What's this? What's this? A parcel has arrived!
What's this? What's this? Sealed product before my eyes!
So many shiny boosters to open for you guys!
Ahem. Seriously. Mini Nightmare Before Christmas stint there, so soon after Halloween. But yes, it arrived. A new sealed box for me to open, along with a FNM Promo Hordeling Outburst, I suspect as apology for the delay in getting the box posted out to me.
Now, as with any sealed product it's worth being well aware of what cards have actual value and to accept that not all sealed product makes its money back. In fact, Fate Reforged, being a middle set of a block has that same unfortunate problem almost all other middle sets have - they're largely considered meh, with very little value cards that have any meaningful impact.
Now, personally I use www.mtgstocks.com as a good resource to determine the relative 'value' cards of a set. Super handy for opening a box or random booster to know if you have serious value on your hands.
Now as we can see, FRF has three 'big' value cards. Ugin, Monastery Mentor and Soulfire Grand Master. The next in value is Tasigur and the Warden of the First Tree and then a respectable clump of $2.50ish cards - some of which are uncommons.
Furthermore, each FRF booster has a chance to have one of the Khans fetchlands in place of its normal land, so there's some serious value to be had there as well.
Let's get cracking with the first lot, shall we? Now, let me start off by saying that these packs are smooth, snug and feel very good. As some might remember from my last review the Dragons packs felt terrible, dry and crinkly...thankfully not so in this case.
Now, haul from the first twelve....not that impressive. Only real value sat in there is Tasigur. Ok, so, that's $4. The Torrent Elemental is the next bit of value at $1. Oh dear.
Still, I traded for this, so can't be too upset. There's an Alesha in there, which brings me to an interesting diversionary point for this review. This was probably the first case of trans-gender identity being addressed in any sort of fantasy game. So for it to get into something as big as MtG...well, that's significant. And the character in question? Alesha. A human boy who identifies as a woman, in a clan of berserkers and warriors to the extent where when he came of age and chose his own name...he chose his grandmother's name. Now, Alesha's an interesting character in that respect. And in Wizard's storyline Alesha was actually quite a strong individual in terms of willpower and leadership. Good on you WotC.
Our second lot of twelve produced a somewhat better haul. Another Tasigur ($4), a Soulfire Grand Master ($11.50), a Whisperwood Elemental ($2.70) and...wait...what's that? Fetchland! Bloodstained Mire at $21 may have just made up for this shoddy performance so far. Total value to this point? $44. Not too great but better than expected.
Our last two packs yielded a pleasant surprise for me at least.
A foil Warden of the First Tree. Yep, another foil Mythic on a box opening/review from myself. Wonder if this is going to become a pattern? $7 there...not as impressive as the foil Sarkhan but still, foil Mythics are always a delight to pull.
Unfortunately the last pulls weren't that impressive. The Windswept Heath fetchland is the big pull and even then it's $14. Between the lot here? Maybe $24 at a push. Maybe $70 total for the box.
Bit disappointing, but as I said earlier it's the middle set of a block and suffers from the middle set syndrome - where most of the cards are unimpressive and tend to be worth very little. Now, I know I have some of the super value uncommons in the pile and really, it'll be nice to pad out my personal playsets...but sadly I don't think I've pulled enough to push on for a trade for another box. Such is life.
Hopefully the new 2 set approach means that both sets will be equally as viable and have as much pull as eachother. We'll just have to wait and see.
For the record, if you want me to review stuff, feel free to let me know. If you want to contribute stuff to be opened and reviewed, again, let me know.
This box...eh...a bust. It happens. Such is fate. If the fetches had been blue the box would have swung back to the positive, but I guess we can't get everything we want, eh?
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