The problem starts when you look at where you play. If you play kitchen table, everything is fine. You just have a game with mini-expansions and some excitement when you buy them. But when the only way to play it is at the FLGS, it usually means tournament style play. And that soon translates to “keeping up with it” where you need specific answers to cards of your opponent to stay competetive. And that’s where it turns from being a fun kitchen table game into being a lifestyle game.

It’s not necessarily tied to the random-booster distribution, that just makes it a bit more expensive to get what you want since you have to either buy singles or use the shotgun approach (buy displays and hope you find what you look for, selling the rest as singles). But it definitely is tied to the “extensible format” and the competetive scene.

I play MTG only kitchen-table style mostly, so am in no pressure to keep up with standard or with changing meta or anything, so don’t have to deal with the financial pressure as some people who play MTG competetively in the standard or modern format with their regular changes to the card pool (in modern in the form of ban list changes that lately shook up the format heavily by killing some major combo decks).

And it doesn’t even have to be the competetive factor, it can even turn into a bigger pull when you just have that competionist streak (like me with LOTR:LCG player cards 😉 ).

The problem starts when you look at where you play. If you play kitchen table, everything is fine. You just have a game with mini-expansions and some excitement when you buy them. But when the only way to play it is at the FLGS, it usually means tournament style play. And that soon translates to “keeping up with it” where you need specific answers to cards of your opponent to stay competetive. And that’s where it turns from being a fun kitchen table game into being a lifestyle game.

It’s not necessarily tied to the random-booster distribution, that just makes it a bit more expensive to get what you want since you have to either buy singles or use the shotgun approach (buy displays and hope you find what you look for, selling the rest as singles). But it definitely is tied to the “extensible format” and the competetive scene.

I play MTG only kitchen-table style mostly, so am in no pressure to keep up with standard or with changing meta or anything, so don’t have to deal with the financial pressure as some people who play MTG competetively in the standard or modern format with their regular changes to the card pool (in modern in the form of ban list changes that lately shook up the format heavily by killing some major combo decks).

And it doesn’t even have to be the competetive factor, it can even turn into a bigger pull when you just have that competionist streak (like me with LOTR:LCG player cards 😉 ).

Nobody suggested Citadels or Ohne Furcht und Adel, yet. So I will do it. Nice small-box game with a role-drafting mechanics and some really mean elements in it, that works very well in bigger groups. Base game plays 2-7, with the expansion it can play 2-8. And there is a new edition coming out soonish, that will add more flexibility in the selection of roles (still only 9 roles, so only up to 8 players, but what 9 roles are out is variable within limits). Citadels became my go-to game to have around when we go to board game meetups in case we are more than our usual 4-5 people (and even with 4 or 5 it is a hoot – my wife and me like it with just 2 players, too, so it’s a quite versatile title for us).

Nobody suggested Citadels or Ohne Furcht und Adel, yet. So I will do it. Nice small-box game with a role-drafting mechanics and some really mean elements in it, that works very well in bigger groups. Base game plays 2-7, with the expansion it can play 2-8. And there is a new edition coming out soonish, that will add more flexibility in the selection of roles (still only 9 roles, so only up to 8 players, but what 9 roles are out is variable within limits). Citadels became my go-to game to have around when we go to board game meetups in case we are more than our usual 4-5 people (and even with 4 or 5 it is a hoot – my wife and me like it with just 2 players, too, so it’s a quite versatile title for us).