I mentioned in a previous post that I had traded a high-dollar shiny bit of pasteboard for store credit at my friendly local game shop, and used that to buy some packs of Magic: The Gathering cards.
I opened one to take a look and get back into the swing of things, but I should mention this is different from the others. This is a draft pack, the classic 15-card booster with ten common-rarity cards, three uncommon-rarity cards, one rare or legendary card, a basic land card, and a bonus token, rules card, or generic advertisement bonus. Sometimes a foil insert of random rarity replaces one of the commons. Some sets have tweaked this standard array, but this has been the primary way to buy card packs for ages.
The others I bought were set boosters, slightly more expensive 12-card packs with more rare cards. I'll be opening and discussing those gradually later on, but as I write this post, they are just sitting there, taunting me with the allure of shiny sealed foil. So cruel... But while they torment me by existing unopened, let's take a look at that one classic booster pack! It looks like this set includes a lot of cards designed to encourage multi-colored decks. Not a huge surprise these days.
Talas Lookout: CMC 4 (2UU) for a 3/2 with flying. meh. But then again, when it dies, it restocks your hand. Neat! I may try this one in mono-blue Commander.
Benalish Sleeper: CMC 2 (1W) for a 3/1 with a neat kicker that forces everyone to sacrifice something for an extra B. Pair it with sacrificial synergy outlets for extra goodness! The 3/1 power/toughness is also good aggression value for the cost.
Gibbering Barricade: CMC 3 (2B) for a 2/4 with Defender and a slightly over-costed card draw mechanic. Again, this works better with sacrifice synergy shenanigans.
Academy Wall: CMC 3 (2U) for a 0/5 defender is similar to the above card, but with slightly better defense in exchange for no offense. However, it also plays well with blue's penchant for spell-slinging by allowing a card refresh with each instant or sorcery spell cast. I quite like it.
Battle-Rage Blessing: CMC2 (1B) to instantly give a creature deathtouch and indestructible until end of turn? That's a nasty surprise. And the flavor text references Braids, and it looks like she's back!
Smash to Dust: CMC 2 (1R) for a modal sorcery that can destroy an artifact, destroy a creature with defender, or ping everything. Very useful! This probably belongs in every red deck in Modern.
Timely Interference: CMC 1 (U) to nerf a creature, draw a card, and optionally force that nerfed creature to block if a kicker of (1R) is also paid. Useful.
Haunted Mire: a dual land that enters tapped Meh. Well, except this is a Swamp Forest, so cards that let you search specifically for either land type let you fetch this, too. Most dual lands haven't been labeled that way lately.
Jaya's Firenado: everyone's favorite non-Chandra pyromaniac gets a signature spell card! CMC 5 (4R) is a bit expensive to target a creature, but planeswalkers aren't safe from this spell, and at least it also allows scrying. I'm more torn on this.
Llanowar Stalker: CMC 1 (G) for a 1/1 is good. Elf warriors are good. +1/+0 whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control is great.
All told, based on this sample, this set seems to have a lot of good common-rarity cards. Pauper is definitely viable!
Time for a look at the non-commons! Some are actually uncommons. First, though, there's a token creature card and a Basic Land — Swamp. The rare card is Temporary Lockdown, which seems to be valued between $1.00 -$1.50. It absolutely destroys token decks, though. This belongs in any death-and-taxes deck which include white.
As for the uncommons, this pack included the Showcase version of Balmor, Battlemage Captain, a good card for Izzet decks; Cleaving Skyrider,a flashy flyer; and Elvish Hydromancer, a card with potential only if you already have something big and stompy to copy. Those last two aren't really great IMHO. YMMV. Comment below!
Also, I'm not sure I'm a fan of adding my watermark to photos, especially at that size. maybe something more subtle is in order if I plan to bother with that at all in the future. Hmm.
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