SpartanNerd Review…MEGA Snake Mountain Packaging and Minifigs

September 26, 2022 by spartannerd

Well it finally came! After months of waiting. Honestly, I was suprised to see that the arrival date was to be ON OR BEFORE August 31. And in that way of thinking, I wasn’t suprised to see that it did not ship until mid September. Still, it is a faster turnaround than say, Magic the Gathering Secret Lair Drop Series. (You have to wait sometimes a whole year!)

Now I ordered this item because Castle Grayskull was terrific, and I have approached collecting the Masters of the Mega Construx as a sort of selective completist…(I don’t want that Battle Cat or the Havoc Staff.). I have every character on card and loose, almost. Still looking for another copy of Man-E-Faces and another copy of Scare Glow. My point is, I couldn’t pass up on the MEGA Snake Mountain.

NOTICE I KEEP SAYING “MEGA…” Mattel has changed the name again. Why? Mega Construx was a dumb name. But the way they are expressing MEGA now looks exactly like what they were trying to avoid when they moved away from the word “Mega Bloks.” That big MEGA looks like one of those blocks!

What else…I still have Castle Grayskull’s box. Because I must be insane, right?

When I compare the two boxes, it is very noticeable that they have “updated” the design aesthetic. WHY? This is very bad. There was art before…now only photos. Even as recently as the Monstroid and Land Shark, it seems there was more “art.” While it is notable on the front, on the back it is very very apparent. Castle Grayskull had this drawing on the back of the inside of the castle, that called back to the Eternia Maps that they did for the MOTUC line. Indeed, the Wind Raider also had something like this on the back. (I should go look at the other boxes. I am pretty sure Battle Bones, Wind Raider, Roton, and Talon Fighter did.). I believe I might ask Scott Neitich about this… Maybe he’ll make a video addressing it. (I notice that there is a re-issue of Castle Grayskull with this new boring style packaging.)

I am showing you more of the packaging…You can see striking differences on the side. I was curious what I would see as I opened it up. Castle Grayskull had what amounted to comic panels using the minifigures. There was a “drawn” element to them. Maybe not even any photos. But here on Snake Mountain, we just get action poses with the mini figures.

Mattel and MEGA missed an opportunity here. Now not only does this Snake Mountain needlessly mismatch to the first printing of Castle Grayskull, it makes fans like me just a little less joyful about it. The boxes were part of the wonder of getting new toys as a kid. Now we have this big downgrade. This packaging looks alot like the stuff they are doing for the MasterVerse line, (which I am not collecting.). Those boxes are a basic window with the figure on display. I daresay I even prefer what they did with the Heroes line with sporty gray and orange boxes to this style. BOO!!

But woefully, I have more to bad news to report…

What the crap! With Castle Grayskull, we got small boxes each containing a large component of the castle. And these boxes each featured the characters that were a part of the set. But here, we only get two large boxes. Not only that, these boxes have this flimsy sleeve over the top.

Now I really like the old Castle Grayskull box. It is useful for storing other MOTU related items. And because it was four interior basically shoeboxes, they lend some sturdiness to the box. There is not doubt in my mind that what they have done with Snake Mountain was a way of reducing packaging. But this Snake Mountain is a premium product with a premium price tag. It should match or exceed what came before. Instead, we have a flimsier box, a worse design choice with the two large boxes and the decorative sleeve, and boring images on the front. This packaging is getting a big F in my summation. I will use my apple pencil and color the images from the inner sleeves on my iPad when it snows or something…I did this with the Castle Grayskull art.

I will give props for ONE piece of artwork. This shows up when you open the box completely.

This is the only thing close to the style of what we got with Grayskull. And this image is on both of the instructions manuals.

SO I’VE GRIPED A TON ABOUT THE BOX.

What about the minifigures.

I’m glad I don’t have to say anymore bad stuff. The Minifigs offered here are very cool and welcome (for the most part.)

Let’s start with our feature character, Dragon Blaster Skeletor.

As a vintage toy, you put water in the dragon and pressed its head down so that it would spit water. It was kind of a specialized water gun. Here we have Skeletor with this dragon on the back. The chains pictured on the packaging look more silver, while these are light-gray-approaching white. It is cool that we have a dragon blast effect. Skeletor also comes with the purple sword. I wish they would give us proper stands with names instead of these green flat pieces. By the way, I had to dig through the boxes to get package number 1 which always contains the figures. The figures were spread across both boxes.

Thunder Punch He-Man.

No caps this time. But on his back the gunpowder cap is sculpted on, and the shield also features one. You can use the holder on the shield to place the fantastic clear-yellow sword.

Ram Man

You never know what they are going to do with Ram Man. There are a few different versions…200x he was huge. In Filmation and the vintage toy he was shorter. The MOTUC version was a very large and heavy figure. No versions have had springy legs since the 1980’s. But here they made a good Rammy. I thought we might get to remove the helmet, but it doesn’t seem to be removable. This is a bummer because you could give him the flat steel bald head. You also could use that helmet somewhere else.

Another Evil-Lyn. This time in vintage toy yellow. But the magic staff she has is much less impressive than all of the other versions we have gotten, including the “Heroes” printing in the same color. If I have to complain about one of the figures it is Evil-Lyn because we have so many versions of her, we already have this colorway…why not give us a Clawful or Jitsu or almost anyone else that we haven’t gotten yet. A Snake Man would have been outstanding, and they are tied to the lore of Snake Mountain. Now I have three Evil-Lyn sealed in box and three out of package. (If I am counting right.)

We get Screech.

This is Temple of Darkness Zoar’s stand, as I haven’t opened the castle yet to get out Screech’s feet and its own stand. It is the same as the other two birds we have, only purple. They really should give us proper birds with the wings spread out.

Webstor.

