Good news for anyone buying these in the chance they might get a commander precon: WotC sell these things called "commander precons", and they've got a 100% pull rate for having a commander precon in them. Value!
nah that's just a scam. $40 for a box with 30% basic lands, PASS 😄 jk, precons are awesome value, if you're really interested in the commander. Heck even some of the many $0.25 upgrades add a lot to the deck, and if you get into a few dollar upgrades the power level is already respectable. That's coming from someone who's first and only precons so far were quantum quandrix and lorehold legacies. I was so excited for them!! I called game shops everywhere to find them, heck I think I mightve even paid 49.99 at WALMART for them, because they were in such high demand, and to get them cheaper wouldve cost me too much in gas or shipping to get both elsewhere. That being said, I turned my quantum quandrix precon into a dual commander of adrix, twincaster or esix, fractal bloom, and I bought some cheap enough cards to upgrade them and swap between versions. To me the lorehold precon commander is really weak (although even after months later just archaeomancers map is still like $20ish dollars, and just adding in thousand-year elixir, cursed mirror, laeila blade reforged, and hellkite tyrant still equal the cost of my paying $10 extra for the precon. And all the rest of the cards to buy htose together still equals another $30-$40. For someone like me just starting to build a commander collection, it's awesome!!!! And that deck I turned into a hofri-ghostforge deck with some $3 upgrade, and I think it's pretty cool!!!!
My coworker had that stance and it really stuck with me. Nobody we knows knows we watched IT. We spent several moments talking about work in an empty theatre while stuff got mauled.
It's also worth pointing out that use of the term "cube" on that product is absolutely predatory for people that may have heard of a MTG Cube but not fully know what one is. It's ridiculous.
Exactly this. My friend heard about the cube concept and loved it. He didn't understand 100% what it was though so when he saw one of these packs at Walmart and purchased it, he was incredibly excited. He called me to tell me all about it but I was extremely skeptical. When I saw what it was, I explained that he had been pretty much scammed by WotC. His disappointment was immeasurable and his day was ruined.
@@ferdithetank7535 Not only that, a "powered cube" is a real MTG term (a vintage cube containing the infamous Power 9), so it sounds even more like a trick.
Sadly the target market for these products have always been 'kids begging their parents to get them one at Target' and I doubt any amount of debunking will prevent those purchases.
I think the target market is for people who have gambling addictions, because as the Professor mentioned at the beginning of the video, there are frequently posts talking about how "oh I think these are worth it again, I got a commander deck in one!"
@@starnik True but most adult cardboard gamblers would recognize the official form of gambling (booster packs) is the best bet. These products are more geared to roping in those who have little understanding of the gamble they are taking.
Prof: "I recognize that Shudder is a great product, but given it's FUCKING SCARY, I've elected to only endorse it." And that's okay! As long as it's vetted to not be a scam there's no reason one needs to partake of everything they advertise.
Some years ago I didn't know better and bought a booster box of Dragon's Maze when other such boxes were about $100. Absolutely terrible purchase. Most expensive card pulled was $5.
I am ashamed to say I purchased one of those cube things from walmart recently. Just a whim. Gave it a shot just to see. 2 packs, a foil promo, and a "deck"... Which turned out to be - yup, you guessed it... ALL LANDS. I was furious. The face card was whatever - but everything beyond that in the pack was lands. Not all basic, but most were. To say I was angry at myself for wasting (29.99 CAD) is an understatement. Salty doesn't come close to it. I did attempt to return them (I didn't open the packs themselves) but of course no more returning TCG to any retailer these days. I tried to explain that the contents were no accurate, but the service drone just stood, pointing at small faded text, made more difficult to read due to yellow highlighter, saying they couldn't help me. Lesson learned. I ended up opening the packs after of course... pulled an Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice (mythic bulk yay!) Feels bad man.
I did the same thing. The cubes are not a good price for what you get at all. I always follow the rule that if there's a three pack product, and it costs more than three packs of cards, it's not worth it. The bonuses aren't typically worth much.
I know I'm a year late but I just have to say: Your frustration is understandable, that said don't call folks working in retail "drones". They're just doing their jobs and have no real say in the matter even if they agree you should be able to return it.
I have friends who continue to buy those boxes since they lucked out once or twice and got a good commander deck. They seem to forget all the ones they've gotten that hasn't been worth it.
Yeah I buy them simply cause I like to open them for what they are if I actually pull something amazing from them then awesome but I always expect get junk out of them of course a 50cent card to someone else is just 50cents but if it's something works in my rand jenk brews then it's priceless to me that being said 100 percent think that people should just buy the singles or the sealed licensed products if they want to get what they pay for if you enjoy gambling stick with these
The worst thing I have run into recently is that one of the LGS here decided to sell boxes of boosters as just 36 booster packs without a buy a box discount. $173 for draft booster box.
My LGS has been doing similar stuff with a nearly 100% markup on everything in the store. I guess that covid hit LGS's hard despite magic being bigger than ever. I want to support my LGS but paying literally double for anything I want to buy seems rediculous.
Is this for draft boosters? Even at full (what used to be) MSRP, $173 is over priced. MSRP was $140 for a draft box and the cost to the store hasn't gone up but a $1-$3 per box depending on the supplier. Weird.
@@TRZ99 Completely agree. Used to be you could get a discount going into an LGS and doing preorders or just ordering stuff, but the one here is fairly new ish, and they don't do that. And sadly it's the only one that's less than an hour drive away. The others that were around went under due to either bad business practices or tax evasion, and then this opened up and while by all accounts the people that run it are fellow hobbyists, I'm not going to support a place that is charging more than I would pay anywhere else. I'm glad places like card kingdom and tcgplayer exist, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to participate in a hobby I enjoy.
Professor: I don't like to get spooked. *Proceeds to review Magic "mystery boxes" and an endless onslaught of Secret Lair Drops* Ah, the paradoxes of life.
The reason people still buy these is because, once upon a time, you could get commander pre-cons in them. 7+ years ago, you could find Kaalia and other older commander decks in them, but it's been a long time since they've included those.
The Commander Deck ones are clearly marked and usually are snapped up the moment it's obvious they're back in play. Anything less than that isn't worth the time.
I've bought a couple of the commander repacks (but they were clearly marked as a commander deck, and you didn't get the oversized card), but I haven't seen those in ages. Only other repacks that are worth buying were the Dollarama 100-card Beejlander packs - and they don't seem to have them anymore either!
@@foxi1694 I just checked and it’s not oversized, it’s just overly thick lol. Sorry, I assumed that’s what he was taking about. Just got back into mtg after 12 or so years away and am easily confused.
Cool. But it is interesting as a new player to MTG that you guys have older commander decks at a discount. This is great for new players because we do not necessarily need to play the newest cards. We can have fun with whatever. I like that piece of advice from the professor.
The dollarama 100 repacks are back. My wife cleared the shelves as soon as she noticed them. I don’t really get lucky with the pulls from them but as a magic “netter” I love em.
