Sandman

In the world of Magic the Gathering, a planeswalker is someone or something that has the ability to travel between the planes of existence, and generally cast powerful spells and summon powerful allies. Now that you know what a planeswalker is, Magic the Gathering is a collectible card game (CCG) where you play the role of one of these planeswalkers, and your goal is to defeat another powerful planeswalker (your opponent(s)).

The basics:
Once you have collected enough cards, you will build a deck usually of a minimum of 60 cards. You will pack your deck full with offensive spells like fireballs, defensive spells like creating a fog or countering opponents spells, and various creatures and/or allies that you can summon to aide you. You cannot cast any of these spells without the resources with which to cast them, mana. All spells and mana come in five basic colors or combinations thereof (red, black, blue, white, green), which each have a different flavor. You will be drawing from your deck, laying out one mana per turn (if you have one), and then using your mana to cast the spells. Sounds simple right?

Not so simple:
Magic the Gathering has been around since 1993, and has developed over time a multitude of different mechanics. This keeps the game complex, and veteran players interested, but at the same time may create a small barrier for newcomers. That being said, it is still relatively easy to teach someone the basics, and they can slowly pick up on each mechanic.

Cash money ya’ll:
My main gripe with Magic the Gathering is their genius ability to keep drawing people back, and releasing multiple sets per year. This means that if you want to keep up to date, you may need to have slightly deep pockets. Now they do sell single cards almost everywhere, and you can just build a deck this way, but where is the fun in that?

Overview/Conclusion:
Magic the Gathering is fun and complex card game that can be played through in less than 30 minutes. It can be easy to teach to a newcomer if they are somewhat familiar with games, but can turn into a daunting task to teach to a non-gamer (I wouldn’t recommend it as a first). It will most likely keep you coming back for more if you can afford it (or sometimes even if you can’t). I recommend giving it a try as it can be loads of fun as long as you have people to play with (this game is practically everywhere), but with a warning: you may get sucked in forever!

This conversion kit (you guessed it!) converts all the miniatures that were ever made for the first edition of Descent into playable monsters and heroes for the second edition. So the contents are simply all the stat cards for aforementioned monsters and heroes.

First Edition Owners:
If you own any part of first edition Descent, even just the core game, this conversion kit is a must have. At a relatively cheap price point, all of your old miniatures will still be usable in the new and improved second edition.

Those who don’t own first edition:
I would recommend purchasing this conversion kit anyway. Again, it is relatively cheap, and you truly get a metric ton of extra heroes and monsters to play with. All you have to do is find some miniatures to sub in for them (and if you are anything like me, you have tons of extra miniatures lying around).

There may be two down sides to having so many monster/hero options:
1. Some of the monsters and heroes can start to feel very similar.
2. Too many options! Wait, that’s not a down side. 😉

Just to reiterate, if you own Descent Second Edition, and you like having lots of options for monsters as the overlord or heroes as a player, pick this up!