BNG Bulk Card Lot

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Happy Saturday MTG peeps,

We had unfortunately missed last week's Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario which was the official launch of the latest set Magic: the Gathering set, Born of the Gods.  We did however make it out last evening's event and did place in Top 8 again (field of just under 30 players) with a white weenie (humans splashing black for Xathrid Necromancer to produce zombies).  We did not include any new BNG cards in the mix but hope to tweak the decklist for next week now that we have finally gotten around to organise all the new cards.

In less than two days, we had our bulk card order shipped from MTG Mint Card in Hong Kong and on our door step here in Central Ontario (about an hour north of Toronto) - and in fact, because we were rather busy with work, it took us longer to sort the collection than it took to deliver it.  For only $28.99 (price subject to change), you get a deckset (or book set) of 4 of each of the 60 uncommons and 60 commons in this set for a total of 480 cards - not bad at all.

Our collection is essentially organized by rarity and colour.  Mythic Rares, Rares and Uncommons all go into binders and Commons get sorted into Fat Pack boxes as shown below in out pictorial documentary.

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Dragon's Maze Top Non-Rares

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

On Monday we received our Dragon's Maze preorders from MTG Mint Card, which included our usual decksets (four of each card) of new Commons and Uncommons.  Tracking down an extra card or two of a popular staple is irritating and sometimes costly so the most inexpensive way of nailing this is grabbing a bulk lot.  The order got here in record time again . . . Packaged and dropped off at the courier (UPS) just shortly after midnight early Friday morning, our cards traveled by boat, air, and truck approximately 7,900 miles (~12,7000 kilometers) to our front step on Monday afternoon (yep - just about 4 days).

Anywhoos - as we now have all our Dragon's Maze Commons and Uncommons, it's time for us here at MTG Realm to sit down and give our opinion of the Top 5 cards in each rarity.  We've come to this order by the four of us voting on a variety of aspects including how popular we think the card will be in Modern and Standard format, and evene including card art. 

Righto - Here's the unboxing video and our picks -
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Top 5 Uncommons 
#1 - Putrefy 
#2 - Far • Away
#3 - Turn • Burn
#4 - Unflinching Courage
#5 - Sin Collector

Top 5 Commons 

#1 - Zhur-Taa Druid 
#2 - Tithe Drinker
#3 - Crypt Incursion
#4 - Nivix Cyclops
#5 - Pilfered Plans

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We might as well provide some points on each card as well . . .

Uncommons

#1 - Putrefy - This is a solid reprint and the art is great. Sort of a poor man's Abrupt Decay (which we really can't afford).  Great against some Golgari critters which can regenerate.


#2 - Far • Away - A nice Dimir Control card. Both sides are relevant and the Fuse tech makes it a good choice against creature based decks.

#3 - Turn • Burn - We love that the burn spell is called . . 'burn'. Presents choices and potentially a two critter removal.  This looks good against cards (like Bloodbaron) who disapparate after their turn.


#4 - Unflinching Courage - We really loved Armadillo Cloak, and this card certainly floats our boat.  We feel auras and lifelink are relevant in today's metagame, trample is awesome icing.

#5 - Sin Collector - Good control choice.  You definitely want a turn three card like this to removal a potential threat on their turn four when the game typically heats up.  If you're greedy, we suggest a Cloudshift for full effect.

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Commons

#1 - Zhur-Taa Druid - This two-drop taps for green and pings each opponent every time you tank up on green - what's there not to like? This is a much needed mana dork.

#2 - Tithe Drinker - For two mana, this Orzhov 2/1 provides lifelink along with that's Guild's extort tech. In Modern, this is a perfect target for and Edge of Divinity.


#3 - Crypt Incursion - In our local metgame, about 1/3 to 1/4 of the decks are using graveyard shenanigans (like Junk Rites). This common instant is not the best card to address this but still well placed.

#4 - Nivix Cyclops - The art here shows that Izzet Cyclops before that Abrupt Decay came down. Modern players are considering this in a build with Kiln Fiend, Teleportal and / or Wee Dragonauts.


