Welcome back. The first order of business is the answers to yesterday’s little queries. They are:
Q: What card in 6th Edition represents an overrated movie about an underrated show?
A: Serenity. Firefly is an excellent show but the movie seemed a little too pandering to the general public. Plus enough stuff happened that guaranteed the show would never resume, which was probably obvious, but it’s fun to live in hope.
Q: Which is a better first pick in Beta: Black Knight or White Knight?
A: You are drafting Beta. Take the damn Mox. Barring that, Fireball. But seriously, which Knight? Get off your high horse already.
Q: Necropotence in 5th Edition? WTF???
A: Seriously.
I sent that exact question into Ask Wizards with zero reply. Scott Johns sure is a tighty when it comes to his little website. If mtg.com ever got a new editor, hopefully he or she will be a tad looser with the reins, but I ain’t exactly holding my breath.
Today’s installment goes from December ’93 all the way to June of 2000. Interestingly, this article both begins and ends with draft sets that are exceedingly unfun.
Drafting: AALD
Antiquities, Arabians, Legends, and Dark is a strange environment to be sure. Admittedly, AALD drafts don’t come around too often. I think I myself only did two or three this previous year. Some people like to throw Fallen Empires into the mix, but it’s a greedy move. Fallen is best appreciated in its solitary glory.
Right, Arabians. Like ABU from yesterday, the Wizards of old did not take into account draft formats, for the fair reason that draft did not yet exist. But while ABU had insanely broken cards and garbage, Arabian Nights has far too little of the former and too much of the latter. It’s a tiny set anyway, but you really have to scrape to find the juice. Black wins handily with Cuombij Witches and Oubliette. Green comes in a close second with very solid rares and Wyuli Wolf, accepting that the Witches trump big time.
Moving onto Antiquities, you’re hoping like crazy to get some playable artifacts. It’s likely, which is good, because all the colors are absurdly awful. Pick up some Clay Statue, Su-Chi, Rocket Launcher, maybe even a Triscuit if you’re lucky. This is a stop gap on the way to slightly better things.
Now with Legends, things get mildly interesting. Please don’t get me wrong, the suckiness remains. But now it might take 4-5 picks to lose all the playable, rather than 1-2 from the previous sets. Vampire Bats look like Glacial Rays if you squint in just the right way.
Blue in Legends, lol. Azure Drake is great, which leads into Venarian Gold, for your removal. After, Anti-Magic Aura and Undertow. Blue is not the primo pick up in AALD. Even if you’re the only Blue drafter at the entire table (and you’d better be), you still have to contend with Spinal Villain! Oh, horror of horrors. That too!
Green is the real gem in Legends. With a bunch of creatures that can attack, Green is most noteworthy for having creatures that can attack. Aggro-Red comes close, except for its astonishing 4 walls.
Of course in Legends there are the legends. Pick these up if you can, splash or double splash if you have to. Anything with more than two power looks like the 9th night of Hannukah. Overcosted doesn’t matter so much when no one does anything for the first 6457645 turns.
The Dark is the final piece to this mess, and it adds approximately zero to anything. It’s a tiny set, one most people consider having the lowest power level ever. Red has Brothers of Fire, and the awesome Fissure, easily The Dark’s best U2. It, along with Green, have creatures that swing, making them head and shoulders ahead of everything. This is a really unfortunate draft environment, although I would tentatively say you haven’t lived until you’ve done it. Twice.
Fallen Empires
I’ve written about this format before, but here’s the recap: The best common is Combat Medic by far, followed by Thorn Thallid and the lesser Thallids. Hymn to Tourach is alright, but generally Black doesn’t have the pressure to back it up. People will play out their hands and stare at each other all day, which makes the Hymn a lot worse in the late game.
Rare-wise, Aeolipile is a real gem, with Ebon Praetor and Deep Spawn also dominators. Fungal Bloom is a windmill slam, and Red is a joke. You need lots of Goblin Grenades, goblins, and them not playing White or Green to even have a chance. It’s just not worth it.
Ice Age
The X du jour is Lava Burst, but it’s all the same smell. Red, like so many sets before, has great removal and rock solid creatures. 3 “X”s in the common slot is a little absurd of course.
Blue ups the ante a tad with Illusionary Forces, a crazy strong flier. [Like Mr. Pibb and Red Vines, yo. – Knut, crazy delicious] It’s definitely Blue’s best appeal, as there is an awful lot of trash. Your common 4 point COP killer, your cumi upkeep that pays for cumi upkeep, it’s all quite nightmarish. Being the only Blue drafter around will give you enough, but you’re in deep trouble if your limited supply gets cut quickly.
