Ixalan has come!

It is here!  The first set of the 4th Quarter and where all Magic the Gathering players go broke!  Ahh, remember the days when you could just buy the last expansion and have a good 3 months to save for the beginning of the next year.  Those days are gone, and I really hope that some day they come back.

So yeah, lets get into it.  This is the first expansion set of the last block set in the Magic the Gathering set release.  Now lets just take a moment and think about this.  The last set that was not in a block was Alliances, and Mirage was the start of the Block cycle.  That is insane!  We are no longer going to be looking forward to a block set of 3 expansions that will span the year, and now we are going to be moving into a content driven expansion release.

I see the Content driven expansion release as a positive.  That means we can stick with a story for as long or as short as we need to as long as the content is there.  The on going storyline within Magic the Gathering has been at some ends lately, but it will allow the content be more flowing and the story to be as involved as it needs to.  We could have a set of expansions that spans across 5 releases, or we could just have a fun non-storyline set of 1, just to add some different game mechanic.

So lets take a look at how my Ixalan pre-order ended up.

So I pulled this out of my first Bundle!  No, yeah.   That did not happen, but I did pick this up at the LGS because I needed it for the Card Count.  Woot! 

Card Count: 8

Bam!  No I did not pull all of these in the boxes I bought, but I knew I wanted these so I just went ahead and bought some because that is what I do.  I paid a little more than what they are worth now, but this is the only card I cared about in the whole set.

What the fuck are these!  Finally a reason to pre-order!  Seriously!  I hope they keep doing this.  This is more than enough reason to even buy more boxes through the LGS just so I can stock pile these packs.

Ok so yeah, I opened 4 of those packs, but just because I wanted a set of these lands.  They are the Rebecca Gauy foil lands.  They were given out during the Standard Showdown series and WotC decided to put these lands in the Buy-a-Box packs.  I did pick up a bunch of other rares and foils, but it is all trading fodder to me.

So the LGS also game me 8 of these Buy-a-Box promo cards, but they also came in the Buy-a-Box packs, so yeah.  I have 12 of these things.  Sometime they are really good, and sometimes they are just $0.50 foil promos...

Bam!!  This is what I am opening!  I am still on the fence of buying more on the larger sets, but since they are getting rid of the block sets, and everything is pretty much going to be big sets, I am still on the fence.  I am only saying that because after my opening I am still 117 cards short, and around $366 needed to get my playset.  Now I know that is just after the release, and in a year it will be about half, but it is a good reason to open more packs. 

So after I opened everything, here are all the rare and mythic rare foils I got.  That is right, bottom row second from the right.  Foil Growing Rites of Itlimoc (AKA New Cradle)!!!!!  Tits Magee right there!

This is what the pre-order looked like after I opened everything.  And after I sort everything out, I will only have 2 rows of commons, so opening the amount that I do appeals to the OCD in me with organization.

This is what all the rares and mythic rares I pulled looks like.  Yeah it is not a lot and just those 2 extra booster boxes really brings in a lot more for the trading fodder.  Hmmm....

Here are the uncommons after the sort.

Commons.....!

Sexy basic lands!  I think Obi Won agrees.

And this is what my playset looks like without sleeves.

So yeah right now I am sitting at all the product I need opened, sorted, and inventoried.  I have also sleeved up the playset that is going into the collection.  I still need to make my labels, print the labels, and make the card separators.  I also still need to add all the tradable cards to my trading sites, but that is pretty easy and no one really wants new standard cards once they are released.

This is also the fall so rotation has happened, and I need to move 4 expansions into the Modern boxes because they are no longer Standard playable.

We are left with 117 total cards needed, with 40 of those cards being Planeswalker deck cards, so that leaves us with 77 cards needed for the playset.  That is 28 Mythic Rares and 48 Rares.  That is $297.60 worth of cards that I still need to pick up.  Now if I opened up 2 more booster boxes at the price of $90 per box, that still leaves a $117.60 difference that I would still need to pick up if I were to pick up $180 worth of value in those 2 booster boxes.

With that being said, I still stand by just opening a case and my bundles.  But with that being said, I might switch it up to 9 booster boxes and 2 bundles since they are providing those Buy-a-Box packs.  That would give me 7 booster boxes to open and I get an extra BaB pack.

I am expecting to be able to finish up this playset after rotation, and will just pick up cards here and there.  I will also consider adding this stuff to my CardSphere, and try and pick up the standard cards at a discount.