No worries, we got this...

Hi again Planeswalkers. I'm sure you've all become aware of this little card known as Boros Reckoner and its effect on the current metagame. While it may seem very powerful at the moment, I wanted bring up a little card that has not seen too much play in standard but plenty in Modern. Abrupt Decay.

Abrupt decay is an instant spell that can destroy a target nonland permanent that costs 3 or less and for only the cost of 1 black and 1 green. Oh, and it's uncounterable. A perfect fit for Jund, Abrupt Decay can fend off the popular cards in both the aggressive and control decks.

I really admire Wizards for designing this card. It's crucial in a defined Modern format but has so much potential in an uncharted Standard format. While a large number of cards that Abrupt Decay can target right now will rotate out later this year, it's really set up to keep things in check as we move forward into the sets.

For sure we can use Abrupt Decay against Boros Reckoner but any of the cheap costed red aggro cards such as Stromkirk Noble, Legion Loyalist, or Domri Rade are also worthy targets. And where does it fit against control? Blind Obedience. I see a lot of play for this card in the future as Esper control becomes more and more prominent. While the tap affect may not matter for decks that run Abrupt Decay, it can become very cumbersome to deal with the Extort on it. There's also Runechanter's Pike seen in the UWr midrange and control decks.

 There are so many valid targets for this card right now I'm surprised it's not talked about more. Maybe it is and I'm just hiding under a rock. But as the metagame shifts, I'm betting we'll begin to see this gem really shine so you better pick up your playset now!

*Originally posted February 13, 2013

Hi all! Hope everyone is excited with all the new Gatecrash cards out. If you're not building new decks and testing new ideas, then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! GET TO IT! 

But before you do that, I wanted to discuss the recent bannings for the Modern format (effective as of Feb 1, 2013). Modern season is on its way and Modern Masters is coming this summer so I think we should all start thinking about this format to prepare for major events coming down the pipeline. 2 new cards have been added to the banlist and the one I want to focus on today is Bloodbraid Elf and the deck that ran it, Jund.

Jund refers to the Shard from the Shards of Alara block consisting of green, red, and black cards. Decks that run these 3 colors are thus referred to as Jund. These decks have been known for their strong resilience and flexibility in multiple situations but also their brute power to beat down opponent (red for removal, black for control, green for power). It's no wonder this has been such a popular (dominating?) deck in Modern and Standard. So I don't blame Wizards for banning a card in hopes of slowing it down a bit.

Bloodbraid Elf, while nice to have a 3/2 haste for 4, was best known for its Cascade effect. For anyone unaware with Cascade, once you play the card, you may exile cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card that costs less and cast it for free. The other exiled cards then go to the bottom of your library in any  order. Pretty good right? Cascade into anything you need as all other cards in the deck cost less. Cast, for free, removal spells to establish board dominance. Get your Liliana out for hand control to grow your Tarmogoyf. Bloodbraid Elf definitely was a card that would get the engine going for Jund decks. Does it completely shutdown this deck with its banning? No, I don't think so. Jund still has all the other tools its always had to deal with any situation. BBE just made it that much faster for the deck to win.

Should we worry that another deck will sweep in and become uncontrollable? Will a deck that's way too fast and aggressive run unchecked? I hope not but I'm sure the folks at Wizards have playtested this decision thoroughly what with Modern season ahead of us.

And hey, for those of you that haven't been keeping up with Modern cards. Removal of BBE has nerfed Jund just enough where other decks are getting a chance to shine. Take a look at UrzaTron decks. Karn Liberated has jumped in price quite a bit to $35.00. Oh sorry. When I said jumped, I mean SKYROCKETED. Going from a $15-$20 card to $35 almost overnight!

I'm excited for the changes. I'm particularly excited because it feels like Wizards is looking to the future and planning ahead to make this format extremely  balanced and diverse.

