MTG Newbie: Bea DND – Wilds of Eldraine Open House Event Review

Magic: The Gathering has been one of those many things I have known about but never touched. With 30 years of history and lore, it seemed far too intimidating to even think about touching. Especially because I am old as hell now. Well a good friend of mine started getting into it and so it piqued my interest.

On Yeah Nah Gaming we will be posting a MTG Newbie series as I start to dive into this massive world, so you can enjoy this journey with me. There will be a how the hell to start article coming soon, but since one of my first steps was going to an event and Bea DND event down in Petone, it only felt right to throw a review up of the experience.

Jumpstart boosters

If you’re as new as me then I have to quickly highlight these because they are awesome. Basically they are packs of cards which are prebuilt so you get 20 cards which are somewhat balanced. If you grab two of these then you can have a 40 card deck to play with.

But for the fun part, there are heaps of predetermined packs of 20, and which one you get is totally random. This means the colour type will be random. But it is half a deck that is designed to work well. You may wind up with two of the same colour (which is handy) or two random colours, and you can figure out how to play that way.

At $10 each you can grab four and play a 40 vs 40 game with a friend as you figure out this amazing card game. And most importantly, it’s fun as hell.

Bea DND Events

This is the reason I wanted to write this piece. Whipping down to Petone’s Bea DND store, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous. This is totally new to me, and for some people this is their long held passion. How much is a newbie going to annoy these veterans?

Turns out I was being paranoid for nothing. Their Open events mean you can roll down. A jumpstart event you get handed two decks and get stuck in. They have some events where you can sit and play with anyone and it’s super chill. But the event I attended on the weekend was a small tournament that was also super chill.

This one was a two headed dragon tournament, which was a thing I hadn’t even Googled before I turned up. What this meant was you were in teams of two. They assigned the people into pairs, so instead of playing alongside my friend I was given a more experienced player, and thank god for that because she was awesome.

And most importantly, the whole thing was chill. I was getting tips from opponents, if I missed a step on my turn they let me do it after, and everyone was there to have fun. Turns out, there is an awesome community around here that are as eager to have newbies to join the fun as you are to join them.

Should you check one of these events out at Bea DND?

Hell Yeah! It’s a great store, great staff that are happy to help out, a cool vibe, and as I said, a cool community. It was a fantastic way to spend three hours on a Saturday, and no doubt I will be headed back to keep being a newbie soon.

10 Hell Yeah!

Excellent people! Excellent store! Excellent event!

Not much more to say!