Good Gamery

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  • Planeswalkers Surprised by Evil Masterstroke

    RAVNICA – Yesterday, the dastardly Nicol Bolas finally unleashed the culmination of years of scheming, spanning multiple years, multiple planes, and multiple mediocre sealed formats.

    “It is known as The Elderspell,” Bolas announced triumphantly from atop his obsidian citadel. “I have wandered all the planes in search of the ultimate power. I have read all the forbidden scrolls. I have passed through the deepest fires of Urborg and the deepest pits of Rath. I have ventured into dark places where no mortal has dared to pass.”

    “I tap two swamps.”

    Reaction from the populace was mixed at best. “I don’t know what I expected, but it sure wasn’t a sideboard card,” one local guildmage told Good Gamery. “I dunno, I just didn’t expect the most powerful spell in the multiverse to be counterable by Spell Snare.”

    “Elder spell, phaw!” scoffed one elderly wizard. “It doesn’t even look that old. Newfangled frame, Beleren font… looks like some new world order nonsense to me. In my day, when we wanted to deal with walkers, we cast Great Wall.”

    Internet reviews were also mixed, with one zero star review noting “I expected more from the artist who brought us Cruel Ultimatum. SLAP IN THE FACE TO THE FANS.”

    When asked to comment, Bolas commented, “I don’t know what the big deal is, plenty of the most powerful spells in history cost 2 mana. You know, Time Walk, Balance… uh… Tallowisp.”

    Good Gamery reached out to Jace for comment, but he was in the graveyard.

    So what’s next for Bolas? “More research. I have heard tales of a powerful spell from the olden days that could stop any sort of Magic, and I must have it,” he said, fidgeting with two islands.

  • Challenger Decks 2019: Legacy

    Challenger Decks 2019: Legacy

    by A Cynical Marketing Director

    Because the Challenger Deck series has been an absolute hit with our competitive player base, we’ve decided to punch things up for a second round of decks for the 2019 competitive season. We wanted to address multiple formats while continuing to find new ways to make Standard more exciting (creating new, functioning online play software from the ground up has been an unqualified success in getting players to actually play Standard games) and what better way than to address the needs of our most-neglected formats?



    These are the first in a new series of Challenger Decks intended to address formats other than Standard. We’re well aware that older formats can be more difficult for new players to break into without having a substantial card base already. By providing these decks with no MSRP, we are allowing retailers to help their local players find the products that best suit their needs, without concern for budget or aftermarket value.

    However, when designing these decks, we ran into an obvious problem with no obvious solution: reprinting cards that appear on the Reserved List. With absolutely no way for us to get around this self-imposed restriction, we got a bit creative and made a series of checklist cards that will take the place of these cards in the deck. While this does mean that you will have to acquire copies of these cards on your own. We leave this as a challenge for the players, as we cannot formally acknowledge any third-party vendors. Please contact your local Wizards Play Network store for information on how to obtain singles.

    These decks are meant to be competitive once fully built, so get ready to load up TCG Player in a separate tab while you take a look at these deck lists!

    Ad Nauseam Tendrils

    Ad Nauseam Tendrils combines the blistering speed of zero-mana spells with zero-mana mana artifacts to generate a huge spell count in a short amount of time. Lion’s Eye Diamond is famous for being confusing to play with, degenerate when built around properly, and the only non-land card on the Reserved List in this deck.

    ANT checklist

    Grixis Control

    Delver of Secrets has a reputation for being played in almost every format it’s still legal in (and some that it’s not.) Recently it’s been tearing up the tables in Pauper format, which is the only format you’ll be able to afford to play after you complete your play-sets of dual lands.

    Delver checklist

    Lands

    Made famous by Jarvis Yu, the world’s most handsome Magic professional, this deck uses a $3,000 card to kill creatures, then wins with a 20/20 flying indestructible creature token. Demoralize your opponents on the battlefield and at the ATM.

    Lands checklist

    Elves

    We know you bought this to play at the kitchen table, which is fine by us. We aren’t judging you. We will judge you if you try to purchase a playset of Gaea’s Cradles, however.

