Sunday, July 1, 2012
Future Standard, and Modern.
Hello scrubbers. I'm thinking. About the new coming M13, and the shape of Standard as it'll be once we've gotten around to GP Auckland. I'm going. I'm getting revved up proper. I hope it all comes together.
So first off, current Standard:
If you ask me, zombies are winning. The worse thing is how easy it rebuilds from killing it's creatures, so things like DoJ do nothing. Thankfully we have Terminus. And Pillar of Flame, because that just eats Gravecrawler forever, right?
The problem with building "the answer" deck is that you then have to WIN as well. Does the red/deck exist that can do that, though? Control the early game, exiling threats instead of just killing them?
Not only that, but Zombies has some natural answers to any "exile" removal, in the cute form of Falkenrath Aristocrat, who can simply "wrath off" an Terminus style fun. When mentioning exiling a creature you naturally think of Fiend Hunter first, who has a cute interaction WITH Terminus, come to think of it.
"When Fiend Hunter DIES...return foo."
"Put all creatures on the bottom of their owner's library."
I don't see the word "destroy" anywhere there, so our humble hunter has a hidden permanet exile clause (when mixed with Terminus buddy).
The problem is that the above mostly makes for a cute bunch of interactions, which all need the right cards to come at the right time. True, both cards don't "kill" other cards in the traditional sense, so even on their own they're giving YOU value by denying it to the Zombie-board, but again does the red/white deck even have a realistic face?
It would immediately seem to be Aggro oriented, and a faster, more resilient aggro deck is, you guessed it, ZOMBIES!
So with those few thoughts in mind, I'm aiming to test out a red/white verison of an Anti-Zombie deck, then I'll see whether it's worth persuing an actual "hey, this could work" kind of deck.
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Pillar of Flame
4 Terminus (possibly 3, starting with one in-hand is like a mulligan)
4 Fiend Hunter
True that's only a starting fragment, but we have to wait for M13 to be fully revealed, AND Ravnica Return to will be upon us and NO Mirrodin, so we will have a very different Standard by the time November and GP Auckland are upon us.
And who knows how to flight cheap? Because MAN I've flown 4 times already this year (3 times for Magic) and it ain't cheap.
NEXT ONTO MODERN
This is more of a "secrets I shouldn't tell you" but, because it's decktech. And not decktech. Probably old, boring, and forgotten. The perfect kind of thing to really come back outta nowhere, and take the world by storm.
I'll just say "Izzet Guildmage" and "Kamigawa" and we'll see what lightbulbs went on in your head.
...
Any?
If you can remember a few specific cards, Izzet Guildmage and a Lava Spike with Desperate Ritual spliced on is an instant win. This can be done as early as turn 2 (1 if you wanna get technical and run every possible mana accelerant in the format) but it basically works really cute. And in a way I can't demonstrate without some kind of cute graphics. Seeing my current graphics monkey is dead, just read this:
With Izzet Guildmage and 5 mana.
Cast Lava Spike, splicing on Desperate Ritual.
While that's still on the cast, cast the Desperate Ritual (you keep a spliced card) and add RRR to your pool.
Copy the Lava Spike/Desperate Ritual spell. Opponent takes 3, you get another RRR.
Repeat ad nauseum.
Now I don't know how exciting the deck was when it was first around, despite being a player at the time. I do recall this trick showing up, and it being "cute" then. I just think now it's got much better countermeasures to everything that'll be trying to kill it, and an easier time finding it's own pieces.
There is the natural danger of combo-hate that already exists for the Splinter/Exarch Twin deck overlapping as duplicate-sideboard material against "Izzet Spike" (my term for the deck) but there are different things at play. You do have to protect a non-Flash creature for a turn, but there are tricks around it. Get creative!
For example, you can cast Guildmage with Pact of Negation back up. If you get around to your next upkeep and had to use it, then in response (before you pay/don't pay) you can always go Quick, then begin your combo. This means you'll need 6 mana, sure, but it's alternate path, and one so far completely unseen. Unlike the Exarch Twin combo, this doesn't rely on the combat step, nor having a positive power, so Elesh will still wreck this combo, but an Ensnaring Bridge from the opponent's sideboard wont, for example.
No real decklist, just a bunch of the essentials really:
4 Izzet Guildmage
4 Izzet Signet
4 Remand
4 Boomerang
4 Eye of Nowhere
4 Temporal Mastery
4 Lava Spike
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Glacial Ray (more Splicing fun!)
