A bit of a switch today. Instead of another review leading to a theme deck, I want to do an actual deck and link that to a movie concept. The deck – and the movie concept – is Sequels, and both can be no end of annoying. That’s today. Tomorrow we will be back to (good) movie reviews and (playable) theme decks.
I wanted a mid-week break here. Something a bit different, to change the pace. Besides, all the movies I have seen recently either translated too well (and too obviously) to this format, or seemed redundant, or just didn’t work.
For example, Doom. I could write the obvious review of good game into bad movie, then build a deck composed of various pieces of equipment and lots of monsters, but how boring is that? Even if I try casting the cliché Marines with equally cliché cards, it isn’t going to be worth the read.
Same with the new Harry Potter. Review: nice, but seems really choppy (but what do you expect – 600+ pages in 2.25 hours?) Theme deck: okay, which Giant for Hagrid, which dragon for the horntail?
Zowie.
I was going to do King Kong 2K5, but that won’t be out until after Ted’s deadline for this – and I really don’t want to pay full price to see another remake, anyway. I am beginning to hate sequels and remakes. Way too often, the sequel is just a half-baked rip-off of the original. Like – (really, do I have to list any here? Anyone who watches movies can make a list of terrible sequels, starting with Star Wars.)
The sequel I’m not looking forward to seeing? Rocky whatever – due out next year. The plot will be something like Rocky, in Depends,™ battles Alzheimer’s. Count me out.
Remakes generally have the same failing. I’m sure King Kong will be pretty much the same as all the others, but with better graphics. That’s not enough. Imagine if they made the old Japanese rubber monster suit movies with CGI? If Terror of Mechagodzilla didn’t have the campy scenes with Godzilla smashing cardboard houses, why would you watch? The allure of these movies was that they were just bad on every level – plot, scenery, concept, dialogue, cute-fat-annoying kid, obvious rubber suit (Gamera!), etc. Now imagine the same movies with world-class CGI. Sure, you could, but why?
Some remakes are good – maybe better than the original. The Thomas Crown Affair is a case in point. I love that movie – and I love the fact that the whole thing is a very gentle send-up of the original (but it works even if you have not seen the original). If you haven’t seen this, rent it – then curl up on the couch with your significant other. Very definitely a date movie. [Partly because both Pierce Brosnan and Renee Russo are smoking hot in it. – Knut, whose wife has taken to watching Remington Steele on DVD in his absence]
Of course, doing a Thomas Crown Affair theme deck – or a theme deck for any similar comedy or drama – has an additional problem: how do you chose cards to represent a bunch of people? It doesn’t work.
Let’s do a Sequels and Remakes deck instead. Sequels will involve making lots of copies (preferably on our side) and forcing opponents to cast the same spells over and over.
For copies, we have a lot of choices, from cards that make tokens copies (Soul Foundry, Orochi Hatchery) to cards that actually copy (Copy Enchantment, Copy Artifact) to creatures that copy creatures (Clone, Sakashima the Imposter.) We even have an enchantment that makes copies: Followed Footsteps. All of these seem better than creatures that you have to cast every turn, (remakes) like Saprazaan Outrigger and Quicksilver Behemoth.
As a creature to tag with Follow Footsteps, we have to avoid the classic blue closers, like Meloku and Keiga, because copying Legends has limited appeal. Cerulean Sphinx may not be the best possible creature, but it is a strong finisher and the return-to-library-to-be-cast-against effect fits the theme.
For making people do it again, we have everything from Time Ebb effects (Time Ebb, Temporal Spring, Ether Well), to bounce (Boomerang, et. al.) to counterspells that allow replays (Remand, Hinder, Memory Lapse). Lots of choices, so let’s limit this to Standard. In mono-Blue, that gives us the following:
Sequels
4 Boomerang
4 Remand
4 Time Ebb
4 Hinder
3 Rewind
3 Followed Footsteps
2 Vedalken Dismisser
4 Clone
3 Cerulean Sphinx
3 Jushi Apprentice
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Quicksand
17 Island
1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
That is probably not as strong as classic mono-Blue control, but it might work. A better option might be to add Green to ramp up the mana and to provide better creatures to copy. Followed Footsteps can make a lot of creatures better, including Carven Caryatid or even Kavu Climber. (Another option would be to splash White for Autatouched Mage, but then you have to build the deck around that card.)
U/G Sequels
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Sakura Tribe Elder
4 Carven Caryatid
4 Loxodon Hierarch
2 Kavu Climber
3 Clone
2 Cerulean Sphinx
2 Boomerang
4 Remand
4 Time Ebb
2 Hinder
3 Followed Footsteps
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
lands
This deck is not quite perfect. It is slower and less powerful than straight mono-Blue control decks and the kills are not as great. It is lots of fun to get Followed Footsteps on Kavu Climber – but the deck doesn’t really fit anywhere well. It is too annoying for casual play, but not competitive enough for tournaments. I might play it online in the tourney practice room, but I am short a number of the rares – and this is not quite appealing enough to make buying them worth it, which is not unlike any number of sequels to hit the theaters in recent years.
Tomorrow – British wackiness and giant vegetables.