Green yields one more chance to compete in the All Aurochs Challenge™! I’m not kidding people, I don’t think we’re going to see that beast again. Just think of your opponent as the village. To be fair, Green is not awful in Ice Age. It has a lot of guys at all casting costs, including the rare forest-homed Gorilla Pack. If you can find something to clear the way, Green is great for the wet works.
White, alas, falls into the trap like so many times before. Lots of D, not enough O. You’ll tap Plains and… nothing… will… happen. Banding is fine, but it does not a deck make.
Black is strictly mediocre. You have some okay guys at four, the always helpful Banishing, and even a Pestilence variant, if you’re lucky enough to find snow-covered Swamps. But like Blue, Black has cantrips that go nowhere and bizarre mana stuff. Better than White of course, but that’s not saying much.
+Homelands
A few things change here. White does get a touch more offense, and Blue gets a zillion walls. Black has some of the best rares, or U1s, or whatever, but the commons are quite weak, especially when matched up against Ice Age cards. Red continues its dominance with cards that can affect other cards, specifically Anaba Shaman. And Green loses an awful lot of ground in the War For Dignity.
Homelands does have a few engaging artifacts to add. Serrated Arrows is obviously terrific, and the clockwork men are not bad at all. Should things get out of hand, ring the Chime. The sound it makes is exactly like Homelands.
+Alliances
Now we’ve got a block! Blue loses all chance of being playable, as one less pack of Illusionary Forces means one more pack of the decidedly not Awesome Presence. White again goes up a notch, with some decent fliers and an actual useful trick! Still can’t beat an Anaba Shaman, but the gap is narrowing.
Red slips a tiny bit, but Tactics and Pyrokinesis are both easy grabs. Storm Shaman is quite ridiculous, but then you’ve got cards that say ‘blocking” on them. Undesirable.
Black really gets some gems with the ultimate Contagion, the really amazing Krovikan Horror, and the defensive Phantasmal Fiend(s). You should be in fine shape with Black if you’ve been getting a reasonable amount previous.
Finally, Green is a strange one. Yavimaya Ancients are crazy annoying, as is the always efficient Gorilla Chieftan. Green needs Hailstorm back, cause it does good things. On the flip side, you have some pure walls, and then some 4/1s and 6/1s. Again, very strange. Not too much opportunity for card advantage, but Ice Age and Alliances gives you enough picks to keep the pressure on.
Pheldagriffffffffffff!
Mirage
Woah, relevance! What are the odds? Mr. Bleiweiss stole my thunder here with an excellent article on straight Mirage. For a quick recap, Torch is good, Red is great, White is overrated and Blue under. Value-wise on Magic Online, it’s not a great deal, but it is pretty fun. Give it a shot, at least once.
+Visions
Visions is definitely one of my top three sets of all time. It’s fun, flavorful, and has a lot of power in all the colors.
Blue is probably the runaway here with Undo, Man O’ War, and to a lesser extent, Knights of the Mist. Breezekeeper and Cloud Elemental are also great, efficient fliers. A good Black deck can come close, but Blue is probably the most consistently strong color in Visions.
What Black does give you is the Swamp-dependent Crypt Rats and Infernal Harvest. Both are great board sweepers. Crypt Rats + Parapet is a tried and true method of Wrathing them or just going plink crazy. Fallen Askari is also way above the curve, especially with aforementioned Parapet. Black has some guaranteed 15th picks, but overpowered commons combined with excellent uncommons puts Black in 2nd place.
Red gets another X, a pre-Roll known as Rock Slide. Rock Slide’s impact on the potential game state was quite severe, causing people to miss tons of extra damage by not attacking, or taking extra damage by not effectively blocking. I knew of one person who would play with Mountains in his deck with no Red cards, just so he could buy himself time by bluffing Rock Slide.
After the X it drops off a bit. Dwarven Vigilantes can be brutal, and Suq’Ata Lancer is always a winner. Fireblast too makes an easy inclusion, and as a common, you can get enough to do some sick things. Red has a little bit more unplayable, and a few less broken rares and uncommons than black, which puts it as a close third.
Quirion Ranger. Anyone who played with Visions back in the day knows the board impact this innocuous-seeming creature has. In truth, the Quirion Ranger does everything: make mana, makes attacking for them impossible, gives you double “T” usage, saves from LD, makes Maro bigger, and probably ten more. He’s so great!
