Singapore’s first big MTG event for the year received a warm response from the public, thanks to free learn-to-play sessions held over the April 8-9th holiday weekend. In line with the launch of the latest expansion set, the March of the Machine Carnival was sponsored by Wizards of the Coast and kindly hosted by 3 local game stores – Grey Ogre Games, Sanctuary Gaming, and Dueller’s Point.
Unlike previous events catered to the competitive player base (e.g. the recent SEA Championship), the MotM Carnival was specially thought out with new players in mind. Here’s a lightning quick recap of the Carnival.
Free Learn-to-Play Sessions
To attract new blood into the game, anyone who wanted a taste of Magic: the Gathering were given 2 themed starter packs. These themed starter packs are somewhat similar to Wizards’ retail Jumpstart products, except these are free and considered to be low-powered. Both are specially designed to take away the obstacle of deck building, and are playable right out of the box.
Every new player was paired with a seasoned one to help explain the rules (which can be a mouthful!) It certainly helped if he or she had played other trading card games before as then they had a basic understanding of Mana (i.e. energy), Combat, and win conditions.
The Carnival saw new beginner-friendly playmats introduced. One detailed the different parts of a Magic card, while another provided a simple learning journey to teach beginners of the various card types in the game.
Photo Booth to Commemorate the Occasion
Each store served as an actual Plane (i.e. world) from the Magic multiverse, and that included a massive backdrop to take some selfies or group photos. The backdrops looked amazing but due to a lack of floor space there wasn’t much photo-taking going on. Everyone was happy enough to just play the games!
Elspeth Tirel Comes to Life
You don’t see many local cosplayers take on a MTG character, but Neptys did just that for the MotM Carnival, portraying the heroine of March of the Machine – Elspeth Tirel. The full-body costume, equipped with her iconic sword Luxior, took 3.5 weeks to build.
Elspth made her way across all 3 stores on Saturday afternoon, starting with Grey Ogre Games just after lunchtime, before heading to Sanctuary Gaming and finally Duellers Point to meet players new and old.
Having put so much time and effort into becoming Elspeth (complete with a lit-up Luxior), Neptys is up for a game soon. “I’m very drawn to deep lore and doing my research on this character made me very curious,” she said. “I’ve seen a few friends play and it looks pretty fun so I’m looking forward to learning and playing Magic too.”
Free Cards to Keep!
The best part of the day was that every new player got to keep their themed packs, and although these aren’t tier-1 competitive cards, they’re more than enough to play a casual game over the dinner table.
End Step – Prerelease Next!
This was officially just part 1 of the March of the Machine Carnival aimed to intro new players to the game. The following weekend (14-16th April) will be the much-anticipated prerelease event, where players new and old can play together in a tag-team or individual format. If you’re keen to try it out, reach out to any of our local stores to book a spot!
