Good Gamery

Author: ein

  • Dog Eats Magic: The Gathering Deck, Dies

    In a stunning development yesterday, Antoine Ruel’s dog “Mountain” ate almost an entire 75 card Quick N’Toast deck and promptly died. The coroner determined that the dog had swallowed the deck, and died as a result of the deck not being food. “It’s something that we see all of the time. A dog, or a person for that matter, eats a large amount of non-food and dies because you’re not supposed to eat things that aren’t food,” he said before rolling up his window and doing a sweet-ass burnout.

    Ruel was naturally quite upset. “I guess that’s what happens when you don’t feed your dog for a week,” he mused. “It’s going to eat your magic cards.”

    Among the casualties were three Chameleon Colossi, four Kitchen Finks and two Cloudthreshers, all foil. Only one card, a single Shriekmaw, managed to avoid being devoured, but when asked to comment, it simply sat on the table motionless, because it is a card.

    This isn’t the first time that an animal under Ruel’s care has died. In 2006, Ruel’s parrot Giant Turtle was euthanized by vets because it had learned and continually repeated the words “Lightning Helix.” His cat Kird Ape was recently humanely slain because it peed on his collection of Tarmogoyfs.

    “These animals think they’re so smart, but they’re not as smart as me,” Ruel said with a chuckle as he wistfully stared at the newly minted portait of himself.

    “See if that dog with the armor faceplate, or that bird on my arm ever crossed me, they would find out pretty quickly that I have the vet on speed dial.”

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • Wizards Cuts Numerous Magic: The Gathering Tournaments



    In what Wizards has deemed “nothing short of the best for the future of Magic,” a plethora of tournaments have been cut. Popular events such as Regionals, Nationals, Grand Prix, and Pro Tours have been discontinued. This announcement continues the trend set by Wizards last year when they ended the long-running Invitational, Junior Super Series, and States/Regionals/Provinces/Islands/Archipelagos/Space Stations tournaments.

    Says Mark Rosewater, a highly acclaimed Magic flavor author who does some other stuff too, “We cut back on these tournaments because we f*cked up some miniatures game and lost a shitload of money.” When asked why Wizards continues to press forward on a complete and utter debacle, he told reporters that, while it may have seemed impossible ten years ago, the possibility of Shock appearing in a non-red color is very real in the modern age of Magic flavor.

    This would, at first sight, leave Magic players with only Friday Night Magic and City Championships, but Wizards says Magic players have nothing to fear. They are introducing what Randy Buehler deems a “super ultimate tournament” called Super Ultimate Tournament. The tournament will be the Two-Headed Giant format, and to qualify, one must win “lots of FNMs and stuff.” Buehler says, “I chose Two-Headed Giant because I knew the format was in extremely high demand amongst the Magic community.”

    But this is not all, says Scott Johns. “We have exciting news: we will now be releasing twelve sets a year, instead of four. This will give us the opportunity to make more money to satisfy the Magic community. In the end, the true winners are the Magic players.”

    The announcement ending these popular tournaments was considered by Wizards to be important information, but clearly not important enough to warrant it a place outside of one paragraph in Brian David-Marshall’s column, The Week that Was.

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • GP Denver Report – Kithkin Yu

    After doing virtually no playtesting the week before, and playing in 2 GPTS with Faeries going 0-1 and 1-1, I decided it was time to switch decks. Looking at the Kobe coverage, the kithkin deck seemed to be a very solid beatdown deck with its only fault being a lack of reach.

    The Japanese kithkin deck’s maindeck seemed fine, but the sideboard seemed to be suspect (with my 0 playtesting, of course).

    So I decided to change the deck to the following list:

    Rounds 1-2: Byes (or rather, me walking around watching Imnion, Falco, and various other people battal)



    Round 3: Clifton H. Hinton, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Game 1: We both clog up the board pretty well, but I eventually bite it to a Mirrorweave on my Cenn when he gets ahead by 2 creatures.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    During game 2, I call a judge to watch him for slow play, because game 1 ate a lot of time, and he seemed to be taking 1-2 minutes for turns 1-4, and the judge gives him a slowplay warning. Eventually he gets to a point where he makes an attack that is not lethal even with Mirrorweave, but my crackback is.



    Game 3, he mulligans to 6, but accidentally draws 7. The judge is still sitting nearby watching him for slowplay and so forces him to mulligan to 5. Then he mulligans to 4. He goes Plains, Plains, Plains, Stillmoon, Stillmoon. I go, Plains, Heights, Plains, Spectral, activate Heights for Cloudgoat, Cenn, Cenn. He really doesn’t have a shot after that.


    Round 4: Nathan J. Bertelsen, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Also of note, this guy top 8ed the PTQ the very next day, which Falco top 4ed. He had maindeck Barkshell Blessing, and a much lower curve.



    Game 1: I’m pretty sure I get Spectral/Heights into Cloudgoat, so he’s behind the whole game.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    Game 2: He gets Thistledown Liege when I wasn’t expecting it, so I lose most of my team while he’s way ahead on board and eventually succumb.



    Game 3: I have an insane draw with Stalwart into Cenn into Procession into Ajani.



    Round 5: Jeremy W. Manthei, Unknown, (2-0)
    I don’t remember what this guy was playing, I just remember mauling him with insane draws. Sorry.




    Round 6: Josh C. Wludyka, Red Deck, (2-1)



    Game 1: I mulligan to 5 on the play, but lead with Figure, Procession, then Cloudgoat. He still loses because of all of the tokens just swarming him.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier, -1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: I throw this game by attacking Forge-tender into Soul Snuffers, and so his 8/8 Figure kills me when I’m at 8, and my top card is Unmake.



    Game 3: I drop turn 1 Stalwart, turn 2 Cenn, then turn 5 and 6 Oversoul of Dusk, which barely manage to outrace Demigod + burn.