Nostalgic as I am for those first games with it, I will fully admit that the magic origins intro pack I bought (the Pia and Kiran Nalaar one, if you're curious) as a first way to humor a friend that wanted to teach me magic (and look at me now, Dan XD) was probably the worst value I have ever gotten from a magic product. But, hey, at least it wasn't this garbage. I almost bought one of those cubes once right after I started because they made sure to display a promo Angelic Skirmisher on it and I to this day love angels. Mike, if you're reading this, thank you once again for talking me out of that.
I've only gotten a rare pack from these once. It was a Japanese Strixhaven set booster that I could see due to it being badly packaged. They recently put the English set boosters in there to trick people
Back when I first got into MTG when Tarkir came out, my store used to sell some of these that were one pack each of the Theros block sets with a bonus card, then moved on to one of each of the Tarkir block when Origins came out. That felt a lot more worth it back in the day (hell, they were actually cost as much as three boosters too, not more than. Even got Athreos from one!)
I actually just bought one of those a few weeks ago. The foils in the cube were Vito and Scute Swarm. But in it was a Japanese Strixhaven pack. I ended up pulling the alternate art Demonic Tutor from the pack. I was so elated. But I know that it was almost a one in a million chance.
Firstly as another anti-scary player, respect for accepting the sponsor and being honest about it not being for you. Secondly, if you want to waste money on a lack of value, a lot of online card retailers will sell bulk common/uncommon and some junk rares for the same price as that "Mystery Box" - for someone like me who enjoys making gold (or at least shiny pyrite) out of garbage when deck building, and likes having cards to browse to get inspiration, it's worth it. And also since it's bulk, it's not even that bad of a buy for $20.
MJ Holding, LLC. makes the power cubes. It's good to keep up with the names of the companies who dump their warehouses like this. Just flip the package and don't even read what's "in" it.
Same great MJ stock lady at my Walmart.....takes her 2 hours and dies it once a Friday every other week......reminds me I need to go get in the Line they make everyone wait in while she restocks.......to bad there's already 20 ppl in line half being spirtscard scalpers who rush in and grab everything off the shelf........last few times they were working together wich was nice.......4 of them split all the Sports Card box's up between them in first 5 secs......all happy and smiling while the real people wanting product behind them are screwed .....I don't know why they don't put a limit on the box's, one guy shouldn't be able to buy 500$-1,500 of product at one time.......and Walmart do some different things like where u keep them and limits on just even the Sports Cards.........my Walmart has tons of the magic product sitting unsold, all the good MTG products put out are gone in first few hours...........wish me luck guy's as I go into the Fray of Battle , wish nothing but a glinter of Hope that I come home Successful.
I once bought a pack of these "mystery" packs from Target because I could see that it had two Kaladesh boosters in it. Technically I saved a couple of bucks by buying them that way as opposed to buying them from a game store. But, all I got was some draft chaff from three out of standard boosters that I otherwise wouldn't have bought. So, it was indeed a bad purchase, I should have saved my money and bought singles instead. Thanks for making these videos, Professor; I hope that one day products like these will no longer be on the shelves, but in the mean time, I am glad that you do your due diligence to inform new players about the pitfalls of these rip-offs.
When they sold the Commander decks from older sets for good prices,and one of the older cubes I got, had a full starter deck with a collected company in it. Me and my friends have only really bought those, and the plastic cubes are really nice for storing commander decks in!
I won't talk about my worst buy, but will talk about my best ever buy. Bought a full deck of Commons (and cheap uncommons) from the bargain bin box at my LGS. Made my first Zubera deck. Won a local tournament with it. Beat a fully built Kiki-Jiki deck with my deck worth exactly 4$. (40 cards from that bin at 10 cents each, and I was gifted the lands :) )
Well that's why some people might think the products in the video are worth it... Because people don't talk about their bad buys, but about their great ones ;) Sounds sweet anyway :D
As a new player, it's really overwhelming and intimidating stepping into the game. Especially with all these different booster packs and bundles... I had literally no idea how to get started. I'm really glad i found your channel and have great friends!
"What a great introduction to magic the gathering products, getting ripped off from the start" How I felt a couple months after buying planeswalker decks when I first started magic
Honestly most precons other than the Commander precons are a rip off IMO, Unless it’s like an event deck or something (I don’t even know if they still do those anymore). Most standard precons cost $10-$15 and the cards that come in them are worth pennies.
@@HomeCookinMTG i remember starting with a red black precon from the return to ravnica era, god that deck was so bad.... i only play comander these days but looking back at my old collection and seeing that mostly disassembled pile reminded me how i thought it was decent when all my local school budies were equally bad at the game
@@daagonthebefeler7960 Nothing like going to your local FNM, and finding out your unbeatable deck that none of your friends can beat is actually trash lol
@@HomeCookinMTG ik the feeling my golgari deck has gotten better over time, was pretty bad to begin with needed to learn about a few cards to make it better mainly sol ring... (wasnt aware that was a card bc i only played modern back when theros was recent :/ and hadnt seen one) started replaying like a month ago, beledros saved the deck if im being honest
I purchased one of the clear box things once and like you, received a 40 pack of basic lands. But the kicker. the REAL kicker, was that one of the booster packs was, I kid you not, a special 6-card booster pack. So I got 2 trash packs and 1 ULTRA trash pack. Always good to continue warning people about these kinds of products!
I am so glad my family asks me what items they could buy me for my trading card games. They get suckered by the "chance" for vintage cards jank. I am happy to tell them to as well avoid products displaying "mystery" "repack" "chance at ..." Makes me 'shudder' 🤣 I show them a singles list and give them the addresses of my favorite LGS's. Then there's always online shopping. I have become a firm believer in knowing what you're buying and why you're buying it. Many thanks and praise to you Professor Magic with your consistent and valuable advice. 🔔 'Till next time.
I know you said you wanted to hear about the worst, but I have a local store that used to sell a pack of 30 random cards, mostly commons and uncommons for like $6. I liked it because I ended up getting lots of cards from sets I didn't buy a lot off. It was a fun way to do random drafts with too
When I first started magic, my local retail store (a Kmart, of all things) had the triple packs, but this was back when they occasionally had old packs, and were priced lower than the price of 3 packs at the same store. Now I see them, and they are just standard chaff, and I actually miss the old versions.
As someone who gets stuff like this from family as gifts occasionally I felt this one in my soul. I’ve started asking for just packs of jumpstart if they can find them but guess what they can’t haha. Jumpstart not being in stores is so disappointing. I’ve gotten many an old booster pack in my life. Luckily cracking packs is fun.
I bought a power cube from Wal-Mart before I found the professor. It had a War of the Spark booster and a Nyx Lotus promo so I was vibing. Cringing now thinking about all the sweet singles I could have purchased at my LGS...
