Quick Glance at Worldwake

I think at first glance, my favourite card is easily [card]Abyssal Persecutor[/card].

4 to cast 6/6 flying trample - with a drawback black can easily deal with. I'm not so sure about its viability in tournaments, but it's certainly a chase mythic (unfortunately).

First, let's take a short glance at white. White hasn't really gotten much of a boost, and the only thing that interests me now (because it's Extended season, if I'm not mistaken) is a timeshifted version of [card]Kird Ape[/card] too. It's called [card]Loam Lion[/card].

Other notable white cards are [card]Rest for the Weary[/card] and [card]Stoneforge Mystic[/card].

They printed a counterspell for instants - which isn't too bad, considering the number of good instants in the current metagame ([card]Lightning Bolt[/card] and [card]Path to Exile[/card] come to mind.)

I don't know what to think about [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card]. It's still an awesome card with plenty of power, but as I've learned with planeswalkers - the one time a turn thing can really bum you out sometimes.

Other notable blue cards are [card]Mysteries of the Deep[/card]. [card]Selective Memory[/card], [card]Thada Adel, Acquisitor[/card] and perhaps, [card]Treasure Hunt[/card].

Besides [card]Abyssal Persecutor[/card], I think [card]Death's Shadow[/card] and the reprinting of [card]Smother[/card] is interesting.

As for red, [card]Bazaar Trader[/card] is interesting, being a [card]Donate[/card] that ignores enchantments (and planeswalkers). Although, I think my favourite red card is:

In green, there's [card]Canopy Cover[/card], although I'd imagine the all green version of [card]Woolly Thoctar[/card] (I know it's not exactly the same - but the idea is the same.) is the most interesting green card to me.

[card]Everflowing Chalice[/card] is useful in many of my decks, although in many cases I would play [card]Gilded Lotus[/card] instead. [card]Basilisk Collar[/card] is also interesting, and although I'm not sure how good it is, I'd sure like 4 copies of it.

Among the five new dual colored manlands, [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card], [card]Creeping Tar Pit[/card], [card]Lavaclaw Reaches[/card], [card]Raging Ravine[/card] and [card]Stirring Wildwood[/card], I like [card]Celestial Colonnade[/card] the best.

And that concludes my quick look at Worldwake. I'll post more once I've actually played with the cards. No time to go to the prereleases yet again, sadly.

Magic Card: Sensei's Divining Top

I promised 3 years ago to write an article about the Sensei's Divining Top. I never did. Not until now, that I've realised that it has gotten banned in Extended that I realised that I should really say something about this great card.

It took me a while to collect a playset of these - and when I did, it went into every combo deck I made after that. Why was that?

Sensei's Divining Top was great for finding combo pieces - and it had incredible synergy with shuffle effects - another thing common in combo decks. Why was shuffling good? Every time you shuffled, you'd get to look at fresh cards after a Sensei's Divining Top activation.

What shuffle effects am I talking about? Cards called tutors often end with a shuffle. Tutors are cards which allow the player to search their deck for a card - following that, a shuffling of the deck to prevent people from knowing what your next few draws contain - something the Top does handily.

What makes this worse? Extra Tops turn into cheap ways to draw - and combined with shuffle effects, you don't have to pay the cost of drawing the Top next turn.

Unfortunately, this is exactly why it got banned. It got everywhere and started slowing down everything. Tops and shuffling effects were everywhere - slowing down gameplay and disrupting the smooth flow of the game. They concluded that it was something that was damaging to both the game and the metagame - resulting in a seemingly innocuous card getting banned.

I'm unconcerned - it's not an overpowered card, and I only use it in combo decks. No one I play with is really gonna complain. After all, if I do use an Extended-legal tournament deck, it'd probably be a whole can of whoopass they won't want to play against anyway.

(No, I haven't begun playing Magic again. There was little appeal to me past the Planar Chaos set - which only appealed to me because of the colourshifted cards.)

Crazy Idea: Fragile Influence

I was looking through my old folders and found this - one of the cards that I made up that's in the 10 card cycle - of which Learning Options is part of.

When I made this more than 2 years ago, I thought it was something that by common sense would've been suggested or printed at some point. We either haven't reached that point - or someone is holding out. :D

I've had a look back at my imaginary burst mechanic, and I realised that for the most part I didn't cost it aggressively enough - although I realise that Wizards has recently done something that makes it possible to now cost it correctly (by my standards, not theirs). I might revisit some of those ideas and give them a tweak - since I think Burst is an awesome mechanic. :D

Magic Magic Magic

Heh, it's been more than a year since my last Magic: the Gathering related post. There's a good reason for that - I've quit playing Magic. I actually quit a long time ago, way before that last post. If you wanted to trace it, it'll probably easily go back two years or so. So why did I quit this time around? There's probably tons of reasons, but I suppose I'll list a few reasons why I've quit Magic:

1. Video gaming - Magic cards were a relatively cheap way to get hundreds of hours of entertainment. There's no telling how much just looking at card lists (not even the cards themselves) took out of my time. I spent hours visiting my favourite game store (now closed) looking through commons, discussing strategies, playing some games with other people there. I did scrounge for commons every once in a while in Australia at the Dungeon of Magic in Melbourne, but that was it. Now what takes up that time? Video games. Not to the same extent as Magic used to, but it most certainly is what I'm more inclined to now.

