Category: mtg

  • PS Elves Yu, Redux!



    Attending the SCG 5k, I knew that I didn’t want to play Faeries, because the mirror was way too random for my tastes, and I had been doing well with Elves in modo 8mans.

    I came to the conclusion that the following list was probably very good, and is what I ended up registering for the 5k:




    Round 1: Michael A. Oliveros, Doran (2-0).

    Game 1: I win the dieroll and choose to play (obv?). I lead with gilt-leaf palace, revealing Vanquisher to thoughtseize his birds when he kept a 2 lander with 2 dorans and a viper. This turns out to be very good because he doesn’t draw the 3rd land until turn 5, by which point I have a colossus beating him down. I end up profaning him for 5 when he is at 5 for the win.


    Sideboarding: -2 terror (mediocre vs doran/colossus), -1 wayfinder, +2 primal command, +1 profane command.



    Game 2: He mulligans on the play, and leads with turn 1 birds into turn 2 doran. I open with turn 1 llanowar elves into turn 2 vanquisher + elves. Turn 3, he just passes with only 3 mana, and on my turn 3, I primal command his murmuring bosk searching up a Colossus, which ends the game pretty quickly after that, even though he gets a warhammer on doran.


    Round 2: Jay S. Carter, GW manaramp (2-1).

    Game 1: He wins the dieroll, and leads with snow-forest, suspend search. This leads me to believe he’s some sort of manaramp deck, so I hold off on thoughtseizing him for as long as possible. My turn 1 is, forest, elf. His turn 2, he plays a plains, so I then realize he must be the popular GW manaramp, and change my gameplan to try to play around wrath of gods. This plan is derailed when he plays a turn 4 oversoul. I then commit my colossus to the board which trumps his oversoul. However, the game degenerates to a point where he gets enough mana to play wrath into crovax, and then flashes out a cloudthresher with him on 4 life after I profane commanded him a few times to force damage through (with fear), after which I lose.

    Sideboarding: -4 Inversion, +1 Profane Command, +2 Primal Command, +1 Squall Line (I just wanted another fireball if the game became clogged vs his oversoul, and inversion doesn’t really kill anything in his deck).

    Game 2: He mulligans to 6, keeps his hand. I go palace, thoughtseize, and take his wall of roots and notes he has 4 lands and a mouth of ronom in hand. His turn 1 is forest, suspend search, which lets me know that he still has 4 lands in hand. I am a tad flooded, but I have double treetop village which beat him down to 9 before he mouths one. Then I commit a colossus which finishes the job.

    Game 3: I kept a slightly sketchy hand of: palace, forest, vanquisher, profane*2 + garruk on the draw. Luckily, my first three draws are a land, then a perfect and then another land. So the game ends up not being close, despite him getting a turn 3 oversoul (which could not even attack into my vanquisher). He then plays a crovax on turn 5, and I just terror it to make him pay 2 life so I can profane him to neardead. I then rip another profane which ends up killing him.

    Round 3: Justin D. LaRose, Faeries (2-0)

    I recognize this guy’s name from browsing the decks from the last 5k, and also the first Rockville PTQ. He seemed like a fairly good player, so I put him on Faeries.

    Game 1: I win the dieroll, and open the following hand: forest, boreal, vanquisher*2, perfect, wayfinder, thoughtseize. Normally this is a pretty terrible hand, but since I am fairly sure he is playing faeries, and i’m on the play, i will probably get in both vanquishers before he is able to counter them. This is exactly what happens, and he gets stuck on 2 mana after committing a bitterblossom. So the vanquishers take the game when I draw a swamp for inversion.

    Sideboarding: -3 Garruk, -3 Profane, -4 Perfect, -1 Wayfinder, +4 Thresher, +2 Squall, +4 Riftsweeper, +1 Shriekmaw

    Game 2: He leads with island ancestral, then swamp bitterblossom. My first two turns are palace, llanowar, into llanowar, riftsweeper ancestral. The look on his face was PRICELESS, especially when he suspended ancestral the following turn, and i riftsweepered it. The game is not very close after that after I draw a treetop to go along with my bears.