*Originally posted February 13, 2013

Cheese

Cheesy win conditions. Who loves 'em? Wizards sure does. There always seems to be one every few sets but there are 5 in the current standard block. What gives? Well, at the very least, it gives for a more creative play from players. And who doesn't enjoy that rare occasion where you self-mill to victory like a Laboratory Maniac. Or where you tire of your opponent's antics and show him the Door to Nothingness. I ran out of cheesy puns since Wizards has decided to use names that are more flavorful (Darn you Wizards! You've won this Battle of Wits). 

Biovisonary

The card I want to talk about today is the Biovisionary. It's not that it necessarily fits in any sort of standard deck that would be competitive, but it sure as hell fits in my Riku of Two Reflections commander deck. As a commander, Riku will take any creature or spell you play and allow you to copy it. Simic colors for a creature and Izzet colors for spells. Color combinations make sense, no?

Riku of Two Reflections

As I had begun developing this deck and then scrapping it and then rebuilding it, I had decided on a steal and copy focused Riku deck. With him out, I could play Zealous Conscripts, dupe it, and then steal 2 creatures. Or play Entwine, exile four sorcery/instants and turn the tide of the game. With this play style, I also realized very quickly it was a deck that relied on my opponents to play crazy spells and creatures that I could then steal and copy. Luckily for everyone, this is commander where you play nothing but the crazy stuff. 

So here I am now with Biovisionary. You have 4 of him and you win. With a cost of 1GU, I'm thinking this is a fairly simple and easy win. With commander, it's not uncommon at all for you to have 10+ mana and playing with my deck, I've been able to stall out games for quite awhile. With that being said, a simple kicked Rite of Replication would do the job nicely. Or if you want to work a little harder for it. Have Riku out, cast Biovisionary and copy it. Then Cackling Counterpart for the 3rd  and hell, Phantasmal Image for the 4th. Yes I know, these are very specific cards but with a deck focused on copies, ending up with these cards is not too difficult. 

Or if I have Kiki Jiki, Mirror Breaker in my deck. Add in the new equipment Illusionist's Bracers to shake up that combo a little bit. 

What's really nice about this cheese card is that it checks for the conditions at the beginning of your endstep which makes this much more possible than any of the beginning of your upkeep cards.

Of course, I'm not a fan of winning with these types of cards. Nobody wants to play with someone who wins with Felidar Sovereign or by playing Infect in the Commander/EDH setting.

*Originally posted...I don't know

I'm a little confused by this new set that Wizards is releasing this month-ish. A little upset even. It's an 18 regular card and 10 oversize card set designed for Commander. For those who don't know, here's a little background on what Commander is. 

The older generation know it as EDH or Elder Dragon Highlander. The decks are made up of 100 unique cards minus the basic lands. 99 cards are you deck and 1 is your commander. He will sit outside of the deck, ready to be cast at any point while you draw through your 99 unique card deck. Why do I call it a casual deck? It can be fairly cheap especially compared to other formats like Standard or Legacy. I really enjoy commander since it allows me to use the most random or seemingly useless and unplayable rares that I've collected over the years.

Anyway, with that out of the way, back to the Arsenal. Wizards has created a set of cards that are classics or staples in commander decks. Awesome. Great. Where do I sign up? The problem though is the selection of cards are actually super common and not even that rare. If you are already into Commander, you probably have those cards already. Half of them were from the original decks or the recently released planechase sets. So when I saw this, I immediately wondered, "Oh, this is like a supplement for the casuals. They may have missed out on some of these cards or they didn't to do what some did and buy whole sets just for 1 or 2 cards in the set. Wizards, you are genius!" But then I see the price point is $80 and find out it's not carried by regular brick and mortar shops and only at gaming stores. When that happens, the prices will more than likely shoot up to way past their msrp ($299 on Amazon as of this posting) The same happens with the From the Vault sets ($80 for the newest set that msrps for $35). Why you do this Wizards? Why aim a product for a casual format at the hardest of the hardcore? To me, Commander is the format you should use to attract attention. Games don't end it 3 turns (usually) and ridiculous scenarios always come up. This format is the for fun, casual type and this set should have been for them.

