Cardboard, plastic and electric glass

Thanks to the great guys at Good Games, I was able to acquire the 20 "Magic: The Gathering" cards I needed to complete my "Future Sight" set. They ranged in price from $2 for Shah Of Naar Isle (a cheap brute with a terrible drawback - your opponent gets three draws) to $18 for Pact Of Negation (a "free" counterspell that’s hot on the tourney scene). Less discount, it worked out at $5.50 a card. Considering boosters are $7 and there's no guarantee the random rare will be a spell you need, I reckon that's acceptable.

While I was at GG, I spotted two new expansions for “Pirates Of The Spanish Main”, a constructible strategy game where you build and battle plastic ships. I have a shelf full of these weeny wonders and try to get at least one pack from each release. I left the store with boosters of "The Frozen North" (Vikings and sea monsters) and "At World’s Edge" (remind you of any piratical film title?). American two- and four-masters, a French three-master, a giant serpent, a whirplool and an icy island now populate the Coffee Table Sea :-)

Having completed as much of "Clubhouse Games" (in Mission Mode) as I'm ever going to, I've moved on to another Nintendo DS puzzler. In "Magnetica", you use the stylus to flick marbles into groups of a similar hue. Think "Tetris" but with a line of spheres spiralling relentlessly toward the centre of the screen. The difference is that matching marbles are magnetically attracted - knock out a bunch of red ones between two clumps of dark blue and those will be pulled together. If you plan things properly, it's possible to set off spectacular chain reactions. I'll know it's rewired my head when I start having "Magnetica" dreams...