Hello everyone, welcome to another review on InsideTheBox! We are here today to review the new 2013 intro pack for Magic The Gathering trading card game. Hasbro (UK distributor of Magic) kindly sent us two of the five available intro packs; Wild Rush (green) and Mob Rule (red).

Before I jump into the review, I would like to give you a little bit more information about Magic: The Gathering for anybody new the trading card game and video game series.

In the Magic game, you play the role of a planeswalker—a powerful wizard who fights other planeswalkers for glory, knowledge, and conquest. Your deck of cards represents all the weapons in your arsenal. It contains the spells you know and the creatures you can summon to fight for you.

Trading card games like the Magic: The Gathering TCG combine collectable cards with a strategy game. You don’t know what you’ll get in a Magic booster pack. You just start a collection and trade with other players to get the cards you want.

The best part about a trading card game is that it’s always changing. You design and build your own unique decks, and each Magic game you play is different. New Magic expansions are released a few times a year, and each new expansion brings new ways to stupefy and defeat your opponents.

Magic players craft their own decks, selecting cards that suit their individual playing styles and strategies. Building a deck often focuses on taking advantage of the powers inherent in each of Magic’s five mana colors.

White: The colour of Justice
White spellcasters use superior tactics, efficient creatures, and the power of righteousness against their foes.

Blue: The colour of Wisdom
Blue mages focus on using superior knowledge to gain control of a battle, and slowly gain the upper hand.

Black: The colour of Ambition
Black sorcerers are willing to do whatever it takes to win a battle, even if it means sacrificing everything to do so.

Red: The colour of Chaos
Red conjurers try to win as quickly and dramatically as possible, smashing and burning their way to a quick victory.

Green: the colour of Nature
Green shamans win duels through the brute force of mother nature, summoning giant creatures to squash their enemies.

What color will you play? It is entirely up to you!

So, that’s the official description of Magic: The Gathering TCG. Basically, you choose different colours of mana (described above) which allow you to summon creatures, enchantments and other cards by tapping the mana required. Most cards will require a specific type of mana along with any other type of mana, for example: Krenko, Mob Boss is the signature card in the red intro pack deck. He requires two red (mountain) mana, along with any two other types of mana (can be red or any other colour).

If you are new (like I was myself), do not worry, you will grasp the rules of the game very, very quickly and I am sure you will enjoy the game. So, these intro packs include a standard (non-variable) deck, along with 2 sealed booster packs. These booster packs contain anything from common to extremely rare cards, what you get it based on luck!

Most boosters will have at least one rare card, however, you may get lucky and get a mythic rare card (extremely uncommon), but you can also be unlucky and only get an uncommon card.

I played some of my friends using the two intro packs which were kindly supplied by Hasbro, and I found that I preferred the green intro pack. I feel that it has an excellent, diverse range of strong creatures and highly assistful enchantments. These intro decks are certainly an excellent choice for new players and provide brilliant value, containing the started deck and two booster packs, along with starter guides.

The quality of these cards are fantastic, art designs are amazing and the attention to detail is superb. As you remove the cards from the box, you will get a beautiful, almost scented new card smell, something which collectors (such as myself) love!

If you are new to Magic: The Gathering, I cannot recommend these cards any more than I already have. They are the best starting point to becoming a great Magic player and a building block in creating a powerful, diverse and personal deck.

Another complement I must give the intro pack is the card lineup which it contains. Most starter decks in other TCGs only have one good card, and the rest are hopelessly weak, however, in Magic: The Gathering’s 2013 intro set, the cards included are quite powerful. You will likely keep many of these cards inside your final deck.

So, I think I will wrap up the review by re-iterating my comments. If you are new to the series and are confused at where to start, look no further than the Magic 2013 Intro Sets, they provide a great starting line-up of strong cards, along with 2 booster packs at an excellent price. You’d be wise to pick-up a few booster packs to give that extra edge in your Magic: The Gathering deck.

Thanks for reading, here are the scores:

CARD QUALITY: 10/10
VALUE: 9/10
DECK LINE-UP: 9/10

OVERALL SCORE: 9.3