2. Lack of people to play with - I like playing with friends - and greatly dislike going to tournaments. I've built many tournament worthy decks, be it by proxy, in Magic Workstation or even with cards I owned. While I did teach a few friends to play Magic in 2006, they lost interest the following year. Interest in it just waned in general because they picked up another more addictive card game - poker. I still play a game or two with Chewxy over Magic Workstation, but essentially I've stopped playing. A lack of people to try new interesting decks against and a lack of people who are interested in playing interesting decks just plainly stopped me from trying out new decks of any kind.

3. Lack of money to play more seriously - Despite the fact that I do dislike going to tournaments, I do like playing at them. Being among peers who play better decks and make less mistakes is a great challenge, and while I'm not very good at playing Magic, at the very least, it's better, more challenging and more exciting when you play a player better or equal to you. However, I can't afford to upkeep with the release schedule of Magic expansions - while it is nice to see an expansion to the card set every three months, the cards cost way too much, and I don't have the money to spend constantly. This is probably the main reason - I'd rather spend money on more material things besides pieces of printed cardboard, like computer hardware, game consoles, video games, controllers - and so on. In a sense, all I've done is switch from one addiction to another, but it's hardly one I didn't have before. I've just become more focused, that's all.

4. It's possibly part of a cycle. - I've given up Magic before. The last time I started was towards the end of Exodus and I stopped playing after Urza's Destiny. This time, I started just before Darksteel and stopped just after Guildpact. I may return to Magic again in the future, but regardless, I'm still essentially a tech geek - Magic is losing my interest fast. Even Eye of Judgment isn't holding my interest for very long, but it's entirely possible expansions will change that.

I still love playing Magic immensely, but the time has come to move along to something else and possibly come back later. My renewed interest in anime and video games may come to an end one day - and you'd never know when Magic will return to becoming part of my life.

Why I Think 60 Cards is Not Always the Magic Number

People always talk 60 cards this, and 60 cards that. Heck - even I say so. The truth? You don't always have to follow this rule, even if you think it is like the greatest sin a Magic deckbuilder can commit. However, sadly - it is true for online tabletop games optimised for Magic. Often, you find that the shuffler doesn't work so well when your deck is anywhere above 60 cards (even a single card is enough to find yourself having to mulligan like free), but when it comes to a 60 card deck, I'd say mulliganing becomes about a 10% affair (unless you really built a highly draw dependent deck, or are playing your worst matchup). In real life, people tend to argue a better number for decks is 61. (of course, we have the conservative group talking about 60, but that's irrelevant). I tend to agree - especially for non-combo decks. Strangely enough, 61 is a really good number. In real life, you do tend to randomize it better somehow. Many people attribute this to the fact that the deck can no longer be cut exactly in half - and such interleaving does reduce randomization within the deck.

However, that's not why I like it. I like it because it creates the most peculiar land-to-spells ratio. Just as switching out lands with spells and vice versa can change your mana situation complete, so can that additional card. In times when you find that your land is not enough - and putting more gives you too many - the simple act of adding another land to make your deck bigger might give your deck that magic land ratio. The one where it never gets mana-screwed, color-screwed, or any kind of funny land term you can think of. So yes, there are times when that extra land - WILL - save your ass. (of course, this applies for spells too!)

Then, we have the 62 card deck. I can't say I approve of this size, because it lacks the merit of uneven shuffling, but it is another number that works well with heavy mana acceleration. I use this number in my Mycosynth Golem deck - but no others so far. I do not believe that it is a very good, number - after all, what good can that extra 2 cards be? I won't dismiss it as a really good way to get to those ideal land ratios - but to stuff in extra cards - I'd say that's a real no-no.

After that, we have the greater numbers of 63 and 64. If you hit these numbers, chances are your deck's consistency will be hit badly. If it happens to be a quick aggresive deck, no problem - but control decks (besides those full of counterspells) and combo decks (and even Zoo decks - decks with a curve of creature at certain mana points, usually 1,2,5 and 6) will feel the pinch at this point from the lower consistency. When your deck needs to pull that Pyroclasm, Wrath of God, infinite mana combo, or even Enduring Ideal - you will know that the pain here is great. You will find yourself taking more damage, taking longer to put together your combo pieces and taking longer to draw that finisher card.

A great exception to the 60 card decks are decks built with a special purpose. Battle of Wits decks usually run 250 cards - and cry hard when Traumatized, especially if the deck isn't full of killer spells - which it often is. A deck running plenty of card drawing out of neccesity (such as for card advantage), especially in counterspell decks, might benefit greatly from a larger deck. The best advice, however, is simple: do not succumb to the temptation to put every card you thought might be good.

My next Magic post will probably about choosing which cards to cut! :P