Who We Are
Name: Jay
Playing Since: Alpha/Beta (with significant pauses)
Favourite Colour(s): Grixis (B/U/R)
Favourite Card: 
Psychographic: Johnny, Spike, Vorthos
Name: Jimi
Playing Since: Zendikar
Favourite Colour(s): White, Blue
Favourite Card: 
Psychographic: Johnny
Name: Samantha
Playing Since: Zendikar
Favourite Colour(s): Green
Favourite Card:
Psychographic: Timmy
26 Comments
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Ertai's Lament 
hi!
alex of deck construct mentioned you in a show so here i am for a look-see…
Great time reading your stuff on pre-con decks. As a retired tourneyist and now an avid champion of casual play, I find pre-cons to be the best introductory and gateway into gaming as a recreational pasttime (be it a boxed set for table top wargaming or intro decks).
In your opinion, which two M11 decks make for better introductory play for two players? I usually give out gaming stocking stuffers around christmas or break out decks to guests waiting on Thanksgiving dinner.
Of the five decks, we gave three of them a ‘Gold’ rating: Blades of Victory, Breath of Fire, and Power of Prohpecy. New players probably wouldn’t appreciate some of the relative subtlety of the Power, so I’d say you couldn’t go wrong with the nice contrast provided by Blades versus Breath.
Thanks for the comment, we’re right there with you on the pre-cons’ value for the newer gamer!
I’m glad I found this page. I’ve been playing since m10, casual, so am sure this will help out alot. thanks!
We’re glad you found us too, Chuck! Have a look about- a lot of our features don’t assume players have been playing for ages, and we often try and include content for all skill levels!
I found this site admittedly by accident. However, you could say I’m now addicted to your precon playing.
I actually started since M10. I’d like to say what decks I usually play, so..
U/W Mill (extended)
Esper (Mostly aggro, but some control elements)
B/W EDH
My favourite colour(s) should be primarily Blue. After that, Black and White.
I would dleinitefy read an article about Magic’s huge revisioning of the color pie (in my opinion, largely for the better).
hey, i’m an avid mtg player,been playing since time spiral (I was nine) and i’m very glad to find that i am not alone in my bordering-on-insanity obsession with theme decks 🙂
just a quick question, do you have any idea whether the theme decks from ravinca are worth the price? namely orzhoz?
Great site. I stumbled across you folks after a brief hiatus ending with the tail-end of Alara block, and have been avidly reading since. I find myself chuckling out loud at least once during each of your offerings, so thanks for that.
I’m also a pre-con fan, scooping them up with each new release and slowly altering them to fit my playing style and casual meta.
Just a heads up…we’re reading in Illinois and liking it! Thanks again and keep up the great work!
P.S. Maybe do some meddling with Superabundance in the future?
Thanks for the kind words! We’re very keen to tear into Lorwyn/Shadowmoor. It’s not only one of the most requested sets to review, but we love the flavour of it too. Superabundance will be a touch further back because we do the sets in order within the block, but we’ll definitely get to it!
Dude, I seriously want to thank you for this site / blog.
This one of the smallest Magic websites I’ve visited more than once but it is definitely the best.
Seriously, I mean it. No I’m not trying to suck up to you, are you seriously thinking that? Dude, that’s not cool! Go stand in the corner until you actually believe I think your website is teh amesowe!!Q, si?
Anyhow.
It’s not just because precons are my thing and it’s nice to read about them, anyone can make a website on any subject they choose. It’s because you have snazzy / dandy / sweet / nice / cool / worse than awe awe inspiring but better than decent writing skills and you put amazing detail in every review, I absolutely love every one of them, please keep on doing what you like to do.
P.S. Hypnotoad: You like doing precon reviews! You like doing precon reviews! You like doing precon reviews! You like doing precon reviews! Precons and blogs are the amazing blizsnit!
P.P.S. I would also like to thank Jimi / Sam. Your work in the whole of it is absolutely appreciated, keep on playing 😉
As always, I enjoy reading your detailed reports and game summaries. I’ve likened owning precons to collecting (much cheaper) cars. Each one behaves differently, shows off the technology of that era, and gives a glimpse to the designers’ intents. I have an idea if you guys would entertain for your next gauntlet to run your stable of precons.