    Round 7: Michael Jacob, Red Deck, (2-0)


    Game 1: He’s making snide comments about my topdecks during this whole game, but eventually he dies to my massive amount of token makers when I am at 5 life, and I suspect he was holding a Flame Javelin, but did not have enough time to deploy his burn.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier, -1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Ajani Goldmane, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: We get into a board state where he can’t kill my Reveillark because it will regrow 2 Forge-Tenders, so I just start swinging with Reveillark into his face, and I Unmake his Demigods that he plays as blockers.



    Oh and yeah, this guy won US Nationals the weekend before. So beating him felt good.



    Round 8: Conley L. Woods, Kelpie, (2-0)



    Game 1: He leads with Secluded Glen and a bunch of lands, so I think he is playing Faeries, but by turn 6, he hasn’t done anything except play a Soul Snuffers, I suspect he is playing River Kelpie which I had tested with a lot on MWS. He eventually dies to more token makers, because apparently all he has drawn were a bunch of maindeck Snakeforms.



    Sideboard: -3 Stillmoon Cavalier (seems very poor vs Soul Snuffers), +2 Oversoul of Dusk, +1 Reveillark



    Game 2: I get stuck on 2 lands, but keep playing guys so I can attack. Eventually we get to a point where if I topdeck a 3rd land for my Unmake, he loses, because he is playing extremely aggressively, and I do finally topdeck the plains.




    Round 9: Mark S. Hendrickson, Kithkin, (2-1)



    Game 1: Don’t recall what happens here, I think I just get ahead with a bunch of token makers and Ajani Goldmane.



    Sideboarding: -3 Goldmeadow Stalwart, -2 Unmake, +1 Mirrorweave, +3 Moonglove Extract, +1 Ajani Goldmane



    Game 2: He gets ahead with token makers and Ajani Goldmane.



    Game 3: We both clog the board up, but eventually I just attack him with Stillmoon Cavalier for 5 damage 4 times in a row.



    Round 10: Walter Shatford, Kithkin, (2-1)


    Honestly, Bill Stark does a pretty good job of writing about it here.



    Round 11: Scott D. Barrentine, Merfolk, (1-2)



    Game 1: He plays a turn 3 Plumeveil after I attack with a stalwart into it, so I play a Stillmoon Cavalier, which eventually gains flying and attacks him a bunch of times.



    Sideboarding: -1 Mirrorweave, -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: It’s a very close race, but his Sygg + Mutavault hold off my Oversoul of Dusk with a +1/+1 counter long enough so that I die to his other guys.



    Game 3: He has Stonybrook Banneret into Sower of Temptation into Sower of Temptation into Merrow Rejereey.



    This match left a bad taste in my mouth, because I’m pretty sure my deck is a heavy favorite vs him.




    Round 12: Paulo Vitor D. da Rosa, Faeries, (2-0)



    This match was in the Feature Match area, but the games were very uneventful.



    Game 1: He gets stuck on Swamp + Mutavault + Bitterblossom while I curve out with Stalwart, Cenn, Procession and just beat him down.



    Sideboarding: -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, -1 Unmake, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: He only has 1 blue source for most of the game, so I run my unimportant spells into Spellstutter Sprites and resolve my Cenns and Figures and crush him.



    Round 13: AJ Sacher, Faeries, (0-2)


    Game 1: I remember getting crushed by Bitterblossom, Scion of Oona into Mistbind Clique in game 1. Nothing I can really say about this, except I did attack a 4/4 Knight of Meadowgrain into his 5/5 Mistbind Clique.



    Sideboarding: -4 Knight of Meadowgrain, -1 Unmake, +3 Moonglove Extract, +2 Oversoul of Dusk



    Game 2: I think he has Scion into Sower this game which is very difficult for me to beat :(



    Round 14: Antonino De Rosa, 5 Color Control, (0-2)



    I’ll go out on an limb and say that this matchup is basically the worst possible for Kithkin, and your oppt needs to mulligan a lot for you to have a shot. The games were uninteresting, since he would just play a sweeper and reload with Mulldrifter :(



    Round 15: Gerry Thompson, 5 Color Control, (0-2)
    http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgevent/gpden08/welcome#16




    I guess it was a decent tournament for me, but it just feels so disappointing to miss Top 8 when all I had to do was go 3-3 on Day 2.



    I am pretty sure that my sideboard was incorrect.



    In the future, if you want to run Kithkin, Falco’s list from the PTQ the next day seems more correct to me.



    However, I would modify the decklist slightly to be:

  • Shards Preview Month Contest


    What’s this “Alara” business I keep hearing about? “Alara?” What is that, some fantasy mumbo-jumbo? I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to the next set “Shards,” the newest set with the one word name.

    “Alara was whole once. But that was milennia ago. Where once there was a plane, now there are five: the Shards. The plane of Alara was a world rich with mana, a world in balance… until the Sundering. In a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions, Alara was rent asunder into five saparate worlds, each a refraction of the others.” – Nizzerds of the Coast

    Ugh! What can we do in order to fix this trainwreck of nerdiness and transform it into a train-creation of awesomeness? The only sufficient response is an AMAZING HUMOROUS CONTENT SUBMISSION CONTEST.

    I literally hear you asking, “How will this contest work?” Every piece of Officially Acknowledged Content you create during August and September counts toward your standing in the contest, as long as at least one of those pieces of content is a Shards-related humor article. When this time period ends, everyone will vote for which person deserves to win the contest based on the quantity and/or quality of his or her submissions over the course of the submission period. One fantastic article could win it. A dozen “pretty funny” items could win it. Even non-funny content, like tournament reports and strategy articles, can contribute to your victory. It’s up to the plebes!

