Why this place has ‘Snack’ in the title

Seeing as this is only the Gaiden or side story blog I feel that I should explain what it is.

I write twice weekly for www.foodstufffinds.co.uk on snackfood and convenience food (on a good day they get 1,000 hits!) and gradually my reviews were becoming more and more self indulgent. I was shoehorning which ever game I was most obsessed by into the reviews such as:

 

Nintendo 3DS Launch - Amsterdam [by @NLi10]

Halo Reach - Mana Potion Vs Sleep [feat. Halo Reach] [by @NLi10] (CyberCandy Birmingham)

The Overlong MW2 rant - Health Potion, www.manapotions.com by @nli10 (via Cyber Candy, Birmingham UK)

Blood, Blood & True Blood [by @NLi10] (Various Victims)

And THREE for the Indiegame Uprising:

Cake & Biscuits - Various small enterprises [By @NLi10] , 19 Gales Fresh Hand Made Blueberry & Apple Turnover {by @NLi10} (19 Gales Farm Shop - Birmingham University Campus) , 19 Gales Fresh Hand Made Pork Pie [by @NLi10] (19 Gales Farm Shop - Birmingham University Campus)

Etc.

I think that FSF should stay more about the snacks so I've moved the long game rants here and started fresh. It means that @Cinabar doesn't have to proofread 1,000 word articles on Magic Cards, obscure ikkitosen games and I get to rant somewhere (and have card lists available when I need them in one place).

I'm hoping that the next time I don't turn down an invite to a games event (supposed to be going to London for the 3DS again, staying in bed instead) I can write it up long here, and then just talk about the consumables on www.foodstufffinds.co.uk

Anyway – feel free to pester me on Twitter or on either blog. @NLi10

And just because I'm having fun with these things (both writing & gaming) it doesn't mean I claim to be any good.

 

Just my reviews.

http://foodstufffinds.blogspot.com/search?q=NLi10

MTG is addictive – DO NOT START

Seeing as I'm updating this when I pick up more cards I thought I'd throw something up today.

I 'won' a few more auctions on the ebay over the past week and there are two shipments of cards either on their way or waiting for one final auction to end. Once this lot is sorted I'll put a link to my favourite seller, it'll keep the prices out of my reach for a few days. Combining a habit forming card game with an auction site that uses games style feedback to keep you playing is a dangerous thing.

 

I think a realistic life time limit now of £100 is going to be sensible. I'm just passed 3/4 way there already in about a week, but frankly I do have everything that I'd want now. I'd be more likely to go pick up 1 or 2 mana cards for 10p from Wayalnds Forge again to smooth out my horrible mana curves. The fact that I understand this means I've been thinking about it too much.

Over the past week I've made another 2 decks bringing the total to 3, and I'm happy with one and the other two I threw together and barely looked at. Will get to play with them next week hopefully.

Singles Night

Had the day off today and was in town anyway so visited Waylands Forge to check out the single cards.

Spent much longer looking through them than I planned but came away with some decent things that I'd wanted, and some cards I'd never heard of that looked good.

Finished making deck number 2 based on a pre-constructed beginner deck that had a lot of the more expensive cards I fancied in it anyway.  The black deck (with a hint of blue) that I made lost at work, but I drew 5 or 6 mana in a row which is pretty hard for a vampire based deck to live through.  Such is Magic.  Will keep it the same and try again, but I have more confidence in the new deck.

And besides, this one's a lot more 'Dominion' and fun.

Up to 500 non land cards now and the budget idea has long gone out of the window.  One set of e-bay card yet to arrive, and one auction for the remaining card I fancy still to end. Other than that I'm not buying until the next expansion hits.

Deck Builders Toolkit 2011 - Booster Packs

As most people will tell you the actual Deck Building portion of the toolkit is great, but most of the locked in value comes from the 4 recent boosters.

If I sold the uncommon, rare & mythic cards from my two sets I'd probably recoup my spend.

Sword of Body and Mind was my biggest draw and is worth about £12
Liliana Vess was the second best and is worth about £4
as these mythic rares were both in the same box this was a bargain!

The other box had more mid price cards, but a foil Phylactery Lich which is pretty cool, but a really low value foil rare.

Once I've had a serious look at everything I'll evaluate what I got more clearly and I've decided not to sell anything until I get the ebay cards and decide what works well together.