Prof, last year I personally pulled 6 commander 2018 decks and 1 commander 2019 deck out of the older mystery cubes. There was a weight difference noticed in the cubes when comparing them on the shelf at my local Walmart here in Canada. I only purchased the heavier ones and was able to get the following. 2 x Exquisite Invention Decks 2 x Adaptive Enchantment decks 1 x Subjective Reality deck 1 x Merciless Rage deck I have not purchased any additional cubes as they definitely are being used to sell off excess product from deck builders toolkits, bundles, planeswalker decks, Welcome decks and other junk as if it is a premium product. Definitely gambling at its finest and the house is always winning.
2016 was my last time I bought a cube in Walmart. Yes it was a Commander. Now a days, I've been lucky buying Jumpstart for $20. I got so many Craterhoof Behemoth cards that goes to my Cheerios decks. Unfortunately I don't play Modern or Standard, I got many Allosaurous Shepherd too. I trade it for Collector boxes and pay the difference if may be.
I commented about this on another video, but telling it here too. So, my local Walmart sells the acrylic box packages for $36. For the last month it has had a price tag, hand written, at $11.48. I have mentioned this to associates a few times, and they just refuse to fix it. So, wifey goes there today and I asked her to try and buy one at that price. It rang up at the $36 price, so she tells them what the tag says. The woman, angrily, sells her the package at $11.48. At less than $12 for 3 packs, that wasn't a bad price. She snagged one with a modern horizons pack in it lol. Ended up with a $35 banger pull from 2 cards lmao! I know, not great still. However, again, at less than $12, it isn't a bad purchase if I can move the package around to find a MH pack in one. If the price isn't fixed tomorrow, I'll be snagging another at $12 🤣.
To me, movie-related topics don't seem to "fit" with the channel's personality so good job incorporating Shudder in the video by saying that it's not for you haha
Recently returned. Bought out all the packs of jumpstart 22. Trying to get a rhystic study. Following your advice from now on. Only buying singles. Love the videos.
I am right there with you Prof. I say no to scary stuff. Nothing is worth the years it will torment my mind, in and out of reality. But yea about a month ago one of my friends called me up asking if they should get a power cube. I was like "let me look it up and do some quick research" Glad I did, I found your last video on them along with a few other peoples and was like 'STOP, don't get it' Lol
I’ll be honest, I used to buy stuff like this (and got a million black lotuses in none of them!). I stopped and then I started watching your channel. Thank you professor for helping keep others safe.
Hey! New here. The thing is. Many who start new don't know what to and not to buy. I'm coming from MTG Arena. When got invited to irl MTG started wandering what to build and how to do it. Then got recommended your channel and now can purchase products that are worth it. My point is consumer unawareness to misleading products within community. Got to optimise the grind)
Here’s the thing… they must be official in some capacity. The packaging is pretty swish, and it’s covered in wotc trademarks. You can’t just print that packaging…
I bought one of those magic mystery cubes from walmart, though, funny enough I got it only for the ACTUAL cube so I could try my hand at cube building and have a nice cube shape storage thing 😆 Since then I've learned of much better products & cube shaped storage containers 🤣
I will never forget the time I opened the ONE Mystery Power Cube I have ever opened. Just like The Professor's luck, my bonus pack was filled with all basic lands! The reason I bought the Cube that I did was because I could see, just out of the corner through the packaging, a single booster pack of Japanese Strixhaven. The rare that I pulled, a foil alternate art Japanese Teferi's Protection. It's still retailing for around $74. I never get that lucky!
The power cubes you have to shake up and see how thick the stack of cards are inside. I pulled a windswept heath out of one and a polluted delta out of another once.
I was just getting started into magic 3 years ago, and I bought one of these power cubes and I kid you not, I opened the exact same pack you just opened.
So, Prof, I'm just curious: what's changed your opinion on the three-booster-plus-promo product? 2 years ago, you gave this product (which you dubbed a "happy happy go fun fun") a "B" and said it might be worth the gamble because sometimes they contained older packs. Not saying that your new opinion is wrong; I'm just curious what's changed your thinking in the interim.
As far as I can see it's the fact that the packs aren't nice packs anymore. You don't get 10-20$ random packs for 12$, you constantly get 10-12$ of older half of standard for 12$, with extra packaging and no choice of packs.
Probably the variety of the packs. The HHGFF had packs as far back as Apocalypse or even just Hour of Devastation (which was 2 years out of print and worth a bit of a premium). These seem to be easily-available packs from the last year.
@@Shamax0 My local Rite Aid has these for $10 and I can honestly guarantee that they do not all have the same 3 packs in them. Got a Jumpstart booster in one a couple of weeks ago with some really nice cards including Baneslayer Angel and Speaker of the Heavens.
@@moonelfcosmo Yeah I got back into the game last year after a 20 yr break and bought a bunch of these. They *tend* to have 3 recent-ish packs in them, but you can eyeball the colors of the packs on the side and kinda pick out the ones that are different. The mix still includes some older packs once in a while as far as I can tell, but I haven't bought any in several months or more.
I got one of those dumb cubes back when I was newer at Magic because my friend said they could have commander decks in them. There were no commander decks in them; instead they were two “60”-card decks. I say “60” because the company that resells these products stole the rare cards of the decks. Thankfully, I’ve stayed away from them since then but one of the precons had an Eldrazi land (that was worth $11~) and It That Betrays (that was worth $14~) at the time.
Great ad. Awesome advice on these products. We bought some of these years ago when they first hit shelves and immediately realized the rip off they are.
Sadly i have only bought 2 decks one 60 card deck and a Commander deck most my cards came from my brother but i am going to be starting to get my own so watching your videos help to know what to get and what not to get thank you Professor
Based on box store prices , the power cubes are relatively a decent deal with an added layer of “gamble”. The 3 packs are a minimum value of 4.28$ a piece with a chance at a 7-15 dollar pack included (Japanese strixhaven or UMA). You also get the plastic case ~2$, the 2 promos ~2+$ and the land pack or welcome decks are a slap in nüts. But it includes about 20$ of retail value, just some food for thought prof.
If they contain retail value then you just buy the components individually, ad get whatever pack that you want without all the exceess garbage you don't. This is a terrible deal.
I have purchased five of these power cubes in the last year. The most recent one had all the lands in it, basically identical to the one Prof opened in this episode. It is the only regret I have though. I pulled all commander pre-cons in the other ones. Two were the Forged in Stone 2014 deck, one was the Mind Seize 2013 deck, and the last was the Eternal Bargain 2013 deck. The older four were a different style power cube, but still only $20/each. They were not the $30 commander cubes. It is definitely a gamble though.
When I was younger and new to Magic the Gathering I bought one of those cubes and I ended up pulling one of those products that they give to new players at card shops not that I knew that at the time and some land the shop that I bought them from thankfully went out of business but considering they were the local Magic the Gathering retailer and that's what they were selling I can see it happening very easily
It wasn't intentionally bad value, so to speak, but I got a box of Commander Legends to draft with a bunch of friends. I got the box from my LGS, a high profile and trusted one in the area, so I know they didn't tamper with the box, but my most expensive card we pulled from those packs were 2 arcane signets and a Three Visits. 4 bulk mythics and the rest were bulk rares. I was blown away. It's worth noting that I did pull a hullbreacher, but this was a week after the ban.
