Hey guys - I was a very active player back in the Revised/4th Edition/Ice Age timeframe and then life happened and Magic took the backburner. I went to a Hour of Devastation pre-release draft and had a blast playing the game again. I ordered a booster box of Amonkhet & Hour of Devastation to jumpstart my re-entry and would like to possibly order one more. I care about maintaining some value, but ultimately I'm more interested in fun gameplay with friends. Any other recent, standard-legal editions that would be good to purchase? I genuinely enjoy opening packs, so I'd rather order boxes than just purchase singles. I'd love thoughts!
and look over the recent sets to see if there are cards you like. I too used to enjoy packs but that's for sure not where the value is (unless you're consistently crazy lucky!). Small sets tend to have lower return and if you're at all concerned about prices you can peruse TCG
Nice clear graphic there with dates, and 5 sets are rotating. Kaladesh block is hugely overpowered but there are also a lot of banned cards that may or may not matter to you. Again if you're not playing constructed, look over the sets and choose your fun! I'd stick with Kaladesh to current. I enjoy Amonkhet and Hour which are both the newest things anyways. If you ever leap to constructed just fill with singles as you need because you'll rarely open what you want without spending a lot more than you need to.
I know this goes against what you`re saying in your post, but from an economic/value perspective, you really shouldn`t be cracking packs unless you play draft. People will repeat this a lot, and it`s not nonsense - we are a lot of players out here who wish we`d taken this advice from day one. If you want to get into constructed, you should get the singles you need for whatever you want to play. You will save a ton of money this way.
If you`re buying packs and drafting them, that`s expensive too of course, but at least you`re getting gameplay for your price in addition to just the cards. If you`re end up buying boxes to draft, staying on Amonkhet and Hour is probably a good idea, so you get practice with the sets that are currently drafted at your local game store. If you do this, you and your friends can use all those cards you drafted to play the Block format. The card pool allowed in the Block format are the cards from the current block, i.e. Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. It`s not an officially supported format anymore, so you won`t be able to play it at the LGS or on MTGO, but it`s still a lot of fun. It`s like a miniature Standard. It`s also an excellent deck building exercise, since you won`t be able to netdeck easily as it`s not a widely played format.
If you intend on playing Standard in the near future, and you are still dead set on buying boxes, I advise you to stick with the most recent four sets, which are Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. Those cards will remain Standard legal for 14 more months. Stay far away from Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, Shadows over Innstrad and Eldritch Moon. Those cards will rotate out of Standard in two months, and when they do, they will tank hard in value and not be playable anywhere except for a low number of Modern playables in those sets. You might need some cards from those sets in your decks if you`re playing Standard for the next two months, at least if you`re competitively minded. If so, get those as singles.
Your third box... If you`re going to draft, it should be Hour of Devastation, because the current draft format is two packs of Hour and one pack of Amonkhet (in that order), which means you`re going to need twice as many packs of Hour as of Amonkhet. If you`re opening packs to build Standard decks, contrary to my advice, it should probably be Kaladesh to get some variety in your collection.
I love cracking packs but I can assure you, it is a waste of money for the most part. For every awesome pull, you will have five times that filled with useless chaff.
The problem with Magic is that you need 4 copies of the cards you want/need. In other card games, they often restrict the best cards to 1 or 2 per deck, which makes cracking packs way more viable. After all, it is way easier to get lucky once, than it is to get lucky 4 times.
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http://mythicspoiler.com/akh/
and look over the recent sets to see if there are cards you like. I too used to enjoy packs but that's for sure not where the value is (unless you're consistently crazy lucky!). Small sets tend to have lower return and if you're at all concerned about prices you can peruse TCG
http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/search_result.asp?Set_Name=Hour of Devastation
Just click on the MED blue row and look at what the top values are to see if a set has a lot of value in it. Remember rotation is coming soon
http://whatsinstandard.com/
Nice clear graphic there with dates, and 5 sets are rotating. Kaladesh block is hugely overpowered but there are also a lot of banned cards that may or may not matter to you. Again if you're not playing constructed, look over the sets and choose your fun! I'd stick with Kaladesh to current. I enjoy Amonkhet and Hour which are both the newest things anyways. If you ever leap to constructed just fill with singles as you need because you'll rarely open what you want without spending a lot more than you need to.
Good luck!
If you`re buying packs and drafting them, that`s expensive too of course, but at least you`re getting gameplay for your price in addition to just the cards. If you`re end up buying boxes to draft, staying on Amonkhet and Hour is probably a good idea, so you get practice with the sets that are currently drafted at your local game store. If you do this, you and your friends can use all those cards you drafted to play the Block format. The card pool allowed in the Block format are the cards from the current block, i.e. Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. It`s not an officially supported format anymore, so you won`t be able to play it at the LGS or on MTGO, but it`s still a lot of fun. It`s like a miniature Standard. It`s also an excellent deck building exercise, since you won`t be able to netdeck easily as it`s not a widely played format.
If you intend on playing Standard in the near future, and you are still dead set on buying boxes, I advise you to stick with the most recent four sets, which are Kaladesh, Aether Revolt, Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation. Those cards will remain Standard legal for 14 more months. Stay far away from Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch, Shadows over Innstrad and Eldritch Moon. Those cards will rotate out of Standard in two months, and when they do, they will tank hard in value and not be playable anywhere except for a low number of Modern playables in those sets. You might need some cards from those sets in your decks if you`re playing Standard for the next two months, at least if you`re competitively minded. If so, get those as singles.
Your third box... If you`re going to draft, it should be Hour of Devastation, because the current draft format is two packs of Hour and one pack of Amonkhet (in that order), which means you`re going to need twice as many packs of Hour as of Amonkhet. If you`re opening packs to build Standard decks, contrary to my advice, it should probably be Kaladesh to get some variety in your collection.
Stay reasonable, be mindful of your expectations and don't feed the trolls.
Doomsdayin'
The problem with Magic is that you need 4 copies of the cards you want/need. In other card games, they often restrict the best cards to 1 or 2 per deck, which makes cracking packs way more viable. After all, it is way easier to get lucky once, than it is to get lucky 4 times.