Being branded with luck in simple ways such as opening a Magic: the Gathering booster pack and getting good cards are quite rare. There are factors such as probability in the ways where a certain good Rare or Mythic card is found in that particular booster in a specific location in the box.

MTG peeps say terms like “mapping” a booster box to check but I don’t think it is reasonable for every product of a new set. Some have other bizarre ways to do it but I still think it is just the randomization of the cards on each booster pack while it is being manufactured. As per the luck factor? Nothing else can be reasoned out with it.

I am sharing today a video of one of my recent booster pack openings and can I say that this is purely a luck factor or just coincidental? Do check out the video below.

My Magic: the Gathering booster pack order from last week arrived yesterday at the office, so I had to get it before lunchtime when the courier arrived. This batch of packs consists of 2 Stryxhaven Draft boosters and 3 Kaldheim Set boosters, and I purchased them via their online store on Facebook. They have posted a discounted price of the packs, which convinced me to do an order.

I had known this store for a long time, and back when we were purchasing Magic: the Gathering singles for our deck components. The card prices were fair, and the good thing is that they’ve to survive through the pandemic, given that face-to-face tournaments stopped since March of last year.

Anywho, I decided to create Youtube content for this batch of booster pack openings which you can check on this video below. Did I get lucky with the pulls?

I had that thought whenever I see my pile of Magic: the Gathering cards in my room, most of them acquired from booster pack prizes and booster pack cracking sessions, and wonder how I can make use of them.

I had several recycling Magic: the Gathering practices in the past and also implemented them at times recently. The easiest way is probably to sell them in bulk in terms of boxes.

When I transferred to a new boarding house, I had a few boxes of old Magic: the Gathering card sets in a cabinet that I needed to get rid of. What I did is posted in my local MtG group that I am selling these boxes at a very cheap price. I had to set the number to a below-average one to attract buyers and do an immediate deal. In just two days, I was able to sell those boxes of cards to a player who was just starting to build their group’s card pool for Commander.

Another way to use your old Magic: the Gathering cards is to build intro decks out of them if you have a lot of spare basic lands. I made 30-card intro decks with basic themes and gave them away during local conventions and Magic: the Gathering Learn-to-play events at our local game store.

The third one is making them into a household decoration. this would require your creativity and imagination. You can glue each edge of the cards and make them paper or clip boxes, document storage, and desktop decors. Even making a wallpaper of Magic: the Gathering cards in your room or play area is possible.

Last but the least, is important to make clothing out of your cards. This is plausible if there are frequent cosplay or Pop culture-related events in your area. This is one way of you expressing your fandom of the game while being innovative and dressing up to impress our fellow geeks and other con-goers.

That is a wrap for the ways to make use of your excess Magic: the Gathering cards. If you have any other ideas in mind, please feel free to share them via the comment box below.

Until the next post and thanks for reading.

I guess I am ready to unload most of the stuff at the current boarding house. One of them is my collection of card expansion boxes from the past sets. These boxes had been the containers of my extra Magic: the Gathering cards from booster packs bought and received as prizes.

Since most of these sets have already rotated out of Standard and which the good cards were already filtered and separated, I think it would just be a burden to keep them once I transfer to the new place.

I currently have boxes from the Scars of Mirrodin block, Innistrad block, Return to Ravnica block, Theros block and from the M14 Core set, Fate Reforged and Worldwake. I will be selling them by about 250 pesos each along with some cards that box represents. Here are some of the pics I took when I brought them out to clean them of dust.

You can contact me here via comment or on Facebook if you are interested to buy one. As of now, the RTR block and Innistrad block boxes are currently reserved. I might prefer to have meetups of the buyers within Iloilo City. Just message me today.

As of this time, I can conclude that Theros is definitely a worth to cash out set. I think it’s almost half of the rares in the set are good buy, aside from the powerful Mythics that were previewed. I browse through the spoilers to check on the powerful and potential cards to use in one of my future deck projects, the return of Mono Black Control. Here are the cards that I would add:

Thoughtseize – the number one card in my list and of course, an auto inclusion in the deck. I just hope though that the price will somewhat drop once the Theros products will hit the stores. The card is at the preorder price of 1,000php each at the moment.

Erebos – this God of the underworld looks cool to be added to the control deck, but considering the abilities of its Enchantment side, he is more of a sideboard card.

Hero’s Downfall – one of my dream cards for Black that finally came true. Planeswalkers are hard to deal by this color, and using Dreadbore complicates the deck setup. Having this as an instant is also a good replacement for Murder that will be rotating out.

Nighthowler – this Black Lhurgoyf may be a good component in a deck full of spot and mass removals. One major problem though is the existence of Scavenging Ooze which might render this horror ineffective.

Read the Bones – replacing Sign in Blood with Scry2 and an additional mana cost is not a bad deal. This will be at least three copies in the deck.

Rescue from the Underworld – card might be good to a midrange-ish black or splashed with other color deck, wherein you have creatures that you can chain the etb abilities. Thragtusk will still be its best combo though, and it will not happen in Standard. *sad*

With these cards in mind, my initial build or draft of MBC or Mono Black Control would be the following:

Creatures
4 Desecration Demon
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Nighthowler

Spells
4 Corrupt
2 Doom Blade
2 Devour Flesh
2 Hero’s Downfall
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Read the Bones
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Price
1 Undercity Plague
2 Underworld Connections

Lands
4 Mutavault
21 Swamp

The Demon and Lifebane Zombie are still the deck’s main beaters. Nighthowlers are for late game board setup and you can even Bestow it for added damage. Game enders are in the form of Corrupt and backed up by Liliana of the Dark Realms. There is also a mini combo in the deck with Undercity Plague and Mutavault, once you’ve controlled the opponent’s board.

I will be testing this list or something similar once the full set is out so just stay tuned on my blog Deathmarked for updates.

Thanks for the read and until next post.

Wizards revealed in today’s Magic Arcana the latest Mtg Judge promo foils, the rewards of being a judge in M:tG. Becoming a judge is no ordinary task as you will facilitate in most of the course of the tournaments as well as answer the rules questions of the players. They are also teaching the game to new players, to help grow the Magic community and promote the game.

As for the recent two new judge foils, these are Genesis and Vindicate. Check out the cards below.

Last weekend was another prestigious Magic: the Gathering event. It was the Pro Tour Gatecrash which was held in Montreal, Canada. Players from around the world gathered to test their skills in Standard and Gatecrash Booster draft in three days of competition.

After the battle for Magic supremacy cleared out, it was Tom Martell who emerged champion piloting an aggro deck that’s somewhat unique for the format. He defeated Joel Larsson, nicknamed as the Swedish Kibler, in the finals 3 games to one to take the trophy.

Here is Tom Martell’s winning decklist, an archetype called The Aristocrats:

Maindeck
4 Godless Shrine
4 Blood Crypt
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Isolated Chapel
3 Plains
3 Cavern of Souls
1 Clifftop Retreat
1 Vault of the Archangel

4 Doomed Traveler
4 Champion of the Parish
4 Cartel Aristocrat
2 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Knight of Infamy
2 Silverblade Paladin
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Restoration Angel
2 Zealous Conscripts

2 Lingering Souls
4 Orzhov Charm

Sideboard
2 Lingering Souls
2 Blasphemous Act
2 Rest in Peace
2 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
1 Skirsdag High Priest
3 Tragic Slip
1 Mentor of the Meek

*banner pic from the mothership Wotc.