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Rob Wright:
The end of summer means the beginning of a new set in Pokemon, Stellar Crown, a new pull of the month and, lo and behold, I already have two of my chase cards!
First, the Ace Spec, Great Tree, the second Ace Spec stadium and a real humdinger for those who like to play stage twos. It essentially allows you to evolve a Pokemon twice in the same turn, as long as it's been out for one term. The only drawback is that your opponent can do it too. Ah well, they'll all be playing Terrapagos, so what do I care?
Second up is the Joltik, a gorgeous art rare card from Marina Chikazawa (his first art rare and only his second set) and a ridiculously playable card. Its one attack allows you to accelerate up to two grass AND two electric for one colourless. I spy a Torterra deck that's getting an upgrade...
Stefano Paravisi:
August has seen the release of the fifth Lorcana Set “Shimmering Skies” which my son and I were really anticipating, therefore it shouldn't come as a surprise that my pull of the month is a card from this set. To be honest having opened more than one box I had the luck of pulling more than just a few interesting cards, but my final choice has to be Prince Naveen, Ukulele player.
With the fourth Lorcana European Challenge Event approaching at the end of September in Birmingham, it has become imperative for all the players to ensure that their decks are competitive and effective. We are expecting to see many Steelsong decks at the competitive events and Prince Naveen, Ukulele player, is a card worth to have in this type of decks, in my opinion. At a first glance Prince Naveen might seem just a regular singer, but what makes him stands in between the Amber characters is his ability which allows the players to sing a song of 6 or lower without paying any additional ink. For a cost of 4 this card can make a huge difference on the table as you can play it, sing powerful songs like “A whole new world” for free and force your opponent to discard their hand to draw new cards having them to rethink their next move. This move is not for the faint of heart and should we also point out Naveen can quest for two Lore next turn?
Beside the actual effectiveness in the game, I would also like to mention how incredible is the art of this card with Prince Naveen leaning over the frame of the card, almost inviting you to join him in one of the cheerful scenes from “The Princess and the Frog”. The details of this design are incredible: you can see characters dancing in the background, confetti falling from the sky: it's really vibrant. Don't be fool by Naveen's reassuring smile, though: this card is a very good all rounder and I'm pretty sure me or my son will use it in our Steelsong deck.
Luke Pickles:
This is all a bit of new territory for me. I used to be heavily into Yu-Gi-Oh back in the Noughties, then I ended up having less and less time to play. Fast forward to eight years ago, and I got into modern board gaming. During that time, I dabbled with Pokémon cards for my nephew (he wasn’t interested), and Magic the Gathering with friends, but it didn’t have the same appeal as Yu-Gi-Oh once did. I contemplated getting back into it, but with so many new mechanisms now in play, it felt easier to just play on the video games instead. Lorcana was also a tempting prospect but my wife seems to have fallen into that rabbit hole, as has her brother-in-law, and I’m not as big of a Disney nerd as they are.
What I realised was that my attachment to Yu-Gi-Oh wasn’t necessarily the game, although I did really enjoy it, it was the link to the anime that kept me connected. Which is probably why I’ve fallen for the My Hero Academia CCG as much as I have. I’ve really gotten a great love for the anime and the UniVersus system which it’s based on works incredibly well at getting the characters unique Quirks into the gameplay.
OK, ramble on how I got here over – the card I pulled that I was most excited by was the shiny 1st edition character card for one of my favourite characters: Fumikage Tokoyami (or Tsukiyomi). I pulled this from a booster box of the Crimson Rampage series, and I was delighted. I could finally build a deck around one of the most versatile characters in the anime. It was shortly followed by a second (non-shiny) copy, which is great because that can also fit into the deck. Is it a particularly good pull? It absolutely is for me!
Melissa King:
Bloomburrow has been one of my favourite sets released for Magic: The Gathering this year - the art is amazing, the mechanics have been fun to build around and play with and the tribal synergies amongst the cute, furry critter types have been incredible! So it may come as a surprise that my MTG pick for Trading Card Pull of the Month isn't a game changing creature or a spell worth splashing a colour for. Nope, my pick for this month is… a land card. Put into context, this is the equivalent of a Pokemon player picking an energy card to talk about… But I promise, this card packs a punch!
Three Tree City has a number of talking points, the first being the absolutely outstanding artwork showcased by the four variants of the borderless art version of this card. It depicts a beautiful willow tree, during the seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Unfortunately, I haven’t been lucky enough to pull one of these cards, but even the original art of a majestic tree being lit by the sunlight in a clearing of the woods is a scene to behold.
The second major point to make about this card is its utility. Three Tree City is a Legendary Land which has been designed with tribal decks in mind. As it enters the battlefield, you choose a creature type. The card then allows you to tap for a generic mana to cast spells. Sure, there are plenty of land cards which let you do this, but the real selling point for me is the next ability.
You can then pay two mana and tap the land to choose a mana colour, and then produce an amount of mana of that colour equal to the number of creatures of your chosen type that you control. Now this… is… HUGE. Some tribal decks, for example Merfolk or Elves, have access to endless amounts of ramp and mana, so you usually aren’t stuck for the ‘energy’ that you need to cast your spells. However some tribal groups, like Mardu Vampires or black Rats can struggle as there isn’t a lot of ramp for these colours (without spending a month’s wages on pricey mana rocks), and this is where a land card like Three Tree City can really come in clutch, especially if your tribal deck makes a lot of creature tokens. My friends and I played a game recently were my partner was able to pay into Three Tree City and tap it for 9 black mana, which in that colour is just unheard of!
Three Tree City has been a real chase card for us in the Bloomburrow set. Its utility in tribal decks really is second to none, and the amount of potential mana which it can produce for only having to pay 2 into it is phenomenal. I think it's safe to say that where this card is concerned, it really is TREE-mendous!
