Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/TolarianCommunityCollegeHelloFreshOctoberYT and use code POGTCCOCT65 for 65% off plus free shipping on your first box!”
hey where did the comment thread go about the union-thing with Hello Fresh? so I looked into it a bit: first I was suprised to read that HF is a german firm - did not know that; thought it was from the states. that explains why I as an austrian saw it rising more and more in the last years. on Wikipedia one (sadly) can read that it is true that in the states HF was / is? working AGAINST a union forming ): very disappointing imo. why would a german company do that in the states? oh yes, capitalism. I'll keep an eye on that - actually want(ed) to join HF for a while now.
@@dominickdavila1836 Im gonna put money that it was a scam. Same scam thats going on in pretty much every youtube video. They want you to use telegram so they can exploit you and ruin your life one way or another. Most youtubers dont do these kinds of giveaways in the comments, and most youtubers say something in the actual video if they are raffling something off. Be safe
i picked up this box at a target while just looking around, ive played maybe 10 matches with some friends and we're looking to move more into magic now! i think this box does a good job giving you a taste of some cool things magic cards can do and makes you want to learn and use more.
And another thing you can do, is maybe do a challenge where you and your friends take your favorite deck from the box, and upgrade maybe 3 cards at a time from each deck.
I got my copy the other day, I love stuff like this for play with my kids and introducing new players and one of the biggest reasons is getting friends and family who were old players a chance to play again casually without them worrying about getting deep into it.
People are down on these products but they are a good power level for treating it as a board game to play with people who don’t really play magic. The rules and interactions can be a lot for new players.
lol what? That’s happens with any product. Unless you obsess there’s always something that people discover was a thing. Whether that’s marketing or not. People want to find a reason to blame for blame. I learned there was a video game out there this year that I knew nothing of. Let me just blame too many games coming out. lol see how that sounds.
My playgroup has gone completely Commander (after playing Standard and Pioneer as well) and even with the last few (standard) sets we've been building sealed decks and we've still been playing commander. I think a product like this could be a fun alternative to shake up one week of our meet-up to break the monotony.
@@ytsejam58 I started playing 10 years ago (which is weird to say) and that’s been the observed trend I’ve seen with basically everyone. Standard is fine at first, but after the first couple of rotations people generally want out.
@@ERGOPROXY. yeah, that's why I stopped playing standard. The rotation sucks. Build a deck you love, get to play it for a year, then have to dumpster it because it's rotated out and it's too weak to play in pioneer or modern. Felt like a waste of effort to me
@@breeze7464 I play my own adaptation just because keeping up with the latest meta gets expensive and tiresome when competing against more practiced players, we use our own Kitchen Table Rules which are broadly based on the vintage/legacy/free form play formats. 40-120 deck size 20 life. No more than 4 of any one card. No limit on sets. No singles, cards only playable if bought from boosters/starter decks. (Hard to police, but its more a honesty thing) Oh and banding and mana burn are also a thing and sorcery cards play like they used to. For me and my mates part of the fun is playing the weird and wonderful combinations you end up coming up with when building decks from only those cards you acquire through boosters/starters rather than min-maxing using singles. We've been playing from around the Ice age era and since before that so it's just fun to play our own thing.
Definitely seems to be a step up from the previous iterations, though they should have made the deck holders large enough for sleeved cards and just added some cardboard to fill out the remaining space. I could easily recommend this as a next purchase for someone who enjoyed the starter kits and got bored with the decks.
I think this is really geared most towards a combination of people who are new and experienced. This is the sort of thing that sits on the shelf of someone who *does* know a lot about MtG, and you bring it down on game nights where you've got people over who are inexperienced, casual players as a good way to teach them how to play the game - it's not as purely beginner-oriented as some other products, but does allow for teaching general concepts and even some more intermediate ones.
I got one of the Game Night products back in 2018 as a gift and it successful brought me back into Magic after a many year hiatus. I call it a success.
It has a great breakdown of the rules, and It's actually got really good explanations for a lot of the mechanics and things like trample, flying, and life-leach.
I’ve taught several people how to play Magic using these decks in two-headed giant, with newbies paired with experienced players. It’s worked better than anything else I’ve tried, except Arena. We’ve moved on to Jumpstart for replay-ability, but I think this product is great for introducing newbies to Magic, especially if they’re familiar with board games.
You're the best MTG youtuber and I cannot be convinced otherwise, your for the community mind set is what we need with how WotC is operating at the moment. Thanks prof!!
I am currently dreaming of a world where this actually has a bunch of extra cards to customize the decks with, and that not only is there enough room in the holder slots for the decks sleeved up... but with WotC also bundling together 5 colors of sleeves either directly into or advertising alongside to pair with a product like this. (So that the casuals *not* knowing about sleeve usage will get the message) I very much want such a world to appear someday.
I was thinking about a box like that where you have a pool of cards to build decks from for up to 5 players last night and today I see they made this product. It's at least a step in the right direction for me.
This was my first magic product, and it's been a success between my friends (never even seen magic before) and seasoned players from my local game store! (Tbf only 3 of them ever wanted to play, they don't want to let go of their commander decks 😅)
I like the 5 deck approach so you can play with 4 freinds or 3 freinds in a big pod and teach and play with all of them at once. And you can use it with one group of 2, another group of 3, mix and match them. And it's all in one box that's nicely self contained. I'm very much looking forward to it!
After playing with friends a few times, the 1st product I purchased was the arena starter kit that came with a Vito deck and I agree getting the cards on arena really helped me learn how to use all the cards I now owned and better understand the game as a whole
My husband and I have considered getting this for our game shelf. While we go out for commander community play, our decks don't play well 1v1, ands they're too advanced to have our friends play while teaching them. Now, we have tons of games so it's low on our list, but this video is making me consider it as something fun to have when we just wanna bust out an easier magic game with friends who passively know magic and only kinda play.
I like the concept of this product and had no idea it existed prior to this video. Prior to the pandemic I was basically making and balancing my own version of this for when my brother was in town. Events since then killed the project and I never finished the fifth deck, but "reasonably balanced casual format to pull out when guests are over because why would they bring their own deck with them to visit you" is a good product in my book
I got that magic starter kit per your recommendation to teach my girlfriend how to play magic and it’s probably one of the best purchases for new players. Cheap and effective. Thanks for the recommendation!
This product has the same vibe of when me and my friends back in the day would just jam out 5 player games with normal 60 card decks (this was before commander), before classes started in college. So I can kind of dig it!
For a more casual game night entry to magic like games I really like "Unstable Unicorns" it has a shared deck with all the base cards and some expansions so it's doesn't have the expensive card problem and it simplifies a lot of stuff but still has a decent amount of complexity, we even got into a counter spell(Neigh) war with some friends who had never played magic
Nice video! I am an experienced Arena player but wanted to introduce my family/friends to Magic without having to explain all the Freemium stuff or having them use an app. So this feels spot on! I know how to play but I've never played paper, the cards are interesting and lots are familiar to me through Arena, so maybe this product is also made for people in my situation.
Having young kids, this has been a family favorite almost every weekend as we teach the kids how to play. They dont have to construct anything and they are familiar with whats in the deck so we hang out and grab and go. Been a really fun family night thing to do. Not everything is made for the adults and regular mtg players. I even bring this to random conventions to just play some quick games with friends.