    The person who wins first place in the vote wins an 18 Shards booster packs, which constitutes 0.5 times (!!) a box! Second place wins 9 Shards booster packs. Third place wins 6 Shards booster packs. Fourth place wins 3 Shards booster packs. These prizes have been made possible by donations from our benefactors, an elite group, but not elite to the point of exclusivity!

    So what’s the hold-up, jabroni? I’ve called your boss — he/she says you can put off your tasks for as long as it takes.

    (“How do I submit articles?”)

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • Social Empathy and the Magic Condition

    As Magic players, there’s a certain stigma attached to us. Sad but true, the standard mental picture of a “Magic player” to those unfamiliar with the community (at least, in America – talk to Richie Hagon about the fabulous life of European GP competitors), is somewhat of a “basement dweller”. Because I have no interest in being more negative than that term already is, I won’t expound more than that, but you get the idea.

    The problem with this so-called Plutonic ideal of a Magic player is that it’s completely inaccurate. Though this disparaging image of Magic players proves somewhat true at the PTQ level — at large-scale tournaments (like, for example, Nationals) nary a smelly dude can be found. But why is that? Why the stark dichotomy between the top-level players and those below that? How can it be that the better players are consistently better kept? This is the exact issue some of us were discussing last weekend. A very smart person attributed it to a theory of “social empathy”. I’m going to talk a little about my thoughts on that theory and how it might even help you to become a better Magic player in the process.

    *I’m leaving the name of the theory’s owner out of this article, not because I’m an egomaniacal jerk, but because some could view this theory as negative towards certain people and I don’t want to incriminate anyone other than myself. Though this idea is not meant negatively at all, I do see how it could be taken that way.*

    Our group discussed the idea that all decent-to-good Magic players share at least one common characteristic; they are smart. Just like any decent basketball player is going to be athletic, Magic players have to be able to exercise their brain muscle more often than they’d like to admit. But brains doesn’t really mean much else. So although your average PTQ-er is going to be alright with the brain mechanics, they might not be the physical pillar of respectability (look at me, I’m slipping into the negative already). So it’s not just an IQ difference. There must be some other reason to why these players don’t they have what it takes to compete at the Pro Tour level?

    Someone suggested Social Empathy. The ability to relate and commiserate with the people around you. The people who tend not to take good care of their bodies, or who can’t carry on a conversation without being judgmental, arrogant or just plain old rude, as a general rule, have a lower level of social empathy than those who can carry conversations better. And having this empathy isn’t just for your dueling partner, but also the people at your drafting table (to better define the correct picks), or the people who you playtest with (the better your social interactions the more you can play against the people it’s beneficial to play against–because they’ll want to play against you in the first place). Now, social empathy is far from a strictly positive attribute. Too much social empathy and you can become paranoid or an inactive over-thinker. But for the purposes of this article assume when I say “social empathy” I mean “a healthy and positive level of social empathy.”

    How empathy can divide the decent players from the good players is very simple; if you are able to get into the minds of your opponents, it will be easier to deduce why they made the decisions they did, and thus making it much easier to play against them. Mike Flores talks all the time about this issue. When you’re getting ready to make a play, he says, ask yourself what your opponent would want you to do. Though this play doesn’t always differ from the play you eventually make, it will always help to figure out what your opponent is thinking. And if you’re in their head, you’ll be able to pull out that grinding, off-the-top game more often than not.

    Sadly, For the most part, the people who decide it’s not in their best interest to appear kind, or presentable, either don’t have a great grasp on social empathy or choose to not care about it. And mastering this trait is a great way to master Magic. Because there are always three games going on at any given time in Magic: the game your deck is playing, the game your opponent’s deck is playing, and the game in which those two games overlap. Decent players can see two of those games, but good players always see the third: the game their opponents’ decks are playing. This idea extends further than, “He left three mana up; does he have Broken Ambitions?” But instead leads somewhere else: “If he’s got the Broken Ambitions, what is he expecting to counter? What would he let through? Why?” These are the type of questions that aim to get into that elusive third game, that, although they won’t always translate to wins, they will put you in a much better position to figure what your opponent is holding, what they are afraid of, and how you can take advantage of that information.

    This is not to say, “If your opponent smells, you’re better than him.” This theory is merely a sociological idea attempting to get to the heart of why there is consistently a physical and social difference between people playing the Pro Tour and those that aren’t. This of course doesn’t mean that if you have social empathy you are a good player. As a PTQ scrub and someone who thinks about everybody else before me, I can tell you, all those strategy and skill articles are pretty damn important too as is practicing like hell.

    But what the social empathy theory does mean, is if you constantly scour those strategy articles, always practice the right match-ups in a good way, and play the best decks for the given tournament, and you still don’t perform the level you want to, perhaps your level of social empathy is what’s keeping you down. Next time, when you’re testing all night, try to “put the read” on your opponent deeper than, “Is that a Flame Javelin, or an Incinerate?” Think about what he’d be saving such burn for in the first place. Think about what he’s hoping to top-deck, and how cool could he play it if he did draw the spell he’s hoping for. Oh, also this theory means take a shower before you get in the car.

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • Alaran Villain ‘Chops Sworn Enemy


    Grebredos Cire, archvillain of Alara, modified a digital image of his sworn enemy, the hero Laenaellis, a ranger of Eos. Mr. Cire practiced using Adobe Photoshop for several hours before finally making the modification.

    According to witnesses, he removed Laenaellis’s head and replaced it with a geek’s head.

    “Not so beautiful now, are you Laenaellis!” Mr. Cire cried triumphantly to the final image on his MacBook monitor as if it could respond. “Where once was a magnificent golden beard, there now remains only adolescent stubble. Hair that was once full and flowing now appears oily and unkempt. And for good measure, I scaled the entire head downward… tenfold!”