I bought a couple mystery cubes when I started because it was a way to get some packs of older sets I couldn't find, and I didn't have a debit card to buy singles online, or even know about local game stores nearby. I have since changed to buying from only my 2 LGS's.
I remember buying these bundles when I was trying to get back into magic and Innistrad had just cycled out. I got them to obtain what I could from previous sets. At the time, I was not aware of online card stores like card kingdom, TCG player, etc.
I bought a power cube hoping to get old boosters and a freebie deck, like the last time I bought one, and the pack of "mystery goodness" turned out to be all tokens! From Amonkhet! One of the boosters was a Japanese Strixhaven Set booster, also a Core 20 and an Eldritch Moon
Back in high school, I bought three Shards of Alara packs and from those packs I pulled four Archdemon of Unx; three normals, one foil. While I can now see the card as situationally useful, it did (still does, in fact) need to be built around in order for it gain that distinction. The problem? NOBODY at my LGS played a deck that could slot the damn thing into it. That remains the worst I've ever felt buying a Magic product, and I am still convinced that I would have been better off spending that cash at McDonalds.
Went to a game store selling mystery packs for 15 bucks with a 3-4 dollar face card. Obvious enough that it wasn't going to be some huge find, but I wanted to build my bulk and I liked the store. Inside, nothing but nonfoil plains. I've never gone back.
They had mystery boosters at walmart for 15 dollars. 3 boosters per box. Each one I bought had the same exact 3 packs in it. War of the spark, theros beyond death, and masters 25. Needless to say I was very pleased. I guess it depends what you are doing with it. I keep a lot of sealed stuff, wait enough time and it increases in value.
Heres something to note about the power cubes: Most of the time, you can see inside of the packaging just enough to identify what packs are in there, and on occasion, there will be legitimately good packs. I myself have bought like 10 of these things, because i can spot good packs in them, as long as you can inspect it enough to guarantee you see something good, its not actually a bad purchase. Best pack i've personally gotten was Iconic masters, other interesting packs include french eldritch moon, and a shockingly large quantity of japanese strixhaven. Never seen more than one good pack per "cube" though. And the promos have all been bad except i got lucky on a few of them and got 3 scute swarms across all the ones ive opened, which as of writing this is about 5 or so dollars. I haven't seen ay of these show up in recent times, but if you do see these cube things, try looking thru the edges to see if you can color code any packs, it might be worth it.
now ive never seen the 4 theme booster repack, and even if i did that sounds so lame, its theme boosters. the stonecoil serpent one i have bought one of, simply just because i wanted a sealed ikoria pack and it was discounted at the store, same packs as spotted in this video of course. Those are never worth getting unless you want those three packs at a slight premium and refuse to purchase the elsewhere, AKA you really should never get those.
Almost 7 or 8 years ago I got the izzet half of an Izzet v Golgari Duel Deck, which was pretty good, but there were some differences in the way repacks were sold then. For one you could actually see what the repack was; if you were getting 3 boosters you could see the fronts of the boosters, and you could see expansion symbols on the precons too. Even then there was a lot of chaff. My wife got a clear card box of repacked cards for me that was just RtR rakdos cards that were all bulk ( there were two of these put together so there wasn't even any variety).
You're doing great consumer oversight, sir. Even I accept that every Zendikar Land pack, and Aminatou commander deck I get lucky enough to pull, it's a fluke at best. Good on ya. Keep up the good work.👍✌
There was only one version of the power cube that was worth it. There was a power cube for 30 dollars that included a commander deck. Every one that I was able to find were worth more than I paid for them.
Look! Professor! They're selling pre-made draft Cubes! At my Friendly Local Walmart(tm)! I heard it's 100% not a scam and totally won't give you a draft experience that's just 10 basic land packs from sets past!
Try Shudder at www.shudder.com and use promo code tolariancommunity to get 30 days for free.
Great ad, very funny! :)
*says he isn't going to buy what he advertised
*Makes the add one of the most successful i have ever seen
Thank you for supporting trans rights and the trans community, professor. You're an amazing magic professor and an even better person :)
Best sponsor spot I've seen on TH-cam.
Love Shudder!
Good news for anyone buying these in the chance they might get a commander precon: WotC sell these things called "commander precons", and they've got a 100% pull rate for having a commander precon in them. Value!
:O
This is basically an inverse "it could even be a boat"
@@neomegaryumk2971 100% of boats are in fact boats!
This is some 5d checkers level kind of move
nah that's just a scam. $40 for a box with 30% basic lands, PASS
😄 jk, precons are awesome value, if you're really interested in the commander. Heck even some of the many $0.25 upgrades add a lot to the deck, and if you get into a few dollar upgrades the power level is already respectable.
That's coming from someone who's first and only precons so far were quantum quandrix and lorehold legacies. I was so excited for them!! I called game shops everywhere to find them, heck I think I mightve even paid 49.99 at WALMART for them, because they were in such high demand, and to get them cheaper wouldve cost me too much in gas or shipping to get both elsewhere.
That being said, I turned my quantum quandrix precon into a dual commander of adrix, twincaster or esix, fractal bloom, and I bought some cheap enough cards to upgrade them and swap between versions.
To me the lorehold precon commander is really weak (although even after months later just archaeomancers map is still like $20ish dollars, and just adding in thousand-year elixir, cursed mirror, laeila blade reforged, and hellkite tyrant still equal the cost of my paying $10 extra for the precon. And all the rest of the cards to buy htose together still equals another $30-$40. For someone like me just starting to build a commander collection, it's awesome!!!! And that deck I turned into a hofri-ghostforge deck with some $3 upgrade, and I think it's pretty cool!!!!
Big respect to the professor for being honest about how he won’t use the Shudder even though he’s sponsored by them.
Yes
Reverse psychology.
Honestly though, he did a great job making it seem like a really good service. Watching him 'shudder' really sold it to me lol
My coworker had that stance and it really stuck with me. Nobody we knows knows we watched IT. We spent several moments talking about work in an empty theatre while stuff got mauled.
He never getting sponsored from them again 😂🤣😂🤣
It's also worth pointing out that use of the term "cube" on that product is absolutely predatory for people that may have heard of a MTG Cube but not fully know what one is. It's ridiculous.
Exactly this. My friend heard about the cube concept and loved it. He didn't understand 100% what it was though so when he saw one of these packs at Walmart and purchased it, he was incredibly excited. He called me to tell me all about it but I was extremely skeptical. When I saw what it was, I explained that he had been pretty much scammed by WotC. His disappointment was immeasurable and his day was ruined.
And "power" as well. Who wouldn't want to instantly boost their collection?
@@ferdithetank7535 Not only that, a "powered cube" is a real MTG term (a vintage cube containing the infamous Power 9), so it sounds even more like a trick.
Respect Prof for acknowledging his sponsor doesn't fit him, and that he called out these products.
