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Worldwake Blue Review February 9, 2010

Posted by Norm in Worldwake.
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Welcome to my Worldwake Blue Review. Check out Worldwake in the full visual spoiler or on the Gatherer. The purpose of this review is to share thoughts and insights into a handful of cards, not identify the five best cards of a color.With that lets dive in.

Dispel
One of two counter spells in Worldwake that has a unique ability to be really annoying. Earlier tonight I was double dispelled in a small counter war not expecting my opponent tho have two in hand. I was expecting Negate or maybe one Dispel but he was able to win the war with two blue mana up. I like Dispel for this reason, versatility. It is going to be difficult to play around and I think will help control get back in the game. There are a lot of counter spells right now in standard. Yes Cancel is has the steepest cost but the others are cheap and effective. Dispel is only going to help control players really control, and counter, a lot of spells.

Now with that said. Control is freaking annoying to play against. Fortunately I like to play aggro or creatures and Dispel against creature based decks isn’t going to be that great. Although it does provide defense against Lightning Bold and company.

Jwari Shapeshifter
Here is one creature that I’m really looking forward to playing although I don’t currently have a standard application in mind. I don’t see blue being a main color in Ally decks so my mind wanders to other casual applications. First off Jwari Shapeshifter can copy changelings. This includes the best changeling Chameleon Colossus. How crazy would a blue green extended deck be with 8 potential copies of that guy.

Back to standard making extra copies of your best Ally is going to be really exciting. I recently gained a lot of respect for Kazuul Warlord so bringing out the Shapesifter with him in play is going to really pump up your team fast.

Quest for Ula’s Temple
Quest for Ula’s Temple has to be one of the most interesting card’s I’ve seen in a long time. The art is different, quests are still new, and playing awesome creatures for free is just one of the best things you can do in magic. Everything about this cards just tickles the imagination.

I did a search for Ula in the Gatherer and there isn’t anything. So for all you flavor people out there I have a feeling there will be something interesting in Rise of the Eldrazi.
Keep an eye out for a 52 Decks post featuring this quest. It is going to be one fun deck.

Vapor Snare
Blue may not be the all permission force it has been in the past, and I’m very OK with that. It seems that Wizards is doing different things with blue and printing spells like this give blue a different kind of control to explore. Sure there have been many Threaten spells printed over time but this is more liken to Dream Lease and keeping control of your opponent’s creatures while giving you a means to power up landfall abilities.

The casting cost is a bit steep but snagging your opponents late bomb always makes a huge difference.

Wind Zendikon
When I first saw this card I couldn’t believe how strong this creature can be. A 2/2 flier for essentially one mana. Huge. If you make a creature out of your island turn one, then you are either trading a land for a creature (which obviously isn’t good) and attacking each turn, or you are keeping a 2/2 blocker up with counter magic avalible. Then when you get your mana online start beating down with land.

Worldwake Prerelease Video February 5, 2010

Posted by buymorecards in Worldwake.
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Heya,

This is Aaron, from Buymorecards.net.  Norm kindly asked me to show you what transcended at the Worldwake prerelease party here a week ago.  Luckily, nobody was hurt in the making of this movie.

Now that I think about it, a little bit got lost in translation, but you get the idea. Enjoy.

52 Decks – Mono White Allies February 5, 2010

Posted by Norm in 52 Decks.
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Deck 4 - Mono White Worldwake Allies

On this Worldwake eve I thought it would be appropriate to focus on my first deck with the new set. Almost a Zendikar block deck, mono white allies, is a nod back to my old favorite Kithkin. What this deck lacks is Windbrisk Heights and Spectral Procession to be the awesome force that mono white Kithkin was in the days of Lorwyn. However this deck has the awesome ability to do three things that the Kithkin Deck didn’t.

1. Make Huge Guys that Stay Huge

This is a key factor in this deck. In the Kithkin deck removing an enchantment or creature would make your guys smaller. It was possible to decimate the Kithkin board by taking out a Wizen Cenn or Honnor the Pure. With Allies your guys get bigger and stay big. Loosing one guy won’t make the counters on your other Allies go away.

2. Emeria, the Sky Ruin

Late game with Kithkin was always sketchy. Once your hand was spent you basically found yourself in topdeck mode until you either found the exact card you needed (usually Cloudgoat Ranger or Spectral Procession) or you just lost. In Zendikar Emeria, the Sky Ruin gives you the tools to come back from multiple wrath effects. Also don’t forget that when you start to bring Allies back from the graveyard all those comes into play effects will trigger again.

3. Protection from Your Choice

One of the win conditions outside of straight up beat downs is Kabira Evangel. Allowing your creatures to attack through Wall of Denial or Jund whatevers or a Vampire Nighthawk lockdown. This game plan is just nuts. Also with Join the Ranks you can leave mana up to threaten to block and clear out many of your opponents attacks. Even the open mana for join the ranks may be enough to give your opponent pause.

