The Not So Normal Path

 Another recent 401games purchase to share. They were selling 50 cards that you don't normally find in packs, for about $12. A bit pricey for what it is, but given the unusual cards, I figure why not, and it should provide some unusual trade bait, so I picked one up, and let's see what it included.

Well, out of 50 cards, just 4 artifact cards for keeping, but the last is a pretty good one as it's the one artifact prerelease card for Avacyn Restored. The top row artifacts, all being foil, were just not very regular to find, so I get where they are going with it - may not be usual pack cards, but you MIGHT get them.

Well, as you can see -some of the cards are from different language sets. I guess it's fair to say they are not regular pack cards since I would have considered it English only, but wasn't really expecting the non-English cards.

The cards with a date on it are prereleast cards, the foils are low odds for coming up in packs, though these are all cheap ones - not a surprise there.

Another way to tell some of the unusual cards would be the writing at the bottom of the cards. For example, the Mardu Shadowspear, in the bottom left corner, you have the card number, set but also the wording Game Day. Some also say prerelease, or may be from FNM set, which means the Friday Night Magic competitions as entry or prize cards.

Getting into newer sets, it's not just foil, but you also get full art cards or alternative art cards, or call them whatever you like "art" cards. I guess it's a way to make more "rare" or "chase" cards.

Though a foil Island doesn't do it for me in this kind of repack purchase - no basic lands please!

The foil definitely doesn't scan well sometimes, so you can see it on many of the cards.

Overall, an interesting repack of cards. Would I do it again? Probably not. I mean, it's interesting, and definitely cards I wouldn't see every day, but for the keepers - just not worth it, would be better off to spend the money on artifact cards I do want, but really neat to go through once, and share here.