Man, if the price on this was cheaper, I'd consider it. Pricewise, it's a bit too high. Hey Professor, whenever you do planning for Shuffle and Play, maybe invite Larry from Larry in the Hole on Team APS? He's been working more on Magic stuff thanks to you.
honestly just buy 1, sell the cards and buy another, you still profit roughly 50 dollars doing it that way. Granted the cards might have value but since they are in a "guaranteed" obtain box. Their value will likely plummet
Dominion was the first game, where you construct your Deck as you play and it does it really well. I played a ton of rounds of this game. You may be tempted to get any of the many many expansions but maybe check out a couple other games, that use deck building as a mechanic, but also have more things going on. Aeon's End is a cooperative deck builder, which some people might enjoy. You're trying to take down enemies together. This one's pretty popular and has a bunch of expansions as well. Clank! and Clank! in Space! (amongst others) is another very fun and not too difficult deckbuilder, where you're trying to get to some treasure and the deck you're building helps you with sneaking around the dragon cave or space base. Because the "built your deck as you go"-mechanic has proven so popular, there are a ton of games by now that include it as ONE of their mechanics and there are already a lot of games, that would be considered "modern classics". E.g. Great Western Trail, Dune, Ruins of Arnak but here I must warn you that the snappy feeling of Dominion is lost in exchange for very thoughtful strategizing. And in some games the mechanic gets a bit lost in the shuffle, so to speak. Great Western Trail is one of the best games ever designed but despite having a deckbuilder mechanic it's really about buying a cow-card every now and then and getting rid of low value cows It's all just cows with numbers and colors on them. Then you have games like Ruins of Arnak or Dune where the cards you can get are very distinct with differing costs and occasionally splashy effects but over the course of a single game you shuffle your deck only a couple times (even as little as only twice) and some cards you buy towards the end you might only see once. So IF you really love deckbuilders and want to explore more of them, be sure to find out, which games are leaning more towards "pure deckbuilding" and which games are merely leaning on it as one of it's mechanics so you can manage your expectations. If you want try something very similar to Dominion but with more fantasy or scifi, absolutely give Star Realms (sci-fi) and Ascension (fantasy) a try. Both of these games are available as apps for cheap.
@@malakimphoros2164 Ah, yes. Many different games in the Dune Universe now. I meant to say "Dune: Imperium" the one you're thinking of is the game from 1979 (got a "remaster" in 2019) and it's apparently still a pretty good game but that one is also very long game with a lot of rules and you meed minimum 5 players it seems. Dune: Imperium is not exactly an easy game but rules aren't all THAT difficult (especially if you come from magic), it's not as long, plays best with 3 or 4 players and it's a more modern design and it's one of the best reviewed board games of the last couple years.
Dominion (just the base game, by itself) is a pretty introductory product. A lot of the older cards would be considered fillers/skill testers now. With expansions, especially the newer ones starting with Adventures and Empires, it becomes more mechanically rich, has more interactions and a bigger decision space. In this regard it's very similar to a certain CCG we know.
Great run down of the newest game night! As a casual player I bought the 2019 edition. I personally enjoyed it because my girlfriend will play it with me as well as some friends that don’t play MTG but will occasionally come over for board game nights. I completely understand the gripes with the physical presentation of the box opting to throw away the plastic card holder in favor of color matching sleeves inside individual deck boxes. It’s a shame WoTC couldn’t have partnered with someone to include deck boxes (not those cheap ones you get with duel decks!) but I guess they try to keep production costs low. I also understand the gripes of the cards being somewhat underwhelming bulk. I suppose they do this to make sure the decks stay somewhat the same in power levels which me and the GF have had very interesting end games that could’ve went either way, for that reason alone I feel like I’ve played my moneys worth out of the 2019 product.
This looked perfect for intruding new players… I’m still considering it for casually introducing friends to the game. I’d hate to have the Arena online component that equates to them “doing homework” on their own, but I certainly understand the learning curve when you first start playing Magic.
Good morning Professor, I bought the product. Althought the decks are good I actually bought 5 battle decks from card kingdom (using your affiliate link of course) and casual night turned into what I call survival of the fittest night.
I first started magic with an earlier version of this. What I like about them is that an experienced player or players can bring someone in with pre-built, fairly balanced decks. I personally think not having strong deck synergy is a plus for these types of decks because you can just focus on basic gameplay.
I picked one up to give to my son’s middle school tabletop games club. He plays magic with me and at our LGS, but I’m hoping he can use it to teach some of his friends the basics. Sounds like it’ll be good enough for that. Thanks!
Great video..BUT..I'm going to disagree with your conclusion. For new players this is by far THE best product. It has everything you need - easy mechanics, spin down counters, +1/+1 counters, tokens and by far the best rule book for beginners - ever! The Starter Kit you refer to? I have that too and the rulebook is pants, and you still have to find stuff to use as counters and tokens etc. We played Game Night with some of boardgaming friends new to Magic and they loved it - this has gotten them into it. But I also think its great for experienced players - the decks are coherent , balanced and better than your average starter decks - they're actually interesting and each has its own challenge. Plus, as you pointed out, the value of the cards exceeds the value of the box. Definitely a winner
Game Night 2018 was the perfect gateway to MTG for my partner and I since we could play repeatedly with different colors (even make dual color decks easily). Got it cheap on Ebay when it was a few years old. Lots of good memories with that.
I definitely think I'll be picking this up! My family is extremely introverted, and they love games. They want to play MTG, and playing edh as a first experience... Was not the easiest experience. I was actually thinking earlier today about just coughing up the money to buy the og JumpStarts, but I think this will work much better for us!
oh God, I can't imagine playing EDH as your first game of Magic ever. What about those free welcome packs with two 30-card decks and no really weird mechanics, would that be better for teaching people the extreme basics?
@@savedr oh in all honesty I didn't know those were a thing! Edh was my first experience with Magic too, so naively I thought it would be good to introduce others that way hahaha. My first experience was very good for the sole reason I was the only inexperienced player and I feel like the way Magic works and the way I understand games meshed very well.
@@Frostgiantbutsmall oh, freaking probably. I've got at least one from a few years ago, I haven't tried to get one this year. They should absolutely bring them back, there's no valuable cards in them anyway and they're great for onboarding I would think.
I am a casual player who get to play with a friend once in a while. We are no beginners, but we also do not see point in obtaining competitive decks for any official format. We do not have many options to get preconstructed entertaining decks which are reasonably balanced against each other. If this box provides similar experience to duel decks or guild kits, then this is a great product for us.
Actually, there is an issue with making the card holders large enough for sleeved cards. You will need to provide spacers to keep the cards from shaking around during shipping and handling, and you need to make sure the spacers are significant enough that those don't fall out during said shipping and handling. Add to that the uncertainty (despite your declaration) of owners actually sleeving the cards and as to what sleeves they will use, it is not really a realistic consideration unless they also include the sleeves.
it may not be targeted this way but the gn boxes work really well with families, family friends use one of these boxes and their kids understand it easily, it introduces them to magic and they have a blast so i think these hit pretty well
Previous game store owner and Magic enthusiast here. Our play group plays pretty much Commander exclusively. On a recent camping trip one of the guys bought this and brought it with him on the trip. We had a lot of fun with it. Well worth it. We ended up banning blue since it won 3 of the first 4 matches and rotated the other four decks between the four of us. Great product, recommend for new or casual players that don't necessarily play 60 card constructed formats on the regular.