Here is one I didn’t have as a kid…I was actually only vaguely aware of him for some reason. I am unsure if the vintage one had those extra legs on the back…that seems like more of a 200x detail. He has a rope feature and an orange gun. I feel like he is kind of a plain kind of character without those big insect legs. (I do have some of the cartoons on DVD.). I really like what they did in 200x with this character…extra creepy.

And finally….Trap Jaw in vintage toy colors!

Love it! Notice I used these purple pieces to highlight the black details. I complained about getting Filmation colored Trap Jaw in my review of recent figure releases. And we have Minicomics Trap Jaw that came with the improved turret gun for Castle Grayskull in a Skeletor head set. But here is the Trap Jaw that I remember the best. My only complaint about any of the trap Jaw figures it that there is no little clip to hang the accessories on his belt.

The minifigures recieve a 5/5 because they are great. Snake Mountain’s packaging is a solid F because Mattel has done better and just didn’t seem to try this time. I give that packaging a 1/5. (I’ll probably still hang on to it because I am insane.)

Do you agree or disagree, Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments! I will keep posting updates as I work through Snake Mountain. (I have only built six little baggies so far, and there isn’t much to see yet.)

SpartanNerd Review…Mega Construx Slime Pit

July 5, 2022 by spartannerd

Back two years ago, when I decided to begin collecting the Mega Construx Masters of the universe, I frantically searched to find everything I could. But the hardest thing to get was this guy.

I’m talking about Battle Bones…Not the Wind Raider. (You can frequently still find the WR in stores.)

When building the Battle Bones (a San Diego Comic Con item), I couldn’t help but think, “They could re-purpose this head into a Slime Pit.). And I thought surely they would.

But that’s not what we got. Keep reading to see my experience!

We got a Skeletor Head Slime Pit.

Now this was an unexpected idea. I suppose I was thinking larger. But in scale, I guess this makes sense in context to the scale and size of Grayskull. But not in respect to the vintage toy, but in respect of the size of the Mega Construx minifigs. On the other hand, the Talon Fighter dwarfs this.

This Skeletor head is the same mold as the others, only this time in slime green. The picture on the package shows us Horde Zombie He-Man, and also the Slime Pit. At first I thought the green behind the mouth was a wall, but I realized that it was just the hollow inside of the Skeletor head. I kind of wish that was different. That it was a proper wall. Oh well! We are talking about something that costs less than $10. And I could build that wall if I really want to.

When you get the package off, this is what you see. The gray brick will be the floor. Here is the instructions with something else in there.

Here are all of the contents. I am thinking, “He-Man must be in the bag with the green stuff, with some other slimy pieces.” Nice extras, you know.

So I opened the instructions next.

It turns out that something extra in the instructions was rubbery slime pieces. The only slime that came with this set. BOO! Here are all of the pieces separated out. This is what I must do when I open a building set. Set them all out, sort them by type and color. But there aren’t many pieces with this Skeletor Head. The package said 70 pieces, but each minifig is around 20 pieces. (When I counted, I counted 73 when including the head and the floor. Am I wrong, Hub City Geeks?)

This is a cool, green slime He-Man. As I assembled, I couldn’t help but think about The Green Goddess, who apparently shattered when people opened her MOTUC package.

No extra slime pieces here. And here is the second thing I would improve about this set. There should be more “sliminess” to it. It isn’t even very gross. I remember the toy as a child really freaking out my mother. And she took that slime away from us and we never got to play with it. (Hope you are reading this now, Mom.). I believe this should have come with more things to make it even more gross-out. Maybe a can of slime. Or just more rubbery pieces. Or even green pieces. OH WELL.

Now on to the assembly. Let me preface this by saying that I prefer building LEGO’s to any other bricks like Mega Blocks/Construx. I have put together plenty of the different kinds over the years between the SpartanNerd and the Spartan Kids. Lego bricks have aesthetic principles and roundly stick to a certain vision of kid friendliness and pop sensibilities. (SpartanNerd takes a bow for that sentence!) It isn’t like Mega Construx doesn’t have this, but the Lego thing never does anything that involves winging a piece on a stud, or other questionable hi-jinx that might compromise the structural integrity or even make a more difficult build. The Mega Construx I suppose is aimed at an older audience, so I guess older customers might not even care. But who am I mostly writing this blog to?

It also is notable that LEGO doesn’t even acknowledge their competition. But right on Mattel’s website, you can see where people post their customs and proudly give the formulas, which mix the Mega Construx blocks with Lego, Kreo, and other brands. It is like Lego is the more serious “fun” brand. And Mega Construx is us casual fans. I just wanted to say this first and get it out of the way. I knew going into this I would encounter some things that feel questionable or are nonintuitive. (I built the largest set ever- Castle Grayskull. I know very well what I might see.)

BACK TO THE BUILD

It began as I expected. Build the bottom first. These red pieces make me wish there was more red here. The Slime Pit is partially a Horde thing. Black, gray, and red are their thing. And with the bone pieces, you really evoke Hordak. (See an upcoming post!)

This connection is one of those that felt kind of janky. But after I snapped them together, it remained firm.

And here it is. Step 9. Notice how the four studs don’t line up with the five. This strictly seems to be the kind of thing Mega Construx does that Lego doesn’t seem to do. The solution works out in the end, but it just seems wrong when you are building it. That piece on top with the two studs and then the three studs is also an unusual piece.

Here are the drawn-on eyes. Tampograft I suppose. I remember when I did the Battle Bones eyes, and the Talon Fighter’s eyes, the eyes just kind of emerged from the build. This is a cheap trick, though. Yes…I know. >$10.

See those pieces that are at the nose? These are the stuff of nightmares sometimes. This time no drama. But when I did the Battle Bones and other sets, it seems like they would flick off, be backwards or hard to tell what to do from the instructions. Also, notice here that one has a different angle than the other. How are we supposed to know which to use? I figured it out, with the instrutions and all. But what if I lose the instructions? What if it is a kid building this? (What would happen would be I would help my kids build it, and then about an hour later all of the pieces would be mixed in to a giant bucket.