Get sponsor block addon, its pretty dank
Sadly the target market for these products have always been 'kids begging their parents to get them one at Target' and I doubt any amount of debunking will prevent those purchases.
I think the target market is for people who have gambling addictions, because as the Professor mentioned at the beginning of the video, there are frequently posts talking about how "oh I think these are worth it again, I got a commander deck in one!"
@@starnik True but most adult cardboard gamblers would recognize the official form of gambling (booster packs) is the best bet. These products are more geared to roping in those who have little understanding of the gamble they are taking.
@@ajones0916 nah, even booster packs are a waste of money. Not worth the risk, if you want to gamble.
@@nova_steric1749 I mean, I think the whole point of gambling addiction is that it makes you a very bad judge of the risks...
@@drpibisback7680 you have a point
Prof: "I recognize that Shudder is a great product, but given it's FUCKING SCARY, I've elected to only endorse it."
And that's okay! As long as it's vetted to not be a scam there's no reason one needs to partake of everything they advertise.
Some years ago I didn't know better and bought a booster box of Dragon's Maze when other such boxes were about $100. Absolutely terrible purchase. Most expensive card pulled was $5.
That second "power cube" land pack was just straight up pulled from an war of the spark bundle. Unbelievable
the one with chandras regulator is a landpack from a bundle as well.
I suspect most of the stuff is from damaged or unsold bundles or deck builders toolkits.
The Chandra regulator pack with lands is from the m20 bundle. I bought it for the spindown life thingy.
I am ashamed to say I purchased one of those cube things from walmart recently. Just a whim. Gave it a shot just to see. 2 packs, a foil promo, and a "deck"...
Which turned out to be - yup, you guessed it... ALL LANDS. I was furious. The face card was whatever - but everything beyond that in the pack was lands. Not all basic, but most were.
To say I was angry at myself for wasting (29.99 CAD) is an understatement. Salty doesn't come close to it.
I did attempt to return them (I didn't open the packs themselves) but of course no more returning TCG to any retailer these days. I tried to explain that the contents were no accurate, but the service drone just stood, pointing at small faded text, made more difficult to read due to yellow highlighter, saying they couldn't help me.
Lesson learned.
I ended up opening the packs after of course... pulled an Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice (mythic bulk yay!)
Feels bad man.
I remember when a foil Aurelia was $25. Good times
I did the same thing. The cubes are not a good price for what you get at all. I always follow the rule that if there's a three pack product, and it costs more than three packs of cards, it's not worth it. The bonuses aren't typically worth much.
I know I'm a year late but I just have to say:
Your frustration is understandable, that said don't call folks working in retail "drones". They're just doing their jobs and have no real say in the matter even if they agree you should be able to return it.
For me as a European its really easy to not buy things. We dont have target or walmart.
Would you say Mom and Pop shops do well? If so that's amazing!
@@UnderseaPumaKing Depends, but generally, no
I have friends who continue to buy those boxes since they lucked out once or twice and got a good commander deck. They seem to forget all the ones they've gotten that hasn't been worth it.
This is how gambling works. The pleasure ping from a win feels like it wipes clean all the losses.
Yeah I buy them simply cause I like to open them for what they are if I actually pull something amazing from them then awesome but I always expect get junk out of them of course a 50cent card to someone else is just 50cents but if it's something works in my rand jenk brews then it's priceless to me that being said 100 percent think that people should just buy the singles or the sealed licensed products if they want to get what they pay for if you enjoy gambling stick with these
See these are a good deal! /s
If you don’t open the packs in the cube it’s almost worth it but it depends what’s the middle pack
Lol no, even if you want gambling, having the excitement of opening then just buy a booster box or toolkits
The worst thing I have run into recently is that one of the LGS here decided to sell boxes of boosters as just 36 booster packs without a buy a box discount. $173 for draft booster box.
My LGS has been doing similar stuff with a nearly 100% markup on everything in the store. I guess that covid hit LGS's hard despite magic being bigger than ever.
I want to support my LGS but paying literally double for anything I want to buy seems rediculous.
Is this for draft boosters? Even at full (what used to be) MSRP, $173 is over priced. MSRP was $140 for a draft box and the cost to the store hasn't gone up but a $1-$3 per box depending on the supplier. Weird.
This. This is why I won't buy anything at the LGS here because forget that noise, I can buy from TCGPlayer or Card Kingdom for cheaper.
@@elwindil8566 I don't blame you. Support the LGS's that are worth supporting., but not all lg's are.
@@TRZ99 Completely agree. Used to be you could get a discount going into an LGS and doing preorders or just ordering stuff, but the one here is fairly new ish, and they don't do that. And sadly it's the only one that's less than an hour drive away. The others that were around went under due to either bad business practices or tax evasion, and then this opened up and while by all accounts the people that run it are fellow hobbyists, I'm not going to support a place that is charging more than I would pay anywhere else. I'm glad places like card kingdom and tcgplayer exist, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to participate in a hobby I enjoy.
Professor: I don't like to get spooked.
*Proceeds to review Magic "mystery boxes" and an endless onslaught of Secret Lair Drops*
Ah, the paradoxes of life.
The reason people still buy these is because, once upon a time, you could get commander pre-cons in them. 7+ years ago, you could find Kaalia and other older commander decks in them, but it's been a long time since they've included those.
I got my $112 izzet Magnus commander out of one...... and I've gotten my fair share of land packs haha
Yup, used to be able to weigh them at the grocery to tell the difference too, good times.
Now I think people are just joking about getting pre-cons in new ones
Oh yea, can’t forget the folks that brought their own mini scales to differentiate between the weights of these decks
Yeah .. those days are long gone .. not sure why people still think u can pull a precon out of one .. I’ve have not see that in years
The Commander Deck ones are clearly marked and usually are snapped up the moment it's obvious they're back in play. Anything less than that isn't worth the time.
I've bought a couple of the commander repacks (but they were clearly marked as a commander deck, and you didn't get the oversized card), but I haven't seen those in ages. Only other repacks that are worth buying were the Dollarama 100-card Beejlander packs - and they don't seem to have them anymore either!
I got an oversized Osgir with that precon a couple months back. Pretty neat.
@@danbeck1593 didnt the new commanders came without oversized cards? So there is no oversized osgir
@@foxi1694 I just checked and it’s not oversized, it’s just overly thick lol. Sorry, I assumed that’s what he was taking about. Just got back into mtg after 12 or so years away and am easily confused.
Cool. But it is interesting as a new player to MTG that you guys have older commander decks at a discount. This is great for new players because we do not necessarily need to play the newest cards. We can have fun with whatever. I like that piece of advice from the professor.
The dollarama 100 repacks are back. My wife cleared the shelves as soon as she noticed them. I don’t really get lucky with the pulls from them but as a magic “netter” I love em.
