Hello everybody and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. This week we’re going to be diving into a host of topics: Duel Deck: Knights vs Dragons, the cost of Magic and Magic Online, Draft orders, the Survival of the Fittest problem in Legacy and more! Let’s go!
Duel Decks, MTGO, & Surviving Legacy
So a few weeks ago Wizards of the Coast announced their latest Duel Deck: X-Wing vs Tie-Fighter! Yeah! Now this is the epic battle of the Rebels versus the evil Empi–
Wait, what? That’s not a rebellion emblem? Huh. Pretty uh…close resemblance there. Oh, I see what they’re doing, that’s a dragon! Yeah…you know, you could’ve had it flying at an angle and it wouldn’t–ah hell, this joke is dead.
Okay, so Knights vs Dragons was the first Duel Deck announced after the powerhouse release of Elspeth vs Tezzeret, meaning we’re not guaranteed two shiny Planeswalkers for a mere $19.99 this go around. That said, what are we looking forward to?
There’s one image spoiled so far, and thanks to “Wru” on MTGSalvation I’d be willing to say this is definitely Bogardan Hellkite. A staple in cubes around the world and one badass dragon, this guy is approved. My guess? Hunted Dragon is pretty much a lock. Let’s see, a dragon that makes knights? Seems good. What else? Dragon Fodder along with your Predator Dragon? Bring them all back with Bladewing, the Risen? If it’s black and red do we get powerhouses like Kokusho, the Evening Star to show up? Will Dragonspeaker Shaman help you cast em quicker?
What about the Knights? Sure Silver Knight is probably a lock, and perhaps Knight Exemplar. Are we going green with a little Knight of the Reliquary? Back to Lorwyn for Kinsbaile Cavalier? Seems like a great addition. How about a ‘hoser’ knight like Southern Paladin? Yeah, I’ll destroy target red permanent for a few mana and give the Dragon deck one hell of a Lightning Bolt target. If you go black you have Haakon, Stromgald Scourge along with the hybrid Stillmoon Cavalier and a ton of removal at your dispoal in Doom Blade and friends.
All I know is, we’ll have more info on Knights vs Dragons soon before it releases next April Fool’s. Yes, really. No, it’s not a joke. We think. Hope. Ahem.
Next up is a little innovation. Who doesn’t love that? You see, we here at StarCityGames aren’t happy with the status quo, we gotta improve. And that means utilizing social media to its absolute fullest.
You know what sucks about a huge tournament? How tough it is to get to the pairings boards, get away from them, and find your seat. What is there were a twitter account called “@scgopenpairings” and it was updated whenever pairings were posted? If you were in the bathroom, getting something from your car, outside smoking, whatever, all you needed to do was check your twitter feed and bam! You know exactly when the next round started.
So the good news: This service already exists! Yes, get yourself a twitter app on your smartphone, sign up and follow @scgopenpairings. But after trying this out for the Nashville Open, we decided to go a step further: What if you could see the pairings themselves from that tweet? Why not simply click a link in the tweet, find your seat, and sit down? So that’s exactly what we’re going to do starting with the StarCityGames.com Charlotte Open next weekend. If you ever needed a reason to install a twitter app and get a twitter account as a Magic player, amongst the hundreds of others like following the biggest names in the game around in real time, now you got another one.
Switching gears, let’s talk about drafting. Scars of Mirrodin drafting is now available on Magic Online and I’ll happily admit I’m terrible at it right now. I have no idea what I’m doing and fingers crossed I may actually get better before I lose my collective butt on it.
But with Scars of Mirrodin, Magic Online did something different with its prereleases: They let you draft! Yes! Prerelease drafting finally comes to Magic Online! That’s what I’m talking about! So I’m all geekin out about this and then I see–20 tickets? Twenty bucks for a draft? Are you serious? 4-3-2-2 right, not like gold bar-3-2-2. Okay, so the winner get a prerelease foil. Seriously guys. Let’s go over this: At prerelease drafts in the real world, nobody’s getting foils because why? Because you have to enter flights for prerelease foils, and everyone understands that. You can’t just tack on this foil to the winner, charge five more dollars than expected, and think everyone’s okay with this.