Some Issues

There are a few issues I can foresee with this list. It is weak against fliers. Right now nothing can take out a flyer except for Path to Exile. This might not be a issue mid game as you might be gaining life with Ondu Cleric and trading beats.

This deck will have trouble with a Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Iona, Shield of Emeria just shuts this deck down. If you see an Iona you better hope to have Emeria out and online. However those control decks might be too slow for  fast and steady Allies.

Ajani and Marshal’s Anthem might not be the right fit in this deck. I think they can be extremely powerful making your guys larger than life so I think they deserve a spot in this original list. Although I worry that there isn’t enough removal. Oblivion Ring was a late cut for me when I was whittling this list down.

Finally I want to give props to Nick over at CCG Trade Post for his Ally deck that gave me the original idea for this. I still think that a W/B Ally build could be effective in a way that brings in more control and destruction. Here is the list, enjoy and have fun with Worldwake!

20 Creatures
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Kazandu Blademaster
4 Ondu Cleric
4 Kabira Evangel
4 Talus Paladin

8 Spells
4 Path to Exile
4 Join the Ranks

6 Enchantment
4 Honor the Pure
2 Marshal’s Anthem

3 Planeswalker
3 Ajani Goldmane

23 Land
13 Planes
4 Marsh Flats
4 Arid Mesa
2 Emeria, the Sky Ruin

Worldwake White Review February 4, 2010

Posted by Norm in Worldwake.
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Welcome to my Worldwake White Review. Check out Worldwake in the full visual spoiler or on the Gatherer. The purpose of this review is to share thoughts and insights into a handful of cards, not identify the five best cards of a color. With that lets dive in.

Admonition Angel
When I first looked at this card I was struck not by the casting cost, power and toughness, nor even the landfalling oblivion ring action. But rather I was amazed at this amazing artwork. For a better look, and wallpaper click here. This is one of those illustrations where the longer you stare at it the more you see. I didn’t immdeatly notice all six wings or the long flowing hair or how awesome that sword is. High five Steve.

Now down to business six mana for the dragon like size isn’t too bad, especially considering the ability. However white is the slowest of all colors. It is possible to power this out I’m thinking of some of the traps decks, but that would require a top tier competitive deck. This could be particularly awesome with Endless Horizons guaranteeing you mana every turn after you play the angel.

Kitesail Apprentice
What is up with the apprentice aspect of this creature, because it’s 1/1? If so, what does a Kitesail Master do? Also the artifact Kitesail seems kind of weak when this guy is equipped with it. Only granting +1/+0. Maybe a Kitesail Master gets +4/0 when using a kite or has lifelink or something.

I really like this guy as a one drop because if you give him a machete or any decent equipment he is going to really beat down. Even with some of the lesser equipment in Zendikar getting +1/+1 and flying is a lot of bang for a single white mana.

Rest for the Weary
I don’t find Rest for the Weary extreemly remarkable, but potentially gaining 8 life is kind of a big deal for two mana. Stream of Life makes you pay a green plus one mana for every life you gain and Kiss of the Amesha costs six total mana for seven life. Dropping this spell on turn two after playing a land (assuming you have no other spells to play) is a really big swing that can give you a buffer from early aggro or something annoying.

When I first saw this card I immediately thought of my Sanguine Bond deck from a few weeks ago. Dropping this spell at the end of an opponents turn keeping your mana open for removal is a smart way to gain four life, or gain eight life with Ruin Ghost (see below).

Ruin Ghost
To me this is one of those spells that sits around and catches people by surprise. With the man lands in Worldwake as well as some of the comes into play tapped lands of Zendikar abusing this spell with a combo, bouncing Teetering Peaks or Kabira Crossroads, could be quite interesting. Heck, if you are going to work out a combo then why not play Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and start bouncing Mountains. That will end the game real fast.

In a more realistic sense this guy can be used to give extra oomph to Stepp Lynx and Plated Geopead. And I know I haven’t thought out all the possibilities with extra landfall. Even just playing this ability to activate a Searing Blaze could be worth it.

Refraction Trap
Finally one of the more interesting art works of the set. An excellent sideboard option against lightning bolt, that essentially becomes a white bolt. Zap!

Not much to say about this card except that I think it is really, really good. Protects your creature against any burn spell currently in standard (well except a cycled Resounding Thunder) and sets your opponent back in life and cards. Their plan of eliminating your dudes for whatever reason obviously fizzles.

Hitler Reviews Worldwake February 3, 2010

Posted by Norm in Casual.
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Thanks to whoever put this together. Amazing.

