Welcome to 2019’s Magic: The Gathering Gift Guide. This holiday season features products from the latest Magic: The Gathering release, Throne of Eldraine. This set focuses on a whimsical theme: Camelot meets fairy tales. Players and collectors will discover knights battling for the good of humanity as they face off with the fae forces of fairy tale foes. Read on for a review of the set, or skip down to the gift guide portion of the post to see the products we recommend as gifts this holiday season.
Fairy Tales Brought to Life
The first theme is an overpowering fairy tale focus. Many cards tell stories from our childhood, bringing the classics into the M:TG multiverse. Take these cards, for example. Just by reading the names of these cards, I’m betting you can see a classic fairy tale retold:
- “Once Upon a Time”
- “Beloved Princess”
- “Wicked Guardian”
- “Escape to the Wilds”
- “Seven Dwarves”
- “Tempting Witch”
- “Foreboding Fruit”
- “Charmed Sleep”
- “Glass Casket”
- “Charming Prince”
- “True Love’s Kiss”
- “Happily Ever After”
Several of these cards can match multiple fairy tales, which I think is intentional, allowing players to tell their favorite stories as they play through. These cards are also thematically thrilling. “Bake into a Pie,” for example, destroys a creature to create food, much like witches might bake an errant child into a pie to devour.
Knights in Shining Armor
The other theme to the set is knights, much like Camelot. The rise of Knight-type creatures is full of order, law, and chivalry. Fun thematic cards include “Shining Armor,” “Jousting Dummy,” and various Paladins. Of course, the cards focused on knights are quite synergistic, making it easy to create effective and powerful decks. The card “Shining Armor,” as an example, is free to equip to a Knight card when cast. Also having the “flash” ability, “Shining Armor” is a powerful buff to a Knight in danger of being destroyed.
Whether you choose Arthurian legend or the fairy tales of your favorite characters, you can bring epic battles to your table as the fae and knights face off against each other—and themselves. Forge your own legends in the epic battles between yourself and your fellow Planeswalkers.
Gift Guide:
Booster Packs
This set is the first rotation set using the new booster pack rules. You can read all of the new rules here. Mostly, it’s worth noting that there are new ways to buy booster packs in Magic: The Gathering. One can buy a color-themed booster pack, standard booster packs, and Collector’s booster packs. Color-themed booster packs only include cards of a given color. This allows players to collect the cards they want most, without getting piles of duplicates of cards they’ll never play with. Standard booster packs are the classic booster pack, and are what most players are familiar with. Collector’s booster packs are a bit more expensive, but they are chock full of foil, rare, and alternate art cards. Each collector’s booster has 9 foil cards, 4 alternate-frame cards, and at least two rare or mythic cards.
Collector Boosters
Collector boosters are a great way to give your geek a guaranteed surprise, and it’s the best way to be sure you’re giving them a unique gift. These boosters are a bit more expensive, but well worth the cost for serious collectors who want everything.
Throne of Eldraine Bundle
The Throne of Eldraine bundle is an affordable way to give your geek several gifts at once. Most notably, the bundle contains 10 booster packs and a special-edition Piper of the Swarm alternate art card (151 cards). Add another 40 cards with the included lands, 20 of which are foil, and an oversized die for tracking health, and you’re packing a punch with a simple but effective gift. Oh, and don’t forget the box—a must-have for storing all the new cards your geek gets to open.
Throne of Eldraine Gift Bundle
The Throne of Eldrain Gift Bundle is a different animal, though it shares most of the same features. Featuring 10 standard booster packs, 40 lands, the exclusive Piper of the Swarm, and a spin-down die, the gift bundle kicks things up with a collector’s booster, and the box features new art, making it a great gift for the player who already has the regular bundle in hand.
Throne of Eldraine Booster Box
The Throne of Eldraine booster box has 36 booster packs for $99, giving a discount of over 20%. That’s a staggering 540 cards, enough to seed a collection for your geek who hasn’t dipped their toe into the Throne of Eldraine set yet.
Boost Box + Bundle + Planeswalkser Decks
This ultimate bundle combines a Bundle Box with a Booster Box and adds in two Planeswalkers decks (each with a full deck, deck box, and 3 booster packs). At $154.95, this value bundle is enough to overwhelm your gift recipient with a full array of knights, fae, artifacts, and enchantments and everything they need to play the world’s most popular collectible card game. Careful giving this gift, though. You might spend all of Christmas morning hearing this such as, “There’s a murderous Goldilocks?!” Your mileage may vary. Bonus: Your geek will also receive several codes for adding their decks to Magic: The Gathering Arena!
Disclaimer: Wizards of the Coast provided products for review purposes.