*Originally posted September 06, 2012

Along with a few friends of mine, I was lucky enough to snag a 3-day pass to PAX Prime this year. Growing up and attending college on the east coast meant I missed out on a lot of events that occurred in gaming industry. If I recall correctly, E3 started out in the middle of the US before eventually migrating to the west coast. Most game companies setup shop in California too which meant no local events for us east coasters. So sad T_T But that's why I'm here in California where all the happenings happen. (b '' )b

Anyway, on to the PAX!

Short for Penny Arcade Expo, PAX has been and still is a convention for the fans. We have game developers, digital and tabletop, setting up booths to give players a chance to check out what will be coming down the pipeline. For me, the videogaming section of the floor was bit underwhelming but not because the showing was lackluster or the developers and publishers dropped the ball. Rather, I had the opportunity to attend E3 this year so the majority of games shown I had already seen, But that's ok! There was plenty more for me to enjoy. The tabletop games and the panels were definitely the highlight of my trip. But anywho, onto the pictures!

                                                       

                                                       

                                                       

I had heard rumor of these germ incubating cesspools they call "handheld lounges." Never thought I'd see one in person. While comfy, still feel icky afterwards.                                                               

                                                 

                                               

                                                   

                                                           

                                                                                                                                                                                                       Can't have a convention without dice and.....specically designed gaming tables? They were so impressive. One day, I'll have one in my home....one day.                                                                              

                                                                                                            

These 3 cosplayers really stood out to me because of the quality and subject matter. I'm a hugggggggge Monster Hunter and Magic the Gathering fan :3 The Jace was particularly awesome.                                      

                                                                                                        

                                          

 One of my highlights for the whole convention was the live Giant Bombcast show. For those that aren't familiar with them, they run a gaming news/reviews website and have a weekly podcast talking about general new in the industry.                                      

 

                       

 

Shot of the popcap booth. I really liked their setup with the lounge-ish feeling. Really makes you feel like a couch potato with the monitor so close.                                

 

                                            

StarCraft 2 had a small showing at Pax. Here's EGIncontrol casting. I forget who was playing but to give you an idea of just how small it was, he's looking over the shoulder of one of the players.                                                                                                  

                                          

  

Preparation for Hideo Kojima's interview and the preview for the new Metal Gear Solid game :3                                                                                                              

 

                             

Awesome statue for the upcoming Borderlands 2. Who's playing? :D                             

                         

 

Last but not least, here's a shot of the Magic the Gathering world building panel. Not only was Wizards awesome enough to give some pins and boosters to anyone who attended, the information was super interesting. It really dove into how the development team splits off duties and develops the lore and feeling behind the new set. I also really enjoyed the artists' explanation for how they designed symbols to match the feel of the set.                                                                                     

 

                       

Well that was my PAX experience in a nutshell. I want to go deeper into the Magic panel since Return to Ravnica spoilers are in full swing but that'll be saved for my next post. Until then though. :d

*Originally posted August 19, 2012

As my previous post may indicate, I enjoy me some Magic. What it may not show is  I spend a lot of my time reading up on the game, looking at cards, and wearing out the F5 key on the MtG subreddit. It's definitely a hobby that has taken over my life but let's move onto the point of this post. Playful decks.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy making and playing competitive decks as much as the next guy. Who doesn't love spending hundreds of dollars on cards to be able to keep up with the arms race T_T. But really for me, it's the gameplay that I enjoy most. So here's a deck I've been toying around with recently. It doesn't have any real huge game winners or money cards but if it survives to turn 4 or 5, then the fun starts.

Creature (18)
4x Doomed Traveler
3x Dungeon Geists
2x Fiend Hunter
3x Restoration Angel
2x Spellskite
2x Stonehorn Dignitary
2x Sunblast Angel

Instant/Sorceries (11)
1x Cancel
2x Cloudshift
4x Mana Leak
2x Day of Judgment
2x Ponder

Artifact (4)
4x Tumble Magnet

Land (23)
4x Glacial Fortress
9x Island
10x Plains

Planeswalker (4)
2x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
2x Venser, the Sojourner

So as you can probably see, the point is to just tap all of their shit down. It doesn't matter what    it is, just tap it. I've mostly played against mono-green and green/white decks with this and so far it's been pretty effective at shutting them down. With Mana Leaks and Spellskites, you can defend against early pressures. Spellskite will soak up any direct damage spells and Mana Leaks will help delay or break up a combo for your opponent. Once you have your first Tumble Magnet down, you can begin to relax a bit. It'll help delay until you have your Dungeon Giests or Tamiyo.