So, before finding your channel, I kinda just played MTGA and, if my friends were available, a draft night at a local game store. Now, I bought a commander deck you advised was good and got my roommates to play. Just wanted to say thank you
We have a new LGS that just opened up a week ago and they had this product the other day so we picked it up. I recently got my wife and kids into MTG and this was a slam dunk fun product for us all to play. My kids are still learning but they had a blast and we have been playing 4way and two headed giants and switching around decks to have different play experiences. Definitely agree that they need to make the box so that you can store the cards sleeved! In a video long ago you talked about a Pokemon Eevee (i think) product that had packs inside a Poke ball but it missed a mark cause you couldn't fit a sleeved playable deck inside it, but recently we found another Pokemon product that is very similar and the Primer Pokeball can Fit a fully sleeved Deck! Maybe Pokemon Listened? Hopefully WOTC will listen to this video and consider that in the future for the next Game Night Product.
I'm honestly really kinda looking forward to this. I bought both Duel Decks Anthology and several copies of Unsanctioned to have premade, pre-sleeved battle boxes ready to go. This just looks like a better and more enjoyable iteration to play when there's a mix of experienced and newer players and that rules. Many of my brother's friends learned with the last Game Night. I said, no, that's not good and gave my brother a couple Commander precons to use instead. I wouldn't have that reaction with something like this. It's a really good rock solid box set that honestly the only major knock I have to it now is that they just put out the Starter Commander lists today and that looks way better for a box set-style thing for newer players.
I'm a yugioh player who was gifted a magic deck for modern format by a coworker; I've been real curious about getting into MTG but I can hardly compete with the heat my pal brings to work. The Free-for-all set looked really neat as an option for play while I get up to speed!
If I hadn't already converted all of my friends group to MTG, this would have been a great product to do so! Looks like a fun self-contained MTG board game style box.
To give my opinion on the box I want to give my backstory on how I got into magic and where I'm at so it fully makes sense. I started in 2017, my dad played since he was in high school, and collected a few cards. I got into it and used his spare cards to make myself a makeshift Krenko Mob Boss deck. Of course, he beat me nearly everytime, but I had fun. Fast forward to 2019, I moved from my dads to my mom's side grandparents, states away, and left my cards. A few months ago our power and internet was out from a storm for a couple days and my uncle and I decided to go to gamestop and look for Magic cards to get into, because he played with my dad in high-school with some friends, and hearing me talk about it wanted to try again. We get some basic deck boxes that give you something like 15 set boosters and lands, with an oversized die and a sizeable box to put your cards in. My uncle talked to his second cousin, who got wayyy to deep into the game back in high-school and has a card shop size of a card collection in his basement, about getting back in magic. So we started going to a card shop and playing modern tournaments for fun, after using some of his decks I wanted to make a Krenjo Mob Boss deck because I liked what it was and nostalgic vibes. We made that and so far been my only main deck I can use in mid level tourneys. Giving it a couple months, we go to 2 card shops every other week for some magic games, food, laughs, and a good time. One of the payments you can do to enter a tournament is $10, giving you guaranteed 2 set/booster packs regardless of placement, a foiled card, and a chance at the Jake Wheel (has a picture of the shop's cat on it), on top of what you get for placement. My uncle won a game night box, and today we sat down after the tournament with some friends and played. After manaweaving the God awful land placements, we shuffled a good amount of times, and had a 5 player free for all. Everyone agreed it was more fun than the 1on1 tournament because of the chaos and would love to do it again after every tournament for funsies. As a new player, being able to get 5 ready to go decks from such a low price point per deck, I think it's a steal. Especially if you have friends or family that are interested in getting into the game, as all 5 have good matchups with each other. Also very fun to yell "Trigger!!!" as a collective everytime a golem attacks. Remember, play Magic for fun, not to sweat and win Tl;dr: Good for friend groups, new players that may be interested or short on cards, or after tourney games for relaxing. 10/10, would definitely get again
Thanks for making this review-- I was kind of on the fence about it after reading some comments on Reddit about the decks being slightly better. If it's like Duel Decks gameplay-wise, that's encouraging! Hopefully I can get this on sale someday.
I love precon sets like this to play with my kids. They know how to play buy aren't to the deck building ability yet, so this is perfect for our family.
I've gotten the last 2 game knights and I have to say this is the best one. It's great for beginners but not brand new players is the best way to think about it. Personally Im gonna make these 5 into beginner commander decks for my friends that don't play commander
No joke, a friend of mine and I were playing with the new pioneer decks and it became apparent that the Dimir Control deck was extremely bad. As a fun experiment we pitted it against the green deck from this set… The Green deck won… Twice.
I'm definitely in the category for these, and I might pick this one up. I've not picked up either of the last two, but I did get all of the exclusive cards. The thing these lack is something more to make them stand out. Planechase is my favorite way to play magic, and I adore the Explorers of Ixalan box set. I love when they do these but with some added new spice to the game. These just 5 decks with a new card each just lack a bit for the price imo. Please make the next one of these a planechase thing WotC, since you're never gonna do the old style ones again!
Unfortunately the word is that a return to plane chase in unlikely. I’m in the minority that would prefer “board game versions” of MTG to just have different backs so that they could go crazy with the cards without effecting the resale price or real formats. If they want to put in 5 “real” cards to incentivize that’s fine, that’s all the cards people were going to take out anyways
I pick this up, because although me and my friends are Tcg players we are not MTG played, however we do like magic and usually play it with borrowed decks at our local shop. We bought this product to have our own "cheap" decks, for where we want to play MTG without having to invest in the game.
Game Night (the original) has done a lot to help my marriage. I'm one of many 30 something Magic players that's been playing since middle school but have a wife that doesn't play at all. She had a couple bad experiences getting beat down by me and my brother-in-law and others the few times she tried to play, but she was thoughtful enough to buy Game Night for me for Christmas one year as one last option where she could engage in my hobby in a way that gives her a reasonable chance of holding her own. Since then, she has beaten me a few times, and comes close every time, and with original Game Night's half deck set up, there are literally thousands of different deck configurations we can use against each other. I'm definitely thinking I'm one of those very few for whom this product might be for, even though I am playing 1 on 1. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll get me one for Christmas again.
Every new player should at least have fun and enjoy the pains of doomblade lightning bolt path etc... so i feel like this is actually a pretty awesome start for new players so they can share a piece of history we all started with.
My only card game experience is Pokémon but I’ve had a vague interest in Magic the Gathering for a while and the Lord of the Rings sets really caught my eye. I’m interested in getting the start kit for that (commander decks seem really expensive), but this also caught my eye. Having just 5 basic mini type decks seems like a really great way to introduce the different types and learn what they’re all about. It sounds like they have the same issue the Pokémon theme decks have though of “here’s a bunch of decent cards of X type” but there’s no synergy between them. But I’m guessing that’s what the commander decks would offer.
I've been teaching kids 8 -10 in the family to play MTG with the play night decks. Teaches the fundamentals and gets them to think about how they would build a deck.
I just started getting into magic a couple days ago due to a couple friends egging me on to try it. I bought 2 starter decks being azorious spirits and dimir rogues. I have only played with the spirit deck at this point, but am having a good time so far though im still learning all the different terminology lol. Going to a tournament tomorrow at my local game shop and gonna get my butt handed to me but hey, thats how you learn
Some people in my playgroup are fans of the old school Star format, but it only really works if you have reasonably balanced decks for each colour. Might pick this up as a self-contained Star game in a box, and also to play as duel decks against another pal who is pretty new to the game.
