Hello again Mananation! I'm just getting back from an extremely long weekend judging the Star City 10K weekend in Atlanta. Congrats to David Mayer for winning the Legacy Open with his Ad Nauseum Tendrils deck, and to Lewis Laskin for winning the Standard Open with what is sure to be Standard's hottest new deck, aptly named "Superpals."

And a great big shout out to some judges who almost made top 8. Omar Hamid was piloting the same Superpals deck that won the Standard Open to go 6-3 just missing top 8. CJ Crooks was busy judging the Standard Open Saturday, but came to play on Sunday to go 5-0 with Counter-Top, then missing on the last 3 matches knocking him out of the top 8. Better luck next time guys, I want to see a judge in Top 8!

So we have a great new set out, Rise of the Eldrazi, and with a new set comes the thrill of picking up some new boxes of Magic! You do, I do, we all love busting that plastic wrapper on a new box. What am I going to find? Please, please, please let me bust a Gideon Jura! As if the thrill of popping a new box wasn't enough, there are some great ways to further enjoy that new box. Why not turn opening that box into a game? We buy those boxes because we like to play games, right?

Pack Wars

Pack wars is a great way for you and a friend to bust that box. For classic pack wars you and your opponent will each need an unopened pack and 15 basic lands, 3 of each type. Open the pack without looking at the cards, remove the tip card/token and shuffle in your basic lands. Roll a die to see who goes first and play Magic! Whoever doesn't win goes first for the next pack. With an unopened box that's 18 games of Magic!

Don't have 30 basic lands lying around? Maybe you're at the food court of the mall with your shiny new box and want to get in some pack wars. No problem, play no-lander pack wars. Each opponent busts a pack, shuffles it up and draws 3 cards. Decide who plays first, then play as normal except you have an unlimited amount of mana and you can play only one spell per turn. X spells have a max of 5 for X, and the same goes for multikicker. Land cards cycle for free, i.e. discard a land to draw a card. No-lander is my favorite pack war. Where else are you going see a first turn Emrakuul?

Dollars

Dollars is a game for judges, by judges, but I'm here to reveal the top secret judge game to the masses! After a long day judging a tournament the judges will normally receive a box of product as a gift from the tournament organizer for all their hard work. So the tough decisions begin, to pack war or to dollars. When you've been on your feet all day, playing pack wars may not be the most appealing way to spend your down time, so enter dollars.

Dollars is the most pointless, futile way to have fun opening your box. You can have as many players as you have boxes. Gather around a table, and everyone opens a pack, but don't look at any of the cards. Check to see if you have a foil, which you will know by having a normal backed card as the last card in your pack as opposed to a token. Whoever has a foil reveals first. If no one has a foil, then decide who goes first by performing any manner of bodily functions, bribes, or just all reveal together. Whoever goes first, or simultaneously, you reveal the rare from your pack. Decide as a group who turned over the most valuable rare and congratulate that player. If it's a tie look at the uncommons in the pack, maybe one of you has a dollar uncommon! Everyone open another pack and get ready to go again. Whoever had the best rare from the last pack reveals first, unless someone opened a foil, which trumps the best rare from last pack.

I told you, it's pointless! But is really is a lot of fun, give it a try the next time you're opening a box with your friends. If you don't all have boxes just split yours up.

So those are my tips for creative box opening. Do you have a fun way to crack a box? I would love to hear about it, leave me a comment below!

That's it for this week. I'll be at the Ramada Inn Celebration in Orlando this weekend for a Pro Tour Qualifier, I'd love to see you come out and join us. I'll be back next week with another painting lesson. Until then, this is Dale Lovelace telling you there is more than one way to play!