The tyranny of Island continues unabated.
If all else fails, Wizards does sell a product just for this situation, called the Gift Pack (2018 is the latest edition so far)Hey MTG Era, I have a work buddy who invited me to a birthday dinner thing on Saturday. All I know about him is that he likes MTG. I'm thinking of getting him some boosters and/or other MTG related things - what's a good MTG related birthday gift in March 2019?
Assume my knowledge of anything modern MTG is ancient and outdated. The last time I played, there was this unglued card that I could rip up and make the pieces fall on other cards to take them out of play.
If all else fails, Wizards does sell a product just for this situation, called the Gift Pack (2018 is the latest edition so far)
Booster packs are weird in that for beginners, they'd be appealing. For more involved players, they're useless. And for super involved players, it's, "Sweet, I can use these to draft with my buds later." With the Gift Pack, you might surprise him with a product he didn't know existed or at least has never seen in person, and there are cards he probably wouldn't have or know about.Thank you - would you personally be more stoked for a gift pack, or for a bunch of boosters for the latest expansion?
What's your budget?Hey MTG Era, I have a work buddy who invited me to a birthday dinner thing on Saturday. All I know about him is that he likes MTG. I'm thinking of getting him some boosters and/or other MTG related things - what's a good MTG related birthday gift in March 2019?
Assume my knowledge of anything modern MTG is ancient and outdated. The last time I played, there was this unglued card that I could rip up and make the pieces fall on other cards to take them out of play.
Booster packs are weird in that for beginners, they'd be appealing. For more involved players, they're useless. And for super involved players, it's, "Sweet, I can use these to draft with my buds later." With the Gift Pack, you might surprise him with a product he didn't know existed or at least has never seen in person, and there are cards he probably wouldn't have or know about.
Booster packs are weird in that for beginners, they'd be appealing. For more involved players, they're useless. And for super involved players, it's, "Sweet, I can use these to draft with my buds later." With the Gift Pack, you might surprise him with a product he didn't know existed or at least has never seen in person, and there are cards he probably wouldn't have or know about.
$50 or so. Thank you for letting me know about the Gift Pack and how it can be a bit of a surprise. I think I'll order that and a few boosters to sweeten the deal.
I agree with this. I'd buy them a pair of Guild Kits (two different ones obviously). They're fun for casual gameplay.Personally, I'd counter on the gift pack and say that it's definitely something built for more casual players. It has some unique cards, but they aren't really useful anywhere. It amounts to paying extra for 4 boosters from a fairly old set to get some 5 nice foil basic lands, and then that's about it. It doesn't even have a nice box like the older gift packs did. The Professor was pretty scathing on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYkz8cmotCQ
Of stuff you could find on the shelf, I think the "Guild Kits" they've put out recently are a generally better product. They come with a nice complete deck one could play in a casual setting, have some cards that are actually playable in various formats, and come with full sets of interesting basic lands. I'd personally be more excited to get one of those. If you could scout out what colors the person likes to play you could even get one for that specific color pair.
Personally, I'd counter on the gift pack and say that it's definitely something built for more casual players. It has some unique cards, but they aren't really useful anywhere. It amounts to paying extra for 4 boosters from a fairly old set to get some 5 nice foil basic lands, and then that's about it. It doesn't even have a nice box like the older gift packs did. The Professor was pretty scathing on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYkz8cmotCQ
Of stuff you could find on the shelf, I think the "Guild Kits" they've put out recently are a generally better product. They come with a nice complete deck one could play in a casual setting, have some cards that are actually playable in various formats, and come with full sets of interesting basic lands. I'd personally be more excited to get one of those. If you could scout out what colors the person likes to play you could even get one for that specific color pair.
There's also a thread on Gaming side where you'll get more Arena specific discussion.So is this the thread we talk about MTG arena? Also the next set looks crazy - 36 planeswalkers is gonna get goofy
You're the man - thanksYeah, with a $50 budget, Guild Kits would be the better move. I just assumed you'd want to go cheap while still looking like you put in a bit of effort.
There's also a thread on Gaming side where you'll get more Arena specific discussion.
$50 or so. Thank you for letting me know about the Gift Pack and how it can be a bit of a surprise. I think I'll order that and a few boosters to sweeten the deal.
Wait, so if you win FNM you get a pack of four cards instead of just one? (yes I realized technically stores decide how to allocate promos but in most places I've seen them given to draft pod winners for example)
I really hope there are a lot more varied answers to Planeswalkers printed in WAR. Tired of just auto-including Contempt in any deck.
I really hope there are a lot more varied answers to Planeswalkers printed in WAR. Tired of just auto-including Contempt in any deck.
I'd actually say neither the Gift Packs or the Guild Kits are particularly great. I play with a group of 10 people and I'm positive all of us would prefer boosters over any of that other stuff. For $50, I'd buy 5 Guilds of Ravnica packs, 5 Ravnica Allegiance and 1 Ultimate Masters.
I guess the moral of the story is that you don't really know what he'll like unless you know what type of player he is. I'd go with my option as I think everyone could at least have fun opening packs whereas the decks might go totally unused (and to be fair, they might also be far more fun depending on the player).
buying packs for yourself to crack is negative value, cracking packs others bought you is all the value, elation, addiction at no price.
At release, the guild packs costed less than buying the single cards in the secondary market.Sure. But the guy wanted to get his friend a gift and it's not like those Gift Boxes or Guild Packs are full to the brim with value. Booster packs have the best EV of all those products.
Buy your friend a Helm of Obedience, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Intuition, Dream Halls, Aluren, Recurring Nightmare, Mind Over Matter, Survival of the Fittest, Tolarian Academy or Yawgmoth's Will.
Thank me later.
That is not correct at all.Sure. But the guy wanted to get his friend a gift and it's not like those Gift Boxes or Guild Packs are full to the brim with value. Booster packs have the best EV of all those products.
At release, the guild packs costed less than buying the single cards in the secondary market.
The Ravnica Allegiance Guild Kits only have 5 cards worth more than $2 (Voidslime, Birds of Paradise, Debtor's Knell, Master of Cruelties, Dovescape). These are spread out across different decks. The decks cost $20. There's no way to make your money back buying these ever. Not even close. If you sold this all separately, you'd be lucky to get $5 after fees. This leaves a generous estimate of an EV that's about 25% of the money you spend to buy it.
Determining the best gift for someone based on EV is peak Magic player.
One nice thing about Arena that I didn't initially notice has been being able to play Standard while just ignoring MTG finance stuff. Being able to build Sultai or Phoenixes without being scared away from the decks due to it costing 100 dollars to get playsets of Krasises or Phoenixes is real nice. Sure it makes building the true jank more expensive because you can't get nonsense for very cheap, but as someone who's pretty happy with net decking and tweaking from there it's been great.
They didn't mention it once in the B&R article LMAOYup, still hate Wilderness Reclamation. Needs a ban. Nothing else needs to be said.
One last Ixalan draft. I'm really hoping I finally got something that synergizes a bit. Please pardon the screenshots. Ixalan expert opinions wanted:
Geez, I didn't realize how bad MTGO Market was doing right now. Did you know a complete set of Ixalan is worth...$9 on MTGO? That Carnage Tyrant is under 50 cents? https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/XLN#online
Geez, I didn't realize how bad MTGO Market was doing right now. Did you know a complete set of Ixalan is worth...$9 on MTGO? That Carnage Tyrant is under 50 cents? https://www.mtggoldfish.com/index/XLN#online