Wait… Pack to Power?
For the uninformed, a Pack to Power Challenge is when a Magic player such as myself buys a single booster pack of Magic, and ultimately trades up into a piece of the Power 9. I actually have no use for a piece of the Power 9, and I’m not the most amazing trader in the world, so I’m settling for a Revised Tropical Island, simply because my friend PJ suggested it.

So How Does This Work?
As with any challenge, there are certain rules to which one must abide. Taken from Jonathon Medina’s Pack to Power Intro from GatheringMagic:

• Only One Pack – The seed pack will be from the new set, Magic 2013. It will be random and sealed. I will open only one pack, no cherry picking the best pack.
• Trading - I must trade only the contents of the pack which is opened, or cards acquired through trading the contents of the pack. This means that I cannot use any other cards from my collection to aid me in my quest.
• Documenting - I will record every trade and keep careful records of the entire journey.
• Spend No Money – The only money that I can spend is the money that I use to purchase the pack, or money that I obtained by selling cards that I have traded for in the process of Pack to Power.
• Free Cards – I cannot accept free cards. I must trade for the cards that I get.
• No Crushing Newbies - Trick made sure I knew I wasn’t allowed to make unfair trades with new players without making them aware.

But Why?!
I’m not too sure. I rarely buy boosters due to bad luck and rarely having the money, preferring to buy singles. To be honest I’m actually selling up most of my collection in bulk due to needing the extra cash, but this keeps me in the trading game, and lets be honest, a bit of a challenge over a long boring and sadly unpaid summer. Having one naysayer within 30 seconds of opening the pack kinda cemented the deal.

What is in the Pack in Pack to Power Peej and Pritchard Picked?

Silvercoat Lion
Bloodhunter Bat
Disentomb
Sentinel Spider
Hydrosurge
Bloodthrone Vampire
Evolving Wilds
Arbor Elf
Griffin Protector
Divination
Healer of the Pride
Rewind
Primal Clay
Serra Avenger
Mountain

The Trades So Far…
The first few days have actually been kind of successful. The Rewind got traded into a foil Amass the Components, and my friend Dan was looking for a Llanowar Elf. The Arbor Elf got traded into a Llanowar Elf, which in turn got exchanged into a stack of 85 or so commons and uncommons.10 of the commons then got traded in at the store and became 2 Bounty of the Hunt, a Sedraxis Specter, and an Elixir of Immortality, leaving my total spoils at:

2x Attended Knight
1x Aven Squire
1x Battleflight Eagle
2x Captain’s Call
1x Erase
2x Divine Favor
4x Griffin Protector
1x Guardians of Akrasa
1x Pacifism
1x Pillarfield Ox
2x Silvercoat Lion
1x War Falcon (Foil)
3x War Falcon
1x Amass the Components (Foil)
1x Divination
1x Encrust
2x Essence Scatter
1x Hydrosurge
1x Mind Sculpt
1x Scroll Thief
1x Dragon Hatchling
1x Wall of Fire
1x Bloodhunter Bat
1x Bloodthrone Vampire
1x Disentomb
2x Arbor Elf
1x Bountiful Harvest
1x Centaur Courser
1x Deadly Recluse
2x Elvish Visionary
1x Farseek
1x Fog
1x Plummet
2x Primal Huntbeast
1x Ranger’s Guile
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Serpent’s Gift
1x Sentinel Spider
1x Evolving Wilds
2x Healer of the Pride
1x Rewind
2x Cower in Fear
1x Crimson Muckwader
2x Bounty of the Hunt
1x Flinthoof Boar
1x Revive
2x Elixir of Immortality
1x Ring of Kalonia
2x Primal Clay
1x Sedraxis Specter
1x Serra Avenger
9x Plains
1x Island
1x Swamp
4x Mountain
8x Forest
1x Soldier Token
1x Wurm Token
1x Hellion Token

I’ve no idea if this is actually a good start or not, but given for the cost of an uncommon and a common I’ve substantially increased my card pool, I’m erring on the side of yes…

So until next time, *witty slogan related to Magic*!

This is probably the post where I should try and ensnare you and convince you to continue to read my blog. First of all, you’ll have to excuse the lack of fancy visuals and a gif of moonwalking Garruk, I’m a total newbie when it comes tot his kind of thing, but I’ll try and make things all fancy and pretty as the blog goes on.

So… Me and Magic. I’ve been playing Magic since just before Betrayers of Kamigawa, and haven’t made that many achievements worth shouting about-I think my most prolific accomplishment was making top 16 in a Win a Mox Legacy Tournament playing a Budget Pox deck. I’m a Rules Adviser and am technically practicing for my L1 Judge test. In terms of formats, I tend to avoid standard-off the top of my head I think I’ve played in five standard events since Zendikar came out. I dabble somewhat in Legacy, with a Burn deck and Spring Tide currently built, with the intent of upgrading to Spiral Tide at some point, so if anyone would like to donate three Time Spiral, three Force of Will, three Scalding Tarn and three Misty Rainforest, I’d find it difficult to refuse… My main format however is EDH. For me, Magic is a personal experience. Everyone has their own way of the having fun, and for me, its about doing big stupid things that look awesome, or cynical clever things that annoy the hell out of people. EDH is my medium, and as I’ve grown older,my decks at times have come to reflect on me and my state of mind. Of particular note was earlier this year when I was trying to establish some control within my life. This resulted in a very irritating and unfun Linvala deck which pretty much resulted in nothing happening in the game every, as a reflection of the rut I found myself in. I have since taken that deck apart. I openly admit to using other people’s decklists for assistance-my own Norin deck is almost identical to Gaka’s because I think the deck is that damn good.

I’m actually not too sure what exactly I’m going to write about-I have many random thoughts related to Magic in my head, so there’ll likely be some of those, the usual random decklists, and the chronicle of my Pack to Power.

So until next time, *witty slogan related to Magic*!