If you are anything like me, this is another one of those milestones that remind us of how things have changed.  Usually our Magic prereases are a tribal gathering of folks who all share loving to play the same game.  But like most things these days, we need to get a little more cleaver to find hidden stashes of fun.  Enter the Ikoria Prerelease in Pajamas Suggestion 1 More fun then just opening a booster box:   Open boxes in piles of 6 packs.  That way you can not only see what’s in the packs, but use the sets of 6 to make different sealed decks.   Suggestion 2:  Home League:  This is one of my absolute fav was to get the most fun per pack possible, and will work particularly great for the current set.   It is very simple.  Take a 6 pack sealed pool of cards like the Prerelease kit as the league starter.  Then every day, or every few days, whatever you decide, each player in the league gets to open one more pack to add to their collection of cards to make a deck (or what will become lots of decks) with.  Those become the most fun to open packs ever, since it is not just the one or two best cards that are interesting, but each card gets an extra look to see if it might help make something better, or something new.  For those parents who are trying to keep things motivating or interesting each day, this is a great way to do it.  Even if they have a booster box that they can’t help but try and open right away, try to help them open the packs with scissors so the cards can go back in and get randomly used for a league. Suggestion 3–Zoom Magic.   You can play real live Magic with your buds online and it is great fun.  BUT, and this is a big but,  there are a few changes in the way to play you need to  make part of it for everyone to have fun:

1. Too easy to Cheat…be honest or it sucks out all the fun: you have to make sure to be super honest.  It is super easy to set up a deck that doesn’t get shuffled, or sneak a look at a card or any number of other things.
2. No gotchas.  When you can’t really see the other persons board, it is way too easy to make frustrating  errors you never would in person.  You have to help each other out. If someone is about to attack with their big powerhouse into a little 2/1 with deathtouch, tell ’em and ask if they really meant to do that.  Honestly, be the opposite of a rule shark.  You wanna have the best games you can with everyone having fun, so reminder people if they are about to make a goofy mistake and allow take backs like crazy.  Basically, the words “Are you sure you want to…” should be said a whole bunch.