News - Magic: The Gathering 2018 Spring Announcement Day

By Dozer

edit: thanks to Wolf - we also added some other new about Magic the Gathering but not from Wizards - Dozer

Wow a huge dump of news just dropped and it's all very interesting.

I've put down some bullet points or you can watch the video at the end of the post.

We're back to Ravnica.

There will be a 3 set block: Guilds of Ravnica dropping 5 Oct 2018, Ravnica Allegiance due in Jan 2019, and an unknown titled set. Each set will also focus on five guilds and those will be featured by the follow on Guild Kits products to be released 2 Nov 2018 and Feb 2019 respectivly. Note that the guild kits will include cards from each of the previous Ravnica blocks. The first was Ravnica released in 2005-2006, which included Ravnica: City of Guilds, Guildpack, and Dissension. The last was Return to Ravnica released in 2012-2013, which was made up of  Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, and the small expansion Dragon's Maze.

Guilds of Ravnica will focus on "the harmonious Selesnya (green-white), the militant Boros (red-white), the life-and-death-focused Golgari (black-green), the frazzled geniuses of the Izzet (blue-red), and the mystery of the Dimir (blue-black)". While Ravnica Allegiance will showcase "the orderly Azorius (white-blue), the chaotic Rakdos (black-red), the wild Gruul (red-green), the experimental Simic (green-blue), and the devious Orzhov (white-black)". The last unnamed set will focus on the end of the story arc that the gatewatch is currently caught up in rather than focus on the guilds.

For me this is big news. It's not surprising news as Ravnica is one of best known and more popular planes in Magic the Gathering. It was at the end of Dragon's Maze and the Magic 2014 when I returned to magic after last playing in Tenth Edition. It's also been expected that we'd be coming back to the plane of Guilds. As a loyal Dimir player this is great news for me.

One of the large changes to the set the updates to the guild styles and look. Dimir is getting an awesome looking update. Plenty of solid blacks and blue trimed colours reminding me of the video game series Dishonored - one of my all time favorite video game IPs.

New Dimir Guild style update
Images used without permission

Simic also gets a new fresh style. With lab coat with organic material look that makes them feel like magical scientists who's favorite movie would be Jurassic Park.

New SimicGuild style update
Images used without permission

Two-Headed Giant is Thing

Two-Headed Giant is one of my favorite formats. I prefer to play my pre-release events in the two-headed giant format. Well Wizards has announced a new set - Battlebond. A set where get get to first look at when the preview season kicks off on 22 May. It also looks to be released this time next month so suddenly there is a lot of new cards coming down range. This looks like it would fit well next to the Commander products and other alternate format styles.

Buy a Box Promos are here to stay

With the success of the last couple of buy a box promotions, Wizards has decided to keep it going. So if you see something you like, you may want to pre-order your box. Also you can now pick up your pre-ordered box at the pre-release instead of waiting that extra week. Sounds awesome!

Spellslinger is Back!

Day 9 and the folks from Geek and Sundry have brought back my favorite series about Magic the Gathering. If you're looking for a great youtube series to show off the game or get someone interested check out Spellslingers. It's back and I can't be more happy about it. Shows start up again for this 30 May.

So take a look at the video below and start hitting the net.

This is a good year for Magic the Gathering

- Cheers

Primer - Couples Boardgame

By: Dozer

Listed below are games that I’ve played more than once with my wife.

Each of the games below are great to play with small (1-2 players), mid (3-4 players), and with larger groups (5+) so they’ve seen play outside of just me and my wife. All games listed below are great games and are recommended for folks looking to expand on their collection of couple friendly games that can also be played quickly and with larger groups. Some can even be used to introduce your kids or other young humans you know into board games.

All of these games can be found at your local game shops. If you live in Ottawa, I recommend Fandom 2 if you're down town, Out of the Box and Wizards Tower if you live in the west end, and Kessel Run if you live in the east end. Otherwise Amazon or Meeplemart (based on Toronto) can ship free or at minimum cost.

Each game has won awards and in the case of some multiple game of year awards. Most of these games can be previewed on Youtube channels like Tabletop or Watch it Played, and reviewed by folks from Shut up and Sitdown.

Lets take a look after the break.

First Look - Charterstone

By: Dozer

Editor's Note: This post has been a yo-yo, going up and down over and over again. This may not be the first time you've seen this come up. Sorry for any confusion. - Dozer

I can now say that Stonemaier Games makes some of my favorite boardgames since I've played my first game of Charterstone. They are also the designers and makers of Scythe and the two expansions (with a third to drop soon).

Charterstone is a legacy style format village building game. Each game builds towards the completion of a campaign. Right now I am playing a two player campaign with Shonty. We've played our first game last weekend and it was awesome. I handle the various boxes while Shonty reads outloud the cards and new rules.

I want to blitz through the rules but that does two things. Firstly I fuck up the rules all the time. Plenty of folks have to correct my initial reading of the rules. Secondly Shonty is a visual learner and me reading through them quickly just gets her confused and lost. So I have to hold back and listen and it's a better experience for everyone involved.

To get a good idea of what the game is about without spoilers check out the video below. If you don't mind some minor hints of what's to come, the rest of the post on just the first game is after the break below the video.

Charterstone so far has been a great game and very interesting and I've just wanted to keep playing.

Some of the mechanics were a little wonky to understand at first but by slowing down and some help by the interactive FQA (which is broken down so they don't spoil the game) we were able to figure them out.

Last bit of advice before the break - Do Not Open the Re-Charge pack. It has spoilers and when I got the game, my brother Nate who bought both the game and a re-charge pack unwrapped both boxes. I took a look inside and I regret doing it. There is a single item that I won't mention and I wonder where it is in the game but I can't wait to find out why said random item is in the game.

Now lets talk about game one...

GENCON 2019 - Waiting

By: Dozer

Everyone is waiting for pages to reload as their wishlist for GENCON is being processed.

I'm with Luke, we have the smoker going. Our glasses are filled with spicy moss water. The wives are resting at the spa. This could be way more stressful.

So I write poetry as I wait:

smoker flavors fill the air
guitar plays numbers drop drink
spicy moss water

- better haiku

See you all at GENCON

- Dozer