Glad you made this video, thinking of teaching my gf to play magic. If she likes it I might consider picking this up, between 2 of us theres a decent bit of variety in each game for it to hopefully stay enjoyable
I still have my game night 2019 i bought it in 2021 while i was in military school to have some fun since I didn't have access to my phone or anything pretty good product though the green deck is pretty op imo lol would recommend.
This is a great product for playing with your kids. It removes a lot of the frustration they might have when it comes to feeling like your deck is more powerful than theirs, it gives them some/limited choices in what they want to play without having them build their own deck... which, with young'uns... can be something of a nightmare. The gameplay is fairly straight forward and while it does have a lot of play and counter-play, it doesn't seem like it delves into the 'weeds' of the magic rule system. When you are first introducing someone to Magic and they want to get those initial games under their belt without a ton of frustrating moments and rules clarifications, these decks are great. They exemplify what that color is supposed to feel like, in a great number of ways. For kids about 9-13, these are what I would use to get them into the game and get them familiar with the core concepts, without overwhelming them with all the options and rules. I don't know if the Arena decks are as great at giving people that experience, so I can't comment on that front... but having enjoyed the Game Night products in the past, I am pleased with this one... though I might wait for the inevitable price drop.
I think for new player decks, having a variety of types of cards is good. They want new players to get an idea of a few possible styles of play rather than just one, and then having variability is fun. Tuned/competitive decks are also fun, but in a different way - so I'm glad that they don't go that route for introductory decks. Makes for a few games where you're still discovering new cards and effects and that's intriguing.
@TolarianCommunityCollege PentaGON is not the same as pentaGRAM. The former is simply a geometric shape whereas the latter is a stylized 5-pointed star frequently used to represent evil or demonic things. The container for this product happens to be a pentagon. My apologies if someone else already pointed this out.
I would treat these Game Night collections as a great gift to someone who isn't sure if they want to get into MtG but do enjoy playing other board games and card games. Worst case, it becomes part of their collection and gets opened once or twice a year. Something to present during the holidays, perhaps.
Something that would drastically increase the fun, is if someone were to play a power deck, and everyone else has to either collectively fight against them, or free for all fight against them. Like someone is the 'nichol bolas' player, with a hard tuned deck.
I've never played MTG. I wasn't interested at all until I came across this channel and The Command Zone. I plan on buying some MTG stuff so I can start playing but I just don't know what to get or where to start. Any suggestions anyone??
grab one of the new starter commander decks! we had a new person join our Saturday Commander League by buying the First Flight starter deck and she has been winning a lot against most of us. i hope you have a great time!
I can see a use in my house for this. My kids and I play pokemon TCG now and I use to play MTG. My kids have expressed interest in learning and instead of going through the storage unit for cards that haven't seen light in nearly a decade or wasting a ton of cash on premade decks. I could get this and use it to let them take their first steps without being upset at the cost should they decide its not for them. I could also see most card shops having a copy for store use. Would be a good way to show someone whos looking at getting into the game without throwing them completely into the deep end. Just pick a color, and step by step a few turns with them. See how they feel.
I have some friends who know how to play but don't collect anymore or at all, I have a battle box made up of the ravnica guildkits for when they want to get a game in. I think if you are in a similar situation where your casual doesn't-play-all-the-time group likes to play 60 card magic, this box works in a similar way to my battle box. Releasing a new one every couple of years means you can keep it fresh without putting a lot of effort into making your own (if you like making your own then by all means you can). I have a battle box of commander precons for when they want to play commander for the same reason and I have a starter cube from card kingdom for when my draft group wants to draft but money is tight. It's a product of convenience and $50 for 5 decks isn't a lot of money. You might spend close to that sleeving it up depending on your brand of sleeves
Dang it prof... as much as I hate ads, your reads are clever and I like your content too much to skip them. Plus I'm worried that youtube will know I am skipping past the ad portion XD.
For more advanced I recommend playing 5 color star format. For 1v1 decks are too simple for anything more than basic rules learning or for kids. But with 5 players and complex alliances simple cards are actually great to lower board complexity.
The best Magic "game night" product was/is Jumpstart. Endless replayability. Low complexity level for newer players. Really fun deck themes. Jumpstart is just the magic version of the game Smash Up, and it works just as well as a box set.
I bought this with my girlfriend last week. It's what has gotten us hooked to MTG:Arena. Worth it for a soft introduction to magic to play with your friends
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Thanks to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video. Go to strms.net/TolarianCommunityCollegeHelloFreshOctoberYT and use code POGTCCOCT65 for 65% off plus free shipping on your first box!”
hey where did the comment thread go about the union-thing with Hello Fresh?
so I looked into it a bit: first I was suprised to read that HF is a german firm - did not know that; thought it was from the states. that explains why I as an austrian saw it rising more and more in the last years.
on Wikipedia one (sadly) can read that it is true that in the states HF was / is? working AGAINST a union forming ):
very disappointing imo. why would a german company do that in the states? oh yes, capitalism.
I'll keep an eye on that - actually want(ed) to join HF for a while now.
ah found it; it just droped very far down suddenly.
Thanks for doing these videos! Ive been wanting to rejoin the community after 16 years and your videos have been super helpful
I got a message saying I won something but then the reply was gone, was that a scammer or did I not reply fast enough???
@@dominickdavila1836 Im gonna put money that it was a scam. Same scam thats going on in pretty much every youtube video. They want you to use telegram so they can exploit you and ruin your life one way or another. Most youtubers dont do these kinds of giveaways in the comments, and most youtubers say something in the actual video if they are raffling something off. Be safe
i picked up this box at a target while just looking around, ive played maybe 10 matches with some friends and we're looking to move more into magic now! i think this box does a good job giving you a taste of some cool things magic cards can do and makes you want to learn and use more.
And another thing you can do, is maybe do a challenge where you and your friends take your favorite deck from the box, and upgrade maybe 3 cards at a time from each deck.
I hope you enjoy having your new hobby held hostage by an unrepentantly cruel corporate overlord.
@@wordsmith451 yes, we enjoy the game ;)
dont get baited by the scam products they release sometimes
@@xanderjones6239 thats what were gonna do is look through some cards we like and swap them out with others in our decks and see how they work :)
"It's a Siren not a Merfolk so I don't care" had me dying, and totally on brand for the Professor.
I’m starting a merfolk deck mostly from the Prof’s subliminal messaging about them 😂
I got my copy the other day, I love stuff like this for play with my kids and introducing new players and one of the biggest reasons is getting friends and family who were old players a chance to play again casually without them worrying about getting deep into it.
People are down on these products but they are a good power level for treating it as a board game to play with people who don’t really play magic. The rules and interactions can be a lot for new players.
You know there’s way too many products when you have absolutely no idea some of them existed until the Professor does a video on them.
No, the problem is that there aren't enough ENTRY products.
@@WardenOfTerra no, there’s just too much new stuff period. 😂
yes
me watching this 8 months later. cause i never once seen or heard anything of it even at my lgs...
lol what? That’s happens with any product. Unless you obsess there’s always something that people discover was a thing. Whether that’s marketing or not. People want to find a reason to blame for blame. I learned there was a video game out there this year that I knew nothing of. Let me just blame too many games coming out. lol see how that sounds.
