Aang's MTG Journey

The product opening continues today with a less-than-exciting arrival: the Beginner Box.

I am not a new player. I was fortunate enough to be shown how to play MTG in-person by friends who were already familiar with the game. However, this product is a pretty good solution for anyone who wants to learn to play solo. Not sure why you would want to do that, but to be fair I know a lot of folks whose eyes glaze over when you start explaining the rules of a card game to them.

In any case, this is not a product review. My main purpose for ordering this box is for the exclusive (and very underwhelming) cards that can be found inside. Mostly this box contained a lot of bulk TLA and TLE that I had to sort through. It also came with two cardboard play mats and a bunch of "front cards": card-shaped tutorial objects that are not actually playable. These will sit at the end of my binder system, alongside the similarly-useless theme cards that come out of Jumpstart packs.

The most fascinating exclusives come from the two pre-constructed Aang and Zuko tutorial decks. These decks are designed to be stacked in a particular order rather than shuffled. This way, the written tutorial can be easily followed to emulate a scripted game. What's interesting about these tutorial cards is that they are essentially copies of existing cards from the set, distinguished only by their card number and the small line of text along the bottom that confirms the stacking order for reassembling the tutorial deck.

Together, these tutorial reprints form a contiguous block of 40 cards at the tail end of the TLE set. Slotting these in has given rise to the most ridiculous binder page to date: a full page of nothing but Mountain and Plains basic lands.

It was nice to complete such a large chunk of the collection, particularly at such a good price. The Beginner Box is cheap, though it's really only worthwhile for completionists or players completely new to Magic.

It's been a busy few days for Avatar collecting. My Commander Bundle landed today and I spent a good bit of time sorting it into the binders.

My reason for purchasing this sealed product primarily comes down to the set of 13 TLE cards found exclusively in these Bundles. These are all reprints of classic MTG commander staples. Only five of these cards are included in each bundle: three guaranteed, two random. The guaranteed cards are Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, and Swiftfoot Boots. The two random cards are pulled from the remaining set of 10, some of which are worth more than others.

I pulled Flawless Maneuver and Fierce Guardianship. Pretty happy with that result, but if I'm serious about obtaining all 13 I will need to acquire the rest as singles. The retail price on Commander Bundles is already climbing, so opening a second one would be an expensive gamble.

The bundle also came with nine Play Boosters, a tasty Collector Booster, a stack of guaranteed land cards, and a very nice box to store them in. My collection is really starting to come together; these booster packs and lands helped me complete my first five(!) 4×3 pages across the three binders.

The next product to arrive should be the Avatar-themed Beginner Box. I expect it will be here later this week.

Oh God. I didn't know Secret Lair drops were like this.

I had heard these products were selling out instantly, with buyers stuck waiting in a virtual queue ever since WotC changed from a print-to-demand model to limited print runs. Fortunately, it seems this was not the case with the Avatar: The Last Airbender Superdrop. Preorders went live on November 17, 2025, but I only started looking at these in January. Somehow, all of the products are still available for purchase on WotC's website.

Unfortunately, the price is still high even when ordering direct-to-consumer. The Superdrop is in fact composed of five separate products:

• A Lot to Learn (4 cards)
• Everything Changed (4 cards)
• My Cabbages! (5 cards; corporate loves this meme)
• One with the Elements (6 cards)
• The Ember Island Players (5 cards)

Each of these products come in a foil and non-foil edition. It was time to decide: am I serious about collecting all treatments, or should I give the foils a miss? The markup would be far worse if I ended up looking for these on the secondhand market.

Ultimately I got my answer when I realised the Path of Ancestry promo is only available if your order exceeds the qualifying threshold: €224! The only products that meet that price tag are:

• the foil editions; and
• the Master of All Elements Everything Bundle, which included every single card in every treatment.

You can guess which option I ended up going with.

In other news, I just discovered I'm missing a Walmart-exclusive Aang promo. I've ordered one on eBay, but I'm starting to realise I should've been hunting for promos on Cardmarket. Prices seem to be a lot better on TCG-specific sites.

Following on from my initial attempt at a home prerelease event, I invited the gang back to the kitchen table for round two. It took a little while to fit everyone's availability, but the drafted decks finally got to see some proper use. And this time, they're actually sleeved! I've gone with matte clear Dragon Shields as the sleeve of choice for this collection going forward.

My victory last time must have been a total fluke. I went 0–3 this time, with my attempt at a mono-green build losing to every other deck.

Just like last time, the star of the show was the prerelease-stamped Avatar Aang. He got to see some serious play, including a brutal transformation straight into my face.

It ultimately felt a little bittersweet to begin disassembling the decks at the end of the night for inclusion in the binders. I've purchased three Vault X binders (4×3 layout, 624 cards) to hold the full collection, which should be more than enough. I started sorting the loose cards into them over the Christmas break, but now I can finally slot some of the nicer pulls from the prerelease kits.

Alas, I am a collector at heart, even though it was nice to give the decks one final outing.

Well, this is a surprise!

It seems Santa brought me not one but TWO scene boxes for Avatar UB. These products each contain a full set of scene cards (specifically the 6-card TLE scenes; the TLA set also has its own 4-, 6-, and 9-card scenes). The scene cards from these boxes all come in foil, which is the only way to obtain this treatment. Non-foil versions also exist but these can only be found individually in Collector Boosters, ironically making them the rarer variant.

The two scene box themes are The Black Sun Invasion and Tea Time at the Jasmine Dragon. In addition to the playable cards, each box also comes with the equivalent art cards as well as a cardboard easel. The idea is to slot the six art cards in a grid so that the full artwork can be enjoyed. I've put them on display for now, but I suspect the grid ordering will be broken once I put them into a 4×3 binder. I hadn't really intended on collecting all the art cards to be honest, but here we are.