    Elves checklist

    Because we expect you to collect four copies of everything, each deck includes 27 checklist cards, one for every card on the Reserved List. Customize your Challenger deck to your heart’s desire, or collect all 2,268 and complete your set! If you have enough checklist cards, you have a Legacy deck.


    RL Checklist 001-027

  • Light Up The Stage: The Full Cycle

    A bunch of cards from “War of the Stage” fell off of a FLGS and we rescued them, discovering in the process that Light Up the Stage is merely one card in a cycle of five. Here are all of them in WUBRG order, just as the Lord intended.





  • Ah, Shit, I Still Have a Column

    Hello and welcome to a column I completely forgot to write. I have a great preview card, I think, if this is a preview week. This week, I will be checking with my editor to find out if this is a preview week.

    Right now, it is Friday at noon, and I always take a half day on Friday, and I just found out that this isn’t a preview week. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I usually have those fake conversations, right? Do you still like that? Readers always liked those, I think.

    Me: I forgot to write a column.

    Editor: Mark, come on. We talked about this.

    Me: I know, I know, I know. Look, can we just skip this week?

    Editor: It’s started to feel like this happens every week. Look, Mark, I have a job to do too, okay? Just give me something.

    Me: Can I still talk about how I always reference Roseanne?

    Editor: you haven’t made an actual Roseanne reference in nine years.

    Me: and you’re sure this isn’t a preview week.

    Editor: the Weekly Standard never treated me like this.

    Okay. The new set just came out, so I’m just writing columns about that until I start preview cards for the next set. Remember the Ixalan weeks? Oh my god, I thought those would never end.

    Here’s an image of a card.

    Here’s text after a card, which makes the article seem longer.

    A design story: first, I’m going to ask my editor if I already told this design story in my article about the card from the last time we printed it.
    It seems I did tell that story.

    As long-time readers of mine know, a favorite story of mine to tell, is this one, about this card.

    [Rephrasing of previous story TK]

    Many people ask, “Mark, you love the color pie. How is making mana in black and red’s color pie?”

    The answer is that long ago, we decided that black and red could produce mana, if that mana came from a land that produced black and red, and only one at a time, unless it produces more than one at a time.

    Some trivia about the card: it was originally from Dissension.

    Next week, we start preview weeks for the next Ravnica set.

    Until then, Ravnica is a plane of contrasts.

  • Richard Garfield Announces ‘KeyForge’ Draft Format

    ROSEVILLE, MN — During a press conference at Fantasy Flight Games HQ, Richard Garfield announced the intended draft format for his new zany game, KeyForge: Call of the Archons.

    He calls it, “Deck Drafting.”

    Whereas collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering ask that players draft individual cards to build a deck, Garfield’s vision for KeyForge requires players to draft individual decks.

    This is because while collectible card games like Magic: The Gathering have individual cards that range in quality from “hopelessly bad” to “distressingly overpowered,” KeyForge breaks the mold by having entire decks that range in quality from “hopelessly bad” to “distressingly overpowered.”

    “First, you’ll receive a randomized stack of 15 KeyForge decks, which you’ll fan out in your hands to evaluate which one you’d like to add to your pool,” Garfield explained at a demonstration table, clumsily trying to hold and read 555 cards at once. “This deck, ‘Aunt Mary the Bizzle-Futz,’ has a list where each house totally undermines the strategy of the next, yielding a cyclic loop of self-caused catastrophe. I’ll pass this to my left.”

    “Ah-ha, now we’re talking!” he then chortled. “This other deck, ‘Nar Nar Finks the Ascender-Noodle,’ has Mars/Logos Archive interactions that let you Time Walk your opponent about once a turn, and a Brobnar selection that literally makes your opponent’s amount of Amber a negative number.”

    “I’ll keep that one,” he said with a wink.

    After three draft rounds, each player will end up with 45 decks — “A ‘deck of decks’ if you will,” interrupted Garfield.

    They’ll then play 14,175 best-of-3 rounds in order to compete with each other player, using every possible pairing of decks.

    “Over three and a half years of entertainment,” Garfield observed.

    “That’s a lot of value!” he added.


