Better Results 3-1

Tonight was a better night for MTG; I had brought the proper decks for the formats that I expected to play. This resulted in a 3-1 record.. the 1 loss probably b/c I was getting tired and reckless.

What happens when you play two-headed giant format, your opponents have limited flying creatures, ones without reach, your team plays with the majority of flyers and you play this card?

                                
You win.

It sucks when you're not playing a mono-color deck and you can't draw the second land-type. Its why I do alot of play-testing, even if that means Magic solitaire. But sometimes even when you have a proper balance of lands, you still get that really crap hand. If playing and finding that happening to me alot has taught me anything, it is that if that is the case, always make sure your initial hand has the two+ lands you need.

When you know what your opponents like to play, and you play then, the meta game.. it makes it easier for you to succeed, but you still have to use your head and not be reckless. I found that in not being reckless and thought out my move more, was the key to possibly tonight's success. I knew that I may end up playing in a Free-for-All game with 4 players and didn't want to be attacked. Hence

           
What about flyers you ask? Well you could have an equipment that grants flying/reach... or..
                                
In your graveyard... by waiting for 8 cards and discarding it.. I surprised myself when I did it.
I was able to turtle.. not draw anyone's attention or wrath for almost 15+ turns... until my Ginger nemesis who had the most amazing FFA deck (R/B) deck used the one thing I couldn't stop..
                                 
Not to mention the Innistrad vampire that can deal damage and heal it's controller whenever another creature dies.. I tip my hat to you.

Friday Night Magic: Fail

Prepare decks for 5 player Free-for-All format... and result in only 3 player FFA: Fail

Big Threat

Play decks without removals/weak removals: Fail

This guy won two games for my opponent

Play too aggressively... as usual: Fail

Can't seem to type correctly ...: Fail

I dunno about you, but I find the Spirit tribe in the Innistrad block is incredibly weak.. especially compared to Vampires and Werewolves.

Blue Black Skab-zombies didn't work as well as I liked... also I have to read cards more and just don't insert them because they're rare.

My other opponent had this card.

I did cause a double forfeit with my Kraken deck... had 2.5 times as many land cards as my two opponents.. still not 'that' satisfying though.

And this one.. when I played U/W Spirit deck... riiiight

I'm not too disappointed though; I didn't have the right decks for what I planned for.

Always Learning

My coworker had a good philosophy about buying booster packs for MTG whereas I prefer to prebuild decks via various websites. There was not only the excitement of opening a new pack (like gifts of Christmas day) but by getting cards you wouldn't normally look at..

..later down the road, you may find a use for them.
I had created a douche 'permission' deck which totally frustrated my gf the other day, but after a few games I realized that I was really lacking in the department of creatures as it was a blue control deck who's monsters were only ones that garnered cards in which I could draw.

Then I read a recent article about a white-blue aggressor deck.. and looked over that card above.. never really thought it would be good.. and then *lightbulb*.. YES. It will work for the permission deck. Nice and cheap to bring out without leaving you without mana. A creature that gains evasion on turn 2, and hits for 3.. pretty good.

Dark Ascension: Articles

Oh no; I waited too long and before I started writing this entry, 2 additional articles were posted on Wizard's website for more information on MTG's Dark Ascension...
 

The first article talks about a tap-able artifact that decreases the cost of flashback spells. I never really made a flashback deck, mostly b/c I didn't have enough Burning Vengeance's, spells with flashback from prior blocks, nor found too many good flashback cards in Innistrad. Maybe though, its not about the utility of the spell itself, but just triggering flashback so that Burning Vengeance can do it's job.

 The second article titled, My Increasing Devotion, talks about the author's love of token decks and how there will be some choice cards in DA that'll help fuel those kind of decks. I made a token deck myself made up of cards that pumped out tokens, ones that sacrificed them to (normally) do damage, or to be gobbled up by my Mycoloth to (hopefully) win the game. The purpose was to be good at free for all games by biding my time, slowing down damage and then attack relentlessly when I had a horde of tokens to use. Probably would be better if I had a few equipment to make them stronger... I don't think tokens is my playstyle though.

 The third article.. **reads it... eyes growing larger and larger**.. talks about how Sorin Markov, everyone's favorite vampiric planeswalker helped create the angel Avacyn! One thing I love about Magic is the rich storyline and how everything comes to be. It usually works out, but I like to make tribal-like decks that revolve around a type of creature; whether it is Elementals, Goblins, or Leviathans, its usually all the same kind of creatures. I'm like those Pokemon trainers that Ash had to face off against that all had the same kind of creatures. It all had a general theme.

 **reads the last article**
omg.
Well.. I think I know ill be making a Flashback deck now.. won't we?

Card advantage is one of the major themes to deck creation i've been concentration on these days.. and this will help it! 

Innistrad Launch Party

So my group of friends had our MTG:Innistrad Launch party last night; it was the five of us; playing 2headed giant and free for all formats. My ending record was.. 1-4...eeek.

