RPG Hub Reviews: Magic: The Gathering Premium Alara Foil Pack
As of last week, Magic The Gathering fans may have noticed something new on the shelves drawing their attention. A new premium booster pack set is now available in the form of a 15 card booster pack featuring the Alara block (Shards of Alara, Con-Flux, Alara Reborn). I will be honest here, this is not so much a review as a look at. These are older products but with a new shiny coating.
Design: One of our card shops that we go to had a pack already open just for us to check it out which was pretty nice of them. Going through them I was not surprised that like other Magic cards that these were your typical foil cards. It was nice to have an all foil pack but it got me thinking of the following.
Contents: Like any booster pack, the Alara premium foil pack is no exception. It’s 15 randomized cards from all the parts of the Alara block. This means you will have commons, uncommon, rare and mystical rare cards. In reality now you have even less chance of getting something special. In fact 90% of the deck was common cards with only one rare.
Cost: The pack went for $12 Canadian which is quite a bit for a 15 card booster. This all begs into question if this was even needed as a product. I say this as a week ago I bought a tournament pack for Shards of Alara. I not only got 60 cards in this pack but two – three cards were foil and I had a mythic rare card. Foil is great for those hardcore collectors however the price does not make this pack worth it at all.
So let’s break this down
Liked
Design: I love the art, it’s no secret and I like foil cards as they add a little flare to the already awesome art.
Disliked
Cost VS Profitability: It’s hard to justify $12 for a 15 card booster where most cards are common across three sets. While they are trying to keep interest flowing through the Alara block before the rest of the Zendikar block is completed it is not needed. Buy individual packs and you will be rewarded more with the cards your more looking for.
In all I was rather disappointed. It does appeal to a niche group of fans but for the rest I highly suggest skipping it. As mentioned above you can simply buy into more individual boosters for a cheaper price, tournament decks or if missing that certain something just buy the individual card your missing. I really hope that Wizards of the Coast can make things a bit more appealing with future releases.