That's 36 right there, so I'd probably build that and play it against the Modern Gauntlet to see how it did, how well it flopped on it's face, etc. Obviously the Glacial Rays are TOO greedy, after all where's the cantrips, hey?
THATS ITS FOR TODAY.
FOX.
PS. I will endevour to have a video up for you tomorrow.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Avacyn so far?
I remember when I heard that Scars was coming out, I was 100% over Rise of the Eldrazi before it even came out. The desire leapt to SCARS SCARS SCARS! Then I played Rise of the Eldrazi, and I was great to feel that "godzillas versus King kongs" feeling, so I was glad, in the end, that we didn't live a theoretical universe where you could skip ahead sets.
I'm getting a similar feeling with Avacyn Restored. I know, it's the third set before we begin the next set, but this is quite "meh" at the moment. Sure, Avacyn's back, SO THE STORIES DONE. The baddies get nurfed, equilibrium is returned. Angels and Demons, rather much. Sure it's a fun set, but it's a theme that shows itself every set that it can, so to me it's a bit like Zendikar. The flavour of that set was ridiculous, "adventure!" You know what Magic? A fantastic adventure game. Ever read ANY of the storyline, background or character text they give you with a fat back? Or read a novel? Making a set just "adventure" doesn't work, seeing that's every set. That's not to say playing like Indiana Jones wasn't cool, but for an entire set's theme? C'mon.
So Avacyn will hopefully be another Rise of the Eldrazi for me. One set I THINK I want to skip, but when I'm playing it good God I'm happy I didn't. And having said that, a return to Ravnica is certainly something to want to skip a set for! Ravnica, along with Mirrodin and Lorwyn, are my favourite of sets, for flavours and mechanics and just great memories of brilliant gameplay. It makes me feel a bit sad for my main play group, who got into things just around Time Spiral.
Eitherway, I am now the State Champion of VIEWPOINT, a great card game you should go here and check out: It's about $16 for the deck, then you have everything you need to play with everyone. That's cheap for so much play value.
http://www.93madegames.com.au/
I'm getting a similar feeling with Avacyn Restored. I know, it's the third set before we begin the next set, but this is quite "meh" at the moment. Sure, Avacyn's back, SO THE STORIES DONE. The baddies get nurfed, equilibrium is returned. Angels and Demons, rather much. Sure it's a fun set, but it's a theme that shows itself every set that it can, so to me it's a bit like Zendikar. The flavour of that set was ridiculous, "adventure!" You know what Magic? A fantastic adventure game. Ever read ANY of the storyline, background or character text they give you with a fat back? Or read a novel? Making a set just "adventure" doesn't work, seeing that's every set. That's not to say playing like Indiana Jones wasn't cool, but for an entire set's theme? C'mon.
So Avacyn will hopefully be another Rise of the Eldrazi for me. One set I THINK I want to skip, but when I'm playing it good God I'm happy I didn't. And having said that, a return to Ravnica is certainly something to want to skip a set for! Ravnica, along with Mirrodin and Lorwyn, are my favourite of sets, for flavours and mechanics and just great memories of brilliant gameplay. It makes me feel a bit sad for my main play group, who got into things just around Time Spiral.
Eitherway, I am now the State Champion of VIEWPOINT, a great card game you should go here and check out: It's about $16 for the deck, then you have everything you need to play with everyone. That's cheap for so much play value.
http://www.93madegames.com.au/
Monday, April 9, 2012
New decks, constantly.
Here's a quick list, based off the ... 12 cards spoiled so far from Avacyn Restored.
8 Islands
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Geist of St Traft
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Banishing Stroke
4 Think Twice
1 Gideon Joura
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Cloudshift
---
22 other
It's a rip on my old blue/white concoction from previous FNM fun. I liked the deck, played to my style, and had the control with the simple "one card army" beat down I like.
This version plays to the mechanic of Miracle, using Think Twice to draw cards in my opponents turn, hopefully a Banishing Stroke to remove their creature from the game in midcombat. It also dances around "upkeep before I draw, kill your Consecrated Sphinx" but casting Cloudshift in time to save it.