I definitely see how I can improve this set. It isn’t terrible, and it is clear what is going on here. But could it have been better? Absolutely. “Horde Zombie He-Man” or “Slime Pit He-Man” is actually kind of obscure, being found only in like one mini-comic, but Mattel has made him ubiquitous as a toy in recent years. He is translucent green. Who doesn’t like that? But the rest of this set. I just feel underwhelmed. I actually said to my kid “I am thinking about getting a few more of these to add the slime pieces. And I could strip down the He-Man figures to make other zombies.”

Here are two other Skeletor Head sets to compare this to. I have them all, but these two are in the most presentable condition. And I’ll tell you why they are better!

He-Man and the Jet Sled. What wasn’t great about this? It completely captures what the original toy was. It even came with the exclusive blue armor. Placing it on a propeller at the top of Skeletor’s head makes for a goofy gimmick, but it makes good use of the real estate, and you can display your Jet Sled flying. I give it a 5/5. NEXT!

Here is something I don’t remember having as a child. But check out the diorama piece that this is! I don’t know why they chose to do Zodac this way. I would have rather had the 200x Zodak, especially since we got a Zodac with the Talon Fighter. (An astute MOTU fan will know the difference!). I guess he looks like he is wearing a scuba mask all the time anyway. Still, I enjoy the diorama. There is fun to be had here. I don’t remember this toy as a child, but it perfectly encapsulates the adventure. I will give this one a 4/5 really only because there aren’t more water features in this line.

But I feel I can only give the Slime Pit a 3/5. It is good to get the green He-Man. But the Slime Pit leaves much to be desired. It isn’t gross enough. MORE SLIME. The build has some weakness to it. I had pictured something like that Battle Bones head on a mighty horror movie wall, perhaps with some green pieces to replicate slime if not a rubber puddle or even actual slime. Instead, we get this sort of soul -less offering.

So. Hub City Geeks. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

SpartanNerd…Catching Up…

July 4, 2022 by spartannerd

Has it really been three years since I posted anything?

This means that throughout Corona…throughout the last several MTG releases…Throughout the ending of MOTUC and the new Masters of the Universe lines that have come out. I have written zilch.

Well, it isn’t because I stopped being nerdy. Believe it or not, online teaching and also attending classes took all of my energy out for this project.

So here’s a few new things that have happened.

Masters of the Universe.– As the Classics line ended, I began to realize I just didn’t have enough space anymore. MOTUC items are pretty large. And I got lots of joy especially from my He-Man and Battlecat and also Skeletor and Panthor. But also the Griffin was one of my favorites. Vikor. But some of the others…I decided I could part with them. And then I decided when I saw the price I could fetch to go ahead and sell my core items. All I have left is Vikor and my custom Battleground Teela. I sold it all in May 2020. For $600. I use that money to re-invest in MOTU Mega Construx. I have the Castle Grayskull and basically every item they have released in that line. A downsize in square footage, it is easier to get these just by walking into a store. There are other advantages.

*Sorry about the backdrop-less pic. This is a very large item. Kitchen table will have to do.*

I decided early on that the MOTU Origins figures look too crappy…I don’t like the colors. And the Masterverse figures on first reveal, I thought “That He-Man looks “gutsy.” Meaning, the way the belt is that pale color yellow, it blends in too well with He-Man’s skin color on his belly. It looks like he has a gut. The other figures, the one that came out with the new CGI Anime line, do not appeal to me at all. I hear fans (Scott Neitlich) accepting what is going on apologetically, that this line is meant to appeal to the kids. But kids just don’t watch the cartoons anymore. Trust me. I know. Middle school teacher. So they are messing around with beloved source material and creating something “corrupt.”

I have picked up some of the MOTU Minis, and the Hot Wheels.

Magic the Gathering- For something that took up so much of my life and my children’s time, this has become a much rarer treat. Since the COVID-19 lockdowns, there haven’t been as many tournaments. We pretty much decided that SpellTable pretty much stinks. Arena isn’t a strong alternative. Now some tournaments have returned, but we have to drive a long way to get to them. Mostly these are Commander League events. And we haven’t really paid into the leagues on account we can’t reliably attend. Just the same, we have played EDH some. But the thrill of the old Modern tournaments is gone. I have done a few drafts and sealed. But it is doubtful that we will go and draft Double Masters II this weekend. That is $50 or more. To play maybe three rounds. Which I will have to drive a distance to get to … meaning I can’t stay out late in my old age driving home sleepy.

Oh yes…Secret Lair. At first I bought it all. I bought the super bundle…the one with the cats and the goblins. The Walking Dead. After awhile, I realized that this isn’t sustainable for me. They have churned out so many Secret Lairs, each with an enticing value usually, but then if you start adding all that up, you better be rich if you are a completist. I figure the Wizards/Hasbro weren’t achieving their bread and butter anymore on packs because people stopped playing. And Commander is so popular, but you can play virtually any cards you can find competitively even, that they had to capitalize on that crowd the best they could by dangling lots of shiny, pretty, artsy, and seemingly charitable carrots in front of them. So I certainly had to start pacing myself on this one. The last one I got was the Dracula one. I got my kid the pixel art lands. These things…they take forever to arrive. All the shipping delays and production delays that have plagued the past couple of years…Which brings me to the next big one.

Playstation 5. I got the money together for this…in fact some of the money from my MOTUC collection, plus some gifts, etc. I had the funds in hand right before Christmas 2020. And went to buy it, only to find…THERE WERE NONE. ANYWHERE. When did I finally get mine? OCTOBER 2021. Used! I am grateful…it has performed like a champ! You wouldn’t know. It didn’t come with a proper stand, so I had to get a third party one, which was supposed to charge the controllers and add extra fan-power. But none of that seems to be working. Still, it stands very well. The best two games for me have been Horizon: Zero Dawn, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Gran Tourismo. But I have lots more games. Spider-Man, Terraria, Mortal Kombat. I paid for the streaming services, but haven’t hardly used them…which brings me to

DISNEY+. Since this launched, I bundled with HULU (Which I already watched) and this has been what I have watched on TV. I have hung on to NetFlix for Stranger Things and Masters of the Universe: Revelation. (More on that on a different day.). The Mandalorian has been a terrific show! Obi Wan was pretty good. The Book of Boba Fett might as well have been season 3 of the Mandalorian. I haven’t watched anything else much on the service, though.

