My boss gave me permission to come in early today, so my shift that normally starts at 10:00 am, instead started at 6:40 am. Eight hours and some change later, I was leaving work earlier than usual so I could be on my way to the comic shop. I picked up my starter set, gravity feed, "Minsc and Boo" pre-order exclusive card and die, a pack of card sleeves, some pages for my binder, and my regular comic purchases (Nova Annual #1 and Ant-Man #3). My total came to exactly way too freaking much, and 32 cents. *Sigh* Alright, time to go home and open all of this up.
So. This guy, right? This is Roo. (actually he's Randall III, but we call him Roo.) He really likes helping me open boosters. If you recall, he helped me plow through an entire AvX gravity feed. He was excited, but I told him we had to pick up the puzzles and clean off the table from lunch before we could open anything. He excitedly agreed to my terms.
Ah, family togetherness. Here we have Roo and my podcast segment co-host, Abigail. We got popcorn to snack on, ready to open some cards and dice. They have milk in their cups in this picture, but the cups were moved out of their reach before we opened anything. This isn't my first rodeo.
This doesn't seem like much at first glance, but this really surprised me opening up the Starter Set. We get the orange, purple, pink, and brown action dice and indicator cards this time around just like in Uncanny X-Men. But check out the new shades of colors selected. You can actually see the difference very easily between both the brown and purple and the pink and orange. In Uncanny X-Men you could barely distinguish the colors, even sitting side by side, but this is a great improvement. Good job Wizkids!
Alright, we have our starter cards and dice, along with Minsc and Boo, set out on the table. We're ready to open the gravity feed. And eat popcorn. Side note: kids say funny things. Abigail was asking me who or what all of the cards were. I'd tell her, and she'd try her best to repeat it. The best was "Vampire". It came out "Damfire". That's right honey, "damfire". This is why I should record these things.
So, here's our first set of boosters (sorry for the glare). A couple of commons, an uncommon Drow Assassin, and two rares: Owlbear and Half-Orc Fighter. Very pleased with our first round. We kept opening packs three-at-a-time. I'd tear Roo's pack open, and hand it to him. Then tear Abigail's pack open handing it to her. Then open my own. Usually I had to help one of them get the cards out of the foil pack.
This is J-J. He's 1-year-old, and very badly wanted to help. Nope. I don't feel like wrestling any dice out of a toddler's mouth. The controlled chaos continued for a while: refilling bowls of popcorn, helping kids take drinks of milk, set the cups of milk back out of reach, keep J-J from pulling thing off of the table... it was fun. We were about 3/4 of the way through the gravity feed when...
Roo! Hold still!
I said hold still!
Ah, here we go... kinda. Anyways, the card is clear enough for you to see what it is. The lone super rare of this box: Tarrasque Epic Aberration. Seven cost, killer stats, a TFC of six... and it's essentially Godzilla. Well, I'm going to be trying to figure out a fun way to have him on a team.
Well, here's everything, along with an empty popcorn bowl. After setting aside my duplicates, and figuring out what I have and didn't have, here's what I found out.
Maybe by the time Marvel Age of Ultron comes out I will have video capabilities. For the time being I will just hide behind my mask of written words where I'm comfortable. It took The Reserve Pool months to get me on the podcast... maybe in a few more months they'll have me doing videos. Such are the problems of an introvert.
I'm really looking forward to digging in to this set. Time to wrap this up so I can play a game or two before going to sleep.
I managed to get all of the commons, but I'm still missing two uncommons: the Red Dragon and the Carrion Crawler.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember which rares I'm missing, but I did get three duplicate rares to trade. I also managed the SR Stirge and the SR Mindflayer, which are both very welcome. I do wish I had been able to get either the Tarrasque or the Red Dragon instead of the Stirge or Mindflayer, but I don't think I'll have any problem finding a team for both of them.
Altogether, I was super happy, especially considering that two SRs in one box is an enormous delight. Made my day.
This is a family affair! I love it. This is how we'll do it when the kid(s) get older
ReplyDeleteGreat report, Randy!
ReplyDeleteWas the promo card/die packaged with the starter set or separately?
ReplyDeleteMinsc and Boo "Go for the eyes, Boo."
DeleteI picked up my starter tonight, my promo was handed to me at the register. Caution though, I didn't look over my starter before opening it... I got no Troll dice but extra Paladin dice
ReplyDeleteI have a question about the starter set, is there any reason why 2 of the gelatinous cubes are basically identical? Apprentice ooze and master ooze are nearly the same except Master ooze adds 'cube may block any number of NPCs' why would u even use apprentice ooze, other than 2 players using same starter set. Any feedback would be appreciated.
ReplyDelete