Gameplay Variations February 2, 2010

Posted by Norm in Casual.
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Last week I read about some alternative game formats on The Magic Gameplan Blog. I shot Zach an email asking if I could re-post and he gave me the thumbs up. The original source o these game variations came from one of his readers, Lydios. So thanks to Lydios and The Magic Gameplan Blog for these gameplay variation.

Cross-Fire (two-headed giant variant)

-Two persons per team sitting diagonal from one another:

Team A(2)     Team B(2)
Team B(1)     Team A(1)

- The players turns are taken individually in clockwise rotation.

- There is an attack direction stipulation also.  The direction is determined by the player who deals combat damage to a player or when lethal combat damage is dealt to a creature and it is   sent to the graveyard (regeneration counts as going to graveyard).

-As for direction all players must follow the attack direction set by the player who deals combat damage first (*Burn spells can not set direction*). If a player A(1) attacks B(2) and damage  is dealt of something goes to the graveyard, then the attack direction is counter-clock wise. If A(1) had attacked and done damage to B(1) then the attack direction is set to be clockwise.    Once the direction is set, it can not be change.

- Players on the same team can not see the other team member’s hand.  If one member wishes to show a card, he/she must reveal the card to all players in the game.  So, A(1) can not    show A(2) a card in his/her hand without revealing it to both members of Team B as well.

- Like two-headed giant, the players on the same team share life (30). We have tried playing with each player starts at 20 life, but then it becomes more of a free-for-all than team play.     However, in the 20 life games the individual members can be eliminated making it a 2-on-1 game.  So if A(1) is eliminated, it is left to A(2) to try and win, however, both players from B can  attack A(2) on their individual turns. We called the 20 life games “Knock-Out”.

- To win, one team’s life total must become zero or both team member’s life totals must become zero, depending on the format.

Peasant EDH

-Player’s decks are constructed using the 100 card rule from normal EDH

-No multiple cards, only one of each in a single deck.

-The restrictions are based on the rarity of the cards themselves.  In the Deck there can only be, at most, 5 rare/mythic rare cards, 10 uncommon, and the rest are common cards. Rares     can be downgraded to become uncommon cards but not the other way around, and similarly, uncommon can become commons, etc. (i.e.  you can make a deck with 3 rare/mythic, 12     uncommon, and 85 commons…. NOT 8 rare/mythic, 7 uncommon and 85 common)

- There is also no general in this format. Which means there are no color restrictions in the deck’s colors.  There can be a Figure of Destiny in a mono-red deck, and it would be fine, etc.

-The win condition is the same, except for the general damage rule. Players start with 30-40 life,depending on preference, and play as normal.

Worldwake Prerelease Recap January 31, 2010

Posted by Norm in Worldwake.
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I hope everyone was able to attend a prerelease this weekend. Worldwake took me to the Crown Royal Plaza hotel in Crafton, PA where the staff was friendly and generous. Seriously, a chef gave me free coffee and the woman at the registration desk hooked me up with a notepad after PES ran out of score sheets.

Shot of about half of the room.

The above photo was about a half hour before seating was posted. We had around 120 participants at our release. I drove Aaron from Buy More Cards and Erik from my local shop. We crammed into my truck whose close quarters let us get to know each other a bit more than we were expecting. Aaron was expecting to Open Lotus Cobra, Abyssal Persecution and Jace. He scored a cobra at the Zendikar Prerelease so his expectations were rather high. Erik and I were just happy to crack some new packs.

I went 2-2 on the day opening up with a 2-0 start before letting my perfect day dreams crash around me. My card pool was one of the better sealed pools I’ve opened. The removal was spread across all my colors I had Hideous End and Anowon, the Ruin Sage in black. Red brought the heat with double Searing Blaze, and singles of Magma Rift, Cunning Sparkmage, and Lavaball Trap. I really only had one removal spell in white with Iona’s Judgment. My blue was pretty scarce (thankfully) and I was even using Oran-Rief Recluse as removal in green, yes I did get to kick this guy.

As for creatures I didn’t open any bombs, Anowon would have been a bomb if I had vampires to back him up. However I only had a couple vamps to support him and the double black casting cost seemed like a dead card with my build. Black in general turned out to be my splash color, mainly for Hideous End (I know double black in that cc too). White had potential with lots of Kors but I didn’t feel right playing it with my pool when I had stronger cards and bigger creatures. My final deck ended up being Red/Green/Black with an Ally sub theme. The Allies didn’t seem obvious at first but once I settled on those colors the best creatures were allies. Before this weekend I totally underestimated Kazuul Warlord, but he just owns when he gets out with some other Allies.

Two cards that really won games are Searing Blaze and Bestial Menace.