Obviously once Elesh Norn rotates we'll need another bloody big whitey to beat away and smeer hopelessness in the opponent's face, and I daresay Avacyn herself does put her hand up, but for 8 mana? More than Elesh by one mana, yeah she gives quite the reverse. Rather than a bigger team against a "dead" opponent's army, she simply bolsters your team so much it's blockers or attackers every turn however you like.
St Traft beats every turn, indestructible. Mind you, a single Tragic Slip (-13/-13 gets very well around indestructible) or Vapor Snag (no Avacyn, no abilities) will kill anyone, so no counting on that, without your own combat timed tricks, ala Cloudshift, right?
Though that means save up 8 mana, then another 1 for the Avacyn + protection spell play. I'm sure there'll be many cheaper spells.
8 Islands
7 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Ghost Quarter
---
25 lands
4 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Geist of St Traft
2 Consecrated Sphinx
2 Wurmcoil Engine
2 Phantasmal Image
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
---
13 creatures
4 Oblivion Ring
4 Mana Leak
4 Ponder
4 Banishing Stroke
4 Think Twice
1 Gideon Joura
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Cloudshift
---
22 other
It's a rip on my old blue/white concoction from previous FNM fun. I liked the deck, played to my style, and had the control with the simple "one card army" beat down I like.
This version plays to the mechanic of Miracle, using Think Twice to draw cards in my opponents turn, hopefully a Banishing Stroke to remove their creature from the game in midcombat. It also dances around "upkeep before I draw, kill your Consecrated Sphinx" but casting Cloudshift in time to save it.
Obviously once Elesh Norn rotates we'll need another bloody big whitey to beat away and smeer hopelessness in the opponent's face, and I daresay Avacyn herself does put her hand up, but for 8 mana? More than Elesh by one mana, yeah she gives quite the reverse. Rather than a bigger team against a "dead" opponent's army, she simply bolsters your team so much it's blockers or attackers every turn however you like.
St Traft beats every turn, indestructible. Mind you, a single Tragic Slip (-13/-13 gets very well around indestructible) or Vapor Snag (no Avacyn, no abilities) will kill anyone, so no counting on that, without your own combat timed tricks, ala Cloudshift, right?
Though that means save up 8 mana, then another 1 for the Avacyn + protection spell play. I'm sure there'll be many cheaper spells.
Swapsies YET AGAIN.
I know, this is nuts to do so often, but this is going to continue being my Magic weblog, and the other one is going to continue being my Time 100 Novels blog. It didn't make sense to start two blogs and swap them both. If that doesn't make any sense to you, ignore it all.
Now how am I magically lately? I have a lot of notes from my trip to Victoria for GP Melbourne, which I must organise and send off to good games so they can have another article out of me, and me another lot of store credit off of them.
Lately I get asked questions about how much they tell me what to write, and what I get for my efforts. When I tell the imput received is 'nothing' and the amount gained is 20 credit my friends are usually unimpressed but figure hey, it's better than nothing. Not only that, but I'm growingly the most consistently writer for Good Games seeing no one else writes any form of regular article for the place. In fact I'd imagine that very few people read it, but I still like magic, and writing, so I'm not about to stop and it's still going to appear for whoever wants to read it.
Having said that, Avacyn Restored previews have just started, and I can't believe how happy I am to not be judging this year. A quick review of the mechanics:
Miracle
NO. When are there going to be problems with this mechanic? Constantly. I draw it, yay! but keep it for later. Or forget to reveal straight away, drawing it into my hand before revealing it. What's to keep you from saying there's no proof?
The precident for this was the top card of your library causing life loss, thanks to Dark Confidant. PLENTY of players drew the card, drew for the turn and then went Hang on, and called a judge. We had to pick a card to reveal and make them lose that much life, and it was quite clear what counted as a drawn card. If it met your hand, it was drawn. Even if you drew all your cards to the left side of your grip, it was still possible for the truly card-shark skilled amongst us to slide cards around. If that's the case you could keep a land in hand, draw a card and Ooops, I reveal this [Land] and suffer no life loss, while you really drew that Cruel Ultimatum.
The same applies here. This is just headaches. Plus there'll be plenty of people doing this wrong, at the wrong time, and just never ever well. I hate what Wizards have decided to do here. I understand the coolness of the idea, but it's too much headache to play with, no one has to agree to an "honour system" when they sit down to a game of magic.
Online however this will never cause a real problem. Also, instant drawing a card in your opponents turn will still allow Miracle to apply.