My playgroup has gone completely Commander (after playing Standard and Pioneer as well) and even with the last few (standard) sets we've been building sealed decks and we've still been playing commander. I think a product like this could be a fun alternative to shake up one week of our meet-up to break the monotony.
I don't keep up with standard anymore. I still crack packs but I'm not building a standard deck. I'm building for pioneer and commander.
@@ytsejam58 I started playing 10 years ago (which is weird to say) and that’s been the observed trend I’ve seen with basically everyone. Standard is fine at first, but after the first couple of rotations people generally want out.
@@ERGOPROXY. yeah, that's why I stopped playing standard. The rotation sucks. Build a deck you love, get to play it for a year, then have to dumpster it because it's rotated out and it's too weak to play in pioneer or modern. Felt like a waste of effort to me
@@ERGOPROXY. i started june 10th, 1997. to see the ups, downs and overall evolution of the game has been... a trip.
@@breeze7464 I play my own adaptation just because keeping up with the latest meta gets expensive and tiresome when competing against more practiced players, we use our own Kitchen Table Rules which are broadly based on the vintage/legacy/free form play formats.
40-120 deck size
20 life.
No more than 4 of any one card.
No limit on sets.
No singles, cards only playable if bought from boosters/starter decks. (Hard to police, but its more a honesty thing)
Oh and banding and mana burn are also a thing and sorcery cards play like they used to.
For me and my mates part of the fun is playing the weird and wonderful combinations you end up coming up with when building decks from only those cards you acquire through boosters/starters rather than min-maxing using singles.
We've been playing from around the Ice age era and since before that so it's just fun to play our own thing.
Definitely seems to be a step up from the previous iterations, though they should have made the deck holders large enough for sleeved cards and just added some cardboard to fill out the remaining space. I could easily recommend this as a next purchase for someone who enjoyed the starter kits and got bored with the decks.
Wassup mtg!
I think this is really geared most towards a combination of people who are new and experienced. This is the sort of thing that sits on the shelf of someone who *does* know a lot about MtG, and you bring it down on game nights where you've got people over who are inexperienced, casual players as a good way to teach them how to play the game - it's not as purely beginner-oriented as some other products, but does allow for teaching general concepts and even some more intermediate ones.
What’s the best beginner friendly product? Looking to get in to this with my son
@@ProdigiousReturnstarter deck packs
@@ProdigiousReturn Even old duel decks are great ways to learn. I still use them to this day.
I got one of the Game Night products back in 2018 as a gift and it successful brought me back into Magic after a many year hiatus. I call it a success.
I would've liked more discussion about the game night rulebook. Is it sufficient and easy to understand for beginners?
It has a great breakdown of the rules, and It's actually got really good explanations for a lot of the mechanics and things like trample, flying, and life-leach.
Best Magic rulebook in existence
I’ve taught several people how to play Magic using these decks in two-headed giant, with newbies paired with experienced players. It’s worked better than anything else I’ve tried, except Arena. We’ve moved on to Jumpstart for replay-ability, but I think this product is great for introducing newbies to Magic, especially if they’re familiar with board games.
I can't wait for the Shuffle Up and Play episode with this product
You're the best MTG youtuber and I cannot be convinced otherwise, your for the community mind set is what we need with how WotC is operating at the moment. Thanks prof!!
Any creators who look out for consumers and the community first need to be supported!! The Prof and team are awesome!!
I am currently dreaming of a world where this actually has a bunch of extra cards to customize the decks with, and that not only is there enough room in the holder slots for the decks sleeved up... but with WotC also bundling together 5 colors of sleeves either directly into or advertising alongside to pair with a product like this. (So that the casuals *not* knowing about sleeve usage will get the message)
I very much want such a world to appear someday.
I was thinking about a box like that where you have a pool of cards to build decks from for up to 5 players last night and today I see they made this product. It's at least a step in the right direction for me.
This was my first magic product, and it's been a success between my friends (never even seen magic before) and seasoned players from my local game store! (Tbf only 3 of them ever wanted to play, they don't want to let go of their commander decks 😅)
When you mentioned duel decks that really brought back memories because that's how I got into MTG, specifically the Goblins vs. Merfolk one.
Duel decks rocked
I like the 5 deck approach so you can play with 4 freinds or 3 freinds in a big pod and teach and play with all of them at once. And you can use it with one group of 2, another group of 3, mix and match them.
And it's all in one box that's nicely self contained. I'm very much looking forward to it!
After playing with friends a few times, the 1st product I purchased was the arena starter kit that came with a Vito deck and I agree getting the cards on arena really helped me learn how to use all the cards I now owned and better understand the game as a whole
Great content with honest evaluations. Well done, picked it up mostly for the first elf and to have some lower level decks around for friends.
My husband and I have considered getting this for our game shelf. While we go out for commander community play, our decks don't play well 1v1, ands they're too advanced to have our friends play while teaching them. Now, we have tons of games so it's low on our list, but this video is making me consider it as something fun to have when we just wanna bust out an easier magic game with friends who passively know magic and only kinda play.
We all love our favorite boomer. Thank you Brian for another banger.
As a Gen Xer, I reject this assertion out of hand, and hereby claim the professor for our generation
I like the concept of this product and had no idea it existed prior to this video. Prior to the pandemic I was basically making and balancing my own version of this for when my brother was in town. Events since then killed the project and I never finished the fifth deck, but "reasonably balanced casual format to pull out when guests are over because why would they bring their own deck with them to visit you" is a good product in my book
I got that magic starter kit per your recommendation to teach my girlfriend how to play magic and it’s probably one of the best purchases for new players. Cheap and effective. Thanks for the recommendation!
This product has the same vibe of when me and my friends back in the day would just jam out 5 player games with normal 60 card decks (this was before commander), before classes started in college. So I can kind of dig it!
For a more casual game night entry to magic like games I really like "Unstable Unicorns" it has a shared deck with all the base cards and some expansions so it's doesn't have the expensive card problem and it simplifies a lot of stuff but still has a decent amount of complexity, we even got into a counter spell(Neigh) war with some friends who had never played magic
Unstable Unicorns has been secret tech in getting two people back into magic and 1 completely new player 😈🦄
That one great looking cover illustration.
Nice video! I am an experienced Arena player but wanted to introduce my family/friends to Magic without having to explain all the Freemium stuff or having them use an app. So this feels spot on! I know how to play but I've never played paper, the cards are interesting and lots are familiar to me through Arena, so maybe this product is also made for people in my situation.
Not a pentagram, but a pentagon
Connect the lines man, _there's something there, _*_I just know it!_*
Even worse
The kind of people who would be mad wouldn't know the difference.
Playing with my siblings and two nieces, the old GameNights box is still our goto, Can't wait to play with them using these new ones.
Having young kids, this has been a family favorite almost every weekend as we teach the kids how to play. They dont have to construct anything and they are familiar with whats in the deck so we hang out and grab and go. Been a really fun family night thing to do. Not everything is made for the adults and regular mtg players. I even bring this to random conventions to just play some quick games with friends.
Man, if the price on this was cheaper, I'd consider it. Pricewise, it's a bit too high.
Hey Professor, whenever you do planning for Shuffle and Play, maybe invite Larry from Larry in the Hole on Team APS? He's been working more on Magic stuff thanks to you.