Comics- I have moved back into collecting these. I picked up IDW’s “Best of” TMNT books. I am looking to get a frame to display them in.

I have been collecting all of the IDW Transformers books…this was actually how I got back into collecting comics. IDW decided to reboot the franchise, and I felt it was a good “jumping in” place. Highlights of this have been “Shattered Glass” and “King Grimlock.” The main story kind of meandered a little bit. I was introduced to a bunch of characters I didn’t know or had forgotten. I also got into “Beast Wars”… which was admittedly NOT MY CARTOON. Unfortunately, IDW passed on the license, and all of these stories have come to a wrap up, which has seemed very rushed. But my love of getting the covers and important/valuable books has become rooted again. I collected up all of the “Batman/Catwoman” story, got back into Spider-Man and Ghost Rider. But I have dropped DC for the most part. In fact, almost everything they have been publishing in any form is tripe that panders to anyone except the classic fan. I thought “The Batman” was a much slower slog than it needed to be. My next problem is the amount of room this hobby is taking up…

Gundam- I built my first Master Grade…EW EPYON. I am still applying decals. But this has been a terrific project! I eill post pictures when I finish.

It is good to be coming back to the blogosphere…an I hope to have a review tomorrow!

From the Vault: Transform…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

November 26, 2017 by spartannerd

I’ve been playing Magic, the Gathering for some years now, but this is the first time I’ve purchased a From the Fault product. I DID purchase the dated “Graveborn” Premium Deck, which was an all-foil set. I was highly tempted to get From the Vault: Angels last year, but never saw it anywhere for retail price. (I had most of the angels anyway.)

This being my first one, I thought I would really take a look at the packaging. This roduct feels like something a collector might like to keep MIB. I don’t see the fun in that, but it is what some people do. After spending time with this package, I’ve decided I am going to keep it to store the cards that I am not currently using. It looks very nice. The front is glossy and colorful with blue and orange graphics. The back show off an image of one of the sides of each of the cards in the set. There is a contents list on the bottom, and a message about the nature of the transforming cards.

It opens up nicely, revealing the frontside of Huntmaster of the Fells, the backside of Liliana, Heretical Healer, and the frontside of Delver of Secrets. You totally could stop here and just prop this product up on display somewhere.

The box feels like a display box, and upon further exploration, I discovered the correct way to open it.

There is a magnetic flap! So you don’t even have to destroy the package. NICE!

Here’s what’s inside.

The cards come in three cigarette wrappers. There is a spindown life counter with a special From the Vault Transform symbol, and a nice informational poster. Let’s look at that.

Nice art, with a description of each card and the story that goes along with it. That is a nice picture of the new Delver of Secrets art, and yet another picture of Gideon on the other side. (Gideon is very often depicted in promotional media like this.)

Now let’s look at and discuss the cards.

First of all, upon opening each pack, I discovered that they were stuck together. I mean. STUCK. TO. GETHER.

These cards have a special foil treatment, on both sides. I have owned a couple of FTV printings, one of VESUVA and another of AKROMA, ANGEL OF WRATH, and those cards have the same foil treatment, but only on one side. These cards being double sided…I guess what I’m saying is the foil treatment being on both sides is what made them glue each other together. And it was pretty stout. I mean, Bruna, the Fading Light was stuck to Elbrus the Binding Blade and Chandra was stuck to the Ixalan card while I began photographing. I hadn’t even noticed! Now separating them wasn’t scary, and there didn’t seem to be any accidents…no scratches or anything. I just want to point out that this happened to the SpartanNerd the first time he opened a sealed From the Vault.

So here are the cards with some commentary.

Garruk Relentless//Garruk, the Veil Cursed.

The first double sided planeswalker, and notable at that…he flips when he has a loyalty for two or less. He is a token generator, and essentially a planeswalker with five abilities not counting the transform mechanic. Having said all this, this is the least played of all of the cards in this set. It is nice that they paid some attention to Garruk, however. He hasn’t been seen since M14, when he was killing other planeswalkers all over the place. The Wizards have decided to feature Nissa mainly as the green planeswalker mascot.

Chandra, Fire of Kaledesh//Chandra, Roaring Flame

This set features all five of the Magic Origins planeswalkers. These each have a creature card on one side, that transforms into a planeswalker. Chandra is the mascot for red burn strategies. This card is a slow shock effect, and frankly a little hard to get transformed into the planeswalker form. IF you do ever get her to level up to Chandra, Roaring Flame, you still don’t have that great of a planeswalker for all of your effort. I supposed if you made Chandra a Commander, you might be able to do something with her. I am placing her in my Archangel Avacyn commander deck. (I played a match that heavily featured Chandra. In Commander, she isn’t so bad when you have a board presence and every little bit of damage you can deal counts.)

Liliana, Heretical Healer//Liliana, Defiant Necromancer

I have been slowly building an entire foil mono-black Liliana tribal deck. I have the stamped foil of this card, and thought that would be the prettiest version. I was wrong. The From the Vault printing with the extra awesome foil on both sides wins. So I guess I am going to upgrade!

As far as all of these cards go, Liliana is the most popular commander. She saw some fringe Standard play in her day, and still sees some Modern play sometimes in rack and zombie decks. It is pretty easy in black to get her to flip, and then Liliana Defiant Necromancer is pretty close to Liliana of the Veil, clearly the best and most useful of Modern-legal planeswalkers.