    Round 4: Robert D. Seder, Faeries (2-1)

    Game 1: I mulligan to 5 on the play, and I promptly get mopped up by turn 4 mistbind, turn 5 mistbind. He didn’t have early ancestral or blossom, but it was pretty irrelevant.

    Game 2: I run the same sideboarding plan as earlier. I mop him up when he keeps a 2 lander with ancestral, I riftsweeper it, he suspends another, and I riftsweeper the 2nd one. This guy gives me an incredulous look as he scoops it up to treetop + double bear attacking for 3 turns in a row.

    Game 3: He mulligans to 6 on the play, and has turn 1 ancestral, but I wait until turn 3 to play my riftsweeper (because of turn 1 elves) so I can play around rune snag, which he ended up having. After that, I start swinging with my bear, llanowar elf, and treetop with pendelhaven in play.

    Round 5: Korey Mcduffie, Faeries (2-0)

    I had seen this guy playing a round earlier, so I knew exactly what he was playing.

    Game 1: I win the dieroll ({e}, obv), and open with turn 1 Llanowar, turn 2 perfect, turn 3 colossus when he taps out for blossom. He just looks at my board in disgust and concedes.

    Game 2: Riftsweepers get his early ancestrals, and mutavault and a treetop finish the job.

    After this game, he made a comment about he was sure he had lost infinite ratings points to me. I told him I was 1971 coming into this event, and then he started to backpedal on his comment.

    Round 6: Daniel Samson, Monogreen Elves (1-2)

    Game 1: I win the dieroll, he mulligans to 6. His first 3 turns are just forest go, so I think he is g/w manaramp. Then he lays a g/w liege on turn 4, but I vomit out 2 perfects which actually just beat him.

    Sideboarding: -1 Wayfinder, -2 colossus, -1 tarmogoyf, +1 profane, +1 shriekmaw, +2 primal. (Colossus is kind of mediocre vs his infinite chain of blockers, especially with heartmender out).

    Game 2/3: He gets early persist guys, including finks which let him just sit there long enough to cast overrun both games to attack for 30+.

    My draw in game 3 was kind of mediocre too, but I think if we played this matchup like 70 times, I would lose about 60% of the matches.

    Round 7: Anna Scott, Kithkin (2-1)

    We got put in the feature match area, and I’m not really sure why. All I do know is, over the three games, I counted about 15 play mistakes from her, including main-phasing reinforce on her knight of meadowgrain several times. I lose game 2 due to getting flooded, but game 1 and 3, I win fairly easily, despite getting stuck on 3 for quite a while. She had some odd card choices, including coordinated barrage (wtf?) and walking into my removal spells while trying to barrage something.

    Sideboarding: -1 Wayfinder, -2 Colossus, +1 Profane +1 Shriekmaw, +1 Finks

    Round 8: Marshall A. Ashford, Merfolk (2-1)

    This matchup is even easier for elves than faeries is by a long shot, because they are forced to commit threats at sorcery speed, and they are HEAVILY reliant on their lords, making your removal spells super live.

    The games play out as I expect, with me killing his key lords while laying threats. I lose game 2 to an unexpected Teferi’s Moat, but game 3, I just kill him very quickly with double vanquisher so profane command can finish the job through his moat.

    Round 9: Brian Kelly (ID, but I then find out he was playing R/G land destruction which seems favorable for me).

    Round 10: Scott Jeltema, Fiery Justice (0-2)

    This matchup actually seems abysmal to me, when I find out he has 4 maindeck fiery justice, calciderms (which are a HUGE problem for me if I don’t draw colossus, and he can still kill colossus with justice).

    I get destroyed in 2 games when he had turn 3 calciderm both games as well as stonecloaker to win the goyf fights.

    In conclusion, I still think this is the 2nd best deck (with #1 being Faeries) but it has a very good matchup vs Faeries.

    However, I would modify the decklist slightly to be:



  • Shadowmoor Preview Month Contest: END!

    In first place:
    SKELETOR!
    He wins a box of Shadowmoor!