If things get a bit too hairy and you can't quite stabilize, don't hesitate to blow a Day of Judgement early. This deck isn't meant to win turn 4 while your opponent's probably is. Plus the key cards for you aren't affected (artifacts, planeswalkers) so make use of those board wipes. For the real win here, you ideally have your Tamiyo with a few magnets or maybe a geist or 2 out. With all or the majority of their side tapped, you pop a Sunblast Angel.

Now that the most threatening cards on their side have been dealt with, you can swing in for some sweet flying damage. I've also kept in the Vensers and Stonehorn Dignitaries. This will help reset the counters on the magnets and reuse the Sunblast etb effects. Taking away your opponent's chance to do any significant damage is also fairly fun. Cloudshifts and Restoration Angels were added in to save key creatures or reset the geists' tapping effect.

So far this deck has been really fun to play. So much so that I want to keep it going for post Mirrodin rotation. There are a handful of cards that I would like to see in this deck at some point such as Downpour and Sleep but without a more permanent form of control that the magnets provide, I may be SOL. I'll have to see once Return to Ravnica starts to spoil. Maybe there'll be some sweet cards that I can swap in for this tap/flicker deck. Definitely looking forward to the coming months and what Wizards has to offer.

*Originally posted July 08, 2012

Hi there!

Though I wish I had a more significant or elaborate reason for beginning this blog, I really just want to talk about life as a nerd and the geek world as a whole.

With that being said, this blog will be dedicated to anything and everything nerdy. It will cover my general interests and possibly anything that will have an impact on the nerd world.

So let me begin with a topic that I hold near and dear to my heart.

Magic the Gathering.

This past weekend was the prerelease for the new 2013 core set. What is that? Well it's just a set of cards that will be available for use in competition for the next year. There are other sets out there currently and the core set is more of a supplement for what is currently being seen in tournaments.

But back to the prerelease. A prerelease event is just an early opportunity for anyone interested to play with the cards in a small tournament. I opted to participate in 2 this time. Midnight and another at 2pm. Sadly, I went home empty handed for both. Aside from the 6 packs you are given, I did not perform well enough to win any extra packs at either of the events.

T_T

My normal colors of choice are blue with a sprinkle of white or black but having pulled Thragtusk, the appeal was just TOO much and I went green/white at the midnight event. Horrible, horrible idea which ended in me misplaying a bunch and ending the night with 2-2 record (3-1 or 4-0 is needed for prizing). Fast forward to the 2pm event. I had swore I would never play a color that I just didn't enjoy. Well, that meant I would play some blue, some black, and some white. But that just wasn't in the cards either ; ). My pulls for all 3 of the those colors just wasn't strong enough to build a solid deck. Green again was a beast as I had pulled a Primordial Hydra. But no, performing even more poorly, I went home 1-3.

  

Have I mentioned how much I hate green? It's quite possibly the most straight forward way of playing Magic. Ramping up so you have significantly more mana than your opponent early on and just tossing out some beefy beasts. This just never appealed to me. Blue on the other hand makes every turn feel like a puzzle where thinking multiple turns ahead of your opponent is a must. 

But it's OK! It's all for the fun of the game and the spirit of competition, right? For sure. I don't have any aspirations for breaking in the competitive scene though playing just slightly above the casual level is quite enjoyable and if you ever see yourself dabbling into MTG, give it a shot. You never know how much you might enjoy it.

Now it's time for me to start building some new decks now that the set's release is in sight.

Thanks for enduring this wall of text.

Be seeing you ( " )^