    Each game of KeyForge already uses gobs of cards…

    Garfield’s next game, tentatively titled “Rage of Mages: The Beckoning,” is rumored to require drafting decks of decks of decks, further revealing that Richard Garfield is dangerously out of control.

     

     

     

  • In which order should you read the lines of Guild Feud’s rules text?

    In which order should you read the lines of Guild Feud’s rules text?

    gf-full

    Even hardcore fans of Guild Feud know that jumping into the Feud can be intimidating for newcomers. With its richly rendered world and deep mythos, Guild Feud continues to attract new readers years after its initial release; but its style, which has been called “overwrought,” “needlessly convoluted,” and “like a bad Great Designer Search card,” means that many of these readers give up halfway through.

    Here’s how to power through the Feud like a pro—it’s the order I wish I read the lines of Guild Feud‘s rules text in.

    sec-1

    1. “At the beginning of your upkeep, target”

    There’s no getting around it: Guild Feud is an enchantment with an upkeep trigger. While it flouts a lot of the clichés of an upkeep trigger enchantment, it’s still important that you start at the beginning so that you’re introduced to this context and can fully appreciate the Feud’s sly innovations.

    sec-2

    8. “this way, those creature fight each other.”

    Woah, skipping to the end right away? The truth is, Guild Feud saves some of its absolute best action for the very end, and that means that many who attempt to read it in the traditional order never end up experiencing this awesome line. Spoil yourself! Plus, after reading this line you’ll no doubt be wondering, “How the hell did we end up here?”

    sec-3

    4. “among them onto the battlefield, then puts”

    5. “the rest into his or her graveyard. You do the”

    6. “same with the top three cards of your library.”

    Lines four through six form the narrative core of Guild Feud: they are what most people think of when they think of “Guild Feud.” It makes sense to read these three lines (which many consider as constituting a “mini trilogy” in their own right) in consecutive order.

    sec-4

    2. “opponent reveals the top three cards of his”

    3. “or her library, may put a creature card from”

    Lines two and three provide interesting backstory for the main narrative which unfolds in lines four through six, but they can be slow going unless you’re already committed to the Feud.

    sec-5

    7. “If two creatures are put onto the battlefield”

    As mentioned, the final act of Guild Feud features some of its most heart-pounding action. Unfortunately, the buildup to this final action is by any account uninspired. Save the seventh line for last: it’s only requisite reading for completionists.

  • Interview with the Winner of GDS3

    Over the last few weeks, not much information has been released about the Great Designer Search 3 contest, a competition hosted by Wizards of the Coast to find a new intern designer for Magic: The Gathering. In an announcement yesterday, Wizards of the Coast revealed that the search was over and a new designer was selected.

    In a surprising revelation, the winner was not one of the finalists. Instead, while the Great Designer Search finalists were visiting the Renton offices, a masked individual joined the contestants and submitted an entry as well. This individual did not enter with his real name, instead describing himself as the collective will of the Magic public.

    We reached out to Wizards of the Coast and were able to arrange an interview with the head judge of the Great Designer Search, Mark Rosewater, as well as the winner of the contest, who only gave the pseudonym Multani.

    Image
    “Multani,” Great Designer Search 3 Winner.

    Hello, thank you for being taking the time out of what must be busy days to have this interview.

    Mark: Hi.

    Multani: Hi.

    How were you able to compete in the contest, given that the eight finalists were already chosen?

    Multani: It was surprisingly simple. I already lived near Renton, so when I found out the finalists were coming to visit I went down to Wizards of the Coast’s offices. I brought a few of my old designs that never saw print with me, and while I wasn’t able to meet with Mark Rosewater, I was able to show the rest of the judges and they seemed interested.

    Mark: I heard about a ruggedly-handsome designer of mystery showing up when I was on break, and wasted no time in evaluating his card submissions. Without a doubt, I knew that they were what Magic needed and told the other judges that he would be entered into the finals. The designs resembled previous playtest cards that weren’t able to see the light of day, which told us that this designer had a lot of potential ahead. He also offered to make all the art for his cards, which was a plus.

    What did you do for the previous stages of the GDS? Were you required to go through those stages?