I’m pretty sure that whenever I resolved either of these spells I was able to win the game. Blaze is just awesome for two mana. This spell had me keeping mana in my hand once I was around 5 land so I could either landfall or draw into this 6 total damage dealing card of awesome. Whats that, you just cast Vampire Nighthawk? Looks like instead of gaining life you’ll be taking three and waving bye, bye. Blaze is pretty freaking awesome. Bestial Menace is as good as it looks plus some. I said I didn’t have any bombs but this spell is super bombish. Getting three creatures for one is huge, a staple in any limited format for sure.

On a final note, Aaron had his flipcam with him and we did take some video. We’ll see if it was any good as early in the day we took some film and took less and less as the day went on.

52 Decks Note January 31, 2010

Posted by Norm in 52 Decks.
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Just wanted to give a quick update. No 52 Decks this week. The Worldwake prerelease has me taking time out to contemplate the new set. So I’ll be back next week with some wholesome goodness. Although if you want to get technical I did build a limited deck at the prerelease. You can view that deck in my event report.

Worldwake Prerelease Preview January 29, 2010

Posted by Norm in Worldwake.
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Tomorrow I’ll be hitting up our local PES prerelease in downtown Pittsburgh Robinson near the airport. There are so many excellent new cards so make sure you check out the spoilers on MTG Realm and Gathering Magic. Here are a few of the cards I’m excited about.

There are some really interesting new synergies that are going to add a lot of great new variation to constructed. Also tons of awesome limited cards.

Hopefully I’ll be able to make a quick video during the day so I can report on people’s first reactions to the set.

52 Decks – Evil Nights January 23, 2010

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Deck 3 - Evil Nights

Welcome back to 52 Decks. The post series where I build a new deck each week for one year.

Recently I’ve been looking at casual extended builds. Even now I’ve got some extended builds in the works, but this week I wanted to get back to standard and tinker with an idea that’s been in the back of my mind for a while, Sanguine Bond and Invincible Hymn. Awesome right, just get the mana and it is gonna be an instant kill with Hymn. Right! Wrong.

As I was jotting down cards to fill out the deck list I thought Invincible Hymn read “Gain life equal to the number of cards in your Library.” Oops not quite. Hymn actually reads, “Count the number of cards in your library. Your life total becomes that number.” Not the same thing at all. So this little combo doesn’t work, which is too bad because when you could play both spells there is little your opponent could do to stop from loosing 40ish life when you play the Hymn in to Bond. Lets face it I probably wouldn’t have been the one to first exploit this combo if it worked.

Sanguine Bond is still pretty awesome so I decided to forge ahead and pull a bunch of cards together. Also early in this build process I wanted to see if I could get both Black Knight and White Knight in a tag team effort. My initial four cards were the knights, bond and hymn so that’s when I named the deck Evil Nights. The following is a list of cards I pulled together to start building.

White Knight
Black Knight
Child of Night
Vampire Nighthawk
Tidehollow Sculler
Soul Warden

Sanguine Bond
Invincible Hymn

Shadow feed
Soul's Grace
Silence
Lifelink

Necromancers Covenant
Zealous Persecution

Path to Exile
Doom Blade
Tainted Sigil
Tendrils of Corruption
Wall of Reverence

After pulling more cards together I realized that the knights were going to be difficult to cast consistently as well as they don’t have Lifelink. Vampires and Zombies are going to be a better fit for this situation, also where Necromancer’s Covennant comes in. Wall of Reverence was a last minute inclusion as I was thinking about ditching the knights and looking for more life gain options.

I feel that the removal is kind of weak. Yes Path to Exile is good but I’m wondering if Day of Judgment wouldn’t be excellent here. I want to run Tendrils of Corruption to “gain life” and had considered Doom Blade. Perhaps Zealous Persecution is a little over zealous and four wrath effects vs tricks might be a better play.  Anyway here is the list and I’ll let you know how it plays when I get some games in.

4 Soul Warden
4 Wall of Reverence
4 Child of Night
4 Vampire Nighthawk

1 Necromancer’s Covennant
4 Sanguine Bond

4 Path to Exile
3 Soul’s Grace
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Zealous Persecution

4 Marsh Flats
10 Planes
10 Swamps

UPDATE
Thanks to Scitzophrenic in the comments, he pointed out that in the Gatherer Invincible Hymn does work. The Hymn effect causes you to gain life, not mystically alter your life total. As I consider updating the deck list for the combo I thinking that is isn’t as simple as cutting a few spells and slapping in they Hymn.

I’m actually thinking about how to play Hymn for free. In an extended environment I could play Windbrisk Heights and Spectral Procession or something (needs more creatures). A quick switch to this deck would be to cut 4 Zealous Persecution and add 2 Day of Judgment and 2 Invincible Hymn.