    Laenaellis is renowned across Alara for his ability to utilize a dog and falcon. It is unlikely that this digitally modified version of Laenaellis could do anything of the sort.

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • NJ’s Eventide Constructed Review

    Same deal as usual. If I don’t talk about a card, I don’t think it’s going to see play in any constructed format.

    I mostly care about block, standard, and extended.

    I’ll make an effort to respond to comments/criticisms/arguments; I usually make a couple of big mistakes per review and then a bunch of little ones, and often the comment thread illuminates those mistakes in a timely fashion.

    Again, it’s been quite some time since I have actually played MTG, so take this all with a generous pinch of salt.

    Archon of Justice

    3WW

    Creature – Archon

    4/4

    Flying

    When Archon of Justice is put into a graveyard from play, remove target permanent from the game.

    It used to be that you were getting a pretty good deal when you paid 5 mana for your 4/4 flier, but that is increasingly no longer the case—5 mana is when creatures start to get really, really powerful. Obviously the effect is nice, but I can’t ultimately see this being a great card since it is actively difficult to trigger the rfg effect when you want it triggered.

    If you were fighting a straight up attrition war, or otherwise were in a situation where you cared about getting a 2-for-1 and didn’t care how long it took you to do it, then Archon would be attractive.

    Endless Horizons

    3W

    Enchantment

    When Endless Horizons comes into play, search your library for any number of Plains cards and remove them from the game. Then shuffle your library.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a card you own removed from the game with Endless Horizons into your hand.

    I see Endless Horizons as a potential sleeper hit. The effect is powerful and many decks in the past would have wanted it on their side, but it may suffer from its block— unless there’s something Charbelchy out there (and I guess there might be) this isn’t powerful enough for extended and the incentive to have a manabase that is largely composed of non-plains cards is very strong as long as Lorwyn block is legal.

    Flickerwisp

    1WW

    Creature – Elemental

    3/1

    Flying

    When Flickerwisp comes into play, remove another target permanent from the game. Return that card to play under its owner’s control at end of turn.

    The body is actually all right for 3 mana if you can find something useful to do with the effect. Options include resetting perms that run themselves down somehow, reusing CiP effects, and killing auras. There’s not too many CiP effects at less than 3 mana, so that puts the kibosh on that a little bit.

    At 2/2 this probably would have been interesting in some respect with Reveillark, which is probably why it’s 3/1.

    Hallowed Burial

    3WW

    Sorcery

    Put all creatures on the bottom of their owners’ libraries.

    Important in block, largely irrelevant elsewhere.

    Glamerdye

    1U

    Instant

    Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    Sometimes cards like this find a narrow usually-sideboard application, and this is a pretty potent version of the archetype.

    Inundate

    3UUU

    Sorcery

    Return all nonblue creatures to their owners’ hands.

    It’s possible that this could see some use as a SB card if there’s a blue-based creature deck that has a matchup that tends to bog down.

    Wake Thrasher

    2U

    Creature – Merfolk Soldier

    1/1

    Whenever a permanent you control becomes untapped, Wake Thrasher gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

    It’s pretty burly on offense, but I think the fragility and total lack of evasion or utility kill it. Merfolk is a phenomenal creature type to have, though.

    Ashling, the Extinguisher
    2BB
    Legendary Creature – Elemental Shaman
    4/4
    Whenever Ashling, the Extinguisher deals combat damage to a player, choose target creature that player controls. He or she sacrifices that creature.

    The problem with this guy is that he’s only good at beating up small things and he isn’t that large—he’s going to get chumped a lot. The good news is that he’s got 4 toughness and is black, which sometimes is enough since that lets you dodge a lot of removal. Would have been nice if he’d been able to nail pro-black creatures, but alas. Might make it in block but frankly I doubt it.

    Necroskitter

    1BB

    Creature – Elemental

    1/4

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Whenever a creature an opponent controls with a -1/-1 counter on it is put into a graveyard, you may return that card to play under your control.

    This is another pretty resilient guy who could be very annoying against decks that want to attack you on the ground. It is however mildly annoying that if you steal the other fellow’s persist guy, they get it back the next time it dies.

    Nightmare Incursion

    5B

    Sorcery

    Search target player’s library for up to X cards, where X is the number of Swamps you control, and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.

    I wanted to point out the specific circumstances under which this would be a viable SB card but frankly they’re not going to happen so don’t worry about it too much. (You need a deck that plays 15ish swamps going up against a deck that has a very limited number of win conditions.)

    Raven’s Crime

    B

    Sorcery

    Target player discards a card.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    While Crime isn’t godly, it’s a very inexpensive way to consistently control the other fellow’s ability to hold cards in hand. If you’re a mana-flooded aggro deck with this as one of your action cards, you’re probably still going to lose anyway but at least you can try to make your opponent pull some of their answers off the top of the deck. This is also one of the best ways to rapidly turn the game into a low-resource slugfest— an opening like Swamp, Crime, Swamp, Crime, Crime is really going to hamper the other guy’s ability to play his normal manacurve to its conclusion, although obviously you’re light on resources yourself in that scenario. In that respect it reminds me a little bit of Pox and related cards.

    I think this may wind up seeing extended play at some point.

    Soul Snuffers

    2BB

    Creature – Elemental Shaman

    3/3

    When Soul Snuffers comes into play, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature.

    If this is 187ing things, then it’s pretty solid. Otherwise, not so much.

    Chaotic Backlash

    4R

    Instant

    Chaotic Backlash deals damage to target player equal to twice the number of white and/or blue permanents he or she controls.

    Backlash could wind up being pretty important at the block-ish level. There are a lot of white token-generators, and sending one of these to the face isn’t a bad response to Cloudgoat Ranger.

