Modern Masters 2017 Ultra PRO

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

If you are a fashionable and hip Magic: the Gathering player at the game table, half the effort should be the bling, which includes perhaps the Commander's Arsenal life counter (or Ultra PRO's 'Realms of Havoc' Dayoote or ShadoΦte) and of course a sweet playmat and card sleeves.  You may have noticed we did not mention a tacky Crown Royal velvet dice bag.  

Anywhoos, if you are looking forward to the upcoming Modern Masters 2017 release, go all in with some sweet artwork featuring Snappy, Gobby Guide or the Ranger (folks round here call him Strider).  Here is the Ultra PRO line-up for Modern Masters 3 being released March 17, 2017.

Modern Masters 2017 Playmats
playmats are sized approximately 24" wide x 13.5" tall, and made with a premium fabric top for a smooth, protective playing surface. The back of the playmats are lined with non-slip, textured rubber material for added grip and padding.
• Snapcaster Mage, illustrated by Ryan Alexander Lee 
• Ranger of Eos, illustrated by Ryan Pancoas
• Goblin Guide, illustrated by Filip Burburan

Modern Masters 2017 Snapcaster Mage Deck Box, illustrated by Ryan Alexander Lee Deck Boxes hold approximately 80 sleeved cards, featuring our full-view design with clean artwork presentation and include a bonus deck divider.

Modern Masters 2017 Snapcaster Mage Deck Protector, illustrated by Ryan Alexander Lee.  Limited Print Deck Protector sleeves are produced with archival-safe polypropylene materials and sized 66mm X 91mm to store and protect standard sized gaming cards.

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Asgard Gear Deck Box Review

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Today, we want to provide our unbiased review for the hand-made Loki Deck Box from Asgard Gear.  We've been rocking with this box for about a week now and have traveled with it from our lair thrice to develop an opinion. 

MATERIALS

• Exterior Casing  - material is natural wood - specifically Walnut.  We've exposed the box to our regular use and have certainly Rustled the Jimmies.  The shell is solid, durable and has not scuffed or taken on any visible signs of wear.

• Joints -  Not that that kind.  Given the thickness of wood, through dovetail joints are not very practical, so Asgard Gear went with box joints.  All joints have wood adhesive and we're impressed with the work with the tricky work required for clamping.

• Finish - Tung Oil.  Walnut is a beautiful wood but unless it gets appropriate finishing, it could look just kinda meh.  Tung oil makes the lovely grain here just pop.  Benjamin Moore has been producing Tung Oil (from the Chinese Vernicia fordii tree seed_ since about the 1930's.  In our opinion, this environmentally considerate oil delivers the very best finish availble.

• Embellishments - All exterior wood parts are laser cut giving a very clean look. The crisp Asgard Gear logo, and Beta model marking are aesthetically pleasing.

• Interior Casing - Acrylic plastic. Perfect choice of material to protect cards, sleeved or not, from acquiring any undesirable wear.  Sleeved cards fit perfectly and slide out easily like snot on hot glass.

• Closure - Separate flush-fitting top sliding closure secured with two neodymium magnets.  These rare earth magnets provide a strong fastening.  we could not get the lid dislodged with a highly scientific drop test from the height of a gaming table.  We have preference to mag closures over exterior clasps which are more prone to damage.

USE

• The Asgard Gear Loki holds our sleeved 100-card Commander decklist perfectly.  At the moment, it is holding our Emmara Tandris list and the literal crap-ton of tokens this list generates - beasts, snakes, saprolings and elves are all house comfortable inside and perhaps there is a comparative to Doctor Who's TARDIS somewhere here.

SUMMARY

This is a great deck box and we love the look of it.  The price for the Deck Box is about what we would expect to pay for a high quality card storage box.  We do not have any complaints at all but would suggest that Asgard Gear should consider looking into offering  gamers the opportunity personalise the deck box with their name, deck name or perhaps even a simple graphic.

GIVEAWAY !!

This weekend at the Magic: the Gathering - Aether Revolt PreRelease at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario, there are a number of very cool random prizes up for grabs including the Asgard Gear Loki Deck Box.  There will be draws every event for free entries to regular weekly events at the store, as well as a chance to win an Aether Revolt Planeswalker Deck (2 available), and the Deck Box.  

OMG! Games will be running events all weekend long -
• Saturday - 12:00 am (Friday Midnight), 10:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:30 pm

• Sunday - 11:00 am, and 4:00 pm (Two-Headed Giant)

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Conspiracy Draft Archetypes

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

Conspiracy: Take the Crown is landing in a local gaming store near you this very weekend and Magic: the Gathering players who are fans of this draft-game format are looking forward.  For those out there, who like us, are not tip-top outside of constructed format, there are some good resources out there to help make this and following weekends fun.  First and foremost, pop on over to the mothersite to read Marshall Suttcliffe's really solid and helpful article 'First Look at Drafting Conspiracy: Take the Crown' for tips 'n' tricks.  Otherwise, scroll on down to the bottom for a nice summary we've found online.

For now, we want to bring you attention to the Ultra PRO product line-up for Conspiracy: Take the Crown set to keep your awesome pulls protected and looking slick while playing at the games table.

Playmat versions 1 - Queen Marchesa

Playmat versions 2 - Summoner's Bond

Playmat versions  - Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

Deck Protector / card sleeves - Kaya art

Deck Box - Queen Marchesa

Righto - back on track to drafting Conspiracy -

In limited, we've always thought of building sealed pool / draft akin to building our own game table monster - starting with creatures as the skeleton and other spells as 'fleshing' out the rest.  Beyond this horrible analogy, we're quite useless at strategy but we do know that certain colour combinations lend itself well to evasion, whether it is W/U flyers or Aggro Ramp with R/G.  We have noted in this set, there are a fair number of cards in black / white which lends itself more to becoming the 'Monarch' at your table and the benefits of additional card draw that come with that designation.

Redditor 'CountryCaravan' had put together a very decent guide over here which provides a decent primer and suggestions for colour archetypes to consider when drafting this set.  Good luck to all those gamers cracking Conspiracy packs this weekend.

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