Elsewhere you have the Constructed quality Emerald Charm, and the always 2-for-1 Feral Instinct. Green has two great tools as well: River Boa against Blue decks and Bull Elephant against everything else. Green has its vulnerabilities, but there is still an awful lot of strength here, especially if your other colors can clear the way.
Finally, poor White. Its time will come very soon, but it’s just not that great in Visions. It’s actually still decent, which says something about the quality of the set, but it definitely doesn’t have the board impact of the previous four colors.
Actually, White shines as a foil to the broken stuff from the previous. Honorable Passage, Parapet, and Remedy are all very juicy against the red and black Xs. You still have some flank knights to play around with, and Sun Clasp is great as double duty. Being the white player now does have benefits once…
+Weatherlight
…rolls around. Now White shines like a freakin’ nova, with Empyrial Armor and Heavy Ballista ready to dominate the board. Sure they can be bounced, but how much time do you think you have? Even after those two dominators, White gets a good trick in Guided Strike, and more decent men in all of the Benalish people. You have to endure a lot to get there, but White ends up being terrifically strong in the block.
Every other color gets a big dip in playables, with probably Blue getting the shortest end of the stick. Red and Black get a couple pieces of removal, with Black getting slightly better creatures and Red getting slightly better spells. Green gets a few guys that hit hard, and mostly crap thereafter. Basically, unless you’re playing white, don’t expect Weatherlight to fix something already gone to pieces.
Tempest
And now we come to it. Probably not the greatest draft block ever, but it’s the first set I really came about as a player, so I have a soft spot. In addition, the set is incredibly well designed and fun, with a few minor exceptions.
Tempest is a highly aggressive format, with shadow people and whatnot. It’s basically cheap dorks + buyback, although the flavor of that changes depending on color combination.
Starting off with the stone nuts, Red has Rolling Thunder in the ol’ common slot. Having this in your pile is worth 2-3 games in your pod, automatic. You’ve got the other 22 cards to handle the rest. Roll’s dominance simply cannot be overstated. The Shadows have 1-2 toughness, which allows you to Wrath their board with perhaps a few extra points to their nugget. I’m not sure Rolling Thunder could be printed at any commonality in Tempest block, but as a common, it’s off the wall. True story: R&D member Devin Low was seen cursing his forebears when the Roll was played against him for the first time in his competitive life. It was highly amusing, although definitely not enough to actually prevent losing. “But they did a lot of things right back then, too.” Sooo funny.
If Red had Rolling Thunder and nothing else, it would be a little interesting to work with. Unfortunately, Red is hands down the strongest color in straight Tempest from any angle. After the X, you got your Lightning Blast and Aftershock for pure removal, with Fireslinger and Kindle coming awfully close. Lowland Giant and Sandstone Warrior are both great beaters, and oddly, red also has the excellent Wall of Diffusion to give you all the time in the world to get your people online. Red’s only flaw is of course its popularity, which will decrease as the block advances. But for TE x 3, every other color is playing catchup. Just remember to find a Disenchant or Tranquility for the inevitable COP.
White in Tempest isn’t awful, but it also doesn’t do a whole lot. It’s got some very good creatures in the uncommon slot, but an awful lot of damage prevention in the common. The shadows are nice, but they go pretty fast. If you can find a couple Pacifisms and some Soltari, White makes a decent addition to the more resilient colors.
Black is full of very useful cards all over the place. It’s got great shadows, and nice ways to enhance and clear the way. Gravedigger is a damn rock star when all you have is 2/2 and 3/1 unblockables on the cheap. The biggest trap card is definitely Evincar’s Justice. It looks good on paper, but actually plays quite poorly. It will definitely kill everything you have, but not necessarily enough of theirs. The buyback cost is prohibitive as well, making it less likely to be useable as a finisher. It’s not unplayable, but if it’s the best Black has to offer in a pack, go get something else. Black has a few stinkers, but a plethora of curved cards, good removal, and card advantage makes it easily the second best color in straight T. It does not however play that well with Red, as both are quite color hungry.
Blue, alas, is the garbage color in straight Tempest. The unblockables cost an extra mana, the removal costs extra, and there are a deep amount of unplayables at all the commonalities. It’s not impossible to get a good blue deck; Rootwater Hunter does play nicely against a fair amount of strategies, especially in multiples. Capsize, while a bit overhyped, can do good things given enough time. Generally though, Blue is the lesser part of a deck, if it should be there at all. If you’re cutting blue so hard you’re getting 4th pick Mawcors you may have a chance, but that’s a big If. Wait for the next sets.