UNDYING
Same as last time, I just expect more creatures with more tricky abilities. So far we've seen a Wolf who can't be blocked by creatures who don't match it's power. That's great, because it can trade and then smash face for plenty. That's just one card though, I imagine plenty of fun here.
PAIRING*
This scared me initially, because I was expecting an updated keyword mechanic of Banding. This is NOT the case. You just choose another target creature and both of them get a bonus. A bit like the creatures of old who could attack and give someone else flying, only this bonus is constant and is always tracked.
It's also not that difficult to track, seeing most people will just pile their normal creature with their PAIRED creature. This sounds like it'll be fun, because paying U for the flying/pairing guy is good and cheap for a big fat flying fatty, but better than that is the instant speeding "falling outta the sky" that can happen when you plink their little 1/1. This will allow for some very unfortunate combat steps, which is GREAT.
* No, it's actually called "Soulbound." Which sounds a little too "Super friends" for my liking. Imagine super man. "Paired creature gets flying and indestructible."
"Loner"
This is just a load of creatures who're better alone. Go ahead, build a deck of them. This seems like it'll be mostly undercosted aggressive creatures who eat or otherwise hurt you for having more than one creature.
I like the flavour here, seeing evil is having a harder time and as evil is totally without morals there's no longer any "easy kills", so it's kill or be killed from every direction -- so naturally the evil creatures are keeping their distance from everyone.
"Blinking"
This is exiling a creature and then returning it to play instantly. This does a LOT rules wise, but basically it "refreshes" a creature of yours. No counters, no enchantments, no damage, not attacking or blocking, no damage marked on it, nothing. If it had a leaves the battlefield or enters the battlefield ability then they will trigger (so brush off your Sundering Titans).
This next point deserves it's own paragraph.
A creature remains blocked even if it's b
Now how am I magically lately? I have a lot of notes from my trip to Victoria for GP Melbourne, which I must organise and send off to good games so they can have another article out of me, and me another lot of store credit off of them.
Lately I get asked questions about how much they tell me what to write, and what I get for my efforts. When I tell the imput received is 'nothing' and the amount gained is 20 credit my friends are usually unimpressed but figure hey, it's better than nothing. Not only that, but I'm growingly the most consistently writer for Good Games seeing no one else writes any form of regular article for the place. In fact I'd imagine that very few people read it, but I still like magic, and writing, so I'm not about to stop and it's still going to appear for whoever wants to read it.
Having said that, Avacyn Restored previews have just started, and I can't believe how happy I am to not be judging this year. A quick review of the mechanics:
Miracle
NO. When are there going to be problems with this mechanic? Constantly. I draw it, yay! but keep it for later. Or forget to reveal straight away, drawing it into my hand before revealing it. What's to keep you from saying there's no proof?
The precident for this was the top card of your library causing life loss, thanks to Dark Confidant. PLENTY of players drew the card, drew for the turn and then went Hang on, and called a judge. We had to pick a card to reveal and make them lose that much life, and it was quite clear what counted as a drawn card. If it met your hand, it was drawn. Even if you drew all your cards to the left side of your grip, it was still possible for the truly card-shark skilled amongst us to slide cards around. If that's the case you could keep a land in hand, draw a card and Ooops, I reveal this [Land] and suffer no life loss, while you really drew that Cruel Ultimatum.
The same applies here. This is just headaches. Plus there'll be plenty of people doing this wrong, at the wrong time, and just never ever well. I hate what Wizards have decided to do here. I understand the coolness of the idea, but it's too much headache to play with, no one has to agree to an "honour system" when they sit down to a game of magic.
Online however this will never cause a real problem. Also, instant drawing a card in your opponents turn will still allow Miracle to apply.
UNDYING
Same as last time, I just expect more creatures with more tricky abilities. So far we've seen a Wolf who can't be blocked by creatures who don't match it's power. That's great, because it can trade and then smash face for plenty. That's just one card though, I imagine plenty of fun here.
PAIRING*
This scared me initially, because I was expecting an updated keyword mechanic of Banding. This is NOT the case. You just choose another target creature and both of them get a bonus. A bit like the creatures of old who could attack and give someone else flying, only this bonus is constant and is always tracked.
It's also not that difficult to track, seeing most people will just pile their normal creature with their PAIRED creature. This sounds like it'll be fun, because paying U for the flying/pairing guy is good and cheap for a big fat flying fatty, but better than that is the instant speeding "falling outta the sky" that can happen when you plink their little 1/1. This will allow for some very unfortunate combat steps, which is GREAT.
