Time for some Commander tonight.
Noah dug out his Warhammer 40K Necrons deck which he has modified.
He won the draw and led off. He first played a Reliquary Tower, followed by a Mana Crypt. Then tapped both to play Commander Sphere.
And with three cards on the very first turn, he had four mana to play with.
Care to guess how the rest of the game went? Quick and with the proverbial writing on the wall from that moment on.
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!
I was planning to do a post on Magic fatigue in the family but decided instead to do one about Noah’s plans to start a new league (the new set fatigue is real though) after a long chat with him.
With Standard rotation coming up relatively quickly, I told Noah about this former standard format called Amber. He sounded intrigued but was more interested in some kind of format around a single block. “What about decks built around Khans of Tarkir?” I had to remind him that none of us played at the time – although Noah bought a fair amount of packs from Tarkir sets while it was still relatively new.
I proposed instead some kind of league format where everyone playing would start with a certain number of packs and add to it every week with a new one. That set off a discussion about what decks to use. What about Ixalan? Strixhaven? New Capenna? Shadows over Innistrad? So, I further proposed a Chaos element to it where every week, a pack from a new block would be added. That set off further discussions.
“If I have a deck built around Magecraft, I’m gonna pick a block that favours that mechanic,” pointed out Noah.
“So let whoever is in last place that week pick the new pack,” I proposed. “That way, they will pick a pack that is likely to help them but may not be as beneficial to the other players.”
Noah seemed to like the idea. I suggested that he write down the rules and talk to whoever would be part of this league to make sure that everyone was onboard. I reminded him that not all his friends might want to buy a new pack of cards every week to satisfy his ambitions to come up with a new format. He did point out that I would be part of this league – Likely more to pad out the numbers than some more noble sense of inclusion to be fair.
Let’s see how it goes and if Noah does carry through. If nothing else, it is helping us focus more on game play and less on the constant barrage of new sets coming out. For the record, we are sitting out Double Masters despite the set having some great cards simply due to the cost. The Double Masters 2022 – Draft Booster Box hit $499.99 at Face to Face (somewhat cheaper at 401 Games but still a very pricy proposition) while single packs are going for $19.95. Just a bit too rich for our blood. Especially after the let down of Command Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate.
Anyone have experience with some kind of league play? How does it work? Let us know below.
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.
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:
Noah:
Jerome:
Other nice pulls:
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.
Late last week, Noah casually dropped this bomb:
“I’ve played Magic half my life.”
It took me a second but he is right. He got into the game at the age of seven and we are now closing in on eight years playing this game!
Best of all, he’s become quite the player. He finished with a 2-1 record at our latest pre-release. This followed up up on his 3-0 record at the Kamigawa prerelease.
His favourite formats at the moment are Commander and Draft. He pulled a Lord Xander, the Collector, at the pre-release and I’m fully expecting another painful deck from him in the coming weeks!
This also means that Christian has played Magic for more than a third of his life!
It’s Streets of New Capenna prerelease weekend! Saturday morning, before we headed off to our LGS to get our first taste of the new cards, Noah told me that he had left a gift for me in my office.
After breakfast as I was getting ready for our event, I found a small pile of Kamigawa cards on my desk. Noah explained that he did not need them and knew that I was having fun playing with Enchantments on Arena. I have not built a physical deck based on enchantments but will do so now as a way to thank Noah.
So what did Noah’s Kamigawa gift consist of:
No crazy cards but there should be enough between the cards that I already have and these to build an enchantments deck. It won’t be on the level of my Arena deck as I am still missing some key cards but it should still be a fun deck to play with against Noah (and Christian if we can convince him to build a Standard deck). If our LGS brings back Standard events, I might even look to spruce it out a bit more.
This little gift exemplifies Noah. This is not the first time that he performs a small gesture like this one completely out of the blue. He does not need a reason ; it’s just who he is. Makes me a very proud Papa.
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.
I was getting ready to go bed last night when I noticed that Noah’s light was still on in his room as I walked by. The door was closed but the light spilled out from under it. I knocked and asked if everything was okay. Noah answered “One sec!” and opened the door shortly after.
He had Magic cards in hand, a number of cards were on his bed along with a number of dice. He apparently could not sleep and was testing an old deck that he had come across earlier (we had spent a portion of the afternoon sorting some of his older cards).
What to do? The parent in me knew that it was well past his bedtime but the Magic player in me wanted to ask what deck it was and whether he wanted a quick game. I tried to sneak a look at the cards while I mulled this decision over but Noah seemed to know which way it would go and put his deck away.
And I still don’t know what deck it was that he was testing…
Noah snuck into my office yesterday when I was busy elsewhere in the house and built a new Arena deck for me to try. He only used the cards in my current collection to build out a BO1 WG Humans deck. He called it GW Secret.
After 5 matches, the deck stands at 2-3 in Standard Play . One of those was a frustrating mana flood where I think I could have taken the win with a few more creatures instead of lands.
While Noah may not agree, I am already thinking of a few modifications. First up, I may take the lands down to 23 and see if I can throw in another Dawnhart Wardens or an Avabruck Caretaker instead. Some Brutal Cathars may also go in.
Family Magic 
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