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We're all just here for the deep Urza lore - Talking about Magic: The Gathering!
Thanks.
My Secret Lairs arrived!
Pir, Toothy, Gitrog, Matter Reshaper, and Winged Sliver
My girlfriend decided she wanted to learn how to play, so I ordered ten packs of the new Jumpstart set from Card Kingdom to make things easy while also providing some variety. All ten packs had different themes, but we only opened blue or black packs. Five of them are blue, five are black. There's still a bit of variety, but we're missing 3/5ths of the color pie so I can't help but feel a little annoyed. I was imagining she'd get to experience a little bit of all the colors. That's some rough collation.
On the bright side, the cards we did pull are already worth more than I paid for the packs (special shoutouts to Rhystic Study and Seizan), so worst case scenario if she doesn't end up enjoying it I can sell everything off again.
If she turns out to like playing the game, I think I'd get some of the CK battle decks so she can try out specific archetypes and/or colors that we didn't open with the Jumpstart packs.
On the bright side, the cards we did pull are already worth more than I paid for the packs (special shoutouts to Rhystic Study and Seizan), so worst case scenario if she doesn't end up enjoying it I can sell everything off again.
If she turns out to like playing the game, I think I'd get some of the CK battle decks so she can try out specific archetypes and/or colors that we didn't open with the Jumpstart packs.
Ooh, weird, I bought a box of JumpStart 2022, and my most represented color was green. JumpStart 2022 is a blast, by the way. My roommate and I played through the whole box in one night. Plus I got some great pulls, including the mythic rat. I have a feeling this is not the last I'm going to be playing this set.
A buddy of mine showed me this channel one time, so this came up in my YouTube feed seemingly at random, which led to a nice "Huh! Funny old world, ain't it?!?" type moment.
It bums me out too, especially how they didn't even bother to compleat Nissa on camera. The whole ending of the ONE story seems dumb and bad to me, frankly.
To elaborate a little: I'm not even a huge fan of most of the compleated Planeswalkers, it just feels like they're barely trying with this one. Everything's way too compressed for this to be how they make characters who've been around for a decade (maybe more? I missed a large chunk of Magic in the 2000s) do a heel turn.
Second edit: I am kinda interested in seeing what Teferi gets up to in Zhalfir, though.
To elaborate a little: I'm not even a huge fan of most of the compleated Planeswalkers, it just feels like they're barely trying with this one. Everything's way too compressed for this to be how they make characters who've been around for a decade (maybe more? I missed a large chunk of Magic in the 2000s) do a heel turn.
Second edit: I am kinda interested in seeing what Teferi gets up to in Zhalfir, though.
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Yeah, maybe that's part of my problem with it, too? Over a dozen powerful planeswalkers get snagged super easily, whereas the fight with Nicol Bolas took out, what, three? Four? Counting the planeswalkers that got caught up in his mess and died for it, too.
It just feels like a cheap ending. Maybe it's not an ending, they're not dead yet. Guess it's up to Terefi to do some time rewinding or whatnot.
I really hope Toxic doesn't play as big a part in March of the Machine as it does in All Will Be One. I've only done five drafts so far, so a very small sample size, but my experience has been that if you aren't able to get on board immediately, and your opponent has a Toxic creature, it's almost impossible to recover if they get the third poison counter for Corrupted. The mechanic only further rewards players for already being ahead, and the fact that there's no way to interact with poison counters as the losing player makes it feel that much worse.
I really liked the set at first, but after having done quite a few drafts, I've had the same experience. It's very much a snowbally format with no wiggle room.
My poor Blue, look what they've done to my son.
Yeah, I pretty much stopped drafting early on. On the other hand, standard is...kinda fun again? I've been jamming a greedy 5 color midrange Atraxa deck and doing pretty decently, while seeing a good variety of other archetypes along the way. I even queued up against SaffronOlive yesterday and lost to some glorious Monument to Perfection jank he brewed up. I never thought I'd come back and spend this much time playing standard, so that's been a pleasant surprise.
Mr Bean
Chief Detective
I’ve found draft to be fine, but this particular limited environment fits my mid-range draft style - solid curve, early threats, a couple of big dummies at the top end. I like the blue-black proliferation deck, but you’ve gotta have removal early and often to play any kind of controlling style or you’re just gonna get run over.
That said, I hate phyrexia as a plane and can’t wait to get the hell out of this story. Very much looking forward to Ixalan treasure hunt shenanigans later in the year.
That said, I hate phyrexia as a plane and can’t wait to get the hell out of this story. Very much looking forward to Ixalan treasure hunt shenanigans later in the year.
Mr Bean
Chief Detective
You guys! I love this LotR set so goddamn much! If ever a magic set was designed flavor wise for me, this is it. The Hobbit and the trilogy was my favorite literature in middle school - so much so I read the trilogy straight through twice in a row. All the cards and the flavor text are all just straight nostalgia dopamine hits and it's great. Even the arena client has so much flavor. The mastery track for the set isn't the usual color tracks but is instead broken up into the 3 books.
Plus the sealed gods decided to bless me and my first pool on arena was a perfect 7 led by Gandalf the White.
Everything about this just makes me so happy.
Plus the sealed gods decided to bless me and my first pool on arena was a perfect 7 led by Gandalf the White.
Everything about this just makes me so happy.
Yeah, that was the match! I threw the first game because I forgot the Monument gains indestructible when it transforms, but in the second game I only drew air. Nimble Larcenist was great out of the sideboard but I never found anything else to do.
I'm happy for everyone who's excited about the LotR set, but I just can't care about it. I was never that big on the books, I really don't like Unvierses Beyond in general, and I don't play any format where the cards are legal (outside of Historic Brawl) so I've got no reason to draft it. There's just nothing there for me. Kind of a bummer to have two summers in a row where Magic says "this product is not for you". Guess I'll have a lot of gold and gems ready for Eldraine 2 in September, at least.
I'm happy for everyone who's excited about the LotR set, but I just can't care about it. I was never that big on the books, I really don't like Unvierses Beyond in general, and I don't play any format where the cards are legal (outside of Historic Brawl) so I've got no reason to draft it. There's just nothing there for me. Kind of a bummer to have two summers in a row where Magic says "this product is not for you". Guess I'll have a lot of gold and gems ready for Eldraine 2 in September, at least.
Historic Brawl is 95% of what I play on Arena, as the only format where I can enjoy deckbuilding and gameplay without bleeding my bank account dry. So I'm sure I'll find a few goodies from the set! I'm already seeing LotR commanders in the queue. Gonna get my ass kicked by so many hobbitses...
My wife and I just did our first ever prerelease tourney for the LotR set, mainly to meet up with a friend who invited us, but it was good fun and the set is gorgeous. I warned all our opponents that my play experience was almost entirely from the 90s but it went okay. We lost once and drew twice, which I’m not complaining about given our current noobosity. Even got a couple pity packs as a prize at the end. 
The more experienced players were complaining that there’s too much food generation in the set for 2HG format, which I can certainly see - it’s not hard to get too much life running around to finish a match in under an hour. That definitely contributed to our ties, though I think we might have actually won the last one if it played out.
The more experienced players were complaining that there’s too much food generation in the set for 2HG format, which I can certainly see - it’s not hard to get too much life running around to finish a match in under an hour. That definitely contributed to our ties, though I think we might have actually won the last one if it played out.