So with Mirrodin Besieged, please don’t screw this up: 30 ticket flights are fine. 15 ticket 4-3-2-2 drafts. That’s all. That’s fair. Fifteen bucks to draft as set early is fine, and after launch, when you actually need packs not not just tickets, people can leverage their packs to get in for less than 15. This is fair. Twenty bucks a draft? Little less so.
But how about some positivity to wrap this whole draft business up. The draft order is changing! Yes, for the first time in the history of Magic, we are now going to draft “backwards.” So instead of Zendikar-Zendikar-Worldwake, it would be Worldwake-Zendikar-Zendikar. Alara Reborn-Conflux-Shards of Alara.
In essence, that whole ‘drafting thing’ just got turned upside down. What does mean for you? It means that card evaluation just got a whole lot more important. The ability to determine what cards are important not only in the new set but how they relate to the previous sets is paramount. For example, how high would you take Borderposts if those were determining the strength of your mana fixing pack 1 versus the Obelisks in pack 3?
Note this change will happen beginning with Mirrodin Besieged. I for one can’t wait to see how it impacts the format moving forward, and as an additional twist, you can now go back and draft older sets “backwards” to see their impact as well. Morningtide-Lorwyn-Lorwyn has to be interesting, and man, how amazing would Dissension-Guildpact-Ravnica be?
Lastly, I gotta talk about Survival of the Fittest. You see, this little card is becoming what I’d describe as “an issue.” This card is frickin everywhere in Legacy. I’ve long called this the best card in Legacy, and it’s starting to take hold: Half of the Top 8 decklists in the Nashville Legacy Open featured this amazing enchantment. Let’s take an example, with sick new tech courtesy of Rion Marmulstein’s Survival Ooze list:
Creatures (20)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Triskelion
- 1 Quirion Ranger
- 2 Basking Rootwalla
- 1 Wonder
- 1 Phyrexian Devourer
- 3 Vengevine
- 4 Fauna Shaman
- 3 Necrotic Ooze
Lands (20)
Spells (20)
Sideboard
Now as you’ll quickly note, there are eight copies in this deck, the other four being Fauna Shaman. I hope that this gives you a little perspective right here. This effect, tutoring for other creatures using creatures in your hand, is so powerful that in Legacy it is correct to run a bear that can only activate once and that’s the turn after you play her.
As for this deck, it’s stone brilliant. The ability for Necrotic Ooze to interact with Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer is genius: Basically, because Phyrexian Devourer’s ability resolves all at the same time, if you ever flip over a card that has converted mana cost of three or more–that would make the Necrotic Ooze’s power seven or greater and enough to destroy it using the Phyrexian Devouerer’s clause–you simply flip over another card until you reveal a one or two mana converted mana cost card and use Triskelion’s ability between activations to kill them.
Phew! That’s some crazy stack action, but either way, what’s the answer here? Is the banhammer coming? Is it just play more Pithing Needles and Lightning Bolts? What about the new technology Peacekeeper? Can’t be bashing in while she’s around. How about more graveyard hate? Is it Vengevine that’s really the culprit here? Could Vengevine really be banned in a format just because of its singular interaction with this card? Isn’t that, um, embarrassing? We can have a creature unbanned in Vintage, Extended and Standard, but in Legacy it’s just too much! Give me a break.
I for one love me some Legacy, but really dislike when one thing is head and shoulders above the rest. This for me is Survival of the Fittest. It needs to be banned and Legacy needs to shift accordingly. I for one will be refreshing dailymtg.com with anticipation on December 1st, the next time the banned and restricted lists are updated.
So that’s another week in the world of Magic: The Gathering. Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin. Tapping the cards…so you don’t have to!
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
Community Manager, StarCityGames.com