Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Magic Show. As of this week we’ve been on the ‘net a full year, and we’re going to take a few moments to see just how far the show has come. But that’s not all, of course. We will then detail a few happenings around the Magic community, including a little two mana Green creature that may end up being one of the best creatures ever printed.
The Show — 23:25
Looking Back
In today’s first segment we’re going to view a few past segments from old shows. Nothing too daunting, but I did want to give you a sense of where we were a year ago.
A little more than a year or so ago, I was writing text articles, like those you see anywhere else. I was also watching and heavily inspired by Ze Frank. Ze made a New Years’ resolution to make a video blog show every week day for a year. From March 17th 2006 to March 17th 2007, The Show with Ze Frank delivered. He engaged his audience. He worked his crowd. He made a little money and a lot of notoriety. I was in awe of not only his talent but his format. Why couldn’t this work on a Magic scale?
So I started out with a few gameplay matches for the Battle Royale competition, a budget deckbuilding contest where I bested our own Craig Stevenson. Then I figured it was time to make the leap. From the known to the unknown, I made what was then known as “Battle Royale Round 7 – Cheap” but eventually was renamed to The Magic Show #1 with the title “Cheap.”
It wasn’t until the second episode when I finally gave the show its name. Why the Magic Show? I know this is sad, but Ze’s show was called “The Show” and, well…you get it. It fit perfectly. The opening, at first, didn’t quite work out as well. A little…awkward. I also had this really horrible habit that took me months to quit. Let’s take a listen:
[[Way too many “HEEEE-llo Everbody”s]]
Man, next time I do something that stupid just hit me upside the head. I’m sure glad I quit that and apologize for those two seconds of pain that occurred until, oh, Episode #25 or so?
Anyway, after the first few shows I got my first “real” reaction from Episode #3, entitled “Culture, Community, Reaction”
[[CLIP from Show #3]]
This show elicited a comment from our own Randy Buehler. It’s a rare thing that WOTC posts on the forums, but I was absolutely thrilled. Someone was watching! Not only was I getting some tremendous feedback, ten times the amount of most of my work, but here was somebody in the know! I had made it!
Then it was time to do some high level strategy and wow everyone with my prowess! So I went and did the most original thing I could think of: I talked about The Art of War and how it applied to Magic.
If you haven’t caught on yet, that whole last bit was a joke. The problem for some writers is that they don’t know what’s came before them. This was a heavily written about subject on the Dojo, apparently, and something I had completely missed out on.
But after taking a drubbing on that, I then broke new ground again: I did a live video from the Nashville Time Spiral Prerelease.
[[clip]]
That was exceptional fun, and while it was rough, again, the seeds of a solid, entertaining piece were inching closer.
The following week I did what could only be labeled ‘stupid’: I decided to do a Daily series. Now Dailies, if you’ve missed them, were short 800-word articles written by the same author every weekday. But of course, I couldn’t just spout another 800 words trying to get across some weird car analogy, but instead a few videos to open me up to further ridicule.
The first was one of my most popular videos to date: Building Dragonstorm. This was back when Rite of Flame was still new and untested, and the idea that Dragonstorm could work at all was still being questioned. But even in its admittedly rough form, featuring Urzatron and Truth or Tale of all things, it was damn scary. Scary enough to get over eleven thousand views, at least.
The week culminated in the first of my comedic experiments: What would happen if I just made fun of all of those people who thought bad cards would be good?
[[clip]]
The next few weeks showed another innovation in the video realm, the idea of live, edited coverage. I highlight the word edited because, well, watching a game in five minutes versus thirty is a hell of a time savings. And these were a lot of work as well. These were made for two reasons: One, I hadn’t done these yet. There’s a lot to be said for breaking ground. Secondly, I have never seen a Magic game edited the way I wanted to watch it, which is to say “Just show me the damn plays and get on with it.”
But we’ll talk more about that in a moment.
This next clip comes from Episode #17, Vintage Voyeur, still one of my most popular shows:
[[clip]]
Ah, old man Lotus. Always good for a chuckle.
Next up we have a little bit from my Christmas Special, the first time live music from yours truly ever entered the picture.
[[clip]]
And what would a near year bring but another Magic set? In Episode #28 I stopped by the Planar Chaos Prerelease and get some really interesting reactions…
[[clip]]
Another milestone was set in Episode #30, which is bigger than you may have thought at the time: This was the episode in which I went to an ‘Episodic’ format, allowing me to cover a lot of subjects in one show.