Speaking of my Liliana tribal commander deck, the rules change that came with the release of Ixalan now lets me have multiple Lilianas out at a time. And since I have each printing….

Huntmaster of the fells//Ravager of the Fells

A card that beat me a ton when I first began playing MTG. I began playing in tournaments during Dark Ascension. The Huntmaster is the definitive werewolf.

I haven’t seen this card played in Modern in awhile. Modern wants to be a three-turn win format (It remains a four turn, teetering on three turn.), and because this card is a four drop that doesn’t have haste, it’s a little slow. But if you can get it going, then it can win games all on its own. Remember Kalitas? Kalitas himself is just good enough. And the Huntmaster of the Fells is also.

Arguel’s Blood Fast//Temple of Alcazotz

When I saw this, I said, “What??? Whoever heard of that card?” Turns out that it is a new card from Ixalan. This one transforms from enchantment to land. I think this will be a nice addition to my Liliana tribal commander deck, as Necropotence is one of the things. (Pay life for cards is a sub theme.) The backside of the card is a powerful sac outlet.

Is this card a thing in Standard right now? I’m not sure. I have been out of the Standard scene for awhile. I do have a Tezzeret deck, but have only played in two Ixalan standard tournaments. This card has definitely not been on my radar.

Is there a precedent for this? A Standard card in a From the Vault set? I think they used to actually put preview cards in From the Vault sets. So that would be pre-standard…

Arlinn Kord//Arlinn, Embraced By the Moon

Here’s one that I saw played in Standard back before the last rotation every now and then. The “Shadows Over Inistraad” block didn’t feature as strong of a werewolf mechanic as did the original Inistraad. Here we have a werewolf planeswalker. She is also a planeswalker with five abilites, like Garruk, and she also makes wolves. (Like Garruk.) For werewolf tribal purposes, Arlinn is a must have.

Unfortunately, there is only one viable werewolf commander, Ulrich Krallenhorde, and he isn’t too great. Still, if you are into that, jam Arlinn Kord into your deck.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer//Nissa, Sage Animist

Here is an Origins planeswalker that did see play in standard. Really, anything that ramps for cheap works for green. People would cram four copies of this in their deck, and play it to get out the lands they needed, and eventually they would do this and flip one of them, and proceed to have huge advantage on the board. This is one I was glad to see rotate out!

I haven’t seen her play in Modern, however.

Kytheon, Hero of Aroas//Gideon, Battle-Forged

Nothing to see here. Move along.

(Just kidding.) Really, this card didn’t see much play in Standard, and hasn’t in Modern or Commander either. I think he is under-appreciated, and he probably would have fit better back in M13 standard.

He is basically a one-drop planeswalker. That isn’t Tibalt. So that’s something!

I think he is waiting for the right White Weenie moment to come along.

Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy//Jace, Telepath Unbound

And here is the money card in the set. Jace can be had for about $25, regular printing, and $35 in foil outside of this set. Back when he was Standard legal, he fetched $4o or more for the regular, not foil version.

Why is he so good? He is a two drop looting creature. You can play him early game or late game, and he is still good. When you do his loot ability, if you have five or more cards in the graveyard, he becomes an incredible control planeswalker, with a negative three ability that lets you reliably snapcaster an instant or sorcery from your graveyard.

Is he better than Snapcaster Mage? I don’t think so. Almost nothing can beat the flash-in flashbacker, who becomes a great surprise chump blocker and lets you get something out of your graveyard. Jace has to sit there for a turn before you can even activate his ability. But he is still useful, and if you can get him to flip and keep him on board, you get great card advantage.

I’ve heard of Jace played in almost every format, even Commander. This might be the best card in this set. Except it’s not…

Delver of Secrets//Insectile Aberation

This probably is (the best card.) Not many Magic the Gathering cards are as good as Delver. And he’s a common! So this card doesn’t cost a ton to own four copies. But this special art special foil printing is bound to be popular with people who relaly like hitting their opponents hard and fast.

Delver is great. He gets you card advantage. You don’t have to trigger his transform ability if you don’t want to. If you do want to, on turn you can begin wrecking your opponent in the air.

Check this scenerio. Turn one, shock in Breeding Pool. Play Delver of Secrets. Turn two, reveal Giant growth from the top of your library, flip your Delver Play your Forest as land for the turn. Declare attack for 3 in the air. Hit Insectile Aberation with Giant Growth twice, (Because you started with one in your opening hand.) You brought nine damage in the air on turn two. Congratulations. You are a jerk!

Delver is played in every eternal format. Because he is eternally good. That’s why!

Archangel Avacyn//Avacyn the Purifier

This is one of the funnest cards in the set. She has Flash. Flying. Vigilance. Makes things Indestructible, Sweltering Suns. All in one Legally Blonde package. Lots of flavor here, too. If you followed the story of Shadows Over Inistraad, you saw Avacyn twist into a self-righteous evil. When you Flash her in (Angel to the rescue!) everyone else on your team has indestructible until the end of turn. And incredible shock to your opponent if you played her from your hand. An incredible threat if she is your Commander. And when she flips, (because one of your non-token cratures died,) she hits everything on the board for 3, and lightning bolts your opponent (s) as well. And yes. That’s Commander Damage!

Fun! If you like a card that does stuff, look no further than this card.

Bloodline Keeper//Lord of Lineage

Here is the card that I think I will have the least use for. Maybe not. I like Vampires, and played Black Red vampires occasionally in the last Standard environment. And here is where I think I am not that interested in building a Vampire Tibal Commander deck. Vampires are OK. But how often have I had a ton of them? Not that often.

This guy is good, if you are interested in buiding such a deck. Most Vampire decks have Olivia VOldaren as their Commander. (She’s just sick!) But maybe Kalitas would be good. (No. I know he would be good. See above!)

