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"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 2 – "Magic: The Gathering"

Yesterday, we reported on how awesome the booster boxes for Magic: The Gathering's newest set, Throne of Eldraine, are. This was through the acquisition of all manner of Throne of Eldraine products in the process, including a Bundle and the two Planeswalker Decks, something we're very grateful for.

"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 1 - "Magic: The Gathering"
What my eyes beheld, once more! Source: Bleeding Cool

Today, we at Bleeding Cool have the honor of reviewing the Planeswalker Decks, which feature Oko, the Trickster, and Rowan, Fearless Sparkmage.

"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 2 - "Magic: The Gathering"
Source: Bleeding Cool

So, these Planeswalker Decks come with a preconstructed deck modeled after the Planeswalkers who are the faces of their respective decks, two draft-style booster packs (A.K.A. the standard packs, and not the Collector's Edition packs), and a deck box to go along with it all.

"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 2 - "Magic: The Gathering"
Snazzy! Source: Bleeding Cool

Additionally, these decks come with a code each to input into Magic: The Gathering: Arena, which will provide the user access to these decks on the said software interface. In this way, you can play with your new deck online and offline all the same! Isn't that fun?

"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 2 - "Magic: The Gathering"
No, we won't show you our codes. Source: Bleeding Cool

"But how do the deck play?" I hear a lot of you asking. Well, fret not, dear readers, for I, have gotten a chance to test these decks out and show you what these decks contain and how they interact!

I've so far played one game with these decks straight out of the box, and while it's clear that a bit more tuning up could have been good for the Rowan deck (in contrast the Oko deck could have been tuned down, but where's the mirth in that?), the two decks played together quite well.

"Throne of Eldraine" Product Review, Part 2 - "Magic: The Gathering"
Shiny shiny. Source: Bleeding Cool

So, it's worthwhile to note that both of these decks come with a few cards that are considered "ancillary" to the set itself – this means they can only be found either in these decks or in Collector's Edition packs. This includes the face Planeswalker cards, and any card in the decks that refer to them (I'm looking at Oko's Hospitality and Rowan's Stalwarts, for starters). We get two of the rare ancillary card and four of the uncommon card, in addition to the face Planeswalker, of course.

In playing with both decks together I found that the sooner a player got out their Planeswalker, the better – this actually lends itself very well to modifying these decks into Oathbreaker decks, a topic I'll be covering generally, later today. Keep an eye out for Oathbreaker deck techs of Oko, the Trickster and Rowan, Fearless Sparkmage when they're written!

In the end, Oko did manage to overwhelm Rowan with plenty of flying Faeries and card draw besides. Rowan did, however, put up a good fight, so don't overlook that preconstructed Magic deck, either. All in all, the Magic: The Gathering Planeswalker Decks are quite good, and more importantly tons of fun to play with.


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Joshua NelsonAbout Joshua Nelson

Josh Nelson is a Magic: The Gathering deckbuilding savant, a self-proclaimed scholar of all things Sweeney Todd, and, of course, a writer for Bleeding Cool. In their downtime, Josh can be found painting models, playing Magic, or possibly preaching about the horrors and merits of anthropophagy. You can find them on Twitter at @Burning_Inquiry for all your burning inquiries.
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