commander deck. Marwyn, the Nurterer was in a Planeswalker deck and a nice surprise. I’d like to try and fit it into my Elf tribal deck.

Mishra’s Self Replicator is screaming out to be abused in some infinite loop way. Mox Amber not sure I’d ever use it, but it does seem to be expensive at the moment. Muldrotha, the Gravetide was a nice surprise and will be interesting to build decks around. Graveyard shenanigans is always frustrating to play against, and this could be a way to cheat out some expensive cards. Remember Final Parting?

More graveyard shenanigans with another pleasant discovery Primeval’s Glorious Rebirth. I think having some graveyard hate in decks will be a necessity, luckily there is some out there. A rat deck of some kind is back on the books, ’nuff said. I was just thinking white needs some more cards like Seal Away.

There were 2 angels I wanted from this set and I got both. Shalai, Voice of Plenty has made the team for my planned Angel Commander deck. Blue has some really nice big monsters of the deep. They may not be that playable in most formats. But hey that OMG moment when an another player sees them hit the battlefield, worth it. Slimefoot was on my hit list. I had it in my mind to do a saproling/fungus tribal deck of some kind, and this is the commander I wanted for it.

I don’t know what I was expecting from the sagas. But Song of Freyalise with a lot of creatures out, say like elves or saprolings this could be insane. I bet Squee, the Immortal will end up being a very very annoying card. Wish I’d got more Steel Leaf Champions than I did.

These next 3 were unexpected and have potential I think.

Oh look another board wipe for white with Urza’s Ruinous Blast, just what they needed. Ok probably not that great with this big influx of legendary cards in standard and Brawl. But other formats it might be more impactful. Token decks won’t like it for sure. Oh look a dragon for my dragon tribal deck. And with the Ur-Dragon as the commander a turn 3 drop! I can see Warcry Phoenix maybe making it into a Brawl deck. But as a 4 CMC 2/2 it looks a bit weak against Glorybringer and Rekindling Phoenix.

Here are the 3 that got away!

So that’s my haul or my highlights from the Prerelease weekend.

“There will come a day so dark you will pray for death. On that day your prayers will be answered.”
—Minaldra, the Vizag Atum

For the record the above is the flavour text from the card Zombie Apocalypse.

For me my decks are a living thing. Yes I create them, play with them, but over time you come across new cards (well new to me) from the rich history of thousands and thousands of cards that WotC have released for the game, or from a new set when it gets released. You see the card and think that it would go great in X deck. However you are then faced with the dilemma of what card(s) get replaced. Although on occasion it’s so blindingly obvious you don’t have to think about it. But a lot of the time it’s a very hard decision that involves vision quests, soul searching, consulting mystics and wise men hiding in caves at the top of mountains.

But why am I talking all this crap? I have that very dilemma at the moment with 2 new cards that I have got in. Both would fit in really nicely in my Elf Tribal deck. But that big question remains, what do they replace?

I like both of these cards. Hall of Gemstone is a great land/mana hate card that would cripple non-mono colour decks. Which when you are “tiny” elves trying to build up a nice board state helps a lot. Although it does kind of put a target on you for doing it. Realm Seekers, a 6 CMC Elf that potentially in Commander played at the right time come in as a very big creature indeed. In reality I’d expect to see it come in with between 3 – 8 +1/+1 counters. Play this after I have just put my graveyard back in my hand, with unlimited hand size for the rest of the game, and this becomes insane.

I’m pretty sure I may be revisiting this particular dilemma once I get my hands on Dominaria with one or two of the new elves in the set.

But with this current dilemma how would you fit these cards in? Would you even try? Maybe you know better cards that should be going into the deck. Let me know in the comments below. Remember if you haven’t commented before I need to approve the first comment, then after that you are golden to comment whenever you like without me needing to approve anything. This is a simple anti-spam thing.

If you remember in my ramblings Tuesday I mentioned somewhere on the horizon was a plan to build a deck that abused the etb effect. Well I now have the commander I want to use for this deck.

Yep Brago, King Eternal. I saw this card in an article on the top 10 cards in Conspiracy, and thought wait that’s the perfect Commander for this non-existent deck of mine. Possibly would have liked green in there as well, but you can’t have everything. Naturally the one must have card to go along side this is going to be Panharmonicon. I’d like to say the deck is building itself. But sadly that’s not the case.

What cards do you think I should be considering for this etb abuse deck?