    Flame Jab

    R

    Sorcery
    Flame Jab deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    This is kind of like super-ghetto Lava Dart and probably fits in a lot of the same places. If there are many 1-toughness dorks to kill, the stock goes up.



    Puncture Blast

    2R

    Instant

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Puncture Blast deals 3 damage to target creature or player.

    Standard-issue 3 damage for 3 mana. This stuff normally floats around the periphery of playability.

    Rekindled Flame

    2RR

    Sorcery

    Rekindled Flame deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent has no cards in hand, you may return Rekindled Flame from your graveyard to your hand.

    4 for 4 at sorcery speed isn’t good but it isn’t awful, and if you get to do it twice that’s pretty cool. Unfortunately I think it’s too easy for the other guy to keep you from recovering Flame for it to do its trick.

    Stigma Lasher

    RR

    Creature – Elemental Shaman

    2/2

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Whenever Stigma Lasher deals damage to a player, that player can’t gain life for the rest of the game.

    This is not rocket science here—the more lifegain there is in the environment the better Stigma Lasher looks. 2 mana for a wither bear doesn’t have you pumping the fist but it’s acceptable if the other trick is going to be useful for you.

    Also, Fiery Justice you.

    Thunderblust

    2RRR

    Creature – Elemental

    7/2

    Haste

    Thunderblust has trample as long as it has a -1/-1 counter on it.

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    Now we’re talking. This is a huge hasty beatstick that needs to be killed twice. It hates clogged boards and requires a heavy red commitment, and both of those things are a problem, but if you are a deck that can cast this and keep the table clean it’s going to be very, very annoying for your opponent. Also, comes out t3 off of a Smokebraider and off of a Soulstoke you get to keep it with a counter on it.

    Unwilling Recruit

    XRRR

    Sorcery

    Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gets +X/+0 and gains haste until end of turn.

    Threaten has been good enough in monored or near-monored decks in the past and this is better than Threaten in those decks.

    Bloom Tender

    1G

    Creature – Elf Druid

    1/1

    T For each color among permanents you control, add one mana of that color to your mana pool.

    Potentially explosive, especially if your manabase is larded with hybrid spells in other colors. There are a couple of attractive 1CC hybrid creatures that you would potentially want to play; Figure of Destiny is probably top among these and that sets you up for some very big t3s. That said, I don’t think you can count on getting more than 1 mana out of Bloom Tender regularly. It’s still better than something like Leaf Gilder, though.

    Helix Pinnacle

    G

    Enchantment

    Shroud

    X: Put X tower counters on Helix Pinnacle.

    At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are 100 or more tower counters on Helix Pinnacle, you win the game.

    This is a win condition you might like if you’re the kind of person who likes this sort of win condition.

    Nettle Sentinel

    G

    Creature – Elf Warrior

    2/2

    Nettle Sentinel doesn’t untap during your untap step.

    Whenever you play a green spell, you may untap Nettle Sentinel.

    My feeling is that the drawback is annoying too often for this to see play, but it’s got a chance. Better in environments where you can reasonably expect to trade off a 2/2 early.

    Primalcrux

    GGGGGG

    Creature – Elemental

    */*

    Trample

    Chroma – Primalcrux’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of green mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control.

    I’m a sucker for big beaters with trample, and Primalcrux is almost always going to be the biggest guy on the board. 6 mana and having to play monogreen is a big price tag, though.

    Twinblade Slasher

    G

    Creature – Elf Warrior

    1/1

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    1G: Twinblade Slasher gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Play this ability only once each turn.

    Solid, but there are a lot of things that want you to spend mana on them right now. Still, this is a legitimate one-drop that stays combat-relevant after bigger things hit the table. I think this sees standard-level play.

    Scarecrone

    3

    Artifact Creature – Scarecrow

    1/2

    1, Sacrifice a Scarecrow: Draw a card.

    4, T Return target artifact creature card from your graveyard to play.

    edit: I thought about saying something about Scarecrone and wasn’t going to, but apparently I left it in the list, so here goes. The second ability is quite strong. You can do a number of abusive things by recurring artifact creatures, and the price is not excessive. However, the body is pretty weak and I think that the available suite of artifact creatures just aren’t good enough to make this sing right now.

    Balefire Liege

    2(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)

    Creature – Spirit Horror

    2/4

    Other red creatures you control get +1/+1.

    Other white creatures you control get +1/+1.

    Whenever you play a red spell, Balefire Liege deals 3 damage to target player.

    Whenever you play a white spell, you gain 3 life.

    Tacking a lava spike on to all of your red spells is very exciting, but 5 mana is still a lot to pay for that privilege and an underwhelming body.

    Batwing Brume

    1(W / B)

    Instant

    Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn if W was spent to play Batwing Brume. Each player loses 1 life for each attacking creature he or she controls if B was spent to play Batwing Brume. (Do both if WB was spent.)

    If there’s a WB deck that wants to race another deck, the Brume may find a fit in the SB.

    Crag Puca

    (U / R)(U / R)(U / R)

    Creature – Shapeshifter

    2/4

    o(u/r): Switch Crag Puca’s power and toughness until end of turn.

    3-mana 2/4s occasionally wind up being useful just because they have a huge ass and are generally good at fighting other things that cost 3 mana or less.

    Deity of Scars

    (B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)(B / G)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    7/7

    Trample

    Deity of Scars comes into play with two -1/-1 counters on it.

    o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from Deity of Scars: Regenerate Deity of Scars.

    This is one hard, hard beastie to take down, and it has evasion, and it hits hard, and it’s in an attractive color combination. I think this sees quite a bit of play in standard and block.

    Duergar Hedge-Mage

    2(R / W)

    Creature – Dwarf Shaman

    2/2

    When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Mountains, you may destroy target artifact.