Elbrus the Binding Blade//Withengar Unbound

I remember the first time I saw this card. I knew I had to have it! The flavor of the thing is pretty cool. This was in the very early days of playing MTG for me, and the idea of getting that giant flyer out and smashing people was just awesome. I had alot to learn…it is pretty hard to get seven mana to play an equipment. Then pay to equip that to a viable attacker. It really is pretty hard. (I was playing this in Standard, belive it or not!)

Now Elbrus remains one of my favorite cards. And to have this incredibly cool foi printing is just great. And it is something else to put into Liliana’s Commander deck!

I left the weirdest for last…

Bruna,the Fading Light//…//Gisela, the Broken Blade/////Brisela, Voice of Nightmares

Weird.

Basically, the Wizards pushed the transform mechanic as far as it could go, inventing the meld mechanic, and making six cards with the ability. Melding pieces two halves of a card on the backside of two creatures, combining them together into an eldrazi. Brisela here represents that, as she was the best example of a played meld pair in Standard.

Gisela actually made her way into decks that didn’t feature her other half. She is a good angel, with Flying, First Strike, and Lifelink.

It is Bruna that makes this a devastating thing. Say you played Gisela early on, and the opponent doom bladed her. No problem. Play your Bruna in your second main phase (turn six or seven) and at the end step, you have Brisela! An incredob;e 9/10 flying vigilance lifelink first strike hate machine!

THE SPARTANNERD’S RATING OF FROM THE VAULT TRANSFORM

Well. A couple of things. The cards sticking together is a little unnerving. I don’t know when these were printed and packaged, but I imagine the problem might be worse if they sit unopened on a store shelf for a long period of time. I immediately put “snugs” on mine. (form fitting side loading card sleeves for double sleeving.)

What’s here is good. But I think there is a glaring ommision or two. How about Westvale Abbey//Ormandahl, Profane Prince? I could have taken this over the Vampire, or over the Arguel’s Blood Fast. Thing in the Ice…Hello!

The Wizards also ignored Morph and Champions of Kamigawa Flip cards. Maybe it was economically better for the Wizards to print the double sided cards instead, but if they wanted us to get maximum power out of similar mechanics, when we could have done with Nazumi Graverobber or Willbender.

But I am happy enough. The new printings of Liliana, Jace, Withengar, the three angels, and Garruk make me pretty happy. I don’t play much red-green, but I am glad the Wizards printed Huntmaster of the Fells, which is about a $12 card.

The value I got for $39.99 (retail) at the Tangled Web in Spartanburg was very nice. You already can’t find this product cheaper than $65 on TCGplayer.com. And if the story of From the Vault Angels happens to From the Vault Transform, then it will eventually make its way above $80.

So I am happy to rate this product at 4/5, marking off because the cards sticking together worries me a little bit. It is a great selection of cards, that came in a nice, displayable package.

Do you agree or disagree, oh Hub City Geeks? Let me know in the comments!

Goblins Vs. Merfolk Duel Decks…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

November 12, 2017 by spartannerd

At this point, my favorite sealed MTG product seems to be Duel Decks. I own a ton of them. And the only ones that I haven’t purchased since I began getting serious about the game are Mind vs. Might, the one released earlier this year. That one was widely panned, and I couldn’t get excited about a Storm deck vs. a Beatdown deck.***

But Merfold vs. Goblins. That’s different. First of all, Elves vs. Goblins is incredible fun. What made that so successful was not only the intense tribal flavor, but also the gameply, where you really felt like you were piloting an army of elves vs an army of goblins. Merfolk Vs. Goblins seemed positioned to do the same thing. Does it? Keep reading for my full review!

PACKAGING.

The box comes in the same kind of box that Duel Decks have been released in for awhile. It makes a nice display. (pictured above) Not sure why you would keep it MIB, but it looks like a sell-able product. This box shows off the flashy foil rares. The back of the box has good information. I think this is to really sell the product to new players.

The box isn’t easy to open and get the product out. (unlike Commander boxes.)

I opened mine before a draft tournament. So I took hasty pictures on the Tangled Web table sized playmats

Here’s what’s in that package.

The main product is sealed in two trays that make up the bulk of the box. THis is covered by a plastic blister that shows off the foil rares. Behind the tray is the Quick Reference, a guide to playing the decks, and the two new boxes intended for each deck.

Here are those deck boxes assembled. Notably, these boxes are big enough to hold SLEEVED CARDS. (Can you hear the SpartanNerd crying tears of joy?) Virtually all of the other duel decks we have ever gotten have come with pretty “poker card” type of boxes. The exception was the Duel Decks anthology.

These boxes still leave a little to be desired, but that they can hold sleeved cards is BIG. The wizards apparently took cues from the design of the Nicol Bolas Archenemy set. These are also side loaders, but they have the janky folding flap that tucks into the main box. However, there is a slot for easy opening. The boxes have art on them reflecting what they are intended to hold, and they also feature the set symbol on the other side, which the SpartanKid pointed out is a trident and an axe head combined. After saying all of this, these boxes are still made of thin cardboard…thinner and cheaper than what the actual cards are made of. And they couldn’t possibly stand up to heavy use if a person decided to say, carry around this box to alot of tournaments. (Sleeving out the cards fills them to the max. There is enough room for 60 cards plus the tokens in Dragon Shields, but you wouldn’t be able to carry a full sideboard.)

But if you are like me, and your duel decks stay together resting in an organized fashion, waiting to see some light play, then these boxes are just fine.

The other things…the quick reference guide is a must include, as this product will definitely find its way into the hands of beginning players. This isn’t an intro deck, but new players are bound to be drawn into purchasing these at the low price point. (Mine was $19.99 at the Tangled Web.)

The poster features nice artwork, and importantly, a DECKLIST. (The last sealed product I opened for the SpartanNerd blog didn’t include a decklist. BOO.) I keep my decklists all in one place for when I inventory my cards about three times a year. (Occasionally I might borrow a card from a pre-con deck for Standard, Modern, or Commander.)