Green is quite a tasty dish in Tempest if you have the early defense. Be it from your other color or Reality Anchor + Canopy Spider, you need to stay alive long enough for your big men to come down. Red is the only color with creatures roughly the same size as Green’s, and Red has far fewer fatties, and way way way less Elvish Fury. Given the right time, Green will lay out a stream of Hill Giants with useful abilities, which no other color can really deal with consistently. Harrow and Overrun round out the useful spell set.
Finally a brief note on Manakin. Manakin is far and away the most Edicted creature in Magic. It’s also really useful in Tempest, which lacks much in the way of acceleration. Black and White can get away with less, since their two-drops can be cluttered. However, to Red and Green, Manakin is a godsend and should be drafted as such. Even now, years later, Manakin doesn’t get respect, usually from suckers whining about mana screw. Don’t be that guy.
+Stronghold
Green gets a big boost here, with the broken Spike mechanic and the always useful Provoke. There is zero acceleration for the players here (unless you count Skyshroud Trooper’s ability to take you from 4 to 6) so Skyshroud Elf and Manakin are still good friends. Of the oft debated question of Spike Colony vs. Spined Wurm, it’s not even close. 6th edition rules did not hurt green one iota.
On the flip side, Red took a huge blow. Flowstone Hellion is an insanely good creature, and then you fall hard. Shock is fine, and Flame Wave and Fanning the Flames both scrape playability. But for guy talents, Red has none.
Black did alright with Stronghold, although it turns into a much slower color. Death Stroke does the job and Dungeon Shade is a fine finisher. Lab Rats and Brush with Death are both strictly blah. They do exactly what they’re supposed to, but until you get to the very late game, they won’t be enough.
White and Blue both get a great boost, and both in the same way: cheap creatures that have board impact. White gets some great two-drops, a very solid flier and the hugely underrated Bandage. Blue adds a 3/1 flier, a 2/1 flier, some good card draw, a 2/3 for two that breaks the mirror wide open, and even an adequate Amber Prison remake. Both colors definitely move in the right direction this set.
+Exodus
Blue adds even more evasion and ground defense here. Merfolk Looter in particular lets you get to the place you need to be, where you can start throwing down three- and four-mana aggressive evasive creatures. Not a whole lot of board impact, but that’s why no one plays mono.
White gets one good creature and two good removal spells, with Kor Chant in particular being overwhelming. There’s a lot of dross here, but if you’ve got good White going into Exodus, you should be able to find enough to round things out. That said, White is still the weakest color of the block.
Red continues its nosedive by being the worst color of Exodus. All the removal has an element of randomness, which is never fun. A thoroughly vanilla 3/3 for four is welcome, but it’s far short of the glories previous. Red also gets Reckless Ogre, the most Angelic Blessinged creature in all of Magic (and with good reason).
Green gets no new tricks, but a fine assortment of men for the under-crowded five spot. This makes Wood Elves, acceleration and card advantage, all the more welcome. Finally, don’t be afraid of Jackolope Herd. I mean playing with it, not against it. Facing off against the Herd is petrifying; nothing kills it! The Herd is 4 free points on turn 4 or just an undercosted fatty on turn million. It goes late, far later than it should for its power level.
Speaking of bad rap, ain’t nothing wrong with Grollub. So they gain life. It kills something on the way out, a creature or a player. Black got some enhancements to the shadow squad, really the only color that did so. The cheap, high power creatures plays very well with Death’s Duet, as does the always useful Vampire Hounds. Finally, Slaughter. And Hatred. How apt.
This is a block where packs are still attainable, and damn fun. I’d highly recommend getting 7 buddies together and pitching in for the Rath block experience. It is certainly no whiffle ball.
Urza’s Saga
Triple S? Blacky black black black blacker black Megs-Black. The dominance of this color in all Saga is mind blowing. In the common spot alone you have Expunge, Befoul, Breach, Corrupt, and a little piece of pie we like to call Pestilence. Mono-Black was the holy grail of all Saga, because nothing could top it. The trick was getting the White player to play Disciple of Grace, just so Pestilence would stay around forever. Nothing could beat the Black deck, but the 1/2 was like a joke.
Red had a good removal suite with Heat Ray and Arc Lightning in the common spot, but the creatures were especially poor. Viashino Outrider and Runner were both okay, but that was about it. Goblin Buggy certainly has an amusing picture, but that’s not enough to lead the charge. Falter was fine for getting through the inevitable Acridians, but you still needed stuff to actually attack with.