    When Duergar Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may destroy target enchantment.

    Acceptable as an Uktabi Orangutan or as a walking disenchant in the appropriate color, if your mana justifies it.

    Evershrike

    3(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Elemental Spirit

    2/2

    Flying

    Evershrike gets +2/+2 for each Aura attached to it.

    Xo(w/b)o(w/b): Return Evershrike from your graveyard to play. You may put an Aura card with converted mana cost X or less from your hand into play attached to it. If you don’t, remove Evershrike from the game.

    I really, really wanted this to be awesome, and I don’t think it is, quite. It does do a pretty good job recycling Prison Terms, though.

    Figure of Destiny

    (R / W)

    Creature – Kithkin

    1/1

    o(r/w): Figure of Destiny becomes a 2/2 Kithkin Spirit.

    o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Spirit, it becomes a 4/4 Kithkin Spirit Warrior.

    o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w)o(r/w): If Figure of Destiny is a Warrior, it becomes an 8/8 Kithkin Spirit Warrior Avatar with flying and first strike.

    Plan on getting Figure to 2/2 most games, but it’s not pushy about when you pay the mana. Sometimes you’ll get it to 4/4 rapidly, and although it won’t happen particularly often there will probably be times you make it a 4/4 the turn it comes down and swing for the fences with an 8/8 the turn after. It might not be quite good enough for extended, but it’ll see standard play.

    Gwyllion Hedge-Mage

    2(W / B)

    Creature – Hag Wizard

    2/2

    When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Plains, you may put a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token into play.

    When Gwyllion Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

    Probably is good enough to see play in mono-white decks.

    Hag Hedge-Mage

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Hag Shaman

    2/2

    When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Swamps, you may have target player discard a card.

    When Hag Hedge-Mage comes into play, if you control two or more Forests, you may put target card in your graveyard on top of your library.

    Not terrible as a plus-size Ravenous Rats.

    Inside Out

    1(U / R)

    Instant

    Switch target creature’s power and toughness until end of turn.

    Draw a card.

    Well, it does kill Wall of Roots and Doran, and cantrips while doing so; those are useful qualities so in the right metagame maybe somebody wants to play this guy.

    Mirror Sheen

    1(U / R)(U / R)

    Enchantment

    1o(u/r)o(u/r): Copy target instant or sorcery spell that targets you. You may choose new targets for the copy.

    Insert commentary about obvious Early Harvest stuff here. I can’t say that I see another use for it right off the bat. It’s probably somewhat better than Reiterate for that function, but it’s not a blowout.

    Nobilis of War

    (R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)(R / W)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    3/4

    Flying

    Attacking creatures you control get +2/+0.

    This guy was so much better as originally spoiled, with haste instead of flying. As is, I don’t think it sees much play.

    Overbeing of Myth

    (G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)(G / U)

    Creature – Spirit Avatar

    */*

    Overbeing of Myth’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

    At the beginning of your draw step, draw a card.

    I want to like this guy, and I think stapling a Howling Mine to the forehead of what is likely to be a reasonably-sized creature is a great idea in principle. I worry that the mana will be difficult and I worry that there will be too many times that Overbeing isn’t big enough.

    Pyrrhic Revival

    3(W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Sorcery

    Each player returns each creature card in his or her graveyard to play with an additional -1/-1 counter on it.

    Peebles thought that this had a chance of being a player in something like Reveillark, where you could return a full yard and just push people’s faces in with the renewed CiP effects. I think there’s something to that plan. It could also be good enough in some kind of more conventional draw/discard Reanimator strategy.

    Quillspike

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Beast

    1/1

    o(b/g), Remove a -1/-1 counter from a creature you control: Quillspike gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

    Obviously the combo with Devoted Druid is potent but brittle, and in a deck with Profane Command you may wind up getting a significant number of oops-I-win kills even through some resistance. I think that the combo is too fragile to be the centerpiece of a deck, but if it turns out that you’re not punting too many games otherwise because you keep drawing these goddamn Quillspikes then game on. Devoted Druid is a playable card on its own merits, so the cost of having access to the combo is low.

    Rendclaw Trow

    2(B / G)

    Creature – Troll

    2/2

    Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    Persist dudes that beat up other persist dudes are cool. Maybe not good enough, but cool.

    Restless Apparition

    (W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Spirit

    2/2

    o(w/b)o(w/b)o(w/b): Restless Apparition gets +3/+3 until end of turn.

    Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)

    I can see this being a pretty good card in a controlling strategy, where your plan is to just kind of run it out there and block something random with it on t3 and then to use the threat of pumping it to hold off the other fellow afterwards while you do something instant-speed with your mana.

    Rise of the Hobgoblins

    (R / W)(R / W)

    Enchantment

    When Rise of the Hobgoblins comes into play, you may pay X. If you do, put X 1/1 red and white Goblin Soldier creature tokens into play.

    o(r/w): Red creatures and white creatures you control gain first strike until end of turn.

    Obviously this is no Decree of Justice, but we don’t have Decree of Justice right now. I think that the ability to generate a large number of creature tokens is essentially pretty good and this does so at a very reasonable price, plus gives you some first-striking mojo if that turns out to be worth anything.

    Sapling of Colfenor

    3(B / G)(B / G)

    Legendary Creature – Treefolk Shaman

    2/5

    Sapling of Colfenor is indestructible.

    Whenever Sapling of Colfenor attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, you gain life equal to that card’s toughness, lose life equal to its power, then put it into your hand.

    This is only as good or as bad as an expensive indestructible creature is in the environment. 2/5s are mostly good at blocking things, so it would have been nice if the other ability triggered on upkeep instead of on attack, but whatever.

    Spitting Image

    4(G / U)(G / U)

    Sorcery

    Put a token into play that’s a copy of target creature.