    In second place:
    DR. MAGIC CARDS!
    He wins 18 Shadowmoor packs!

    In third place:
    SLEARCH!
    He wins 9 Shadowmoor packs!

    In fourth place:
    NICOTINEJONES!
    He wins 3 Shadowmoor packs!

    Here are links to all the article entries: http://www.goodgamery.com/articles/shmcontestend.html

    Thanks to everyone for participating! With your help, we had the biggest GG month ever (0.obv…). Awesome! happy.gif

  • Invincible Counterfeit Troll

    USA, EARTH – Borderland Behemoth got +8/+8 at a press conference early Wednesday morning after two money-printing giants announced that they were entering play together. Long-time rivals in the money printing business, the United States Mint and Wizards of the Coast have announced that they are teaming up to combat counterfeiting. “We have set aside our difference to work toward a better future,” said Wizards’ PR Manager Somebody McNobody, “a future where terrorists cannot enter play with false money, and where players cannot play in proxy tournaments.” He added “We are sharing our anti-counterfeiting techniquies, and you can expect to see the new dollar bills and new cards with our shared technology on them at your local banks and nerdshops within the week.”

  • Deep Blue/Black Sea

    The voices in the auditorium died down as the projector came to life, displaying a tranquil maritime scene: a seal swimming on the surface of the ocean.

    Click. A single fin appears behind the seal.

    Click. The fin becomes a pair of jaws, impaling the seal on rows of gleaming teeth.

    Click. Only a tailfin remains above the water.

    Click. Tranquility returns.

    The curtain fell, and a bearded kithkin scientist shuffled onto the stage.

    “Esteemed guests, I present to you the shark. A mindless killer, it roams the seas of Shadowmoor, devouring anything unfortunate enough to encounter it. Here at Gravelgill Maritime Laboratory, my team and I have been working to harness the primal fury of the shark, to adapt the shark to a higher purpose.

    “As you know, our natural disadvantages against the merrow in our naval conflicts have been compounded by their deployment of increasingly metal forces. The swordfish, hammerwhale, and most recently the rocketmanatee have routed our forces in nineteen major battles over the last six months. It was all our brave sailors could do to pump the fist as these kickin’ rad animals tore them apart.

    “Over the past ten weeks, we have labored in secret, developing a weapon so totally sweet as to be unstoppable.”

    The scientist signaled to the technician in the back, who shone a spotlight onto a water tank, revealing the most metal image any of them had ever seen: a shark wielding an axe. The audience was in shock: a few unconsciously played air guitar riffs, others delivered body blows to their neighbors, but most could only stand still, trapped under the weight of the heaviest of heavy metal.

    “Any questions?”

    “Exactly how metal are these axesharks?”

    “Excellent question. We’ve taken a spinal tap from each of our axeshark specimens, and the results indicate that, on the Osbourne scale, the average axeshark measures approximately–“

    Before the scientist could finish, an elf from among the audience stood and shouted, interrupting him: “What have you done?! You’ve taken Ghastlord’s most perfect killing machine and given it an axe! You’ve knocked us all to the bottom of the deusdamn food chain!”

    * * * * *

    Later that evening, a pair of boggarts, undeterred by the elf’s hysterical warnings, snuck into the restricted zone of Gravelgill’s labs. The hardcore potential of the axesharks that they had seen during the presentation intrigued them, and, upon seeing the equipment at the lab, they became further stoked.

    The pièce de résistance was an enormous amplifier, so huge that the boggarts couldn’t make out the top of the device in the darkness of the lab’s high ceiling and so powerful that, even turned off, the boggarts could faintly hear the howl of a death-metal vocalist. A cable led from the amplifier to a Blight Sickle, a double-necked, twenty-four stringed guitar, which was adorned by images of skulls, redcaps, and a demigod of revenge.