* No, it's actually called "Soulbound." Which sounds a little too "Super friends" for my liking. Imagine super man. "Paired creature gets flying and indestructible."
"Loner"
This is just a load of creatures who're better alone. Go ahead, build a deck of them. This seems like it'll be mostly undercosted aggressive creatures who eat or otherwise hurt you for having more than one creature.
I like the flavour here, seeing evil is having a harder time and as evil is totally without morals there's no longer any "easy kills", so it's kill or be killed from every direction -- so naturally the evil creatures are keeping their distance from everyone.
"Blinking"
This is exiling a creature and then returning it to play instantly. This does a LOT rules wise, but basically it "refreshes" a creature of yours. No counters, no enchantments, no damage, not attacking or blocking, no damage marked on it, nothing. If it had a leaves the battlefield or enters the battlefield ability then they will trigger (so brush off your Sundering Titans).
This next point deserves it's own paragraph.
A creature remains blocked even if it's b
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Redirect, constantly!
So somewhere I got myself two blogs. This one will no longer be used, instead please visit and book mark "http://foxmurdochtime100.blogspot.com.au"
That's where I planned to put videos, so that I'd have one blog for videos and articles, then I just began using that one exclusively. I'm about to start updating ALL ABOUT GP Melbourne and you should certainly read it.
Plus for great laughs check out http://nyxathidgoestotown.wordpress.com/ which, as the creator Petr Joura says, is really the funniest Magic blog that isn't just choked with the latest Tarmogoyf infested decklists. He's done all the artwork himself and the site just cracks me up.
Fox.
remember: here now: http://foxmurdochtime100.blogspot.com.au
That's where I planned to put videos, so that I'd have one blog for videos and articles, then I just began using that one exclusively. I'm about to start updating ALL ABOUT GP Melbourne and you should certainly read it.
Plus for great laughs check out http://nyxathidgoestotown.wordpress.com/ which, as the creator Petr Joura says, is really the funniest Magic blog that isn't just choked with the latest Tarmogoyf infested decklists. He's done all the artwork himself and the site just cracks me up.
Fox.
remember: here now: http://foxmurdochtime100.blogspot.com.au
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Videos, constantly.
G'day all! Here's my first video, so let me know what you think. All feed back is good, the sound as well as the play mistakes blah blah blah.
Hint: press Full screen.
Assuming I get the hang of Camtasia, I'll post more videos and if I can a whole draft from draft to end of game 3. Cheers for stopping by.
Hint: press Full screen.
Assuming I get the hang of Camtasia, I'll post more videos and if I can a whole draft from draft to end of game 3. Cheers for stopping by.
M12, constantly.
Hello gamers, how are you? I'm writing here again, after a lot of time has passed. M12 is out and I've been playing most of it online lately. I won a draft in reallife the other day, and went 2-1-1 at the PR, but the format is a lot of fun. Also I've bought a new headset/mic lately, so I'm going to start producing videos of drafts and hopefully you Good Game fellas will enjoy!
In Magic news the Innistrad card mechanics were spoiled here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/157a so check them out. Isn't that weird? Flip cards again! Only not.
And for the Innistrad PR I'm heading to Lismore to help out a mate, so I'm running the event as Head judge. I've done this before, it's a good place and fun but I'm not going to have long to check out Lismore. Partly because of uni, and partly because the nicest thing about it is the surroundings. Oh, and the people.
I also really need to change the pic at the front of this blog, seeing triple Som is a thing of the past, man, you're living like 211 years ago!
And apart from that uni is going fine but I'm still late on my August article. Thanks to uni. Wish I had more time.
In Magic news the Innistrad card mechanics were spoiled here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/157a so check them out. Isn't that weird? Flip cards again! Only not.
And for the Innistrad PR I'm heading to Lismore to help out a mate, so I'm running the event as Head judge. I've done this before, it's a good place and fun but I'm not going to have long to check out Lismore. Partly because of uni, and partly because the nicest thing about it is the surroundings. Oh, and the people.
I also really need to change the pic at the front of this blog, seeing triple Som is a thing of the past, man, you're living like 211 years ago!
And apart from that uni is going fine but I'm still late on my August article. Thanks to uni. Wish I had more time.
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