    Retrace (You may play this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)

    Getting to 6 mana with this guy will make it quite difficult for the other fellow to kill you with big creatures, since you always have the option to mirror his drops and will usually have the option to continue to do so. I think this is a pretty strong card for a deck that hits 6 mana fast and doesn’t mind tapping out. That said, if you’re copying your own fatties then this is probably win-more; so it wants to be played in a situation where both players have fat.

    Stillmoon Cavalier

    1(W / B)(W / B)

    Creature – Zombie Knight

    2/1

    Protection from white and from black

    o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains flying until end of turn.

    o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gains first strike until end of turn.

    o(w/b)o(w/b): Stillmoon Cavalier gets +1/+0 until end of turn.

    Double protection is always nice, although it’s hard for me to get excited about the pumpknight suite of abilities anymore. Mana is more precious than it once was and creature quality is higher.

    Unmake

    (W / B)(W / B)(W / B)

    Instant

    Remove target creature from the game.

    If you can swing the mana, this is clean, simple removal. It needs to fit into something that’s already a deck, though. Kithkin can probably play this quite handily.

    Cascade Bluffs

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(u/r), T Add UU, UR, or RR to your mana pool.

    Fetid Heath

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(w/b), T Add WW, WB, or BB to your mana pool.

    Flooded Grove

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(g/u), T Add GG, GU, or UU to your mana pool.

    Rugged Prairie

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(r/w), T Add RR, RW, or WW to your mana pool.

    Twilight Mire

    Land

    T Add 1 to your mana pool.

    o(b/g), T Add BB, BG, or GG to your mana pool.

    All very nice lands to have in the mix. You do need to be a little careful—playing 3 colors with 12 hybrid lands is going to get you manascrewed regularly. That said, I think you’re fine with between 6 and 8 lands that make colorless by default in a typical deck.

  • Eventide Prerelease Thread

    i played two flights today; the main, and a 2hg afterward. it was my first prerelease since ravnica and my first time playing magic offline since gp: sf 2007, so it was good to play real magic again.

    INDIVIDUAL FLIGHT: 3-1

    my pool was pretty good, though i had to leave a crackleburr in the side without any good r or u to support it ;_; i ended up BW, with a bunch of solid men led by midnight banshee and divinity of pride as well as double desecrator hags for support (yes, i chained them often), some good removal, and an island for biting tether cause fuck yeah biting tether

    R1: vs. matt

    matt was a nice guy playing a rwg deck, but i'm not sure what his main colors or good cards were. whatever, it's a prerelease.
    g1: he played some guys and i played some guys, and then i played a midnight banshee which wrathed his board in two turns and killed him.
    g2: he got me pretty low, but i stabilized and then locked his board with midnight banshee and kulrath knight.

    1-0

    R2: vs. mike

    mike was running rw. he was a worse player than matt.
    g1: he didn't get lands and i rolled him.
    g2: i mulled to 6 on the play, and he whittled my life away as i proceeded to not draw lands for several turns. he pantsed up a full-sized rw hatchling with the rw aura and gained a ton of life, but i was able to keep chumping by rotating my hags. despite the screw, i held out for a while and even stabilized for a bit. i was at 3, though, and he was able to kill my only flier and hit for the last point.
    g3: i don't remember much about this game, except that i kicked his ass.

    2-0

    R3: vs. some guy

    some guy was also playing bw. he was not particularly outgoing.
    g1: he was a bit land-light early, and had to beseech the queen for a swamp on t4 while i beat his face in. then he proceeded to kill all my guys with his insane amount of removal, until i had a bunch of things that didn't matter and he had swans of bryn argoll ftw.
    g2: like g1, but with him ahead the entire time. the cards just weren't in it for me; it's one of those games that comes once in a while where there's really nothing you can do =/

    2-1

    R4: vs. alex

    alex was also playing rw. i don't know why people kept choosing this combination in sealed; it's bad guys + alright removal.
    g1: he didn't get lands so i killed him with a t4 divinity of pride.
    g2: he mulled on the play; i let him draw the extra card just because there's only so much bad luck a man can watch at a prerelease. he had a regular start and mine was slow, but i got the midnight banshee to stabilize.
    g3: i wanted to play again, and offered not to count g1 as a game. he said sure, and i stomped him again.

    3-1

    6 packs, not awful. i hung around for a bit, then frantically searched for someone to 2hg with. at the last minute, i just asked loudly if anyone needed an extra head. the guy standing right next to me did, as it turned out, and he also went 3-1 in the first flight so i figured he'd be a decent partner.

    the pool was solid again. we figured pretty quickly that there was a ton of good G and W, and we ended up with Gr and W. the W deck was some good {bw} hybrid synergy, some good removal, and a light from within that i only drew in the last match. its men were mostly passable, but there was a bit of chaff. the Gr deck had a bit of removal, a bunch of solid men, and a couple bombs in creakwood liege and howl of the night pack.

    r1: it's hard enough for me to remember one name, fuck you

    one deck was WUR (?!), the other was BG. i couldn't get a creature to stick, but my teammate, jason, played a bunch of guys and i spent most of my time playing the removal. the BG girl came out of the gate fast with a couple {wb} mimics and a lurebound scarecrow set for black, but ember gale wrathed her board happy.gifi had no idea what the WUR guy's strategy was, and BG was stuck on four lands for the longest time until jason dropped a woodfall primus and stuck her on three. big dudes ftw

    1-0
    after this game, we switched the decks up a little bit and added U to the W deck for guys who did not suck.

    r2: a couple of assholes who should die because they get stupid combos at the worst time

    one guy was RG, and the other was BW. we were hitting them pretty well for the first few turns, and had them below 20 with a double-mimic-fueled 12 point turn coming up. then they dropped a soul snuffers with flourishing defenses in play, killed half our dudes and got 9 tokens. then they played a kulrath knight and i shoved a knife in my eye

    1-1

    r3: some cool dudes who had as much fun not being serious about magic as we did

    this match was awesome. one of them was bw, and the other was rw (???). we swung back and forth for awhile, but the board crystallized soon enough as we built up our forces. i went insane with a knacksaw clique that my teammate had kindly pantsed with presence of gond, and i can confidently say that the only thing more satisfying than putting a recumbent bliss on your opponent's best creature is putting your opponent's recumbent bliss on your opponent's best creature. we finally broke the stall by putting a gift of the deity on a green guy and luring all their blockers while a bunch of wolf tokens traipsed in for lethal.