    A water tank, larger than the one in the presentation room but otherwise identical, was next to the amplifier, and one of the boggarts walked over to investigate. He tapped on the glass, and a large, dark, and badass shape rushed by, startling him. He stumbled backward, tripping over the amplifier’s on switch. Grabbing for a handhold to break his fall, he caught the master volume control and inadvertently twisted it all the way up to eleven. This proved to be his undoing, because the Blight Sickle had transfixed the other boggart, who, moved by the guitar’s unadulterated essence of rock, plucked a single string.

    The noise was so loud that it was silent. The boggart next to the amplifier exploded as the sound wave rippled through him. The other boggart was blown against the opposite wall, the Blight Sickle wrenched from his hand. The tank’s glass cracked, and the axesharks, driven mad, pounded against it until it shattered.

    * * * * *

    The incident at the lab set off the station’s alarms, which woke up the scientists and their guests. Following the outlined emergency procedures, they hurried to the station’s south dock. The axesharks had already broken out, but, sensing the fear of the station’s inhabitants, they were trying to smash bitchin’ holes through the glass to reach and consume them.

    The water was already pouring in, and the axesharks were surfing toward their fleeing victims. Only three were left alive: the head scientist, a kithkin reporter, and the protesting elf. They ran to the end of the corridor and reached the next room, but before they could shut the door, an axeshark wedged itself in.

    “What did I tell you?” The elf yelled at the scientist. “We’re gonna get ate!”

    “We are almost at the south dock. There is a boat there that we can use to escape. If we can find some way to delay the axesharks, we should have enough time to push off before the axesharks can reach us. We just have to think rationally,” the scientist said. He took a moment to study his creation, but it was a moment too long: “WOOOOOO! HELL YEAH! IT’S A FUCKING SHARK WITH A FUCKING AXE! ROCK AND ROL–“

    The axeshark pushed itself further through the doorway and crushed the scientist between its wicked awesome jaws.

    “What’s your name?” The elf asked the kithkin reporter.

    “Olga.”

    “Olga, I’m Hexhunter. Run!”

    They rushed toward the south dock as the shark struggled to force its bulk the rest of the way through. They found their escape vessel, a diminutive motorboat. Hexhunter swore.

    “Here it is,” Olga yelled, “Let’s go!”

    Just then, a trio of axesharks rose out of the water and lit into the craft, tearing off chunks of wood and plastic with their axes. Hexhunter took Olga by the arm and led her back in the other direction.

    “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

    * * * * *

    Hexhunter and Olga ran through the few dry hallways toward the north dock. The axesharks, distracted by their feeding frenzies, hadn’t noticed the pair, but, just before the stairs leading up to the north dock berths, axesharks crashed through the walls between them. They turned around, but more axesharks had moved to block their escape.

    A nearby alcove was marked: “IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS.” Hexhunter smashed it open and claimed the shotgun that was inside. He pumped it and fired at the nearest axeshark. The force of the blast send the axeshark back, but, further angered rather than killed by Hexhunter’s attack, it persisted in working its way toward him.

    Surrounded and seeing her rockin’ doom approaching, Olga pulled out a lighter, lit it, and raised it as high as her stubby kithkin arms allowed. Hexhunter slapped her hand, and the lighter fell.

    “Snap out of it,” Hexhunter shouted as the axesharks began to close the distance between them, “Quickly, girl. Do you know any folk songs?”

    “I used to have to sing that stuff at camp. I mostly listen to classic rock these days. Folk music is so lame.”

    “Exactly! Folk music is lame. Really lame. And it’s our only hope. Sing! Sing the lamest folk song you know!”

    Olga began to croon an almost unbearably lame folk song. Hexhunter had to resist the urge to cover his ears. Gritting his teeth, Hexhunter joined in. At first, the axesharks seemed unaffected, and Hexhunter considered that when the axesharks got him, the last thing he’d have heard would be this awful music from some backwater Lorwyn clachan. Then, suddenly, the axesharks stopped moving toward them began to flail about. Hexhunter and Olga ran up the stairs, continuing to hum the unrighteous tunes.