You get two life counter dice, and that’s about it for the packaging.

THE DECKS.

Longtime Hub City Geeks will know that that SpartanNerd is running out of photo space on WordPress. So I have minimized my pictures a little. Here are the decks with the flashy rare cards.

Warren Instigator. This one wasn’t on my radar. This is how you get alot of Goblins on the field, and trigger Enters the Battlefield effects. Oh yeah. DOUBLE STRIKE. You Get TWO triggers. Sick. This is one of the sets money cards. This foil printing is already worth around $5.

Goblin Diplomats. This showcases the funnyness of the Goblin deck. And they are hilarious.

Master of Waves. Here is one from my favorite THEROS BLOCK. Master of Waves is a BEAST. in the Merfolk deck, you will definitely have a ton of devotion to blue, and so will get a bunch of elementals when he enters the battlefield. And this new art makes it look like he’s been working out!

Harbinger of the Tides. And iconic merfolk that is removal on a stick. Amazing.

So I am going to show you a mat full of the strategy of each deck, starting with Merfolk.

MERFOLK

Merfolk in Modern is a strategy that depends on lords, which are creatures that give others of the same type +1/+1, and Islandwalk, which is a type of evasion.

The Merfolk deck here highlights this by including three merfolk lords. If you get all three out, you win. (But the odds are against you.) The evasion piece here is Aquatech’s Will, which is a busted spell that makes an opponent’s land into an island (in addition to its other types) and also lets you draw a card. There are FOUR COPIES in this deck! That’s how important it is. One of our lords, Master of the Pearl Trident, gives all merfolk you control islandwalk.

What else is here? Some iconic merfolk. In addition to Master of Waves, we also get Cold Eyed Selkie, who is big in Commander. We get Scroll Thief, who would be an automatic inclusion into any merfolk deck, and is an important core set type of MTG card. Harbinger of the Tides. And Tidebinder Mage, who was important a few years ago in standard. (M13-Innistraad-Return to Ravnica-M14 Standard).

Then this is a blue deck, so it also has plenty of control. Notably here is Essence Scatter, because you KNOW your opponent is going to cast creature spells in this duel deck environment. Concentrate and Misdirection, which are classics. Tidal Wave, which gives you a quick, big blocker, and Engulf the Shore which is a sweeper.

GOBLINS

It’s hard to put your finger on the strategy of goblins. There is a randomness to it, that finds success anyway. And they are also always pretty much hilarious. In this deck, you want to build up a critical mass of goblins before the merfolk are able to get out their evasive lords. So board presence is the key, rather than evasion.

There aren’t that many goblin lords, but they are still about spiritually the same. Goblin Wardriver has Battle Cry, which means whenever he attacks, other attacking cratures get +1/+0. Goblin Chieftain is a goblin lord. Goblin Rabblemaster makes goblin tokens with haste everytime you get a combat stage. (Rabblemaster was important in Khans block).

Other ways to get out tokens? Krenko, Mob boss makes a ton of goblins if left unchecked. Goblin Ringleader lets you get goblin cards in your hand. (Tribal instants and sorceries count as goblins!) Also, when paired with Warren Instigator, this is just incredible.

Blue has control, but red has burn of course! Very notable here is Goblin Grenade. (This card wasn’t in the first Goblin Duel Deck. It wasn’t a thing yet.) Goblin Diplomats makes the merfolks swing into a bunch of goblins that can black and eat them up. Tarfire, the aforementioned tribal instant which was in the previous duel deck, as was Gempalm Incinerator. I haven’t got to see the Goblin Razerunners do his thing yet. (I have played seven matches. He seems busted though, as a goblin burn spell on a stick.) Tokens are so important here that we have four token producing spells. (Three copies of Krenko’s COmmand and one copy of Hordeling Outburst.)

Goblin Charbelcher. Ahh. The Eternal Masters art. With Black Lotus among other things flying out of the cannon. The way this works is, you pay to activate it, then reveal your cards until you hit a land. The number of card revealedis the amount of damage assigned to target creature of player. Now out there in the world, there is a Modern and a Legacy version of this strategy as a whole deck. Basically, you will build a deck with only a single land, probably Stomping Ground. You build up your mana base using Simian Spirit Guides and borderposts, or other fast mana tricks, and then you activate the cannon and reveal all of your cards. Hopefully at least twenty damage is sent to your opponents face! But here, you will probably only get a few damage ponts in as the deck has a bunch of lands. But it is a flavorful and important inclusion. This is reliable removal that the merfolk deck can’t stop.

Ghostfire. A colorless burn spell that costs two generic and a mountain. Why? I think the wizards just wanted to reprint it. But it is handy against something like Master of Waves, which has protection from red. This card is important also historically, as it gave the wizards inspiration for the cards with DEVOID in the recent Battle for Innistraad block.

HOW THE DECKS PLAY OUT.

So far, the Goblins beat the Merfolk most of the time. These decks are INCREDIBLY balanced against one another if both players hit a land drop every turn and play a spell every turn. The experience here is not unlike Elves Vs. Goblins. You just about have the same experience. While the Elves work differently, trying to power out big green monsters, the Merfolk work organically together to create evasion and hit the opponent hard. The Goblins work about the same as the previous decks, with the new tricks of Goblin Charbelcher, Goblin Grenade, and Goblin Rabblemaster. DIfferent bosses, with the same strategy of go wide and do whatever it takes to damage the opponent.

It is pretty much hilarious when someone gets Master of Waves out and gets a huge board presence, only to suddenly lose it to Ghostfire or Goblin Charbelcher. On the other hand, it is humorous to make the Goblins have a Mountain Island and then hit them hard with islandwalkers. Also, the Merfolk get that sweeper spell, which does away with the tokens. It also wipes their board, but they don’t rely on creature tokens as a base strategy the way Goblins do. (I really think Master of Waves is here for the new players. He is splashy and flashy and fun. But another merfolk lord would have been better. Or a devastating artifact along the lines of the charbelcher.)

