What’s up everyone? It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my recent obsession with Magic: The Gathering, which is really an old obsession that was revitalized in the last few months. The reason I haven’t had much to report is because I wasn’t playing the game quite as much. I built 5 decks that were standard legal, and had honed those down mostly to where I wanted them, just to realize that in a month the new set to finish of the Kaladesh block, Aether Revolt, would be releasing. At that point my friends and I sort of said that we would just wait for that day and then get back into it.

Yesterday was the release of the new set. Aether Revolt builds upon the ideas presented in Kaladesh. That set was very Artifact focused, along with adding in Vehicles and the mechanics Fabricate and Energy to an already complicated game. AR brings two new mechanics called Improvise and Revolt. Improvise is more artifact love, because artifacts on the battlefield can be used to pay for the casting cost of cards with that mechanic listed on them. So, if I have a card with a casting cost of 1 blue & 6 colorless, I must have an island to play the blue cost, but could theoretically use 6 artifacts to cover the colorless casting cost, and keep other mana around for other uses. It’s a neat trick and I’ve had some success building around it. Revolt is a new bounce mechanic, in that if you have any sort of cards that can bounce something, or if you have anything on the battle field die or otherwise enter the gave yard, the new card with Revolt on it will get counters. Basically, if you have a bounce (target card leaves the battlefield and then reenters the battlefield) you can play that, then play a card with revolt and it will get +1/+1 or +2/+2 (whatever it says on the card). It’s not something I’ve used yet but I have some ideas how it could work. Apparently a new white creature card in conjunction with one of the Planeswalkers I have from Kaladesh has created a new infinite combo that will win you the game. I plan to try that out.

After work yesterday I drove out to a local card shop and picked up a Booster box for the set. 36 packs, and a 1 in 4 chance to snag an invention, which are the super rare cards from this block. I didn’t get one, but I was happy with what I pulled out of the deck. When all was said and done I amassed a handful of Mythic Rares, a ton of regular rares and some decent uncommons. Even some of the commons this time around are pretty good. We also decided to have our own mini-tournament, which we played in Limited (sealed deck) format. This is the thing that happens when you go play at a pre-release event or a Friday Night Magic tournament. My friends have gone to this, I have yet to do so. I’d like to do pre-release stuff for the next set later this year.

Anyway, we all bought some cards last night, and we decided to roll with 6 packs each. We open those packs, and then make a deck of 40 cards, then played best of 3’s against each other. Next thing I knew it was 2 in the morning, but hey, it was fun. I ended up doing fairly well, despite having zero experience with this format. I beat one of my friends 2-0, then he played my other friend and lost 2-1, and I played the same friend losing 2-1 as well. He took the cake as he usually does, but it was fun all around. I feel like I have a good grasp of the mechanics of the set, and I’m looking forward to upgrading my constructed decks and making some new ones. My interest has been revitalized, and I’m thankful that new sets come at a time when your interest starts to wane.

So I’m sure I’ll have some new deckbuilding ideas and more reports from the field to share with you guys soon. Until then, happy gaming, where ever you find yourselves!