Welcome to the holiday season, at least here in America. It is a time for family, friends, and toasty warm feelings to keep us comfortable on long, cold winter nights. For me, where there are friends, there is also Magic. So, what is your Magic group doing for the holiday? Here are a few suggestions to make things a little extraordinary.
As I mentioned in the previous installment, the idea of the base set is to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of each color. This is evident in the Blue in 8th Edition, so much in fact that I can imagine a designer muttering”color wheel this, Rosewater!” as he added yet another awful creature and unplayable rare under the Blue section. Here are particular things to look out for if you want to draft Blue…
Mind’s Desire is not a deck, it’s a twisted demon; a parasite that infects your brain and sucks all the gooey morsels out, leaving you nothing more than a haunted shell of a man. This is the tale of a downward spiral in the tainted, aberrant madness of something far more sinister than Magic or playing solitaire. It is, indeed, a tale of Ten Thousand Goldfish! Mad, insane Goldfish. Actually, at some stage I will give you a pretty good idea where Mind’s Desire sits in regards to strength and speed in Standard… but mostly I’ll just rant and rave like a lunatic. Saddle up!
For four mana you get one of the most formidable, unequipped attacking commons in the set. Fangren Hunter edges it out in Red Zone considerations but I believe it beats out number three in my mind, Myr Enforcer. I always talk about the creature-light format, but it is still important to have quality creatures. I often go to look at a deck laid out and ask how many creatures it has. I routinely get answers like”eleven” or”thirteen.” I then look down to see three Myr, two Soldier Replica, an Auriok Transfixer, and a Yotian Soldier in the creature pile. I, in no way, mean to malign these creatures. They are good and necessary parts of a deck. But they don’t attack, at least not well.
Ken wrote,”Spellbomb does one thing very well… it kills Spikeshot Goblin.” Well Ken, I hate to burst your little fantasy bubble but Pyrite Spellbomb burns every two-toughness creature. It kills both of Blue’s best commons, Neurok Spy and Somber Hoverguard. It also kills Black’s best creatures, Nim Shrieker and Pewter Golem. Pyrite Spellbomb kills Skyhunter Cub, Auriok Transfixer and all of the Myrs.
Have you noticed the pattern? Pyrite Spellbomb kills good creatures. The only downside of Pyrite Spellbomb is that it is weak versus the Green creatures in Mirrodin. It doesn’t kill Tel-Jilad Chosen, Tel-Jilad Exile or Tel-Jilad Archers, but then again Hematite Golem doesn’t do very much versus these guys either.
Many of you may be unfamiliar with Iron Man (I plan on explaining our group’s specific rules later on), so I will expose the basics here. Essentially, if a card leaves the play area for any reason, it gets ripped (or destroyed in a creative fashion). While many find this objectionable, everyone I know has a ton of commons from expansions they don’t need, so they can usually begrudgingly admit that getting rid of them in this fashion is, at least, plausible.
As with any format, however, there will be those that try and make an impression while playing, by getting rid of foils, foreign black-bordered cards, APAC lands, and even Power 9. I must admit I am one of these people.
Mirrodin Black is similar to Onslaught Blue, in that if you’re drafting it, you want to be one of two total people at the table doing so. There isn’t a whole lot of depth and quality for Black this time around.
Before I get into the coveted Pick Orders, I’d like to provide a brief, general strategy for drafting Black in Mirrodin. Black is a control color; aggressive Black decks are condemned to mediocrity. Try to remove as many threats as possible with one-for-ones and two-for-ones before gaining card superiority in the late game with spells like Skeleton Shard and Moriok Scavenger. Trade creatures early and often to squeeze the most out of your removal. A smattering of hard-to-remove creatures such as Pewter Golem will pick up the pieces.
As for where the beef is at, try twenty-five tongue-in-cheek insults for the OMC (Josh Bennett), and some old-time brotherly love.
What an interesting week it was. For starters, the French took over the site last week, with two of their biggest stars writing fresh articles or giving interviews filled with oodles of information (to some Finnish guy named… Walamies?). Adrian Sullivan returned with not one, but two different articles. The new Managing Editor brought you the State of the Union Address, examining the history of StarCityGames, and setting the tone for future of the site, and the forums were hopping on every topic imaginable, so click through each of the articles below and see how the community responded.
Loxodon Warhammer
1. A perfectly balanced card of elegant design, costed perfectly by R&D and assigned a rarity that does not, in any way, make it disruptive for Sealed Deck play. Games featuring Loxodon Warhammer are always decided by nothing but the skill of the two players involved. A fine card in all respects, and a testament to the abilities of the fine people in charge of making this game.
2. If you finish just outside of Top 8, the card that was likely responsible for 75% of your important losses.
I played a twelve-land Affinity deck to a 9-1 record, winning two tournaments while dropping only one match in Swiss play to Goblins, which I later defeated in the finals. Also, the deck had enough raw power to take my eight-year-old son, Liam, into the finals of a Friday Night Magic event, even though he wasn’t playing it very well. In fact, in the finals against the more standard midrange Affinity deck of his opponent, he became disheartened when his opponent cast a Rush of Knowledge and then played out Myr Enforcers, Frogmites, and on the following turn, a Broodstar. His opponent’s Rush had allowed my son to play Future Sight in the interim, but his board position was almost non-existent besides mana and the Sight, so he conceded the game.
For fun I took his turn, cast eight spells and then Tendrils to win the game.
Is it possible to get passed a fourth pick Skeleton Shard, fourth and fifth pick Betrayals of the Flesh, plus a fifth pick Plated Slagwurm and not win?
If this draft teaches you anything, it should be that choosing the right path early in the draft is incredibly important if you plan on sticking to it. Oscar chose a less-than-optimal route during the draft and then refused to switch out of it despite being given numerous opportunities. If you do happen to make a bad judgment call early in the draft and realize it, you can still salvage it by switching out later when you’re given the opportunity.
Star City is the”scrub” site.
Star City is the issues site.
There are no good players at Star City.
There are no good writers at Star City.
Oh, how times have changed.
We all have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen. Most likely Wizards of the Coast will ban all of the”engine” cards. People will loudly cry for the format to change, and Wizards will come through, like they (mostly) should. They will attempt to get rid of the problem decks that currently exist in the format with these bannings: Goblin Charbelcher, Tinker, Goblin Recruiter, Hermit Druid, and it’s always possible they might throw Chrome Mox into the mix as well.
But in doing so, they’ll just be making a mistake. They’ll be trying to cure the symptoms, but miss the disease.
I have interviewed my man Gabriel Nassif for your viewing pleasure. This man is not only on a hot streak, but he also invented the saying “That’s for sure, that’s for sure,” making him a bona-fide celebrity.
T: When did you start making Top 8s in the qualifiers?
G: Actually, the situation when I started getting better was pretty strange. My mom would not let me play, so I had to play the PTQs in secret. I played three in a row where I went undefeated and then conceded, since mom would not let me travel.
No, you cannot get infinite turns with Power Conduit and Time Vault. Although Time Vault’s Oracle-based errata says that it has counters, and it is technically true that Power Conduit can eat any form of counter, Power Conduit can only supply”charge” or +1/+1 counters. It cannot produce Time Counters. But it can put charge counters on Magistrate’s Scepter.