THE SPARTANNERD’S RATING OF DUEL DECKS: MEFOLK VS. GOBLINS.

Maybe you think I’m a fanboy. But I’m giving this a 5/5. The WIzards must be listening. They improved the deckboxes and included a decklist. Mind Vs. Might was poorly received because it was considered unbalanced, and therefore unfun. This set is the opposite. So the Wizards ARE LISTENING.

The SpartanNerd rates Merfolk Vs. Goblins a 5/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments, oh Hub City Geeks!.

***I eventually DID pick up the “Mind Vs. Might” Duel Decjs. As told by everyone else, one there is no balance at all. One deck gets early advantage and then pancakes the other. However, notable that each deck contained ten rares, and also the storage boxes are of the same design we have with Merfolk Vs. Goblins. Incidentally, I got mine for $8 off of TCGplayer! I am going to piece these out, and am excited about making a commander deck with the blue/red legendary.

Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver Planeswalker Pack…SpartanNerd Unboxing and Review

July 10, 2017 by spartannerd

Here it is. A week early! (I bought it at the pre-release, and the SpartanKid also won a copy!) So we now have two…

For this unboxing and review…in the interest of saving what little WordPress space I have left, I will just get down to it.

You get the new foil card “Nicol Bolas, the Deceiver.” As Bolas cards go, this one is the worst. To be clear, we now have three Bolas planeswalker cards. The classic version remains the most iconic and powerful. There is a new Nicol Bolas, the God Pharoah, and then there’s this. His mana cost is more or less the same. He has three relevant abilities. He might be the worst of the three, but he is still quite significant. With ~~Intro Packs~~ Planeswalker Packs, the Wizards said they want to give people splashy cards to learn to play with. If this isn’t splashy, I don’t know what is.

I assure you…if you’ve read my other reviews of Planeswalker Packs, then you know what unboxing this is like. It is exactly the same! There is a plastic bubble and a little black tray. All of the other contents are in a deck box. Here is the deck box, posing alongside my FUNKO POP! version of Bolas.

Inside you get two booster packs, two pieces of paper, and the deck sealed in cellophane.

I will go ahead and tell you that I didn’t get any important cards in my two packs.

The two pieces of paper are a guide to playing Magic, and a poster that has strategy for playing this deck. There is also a handy decklist.

Now for the cards!

Here are the rares that came with the intro deck. This makes my fourth copy of the Throne. Visage of Bolas is new, and I’m certain can only be gotten by purchasing this deck.

This deck is surprisingly creature-heavy. Normally, Bolas wants a control deck. But here are the creatures. The Wasp of the Bitter End is a card that you can only get in this deck as well, but it notably says “a Nicol Bolas” planeswalker, meaning that it is a card that can work with the other two versions of Bolas.

These creatures represent something else…apparently the story is that Bolas used the plane of Amonkhet to harvest the strongest warriors and make them into “eternals.”

We get a bunch of basics, and importantly eight fixers. Cinder Barrens is one of those intro-deck-only cards. Crypt of the Eternals is a clever new Grixis tri-land.

Which means we have instant and sorcery cards remaining.

Not a whole lot. Magma Spray is the most competitive here. Open Fire is a really bad lightning Bolt. Final Reward. A five drop removal spell. BOOO. (AT LEAST it stops players who might be trying to Eternalize or Embalm.)

Playing the deck.

Normally, you would cancel and destroy everything until you could draw and cast Bolas, pretty much for the win. In a normal constructed deck.

This time, your strategy is a little different. You are going to play creatures, (I will mention that Aerial Guide is probably the best card for this deck, since it flies and draws you cards.) You hope to get the Visage of Bolas, which will then get him in your hand pretty much guaranteed, and then you will pretty much guaranteed be able to cast him if you do all of this at the appropriate time.

Now this plan depends on who you are playing against. Against other intro decks, great!

But in a serious environment, when you fetch up your Bolas, they will know you have him, and either cancel him, hold their kill spell, or do some kind of Thoughtsieze (Liliana) effect and make you discard him. Visage of Bolas is a four drop, meaning you are probably never going to be able to play him on the same turn that you cast it. (If that were the case with this deck, we would be talking about turn 12 at least! Competitive Magic decks want a turn four or five kill.

I think this is a great product to get people interested in playing MTG. But it is wrong to call it a Standard deck. It IS. But it isn’t competitive. You could just as easily discourage people from playing if they bought this, and then played it in a tournament and find themselves wrecked every game.

I’m not saying it is impossible for you to win a match or two. But aren’t competitive players going to have a sideboard? There are now at LEAST three different cheap removal spells for Bolas (the Defeat cycle.)

The packaging is nice. The box can hold sleeved cards, but has no solution for dice or tokens. It’s still better than the old intro pack boxes. I’m still asserting that if they want people to feel like they should play these decks in a tournament, then they should include sleeves. I played against a newcomer during the sealed tournament this weekend…and how did I know he was a newcomer? First impression…no sleeves. Then they way he played reflected that.

I have played four matches using this deck, even a few “mirror matches,” and I just can’t get excited about it. I do like the new Bolas card, but Nicol Bolas, God Pharaoh is better for Standard. Maybe there is a good way to exploit the specific cards in this deck that only come with this product…like Visage of Bolas. But you better be able to produce a ton of mana early. The wasp thing is cool, but I think it better for a Bolas Tribal commander deck. It’s just going to net you some extra value for playing Bolas.

So I am going to rate this deck at 2/5. It’s kind of flat.

Now the SpartanKid thinks otherwise. He believes I am being too harsh, and he likes the idea of an “Eternals” tribal deck. I will keep you posted about what happens…He might even make a standard deck that riffs on the intro deck.

So the SpartanNerd rates Nicol Bolas, The Deceiver Planeswalker Pack 2/5. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments!

spartannerd

A blog about everything "nerdtainment!"

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