Great to get these ticked off the list for Christmas!!

I have a confession.

Since November, I have been placing eBay orders for miscellaneous MTG promo cards that form part of the Avatar UB crossover. These have been slowly making their way to me over the past month, and the last one has now landed.

Look at this haul:

Gran-Gran (non-foil)
This card is one of two promos created for the Wizards Play Network (WPN), a global network of retail stores who receive support from WotC to run MTG game nights and tournaments. This particular promo was distributed at Commander format events. The non-foil is the standard treatment; unusually, a traditional foil version also exists, but was only given away at WPN Premium stores.

This promo was actually the first one I ordered, but the last to arrive.

Unlucky Cabbage Merchant
This is another WPN promo, given away at Standard format events. I picked up the non-foil, but again this card has a foil treatment only available from WPN Premium stores.

Iroh, Grand Lotus
I spotted this card on Bluesky before the set even came out. This promo is a collaboration between MTG and BoxLunch and could only be obtained in-store in the US starting November 21. To qualify, you had to purchase $50 worth of MTG or Avatar merch. Suffice to say, this was the most expensive one for me to acquire. The artwork is gorgeous though.

Firebending Student
This card actually forms part of the main TLA set, despite being a foil-only Buy-a-Box promo. I didn't preorder any booster boxes so had to pick this one up online.

Momo, Friendly Flier
This card also forms part of the TLA set, but it can only be obtained by purchasing the Magic: The Gathering Avatar: The Last Airbender Bundle product. I wasn't very interested in the contents of this bundle (it's mostly just Play Boosters, lands, and ephemera) so I grabbed this one as a single.

Katara, the Fearless
This promo was distributed at San Diego Comic-Con back in July as a teaser for the full Avatar UB set. The alt art shows Katara in her Fire Nation outfit.

Sokka, Bold Boomeranger
Another convention promo, this time showing Sokka in his Fire Nation outfit. This one was given out at MagicCon: Atlanta in September. You had to be there.

I'm still on the hunt for more promos (some haven't even been released yet), but that just about wraps up my purchases for 2025. Now to figure out how to fit these ancillary promos into a logical binder order…

I opened my first Collector Booster today.

These packs are the scratch cards of the MTG ecosystem. You're not really buying them to build decks—you're buying them for the adrenaline rush of possibly hitting something shiny and rare. Each pack contains 15 random cards, mostly foils and alternate arts from both TLA and TLE. The main chase cards from these packs are the four textless Neon Ink Battle Pose Cards, as well as the headliner Raised Foil Avatar Aang. Obviously the chance of pulling any of these from an individual Collector Booster is vanishingly slim.

Such was the case with my first one. Plenty of foils I was missing, but nothing else of note. I ordered two Play Boosters as well to qualify for free shipping.

The main problem with CB packs is the price. Just one will probably set you back anywhere from €30-40 online. On the high street, I've seen prices ranging from €42 to €60(!).

My curiosity has been satisfied for now, but I suspect this won't be the last CB I crack.

They landed.

One week on from the official prerelease and I now had enough prerelease kits to run my own event from the kitchen table—and then some. Each prerelease kit contained five Play Booster packs along with a special prerelease pack with cards seeded based on the colour of the kit. The seller was kind enough to throw in a Jumpstart Booster as well.

What ensued was a pack-opening frenzy. Instead of building sealed decks immediately, we pooled all the packs and ran a draft: each pack was opened, a card chosen, and the rest passed around the table until everything had been picked.

At the end, each player had a drafted pile of cards from which to build their deck. With only four players, most of the evening was spent cracking packs and shuffling through the resulting card piles. I went with a mono-green deck to try out the new Earthbend keyword action. I ended up winning 1-0 during the single match we got to play. Unfortunately, nobody thought to bring spare lands, so the guys playing with multicoloured decks had to use a confusing token system instead. We'll figure it out during the next session.

The main highlight of the evening was getting to see which five prerelease promos were pulled. Each kit contained a single guaranteed rare or mythic foil with a 2025 date stamp. We pulled

• #162 (Zhao, the Moon Slayer),
• #165 (Avatar Destiny),
• #181 (Great Divide Guide),
• #207 (Avatar Aang // Aang, Master of Elements), and
• #247 (Toph, the First Metalbender).

Going by price listings online, the stamped Avatar Aang is the biggest pull by far—although its price is dwarfed by the Raised Foil version, currently listed for €7.5k.

Overall I think the event was a lot more memorable at home with friends than it would have been in the LGS last weekend. I've set the drafted decks aside for a future play session. Now on to the herculean task of sorting the remaining bulk.

As someone who only occasionally plays Magic: The Gathering with friends, prerelease events are not my usual scene. Hearing that an Avatar: The Last Airbender expansion was launching this weekend tempted me to the extent that I messaged my LGS to see if there were any slots left for the Saturday event. To reserve a prerelease kit, I needed to have paid in-store earlier in the week; nevertheless, I was informed that there were still a few kits left. I rang a couple friends to see if anyone would go in with me (roped one guy in) and then drove into town through stormy weather only to be informed that all prerelease kits had been sold or reserved.

We left the LGS dejected, with nothing to show for our time.

However, this failure to acquire a single Avatar product awakened something in me: if my LGS wasn't going to facilitate the experience, I would simply have to recreate it on my own terms. After a quick eBay search and much deliberation, all five colours of prerelease kits are now on their way to me. Thirty packs, one kitchen table, and a strict reduction in wet gamer smells—the home prerelease begins soon.