This led to one of my favorite articles and subsequent moments in Episode #33, Issues:
[[clip]]
However, on that note, one of my biggest misfires ever was the very next episode, entitled Two Heads:
[[clip]]
Let’s just say Kevin will never be returning. Believe it or not I still get some saying they really enjoyed this episode, and I appreciate that, but I think for most it was recognized as an episode that could’ve been a lot better. I agree.
In Episode #41 I cover my third Prerelease, this time for Future Sight. This one included a few notable personalities, let’s take a look back at Jane Davis, the 85-year old Grandmother at her first tournament.
[[clip]]
Such a sweetheart. I was really excited to share such an interesting story with you guys.
My next live show was a biggie, and one of my favorites: Episode #45, Grand Prix Columbus. Here are some highlights:
[[clips]]
Moving on, I work my way through Regionals with a heartbreaking loss that would’ve put me in Top 8, followed by two horrible matchups that knocked me out of any sort of “contention.”
Then came this interview with Aaron Forsythe at Brainbur—er, I mean “Magic.TCGPlayer.com”. Oh man, I couldn’t resist. Aaron is a great guy, I’m sure, but I think the word is intense. He looked extremely, ah…’focused’ in his interview and I couldn’t wait to lampoon him. Luckily Ben Bleiweiss wrote an awesome piece called the Forsythee Awards, and what better idea than to mesh the two into one video?
[[clip]]
Making our way up to today’s shows, I’ll lastly feature Kimlish, that Alex Kim-patented way of speaking that Zac Hill perfected…
[[clip]]
Which leads us to today. A lot has changed in a year, including how I create shows and my weekly process. I no longer use Camtasia as my primary editing interface, and I’m learning more and more video enhancing programs as I find time to do so.
With the Invitational win to top the year off, I can honestly say that creating the Magic Show was the smartest thing I’ve done in a long, long time. Thank you so much for watching. I do this because I love the game and it’s players. I want Magic to flourish and I do my best to share my enthusiasm with all of you. So here’s to another year, faithful viewers. May I have the strength, time, and will to keep doing them. I certainly feel like I’m on a roll now…
Looking Forward
Okay, the Pro Tour is coming up and anything that says Extended in it is definitely catching my eye. But a funny thing happened to this Magic game we know and love. I’m sure it happened when Psychatog began dominating every format, but it’s happening again: Tarmogoyf is everywhere. It’s already jumped to $25 a pop, something I haven’t seen since Arcbound Ravager was ruling the top tables and wearing a Skullclamp to boot.
Most Extended decks, even Affinity for God’s sake, are running four Mr. T. What does this mean? Is Tarmogoyf too good? Hah! It’s just a creature! It’s a two mana, piddly little creature. Well, okay, it’s not piddly, but it’s definitely a monster that can be Smothered pretty easily.
But the fact is this: It’s a house that WOTC built and one that is going to be here for a long time. You know it’s insanely good when you hear people say it’s the best creature in Legacy. In Legacy, the home of some of the most powerful cards you can play with.
So if you don’t have em, get them soon. This guy is going to be in our mind’s eye for years to come. Years. I’m serious when I say this: Every deck you play for the next two years better have a way of dealing with the big, bad Goyf. Every. Single. One.
I’m curious if Tarmogoyf was really meant to be this good. And with the addition of Planeswalkers, you can be your ass he’s going to be even more prevalent in the years to come. If you don’t like him now, you sure as hell won’t like him after Lorwyn.
So the question for me becomes: Whether to force Tarmogoyf in every Extended deck I look at, or whether to maindeck things like Smother because of its absurd prevalence. Only time will tell.
You Make The Invitational Card Part 3
Okay, okay, I get it. The planeswalker thing was a little much. We didn’t know all the rules, I was crazy excited, it happens. So with that choice made, we want a multicolor creature. The question is this: Should it be multicolored or hybrid? By Multicolor I mean no hybrid mana use at all, and by Hybrid I mean it can have at least one hybrid mana and regular mana as well.
Please make your choice in the forums. After this decision we can actually move into card mechanics next week.
More Sneak Peeks At Lorwyn
So Planeswalkers are here and well known. Please go and read up on how they work, I’m not explaining it here.
Instead, we feature another round of spoilers. Here are a few highlights from the most recent batch:
Familiar’s Trickery
UU
Instant
Uncommon
As an additional cost to play Familiar’s Trickery, return a creature you control to owner’s hand.