“Hey I’m going to the store. Anyone want to come?”
“Yeah me. Crab-Study!”
“Damn it. Well I’m not riding $itch.”
After that combination, the quality dropped off a bit. Pendral Drake was fine, and Blue had some amazing rares and a few juicy uncommons, but you really needed the combo to play ball.
White is an odd duck in Saga. A little more removal than standard, as well as extra aggressive cards. Abstractly it looks strong, but in relation to everyone else’s real power, it falls kind of short. That’s not to say White is undraftable; it has great game against Green and Red always, and often Blue. Paired with the right color (generally Red), it can be a contender. Just know that stuff with one toughness is especially poor in a world of Hermetic Study, Arc Lightning, and Pestilence.
Green is definitely the weakest color, but it’s not particularly bad. A couple Winding Wurms, off of Priest of Titania if you’re feeling saucy, will beat up all kinds of stuff. You’ve got randomly strong creatures, but a severe lacking in the bomb department. The Green embrace is very good, but whose isn’t? The worst part about drafting green isn’t the spells, it’s that there’s not nearly as much to look forward to. Someone could pass you Morphling, but they’ll definitely pass Whirlwind.
+Urza’s Legacy
On the flip side, there are all kinds of gems here ready for the avid Green drafter. Weatherseed Treefolk, Deranged Hermit, Defense of the Heart, Multani, Might of Oaks, even Hidden Gibbons is reasonable. Even more likely are the three great common echo creatures and Rancor. Green isn’t made of power, but you’ll never lack for playables in this set.
Unfortunately, White is the opposite. Some decent uncommons but nothing to drool over. There are a lot of trashy commons, with only Cessation to get even mildly interested in. Not White’s best showing.
Black doesn’t have the same overwhelming power from Saga, but it doesn’t fall too short. The Phyrexian cycle looks lots better in 6th Edition, with the Plaguelord being one of the most powerful Limited rares in the block.
Red gets a few better creatures, which luckily double as removal. Parch is a fine Shock. Goblin Medics in particular play well with the rest of the Red cards, even before the “big combo” from Destiny.
Blue is a big fan of Legacy, with some good defensive and offensive creatures. Snap is a particularly useful card in the power-wrought Saga block, allowing the caster to continue to drop brokenness without missing a beat. The two fairies and Vigilant Drake, another decent Study target, get to play cleanup.
+Urza’s Destiny
Urza’s Destiny beats the entire Masques block hands down. But compared to the previous Urza incarnations, things are slightly weaker. Destiny does have two of the more powerful four-mana cards for Limited, and one of them isn’t Thran Dynamo. Extruder is merely “pretty good.”
White gets two useful 2/2 fliers and two very strong defensive cards. Unfortunately, power is lacking a bit, making previous aggressive picks quite important.
Green gets some great benefits in Destiny and is probably the biggest winner overall. Much needed early drops, strong late cards, and even some card advantage and a finisher. You still can’t deal with anything, but your odds of killing them before it matter goes up quite a bit. More importantly, everyone else’s power goes way down, which gives the Green drafter serious card quality edge over the whole block.
For the rest, the useful cards are pretty obvious. Black and Red get some removal and decent Scents/Seers. Nothing too special to see here.
Mercadian Masques
Everyone pissed and whined about the weak Masques set, but it’s actually decent for limited, especially before the full block. The spellshaper mechanic is actually one of my favorites of all time, giving the player lots of choices on whether to play lands or not. The free mechanic as well was pretty interesting, making combat lots more complex.
Rebels is quite strong, made more so by the fact it gets well supported in this and the next set. White also has fine removal and aggressive options. It’s not the strictly strongest color, but an unopposed White drafter will probably get the best deck.
Black gets four good removal spells in the common slot, as well as the decent but unexciting Mercenary cards. The biggest Mercenaries are better than the biggest Rebels, but that’s a stats issue, not a mechanical one.
Red finds itself a little weak in straight Masques, but it’s not too bad. Two very efficient removal spells in the common, and some more goodies in the uncommon spot. Kris Mage is a surprisingly annoying little wizard, she is. But the most underrated card from Red had to be Battle Rampart. This card protected you from 5-7 points and did about the same to them. It always went so late, and I’d always be happy with at least 2 in the deck. Free, painless haste is terrifically strong.
Green misses out on brokenness this time around, but it does have strong cards in all the mana slots. Vine Trellis into Giant Caterpillar into Silverglade Elemental into Delraich was an opening we saw far too often in triple M. Tiger Claws and Horned Troll were also just fine on offense and defense respectively. Finally Invigorate had the option of being a Fireblast, a Terror, or a Terror where they gain 3 life. It’s a keeper.