I'm a very aggressive player.. I play on the edge, relying on brute force, rather than trickery and deception. I'll easy give up life to get the power I need. This obviously sounds like a red/black type of deck.. though I don't really have a good enough deck to do so. Or more to the point, I think my decks are more made towards 1on1 (even Emperor) combats, rather than FFA matches.

My friends got some amazing mythic rare cards which I'm extremely jealous of.. equipped in their decks now.. whereas I don't have even 1 mythic in any deck, my ginger friend has 3. Am I making excuses to the number of loses? Kinda. But those that have played MTG, when playing with a non-mythic rare deck, versus one with them, it is a game changer when they are played.

On a FFA match between Red, Hunter and I, my usual aggressiveness with my vampire deck was the cause of my downfall. Instead of just waiting it out to let my trump creature just make all my opponents sacrifice their creatures, I attacked when Hunter has no defenders. It was a perfect time to make him lose half his health....
               
But then he played Rebuke... And the next turn, I was out of the game.
It looked like Hunter was going to win that round with his 6-7 werewolves on the field and Red struggling to stay alive with her weak 2/2 zombies, when on her last and most important turn, she pulled this: 

And what was a sure win, ended up as a loss for Hunter and a win for Red. When I had come to their house, Hunter was already on the losing end of a 1on1 match due to the exact same card too.

Winning against people with mythics when you're not using any is a tough situation, but it doesn't bother me too much; the game is balanced and there are always ways around it. 

Another of Red's card and what was used against it the next turn before she could turn anything into a controllable vampire.
               
I must say, Hunter is very much a strategist; always waiting to pounce at the RIGHT time with backup contingencies.... unlike me..


Lastly, I find that FFA is a very different type of game, requiring a different strategy. You need to:
- appear very weak and insignificant but at the same time be able to defend yourself to cause your opponent to think it is a waste to attack you
- at the same time, be able to do spike damage to an opponent and take them out quickly before they can retaliate
- Vigilance is perfect for an aggressive deck or a person that likes to attack and not worry about holding back creatures to defend
- aggressive strategies should be concentrating on a 1 turn punch out and shouldn't last more than 2 turns otherwise the other people will attack you, to save the losing person UNLESS they have a vendetta against them too
- don't p!ss off people; people will continue to attack you, even to their own detriment in FFA games 
- deathtouch is a good ability to keep people from attacking

Every single round, I drew the ire of a player and we would beat each other up causing us to both to be eliminated shortly.

A balanced deck is also pretty important. On the second turn my ginger nemesis, Red, cast this curse on me

Which basically ended up slowly killing me. Though no creatures ever got through thanks to my good (maybe see: cheap) Wall of Denial, I didn't have any Naturalize spells to destroy that enchantment. Nothing is worse than being plinked to death.
Except maybe redirecting a killing blow spell back at my attacker which kills them instead.


All in all, it was a fun night despite the losses. I got some good cards and a booster box waiting to be opened with the gf. I saw the power of werewolves. Glad that Red and Hunter have different decks, albeit very powerful. 

Car! Game on!

After a frustrating and trying week, I finally get my reward... and it was worth it.

Times TWO! Woot!

Deja Vu

"Wizards actively tries to put good cards at each rarity, here's a list of commons that have proven to be very strong tournament staples." ~matt

Heh... and this article goes on to further prove the point how there are good cards in MTG even in the commons and uncommons. That, they don't need to be rare or mythic rare to work well. After over 15+ years, they've made their mistakes, make sure they test out to make sure the card isn't flawed and if it does, it makes it into the banned list. Lol; and whats the first card they talk about? The type card we fought so hard and long about.

The next article from Daily MTG talks about various other cards (by the way, all the cards have been released now and can be found in the product section) and their themes such as using the graveyard to fuel your creatures, heavy-token decks and copy spells. I'm eager to have a token deck again... whether it'll work as well as before.. we'll see.

Rulings and Reasoning

I CAN SO tap that creature! SAY IT!

I think Magic needs an online chat room that you can join 24/7 to get instant rulings. There probably is one.. I just gotta find one. Mannnn.. my friends and I had the most heated discussions ever on Friday night. Normally, we're all unsure and we just decide to play it a certain way and then next time have it verified by a veteran. But the sides were insistent and adamant in their own position. I normally save the questionable rulings in my Blackberry so I can email my girlfriend's brother-in-law so he can answer it... but I was so sure in the situation in question that I wanted to text him it... at 2 in the morning. Anyways, i'm glad we're good enough friends to say GG, shake each other's hands and not have hard feelings about it afterwards (though maybe not during the game). lol. Afterall, its only a game.

Not bad for 1 mana.

Ok. So, here are two additional articles from Daily MTG;  the first one is on the reasoning on the 2-sided cards as it didn't sound like it was the most popular decision. One of the biggest complaints was that if you didn't cover your cards, people could easily see that you had a werewolf card. And that it was kind of a hassle if you had to constantly take the card out of the protector to show the correct side (part of the reason why I don't want to play 2-sided cards myself).

The second article, talks about a big part of the horror genre of bringing creatures back from the graveyard.