Just wait for the eventual price drop
Same reason I passed on it, it's another odd product from wotc.
honestly just buy 1, sell the cards and buy another, you still profit roughly 50 dollars doing it that way.
Granted the cards might have value but since they are in a "guaranteed" obtain box. Their value will likely plummet
Yeah only $33 now on Amazon..... Good buy now!!!
@@LetsTubetalk not worth it. Maybe at a dub.
Dominion is absolutely wonderful. Started playing after watching some of your videos.
Dominion was the first game, where you construct your Deck as you play and it does it really well. I played a ton of rounds of this game. You may be tempted to get any of the many many expansions but maybe check out a couple other games, that use deck building as a mechanic, but also have more things going on.
Aeon's End is a cooperative deck builder, which some people might enjoy. You're trying to take down enemies together. This one's pretty popular and has a bunch of expansions as well.
Clank! and Clank! in Space! (amongst others) is another very fun and not too difficult deckbuilder, where you're trying to get to some treasure and the deck you're building helps you with sneaking around the dragon cave or space base.
Because the "built your deck as you go"-mechanic has proven so popular, there are a ton of games by now that include it as ONE of their mechanics and there are already a lot of games, that would be considered "modern classics". E.g. Great Western Trail, Dune, Ruins of Arnak but here I must warn you that the snappy feeling of Dominion is lost in exchange for very thoughtful strategizing. And in some games the mechanic gets a bit lost in the shuffle, so to speak. Great Western Trail is one of the best games ever designed but despite having a deckbuilder mechanic it's really about buying a cow-card every now and then and getting rid of low value cows It's all just cows with numbers and colors on them. Then you have games like Ruins of Arnak or Dune where the cards you can get are very distinct with differing costs and occasionally splashy effects but over the course of a single game you shuffle your deck only a couple times (even as little as only twice) and some cards you buy towards the end you might only see once.
So IF you really love deckbuilders and want to explore more of them, be sure to find out, which games are leaning more towards "pure deckbuilding" and which games are merely leaning on it as one of it's mechanics so you can manage your expectations.
If you want try something very similar to Dominion but with more fantasy or scifi, absolutely give Star Realms (sci-fi) and Ascension (fantasy) a try. Both of these games are available as apps for cheap.
@@paulszki Wasn't Dune an evil 6-players game of fuckery?
@@malakimphoros2164 Ah, yes. Many different games in the Dune Universe now. I meant to say "Dune: Imperium" the one you're thinking of is the game from 1979 (got a "remaster" in 2019) and it's apparently still a pretty good game but that one is also very long game with a lot of rules and you meed minimum 5 players it seems.
Dune: Imperium is not exactly an easy game but rules aren't all THAT difficult (especially if you come from magic), it's not as long, plays best with 3 or 4 players and it's a more modern design and it's one of the best reviewed board games of the last couple years.
Dominion (just the base game, by itself) is a pretty introductory product. A lot of the older cards would be considered fillers/skill testers now. With expansions, especially the newer ones starting with Adventures and Empires, it becomes more mechanically rich, has more interactions and a bigger decision space. In this regard it's very similar to a certain CCG we know.
Stellar review, another great video, thanks
We're getting it for the occasional game night and because that box just look so damn inviting xD
I bought it to teach my son and give him a chance to play every color. So far we’re both having a blast
Great run down of the newest game night! As a casual player I bought the 2019 edition. I personally enjoyed it because my girlfriend will play it with me as well as some friends that don’t play MTG but will occasionally come over for board game nights. I completely understand the gripes with the physical presentation of the box opting to throw away the plastic card holder in favor of color matching sleeves inside individual deck boxes. It’s a shame WoTC couldn’t have partnered with someone to include deck boxes (not those cheap ones you get with duel decks!) but I guess they try to keep production costs low. I also understand the gripes of the cards being somewhat underwhelming bulk. I suppose they do this to make sure the decks stay somewhat the same in power levels which me and the GF have had very interesting end games that could’ve went either way, for that reason alone I feel like I’ve played my moneys worth out of the 2019 product.
This looked perfect for intruding new players… I’m still considering it for casually introducing friends to the game. I’d hate to have the Arena online component that equates to them “doing homework” on their own, but I certainly understand the learning curve when you first start playing Magic.
Good morning Professor,
I bought the product. Althought the decks are good I actually bought 5 battle decks from card kingdom (using your affiliate link of course) and casual night turned into what I call survival of the fittest night.
I first started magic with an earlier version of this. What I like about them is that an experienced player or players can bring someone in with pre-built, fairly balanced decks. I personally think not having strong deck synergy is a plus for these types of decks because you can just focus on basic gameplay.
I'm positively surprised about these decks and it's cool that you get some unique cards 👍
I picked one up to give to my son’s middle school tabletop games club. He plays magic with me and at our LGS, but I’m hoping he can use it to teach some of his friends the basics. Sounds like it’ll be good enough for that. Thanks!
Great video..BUT..I'm going to disagree with your conclusion. For new players this is by far THE best product. It has everything you need - easy mechanics, spin down counters, +1/+1 counters, tokens and by far the best rule book for beginners - ever! The Starter Kit you refer to? I have that too and the rulebook is pants, and you still have to find stuff to use as counters and tokens etc. We played Game Night with some of boardgaming friends new to Magic and they loved it - this has gotten them into it. But I also think its great for experienced players - the decks are coherent , balanced and better than your average starter decks - they're actually interesting and each has its own challenge. Plus, as you pointed out, the value of the cards exceeds the value of the box.
Definitely a winner
Definitely getting this and once I don't feel so new, I'm gonna build commander decks from these
short, concise, honest.
thanks
Game Night 2018 was the perfect gateway to MTG for my partner and I since we could play repeatedly with different colors (even make dual color decks easily). Got it cheap on Ebay when it was a few years old. Lots of good memories with that.
I definitely think I'll be picking this up! My family is extremely introverted, and they love games. They want to play MTG, and playing edh as a first experience... Was not the easiest experience. I was actually thinking earlier today about just coughing up the money to buy the og JumpStarts, but I think this will work much better for us!
oh God, I can't imagine playing EDH as your first game of Magic ever. What about those free welcome packs with two 30-card decks and no really weird mechanics, would that be better for teaching people the extreme basics?
@@savedr oh in all honesty I didn't know those were a thing! Edh was my first experience with Magic too, so naively I thought it would be good to introduce others that way hahaha. My first experience was very good for the sole reason I was the only inexperienced player and I feel like the way Magic works and the way I understand games meshed very well.
@@savedr didn't they discontinue the free intro decks?
@@Frostgiantbutsmall oh, freaking probably. I've got at least one from a few years ago, I haven't tried to get one this year. They should absolutely bring them back, there's no valuable cards in them anyway and they're great for onboarding I would think.
I am a casual player who get to play with a friend once in a while. We are no beginners, but we also do not see point in obtaining competitive decks for any official format. We do not have many options to get preconstructed entertaining decks which are reasonably balanced against each other. If this box provides similar experience to duel decks or guild kits, then this is a great product for us.
I just bought a starter kit, since I'm new to Magic, I was wondering about buying this as well haha
Thank you Professor for an awesome video!
