Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 - Expansion 1

With the recent release of return to Ravnica into the actual card game Magic: The Gathering, I was not surprised to hear that there was a release for the video game Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013.  What I was surprised by, was that the first expansion to the game actually contained no cards from the new Return to Ravnica set, but instead revisited cards from the original Ravnica set.  Giving players a bit of a taste of the Ravnica history, I cannot help but think that the next expansion will in fact support new mechanics from Return to Ravnica.

So what does this new expansion bring to the table, and more importantly - is it worth the money? 

You get five new decks:

Mindstorms (Blue/Red) - Izzet Guild
Sepulcharl Strength (Black/Green) - Golgari Guild
Collective Might (Green/White) - Selesnya Guild
Grinning Malice (Black/Red) - Rakdo Guild
Aura Servants (Blue/White) - Azorious Guild

There are also ten new campaign levels, some additional puzzle challenges, foil conversions and other tweaks.  I really enjoyed the original release, despite some limitations.  Planechase as a mode just seems to feel a bit slow, and the lack of true deck editing has always been a concern for me in this series.  However, one of my biggest concerns with the last release was the construction of the decks we as players had available to us.  It was not that the decks were badly constructed - in fact some had excellent synergy.

As a player of the game however, most of my decks are multicolored.  I realize that sometimes makes mana draw a problem, but it opens up the number of combinations when you are building your decks.  In the original release, there was only one multicolored deck - a black/white one themed around the recently revived exalted mechanic (one of my personal favorites and the foundation of one of my best two or three decks from the actual card game).  However, every other deck in the original release was made up of a single color, so I was absolutely thrilled to see all of these new multicolored decks added to the mix.

The price point of the expansion is only $5 and to me that is a perfectly fair price for what I get here (especially if you consider buying an actual pack of cards at the store generally ranges from $3.25-$4.00 for a single fifteen card booster pack).  If you were a fan of the initial game, then I believe this expansion is a pretty easy sell - especially if you are like I am and enjoy multicolored decks.  I have no doubt there is at least one or two more expansions coming down the pipe eventually, and this one has me excited to see more when the time comes.