Excluding commons across 8 boosters I got:

1 Liliana Vess

1 Myrsmith

1 Razor Hippogriff

1 Halt Order

1 Sword of Body and Mind

1 Stone Golem

1 Corrupt

1 War Priest of Thune

1 Myr Turbine

1 Nested Ghoul

1 Accorder Paladin

1 Lead the Stampede

1 Triskelion

1 Earth Servant

1 Corrupt

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Phylactery Lich

1 Elite Vangard

1 Crystal Ball

1 Reassembling Skeleton

1 Necrotic Plague

1 Pyroclasm

1 Demon’s Horn

1 Chandra’s Spitfire

1 Cerebral Eruption

1 Liquimetal Coating

1 Bloodshot Trainee

1 Carrion Call

1 Mirran Crusader

1 Kuldotha Flamefiend

1 Viridian Corrupter

1 Metallic Mastery


Plus the Semi Random packs of cards you get to start decks


And the standard cards you get in every DeckBuilder's ToolKit

Deck Builders Toolkit 2011 - Standard Cards

These are the 100 lands and 115 Common/Uncommon cards that appear in every box for the 2011 Deck builder's Toolkit

If you spot any mistakes let me know.

20 of each land
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Evolving Wilds

Artifacts:

1 Perilous Myr

1 Strider Harness

1 Prophetic Prism

2 Evolving Wilds

1 Pilgrim's Eye

White:

1 Infantry Veteran

1 Soul's Attendant

2 Squadron Hawk

1 Kor Skyfisher

1 Kor Hookmaster

1 Assualt Griffin

1 Cloud Crusader

2 Pacifism

1 Solemn Offering

1 Safe Passage

1 Inspired Charge

1 Condemn (uncommon)

1 Serra Angel (uncommon)

Blue: 

1 Augury Owl

1 Scroll Thief

1 Cloud Elemental

1 Aether Adept

1 Azure Drake

1 Planted Seastrider

1 Surrakar Banisher

2 Cancel

1 Mana Leak

1 Foresee

1 Preordain

1 Ice Cage

1 Mind Control (uncommon)

1 Jace's Ingenuity (uncommon)

Black:

1 Guul Draz Vampire

1 Blood Seeker

1 Viscera Seer 

1 Child of Night

1 Cadaver Imp

1 Crypt Ripper

1 Jagwasp Swarm

2 Doom Blade

1 Duress

1 Quag Sickness

1 Sign in Blood

1 Grasp of Darkness

1 Corrupt (uncommon)

1 Skinrender (uncommon)

Red:

1 Goblin Tunneler

1 Fiery Hellhound

1 Vulshok Heartstoker

1 Arc Runner

1 Manic Vandal

1 Ogre Resister

1 Berserkers of Blood Ridge

2 Lightning Bolt

1 Flame Slash

1 Chandra's Outrage

1 Act of Treason

1 Demolish

1 Fireball (uncommon)

1 Prodigal Pyromancer (uncommon)

Green:

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Garruk's Companion

1 Overgrown Battlement

1 Viridian Emissary

1 Giant Spider

1 Alpha Tyrranax

1 Spined Wurm

1 Harrow

1 Giant Growth

1 Plummet

1 Naturalize

1 Savage Silhouette

1 Leatherback Baloth (uncommon)

1 Garruk's Packleader (uncommon)


Plus The Semi Random bunches of cards you get in the box


And The contents of my 4 Boosters (x2)

Deck Builders Toolkit 2011 - semi random cards

Ok,

So I overshot on my budget due to in store excitement, but I ended up with two 2011 Deck Builder's Toolkits and with my e-bay order of 30 cards this puts me at 600 cards.

I have spent:
DBT11 x2 @ £17 = £34

ebay                      = £7

Rounding up in both cases gives me £41 spent from an original budget of £25. As Jedward would say 'opps'.


First up a breakdown of the card list from the Deck Builders Toolkit.  As expected it's different from the 2010 one and has a even mix of the cards by colour but a few extra colourless thrown in.  There are 11 different semi random deck builders and the 7 I know about are listed at the end.  I'll list the 115 standard common/uncommon cards in a separate post.

I got Vampires/Elves/Battle Cry/Black Discard and then Vampires/Elves/White Equipment/Library Depletion

Hoped to get less duplicates, but still great.

See other posts for my 8 boosters and the standard cards.


