Christian

Feeling old – Kids off to play Commander alone

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

One of those milestone moments in life took place Monday night when the boys headed off to play Commander at our local game store. Nothing unusual in attending a game store event at first glance. But from the times that Christian and I played our very first two-headed giant pre-release game for Oath of the Gatewatch, I had always been at the store when the boys played. Until last night.

It played out much as it should. Christian connected with a friend over Discord at some point earlier in the day. This led to them deciding to go play Commander with Noah in tow. They shared their plans with me and asked if I could go with them. Sadly, there was some work stuff that I could not put off (Being responsible is not fun, I can assure you if you had any doubt) but I told them to go ahead and register for the event. I was still hoping to be able to join them but that was not to be.

As much as I was disappointed to miss out on a gaming outing with them, I was proud for them to head off on their own with their friend in tow. I always knew this moment would come. And it is as bittersweet as they come. Soon, I could be that old guy that goes to the LGS alone and hopes to find a pod to join! Maybe we’ll get to a point where I’ll bump into them at the store!

To top it all off, Noah ended up winning a Streets of New Capenna prize pack with Unlicensed Hearse in it! Pretty cool!

Just another exciting milestone! Not sure I live in a precarious place but like the griffins, my not-so-fledglings-anymore found themselves taking “their first flights at surprising moments,” namely a summer Monday night when bedtime curfews did not apply quite as much as during school time!

Father’s Day & Magic – Salamanders & Commander

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

I’m a bit late on reporting how Father’s Day went down but better late than never, I’ve been told. I’ll gloss over the fabulous brunch (fresh quiche & an assortment of croissants and pains au chocolat) and will focus instead on the gifts from the boys.

Noah reached deep into his Magic collection and put forward a challenge. He gave me a Gor Muldrak, Amphinologist. Not familiar with this field of zoology, I turned to Google to discover that Amphins are a race of salamander-like creatures that live on Shandalar, one of the many plains that exist in Magic. I do wonder though whether Gor Muldrak, let’s call him Gor for short, is a herpetologist. Perhaps he even knows Bennie Bracks the Zoologist or Lonis the Cryptozoologist. Okay, enough with the tangent.

So why did Noah give me Gor? He challenged me to build a new Commander deck with him as my commander. My first thought was that Noah wanted me to build a salamander tribal deck but with only 13 cards that mention these amphibians (aside from Gor), it was quickly clear that this was not even remotely possible.

I’m not sure what direction this deck will take but I suspect it may be a group hug kind of deck. Definitely not something that I normally play. Maybe coupled with lots of removal to ensure that all my new friends don’t have anything but salamanders on their boards.

Noah also gave me a few cards that he thought I would find useful, including a Shatterskull Charger for my Giants deck and a Legion Angel.

For his part, Christian got me a few cards from my wish list. Among those is a Goblin Matron, a Munitions Expert (for a future Goblins deck) as well as Clever Lumimancer and a Luminarch Aspirant. The former will likely end up in a Magecraft kind of deck while Luminarch is likely to make its way into my Atraxa deck. A Legion’s Initiative is headed into a future Commander deck that I will reveal when it’s done (I don’t want to say more in case one of the boys reads this entry).

We also managed to squeeze in a game of Commander in the afternoon. As always, it was good fun but, Father’s Day or not, both played with winning in mind (as it should be).

All in all, a perfect way to spend Father’s Day.

Streets of New Capenna Set Booster box opening

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

With Streets of New Capenna going on sale last Friday, it was time for another round of our traditional ‘Crack a box of the new set’ event. As with recent ones, we once again went with a Set Booster box. While there are fewer packs and cards, it’s all about the higher chance of pulling those Rare and Mythic cards.

We always go in turns, picking up packs one at a time. Then we crack them together one at a time. The rule is that you must show your rares and mythics. After three packs, Christian was sitting with two mythics, including an Ob Nixilis foil, while I had one. Noah had none. Fortunately, he persevered after taking a bit of time and ended up relatively satisfied with his pulls.

Here are some of the highlights:

Christian:

  • Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva
  • Ob Nixilis, the Adversary – Art Deco foil
  • Perrie, the Pulverizer

Noah:

  • Outlaws Merriment
  • Vampiric Tutor
  • Halo Fountain

Jerome:

  • All-Seeing Arbiter
  • Falco Spara, Pactweaver
  • Rafiq of the Many
  • Ziatora, the Incinerator

Other nice pulls:

  • Raffine’s Tower
  • Spara’s Headquarters (regular and borderless)
  • Void Rend, regular and alternate by Noah and Christian
  • Giada, Font of Hope, regular and Art Deco by Noah and Christian – I traded for Noah’s for my Kaalia Commander deck
  • Brokers Ascendancy – Traded with Christian and now headed to my Atraxa deck

As per the tradition, whoever pulls the fewest mythics gets the BAB promo. With two with this set, Christian ended up with the Gala Greeters while Noah took Jaxis, the Troublemaker.

In the end, not our best box but not the worst either. As we often see, one person always seems to do better. Fortunately, we’ve opened enough boxes to realize that everyone gets a turn in that position over a long enough period of time.

Angrath: Does Latin reveal where he will pop up next?

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

On our way to pick up our Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty Set Booster box today, we got on the topic of Planeswalkers that would make an appearance on New Capenna, the plane that we will visit with the next set. At this point, the expectation is that Elspeth Tirel and Ob Nixilis will both make an appearance.

Noah made a bold prediction. He expects that Angrath, the Minotaur Planeswalker marooned on Ixalan for so long, is going to make an appearance on New Capenna. He explained that this was a logical conclusion given that Angrath was a pirate while on Ixalan and that New Capenna will feature five crime families. “Pirates are like gangsters but on water,” he added.

While we know that each of the five crime families will be represented by three colours, we know little else about them at this point. Could one of the blue mana families be gangsters of the deep? It certainly cannot be ruled out at this point.

Christian supported this theory (tongue firmly in cheek), stating that “Gangster is Latin for Land Pirate.” Personally, I think that Noah is angling for a new Angrath Planeswalker card.