Nostalgic as I am for those first games with it, I will fully admit that the magic origins intro pack I bought (the Pia and Kiran Nalaar one, if you're curious) as a first way to humor a friend that wanted to teach me magic (and look at me now, Dan XD) was probably the worst value I have ever gotten from a magic product. But, hey, at least it wasn't this garbage. I almost bought one of those cubes once right after I started because they made sure to display a promo Angelic Skirmisher on it and I to this day love angels. Mike, if you're reading this, thank you once again for talking me out of that.
"My friend got a commander deck in one." -A Target marketing bot
Or a corporate douche from M.J. Holdings.
"But the Power Cube can contain anything! Even a Commander deck!"
The power cube can contain anything! Even a power cube!
I've only gotten a rare pack from these once. It was a Japanese Strixhaven set booster that I could see due to it being badly packaged. They recently put the English set boosters in there to trick people
the "mystery packet" seems to just be the land packs from Bundles, hence why one had the alternate art Chandra's Regulator.
Back when I first got into MTG when Tarkir came out, my store used to sell some of these that were one pack each of the Theros block sets with a bonus card, then moved on to one of each of the Tarkir block when Origins came out. That felt a lot more worth it back in the day (hell, they were actually cost as much as three boosters too, not more than. Even got Athreos from one!)
I actually just bought one of those a few weeks ago. The foils in the cube were Vito and Scute Swarm. But in it was a Japanese Strixhaven pack. I ended up pulling the alternate art Demonic Tutor from the pack. I was so elated. But I know that it was almost a one in a million chance.
Firstly as another anti-scary player, respect for accepting the sponsor and being honest about it not being for you.
Secondly, if you want to waste money on a lack of value, a lot of online card retailers will sell bulk common/uncommon and some junk rares for the same price as that "Mystery Box" - for someone like me who enjoys making gold (or at least shiny pyrite) out of garbage when deck building, and likes having cards to browse to get inspiration, it's worth it. And also since it's bulk, it's not even that bad of a buy for $20.
MJ Holding, LLC. makes the power cubes. It's good to keep up with the names of the companies who dump their warehouses like this. Just flip the package and don't even read what's "in" it.
Same great MJ stock lady at my Walmart.....takes her 2 hours and dies it once a Friday every other week......reminds me I need to go get in the Line they make everyone wait in while she restocks.......to bad there's already 20 ppl in line half being spirtscard scalpers who rush in and grab everything off the shelf........last few times they were working together wich was nice.......4 of them split all the Sports Card box's up between them in first 5 secs......all happy and smiling while the real people wanting product behind them are screwed .....I don't know why they don't put a limit on the box's, one guy shouldn't be able to buy 500$-1,500 of product at one time.......and Walmart do some different things like where u keep them and limits on just even the Sports Cards.........my Walmart has tons of the magic product sitting unsold, all the good MTG products put out are gone in first few hours...........wish me luck guy's as I go into the Fray of Battle , wish nothing but a glinter of Hope that I come home Successful.
I once bought a pack of these "mystery" packs from Target because I could see that it had two Kaladesh boosters in it. Technically I saved a couple of bucks by buying them that way as opposed to buying them from a game store. But, all I got was some draft chaff from three out of standard boosters that I otherwise wouldn't have bought. So, it was indeed a bad purchase, I should have saved my money and bought singles instead. Thanks for making these videos, Professor; I hope that one day products like these will no longer be on the shelves, but in the mean time, I am glad that you do your due diligence to inform new players about the pitfalls of these rip-offs.
When they sold the Commander decks from older sets for good prices,and one of the older cubes I got, had a full starter deck with a collected company in it. Me and my friends have only really bought those, and the plastic cubes are really nice for storing commander decks in!
I won't talk about my worst buy, but will talk about my best ever buy.
Bought a full deck of Commons (and cheap uncommons) from the bargain bin box at my LGS. Made my first Zubera deck. Won a local tournament with it.
Beat a fully built Kiki-Jiki deck with my deck worth exactly 4$. (40 cards from that bin at 10 cents each, and I was gifted the lands :) )
Well that's why some people might think the products in the video are worth it... Because people don't talk about their bad buys, but about their great ones ;)
Sounds sweet anyway :D
Hey prof, the mystery pack is actually the promo and foil lands for the core set 2020 bundle.
As a new player, it's really overwhelming and intimidating stepping into the game. Especially with all these different booster packs and bundles... I had literally no idea how to get started. I'm really glad i found your channel and have great friends!
Yes!
This is why I come to your channel.
These videos are my favorite.
The Shudder sponsorship was my favourite advertisement in a youtube video in a long time. The Prof looked terrified just talking about it!
"What a great introduction to magic the gathering products, getting ripped off from the start"
How I felt a couple months after buying planeswalker decks when I first started magic
Honestly most precons other than the Commander precons are a rip off IMO, Unless it’s like an event deck or something (I don’t even know if they still do those anymore). Most standard precons cost $10-$15 and the cards that come in them are worth pennies.
@@HomeCookinMTG i remember starting with a red black precon from the return to ravnica era, god that deck was so bad.... i only play comander these days but looking back at my old collection and seeing that mostly disassembled pile reminded me how i thought it was decent when all my local school budies were equally bad at the game
@@daagonthebefeler7960 Nothing like going to your local FNM, and finding out your unbeatable deck that none of your friends can beat is actually trash lol
@@HomeCookinMTG ik the feeling my golgari deck has gotten better over time, was pretty bad to begin with needed to learn about a few cards to make it better mainly sol ring... (wasnt aware that was a card bc i only played modern back when theros was recent :/ and hadnt seen one) started replaying like a month ago, beledros saved the deck if im being honest
I purchased one of the clear box things once and like you, received a 40 pack of basic lands. But the kicker. the REAL kicker, was that one of the booster packs was, I kid you not, a special 6-card booster pack. So I got 2 trash packs and 1 ULTRA trash pack. Always good to continue warning people about these kinds of products!
Professor always looking out for us !!!
I am so glad my family asks me what items they could buy me for my trading card games. They get suckered by the "chance" for vintage cards jank. I am happy to tell them to as well avoid products displaying "mystery" "repack" "chance at ..." Makes me 'shudder' 🤣 I show them a singles list and give them the addresses of my favorite LGS's. Then there's always online shopping. I have become a firm believer in knowing what you're buying and why you're buying it. Many thanks and praise to you Professor Magic with your consistent and valuable advice. 🔔 'Till next time.
I know you said you wanted to hear about the worst, but I have a local store that used to sell a pack of 30 random cards, mostly commons and uncommons for like $6. I liked it because I ended up getting lots of cards from sets I didn't buy a lot off. It was a fun way to do random drafts with too
When I first started magic, my local retail store (a Kmart, of all things) had the triple packs, but this was back when they occasionally had old packs, and were priced lower than the price of 3 packs at the same store. Now I see them, and they are just standard chaff, and I actually miss the old versions.
As someone who gets stuff like this from family as gifts occasionally I felt this one in my soul. I’ve started asking for just packs of jumpstart if they can find them but guess what they can’t haha. Jumpstart not being in stores is so disappointing. I’ve gotten many an old booster pack in my life. Luckily cracking packs is fun.