Semi random packs inside deck builders toolkit 2011 (you get 4 randomly out of the 11):

Vampires

1 GateKeeper of Malakir

1 Feast of Blood

1 Urge To Feed

1 Vampire Nighthawk

1 Bloodthrone Vampire

1 Barony Vampire

1 Pulse Tracker

1 Ruthless Cullblade

2 Vampire Lacerator

Elves

1 Joraga Treespeaker

1 Lead the Stampede

1 Greenweaver Druid

1 Pennon Blade

1 Arbor Elf

2 Wildheart Invoker

1 Ezuri’s Archers

1 Coperhorn Scout

1 Sylvan Ranger

Battle Cry

1 Signal Pest

1 Goblin Wardriver

1 Ember Hauler

1 Memnite

2 Kuldotha Ringleader

1 Goblin Arsonist

1 Goblin Balloon Brigade

1 Rally the Forces

1 Emrakul’s Hatcher

Black Discard

1 Liliana’s Caress

1 Rise from the Grave

1 Bloodhusk Ritualist

1 Mind Sludge

2 Liliana’s Specter

1 Mind Rot

1 Phyrexian Rager

1 Psychic Miasma

1 Last Kiss

White Equipment

1 Elite Vangard

1 Kemba’s Legion

1 Kor Duelist

1 Trusty Machete

2 Kitesail Apprentice

1 Journey to Nowhere

1 Fledgling Griffin

1 Sylvok Lifestaff

1 Strider Harness

Library Depletion

1 Wall of Frost

1 Hedron Crab

1 Guard Gomazoa

1 Call To Mind

2 Tome Scour

1 Jace’s Erasure

1 See Beyond

1 Sea Gate Oracle

1 Mnemonic Wall

Metalcraft: 

1 Volatic Key 

1 Stone Golem

1 Golem Foundry 

1 Perilous Myr 

1 Myr Sire

1 Darksteel Myr

1 Palladium Myr

1 Razorfield Rhino

2 Chrome Steed


Blue-White Flyers
1 Air Servant
1 Sleep
1 Serra Angel
1 Oust
2 Stormfront Pegasus
1 AEther Adapt
1 Unsummon
1 Arrest
1 Negate


Mana Ramp
1 Duskdale Wurm
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Batloth Woodcrasher
2 Cultivate
1 Explore
1 Overgrown Battlement
1 Ondu Giant
1 Yavimaya Wurm

White-Green Aura
1 Boar Umbra
1 Mammoth Umbra
1 Cudgel Troll
1 Shepherd of the Lost
2 Aura Gnarlid
1 Totem-Guide Hartbeest
1 Sacred Wolf
1 Spider Umbra
1 Hyena Umbra

Red Burn
1 Chandra's Spitfire
1 Fire Servant
1 Forked Bolt
1 Cunning Sparkmage
1 Flame Slash
1 Arc Runner
1 Lava Axe
1 Fling
2 Kiln Fiend

Plus Standard DeckBuilderToolkit Cards that are in every box

And The contents of my 4 boosters (x2)



All via my own packs & http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=6493136#post6493136
With thanks to posters mabhatter & jclrb

Friday Night Commerce

Seems like it's Friday we'll be picking up our Deck Builder's Toolkits (This http://amzn.to/eMNSv4) from Wayland's Forge and maybe I'll post up a vid/card list as no one has done it yet for this year's edition.

For £17 RRP you get 285 cards (100 land, 125 semi randoms & 4x15 in new boosters) based around the 2011 set which wouldn't leave me much cash for other things. I'm going to budget £25 and that means £8 left for singles – presuming I don't get anything that's sellable out of the box.

If I get a single card worth >£10 I well flip that at the earliest opportunity. For a new player it's all about scope and figuring out what is fun to play.

Time Poor, Cash Rich Gaming

Seems the next few casual gaming tasks that I'll be undertaking will be related to the current craze of Magic The Gathering that has swept my workplace. This is all due to me picking up Duels of the Planeswalkers for 400 points on the Xbox during a sale and now closing in on 100% on all DLC. As the game has cost me around £15 so far (2080 MS points to be exact) and I've put in 100+ hours of play time I really don't feel hard done by.

The physical card game has always been on my radar (I was gaming when it came out but laughed at the price structure) but now seems a good time to jump in and play. Presuming that there aren't many more expansions for Planeswalkers on the 360/PS3 my total spend will be under £20. So my aim is to make a decent set of magic cards to play with (multiple decks) and compare the experiences. I'm starting with a Deck Builder's Toolkit (out this week) and then moving on from there. I know what my two main ideas are, but it depends on the cards, and naturally what the 3 other people I'll be mainly playing with go for. All seem to be choosing different options for acquiring cards which keeps it interesting.

Also I'm only buying one videogame a month (not including live points) as I've got a massive backlog. So far this year it's been/will be:

Jan: History Channel Medieval Battles (360)

Feb: Prof Layton Timey Wimey Thing (DS)

March: 3DS + 2 games

April: Portal 2 (360)

 

Again – this isn't cash flow problems, I just don't see the point in buying stuff that's going to be cheaper by the time I get to use it. Will keep you posted.