Magic the Gathering: M14 Intro Pack - Bestial Strength Review

     With a new Core Set upon us, I suppose I should cover the decks, or at least the ones I've seen in person.  It is important for me to mention that the wall of text here will not really cover the same things as the video at the end of the article, as that is more an opening.  The Bestial Strength Intro Pack is sort of tricky to really describe.

     Now, a bit of history here, I have basically been playing Magic The Gathering (here on referred to as mtg) basically on and off since Ice Age, although in the early days I merely was introduced to it and messed about with my brother's cards, and then come Onslaught I picked it up more seriously, although still casual in terms of organized play.  Basically dropped out after Tenth edition (not to be confused with M10 which came after....) and came back around M12, so I've seen mtg in its various forms, as well as some of its rule changes over the years (legendary rule as an example) so by no means am I new to the game.  However because I'm a big fan of playing for fun, and not for what can effectively be called min maxing a deck build, I won't call a card bad without reason (I phrase that carefully) although I'm a fan of pointing out when something seems to stand out as a possible poor choice.

In terms of cost, using rounded numbers, with msrp being $15 and a booster costing $4, two boosters per deck in addition to the deck means that you are basically paying for a $7 deck with two booster, either way its a good deal if there cards you are looking for in said deck or just to get in the game.

On to the deck however, I quite like the rares, but for now I should start with color breakdown perhaps.  With 17 Forests and 9 Swamps, I'd say it is a little heavy on the Forests, perhaps even a little heavy on the Swamps given that 7 cards need black mana and none of them need more than 1 to cast, so there are definitely cards that can safely be swapped out if you don't want to remove anything that isn't a land.  Creature wise the deck needs to get more power added to it, or you can do that with the spells, and personally I'd have tossed in another Fog, but otherwise as an introduction, I feel the deck did okay, although maybe Voracious Wurm would have been a nice addition, in terms of green from M14 (that isn't a sliver), although I'm not sure what that could have been in place for.  The splash of black is okay, but I'm more a fan of the old days, ignoring the 40 card deck limit of the core sets, but of the mono colored decks.  Granted the benefit of splashing in a different color is a nice way of saying "Hey, if you like Green, try Black maybe?"

The rares from the deck, Garruk's Horde being a foil rare of course,
 Into the Wilds is an alright card with the right deck.

     Getting ahead of myself, Green points to Black which points to Red then to Blue finally to White which points back at Green, although enough about the game in general and back to the deck.  Which is okay, not perfect, but a good start.  I rather like the synergy with Garruk's Horde and Into the Wilds, they are both good choices for this deck.  I rather like that all five decks have a copy of their Staff of the <x> Magus appropriate to the main color of the deck.  I love Fog, for it is just good to stall.  I salute Giant Spider, because it is such a classic card of the whole game (like Fog) and Rootwalla for being a way to sort of have Basking Rootwalla in a core set without needing to explain Madness.  Brute force wise, this deck seems...hm, a little lacking up front outside of Garruk's Horde and it makes up for that with Giant Growth and Enlarge (and to a lesser degree with Advocate of the Beast).  But again, in terms of an introduction to mtg, it did fine, and it can easily be customized (personally I'd start with another Elvish Mystic and a Fog at least first).

Some personal favorites from the deck, Giant Spider and Fog out of nostalgia,
Rootwalla and Kalonian Tusker as just good cheap Green cards.

Now, I suppose I should come up with a proper grading system for this, but for now I shall simply it as a passing grade, even with the minor points I took off for the deck probably have been slightly better with a Forest swapped out for another Elvish Mystic.

Potential/Card Choice:   9.5/10
     See the last statement for the point loss.  I do not hold anything against a deck for what the set list is, but rather how it uses that list.
Balance/Practicality:   9/10  
     I seem to have issues drawing into land too often in play tests as the deck is.  Can safely remove a few of those Forests in all likelihood for creatures or other non-land cards.

Cost:   10/10

     Now I do go above a score of ten in places I feel it outdoes itself, a score of 10 in a section is merely my starting score, and points can be subtracted or rarely added.  A score of 10 is rather neutral in my opinion for how I am setting this up.  Anything higher than 10 would be that a product would be worth more than the list price.  Because all decks now are made with two booster packs included, I keep that in mind on price costs for what you get.

Overall Average Score:   9.5/10
Overall this gets a passing score in my book, as it is an intro pack designed to be modified to grow out in a direction.
     


Here is the video version though.