I absolutely love this kind of play style: concentrating on your offense and attacking creatures, and if your creatures are removed or ever end up in the graveyard, just bring them back and keep the pressure on. One of the greatest things that Wizards are using in Innistrad is the the Flashback mechanic. I love getting better utility of my cards; I dislike when its a one-time use only especially if they get countered. Innistrad seems to lessen the impact of counters as they'll need twice as many with flashback. Make Mill decks less damaging, or actually beneficial. Even discarding cards doesn't seem that bad anymore. Exile seems like its going to be much more important now. 

I think my friends know that I love to use enchantments and have littered their decks with destroy enchantment spells as whenever I get a good enchantment out, its normally destroyed right away before it can do some good damage.

Counter Spell

Yessss!
A particular ginger friend of mine uses this card on me, all the time.

I probably lose because i'm too aggressive and would rather pay the health cost than the mana cost. Now there is finally a card that will slightly nullify it without having to rely on disenchanting it.

For more information on strategies on this kind of card go to the Daily MTG article.

This next article talks alot how a strength of blue mages is to counter spells. This card below is another strategy of theirs:

Card Advantage.
I'm not too fond of cards like this that lets me draw/pick cards... maybe if I get alot of these, coupled with some Ponders, i'll give it a try.

The Frightening Saint

More Innistrad cards today:

Looks like Splinterfright will be pretty good with the graveyard-centric theme. While Saint Traft looks like it'll hit hard and frequently.

More card reveals found at the Product Section of Daily MTG.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - E3 2011: Demonstration Part I, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Innistrad: Daily Spoilers

 Two (technically three) new Innistrad articles today, revealing a few new and interesting cards. This article talks about a new double-faced vampire card and devises up some decks for it.

This article talks about the card to the right, Prey Upon; how it works, the strengths and weaknesses... basically its pretty good when using Green and big creatures, but is susceptible to counters, redirects and buffs. Use cards with Morbid to counter it, or atleast benefit someway.

Lastly, a very short card reveal article of the below card, Evil Twin. A copy creature card with a slight twist.

Innistrad Spoiler: White

For my friends, to see what kind of cards that are coming out for Innistrad. I sure am liking the white cards.. pretty powerful.

Pilgrims and Maniacs

Today there are two articles from Daily MTG... more on the meta game of MTG that teases out some new cards for Innistrad. Not my type of articles, but they still show some diversity in writing styles and have some interesting cards:

Looks like white and green decks are in my future.
  I'm a fan of cards that tap to give mana, especially if it gives a different color than it's own color.

The card reveal for Laboratory Maniac came with an interesting story.. but I don't see it as a very interesting way to play in Casual format. I really hope I don't get this card in my boosters :P

Heroes 6 Beta Improvements

I pre-ordered Heroes of Might and Magic 6 on steam and got access to their beta. I don't recall seeing any NDA, so i'll assume its ok to talk about it and bring the hype.

Town Portal
A great improvement to the franchise: there are two kinds of town portals that can be built in towns: basic and greater. A hero is able to teleport from one town to another as long as: both towns have a basic town portal, the hero is in town AND has 15 movement points (about half of movement points).

No more, teleporting to whatever town you like when you're deep in the wilderness when the opponent sneaks into your area.

Only with a greater town portal can a hero teleport to the NEAREST town with a greater town portal. One might not think this a big deal, but in Homm6, the rare resource Chaos Crystals, are pretty hard to come by. Its as expensive as building tier 2 (4th, 5th, 6th ranked) buildings (or like the 4th/5th levels of mage guilds).

Army purchasing
I always thought it was a pain to have to get my mule heroes to move my armies from my strongest home castle to my adventuring hero. In Homm6, as long as you have the basic creature dwelling on the outpost, you can purchase that un-upgraded version of the monster from a pool of all your creatures from all your castles.

Being designed this way, it is easier to defend specific towns from attack, at the cost that if not enough time is given to upgrade it, you may be playing with weak versioned creatures.

Retreat
Retreating no longer is 'that' painful in Homm6. Instead of losing your whole army, you only lose 25% of them. The drawback comes when having to purchase your hero again; costing significantly more, coming in with a debuff, having a huge stable of heroes is a thing of the past. Some factions do come with special buildings that decrease the cost of purchasing heroes and even give them a small buff for a week

Leveling Heroes
I always thought it sucked when your main hero was incredibly strong, but then had newbie heroes guarding your home. Even with a strong army, they would seccumb to a more experienced hero with better skills and magic.

In Homm6, there is a feature to have 'more powerful' heroes. As time progresses, the purchasing level of your heroes in the tavern increases. So instead of paying X amount for a level one hero, you now have a level 5, or level 8. Pretty impressive.

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New Innistrad links: Curse of the Stalked Prey (fast agro strategy) and Human Champions

Innistrad: 2 Sided Cards and Art

Mmm... I think it may be premature to get rid of my dragon deck...

I sure do love my dragons and big creatures in Magic. For additional art of Innistrad.

An article discussing the 2 sided cards which will be used for a the first time since the Kamigawa block..

I do love me some shipwrecks!