I personally like collecting representative archetypes to teach my players advanced deck design. I use standard Tenth edition theme decks to get them familiar with the rules, a Deckbuilder’s Toolkit when they want to dabble in deckbuilding. When they’re ready for mainstream concepts, The Kithkin Militia or The Sparkler might come out. I wanted to find out which one of the precons was king of its archetype.i.e. the strongest white-weenie, the best reanimator, etc.
If you guys don’t, no worries, but thought I’d throw it out there.
Inspired by your last year’s post: “Pack of fortune” I wrote a Magic fortune telling instruction guide by myself. I see this as the only way to contact you guys.
Link to the article:
Fantastic! I just wrote a proper post on this, which will be going up tomorrow. And we’ll be sure to post our packs over there!
I’m curious what your thoughts are regarding duels 2013. Have you played any previous versions or not played it at all? It would be great to have you do a review!
Hey, just wanted to mention that the drop down menu for choosing reviews for the duel decks is problematic on my ipad. The menu does not stay open long, or when I choose a deck, nothing happens, or the menu becomes translucent and does not work at all; or, when i click a certain duel deck review, it actually goes to the page that is right under the menu, like twitter. Using chrome. Do you have a search function so i can find the reviews easier?
Sorry to hear that, and thanks for letting me know! The good news is at the bottom of the page is a search bar, but in light of this I’ll go ahead and move it to the side bar for easier access.
Have you ever played Urza’s destiny theme decks? I am wondering if they are any good, and I have seen a few rare ones pop up on ebay, like ‘Assassin’. When will you review these?
“Eventually” is about the only answer I can offer at present. Altough I believe I own the set, I haven’t played with any of them. Our reviews process work in block order now (they didn’t always), so we’ll have to do Urza’s Legacy next. Since we only recently finished Urza’s Saga itself, it may well be awhile before we complete the block, alas.
That said, I was particularly impressed with Urza’s Saga on the whole, so I’d say pick them up if the price is right!
Have you reviewed future shock or fate blaster theme decks? I see they were in the precon battles but I can’t find any reviews of the decks. Are these worth buying?
Love to see your top ten all time theme decks and intro packs. Not enough lists like that out there. I have seen only one.
Hey, just wanted to tell you a big thanks fpr this awesome site. I’ve played MtG some time ago (during the 6th and 7th sets) and started to come back recently. Found your website when searching some information about Duel Deck series… And I stayed here for a long time! Your reviews are really great and very interesting to read. really enjoy it.
As it’s pretty hard to get most of the MtG decks in the country where I live (it’s called Belarus, but I don’t think that you ever heard about it), I don’t have that many options.
For example, there were only 3 duel decks available (Ajani vs Bolas, Golgari vs Izzet and Venser vs Koth), so I just bought them all.
Ajani’s and Bolas’es decks look the best for me, as they offer the biggest variety of combos. Currently I’m trying to get Commander decks, but that’s a really hard quest today. Waiting to get at least couple of them…
I would like to play some older theme deck games and do game summaries and deck summaries. Please let me know how I can go about doing this for the site.
Hi E.L team,
I’m desperately looking for the advanced deck lists which were included in the little booklets of the pre-constructed decks of Tempest and Stronghold (the exodus ones are only I think)
Any change you can help me with this? Actually I’m looking for a digital (scanned?) version of the booklets, because it also told you a bit about the strategies of the deck. Any change you can help with this?
Many thanks in advance!
P.S. this guy is looking for them as well:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/casual-related-formats/539817-looking-for-old-preconstructed-deck-advanced
Welcome back, EL crew! Curious how y’all’s doing. Aside from Jay, do you still play Magic?
Thanks!! Alas, it’s just the one. Jimi gave it up awhile back and has no interest in resuming. This means that for the first time, I’m going to have to be going outside the house for games, which will make things interesting. But hey, needs must!