Blue is probably the overall weakest color in Masques, but it did have a lot of influence over the rest of the colors. Flying was a great commodity in Masques, as that kind of defense was pretty rare everywhere else. Waterfront Bouncer was deeply annoying and had amazing board impact for a little common. Wizards learned well from the mistake here, and wouldn’t have such a board-dominating common until the block after next.
+Nemesis
Defiant Falcon is critical to the Rebel strategy. Nothing replaces Ramosian Sergeant, but what ever could? The ‘Bringers are useful enough and you may just strike gold and open Lin-Sivi. It’s not like rebels is the only way to draft White in this block, it’s just the best.
Green has Blastoderm, which everyone called the damn second coming. Here’s what Blastoderm says:
“Opponent takes 15 damage, unless they want to throw something dumb away.”
Does 15 seem like a lot? It’s not 20. Blastoderm really never ended up being as good as it looked in Limited. It’s not bad, exactly, just definitely not a get-up-and-dance card. Actually to be fair, it looks like cream cheese compared to the garbage Green surrounding it. Green is just a horrid color when its marquee common is something that you hope doesn’t give you card disadvantage.
Blue and Black have some evasion-y, creature affecters, which is all to the good. Black gets the nod in that it’s removal is more effective, but Blue is fine as well.
Red, which may or may not be great shakes in Masques, is pretty solid in Nemesis. Some cheap and effective removal, as well as a useful cycle of creatures that makes damage happen. The top uncommons go: Belbe’s Armor, Ancient Hydra, Ensnare, Arc Mage.
+Prophecy
A collection of garbage finds us at the end of today’s selection. Apparently, Prophecy is a very popular set, certainly bought by people who have never actually played it. The mechanic of Prophecy is known as Rhystic, which is Hebrew for “worthless.” If there’s one things years of drafting have taught, it’s that cards that don’t do anything aren’t playable. Too many “ifs” and “in theory”.
Coming into Prophecy, the rebel engine with Red or Black was probably the strongest archetype. White gets a lot of garbage, but it also gets one of the most dominating cards in recent memory, that of Troubled Healer. This chicky plus some evasion is an easy and quick way to beat 90% of your games straight up. The rest of the color really does hurt the eyes, but Troubled Healer probably makes it worth it.
Blue’s preferred common is Withdraw, which is like Undo but cheaper and faster. So it’s not broken or anything. Ribbon Snake is actually quite good even without the maybe flying, and Coastal Hornclaw does a decent, although unspectacular job with what’s left. Blue, like White, has just incredible amounts of awfulness, but again, the good cards are so good you just need to accept.
Black finally gets the fifth Nighstalker it so desperately craved, and it’s actually pretty good. Steal Strength, while no Consume, is still useful in a lot of situations. Even Agent of Shaku isn’t bad in the late game, especially as a surprise mercenary summon. Black’s biggest irritant is definitely the Chilled Apparition. It’s uncommon and not particularly powerful, but both abilities combine to just make a really annoying creature. Also a combo with the Agent.
Remember how excited everyone was with Greel, Mind Raker? “Oh my God, they made a repetitive Mind Twist!? It’s the end of the game!” Well, here we are many years later, still playing. He was great on attacking, fine on defense, but the ability itself didn’t come up as much as you might think. All those super-spellshapers had this trait of needing infinite land in play to function. That’s not a combo with the necessity of discarding two cards. You’d draft Alexi and play her sure, but with Propchecy, anything playable is a first pick (cause you might not get a second).
Red was probably the best color in this set, with Rhystic Lighnting and Fault Riders. The Lightning always did something and Fault Riders never needed to do anything. They were so badass.
Wing Storm could not be countered by paying mana. It also had the ability to deal two damage to a player if they controlled a flier, and you were not dead from said flier. This is what we had to work with, and the worst part is, MMN was actually kind of fun. Oh well. Spore Frog went late, which was good, cause if you’re lucky you got to see it twice and it’s soooo cuuuute! Fog Frog, yay!
Tomorrow: the sets online worthy.
Bonus Trivia:
1. Which is harder, comedy or dying?
2. Why do people hate the shuffler?
3. What record did I set when I was born?
4. Where are the good places to play Magic in the Bay area? (Note: I have absolutely no idea, but a buddy of mine is moving there and wants to continue to game. You want this fellow.)