    They found a large research boat tied at the north dock, and rushed up the gangway. Hexhunter severed the rope with a shotgun blast, while Olga hurried to the PA system. The axesharks had recovered from their initial exposure to folk music, but Olga’s singing over the PA proved to be too much. The axesharks broke off the chase. Hexhunter took the helm and drove the boat away from Gravelgill. As soon as they were at a safe distance, the whole station, which had been rocking and rolling well in excess of capacity, exploded in a huge fireball, taking the axesharks, the Blight Sickle, and the research that had created them down to the sea.

  • Zen and the Art of Shadowmoor Limited



    By now, many of you have realised that you are bad at shadowmoor limited. Your 3-2 prerelease record and first round draft losses have left you feeling empty, while the Swans of Bryn Argoll you sold for a dollar has left your wallet feeling the same way.

    But don’t lose hope! I too attended a shadowmoor prerelease, and my 4-1 record and second round draft loss have left me fully equipped to teach you the intricacies of shadowmoor draft and sealed. But not shadowmoor two headed giant. I could not find anyone willing to enter a 2hg with me, so that means you will have to go without my precious advice. Maybe next time you will be my friends. Assholes. :mad:

    Anyways, First I will review some of the ridiculous cards you may have missed.* I’ll also give a brief overview of why they’re ridiculous.

    White: White is the third strongest color in shadowmoor limited. In addition to solid creatures, it also has decent removal and combat tricks.

    Runed Halo: This is an enchantment that resides on your head like a hat. That by itself is pretty ridiculous, but it gets better from there. You can name Werebear with this card and 3-for-1 some crafty opponents by shutting down both Armadillo Cloak and Flame Fusillade.

    Reaper King: Reaper King is extremely strong in a white deck, giving them an 6/6 creature, far larger than white usually has access to.

    Blue: Blue is the third strongest color in shadowmoor limited. In addition to solid creatures, it also has decent removal and combat tricks.

    Savor the Moment: Savor the Moment is a subtly powerful card. At first glance, the card is just a variant on Kodama’s Reach, but there’s more to it. Crafty players will announce the card just loudly enough for the opponent to return their attention to the game, and then pass the turn. Then, when the opponent begins his turn, the crafty player can call over a judge to scold their opponent, effectively time walking them.

    Reaper King: Reaper King is extremely strong in a blue deck, giving them access to land destruction, something they do not usually have access to.

    Black: Black is the third strongest color in Morningtide. In addition to solid creatures, it also has decent removal and combat tricks.

    Plague of Vermin: Plague of Vermin may be the strongest card costing 6B you will ever cast. It allows you to relentlessly exchange your life for rats, which will relentlessly punish your opponent for not having a deck full of rats as relentless as yours. Unless their deck is full of Relentless Rats, in which case, Mirrorweave. Relentless Ownage.

    Reaper King: Reaper King is extremely powerful in a Black deck, giving you access to artifact removal, an area where black has traditionally struggled.

    Red: Red is the third strongest color in shadowmoor. In addition to solid creatures, it also has decent removal and combat tricks. And Burn Trail.

    Furystoke Giant: When I opened my first draft pack, I was shocked and awed to see Arc-Slogger and Flame Fusillade packed in their, furiously having red-hot sex**. In exchange for giving them the film from my camera, they let me have their ridiculous lovechild. His name, you may ask? Dr. G.G. Noob. Make sure you politely introduce him to all your friends.

    Reaper King: Reaper King is extremely powerful in a Red deck, giving you access to enchantment removal, in the rare event there are enchantments in play that have nothing to do with creatures.

    Green: Green is the third strongest color in shadowmoor. In addition to solid creatures, it also has decent removal and combat tricks. And can easily splash for Burn Trail.

    Prismatic Omen: In addition to being an excellent mana fixer in limited, this card has intriguing constructed applications. In conjunction with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Prismatic omen can make your swamps into plainsislandswampswampswampmountainforests. You’re gonna need some street savvy creatures to pull that off and live to tell about it, but if you can make it work, well…

    swampswampswamp. What else do I need to say?

    Reaper King: Reaper King is extremely powerful in a green deck, giving you access to a red, white, blue, and black artifact creature, something that green hasn’t had since ravnica block.

