I pre-ordered my first ever booster box of Magic The Gathering cards in January, on the first day that they allowed me to at the Tangled Web in Spartanburg. I was solidly excited...I love Greek styled things like the God of War video games, and I have a Fat-Pack box full of Theros cards from the previous set.
All through January, I kept up with the web chatter about the upcoming set, as was a little disappointed that more awesome stuff wasn't revealed. This is billed as a small set...165 cards as opposed to 249 cards in a big set.
In the Pre-Release, it seemed no one hardly got any gods or planeswalkers. I have yet to see an Ephara card.
I told myself, "Well, I am getting a box in a week. I will get some good stuff."
What I really wanted was outlined in this post. I didn't hardly get any of this stuff. The one copy of Phenax was nice...How about three more, or at least an Ephara. (Unreasonable, you say. I got three copies of Tromokratis. And Three copies of Eater of Hope!! ARGGH)
No Brimaz. In fact, I have only seen one, in the case at the store for $40! (The only way I am going to get him for the fencing ace deck is trading or out of a booster pack.) No Herald of Torment.
I only got one Phenax, and one Kiora. I got a Mogis as well, but traded him to SpartanNerd #1 (He wanted it really bad). I also got that Chromanticore for my hopeless Mazes End deck. On the other hand I bet I have a playset of each common. I got plenty of uncommons, but almost no complete playsets of them. But I thought I would at least have four copies of Bile Blight or Searing Blood. Nope. One copy of Bile Blight. That's it. I am going to have to pay out or trade for more copies. (That was a card I was really hoping to get four copies of.)
MY RATING
I am pleased with my investment...It was good savings and a way for me to jump into the new set. But I didn't score anything major with a box of boosters. I was left still wanting. And I don't like that one bit. I know, they are called Mythic Rare for a reason. But a person who orders a booster box is a loyal customer, and should be rewarded better.
My booster box gets a 2\5. I am a loyal customer. I will pre-order another. I know it is a gamble. This time I feel I have a foundation, but not the nice house on top.
The Born of the Gods set gets a 3\5. What are we comparing it too? I would give Theros a 5\5. I would give Return to Ravnica and Gatecrash both 5\5. Core Set 2013 Also gets 5/5. So there's your reference, readers. BOG is OK. It seems to continue to support the Black devotion strategy well, and adds options for beatdown decks. Tribute is a wicked mechanic, while Inspired promises to create some combos. I hate that they axed Monstrosity, however. The new god cards are nice, but I wish they had weapons, and I also wish their devotion requirements weren't so high. Some of the rares in this set seem to be as powerful as uncommons in some other sets. Then there are a few useless cards...Eater of Hope (I now own 5 copies!) Heroe's Podium, Champion of Stray Souls, Nessian Wilds Ravager, etc. BOG scores 3/5 because it does work well with Theros, but on its own, it is kind of weak.
Showing posts with label Fat Pack. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fat Pack. Show all posts
Monday, February 10, 2014
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Dragon's Maze, Magic the Gathering Trading Card Game Review
I got my pre-order in for a Fat Pack of Magic The Gathering Dragon's Maze cards on Wednesday at Mad Max's Comics and Games, and picked it up after work on Friday, as I was permitted. I also bought the pre-made Azorius deck that goes with Dragon Maze. Me and my two boys played "Booster Draft" with the included 9 booster packs from the Fat Pack. Last night I tweaked that Azorius deck. Here are my thoughts.
Booster Drafting was kind of hard....we only had two "mythic rare" cards. Also the "rare" cards were also scant. Each pack come with a guild gate, and it seems that each of our packs also came with at least one "cluestone." (Similar to the "keyrunes" in the previous two sets. Basically throwaway cards.)
But after we got going, and pulled the cards we wanted, I can kind of see what is happening here.
You see, "Dragon's Maze" is a kind of set meant to overturn the applecart of the previous two sets. For instance, in my experience, Azorius was kind of weak. Detain was great, until, you couldn't detain. Then you were screwed. The creatures tend to be smaller and detain tends to trigger only when the creatures enter the battlefield. So people playing against Azorius kind of knew what to expect. So the Dragon Maze comes along, and adds more detain, and gives a few more larger creatures to play. BAM. Forget that janky three-color mess. Azorius is strong enough on its on.
For Simic, evolve never really took off. It was OK to add to your already working green deck, but didn't seem to be a strategy that worked on its own. Dragon's maze is set to fix that.