I bought a power cube from Wal-Mart before I found the professor.
It had a War of the Spark booster and a Nyx Lotus promo so I was vibing.
Cringing now thinking about all the sweet singles I could have purchased at my LGS...
I agree about those cubes, but. .. the cubes that had commander decks, Litterally Told You that on the the inslip that you can see when you buy it.!
Prof,
last year I personally pulled 6 commander 2018 decks and 1 commander 2019 deck out of the older mystery cubes. There was a weight difference noticed in the cubes when comparing them on the shelf at my local Walmart here in Canada. I only purchased the heavier ones and was able to get the following.
2 x Exquisite Invention Decks
2 x Adaptive Enchantment decks
1 x Subjective Reality deck
1 x Merciless Rage deck
I have not purchased any additional cubes as they definitely are being used to sell off excess product from deck builders toolkits, bundles, planeswalker decks, Welcome decks and other junk as if it is a premium product. Definitely gambling at its finest and the house is always winning.
I fell for that “my friend got a time spiral booster” or whatever from those dumb sets. Never again and I’m glad prof is pointing it out.
2016 was my last time I bought a cube in Walmart. Yes it was a Commander. Now a days, I've been lucky buying Jumpstart for $20. I got so many Craterhoof Behemoth cards that goes to my Cheerios decks. Unfortunately I don't play Modern or Standard, I got many Allosaurous Shepherd too. I trade it for Collector boxes and pay the difference if may be.
Thanks for looking out, prof. Always enjoy your content. :)
I commented about this on another video, but telling it here too.
So, my local Walmart sells the acrylic box packages for $36. For the last month it has had a price tag, hand written, at $11.48. I have mentioned this to associates a few times, and they just refuse to fix it.
So, wifey goes there today and I asked her to try and buy one at that price. It rang up at the $36 price, so she tells them what the tag says. The woman, angrily, sells her the package at $11.48. At less than $12 for 3 packs, that wasn't a bad price. She snagged one with a modern horizons pack in it lol. Ended up with a $35 banger pull from 2 cards lmao!
I know, not great still. However, again, at less than $12, it isn't a bad purchase if I can move the package around to find a MH pack in one. If the price isn't fixed tomorrow, I'll be snagging another at $12 🤣.
To me, movie-related topics don't seem to "fit" with the channel's personality so good job incorporating Shudder in the video by saying that it's not for you haha
This video was worth it if only to hear The Professor say "sweet swag bags"
the foil "mystery pack" thing you said is just the bundle of land + promo cards that comes in bundles
Recently returned. Bought out all the packs of jumpstart 22. Trying to get a rhystic study. Following your advice from now on. Only buying singles. Love the videos.
I am right there with you Prof. I say no to scary stuff. Nothing is worth the years it will torment my mind, in and out of reality.
But yea about a month ago one of my friends called me up asking if they should get a power cube. I was like "let me look it up and do some quick research" Glad I did, I found your last video on them along with a few other peoples and was like 'STOP, don't get it' Lol
I’ll be honest, I used to buy stuff like this (and got a million black lotuses in none of them!). I stopped and then I started watching your channel. Thank you professor for helping keep others safe.
Hey! New here. The thing is. Many who start new don't know what to and not to buy. I'm coming from MTG Arena. When got invited to irl MTG started wandering what to build and how to do it. Then got recommended your channel and now can purchase products that are worth it. My point is consumer unawareness to misleading products within community. Got to optimise the grind)
Here’s the thing… they must be official in some capacity. The packaging is pretty swish, and it’s covered in wotc trademarks. You can’t just print that packaging…
The prof is an icon of integrity standing fast for the accessibility and value for players, and I will die on this hill.
I bought one of those magic mystery cubes from walmart, though, funny enough I got it only for the ACTUAL cube so I could try my hand at cube building and have a nice cube shape storage thing 😆
Since then I've learned of much better products & cube shaped storage containers 🤣
I will always appreciate your unique sponsorships but this is by far the most unique.
Also the ones with commander decks are a very specific line of the power cubes
Wow! You actually did good with this sponcer professor!
I will never forget the time I opened the ONE Mystery Power Cube I have ever opened. Just like The Professor's luck, my bonus pack was filled with all basic lands! The reason I bought the Cube that I did was because I could see, just out of the corner through the packaging, a single booster pack of Japanese Strixhaven. The rare that I pulled, a foil alternate art Japanese Teferi's Protection. It's still retailing for around $74. I never get that lucky!
I actually love your ad read. Only one I've listened to all the way through.
The power cubes you have to shake up and see how thick the stack of cards are inside. I pulled a windswept heath out of one and a polluted delta out of another once.
I was just getting started into magic 3 years ago, and I bought one of these power cubes and I kid you not, I opened the exact same pack you just opened.
Opening these mystery boxes was enough horror indeed ! Poor professor , but he was brave and heroic to face his worst nightmares for us.
So, Prof, I'm just curious: what's changed your opinion on the three-booster-plus-promo product? 2 years ago, you gave this product (which you dubbed a "happy happy go fun fun") a "B" and said it might be worth the gamble because sometimes they contained older packs. Not saying that your new opinion is wrong; I'm just curious what's changed your thinking in the interim.
As far as I can see it's the fact that the packs aren't nice packs anymore. You don't get 10-20$ random packs for 12$, you constantly get 10-12$ of older half of standard for 12$, with extra packaging and no choice of packs.
Probably the variety of the packs. The HHGFF had packs as far back as Apocalypse or even just Hour of Devastation (which was 2 years out of print and worth a bit of a premium). These seem to be easily-available packs from the last year.
I'm guessing it's due to the fact that it seems all of these are ALWAYS the same three boosters (and they're very new)
@@Shamax0 My local Rite Aid has these for $10 and I can honestly guarantee that they do not all have the same 3 packs in them. Got a Jumpstart booster in one a couple of weeks ago with some really nice cards including Baneslayer Angel and Speaker of the Heavens.
@@moonelfcosmo Yeah I got back into the game last year after a 20 yr break and bought a bunch of these. They *tend* to have 3 recent-ish packs in them, but you can eyeball the colors of the packs on the side and kinda pick out the ones that are different. The mix still includes some older packs once in a while as far as I can tell, but I haven't bought any in several months or more.
I got one of those dumb cubes back when I was newer at Magic because my friend said they could have commander decks in them. There were no commander decks in them; instead they were two “60”-card decks. I say “60” because the company that resells these products stole the rare cards of the decks.
Thankfully, I’ve stayed away from them since then but one of the precons had an Eldrazi land (that was worth $11~) and It That Betrays (that was worth $14~) at the time.
Great ad. Awesome advice on these products. We bought some of these years ago when they first hit shelves and immediately realized the rip off they are.
I've been watching your channel now for over 6 years and I can comfortably and confidently tell you , I love you.
I like those 3 pack draft kits. Very convenient if you set up an impromptu draft .