    2-1

    r4: a couple average guys who made embarrassing play errors

    one was mono-w, and the other was GB. they got some early pressure with the 2/2 G guy, but we stabilized in short order and i lived the dream of restless apparition + edge of the divinity + light from within. they got a creakwood liege that let them chump for god knows how long, but i built up a flying force and he howled for a night pack. ember gale on the head that had most of the creatures let us swing for lethal virtually unopposed, and that was game.

    3-1

    6 packs again; not bad. i guess i'll just use them at a FNM in japan or something.

    obligatory +/- section:

    +
    midnight banshee and kulrath knight, for being best friends
    the guys from r3 of 2hg, for joking around the entire time
    jason (my teammate), for giving a ride to some guy he'd never met and helping me understand the finer points of leech bonder (it UNTAPS, hurrrrrr)
    jason, for knowing when to draw howl of the night pack (always)

    –
    this prerelease, for taking $50 of my lazily-earned cash
    anyone who destroyed me in a ridiculous blowout, for not considering my feelings ;_;
    FLOURISHING DEFENSES SOUL SNUFFERS MOTHERFUCKING SHITBITCH ASSCUNT DICKTARD
    everyone else, for not posting anything yet

  • Eventide Limited; Rampant Speculation

    I like trying to figure out cards before actually playing them.

    General stuff – One thing that's obvious is that losing a pack of Shadowmoor will impact most linear color-based strategies. You will have fewer targets to get full value from your Godhead auras, and your Duos will trigger less often. It will be interesting to see how people choose colors in SSE. I think you can go several ways with your land base:
    – Mono-color or nearly so. You will probably get some solid cards late in Eventide that few others can play. You can get near-maximum value out of main-color effects, but your off-color effects will be distributed over four colors so you probably can't expect too much from them.
    – Allied-color. I don't think it'll be that hard to pick up enough playables from Eventide if you're w/u for example.
    – Enemy-color. Here you sort of pass on exploiting auras, slightly better mana, and certain uncommons and rares in Shadowmoor for the ability to always cast something like Unmake or Deity of Scars.
    – Three-color wedge. Your deck will contain e.g. plains, islands, and mountains. You can get the mana-intensive cards from W/R and U/R in the third pack.
    – Three-color allied. e.g. plains, islands, swamps. This might work out similar to a 5cg type strategy since you can play so many cards if you are willing to do "sealed deck mana".

    A lot of this depends on just how rewarding the late picks in Eventide will be.

    Retrace – It's always good to have something to do with extra mana in the late game, especially if the cards are useful earlier on. Things like Spellshapers and Invokers have historically been pretty good. I'm not completely sure if retrace is that special though.

    Cenn's Enlistment – 3W
    Sorcery (Common)
    Put two 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature tokens into play.
    Retrace

    This is sort of similar to Icatian Crier, which was generally playable but not too exciting unless you had a few Fortify/Celestial Crusader type effects. As compared to Crier, you don't have to invest 3 mana and a card on a vulnerable 1/1 to get things started. On the other hand, four mana generally means you can't play this and another spell like you could with the Crier, or leave mana up for a trick on their turn. SSS has generally been fast enough and had enough evasion that making a bunch of 1/1s isn't that exciting. SSE is probably a bit slower but I'm not sure if it makes the difference. I would play this around 70% of the time in sealed if white, and maybe 25% of the time in draft.

    Raven's Crime – B
    Sorcery (Common)
    Target player discards a card.
    Retrace

    This seems kind of clumsy, in that you rarely are in a position to safely discard land early on unless you are pretty flooded. It does have a benefit similar to Cinderhaze Wretch in the late game in that it prevents your opponent from sandbagging something big, unless he has several cards in hand and is willing to potentially trade them for your land topdecks. It's good that it only costs one mana. I would play this maybe 30% of the time in sealed or draft.

    Oona's Grace – 2U
    Instant (Common)
    Target player draws a card.
    Retrace

    In formats like core set limited, cards like Treasure Trove have been powerful in the right kind of deck. I'm pretty sure this block is nothing like that. You have to activate this thing three times before it outperforms a no-conspire Ghastly Discovery. Especially if you're discarding your extra lands, you often won't be able to play whatever you draw with this. Still, there is a good chance you will win a stalled out game this way. Sealed 40% draft 10%

    Flame Jab – R
    Sorcery (Common)
    Flame Jab deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
    Retrace

    I'm generally happy to play Scar. This is a little worse the first time, since you can't use it as a trick or stop a persist guy, but I think retrace more than makes up for that. You're not likely to actually get ahead on cards, but your opponent will have a hard time keeping their witch or x/1 evasion guy alive. Sealed/draft 80%

    Monstrify – 3G
    Sorcery (Common)
    Target creature gets +4/+4 until the end of turn.
    Retrace

    I don't know what problem this is supposed to solve. If you have an unanswered evasion guy, you can speed up your clock pretty significantly, and after a long attrition battle when you both have smallish guys you can put your opponent into chump-block mode. I don't think these things together are worth spending a card on. Sealed/draft 10%

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