#5 - Pilfered Plans - Super value mill card. Card draw usually means card advantage.  Most will likely choose this over Divination.
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Random Bulk Lots

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Good Day folks,
We want to yatter to you today about the deals to be made from some online retailers.

We first started thinking about ordering sets or lots of cards - both random and organised sets after corresponding to our good buddy over at Casual Magic. We were a bit tentative about this but thought that this route may have some benefits over purchasing packs or boxes of booster packs. We had also read some good and poor reviews of this . . . well, this is ours.

There are 249 cards in Rise of the Eldrazi. More speficially, there are Mythic Rare, 53 rare, 60 uncommon, 101 common, and 20 basic lands. As we wanted to cherry-pick our rares after the release of RoE, we thought about pre-ordering a bulk random lot of RoE uncommons to obtain a near-instant collection of the latest 'n' greatest set. To this end we went to Troll and Toad and purchased 3 (three) X 50 Random Rise of the Eldrazi Uncommons - that's a total of 150 cards for $1.99 each (now $2.49 at time of post).

Here's the video dissection . . .

PROS
We rounded out our collection of the new set very nicely. We also actually received 157 cards - instead of the 150 - yeah(!) T'n'T get bonus points for the seven extra cards they had slipped into our order. We're not sure where you live but up here in the great white north, one can expect two things - polar bears knocking over garbage cans and expensive magic cards. Single uncommons usually run around $1 each and more if they are rather good cards. Having puchased a bulk random lot essentially saved us close to $120 for 150 cards after factoring in shipping up here - a very decent deal.

CONS
These are a random bulk purchase so expect random - multiples of one card and none of others - even with three lots purchased. Absent cards of note - Soulbound Guardians, Time of Heroes, Wall of Omens (!), Inquisition of Kozilek , Jaddi Lifestrider, Joraga Treespeaker, Pelakka Wurm, Enatu Golem, and Skittering Invasion. If you really want to get a hold of a specific card in a random lot, just simply purchase the single and don't hope you will get what you want.

Here are the details of what we received in three 50-card uncommon lots.

TOTALS
Count Name
3 Affa Guard Hound White
1 Emerge Unscathed White
2 Kabira Vindicator White
4 Luminous Wake White
4 Mammoth Umbra White
4 Oust White
0 Soulbound Guardians White
3 Survival Cache White
0 Time of Heroes White
0 Wall of Omens White
4 Crab Umbra Blue
2 Domestication Blue
2 Drake Umbra Blue
1 Enclave Cryptologist Blue
2 Guard Gomazoa Blue
2 Hada Spy Patrol Blue
3 Merfolk Skyscout Blue
3 Phantasmal Abomination Blue
1 Reality Spasm Blue
5 Unified Will Blue
3 Arrogant Bloodlord Black
2 Corpsehatch Black
2 Curse of Wizardry Black
7 Escaped Null Black
0 Inquisition of Kozilek Black
5 Nirkana Cutthroat Black
4 Pawn of Ulamog Black
2 Skeletal Wurm Black
2 Suffer the Past Black
4 Virulent Swipe Black
1 Akoum Boulderfoot Red
7 Brimstone Mage Red
5 Explosive Revelation Red
4 Forked Bolt Red
4 Lust for War Red
5 Rapacious One Red
3 Soulsurge Elemental Red
4 Surreal Memoir Red
2 Traitorous Instinct Red
3 Valakut Fireboar Red
2 Beastbreaker of Bala Ged Green
5 Boar Umbra Green
2 Bramblesnap Green
4 Broodwarden Green
2 Gravity Well Green
4 Irresistible Prey Green
0 Jaddi Lifestrider Green
0 Joraga Treespeaker Green
0 Pelakka Wurm Green
3 Prey's Vengeance Green
2 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Dreamstone Hedron
0 Enatu Golem
4 Not of This World
2 Ogre's Cleaver
1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
3 Pennon Blade
3 Runed Servitor
0 Skittering Invasion
4 Warmonger's Chariot
157

Summary - this is a decent deal - make tracks now. These guys had fast shipping and were the first to get to my door. There was a small issue with a customs brokerage fee as it had come across the border but it was put to bed by the great folks at Troll and Toad in a efficient and effective manner.
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