Prof is the best he admits to not wanting to get it but makes it more appealing if it’s your thing
It is so great that you take the time to make these vids. Someone has to do it, thanks! Keep the hard work!!
Sadly i have only bought 2 decks one 60 card deck and a Commander deck most my cards came from my brother but i am going to be starting to get my own so watching your videos help to know what to get and what not to get thank you Professor
Based on box store prices , the power cubes are relatively a decent deal with an added layer of “gamble”. The 3 packs are a minimum value of 4.28$ a piece with a chance at a 7-15 dollar pack included (Japanese strixhaven or UMA). You also get the plastic case ~2$, the 2 promos ~2+$ and the land pack or welcome decks are a slap in nüts. But it includes about 20$ of retail value, just some food for thought prof.
If they contain retail value then you just buy the components individually, ad get whatever pack that you want without all the exceess garbage you don't. This is a terrible deal.
@@JustMonikaOk so your saying it was a bad idea to invest heavily into power cubes ??? Omg 😱 I’m an idiot, what was I thinking
Your Shudder advertising was just the best, most excellent.
I have purchased five of these power cubes in the last year. The most recent one had all the lands in it, basically identical to the one Prof opened in this episode. It is the only regret I have though. I pulled all commander pre-cons in the other ones. Two were the Forged in Stone 2014 deck, one was the Mind Seize 2013 deck, and the last was the Eternal Bargain 2013 deck. The older four were a different style power cube, but still only $20/each. They were not the $30 commander cubes. It is definitely a gamble though.
When I was younger and new to Magic the Gathering I bought one of those cubes and I ended up pulling one of those products that they give to new players at card shops not that I knew that at the time and some land the shop that I bought them from thankfully went out of business but considering they were the local Magic the Gathering retailer and that's what they were selling I can see it happening very easily
The intro was gold. Unlike these products, which are more like gambling. The house always wins.
I bought a mystery cube from target once for $20. You could tilt the cube a bit and see that a commander precon was inside.
I love the professor watching out for the magic community!
Professor, I bought the 3 booster packs back in the SoM days back in 2010 and hung on to them for 11 years sealed then listed on TCG
This is the first time I heard a sponsor spot where the TH-camr wouldn’t use it, but still made it sound good
It wasn't intentionally bad value, so to speak, but I got a box of Commander Legends to draft with a bunch of friends. I got the box from my LGS, a high profile and trusted one in the area, so I know they didn't tamper with the box, but my most expensive card we pulled from those packs were 2 arcane signets and a Three Visits. 4 bulk mythics and the rest were bulk rares. I was blown away.
It's worth noting that I did pull a hullbreacher, but this was a week after the ban.
I bought a couple mystery cubes when I started because it was a way to get some packs of older sets I couldn't find, and I didn't have a debit card to buy singles online, or even know about local game stores nearby. I have since changed to buying from only my 2 LGS's.
I remember buying these bundles when I was trying to get back into magic and Innistrad had just cycled out. I got them to obtain what I could from previous sets. At the time, I was not aware of online card stores like card kingdom, TCG player, etc.
LOVE the sudder ad, so much honesty lol
I bought a power cube hoping to get old boosters and a freebie deck, like the last time I bought one, and the pack of "mystery goodness" turned out to be all tokens! From Amonkhet! One of the boosters was a Japanese Strixhaven Set booster, also a Core 20 and an Eldritch Moon
Happened to see the three pack with StoneCoil in it today at Target. I could hear the Prof's voice in my head saying, "NO, NO ,NO!"
Back in high school, I bought three Shards of Alara packs and from those packs I pulled four Archdemon of Unx; three normals, one foil. While I can now see the card as situationally useful, it did (still does, in fact) need to be built around in order for it gain that distinction. The problem? NOBODY at my LGS played a deck that could slot the damn thing into it. That remains the worst I've ever felt buying a Magic product, and I am still convinced that I would have been better off spending that cash at McDonalds.
Went to a game store selling mystery packs for 15 bucks with a 3-4 dollar face card. Obvious enough that it wasn't going to be some huge find, but I wanted to build my bulk and I liked the store.
Inside, nothing but nonfoil plains. I've never gone back.
Oh....oh my god that hook at the start killed me. I think that's the funniest thing you've ever done xD
They had mystery boosters at walmart for 15 dollars. 3 boosters per box. Each one I bought had the same exact 3 packs in it. War of the spark, theros beyond death, and masters 25. Needless to say I was very pleased. I guess it depends what you are doing with it. I keep a lot of sealed stuff, wait enough time and it increases in value.
Freaking hilarious,
”ITS ALL LANDS!!!"
Heres something to note about the power cubes: Most of the time, you can see inside of the packaging just enough to identify what packs are in there, and on occasion, there will be legitimately good packs. I myself have bought like 10 of these things, because i can spot good packs in them, as long as you can inspect it enough to guarantee you see something good, its not actually a bad purchase. Best pack i've personally gotten was Iconic masters, other interesting packs include french eldritch moon, and a shockingly large quantity of japanese strixhaven. Never seen more than one good pack per "cube" though. And the promos have all been bad except i got lucky on a few of them and got 3 scute swarms across all the ones ive opened, which as of writing this is about 5 or so dollars. I haven't seen ay of these show up in recent times, but if you do see these cube things, try looking thru the edges to see if you can color code any packs, it might be worth it.
now ive never seen the 4 theme booster repack, and even if i did that sounds so lame, its theme boosters. the stonecoil serpent one i have bought one of, simply just because i wanted a sealed ikoria pack and it was discounted at the store, same packs as spotted in this video of course. Those are never worth getting unless you want those three packs at a slight premium and refuse to purchase the elsewhere, AKA you really should never get those.
it felt like a Dead Meat episode when Prof brought out the stock music for the Shudder sponsor and I love it
Almost 7 or 8 years ago I got the izzet half of an Izzet v Golgari Duel Deck, which was pretty good, but there were some differences in the way repacks were sold then. For one you could actually see what the repack was; if you were getting 3 boosters you could see the fronts of the boosters, and you could see expansion symbols on the precons too. Even then there was a lot of chaff. My wife got a clear card box of repacked cards for me that was just RtR rakdos cards that were all bulk ( there were two of these put together so there wasn't even any variety).
That moment when the teacher loses it and starts going off on a tangent bu it’s more educational than what you would have been learning
You're doing great consumer oversight, sir. Even I accept that every Zendikar Land pack, and Aminatou commander deck I get lucky enough to pull, it's a fluke at best. Good on ya. Keep up the good work.👍✌
There was only one version of the power cube that was worth it. There was a power cube for 30 dollars that included a commander deck. Every one that I was able to find were worth more than I paid for them.
Look! Professor! They're selling pre-made draft Cubes! At my Friendly Local Walmart(tm)! I heard it's 100% not a scam and totally won't give you a draft experience that's just 10 basic land packs from sets past!
My wife bought me one of these a while back. I got the jace half of the jace vs vraska set. The jace vs vraska set was $25, so about a $12 value.