Boros was too strong. So in Dragon's Maze, most of the cards that are worth anything seem to be more expensive to cast. Hence, a way that some other guilds might be able to get out front.
How about some other things of note....I believe the new "Maze's End" legendary land is rediculus. Come on. Really? Control 10 gates with different names, you win the game. Did anyone try and play "Hellkite Tyrant" in Gatecrash? So you load your deck up with keyrunes and other artifacts, you might be able to build up to 20 if the other players play artifacts. When you control 20 artifacts, you win the game. Maybe this card will work in Commander? Otherwise, there is just no way. And that is my feeling with Maze's End, except that there are no legendary's (in my knowledge) that are five color.
So this card is there just so you can say you have one, I guess.
Also, this time each guild gets a legendary creature to run the maze. We pulled exactly two of these out of the booster packs. One kid got the Gruul one. The other got the Izzet. Neither seemed that great to me. Maybe time will give a different answer. Since I bought the Azorius deck, I have the foil Azorius legendary. She detains creatures of four converted mana cost or less. By the time you are on turn 5, which is the minimum for casting her, an opponent likely has a fatty out. So, it works good against the weak cards.....not the endgame cards. At least she has protection from red!
Fuse is another different idea. Now you can cast a split card as a single play. "Turn" and "Burn" for instance.
I like it so far. Of the three, "Return to Ravnica" "Gatecrash" and "Dragon's Maze," I would say that "Gatecrash" was the best. It got me thinking more aggressively about the game, with Boros and the "battalion" ability finding synergy with "exalted" and "haste," and Grull with it's crazy aggro "bloodrush" ability. I suppose "Dragon Maze" is so far my least favorite of the block.
"Chronic Flooding" (It has rained gallons lately!)
Booster Drafting was kind of hard....we only had two "mythic rare" cards. Also the "rare" cards were also scant. Each pack come with a guild gate, and it seems that each of our packs also came with at least one "cluestone." (Similar to the "keyrunes" in the previous two sets. Basically throwaway cards.)
But after we got going, and pulled the cards we wanted, I can kind of see what is happening here.
You see, "Dragon's Maze" is a kind of set meant to overturn the applecart of the previous two sets. For instance, in my experience, Azorius was kind of weak. Detain was great, until, you couldn't detain. Then you were screwed. The creatures tend to be smaller and detain tends to trigger only when the creatures enter the battlefield. So people playing against Azorius kind of knew what to expect. So the Dragon Maze comes along, and adds more detain, and gives a few more larger creatures to play. BAM. Forget that janky three-color mess. Azorius is strong enough on its on.
For Simic, evolve never really took off. It was OK to add to your already working green deck, but didn't seem to be a strategy that worked on its own. Dragon's maze is set to fix that.
Boros was too strong. So in Dragon's Maze, most of the cards that are worth anything seem to be more expensive to cast. Hence, a way that some other guilds might be able to get out front.
How about some other things of note....I believe the new "Maze's End" legendary land is rediculus. Come on. Really? Control 10 gates with different names, you win the game. Did anyone try and play "Hellkite Tyrant" in Gatecrash? So you load your deck up with keyrunes and other artifacts, you might be able to build up to 20 if the other players play artifacts. When you control 20 artifacts, you win the game. Maybe this card will work in Commander? Otherwise, there is just no way. And that is my feeling with Maze's End, except that there are no legendary's (in my knowledge) that are five color.
So this card is there just so you can say you have one, I guess.
Also, this time each guild gets a legendary creature to run the maze. We pulled exactly two of these out of the booster packs. One kid got the Gruul one. The other got the Izzet. Neither seemed that great to me. Maybe time will give a different answer. Since I bought the Azorius deck, I have the foil Azorius legendary. She detains creatures of four converted mana cost or less. By the time you are on turn 5, which is the minimum for casting her, an opponent likely has a fatty out. So, it works good against the weak cards.....not the endgame cards. At least she has protection from red!
Fuse is another different idea. Now you can cast a split card as a single play. "Turn" and "Burn" for instance.
I like it so far. Of the three, "Return to Ravnica" "Gatecrash" and "Dragon's Maze," I would say that "Gatecrash" was the best. It got me thinking more aggressively about the game, with Boros and the "battalion" ability finding synergy with "exalted" and "haste," and Grull with it's crazy aggro "bloodrush" ability. I suppose "Dragon Maze" is so far my least favorite of the block.
"Chronic Flooding" (It has rained gallons lately!)
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