    Multani: When I arrived at Wizards of the Coast I was told that I wasn’t going to be able to join the contest, but Mark was able to convince the other judges that I should be given a chance to earn a spot. I was scheduled to take the multiple choice test after lunch with the other contestants, so I shared some stories with them and they talked about some of their ideas that could probably fit in Milk.

    Mark: The multiple choice test that most people took was not the first one I wrote. I had previously written an entire separate test, but the other judges said it was too difficult, so I had to redo the test from the beginning. Since there was already another test ready to go, Multani took that one instead.

    What was the hardest question in this version of the multiple choice test?

    Multani: Not many people know this, but to become a writer for Roseanne there is also a multiple choice test. I did well on that when I had the opportunity to take it in the past, so I figured I would be able to do well on this test also. Turns out I was right, none of the questions seemed hard, though I could imagine some others getting tripped up on the question about what Mark Rosewater had in his pocket, but I just guessed based on what mine had.

    Mark: I don’t think any of these questions ended up that difficult, and Multani was able to achieve a perfect score.

    And the essay portion?

    Multani: Why would I need to waste my time with the essays? Besides, I’ve written for years on Magic design, so it would be pointless to copy those answers over.

    Multani: It’s not like any of us bothered reading the other essays anyways.

    Do you have any concerns that letting someone who was never part of the contest win could damage faith in the way that the Great Designer Search was run?

    Mark: I just pulled into the office, so I think I’ll need to end this interview.

    Multani: Join me next week for stories about my first day.

    Until then, may you always find what you search for.

  • Signature Spellbook: Blood Moon


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    Outplay your opponent with this handsome collection of iconic cards.




    Call on the power of the moon and control the game with this collection of essential Mountains, now with a stunning new look.

    Each Signature Spellbook: Blood Moon will contain nine cards: eight cards and a foil version of one of those eight cards at random.

  • The Great Designer Search

  • The Zen of Flores

    Flores presents his student with a d20. “I want you to use this in your next game of Magic,” Flores says.

    The student asks, “What is it for?”

    Flores replies, “This is a misplay die. Every time you make a misplay, you must increase the number on the die.”

    The student asks, “Why does the misplay die start at 1?”

    Flores replies, “Because using this die is your first misplay.”

    A monk asks Mike Flores, “Does Jund have a beatdown nature?”

    Flores replies, “No.”

    The monk says, “Many decks with Goblin Guide, Lightning Bolt, and Thoughtseize are beatdown. Why not Jund?”

    Flores replies, “Jund does not run One with Nothing.”

    Flores, a deck master during the Dojo era (1995-2001), received a university professor who came to inquire about Card Advantage.

    Flores was drawing cards. He drew cards until his hand was full, and then kept on drawing.

    The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

    “Like this hand,” Flores said, “you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Card Advantage unless you first empty your hand?”

    A student asks Flores, “How can I learn to cast spells as well as you?”

    Flores responds, “Let us play a game of Magic, so that you may begin to learn.”

    The student selects a simple burn deck to play against his master. Every turn the student cast a direct damage spell against Flores. Meanwhile, every turn Flores draws a card, thinks for several moments, and then plays an Island and passes the turn.

    As the game goes on, the student becomes increasingly convinced that Flores will end the game with some miraculous flurry of spells. But on the last turn of the game, the student casts a Lightning Bolt for Flores’s final three points of life and, after thinking for a moment, Flores says that he has no response.

    The student is incensed. “What am I supposed to learn from a game where you did nothing but play Islands every turn,” he exclaims.

    Flores responds calmly, “Before you can learn to cast spells, you must learn to play lands.”

    One day Chapin came to Flores and asked, “What is true innovation?”

    “True innovation”, replied Flores, “is finding 74 cards and adding Gnarled Mass.”

    If you want to make your spells work for you, first you must work for your spells.

    Before you can win the game against your opponent, you have to win the game against yourself.

    “Know your opponent and yourself, and you will not be defeated in one hundred matches, except when you are mana screwed.” -Mike Flores

    “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter decklist.” -Mike Flores

    The student once asked Flores, “Why do we set our clocks forward in the spring only to set them back again in autumn?”

    Flores responded, “Daylight Saving Time is a virtual Time Walk.”