Counter target spell.
Good lord, what a monster of a counterspell. This little baby just made every Mystic Snake player’s day. This makes virtually every creature with a solid comes-into-play ability, such as Bogardan Hellkite, absolutely bonkers. This will be insane with Venser and will see a ton of play. While it may seem restrictive, it won’t take long before this is in all sorts of aggro-control decks. A first turn Birds of Paradise, alone, guarantees this is a viable threat for the upcoming metagame.
Wydwen, the Biting Gale
2UB
Legendary Creature – Faerie Wizard
Rare
Flash
Flying
UB, Pay 1 Life: Return Wydwen, the Biting Gale to its owner’s hand.
3/3
As if U/B end-of-your-turn decks weren’t annoying enough. This thing doesn’t even need Teferi for the bonus of throwing it down during your opponent’s end step or, if you have six mana, becoming the perfect chump blocker for something such as Troll Ascetic. Sure it sounds expensive, but let’s remember this is Blue/Black control that we’re talking about. Plus nobody’s going to waste an Incinerate on this thing while you have a blue and black mana up.
This is like the kick ass version of Morii, a card that looked solid but ended up being horrible.
Brion Stoutarm
2RW
Legendary Creature – Giant Warrior
Rare
Lifelink
R, T, Sacrifice a creature other than Brion Stoutarm: Brion Stoutarm deals damage equal to the sacrificed creatures power to target player.
4/4
Now that’s what I’m talking about. Could this be the sort of poor man’s Loxodon Hierarch? Or is this the birth of Red/White midrange control? This seems like a hell of a man to hold off an army, such as one featuring Call of the Herd, and combos with all sorts of fun cards like Fatal Frenzy. This is definitely one to watch and you can easily build decks around it. The loss of Lightning Helix still hasn’t really set in yet, but this is a man that can make you think of R/W as more than just the Firemane Angel colors.
Ponder
U
Sorcery
Common
Look at the top three cards of your library. You may put them back in any order or shuffle your library.
Draw a card.
Man, every so often they keep trying to recreate Brainstorm. And while nothing beats the phrase “Draw three cards” on a Blue instant for one mana no matter what comes after it, this is definitely a contender for the strongest one mana draw spell this side of Serum Visions, and that card saw plenty of play in Extended. I think we’ll see Ponder in quite a few decklists in the coming year.
Cap’n Tickles Theme Song
This week Josh Silvestri wrote an amusing anecdote on the Michigan State upset by Appalachian State college. He said:
To put this in a perspective for you card slingers that have no idea what college football is, this win was the equivalent of Evan Erwin winning PT: Valencia.
Playing a homebrew.
While drunk.
While singing the Cap’n Tickles theme song* in the Top 8.
The he clarified that by saying “There is a theme song, right? If there isn’t, there should be, since you have a show that could properly articulate the sound to us.”
And that’s exactly what I’m here to do. We’re closing this week out with The Cap’n Tickles Theme Song, set to the tune of “Plastic Jesus.” New verses are encouraged in the forums.
So I’ll leave you with it, folks. Until next time Magic players, this is Evan Erwin, tapping the cards so you don’t have to.
The Cap’n Tickles Theme Song
Whenever I need to kill em
Cap’n Tickles really seals em
Swinging in the red zone for my team
Think you got him up and figured
Then he rearranged your innards
Swinging in the red zone for my team
Cap’n Tickles
Cap’n Tickles
Swinging in the red zone for my team
Cap’n Tickles
Cap’n Tickles
Looks so sweet but he’s really mean
Just when you were feeling safe
Cap’n Tickles rapes your face
Swinging in the red zone for my team
Bet you wish that you could answer
The four drop causing disaster
Swinging in the red zone for my team
Evan “misterorange” Erwin
dubya dubya dubya dot misterorange dot com
eerwin +at+ gmail +dot+ com
myspace dot com slash evanerwin
Written after recording the Ode to the Cap’n. Man that was fun.
Music Credits:
Title — “An End Has A Start” by Editors
Looking Back — “Many Funerals” by Eisley
Looking Forward — “Perfect” by The Smashing Pumpkins
You Make The Invitational Card — “What A Wonderful Man” by My Morning Jacket
Sneak Peek At Lorwyn — “Meet Your Master” by Nine Inch Nails
Cap’n Tickles Theme Song — “Strange Condition” by Pete Yorn