Actually, there is an issue with making the card holders large enough for sleeved cards. You will need to provide spacers to keep the cards from shaking around during shipping and handling, and you need to make sure the spacers are significant enough that those don't fall out during said shipping and handling. Add to that the uncertainty (despite your declaration) of owners actually sleeving the cards and as to what sleeves they will use, it is not really a realistic consideration unless they also include the sleeves.
it may not be targeted this way but the gn boxes work really well with families, family friends use one of these boxes and their kids understand it easily, it introduces them to magic and they have a blast so i think these hit pretty well
I really appreciate your product reviews, thanks for keeping us informed about what these all are!
00:37 This was probably your smoothest catch to date! It had some real cool-guys-don't-look-at-explosions vibes.
Previous game store owner and Magic enthusiast here. Our play group plays pretty much Commander exclusively. On a recent camping trip one of the guys bought this and brought it with him on the trip. We had a lot of fun with it. Well worth it. We ended up banning blue since it won 3 of the first 4 matches and rotated the other four decks between the four of us. Great product, recommend for new or casual players that don't necessarily play 60 card constructed formats on the regular.
4:04 Half a Benjamin is a Grant Professor, everyone forgets about him
Wizards need to realize that making a Draft Cube and selling that as a "Board Game experience" is the way to go for products like these.
How have they not made a cube yet?
@@mtgbrewery7239 Some genious on marketing probably can't fathom how it's profitable XD
So, before finding your channel, I kinda just played MTGA and, if my friends were available, a draft night at a local game store. Now, I bought a commander deck you advised was good and got my roommates to play. Just wanted to say thank you
We have a new LGS that just opened up a week ago and they had this product the other day so we picked it up. I recently got my wife and kids into MTG and this was a slam dunk fun product for us all to play. My kids are still learning but they had a blast and we have been playing 4way and two headed giants and switching around decks to have different play experiences. Definitely agree that they need to make the box so that you can store the cards sleeved! In a video long ago you talked about a Pokemon Eevee (i think) product that had packs inside a Poke ball but it missed a mark cause you couldn't fit a sleeved playable deck inside it, but recently we found another Pokemon product that is very similar and the Primer Pokeball can Fit a fully sleeved Deck! Maybe Pokemon Listened? Hopefully WOTC will listen to this video and consider that in the future for the next Game Night Product.
I'm honestly really kinda looking forward to this. I bought both Duel Decks Anthology and several copies of Unsanctioned to have premade, pre-sleeved battle boxes ready to go. This just looks like a better and more enjoyable iteration to play when there's a mix of experienced and newer players and that rules. Many of my brother's friends learned with the last Game Night. I said, no, that's not good and gave my brother a couple Commander precons to use instead. I wouldn't have that reaction with something like this. It's a really good rock solid box set that honestly the only major knock I have to it now is that they just put out the Starter Commander lists today and that looks way better for a box set-style thing for newer players.
You've gotten significantly better at blindly tossing products in the air and catching them without looking. 👏
Lessons from Rodney
I'm a yugioh player who was gifted a magic deck for modern format by a coworker; I've been real curious about getting into MTG but I can hardly compete with the heat my pal brings to work. The Free-for-all set looked really neat as an option for play while I get up to speed!
I saw this at target a few days ago, seemed interesting. Appreciate the break down.
If I hadn't already converted all of my friends group to MTG, this would have been a great product to do so! Looks like a fun self-contained MTG board game style box.
To give my opinion on the box I want to give my backstory on how I got into magic and where I'm at so it fully makes sense.
I started in 2017, my dad played since he was in high school, and collected a few cards. I got into it and used his spare cards to make myself a makeshift Krenko Mob Boss deck. Of course, he beat me nearly everytime, but I had fun. Fast forward to 2019, I moved from my dads to my mom's side grandparents, states away, and left my cards. A few months ago our power and internet was out from a storm for a couple days and my uncle and I decided to go to gamestop and look for Magic cards to get into, because he played with my dad in high-school with some friends, and hearing me talk about it wanted to try again. We get some basic deck boxes that give you something like 15 set boosters and lands, with an oversized die and a sizeable box to put your cards in. My uncle talked to his second cousin, who got wayyy to deep into the game back in high-school and has a card shop size of a card collection in his basement, about getting back in magic. So we started going to a card shop and playing modern tournaments for fun, after using some of his decks I wanted to make a Krenjo Mob Boss deck because I liked what it was and nostalgic vibes. We made that and so far been my only main deck I can use in mid level tourneys. Giving it a couple months, we go to 2 card shops every other week for some magic games, food, laughs, and a good time. One of the payments you can do to enter a tournament is $10, giving you guaranteed 2 set/booster packs regardless of placement, a foiled card, and a chance at the Jake Wheel (has a picture of the shop's cat on it), on top of what you get for placement. My uncle won a game night box, and today we sat down after the tournament with some friends and played. After manaweaving the God awful land placements, we shuffled a good amount of times, and had a 5 player free for all. Everyone agreed it was more fun than the 1on1 tournament because of the chaos and would love to do it again after every tournament for funsies. As a new player, being able to get 5 ready to go decks from such a low price point per deck, I think it's a steal. Especially if you have friends or family that are interested in getting into the game, as all 5 have good matchups with each other. Also very fun to yell "Trigger!!!" as a collective everytime a golem attacks. Remember, play Magic for fun, not to sweat and win
Tl;dr: Good for friend groups, new players that may be interested or short on cards, or after tourney games for relaxing. 10/10, would definitely get again
Thanks for making this review-- I was kind of on the fence about it after reading some comments on Reddit about the decks being slightly better. If it's like Duel Decks gameplay-wise, that's encouraging! Hopefully I can get this on sale someday.
Definitely check online during american black friday, and Christmas time. It might go on sale depending on how the print run is
I love precon sets like this to play with my kids. They know how to play buy aren't to the deck building ability yet, so this is perfect for our family.
6:06 ”ok the art is really cool” haha I love it too! ❤
Haha I literally cut a part of the deck holder areas off the last game nights model, making space for sleeved decks XD you're the best prof.
1:10 “Either way there are five cards-” [holds up four fingers]
Wow, my first bot reply!
Fantastic content as always Professor. Feel better soon!
I've gotten the last 2 game knights and I have to say this is the best one. It's great for beginners but not brand new players is the best way to think about it. Personally Im gonna make these 5 into beginner commander decks for my friends that don't play commander
No joke, a friend of mine and I were playing with the new pioneer decks and it became apparent that the Dimir Control deck was extremely bad. As a fun experiment we pitted it against the green deck from this set…
The Green deck won…
Twice.
I'm definitely in the category for these, and I might pick this one up. I've not picked up either of the last two, but I did get all of the exclusive cards. The thing these lack is something more to make them stand out. Planechase is my favorite way to play magic, and I adore the Explorers of Ixalan box set. I love when they do these but with some added new spice to the game. These just 5 decks with a new card each just lack a bit for the price imo. Please make the next one of these a planechase thing WotC, since you're never gonna do the old style ones again!
Unfortunately the word is that a return to plane chase in unlikely. I’m in the minority that would prefer “board game versions” of MTG to just have different backs so that they could go crazy with the cards without effecting the resale price or real formats. If they want to put in 5 “real” cards to incentivize that’s fine, that’s all the cards people were going to take out anyways
I pick this up, because although me and my friends are Tcg players we are not MTG played, however we do like magic and usually play it with borrowed decks at our local shop. We bought this product to have our own "cheap" decks, for where we want to play MTG without having to invest in the game.
Play with the mythics as commanders, trust me. Had a lot of fun this weekend.