    In addition to this heads up on ridiculous cards, here are some strategy tips for draft:

    Avoid drafting the strongest or weakest colors. If you draft the strongest color, you are more likely to be cut off. If you draft the weakest color, you are more likely to be stupid. Try drafting the third strongest color, and hope for a reaper king.

    It is okay to shuffle packs, but do not shuffle packs together. Most judges won’t know the print runs for the new set yet, and they’ll be very cross with you if they have to fix your mess.

    If a pack has a rare and a foil rare, the foil rare may not be as valuable! Be careful not to make the mistake of first picking a foil Puca’s Mischief if the rare is a Sunken Ruins!







    *I’m sure you will think of cards that in your opinion should go here. But they shouldn’t. This is only for cards you missed. Obviously you didn’t miss them if you noticed their absence.

    ** The sex they were having was safe. Unlike your face, and your mom, and probably your moms face.

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • GoodGamery News – Zen and the Art of Shadowmoor Limited

    Abysmal Hunter


    Local Wumpus hunter and bear-arm collector Rune McKnight was killed yesterday in a hunting accident when he went out after threshold. His mother, who was hunting with him at the time, was unharmed and was available to make a statement early this morning. “He told me to save myself, so I did,” said Mother of Runes, visibly tapped from the incident. She added “for weeks he had been talking about that Werebear he saw, and he just had to have it, but I guess he just ran into the wrong two bear arms.”

    Rakdos Goes Hybrid


    Rakdos, Inc. unveiled its new line of hybrid creatures at prerelease events across the country last Saturday. The creatures, which are both black and red, are said to be more manabase friendly than traditional models. Most players see this as a step in the right direction from a company that has a long-standing reputation of being harmful to manabases. “I just can’t afford BBB for products like Necropotence on my manabase,” says notable black player Osyp Lebioyzxiwkaspy, “and to make matters worse, Rakdos has come out with many products that actively destroy manabases, such as Stone Rain and Rain of Tears.”

    Consumer advocacy groups warn that while hybrid costs are easier to pay than traditional colored mana costs, some of the models are not as manabase friendly as advertised because the company has in some instances replaced colorless mana costs with the new hybrid mana costs.

    Nobel prize winning human economist Nobel Templar sees the move to hybrid costs as one of desperation from a company with an erratic stock price, and warns that the play may backfire. “Stockholders need to know at all times how their company is doing financially,” he says, “but investors who first-pick a Demigod of Revenge, for example, may not know until the fourth or fifth pick if their company is in the red or the black.”

    President Requests New War On Terror Budget

    The President sent a bill to Congress yesterday evening requesting another 301 million black mana to spend on the War on Terror. The proposal includes a plan to target every American with Aphotic Wisps. The White House spokesman was quoted as saying it will “effectively end Terror in the homeland.” Everyone in the world with an IQ of at least forty has noted that the same effect could be achieved for a single black mana with Darkest Hour, a fact that has gone unnoticed by the majority of Americans. Some conspiracy theorists believe a superior effect could be had for 1BR using Dralnu’s Crusade.

    Transguild Courier Voted Sexiest Artifact Creature — Golem Alive


    Transguild Courier was voted Sexiest Artifact Creature — Golem alive by readers of Golems magazine as published in the April issue. When summoned for comments, the artifact creature said “I appealed to environmentally-aware voters because of my reputation for being green, to patriotic voters because I am unashamed to prominently display my country’s colors, and to non-terrorist voters for my efforts to support the war on terror on both fronts.” When this reporter told him to “get over himself,” the golem responded “I am possibly the most humble golem alive, and one of the things that makes me so attractive is that my abilities are unaffected by my Humility.”

    (Discuss this item in the forum!)

