It's all a Conspiracy, I tell ya!

      Sure enough, one of my recent experiences was to have a nice sample game of MtG's weirdest set in a while, Conspiracy.  If I didn't know better, they were working out not having made an Un-set in a long time.

      For those that don't know, Conspiracy is basically a draft set with a bunch of silly new cards and reprints like Exploration or Phage, the Untouchable (which is a Zombie Avatar Minion like it should always have been rather than a flavor fail Zombie despite her having a kid while being Phage instead of Jeska...but enough about lore) and fun new cards like Selvala and Marchesa, and reprinting the classic land cycle set of commons.  Oh right, and official squirrel tokens.

      Based on what little experience I had trying it in a draft scenario, Conspiracy games (which are meant to be played as four person free for all style draft games) feel very much like a shorter version of a Commander game, ignoring the copies of cards in your deck part.  You either make friends or enemies or both, and it is best not to end up angering people too quickly or becoming a threat, unless you can get away with it.  This does change turn by turn, hence the "like a shorter version of a Commander game" comment.

      Ignoring the draft game though, the actual set has some good gems in it, Stifle, Exploration, Rout, the land cycle common creatures mentioned before, Swords to Plowshares, and a much longer list of things I could list, so I'll just link to gatherer's whole list for now and let you gloss through it if you haven't already.  I'm mostly writing these articles as a viewpoint of someone who casually plays Magic The Gathering (as well as most of the other things I tend to rant, or want to rant anyway, about).  "Casually" means I'll go to prereleases for the various sets (usually) but I don't go to things like Friday Night Magic or various weekly tournaments whether due to time or other factors.
   
      Side rant on that ignored, Conspiracy definitely has its gems and if you feel like being crazy, you might try your luck somewhere nearby that has it for an entertaining draft, run by the store (possibly) or just get some boosters for draft, it only takes three (though you'll need those basic lands).

Overall I'd give conspiracy a 9.5/10, it would be higher but something silly feels missing from it, though it is still a solid set for casual players and people trying to hunt down cheaper copies of old rares like Rout and Exploration.