Game Night (the original) has done a lot to help my marriage. I'm one of many 30 something Magic players that's been playing since middle school but have a wife that doesn't play at all. She had a couple bad experiences getting beat down by me and my brother-in-law and others the few times she tried to play, but she was thoughtful enough to buy Game Night for me for Christmas one year as one last option where she could engage in my hobby in a way that gives her a reasonable chance of holding her own. Since then, she has beaten me a few times, and comes close every time, and with original Game Night's half deck set up, there are literally thousands of different deck configurations we can use against each other. I'm definitely thinking I'm one of those very few for whom this product might be for, even though I am playing 1 on 1. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll get me one for Christmas again.
I'd love to see you play something like this on Shuffle Up And Play
Every new player should at least have fun and enjoy the pains of doomblade lightning bolt path etc... so i feel like this is actually a pretty awesome start for new players so they can share a piece of history we all started with.
One of the transition effects at 3:20 reminded me of those dual lands that you have to sell your kidney for 😂
It’s ok, you can shell out even more money now for proxies. I hear the packs are going 4 for 999.00.
@@russellharrell2747 They don't have the square text box even in retro frame which I find hilarious
My only card game experience is Pokémon but I’ve had a vague interest in Magic the Gathering for a while and the Lord of the Rings sets really caught my eye. I’m interested in getting the start kit for that (commander decks seem really expensive), but this also caught my eye. Having just 5 basic mini type decks seems like a really great way to introduce the different types and learn what they’re all about.
It sounds like they have the same issue the Pokémon theme decks have though of “here’s a bunch of decent cards of X type” but there’s no synergy between them. But I’m guessing that’s what the commander decks would offer.
I'm just getting into this as well, with no ccg experience, I think I'm gonna get this and build commanders out of it and some singles from tcgplayer
Gotta thank Facebook for helping me with finding this channel, especially the infinite mana goblin combo video, genuinely curious about MTG
I've been teaching kids 8 -10 in the family to play MTG with the play night decks. Teaches the fundamentals and gets them to think about how they would build a deck.
I love your videos so much, I always check in before I buy anything because I appreciate such the honest opinion ☺️ thanks so much
I'm so glad!
I just started getting into magic a couple days ago due to a couple friends egging me on to try it. I bought 2 starter decks being azorious spirits and dimir rogues. I have only played with the spirit deck at this point, but am having a good time so far though im still learning all the different terminology lol. Going to a tournament tomorrow at my local game shop and gonna get my butt handed to me but hey, thats how you learn
What's the average word count on the cards? And the number of unique cards? Usually an interesting metric for new-player experience.
Some people in my playgroup are fans of the old school Star format, but it only really works if you have reasonably balanced decks for each colour. Might pick this up as a self-contained Star game in a box, and also to play as duel decks against another pal who is pretty new to the game.
Glad you made this video, thinking of teaching my gf to play magic. If she likes it I might consider picking this up, between 2 of us theres a decent bit of variety in each game for it to hopefully stay enjoyable
I used to LOVE Ticket to Ride. One of my favorite board games.
Picked one of these up the other day, looking forward to trying it this weekend.
I still have my game night 2019 i bought it in 2021 while i was in military school to have some fun since I didn't have access to my phone or anything pretty good product though the green deck is pretty op imo lol would recommend.
This is a great product for playing with your kids. It removes a lot of the frustration they might have when it comes to feeling like your deck is more powerful than theirs, it gives them some/limited choices in what they want to play without having them build their own deck... which, with young'uns... can be something of a nightmare.
The gameplay is fairly straight forward and while it does have a lot of play and counter-play, it doesn't seem like it delves into the 'weeds' of the magic rule system. When you are first introducing someone to Magic and they want to get those initial games under their belt without a ton of frustrating moments and rules clarifications, these decks are great. They exemplify what that color is supposed to feel like, in a great number of ways.
For kids about 9-13, these are what I would use to get them into the game and get them familiar with the core concepts, without overwhelming them with all the options and rules. I don't know if the Arena decks are as great at giving people that experience, so I can't comment on that front... but having enjoyed the Game Night products in the past, I am pleased with this one... though I might wait for the inevitable price drop.
I am teaching my wife how to play, and this seemed worth it. I bought it. Thanks for the review!
I think for new player decks, having a variety of types of cards is good. They want new players to get an idea of a few possible styles of play rather than just one, and then having variability is fun. Tuned/competitive decks are also fun, but in a different way - so I'm glad that they don't go that route for introductory decks. Makes for a few games where you're still discovering new cards and effects and that's intriguing.
@TolarianCommunityCollege PentaGON is not the same as pentaGRAM. The former is simply a geometric shape whereas the latter is a stylized 5-pointed star frequently used to represent evil or demonic things. The container for this product happens to be a pentagon.
My apologies if someone else already pointed this out.
I would treat these Game Night collections as a great gift to someone who isn't sure if they want to get into MtG but do enjoy playing other board games and card games. Worst case, it becomes part of their collection and gets opened once or twice a year. Something to present during the holidays, perhaps.
Something that would drastically increase the fun, is if someone were to play a power deck, and everyone else has to either collectively fight against them, or free for all fight against them.
Like someone is the 'nichol bolas' player, with a hard tuned deck.
I've never played MTG. I wasn't interested at all until I came across this channel and The Command Zone. I plan on buying some MTG stuff so I can start playing but I just don't know what to get or where to start. Any suggestions anyone??
grab one of the new starter commander decks! we had a new person join our Saturday Commander League by buying the First Flight starter deck and she has been winning a lot against most of us. i hope you have a great time!
I can see a use in my house for this. My kids and I play pokemon TCG now and I use to play MTG. My kids have expressed interest in learning and instead of going through the storage unit for cards that haven't seen light in nearly a decade or wasting a ton of cash on premade decks. I could get this and use it to let them take their first steps without being upset at the cost should they decide its not for them. I could also see most card shops having a copy for store use. Would be a good way to show someone whos looking at getting into the game without throwing them completely into the deep end. Just pick a color, and step by step a few turns with them. See how they feel.
I have some friends who know how to play but don't collect anymore or at all, I have a battle box made up of the ravnica guildkits for when they want to get a game in. I think if you are in a similar situation where your casual doesn't-play-all-the-time group likes to play 60 card magic, this box works in a similar way to my battle box. Releasing a new one every couple of years means you can keep it fresh without putting a lot of effort into making your own (if you like making your own then by all means you can). I have a battle box of commander precons for when they want to play commander for the same reason and I have a starter cube from card kingdom for when my draft group wants to draft but money is tight. It's a product of convenience and $50 for 5 decks isn't a lot of money. You might spend close to that sleeving it up depending on your brand of sleeves
Dang it prof... as much as I hate ads, your reads are clever and I like your content too much to skip them. Plus I'm worried that youtube will know I am skipping past the ad portion XD.
For more advanced I recommend playing 5 color star format.
For 1v1 decks are too simple for anything more than basic rules learning or for kids.
But with 5 players and complex alliances simple cards are actually great to lower board complexity.
The best Magic "game night" product was/is Jumpstart. Endless replayability. Low complexity level for newer players. Really fun deck themes. Jumpstart is just the magic version of the game Smash Up, and it works just as well as a box set.
I bought this with my girlfriend last week. It's what has gotten us hooked to MTG:Arena. Worth it for a soft introduction to magic to play with your friends