  • GoodGamery News – Top 8 to 10

    LOCATION, STATE – Federal agents raided the top 8 of a 10-proxy Magic: the Gathering Vintage tournament Saturday evening after being alerted about the event that morning by the Trading Card Association of America (TCAA). At the scene officials collected some 80 proxy cards and arrested every player in the top 8 for copyright infringement on ten of the cards trademarked by Wizards of the Coast. Wizards official and notable green creature Maro appeared ecstatic about the win for Wizards and was quoted as saying “blithering gibberish blah blargh blah bleh blargh,” a sentiment not shared by many players or other sentient beings in general. However, at least one forgettable player willing to identify himself only as UberMexico agreed with Maro, and added “slobber slobber drool.”

    Players may have an out

    Legal experts say this is not as clear cut as copyright infringement cases in the music, movie, and software industries, where the industries are widely seen as purveyors of truth and justice. “The key differences between the industries,” says legal analyst Glayton Cilette, “are first that Wizards of the Coast does not own more money than God as is the case with the movie and music industries, and second that players do not have to pretend to agree to an End User License Agreement as is the case with software.”

    Wizards prepared to sideboard

    Inside sources say Wizards is aware of the potential issues and is prepared if the courts rule in favor of the players. “We were going to have to reprint Tarmogoyf eventually anyway, because it was a Time Shifted pre-print”, says Deep Throat, “so our lawyers crafted an ingenious plan to reprint it with an End User License Agreement.” According to gameplay expert Starles Charling this plan may work. “Almost every deck in every format has to play Tarmogoyf or lose,” Starles says, “so there is really no way to get around the EULA.” Other noted experts Yarvis Ju and Pan Statton disagree. Yarvis cited that “Tarmogoyf is not heavily played in Vintage”, the format where copyright infringment is most prevelant. Statton disagrees on a separate basis. “Even though players must play Tarmogoyf or lose,” he said, “some players may still choose to lose.” He added that Wizards would “need to print the EULA on any hate cards that exist for Tarmogoyf.”

    1. Grant of Limited Use License. If you agree to this License Agreement, a magical creature (hereafter known as Tarmogoyf) will be able to come into play and wreck house. If your mana pool meets the minimum requirements, Tarmogoyf will enable you to smash face by turning sideways and devouring all creatures in its way. Subject to your agreement and continuing compliance with this License Agreement, Wizards hereby grants, and you hereby accept, a limited non-exclusive license to put Tarmogoyfs into play and smash face with them.

    2. Terms of Use. You may not put cards in your deck, sideboard, or into any play zone which were not printed by Wizards of the Coast. If you do put a card into your deck, sideboard, or any play zone, it must have the same name as it did when printed by Wizards of the Coast, regardless of any Sharpie markings indicating otherwise. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use you may neither put Tarmogoyfs into play nor smash faces with them.

    3. We are just crossing our fingers and hoping nobody realizes they can simply proxy Tarmogoyfs to avoid agreeing to the License Agreement.

  • Magic Arcana: I Want to Ride My Charcycle

    (from MagicTheGathering.com’s Magic Arcana)

    As you no doubt have seen at your prerelease, there’s a 10 card cycle in Shadowmoor based on an updated wording of our old favourite Char:


    R&D noticed a trend among players discussing new cards – they would relate them sometimes nonsensically to previous cards. For example, players would say Brute Force was the “red Giant Growth”, Purge was the “white Terror”, Browbeat was the “red Fact or Fiction”; they would even say things like Remand was the “blue Time Walk”. You can see that the naming of this cycle steers this type of moronic discussion in the right direction; the other cards in the first half of the cycle whether they are old or new, common or rare, have all been updated with a new type and clearer name:


    While Shadowmoor was being leaked in perfectly controlled amounts, someone on a message board commented that this card:


    was “like a blue Char.” A little narrow minded, but I guess hate will always exist in peoples’ hearts. At any rate he was mostly right and like all cards in the second half of the cycle, it has a hybrid mana cost. We feel that this part of the cycle really showcases the hybrid theme of Shadowmoor and also whatever theme Char has.


    This double cycle spans 5 rares, 3 uncommons and 2 commons – this is clearly terrible design and the person responsible will be sacked.

    – Magic Arcana

  • NJ’s Shadowmoor Constructed Review

    Check out NicotineJones’ Shadowmoor constructed review here.